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

To keep arguing the case for progressive policies in the current situation is reason enough to stay in, even when there is no path.

Warren would not be able to do this as she fell through as a progressive during her own campaign.

The only reason Biden has agreed to any progressive position is because Bernie and Warren were in the race. The second Bernie drops out Biden will no longer take such positions, because he will gamble that the left has no other place to go and will support him against the threat of another four years of Trump.

But at this point, Bernie should just get out because he has no shot. Also, I am sick of hearing about him as some bogeyman from ILX's pundit class. Then we can all just move on to the fun of Biden and Trump tripping over themselves to appeal to white working class voters.

lol @ bogeyman

Lol @ this too:

.@JoeBiden reaching out to @BernieSanders supporters in election night victory statement saying “Let me say to the young voters who have been inspired by Senator Sanders: I hear you” and saying he and Sen Sanders may disagree on tactics but share a common vision

— Andrea Mitchell (@mitchellreports) March 18, 2020

you lol a lot, Shakey, for someone w/ a lousy sense of humor

was he holding up his ear trumpet when he said that

xps

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOMqqI-kzHY

To keep arguing the case for progressive policies in the current situation is reason enough to stay in, even when there is no path.

Warren would not be able to do this as she fell through as a progressive during her own campaign.

― xyzzzz__, Wednesday, March 18, 2020 11:29 AM (thirteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

hard to believe the movement that decided elizabeth warren was not in fact a progressive politician somehow couldn't manage to get 51% of the vote

"inspired" a strange way of saying "there are potentially several decades of my future left and I would prefer it not to be a slow death"

the movement that decided elizabeth warren was not in fact a progressive politician

hard to deny her campaign didn't help that perception along

OK that's my last bit of rehashing for today

Can’t see this as anything but evil

“The decision to hold the elections at all today is a public health risk for everyone,” Kelly Viselman, the group’s organizing director, said on Tuesday. “The specific decision to allow polling places to be open at CHA senior buildings puts low-income seniors, an already high-risk population, at even greater risk. That’s extremely concerning.”

https://theintercept.com/2020/03/18/illinois-polling-locations-low-income-seniors/

*helped rather, too many negatives xp

Holding in-person elections was incredibly dangerous and stupid

I lost interest in EW back in November but never urged her to exit the race.

But the notion that calls for Bernie to stay in the race now are analogous to those her supporters were making a couple months ago is either disingenuous or stupid. EW didn't have a radically different platform and political philosophy to differentiate herself. She wasn't the only opposition to Biden Buttigieg et al, much less the *main* one. The issues she advocated for are by and large being represented *only* by Bernie Sanders now.

But I guess none of that shit matters and this really is all about personalities.

You're getting it!

if it was about personalities how the fuck would Biden still be involved?

This has ALWAYS been about personalities and sexism. Identity politics don't go away just because you've culled the field down to the old white men.

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.

Arguably, it put him at a huge disadvantage, since younger people are more likely to be self-isolating and staying away from public places right now.

The Biden / Perez calculus of rushing through in-person, hours-long-queue primaries is especially self-destructive because even if it helps make Biden the nominee, it makes it more likely that those voters will be dead by November.

honestly calls for anybody to make any major decision at all about the race are extremely premature given that nobody is sure how there's even going to be a race amid all this

xxxp he's your uncle, you love him etc

nice choppers

xp -- not to trivialize the coronavirus at all but come the fuck on, there's not going to be a mass death of biden voters (and besides, surely if that happened it would also happen to trump voters) (but also, come the fuck on)

Joe Biden sucks

The thing I don't get is how the platform and philosophy of Sanders is helped by Sanders staying in when he is losing so clearly? Couldn't he advocate for his policies anyway?

suspect we're going to get Trump and Dem gains in congress this November

I see this thread has also wiped out the gains made during the Trump presidency.

