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

Bernie, vanishing mediator? https://t.co/uhsfWCMOKL

— Doug Henwood (@DougHenwood) March 18, 2020

Cool that they're just copying and pasting 2016 tweets now

Henwood?

convinced now that at the first debate trumps gonna promise to do m4a and bidens gonna ask him how hes gonna pay for it

— 𝕭𝖗𝖊𝖆𝖉𝖓𝖇𝖔𝖔𝖟𝖊 🧠📉 (@goodatsexguy) March 18, 2020

we're gonna have Medicare for All
and Mexico's gonna pay for it

Medicare4wall

This has several compelling arguments and a lot of frustrated passion in it:

I’m a Bernie volunteer. Here’s how Joe Biden can win Bernie voters.

Bernie was projected to win a decisive lead on Super Tuesday. Biden was, everyone thought, on his last legs and had not campaigned or established a ground presence in many states. Then, in the days immediately before Super Tuesday, several of his opponents dropped out. Their endorsements and a raft of others carried him to victory.

This was a message to Bernie voters: "Fuck off. We would rather drag Joe Biden over the finish line, knowing that he is no longer mentally competent, than cede anything to the candidate who is winning your votes by fifty points or more."

You may disagree with me about Joe Biden’s mental competence. That’s fine. It has been reported that party insiders believe what I believe about Joe. You could say listen to his speech, he talks about unity, he is not telling Bernie voters to go pound sand, but that is the message my friends heard.

Toward the end of a primary there is often talk to the effect that even if your candidate didn’t win, he changed the conversation, whatever that means, and might be able to whisper ideas in the winner’s ear or even to hold him accountable, whatever that means. This was a fantasy when it came to Hillary Clinton. It is a joke when it comes to Joe Biden. If Biden were the kind of candidate who could be pushed left, no one in the party leadership would have endorsed him. It doesn’t matter if he makes Free College for Some a plank of his platform.

I know by this point you have all kinds of desperate or righteously angry appeals in mind. "Think about Trump’s racism. Think about the kids in cages. If nothing else, think about the Supreme Court!" Sorry, that shit doesn’t work anymore. Never mind that Biden got Clarence Thomas on the Court. This primary came down to one candidate who gave Strom Thurmond’s eulogy and another who — I know you are tired of hearing this — marched with Martin Luther King, Jr. It came down to one candidate who wanted to break up ICE and another whose boss built the cages that Trump filled with children. We know how you chose.

If you want to beat Trump, you will have to work harder than we did and rally more of your army to volunteer. Name recognition is enough to win a primary. It is not enough to win a general election. You need hundreds of thousands of people texting, making phone calls, knocking on doors. You cannot be satisfied with knocking on doors locally, either. We had people who spent every weekend busing into neighboring states. I know this would be harder for Biden voters, who are generally older than us and may, like Joe, have mixed feelings about busing. Have you ever met a Hmong or a Bhutanese person? We had organizers working with them. You have won the black vote, but you cannot take anyone else for granted.

I didn't click the link, but if there were compelling arguments, you should have quoted some.

As ppl are saying here everyday young ppl don't vote so I'm sure Biden's victory won't depend on their turnout (or lack of).

They'll be in grief counselling.

Biden is such a bleak selection—another senile candidate!—especially now that our country seems to have been plunged into a plague and a depression.

Running to the left = "here is another iteration of the New Deal, only fuck you if you aren't white and straight-passing" afaict

― DJP, Wednesday, March 18, 2020 2:35 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

what is this referring to?

A podcast host or something said the Republicans would try to run to the Democrat’s “left,” especially in the time of coronavirus, by offering more robust emergency aid than they’d be comfortable with. I haven’t really seen that to be honest, and DJP is right that Trump’s empty populism isn’t “left” it’s more like a “scam”

I just wasn’t sure if he was talking about the GOP, the democratic party, or biden or sanders in particular, etc. you can bet your buttons that biden and the democratic party will be pushing to means test our way out of this mess

but I'm wearing a kimono

I haven’t really seen that to be honest, and DJP is right that Trump’s empty populism isn’t “left” it’s more like a “scam”

No doubt, but it has a good chance of working for him.

