Good advice, Jamelle
There is no more time for republicans lite like Biden, for climate disruption..It's like Greta Thunberg says, these people are just pretending to do something. I'm tired of that, and am really tired at getting another liar in office...Why does Biden keep lying??
4
"This may sound a lot like wishful thinking."
All this ink spilled and no mention of the DCCC blacklist. How can progressives kid themselves into thinking there is room in the Democratic party for them while the party blacklist their candidates?
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/02/us/politics/dccc-blacklist-incumbent-policy.htm
2
If the choices are between an octogenarian socialist who has never worked a day in his life and owns 3 homes all the while railing against people with wealth or the candidate who berates his constituents, appears to have failing mental faculties, and calls women "dog face pony soldiers", this life long Dem voter is going to vote for Trump.
It is amazing how political expediency can change a person's outlook. Bouie was so upset about Bloomberg and stop-and-frisk, but gives Biden an erasure pass on his "one of my closest friends," Strom Thurmond. I'm not saying changing the outlook is wrong, or that politics is not the art of the possible, but Bouie does it without a shred of apology or humility.
1
We're all progressives here. We all want to progress beyond where the country now is under Trump and the Trumpublican Party. Voting for the Democratic nominee, whoever it is, and for all Democrats on the ticket in November, is the clearest path for progress.
2
A cogent and hopeful analysis. If it comes to a Biden nomination, I hope that all Sanders supporters will listen to you. The alternative would be another term for Trump - and all the evil and travail that we know that will entail. Moral narcissism and self-righteous purism are not worth that.
1
Lets not mince words here. Bernie supporters you have a duty to help get that despot out of the White House. Do whatever we need to do to get rid of Trump once and for all.
3
Biden is the bridge over very troubled waters. Support Biden.
2
Sanders need to drop out and rally around Biden. We don't need a repeat of 2016 with his passive aggressive sabotage of Hillary Clinton.
2
Please, Bernie supporters, please do vote for Joe Biden on 11/3/2020. Disappointed as you may be, Trump must be defeated. America needs you. Please help us save this nation.
1
Joe needs to earn our vote.
4
Mr. Bouie: "This may sound a lot like wishful thinking." Indeed it does.
Anyone who believes that Biden may be a vehicle for progressive change should take a long, hard look at Biden's record.
Roots Action has compiled a refresher: https://www.rootsaction.org/news-a-views/2104--joe-biden-i-dont-think-500-billionaires-are-the-reason-why-were-in-trouble
There is only one candidate in this race whose past behavior gives actual reason to believe that he will work for progressive policies if elected president -- and that's Bernie.
4
I have voted in every election since I came of age long ago. I supported Bernie in 2016 and again now. Well, now I've heard it all and I've had enough. Been will not get my vote if he doesn't earn it. The corporatists and their allies in the Democratic party, which I won't name, can take my vote for granted but they won't get it. You talk about the end of our so-called democracy if we don't defeat trump and I agree. To heck with it all. If there's no progress, let's regress to the breaking point because the way we're currently going, and I don't just mean trump, we're going to break anyway.
4
Did you recycle this article from 4 years ago? Sure reads like it.
I am not a Bernie supporter. My favorite candidate is already out of the race, so now I'm a "blue no matter who" voter. But it's obvious to me that the NY Times has made an all-out assault on Bernie two primaries in a row (sorry, but anyone who denies this is just full of it). And that's fine. Newspapers are allowed to have opinions. However, both times their preferred candidate surged to the front, they started posting olive-branch editorials that simply reeked of condescension. This is one of those.
3
Nothing progressive will happen while Republicans run things.
3
The Intercepted with Jeremy Scahill podcast reveals the truth about the absolute unfitness of Biden with his own record and his own words, including being against Roe v Wade, and calling Blacks predators. How is this man even running for president?
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/intercepted-with-jeremy-scahill/id1195206601?i=1000467973395
4
"But Biden, like Northam, is a creature of the party. He doesn’t buck the mainstream, he accommodates it."
And:
"If the two Sanders campaigns have, over five years, pulled the center of the Democratic Party as far left as it’s been since before Ronald Reagan, then Biden is likely to hew to that center, not challenge it."
I just hope Mr. Bouie is right, as all I can remember is Biden telling a meeting of his donors early in his run during this cycle, that, 'Nothing fundamental will change.' Taking that together with the fact that he has decided to go with corporate donor funding for his run, I am wary that Vice President Biden will govern, if elected, for the benefit of those corporate donors; voters be damned. If he does, he, and the Democratic Party, would have failed the most important mission in this new Trump world: ensuring that the conditions that precipitated a Trump presidency will have been eliminated. If they fail that mission, it is not a question of if, but when, there will be a successor to Trump who is more corrupt, more authoritarian, more cruel, and _more competent_ than Trump.
There is no longer any realistic prospect of a "reversion to the normal" that existed prior to the election of Mr. Trump. THAT is what the Democratic Party needs to remember. The damage is already done.
5
Biden couldn't care less about babies in cages. He's probably forgotten they're even there.
8
The dream of the reformers of the right and left is of transforming the whole population of the country to embrace their preferences and reforms after they have lived with them and found how perfect life is once all are living according to them. In addition, these reformers are driven not just by selfless joy of helping others but vengeance against the forces of darkness which they feel are the root cause of the injustices which they have seen cause so much suffering.
Very passionate and very recalcitrant about allowing no compromises to adulterate their cures.
The real reforms that have changed life in our country were accomplished with a lot of effort and compromises to achieve incremental improvements but over time, they have been sustained and did improve life. But the fact is that inequities and injustices do persist and the patience to accept incremental changes seems to the young and inexperienced stupid and unnecessary.
2
Bernie or trump. Thanks DNC for doing the picking for me.
7
Mr. Bouie makes reasonably optimistic arguments. We can only hope that he is right about progressives' ability to move a malleable President Biden to actually DO something. But Mr. Bouie's characterization of Ed Gillespie as "a pro-business Bush Republican masquerading as a Trumpist demagogue" is one with which I must vehemently take issue. Gillespie and those of his sycophantic ilk wear no masks. When they talk that talk, they walk that walk. They ARE Trumpist demagogues.
4
Young folks failed their citizenship. It’s not that you failed Bernie; in the end, I would not have voted for him. You failed our country by not participating. In the 18th century, the American Revolution was fought by young folks, who were told by Washington, if you go back to your farms worrying about the harvest, in a short time you won’t have a farm to worry about. In the 21st century, if you don’t stand up for your country and vote, you won’t have your medical to go back to. You won’t have a descent education to propel you forward in life. You won’t be necessary.
5
I hope with my whole heart Bernie can prove he is the electable candidate in Arizona. I just listened to the Intercept podcast with Jeremy Scahill and listened you Biden’s own words and actions and it is incomprehensible to me he is even running at all, let alone as a Democrat.
8
Joe Biden needs Elizabeth Warren in a high profile policy position to challenge his instinctive moderation and appeal to progressive concerns that need a champion in the absence of Bernie.
7
Joe Biden is Joe Biden. Principaled. Decent. Says what he believes. The one way Biden can lose would be by caving on policy to appease Senator Sanders. There is a reason why Sanders has seen little legislation that became law in 29 years in Congress. Biden's support of TARP helped save our financial system and kept the world out of a depression. The Iran Nuclear deal was well done. The TPP is right for the 21st Century. The world is not flat.
Bernie lost every county in Michigan. He is done. Toast. It is time for Sanders to endorse Biden and unite with Democrats in defeating the "most dangerous President" in a generation.
Joe, stay principled and win.
7
This result is not significantly different from the mid-term election where more moderate Democrats beat most progressive Democrats handily. If the young voters sit out the election, they have nothing to say about it. That's their choice, and in part a vote for Trump. I worked in Berkeley for 23 years, and the progressive attitude is tiring to say the least, and defeatist nearly always. Perhaps it's time for the young voters that can't see the forest for the trees to form their own socialist party and see if they get enough votes to put candidates on the ballot. I think we know what the answer to that is.
2
If Sanders were the nominee we would be faced with a choice of Sanders or Trump. Neither one is acceptable to me or to many other Democrats who are socially conservative or who do not want a person in the White House who is the enemy of truth.
Socialism does not work. Haven't we learned from Sweden's experiment in the 1970's or the UK. If Margaret Thatcher had not pulled the UK back from the precipice of bankruptcy, the UK and not Greece or Italy would have been the economic basket-case of Europe.
Yes, we need more medical care. But what can one do when 40% of Americans are obese? Yes education must provide the tools to exist and prosper in the 21st century. But how will socialism, or for that matter the Republican party improve a third rate school system?
These are the great problems facing the U.S. today; health care and education. Do you really believe that Sanders or Trump will address these problems when no president since LBJ has?
3
It's way too soon to write off Bernie Sanders.
Joe Biden still needs to get the 1991 delegates to gain the nomination on the first ballot. This seems highly unlikely, if Bernie stays in the race.
The media go on and on about how many STATES Biden is winning, but that's not what counts. It's DELEGATES that the candidates are trying to accumulate.
A lot can happen between now and the Democratic convention in July. Biden could self-destruct. Bernie could win a brokered convention.
If the Democrats nominate Joe Biden, a lot of Bernie's supporters will vote for Trump, just as they did in 2016.
They will feel betrayed, again, by party leadership.
Many young voters will, simply, not vote at all.
I think the Democrats are poised to make the same mistake they did in 2016.
17
Sanders said "while our campaign has won the ideological debate, we are losing the debate over electability." But did we win the ideological debate?
Polling says that most Democrats, when asked, professed to support medicare for all. But some of the exit polls are showing that voters who's primary concern was healthcare (not electability) supported Biden over Sanders.
It reminds me of the poll that showed that 9 out of 10 Democrats believed they themselves were comfortable with a woman being president, but 76% of them believed their neighbors weren't. Maybe it's not a question of what our neighbors are doing wrong - maybe we aren't as comfortable with a woman being president as we'd prefer to believe we are.
And maybe not coincidentally, Sanders is doing worse against a male candidate in the Democratic primary this year than he did against a strong female candidate last year. And maybe not coincidentally, women in this election are favoring Biden over Sanders.
There might not be as much support for our progressive agenda as we'd prefer to believe there is. It would be helpful for us to understand why, without preferring to lay the blame on other people.
3
Dear Mr. Bouie,
The opportunity you describe is precisely the the kind Bernie Sanders and his ilk have, historically, rarely failed to squander. Acquiring, husbanding, and strategically deploying political capital is seemingly anathema to leftie ideological purists with a barrel full of axes to grind.
1
The headline is a little off-putting. I have always been a progressive. Would I like to live in a society such as Bernie Sanders envisions? You bet! But is this particular election the time for revolution? It is not. The only goal of this presidential election should be removing Trump and his henchmen, and beginning the work of restoring democracy and respect for the Constitution. Right now, that's progressive enough for me.
9
Come on! Bernie has lost, and his ideas have lost. He lacks the self awareness to understand that he was able to get votes in 2016 because he was a vehicle to oppose the Clinton Candidacy. His ideas (free stuff for everybody) are not going to win a Presidential election, and neither will he. We do not need his revolution.
6
It seems to me that the country is divided in three camps: Trump’s nativist right, Bernie’s progressive visionary left, and the gray middle who dislikes what Trump represents, but who don’t have the courage, or are not ready yet, to embrace what Bernie proposes to solve the major crisis the country is facing. People fear their neighbor will not go for what Bernie represents, and therefore they find him unelectable in the general election. The gray middle is trying to follow the Goldilocks’s rule, neither too cold nor too warm, just something in between, something like Biden that could be palatable to everybody. The problem is that for those of us with a well-seasoned palate, something bland without a zest just doesn’t do it. In times of crisis we need bold solutions, not lukewarm ones. What happened to the America: “the only fear to fear, it is fear itself’? I guess it took a bully like Trump to make us doubt as a country.
14
Having watched our democracy and world standing decimated by Trump and his minions for the last three years, I've gotten to the point where all I ask is to have someone in the White House who isn't a self-serving, lying, corrupt horses a..
By the way, Biden knows how to use that word quite nicely.
5
A sanders supporter told me in 2016 that if the dems ran Clinton, she would vote for Trump. Not because she liked Trump, but to force the dems to put a real progressive on the ticket in 2020. As a Sanders supporter who voted for Clinton in the general, I thought that was an intriguing strategy, and when the orange fella won I frankly hoped it would work.
But it backfired. Trump was much worse than anyone thought. He systematically dismantled the foundations of our country, destroyed both the concepts of separation of powers and equality under the law, and turned the US government into his personal playground of graft and fraud.
Now the electorate is truly afraid for our country - as any rational person should be - and have much less appetite for revolutionary politics than they did in 2016. That is the problem that Sanders-only voters created for us when they refused to vote for Clinton.
And now I'm seeing that their solution is... to do it again? I can excuse people for having faith that our country can withstand a corrupt demagogue in the WH 4 years ago. But now that we've seen that it can't, there are no excuses left. I would have voted for Bernie if he won. I will vote for Biden because he won. If you can't say the same, then you might as well buy your MAGA hat now.
8
@E. Cripe
Standing ovation from up North!
2
If it's possible, Pres. Biden's first presidential act should be declaring every American is covered by insurance. The minute someone shows up in the ER or urgent care, if the have no insurance, they are immediately signed up for medicare/medicaid.
4
I am not going to despair, and I believe Joe Biden will prove wrong those who expect him to tack right or to go slow. At least this is my most optimistic scenario. Biden isn't stupid; he has been watching as his party has built a bigger tent, as his party has embraced activism that here in NY has led to the most ambitious climate policy in the country and other states have implemented a 15$ and hour wage. This is Biden's last chance to do something big and important, and we all have a role to play, too, to push him to be courageous and plot a direction for the country that gives us hope. His policies announced thus far can be made better if he listens and hears those like Jay Inslee and Elizabeth Warren, who have inspirational ideas.
4
I wish I could believe you Jamelle, I really do. Don't get me wrong I'll vote for the Democratic nominee in November but it will be a choice between a corrupt, racist and an unstable autocrat vs a creature of the Democratic political machine which leans right.
After this election, Bernie and his brain trust should devote time to forming a new Progressive political party, there is nothing written in stone that we should only have two political parties that matter.
He has already demonstrated that he can raise enough money for such a party to exist and thrive. The young, the disaffected working and middle classes will back it. It may take a generation to get a significant amount of elected representatives to make a difference but the other parties will be put on notice they are not the only game in town.
13
I and many others I know, self-identified liberals and mostly women, were strong supporters of Elizabeth Warren. So were many educated young black people, mostly women. Their formal organizations supported her, voted her plans the very best to move black America finally forward.
I am glad that Bernie is not getting the nomination. He is, in my opinion, too rigid, too sexist, too sure of himself that he, is right and has been right for 30 years. I don't think any change is an option, and and even as president I believe he would go down with the ship rather than "compromise" his healthcare plan. Remember Ralph Waldo Emerson and the "hobgoblin."
Reading the comments on the "All In for Warren," "Women for Warren" and "California for Warren" sites many would be ecstatic with Warren for VP. I (and many others) think Biden needs a woman VP to win and reality says that whomever that is, has the best chance to run and win in 2024, since a second term for Biden looks like a long shot. As for the fact that best would be a black woman, I have heard more than one black person still pick her, among choices, as the best possible VP because of her announced policies and the fact it puts her in line for the presidency.
All the wise people who want Kamela Harris need to remember that you lose more of the progressive vote that way, and that Kamela Harris was very vague about plans, just as Biden is, and I'm not sure if you actually get more black voters with her than with Warren.
3
Biden stands for nothing except a placeholder that is not Trump. Fear of Trump, fear of coronavirus, has people making decisions out of fear - which has worked well for Biden. Elizabeth warren would have been the perfect candidate for another time where decisions were not based on anxiety. Bernie's hot-blooded personality does not fit at this time where people need cool and calm. Biden is you kindly old grandfather who doesn't make any waves, and what people need. If Biden wins, his only accomplishment (an essential one) will be ridding the White House of Trump. After that, pretty much nothing.
11
Dear Bernie Sanders,
I am a supporter, and I have contributed and will continue to support and contribute to your campaign. However, I am full of cynicism this morning as my fellow-citizens have let down the vision you have shaped for America. The message is loud and clear- my fellow-citizens are very afraid of Trump, which has led them to cast their faith on a failing figure-head. They don't want medicare for all, or tuition free public college. They have just declared that they are willing to be saddled with debt, and even jeopardize their social security as long as Trump is not in office.
Take note of their passion. It is a passion for the status quo, and has nothing progressive or promising about it.
What should you learn from this? That you are a bold, uncompromising autonomous leader who is unfortunately attempting to lead a mass of people who are not desperate for real change but desperate for the status quo. They merely want to replace the republican white trash with a democratic white trash.
At the end of the day, you are the man with integrity and you will forever be remembered in the history books for running a campaign by the people;as someone who did not seek the endorsement of a Clyburn who profits from big Pharma. As someone who voted against the Iraq war, and as someone who always cared about the man on the street.
You are way ahead of our time- that is what today's results have shown.
295
@Carrollian, I understand your angst, but I hope you and many other Sanders supporters will take heart in how far left Bernie has pulled the Democratic Party. The basic ideas underpinning Medicare for All, free college, and more economic equity do resonate with most Democrats. I believe that Joe Biden is enough of a pragmatist to accept that he must work with the most progressive parts of the DFL to help move towards those goals, even if we don't quite get there yet.
We absolutely MUST defeat Trump, and Biden is less frightening to the average, middle-ground American than is Sanders. These voters have moved towards Sanders' positions while not at all comfortable with the idea of dramatic, revoltionary change.
Don't give up on all of us middle-grounders; we like the progressive ideas, in some cases, a lot, but we're far more frightened of another 4 years of Trump to nominate a candidate who might not make it to the White House.
55
@Carrollian
An excellent description of the current political moment.
The American empire is in downfall via Kakistocracy, the rule of the worst. It has been so for some time now, it continues to be so in the foreseeable future.
47
@Carrollian Bernie has certainly given the Democratic Party a direction to follow. However, for any of his progressive ideals to succeed, we need to have a functional government which right now we do not have. Progressives need to stop thinking of this as railing against the "establishment" the "status quo" and insult the man who will likely face Donald Trump in the general election. Joe Biden is "setting the table" for the progressive movement to come. He will restore functional government that will be required for any progressive legislation to occur. He will lower the temperature on the divisiveness in the country and the "fear" of social progressiveness that pervades much of the country. Bernie is ahead of his time, and the country was not ready for the change he embraced. If things like M4A and free college, etc are pushed through a Congress that would never pass it, they would be failures that would likely never be brought up again. Congress has to change, the country has to change, the demographics need another few years to fully blossom before the vision that inspired Bernie's voters will come to pass. Meanwhile, Joe Biden is the bridge to that future. If progressives sit home and pout, allowing for another Trump term...they can declare that vision dead on arrival because the judges on the federal bench appointed by Trump will overturn any progressive legislation brought before them. So, vote blue for a progressive tomorrow.
70
Bernie supporter here. I would’ve been fine with any of the 20 candidates except Biden. His long history as the nation’s leading drug warrior and being on the wrong side of nearly every issue means that it looks like I’ll be voting Green Party in November. I wish my fellow Americans hadn’t the high level of fear and ignorance that appears to have given us Joe as the nominee, and many of them will wish for me to support Joe in the general election. Guess none of us will get what we want.
255
@Mike -- Because casting a "protest" vote for a third party worked out so very well for those who did that in 2016?
162
A third-party vote is a vote for tRump. Personally, I wouldn’t want that on my conscience.
164
@Mike Interestingly, the people who criticize you don't even realize that as residents of blue states, it doesn't even matter if we vote third-party or do a write-in for President. Our votes literally do not count in the Presidential election at all due to an archaic 18th century system which is the laughing-stock of the rest of the world.
81
I would bet money that Trump can beat either Bernie or Sleepy Joe. Maybe the stock market correction and coronavirus will hurt Trump but I think once he gets on stage with either of those two Democrats that he will be seen as the stronger leader and be reelected.
What Republicans can hope for in four more years is to get a more level headed Republican President like Mitt Romney or Lisa Murkowski. Both Bernie and Joe will be out of the picture in four years due to age, if not death. So we won't see these two Democrat candidates again.
The future is wide open for the Republicans if they can just defeat the Democrat and get Trump another four years.
1
@JW
Trump's team is scouring the voting data from Michigan. What should already be clear to them is that with the Dem turnout (some 400,000 more voters in the primary than in 2016 general) Trump's 10,000 vote win is toast, that he's already lost Michigan (16 votes) leaving trump with 290 (really think Dems won't pick up at least 21 votes?). Thus, this contest is over for Trump. Trump and his crew will spend the next eight months raking in as much as they can from the base and funneling as much of it as they can into their personal pockets, as well as using public office to secure their financial and investigation/charge/jail-free futures, safe to strike again another day.
2
"Politics is the art of compromise" and "Politics is the art of the possible." I'm a progressive supporter of Warren and am in ideological agreement with most of Sanders' program. I'm also a political realist who will happily take the half loaf that Biden offers rather than the other likely alternative. The social, economic and environmental gains that are achievable under a Biden presidency will meaningfully improve the lives of millions of people. Perhaps not as much as under a theoretical Sanders presidency, but those millions and the fate of the planet don't live in theory. Let's be real and bring together the entire Democratic coalition from the young radicals to the educated suburban women and the older African-Americans who know this fight better than anyone. Let's do it!
4
bernie gets his support on the issues: universal health care, abolish student debt, free college education, end nuke power, convert to renewables, social democracy, a reborn New Deal.
biden's support comes from the idea (possibly the illusion) he's better suited to beating trump in 2020. that's it.
so this election may once again belong to the corporate democrats on "electability." they, after all, put trump in the white house in the first place by running a miserable campaign in 2016 and failing to deliver real change when they had the reins of power.
but the future is with bernie and the millennials. the sooner the better. .
7
How about pitching Biden to Bernie's voters as the best chance we have to restore democratic values taken for granted as progressive -- the rule of law, decency and transparency in the White House, Congressional oversight, and fair elections free of foreign interference.
5
We need to define "Progressive" correctly and not get defined by Sanders and Warren. I am a progressive democrat who supports woman's right to choose, equality for all including LGBTQ, environment, religion. pacifism, etc. But I als think that ALL billionaire are Americans. If a person invents something and sells his/her invention for a billion or more and pays taxes on his income,he/she is still an American. I support streamlining income tax code where all income -earned by hard work or investment is taxed the same. No deferred taxes. No loop holes for builders or oil companies. Or income earned abroad. Everyone has a choice of healthcare, not one size fits all. My wife and I pay Medicare premium every month. And we also have secondary insurance. Bernie is off his rocker.
2
Congratulations! You're a 90s progressive. Guess what? Progress doesn't stop just because you want to.
2
I just hope that Biden learns from Hillary's mistakes in 2016. One I remember very specifically is that Hillary was asked in an interview after she won the nomination whether she would accept any of Bernie's policy proposals as a compromise. Her response? Something along the lines of "Obama didn't take on my policy proposals in 2008, why should I take on Bernie's?" This felt like such a slap in the face to campaign that ultimately cared about policy outcomes.
Of course it would be absurd to expect Biden to adopt Bernie's full agenda. But a few policy concessions here and there would go a long way. I really hope Biden sees the wisdom in healing the Democratic party first before he goes on to try to heal the rest of the country.
6
On the day after Super Tuesday, this (white) evangelical pastor and lifelong Republican made the very first political donation of his life to the Biden campaign. I have always given a candidate's moral character greater weight in the voting booth than their political agendas. In this sense Joe Biden reminds me very much of the great Ronald Reagan.
2
The writer says that the "...Democratic establishment has successfully marginalized the progressive left...). What Democratic establishment is he talking about? Oh, does he mean the millions of voters who voted for their favorite, any non-Bernie candidate?
Bernie is selling a defective product. This is not a mystery, folks ain't buying it.
4
"The working classes must suffer before they will support real change. Recall all of the progress that became possible later because we elected Reagan and Bush instead of Carter and Gore. Re-electing Trump is the one true progressive choice."
There are people who will read that and nod their heads in agreement. The poor self-deluded devils.
2
Bernie supporters who claim to care about healthcare and the environment while simultaneously threatening to stay home in November are outright hypocrites.
I suppose those in solid blue (or red) states can afford to have their pity protests as far as the general election is concerned, but some of us recognize the need to oust GOP representatives on the down ballot.
You want cuts to social security and healthcare? You want to cause irreparable damage to our planet? You want a conservative supreme court that will stand for decades? Stay home. You’ll be doing the GOP a favor.
6
It is very worrying to see so many alleged Democrats apparently willing to allow Trump a second term.
How that can be in face of all that has occurred over the past three years with the exclamation point of the past six weeks forcefully added?
3
We're not democrats. We vote Democrat. There's a difference and with each election you're losing more and more of us.
6
@Mary Elizabeth Lease I am tired of my vote being taken for granted. The DNC doesn't need me anymore and has made that abundantly clear.
4
I've said this for years, especially to Dems/progressives too pure(ile) to support Hillary in 2016: better a middle of the road president we can push foward than a reactionary one we have to dig in our heels to minimize the damage s/he can cause. (See January 20, 2017-today.)
2
Biden is much more likely to be able to unite and heal the country than Sanders. He has far more experience in fragile international relations and he is almost universally liked and respected. If he chooses a somewhat progressive running mate or even a black or female or both, he will win and so will America.
3
Medicare for All/Student Debt in America: A Brief History January 2021-2024
'With lightening speed, the Sanders Admin submitted its M4A and student debt relief. Sanders' congressional majorities moving with equal speed, passed both bills. Blue Bells rang out across the land covering up the sound of armies of right-wing lawyers taking that last step to the Court Clerk, filing their constitutional objections and requesting injunctive relief. The Federal Courts were accommodating. Long before any steps could be taken to implement Medicare for All/student debt relief, SCOTUS granted plaintiffs' injunctive relief. In the end President Sanders had to admit defeat and be content with trying to fix the ACA and trying to reorganize the Dept of Ed, which became so much harder when President Sanders lost his majorities in 2022. NB: In the fall of 2020, SCOTUS had upheld the constitutionality of the ACA; however, all scholars agree that the originalists on the Court delivered a majority opinion so at pains with their doctrine that only one lesson was learned: the ACA was in effect too long for SCOTUS to risk striking it. Those forces opposed to the ACA learned many lessons during the ACA battles, lessons employed in the battle against M4All/student debt, a battle made much easier with Judges (300+) appointed by Trump and a 5-4 SCOTUS majority. Lights dawned in Blue heads across the land: we'll get nothing without Constitutional Amendments.'
Unreasonable prediction?
2
It's hard to know exactly where the Bernie Express lost touch with the rails and flew off into the weeds. I think as we rolled up on Tuesday's primaries there was one savior we were all waiting for, someone who could gather together the routed progressive forces for a final stand against the Goldman-Sachs wing of the Democratic Party, and that person was Elizabeth Warren. Warren, she of the progressive talking points and carbon copy versions of Bernie's agenda, she whom many of us desperately hoped would enter the race in 2016...
But when we needed Warren the most, where was she? Honestly, where was she? Has anyone seen her? Bernie's forces were stretched thin and needed reinforcements, but Warren stayed away. She could have endorsed Bernie, rallied her troops, presented a united vision of progressive politics for the millions of us who don't have country club memberships.
Instead, it seems likely Biden will stumble his way to the nomination. So even if we win we lose. God help us.
5
Unfortunately Biden is most likely to do the same thing as Obama did. He'll pander to the progressive wing during the campaign and then govern as a moderate Republican. This is why progressive voters don't show up when a moderate Democrat is the nominee. Their only choice is between a Center right Republican or a Far right Republican.
10
"A world where Biden wins the nomination and then the presidency — which is well in the realm of possibility — feels like one where the Democratic establishment has successfully marginalized the progressive left, where supporters of Sanders have no future in electoral politics."
Let's put it another way. If Trump is re-elected, marginalized doesn't even begin to subscribe the progressive left, and the idea of a future in electoral politics for Sanders' supporters will be downright laughable.
At least with Biden, the Bernie Bros will have hope for the future. The alternative is an almost inevitable four more years of Trump in the White House, after which there may not be a future for progressives or anyone else in this country.
2
@GiftofGalway
Your dreaming, the entire objective of the leadership of the Democratic Party during this campaign season has been to marginalize progressives.
It's become blatantly clear the objective of the party leadership is for the Democratic Party to become a moderate political party.
5
@Carl
only those working on behalf of the Trump campaign would write, "...the entire objective of the leadership of the Democratic Party during this campaign season has been to marginalize progressives."
Your red hat is showing.
I'm only speaking for myself, but it's not what I may or may not from a Biden presidency that makes me despair. I would give up a lot to have a Sanders or Warren presidency.
What do I want? I want vision and courage and inspiration. I want someone who will say no to the next Iraq war, who will not greenwash globalism, who will do everything possible to get big money out of politics, who actually believes that the climate crisis is the greatest threat to our country, someone who is incorruptible and who stands, infallibly, with the marginalized segments in society.
I want someone that will make Greta Thunberg smile with hope, because there is a Greta Thunberg in me.
Joe Bidens are a dime a dozen. I'll vote for him, if need be. But it will be a dead vote.
10
Very interesting. In one sense the Sanders faction has already won since many of its ideas, which were derided as marginal are now under serious consideration. Jamelle is right - a Democratic win in November gives progressives a seat at the table - they become crucial. Politicians cannot change policy if they are not elected to office. I read many of the comments below and realize that those who make them do not understand practical politics or the grammar of power.
2
Lets establish a factual basis for any further claims about progressives vs. moderates.
There is no difference in how moderates view the magnitude of the many problems from progressives, the differences are in the speed of implementing the solutions.
Those who pose a false dichotomy between moderate and progressive democrats are always suspect in their agenda.
1
@Mary Elizabeth Lease
The differences are wider than the speed of change. The reality that have been shown this campaign season is progressives have been told by moderates and centrists things like Medicare for All any sort of solutions student loan are off the table.
Moderates and centrist that are comfortable with their economic and social status simply do not have an overriding concern or urgency to address issues faced by working class and poor Americans. They want to yank up the economic ladder and leave this people to fend for themselves.
4
Think positive! There's a chance that a Biden presidency will be like that of LBJ. Not the most liberal guy, but the one who got so much done. Bernie has shown himself to be too divisive to win over his fellow democrats. There's no way he'd be an effective president. Also, it's pretty clear that he would drag the down ballot candidates into the abyss. The first thing you have to do is win! Once we win we can squabble about how to fix our health care system. By the way, our system is built for incremental change. Heavy lifts like the ACA don't happen everyday. Medicare for all would be a very heavy lift for a popular president with majorities in both houses. Bernie's just not that popular. I wish he'd stop pretending that he is.
5
Let the Democratic voters not forget who signed the bed rock of long held banking rules, the Glass–Steagall legislation, that subsequently created the worst recession? Answer: President Bill Clinton. The Democrats in Congress were accessory in allowing China to enter WTO that destroyed more than 100,000 manufacturing factories, eviscerated 5 million jobs, and they allowed the passage of one-sided trade policy - NAFTA. On top of it, the Obama administration was busy in crafting a mega one sided trade policy, the Trans Pacific Partnership, that would have hollowed the nation's fragile manufacturing capability further. Of Course, By design, no one from the working class or the unions were represented/included in the TPP policy discussions.
The Democratic Progressives need to join hands with the Centrists to thoroughly defeat the Republicans, but do so with their eyes fully open, and be the vociferous spokespeople for the have-nots and the dispossessed.
4
"Getting a lot of what we want"--"a lot" is doing some heavy lifting here. What you are saying seems to be that watered-down versions of things are better than zero things. But the whole point of Medicare for All is that it's universal, not watered-down: it's definitionally not expansion except as a procedural necessity--rather, it's all-encompassing. The for-profit insurance industry is the problem: it was always a bad deal, and it shouldn't be preserved. Same with fossil fuels. So the fact that Biden might be willing to press the edges of the problem to appear as if things are moving, but keep it "fundamentally [un]change[d]," is worse than nothing, because at least with nothing there is no subterfuge.