honestly covid is the only thing making the case for Sanders dropping out at this point, in that nobody is paying the least bit of attention anymore

but how will Democratic voters ever hear about him and his policies, truly he has so many people yet to hear his message

xps

hope all these senior citizens voting for Joe Biden are excited to go door to door for him in November

esp. during this crisis, bernie's issues—M4A, student debt, income inequality, paid sick leave etc—are getting about 100x more oxygen than they will the very hour he drops out

Biden can then safely assume the mantle and steer the party platform back on its public, insipid course

elephant in the room: how is joe biden going to campaign if he can't grab people by both shoulders, look at them deeply in the eyes from 2 feet away, and say "lookit"

Some of us should get degrees in grief counseling to handle today's moaning.

esp. during this crisis, bernie's issues—M4A, student debt, income inequality, paid sick leave etc—are getting about 100x more oxygen than they will the very hour he drops out

― Webcam Du Bois (Hadrian VIII), Wednesday, March 18, 2020 1:16 PM (fifty-nine seconds ago) bookmarkflaglink

yeah, admittedly I am biased here but that message sure is starting to look not only more appealing but one of the vanishingly few sources of actual good ideas

otm

very ironic that the dem primary voters moved to Biden just as a world crisis occurred which shone a bright obvious light on how necessary sanders' proposals are

he can still get out of the race and advocate for those policies, btw

Some of us should get degrees in grief counseling to handle today's moaning.

― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, March 18, 2020 10:18 AM (six minutes ago)

Alfred you're definitely the most levelheaded person in this thread but my remaining ways to engage w/ this dumb campaign are "moaning and grieving" and "resolutely ignoring" and while I always made fun of Morbs for quitting politics threads for, like, six hours at a time, it turns out posting is fun

like, Joe Biden sucks, and for every person I listen to pointing out that Trump sucks worse and voting for Biden is my duty there's gonna be other people I listen to pointing out that the Democrats are a cancer and withholding my vote is the only way to get through to them. I don't want to vote for Joe Biden! This whole situation is very aggravating!

this time, vote for the lesser of two cancers

like I see no problem with attacking Joe Biden from the left all the way through to November and beyond, he should be attacked from the left until he dies next year

Trump is going to attack Joe Biden from the left btw

that seems to be an increasingly cited idea this morning (the GOP running on joe biden from the left)

i think i understand what that means, but i'd like to hear someone else elaborate on it first

Wow finally an election where the choice is between two cancers

i think i understand what that means, but i'd like to hear someone else elaborate on it first

racistm + populism

worked last time

remember how Trump promised the best healthcare, pro-labor policies, tax cuts for the middle class etc.

also promised fewer brown people

the magic combo!

Gemini vs Scorpio iirc.

3xp

Alfred you're definitely the most levelheaded person in this thread but my remaining ways to engage w/ this dumb campaign are "moaning and grieving" and "resolutely ignoring" and while I always made fun of Morbs for quitting politics threads for, like, six hours at a time, it turns out posting is fun

― silby,

Loud shoutout to DJP tho

remember how Trump promised the best healthcare, pro-labor policies, tax cuts for the middle class etc.

but that was "running from the left"?

tax cuts, no. throwing that out right there.

best healthcare? i mean, yeah, he promised it in as in he literally just said over and over "you're gonna have the best healthcare. the best. i promise. we will. the best healthcare of all time", but that is not "running from the left". there are lots of ways to provide healthcare. our current system is...probably the worst, and emblematic of conservative policymaking. he didn't propose anything to change that system.

pro-labor: he may have made a few comments here and there during his 2016 campaign, but i don't remember labor being a significant issue for him, or his voters. i could be wrong, but that seems like the kind of thing he might talk about in late 2015 before bannon and friends reminded him to never be kind to labor unions ever again if he wanted the conservative vote

the way the attack on biden from the left will work is the trump campaign will attempt to destroy his image as a populist democrat, using biden's record. he claims to be a friend to the working class, but this is his record on bankruptcy, credit card debt, and cutting social security and medicare. he claims to support women, but he's actually pro-life and mistreated anita hill. he claims to support african-americans but: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/biden-racial-jungle-quote/