After Super Tues, it appears that Biden has a significantly greater chance at a plurality of delegates than Bernie, with no other candidate having any chance at all. I’m a Bernie supporter and thus disappointed (and I’ll still be rooting for the somewhat low chance of a Bernie comeback), but my disappointment is irrelevant for this thread. I think Biden is a weak candidate and there is a real risk of him losing a significant amount of Bernie supporters to staying home or even voting for Trump for spite (I plan to vote for the Democratic nominee).
It still appears that there is a relatively high chance that Biden fails to get a majority of delegates. I think this could be a positive thing for the prospect of unifying the party, as follows:
Let’s assume Biden ends up with ~40-45% of delegates, and Bernie ends up with ~30% or so, with other candidates having all the rest. Biden could almost certainly press for the other candidates’ delegates to be released to support him, and it’s very likely enough of them would be fine with this (after the first vote) to get him a majority, even without superdelegates. But I don’t think this would be the right path. I think the best course of action would be to bring in Bernie and his team and negotiate on what it would take for them to support Biden’s candidacy. This might mean a VP that is acceptable to Bernie (perhaps Stacey Abrams?), along with some cabinet spots for Bernie allies (and maybe Warren too, for extra unity), and maybe some policy concessions (maybe a more robust public option, postal banks, or all the other things that they’re not terribly far apart on). I’m sure that the trolls among Bernie’s supporters (a very, very small number, relatively speaking) would still be unhappy (they’re trolls, after all), but I believe the great majority are much more like me, and would be much more willing to accept and support Biden beyond merely at the ballot box if we felt that our candidate, with a strong 2nd place performance, had very significant input into the Biden administration and campaign.
The alternative – ignoring the Bernie supporters and pushing through with other delegates would almost certainly work to get Biden the nomination, but I think it would result in a much lower likelihood of winning in the general. Like it or not, many, many Democrats (millions?) support Bernie, and the nominee will need the support of most of them to beat Trump.
After the slam in the face that Hillary took in 2016, the Democratic Party definitely realizes that some sort of brokered solution will need to take place, and before the convention.
They’re both polarising candidates. I believe there’s only one democrat who could possibly unite the factions in the party to get out and vote and that’s Michelle Obama. Young people look up to her and older people respect her.
The ONLY thing “unifying” Dems (and, I would add, MOST people with BRAINS and COMMON SENSE) is the drive to defeat Mango Mussolini this November. Outside of that, Dems don’t “unify” for squat.
“Verbal gaffe” Joe doesn’t impress me in the least and if Bernie gets the nod the RePUBEs will do everything they can to turn people off to him from the jump. Elizabeth Warren is as good as out which means that Dems - and the country as a whole - lose.
But a man can dream when the nightmare is Biden turning off young voters and stumbling through to November or Bernie alienating allies he needs and the election becomes a referendum on socialism.
How about telling them to fuck themselves with a rusty hook?
We tried to negotiate with hostage takers in 2016 and it didn’t work. Remember how Bernie got to name a bunch of people to the platform committee? He chose Cornel West who then endorsed Jill Stein.
Biden can pick his own VP, Bernie can give a speech among with all the also ran candidates. I expect they’ll be a bone tossed to AOC to speak as well, an excellent excuse for a beer run and bathroom break.
I think the OP was seeking real ideas that could help…which I do believe the Party leaders will actually take steps to achieve…the voters may not be happy…as noted by the breakdown of thoughts in this thread only an hour in…
What I hear you suggesting is that Biden should make promises he knows he cannot keep in order to get as many Sanders supporters as possible to vote for him in the general election against Trump. I’m okay with that. Beating Trump is infinitely more important.
The policy stuff is just about what he would advocate for – I’m sure Bernie knows passing this stuff is quite unlikely, except maybe for a few things done using the processes that can bypass the filibuster. The personnel stuff would be promises meant to be kept.
There are 3979 total delegates, 1991 needed for the nomination. A total of 105 are pledged to people other than Biden/Sanders and I can’t see many more going to them. There’s no way the delegate count can end up like you are saying. Only 3% of the delegates are going to anyone beside Biden/Sanders. The worst case scenario is %49 vs %48, with the remaining 3% to the folks who’ve dropped out.
This ignores the super delegates for now. Or am I missing something in your scenario?
But Bernie’s followers are not big on compromise, and as seen yesterday, many of the young people who are Bernie supporters did not show up to vote. It was worse than 2016 for youth turnout.
And as for Bernie and Biden being two wings of the same party that could unite, I think they are two separate parties under the Democratic umbrella, not the same thing.
I believe it’s greater than 3% (and Warren is still in the race with the potential to get more delegates), but my estimate probably leaves too many delegates on the table. In any case, my recommendation applies to scenarios in which Biden has more than 50% even on the first vote – it’d be best for his chances in the general election if he chooses to bring in Bernie to have input on things like VP choice, cabinet, and even policy choices, rather than ignore the Bernie faction and press on. IMO, of course.