Dear non-Bernie Sanders supporters,
Shut up.
Seriously.
Sit down, and shut the fuck up.
You’ve been doing an awful lot of talking lately, and there’s a few things you need to hear.
We, the Bernie supports, are sick and tired of the never-ending flow of bullshit coming out of your mouths.
For the past five years you’ve called us Bernie Bros, Bernie’s Internet army, Russian bots, naive, sexist, racist, privileged, pigs.
You didn’t listen to us in 2016 when we said Hilary Clinton was unelectable. You didn’t listen to us when we said Donald Trump had a real chance at winning. But you blamed the entire catastrophe on the handful of us who didn’t vote for your candidate.
And now the second Bernie Sanders suspends his 2020 campaign, you’re all over us to commit to your boy, Joe Biden.
We’ve been here before. We have a pretty good idea how this story ends. Maybe you’d do well to listen to us for once.
We’ve spent years of intense effort changing the narrative of politics in America. We’ve held live streams, phone banked, knocked on doors, overfilled arenas. We’ve pushed Medicare for all, raising the minimum wage, universal college, a Green New Deal.
And the only thing you can say is “I told you so”?
All you have to say is “blue no matter who”?
It’s just “Get in line or you’ll be responsible – again.”
Let me ask you a question: what are YOU responsible for?
When Bernie was winning state after state, the media acted like it was a literal invasion of brownshirts. When Biden was winning, it was the best news since sliced bread.
Who’s responsible for that?
Bernie was running away with the primary until nearly all the other candidates mysteriously dropped out all at once right before Super Tuesday. And now we find out Barack Obama gave them each a call before hand – putting his finger on the scale.
Who’s responsible?
The Democratic National Committee literally pushed to continue primaries in Illinois, Florida and Arizona during a pandemic in case waiting might bolster Bernie – the candidate with policies tailor made to fight COVID-19. And the result has been a flood of sick people and a nearly insurmountable delegate lead.
Who’s responsible?
Once again – no one.
Not a single establishment Democrat, Hillary or Biden supporter has ever said, “We fucked up.” It’s only what everyone else did. No accountability for your actions at all.
Don’t Bernie supporters have a right to be pissed off about it?
Can we just have a moment to express our authentic human rage?
This may come as a shock but almost all Bernie supporters want to beat Trump in November.
And now we have no choice but Biden with which to do it.
We have a candidate with a long history of outrageous and provable lies – including statements only a month old that he was arrested while visiting Nelson Mandela in South Africa.
We have only a candidate with a history of inappropriate touching of women and a credible rape allegation.
We have a candidate who degraded Anita Hill to help far right Republican Clarence Thomas get on the Supreme Court.
We have a candidate who wrote the bankruptcy bill that stopped protection from millions right before a recession.
We have a candidate who has repeatedly been willing to cut social security.
We have a candidate who refuses to support Medicare for all – even during a global pandemic.
And you think Berners are somehow out of line for expressing anger over this shit?
You need to wake up.
At this point, we need unity more than ever.
We need to come together and defeat Trump.
But to do that, we need more than just hatred of the incumbent.
Sure we need someone who will nominate sane Supreme Court justices, but we need a base that will give him the support to get these nominees approved and not leave them in the wind like Merrick Garland.
We need real policies that people can get behind. And even if Bernie came up short on delegates, his policies are still incredibly popular – more popular than he is.
If you want some of us to pull the lever for your boy in November, you’d do a lot better fixing Biden’s policy positions than gaslighting Bernie folk.
You’d do a lot better getting Biden to pick strong progressives for cabinet positions and leadership positions in his electoral campaign than trying to bully us into obedience.
You’d do a lot better committing to Bernie as a second choice if Biden somehow demonstrates he’s unable to continue with the campaign (and you KNOW what I mean).
And perhaps more than anything – you’d do well to give us a little fucking space.
Berners need time to mourn.
I said that before and someone thought I was joking. I’m not.
If Bernie folk have a weakness, it’s that we’re believers.
We believed in our political revolution.
We believed in the idea of “Not me. Us.”
We believed a better world was possible.
Now that better world is further out of reach.
And all you have to offer us is one that’s slightly less fucked.
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Biden can take back some of his shitty policies and make them mirror Bernie’s.
