Bernie Sanders is (by far!) the most popular politician in America

No. What needs to happen throughout the world’s democracies is to say aloud that which must not be said: we must put our rich people in check.

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Sort of. But not for important races where high-net-worth-donor cash is on the line.

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Rich people and also corporate persons. Has to build up a lot of grassroots support so enough politicians are afraid to prefer their money over the common good that they can fight a political system that’s currently got a lot built and running on that money.

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I thought we were motivated this time around. What happened? I know what I think happened, but here in Oregon I skirted all responsibility and wrote in Sanders because there was no real contest. That became an option when Clinton chose Kaine and I realized that campaign couldn’t or would*n’t [negative very important] try very hard to win. The shitshow is already deep, but despite voting for Obama 3 times, I think the team-sports era is gone.

How do you think it’ll work in 2020? I want some other thoughts than my own on this.

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I didn’t, nor did I really hear anyone suggesting it at the time.

Bit early to make that call other than to say there’s going to be a whole of people who will be very, very motivated to get Trump out of the WH. Let’s revisit in 2019.

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I think we’re asking for not-that. :rage:

Hit him with what? Lies?

Sanders is virtually beyond reproach (no mean feat across multiple decades), unless like me, you think he could be more forthright.

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…en no different from similar photos of GOPers or the Rump with gangsters, Saddam, various murderous bastards of the Saud monarchy, Putin, … and Usian-backed strongmen of Central and South America. Then we could do Asia and South Africa. I really wish they would have had the choice to open that box. They relied on Clinton to tank her own campaign by not getting real. She complied.

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Funny, he did well in fundraising against Clinton given little corporate support. Are you saying that our rich people would have spent their interests, held their nose, and funded Trump? How cynical do you think ten-to-thousand-millionaires are, hmmm?

Probably the attacks would start with the rape-fantasy porn he wrote, move on the video of him at a rally with crowds chanting “death to America,” maybe touch on Sanders violating campaign finance laws, and dwell for a while on his honeymoon in the USSR, and other things to freak out the olds, along with a lot of Castro connections to make sure Florida was ugly. The GOP had a big oppo research file on him, and a lot of it would have done some damage. None of it came up in the primary, but in the general there was a lot of dirty laundry that would have been aired. It was mostly crap that freak out people who aren’t like me, but there are a lot of people who aren’t like me.

With an election where the winning candidate had said, “women, you’ve gotta treat 'em like shit,” and bragged about sexual assault on tape, god only knows what effect it really would have had on Sanders, though.

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I’m not rich enough to move somewhere that sucks. Thanks for the suggestion, though!

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Not going to happen. Charisma only gets one so far without institutional followthrough.

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Bernie has always been the constructive policy maker.
The number one complainer? Hillary.
Sanders proposes.
Hillary criticizes.
Sanders rises in popularity.
Hillary adopts 80% of Sanders proposals, but her heart is not in it.
Hillary criticizes Trump.
Hillary loses.
Hillary demands the DP criticize Trump.
We lose in 2018.

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While I’m not optimistic (Dems fare poorly in midterms a lot), isn’t it a little early to call 2018?

What, you weren’t aware of the conspiracy to sideline Sanders that the Russian hacks exposed? Perhaps the most obvious example of tilting the playing field was the debate scheduling, but there were many more.

The DNC’s responsibility was to put forward the most electable candidate; that’s why the superdelegates can trump the popular vote. Which they should have done, since it was far from clear that Clinton would win, while Sanders would have taken it by ten fucking points.

IMO, without a doubt, the crime of the century.

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I was aware of the Wikileaks editorializing that painted that picture, though in reading the emails and looking at the dates, I saw a lot of deeply dishonest editorializing and not much of a conspiracy. YMMV I guess.

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If you’re looking for deep dishonesty, look no further than the DNC leadership. These scumbags threw away the election because their insider status was more important.

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I have no love for the DNC leadership, but still, besides moving the date (which I’d mentioning somewhere else), I didn’t see much of note, and still believe campaigns matter a whole lot more than DNC support. YMMV.

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With Perez doing exactly zilch to develop policies that actually work for the average American our loss in 2018 is in the bag. We are still being ridden by the donors and so will continue to keep losing until we fall to #3 spot.

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Get real. Feb’ 8, 2017
"We heard loudly and clearly yesterday from Bernie supporters that the process was rigged, and it was. And you’ve got to be honest about it," Perez told a group of Democratic lawmakers in Kansas, according to a report by MSNBC’s Alex Seitz-Wald."

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