Which is why they would be the wrong demographic to target. He needs to convince non-voters to vote. You have to admit that the GOP is certainly giving him a lot of help in that regard.
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A good decision by Sanders. Despite what his more ardent supporters have been arguing, he was so far behind Biden that winning was almost impossible. Now, the Democrats can pull together behind Biden and start focus on beating Trump.
And two comments on much repeated claims:
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If you look at polling (https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/polls/president-general/ for example), Biden’s beating Trump. (So was Sanders.) Screaming that everything’s lost and Biden’s going to lose is not based on actual facts, but on panic and disappointment feeding into despair.
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The idea that Joe Biden is senile is bullshit, and largely based on his occasional struggles to get the words out when speaking in public, due to his lifelong severe stutter. Please drop it, folks.
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Huh? If not, you really need to clarify the below:
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That’s one possible assumption. Another is that he’ll be four years older in 2024 and it will be clear he’ll only be a one-term president.
I am familiar with Scott Brown, thanks. Massachusetts is not going to elect a Republican senator in 2020. Markey is up for reelection this year and there’s no serious Republican opponent.
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A meme that completely misses the point.
The primary was the election. That was the entire point. Biden won, for better or worse for those who like him or not. He won the primary, which was effectively the election. (One I didn’t get to vote in yet.)
“Vote Blue no matter who” means AFTER the primary (which was the real election) is over, vote for that winner over Trump. This picture is missing that third selection, one that represents Trump that is worse for you than Windex.
That’s the choice, Windex may have prevailed over Mtn Dew in the first round. But, that just means it’s Windex vs Agent Orange now. Sure, you may not like Windex, and it may be bad for you. But, it’s still better than Agent Orange.
Choosing not to vote at all for President is just choosing to depress turnout by 1 more. It’s agreement that you’re just as OK with Agent Orange as Windex, by not picking one, the message is they’re the same to you.
Even that original tweet, replied 15 hours later that they’re Voting Blue no matter who.
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It was a response to a single comment - sorry I didn’t quote it - here would be the correct flow:
That sentence (alone) was a response - threading like such - the first part of my comment was not about obama - it was more just being upset at people thinking going backwards is somehow a good thing.
Hell I wouldn’t even feel that way but Biden made his campaign about just being the same as it was.
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The logical action would be to cede.
Ratel hit it on the nose: The undercard in the primaries is more important, if you really want democratic socialism to get a foothold. Unless more AOC-model candidates are on the November ticket, it will be very hard to move the house and senate leftward, and even if the majority goes blue in the Senate, it’s likely to be the democrat-classics.
And the biggest outcome of this is that the Bernie-favoring voters, the young, disenfranchised, etc., who would be most likely to vote those more liberal candidates for state positions, as well as house and senate, are not going to go to the polls at all.
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Come November, I’ll most likely vote for Biden… reluctantly, to be sure. I understand that getting the Orange Menace out of the White House must be our goal, for all our sakes, especially for the most vulnerable in our society. I know all the arguments-- don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good, et cetera, et cetera…
But I hope you’ll all forgive me if I take a day or two to mourn what could have been. Both Warren and Sanders spoke of hope, of change, of a chance for our country to be better than the status quo… the idea that government can and should act for all people, not just the monied, powerful few. I cannot explain how profoundly moving I found that message. I’d like to see real social progress in my lifetime. And yet again, the dream has been deferred, delayed, postponed. Hopefully not forever… but as I grow older, I wonder if I’ll be around to see it come to pass. And yes, I know the struggle continues-- we must keep fighting if we’re to have any real hope at all. But the pain is also real, and I don’t see much sense in denying that.
I’m not entirely sure what I’m trying to say here. Except… tearing each other new ones over Bernie isn’t doing anyone a bit of good. To those who love Bernie, and Warren, and the progressive cause as much as I do-- I know it hurts, but please don’t take it out on other people. It won’t change anything and just makes it harder to work together in the future. And for those annoyed at the Bernie supporters… I won’t justify bad behavior, but please understand that in some cases at least, it comes from profound disappointment and pain. And I do think we should at minimum acknowledge that Biden has weaknesses. The Republicans sure won’t hesitate to point them out, so we’d better be prepared to deal with them in the general election.
Can we all please just be excellent to each other?
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Yep.
I’m with you, 100%!
It’s that more than anything else that will get us 4 more years of Trump.
Sometimes. Sometimes it’s coming from a place of privilege, though, which ignores the very real damage being done to minority communities under the current administration, the very real damage being done to women’s rights, too. And LBGQT+ rights…
Right on! Again, I agree. It’s unfortunate that there have been people here who are simply using this as an excuse to act as if they are better than the rest of us.
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With all due respect, you didn’t answer my question. It wasn’t rhetorical.
Nye Bevan famously “stuffed [senior doctors’] mouths with gold” to get them on board with the NHS, but another part of that picture is that specialists can still make a lot of money through private patients.
The NHS intentionally makes private healthcare a waste of money. But lots of rich folks like to waste their money on status spending. And even though the public system provides for everyone’s needs, there are also real benefits to letting people overpay if they’re willing to. It makes medicine a more attractive career by avoiding a specific ceiling on how much doctors can make. And it shuts up people who would otherwise complain that they can’t buy preferential treatment, even if they couldn’t actually pay for a tongue depressor out of their own pocket.
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Agreed, 1000%. No matter how hurt and disappointed we may be, we cannot forget that the political “game” has very real consequences for many, especially the least privileged among us. No matter how tempting it may be to “take our ball and go home,” I don’t see it as a realistic option.
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Honestly, this sort of sums it all up to a great degree… there are some people who see this whole thing as a game, but real lives are on the line. People need to look around and see how much this current administration failed at one of their most basic jobs, and how many people are going to die who did not need to die (Because the Trump administration actively dismantled an Obama era initiative to prepare for what is happening right now). Some might be able to tolerate another 4 years, but there will be many people who will not live to see the end of this month because of the current administration, not just the end of the term!
If we want real change that Sanders and Warren advocated for, then we’re going to have to do it the old fashioned way, from the ground up, brick by brick, taking our elite class along with us, as they kick and scream no.
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Sorry I thought I was clear - let me clarify - I don’t think you are deluded - I think that it won’t matter without signifiant reform. We’ve already seen that ‘norms’ won’t be respected by the other side. I could be wrong and Biden will bring in sweeping reform that clamps down on the ability of the Senate and President to collude against the country - but I fully expect that abortion will be overturned by R’s via constitutional amendment (as soon as they have 60% of the states they will call for a convention) - without reform to the voting laws, ability to vote, on and on - it’s all going to essentially just be torn down - so while I agree with you that there is a difference - I don’t think it matters in the end.
I suppose I’m stuck at Nihilism at this point - sorry.
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Absofuckinglutely. Not just in terms of policy, but in terms of general competence in the Executive Branch.
Even if you somehow convinced yourself that Biden is just as awful as Trump from a policy point of view, does anyone believe that Biden would have fired the Pandemic Response Team in 2018 just to spite his predecessor?
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You think it won’t matter whether the Supreme Court contains nominees from Joe Biden or Donald Trump. This is absurd, to put a fine point on it, and one need look no further than two days ago for proof positive.
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It sucks… things suck right now. But if you want to move the party, then you’re part of the solution. We really can’t depend on a single individual to do that for us. Bernie lost… it fucking sucks, yeah. I’m disappointed too. But maybe work to get some of his platform into the DNC platform.
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