How do you explain the fact that, even in States where Biden won crushing majorities, exit polls indicated that voters overwhelmingly supported M4A, a policy famously the cornerstone of the Sanders campaign and one rejected by Biden? It seems pretty clear evidence that voters chose who they felt was most likely to beat Trump and put policy concerns to the side. And who would you say is most responsible for pushing the narrative that Biden was the choice to beat Trump?
1 Like
Ah no. You can recover energy after a dive but not if you auger in before the pull out.
I don’t think the voters who went for Biden are fools, I think they voted foolishly. Much like I think the voters who voted for Bush in 2004 because they didn’t want to change leadership in the middle of a war voted foolishly. As for “Some voters don’t like candidates whose strongest supporters hold them in contempt,” I’m not sure how that’s relevant as I’m just a nobody sharing opinions on the messageboard of an entertainment website.
Voter demonization is practiced on the regular around these parts whenever the discussion is about Republicans, but for some reason precious Democratic primary voters are off limits? Even when all of them knew that Biden was an accomplice to the greatest crime of the 21st century so far (the Iraq War) and many of whom had heard a credible sexual assault accusation against him? I’m not saying don’t vote for him in the general, but please, let’s hold off the sanctimony unless you’re going to apply it to criticisms of Trump voters as well.
1 Like
Still super curious who Biden gets around to choosing as VP pick. You know - someone who has a statistically better chance of serving a full term.
Front runner: Harris?
Surprise pick: Abrams?
Dark Horse: Gabbard?
Covid Fever Delirium choice: Winfrey?
I’m fairly sure that I know what I was talking about better than you know.
5 Likes
So - your argument is that people didn’t vote for the candidate they wanted to because there was one policy they valued above all others - and their so valuing it lead them to vote against it? Because they valued it so greatly that they wanted to ensure they wouldn’t get it?
Uh - okay.
7 Likes
Accelerationism only works in getting more people killed.
8 Likes
I have no idea how to parse this so I’ll just rephrase my theory to see if that helps. Polls showed that democratic primary voters overwhelmingly supported M4A, including in States where Biden won by huge amounts. Other polls showed that healthcare was the top concern for primary voters. So why did those same people vote for the candidate that is firmly against what appears to be their main policy concern? There must have been some other concern that was more important to them. I posit that that concern was electability against Trump, and that media sources like MSNBC and CNN were the main players pushing the narrative that Biden stood a better chance against Trump than Sanders. I’d love to hear your theory though. https://www.vox.com/2020/3/18/21184873/joe-biden-medicare-for-all-bernie-sanders-exit-polls
1 Like
Have you considered that people may have more than one concern?
And that they can decide for themselves how to assess the many concerns they may have? Or is that ability only available to you?
Also - you were arguing that your guy was more electable and people should have voted for him- but then argue that it was wrong for people to vote based upon who you purport they thought was more electable.
9 Likes
Oh I can see the NYT opinion pieces now.
1 Like
This entire thread of over 100 comments is about people sharing their thoughts and opinions about why people vote and how they should do so in the future. I shared my analysis about how/why a group of voters acted they way they did. Do you have any specific additions to or criticisms of my analysis?
You should go back and read them. Also - this thread is about Bernie endorsing Biden - it says it right there at the top.
7 Likes
It isn’t.
12 Likes
Apologies, I was already typing my reply before you edited in your second and third paragraphs. Regarding your first two paragraphs, do I believe that I have access to the inner thoughts of every single voter and their motivations? And do I believe that people don’t have the right to exercise their vote as they see fit? No. Do I believe that a messageboard about a political topic is an appropriate place to express an analysis based on polls? Yes.
I never said that people should have voted for Sanders because he was more electable. I said people should have voted for him because he was supporting policies that directly aligned with their own preferred policies and values. Do exit polls capture the full spectrum of all the aspirations motivating individuals’ decisions? Obviously not. But they are generally regarded as a reasonable measure of the sentiments of large groups of people taken as a whole, so when there is such a weird discrepancy between what people say they want and who they end up voting for, we absolutely should be analyzing why that is the case.
At this point - I’m more interested in defeating Trump than obsessing over why Elizabeth lost.
7 Likes
Fair enough. I do think at some point we will need to understand why the progressives didn’t manage to pull it across the finish line this cycle, but the different factions within each candidates’ camps are going to be more eager to have that conversation at different points in time. I look forward to those different factions strengthening one another’s strategies at some point, even if for the time being we disagree about when that point should be.
As of January, at least half of Sanders supporters said they’d vote for the Democratic candidate even if not their preferred candidate:
1 Like
I’m pretty convinced at this point that those “angrier supporters” are nothing but Russian trollies. I’ve never met a single person IRL who supported Bernie and didn’t support Hillary when it came down to the general election. The “Bernie Bros” as they’re called are nothing but Russian propaganda meant to sour intra-party relations and lead to infighting before the election.
Squatter’s rights baby!
Some of them definitely are. But sadly, nowhere near all. Being a leftist is no guarantee against being a blinkered, entitled asshole. (There are former Bernie supporters who are now calling him a Judas for endorsing Biden.)
Anyway! To everyone talking about how Biden will inevitably crash and burn and the world will be stuck with Trump for four more years, remember that the actual polling shows him beating Trump. It’s not a guarantee, of course, but this general despair is not warranted. 
4 Likes