6
I believe universal healthcare should be a right of citizenship in our country but I'm astonished that so many Sanders supporters do not seem to understand how our system of government actually functions.
Under our Constitutional democracy a president cannot wave an Executive wand and declare Medicare for All. Congress controls the purse strings and this kind of federal program will require that a bill be passed. Not only are 100% of republicans opposed to Sanders plan but many democrats in office also oppose his particular model of Medicare for All. It would be DOA on the floor of the Senate and if Mitch McConnell is still in power it would not even reach the floor for a vote.
I see many Sanders supporters complaining that Biden would slow walk the changes many of us seek. I would ask them of what value is a revolutionary promise if it cannot actually be materialized within the structure of our own Constitutional government?
If the answer is that Sanders will change the Constitution to achieve his promises then that would certainly be delusional.
3
There's a book published early in the first Obama campaign by a Chicago based community organizer named Paul Street, who had a long and deep view of Obama as an Illinois politician. It is amazingly prescient in its delineation of just what an Obama Presidency would looks like IF progressives sat on their haunches and didn't press him toward progressive action. That pressure never emerged and Obama bent to the right. We're faced now with a similar situation. Biden will be the nominee, but progressives who just go home and gripe about it are worthless. Stay in the game and keep bringing pressure for all the decent things Bernie and Liz campaigned for.
4
@stuart
any expectations for Obama to be anything other than what he was has no understanding of where I our country's economy and mental states were through his first term in office.
I would argue that our nation was far closer to collapse at the DOW low of 6,469 on Mar. 6, 2009 when the Dow Jones Industrial average had lost 54% of its value than we were at any point of the Great Depression.
The threat today is that we don't have the leadership and competence of FDR or Obama—we have Trump.
2
No Vice-President has won a presidential election this century. Last century, George Bush did it and he served a single term. Truman inherited the office before he won. Biden was an also ran as VP. He isn't electable in my view and all the support he receives is simply a concession that the guy in the White House will occupy the post for another term barring his contraction of the Corona virus. The Democratic party isn't serious about governing, just not losing what they have.
8
@Rjrdmg
Nixon also did it, and was elected twice.
2
When exactly is the moment to despair? When the icecaps are completely gone or 90%? Plus, let's not forget the stunning presidential victories that past moderate, center embracing democratic candidates have won...oh wait...
9
I think we should all be extremely nervous about the prospect of a Biden presidency, and I curse the people who went running after the illusion of peace and stability he represents. He is a career-long waffler and compromiser, and we'll be getting him at a time when he seems very ready to retire. His happy memories of collegial relations with the GOP are a problem. Reconciliation isn't an option anymore, unless we want to reconcile ourselves to living under an authoritarian regime. The stakes are incredibly high. Peace and stability are not on the table because the GOP will not let them be. We need a fighter and we're not getting one.
The one thing Biden might manage is to surround himself with capable people and repair the damage Trump has done to our federal agencies, particularly intelligence, the CDC and the State Department. But let's not fool ourselves. We're not getting the dynamic, decisive leader we need right now. We're getting a waffle. Not just that, a tired waffle.
12
"Nothing will fundamentally change." - Joe Biden
Does anyone know if DNC Chair Tom Perez has any meaningful constructive employ on Earth beyond his role as neoliberal Svengali?
What's not to despair? We've all been sold out again for a few pieces of silver.
14
Bernie's complaint against Biden among other things is Biden's close proximity to the financial brokers/middle-men (bankers, credit card companies, financial companies); Biden toed the bankers' line when voting for credit card interest rates (rates now can go up to 40% or more and that is ok per Biden); his support for the bankruptcy legislation that favored the financial interests. So, are you saying he is going to turn 180 on those? No, he is the candidate anointed by the banking/financial, basically establishment interests. After all, they cannot turn to Bernie for relief, right?
13
Well, I think the lesson from all this is, that the DLC style, Clintonista type of corporate democrat (read Nelson Rockefeller Republican), with its joint fealty (along with the Right) to the Money Power, will have to be dragged kicking and screaming from the political stage, while subjecting us to its propaganda, through its organs (like the New York Times and MSNBC) of its inherent rightness, goodness, and right to dominate democratic party politics.
The answer to this is MORE grassroots activity to unseat this blot on the Democratic Party, and that is probably what will occur - because these kinds aforementioned are certainly not MY idea of what the party should be.
I could count the ways, but space prevents - but may it come.
9
It is truly unfortunate that our current Republican president is so unfit, so misguided, so unbalanced and so dangerous that no issue can be deemed more important in the upcoming election than removing him from office.
We are living in troubled times, and face many difficult problems in need of immediate attention. Yet none of these problems can take precedence over defeating Trump and the Trumpists. Our nation is desperately in need of a positive, policy-driven presidential campaign, one that will set us on the road to workable principled plans and accomplishments.
However, the reality is that job#1 is a negative task— removing the nitwit from the Oval Office. Mr. Trump and his supporters can politically be likened to screaming destructive toddlers. Like it or not, their behavior dictates that they be addressed first. Shame on the Republicans for being so much a part of the problem, and nearly none of the solution, for so very long.
4
You know what Biden essentially is? Trump with better manners. I'm going to work until I die though I'll probably lose my house first when I get sick and I'm put into a welfare nursing home. Biden won't institute an ounce of change or even make an effort. And Pelosi will preach patience. Not sure where this patience will get us other than to the next call for patience.
Being a "bridge" is even a bridge too far for Biden. He looks like he needs a nap. The Democratic party is far more messed up than the Republicans. That's why they could put up Donald Trump.
13
@Rich Sohanchyk
Bernie Bros. are not going to go quietly and appear to be willing to put Trump in office for another term.
2
@Mary Elizabeth Lease drop the use of Bernie Bros if you want to be taken seriously
1
So we get half a loaf: that is better than none. Next tome we gat another half a loaf then another half a loaf, etc. Aren't we better off. Isn't the perfect the enemy of the good?
1
@Cassandra
Progressives will get crumbs if Biden wins the presidency. He will capitulate to moderates and centrist, after all if he gets in the White House, that will be what got him there.
4
This opinion is on point. Let's face it, Medicare for all wasn't happening anytime soon even if Bernie were elected president. Biden's key to winning the general is three fold: 1) Find a youthful, spirited VP candidate that brings excitement to the campaign and expands the base, 2) Recognize that growing income/wealth disparity is something that the majority of Americans are concerned with and communicate a plan to address the problem. This could relate to a number of agenda items including increasing the minimum wage, legislation to strengthen the ACA and/or truly achieve universal health care, changing the tax structure, reducing student debt, etc., and 3) Communicate integrity and a return to competence in the White House (he is already doing a good job with this and may be aided by the Trump admin's response to COVID-19).
1
Great column. Pay attention bewildered Sanders' supporters. Change never happens easily or overnight. It happens in increments, and it also happens by building strong coalitions that stick together rather than ripping each other apart.
The Civil Rights, Women's Movement, and Gay Rights Movement didn't advance their causes by giving up or not voting. They built relationships – and yes there were lots of casualties and tragedy along the way. And the biggest threat right now is Donald Trump and his corrupt bootlickers who have no respect for our constitution or ethical governance for the greater common good. And attached to Trump's right flank is Mitch McConnell: the godfather of Citizens United and champion of stacking the federal judiciary with hard right wing jurists – even when they are tagged unqualified by the ABA. Despair won't foster the change we need. Show up and vote blue no matter who and help save our democracy.
1
Not despairing. Not voting either. I'm 67 and this will be the first election I will skip. I don't have a political party any longer.
10
@Jonathan Baron 54 here and I would vote for a potato if it would get Trump out of the White House and standing in front of a judge in the SDNY.
Am I disappointed that it's probably going to be Biden? Crushingly disappointed. We need Warren, Wang, and Sanders - people with big ideas and willing to make big changes.
Instead, we get a septuagenarian establishment Party Man. I want to stay home, but I know the GOP will cheat, so I'll hold my nose and weep in private. The I'll go out and organize for real progressives running my my state.
2
Thank for reinforcing the difference (generally speaking) between the progressive and moderate "lanes" of the Democratic Party. One "lane" is engaged, is organizing and is trying to build a movement to change a broken system in profound ways. The work for progressives is ongoing: winning or losing, the battle is ongoing.
Moderate voters, by and large, tend to think the system works just fine but needs some minor adjusting. Maybe they view the Trump presidency (as Biden does) as aberrationalThank you for reinforcing the difference (generally speaking) between the progressive and moderate "lanes" of the Democratic Party.
One "lane" is engaged, is organizing and is trying to build a movement to change a broken system in profound ways. The work for progressives is ongoing: winning or losing, the battle is ongoing. Long shot? Sure, most of the time. That doesn't mean the cause isn't just or worth fighting for.
Moderate voters, by and large, tend to think the system works just fine but needs some minor adjusting. Maybe they view the Trump presidency (as Biden does) as aberrational. If only things could go back to normal ... After voting, their civic duty ends.
Right now both sides need each other to remove McConnell and Trump in November. If Biden is the nominee, he can't turn his back on the progressive wing of his party. Trump will be easily reelected if that is the case.
3
@Noel
"Moderate voters, by and large, tend to think the system works just fine but needs some minor adjusting."
If that were a Trump tweet Twitter would slap a 'manipulated media' badge on it.
There is no difference in how moderates view the magnitude of the many problems from progressives, the differences are in the speed of implementing the solutions.
Those who pose a false dichotomy between moderate and progressive democrats are always suspect in their agenda.
1
This is the strongest case for Biden to progressives. Sanders' policies are popular but Biden is clearly the favorite of the two. No doubt that Sanders supporters are going to feel alienated after the primary is over, but as it stands Biden supporters should follow Biden's lead and extend the olive branch instead of shooting arrows at Sanders supporters, because continuing to hate on Sanders supporters and comparing them to Trump supporters is not helpful in unifying the party. I hope Biden would at least let Sanders choose a progressive vice president in order to keep the progressive voters enticed and engaged, otherwise Trump will have another destructive 4 years
2
@Smash-ter
The damage has been done, by the political collusion of the Democratic Party leadership when Buttigieg, and Klobuchar dropped out and immediately endorsed Biden, followed by massive support by mainstream Democratic Party leadership for Biden.
You cannot just shove people aside and all of them to support a candidate that doesn't give them any reason to believe he will do anything to change their lives in any significant way.
4
Counter Point: New Jersey
Legislative Trifecta for Democrats but 0 meaningful legislation. Democrats will do nothing if they are not pressured from the left, because their donors are the same people that fund Republicans.
6
Agreed. Many Sanders supporters feel too desperate to continue waiting for action from a Democratic party that does little or nothing to make a real difference in people's lives.
5
One paradox of history--one of many--seems to be that those who deliver hope and relief to the masses are not always those who passionately argue for those needs. Who would have believed that FDR, the scion of wealth and privilege, would have been deemed "a traitor to his class" for changing the US economic system in much-needed but unforeseen ways, ways that may well have saved American capitalism even as they changed it. Perhaps that is one take-away of Mr. Bouie's editorial. Hegel posited the idea of thesis and antithesis in history. If the New Deal and the Great Society were, at one time, antithesis, then they eventually become status quo, and status quo eventually loses the drive and vision of those who had argued for change. Bernie Sanders--like Elizabeth Warren--reminds us that all is not well: inequities hobble the souls of many Americans. Mr. Sanders is the voice, and may still be the means. But even if his destiny is to remain the voice for change, it will always be a powerful, passionate voice, coming at a time when those who represent the status quo need to hear it.
5
Biden is now in a position to win over young Progressives from the Sanders and Warren campaigns. He should immediately announce plans to deliver to Congress a plan for taxing millionaires to provide loan-relief benefits to younger Americans purchasing a first home and paying down their student debt. Details can follow, but something like a 5% or 10% millionaire surtax on adjusted gross income >$500K coupled with tax deductions or credits for student loan payments and first-time home mortgage interest, with no requirements to itemize. This is a completely feasible plan, it’s fiscally responsible, and shows good faith to younger voters without penalizing senior citizens or running up a budget deficit.
If Bernie supporters sit home and not vote because their candidate didn’t win the nomination, we can all wave good bye to:
Choice for Women
Marriage Equality
Civil Rights
Transgender Protections
The Affordable Healthcare Act
Trump has dismantled and repealed MANY environment safe guards and wants to open our national monuments and parks to Big Oil!
The Supreme Court will have a solid conservatives as a large majority.
The Climate CRISIS won’t be addressed.
Do I need to go on? Anyone who cares deeply for any of the issues I listed WILL VOTE for Biden (or Sanders, if he pulls it off). If YOU don’t vote because YOU don’t like Biden, you are voting AGAINST America and for Trump!
3
@Mari Recent events have revealed that women's choices are most often curtailed by people like Harvey Weinstein, not Donald Trump or Supreme Court justices. Gay marriage won't be revoked. The ACA was a band aid solution and states are now at the forefront of environmental legislation. And equal rights for women are in fact threatened by what you call "transgender protections." Biden v. Trump is a Hobson's choice.
7
It seemed like each of the Democratic candidates had something to offer but no individual candidate encompasses all the characteristics that I would like to see. But at this point, please, let’s support the Democratic candidate. It’s got to be better than four more years of Trump. And if it is Joe Biden, let’s hope he picks a great running mate. It would be wonderful for a woman to be vice-president! And let’s turn the Senate blue!
1
Heck no. We won't go.
Joe Biden and centrists are a part of the problem. We need a revolution, not evolution. The establishment is only in it for themselves.
I will sit this one out like I did for the last election because Bernie got screwed once again.
11
@John
No vote is a vote for Trump. How did Sanders get screwed? I'm not a big fan of Biden but he's a million times better than Trump.
1
This is not the time to sit on the sidelines and whine or worse, not vote, just because your candidate doesn't get the nomination! The alternative is four more disastrous years of Trump. Simple as that. The Democratic Party needs to show a unified front to win the election.
2
Don't worry, I'm not despairing at all! I'm voting green and finally supporting in all elections the existence a viable third-party that actually wants to and can represent me. In some ways I'm glad the Democratic party has finally made it clear they will never represent me.
8
As far as I'm concerned, Joe has some work left to do in this campaign. He's been coasting for most of it. A lot of times in the debates his solutions were just vague bromides, Democratic rhetoric.
On top of that, if he is elected, he's going to have an economic crisis to deal with - so again our agenda will be delayed. Will he waste this crisis like what happened in 2008? Probably.
7
Thank you DNC, you've given another nominee in a long line of status quo lightly democratic Presidents and candidates . B Clinton, Obama and H Clintion
and now Biden, all with a questionable history of compromising with GOP and establishment until we got to where we are today. Welcome to more of the same.
10
@ken Jay
Wait - the DNC made this decision, not the rank and file democrats who went out to vote in record numbers?
Who's been selling you conspiracies?
I went for Bernie 4 years ago. I went for Biden this time. I have a LOT of reasons for this decision, too many to list here frankly, but one thing that did NOT influence my decision was anything the DNC did or did not do. I did not isolate my newsfeed to stew in the brine of the party's echo chamber, like so many republicans do, and I resent the implication that I was told who to vote for.
Einstein was right: everything is relative. Trump and his minions have single-handedly destroyed everything about this country that once made us leaders of the Free World. Trump is right now above the law. That means all of his allies are above the law, while his enemies are subject to political prosecution. That makes us his subjects, nothing more. And Biden is 'more of the same'? How can you believe that garbage? Biden is the EXACT opposite of that.
We made our case, but it is rational to be afraid of a corrupt autocrat, and that has taken priority this time. Now let's take our place at the table and help all of our frightened citizenry right this ship.
2
Yes, it is. Not enough showed up to vote. Not enough of us, or not enough who care to show up and vote.
3
People thought they had voted for a moderate progressive with Obama. I remember Obama saying everyone would have a seat at the table. Well, they didn't. Within one week of his inaugration, Obama did a back door deal with big pharma. Progressives never had a seat at his table, and he barely tolerated liberals, saying they were a pain. He governed center-right, and Biden says he is in Obama's mold. Enough said.
12
The Democrats are the old Rockefeller Republicans of the mid twentieth century. Upper crust snobs that are meant to be juxtaposed perfectly with the vulgar that is the GOP. Those of us who are not in either club are left out in the cold. Obama never intended to pursue any of his campaign promises in 2008. He governed exactly as Mitt Romney would have.
TheUS is an offshore shell company masquerading as a country. The shareholders are the only ones that count. The snobby readers of the NYT’s make up
A good chunk of the shareholders.
1
I agree with your piece, Jamelle. But for any of it to happen, Sanders needs to get out of the race. If he remains a bitter thorn in the side of Biden, neither he nor his ideas will be welcome in the White House.
Sanders needs to play the long game.
2
Unfortunately, part of Bernie's support is essentially a cult of personality. They won't accept anyone other than Bernie.
2
When are you going to write about what disappointed progressive supporters of Warren can do?
At least we sank Bernie, in retaliation for his torpedoing Warren -- who might actually have succeeded in forming a coalition that united much of the Democratic party, until Bernie stomped in, with his male entitlement flying high. And his endearing Vermont accent (sarcasm font).
2
As a Democrat that is pro life, pro second amendment and is also a capitalist that enjoys the cutting regulations I may have to hold my nose and vote for Trump this time around. Come to think about it I may just switch parties and be on the winning side for a change. Good luck to you all!
1
I know that progressives truly believe that "to move America to the left" is to "help ordinary people". Problem is, the cultural side of progressivism gives the socioeconomic side a bad name. For every "ordinary person" attracted by sane health and educational policies, three "ordinary people" are turned away by the gender/race lunacy. These may be worthy causes, but they are not normative or majority or "ordinary" causes.
Want to move America to the left? Ditch the cultural toxicity and stay out of people's bedrooms.
4
I’m a liberal Democrat and believe there is much to be improved upon in our country, but even I’m getting tired of hearing Bernie supporters talk of how horrible this country is. It people really wanted a revolution they would be voting for it in droves. The way a Democracy works only a plurality really ever has done power and gets to change things a little, we are simply not set up for drastic change (look at the drubbing Dens took for implementing the ACA). Unfortunately, progressives will never wrap their heads around this. I can’t wait to argue with my extremely progressive friend, haven’t seen him in a while—we always have a good time hashing put these things!
2
If liberals sit out the national election (as so many threaten), but Biden still wins the Presidency, all we'll have proven is that they don't need us to win.*That's* how we really lose.
4
honestly I think there is really no difference between Biden and Trump. they are both beholden to corporate interests. I think that Trump is the worst president ever and a disaster but I'm not going to vote for Joe Biden
4
Enough of the false equivalence. Think about the courts, women’s rights, and yes, health care. Likewise the Paris accord, climate change generally, and protection of public lands, any many more issues. Actually statements like this make me think of Russian bots, with the purpose of demoralizing the electorate and depressing turnout. Trump is the worst president ever in the history of the United States and is driving us over a cliff. He needs to be removed. Biden has many flaws. I hope he will embrace the young voters and progressives. He seemed to offer that last night. Let’s not get diverted from that goal by this sort of nonsense.
Anyone who fails to vote Democrat up and down the ticket in November will be helping to re-elect Trump and his enablers and minions. Do Not make the perfect the enemy of the better. It is a mistake that we cannot afford to repeat.
2
not disappointed. depressed.
9
Like Wall Street regulation? Yeah right. Biden is bought and paid for and his voting record proves it.
I'll vote for him and be unhappy to do it.
6
Yes, I'm sure Biden will raise the minimum wage to $7.50. That's a whoppong $15,000 per year for the full time worker.
7
1. Biden picks Warren as VP.
2. Biden wins and becomes president.
3. Biden retires sick (or old).
4. Warren becomes President and everyone is happy.
6
Laughable. As soon as Bernie's gone and the opponent is Trump, watch Biden shift right. Bernie will need to pull off a Ross Perot reboot if his supporters want continued attention to their progressive causes.
8
I don’t like the author’s writing moving to the left = ordinary policies that help people.
Moderates want that, too!
Obviously this is not the time for any Democratic voters to start complaining about who the eventual candidate is..
.. There are some big issues the US needs to face..and we will only get something accomplished by joining together..and compromising..
..---Unless four more years of Trump is your preference...
Prediction: Trump attacks Biden from the left (he's already begun to do that by attacking his record on Social Security, Medicaid, etc). Liberals in media will blame the left for this (along with everything else in this election). We then go to the polls to choose which friendly face to put on the naked unabashed rule of capital, the earth reaches 2.5 degrees rise, and human life ends. Frankly, we deserve it.
4
Progressives - grow up!
True, Biden isn't the master of some magical Erewhon where Bernie's lofty goals are achieved at warp speed.
But he does hear you, and he wants to move America away from the dysfunctional cul-de-sac that gave us Trump. And Bernie. The "Establishment" - millions of ordinary voters to you - wants the same. Your hated billionaires can have little claim on Joe - what will they do - refuse to fund his second term? They fear Apocalypse, too.
You and all voters are welcome to join the anti-Trump coalition that Biden happens to lead. It can't win without you.
Your binary choice is Biden or Trump. Choosing the latter earns no brownie points against some miraculous future revolution. It just doubles down on Trump.
1
I'm not voting Trump, but my choice is not binary. It's about time that we had a third party that represents progressive views. This is not a Trump or Biden world. You seem to understand that you need progressives to win, yet the Democratic party makes it clear year after year that they have no interest in representing us or winning our votes. I think perhaps it is you, and the rest of the Democratic party, that needs to grow up.
10
Joe Biden will go full mask off if he is lucky enough to beat Trump.
The man is an empty suit propped up by big Pharma, Wall Street and Healthcare Industrial Complex
13
@Dog Faced Pony Soldier If that’s the case, it will have to be staged, as it was during the debt ceiling nonsense during Obama. Blame must always lie with the other party, relatively speaking.
Sanders is a demagogue. For the sake of our Country and the Democratic Party, he should bow out gracefully and join Biden to beat Trump. Debating Joe on Sunday exposes that the "demagogue's" ego, like Trump's, rules supreme.
1
Ok Boomer. This isn't 1990, the progressive world has moved on from "maybe gay people should be able to marry". We're moving forward whether you like it or not and soon we won't have to worry if you ever liked it.
9
I think Biden will not support universal healthcare and everything else that Sanders was campaigning for. This is about winning and Sanders has lost. I think the people who supported Sanders for his policies will walk away from the Democrats because they supported those policies and only someone who would implement those policies come h—- or high water.
I know many people were desperate for Sanders’ policies and most are probably heartbroken or moving into apathy. I am most sorry for it and hope for the best for all of you.
5
When somebody has Joe-mentum you roll with it and build upon it. It's not about any one individual. Least of all Joe!
The truth is republicans will get what they want through the medium of Joe Biden. He has never let them down.
9
No, we can't. But if we get rid of Trump through Biden that's at least a start.
2
I wish everyone would stop using the word "Progressive" to describe the far left of the Democratic party. They are not progressive in any way, shape or form. They are not even Democrats really... they are socialists attached tot eh Democratic party because they have no home of their own. Bernie isn't even a Democrat. He's a socialist who calls himself an Independent. Let's get clear on our terms.
2
@ZenPolitico - Socialism is Progressive. It's not about Communist state control of industry. Think more Social safety net, or Social Security. It's politics aligned to the needs of a healthy, functioning society for all its members, not just the upper classes. Meditate on that.
6
@Syd I am not flustered in the least by socialistic ideas. We have quite a bit of socialism already in our current system... and I think it is a good thing... thanks to FDR. But what Bernie is proposing is far more European-style socialism which is not generally speaking what Americans want, no matter what word you use for it. Meditated upon.
1
I am an expatriate living in Germany and I can assure you, everything single "radical" idea Bernie has, already exists here. Are we a Socialist society? Far from it, and I can tell you, we have a much better quality of life over here. But sure, go for Biden, American voters - you will be making sure that the status quo will remain untouched, you will see no change or progress whatsoever. You still won't have health care, sick leave, maternity leave, in short: any of the hallmarks of a civilized society. I will probably sit out the general election in November. I find it sickening how the media have trashed Bernie Sanders, making him seem like some kind extremist monster (yes, I'm looking at you, NYT.) This will be the first time I will not vote, but I am sick and tired of the rich elite buying elections in America. Participating just helps keep up the facade.
10
America is exactly where England was at the end of its empire in the 19th century, and where Ancient Rome was before that - relegate production to the periphery and financialize the core. The Democratic Party is the party of neoliberals and the Republican Party is the party of the neoconservatives. Both are war mongering and both pander to their bases. The Democrats pander to the very poor and to blacks. The GOP panders to racists and evangelicals.
The black Democratic base and the white Republican base have much in common. Both are religious fundamentalists that do whatever their ministers tell them to do. Those of us who are not in either of these two groups are held hostage by them, allowing the ruling class to continue with complete impunity.
There are so many people in America of all colors and classes that have had enough. The two party con game is no longer a secret. Consent is no longer able to be manufactured.
5
Thank you again, Mr. Bouie. Let's all hope Tom Perriello gets another shot soon. He'd be a formidable Senator.
Biden's only chance of success is to try to forge a unity ticket with Bernie.
4
Biden votes for the Iraq war then gets rewarded with a nomination. Meanwhile, this website loses their minds over Russians. The democrats are done. This is exactly what happened in 2016
5
I wish I could agree. I believe that the democratic party would rather lose the election to Trump than consent to the necessary changes this country needs, namely: no corporate money in politics, healthcare as a right, a multilateral foreign policy.
I don't know how many more evidence they can give us...
7
You’ve made a huge assumption in your comment! Could it be, that Democrats across the country would rather have reasonable healthcare, such as the Affordable Healthcare Act, strengthened? Medicare for All, is a fine idea. But the healthcare lobby will do battle to keep private healthcare, private. There’s no way, Bernie was going to give America “Medicare For All” think about it, you’ve got to be realistic.
@Mari look, I understand what you are saying. However, I submit that the idea that medicare for all would bankrupt the country is a republican smear, so successful that even Democrats accept it as truism. And that the "freedom of choice" the americans, allegedly, would like to retain, is fictious. Indulge me with this mental experiment. Would you accept to have a privatized police force? Would you like to have the option to choose among a variety of troopers? To customize the hours of your 911 to your need (24hours would cost a premium, but you may save money by cutting daylight intervention. Afterall,burglars come at night....)?
Yes, it is absurd. And the current status of the healthcare in America is just as absurd. So, altought I get where your point is coming from... i really do not get how you or anybody can continue to accept this foolish status quo. Hence my desperation and lack of optimism...
3
I've voted in every single election and primary, national, statewide and local since I've been eligible to vote. in college I spent 3 years as a community organizer, I've worked as an election judge, I've volunteered in get-out-the-vote efforts for local and statewide progressive causes, I voted for Hillary in 2016 in the primary, but I will not vote for Joe Biden. I will never vote Republican, I will vote this November, but Joe Biden will not get my vote.
After he said he would veto Medicare for All, even if passed by a Democratic Congress he completely, totally and irreparably lost me. Even if he made Medicare for All a central part of his platform going forward I would not believe him.
10
Eric, I understand you need time to process what has happened, but actually not voting against Trump would harm your work to eventually achieve Medicare for all. Respectfully,
1
@Scott I disagree Scott, Joe Biden represents the ever rightward push of the Democratic party. If Joe Biden wins it tells the Democrats they can form a winning coalition by becoming the Republican party of the 1990s. This would doom progressive policies for a generation as our politics would become a choice between right wing and far right wing policies. Maybe that's enough for the Democrats to win in 2020, but I will not be part of that coalition.
4
@Eric, M4All is pie in the sky, not feasible and you know it.
Progressives should still be concerned about the supreme court. If they stay out and don't vote then Trump will stack the court with even more conservatives during his second term resulting in a guaranteed that all progressive policies will get struck down by the court for the next 20-30 years.
4
The generational differences between the Biden and Sanders coalitions are very stark.
It is clear that in a multi-party system the current Democratic party would actually split (40%, 60%) into two different parties: A social democratic party of young people (<45) and a center-right liberal party of older people (> 45).
In multi-party systems forming a coalition government involves horse-trading after the election. Governments fall when coalitions cannot agree on a common platform.
In the US 2 party system, coalitions have to form not after the General but after the primary.
The Democratic establishment would be making a grave mistake if they think the progressive coalition will turn out for Biden in spite of his blase attitude to the problems facing the next generation. Biden is correctly viewed as the worst of the so called "moderates" by the progressive left because of his horrible legislative record and big-money corruption. Biden is down right toxic to many progressives because of his crime bill, Iraq war vote and credit card bill.
The best way for Biden to reach out to the next generation given his center-right agenda is by promising electoral and democracy reforms that will enable progressives to express political power in future. If he takes 35% of the party that loathes him for granted, he will not win.
6
Being that Democratic party continues moving towards a leftward direction, the party establishment needs to recognize that progressives are the future and its leaders must change.
2
Whom you call “the establishment” is actually We, the People, Black mamas and grandmothers, Latinas, like me, working class folks, the college educated suburban moms, etc.,etc. The establishment didn’t help Joe Biden win. Voters did!
When I look at both Biden and Sanders, I see two unappealing dogmatic old men.
The one lives in the past and still believes he can find common ground with the corrupt remains of the Republican Party, and routinely opens his mouth when he shouldn’t. The other may support the ideals we need, but his inability to play well with others and deal with the messy details condemns him to almost certain failure to enact progressive legislation like Medicare for all.
A better candidate was out there, one with less political baggage, more energy, the ability to compromise, a clear and positive outlook, and an eye for details.
But, when push comes to shove, America will choose one of two low energy and highly flawed men over a high energy, smart, and able woman.
Yeah, I’ll vote blue; it’s the path of a lesser evil. But I’m heartbroken because we could have had so much more.
4
What more do you need than a pandemic to prove the necessity of universal health care in this country now? We are disgracefully behind the rest of the advanced nations and will pay a heavy price.
13
I am rather hoping that the left does despair, as I rather like the ideas of Biden. The left offers nothing for this country, and hopefully, many now realize that the AOC wing of the party may have support a mile wide, but it is only a millimeter thick. The 2018 takeover of the House was accomplished my people like Bloomberg and Klobuchar, not those like Sanders. Today’s young leftists will eventually become tomorrow’s older moderates, just as happened to we boomers.
3
Don't count on it!!!. A DemoRepublican can promise you a compromise, but it always comes out, people lose, corporations win, tax break stays, Medicare For All belongs to private companies, social security needs to be cut to survive,
banking and equity firms, business as usual, climate change gets minimal notice, Citizens United and ICE continue, the border wall remains, right wing judges stay and the economy collapses around globalization controlled by huge corporations.
Unless Policy changes are made to get MONEY out of politics...getting anything to actually make a difference for the poor, the disabled, public schools, teachers, will be an uphill climb, especially if Republicans control the Senate.
9
Vote for Joe? No way...his presidency will have zero effect on what counts (e.g. environment, corporate domination of healthcare, student loans,). I don't care how many votes he gets. Stay home.
13
So would Sanders President be, ‘Dead on arrival’ with Republicans controlling the Senate. None of the programs that Bernie is pedaling will see the light of the day. So, if you want Bernie supporters to stay home, be ready with cuts in every existing people centric program. Of course, you could be there a shill for Trump, encouraging Bernie supporters to stay home.
@David Keys
Reasons to vote blue whoever gets the nomination:
William Barr
Stephen Miller
Mark Meadows
Ben Carson
Betsy DeVos
Richard Grenell
Etc
And unknown numbers of people being imprisoned under inhuman conditions after having crossed the border, including children stolen from their families.
We owe it to ourselves and our country to do better.
Choosing to perpetuate the evil of this administration is becoming part of the evil.
Your choice.
People who want 4 more years of Trump must be very grateful for you and people who think like you. You make their dreams come true.
On the right, we have seen the Cult of Trump, people whose tunnel vision leads directly to Agent Orange. And on the left we have the Cult of Bernie, which looks suspiciously like the Cult of Trump: same close-mindedness, same worship of personality, same anger and paranoia when their guy doesn't prevail in everything. Mr. Bouie is suggesting here concrete ways that progressives can take advantage of the moment to push for progressive policies, but many of the Bernie Bros who are commenting here are having none of it. My way or the highway!
