Don't Dismiss Bernie Sanders

[babylonsister]

This discussion thread was locked as off-topic by Omaha Steve (a host of the General Discussion forum).

https://politicalwire.com/2019/02/20/dont-dismiss-bernie-sanders/


Don’t Dismiss Bernie Sanders
February 20, 2019 at 9:01 am EST By Taegan Goddard

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) kicked off his presidential campaign by raising an impressive $4 million in just 12 hours. He also won an immediate endorsement from Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), who had backed Clinton four years ago. And he signed a campaign manager with deep experience in the party, a strong contrast with the disjointed campaign he built in 2016.

Those are all good reasons for his Democratic rivals to take him seriously.

But a more important reason might be his demonstrated ability to energize younger voters.

The best Democratic nominee to go up against President Trump is one who can rebuild the Obama coalition — the women, minorities and young people who turned out in record numbers to twice elect Barack Obama.

Several current candidates can potentially energize women voters (Kamala Harris, Amy Klobuchar, Kirsten Gillibrand) and voters of color (Kamala Harris, Cory Booker). But Sanders is the only candidate — so far, at least — with a proven appeal to young people.

A recent Quinnipiac poll found that young voters like Sanders by a stunning 57% to 29% margin, while older voters do not, 40% to 45%. That’s a remarkable feat for the oldest candidate in the race. He’s obviously delivering a message that young people want to hear.

That said, Sanders is still mostly a factional politician and, for the last 30 years at least, Democrats have nominated candidates who can build broad coalitions. One of the current candidates, perhaps Kamala Harris, might also prove appealing to young voters. Or maybe it will be a new entrant to the race like Beto O’Rourke.

But until then, Democrats should not dismiss Sanders. He holds one of the keys to putting the coalition back together that allowed Democrats to hold the White House for eight years.

[Paladin]

1. If Bernie ends up being the Democratic nominee, I'll vote for him.

It will be a futile gesture, because I think Bernie will hand trump a second term. We can do a lot better, this time.

[Adrahil]

3. Same.

I'd vote for him. But I've seen him on the trail. He only has one speech, and he will be eaten alive.

[NewJeffCT]

15. same with me

I have visions of McGovern, Mondale and Dukakis with Sanders

[PubliusEnigma]

2. The only thing that Bernie can do by getting in the race is help Donald Trump.

Bernie has no chance of being President, but his desire to could cost us all.

[democratisphere]

5. Same old story.

Different election.

[BeyondGeography]

6. Disagree...He helps Warren

She’s a deeper, better Bernie. And she’ll be taken more seriously on substance because Bernie is in the mix. She’s Bernie with better plans and better answers. If she can outlast him, his voters will have a landing place with her, much more than with the other candidates.

[PubliusEnigma]

8. The problem with that is that Bernie doesn't know how to let go gracefully.

[BeyondGeography]

9. It will be a much easier pivot for his supporters than HRC

But miles to go before we get anywhere near there.

[Lucid Dreamer]

14. Bernie need a Realism Injection

Somebody on his staff needs to grab Bern by the neck and get him to bow out early.
He could cite health, family responsibilities, fatigue, support of other candidate, age...
Anything to acknowledge a real world evaluation of his chances vs. adverse effect on "his party."

[Garrett78]

24. I think he'll face more pressure, even from within his own camp, to bow out early this time around.

There's a good chance he won't place as high in either Iowa or New Hampshire as he did in 2016. And it won't get any better for him after NH. Not with NV, SC and Super Tuesday (CA, TX, AL, NC, etc.) being next.

Unless someone can explain to me how he's going to do considerably better among POC and non-millennial women than he did in 2016, any talk of him being a frontrunner or even a serious contender is ridiculous.

[djg21]

10. Warren has no chance either.

She and Sanders will draw any likely nominee that could have a real shot at the Presidency to the far left, which will hurt them in the general election. Warren and Sanders should go away. I’m really fearful the the Democratic Party is going to fuck this up again and give us a second term of Traitor Don.

[BeyondGeography]

11. Warren should go away too now?

Lol. You miss the 90s, don’t you?

[uponit7771]

18. I don't think Warren is "far left" and has policies that are pretty well polled across both parties

... if anything she's mainstream with most of her positions.

[KPN]

30. Far left!? Medicare for All is favored by something

like 70% of all voters (all includes Rs!). Affordable higher education is also supported by a significant majority. Sounds more like mainstream to me.

[Garrett78]

23. They'll compete for the same constituency, which will only serve to hurt both of them.

Biden would also hurt their chances in NH, which is a crucial state for both Warren and Sanders.

Regardless, as I wrote below, Sanders has no chance if he doesn't do much, much better among POC and non-millennial women than he did in 2016. Nevada, South Carolina and Super Tuesday will likely be even worse for him than they were in 2016.

[Blue_Tires]

4. I'm not dismissing him...

But I don't have to kiss his ass, either

[TCJ70]

7. He's got a base...name recognition...funding...

A lot of people are saying a crowded field works against him but I don't know about that this time. 43% of the total last time is nothing to laugh at and if those same people come back and the rest are divided up among 10+ other candidates, it may actually work in his favor.

[Cha]

12. I'll "dismiss" him if I want. He's too Divisive.

We have Excellent, Qualified Dems who are quite capable of Uniting the Democratic Party and bringing people together.

Nancy Pelosi and The Democratic Party worked hard and got us our BLUE WAVE for the Midterms, a Democratic Victory in the HOUSE.. from all kinds of Dems all over the country. That's our Coalition, and there's the Obama coalition that's a force for Good!.

[KPN]

31. Nice graphic. Who's going to emerge from that barrel?

I like it!