He can take back his possible poor decisions for SCOTUS seats.
He can take back his entire, right-centrist platform in order to elect more progressive candidates.
Biden, however, cannot take back his lying and plagiarism that cost him the 1988 presidential run, and he may well lie again to get votes.
He cannot take back his horrific voting record.
He cannot take back the fact he may well have raped a woman with his fingers.
He cannot take back molesting little girls by touching/pinching their breasts and nipples. Millions of people are victims of rape, abuse, molestation, sexual assault, and sexual harassment.
He cannot take back his long history of sexual harassment and unwelcome advances and touches on women and little girls.
Whatever back-flips Biden does to appease us progressives, the bottom line is millions of victims who have been sexually violated and harassed will likely NOT have his back. We don’t want another damn rapist/creep in the White House or in this administration again.
We never forget. We never will forget.
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Thank you so much for commenting, Karen. I very much appreciate your thoughts on this. Big hugs.
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Bernie is not even my candidate and I am OUTRAGEOUSLY PISSED on his behalf! I hope he brokers the f*ck out of that bullshit convention. Sorry for the cursing but I haven’t been able to sleep for five days and I am going INSANE
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One decent man in politics running for the office he should win. The Presidency of the United States. Twice he gained the support of millions of the American People with a grassroots campaign. Accepted no money from Wall Street or large corperations. But amassed millions in small donations from his base, the people he was working hard to help. They were working just as hard for him. Honest forthright people willing to help others. Twice cheated by ” the powers that be” in plain sight at just the moment he was gaining good ground. They’ve always found a way to force him to bow out. He is still on the ballot. Vote for him in the remaining primaries, he needs the delegates and that could make a big difference at the Democratic Convention. Hell, vote for him to win. He deserves that and so does the world. Bernie can beat Trump!
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So if we’re not Bernie supporters we should shut the fuck up? How about if we ARE Bernie supporters, then can I tell YOU to shut the fuck up? Yes, I wanted Bernie to win but he didn’t. And it was because of VOTES, votes cast by people who are every bit as legitimate as you, who were not visited by the DNC or coerced in any way. Apparently most Americans are not ready for a bold, progressive leader. Why does that have to be the end? Why can’t we celebrate that Bernie’s presence in the senate and his two runs for president have positively affected the narrative and the trajectory of this country, that seeds have been planted which will flower. Fact is Biden is 85% of the way to where Bernie was. I’m not going to speak divisively over that 15%. Biden will be a better president because of Bernie.
SO YOU SHUT THE FUCK UP, idiot.
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Dan, you make me laugh. The point I was trying to make (rudely, I admit) was that non-Bernie folk need to stop telling us what to do. They need to listen to US for once instead of constantly demanding we listen to them. I wasn’t trying to say non-Bernie folk have no right to speak. I was trying to say that a dialogue has two voices – not just one. Let us speak, then you speak. Bullying us over to their side is not persuasive. If they want some of us to come over to Biden, they need to change tactics. I outline some suggestions here in the article.
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Actually, there is no need for a dialogue at all. The hard-core Bernie folks just have to make a decision. There’s an election in Nov. What are they going to do? Vote Trump? Vote Biden? Vote some 3rd party? Or just sit out? Each choice has consequences. Pick your poison.
Yeah – the primary system sucks. The time to do something about that was … oh, two, maybe three years ago?
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I disagree, Dan. It’s April. The general election isn’t until November. There’s lots of time to talk, lots of time for Biden to TRY to win over progressives who feel disenfranchised by a primary system you admit “sucks.” Admittedly some will be unwilling to hear anything he says. Not sure I can even blame them. But many are reachable. It’s up to the candidate and his campaign to reach voters. It’s not up to voters to just fall in line. Sorry. That’s a fundamental difference between the way we see things.
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“Each choice has consequences.”
As did the choice of the DNC/Establishment Dems to promote a candidate that is in clear cognitive decline, who has a verifiable record of lying, segregationism and supporting Wall Street over Main Street, and who now has credible allegations of sexual assault against him (on top of his verifiable history of gropiness and his abominable treatment of Anita Hill).
I’ll accept the consequences of my choice in November, but the Democrats have never taken responsibility for their choices to consistently promote such horrible candidates.