I suggest, gently and with hesitation, that the best way to enact more progressive policies is to get a Dem in the White House. Four more years of Trump ain't going to get it.
7
All true, but Biden wants to take the SLOW APPROACH to universal health care, much the same way the Old Dems wanted to slow-walk black civil rights back in the bad old days. Just is just another Old Party Duffer who will do little in his time in office. We are now in a time where we need bold change, and we will not get it. The Dem voters are not aspirational. They will claim they are practical, but really they are just cowards, and we will probably lose to a more radical leader: trump
237
@Malika Bernie never could have gotten Universal health care through a Republican Senate. He would not have worked with them. We all know is. I'm beginning to think this isn't so much about "Bernie" as it is about frustrated people trying to tear down a so-called "establishment", much like "deep state".
40
Biden’s public option approach to achieving universal care is a lie meant to look like reasonable incrementalism. It is, in fact, just an accommodation for the insurance industry that could very well entrench their control and set us back for decades. He should be more honest and open about the fact that a public option will not lead to universal care. He should also be more honest about the incredible complexities and challenges with such an approach, which are largely unknown because other countries haven’t undertaken such an unwieldy and irrational path to universal care. But, centrist candidates are never pushed to explain themselves this way, the media only requires that of progressives.
The idea that everyone will be put on the public option, which will eventually become more desirable than private insurance, is pie-in-the-sky. With the insurance industry as a competitor and powerful lobbier, it’s just as likely that Medicare gets imploded when all the sickest people are put on the government plan. The insurance industry will ensure that there can be no real competition from the government, as they have done in the past. Biden’s approach is premised on minimal confrontation with the insurance industry. The only way to do achieve the universal care that Biden claims to want is to drastically reduce the role of private insurers in the system, and Biden’s records tells us he won’t be willing to do this.
49
@Tim
Bernie has a long history of working with Republicans to pass common-sense legislation like improving veterans' services and getting out of the war in Yemen. He's probably more respected in that party than in the Democratic Party despite being the most left-wing senator in half a century or more.
25
“This Is Not the Moment for Progressives to Despair.” Yes it is. That is exactly what it is. It is time to despair. Bernie represented hope and inspiration. Biden is a ball-and-chain. He’s not the complete train wreck that Trump is, but he represents nothing interesting, nothing inspiring, and no hope for the future. The country has turned its back on a future worth living, and embraced boredom and mediocrity. This isn’t the moment to give up, by any means, but it is absolutely time to despair.
189
@James Otto as someone who would like to see a more progressive leadership I remain hopeful that Biden sees this opportunity to help unite the party by adopting a more progressive stance in some areas and placing some progressives in leadership positions. Of course before we all get bent out of shape we first have to win the White House AND the Senate otherwise it will be a struggle to get anything done with the obstructionists currently in charge.
So my advice is don't be so negative, don't despair and work to help get the conman and his enablers out of office FIRST.
25
@James Otto
No. The Enemy wants us to despair so that we will stop fighting. Despair is the death of hope and change.
31
@James Otto Sanders represents a platform of ideas that, worked on piecemeal over the next 5-20 years or so will likely eventually come to fruition and benefit future generations. The reality that most of his fans seem to be oblivious to is that we're still a uniquely diverse nation and a my way or the highway approach is never going to work. Just witness the last 3 years for confirmation. To wring your hands and emphatically state that "it IS time to despair" and that there is "no hope for the future" is melodramatic in the extreme and is nothing more than a page out of the far right political playbook that we've been subjected to of late. Many of us see that mentality as being part of the problem. Biden is certainly not my idea of a perfect candidate to deliver us to a new era of enlightenment and prosperity but should he be the eventual Democrat candidate and beat trump it'll be a good first step on the road back to the 21st century.
25
Biden is going to need to adopt some progressive policies before I would even consider voting for him in the general election. Based on the interview he gave about the hypothetical scenario -- if Medicare for All was passed by the House and Senate -- he implied he would still veto it. I'm sick of all these right wing candidates the DNC pushes on us. They have called progressives Nazis, Bernie Bros, toxic, etc., and then expect us to "vote blue no matter who".
239
@Chelsea "...if Medicare for All was passed by the House and Senate -- he implied he would still veto it. I'm sick of all these right wing candidates the DNC pushes on us."
So since "Medicare for All" is left-wing, any other policies are right-wing?
18
@Chelsea Biden's policies are practical. Bernie's are not - in the sense of not having a snowball's chance of becoming law. And in the process of trying, you will have four more years of Trump, a Republican House and Senate. It is time to put Bernie behind you and support Biden. Republicans had no issue doing it with Trump four years ago and Biden is a lot better.
31
@Chelsea Did you watch the whole interview? Didn't he say he'd veto it only if the policy left some Americans out in the cold directly after passage?
28
Home of the Brave?
Please. So much fear.
There hasn't been a Democratic Party in years.
And it looks like there won't be for a while.
Time to become independent.
283
@Clayton Marlow Interesting. The Independent Bernie thought it was time to become a Democrat...when he wanted to be president.
24
@Clayton Marlow Fine. Do it after the next election, please. Or there may well not be another election in which to be an independent.
15
@Clayton Marlow I, for one, am a firm Democrat and try to support the still-existent Democratic Party (which of course should change with the times). I have voted in protest as an independent at times, but I consider it a kind of straddling the fence which doesn't help anything. What concerns me especially, though, is if young people don't vote because the candidate isn't the one they prefer; that behavior is partly responsible for losing the last election. All of the Democratic candidates are honorable people with good records. Any of them would have a strong fiscal and social compass.
17
If the Dems had nominated anyone from the far left I would have held my nose and voted for Trump.
Now I’ll happily hold my nose and vote for Biden.
I didn’t think the Democrats could pull it off but they did.
Biden will win the Presidency in about a 49 state landslide.
People like me hate Trump but we would have had to vote for him in place of a socialist.
Now we finally have a reasonable person to vote for. And Clinton was not.
134
@Larry Thiel
Wow is this wrong.
The more people see of Biden the more they don’t like him.
His resurrection has been in a relative public absence. He fumbled the first 3 states because he was campaigning.
If he can win the presidency without being seen... that’ll be quite the trick.
He’s a paper tiger, and a respectable runner up. He won’t pose any threat to Trump when the chips are down.
49
@Larry Thiel So, you would have cut off your nose to spite your face? And vote for Trump instead of a Democratic Socialist? As awful as Trump is? I have made up my mind that the overriding goal this upcoming general election is ridding the WH of Trump, regardless of who the Democratic nominee is. It seems that Biden will be it, so be it, he gets my vote.
Please make sure you vote. And not for Trump!!
40
This is what I wanted to hear.
4
Joe Biden will not pass Medicare-for-All, will not relieve student college or medical debt, will pass devastating corporate-written trade bills, and continue to push American-led unilateral intervention around the world. He also won't tackle Climate change or income inequality aggressively, and has not spoken for renewed passage of the ERA. Just what exactly am I voting FOR again?
14
Sanders can’t do any of those things either. How in the world do you think major legislation is passed???
2
But, neither will President Bernie Sanders be able to enact any of these items.
With him on the ticket, we might even lose the house, and under King Trump, there may be no election ever in the future.
1
This article is complete tripe. It ignores the establishment DNC's plus the Liberal Media's deliberate efforts to undermine Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders. Joe Biden is genuine and sincere. He sincerely wants to return to the neoliberal status quo of the Obama and Bill Clinton years. That's the same status quo that has NOT been working for working class and poor people for the last three decades. I am not mad at Joe Biden or Obama or the Clinton's or Tom Perez or Chuck Schumer or Nancy Pelosi. They never lied about being neoliberals.
I am not even mad at the DNC voters who lacked the vision to demand more and who bought into the thinking that defeating Trump was the most important thing.
I am simply disappointed in myself for having believed for so long that my participation in national level electoral politics could really affect systemic change in the way this country is run. I simply do not have a vision for this country that is shared by a plurality of the electorate. I may not be a stranger in my own land, as millions of Bernie supporters prove. But there are not, apparently, enough of us to loose the stranglehold that status quo, centrist thinking has on the Overton Window of political thought in this country.
I don't expect anything from Biden save a defeat of Trump. The thing is, I wasn't trying to defeat Trump. I was trying to defeat Trumpism AND Neoliberalism. Well, a Joe Biden presidency is a fail on both counts. My apologies to my niece and nephew.
18
Biden will not win against Trump without progressives on his side. A great way to unite the party behind him would be to pick Warren as his V.P.
9
@Dan. Except that Elizabeth’s Senate seat would be filled with a Republican appointed by the Republican Governor in Massachusetts. I voted for Elizabeth in my primary. But now I want for her to continue her good work in the Senate. We need to preserve Democratic Senate seats, not give them away. It’s bad enough that my excellent Democratic Senator, Doug Jones, is likely to be defeated in November.
@PJ
That's true I forgot about that aspect of it. It's a tough call either way.
Hello out there. I am a progressive. So are most of my friends. We are not "despairing" about Bernie losing. We were despairing at the prospect of Bernie being the Democratic nominee. So we decided not to vote for Warren or Klobuchar or Buttigieg--our first choices--but to rally around Biden to defeat Bernie and prevent a truly despairing prospect: reelection of Trump, loss of the House and further losses in the Senate.
Some writers and the most passionate Bernie supporters need to understand what has really happened. It is not a defeat for progressives, but a personal defeat for the finger-pointing, shouting, historically ineffective and inflammatory Bernie Sanders. And his small but obnoxious core of "our way or nothing" followers.
I pray that Sanders supporters will not abandon Biden or seek to damage him. The thing to truly despair about would be 4 more years of Trump and Republican assaults on everything progressives and most Americans stand for: basic decency; truth; justice; rejection of hate; protection from corporate greed and corporate control of policies for the environment and climate; support for families and the lower and middle classes instead of billionaires. On and on. It is truly a choice, now, between darkness and light.
I urge disappointed Sanders supporters to realize that progressives have clear paths forwards and possibilities to accomplish many great things. But not if they abandon the Democratic party.
16
Biden is a centrist and pragmatist.
He will accommodate liberals to an extent for sure. The country is better off in the long run working to pass laws enforcing a number of liberal reforms in healthcare, education and immigration. Executive actions as we learned are easily reversible.
Its time to win not just the White House but also 60 seats in the Senate. It may take some time; but it is worth the effort.
So I hope Sanders and AOC combine efforts with Biden and Amy to actually win the Senate along with the Presidency. And help Biden use this majority to accomplish some of their goals. Something is better than nothing....
8
@Rudran
Cut, increase, or keep Corporate Welfare the same?
What would a centrist, pragmatist, do?
4
@gratis - what would Democrat-by-convenience Sanders be able to accomplish once he's done making fiery speeches and instead needs to get Congress to pass legislation? Congress made up of a large number of elected officials who disagree mildly or strongly with his "let the government do it" approaches.
1
Having been a regular reader of your columns for a year or so, I can tell this took a lot of courage for you to write. I very rarely agree with your positions (too far left), but i read it anyhow to gain perspective on the thoughts of the progressive wing of the democratic party. It is telling about the content of your character that you can admit Bernie lost and can provide some constructive ideas on how to further your beliefs. I look forward to disagreeing with what you have to say next week.
4
At last some positive news even in spite of the pandemic. With The Irishman back in the Whitehouse order and sanity will be restored. This is not the time for extremes of left or right. Joe Biden knows how to lead. More important he knows how to communicate and get along with people. America needs good managers who can function without being fired if they disagree with the President and will stay the course. Joe is honest which is rare for politicians and he will not tolerate corruption. Nobody is perfect and mistakes will be made However he is the best chance we have to restore America’s reputation in the world which trump has destroyed. God speed November
6
The goal is to unite, vote out trump and improve the lives of Americans so the majority of them won't be tempted to vote for a Trump-like figure.
I'll vote for Biden if I must.
But sadly, I'm not convinced that Biden will beat Trump or implement policies that will improve the lives of Americans.
For example, the fact that health insurance stocked bounced back after Super Tuesday speaks volumes about his healthcare policy.
6
@Chris r
I think it says more about Bernie's healthcare policies. People were selling because Bernie's healthcare policy would've eliminated private health insurance, making it a very bad investment. His policy would reduce the value of insurance companies, but it wouldn't bankrupt them (yet)
@Brandon The evidence from other countries suggest that eliminating or heavily regulating the healthcare industry and thereby making it a less attractive investment is necessary to provide universal and affordable healthcare.
1
Here's the good news for Sanders' supporters. Biden is far more open to expanding the Democratic tent than Bernie would ever be. I've heard many people praise Bernie for being consistent but I see that as being consistently intractable on his Medicare for All and Free College Tuition proposals, which would never get through either the House or Senate.
4
@nzierler
So the good news is that vital proposals will not even be attempted, but at least there will be more people who call themselves democrats.
Yay!
The net result of this would be what, exactly?
3
This is exactly what's wrong with American politics (thanks to the two party system). "It's good because we're expanding voter base! Don't worry that it means we're more moderate/conservative, we have more votes!"
3
I am one of the Bernie supports that will drop of the map. I think Jamelle was the only writer that had good things to say about Bernie. Everyone was bashing Bernie. Everyone is afraid of the socialist. My whole thing is the planet. Bernie had all the right views on environmental issues, including declaring an emergency on the climate crisis right off the bat. It would have been nice to see an American president taken these things seriously and providing some leadership to the world. Not sure people realize where we are heading, but the natural world is going away and the climate is going to get ugly (and extremely expensive for American capitalist who rely government bailout).
8
I agree with much of what Bernie says. But he's unelectable. All the Right has to do is play a loop of his speeches calling for revolution, call him a Marxist/Communist, and then step aside. To many, he comes across as an angry white man--more coherent than the current occupant of the Oval Office, but just as angry. We need no-drama Obama. Since we can't have him, I'll take Obama lite.
Joe Biden will be the most liberal Democratic nominee in a generation. He is what a progressive used to be in the Democratic Party. Biden will act on gun control, healthcare, and climate change. He only appear like a moderate when compared to someone like Sanders.
6
@Bob You haven't seen his voting record have you?
I agree. Though my experience has been that once in office Dem Party faithful like Biden typically jettison the Left and head to the center right to fill in the void. I fear Biden, who claims a history of successfully working with Republicans, will be coopted in the usual Dem fashion by a winner take all, no prisoners Republican Party. It is long passed time for the Dems to cast off the Clintonian Republican lite mantle. People, in this age of economic anxiety and inequality, voted for trump, the pseudo populist, because they despised both Dems and Republicans. It is why Republicans have been so swift in hitching themselves to him. trump killed the Republican Party just as surely as a Biden campaign to return America to the Obama middle will kill the Democratic Party. Any attempt by Biden to distance himself from Bernie will be a disaster. Bernie should stay in the race until Biden makes some real commitments to his and Warren's agenda. That commitment might be reflected in a VP choice and while it need not be one of those two it should be someone sympathetic to their values.
4
I am disappointed that after almost four years since Trump's election, the Democratic party could not surface a better candidate to defeat Trump and lead the country. I can only take solace in the fact that Biden represents a powerful (though often weak and disorganized) political machine that is likely better positioned than Sanders to undo the damage Trump has wrought to the Justice Dept., CIA, Homeland Security/ICE and regulatory agencies such as the EPA and in the finance sector. If a Biden-led government is able to restore these institutions to normalcy, purge the right-wing extremists from their ranks and restore the career civil servants including diplomats and scientists, and recover America's reputation and relationships among our allies and on the global stage, that alone would be a signal accomplishment in the first term.
9
Dear fellow progressives, please don't despair. Overcoming all that ails our democracy will be achieved not by revolution, which always creates too much mayhem and unnecessary destruction, but rather by Transformation. And Transformation is about personal courage rather than ideology, about heart, about personally wanting to do the right thing. Not having it done to us but doing it ourselves, within all the small options of daily life. If the middle-class boomers' hard-won semblance of security is destroyed, how much would they be able to help the next generation? It's best to build a frame of mind where we are all in it together, united in our desire to give everyone a chance to thrive as a unique individual. Together, united by the common cause of what nature does naturally: to find ways to bloom where we are. And to go one step further by choosing to exercise our unique human privilege, which is to help others achieve the same. The nest can only be healed by its occupants.
2
I told my children I was volunteering for Bernie for their sake.
Because he doesn't take money from the greedy people and companies that have taken so much that the Earth is struggling to survive. That Bernie would trust We the People to be able to work together to stop the polluting and poisoning, and instead pay each other to clean the waters and heal the land so the animals and all of us could survive.
It is heartbreaking that so many voters were afraid of making the transformational changes we are absolutely tasked with at this time.
King Crony Joe Biden hasn't cared enough to fundamentally counter the interests of his billionaire donors so far, but now he suddenly will?
Rejoining the Paris Climate accord is woefully inadequate. But he will probably never even say the words Green New Deal.
I am deeply grateful to Bernie Sanders for prioritizing the best interests of our youth and the planet they are set to inherit. It would have been a beautiful thing for the practical and comfortable people of older generations to haven taken a chance and supported those futures.
500 years later, profit is the trade-off for desecrating the earth and exploiting the people. The message I receive is, why change now?
My optimism will return a bit with the planting of my garden, but my faith in the people is deeply shaken. I fear it will be a sad day on November 3rd, when it could have been a beautiful victory for our children to usher in a decade of renewal.
12
"This may sound a lot like wishful thinking."
It IS wishful thinking. The race isn't over. However, the more the media demonizes Sanders supporters and pretends the race is over, the more likely Trump wins in November.
Joe Biden cares about banks and big donors and getting paid. Let the primary voters vote, stop pretending the race is over, and stop trying to pander to voters under 50 who do not believe Joe Biden will do anything but break his promises. Joe Biden, Donald Trump, the RNC, and the DNC are the problem. Greed is the name.
17
I'm tired of this. For the last 10 years, political movements have tried to hold me hostage. The republican controlled house TWICE tried to make democrats pretend that Obama didn't win the WH, and pass their wish list of odious demands, or else they would shut down the government and take my job away. In 2012 they demanded that we the people vote republican, or else they would use their congressional majority at the time to block everything Obama tried to do, turning the government into gridlock (which they did). Now the Sanders supporters are here telling us that if we don't nominate him, they will ensure that the greatest existential threat to the democratic foundations of this country that we've ever faced, will get the chance to complete our transformation into Russia.
I'm a liberal. I supported Sanders in 2016. I get it. I want it too. I would love to see the country move to the left, and I do and will continue to fight for it. I'm on your side, so stop trying to hold me hostage to your demands. If you want democrats to support you, stop acting like republicans. Make your case, take your seat at the table, and let's pull together to right this ship.
9
@E. Cripe The Republicans are winning, so maybe we should be acting like them. The Tea Party took over the party from the inside, the progressives should try and do the same.
4
@KM
Democrats are not True Believers; we do not believe something is true because Dear Leader tells us it is. We do not self-isolate ourselves in our own echo chamber, and determine truth by nodding our heads in unison. We do not bow to power. We are not easily taken in by conspiracy theories. We are not like republicans, and we never will be. We believe in honesty and fairness, and that we should remain true to the constitutional democracy that our founders created.
For these reasons and many more, it will not work to 'take over' the democratic party from the inside, by progressives or, for that matter, moderates. We need a movement by majorities. We have to sell our ideas to get those majorities, not demand them or else.
The tea party gained influence by voting republican no matter what. The Sanders revolutionaries likely lost influence in these primaries by refusing to vote democrat when their guy lost last time. Ironically, had they not done so, the republicans would not now be winning. So maybe there is something about unity that we can pick up from them.
1
Progressives? Where on earth did they ever get that label? This group hearkens back to 1917 (communist revolution) as Bernie touts Fidel. That's progressive? Should call them what they really are: Regressives.
3
@Ok Joe :
Communism did not get the bad rap in Europe that it did in the US after WWII. With the European form of representation, more socialists were elected and European workers got their healthcare, education, child care, retirement, 4 week paid vacation and more. They are still around. The median citizen, by my observation living there, is WAY better than the median American citizen. I did and do very well economically, and I would have traded half my salary for what they get. Norway also runs a budget surplus almost every year, not a deficit like the USA.
Kids, especially ones who are educated and been there, would make that trade, too. They know crony capitalism rigged for the rich is not a smart choice.
7
@Ok Joe
You do realize that women's suffrage, the forty-hour, five day work week, paid sick leave and workers compensation, unemployment insurance, social security, and medicaid all came from the progressive political movement?
The problem with you and people that think like you either don't know or you've forgotten how important the progressive movement was in creating and fighting for the rights of working people.
5
@Carl
Every one of those social advances came about because of capitalism and the rise of science and technology that capital enables. Yes, capitalism enabled workers rights, unions, and the civil rights movement.
Read some history. The civil rights movement succeeded because of television. Yes, television. When all Americans see could Bull Connor jab protesters with cattle prods they were outraged. It's no accident the civil rights movement happened simultaneously with the adaptation of TV in America.
And TV, my friend, is just one of the great AMERICAN inventions that capitalism brought to fruition.
Think for just a minute about what capital creates, not what 1917 regressives destroy.
The big "if" in this situation is "if" the Bernie-bros will abandon their demand for chaos and destruction and instead learn that governing requires compromise.
In the comments so far, these Bernie-Bros are going out in full force. Demanding only revolution, chaos, and unabridged obsequious obedience to their demands. Like Trump, in their minds NOTHING but absolute obedience to their way of thinking is acceptable and will be attacked and hacked to death.
Those people, on both the left and right, the seek that chaos and violence, need to be kicked out of their respective parties and forced to create their own party.
See how that works out when THEY have to do the hard work of creating voter consensus instead of just trying to tear everything down to enjoy the chaos and harm it causes to our nation.
2
I don't think this is a reason for progressives to despair I think it's a reason for progressives to practice informed patience. It's a Koan really.The fact is we have a number of people in the US who are ignorant and a number who lack critical thinking abilities. The only way they really learn is by personal experience hard as is that may be. I'm about to get some lessons in spades sooner rather than later.
3
Why is there no talk of a Bernie-Biden ticket? Bernie could be a VP healthcare/education czar, and we'd get both voting blocks (if the kids can open their eyes and see reality). Wouldn't that absolutely bury Trump in November?
Just saying....
4
@Brian
Because the Democratic Party is no longer a party that endorses a progressive agenda. They have become Republican-lite and beholden to the interest of the wealthy and corporations.
5
Unfortunately they always were, real progressivism has finally taken hold in the US and we're realizing that the party that was able to bill themselves as the "progressive" party never actually wanted to be that party, it was merely for votes.
2
Rather a time to rejoice, as much as I and many others did when Obama was elected. It's unfortunate that he and Biden are now denied the term progressive, when that is the essence of their victory and administration.
2
Everyone needs to repeat this over and over until the progressives internalize it: you may think you are right, but you wont get to be in charge until you convince a majority of people vote for your candidates.
The key is convincing, which is a lot more work than just saying it aloud. There is a growing support for progressives and progressive issues, but it frequently isn’t majority support. In a democracy, that is an essential step. As this article points out, you can accomplish progressive goals with an organized, unified plurality, but you will need a majority to take the big steps.
It seems to me that, AOC’s claims to the contrary, there isn’t a really strong progressive majority forming. Clearly lots of people are moving in a leftward direction on specific issues, but it isn’t a groundswell of progressive energy. It is obvious that Biden’s surge is a direct result of Sanders scaring moderates so deeply that they fear Trump winning re-election. Voters in the middle, which is where most voters can be found, are faced with no good choice if it comes down to Trump vs Sanders.
So, take a reality pill. The country isn’t ready for “socialism,” and despite Sanders’ high profile, he hasn’t won much on the national stage. Until many more voters enthusiastically embrace positions further to the left, the center will hold.
4
@Marshall Doris Not true according to exit polls. It seems the message is liked, even the messenger is liked, but the entire issue in the primary is beating trump, and people thought Biden was more electable at this point in time. .
https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/biden-bernie-michigan-results/
@Marshall Doris
The youth should consider leaving the US. There is no future for them here but extreme crony capitalism.
2
M. Bouie, I agree with everything you wrote here. If, during the convention, Biden doesn't offer Sanders' wing a substantial role in his administration, he risks alienating Sanders supporters just like Hillary did in 2016. That would be a major mistake.
10
Many Biden voters generally just want Trump gone and they want US to help them achieve it. They also have no passion to get involved in any issue to IMPROVE our lives or country.
They are the reason we have all supported Bernie running twice!
He is once in a million years chance for Progress!
12
Progressives supporting Sanders must remember that in our country it often takes steady pressure and time to win their objectives rather than brute fore in the form of radical revolution. The fight by suffragets to win the vote for women took 75 years of steady effort against hard head wins to win that vote. And the battle for universal health care is taking just as long and is not over no matter who wins this nomination. Democrats and even many Republicans want this as well, and we need to create a coalition for it. Thank you Bernie people for leading the fight.
2
And moderates must remember that people who are suffering are only going to wait so long. Where’s OUR American dream?
8
You have to go out and make it work, not sit back and wait for a check to arrive in the post. Life is hard. Socialism promises easy answers, but guess what... humans have tried it before, and it failed.
Another point to Jamelle Bouie's insightful analysis: breaking Republican stranglehold on gerrymandering and voter suppression practices would be reason enough for liberals to embrace any democratic nominee.
2
I agree! Because I believe:
Biden negotiates, and will provide expanding, ultimately universal, health care, incrementally. His previous administration made the ACA and it could not be deleted by the GOP.
I believe Biden understands there are diverging opinions about health care. Some people believe individuals must purchase health insurance or face the consequences of their own doing (death?). Some people believe mental illness is a lack of will-power. Some people believe the only way to a healthier society and national prosperity is by reducing chronic illness. Imagine the savings (taxes) if people stopped going on disability due to diabetes and heart disease.
Incremental changes (as demonstrated by the inability of the GOP to delete the ACA) will convince all Americans that it is really a great idea.
Biden will start where the Obama administration left off and continue towards national health care that is economically feasible. He will not fail by forcing ideas that are not accepted by a majority and threrefore infeasible.
1
Here we go again...
Bernie is a man who sticks to his ideology and I have complete respect for that. However, what both Bernie and his supporters must acknowledge is that it is Biden's spot at this point and continuing in the campaign will only damage Biden and help Trump. He has failed to garner the same number of votes in any state as he did in 2016. His support is not strong. Biden in the last two weeks has outperformed Hillary in every state, he is a better candidate. If Bernie continues with this campaign, he will demonstrate that he cares more about himself than this country.
The best thing Senator Sanders can do right now to further his agenda is to drop out and endorse Biden. He has earned a big seat at the table and Biden must respect the support he has garnered, but only if he doesn't damage Biden. Does he want his ideas considered seriously or 4 more years of Trump? That is the only question he should be asking himself. If he attacks Biden in the debate he will be doing Trump's bidding, and when Biden wins he will have lost that seat at the table.That What all his supporters need to grasp is it is not the will of registered democrats to have him as their candidate.
As for the Bernie or bust people, if you'd even consider voting for the incumbent if it isn't Bernie, you don't support his agenda, you support anarchy and chaos. Biden's agenda will not be as progressive as Bernie's, but it is way more progressive than the incumbent.
4
@BullMoose2020 My guess is that he's only staying in for the debate to make the case for progressivism to the moderates. Based on his campaign's current actions, it seems like they're winding down operations. I hope that he doesn't drag this out.
6
Trump won for a reason. All too many people were left out of the recovery after 2008. Bankers got bailed out, homeowners and indebted students did not. The bankers who obviously violated the law never even had to stand trial.
And while the Republicans under Bush crashed the economy, Obama continued Bush's policies of favoring the 1% at the expense of everyone else. No wonder Trump could campaign on burning everything down and was rewarded for playing to the racism and xenophobia that used to kept firmly in the closet.
If Biden wants to win he will have to fight for the disaffected. Which will include reversing some his past stances, like sponsoring the 2005 Bankruptcy Act. And even to pass a "moderate" measure like a public option for health insurance, he'll have to take on the very powerful hospital and pharma lobbies. That is emphatically not who Biden has been up to this point, and he will have to show that he has changed. Pretty campaign lit won't do it.
10
So electing a New York billionaire who has spent his entire life beside the Atlantic Ocean was supposed to make everything better? Please.
@Sunlight
Biden has not changed, and it's the reason he'll probably lose in November. Why have a fake republican when you elect a real one?
Thank you. That is exactly it.
This assumes Biden will win. Same set of assumptions were used for Hillary. Same "coalition" of voters and same kind of mainstream media hype. Hillary still lost.
Biden is some ways is weaker than Hillary. Trump is now a more known and probably more tolerated entity among conservatives.
I have strong doubts Biden will win.
It won't be progressive voters who sink him.
It will be his "coalition" and non-voters.
Conservatives and even some so-calles moderates will end up voting for Trump.
Many non-voters will be unenthusiastic and stay home.
All of Biden’s strength among the South will not win him electoral college.
In the end, Biden will be like Carter in 1980, Mondale in 1984, Al Gore in 2000, John Kerry in 2004 amd Hillary Clinton in 2016.
The "safe bet" that wasn't.
13
@Ac The difference is that the 2018 midterms showed that people ARE willing to vote for moderate Democrats in the face of Trump, and the resounding turnout then and during the primaries and special elections since indicates that people really are energized and angry. Trump is popular with his base, but there are many older, centrist Republicans who dislike him enough to vote Biden. Biden is consistently polling high with suburban white/middle class women, and that group + older black voters wins elections every time. Sure, he's kinda boring, but at the moment we don't need a candidate to energize the base - Trump is doing that just fine.
@Brandon
You seem to be forgetting that a lot of the black voters supporting Biden are in the South. Also Biden has the support of older black voters. That will be enough to get him the nomination. It really won't matter much in the general election. It's also obvious that young voters are not feeling enthusiastic about his presidency. Also, just like 2016 a lot of progressives are not going to support a republican-lite candidate.
On the other hand Trump has about a 90% approval rating from republican voters. They are all in for another four years.
2
I left the Democratic Party and became an independent last night. The Democrats have lost my entire generation. Good luck turning out anyone under 55 after yet again us that addressing our problems isn't "electable." Those worried about student debt, raising kids during climate change, and rising medical costs do not belong in the same party as Joe Biden.
22
@E.S.
All we need to do to end the agony and losses due to cancer is to find a cure.
Consider what really is needed to due to reverse global warming, to assure affordable medical care for all, to enable people to be educated beyond high school to achieve their potential and to do so without debt when they graduate. Then ask yourself are Sanders proposals visions or plans.
I'll be very put-out if Biden spends his time in the White House heroically pushing a liberal agenda through Congress, and making some of Bernie's dreams come true. Bernie's liberal dreams are for another day.
President Biden can serve America best by one single accomplishment: make sure that the tragedy of a Donald Trump, a wanna-be Mussolini, never darkens the White House door ever again. This can be accomplished by electoral reform, federal laws against voter suppression, and these laws, like those first past in the 1950s and 1960s, will have to be enforced militarily, all throughout the South and industrial states like Ohio and Pennsylvania. No more disappearing voting boxes, no more missing tally sheets, no more illegal voter disqualification.
After such accomplishments, America can actually become America and enjoy a string of Progressive Administrations that will enjoy the support of the voting public.
307
@Winston
Biden will need the senate for all of that.
Also, you forgot about the courts. Republicans have been fast-track stacking the courts for four years at least. Biden needs to up the SCOTUS count by two appointments on day one, and work his way down through the federal courts.
42
@Winston Liberal Dreams? Like universal health care which every other developed country has? A living wage? Paid vacation, paid sick time and family leave? All of the developed countries have those in place. They are not dreams. Furthermore, what can't wait is the climate crisis we are in and Biden's chief climate advisor is from the fossil fuel industry. As Booker, Castro and Ryan noted and as easily observed, Biden is in cognitive decline. This election is not going to end well I am afraid.
80
@Wilco this is the problem. People unwilling to understand the unique, immediate and existential problem caused by trump, people feeling clever and smart by pointing out that Biden isn't the sharpest of candles, as if that fact never occurred to anyone but Bernie-voters. Bernie voters have settled into a mantra-like incantation of the Bernie agenda, as if repeating it again and again will somehow make it so. It's a bit like asking people, "Wouldn't you like a new car for Christmas?" And who's gonna say no? Yes, everyone wants those things. Everyone recognizes the importance of the items you mentioned. The notion of climate change and health care does not live and die by Bernie Sanders. I do hope that at least some of the Bernie voters figure this out before November.
