Me too - I’m just asking a question that effects another person.
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It’s nice to see Sanders AND Warren at the top of the polls. I hope they join a ticket together. That would give me a little optimism for the country. The status quo candidates don’t at all.
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Bernie is a great candidate and I’ll likely vote for him but let’s not make him out to be an infallible demigod who has consistently been better than his peers on every single issue. For example, he was later to the party on LGBT rights than many of his colleagues and far behind his democratic colleagues on gun control.
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An interesting question is what they’re missing right now. I’d probably say animal rights and nobody is seriously talking about that at the moment.
It’s easier to get people to prioritize animal rights in a society where human rights are already well-protected. If one candidate runs on a platform of “I’ll fight to protect the puppies/horses/chickens from abuse” and another runs on a platform of “I’ll fight to protect your family from poverty/war/discrimination/gun violence/lack of heathcare/climate disaster” then the latter candidate is probably going to get more popular support.
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That wasn’t quite my point. More that people often miss things.
But he arrived at the LGBT rights party eventually, and his position on gun rights was in fact complicated by those people known as his own constituents – in other words, as per this latter point, essentially doing what an elected representative should.
N o one here has said Mr. Sanders is an infallible person. Many are saying he’s the est choice, And since you already suspect he’s the best choice, that suggests others have looked at his arrival at the party and how he handled disparate views and consider him the best choice as well.
So why not just accept Bernie? Or do you have to prove your superiority before speaking to every candidate you may vote for?
I don’t have a problem accepting Bernie. I just get uncomfortable when I hear people describing him as if he’s the only candidate any sane person would even consider voting for.
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Well, but what if he is?
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He isn’t. Even the worst choice of Biden is sane compared to Trump. In terms of Burlington Socialists, I prefer Murray Bookchin, and would rather have his daughter Debbie Bookchin running for president. I could claim that is the only sane choice but it doesn’t help anyone.
Do we really need to carry on with this pointless debate?
(Murray would have been 99 tomorrow. Happy Birthday, we’re keeping your ideas alive for you.)
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“Anyone who would even consider voting for a candidate other than my favorite candidate is insane, even if one of those rivals agrees with my guy on 95% of the issues” is not how one goes about building a coalition.
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Notice how you never hear Republicans talking about building coalitions? They just find somebody they can run, and then they run them. They don’t run around slashing each other’s Achilles tendons just because they don’t agree with a 100% of a candidate’s platform.
They also win elections up and down the ballot, after we’ve had our traditional circular firing squad, and I’m tired of it.
How is saying stuff like “any Democrat who would consider voting for a candidate other than Bernie is insane” NOT “engaging in a circular firing squad?”
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This is the exact bullshit I criticized the Hillary supporters for in the last election, and I think it applies to Bernie supporters here. “You’re a Democrat, get behind Candidate X” is just shitty logic. First, how do you know I’m a Democrat? I’m actually not a Democrat, so I can vote for whomever I damn well please. Second, even if I were a Democrat, the candidate needs to earn my vote.
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Yeah, it is pretty complicated. For example, if Biden is just viable (as the poll indicates) but he’s the second choice of the not-viable candidate supporters, he suddenly wins. Of course, this is all done by precinct, so at 15% statewide he could hypothetically be not viable (and end up with 0 delegates) in half the precincts, and win the rest.
Pretty silly, but some form of this – maybe less extreme – is possible in any form of transferable voting scheme.
Moreover, the more experienced sets of supporters will heavily bargain during the caucus, offering incentives for supporters to join their ranks. In my one Iowa caucus experience I was a Jesse Jackson supporter; he was not viable in my district but as a block we offered to join the McGovern group in return for getting a couple of us named McGovern delegates. McGovern won our precinct. Ironically, Jackson was slaughtered in Iowa but went the distance in the primaries, while McGovern dropped out pretty early.
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