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Are you a troll? Or do you really believe that these elections were completely legit? That no suppression, manipulation and outright vote rigging occurred? And that this death-addled, demented center-right empty suit has a snowballs chance in hell of beating Trump?
It must be hard to breathe with your head that far up your ass.
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You are ignoring the entire media apparatus, which was against Bernie and which never brought up Biden’s past actions/votes nor his apparent senility. You ignore the fact that 99% of radio is right-wing, which constantly called Bernie a Communist. People ARE sheep. And you ignore the hand of the Dem establishment in the chaotic, possibly rigged primaries/caucuses, not to mention the many phone calls from Obama to the candidates. Nor is Biden 85% of the way to Bernie; if you think that, you are delusional. And we all have the right to tell others to shut up. Name calling, however, gets you nowhere.
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99% of radio is right wing? I’m sure Fox News fans would say 99% is extreme leftist.
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More like Biden is 5% of the way to where Bernie was.
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Half the country hasn’t voted yet! Why do our votes not count? And yes, most Americans are ready for a bold, progressive leader. The DNC cheated big time in the primaries, along with their mainstream media collaborators.
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Half is inaccurate. It’s much more than half. No problem with a Bernie vote in the remaining primaries, my problem is with thrown away protest votes in November.
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Red or Blue I will never vote for a sexist, racist, bigot, Imperialist accused rapist, documented woman and little kid groper who 8 woman accused of sexual assault it is the antithesis of Progressive, Feminist and Humanitarian ideologies.
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FEEL THE BERN 2020! Hillary needs to shut up and GO AWAY already! Everyone is sick of you. YOU lost the election by alienating voters. YOU did not think you had to campaign or woo voters. YOU are the establishment, and people are SICK of establishment candidates. YOU lost. OWN it. People don’t like you. It is YOUR fault we have Trump, and you are STILL trying your damnedest to divide the party and give us Trump again! STOP IT! SHUT UP! GO AWAY! Is it sinking in yet? Bye bye Hillary.
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This is nonsensical biased divisive crap written by someone who clearly doesnt understand the process and blames their failures on conspiracy and everyone else except themselves. I am a huge Bernie supporter, but everything you’ve typed above is garbage. Candidates dropped out before super Tuesday because it would’ve been selfish to stay in, knowing that their delegates would’ve prevented any candidate from reaching the threshold. Bernie lost fair and square. He didnt even win any counties in Michigan, a state he took very decisively in 2016. You have every right to be angry and upset about his campaign exodus. You don’t have any right to continue your extortion and bad faith demands without any compromise. You complain about people calling you racist, but haven’t even the slightest inkling that wishing for the suffering of minorities because you didnt get your way is pretty racist. If you really, truly care for the people and policies that you claim during the primary, show it by voting for the presidential candidate that aligns 90% with your ideals rather than allowing this country to slip even further out of reach for those you were fighting for in the primary.
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“I am a huge Bernie supporter….”
Bullshit. I am really sick of DNC trolls pretending to be reformed Bernie supporters. You never were a Bernie supporter. Clearly you understand nothing about him or about the forces arrayed against him. As Steven has said in this post, STFU for a while, listen for a change.
And stop feeding me bullshit like this: “the presidential candidate that aligns 90% with your ideals”
Sexual assault and sexual harassment are not my ideals.
Denying women control over their own bodies is not my ideal.
Invading Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya do not reflect my ideals.
Segregation is not one of my ideals.
Driving Americans deep into debt to support the credit card industry does not reflect my ideals.
My ideals do not include protecting DuPont as they poison our water supply and their own employees.
Lying is not one of my ideals.
And I certainly don’t find it ideal to have a president who thinks that 150 million Americans have died by gun violence, who doesn’t know what office he’s running for and mistakes his sister for his wife.
And finally, in response to this concern trolling nonsense: “You complain about people calling you racist, but haven’t even the slightest inkling that wishing for the suffering of minorities because you didnt get your way is pretty racist.”: https://theintercept.com/2020/04/09/nonvoters-are-not-privileged-they-are-largely-lower-income-non-white-and-dissatisfied-with-the-two-parties/
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My sentiments exactly. Any statement that begins with “I’m a huge Bernie supporter, but…” is guaranteed to be followed by a stream of oatmeal-mouthed centrist bullshit. Huge Bernie supporters don’t immediately jump ship once their candidate is pushed aside and hop on board with a rapist, racist corporatist.
