Just imagine if a Sanders and a Biden decided to unite forces and go all-in by running together?!
Operation Beat Trump 2020.
@CLee
Sanders would do this only if
Biden agreed to let Bernie make
all decisions on policy.
Bernie is a "my way or the highway" kind of guy.
Even if Biden agreed to do this,
Trump would beat a Bernie/Biden ticket,
Americans over 35-40 just don't like
Bernie's socialist ideas.
They don't want his revolution.
They would stay home.
Trump's supporters (who are passionately loyal) would come out to vote & Trump would win.
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This is the best statement in the Impeachment Trial and what so many are thinking. I don't think Justice Roberts liked the comment he read out loud by the look on his face.
“At a time when large majorities of Americans have lost faith in government, does the fact that the chief justice is presiding over an impeachment trial in which Republican senators have thus far refused to allow witnesses or evidence contribute to the loss of legitimacy of the chief justice, the Supreme Court and the Constitution?”
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@Jacquie Neither did Lisa Murkowski. Seems like a bit of Pyrrhic victory to alienate important colleagues.
2
The circus is in Iowa. Any person with a lick of common sense
will steer clear of these 6 Clowns
2
Dear NYT:
It wil be interesting to see if any of these candidates can crawl out from the vast shade cast by Trump's impeachment saga and begin to define themselves as leaders.
Judging by the size of the crowds watching Joe Biden eat ice cream in Iowa, Democrats suspect he may be patient zero carrying the Chinese Coronavirus. Zero enthusiasm.
Bernie's got juice, all right, but his crazy hand jabbing and talk of making billionaires pay for everything scares the heck out of moderates. And we all know they will turn on the D candiate once Bernie is returned the back bench of politics.
Senator Warren? Bernie in a skirt, wearing a fake plains Indian headress....her background as a slum landlord, and later a conservative silk stockings lawyer working to shield an asbestos fund from worker claims, is disqualifying.
Mayor Buttigieg would match up nicely against Trump (small hands, well-spoken, intelligent, moderate, and a veteran) but to his detractors, Buttigieg has betrayed a small town modesty that projects weakness against a bully like Trump. (As they say, he has much to be modest about.. .)
Klobuchar? Nah.
That leaves Bloomfield, or Bloomberg or whatever his name is.
The D motto for 2020?
Our billionaire can beat your billionaire!
3
We need to win this election! Our planet is dying, as well as our democracy. Bernie Sanders is the candidate that will bring out the masses of voters that have felt forgotten by both parties. If you don't think Sanders can win, I'd suggest you attend one of his rallies. Bernie has more name recognition than in 2016, and his message speaks to us, older Americans, as well as the young. This may be our last chance to take our country back for ALL of US. Four years ago, I had to tell my family about Bernie. My nephew told me this week he has already voted early for him in MN, and he is over 30. Who cannot fully support his message? Not Me Us
11
@Sue M.
You might be right, but I’m worried. I talk to lots of conservatives, who would vote for Joe, Pete, Amy or Mike. But they tell me, to a person, that they WILL NOT vote for Bernie. They will skip that part of the ballot entirely. Trump will win my state unless we nominate a person considered less extreme, less demagogic.
4
@Sue M. Bernie talks a good game, but he's been in the Senate for many years without producing much in the way of legislation or demonstrating that he can take on a leadership role in that body. What makes everyone think that will change?
3
@Sue M., no. Just no.
I will NOT waste my Ohio vote on Bernie Sanders. Ever. I wouldn't vote for him to be dogcatcher. The dogs would be running all over the place and Bernie would be waving his net, claiming that too many rabid dogs are the fault of "the 1%!"
The election will, as always, hinge on the votes cast in swing states. There are a growing number of us in swing states who just won't vote if the choices are one extremist versus another.
#NoExtremists2020
3
Here is a warning to all my friends on the coasts who think Bernie and/or Elizabeth Warren is the answer.
If you want four more years of Trump, vote for either of those two bleeding hearts, who are committed to making college free, implementing Medicare for All, and most hazardous to the Rust Belt, banning fracking, which employs thousands of Americans.
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@Mark, yep. My job is doing accounting work for a (natural) gas and oil fracking corporation. Do I struggle with that? Yes I do. When people stop using those products, though, then they can cast aspersions on my job.
#NoSanders
#NoWarren
#NoExtremists2020
1
@Mark
I agree.
I live in NYC, where many people
support Warren.
But I also know folks who live in
"swing states" that Trump won last time.
They view both Warren & Sanders as
"too extreme."
They would rally around Biden or
Klobucher.
They say they don't like Trump, but if
the Dem candidate is Warren or
Bernie, they'll just stay at home.
1
@Mark
Natural gas is a great transition fuel. It's not a permanent solution.
