Tonight Christopher Lydon had an excellent show about Bernie that is worth listening to. It talked about how the corporate media has tried to smear Bernie as a toxic commie when he's just an FDR democrat and true liberal. Bernie is not a commie, he's not even a socialist, unless you think FDR was a socialist. He's a democratic socialist. https://radioopensource.org/the-new-red-scare/
My own view is that Warren and Bernie are the only real liberals running for office. The others are right wing liberals who talk nice, but capitulate to the moderate right.
Bernie bashing 101.
From Zoron’s post Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren: Things are stirring 10/24/2017
“The forces of corruption against him, in both parties, are huge. But he forces open the gates.”
Not only MSNBC’s Chris Matthews but CNN’s in on it too—
Published on
Saturday, February 29, 2020
CNN Host Michael Smerconish Rebuked for Comparing Sanders Surge to Spread of Coronavirus
"Nice to wake up to discover that CNN is giving a platform to the idea that the left is a disease. That's never led to anything bad happening before."
I lived in MA while I attended smith and then stayed for a few years after during the Romney governor and warren senator years- a friend of mines older brother (a lawyer) has worked for warren then and volunteering now. I’ve always heard about what a great person she was - he admired her so much- and he would talk about how the Wall Street machine would never let her become president they were so afraid of her. All campaigns and the senator knows that there are powerful forces against her success. But around the kitchen table he would also talk about how Bernie had burned all his bridges in politics- he didn’t care, but the reality is the Washington machine works that way- even if he gets in, he will be a figurehead. Mostly what I learned about spending time with my friends’ brother over dinner was how much we the people don’t know about how things work. We grow up believing we get to choose our candidate but that notion is so false and there is so much we don’t know anyway about these people and their work and relationships. I used to think if Hilary got in the machine would thwart her every move- now I believe that about Bernie. Ultimately I am incredibly positive about the future but I do not follow the cult of personality and I don’t see any candidate as a savior. I suspect All the White men with B’s in their names will accomplish more or less the same. When it came to Obama winning it meant a lot to this nation, the symbolic precedent of a black man winning and it changed the world whether he did anything or not. I hope the same for warren.
This goes along with the thought that "all politicians are the same" and "He preached change in his campaign but didnt do anything he promised when elected" misconceptions. To get anything accomplished in Washington, you have to fight thru 536 other elected officials that all want something in return and ultimately want your job. There is no way around it, and you cant overpower it(Obama used his one bullet to ram the ACA thru and that opened the floodgates for Trump). The checks and balances are great to keep a rogue president from upending the country, but that can be exploited as we are now seeing, although they also curb any real change from happening. The only way to implement true change is to eliminate the money from politics, but to accomplish that you need to convince those 536 people to stop profiting and worrying about job security and vote against their own interests. It can be done, but it is going to take one hell of a revolution in DC to accomplish it.
My mom (in her 80's) told me something surprising today. She said many of her democratic friends, younger than she but not young, will not vote for Bernie no matter what.
Seriously?
They will not vote for a Republican, but will not vote for him either. So they are choosing not to vote at all if he is the nominee. Apparently he is too angry for them. They have issues about Bernie re: Cuba, feel he is misrepresenting Nordic welfare models and economic success because for example Norway has a huge amount of natural resources owned by the state such as oil and gas. They also believe that he is unable to compromise and will not be able to get anything accomplished because he will insist it is his way or nothing.
There are highly educated older people who really dislike him.
Has anyone considered that there really are DEMS who would rather stay home than vote for him?
I dont know if people would stay home over voting for Bernie, but I, myself, am not a fan either. I dont think he will be able to accomplish anything if elected because he has burned too many bridges in Washington. He also has still yet to give any sort of plan as to how he is going to fund his promises. I also feel he is too stubborn to help reconcile the country's differences. It all leaves me with a very uneasy feeling in my gut. I love Warren because, even though her ideas are very similar, she has constructed plans to accomplish her goals and has shown the ability to adjust to what is needed. Bernie has dont none of that so far. I'm not on the "Hes a Socialist" bandwagon, but dont feel he will a positive influence for a country in desperate need of one. It is sad because being of Jewish heritage, I would have loved to see a Jewish President, just not this one.
It is looking pretty clear that Klobuchar and Warren are not going to fare well(although Tuesday will show for sure) so if it is between Bernie and Biden, I truly hope it is Biden. He is far from my favorite but I feel a zero sum President, like I'm expecting Biden to be, will be better than Bernie at this point.
As far as older voters not voting if Sanders is the candidate, the young progressives refuse to vote for anyone but him. They’re why we have Trump now. I’m not a fan of Bernie Sanders, but to me it doesn’t matter who the Democratic candidate is, I will vote for that person. Because I understand that we can’t always get what we want, but we can move in the directions we want. The direction I want to move in most is away from fascism. Further stagnation will be inevitable with Sanders, but our government has been gutted. Just stop the gutting. Sanders’ big plan to get things done is by executive order. I can’t really get behind that, but again... the fascists have forced me into supporting UnAmerican policies.
I've seen a similar anti-Bernie sentiment among women in their 60's-70's who I'm friends with, although they said they will vote (begrudgingly) for him if he gets the nomination.
I do hope most Bernie supporters will support the nominee if it isn't him, but I've been seeing more of the "I refuse to vote for any of the other candidates" rhetoric (from actual people, although there's likely a lot of that from Russian bots also). This frustrates and saddens me a great deal. I'm "Blue no matter who" just like last time.
MAS1581 Some hope yet! MY husband & I just voted for Warren in NC.
Only 325,318 Democrats have cast a vote for Joe Biden.
Only 260,697 Democrats have cast a vote for Bernie Sanders.
There are about 83 million registered Democrats in the United States.
This thing has just started.
I still have hope. My hope is that lets say the candidate is Biden. Then he should pick Warren for VP. This way he can be the figurehead we need to the world and the older white folks will like him. This way the progressives won't be downtrodden completely. In a sense everyone wins. And, God forbid he's sick etc. Warren can step right in.
Now about Bernie, well for him the logical sidekick is Warren. But I do worry about people not wanting him to succeed and that the senate would not go blue if he's in. My personal dream ticket was always Warren/Bernie together but Warren as POTUS.