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THAT is total bullshit. Some Bernie supporters respect the will of other voters, who did not vote for him and don’t think we own the fucking country and have a right to impose our will over the majority of voters who have spoken. BERNIE himself understands this, why don’t you?
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Joe, that’s some revisionist history you’ve got there. Before Super Tuesday Biden was tanking. It would have made sense for him to drop out and make room for others like Mayor Pete who were much further ahead in delegates. But Pete and others dropped out to make way for him. That’s not logical or selfless. It’s the establishment putting its hand on the scale – again.
As to bad faith arguments, you should be the expert because you’re making one here. Where have I written anything that wishes for the suffering of minorities? Do minorities deserve a fair election? I think so. Do they deserve to have their choices limited to Biden – a segregationist – and Trump – a fascist? Come on.
And we once again come to the hysterical bullying of establishment Democrats. The bullying of Sanders supporters to vote for Biden. WE should compromise. WE should give in. What do we give? We vote Biden. What do we get? Biden. That’s no compromise. You just want us to fall in line and do what we’re told. This is not terribly persuasive. I think you’d do better to listen to people like me – for once. It’s pretty clear how this will probably end.
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So you think it was just purely coincidental that everyone dropped out before super Tuesday ? If you think it was purely coincidental, then you sir are completely naive about how politics works.
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No, it wasn’t a coincidence. They were moderate candidates who didn’t see a path to victory and they wanted someone like them who had a path to prevail, so they dropped out. And they probably hope to be given cabinet positions since they realized they’re not doing to be president. It does NOT take a conspiracy for that to happen, just common sense.
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Dan, it’s very well documented that Obama called all the people who dropped out and put extreme pressure on them (and offered them plenty of carrots for obedience).
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With all due respect, your information is incorrect. Permit me to help you understand what happened?
Bernie supporters turned out in massive numbers. The elections were hacked. Hundreds of thousands of votes were stolen in Michigan alone but it happened with state after state. It was well planned and could not have been accomplished without DNC complicity. Could. Not.
And WE HAVE PROOF.
The-Office.com/landslide.jpg
But the DNC actually had help from Republicans.
But wait… There’s MORE!
GO HERE:
The-Office.com/riggedprimary.htm
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Anyone who claims to be a “huge Bernie supporter but” then calls verifiable facts “garbage” isn’t a Bernie supporter.
I was a lifelong Democrat—51 years. I held my nose to vote for Clinton to try and prevent the Republican takeover of the government, and not only watched her arrogantly refuse to seek voter support but then allow her minions to blame me and all my fellows for her loss. Oh, and also the man who did more campaigning in swing states on her behalf than she deserved—Bernie Sanders.
I will no longer support the legacy party stranglehold on the electoral process by falling in line behind a candidate I find incompetent and repulsive, and whose sincerity with regard to the adoption of any progressive policy I don’t trust. After all, we learned from his former boss just how much we can count on that.
The only way to break that stranglehold is for progressives to collectively support alternative parties and enable them to break through the barriers placed in the way of their progress by those same two legacy parties. The best-known, of course, is the Green Party, but the Vermont Progressive Party, which has seen even more success than the Greens in local and state elections, announced yesterday it’s going national. I am supporting both. I encourage other like-minded people to do so as well.
Biden isn’t an alternative to Trump. He’s just Trump without the bombast. The only difference between.Donald Trump and every one of his predecessors is that he hasn’t bothered to hide what he’s doing behind a façade of courtesy and faux-democracy. That he’s become a kind of comic-book supervillain is the direct result of the 24/7/365 focus on his every sneeze by the same media that got him elected by providing $3 billion-worth of free publicity. And for the same reason—he’s a cash cow.
So, no, I will not be voting for Joe Biden, not now and not ever. Nor will I vote for whichever alternative the Democrats slide into the nomination when Biden withdraws for “reasons of health” or whatever. Because that’s the plan, boys and girls, and always has been.
I have ten grandchildren. If this country doesn’t reverse course and slow down climate change before the deadline, they may not survive. I will not have 700 people a day to continuing to die of poverty in the so-called “richest country on earth” if I can do one single thing to stop it.
