2020 Democratic presidential primary thread, pt 3: life is very long

I remember the before times...the peach trial made god angry, he got mad and and sent the sick

I remember when I was happy. then I blinked and ten years passed.

Wouldn't the easiest way to stop this primary be for Bernie to drop out?

he'll be out soon Fred:)

there's a ton to be gained by him staying in, esp. given the current crisis, he's got as good a platform as he'll ever have to highlight this system's failings and push the party left

― Webcam Du Bois (Hadrian VIII), Wednesday, 18 March 2020 bookmarkflaglink

OTM. Hopefully he'll stay to the very end. No more public rallies, primaries being delayed.

He cannot drop out.

yep. I cried at a slate post about a woman with lung cancer trying to get tested

— guy fieri 2020 campaign manager (@libbycwatson) March 17, 2020

So, let's assume primaries get delayed. Until when? Weeks? Months? If the Dems have no nominee, do we think Donald Trump won't take advantage of it?

I'm not being scornful. I don't know the answer. I do know that hacks like Meagan Day loooove looking for new reasons to hate Tom Perez and "the DNC."

the reasons we have are fine

we radicals do love our boogeymen, they are easier to love than the public

A Chapo Traphouse host making Brad Parscale happy this evening, ruling out Biden but leaving open the possibility of voting for Trump. pic.twitter.com/MFYgxcyXEK

— southpaw (@nycsouthpaw) March 18, 2020

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/03/the-democrats-big-gamble-on-joe-biden/608128/

"Democratic centrists read the internal politics of their party far better than the left did. But getting the politics right is not the same as getting the policy right, and the Democratic establishment ignores the forces that contributed to Sanders’s rise at its peril."

Yeah sorry no, pointing out that Biden technically has more blood on his hands than Trump (if for no other reason than time in public office) is not “leaving the open the possibility” for voting for Trump.

When the Chapo guys start telling their listeners to go out and vote for Trump to destroy the Democratic Party and own the libs — which hey, could happen— then they tweeter will have a point.

That said, Bernie needs to drop out now imo.

then this tweeter*

Biden does not have more blood on his hands than Trump and it is straight up insane to claim so.

sorry bud, you’re just wrong

“If you don't show them you're capable of not voting for them they don't have to listen to you," says TV commentator Lawrence O'Donnell, who spent seven years as a Democratic chief of staff on Capitol Hill. "I didn't listen or have to listen to anything on the left while I was working in the Democratic Party--because the left had nowhere to go."


it’s basically this or worse until we die.

Fred Donald Trump has been president for a little more than 3 years, what are you talking about

I just don't get that argument. Biden has never had the power Trump has, and Trump has been a murderous president. He has drone bombed, he has sent refugees to their deaths, his carelessness has caused extreme suffering in Puerto Rico, and might plausibly kill hundreds of thousands in the US before this pandemic is done.

He's murderous, yes, his actions w/r/t Kurds alone are enough and yeah I fear there is much, much more to come

blood on one's hands usually = complicity, and Bidy has been givin an assist to war crimes for several decades

bidy givin

Biden was a member of an elite 100 member institution since 1973 and VP for 8 and has his thumbprints all over the worst things this country did during those 43 years. Period.

'given an assist' vs being the main driver. No, it's not the same. I think it's dumb to look at it that way, sorry.

Plenty of arguments to abstain.

Biden does have blood on his hands, and he eased the way to confirming Clarence Thomas (who might have more blood).

He's still better than Trump and will vote for him gladly.

anyway, I’ll be voting for Biden because of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who should have retired years ago.

Every politician has blood on his hands, that not my point. The system is bloody, and Biden even has more blood than most. But problem comes when stuff like 'given an assist' or 'has fingerprints on' becomes as bad as being a murderous president. Because yeah, Biden would be a lot less murderous president. He voted for the Iraq War, but does anyone think he would have decided to invade and fabricated all the evidence to do so if he had been in charge?

I mean assuming we have an election in November

Sanders won't be the nominee, and I've no objection to his staying in even if I see him losing more leverage as these county-by-county votes pour in. If anything, he and Warren have pushed Biden into unthinkable terrain (i.e. free college).

The primaries no longer matter. The fifty states need to start thinking how to keep polling stations clean for those who insist on voting on the same day. How this happens I've no idea. But voting by mail needs to become a thing, fast.

jks jks everything’s cool

fred maybe you don't understand the "blood on his hands" idiom

https://cdna.artstation.com/p/assets/images/images/003/221/750/large/federico-schroder-blood-on-your-hands-800.jpg?1471279881

if Sanders drops out now, Dems will pretend as much as they can that his supporters' views don't matter

that's how it works

Not all of whom could even vote.

if Sanders drops out now, Dems will pretend as much as they can that his supporters' views don't matter

that's how it works

― brooklyn suicide cult (Dr Morbius),

If he stays and, assuming we have primaries, keeps losing by these numbers he has little to nothing to offer at the convention, assuming we have one.

That's how politics works.

Pundit Sotosyn is my least favorite iteration

Well, I got nothing to do until 11 a.m.

you mean no new music listicles to fill my FB feed?

When the Chapo guys start telling their listeners to go out and vote for Trump to destroy the Democratic Party and own the libs — which hey, could happen— then they tweeter will have a point.

The tweeter may well be right but then the question becomes whether to shame and insult those people, or whether to try and reach out to those people and if the Biden campaign is able to do that

Lessons possibly to be learned from Bernie's own failed attempts at this with Warren supporters

Arguably, since Bernie's support skews younger, going ahead with the primaries yesterday should have given him an advantage, since older people are more likely to be self-isolating and staying away from public places right now. Maybe a bit of that showed up in the IL results.

yep he’s toast and it’s time to gtfo (and I suspect he will)

but the dem party needs a come to Jesus moment p fucking badly or there’s going to be an exodus of disaffected poc working class, younger voters, and the Left that’s going to make “Reagan Democrats” look like a rounding error.

And not because of any cult of Bernie.

not sure how "Bernie gtfo" is going to facilitate a come-to-jesus moment

"Bernie gtfo" and sentiments like it are exactly what has been forestalling it for 40 years

It's called unifying the nation

Sanders to "assess campaign" and focus on coronavirus response
The Sanders’s campaign has just issued the following statement via campaign manager Faiz Shakir:

The next primary contest is at least three weeks away. Sen. Sanders is going to be having conversations with his supporters to assess his campaign. In the immediate term, however, he is focused on the government response to the coronavirus outbreak and ensuring that we take care of working people the most vulnerable

xp yes it always is

not sure how "Bernie gtfo" is going to facilitate a come-to-jesus moment

Maybe if we had a different candidate? But that last debate was Biden dismisisng systemic issues and root causes because "we have to address the virus first!" He was actually leveraging this crisis to avoid the underlying/exacerbating issues.

Why Bernie should abandon his post just when his own messaging is most relevant, and the evidence of this system's failing most on display, is beyond me. He's not hurting the party, he's helping the country.

But the voters so far have disagreed.

how dare he let people vote for him, when some other people have not voted for him

Damn didn't know ppl were writing in "bernie is hurting the country" on their ballots

Somewhat similar to when people were pushing Warren to drop out prematurely and endorse. Votes surely have to be earned