I think it’s fine that he’s running again. I doubt I’ll support him in the primary, but I welcome a discussion of his ideas.
I don’t see any of the other Dem candidates talking about Climate change as much as he is. I think Bernie has the largest # of grassroots donors of all the candidates, I don’t know how that will affect things. Progressives are saying that if you take corporate PAC money then you’re going to support what’s good for your donors, and not the people.
He’s old, but he sounds pretty sharp to me, a lot sharper than that younger guy, Trump. I’m looking forward to the debates.
OLD WHITE MAN - no thanks? I don’t give a shit what package it comes in, if a candidate matches closely with my idea of good policies and has integrity I will keep an open mind and give them a chance.
Still early days.
The comparison to Ron Paul is pretty accurate in that he’s got a small but fervent group of supporters, many of whom don’t ordinarily vote for the R or D candidate, either abstaining or voting third party.
I did a lot of canvassing for Kerry in 2004 and I’d often run into Bush canvassers. This was in Columbus, Ohio, peak battleground. It was interesting to see that we both had similar instructions from the campaign coordinators. The Kerry people immediately wrote off the Nader people as an absolute No and the Bush people did the same for the Ron Paul people.
No, she isn’t.
To be specific, she was possibly being investigated by a US attorney, but if so, it appears that the investigation was closed with no charges recommended.
Which makes sense: the whole issue was basically a dirty trick played by the Vermont chairman of Trump’s presidential campaign. It was absolutely not the sort of thing that rose to the level of an actual crime.
I believe the Democrat Party changed their rules after Bernie’s last run that you have to be a registered Democrat to run in their primaries which is legal under Washington State Grange v. Washington State Republican Party. The question is will the Dems prevent Bernie from registering as a Democrat knowing he’d be using it only to use their primaries.
seems like if they try to prevent him from registering as a Democrat that will enrage his fans.
also in some states there is no formal party registration anyway.
I expect that Bernie will do well. I predict him finishing second behind Biden, but the possibility of him winning can’t be ruled out.
In 2016 he got 43% of the vote, while there was only one other serious candidate. Facing a field of 25 candidates, it might well be possible to win with only 33%. Maybe even with 23%.
As Jonathan Chance mentioned, he has a base of hardcore supporters who won’t abandon him. Let’s suppose for the sake of argument that they make up 20% of primary voters.
I figure that by the time the Iowa caucuses roll around, a few Gabbards and Buttigiegs may have dropped out, but there will be at least ten candidates still hanging around, maybe more like fifteen. In that type of situation, it’s entirely possible that Bernie could win Iowa with 20% of the vote.
Then on to New Hampshire, where he did extremely well last year. Winning New Hampshire would not be difficult if ten losers are splitting up the anti-Bernie vote.
And then …? I figure that after New Hampshire, folks like Warren, Castro, Gillibrand, and Booker will bow to reality and drop. Progressives will be looking for someone who shares their positions and Bernie will be a natural fit for them. Could happen. Could also not happen. It’s gonna’ be a long seventeen months from now to the convention.
From the Call for the 2020 Democratic National Convention, Section VI:
[QUOTE=Call for the 2020 Democratic National Convention]
The term “presidential candidate” herein shall mean any person who, as determined by the National Chairperson of the Democratic National Committee, has accrued delegates in the nominating process and plans to seek the nomination, has established substantial support for their nomination as the Democratic candidate for the Office of the President of the United States, is a bona fide Democrat whose record of public service, accomplishment, public writings and/or public statements affirmatively demonstrates that the candidate is faithful to the interests, welfare and success of the Democratic Party of the United States, and will participate in the Convention in good faith.
At the time a presidential candidate announces their candidacy publicly, they must publicly affirm that they are a Democrat.
Each candidate pursuing the Democratic nomination shall affirm, in writing, to the National Chairperson of the Democratic National Committee that they:
A. are a member of the Democratic Party;
B. will accept the Democratic nomination; and
C. will run and serve as a member of the Democratic Party.
[/QUOTE]
Presumably, Bernie is now a member of the Democratic Party. Of course, that doesn’t stop him from running for Senate as an independent, any more than John Anderson being a Republican stopped him from running as an independent for President in 1980.
