I don ' t think anyone ' s suggesting they should be rewarded , they just shouldn ' t be punished in the way that they will . <| sep |> I think this is a fair point , but unfortunately the Republicans showed that blatant obstructionism works wonders and is not punished by voters . Dems were salivating at the possibility of blaming the GOP for not confirming Obama ' s SCOTUS pick for an unprecedented amount of time , and instead of voters caring , the GOP came out looking genius , because now they get to install another Scalia . Eight years of obstructionism and they ' re awarded complete control of government . I think the quality of candidates matters much more to voters than feelings about the purity of the legislative process . That being said , I do think it was a smart move for Bernie to say he ' d work with Trump if he proposed any progressive policies to help working people , only because I doubt it ' d ever happen see Bernie ' s reactiontwsrc % 5 Etfw to Trump ' s infrastructure plan , which seemed like one of very few areas of potential agreement before the plan surfaced . I think Bernie ' s statement was setting him up to say , well , I was willing to work with Trump , but he didn ' t actually propose any policies that would help the working class . BUT , if suddenly Trump came out in favor of universal healthcare and a legit infrastructure plan , by all means work with him .