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

I think what I’m suggesting is a ‘fight fire with fire approach’.

Not knowing Winfrey, Besos, Cuban personally, I can only assume they would a)attract complacent voters, b)not be insane.

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Like Henry Wallace? I agree. He was pretty much the epitome of the New Deal, to the point where FDR threaten to break the party (withdraw from the race, which would have had that effect) if he wasn’t affirmed as the vice-presidential candidate. Wallace’s problem, however, wasn’t with the Left of the party.

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So, naturally, the Democratic Party establishment is doing everything they can to sideline him…

He’s not a Democrat. He changed his party affiliation days after the DNC convention (that’s how toxic he regards the Democrat party). If Bernie actually wanted to transform the party, he’d have to actually be in the party. Bernie wants have it both ways. He cannot.

And, how is Hillary adopting a large part of his agenda “sidelining” him?

And, the Democrats tried Bernie 40 years ago when he was called George McGovern. Bernie is the Democrat’s Ted Cruz: he has hardcore support, but not broad appeal. For some reason Bernie supporters cannot get it through their heads the same way Cruz supporters cannot.

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You didn’t say anything. You asked a lot of rhetorical questions and received the praise merited for such sophistry.

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And for some reason, Hillary supporters cannot get it through their heads that Bernie’s appeal, given the kind of corporate-media coverage and DNC backing that Hillary had, would’ve been broader than hers. AND Trump’s.

(I mean seriously, how broadly popular was either Hillary or Trump?)

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People really don’t like the GOP either.

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Hmm, it’s almost like the U.S. could use, what’s that called, a “third party”? :confused:

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It’s almost as if you get people engaged when they have a choice of who to vote for and know their vote isn’t a waste:

81.4% turnout, 13 parties get seats.

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Other way around. Bernie’s appeal cuts across party lines. That was obvious in the general polls leading up to the election; these polls show exactly the same thing. The only people who are pretty much guaranteed not to vote for Sanders (and I mean “not ever”) are those in the hardcore Republican base, which is what? 30% of the electorate? And maybe the people in the Democratic Party who think the status quo ante is tenable (and how far did that get them in the last election, eh?).

Bingo. A serious fourth and fifth party wouldn’t hurt either.

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Yeah, those things are totally equivalent

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Still, I’m sure Booker / Gillibrand 2020 will do great things.

Or, at least, stop Warren.

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I don’t disagree.

Well, the funny thing to me is that during the 2016 election (which I maintain is old news for finger-pointing purposes, but is still academically useful) the Dems were counting on Republican party defection away from Trump to make up for lost or disenchanted Dem votes. While I think Bernie will get votes from the reluctant arm of the party and independents, I don’t know that we can count on party defection any more than the Dems already did previously. Of course 2018 is a new (very important) race with new rules that will give us some clues about where the country will be headed.

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You may wish to check your figures. My household contains three voters, and none of us are registered with Republicans or Democrats. And before you dismiss this as anecdotal, please understand that we are not unique. It has been decades since either party did more than pay lip service to issues that face Americans.

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No, just a few dems who refuse to open their eyes are here, and we are all losing thanks to this.

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The peculiar thing I noticed was that Sanders was well-respected even by people who didn’t agree with him: he had an idea of what he stood for, he had an idea of what needed fixing, and he had an idea of how he would do it, and he shared common ground on the second of these with a lot of people on the right, so I would say he would be likelier to pull these votes than HRC. He was definitely cleaning up with the independents; I would have expected him to cause a bit of soul searching in what remains of moderate Republicans.

The reason I specified “guaranteed not to vote” is that this is in many ways easier to determine than who actually will vote for someone.

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That sure shows the establishment candidates being heavily favored, and not just what draws ratings for shitty network news!

If anything it just shows that conservatives drive almost all network news traffic.

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Oprah is fine, I suppose, though I doubt she’d want the job. Bezos and Cuban tho? Bezos is a ruthless capitalist, and runs Amazon like Scrooge McDuck. Cuban has a personality at least, but would operate relatively indistinct from current DNC prerogatives.

Again tho, much of the progressive left sees the elite as the problem, so I don’t really see how running another one would be the answer.

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I think I brought this up here too, but I doubt she will commit to doing what she should do for the country and probably just coast for a lengthy time.

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