43
My first choice (since 2016) has been Warren. Which means I'm on board for the platform Warren and Sanders share (The difference? Warren can frame that platform as pro-growth and pro-capitalist. Which it is.). So Sanders has been my second choice.
In 2020, Biden has been my last choice. But Trump is NOT a choice. Not ever. Why?
Because I can easily choose between getting back the Constitution, the rule of law, the separation of powers, and democracy, and not having those things. Perhaps ever again.
Whether you're a Sanders supporter or not, not voting IS voting for Trump. For Mitch McConnell. For the Koch Brothers. Against the Constitution, the rule of law, the separation of powers, the rule of law. Against democracy. Against the environment. Against combatting climate change.
I'm an old White guy. Black American voters are apparently smart and wise enough to know the difference between Biden and Trump. What do they know that you don't know? What all refugees from fascist regimes know. Whether one had to move from, or fight against, that fascism. Under Trump and the Republicans, you're no longer a U.S. citizen. You're merely a resident.
538
@Robert Henry Eller
Nicely done. The speed with which "T" dismantled our system is breathtaking; Another four years would probably finish it off. Your distinction between citizen and resident is much like the distinction between customers and resources. We don't have a real good record on how we treat resources.
27
@Robert Henry Eller
Educated white people view their vote as an expression of fashion, a way to make a statement, like buying a snazzy pair of sunglasses. We get to express our exotic flavors of how we view democracy, and sound clever among our friends as we mingle and toast one another for our wiser-than-thou-art perception of the state of America.
People of color and immigrants, knowing they'd be the first to experience the jackboot of a truly fascist regime in this country; and such voters know that Biden doesn't possess the character to spawn such a monster, and know that trump does.
Such voters, therefore, don't monkey around with such as choosing Ben & Jerry's socialism instead of Cherry Garcia Socialism. You vote Democrat, and once again, this year, it appears that voters of color will save our bacon, save us from self-centered Champagne lunches as we entertain ourselves with discussions over faux-choices that we don't really have.
23
@Jumblegym nice alternative metaphor, customers versus resources.
3
Maybe Liz Warren can become President via the Theodore Roosevelt route. Become VP, hope for the worst.
2
Mission number 1—Defeat Trump
Mission number 2—Never forget mission number 1
Get that, Bernie Bros?
3
@Opinioned! Bernie Bros is an offensive term that you should stop using if you're interested in accomplishing your mission.
3
So we've officially forgotten about that time Ralph Northam wore blackface in college? Cool cool.
5
The alternative/progressive/inclusivity/socialists movement put 20+ potential candidates up for election, all of them are out.
All that money, support from news papers, all those candidates, and that movement failed to win.
How?
Sunday before the big vote, 2 of those alternative/progressive/inclusivity/socialists broke ranks and joined the one guy they had rallied against for years. They went from needing new blood, new strength, out with the usual, any one but an old rich white dude life long politico, to selling out to support exactly that. And then they were joined by Robert O’Rourke as well, another dude that became big via this revolution and at the end bent the knee to the DNC’s paragon.
5 armies were to join in battle on that Tuesday, and 3 of them joined ranks that Sunday.
The other 2 looking at this, instead of joining up and running together, they up and attacked on their own, splitting their own vote and dooming their revolution that day.
Had they joined, they would have beat the white old rich dude, instead, they handed him the whole race that one day.
Like good sheep, al their alternative/progressive/inclusivity/socialists supporters will go vote Biden, the guy they railed against.
It’s over. No one will ever take this movement serious again.
Thanks Warren, you did it yourself.
3
I'm shaking my head at the mass delusion that so many Democrats think Biden is the best candidate to beat Trump. He's easily the weakest candidate we've run in the 8 presidential elections I've voted in - weaker than even Michael Dukakis.
Trump is awful. Duh. We know. But he will hammer relentlessly on Biden's screwups and nonsensical statements. And soon, after the rush of the primaries are over, the media sharks will start circling around Hunter, around all the lies Biden tells, and around his mental decline. It's going to be ugly.
11
Please stop calling it free college. It's tax payer funded college.
3
Stop calling them roads, they're roads paid for by the taxpayer.
2
The only way the democratic party, which is the primary barrier to transformative change in this country, actually changes is to lose to Trump yet again, this time running a sputtering dotard with a lifetime of swamp service under his belt. Perhaps then the beast of radical centrism will finally be defeated
4
Yes. If Trump wins Progressives get nothing. Period.
2
Biden is a Republican not a moderate. I for one will not be voting him and I'm in florida. The left needs to make a stand. Biden will have a cabinet full of Wall Street CEOs. He will cut Social Security just he has tried to do his entire career. My father had a saying ,if you buy junk you get junk.
You want my vote tell me what you will give me. M4a nope Bidens owned by the insurance lobby. Cheaper drug prices, nope owned. Tuition forgiveness, who are we kidding he is a Republican.
12
I miss William Safire!!!
1
What a strange— eyes half open—article! It may be apt comparing Biden with Northam, a corporate shill posing as a Democrat who has advanced environmental racism in VA for the sake of corporate gain while patiently waiting for us to forget his history of blackface. Except you don’t mention any of that! These are the flawed and failed men we’re forced to accept as stand-ins for progressive leaders by special interests that know from experience they can be bent and used. Is that the best we can expect?
7
Biden didn't win big yesterday. Trump did.
7
Now is the time to recognize that old democrats will never be any different than old republicans. "It's the economy stupid" is the only words they know.
1
Moderate Democrats and Never Trump Rebulicans have just signed the death certificate for the Democratic party. After the Baby Boomers die so will the Democatic Party. This Progressive will never vote democratic again. Good bye
6
It is my hope he focuses on Climate Action so they don’t go to the Green Party again
I am sure Jill will be in the mix
@Calleendeoliveira
Ain't that sweet, Stein will be in the mix, just like Nader was in the mix.
Would we as a planet be better off if Gore had won? Nader, Stein, and Sanders...big egos, three peas in a pod.
Fear.
The watchword of the twenty-first century.
Fear is when everyone digs in. No outlandish proposals. Nothing outside the lines. Nobody does anything stupid.
I have long harangued Republicans for being The Fearful Party. And they are, inside and out, upside and down. But with the choice for Biden so early in the primaries, Democrats have quickly coalesced around the safest candidate possible. Uncle Joe.
I hope Joe does not disappoint but with the virus haunting around every bend, both Bernie and Joe may not live until November. I’m hoping Trump does not.
I’m not trying to be morbid, just realistic...and hopeful.
So Democrats, let the old people have their way again. Let there be no progressive initiatives. Let everything be stuck in the past. Let the young people check out.
And let both septuagenarians (Trump/Biden) rumble. Canes, walkers and breathing tubes at the ready.
5
The only problem is (besides the complete sellout which I hope results in the creation of a third major party) Biden is not going on to win the White House.
Other than that, you’re the only person whose opinion I’m still interested in here and even you are rationalizing and justifying. Maybe you, too, in your protective journalistic gauze, are part of the broken system.
5
Good point.
What you all should be thinking is the promotion of a straight-blue sweep. You want change? From dogcatcher, to mayor, to senator, to president... nobody from the “part of Trump” deserves a vote.
Status quo on planet Earth in 2020 is a suicide cult. But apparently that is what most of us want. We want the ACA back when we thought it would actually cover everyone, before it made me switch my doctor, raised rates and oh yeah, didn’t get everyone covered. We want to go back to when we didn’t care about kids getting locked in cages, they still definitely did, we just didn’t care, those where the good old days. We want to go back to when we actually signed agreements but did very very little about climate change. We want to go back to when MSNBC had liberal hacks telling us what to think on all day instead of conservative hacks. It’s a mistake but people are scared and highly propagandized, so I get it.
4
Don’t think I’ve ever seen so much concentrated nonsense from NYT stable of establishment pundits, desperate to maintain the status quo on behalf of the oligarchy, but contorting themselves in order to try to persuade us that Biden is a closet progressive.
For all the so-called moderates too cowardly to vote for real change, and deluded by establishment propaganda that somehow Biden is really that different from Trump, here’s a quote from George Orwell:
“ The animals looked from pig to man, and man to pig, but it was already impossible to tell which was which.”
9
President Joe will be schmoozing with Mitch McConnell before you know it.
7
"The progressive left" has been rejected.
Most Americans reject
1. open borders
2. socialism
3. reparations for black Americans paid for by Americans who had nothing to do with slavery
4. free college education paid for by others not going to college
5. convicted criminals are the innocent victims of racial injustice rather than responsible for the damaged lives of innocent law abiding Americans
3
Oh it’s fun to dream. But reality has a way of waking you up. And I think you got it backwards it’s the middle pushing the left back to the center. I call it coming back to Earth. Yes it would be wonderful Disneyland to have free college, free healthcare, free boarders ,free food , free... well you get the idea. But who’s going to pay for it. Bernie’s answer was basically ,I don’t know it’ll all work out. Not so fast. Here in this country we work for what we want handouts are for the unfortunate and temporary. I call them hand ups. Anything else is social welfare and I pay taxes for that. It’s the center ending the far lefts utopia dream ,sorry kids time to wake up and pay your own way. Oh and don’t forget to vote in November. That little detail has a way of slipping past them. Oops I forgot I was day dreaming again.
Funny how we can do everything else under the sun without all the hand wringing and wailing about how to pay for it. It’s just when it’s something that benefits poorer Americans suddenly we don’t have the money. We could give the rich a fat tax cut, give money to people who don’t need it & borrow to do it, that’s fine. But tax the wealthy (NOT the working and middle class BTW!) so poor kids can go to college and oh no, we can’t afford it.
The NYT has done absolutely nothing to accommodate Bernie supporters on their platform, often blatantly disregarding them as "out-of-touch liberals". At least this article is paying them some lip service...I guess. Wake up! Stop being cowed by the GOP! Biden is not the future!
10
NYT candidate won -congrats
That's fine Trump will have another 4 years. I'm at peace with that now
5
The same moderate democratic primary voters who gave us Presidents Gore, Kerry and Hillary seem bound and determined to reelect Trump. They've just about done it. Nice work! Now we can watch Bumbling Biden trip on his mouth all the way to November while learning more than we ever needed to about how his son and brother got rich cashing in on Joe's many big money connections. Moderate Democrats should be so proud!
10
Well said. Democrats will never learn.
The Sanders base is extremely angry right now. I get that.
Most of that anger though is misplaced and destructive to defeating Trump in November.
For a candidate who professes to care so much about the people of America, I am astonished that so many of his supporters are so rabidly aggressive and condemn Biden simply because he is winning in actual fair primary election processes EVERY candidate agreed to before any ballots were cast.
I'm not going to try to talk you all off the cliff here. I will simply state that setting aside all the political rhetoric.... Biden is essentially an "Obama Democrat". And most of us know that Obama was center left, and not a left wing progressive candidate.
If you cannot deal with where Biden resides on the political spectrum... and refuse to accept and support the will of ALL voters collectively..... leave the Democrat party and enjoy your time out in the wilderness.. because having burned down and abandoned your political home.. you will be completely homeless and voiceless in American politics.
2
No. It’s because Biden and others like him have ignored our suffering for years. The Democratic establishment does not care that we didn’t share in the recovery. When they start paying attention, really paying attention, not just lip service, then and ONLY then will they win our support. We are tired of being stepped on and taken for granted.
5
That so many "progressive desperadoes" have such a paltry sense of modern American history is evidenced by the way they hysterically describe our country today. During the year I voted for the decent (but utterly hapless George McGovern), 1972, there were almost 2,000 bombings by left-wing extremists in America. Buildings damaged, cops killed. It was commonplace. People don't even want to hear about this today. Instead, they want to obsess on what (and who) they insist is an "existential threat" to democracy, or some such hysteria. And for many of them, their battle-cry is something like, "Ask not what you can do for your country, DEMAND what you think your country should be doing for you." Good luck with that.
5
And why is it too much to ask for a living wage and decent healthcare and retirement? Ordinary people used to get that in this country. Did you forget? That has been stolen from the younger generations today!
4
Take heart.
We've lived through plenty of lose/lose elections.
The nation abides.
1
The whole premise of this article is farcical. This isn't gradations of progressive policy agendas.
Having Biden in the white house does nothing to advance the leftist/democratic socialist agenda that Bernie's policies represent. Biden is the visceral embodiment of the structural opposition centrist liberals put up to actual reform. Just last week Biden said he would veto any M4A legislation that comes across his desk.
Given the DNC's consistent opposition to Bernie, coupled with Biden's unabashed, right-of-center policies (e.g. privatized healthcare, opposition to marijuana decriminalization, lack of student loan forgiveness, etc.), there is little reason to believe that Biden will represent an opportunity to implement the kinds of change Bernie supporters would like to see. He's a centrist on his best of days.
Since the DNC preemptively coronated Biden, I'll preemptively declare that I'll sit this one out. Good luck shoring up the Bernie vote trotting out a center-right candidate like Biden.
5
In Virginia as with the US Congress, the center held and flipped power to the Democratic Party. The so called “progressive” wing of the party is a minority of a minority (i.e., one-third of the Democratic Party, which is about one-third of the US electorate) —meaning it’s about one-sixth of the US electorate. This is why Sander’s support and most other “progressives” broader support is capped. The numbers are not there. Locally, like in the Bronx, “progressives” such as Ms. Ocasio Cortez can certainly prevail, but I doubt she’ll ever be a Senator.
1
I've been cheering for the progressive left since 1968, and seen many loses. It takes a coalition to win in our large country with many moderates and a conservative electoral college. Clinton and Carter did that. We need Biden to do that again and save our country for democracy. Trump never!
1
A Sanders supporter who stays home or votes third party on Election Day rather than voting for Biden against Trump is abdicating their responsibility to do everything they can to stop the destruction of the environment. That issue above all else should take precedence. Four more years of Trump means further irreparable damage to the planet.
2
So we should just automatically vote for Biden when we get nothing from him and his supporters but contempt?
For decades the working poor have been ignored. We are sick of it.
3
So many people seem to naively think that Trump is some kind of fluke and that Biden will simply return things to how they were five years ago.
Thanks to problems that ultimately boil down to record wealth inequality, populism in both its right and left wing iterations is back, and whoever can harness such energy can win elections. I maintain that Bernie might have done better if he didn't call himself a socialist and maybe even crossed the aisle on gun control and social issues, or at least threw those people a bone. Democrats can either chose to make themselves into a sort of new more socially liberal version of the Rockefeller Republican faction for the Professional Managerial Class and never win in the Upper Midwest ever again or actually give voters what polls say they actually want and win elections handily.
8
Polls say a large majority wants stricter gun control.
1
Main problem is Biden is a deeply flawed candidate and will most likely lose in November. Then the DNC and its mouthpieces will set about blaming progressives for the loss, as they always do. Then next election we will go through all this again. So enjoy your, um, victory (?) centrists, and may it not prove pyrrhic. I’ll hold my nose (again) and vote for your bobble head and his team of bankers, but if you do mess this up, don’t expect a parade.
10
Why not? I am severely disappointed, but will vote for Biden 100%. My money will go down stream, though.
2
First off, the mainstream media is pretty much announcing this race is over. The math says this isn’t true. Biden’s lead is about 160 delegates. A sizable lead, yes, but hardly invincible with a lot of states yet to vote. Secondly, with more debates on the horizon, it will become increasingly obvious the DNC will bend over backwards to hide Biden as much as possible. His mental lapses and declining state should be more than obvious to anyone with a brain. This isn’t a conspiracy. The video doesn’t lie. And if Biden does still become the nominee, the White House is lost to the establishment and corporations no matter who wins. They only races I’ll be focused on are the Senate and trying to save what’s left of SCOTUS. That’s all that matters.
10
Hopefully Biden will be our "cloak of respectability" and help us win the House and the Senate and THEN sneak through the progressive agenda that will help everybody.
Democrats can then criminally prosecute Donald Trump and all the Republican thiefs.
Elizabeth Warren 2024
Why would Biden do that? He has never done anything progressive before. He’s going to suddenly start being the champion of the working poor now?
1
I'm with Bouie on this one. The country has drifted too far left; in the eyes of the right, ALL democrats are communists. We need first and foremost more democratic party presence at all levels of government. That will open up space for the progressive wing to voice its views. Right now we're bleeding out, all of us. My sense is that the black electorate is acutely aware of the bleeding out and the need for it to stop.
2
Please! Half the states haven't even voted yet, and Bernie's platform is WINNING. Stop trying to prop up Joe Biden and subject him to the same scrutiny you're subjecting Sanders and Trump too. I remember election eve of 2016 when NYT had 89% chance of Hillary winning. Stop doing PR for failing ideas and report on the world around you.
5
It was always a given that the Establishment would let us have a Democrat to come in and clean up another hot mess left by profligate Republicans in power. I have been been a vigorous supporter of both Warren and Sanders, and like Sanders, I do not believe in letting the perfect be the enemy of the good. I will vote blue no matter who this fall. Still, I despair that we cannot seem to break the cycle wherein almost all new wealth goes to the obscenely wealthy few at the top while the workers who produce it for them fight over the crumbs that fall from the table.
There is the in-your-face corruption of Donald Trump, which is a filthy, world-class joke, and then there is the corruption of politicians like Biden. When an important piece of legislation that could improve the economic reality of workers is proposed, the wealthy donor class calls in its chips and beholden politicians quietly obey. Now we have Biden promising us a public option to private health insurance that Obamacare initially took off the table, but is he free to deliver even that half-measure?
It is the task of Establishment elites, more or less conservative, to keep us voters hoping that our political and legislative "victories" are anything but back and forth in a game they have thoroughly rigged in their favor. How stupid must we be to keep falling for it? Yes, I will vote blue if only to prevent a more precipitous collapse of the system, but I know I am betrayed by it.
5
I don’t mind Uncle Joe being in charge so long as he lets the kids have full rein over the shop, garage, kitchen, parlor and is okay with weekend-long sleep overs
2
“Some of those supporters might even drop off the map in apathy and despair”
What despair?
We have revolution to run!
Our problem is with the hard-core democratic base -
People dont like their slavery, but are scared to death of change
It will take them time to realize: you want a change? fight!!
I believed 4 trump years will teach them -
It didn’t
Hopefully another 4 years WILL bring the light
Lets help Trump to help the revolution!!
"For revolution success you need revolutionary state" Lenin, 2017
4
One short-term lesson from the defeat of Sanders and Warren for many Democratic politicians may be that you can't overly criticize Wall Street, inequality, wealthy donors, or Israel's policies toward the Palestinians without being deemed "unelectable". This, in my view, is unfortunate.
7
A majority of primary voters under 50 supported Sanders. A monstrous supermajority of primary voters under 30 supported Sanders. Voter suppression efforts against students and people of color have been massive, and not just in deep red states — look at the 3-6 hour lines to vote in CA.
The DNC doesn't care about young people, it only cares about money. It's hard to feel excited about half a loaf and maybe the promise of a bit more in 10 years, when 10 years is all the planet has left, according to the UN. Not only will our generation still be broke, exploited, and healthcare-less in the 2030s, we'll also be in a full-blown climate crisis with waves of refugees.
There is nothing to look forward to here. Nothing at all.
13
Yeah, they will extend the hand to get our votes, then as soon as the election is over they will stop listening to us. Biden has never been a champion for the lower classes. Why do you think Wall Street is so happy to have him? Those good times Biden pines for? Well, they weren’t so rosy for many of us. We never got to share in the recovery. We’ve watched other people crow about how great things are, yet we never see any improvement in our own situation. Sure, you can get a job now, but changing jobs only helps if the next one you get pays better than the one before it.
10
and if the market tanks don't bet on getting another job either
I’m sure the wealthy will do just fine however. They always do.
4
"The pro-Sanders left ...can use its influence to steer Biden toward its preferred outcomes. It can fulfill some of its goals under the cover of Biden’s moderation."
The left doesn't have much influence. The moderate majority will always have its way. There is no coalition when one faction (in this case progressives) is the one that always has to sacrifice for the sake of unity.
Frankly, I'm tired of having always to be the one who has to give in and not have my views represented.
Moderate Biden supporters will now want progressives to support Biden in the 2020 election. They want our support, but what will they give us in return? Nothing. Once Biden is elected it will be business as usual with an establishment incrementalist in charge. That's how coalitions have always proven to work - the majority always gets its way.
Moderates are already saying in the Times comments that they don't care if anything gets done; they just want Trump and his drama out, and things to return to "normal."
So progressives have a decision to make: give Biden support and expect nothing in return or sit this one out.
Personally I will gag and vote for Biden. But then I am gone from the Democratic Party. I will look to the alternative party movement for representation. Better to have my views listened to than denigrated and dismissed.
9
@Michael
I'm going to let moderates pursue their vision of the United States (which is not mine) on their own. For too long I've been asked to help them implement something I don't agree with. I don't want to be part of it - and then get nothing in return to boot.
5
@Michael Me either. I don't want to participate because I know how this is going to turn out and I want no ownership. It's already making a difference for me.
4
No.
Joe Biden is NOT the answer.
About 12% of Sanders supporters voted for Trump in 2016 in protest to Clinton. While I do NOT endorse voting for Trump, I do endorse voting but just not voting for President.
Send the Democrats a powerful message: we will abstain from voting for Biden because you don't listen to us.
Since 2016, the Democratic Party has been far more of a threat to democracy than Russia.
5
This primary is proving that the Democratic Party is not the place for progressives. It’s pretty clear from national polls that Bernie would do better than Biden against Trump in the general election but the Democratic Party establishment does not want that. It’s time for true progressives to move out on our own and run our own candidate in the general election instead of eternally waiting for the approval a Democratic Party that doesn’t want us.
10
No. Biden is not progressive. There is no happy lining to his presidency, just the same old holding pattern that will soon bring in another trump as we head further and further into our right wing oligarchy.
14
It is absolutely the time for Progressives to despair.
The 'moderate' wing of the Democrats are, like the NYTimes, only concerned with stability of the current power structure.
We need to heavily tax the wealthy, cut our insanely bloated military budget, and concentrate on providing for our population,
and on keeping the earth habitable.
Biden is the ultimate go-along, get-along kind of guy. He is not going to do anything about these essential issues.
Furthermore, he's can't get through two sentences without misspeaking. He may well lose to Trump.
The endless attacks on Bernie from the supposedly neutral NYTimes, NPR, CNN etc., have exposed our media for what they are: megaphones for the selfish, unseeing upper class.
18
I think we’re just as likely to get the Joe Biden who gets on his knees for credit card companies and banks, who supports a balanced budget amendment, and who agrees with Republicans that social security and Medicare need cutting. Biden’s only pitch is that he doesn’t like white supremacists... a ridiculously low bar, and one he himself has banged his head on in the past. He seems to have nothing but contempt for the voters he speaks to, whereas he has spent his entire career being extremely solicitous towards credit card companies and banks.
Obviously, I will still vote for Joe, because it’s the responsible thing to do and would reduce some harm (although I doubt there would be much harm reduction for noncitizens, who Biden seems quite willing to throw into the deportation machine). I will spend the Biden administration helping to relentlessly pressure his administration, since he will need constant reminders that he answers to the people, not plutocrats.
7
No on will starve with "half a loaf." Everyone will starve with four more years of 45.
Teddy Roosevelt said, " Do what you can, with what you have, where you are."
Progressives have made a lasting impact on the way people feel about government. That is not going to go away. Good job!
Now, together, let's win against the worse president this country has ever had!
3
Biden needs to prove to me that he is going to do something to help those who have been left behind. They need real help, not tiny incremental changes. We’ve had 40 years of wage stagnation! That is not going to be reversed by a little middle class tax cut.
7
@mouseone over 140 million Americans live in poverty, including over 40% of our nation's children. Where are they in this conversation? Will Biden address their needs? Or will we continue to blame individuals rather than systems?
1
Biden will lose. The DNC is a corrupt organization that doesn’t give a crisp about its poorer members who’ve lost everything over the last 40 years. Medicare? Buh-bye. Food stamps? Buh-bye. Health care for all? Buh-by. You’ve condescended to us for the last time. Enjoy Trump for 4 more years.
12
Biden/Warren/Clinton/Trump will keep every last penny from the vanishing middle class not trickling, but gushing up. I’m not voting for that, again. Why would I? They don’t care if we die.
3
Sorry, I and many others will not be voting for Biden in November.
"I'd rather vote for something I want and not get it than vote for something I don't want, and get it" - Eugene Debs
12
Through the medium of Joe Biden? A more apt metaphor would be “over his dead body”. Biden has already indicated he would not sign Medicare 4 All if elected president. What is the point of being a Democrat if you won’t pass basic healthcare?
15
When the “progressive” candidate can’t condemn the USSR, you have a losing candidate.
2
More inaccuracies. You must be confused. Sanders has called Putin and every other dictatorship exactly what they are. Sanders is the only one who tells the truth and cares what happens to us.
4
Those last few words are really important-he cares what happens to us. Joe cares that his fat cat donors are happy, and that’s it.
Biden will keep the world safe for Wall Street. I've begun to have more sympathy for the rubes who watch FOX news because it's clear that many Democrats are no less brainwashed to vote against their interests by their corporate media and also as disinclined to learn from experience. Bill Clinton and Barack Obama were both Trojan Horses for Wall Street, and the only reason Hillary lost was because she was such an unappealing candidate. Her policies, such as they were, did not differ at all from her predecessor's. If Biden is elected, in a few years the people who voted for him will be wondering why things haven't changed for the better and the answer will still elude them. Perhaps the reason FDR succeeded was because people in his time were not fearful little animals staring at their screens and were willing to take a chance. Now they crave safety at the price of slavery.
15
"...the Democratic establishment has successfully marginalized the progressive left." What's with you Sanders people? What's this "establishment" with which you're so obsessed? Does it ever occur to you that Biden is winning votes - and endorsements from former candidates - because most Democratic voters and most of the former candidates see a Sanders nomination as a path to defeat in November, both in the race for the White House and down ballot? Bernie and Warren together have been unable to command a consistent majority of votes right from the start, and Warren's supporters aren't even all progressives. All of this delusional paranoid nonsense about the media not covering Bernie's agenda, despite the fact that it was covered ad nauseam? All of this whining about "the establishment" may, in fact, have something to do with the fact that we just don't want to hear about Bernie any more.
3
@Michael Hogan
You need progressive votes to win and regardless of how you feel about progressive voters, mocking and degrading them like this is not going to win any of them over. You're part of the problem. Do you think calling them obsessed, delusional, paranoid whiners is going to convince them to vote for Joe Biden?
This is exactly what moderates said in 2016 and look what happened. Did moderates blame themselves for mocking and degrading Sanders supporters, thus alienating them and losing their votes? No. They blamed progressive voters for not falling in line. People need a reason to vote. You can't blame people for not voting how you want them to when you treat them like a joke.
2
@Rage Haver You make my point for me. I have zero problem with progressive voters - I actually consider myself one of them. I have a problem with people who blame bogeymen under the bed when things don't go their way, despite perfectly reasonable explanations. There are lots of people like that - Trumpers, in particular. But there are a lot of "progressive voters" who right now are falling into the same tired pattern of behavior. They're the ones I have a problem with, and they're only a subset of all progressive voters.
The fatal flaw in this argument is that it overlooks the fact that Donald Trump is going to wipe the floor with Joe Biden.
10
Wipe the floor?
In what state?
Missouri?
Numbers please !
Joe Biden this week said if the House and Senate passed Medicare for All -- if by some miracle they got it passed -- and put it on his desk, he would veto it. His campaign leaked intel that he would nominate Jamie Dimon to Treasury Sec and Bloomberg to the World Bank.
I appreciate your attempt to manufacture consent, but call a spade a spade.
Biden is running as an anti-progressive. He's running as a "return to normalcy, we don't need a revolution" candidate. Don't condescend to progressives. Biden's entire value proposition is "the only change we need is to remove Trump."
The Democratic establishment cannot keep ignoring, marginalizing, and outright mocking the liberal base and young voters -- then turning around and saying "you better vote for us!"
Enough is enough. When HRC lost in 2016, did the establishment blame themselves for not working hard enough to win anti-establishment voters? No. They viciously blamed the voters themselves, and personally blamed Bernie Sanders for not hand-delivering every single one of his voters to HRC. That's not how it works.
The Democratic party can't keep demanding progressives vote their way, while giving them absolutely nothing in return. You're better than this, Jamelle.
11
Agreed. Give us some real changes, at least some of what we want. Otherwise forget it.
1
Is he better than this? Is the NYT better than this? Is Warren better than this, leaving Sanders, and every single one of us to twist?
1
Biden is a meandering speaker who struggles to complete sentences much less thoughts.
I want to get rid of Trump as much as anyone but does anyone else remember what happened the last time the democrats ran an inept centrist democrat against Trump?
Here we go again. (Sound of head hitting desk repeatedly).
Centrist democrats haven't won in a while, Obama only won because he pretended to be progressive.
11
I have a simple answer to this and it is a resounding "NO". Unless Biden all of a sudden starts advocating student loan forgiveness (opposite of when he supported the bankruptcy reforms of 2005 for the bankers) and Medicare for all, he is never, ever going to get a vote from me. Not a chance. Zero. It doesn't matter if that means Trump will be president again. You can't ride on the "better than Trump" train. I'm done being disappointed with moderates from 1992's Bill Clinton to Obama to today. The answer is no.
12
If you're using Biden's embrace of Obama's "progressive" agenda as an example of Biden's willingness to embrace a progressive agenda, then we're in deep trouble. Outside of the United States, heck even within American history, Obama governed as a centre-right candidate. His most progressive idea and main accomplishment, Obamacare, was cooked up by Republicans for Pete's sake.
Also, Bouie fails to say how exactly it is that the Sanders left would be able to exert any influence. This isn't an abstract concept, how exactly will the left exert any influence in a Biden government whose main message is that he'll return to the Obama (neoliberal centre-right) status quo that was NOT working for the vast majority of Americans. That is what got Trump elected, but it's a lesson that the Dem establishment refuses to learn.
10
This is a heartening take--thank you Mr. Bouie. What is tempering my enthusiasm is the fact that I think Sanders stood a better chance than Biden of beating Trump.
Trump already beat a moderate (electorally, that is), albeit one with significant baggage. Also, Biden is simply not that good on stage. Trump the performer will chew him up and spit him out, at least in the eyes of the people who will determine this race. Bernie on the other hand would have gone gonzo on Trump. If Bernie didn't have a heart attack my guess is that Trump would be a rhetorical pulp buy the end of the campaign.
I hope for the sake of the nation I am wrong.
4
A female VP from the left side of the center would be a big help in uniting the Dems.
2
Wishful thinking by Jamelle.
Biden has served primarily special interest for for his entire career. Look at his key donors to date, lead by the healthcare industry, way out in front, followed by the real estate industry.
Biden and crew (Reagan/Clinton policies) are the folks that got us to where we are.
Bring it. 43% of Americans earn $18,000 or less. Thank you Joey!
7
Best chance of removing Trump ? Biden offers and Sanders accepts Vice Presidency? And keeps most voters happy?
Progressive and socialism are two different things. The problem is the far left has made them synonymous.
@EddieRMurrow no, they're the same. Did you read Richard White's recent piece in the NY Times?
@EddieRMurrow
Nonsense. The centrist media did that. The socialism word is used to scare boomers. It worked.
Ummm....no. The NeverTrumping Republicans have been intentional in distorting American socialism...how very Trumpian.
This is critical, that progressives, especially young progressives, remain engaged and enraged. The absolute worst thing that could happen would be for them to petulantly take their ball and go home, no matter how unfair they think the rules of the game are. In addition, they need to face the fact that the kind of revolution they so desperately desire requires massive participation. Instead of complaining that me and my boomer cohorts didn't back their man, they need to turn to their compatriots and find out why the turnout for Sanders went DOWN in the year when the revolution was supposed to begin.
There's a cynical saying that goes like this: If you want to win you have to play the game. If you play the game you will always lose. You can't get out of the game.