I wouldn’t presume that until he, or the DNC, announces it. If it were easy and obvious for him, he’d have done it decades ago.
I need a database to keep track of all the free stuff these candidates are going to give away once elected. A trillion here , trillion there and suddenly it’s real money.
“At the time a presidential candidate announces their candidacy publicly, they must publicly affirm that they are a Democrat.” Until he does, he’s not a candidate for the Democratic nomination.
According to the text of his announcement in the Burlington Free Press, he never says that he is a Democrat.
We pay for it by undoing Mitch’s tax cut from a year ago. A trillion here, a trillion there, available for Dem programs instead of billionaires and big corporations.
As dalej42 already pointed out, Bernie got treated with kid gloves on the Dem side: Hillary didn’t want to lose his supporters.
And of course, the GOP never unleashed their barrage on him because he wasn’t going to be the nominee, and besides, they’d have rather run against him. He’d have been shredded if there’d been a need.
Wrong party. That’s a GOP thing, not a Dem thing.
Citation needed.
Except Hillary Clinton cleared the field for herself on the basis of this reasoning in 2016.
I was a big Bernie supporter in 2016, and may even exhume my “Feel The Bern” t-shirt. However, I can’t support him as a POTUS candidate, mainly because of his age, and suspect he won’t last very long this time around. I wouldn’t condemn him as a Veep choice, however.
Look who’s back!
Wpw. So honest, but possibly naive question. What is with all the Bernie hate? He isn’t Ralph Nader, is isn’t like he ran as a spoiler and got Trump elected.
Here is my view as a Bernie voter (and keep in mind over 90% of us who voted for him in the primary also voted for Hillary in the general election).
In the 2016 primary, Hillary got 17 million votes, Bernie got 13 million. The other candidates got pretty much nothing (O’Malley got maybe 100k).
Why would those 13 million people who have already voted for Bernie in a primary suddenly be compelled to vote for Harris, Booker, Biden, etc? What do those other candidates offer that Bernie does not? You have to be realistic about this. Bernie probably isn’t going to lose 10 million votes to Harris and Booker.
Also Bernie started a movement. A lot of us on the left are tired of corporate centrism, and we want action on the meaningful problems America faces. The democratic party got the message, and now many democratic presidents are running on Bernie’s platform (like medicare for all), but how do we know they are serious? Other than Warren, I don’t think any of the other dems are actual progressives. They’re probably just pretending to win.
Also liberals now make up half the democratic party. So ignore them at your peril.
Any democrat would be superior to Trump. and it doesn’t matter if Bernie wins or another democrat wins, nothing meaningful will be passed. The dems probably won’t even control both houses of congress in 2020. Even if they do, their majority in the senate will be slim, probably 51-54 seats.
Annual costs:
$70 billion - free public college for all
$70 billion - subsidized daycare and pre-k
$30 billion - universal paid family medical leave, paid sick leave, paid vacation
$100 billion - infrastructure investments
$100 billion - expand social security
The big one is medicare for all. That’ll require close to a trillion in new taxes. However that trillion will be offset by reduced private spending of over a trillion. Medicare for all will save 2-12 trillion over the course of a decade, likely enough to pay for all of the other programs in the progressive wishlist.
Many of Bernies plans replace private spending with public spending. Medicare for all, public college, subsidized daycare. They are replacing private spending with tax dollars, which is fine by me.
FWIW, Bernies plans (excluding medicare for all) cost less than the war in Iraq and the supply side tax cuts the GOP push. I never see people complain about costs when it comes to war and tax cuts for the rich. Only when it comes to education, daycare, infrastructure and family medical leave.
Thank you for saying this.
I think the Bernie scepticism here is a product of 1) forum demographics with members skewing older than the Internet average (think of it as the inverse of Millennial dominated spaces like Reddit where the general consensus is almost that Bernie was a socialist martyr whose nomination was stolen by an evil neoliberal warmonger Hillary Clinton) and 2) excessive reliance on “normie” political reasoning/punditry that pretends the last four years or so hasn’t happened-recall the confident prediction of Trump fizzling out fairly late into the 2016 primaries-hence simplistic analysis that Sanders will be the worst candidate simply because he’s nominally the farthest “left” on the political spectrum for example.