Tuesday, March 03, 2020

Biden His Time



It’s been a great 72 hours for the so-called moderate wing of the Democratic Party. But with Super Tuesday upon us, I would say there is a decent chance that Joe Biden’s huge win in South Carolina will be all but forgotten by tonight, and many of us will have to again accept that Bernie Sanders will be the nominee. Fine. As I said yesterday, he can count on my vote. But if a loyal follower felt the need to tweet what’s above, might it be time for all Sanders supporters to come clean about their paranoid behavior thus far, and to try to become a little more understanding of actual Democrats who are sincerely fearful of not only failing to remove a tyrant, but also the very real prospect of also losing the one lever of power we currently hold?


Here's what I'm not sure many of them realize: Most of us support Sanders’s policies, which is why so many of us support Elizabeth Warren. (It’s almost like he’s miscast to play himself.) We just realize that most of them have zero chance of being implemented with Capitol Hill as we know it, so aren’t convinced betting the farm on something that is never going to happen makes much sense. You know what does make a lot of sense? Instead of trying to reinvent government with one man, how about working to elect progressive lawmakers -- the people who can actually effect change? Even the most moderate Democratic president isn’t going to veto Medicare for All if you can get that passed in both chambers of Congress ... so you don’t need Bernie Sanders to do that. 

“Part of the problem is Sanders’s hectoring personality. He is a closed-minded ideologue who shows little willingness to compromise and little ability to bring people together. He prefers denouncing those who disagree with him as sellouts rather than trying to persuade them. That helps to explain why in 29 years in Congress he has been the lead sponsor of only three bills that became law -- and two of those were to name post offices.”



How does Bernie tolerate this? It speaks to the reservations many of us have with the entire Sanders operation.


UPDATE: I think it's wrong to underestimate Bernie, but here's a thought. He basically tied for first in two small states including one he’d handily won in 2016,  cleaned up in one (unreliable) caucus and got killed in another. Might the "inevitable" label have been premature?

The FiveThirtyEight Newsletter reports: "And our forecast now says that Biden (484) will get more delegates, on average, out of Super Tuesday than Sanders (463) will. That’s a big shift from as recently as Sunday, when we were forecasting Sanders to get an average of 540 delegates on Super Tuesday and Biden to get an average of 395."



My friend's tweet is spot-on, although it doesn't address the punitive effect we can expect on Election Day if Bernie followers don't get their way.

3 comments:

James Dwight Williamson said...

We will see. If the DNC had left California where it was, a true measure of the American vote /Democrat could be taken. Now we will start saying Bernie is inevitable again. Only though if he wins. Also who does Bloomberg think he is saving, if he had never entered Biden , gaffes and all can beat Trump. Sometimes the familiar and the calm can triumph over two ridiculous Foes. I won’t vote if Sanders gets in. But he won’t , we just need to plan to work extra hard, after a brokered convention Sends Bernie Bros home butt hurt!

Jack said...

I keep changing my mind on who to vote for. I personally like Warren, but don't see her having much of a chance.

The Polar Beast said...

My experience with Millennials is that they have zero, and maybe less than zero, knowledge of 20th century history. I have met Millennials who could not tell me where Carter fell into the line of presidents. It was shocking.

Here's the deal Bernie supporters. Go back and study the election of 1988 where a very unpopular man in George Bush, Senior, was elected. He won because he raised the negatives of Michael Dukakis who had a platform of liberal policies. These policies were too far left for our Center Right country. His loss set the stage for Bill Clinton to win in 1992 with Center Left politics. The key here is Centrist policies. You have to build a coalition and you have to draw voters from the other side. That is democracy in action.

It's not that we don't like Bernie, but from experience, I know that we cannot win with someone pushing policies that are that Leftist in flavor.