If this is what young progressives believe, then that revolution is doomed from the start. No matter how many times it takes, no matter how impossible it seems, you must believe that you can eventually win the game. The only other option is to quit... but the true part of that cynical saying is "You can't get out of the game." As long as you live in the US, you're in the game, whether you admit or not.
This is important to me, because I am counting on this revolution to change the lives of my grandchildren long after I'm gone.
1
Well I’m not young. But I have little reason to support Biden. He has done very little to help the working poor and shows absolutely no sign of changing.
3
@Smilodon7 I understand. But in our system not voting for Biden (or Sanders) is the equivalent of voting for Trump. Trump need only win a plurality of votes, which means if there are a million eligible voters, but only 3 people vote, and 2 vote for Trump, he gets re-elected.
Please do not make this about what Biden has or hasn't done, unless you are completely at ease with a 2nd Trump term. In that case, at least be honest and admit it.
Although Biden may be able to advance a moderate progressive agenda, the priority is to restore our government to a functioning democracy. Trump is not the cause of our ills, but the inevitable result of the decades long devolution into hyper-partisanship and subservience to wealthy special interests. Nevertheless, Trump is the most transformative politician since FDR; he has molded the GOP into the Party Of Trump and another term of Trumpism will likely convert our fragile democracy into a corrupt, autocratic kleptocracy. Trump’s nihilistic rule breaking has exposed the weakness of our laws and norms: to survive our leaders and officials must abide by the laws, rules and unwritten norms that have kept us afloat for over 200 years.
Bernie can achieve none of his utopian dreams in this toxic atmosphere. Mitch and his wrecking crew hobbled Obama’s moderately progressive agenda; they would likely banish Bernie to Siberia.
Joe is a career “pol” , an institutionalist who plays the inside game. LBJ, the ultimate flawed insider brought us Medicare, the civil rights and voting rights acts. We will have to wait to savor the strawberries and cream that Bernie’s revolution cannot deliver today; but we need to share a BLT with Joe now.
3
Yeah but what about those of us who still can’t afford the BLT? We are tired of being ignored.
A very optimistic and intelligent argument that I wish felt more reassuring. If Biden overcomes the firehose of sleaze that President Shark has set up for him — can’t wait till the investigations start in Congress over the horrible, horrible dealings at Burisma — he will have years of repairs to make just to get back to the centrist place we were at in 2016.
I would feel a lot safer if Warren had been picked (Vice President?), and if I saw more evidence that Dems were making shrewd plans to retake the Senate. Maybe I’m just not reading enough.
1
The so-called moderates have disrespected the Bernie Bros repeatedly and now have the temerity to expect them to fall in line for "unity" sake.
As Truman once said: “If it's a choice between a genuine Republican, and a Republican in Democratic clothing, the people will choose the genuine article, every time; that is, they will take a Republican before they will a phony Democrat, and I don't want any phony Democratic candidates in this campaign."
4
A vision of Trump, and maybe Mitch McConnell, being dispatched in, finally, months not years, is inspiring. That’s how you start a movement.
The progressive left was not marginalized, and it was never going to get its agenda passed, anymore than Trump was going to get Mexico to pay for the wall. The only reason why the wall is funded, at all, is ….. another topic.
But the point is, unless Democrats control everything, the progressive agenda is DOA. Even with full majority Republicans couldn't kill the ACA.
So relax. If Biden wins, Progressive Democrats will get more of what they want, but they were never going to get everything.
That's for another day, long down the winding road.
@Martin
You might want to ask progressives. I don’t know any that believe that by my situation is anecdotal.
I would love to hear from somebody excited about Biden's candidacy and views.
You know, like this:
"I really like his positions over the years on abortion rights. And I think his relationship to Wall Street is just right. The way he handled his support for and then opposition to the Iraq War was masterful.
I find him an exhilarating speaker who makes me want to go out and canvas and encourage others to vote for him. Go Joe!
I think it's cool that Hunter used his relationship to him to make some easy cash. I'd do the same for my son.
I thought he did what needed to be done to Anita Hill. Hair-sniffing? Sure, who doesn't bestow an unwelcome sniff on some hair now and then."
Anybody?
4
@Jim Exactly. Zero enthusiasm whatsoever. I managed to muster some for Hillary, had to argue with people about it but I had some enthusiasm. She would have at least been the first female President and certainly competent. Biden would be neither in my opinion.
Biden is a non-starter. No one can win the Presidency today without having people excited or hysterical in some way about them. Black people wanting to return to the Obama years or thankful for Obama and wanting to express it by voting for Joe does not constitute countrywide enthusiasm.
3
Let's put it this way: under a Democratic president, you have the ability to make progressive change. Under Trump, you absolutely do not.
2
@Brandon
Expect Trump to lie and run to the left of Biden.
On the federal level, Biden will be inclined to bend to powerful business interests. It's apparent in the recent list of possible appointees leaked by Axios: (Jaime Dimon, Mike Bloomberg, Tom Nides, Tom Donilon, Steve Ricchetti). And then there's his promise to big donors: "Nothing will fundamentally change."
2
We have pushed hard for Sanders' (our) agenda, and sent the DNC a message. The ball is in its court. Integrate the left wing of the party or face the consequences. Yes, a threat to not vote for Biden is needed. But...how we actually will vote...is our secret. Tactics!
1
That's a laugh - Joe, no dummy despite contrary appraisals - will, of course, promise the Bernie Bros the too, during the campaign, to gain their support. But no way, the Bern's program, or a reasonable facsimile thereof, gets written into law or the regs. Our socialist stalwarts will have to wait another generation or so, long after I;ve shuffled, for another chance at grabbing the brass ring. The problem, my boyos, Americans aren't socialists, They're not French or Italians, or even Danes). Self-reliance is the watchword, always has been.
Good analysis. If Biden were to woo Warren into the VP slot, he would end up wiping the floor with Trump's limp carcass. This, the complete and unambiguous obliteration of the very premise of Trumpism, is exactly what the country desperately needs.
I'm not a big fan of the progressives, but I want to see them stay engaged so I can keep an eye on them. They may even have something of value to bring, but right now we just need to end the crazy and patch the country back together.
2
actually, this is the very moment for EVERYBODY to despair. the elections can't come soon enough. the current administration is botching everything - a republican senator - ron johnsonof wyoming - is on tv talking about what a great job trump is doing and how his committee is getting ready to investigate burisma and hunter biden. how will that help Americans? it's nothing more than a political hit job. johnson should be ashamed of himself and anybody working with him on this objective.
the trump administration is focused on politics and not on the pandemic that threatens all of us.
stay calm - it will go away is what our president is saying while the head of infectious disease is saying that the worst is yet to come.
i hope we make it to the election to vote trump out. our national security is in a shambles and the United States is vulnerable.
Joe and Bernie are politicians, but i believe they put the American people first. there are extreme challenges from the garbage heap of a government trump will leave behind.
2
Well said Mr. Bouie. The question that Progressives need to ask is whether they will get more of their agenda pushed through with Trump rather than Biden, because that is who will be in charge if they divide the party after a Sanders loss or just sit out the next election. It would be immature, selfish and self-destructive, the very things Progressives accuse Trump of.
1
We had a very slim chance and we blew it. Yes, this absolutely IS the moment for critically thinking people to despair. This greed-driven, consumer-obsessed country is about to feed a cognitively impaired liar to an amoral monster who WE elected.
There is zero chance that Biden can stand up to the current POTUS. His record stinks, he lies at every opportunity, he insults and threatens his own voters and he's incapable of managing to string four coherent sentences together before he loses track of what he's saying.
You know. The thing.
The Democratic machine has made it clear that it does not have the interests of its constituents as a priority. It has simply become another power-grabber with its sights always on the next win. M4A? Who can make real money on that? It's a total non-starter.
In my darker moments, of which I'm having more recently, I believe that the DNC and the Democratic establishment would be more ok with four more years of the current madness than to allow people like myself a fighting chance. As long as we're drowning in student loan debt or struggling to pay for basic health care, we won't be in their way.
Yes, this is the moment to despair and double down on fighting against this massive, corrupt, ugly system of which the media is a happy participant.
4
Whether Biden or Sanders, the presidential candidate will have to bring Democratic candidates to the winner's circle along with him. As was seen with Obama, unless the president has a majority in Congress, both Senate and House, nothing much will be accomplished that benefits the nation. Disappointed followers of either candidate must support their local Democratic candidates for every public office, from animal control officer to senator, governor, state house, etc. The Republican party has amply shown it is abjectly cowardly and totally unable to effectively govern a game of tiddlywinks.
2
Wow, what a unabashed recommendation of a "Trojan Horse" strategy to implement policies that the voters firmly rejected at the ballot box. This a huge trap for Joe Biden. If he starts swaying too far left in the general election to please left wing voters like the author of this article, he absolutely will lose. Even worse, if he wins and starts governing with a socialist agenda (free everything on the backs of companies and tax payors) that would be a disaster for the whole country.
@Robert
In 20 States in a Row, Majority of Democratic Primary Voters Support Medicare for All Over Private Insurance
"Let's be clear: progressive ideas are winning regardless of who the nominee is," said Rep. Pramila Jayapal.
byJake Johnson, staff writeronWednesday, March 11, 2020
@Robert disaster for the whole country? You don't count the 140 million Americans currently living in poverty?
Why? Why? Why are we still arguing that we should be entitled to the same benefits that other modern industrialized countries give to their citizens? And, also, that these other countries are the better for it.
It shouldn't be this hard to better the life of our citizens. Except, that is, if somehow the general population is brainwashed to think that by doing so will undermine their own life and the sky would fall down. Somehow, that is what Trump and his kleptocrats have managed to do.
How do we convince those Trumpians that yes, other countries do give their citizens these benefits and the sky hasn't fallen. As an added benefit those other citizens do not have to read about diabetics who die because they can't afford their insulin.
6
not just Trumpists as the DNC establishment clearly demonstrates.
In the time of pandemic disease we do not reject hand sanitizer because we don't like the scent.
I would not have chosen Biden, but the U.S. Constitution is in mortal danger from the trump virus.
I'll fight that virus vigorously and if the anecdote is Biden, that is what a sane, informed American will choose.
I do despair. I think American culture is too profoundly about individualism. From that results entropy into ignorance, selfishness, greed. We adore Social Darwinism, until its teeth are upon us.
I would be surprised if America survives this century.
4
We can get a lot of Joe Biden to cure the ills of this country- BUT WE WON'T. Joe Biden is an establishment buff who only wants to go back to the status quo- and that is precisely what he will do.!
Nope. I'm a Bernie supporter who won't be voting for Biden under any circumstances. The "centrists" can complain and whine all they want, and pretend that their candidate is "close enough" or "good enough", but they won't fool us. They are denying us progress once again. Crushing any hope for the future once again. Young people and progressives have had enough. It's time for us to kill the Democratic Party and thats exactly what we're going to do.
3
The temper tantrum thrown by Bernie bros in response to Mr. Bouie’s rational column only proves what I have claimed all along. They are not interested in an actual political agenda. They want a revolution. They want to tear the system down. They want chaos and privation. Some of them undoubtedly want violence. After the apocalypse comes the millennium. And all those “secular” “progressives” (both terms need to be in quotation marks) are, at heart, true believers, yearning for the destruction of all so they can behold the new (socialist) heaven and earth. Well, it’s not going to happen. Ever. We won’t let you destroy the American Dream. And by “we” I mean immigrants, minorities, strivers and achievers, dreamers and planners who want to make America great in the future, not to wallow in the nostalgia of a discarded utopia.
1
The key is UNITY behind who ever is the nominee! I feel in the strongest possible way that DJT is an existential threat to our democratic society. With all of the instincts of a despot that exists in Trumpism, I believe there is little choice but to vote for the Democratic nominee. Having an exact match to one’s ideology is a fantasy and, in this case, would be detrimental to our nation.
1
Unfortunately, there is a section of Sanders' voters that will stay home in November, and perhaps a sizable contingent that will vote for Trump over Biden. 2020 has been a terrible year and keeps getting worse.
1
@David
You want their votes then they want representation.
What was that old phrase? No taxation without representation?
Don’t expect votes if you won’t represent them.
1
Dems have made it abundantly clear that they don't believe they need the youth to win in Nov. They're going for older mods in the 'burbs. Older Dems' ideas of how to attract young people are giving Pete a Cabinet position (or UN) and Harris the VP slot. This, in the mind of some consultant hack, is the olive branch. There'll be nothing else. That's why Cuellar and Lipinski get challenged. The left has no other options. Leadership wants to crush the left so they have no influence in shaping policy debates in the future. They're considered a nuisance to them more than anything else and would rather work with "reasonable" Republicans.
I know that older voters think younger voters are stupid, entitled, and just don't understand the real world, but it was the establishment, not anyone else, who brought about the the great recession, the Iraq War, Glass-Steagall, the surveillance state, skyrocketing costs for pretty much everything, the war on drugs, the carceral state, and the list goes on. The wise, older Democrats were complicit in all of the above. Do they expect us to get excited for this? The person they're choosing supported all of the above.
I will vote for Biden in the fall solely because of the Courts. I have zero belief in him pursuing anything that may be hard to win. It is clear that to him, if he beats Trump, that alone is sufficient and the Party will check out for four years, paving the way for another right wing populist (think Josh Hawley).
1
It’s not just about “getting what we want.”
It’s Bernies track record. It’s his drive, his passion. The fact he is as angry as we are.
Playing it “safe” with Biden will cost the left the election. Again.
1
On my "previous post" regarding "Chaos Voting," the younger generations are tired of being shut out by establishment politicians. It is important to note that unlike disenchanted voters of the past who simply stayed at home, the disenchanted disaffected Sanders voter who could not make their vote count will now make their vote hurt. They will NOT fall in line. A major Civil War fault line is on the horizon. Bernie 2.0 AOC is coming with a warchest to rid Congress of establishment Dems. These forces will rip the Democratic Party apart and from the rubble a new party will rise leaving the old party behind filled with aging Boomers, but with dwindling power. The old guard will not go quietly. They must be pushed into the grave. Get ready establishment Dems for Trump 2.0. Your condescending paternalistic politics is coming to an end, and with it, the implosion of the Democratic Party and the ultimate fall of the two party system. Enjoy your Pyrrhic victory today, but beware the Ides of March. For it is not Julius Caesar, but the Democratic Party whose death awaits us.
#chaosvoting
1
Again the comments section is full of furious Bernie supporters. Please, get over yourselves. Last time you gave us Trump, do not do this again. None of the things Bernie was promising, would have happened. Medicare for all, would not have got through congress. What we need to do now is back Biden, get rid of Trump, take a breath. There will be time for a revolution later and really, this is an election democrats cannot lose. Please stop firing into the circe and start firing at Trump.
2
@thewriterstuff here's a thought: instead of blaming "Bernie supporters" for Trump, why not look at the systemic issues that are still unresolved? What would happen if you focused your anger on the inequality we are suffering under, worse than it has been since the Gilded Age? Or at the fact that millions of people live in poverty here, and another half a million are literally unhoused?
2
@Kate Okay, and so while 500K remain unhoused, Bernie wants to open the borders. I've already voted with my feet and left the country, but I will vote and I will vote for Biden, because Bernie hasn't gotten anything done in the years he has been in government and Biden has.
2
I find it hard to understand how Sanders supporters think that Biden’s recent success is somehow a result of some establishment machine? His age and shortcomings are obvious yet he has the most experience of anyone running and was the Vice President to one of the most admired Presidents in our history. People aren’t being duped or fooled and know what they’re doing. I voted for Warren, but if Democrats are choosing Biden as the nominee, I get it and I support their decision. Trump is far worse.
2
Elderly Democrats, by voting overwhelmingly for Biden in the recent primaries, are promoting the destruction of their own grandchildren. In a society founded on the principle of every-man-for-himself-and-the-devil-take-the-hindmost, what else can we expect? Old people have their Medicare and their Social Security; they've long since enjoyed the benefits of cheap education, which they've denied, by their votes, to their children. Best of all, they'll be safely dead when global climate change leaves their posterity with nothing to eat but each other.
4
@Alexander Scala
I should add that I'm 75.
1
The only way to get rid of Trump is for the Democratic party to present a united front. Republicans and their Russian helpers recognize a golden opportunity to exploit the resentment and anger of Sanders supporters to chip away at the margins just enough to get Trump re-elected. Our democracy hangs in the balance. Now is not the time for purist rants and temper tantrums. Sanders supporters have an opportunity to demonstrate actual patriotism. Many young men fought and died fighting for our country in the Revolutionary war. Surely a little discipline is not too much to ask of Sanders supporters. Biden has signaled that he will be open to reforms that will make life better for everyone and progressive Sanders supporters should accept Biden's offer.
1
IF Biden gets the nomination, which looks likely, the Sanders fans should keep the following in mind as they deal with their disappointment.
There's a world of difference between any Democratic President and a Trump with no worry about re-election. Trump as a second-termer would work for for more years to undo consumer protections, pollution regulations and anything else corporate donors desire. We would be out of the Paris Agreement and other nations would be more tempted to follow suit.
So whoever wins the nomination, Sanders fans, please vote for the Democratic nominee. Our country needs your vote.
1
These are noble and upbeat positive thoughts Mr. Bouie but this 70 year old has been waiting these past 40 some years since the Carter presidency for progressives to have a say in the Democratic party politics. We have been given varying degrees of Republican lite by every Democratic president since Carter.
I still work and will need to until I drop dead. I have health issues after years of having no health insurance many of which could have been prevented. I've watched as Republicans and Democrats alike have sat back and watched pensions in this country destroyed only to benefit the shareholder class. I have many friends in the same boat. My best friend has a daughter in college with debt up to her ears that will take her more than a decade to pay off and will in all likelihood never own a home. I have no idea what the younger people will face with the dismal prospects of climate change while we wait for baby step solutions. How much longer are we going to wait until we see all LGBT people have the same and equal rights as the rest of Americans. When will we see immigrants treated fairly and not like some pariah.
Yes I will vote for Joe Biden but not as a choice but as a surrender as trump is intolerable and destructive. But this is the last time the Democrats are going to take my vote for granted. If a progressive party emerges I will join it it or just sit out future elections. The working class has been ignored for far too long.
3
Warren went on SNL other than throwing her support to the man who first suggested she run for President. Like Obama's silence, hers has spoken volumes. It told me more than I wanted to know about her.
I appreciate the silver lining attempt but I just don't see it happening. We already know what a Biden presidency will look like based on Obama's tenure. I liked Obama but he didn't deliver much and especially not for the underclasses. Biden doesn't have his force of personality so it's reasonable to assume he will deliver even less of a watered-down, pro-corporate agenda.
We'll pull it together for November because we have to, but despair is the order of the day.
2
If the election goes on in view of spreading coronavirus infections, Biden cannot win the general without the lion's share of Sanders supporters. Since Sanders is running on issues such as Medicare 4 All, rather than a personality cult, Biden can get these voters by adopting the Sanders platform.
The fly in the ointment is that Biden desperately needs Wall Street money which may be hostile to a wealth tax, necessary to pay for Medicare-4-All. Hence, a smaller wealth tax may be possible if the Wall Street money gives Biden the OK. In his long career in politics, Biden has expressed unsavory views on some issues that Sanders voters care about; it is not clear how much effort Biden will make, nor what he will offer, to win over the Sanders vote.
2
Thank you Mr. Bouie. We need to be practical and get it done. The internet and the 24 hour news cycle have us all addicted to drama. It is not helping us. We can pull together and use our democracy as it should be used. Nobody is going to hand us the justice we need! NO single leader will be perfect or be able to give us all we need! We need to use voices of reason and good-enough representatives to push our way to a better country. And we can't do that if we sit back and snipe at those we view as imperfect enough, or sit on the side-lines and pout. Let's all just get in the ring and build the country we need right now. We have to do it - there are some really vulnerable people getting badly hurt right now, and our planet is cooking. We can't let them or ourselves down by resorting to pointless bickering, or intra-party tantrums. Come on, let's just all pull, and get it done every way we can!
1
I have never understood how sure Progressives are that Republican Trump supports are wrong about everything but they aren’t willing to accept that their Progressive mentality doesn’t even have enough support to get their Party’s nomination. An electoral majority of conservative Republicans elected Trump. Clearly, more people think along those lines then do think along Progressive lines.
1
If we don't get a Green New Deal soon it won't matter what the long-run prognosis for progressives is, or for conservatives or anyone else for that matter. The long-term prognosis for civilized human life on planet Earth will be very bleak and U.S. politics as we know it will be irrelevant in 30 years or so.
3
The one thing that I want to know should the Democrats win, is that, however Donald Trump's future pans out in that scenario, is that there will be no pardon given him if valid charges, that are proven in courts of law, are brought to a sentencing. Very important!
1
Moments ago, Sanders rattled off a list of questions for Joe Biden. "Joe, what will you do about ... ?"
Well, I took two messages from this short speech. First, is Bernie telling Joe, "Since you are going to win the nomination, will you do X,Y, and Z if you win the election?"
I would advise Biden, and he has no doubt thought this through, none of the things we care about, individually or jointly, will reach my desk for a signature unless we keep the House and retake the Senate. The old saying is more true to day than ever before: "The Senate is where bill go to die."
Which is to say to Bernie, work for the down-ballot races as well as the job of POTUS. Without control of the Senate and the House, we will have a similar situation as we had under Obama: total rejection of any Democratic principles, ideas or solutions with Republicans in charge of the Senate.
I am begging you, Bernie, deal with what is, if you want to turn idealism into reality. Help us take back the Senate and keep the House. Demand your supporters work, and vote for, Biden. Otherwise, authoritarianism will replace our fragile experiment in democracy. Yeah, the pressure is on Bernie and his followers to do the right thing to save the nation.
5
I am not a Sanders supporter, but Biden was not my first choice either (nor my second, third, or fourth choice). Given a choice between Biden and Trump some progressives may feel voting for Biden is choosing the lesser of two evils.
Elections are about results, not voters’ feelings or sense of moral or ideological compromise. If the election is between Trump and Biden then one of them will become President. Sitting it out or casting a protest vote because you don’t like the nominee will not change that.
Given the choice between a lesser and greater evil you choose the lesser one – every time. That is the simple, rational choice every responsible voter needs to make.
2
The progressive have to grow up and realize that as long as the Democratic Party is being run by the party elites, bosses and their propaganda machines their vote does not count. Time for a third party that take the Will of people into consideration and does not rig its own candidates.
"Disappointed supporters of Bernie Sanders can actually get a lot of what they want through the medium of Joe Biden."
Perhaps, but if, and that's a big if, Biden actually wins.
3
Thank you for this. I agree that this is the outcome that I actually think will happen. I voted for Sanders, much more reluctantly that I thought as I have been swayed by some more authentic conservative voices. They brought up the concern that Sanders is more of an intractable man, who is wonderful as a pole to pull toward (I said this, they did not say this part), though, in the arena of a democratic system there must be compromise. I am sick and tired of compromising to the far right, which made the new 'center' really rather right. Now the compromise will be to the left, I hope, and I think Biden can be that as Mr Bouie laid out
Sanders needs to have a talk with Joe and threaten to run a third-party candidacy unless made the VP nominee.
1
Right. The same ‘my way or nothing’. Bernie, that’s part of the reason he doesn’t attract votes. Ridiculous.
Progressives need to GROW UP and be less SELF INDULGENT in this circumstance. Stop shattering the unity needed to beat Trump and his minions.
4
@Darkler what is self indulgent about asking for policies that will help everyone, rather than the already well-to-do? Also, not sure how much you know about leadership and team-building, but definitely not best practice to belittle those you're hoping to unify with.
2
Ignoring the half of the country that doesn’t understand the qualities of liberalism is what got Trump elected in the first place.
We have to find common ground with the right and sway them back to the middle. They aren’t going anywhere.
You can turn your back on the democrats but that isn’t going to teach the ignorant right about the benefits of liberalism.
Ever have to work with someone you don’t like just to get the job done? Me too, but I got bills to pay.
Many Sanders supporters are reportedly prepared to vote for Trump as a "sharp stick in the eye" to the rest of the nation for not giving them their way. This is your basic white-light fascism and one of the reasons we are currently stuck with Trump. Sanders needs to educate some of his supporters that he does not want to pull a burning house down on all of us. Or maybe he does? It's beginning to look like that. Bernie, if you go out, go out as a patriot, not an angry old man who wants to sink the life boat.
4
Ooh! That’s a good idea. Since I can’t for Bernie, I will vote for Trump.
Biden does not offer progress, look at his record, he is a GOPer's dream come true. He said yesterday that he would try and pass a few minor tweaks to ACA because it was already a great program. It's not, it is killing the middle class and bankrupting many. Affordable adult education is not doable, and there is nothing seriously wrong with the criminal justice system, so said Joe.
I will say again, Biden's record speaks for itself and it is NOT progressive. He is not the '1980's Republican' named Obama, he is more like the GOPer Bill Clinton that could not pass GOP priorities fast enough.
Don't be fooled. Biden is not a Democrat and is not progressive. We will get the government we deserve and it will be worse than we currently have.
2
The media and the Democratic Party did everything they can to cheat Sanders, as they did in 2016. The Democrats are the party of the rich. I will never vote for a corporate Democrat again. Obama was Mitt Romney and his message was No Hope, No Change. Biden is the same. American voters are shallow and ignorant of political economy. They have no understanding of the difference between public infrastructure and privately owned means of production.
The Democrats are the party of Marie Antoinette. As such, I wouldn't be surprised to see it collapse.
This article is trying to bring us Bernie supporters into the corrupt Democratic tent. Nothing doing. You made your bed. Now lie in it.
2
then form your own party and see how that works for getting elected
Thank you, Mr. Bouie. Your writing gives me hope.
Thanks to hanging your column on the news peg of the latest primary results, you have written this as if Sanders were the only progressive ever in the race. And you are pandering to the most childish, petulant among us. Thanks for erasing Harris, Castro, and Warren to give Bernie Bros a pep talk.
'Disappointed supporters of Bernie Sanders can actually get a lot of what they want through the medium of Joe Biden.'
"A lot". Which seems like, well, a lot, when you compare it to what you'll get under another 4 years of Trump. No, not zilch, nadda, bupkus. You'll get negative a lot under Trump, because his driving motive, and incidentally, Republican policies in general, are the polar opposite of liberal and progressive policies.
So, under Biden, you'll get a New Green Deal in some fashion, while under Trump, not only do you not get any kind of Green New Deal, he'll push for MORE carbon pollution, just to tick off the people who voted against him.
Never forget that Trump is a petty, vindictive troll, at heart. It doesn't matter that what he's doing hurts him, his business, his "friends", the country, or his family - listed in order of importance to Trump - if he'll just stick it to whoever ticked him off last.
Trump is not a radical. He’s a criminal. Trump is not a politician. He’s a grifter. Trump is a dangerous and selfish human being. He promotes only himself and helps only his family members. We are going through a revolution with him as president. But it’s a revolution that runs backward. Our America disdained kings. AG Barr and Trump believe we need one. A democracy cannot function in a fact free environment. Fox News and Trump believe otherwise.
I voted for Warren. She is much more sensible than Bernie and younger. Biden realizes that change in our country is slow and painful. We are a diverse population of over 300 million people. We are spread over a large, diverse landscape. As citizens or immigrants we all want an equal chance to pursue our Work lives and raise our families. At minimum, these facts should unite all of us, regardless of political parties.
1
For those in despair, would it make a difference to you if Warren is Biden's VP and plans to take over from Biden in 4 years? Warren is certainly not finished. Think about it. Losing one battle isn't the end of the world.
Nope. Not one bit.
Yes, actually winning elections helps you actually get things done, impure as that may be.
1
Biden can say whatever now in order to sond more progressive. But I'll bet that if he becomes president, he'll return to being his usual bankster self.
1
I am afraid that a large swath of Sanders' supporters can't get what they want through Joe Biden, because all they really want is Bernie. His "movement" shows many of the same signs of a cult of personality that Trump's does. It is a sad, but accurate, comment on American politics that we care more about personalities than policies. Until voters learn to educate themselves and develop well-considered positions on the issues of the day, they will forever be at the mercy of con men and charlatans. (To be clear, I don't think Bernie is a con man or a charlatan, but Trump is. And the next progressive "savior" might be, too.)
I'll believe it when I see actual results.
The Democratic party leadership wanted Trump to be the Republican nominee in 2016, and at first that looked like it was because they thought he'd be easy to beat, but now I'm thinking they might have been looking farther ahead, knowing that if Hillary lost, we'd have Trump as punishment, and we'd be so afraid of another 4 more years of Trump that we would acquiesce and support a mainstream candidate like Biden. They are corporate tools and they will not go down without a fight and I'm not sure the Sanders fight has been enough. Where will it end?
Ah but I wish it were so. But a loss is a loss. And those who have the power will work their will. They may have to throw us a few crumbs. But make no mistake they will just be crumbs.
2
The only way the progressive who supposedly support Bernie instead of Biden can get what they want is by unconditionally supporting Biden from this very moment to November. Win the white house, the senate and retain the house.
Unfortunately Bernie Sanders is once again going in a different direction: in his only public statement after yesterday losses he attacked Biden and did not once mentioned unity to defeat Trump.
1
I could not disagree more.
Unless Sanders turns this around it's a devastating/shattering moment for progressives.
The biggest progressive movement in a generation has been (for the moment) absolutely demolished by an avalanche of billionaire money and establishment opposition.
Joe Biden knows darn well who did this and is beholden to them.
Lets get real, this is planet earth. Should Biden beat Trump he is likely to spend his time *talking* lofty ideals while carefully scuttling real progressive change.
That is what the billionaires paid for on Super Tuesday.
Biden has a long history in Delaware of protecting the banks, credit card companies and was even instrumental in changing the rules on student loan debt.
The billionaires pick carefully on whom the bestow their largess and Biden knows darn well what they want.
He will surely make lofty speeches and claim to be a "progressive" but when the chips are down. Forget about it.
This is devastating turn of events for progressives.
This could be the end of real progressives for a generation.
3
I know what Bernie Sanders would do as President. His platform is clear and on the table.
Can someone tell be what Joe Biden would do? I mean specifically, not the old wishy-washy political statements we hear all the time.
6
@Greg He has no platform and does not campaign. Will show up by hologram by the time the election is near.
3
I will vote in November for whomever heads the Democratic ticket.
That said, next Tuesday, November 17th, I'm voting for Sanders in the Ohio primary, if he's still in the race. I encourage other progressive/liberal voters in Ohio to do the same, regardless of what happens after next Tuesday.
1
Where will Biden leave us in 4 years? It's hard for me to imagine him being a two-term president at his age and mental state. It will be critical that he choose a good VP and secretary of state--and there are lots of good options.
But, VP's seldom win the presidency--there's something about being number 2 that doesn't create the impression of a strong leader.
It's going to take more than 4 years to clean up the mess Trump has made. It will take more than 8 years. Even if we elect a Democratic Congress.
I don't know why any foreign power would trust us for a very long time. Our government agencies have been decimated, and it takes time to find good people. We still have children in cages on our border. Puerto Rico still struggles to overcome Hurricane Maria. Our Treasury has been raided as a gift to Trump's wealthy patrons. People are divided. Our parks and wild areas are defiled. We are at least 4 years delayed in addressing global warming.
In short, Trump's inauguration "speech" has become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
2
Joe Biden has proven for decades that he supports wars abroad, cuts to social services at home, and doesn't support attacking climate change in any way that goes against his corporate donors. Why should any progressive even offer their vote to him?
7
@Dylan Jones
they should do it in order to defeat Donald Trump.
I want Elizabeth Warren to be president, but I even more want Donald Trump to NOT be president.
If not now, when?
Progressives have been waiting for their chance in the Democratic Party since FDR died. The last time he ran, his 1940 VP, Henry A. Wallace, the most progressive Democrat of the 20th century, who had the backing of 63% ofDemocrats, was pushed off the ticket by bosses. That's how we got the regressive and ineffectual Truman.
There was some hope with JFK, but he, RFK, and MLK were all assassinated.
To us, it is like there are two Republican parties. The one led by Biden is simply more sensible. But that's what the people who vote want. So I have to vote for him, and hope he wins.