[honest.abe]

13. The author of this piece might be a bit biased.

Many of his articles seem to be lean Trump or Republican. Here is a recent article:

https://politicalwire.com/2019/02/12/senate-has-found-no-evidence-of-collusion-with-russia/

I think he is probably an independent considering his background.

Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator Donald Riegle (Dem but formerly a Repub) and Independent Governor Lowell Weicker

https://politicalwire.com/author/tdg/

[NewJeffCT]

16. I don't think he should be dismissed at all

Unless/Until Biden gets into the race, he's likely the current front runner.

[Demsrule86]

17. I do not believe he will win a primary.

[MrsCoffee]

19. Don't tell me how to live my life.

As my sons are fond of saying.

[Cha]

20. ..

[markpkessinger]

21. Not only does he energize younger voters . . .

. . . he also pulls in very high approval ratings among independent/unaffiliated voters, from which any Democratic candidate must draw significant support in order to win nationally.

And for those who blame Bernie for Hillary's loss, the notion that Bernie caused Hillary to lose is based on the mistaken assumption that the group of Bernie primary voters who either stayed home during the general election or voted for a candidate other than Hillary (estimated at around 13%) would have voted for Hillary but for Bernie. What folks who blame Bernie fail to understand is that this group of 13% consisted for the most part of people who were strongly negatively disposed towards Hillary from the get go. Many of them registered as Democrats solely because of Bernie; otherwise, they would have remained unaffiliated with either party. It may be that if those falks had voted for HIllary, it would have been enough to put her over the top. But the fact of the matter is that whether Bernie ran or not, those folks were never going to vote for Hillary under any circumstances. They were never HIllary's votes to count; and they weren't even Democrats' votes to count but for Bernie.

And to those who say Bernie is "divisive," seems to me there was plenty of divisiveness to go around on all sides in 2016, and there is even now. People accuse Bernie of being divisive while they regularly and routinely trash him on DU, oblivious to the fact that Bernie does still have a base among the membership here, even if it is a minority. Is that not being divisive? Bernie did nothing more than any other primary candidate would have done.

I supported Bernie in the 2016 primary, and Hillary in the general (as did the great majority of Bernie primary voters). I don't y7et know who I sill support in the 2020 primary. My gut tells me that Bernie's moment has likely passed, but I'm willing to keep an open mind. What I am certain of, however, is that trashing ANYONE running as a Democrat is a fool's errand at this stage in the game, and that the very worst thing our party can do is to get caught up in lingering resentments from 2016 in a 2020 campaign season.

[Garrett78]

25. Candidates always argue over their positions and who is best suited to be POTUS. But...

...what separates Sanders from the others is that he bashes the Democratic Party as an institution. So, no, he doesn't just do what "any other primary candidate would have done."

That said, preventing him from running would be a PR nightmare. It's best to just let him fizzle out and hope he doesn't bash our party.

[Garrett78]

22. If Sanders doesn't do much, much better among POC and non-millennial women...

...he has absolutely no shot at winning the nomination. And he hasn't done himself any favors by repeatedly sticking his foot in his mouth on matters of race and sex. After New Hampshire, Sanders will effectively be done. Nevada, South Carolina and Super Tuesday (CA, TX, AL, NC, etc.) will not go well for him. Plus, there will be fewer caucuses in 2020.

Kamala Harris is most likely to rebuild the Obama coalition, which I agree is crucial. I think we'd see record-breaking Democratic turnout for a Harris-O'Rourke ticket.

[revmclaren]

27. Well said.

ONLY!!! 2019 and beyond.

[Garrett78]

36. Nobody has addressed that point in the thread I started about this in the primaries forum.

People seem to think vote-splitting will only negatively impact the non-Sanders candidates and other such nonsense, while refusing to acknowledge the reality regarding POC and non-millennial women.

[bobGandolf]

26. Don't anoint him either.

You are doing a disservice to the primaries if you do not give ALL of them an honest chance. Primaries are to give you choices to select from.....use it.

[SylviaD]

28. I'm dismissing Bernie Sanders.

There is a full slate of DEM candidates to support.

He is dismissed.

[R B Garr]

29. Me too! And I'm especially dismissing the divisiveness.

We don’t need it. No more.

[Bernie42020]

32. The party is changing

NONE of his policies are bad policies. And people are THRIVING for change to help the middle and lower class, and destroy income inequality.

He just collected from 250K people, worth 6M in fund raising, in 24 hours. Don't look at the money. Look at the amount of people. That says a lot. And no one has come even close, to date.

As of now, he will most likely be the front runner for the "Democrat party". Most don't have a problem with that. The idea is to get someone that will beat Chump. PERIOD. I feel strongly, that he is the only one, to date, that can do it.

Note: He just announced yesterday that his running mate WILL BE a woman. Check mate.

[R B Garr]

33. I remember the storyline from the fundraising in 2016

didn’t quite match the final FEC flags. I recall his campaign kept submitting extensions to resolve it.

Bernie didn’t win liberal California, so how could he beat Trump. Welcome to DU,

[George II]

35. Unless an itemized list of those 250,000 people is released, I'll take that with a grain of salt.

In the past ONE person alone made over 900 individual contributions. Does that count as "900 people"? From FEC.gov, there were about 2.9 million contributions from only 480,000 individuals.

[Buckeyeblue]

34. I think he would do alright against 45 but what if 45 doesn't run

How would he fair against a Jeb Bush or a Romney? I'm not convinced that 45 be be at the top of the ticket.

I see him pulling out late this year/early next saying he has accomplished what he set out to do. Especially if he thinks there is any money left to be made on his name...

[Omaha Steve]

37. Locking

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