The US subsidizes fossil fuels to the tune of
$649 billion/yr, which is about $3 million for every worker employed in the extraction of coal, oil and gas.
Without these subsidies, it’s hard to imagine that anyone would still be investing in fossil fuels.
"Given the scale of subsidies we give to fossil fuels, the industry as a whole should be regarded as a gigantic grift. It makes money by ripping off everyone else, to some extent through direct taxpayer subsidies, to a greater extent by shunting the true costs of its operations off onto innocent bystanders.
And let’s be clear: Many of those “costs” take the form of sickness and death, because that’s what local air pollution causes. Other costs take the form of “natural” disasters like the burning of Australia, which increasingly bear the signature of climate change.
In a sane world we’d be trying to shut this grift down. But the grifters — which overwhelmingly means corporations and investors, since little of that $3-million-per-worker subsidy trickles down to the workers themselves — have bought themselves a lot of political influence."
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/27/opinion/greta-thunberg-mnuchin.html?searchResultPosition=2
2
This election could finally break the stranglehold of the 'invisible primary' and disrupt the role of the traditional king makers for the Dems the way Trump did for the GOP.
Regardless of how you feel about Bernie there is no denying that it's kind of fun to see the traditional powers freak out over their diminished status among the population at large. The hysteria surrounding Joe Rogan's endorsement was a pretty good example of that. (It's bad when someone endorses something we don't like, it's also even worse that it's not a traditional king maker).
Working people we never meant to participate, we were supposed to be spectators.
Also think about this, if we bring working people back into the Democratic Party and the 'moderates' go back to the GOP. It could have the added effect of changing the GOP. The Vichy/Chamberlain compromise before you even begin to negotiate Dems would now represent a bloc of the Republican Party that would also consistently betray their base for our benefit. It would moderate the GOP and allow us to become a true opposition to their ideas.
10
@Bo
You might enjoy this take on Establishment view of Sanders' ideas/policies,
a 2016 Harper's article by Thomas Franks, after having meticulously examined Washington Post reporting on Bernie Sanders. "As we shall see, for the sort of people who write and edit the opinion pages of the Post, there was something deeply threatening about Sanders and his political views. He seems to have represented something horrifying, something that could not be spoken of directly but that clearly needed to be suppressed." ..."Think of all the grand ideas that flicker in the background of the Sanders-denouncing stories I have just recounted. There is the admiration for consensus, the worship of pragmatism and bipartisanship, the contempt for populist outcry, the repeated equating of dissent with partisan disloyalty."
7
@Bo
If it's "kind of fun" to watch
Bernie cause folks to "freak out"
will it be "kind of fun" to see
Trump re-elected?
1
In reading over these, Sanders and Warren are clearly more in tune with the issues people are facing and have addressed those with distinct plans and agendas. In reading Biden's speech - I'm still not sure of his agenda or why he is even running.
14
@michael, Sanders and Warren may be "clearly more in tune" with the issues people are facing where you live (Bay Area) but they don't resonate with people where I live (Canton, Ohio).
4
@Lori Renee Fye Bernie's message resonates with many of us in MN. He won the caucus here in 2016.
4
@Lori Renee Fye do people in Ohio not struggle with making healthcare payments, massive wealth inequality, student loan debt, and the coming averse affects of climate change?
9
It is a stark contrast, watching a vibrant democratic process play out among the Democratic candidates while the country they seek to serve as president slips further into something very undemocratic and unconstitutional.
Hearing their speeches at rallies, I wonder what the candates believe they are going to confront and how they plan to restore what was the American democratic experiment. Our government and the world will look nothing like it did when Obama left office.
The country is at a dangerous moment in its history with another year of Trumpism in front of us along with his wholly owned subsidiary, the Republican Party.
3
Mehdi Hasan has compiled a pretty compelling closing argument AGAINST Pete Buttigieg - detailing his many flip-flops.
https://theintercept.com/2020/01/31/pete-buttigieg-flip-flops/
Why should one believe anything Pete says?
11
Electability is not a virtue, it’s a polling statistic. Hillary Clinton was more electable than Trump and that didn’t help her win. Trump himself is not electable under the current definition of what make a candidate electable. And there is the heart of the problem for Democrats—their all consuming need to defeat Trump is clouding their vision of what voters care about and need. Sure, their is a significant block of voters that would vote for a “yellow dog” instead of Trump but, given the reality of how the Electoral College counts votes, Democrats must win in swing states that sided in the last election with Trump—that means winning moderates and former Obama voters by addressing their specific issues. That is not likely to happen because Democrats have already sworn allegiance to political ideologies that are not even remotely aligned with this voting block. By contrast, Trump is filling stadiums with very enthusiastic supporters that feel he is not just ‘on message’ with what they want but has also proven that he delivers on his promises no matter what the political cost are to him. Think about this one point, Trump is a billionaire populist! That, according to the Democrats, is impossible! Aren’t billionaires the enemy? Trump’s impeachment only confirms to his supporters their belief in him and their belief that other politicians make disingenuous stump speeches that sound ‘folky’ but care little for their needs.