2
Dear Bernie,
Former VP Joe Biden won every single county in Michigan and blew out Sanders in three other states that voted, essentially sealing the nomination by leaving his lone rival no plausible path forward. But the big takeaway from the day’s big prize, Michigan, isn’t that Biden is a spectacular candidate. The big takeaway is that he doesn’t need to be.
Two things happened on Tuesday in Michigan. First, Democratic turnout exploded. Second, Biden performed far better with key demographic groups than Clinton did four years ago. If either one of those things happens in November, Trump will have a difficult time winning the state again. If both things happen, the president can kiss Michigan’s 16 electoral votes goodbye—and with them, more than likely, the electoral votes of Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.
Bye, Trump. Hello lawsuits. Democrats can then focus more on actually switching the Senate. Bernie never could have passed anything progressive in a GOP Senate and everyone knows this.
Boule is right, the left can't lose. And Sanders and his cohorts may well prevail in the not very long run.
1. If Biden loses the election it's the end of the democratic party as we know it. He's a geezer as is a plurality of his supporters. Pelosi will soon be gone and the wizened baby boomers of all colors will soon be replaced by a more progressive cast of have nots. After the second Trump term, if we and he survive it, a Biden epigone will not be on the ballot and what remains of the old guard will feel the Bern.
2. If Biden is to secure a victory in 2020 he will need some on his left to complement the ticket. Two moderate candidates, as Clinton showed in 2016, won't win the electoral college. And many of Bernie's supporters will sit on their hands in Nov.
3. Enter Elizabeth Warren or a close facsimile. Its time for a female Veep with a progressive passion to engage educated suburban women and nudge Biden leftward.
4. Biden won't be a two-term President in any case. That leaves a more progressive VP to replace him. And if the Democrats don't take over the Senate, even if Biden wins, the Democrat undertaker will still come calling.
1
Unfortunately, the democrats have nominated an unelectable candidate who just doesn't appeal to key constituencies. I guess Trump will win again for sure. America will never accept a candidate with no vision or principles who's been wrong about everything.
4
@Nick
... says Nick, apparently a Republican. Republicans gave us the current disaster named Don, and therefore have no credibility with me.
It’s also not the time for self-righteous Sanders supporters to re-elect Trump with write-in votes or votes for other non-candidates. There will be two, and only two, candidates. Anyone who doesn’t vote for Biden votes for Trump.
3
My prediction is that Biden will try to appease the left with promises that will get their votes but has no intention of actually fighting for those things once in office.
We need to hold his feet hot to the fire.
2
One thing missing about the discussion of Biden: like Lyndon Johnson, he's a creature of the Senate. That's one reason Obama chose him--to work the Congress so he wouldn't have to. So, with a more progressive Senate (hopefully) and the House under Pelosi, we can see a lot of potential accomplishment. It's up to the progressives to push the agenda, which they have very successfully (thank you Bernie and Elizabeth), and then we'll be surprised by how much Biden will get done.
4
Never, never, never give up.
2
Biden is going to do whatever is politically expedient with the same tone deafness he has always displayed. To wit:
1. Plagiarizing the life story of a British politician during his failed first run for President in 1988.
2. Supporting Clarance Thomas and silencing Anita Hill to assert male privilege in the Senate.
3. Supporting 1990s crime legislation to appear tough on “crime”.
4. Supporting war after war and being duped on Afghanistan
Finally:
Being the white guy on Obama’s ticket - talk about the dog catching the bus!
Yep, character is on the ballot, Joe.
2
Instead of handwringing and blaming each other for real or imagined political impurities, it's time for all Dems -- yes, even the Bernie Bros -- to coalesce behind Biden and present a united blue front that ousts the ignorant and inept charlatan from the White House. Without a massive voter turnout we are doomed.
4
If you really think that the most corrupted male Democrat of the past 40 years has a gnat's chance of defeating the American President who has given us this amazing economy, you have to be so gullible that I shudder to think of the condition of other things adults have to think through, like financial plans, the front yard, keeping the car serviced....
Buying a party line is part of your job but somewhere the kid your parents raised has to begin speaking out.
1
The author is proud of “progressives” destroying the great commonwealth of VA.
Wow.
2
@Cjmesq0
all a matter of perspective, isn't it? Progressives fight for others. Republicans fight for themselves, and their current leader is the most stark example of that selfish agenda of "I've got mine and I don't care whether you got yours or not ... in fact if I can, I'll take yours away from you and keep it for myself".
Sad that they will not be as despairing as I would hope. Mr. Bouie, you seem to think that you are an oracle and I would hope that you are as wrong this time as you have been many times before.
2
I wish I had the platform to beg Black America to vote based on what the politician actually stands for, not merely for a White man because he stood as second fiddle to a Black man. Biden is part of the neoliberals who helped bring the majority of this country to its knees and is hastening us All off the cliffs of extinction. How can we reach you?
3
@Lilly It's an extremely dangerous racial calculation as well. If Joe loses and all or most of 'black America' doesn't vote for him (as much as they voted for Obama, at the very least?) will four more years of Donald Trump be blamed on black people?????
No, Jamelle, as I submitted earlier at NYT:
When we talk about the “crony-capitalist ‘system’ which is set up to enrich only a few people by design, leaving 90 percent of Americans worse off than they were 30 years ago” [SV] — what we, and Bernie, should really be talking about — particularly Bernie should be shouting-out, and ‘Revolting Against’ in his campaign speeches, is that Disguised Global “Crony Capitalist” Empire, which is only nominally HQed in, and merely ‘posing’ as, our formerly “promising”, and sometimes progressive country (PKA) America, which could easily fire a; loud, public, sustained, ‘in-the-streets’, but totally non-violent “SHOUT (not shot) heard round the world” to ignite a Second American people’s peaceful and complete “Political/economic & social Revolution Against Empire” that could lead the world in democracy as our first one did in ‘76 — but without the muskets.
There are only two choices in this 'globalized world', either 'global democracy' or 'Global Empire' — and without another peaceful “Revolution Against Empire” [Justin du Rivage] we’re on the path to allowing this Disguised Global Crony Capitalist Empire to “roll on under the night” as an Empire rather than a democracy for all ‘we the American people’ and all citizens of our shared world.
Only America can do this new style Revolution, and only Bernie can lead “Our Revolution” to Dump Emperor Trump.
As my only demonstration sign simply says, we need to:
GET ‘WOKE’ &
‘FOLK’ THE
EMPIRE
3
This is the time for progressive's to step up to the plate and oust the despicable Trump. Everyone should feel a responsibility to protect our country from a despot. A corrupt, inept disgrace to the nation. Put the country first and take it back from racism and hate. Make a difference. Do what Bernie should do, fight for your country.
2
Vote blue no matter who. Please.
2
Sanders supporters lost their enthusiasm when it became obvious the purple people failed to stand with them. They're done playing the game. Game over. Play amongst yourselves:
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/12/09/great-american-shakedown
https://www.amazon.com/Killing-Host-Financial-Parasites-Bondage/dp/3981484282/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8
2
@David
so, David, you'll choose another 4 years of Donald? Then, it's on you.
The single fact is that Biden voters actually think the only thing wrong with circumstances in 2020 is Trump. That, in itself, is alarmingly ignorant.
6
@Andrew Biden voters are part of the problem. Things have to get worse obviously. Not hurting enough.
2
Have you no sense of decency?
2
I think it is a completearly false characterization to say Sanders is THE candidate of the Progressive left. Im gay, a witch, an anarchist and anti-heterosexual-overpopulation-letseatgaiatopieces...
And Ive never voted or hope for Sanders.
He is not what we need again Republican Evil
So by "unexpectedly controversial," I guess you mean "wears blackface that we would start the article with in all caps and the headline too if he were a Republican but he's one of ours so the racism thing can be shoved back into the holster until we use it again on our political foes. "
The great thing about selective outrage is that you never have to admit you're wrong.
fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me
I will be voting third party.
8
@M Lander
If you vote third party and the Donald wins, it's on you.
No, Jamelle, as I submitted here:
When we talk about that “crony-capitalist ‘system’ which is set up to enrich only a few people by design, leaving 90 percent of Americans worse off than they were 30 years ago” — what we, and Bernie, should really be talking about — particularly Bernie should be shouting-out, and ‘Revolting Against’ in his campaign speeches, is that Disguised Global “Crony Capitalist” Empire, which is only nominally HQed in, and merely ‘posing’ as, our formerly “promising”, and sometimes progressive country (PKA) America, which could easily fire a; loud, public, sustained, ‘in-the-streets’, but totally non-violent “SHOUT (not shot) heard round the world” to ignite a Second American people’s peaceful and complete “Political/economic & social Revolution Against Empire” that could lead the world in democracy as our first one did in ‘76 — but without the muskets.
There are only two choices in this 'globalized world', as you know Tom, either global democracy or Global Empire — and without another peaceful “Revolution Against Empire” [Justin du Rivage] we’re on the path to allowing this Disguised Global Crony Capitalist Empire to “roll on under the night” as an Empire rather than a democracy for all ‘we the American people’ and all citizens of our shared world.
Only America can do this new style Revolution, and only Bernie can lead “Our Revolution” to Dump Emperor Trump.
As my only demonstration sign simply says, we need to:
GET ‘WOKE’ &
‘FOLK’ THE
EMPIRE
2
If Trump promises to legalize cannabis, he will win in a landslide.
1
This country is a joke. Trump and Biden have been successful because some people are ignorant and mean. They care nothing for the uninsured. They love the corrupt and cruel.
5
The Democrat establishment won.
7
@Roland Berger
Isn't it interesting that Newt Gingrich was able to get all conservatives to set aside the common (I daresay proper) language and start saying "Democrat" establishment, instead of "Democratic" establishment... I'm a Democratic voter ... in the Democratic Party. But, you can just keep doing you, and keep honoring your inner Newt.
@teresa
Sorry. I am a French-speaking person.
Thank you for your note.
your doing it again democrats, letting the corrupt lead you down the garden path... Biden=Hillary= Trump victory...
2
fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me. Biden doesn’t have my vote.
1
Jamelle, ---- The 'Invisible Elephant' in the room at the 2020 election/selection/Revolution is Empire.
When we talk about a crony-capitalist ‘Empire’ which is designed to enrich only a few people, leaving many Americans poorer than they were 30 years ago — what we, and Bernie, should really be talking about — particularly Bernie should be shouting-out, and ‘Revolting Against’ in his campaign, is that a Disguised Global “Crony Capitalist” Empire, which is only nominally HQed in, and merely ‘posing’ as, our formerly “promising”, and sometimes progressive country (PKA) America, where we could easily fire a; loud, public, sustained, ‘in-the-streets’, but totally non-violent “SHOUT (not shot) heard round the world” to ignite a Second American people’s peaceful and complete “Political/economic & social Revolution Against Empire” to lead the world in democracy as our first one did in ‘76 — but without the muskets.
There are only two choices in this 'globalized world', either 'global democracy' or 'Global Empire' — and without a new peaceful “Revolution Against Empire” we’re on the path to allowing this Disguised Global Crony Capitalist Empire to “roll on under the night” as an Empire rather than a democracy for all ‘we the American people’ and all citizens of our shared world.
Only America can do this new peaceful Revolution, and only Bernie can lead “Our Revolution” to Dump Emperor Trump --- as we need to:
GET ‘WOKE’ &
‘FOLK’ THE
EMPIRE
2
As a great political philosopher from the London School of Economics and Political Science once said - " You can't always get what you want - but in time you get what you need".
1
I'm just afraid we don't have time for this gradualism. With climate change looming & coronavirus proving the need for healthcare for ALL, this kind of incrementalism seems deadly to me.
5
Seems to me the short term goal of unseating the Donald in 2020 tells only part of the story because, if Biden is successful in the general election, that only will beg the question of what happens next—as in 2024, 2028, etc. etc. I raise this point because the nation must protect itself against the poison of Mark Meadows, Ivanka, Kevin McCarthy, Donald, Jr., Devin Nunes, Ted Cruz, et al. Many would be certain to have their eyes on the Oval Office, and each would be an unmitigated disaster for the viability of the country. While certainly getting Biden sworn in next January is Priority 1, the issue of what happens next looms. With that consideration in mind, what potential Democratic vice-presidential candidates allure progressives while not alienating moderates and have the high public profile to run for the presidency in 2024? Mayor Pete? Kamala Harris? Andrew Yang? Mitch Landrieu? Stacey Abrams? Cory Booker? It’s wonderful to see the nation uniting to unseat the current problem, but it also deserves a longer term strategy to forestall the authoritarian, dishonest and manipulative proclivities of the Republican Party now and in the future.
1
@Mark Larsen
well said, Mark.
It may not be so much that Sanders pulled the party to the left. But rather that he gave voice to a shift that was happening anyway. Trump may have pushed people toward the left as well.
No, you don’t get it. An establishment candidate like Biden (or, yes, Trump) can not give progressives what they want. They’ll only make some bland promises and then won’t fulfill them. Hillary, Bill, Obama, Biden: all establishment candidates. Bernie was the only chance for them in the last, well, ever in our lifetime. You haven’t walked a mile in their shoes, just like people like me can’t understand Trump supporters.
3
What about the people who don't want Biden at all? We're not all Sanders supporters, you know. I strongly doubt that Biden can or will win against Trump. His age and seeming mental wandering (I wouldn't presume to "diagnose" whatever is going on with Biden, but there's something, and its quite clear if you compare him today to him eight years ago.) aside, he's promised to be the "big daddy" to the terrified Democrats who want only to be comfortable. We have urgent looming disasters, and he and they want to sit in rocking chairs and just stay in their comfort zones. Lest you think I'm ageist, I'm nearly 68. I'd love to be able to enjoy a comfort zone, but I look around and wonder how anyone can feel comfortable with all that confronts us, and particularly with a president who seems to think that is the thing that matters the very most. That engenders no hope nor any confidence in our future, near or a bit more distant.
Sure, Biden (and a whole host of others) could/would be better than Trump. But a potato would be better than Trump; such a very very low bar. Why do we not want a better potato? Why must we settle for a head-in-the-sand potato? Why do we want for president a man who is focused on soothing every one (to say nothing of his delusions of "working" with Republicans, who have already amply demonstrated those AS delusions), instead of being a strong leader? Sorry to be bursting the illusory bubble of the promise of comfort. It won't be what we get.
2
I would have greatly preferred someone much younger, less white and less male but us Democrats got to get this together and get Trump outta there. Plain and simple. We could do much worse than Joe Biden - and we are.
1
Smarter more mature progressives know that-intuitivelly
Hopefully younger less seasoned ones will learn that wuivkly snd get past their anger
Case in point LBJ and
Medicare
Voting Rights nills
Civil rights bill
LBJ was not noted for being a progressive
"Same as it ever was"
Talking Heads
"United States of Amnesia "
Gore Vidal
5
Comparing Joe Biden to Ralph Northam does indeed seem apt - both share a history of bumbling racism that Dems would simply rather not think about.
1
For all those who have to spend the next 8 months defending Biden's record: Good luck!
2
Elizabeth Warren as VP will get Biden my vote.
‘Bernie Bros’ are probably not even Bernie supporters. Just a dirty trick to get you to be afraid of the only truly democratic policies in favor of the American oligarchs choices, Biden/Warren/Clinton/Trump, who will keep every last penny from the vanishing middle class not trickling, but gushing up. More deaths of despair, until the American people realize how justified they are to want guillotines instead of despair.
but IF the bernie side won’t come out to vote for whoever wins the nomination, then Biden will NOT go on to win the presidency. today’s bernie media in journals and on social media is (i guess understandably) all about how biden is a senile rightwing neoliberal. the bernie voters (who already didn’t come out in droves) will be needed to form a coalition. when are they going to pronounce that formulation? we will need all voters to oppose a trumpian future in nov.
It's a mystery to me why we are arguing: it is clear to me that the people have chosen Biden, and aren't we a democracy? Bernie supporters, hear the clarion call of democracy, and work for Biden to oust the con-man that is holding us all hostage. Don't stay home and pout because the majority chose someone you did not choose. I speak as someone who campaigned, door knocked and phone banked for Elizabeth Warren, and who still believes she would have been the best president and would have squashed Trump like the maggot he is. But the people did not agree with me, and I will now fight with the people to maximize the value of my vote, and I will canvass in down ballot races to encourage the more progressive candidates where those candidates can make a difference. We need every single one of us to get Trump out: remember, he has Putin on his side as well as all the world's sycophants with money.
@Maria no we are not a democracy look it up
1
Bernie supporters should be really mad now as the democrats stole their election a second time. This time with a brain addled old man who forgets his words. Unbelievable! I don't hear Bernie grasping for words or the incessant squinting that Joe does when he forgets something. I also haven't heard Bernie "lose it" when asked a question. Sort of sad that this is the best that the democrats can deliver and what they are doing to Bernie...!
2
This latest tactic of NY Times writers is not only absurd, it’s offensive. For weeks, if not months, you’ve published article after article denigrating Sanders and his supporters. He was either going to destroy America with his radical beyond the pale ideas like Medicare for all, of his mild praising of the high literacy rate in Castros’ Cuba, making Sanders akin to Pol Pot, or just pounding home the “fact” despite polls to the contrary, that he was unelectable.
Now, this is the 3rd article this week which says that tells progressives to not fear Biden’s surge, which the Times helped to create, but that. identity is actually quite progressive, even more than Bernie. Give me a break! Exit polls said that voters actually favored Medicare for all, yet just this week in an interview on MDNBC, Biden said that if as president, if this bill somehow made it through Congress and landed on his desk, he would VETO it. Yet you have the audacity to claim he is actually progressive and will get things done. Yes right, he’ll get things done, but none of the will help progressive ideas.
1
No, Jamelle.
Supporters of Bernie's Socialist Revolution will not intimidate the majority of Americans into adopting your program.
We voted for a moderate.
We are going to offer Americans a moderate program.
You guys lost.
Get over it.
1
@Simon Sez
What happened to Pete and Bloomberg?
I’ll get over it when I vote for Trump.
Your headline is true. In other words don't identity obsess or hold people to ideological purity like you, Hillary, Bernie and a host of others do in the Democratic Party.
2
Right on. If Biden is smart he'll have Elizabeth Warren write the platform. Vote BLUE!
1
Disappointed? You act like Biden has 1,991 delegates. Didn't you bury Biden two weeks ago? Talk to me when the primary is over.
2
Many Sander's supporters need to know Joe supports:
1. Better movie roles for transgender actors
2. Farm to table food for the homeless- prepared by celebrity chefs.
3. More LGBTQ owned electric car dealerships
4. Lifetime backstage passes to Coachella
5. Fee condos for undocumented immigrant workers
6. A vegan only state [possibly Connecticut]
7. Mandatory midnight holistic healing drum circles
8. Tye-die Thursdays
9. Service dogs allowed during open heart surgery
10. Free Weed!
2
Bernie Fans: Want to honor your Hero? VOTE. A straight Democratic Ticket. Otherwise, you’re part of the problem.
Just saying.
It may be reasonable to hope that Biden will take a bit more of a progressive approach on certain issues given where the party and country are at now. Some of his votes and bills sponsored that are controversial to progressives now were politically popular (tough on crime in the early 90s and the Iraq War initially had 70% approval of the public) or many people didn’t care (bankruptcy bill). Given how significantly public opinion has changed after the Iraq War and the financial crisis, it’s possible he will have a different approach.
Biden is an old school politician who makes deals and goes where public opinion is at. However, if he is elected and attempts to hire retreads from the Obama and Clinton Administrations (Rahm Emanuel, Larry Summers, Bill Daley), people from the banker wing of the party, progressives can count on Warren to be all over him.
1
Are the Sanders supporters going to again hand Trump victory by throwing their votes away on third party candidates, or not even showing up to vote in November? Sure, the Democratic party worked in favor of Biden and against Sanders because they believe (as do most of the Democratic electorate) that Biden has the best chance of beating Trump. The word is pragmatism-it may not appeal to Sanders supporters, but Trump is their only alternative. I hope they can figure that out by November.
I want Trump gone as much as anybody, but I don't want to see my taxes nearly double to pay for Medicare for All.
Still, I did some quick Google searches, and there are indeed some elements of the Sanders agenda that can be realized without massive tax increases. A $15 minimum wage changes nobody's taxes, and is already supported by Joe Biden. Free child care and free college are estimated at $70 billion/$80 billion, respectively, amounting to a total of about 4% of the federal budget. This looks doable with relatively modest tax increases, and there are lots of opportunities to compromise by simply subsidizing them, rather than making them completely free.
There are opportunities for progressives to get at least some of what they want, but only if a Democrat is in the White House. With a Republican in charge, even a minimum wage increase becomes an impossibility.
A big part of the disappointment is realizing how corporate the media on the left is, how when it comes down to, it they won't practice what they preach.
I've read article after article about the dire importance of climate change, the plight of the poor and underrepresented, the terrible problems of lobby influenced politicians.
Then when a candidate comes along who is actually serious about taking drastic measures to curb climate change, who actually is not in the pockets of powerful corporatists, who really wants to make major changes for the benefit of the people of the country who are otherwise left behind comes along, the very media writing those articles do what they can to mischaracterize him, ignore inconvenient facts, mock and alienate his supporters, and work with the Democratic establishment to eliminate him.
The disappointment is that the media and party that supposedly is there to represent the people's interest is actually more interested in the bottom line, just like the right.
8
We elect a candidate, and then our work begins. Too many folks suffer from the false belief that once we elect our representatives, our responsibility ends. Senator Bernie Sanders offered plenty of progressive ideas. Still, he does not explain precisely how he will bring his campaign promises to fruition, short of suggesting his faith that a revolution will occur. Vice President Biden offers incremental changes but does not provide sexy transformational changes in his platform. Both are good men with different ideas about how to implement progressive ideas.
Biden resonates now in part due to the nonstop chaos and craziness that is Donald J. Trump and the complicit GOP. A return to normalcy is something many take for granted during a normal presidency; currently, that promise is a premium.
Selects Sanders or Biden does not end our responsibility to hold them accountable through our representatives, through protest, through political pressure. We, the electorate, must realize our responsibility and apply our collective power to make our government work for us. To the extent we do not, others will exploit that power for their purposes and often to our detriment.
Any victorious candidate still requires a constant reminder of this fact. No politician deserves or should enjoy a pass from fact-based information nor constructive public pressure. The GOP and Trump exemplify this antithesis of this truth and the consequence of ignoring it.
Right again, JB.
"But Biden, like Northam, is a creature of the party. He doesn’t buck the mainstream, he accommodates it. He doesn’t reject the center, he tries to claim it."
If Trump AND McConnell are both turned out this fall, Joe Biden will become the most progressive president in US History.
Give some credit to Sanders and Warren for puling Biden and the other also runs in the first three primaries to the far left of what Hillary ran on last time.
A Biden win and the response to the Coronavirus pandemic will quickly bring about the implementation of two leftist objectives: Single payer healthcare and universal paid sick leave.
1
Thanks for this pep talk - but as a Sanders or Warren voter, I'm despondent. "Pragmatism" continues to carry the day - and contrary to some of the posts here, I would submit that today's pragmatism is largely code for fear and conceded powerlessness - and with some good reason to be.
First - let's note that the "pragmatic" and "ideological" democratic votes (I hope we can agree that these are both profoundly unhelpful terms) - have much in common. But in my view, the most critical difference is the impression among incrementalists that we actually have the luxury of time to move the needle slowly - whether measured in election cycles or decades. Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and thousands in the scientific community are trying to signal to us that we are up against the clock. Big time.
But incrementalism is less threatening. Incrementalism is less disruptive. Incrementalism allows us to drive our SUV to drop off our kids at soccer practice (but hey, they're hybrids!) and buy foods and purchase mobile phone docking stations flown or trucked in from hundreds or thousands of miles away. Incrementalism is, we are knowingly warned, the only way to actually "get things done".
We've been doing this for 40 years. How's the world looking?
3
"Progressive", "liberal", "moderate" - or whatever other etiquette one wants to stick on a possible democratic presidency - I think the most important goal that exists for any new democratic President (keeping my fingers crossed!) would be to reform the American system of how it choses it´s political leaders.
This would include:
- remove the Electorate College, (am I naive?)
- abolish Gerrymandering,
- make sure that voter suppression cannot happen,
- minimize the impact of money on elections by putting away SuperPacs.
- install save voting systems, even if it means to go back to paper based voting (look how other countries do it.)
Once this is established a next President could see to it that true reforms happen in the areas of health care, wealth distribution, education etc etc.
Can a democratic President achieve this in 4 years? Idon´t know, but who says one mustn´t dream?
Biden needs to pick his VP VERY carefully. His top priority should be to pick someone that Sanders' supporters will like. Perhaps he should ask Bernie for his opinion before choosing.
1
@MJ Not a chance. Biden and the DNC very clearly want to win without Bernie supporters and they believe they've found the path through the suburbs of the battleground states. That's their calculation. None of his supporters who have been smeared relentlessly throughout the campaign are going to buy into any shallow peace offering. The vast majority will vote for Biden, as they did in '16 (and, contrary to popular belief, at a much higher rate than HRC voters did Obama), it's the people the Party openly despises that they have to worry about. You saw pundits who have made a huge deal about emojis and tweets last night suddenly stop and think, "wait, Biden is doing pretty terrible with people under the age of 45. This type of coronation and party leaders advocating that the DNC shut it down and cancel the debates and primaries may not be a good thing." The lack of self-awareness is astonishing.
2
@Alex Yes and they've made it very clear this time how very much they despise anyone who doesn't think as they do. I voted for Hillary in 2016 because that was the right thing for me to do then but three and a half years of Trump plus the Democrat's response has changed everything for me. They neither want nor need me and I feel the same way about them. I've gotten the message loud and clear and am happy to start another party with fellow disaffected former Democrats.
1
Progressive ideas move on and continue to gather momentum. While Sanders was the megaphone of a disaffected electorate -writ large- he was never meant to get elected. Never would have been . The one person who could, was swiftly destroyed by the likes of Bloomberg and his moneyed friends, in collusion with the mainstream media. That’s the reason we need a more diverse talent of reporters From gardening to health care for all, the writers are from the same pool of, mainly, NYC “talent”.
I voted for Warren in the primaries because I thought she was the best candidate. I'll vote for Biden now because I'll do whatever I can to get Trump and Company out of the White House. No, Biden is not perfect. (By the way, neither is Sanders.) But we just cannot make any progress or even have an inkling of hope if we keep eating our own while the Trumpites sit back and enjoy the spectacle. The number one priority at this point is to defeat Trump, and it's entirely possible to do that if we put our minds to it. Now is not the time to throw in the towel, it's the time to unite to throw out Trump. I know Bernie Sanders would urge you the same thing.
1
I agree with this editorial. Even if elected, Sanders would not be a deus ex machina that would relieve us of our duty to struggle. In a Biden administration, though, we can continue to fight for our needs democratically. In a 2nd Trump administration, we’ll be fighting for much lesser goals (such as, perhaps, the simple right to vote) in the streets with signs, chants and the occasional Molotov for emphasis. And it could be much worse. Let’s choose the democratic option.
And I am a staunch Sanders supporter.
4
Many of the pro -Sanders comments have a familiar ring. In 2018 progressives thought that nominating moderate candidates in swing districts would be a gigantic mistake. Sanders like supporters would certainly be more be more electable was the thought. The D's would never take back the House if such progressives were not the candidates. Well, we know the results. Moderates won. Now we are hearing the same strategy from Sanders supporters. Biden can't win because he's not progressive enough. Well, you have to get elected first and then make changes. Hopefully Biden will do that and that Sanders' supporters support Biden or whoever the D nominee is. I know that I will and will support all D's down ballot.
1
A fine column.
I like Bernie a lot. But I also like winning. In the US, unlike many other countries, reform on the national level can only come through the Democratic party. That's been true since FDR. Bernie admitted that tacitly by never trying to create his own party. Bernie supporters should embrace the Party as their party. As Bouie says so rightly, the Party DID embrace a lot of Bernie's platform already. It's the only way ANY of his program can be passed into law. But it was Obama who won and his VP who has the best chance of winning as things stand.
Bernie supporters need to accept that. Use the party and not fulminate against it's skulduggery.
If bernie is smart and cares more about his program than his own last shot at glory he will embrace Biden with a set of demands. Legalizing marijuana is a sure winner for instance. On foreign policy and finance reform Bernie is way ahead of Biden.
1
Scratching my head. For positivism, I usually look elsewhere. To see it in your column is unsettling. Yes, I will vote for Biden. But no, neo-liberalism can't turn back 40 years of the right's seizure of most of our state and federal government; SCOTUS and the federal judiciary in particular. If Trump were to lose, would the GOP, to borrow from Susan Collins, have learned its lesson? Would they govern cooperatively; or come roaring back like they did in 2014, more weaponized to implement anti-democracy backed by a fawning judiciary? As an astute student of Virginia's history, how long did prior progressive Springs last in the Old Dominion? With or without Trump in the WH, the Right possesses the resources to render any defensive wins by the Center temporary. Yes, beat Trump by all means. The best post-election outcome to counter the far more strategically driven Right would be the creation of a mass based (compared to big donor driven) uncompromisingly pro-democracy organization. The Center is gone and we need to move forward.
5
@ThomHouse THIS is why I do not want Biden and will deal with 4 more years of Trump. The GOP will not learn anything by being "rewarded" with a Joe Biden Presidency nor will they cooperate with him. This is all welcome but interpreted as weakness. Trump must be put down decisively and replaced with his opposite or we will be dealing with much worse.
2
I voted for Warren in the primaries because I thought she was the best candidate. I'll vote for Biden now because I'll do whatever I can to get Trump and Company out of the White House. No, Biden is not perfect. (By the way, neither is Bernie.) But we just cannot make any progress or even have an inkling of hope if we keep eating our own while the Trumpets sit back and enjoy the spectacle. The number one priority at this point is to defeat Trump, and it's entirely possible to do that if we put out minds to it. Now is not the time to throw in the towel, it's the time to unite. I know Bernie Sanders would agree.
1
We Dems must keep our eyes on the prize: defeat Trump, win back the Senate and steadily, efficiently promote an agenda that advances the environment, health care, education, civil rights and more. If a blue wave washes away the Republican held senate, we will experience a sea change.
1
It is largely lost on the electorate that most change happens at the state and local level, not with the presidency. I highly recommend watching John Oliver's show about state legislatures (from the first season) for an eye-opening education on this.
If you are so deflated that your candidate didn't win the nomination, please please please!! go vote the rest of the ticket. Gerrymandering and voter suppression happen at the state level. State legislators go on to become federal legislators. If you really want progress, get it happening where you live. Or run for local office!
1
I am so done with the Democratic party.
11
Bernie should have never vied for the Democratic nomination to begin with. His best shot was 2016. He should have built a true grassroots third party. He was never going to beat the Hillary Democratic machine. The voting public was the most dissatisfied with both parties and the constantly looming government shutdowns every six weeks. Bernie could have wrapped his movement in the flag of American iconography and ideals. He could have called his party “The American People Party” The 2020 primary has shown that a good portion of the people would have chose him over Trump in the general election.
Sorry Biden, but that was the real “election for the American soul” not 2020. It is lost and maybe lost forever to Bernie.
1
By definition isn't a Democratic "moderate" somewhat left of a Republican "moderate." And won't Biden most likely have to deal with a narrowly Republican Senate. In that case, to get significant legislation passed, won't he have to broker a compromise between left and right moderates, rather than left moderates and farther left progressives? I still think, within this model, Biden can do a world of good by shoring up Obama Care, making incremental steps towards addressing the important issues raised by Sanders (using "moderate" solutions), reversing many of the bad administrative moves made by Trump and, unfortunately, possibly dealing with a virus-induced recession.
Business as usual reigns. The real outcome is that the uniparty (like that term) of elites, Wall Street, monied parents and their little princelings and princesses, insurance companies, banks and their pet legislators will stay in place and the gravy.
The economy will be for them - the Ivankas, Hunters, Chelseas, Erics, etc. Bret, Friedman, Chuck Todd will pontificate. Pass the brie and Chablis.
The crazy act of Donald will be over. The diminished capacity act of Joe will be on stage - but the handlers will keep in him check.
