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

*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/

it's not really about the specific quotes or policies, it's just about showing joe biden is a hypocrite

maybe if the recession is bad enough it won't matter, but I don't have a lot of faith in biden's ability to defend himself from the shitstorm that's coming his way.

xp -- also it should probably be pointed out that people's general levels of despair and anger are massively up right now, with good reason, and even if someone was an expert at compartmentalizing that all somehow, politics is not a separate compartment from it

but... Trump is an even bigger hypocrite, so how does that line of attack sway any voters who haven't already made up their minds, or (more critically) increase turnout?

xps

he claims to support african-americans but: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/biden-racial-jungle-quote/

if you think Biden's african american support is going to crater idk what to tell you

of course not

xposts

i just think the whole "running at biden from the left" thing is a consequence of the primaries, where parts of the democratic party try to pain the other as unacceptable villains. the truth is, i think, even fucking mayor pete is to the left of where obama was in 2008. biden wasn't my first, second.....or eighth choice, and i wish he wasn't a million years old and not very good at being a politician, but he is not some sort of secret conservative manchurian candidate that is open to being outflanked from the left. the issues he's been especially bad on - regulating wall street, bankruptcy, anita hill, repeatedly making people feel physically uncomfortable in his presence - are not things that trump is well-suited to left flank him on

KM otm

the trump campaign will propagate quotes like that (which biden has in abundance...) in order to make independents view biden as a liar and de-inspire turnout among young voters

young ppl don't vote

I kinda wonder how the "anti-politician" rhetoric is gonna play this cycle now that Trump has been president for 4 years