I voted “nosy” just so that I could see the results of the poll so far (which I guess does make me nosy, come to think of it) but for the SDMB, it’s a weird set of choices. I can easily believe that voters exist who dislike Trump but who are so strongly against Sanders that if it comes down to a Trump v Sanders choice, they won’t even consider voting for Sanders.
However, you won’t find many of those people here. I’ll vote for Sanders if I have to, and despite the fact that I’d prefer most of the current crop of Democratic hopefuls over him, it won’t even bother me much.
I hope you got what you want from your poll. I note that exactly zero people, who fit the parameters of those you wanted to respond, who said they would vote for Trump.
I don’t find that at all surprising. The SDMB, at a rough guess, is 75%+ yellow dog Democrats, and 90%+ anti-Trump, at least among active posters.
I know you think it’s some sort of gotcha, but it isn’t. I’m convinced there are voters out there who simply will not abide a self-described pro-socialist nominee. I fully expected that those who are never Bernie are more likely to be conservatives of a stripe, but I don’t know if that’s exclusively the case. Given that the poll is anonymous, by design, I’m unlikely to find out.
I don’t know why you have write in as an option but not 3rd party. I would think that would be as likely or more likely than write it for someone who is never Bernie.
I actually like Bernie, so I didn’t vote in the poll, but I am a never-Bloomberg guy, so I thought I’d play the hypothetical as a thought experiment, but with Bloomberg instead of Bernie. And if it were Bloomberg vs. Trump I’d definitely vote third party or write in a name. I’m not staying home because there are other races on the ballot to think about, but I’d basically write off the Presidency if it were one racist, sexist Republican New York billionaire versus another.
I don’t like Bernie. I really don’t like Bloomberg. If either one is the candidate, I will vote for them. Anything else is a vote for Trump, and it’s naïve to think otherwise.
Personally, I think that nominating Sanders is the very worst thing the Democrats could do at this stage of the game. He’s extraordinarily polarizing, not ACTUALLY a Democrat (he’s been an Independent for decades), and represents a set of beliefs that are not actually mainstream among the electorate at large. Sure, he’s popular among internet-literate twenty-somethings and the further-left side of the Democratic party, but that doesn’t mean he’s popular out in the wider world.
I think the smart play for the Democratic party would be to manipulate things such that one of their center-Left candidates gets the nomination, so that the choice is between sanity, dignity, decorum and responsibility, and Trump, not between radical left-wing socialist/progressive policies and what we have today. If that’s the choice, a lot or even most people who are undecided are going to go with the devil they know, especially when they think about it and realize that Sanders isn’t going to actually accomplish any of his ideas without a pretty strong majority in both houses of Congress, and even then, a lot of the more wing-nutty ones aren’t going to happen.
Yes, there are lots of voters out there that won’t vote for a socialist. But not on the SDMB.
The SDMB is mostly [ul][li]People who could, in theory, vote for a Republican for President - just not whichever one happens to be running.[/li][li]People who will vote for the Democrat.[/ul][/li][quote]
I fully expected that those who are never Bernie are more likely to be conservatives of a stripe, but I don’t know if that’s exclusively the case.
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No, it’s not exclusively the case, in the general electorate. The SDMB is not even slightly representative of the general electorate. Because there are very few conservatives, and even more, any suggestion that anyone might be considering voting for Trump for any reason triggers the avalanche.
If Bernie gets the nom, I fully expect him to lose the general election, probably by a significant margin. Because there are a lot of people who will vote for Trump over a socialist, but hardly any of them post on the SDMB.
The vast majority of the SDMB will vote for the Democrat, no matter who it is. You aren’t going to be able to find out anything about who would have voted for a different Democrat than Bernie, because there are so few people who make any distinction between a Democrat who was nominated, and any other Democrat.
The overwhelming answer on the SDMB to “who do you support” is “I support so-and-so, but I will vote for the Democrat no matter who it is”. If you haven’t figured that out yet, another poll isn’t going to help.
So here’s the thing. Of the 27 respondents to the poll, 12 voted as, technically, “Never Bernies”. The rest seem to be people who likely misunderstood the pole (based on the responses that followed), or those who really thought it was none of my business. Either way, can’t put them into the “Never” column.
If we are to assume that the 12 (so far) who voted “Never Bernie” understood the premise of the poll, that eliminates all those who are “Blue no matter who”. Hopefully that satisfies your concern about this board leaning left (not disputed). What’s left then is some combination of conservatives, independents, democrats and possibly progressives who really are reluctant to cast a vote for Bernie. Thus, giving me some sense of the “Never Bernie” sentiment on a VERY progressive leaning population sample. Furthermore, if your suspicions are correct about people being shy about admitting to leaning away from Bernie, then that number (12) is an under-estimate, rather than an over-estimate. Which is my suspicion as well.
Same for me, except I’ve never claimed to be an Independent. I’m Republican, more to the right than middle.
I’ve never drunk the Trump kool-aid and would *never *vote for such a buffoon con-man. There are many issues I don’t agree with him AT ALL, and even those conservative positions he has adopted, I don’t trust him to actually believe. I voted for Evan McMullin last time.
I have no idea how to vote on this poll…so I didn’t.
If the Dems want my vote, they would nominate someone like John Bel Edwards or Bob Casey, Jr.