But wait - crazy Joe might have lit the fire against him with his rant about gun rights and straight forward and profanity laced view of confiscation and banning AR-14s (huh?).
That turn out might send him back to shuffle board and claiming his doesn't cheat at Bridge (My word as a Biden).
I fail to understand the African-American community not to understand that that mantra of:
Here's the deal.
Number One - Barack
Number Two - Barack
Number Three - Barack
was just a ploy, given Joe's clear history of overt and impiicit actions against them.
Trump is a horror, but chosen one Mantra from the Elites for Joe, turned back a decent progressive candidate and/or stymied decent younger folks like Cory.
What is interesting is a spread of a disease (not Corona) but Lindsey Graham syndrome. That's when you denounce your opponent as a vile racist and then when said opponent succeeds, you become a toady. Can you say Kamala (make me VP)?
8
As Trump continues to lord it over the American people in the most brazen jejune manner imaginable, his toadies in the Senate applaud him as if he some golden knight. In fact, he is a foul-mouthed, poorly informed, embarrassment to our country. We have watched this Republican administration, how it egregiously and pompously helped to shred the very foundations our country was based on. If Biden becomes our party's ticket, he must put on the armor and do as Bernie has done for years, rage against the iniquities, do battle against these monstrous self-serving worms, and bring our country back to a place we can be proud of.
Hoping the progressive craving for a more just society remains, but now it comes out in policies to jump start an evolution through marketplace forces.
One excellent example, the civil option, can force health insurance companies to either play fair of not at all. A much bigger deal than it seems.
1
1.) the defeat of Trump
2.) A competent administration with experienced people.
3.) left of center federal judges
4.) gun control
5.) environmental reform
6.) more fairness in the tax code
Even if nothing else happens, this short list should be more than enough to motivate all of us, regardless of who we supported in the primaries.
No one ever wants to settle for half a loaf, but when you're starving, half a loaf is pretty good.
Support Joe Biden with everything you've got.
4
Read your Robert Caro, people, nothing happens without the Senate.
4
Research in neuroscience demonstrates that emotional contagion is real - and we just saw stunning evidence of it in the so-called Biden wave of the last two weeks. Yes, there are many factors at play, but fear brought us here - and party politics. If the DNC thinks that interventions to "block" the Bernie campaign by Clyburn and Carville are "democratic," they are wildly mistaken. They will be seen for what they are - proof that the party really does not understand the magnitude of the problems (of which trumpism is a symptom) we face. Vote for Biden out of desperation, yes. But what kind of energy, will and enthusiasm does that leave for millions of voters, especially for new voters whose hope has been diluted?
3
The party just handed the election to a Donald Trump.
6
There's a good chance that "Biden the Bridge" won't be around for too long, given his age. Bernie needs to stay in all the way to the convention, even if Biden has the nomination locked, in order to try and force the convention to select a reasonably progressive VP for Biden.
7
I want another party. It must be built from the local on up. Trying to take only the cherry off the DNC cake is not possible. Everyone knows that demographics are changing and all these non white new voters need a party that actually represents them. I sincerely hope that Biden is elected but one cannot expect much hope and change, we already saw how that worked out with Obama. If Democratic Socialism a la 1880's culminating in Roosevelt style governance is to come about it will take candidates at a local level to assuage peoples unreasonable fears associated with socialism. Looking back to the pre communist era is inspirational. Communism ruined socialism as surely as Trumpism is ruining capitalism. This is a backward place, years of education cuts, lack of civics education, destruction of unions and the utter command of money have made it little more a criminal enterprise catering only to the rich. Bernies mistake was in not framing his ideals and aspirations as historically and distinctly American. Fear in part drove this since the ability of the average American to understand nuance is clearly low. I have said that Neoliberals both loaded the gun and put it to Bernies peoples head. The bullet in the chamber is Trump. Neoliberals made Trump happen and now they'll use the fear of 4 more years of Trump to demand our vote. Well they'll get it from me but it is time to start planning for the future and for me that means a new party to actually get to hope and change.
5
I told you if the corrupt DNC tries to shove Biden down my throat, I’d go with Trump.
Not voting for Biden under any circumstances
Voting Trump.
6
I’m sure you’ll get nice cards from not only trump, but the dead kids and the dead whales.
Way to go. You know in five years you’ll be a Republican, right?
1
My concern is that, after only 4 states had elections, 46 states were disenfranchised/voter suppressed because we never got to express our own preferences. And now, if Sanders drops out, there will be one candidate left for the Democratic race. What happens to the rest of the states that never got a chance to vote? Voting for one candidate only is like what they did in the Soviet Union. I wanted Pete Buttigieg in the worst way. Now we are stuck with two aging straight white men. NO diversity, except that one of them is a stutterer (disability).
If I had my druthers, I would rather have ONE primary day and the candidate with the most votes gets the nomination--not this crazy whittling down going on. New York State still hasn't voted. What's next?
3
Great article - hopefully Sanders and his supporters will do what’s right for the country.
And not behave like they did in 2016, when Sanders and his supporters basically elected Donald Trump by not showing up to vote.
3
@Steven I'm not sure you understand how this works. Sanders' supporters owe you nothing. They owe Biden nothing. He has to earn our support, and leaking a proposed administration made up of Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan is a very poor start.
1
I am not reading any concerns for children incarcerated at our southern border, for refugees fleeing violence directed at them and their families who are being thrust back into dangerous conditions by the enforcers of this administration’s policies. And I have not heard Biden say anything or demonstrate any empathy or commitment to these people who live in cages we have created. Until then, Biden is better than trump, but not much.
2
@SS Beto O Rourke and others will not let
Biden forget them. If he does, we may just lose California.
It seems the Progressive Left is not just a minority in America, it is even a minority inside the Democratic Party. So why it has such an oversized role in the media? (not in the NYTimes, luckily)
2
The Trump debacle has exposed the fragility of democracy in the US. The first order of business is to shore that up. This is not a liberal or conservative agenda. It should be an American agenda and priority.
2
Why do the Democrats seem so naive?
The Sanders campaign was the victim of a well-planned , well organized, and well-funded attack by a powerful group within the establishment.
Bloomberg was injected into the Democratic race for the sole purpose of dividing the Party and destroying the Sanders campaign. He built a band wagon, gathered enough voters to his side, and then loaded his bandwagon with his followers and it to the candidate considered the best bet to beat Sanders. The chosen recipient was Biden. Ready to act was another part of the team which got to work in the media (including Friedman, Stephens, Brooks, and Krugman in the NYT) which pushed the now Biden band wagon as hard as they could, dragging voters away from Sanders.
Today we see Sanders was left standing in the dust, victim of the establishment machine (for the second time).
American Democrats were taken for a ride (again).
8
@Greg Establishment ? People standing 6 hours in line to vote. Hardly, the people not the establishment have spoken.
Patience, Bernie voters, patience. One step towards the progress we want is far better than not supporting Joe and potentially taking another giant Trumpian step backwards and falling into the abyss. Large political change in a democracy can take time, as the battles for civil rights, LGBTQ+ rights and still not-won equal rights have shown. The primaries have revealed that the majority of democrats are not yet convinced by Bernie's sweeping vision. But that doesn't mean those tens of millions of voters won't learn and become convinced as Bernie's less immediately ambitious or Bernie-lite policies are implemented over the next 4 to 8 years under a Biden administration.
The long-term progressive agenda could be better served if Joe's the nominee. Even if Bernie won the presidency, he'd get nothing done if McConnell continues to control the Senate. Many centrist democrats, independents and moderate republicans might vote for Bernie to get rid of Trump but then vote for republicans for Congress to check Bernie's most liberal plans. Then McConnell could block everything, even re small steps, and try to rebuild anti-democratic animus for 2024. Centrists voting for Biden may feel comfortable with a Democratic Senate, allowing Joe to implement the smaller steps Bernie might not be able to achieve, and enabling the larger electorate to learn and appreciate over Biden's term the virtues of Bernie's larger agenda, and to trust a more progressive candidate in 2028.
4
There’s no time to wait. Joe’s policy on the climate will be too little too late. 130,000 Americans will die in the next decade from Joes plan. The rich will keep getting richer and richer and the middle class will continue being crushed by student debt. Poor people will continue being unable to dream of sending their kids for college. Patience is for comfortable Baby Boomers who aren’t going to see the world burn.
1
This was just as true in 2016, when we had the most progressive platform in a century and convention rules reform written by Bernie and his people.
They still abandoned that because they didn't "like" the candidate going forward with that platform. And we got what we deserved.
They also don't understand that, in order to get rid of "incrementalism," they'll have to scrap our Constitution and write a new one. Any "despair" is of their own making, which makes it harder to assuage.
The only hope in a Joe Biden presidency- is a true progressive Vice President to literally PUSH him into the 21st Century. It should not be Kamala Harris; she is brilliant but many would see her as "just" a West-Coast Elite. ( I am a West Coast liberal who likes Harris. He should save her for the Supreme Court.)
Nope. Biden needs Stacy Abrams- a daughter of the South who is an astute tactician. She would be able to bridge the gaps of perception and ideology among Republicans and Democrats.
6
"feels like one where the Democratic establishment has successfully marginalized the progressive left ".
It is insulting to suggest that Democrats have been hoodwinked by the so called Democratic establishment to vote for Joe Biden. We voted for hm because we think has the best chance of winning. It is also perplexing to suggest that
progressives own liberalism. The Democratic party was progressive well before Bernie Sanders arrived in Washington. LBJ was not a progressive, his policies transformed the country. Sander's base of support was smaller than he or his true supporters realized. Some significant percentage of it, was rabidly against HRC.
I for one am relieved that Democrats have finally united and left all that Clinton rancor behind them.
2
This article is getting WAY ahead of our reality at this moment. It presumes that, with Bernie out of the race, we can, as we did in 2016, feel confident we will win the White House. Perfect way to lose it. I have been a strong supporter of Bernie-- donating hundreds of dollars from my poverty-level income plus my time canvassing. I will vote for Joe if he is the nominee. But not one cent will I donate. Joe can get his money from the billionaires he intends to keep happy. If Joe needs people to make calls to swing states, his billionaire donors can pay them $15/hr. But that will still be a job I won't take. And if you want other Bernie supporters to join me in voting for Joe, then I suggest that YOU personally put your time and money into that. Maybe, now that he is the only candidate you can explain why he is still the best candidate to beat Trump. I can't do that because I am so doubtful that he is. Got that, Biden voters? It's now YOUR race to beat Trump.
7
@Richard Seyman
The part I love is that progressives are expected to support the moderates but the reverse isn't true. The moderates are greedy and selfish.
1
The longterm concern should be that one's voters don't seem to grasp how the Electoral College works.
3
Bernie and his Bros can extend their influence over the Democratic mainstream by simply dropping the nomenclature of Socialism. Bernie isn't a Socialist, given that he doesn't adhere to the Marxist concept of government ownership of all forms of business and property. He simply believes in a strong social safety net and on firm regulations that prevent CEOs from exploiting their workers, befouling the environment and eliminating competition from start-ups and small-business owners. So do the rest of us! We can argue about just how far we want to go in terms of restructuring the tax codes, etc. but this can't happen so long as the voluntary deployment of the word "Socialism" is gumming up the works.
6
@stu freeman except if you look at his past support for communists (USSR, Sandanistas, etc) and his past position statements, he is a Socialist in sheep'c clothing.
"Disappointed supporters of Bernie Sanders can actually get a lot of what they want through the medium of Joe Biden."
This is akin to offering the Brooklyn Bridge for sale. Mr. Biden has been consistent in his support of banks, credit card companies, and the like, and now you are telling us the leopard will change its spots?
No, this is indeed a moment for despair--an election between someone who is mentally and morally deficient against someone who is the ultimate insider for the established class.
12
@Che Beauchard Despair is not a trait that will get of
Donald Trump .
@Irene Cantu
The fact that Mr. Trump is mentally and morally deficient does not change the fact that Mr. Biden is the ultimate insider for the established class. We should not pretend otherwise just because we might like to see Mr. Trump marched off in handcuffs. I see no reason to vote for Mr. Biden except for the extraordinarily horrible nature of Mr. Trump, and we should not pretend otherwise. If that's not reason for despair, what would be? I'm sure that lots of folk will caste a despairing vote this year. There is no joy in this.
1
For young voters, it really is Bernie or Bust on so many issues. Joe Biden’s platform on climate is far to weak to create any meaningful change to the environment. Joe Biden will not fight for a living wage, the decriminalization of marijuana, medicare for all (his plan will allow 13000 uninsured/underinsured Americans to die each year), universal child care, free public college, canceling student debt, wall street speculation tax, and so many other policies which young voters view as absolutely essential.
The democratic establishment said they were willing to damage the party to prevent Bernie, and I think because of how important those issues are to young voters they will do the same for Biden. Sure, the party has moved left, but Biden’s platform is far too conservative to excite young voters. In fact, a majority of all voters support the platform proposed by Bernie Sanders, but simply vote for Biden because they think he has a better chance of winning. Unfortunately that is not a winning strategy for the general election.
11
Then young voters need to get involved building a foundation for change.
2
Biden is not a foundation for change. He’s more of the status quo...
I’m not sure what you mean. They’re trying, but 6 hour long lines and news alerts declaring a winner while people are still in line suppress the young vote more than anything.
I appreciate Mr Bouie's attention to the reality of political change, and the textbook example from the most recent VA legislative session. Thank you.
At the same time, I'm really tired of the assumption that the only people who "count" as Progressive are Sen Sanders' supporters. I'm 71 years old and I've held Progressive values since I was young. I want most of what Sen Sanders proposes in his platform (although I'm still wrestling with MMT).
I don't support Sen Sanders precisely because he is what Mr Bouie calls him: an ideologue. Ideologues, in my experience, do not get results; pragmatists, like those who won seats in the VA legislature and moved public policy to the left, do. Of course a President Biden would move policy to the left, especially with the support of a growing Progressive group in the House. For example, Medicare for All Who Want It would be a great boon to thousands of Americans; it's wrong to dismiss policy change that meets their needs and improves their well-being because the outcome isn't "Progressive enough."
Please. Stop equating Progressivism with support for Sen Sanders. That's like equating respect for the Second Amendment with support for unfettered individual rights to own firearms. They are not the same.
6
Right there with you. In both age and attitude.
If, Biden wins the nomination --
Bernie will have alot of delegates that gives him -
Big Leverage - in writing the Democratic Platform that Biden will run on.
Bernie's passionate issues:
Healthcare is a Right not a Privilege for All Americans.
Adding a personal option to choosing Medicare (for all ages) with revised improved Obamacare.
College Debt Forgiveness
Corporate Accountability
Wealth tax increase
And many more of Bernie's campaign visions will end up in Democratic Platform - just as he leveraged with Clinton for the 2016 Platform -
We saw all the 2020 Democratic candidates running on their own versions of Bernie's 2016 platform.
So, Bernie will strengthen the Democratic Platform for the health, wealth and well being of All Americans - even though it will be Biden who is the nominee.
Biden will continue to create broad collations of people - unifying an healing our country.
Bernie weaving his platform into Biden's message of Unity and Healing is a huge win for all Americans --
Let's hope Bernie's supporters recognize this and support Biden - to beat Trump - to unify and heal our country.
I say all of this as an Elizabeth Warren supporter.
6
Before anyone declared as a candidate, I projected that Biden would run and win the nomination. Not because I wanted him, thought we needed him, or thought he would beat Trump. I projected this due to the Democratic Party "machine," the fact that Americans learn nothing from history anymore, and that Americans care so little for their fellow people. I'm old, white, childless, as privileged as one can be without being a man, a member of the professional class felled early by an autoimmune disease, but I don't have to worry about falling out of the class into which I made my way. Wow, wonder why I don't support Biden? Because I care about the many, many inequalities in this country. That's why I haven't moved to Nova Scotia or somewhere in Norway yet, although they are both beautiful, lovely, and much more forward-thinking. Yes, they do have their own sets of problems, but I prefer that set of problems.
When the middle class shrinks to very little, they will regret they did not follow Sanders or Warren. They'll get it then. And by then, it will be too late. Fortunately, for now, I am fairly safe in Vermont.
17
Guess what got Trump elected? Forty years of neoliberal Reaganism and Clintonism, to which we can now add Bidenism, which will set us up nicely for the next "Trump" in eight years.
Well, every democracy has the leaders it deserves, it says alot about the state of the union and what Gore Vidal called the two wings of the Bank Party .
15
Biden can extend a hand. Progressives need to take it. Biden needs to do more to bring them in than just extend a hand. Certainly more than Hillary did. Bernie gets criticized for less than full throated endorsement of Hillary, but it was actually the lack of the Hillary campaign to make a respectful plea. She thought she did not need them. Today, Biden needs them. Extend a hand, throw a rope, reach out will both hands and give progressives a hug, bring them in Joe. You need them. The country needs them. Respect them, and they will come.
1
Progressives are actually regressive. The idea that people who work should pay for those who don’t want to work is an old and tired idea that has been and always will be rejected in this country.
Stop all the hand wringing. Trump will be re-elected.
2
@Olivia
Agree. There are plenty of people in this country who would prefer to hang out in coffee shops all day, writing their "novel", while getting a check from the government. Let the lazy starve.
As much as I may agree emotionally with so-called "progressive" policies I do believe that a President Biden not a President Trump will move our nation closer to better health care, equality, social justice, and respect for law, education, and science. Biden is also more likely than Bernie to beat Trump.
4
Or Sanders, or Trump. No Biden. Globalization require, demand, urges from people at the WH to possess some type of non conventional personality. Trump is not the ideal person for reasons everybody knows, and Sanders may pretend too much. But, both have the energy that will allow this country to wrestle with the challenge of globalization. I don't believe Biden is in that position. His fragility and conventionalism are not match for the cruel world of today.
3
I agree with Bouie that half the battle for progressives is the influence they can wield to push Democrats to the left and not necessarily electoral wins over moderates. Frankly, I think that's the best strategy under the circumstances.
That said, I think Bouie needs to be careful to speak for all progressives. I was a Warren supporter for most of the primaries up until South Carolina after which I realized Biden was the strategic choice. I refuse to give up my progressive bona fides just because I'm pragmatic. Many of us who are part of the far left made the same decision. Strategy is smart politics.
1
So far the primaries have been good news for the Democrats because the turnout is higher in most states and they seem to think Biden has the best chance to defeat Trump. Chances are that the Dems will turn out to vote Trump out and hopefully retain the House and maybe win the Senate.
That is the best case scenario for Democrats, regardless of how liberal or conservative they are. At the minimum, ACA will be enhanced so that more people will get coverage. If the tax cuts for the rich are rolled back and a wealth tax enacted, that'd go a long way to achieving some of the goals espoused by Sanders and company.
Hope hard core Sanders supporters realize that he did better last time around because of voters' dislike for Mrs. Clinton and notso much because of Sanders' agenda. That seems to the clear message reflected in the results thus far.
Biden was not nearly as organized as Clinton nor did he have the money. Yet he is winning big. The clear message is that the Democrats believe Biden is the better choice and by a wide margin.
2
This article is a call to us all to unite. United we have many opportunities to advance progressive ideas. Trump and cronies will try to keep us divided because he can’t win if we are united.
2
I hope I get this right. MarkTwain once wrote: “I am a man of principles! If you don’t like these, I have others.” That could have been written by Joe Biden. Tell me I am wrong.
6
@T Smith I prefer Biden principles over Trump principles. Biden is more likely to beat Trump than Sanders.
3
I think we're stuck between two competing poles, which have ultimately impacted the electorate and the Democratic platform (if unofficially). As Mr. Bouie puts it, Bernie and the movement have pulled the Democrats as far left as they've ever been in the post-Reagan era, with regard to specific policy positions. I don't disagree. My worry is that Trump and the rise of an openly fascist movement on the right has sort of shocked the system and pulled the Overton Window back rightward, at least in regard to the cautiousness of older Democratic voters and a generally fearful electorate. So there's a tension, and a bit of cognitive dissonance - voters seem to want progressive policies, but are afraid to vote for a progressive.
3
The mantra for March basketball tournaments is "survive and advance." Seems like a good approach for progressives.
Defeating Trump at any costs is the survive part; advance may need to wait four years. In the meantime, Biden can be a vehicle for progressive legislation and he'll stem the red tide overtaking the judiciary. That needs to be enough for now.
2
As a Warren/Sanders supporter I appreciate this column, and I hope my fellow progressives see it as a call to action.
In order for any of these policy goals to happen, Democrats need to win a majority in the Senate, and then use that to correct the rightward lurch of the Supreme Court. That would have been true regardless of whether Biden or Sanders was the nominee. So let's roll up our sleeves and get to work on that objective.
Progressives also need to be demanding a spot on the ticket as the VP, if not the top of the ticket. Elizabeth Warren would be an excellent choice. Centrist Democrats need to be reminded how Hillary Clinton's failure to reach out to the progressive base, to reunify the party, led to low enthusiasm, low turnout, and failure in the general election.
Biden still has the chance to do better, but progressives need to stay engaged in the process to have influence.
7
Let's face it, the United States is not a country that accommodates revolutionaries very well. It took 100 years from the end of the Civil War until the federal government finally passed a law with enough teeth in it to protect African-Americans and their voting rights. Changes will come, but we Democrats need to build on this momentum, and the first task at hand is removing Donald Trump. Everything else after that is gravy.
2
I think this is great advice for younger people like yourself but I am tired of waiting. This 60+ woman has been interested in politics since she was 16 and voting progressively whenever possible but always voting.
I knew when Biden put his name in that it would change everything. We had great candidates to choose from but convinced, despite his age, failing memory, and twice previously being deemed NOT good enough, he joined the race for president.
NOW, here we are, where I predicted we would be - democrats instead of thinking about the future, play it safe with more of the same, with the name they recognize. Even in my own state, Nancy Pelosi (yes, I applaud and admire her resistance) but she is 79 and should have retired instead finally challenged with good candidates, she wins with 73%.
I don't disdain those who play it safe, I don't despise them instead I despair. In the beginning I said this and it still holds true, there were two candidates I would not vote for - Biden and Bloomberg. There is no future if democrats vote just to beat trump. I don't want to go backwards - I supported Warren because I believed in her vision for the future of America.
Clearly I am not a Democrat. At my age, I am sick and tired of being told it takes time.
13
Thanks to Jamelle Bouie for this morning pick-me-up. Joe Biden is now the presumptive Democratic nominee, but history, thankfully, has not come to an end. Progressives must continue to organize and press Joe Biden. If not, Biden he will remain stuck in the center. If Biden wants progressives to vote for him in November, he needs to accept and sincerely advocate some of their policy goals.
2
Sanders has been working to deal with these issues for a long time. He knows we have to have patience.
We should also be aware that even if Sanders were president, it would be a long slog to get his policies enacted.
So, under a Biden presidency we should keep the pressure on him and our House and Senate reps to begin planning for M4A, get a living wage proposal adopted, and begin to make the tax laws more fair.
This is not the time to bolt; it is the time to work even harder, and with Biden we have a better shot at getting things done than under Trump.
2
I'm not going to despair. I'm going to continue my work in the Democratic Socialists of America, and help to grow that organization so we become much stronger. With climate change getting worse and worse, pressure will be on for real change, and if we don't go left, we will go right. I want to make sure we go left, to a democratic future where we care about each other, our needs are met, and dreams can thrive.
16
This column is a deja vu experience for me. I can recall the moment in 2016 when my support shifted, with sadness, from Hillary to Bernie. It was Hillary's answer to Rachel Maddow's question about how Bernie's campaign had changed her thinking. She made the catastrophic and soon-to-be ironic mistake of citing the polls which put her way ahead of Bernie in delegate count, and she assured Rachel that she did not need to concede on policy issues to the Bernie camp.
In that moment, it seemed to me, she lost the milennial generation vote. She simply failed to grasp the moral passion for "do something about these injustices!" that aligned youthful voters with Bernie. The Democrats are doing the same again, putting the presumed vote count and presumed 'electability' ahead of moral values and long-held political policy commitments.
"When will they ever learn?"
15
They don’t care if we die. Clinton, Biden, Warren, who proved she doesn’t care by not endorsing any policies when it would have counted, twice, and any of those who have endorsed the most senile candidate who will continue to allow the American Oligarchs an iron grip on our lives. How many of us will continue to die unnecessarily because we don’t have universal healthcare, as a I’ve received in Japan and France? And let’s face it, if we are beyond the tipping point, we are all dead from climate change, by what? One more generation? They have proved with their actions and words, the do not care if we die. What does it matter if we vote at all? They don’t even care if we die.
1
Very well said.
My biggest fear about Biden is that he is unlikely to do nearly enough to combat the global climate crisis. Health care and education are critically important, but global climate disruption will affect all aspects of life and will be most harmful to those with the least wealth. We are running out of time to address this issue and cannot afford to waste 4 or 8 years on halfway measures.
7
I agree with the thrust of your column. Progessivism, representing the will of working class and ordinary Americans has made a powerful mark on the political process. While we must support Biden in November, we also need to keep an independent status in pushing key policies in health care, education and above all climate crisis. It's time for progressives to have our unity platform eager to link up with more people and to look for all opportunities in local and state political processes. Let's get away from the childish sectarianism and purity testing that puts egos above the interests of the common good (That doesn't mean stopping healthy and even sharp debate about issues). Right now, that means mobilizing the greatest voter turnout in American history to defeat Trump, overcoming the voter-suppression dirty and illegal actions the GOP is throwing in peoples' way.
But it is a moment for Americans to rejoice.
3
I can hear the sigh of relief from the corporate/1% types.
I certainly have no proof of anything but it's so hard for me to buy that Democratic voters, to use the pundit's phrase, would coalesce behind a candidate simply because he was the potted plant on Obama's shoulder; a candidate who didn't campaign, didn't even open state offices and speaks mainly in platitudes with very little concrete policy proposals.
It's a given that I, along with most other Democrats, would vote a tree stump over the Orange man NEXT NOVEMBER, BUT this is the Democratic primary where the person who best represents one's interest is decided.
Bernie's policies best represent the folks who have been underrepresented for the last 40 years. It's difficult for me to understand why (or believe) those folks would "coalesce" behind a tree stump; and one who, during his 40 year career, seldom had their best interest in mind.
20
Yet you would prefer to vote for a man, Bernie, who has been essentially a potted plant in politics for forty years. At least, despite your Bernie Bro blindered world view, Biden actually has some accomplishments to point to.
Looking back, I'm sure the people of Russia wish they would have banished Putin in the early years; and now it's too late. Give Trump four more years and he'll be president for life, with his children to follow. Any chance to save his planet from burning will be gone. And any semblance of democracy will have vanished.
4
Bernie has been fighting his entire career to promote socialist policies. He isn’t really running to beat Trump (had that been the case, he would have been more supportive of Hillary four years ago). He is fighting for extreme changes to the system. His legacy is NOT Biden beating Trump, it is a socialist president and a strong progressive Congress in the not too distant future. One could easily argue that he would prefer a Trump victory if that would better set up the radical progressive movement in this country. He is playing a very long-term game. He will keep his eyes on his preferred prize. He will likely bring most of his supporters along.
1
Ladies & Gentlemen, allow me to introduce a new term into the American lexicon: Chaos Voting. Remember it. Digest it. For it will be the reason Joe Biden loses in 2020. Like 2016, Establishment democrats have gotten their way again and like 2016 they will lose. Memorize these numbers:
4M 2012 voters stayed home in 2016
5.9M 2012 Obama voters switched to Trump in 2016.
2.8M voted for a third party candidate in 2016
That's almost 13 Million disenchanted disaffected voters & all that's in an electorate with +.8% uptick in turnout. That's your Trump Electoral college victory right there & if a fraction of that holds, you will be looking at Trump 2.0. Van Jones recently asked a critical question for Dems: "What do you do with the people you've defeated?" The numbers above represented the defeated margins dems left behind & didn't attempt to bring them into the fold. They will not fall in line & they will not go quietly. Their animosity will be exponential this go around.
The younger generations are suffering under mountains of debt, high unemployment rate, little opportunity & an overall devaluing of American citizenship, something Boomers never experienced and can't relate to. The American Dream is dead. Chaos voting will be their revenge. This includes voting to implode the electorate & spur about a fall of the 2 party system, which is the greatest enemy to those at the bottom. Treat them condescendingly all you like. You can't win without them.
#chaosvoting
16
@jd This is their power and they should use it.
2
Memorize these facts:
Lying with cherry-picked statistics is easy.
The ballot is secret and studies have shown that many people will lie about who they voted for, depending on circumstances, so there is no way of knowing how many, if any, voters switched from Obama to Trump.
People like you who wish to destroy the two party system in America and leave a fragmented, squabbling, ineffective government are doing exactly what Putin wants.
Don't despair. Jamelle Bouie has written a prescription by which the 97 members of the Congressional progressive caucus can advance a constructive agenda that benefits the great mass of working Americans.
As Paul Krugman said two days ago, progressives in Congress will have to hold Joe Biden's feet to the fire to gain both immediate economic relief (student debt, healthcare costs, affordable housing) and climate-aware economic development (Green New Deal). Both are within the realm of the possible.
Do not doubt that Pocan, Jayapal, Lee, Grijalva, Khanna, Cicilline, Clark, Escobar, Gallego, Raskin, Porter, Norcross, DeLauro, Ocasio-Cortez, Omar, Pressley, Scanlon, Welch, Haaland, Tlaib, Levin, et al. will be dedicated to the unfinished work of perfecting our union. They fully grasp the task at hand and are prepared to get the job done, renouncing chance as a non-viable option.
But as Mr. Bouie prescribes, it is up to all of us to support that work by getting involved at the state and local level. Completing a narrative is easier when you know where a story is headed. Thanks to Bernie Sanders and the progressives in Congress, we have a vigorous vision of that new frontier.
1
@Peter Myette - The bread and circuses of "more free things for everybody" has its initial allure. Fortunately the majority of Americans still appear to have a core of personal responsibility that slows down and often stops in its tracks your desire for big government socialism that makes everyone a ward of the state.
When you don't vote, you're voting for Trump.
whenweallvote.org is Michelle Obama's effort to encourage participation. Imagine if everyone who read these comments got involved?
4
@A Guess what? over the past two weeks I've decided I prefer to keep Trump ...
2
One observation I have is that despite constant accusations that Bernie Sanders and his Bernie Bros are sexist, and don't play well with others, is that it's rather remarkably that Warren has refused to endorse him. When Bernie got defeated by Hilary Clinton in the primaries, he immediately started campaigning on her behalf, hosting and attending far more events than Hilary Clinton did after losing to Obama.
Fast forward to 2020, and the moderates immediately fell in in line to support Biden. Warren, who is in the progressive camp and has openly admitted that there is no more room in that lane, has refused to endorse the candidate that most closely matches her own political goals. So who is it that can't play nice?
9
Bernie is the one who can’t play nice, your sexist, and factually challenged, opinion notwithstanding. Those of us with more than a few megabytes of memory remember that petulant Bernie did not immediately endorse Clinton after he lost. For those of you without sufficient memory capacity, here is an article giving the actual timeline:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/07/12/four-reasons-bernie-sanders-waited-so-long-to-endorse-hillary-clinton/
@Renee Margolin Nice try, but if we're going to go on facts, it's a silly comparison.
First of all, Bernie Sanders released a statement two days after the Washington DC on June 16 primary indicating that he was looking forward to helping Hilary Clinton in the election. Second, in 2016 California's primary wasn't held until June, so I'm not sure why this author is confidently asserting that Clinton had "clinched" the vote before then. Look up the timeline yourself, Sanders was consistently winning significant races well into June.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_Democratic_Party_presidential_primaries#June_contests
Third, the piece you cite is from June of 2016, so it conveniently does not get into the number of campaign events that Sanders attended or hosted in support Clinton, as compared to Clinton's support for Obama (I'll give you a hint, Clinton does not fare well in this analysis).
Fourth, the piece was also too early to report on the actual behaviour of Sanders' supporters who voted for Clinton in higher numbers than Clinton supporters voted for Obama:
http://centerforpolitics.org/crystalball/articles/did-bernie-sanders-cost-hillary-clinton-the-presidency/
Proof is in the pudding.