Of course this doesn’t really demonstrate that Trump or Republicans have any special political genius. It does show how feckless and tone-deaf the Democratic leadership is for not coming out with this earlier and more forcefully

Good thread on twitter about this

years of austerity politics has left too many democrats completely unable to think outside of its narrow constraints https://t.co/ajwCmy2MBm pic.twitter.com/U8XDvfZCAK

— b-boy bouiebaisse (@jbouie) March 19, 2020

means testing is good because we can’t trust the white people to vote for universal programs

I think that’s how it goes

lol tulsi endorses Biden

michael tracky to follow suit

Huh, genuinely surprised. Does that mean a 3rd party bid is off the table?

It means she's angling for VP?

She's not good but I never had her down for running 3rd party

I was convinced her plan all along was to be a 3rd party spoiler. I'm feeling weirdly relieved now.

same. she is one of the more curious people in national politics and I honestly can’t get a handle on what makes her tick. assumed she was just laying the groundwork for a long game grift operation to prey on horny chuds and assorted cranks, but this move doesn’t really comport with that.

pic.twitter.com/njwOdQacMl

— PBF Comics (@PerryFellow) March 19, 2020

I figured Tulsi's aim was to be Fox News's go-to Democrat for criticizing whatever a President Biden does.

I figured Tulsi's aim was to be Fox News's go-to Democrat for criticizing whatever a President Biden does.

Still a very strong chance of that. "You'll remember, Bret, that I even endorsed him during the campaign, but I have to say I'm very disappointed in the way he's handled..."

a long game grift operation to prey on horny chuds and assorted cranks

the parallels with Sarah Palin are probably not a coincidence

/I figured Tulsi's aim was to be Fox News's go-to Democrat for criticizing whatever a President Biden does./

Still a very strong chance of that. "You'll remember, Bret, that I even endorsed him during the campaign, but I have to say I'm very disappointed in the way he's handled..."

are we still pretending Tulsi is right-wing?

what is she claiming to pretend?

Bernie's campaign donation page now a multi charity donation page.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

true lurker gauge

plus my 70 sock accounts

more even spread than I would have expected really. Did Biden meet the delegate threshold?

bernie is turning things around and should not drop out

the people's champ

you won't hear about this on CNN, MSNBC, faux news

Tom Perez would like people to vote for Biden, and then die.

DNC Chair Tom Perez et al., however, are threatening to sanction those postponing states with reductions in their delegates (etc)

― Dollarmite Is My Name (sic), Wednesday, March 18, 2020 3:17 PM (two days ago)

https://66.media.tumblr.com/026a3cf7979be148d425d4794f51d330/d75e9fba966f3d9e-1b/s1280x1920/f6cd1475760dded13e56e93bccfc184b39434272.png

21 hours later

https://66.media.tumblr.com/251c1856023d29268e76b4b30d2b9f04/d75e9fba966f3d9e-87/s1280x1920/70b36fcc137b4c7791dbaa0c687960b39d605ada.png

Tonight at 7pm ET @BernieSanders is set to hold a virtual town hall on Coronavirus response from his campaign office in Burlington.

It seems pretty clear he has no plan to exit the race anytime soon.
DETAILS: pic.twitter.com/hcmG9CUVwA

— Ryan Nobles (@ryanobles) March 20, 2020

Well WTF is Biden doing? Spending time leafing through binders of women?

Biden has no official capacity to do anything right now, except talk.

and take naps

yeah Sanders is a senator; Biden is a septuagenarian

but yeah, what is he supposed to say in this scenario? "Here's what I *would* do"? Sanders is in a different situation, he's still a Senator.

but yeah, what is he supposed to say in this scenario? "Here's what I *would* do"? Sanders is in a different situation, he's still a Senator.

Yeah, because presidential candidates *never* do this, only sitting Senators.

But that would require his handlers to break the seal under which they are keeping Glass Joe.

Biden has a justifiable platform to talk every day, he's the presumptiove nominee, there's no excuse except as noted in the other thread he's mostly brain-dead