I don’t think it really matters if Bernie gets out. Unlike in 2016, there’s a much bigger story than the election, and he’s not holding big events, so he’s going to fall out of the news either way.
There were Democratic primaries besides those for the Presidential nomination going on yesterday.
Marie Newman ousted Dan Lipinski from his IL-3 House seat.
Well, exactly. Anyone who risked their lives to go vote yesterday because of the presidential primary hasn’t been paying attention. Biden’s got this one wrapped up. But there are plenty of other downballot races.
It’s over for Sanders, and I hate that, but it’s obvious, and he knows it. The over-the-top nastiness in this thread, attacking him for not withdrawing (“expel him from the senate?” are you for real?), also shows a deep misunderstanding of the political reality.
He needs to concede, but he needs to do it, as iiandyiiii says, in a way that will help pivot his supporters–both the reasonable progressives and the rah-rah team-spirit supporters–to Biden as much as possible. He knows how to do this more than you do.
Good thing, because the Bernistas at Chapo Crap House sure aren’t helping.
Very glad to see that Lipinski lost!
edit: duplicate post
Man, all this drama could have been avoided if Biden had just withdrawn from the race and endorsed Sanders. How dare he run for office in a contested primary!
Yes, I know that that’s an absurd argument. The one against Sanders is just as absurd. He’s running for office. This is a democracy; he’s allowed to do that.
“Plenty” might overstate it. As far as I’m aware, only Illinois had down ticket races last night. A total of only 20 states have combined the primaries.
If Bernie continues to stay in the race, it just makes it look like he’s a sore loser and that he’s drawing attention to himself. He risks discrediting himself and his movement, particularly when we see over and over again that the activism online doesn’t match the activism we see at the polls. And I’m sorry, but it does create a needless rift between his supporters and the rest of the party. Instead of being Sgt Elias running through the jungle to catch the helicopter, we’d all be better off if he’d push for influence inside Biden’s campaign.
Staying in the race isn’t in conflict with pushing for influence with Biden. As long as he doesn’t go hard negative, Bernie staying in doesn’t hurt Biden at all. His (and my) enthusiasm argument has already been discredited by the results, but on the issues he’s already moved Biden a lot. If more debates continues to move him, as well as giving Biden more much-needed debate practice, then that could be a great help.
They are very unlikely to have any more debates with covid-19 and Biden having it in the bag.
Yes, Bernie has to do it “his way” but he really should do it now. There isn’t going to be any votes or debates for weeks. Rallies will be frowned upon. He is going to rapidly lose camera time.
Nobody’s going to be paying much attention to the rest of the primary race (such as it is) anyway, given the way the coronavirus is occupying everyone’s attention. So I doubt that Bernie staying or going will make much of a difference.
Based on what? The bang-up job he did in 2016?
Exactly! Do these Bernie supports think we all have collective amnesia and don’t remember the shit storm he enabled in 2016? Do they think we do not recall the continued campaigning and divisive attacks long after he was mathematically eliminated? Do you think we don’t recall the tepid support and double-talk regarding Hillary and the Democratic Party? Do you think we do not recall his supporters at the convention hissing and boo’ing?
It is absolutely absurd that the argument is being made that we need to be soft and gentle with his supporters and provide for their fragile emotional needs and egos in this difficult time to help them transition to supporting another candidate. Every candidate had supporters who were saddened their choice had to drop out of the race. Every supporter moved on and made the decision on whom to support instead with the goal of defeating Trump. There was none of this histrionics.
This is why there is so much vitriol towards Bernie and his can’t-be-bothered-to-vote revolutionaries. They continue to act like snotty obnoxious teenagers. It’s time to grow up. Your man lost. Again. Get behind the party nominee and work your ass off to stop Trump, or shut up and go away. I prefer the former but frankly I won’t miss you if you choose the later.
I’m sorry that you’ve made up your mind about me with such negative conclusions, never having met me. I don’t think I’m like this, and I’ll challenge you to support your assertions about me with any of my posts as evidence. Or if you’re not talking about me, then I’d recommend you be much more specific rather than tarnishing all supporters of Bernie for the actions of just some of them.
You are pushing for massive concessions to Sanders. You are part of the problem. And now that you’ve abandoned your “enthusiasm” reasoning, you think it should still happen just because you want it to happen. You are unworried about Biden being forced left for the general. Towards the policies of the guy who lost the primary.
I’m not pushing for anything that I think would turn off Biden supporters, so I don’t think it’s “massive” at all.
I want as many of my fellow Bernie supporters to vote for Biden in the general, which is why I’m pushing for it. So yes, I “want it to happen”, because I think this gives us the best chance to beat Trump.
He already is. It’s working. And in my understanding of polling, these policies are generally more popular than Biden’s. So I think this is helping Biden’s chances for the general.
If you don’t think letting Sanders have veto on the VP pick isn’t “massive”, we really don’t have much room for discussion. Thank you for your thoughts.
That’s not what I advocate for. I want them to work together to pick a VP that could appeal to and excite supporters of both candidates – and I think there are multiple candidates out there who could fit (Warren and Abrams, most notably, but I think there are probably others as well).
Work together, you say? So if Sanders said “that’s a bad pick, I say no” what should Biden respond?