Bernie Sanders will assess his presidential campaign after the Vermont senator's poor showing in Tuesday's Democratic primaries, his campaign manager says https://t.co/1rt2f5RGkJ pic.twitter.com/JGSazOFRiy— CNN Breaking News (@cnnbrk) March 18, 2020
Former VP Joe Biden decisively won the three primaries held on Tuesday. Based on the current....everything! even holding future primaries has become more onerous. Also onerous--the task of trying to overcome a delegate deficit when two very important things affect the outcome: past performance and future expectations. At this point, there will be voters who submit Biden votes just to end it. The upcoming primary calendar and general Democratic polling aren't showing wins for Sanders. There isn't a lot of room his campaign has, at this point, to change things up. Both of these candidates have strong name recognition, and it is very unlikely that voters are making up their minds at the last minute at this point, as they may have done in the Iowa caucus.
By the beginning of May 2016, I understood the weaknesses of the Sanders campaign and why it wasn't dominating Clinton, even if Sanders himself is a genial, intelligent candidate and given Clinton's baggage (I think of it as something like Marley's chains). It really didn't have a lot to do with any "establishment" on the party's part, except to the extent that the party has known constituencies (voters). His campaign was great at what it did best, and didn't do the things it didn't do best. Did it get a lot of young, mostly white people excited? Yes! Did it figure out what to do to get the support of older, more diverse voters? Not exactly. The campaign team in 2020 did not fix this issue; it kind of magnified it. Jill Stein 2016 supporters, trolls, absolutists, hipsters who like politicians that don't do sell-out shit like win primaries, surrogates more likely to pick fights than make allies. I don't think of the lot of them as "Bernie Bros" (which is childish and undescriptive) so much as possessing an overabundance of real-keeping. A pose of real-keeping.
A saying "You just want people to die of diabetes" on Twitter level of what the fuck did you just say you nose-ring punk-ass parent-disappointer? level of real-keeping. See, I'm funny in that I'm old enough that my friends at this point have heart problems and diabetes and breast cancer and problem pregnancies, and have gone scrounging for their health care and stuck with stupid office bullshit jobs for any kind of security, and people of my generation had some college debts and lay offs and postponed major life events, too, and we are untimely as hell with setting up our retirement plans and take care of aged parents, and the vehemence with which some Sanders supporters arrive at the idea that if you aren't riding with that campaign, you are inimical to the goals of that campaign, not merely convinced that there are other means to arrive at those goals, alarms me.
When I see young people talk about "Boomers", their grandparents, my parents, as obstacles as if they were fossils not active citizens, I'm alarmed. Writing off and pissing off people who disagree with you isn't just "not very nice". It's strategically nonsense. It's off-putting. It's how a core of people decide they would not ever support someone who appeals to this lot of assholes, over here. People who snipe about "Obama murdered people with drones" or whatever aren't trying to make me like their candidate. They are telling me I'm dumb and a little evil for ever voting for him. They want me to feel bad and vote for their candidate to redeem myself.
I know very well why I voted as I have every single time I have. I have only ever been satisfied that I could have done worse. Who is going to tell me my own mind?
It's true that Sanders has been right about things, has been for years, and is more honest and less relenting about that. I could still vote for him because I still believe in that rightness. But masses of voters aren't turned on by policy and also need to feel that a candidate can bring people together. A person with a divisive campaign sends a certain signal. Does campaign staff and messaging reflect what the ultimate cabinet would look like? Maybe! If a candidate can't win in the primaries, why should I think they can win the general? I don't really! Do I think people need to get their shit together, because out there, the world is falling the fuck apart?
Yes, most definitely. Even if it's behind someone who isn't one's first choice. Because if I hear anyone say Trump is better, or that they can't tell the difference, I will not be impressed, because I am over it. Trump reaps the whirlwind, but we are standing in its path. One either appreciates the urgency of his removal, or has no standing in my world. My caveats about Biden are significant, and I have swallowed them. I really have no interest in further litigation to this end, and with all that is going on. It just needs finishing.
2 comments:
Yes, 100% yes to what you wrote!
I'm 62, a Boomer, and Obama* is pretty much the first and only president I actually wanted to vote for.
From Carter until Obama came along, I held my nose and voted "D", no matter who our candidate was.
-Carter in '76? Yes, even though I thought he too Jesusy and Southerny.
-In '80, I wanted to vote for John Anderson, but when I went into the voting booth, was Resgan/Bush, I instinctively pulled the Carter/Mondale voting thingee.
-Mondale in '84, yes, but FSM, he was an awful candidate.
-But not as awful as the Dukester in '84!
-Clinton in '92 and '96? Yes, but even his before his first election, I thought he was kinda skeevy. And right I was! Where there's smoke... As he was running in '92, I joked to friends and family that I thought his wife should have run instead of him since she's waaaaaay smarter than he is. Right again.
-Gore? Yes, but not with great passion, which says more about me, than him. Kind shallow, me, now that I think about it...
-Kerry? Yes, but like Gore, it was more of a "NO, NOT BUSH!" vote.
-Then, 2008, The Man! HELL YES!!!
-And Hillary, YES, finally. BUT NOOOOOOOO, racism and misogyny took the day.
And now, Biden.
Oy.
Damn skippy I'm voting for him! Holding my nose to avoid the corporatist stench, but I'd vote for a rabid honey-badger over presiDUNCE tRUMP
*I volunteered for his campaign from the day he announced in '07, until Election Day, 2008.
Stay safely away from harm, Vixen. :-)
Hi Vixen,
at least Bernie was honest and genuine, despite the fact that he was naive.
He cited Scandinavia as his socialistic model.
Most of us who have looked into it understand that Scandinavian counties are not socialistic. They are free markets with a big welfare state.
Here are a couple of things that people do not realize.
Scandinavians realize that soaking the rich does not work. As a consequence, the taxes are paid by everyone and not pointed directly at the rich. Everyone pays and everyone receives the welfare benefits. If you make $60,000 a year, $30-35,000 will be paid in taxes plus a value-added tax on purchases. You will not have much money, but there will be a lot of free medical care, education, and such.
Scandinavia is more capitalistic than we are. They do not have minimum wage laws They do not have taxes on people leaving their estates to others. Some corporations are taxed less than American corporations.
Why?
Because they don't want to kill the golden goose. They have to have as a necessity and huge, robust capitalistic sector in order to generate enough revenues for a welfare state. They like it like that and everyone is pretty much on board. It isn't a case, like here, where one class wants to take money from another class. The taxes are across the board.
I'll also mention that in Scandinavia is primarily one ethnicity. It's sort of like the Japanese in Japan. And as a consequence, they don't have as much reluctance when they feel they are helping out those who share their values, such as a work ethic.
What lesson is there to be learned? If you want a big welfare state you have to have a huge, capitalistic sector in order to pay for it. And the vast majority of your citizens have to want that and be willing to do it.
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