1
Goal number one for both progressives and moderates should be voting trump and his minions out of office. Period. If Biden is the guy to do it. He’s got my vote and I support Sanders.
Progressives need to play the long game. Step one is getting rid of trump. Second is doing everything possible to marginalize republicans and their influence and so on.
The status quo can only be dismantled piece by piece over time. Lay the groundwork now for future success. Step one vote out all republicans.
1
Moderate Democrats since the time of Reagan made little progress in reversing income inequality or stemming the decline of Unions, which has led to losing support from blue collar workers. Biden will be more of the same and leave the door open for future trump-like Republicans to take over Congress and the Presidency.
10
Democrats have not been able to stem the tide of destruction of unions and the middle class by the well-funded-by-the-one-percenters Republican Party. Unfortunately, too many sheeple watch Fox, listen to Limbaugh, and fail to become informed and thoughtful citizens, instead voting for further destruction of their lives. The blame can not honestly be placed at the feet of Democrats.
This is the difference between the Tea Party and the IdiotLeft. The Tea Party worked for years to build influence, get the right people elected at the local and national levels to profoundly influence the far-right shift of the Republican party and in Trump, they achieved everything they wanted. There are no Tea Party senators or congressman, but the views and influence of the Tea party influences everything the Republican Party does. On the Idiotleft, its about self-important recognition and immediate gratification. If I can't get Sanders elected, then who cares who is elected? If I can't get my policy implemented 100% immediately, then I will take my ball and go home, because who cares about incremental progress and compromise. If the Idiotleft could play the same constructive role that the Tea Party did, they could achieve the same results. However, with the childish immaturity of their current leadership of the idiotLeft, disappointingly, this is unlikely to happen.
3
First, you apparently are unaware that the so-called Tea Party was largely a toy of the billionaire Koch brothers. Second, your Idiotright attempt to spin Democrats as childish is, in fact, an apt description of Republicans: a childish need for instant gratification, refusal to learn even basic kindergarten-level social skills such as compromise are hallmarks of Republicanism.
If a President Biden does not, out of the gate, roll back all of trump's odious moves, starting with the ridiculous tax cut, he is just another neo-liberal, Hillary dem.
2
Bernie needs to stick with it to the end. Biden, as he himself said, is an "OBiden-Bama" Democrat.
Until Biden is giving interviews and not mixing up words and concepts and gets his act together, Bernie needs to be there to pick up the pieces. As long as his campaign keeps him away from interviews and in planned and scripted remarks we can't make the call on whether Biden is slipping or just tired.
Compare the media reaction to the Covfefe tweet to Biden words, and wonder why are they covering for him.
Biden's campaign is looking like a stealth DNC way to get his VP into the president role believing that they could not get elected directly.
10
Any support that Sanders will throw to Biden will be disingenuous at best...He is so enamored with is ideology that is a prisoner to his own thinking and constitutionally incapable of compromise. Compromise is the key component of governance.
The message has distinct merit...the messenger has not so much. It’s too bad, compromise is the beginning of change. Evolution takes time, revolution is change but necessarily mutually beneficial.
2
Nice sentiments, but I think Trump is going to crush Biden. Trump has a cult behind him, and even though he's clearly slipping deep into senility, his ability to repeat a series of slogans, many of them lies, gives him what it takes to win in America today--that old rallying the troops with repetition, in his case much of it lies, but lies his base likes. Biden isn't a sadistic narcissist like Trump, but he's going downhill cognitively as well, and he has no message, no platform people can easily identify--he's toast.
10
The current regime undid a lot of good things the Obama administration did, sometimes with a sweep of the pen, sometimes by appointing those bent on destruction of government programs, with no regard for humans, wildlife, or climate issues. I expect that a President Biden would make it a priority to restore that work. The man must be carrying a serious grudge over the nullification of the administration he was a part of for 8 years. He was almost my last choice, and he's kind of dotty, but he'll have help.
4
If Biden wins the presidency the climate change crisis is going to force bold action. For many people it will be disrupting. A big question is to what extent will climate justice be considered. This is one area where progressives can make a big difference. One potential area for conflict with a Biden administration will the role of nuclear power. Another area is fracking. The future of young people is at stake and it is likely they will play a much larger role politically than they typically have in the past. If Biden wins I expect his number one priority will be climate change and while there will be conflicts with progressives there should large areas of common ground.
4
Why would I despair? Now i don't have to bother with this election since either choice is essentially equivalent, the hysterics aside. Outre right vs senile left, but the effect is the same Nope and No Change, which is fine with me, this will in the end accelerate things from what would have been the case with a Sanders or Warren.
I just evaluated Lichtman's key's and by my evaluation of them, as things stand now, Trump will be reelected.
8
Jamelle Bouie asks if Biden's victory will mean progressives have no future in electoral politics or if it poses an opportunity for them to gain more influence.
It's the right question, but the latter choice, the opportunity, will require progressives to shuck off their Bernie Sanders suits and join the party. Both of the major parties are really coalitions of the Right and Left, not European-style parties. American government is a winner-take-all affair, tempered by its Constitutional checks and balances. In our system, we form coalitions going into our elections, not after elections as they do in Europe. So if you want to play, you have to bring something to the table up-front. And Sanders is clearly against joining any coalition if it means he won't be its leader.
Excellent piece! As a Sanders supporter, I fully agree. Politics is NEVER "over." The problems Sanders highlighted--climate change, health care, rampant inequality--are not going away. And the youth support real social change. We all need to continue to work for a social democratic America--there is no question that that approach produces the best society for most citizens. And, American "conservatives," think climate change is going away? Sorry--physics does not care about your selfish, individualistic ideology. So progressives need to work on President Biden--which is possible, as Mr. Bouie argues. Mr Bouie's advice is spot-on!
4
Correct, “It looks like Biden will secure the nomination, but Sanders won the policy argument.”
Our Revolution got less than 40% of their 2018 midterms candidates through the primaries but they & other groups like the Justice Democrats kept their activist issues front & center. All seven Justice Democrats endorsed candidates elected to the 116th Congress voted to make Nancy Pelosi the Speaker, & those endorsed members have voted with the party more than 93% of the time.
Sanders would be the frontrunner now if the (I-Vt) after his title had changed to (D-Vt) since 2016. It was his choice, & his personal history coming from a very fractious third party background in small state Vermont made him skittish about identifying closely with the state “establishment” that he had managed to run against. I have argued with many fellow Democrats that Sanders is a “real” Democrat. There is no confusion about his deeply felt convictions, but his ambiguous position vis a vis the party leadership will cost him the nomination. It's not a “conspiracy” against him in that leadership, but rather the problem many Dems have seeing Sanders as someone who can represent the whole of the party up & down the ballot. It is less a question of finding a role for Sanders in a Biden administration than the moderate base choosing to recognise Sanders as part of the party leadership, & the progressive movement within the party as full partners. That choice is not up to Biden, it is up to all of us.
1
I support progressive programs, and I like and admire Bernie Sanders. But it's time to face up to the fact that politics left, right, and center needs younger leadership and fresher voices. Sanders has not brought out the new voters he promised, nor has he persuaded older voters to tack left. And he's been at this a long time!
We need a fresh voice to take over. Someone like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, perhaps.
Biden, owned by Wall Street, unapologetically invested in the corrupt politics that gave us Iraq and Afghanistan, shadowed by the institutional corruption represented by Hunter, is Hillary 2.0. America (or the part that's been allowed to vote so far) has decided it does not want free tuition, guaranteed health care, relief of student debt, or an end to endless wars. So be it. We get the government we deserve.
20
Last night's vote shows that America gets it, the ONLY way for Bernie supporters to get any of the things they want for America is to support Joe. As long as we have Trump, nothing good will happen. Joe has emerged as the guy who will rid of us of Trump...unless we screw it up by staying home in November, casting protest votes, or engaging in other stupid behavior.
1
Democrats are in a pipe dream if they think Biden is their savior. They haven’t finished atoning for the mistakes of the past which will continue to haunt them. Traditionally the two parties just split up the pie each taking turns at muddling things up for the benefit of the insiders and the corporate/military defense interests they represent. Biden is a return to business as usual.
12
Biden's success is proof that at least half of registered Democrats believe in nothing beyond the hope of retrieving a pre-Trump status quo -- a status quo manipulated and controlled by the wealthy, their lobbyists and compliant pols like Joe. A status quo that has led to corrosive and anti-democratic inequality and injustice, the shattering of the middle class, an unaffordable future for my children and their peers. Mr. Bouie's plea not to despair is very hard to hear.
13
Now the GOP investigations of Hunter begin in earnest.
Biden better not screw this up.
5
Biden is far too senile to be president, but if Hillary thinks she’s going to sweep in at the convention and get Her Turn, I don’t know anyone who would vote for her this time either. You don’t care that the world is burning and we are literally dying of despair? You don’t care that Independents, Millennials and Progressives realize the world is burning and we are all facing an unsurvivable near future? If you literally don’t care if we all die, why should we vote for who you tell us too, again, if the result is simply a slightly slower yet still insane and deadly outcome?
The Democratic establishment didn't marginalize the progressive left, the progressive left marginalized itself by adamantly refusing to make any effort whatsoever to reach out to anyone even slightly outside the orbit of the progressive left.
4
William Jefferson Clinton and Barack Hussein Obama were both well too the governing partisan political right of FDR, LBJ, Ike and Nixon. While their rhetoric proclaimed otherwise and was used by their opponents to define them.
Like Franklin Delano Roosevelt before him, Ronald Wilson Reagan shifted what it means to be politically conservative, liberal, moderate and progressive in America.
3
Of course Biden wants progressives' votes. But he also is proud of his role in the last 40 years--the lower wages, lower standard of living, environmental worsening, racial injustice, government corruption, etc--and sees nothing wrong with it.
So how can progressives believe that he has a true interest in their agenda?
What is there in Biden's past or present, that shows he has the understanding, desire, or will, to adopt any progressive policies?
He thinks that it's all a bunch of malarkey, and that a return to the old days is what the country needs.
If the Democrats choose Biden for their nominee, I will vote for him. But let's be realistic about him. He carries a dubious past that he revels in; an impending corruption scandal; probable cognitive impairment (finishing a sentence is often hard, and who calls someone a "lying dog-faced pony soldier", much less a woman, much less at a political rally); and doesn't even comprehend what the progressive positions are or why they've been adopted.
17
I'd like a Bernie supporter to tell me how President Bernie was going to get even one of his proposals to pass Congress and become reality. How, when the Republican senate is committed to stopping any and all bills passed by the House? Bernie supporters are dreamers, not realists. They want it all, but have no idea how to get it. And, neither does Bernie. He is promising supporters the world knowing full well that he can't deliver. We'll be lucky if the ACA survives, let alone have Medicare for All. Free college? Forgiveness of student debt? Breaking up big banks? Are you kidding? With this Senate? Bernie supporters just live in a pretend world where there are no Republicans. They think the election of Bernie Sanders will make the Senate disappear.
4
This baseless, idealistic, and pointless opinion piece should be rejected by every Progressive. Corporate Democrats now want Progressive support while offering nothing of substances. This isn't even an attempt at consensus. Corporate Democrats have spent the past two years saying how they need to reject millions of their own voters and embrace Republicans and Republican policies. Let them and find out what happens at the ballot box.
Every Corporate Democrat since Clinton in the 90s has lost the race for the Presidency unless they ran under the guise of Progressivism and change (Obama)
Ya'll kept saying you would win by getting Republicans and abandoning Progressives well here's your chance.
11
While I'm a firm believer that the worst Democrat is far better than the best Republican, real change will only come when people stop hoping for politicians to solve their problems and start demanding that they do. Organize/organize/organize. That got Obama to the White House. After that, he settled for One of Them. I doubt it would have happened to Bernie, but not enough people took their faces out of their phones to find out.
5
This is the same argument the party establishment used in 2016.
13
I supported Bernie. Now I'll vote for Trump. I'll never vote for any establishment candidate - they're the ones that sold us into this oligarchical mess.
7
@Marcus
You’ll be voting for the biggest establishment candidate of them all.
The American Dream of my generation was a house with a white picket fence in the suburbs. For the next generations it is to simply not be ruined by the cost of healthcare, student loan debt and to have a habitable planet in 50 years. Is Joe Biden up to that task? Does he care? Does he even recognize that his path to the White House is to concentrate on those two aspects of the future generation's lives? Is his campaign any more sentient than he is to understand this requirement? Is he the second coming of Hillary Clinton?
10
Mr. Bouie -- of whom I'm a big fan -- makes one major assumption that is not at all guaranteed: a Biden victory. First, there is little evidence that the working people left behind by Biden's centrist policies will vote for him. They likely will do what they did in 2016 -- stay at home or vote for Trump. Second, don't expect the secret Trumpers (financiers and suburbanites who don't admit their support in public) to switch to Biden. As they say, the devil you know....Furthermore, Trump is going to have a field day with Biden's baggage in the general. Hunter may have done nothing illegal, but let's face it, it was slimy and Trump didn't get removed from office. He's going to play this up "bigly" to his base. Also, when Biden is alone on stage in debates, there will be no camouflaging his seeming inability to get out a coherent sentence. There's a good chance Trump will look articulate in contrast. As for Bouie's thesis that Biden will move left in his theoretical presidency, it's hard to imagine when he leads --by enormous margins-- all other candidates (including Trump) in contributions from hedge funds, private equity, pharma and securities/investments, according to Open Secrets. Those interest groups are going to want something for their money and none of them are interested in progressive change.
12
If Medicare for All miraculously passed the House and Senate, Biden said he would veto the bill. And you think that progressives shouldn't despair?
13
BernieBros were never really progressives -- they were the same as unemployed Trumpists: trying to start a so-called revolution out of frustration. Bernie never built his base, despite all of his election spending. The only real lesson from all this: debates and ads do Not elect a President. Too many people are shouting at brick walls.
1
‘Bernie Bros’ are probably not even Bernie supporters. Just a dirty trick to get you to be afraid of the only truly democratic policies in favor of the American oligarchs choices, Biden/Warren/Clinton/Trump, who will keep every last penny from the vanishing middle class not trickling, but gushing up.
America is a laissez-faire capitalist country in the same mold as Britain in the 19th century. Our government only represents property owners, not wage earners. The Democratic Party tries to hide this by pandering to the very poor - those who qualify for medicaid. People who make above the poverty line but who are still struggling are considered garbage by the Democrats.
The root of our problems is that too much of the means of production is privately owned. Too much "supply" is monopoly controlled. The cost of living and the cost of doing business is way too high in America. Only the well off and the large businesses/corporations can survive in a crony capitalist economy like ours.
Well done, Democrats. Medicare for all, free college, strengthening Social Security, and affordable housing would go a very long way towards reversing the economic problems we live under. You destroyed that opportunity.
10
Yes, but is Sanders too pigheaded to oblige? He cannot claim love of country over politics and then stubbornly refuse to urge his base to get out and vote for Biden.
1
@jhbev
there's no reason to doubt that he will
he did it for hillary
had no effect.. and it won;t have any effect when he endorses biden..
What happened to negotiating for support? Bernie sits down with Joe, lays out his terms and gets what he can in exchange for his unqualified support. For a guy who thinks he can get Congress to support his entire agenda, dealing with one person should be a piece of cake.
3
Biden gave a wonderful speech not boastful and definitely exudes anecdote to trump.
1
Despair? I'm not even going to vote anymore. I'm 49 years old. I've voted nearly every time I've had a chance to but it's over now. Voting is a scam.
4
Look, I am older than dirt, yet support Sanders. Biden is probably the nicest guy in American politics and I feared the old adage, "nice guys finish last" would apply in 2020.
I understand, and Biden apparently doesn't, that the ACA is in mortal danger from the Supreme Court and COVID 19. Both threats expose the weakness of a half a loaf heath care system; making a version of Medicare for All a necessity. Perhaps Sanders big mistake was turning down the life preserver offered by AOC, when she quite reasonably suggested a more gradual approach to Medicare for All.
Clearly, COVID 19 was the hangman which wonderfully concentrated the mind of voters wanting to get an early start on the general election campaign. I respect their conservatism but in 2020 the middle of the road they are choosing could be a place to get run over.
Mr. Bouie thinks we can persuade Biden to adopt our views. Maybe on student debt but what about climate change? Of the two dozen candidates who started the race, Biden had one of the weakest policy stances. He keeps repeating "rejoin the Paris Climate Accords on Day One" which will have about as much effect on Carbon in the atmosphere as a blade of grass.
The Green New Deal became a Christmas tree but if we strip it to climate essentials can we persuade Biden to go big on climate? That's the heart of the matter.
Finally, there's a structural issue. Blacks support Biden and Latinos Sanders. Will fear of Trump unite them?
2
The last 30 years the Republican party has taken a scorched earth policy- winning by any means necessary has been/is/will be their pole star. I do not see that changing- at all.
I am so afraid I'll hear Biden start with- I can unite the country, both siderism, and worse, grand-bargainism and hmm- foreign policy is a lot easier. I'll be listening for clearly articulated stands on domestic issues; corporatism, voting rights, health, infrastructure, public schools, secure national resources.
5
I really don’t like polls because depending upon the wording, you can get ( or drive ) the answer.
As a Virginian, I really don’t believe the polls referenced here that we want a system of ONLY Medicare for all or Free College for all. I know of NO people that want that. Free college for poorer folks and community colleges and trade schools too. Yes. Medicare for those you select it; yes.
I’m extremely proud of what Virginia has done this year: massive rail infrastructure plans, common sense gun regs, raising the minimum wage, etc. they are getting work done. But I don’t think these are necessarily progressive, just common sense and good for people and good for the economy. It’s refreshing to have a (state) government that is able to get work done!
Progressives have not had a progressive presidency since the TR, Taft and Wilson presidencies from 1901-1921. There is a reason for that apparently. People do not buy into the socialism aspect of it just as now Sanders is getting smoked.
2
TR, Wilson, and Taft?!
The last progressive presidents?!
Wilson was a rabid segregationist. TR was a free market trust buster, of sorts; a nativist; and a conservationist; definitely not a full-fledged progressive.
Taft?! If he and Wilson were so good, why did TR run against them??
You also forgot FDR and LBJ; they were real liberals, and progressives, at least for much of their domestic policies.
Even Nixon has been described as the last *liberal* president! (EPA, opening to China, guaranteed income, etc.)
Recognize your own ideology and how it affects your perception.
We better all get behind Biden, and that includes those of us who backed Warren & Sanders, and felt that Harris or Klobuchar would have been the better moderate choice.
Ben Franklin was right. “If we don't hang together, we shall all surely hang separately.” Our democracy, our country, and our planet are at stake!
2
Let’s own up to one thing, if Sanders wins the nomination and the presidency, much of his agenda will not get implemented, unless he becomes far more autocratic than Donald Trump. It would take an out-and-out miracle for enough Democrats to win seats in the House and the Senate who are progressive enough for Sanders to implement even half of his policies. And that is both in this election and 2022. The only times we have had presidents anywhere near as progressive as Sanders was with FDR and Lincoln. And look at what it took to get them elected. Do we really want either another Civil War or Great Depression?
If progressives (and I count myself as more progressive than middle of the road) want to accomplish anything, they need to realize that they will get next to nothing at the federal level if Trump remains president. Just look at today’s article about how Trump and Navarro are trying to force American pharmaceutical companies to move production out of China and back to the US. How can this be done without prices going up significantly, wages going down, or tax subsidies that would force the deficit higher than Trump’s tax cut did? A majority of pharmaceuticals and components sold/used in the US are currently made in China with low paid labor.
Dream big and work for better, but live in the reality we have, not what we dream.
1
@ASPruyn :
Dems would never slavishly lie down for anyone like the entire GOP does for Trump. Dems are like herding cats.
Too many will side with the Rule of Law, unlike the GOP which just DUMPED the Constitution.
@gratis -
I wholeheartedly agree. It would take something very decidedly bad to happen for all the Democrats to go together peacefully, unlike the Trumpistas... err... Republicans...
As a hard core progressive you have to accept that you are a stranger in a strange land.
So many cite ridding us of Trump as the number one goal. That magically we will return to some functioning government. Don't count on it, our government has not been working for quite awhile for the people (40 years by my count).
So many cite that incremental change is best. My guess you are all comfortable that you can live with that. Ask a minority, a woman, a LBGQT citizen, as a American farmer, families in the mid west how incremental change is working.
On the subject of incremental change maybe some moderates could explain what changes they want in the next four years?
Will we see change in our electoral process?Nope democrats will leave it alone just as the republicans will, its a money maker.
Will we see improvements to the ACA? Voting rights? Climate change? And again what are these moderate incremental steps moderates want in the next four years.
My one prediction we will reengage in a Middle East War under Biden.
9
The struggle for socialism, human rights, and social justice never ends.
After the Democratic Party rejects Bernie, Progressives abstaining or voting for third party candidates will accelerate the process of moving toward the left.
Progressive voters should not be taken for granted. Four more years of Trump pushes the nation toward revolution. I prefer greatly the usual election process, but if that’s impossible, it looks like turmoil ahead.
1
When it comes to the passion of his supporters, Bernie has certainly been successful. But passion in an election rarely results in an actual revolution when it comes to policy, because that's just not how politics works.
From local city councils to the top levels of government, politics is a game of compromise, give & take, not always getting everything you want in a flash but working for incremental change. Bernie supporters don't seem to understand this.
Years ago, when I was much more passionate and idealistic, I tried to bring a modest revolution to my small town. After pushing too hard too fast, I ended up alienating people that could have been allies. It took some time to learn this but I finally realized the better strategy was slow & steady, build alliances, "quietly sneak in" more progressive goals alongside moderate proposals. It worked.
And that's why, after voting for Bernie in 2016, I was thrilled to support Biden this year. I see him as a Trojan horse that can help gradually usher in more progressive policies. And bonus: he won't yell at us all the time.
2
let's not kid ourselves..
the problem is joe biden isn't a progressive voice, he is the status quo democratic candidate
it's hillary 2.0
even with bernie showing up at the rallies as an endorsement, it wasn't and will not be enough
bernie is a figure that has broad appeal beyond just traditional democratic voters, because of what he has stood for for many years. biden changing his tune to 'appeal to bernie's supporters' will not work.. it did not work 4 years ago and won't work this time
8
My dream president and vice president are Elizabeth Warren and Sherrod Brown of Ohio. Of course, I will support Joe Biden if nominated...but I really don't have enough life ahead of me for my party's perpetual Incrementalism.
By the time a Democratic reformer comes along; my headstone will say: "Her life was too short to wait so long..."
5
@Candlewick I share your impatience but incrementalism seems to be the trend in history. 1619 the first slave arrives. Finally in 1865 they fare freed. Then it takes until 1965 to bring segregation down. In 1776 the Founders decreed that all men are created equal. It took until the early 20th century to give women the right to vote. At 74 I hope to see more change and yearn for the election of a woman President. If I'm not luck enough to see that, I nevertheless see it as inevitable. Stay in the game.
@Spiro Kypreos
My great grandparents were children of slaves, and 1965- this nation was still extremely segregated (down from *what*isn't comforting) and still is-just minus the signage. The game-has left me.
It will take more decades than I have- to undo the "Executive Orders" and the unreported/under-reported damage of Trump's presidency. First order of business of a Democratic Presidency- should be (if Democrats take the Senate) to vote on D.C. statehood and add two more Supreme Court seats...It won't happen.
The major strides occurred through mass movement and disruptions —
the Civil War, the 14th Amendment, emancipation;
massive reforms during the Progressive Era, including direct election of Senators and women's suffrage, the 8-hour day, food and drug safety, trust-busting, the end of child labor;
FDR's New Deal;
LBJ's Great Society;
the civil rights movement;
the anti-war movement;
the women's rights movement; etc.
In every case, the reformers were reviled, called socialists and communists, decried as naïve, racial, young, out of touch, etc. But without their activism and sacrifices, we would never have made the strides we did in terms of racial, economic, and social justice.
1
The question is whether Sanders' supporters will see Biden as Republican Lite or Sanders Lite. The incumbent is not Republican Lite. More like Attila the Hun Right. Biden is Sanders Lite. He is a progressive. He is, as he says, an Obama-Biden Democrat. I'm 74. I voted for George McGovern. I know how the Sanders supporters feel. My hope is they remember that their presence and support for Biden will keep the Democratic Party together. I supported Hillary in 2008 and voted for Obama in 2008 and 2012. I was for Ted Kennedy in 1980 and voted for Jimmy Carter. Democrats have a choice: fume and feud or unite.
1
Thanks to Jamelle Bouie for his reasoned and optimistic view. Sanders should claim victory for the movement he has led for the last five years. He should energize his supporters to work with the Biden team during the platform-writing process, in the selection of a running mate and on the campaign trail to oust Trump and gain more power all the way down the ballot. Bernie may not be the nominee, but he has led the party leftward, and he should consider that the tremendous achievement that it is, and act as a statesman and patriot to rally his supporters to Biden, now the key player in enacting the progressive vision Bernie has strongly advocated.
Biden graciously reached out to Bernie and his supporters Tuesday night. As I have been predicting for weeks, the moment has come for Bernie Sanders to demonstrate his love for his country and for the progressive ideas he has championed. If he blames the establishment, whines about the Democratic Party and fails to rally his supporters to unify with vigor around Biden, we could have Trump again, which is an unmitigated disaster for America. What will Bernie do - swallow pride and humbly demonstrate the character of the major political and ideological leader he purports to be, or minimize himself, his supporters, the progressive cause and the welfare of the country as a whole by retreating to blame and finger-pointing? This is your moment Bernie. Not the one you hoped for, but a fundamentally important one nonetheless.
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The unruly beast that is the Democratic party seems to have chosen Biden over Sanders. Maybe it reasons that job #1 is to get rid of Trump and return us to some kind of normalcy. And maybe it reasons that after job #1, we can transition towards job #2, which is to move this country towards rational policies that will benefit the average citizen and not just the oligarchs. Good luck Joe, and thank you Bernie, and Kamala, and Elizabeth, and Tom, and all who cared enough about our great country to throw their hats in the ring.
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Mr. Bouie -- of whom I'm a big fan -- makes one major assumption that is not at all guaranteed: a Biden victory. First, there is little evidence that the working people left behind by Biden's centrist policies will vote for him. They likely will do what they did in 2016 -- stay at home or vote for Trump. Second, don't expect the secret Trumpers (financiers and suburbanites who don't admit their support in public) to switch to Biden. Furthermore, Trump is going to have a field day with Biden's baggage in the general election. Hunter may have done nothing illegal, but let's face it, it was slimy and Trump didn't get removed from office. He's going to play this up "bigly" to his base. Also, when Biden is alone on stage in debates, there will be no camouflaging his seeming inability to get out a coherent sentence. There's a good chance Trump will look articulate in contrast. As for Bouie's thesis that Biden will move left in his theoretical presidency, it's hard to imagine when he leads --by enormous margins-- all other candidates (including Trump) in contributions from hedge funds, private equity, pharma and securities/investments, according to Open Secrets. Those interest groups are going to want something for their money and none of them are interested in progressive change.
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@CH -- " First, there is little evidence that the working people left behind by Biden's centrist policies will vote for him. They likely will do what they did in 2016 -- stay at home or vote for Trump."
And you have the data to support your assertion or is it intuitive, a hunch perhaps.
@cec
We only have to look at the 2016 election. To wit: Biden's own SuperPac today released a memo stating this: "The 2016 election was decided in a handful of communities, inside a handful of states, by voters who in many cases either voted for Obama, then Trump –or voters who voted for Obama and stayed home."
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@cec
We only have to look at the 2016 election. to wit: Biden's own SuperPac today released a memo stating this: "The 2016 election was decided in a handful of communities, inside a handful of states, by voters who in many cases either voted for Obama, then Trump –or voters who voted for Obama and stayed home."
The only thing I can say is that the young in my generation coming out of the sixties and seventies were big Democratic socialism supporters then also. Many unfortunately are now Trump supporters. When folks marry and have children as well as amass some wealth, they tend to become more conservative. So I would expect a good deal of young Bernie supporters will do the same. This keeps much of socialism slightly out of reach each generation. I am disappointed by my generation. I hope the current won’t feel the same.
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@David Gifford , it’s far from your whole generation. On along, protests against caging babes, against the invasions under Bush, for education, etc. are mainly boomers—asking, “Where are the rest?” People despise states like Oklahoma the same way. But we have around 750,000 Democrats here. Yes, we’re outnumbered, with nearly a million republicans—but rendering three-quarters of a million people invisible and slandering them as Trump fans—that’s not okay. We have to step away from the convenient but pernicious stereotypes to see the truth and make the alliances we need.
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I despaired in 1968 for McCarthy, 1972 for McGovern, 1980 for Carter, and 2016 for Bernie. It is my history, but I won't give up.
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@Henry McLin here here! I was too young in 68 but I voted the same in 72, 76, 80 and 2016. I believe we helped move the needle a little bit to the left.
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The New York Times has, in general, been railing against progressive Bernie Sanders. Now that Bernie's campaign is showing real weakness we're told that we should expeditiously abandon our Progressive hopes and dreams and be happy with Status Quo Joe if and when he reaches out to those of us he has belittled and worked against for most of his career. But that's not going to happen.
Joe, and the (so-called Democratic) elites he represents have driven the Democratic Party so far to the right for the past several decades that it is now nowhere near as progressive as the Republican party was in 1956! FDR wouldn't recognize most of this cycle's Democratic candidates as democrats!
The influx of "Never Trump" Republicans to the Democratic party's ranks (which will likely be ONLY for this election) are the main reason for Biden's recent success. And it's just sad that most Democrats - that exit polls show support Medicare-For-All, the Green New Deal, Free Education, and most of Bernie's policies - don't, or wont, see that their fear of Trump is causing them to vote for a man who won't ever work to see those policies enacted.
All that their votes for Joe have done is weaken their hand and their chances of getting what they really need in the next four or eight years. And that's assuming Joe beats Trump; an outcome that most progressives see as unlikely.
The ONLY way Joe might unify the party and win the general election is to choose Bernie as his VP!
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@Rick Johnson No, Biden would be far more likely to pick Warren. Why would he pick Bernie? Bernie would just fight with Joe the entire 4 years and accomplish jack squat.
Great column, a much needed salve for a wounded progressive spirit. I'll offer another example: the 2018 gubernatorial primary in New York, where Cuomo crushed an insurgent challenger. As dispiriting as it was, in the time since NYS has passed some of the most progressive and ambitious climate change legislation in the country, bail reform, and legislation to protect undocumented immigrants. The governor was essentially pulled along in all of those efforts. Winning executive office outright remains the ultimate goal, and I really, really thought this was the year we would do it, but your examples demonstrate that even when we lose, we can still win.
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A perceptive take on the situation. Bernie is all hard edges, Joe is soft and malleable. Progressives will never dominate the Democratic Party, but Bernie has moved the party leftward, which is a good thing. A nation with a far-right and a center-right party is too depressing to consider, now the Democrats have rebranded themselves as center-left and Joe can live with that. Joe can live with most anything, which is at once his greatest strength and his greatest weakness.
A month ago, I was in a discussing the election with friends. We all agreed that neither Biden nor Sanders could win against Trump. Well, things have changed.
Bernie failed to deliver everything he claimed to have, principally because he failed in two, very basic areas: he didn’t register new voters, and he had no get out the vote operation. When you are essentially a third-party operation running inside a real party, that should not surprise.
Joe holds the whip hand. Bernie has to face reality. The task at hand now is to end the Trump regime and return this country to a safer, saner path.
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Voters have spoken: enough with the policy debates, splitting hairs, when the menace of Republican control is eating away at the lives of middle class, working class and the growing number of poor Americans. Sanders can do far more good, pursue all his desired reforms, as a Senator with a Democratic-controlled Senate and White House. It’s time for him to expand his sense of shared mission, collaborate for once.
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I'm in. The biggest thing I'm scared about with Joe Biden is that he'll let the Trump administration get away with everything in the name of national unity. I'm utterly convinced that when given the opportunity to investigate Trump's crimes, he'll tell us it would be worse for the country to know what happened than it would be to forget about it.
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Biden will even convince SDNY to back off in name of unity, even though Trump will continue his Rally of the Confederacy tour.