4
Couple nights ago went to a lightly attended stump speech from a local Dem running against a 2 term Republican Trumpie state Representative. About as thrilling as these six.
You can't tell much from a stump speech. Except that Joe Biden is a very old man with questionable credentials who has no business running for president. (Oh, he has that great bit with hugging people, like my old grannie.)
12
Bernie Sanders will be the Democratic nominee, and I believe Elizabeth Warren would be the best choice for Vice President.
The others all need to forget their alliance with corporate America, do the right thing and join Bernie Sanders in the now or never task of putting together the reincarnation of the FDR New Deal.
Lets put the American people first, all of the American people, show corporate America and the wealthiest Americans that it is "We The People" who are the backbone of our Democratic Republic, and without us they simply do not thrive and would not exist.
24
The Closing Arguments of the 2020 Democrats should be; I wouldn't believe Donald Trump if his tongue was notarized. - LEONA HELMSLEY,
8
This excerpt from Bernies speech says it best why it he should be president.
“Trump will be a very formidable opponent for a number of reasons — and the way you defeat Trump is talk to working people in this country who are so exasperated, so tired of working longer hours for lower wages, so tired of working for 10, 11, 12 bucks an hour and not being able to afford to maintain their family with the dignity that family deserves.”
“The way you beat Trump is to reach out to young people and get them involved in the political process in a way that we have never seen before.”
“But it is not only the political system which is corrupt. We have an economy which, in its essential components, is rigged in favor of the wealthy and the powerful.”
“It is not acceptable that at a time of low unemployment, we still have half of our people living paycheck to paycheck.”
“When you live paycheck to paycheck and you get sick, or your kids get sick, you are worried to death about how you are going to be able to afford to take them to a doctor. “
27
Andrew Yang all the way. Not because of $1000 per month (good luck with that!) just because It would be good to have a real life human being as president for a change. Biden is too politically scarred. Bernie is too loud. Warren is too smug. Buttigieg is too sanctimonious.
4
@RDR I agree about the man. I want to see going forward, against headwinds, what Liz can pull out as I like her policy proposals (and in the same way, think "good luck" on a lot, + there are other issues).
Andrew though, wins my "most real human being" affections. I find he's really funny too and good on his feet as an improviser. I get the most immediate sincerity from Andrew.
2
@RDR I'm not sure if volume should be our election metric
1
@RDR I know what you mean Yang is at least warm and human. The rest? robotic political lawyers
speaking with them is impossible blah blah christ
1
What's with the hand waving and finger pointing? Boinie is the worst, followed by I've-gotta-plan Elizabeth Warren. I'm for Biden; he keeps his hand in his pocket. And out of mine, I hope.
6
@Anne Russell
Such a value, "keep your hand out of my pocket"...
Do you care at all about living a habitable planet for future generations?
Or that the American Dream has died?
You must not care at all about the obscene, colossal and growing inequality of opportunity, income and wealth, where the richest .1 percent take in over 188 times the income of the bottom 90 percent..
15
@Lucy Cooke Oh for heaven's sake, Lucy, Biden's mantra is we need to rescue the soul of America. Fyi, I'm a lifelong activist. You make assumptions which are unfair.
5
@Lucy Cooke, when you have downsized your dwelling to a necessary amount of space (which is actually about 200 sq ft per person, so my 565 sq ft dwelling is twice the size I need), when you have stopped heating and cooling every room in your home to temps that are not necessary (my temp is 66F indoors during winter and I have no A/C for summer; fans work just fine), when you start taking public transit or walking instead of hopping in your car every time you "need" something from the store or "need" to go to a restaurant (I take the city bus to work and I walk to the grocery store, and eating in restaurants happens maybe four times a year for me), and when all other Americans who are "so concerned" about the planet do those things (just for starters), then I'll be more concerned about a habitable planet for future generations -- and by the way, stop having so many children. One child per person is sufficient.
I do NOT care about inequality of income and wealth, even though I earned less than $32,000 gross wages last year and I might have a total of $1,000 in my bank accounts right now.
This Ohio voter, like most people I know here in Ohio, will NOT vote for Bernie or Warren if either are the Dem nominee. We won't vote for Trump either. We just won't vote.
Replacing one extremist with another isn't going to help anything. Stop demanding that "the corporations!" change their ways while you continue to fund them with unnecessary and wasteful purchases.
#NoExtremists2020
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