“Now, I want to say, my friends, I have only one journey to go through this life; you have only one journey to go through this life; let us all do the best we can for humanity, for mankind, while we are here.” — Mary Harris (Mother) Jones
In solidarity!
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Joe, Bernie didn’t “lose fair and square in Michigan.” Over three hundred thousand of the votes Bernie WON fair and square were stolen right out from under our noses in broad daylight In Michigan. THAT is how cocky the DNC is. They did this in state after state after state. And THEN they CHANGED the totals on the bloody election polls to match the hacked computer polls. It was such outright blatant election fraud it was jaw dropping. We HAVE the damned proof. We tried like hell to get it out there. Lemmings are too busy singing the “Vote Blue” mantra and marching in unison off a cliff to care. If YOU still care and want to know what actually happened you’re welcome to take a look.
The-Office.com/landslide.jpg
The-Office.com/riggedprimary.htm
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Bernie did not “lose.” Neither candidate has the 1991 delegates required to win the nomination. Half the states haven’t voted yet. If you don’t recognize that the drop out of so many candidates was engineered by the DNC and its piece of garbage Obama, then you don’t have a clue. There has been nothing fair and square about any of this primary process. FYI, we WILL get our way, and you cannot stop that from happening. Biden does not align with 90 percent of our views, and many of us will never vote for him. See you on November 4.
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DanSheehanMusic gave a cursory glance at a screen capture and complained that he needed more proof than that but apparently couldn’t be bothered to follow the link printed on that image that would take him to a page giving him exactly what he couldn’t be bothered to look at. I can’t give you what you refuse to see, dude.
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Have you calculated the possibilities of Bernie making a come from behind victory under current circumstances knowing the remaining states and their demographics, tendencies and polling? Bernie has.
Again, I’ll be voting with you in the primary for Bernie as a symbolic vote, but if he’s not on the ballot in November I will make only realistic choice for beating Trump. Not reasonable?
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As a rape survivor I cannot vote for a RAPIST. Ive been saying for 6 years that bernie is our last hope at peaceful change. At least if trump gets re-elected people will get off their asses and protest to get our demands met. I’m never voting against my morals ever again.
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Another reason Bernie supporters have a right to be pissed is that the primaries have been completely invalid so far. Starting with the fiasco in Iowa in which an app developed by affiliates of the DNC somehow mysteriously malfunctions and voting totals aren’t available for 24 hours (during which time many counts seem to have mysteriously changed). Even still, they couldn’t suppress the will of the people and Bernie won (although somehow Buttigieg got more delegates – hmm, nothing wrong there, from the party that still screams about how Hillary won the popular vote in 2016).
Then Bernie handily won New Hampshire (expected) and even Nevada despite the best efforts of infiltrators to the culinary union and suddenly the Dems realized they had to get serious. Not only was there Obama’s call that you mentioned, but suddenly James Clybourn comes out of the woodwork and overnight South Carolina’s black population supports a segregationist? Please. And then Biden continued to “win” black support in Southern states. In fact, Bernie could hardly win another state. Let’s not pretend Clybourn is that powerful. Not that there’s anything suspicious about the fact that exit polls were off from actual vote tallies in state after state. Nothing to see here, folks, move along.
Then, as you also mentioned, came Illinois, Florida and Arizona. I’m from Illinois and let me assure you it was a fiasco. All the affluent areas had plenty of polling places, all well staffed, supplied and clean so voters could get in and out relatively safely. But hundreds of polling places in poor black and rural areas closed, sending voters scrambling, some with nowhere to vote, some forced to go to “mega” polling places where people waited crammed in for hours in unclean places with inadequate supplies and election judges. And that’s without even mentioning the usual electioneering that goes on in Crook County. As I entered my polling place I was helpfully handed a list of candidates to vote for, and there was a similar list IN THE VOTING BOOTH ITSELF! I have a friend in Arizona who has worked as an election judge for the past 20 years and he reported similar antics (and he then suffered from “flu-like symptoms for a couple weeks, but wasn’t able to get tested; fortunately it never got serious and he has recovered). And finally, let’s remember that it was Biden and the DNC who told his supporters that it was perfectly safe to go out and vote, while Bernie pushed to postpone the election, did not do get out the vote organizing and told his supporters to do what they thought best and not vote if they didn’t feel safe.
