Claudius wrote:
Why do Sanders supporters always think there is some massive conspiracy against him.
If i was a Sanders supporter, my biggest worry would be what happened from round 1 to round 2 based on the already released data. He failed to get other candidates’ followers to flip. What this suggests to me is that he has a very loyal and dedicated base. But he is unable to create a coalition. If he’s not even able to achieve this within the Democratic Party, what hope has he in a national election. That’s really my biggest take-away from last night. Clearly, he was the single biggest candidate, had the most votes. But beyond his dedicated core, what’s the appetite for him? You’d expect more of a halo around the leader.
i think bernie has promoted the conspiracies and stoked the flames, so of course his very online supporters are going to dive into it head first. the DNC did put their thumb on the scale in 2016, but the reality is, he just did not build a diverse enough coalition in 2016 to defeat clinton. and if you look at how his supporters behave online, its really not a surprise. they constantly attack women and people of color on twitter who dare even question anything about his record.
the sad thing is, i like a lot of his policies. i just cant fucking stand him, the person. he didnt do everything he could in 2016 after he lost the nomination to help clinton. clinton deserves the majority of the blame for how she ran her campaign, but he could have done a lot more to help her, especially in the midwest, and instead he gave lukewarm support for her. hes always been a "my way or the highway" person, which i guess is where some of his appeal is, but if he really wants to be president, he cant take that approach.
trump is a fucking racist, craven, morally bankrupt psychopath who will do immeasurable damage to this country if he wins re-election. but what he has is a dedicated base, and hes scared the living shit out of even establishment republicans. almost no one has the courage to speak out against him. republicans will fall in line and vote for him in 2020. if democrats dont have a united party, and dont create energy, hes going to win re-election because of how fucked the electoral college system is.
the thing that i cant and wont tolerate are the people who say there is no difference between trump and biden or trump and buttigeg or trump and warren. trump has packed the federal bench with 150+ radical right wing judges who are going to do everything they can to prevent the democratic majority from accomplishing anything on the agenda over the next 30 years. any democrat in this current field will put a stop to that and stop the judicial rot. any democrat will not allow a potential RBG or breyer seat to be filled by a federalist society stooge. yes, you can find problems with democrats foreign policy approach, and yes, that matters. but trump's immigration policies, his terrible tax policies, and his court packing are extremely damaging to this country and have to be stopped by whatever democrat can get elected. there is time for purity discussions and whether someone is progressive enough. but those can wait until after we stop this lurch toward fascism. trump is a threat to millions of americans. im an upper middle class white guy with a shitload of privilege, so the last 3+ years havent exponentially harmed my life, but they've harmed the lives of lots of people i care about, and i cant abide another 4 years of this horseshit. i'll vote for whoever the democratic nominee is.