There is no way the Dems can credibly rail about the “Russians” or the “Bernie Bros” or Jill Stein or Susan Sarandon “stealing” the 2016 general election and simultaneously claim that the 2020 primaries have been legitimate.
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It’s time to get Ronhole Raygun the fuck out of our politics. Corrupt Refuglycans AND “Democrats” have been with us ever since. Only Bernie represented that effort.
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I’ve been in a constant state of mourning, I’m ready to press on
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“Berners need time to mourn.”
Yes, they do.
“Can we just have a moment to express our authentic human rage?”
Abso-f***ing-lutely!
“And perhaps more than anything – you’d do well to give us a little fucking space.”
Fair enough. If the purpose of sharing this article, was to vent, consider yourself listened to, and read no further.
*
But if the purpose of this sharing this article was to engage in an exchange of ideas, please read further…
“We believed a better world was possible.”
It is. Bernie’s ideas would have made undoubtedly it so. But a better world is possible still, and Bernie’s ideas have not gone anywhere. It would have been a nice legacy for him to have enacted them as President, but such as it is, they will endure in other, no less meaningful ways. Actually, as Covid-19 lays bare the failings of corporatism and corruption, I think Bernie has given a lot of people a good foundation from which to begin examining things. It will be interesting to see what emerges.
“We need real policies that people can get behind. And even if Bernie came up short on delegates, his policies are still incredibly popular – more popular than he is.”
^
^
This.
“Now that better world is further out of reach.’
Had Bernie been given his shot on the national stage, it would technically put the world you envision closer within reach, but perhaps not in as a meaningful away as this statement might imply. The odds were always tough for him within the party, and they only promised to get tougher on the national stage. To provide an over-simplified analogy, buying 2 lottery tickets may double your chances of winning, but it still remains a very long shot.
“Bernie was running away with the primary…”
When the early states voted, the progressive wing of the Democratic Party had already coalesced around Bernie, while the centrist wing was still splitting votes between 5 candidates — Bernie’s home state of New Hampshire is telling for how his vote share actually went down from 2016.
“…until nearly all the other candidates mysteriously dropped out all at once right before Super Tuesday. And now we find out Barack Obama gave them each a call before hand – putting his finger on the scale.”
To me, the only mystery here, is how the centrist wing got its act together to agree on rallying around Biden — my assumption was that the 60%-70% of Dems who all wanted a similar but different candidate would continue to duke it out all the way to the convention, clearing the way for Bernie, when only 30%-40% wanted someone so progressive.
“We’ve been here before. We have a pretty good idea how this story ends. Maybe you’d do well to listen to us for once.”
Again, this statement assumes a different outcome had Bernie been the nominee, when this is not assured.
“ (In Biden) we have a candidate who has… (fill in the blank.)
I will not defend Biden. I am no fan of Biden. But I would simply suggest that Bernie supporters not let their anger at the situation metastasize into unbridaled festering hatred of Biden, when contrary to rumbles (and some of the comments here) he is still vastly preferable to Trump.
We believed in the idea of “Not me. Us.”
Starting any campaign slogan with a negative is just poor poetry.
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“Starting any campaign slogan with a negative is just poor poetry.”
Right, we should have just stuck with the tried and true that worked so well in 2016: “I’m with her.” And a red arrow pointing right. I’m sure it’s just Bernie’s poor sloganeering that cost him the primaries.
“…he is still vastly preferable to Trump.”
In what ways? His coherence? His gropiness? His war record? His economic record? His support of poor people, people of color and other marginalized people? His immigration record (can I remind you that the first president to cage children was Obama?)?
I can grant you that Biden might be marginally better than Trump, but certainly not “vastly”. The one area I will concede is that Biden’s Supreme Court picks probably wouldn’t be quite as raging right wingers (although they will definitely be as far right/centrist/corporatist as possible), and that is important. But otherwise, his alleged preferableness is all just packaging. He probably wouldn’t swear as much and make ridiculous gestures and faces and spend half his time tweeting (I doubt Biden even knows how to tweet). But, just as Obama continued and codified most of Bush’s policies while prettifying the packaging, Biden will simply continue and codify most of Trump’s policies. He has already assured his wealthy donors that “nothing will fundamentally change”.
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Bernie’s home state is Vermont, not New Hampshire.
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Folks need something to vote FOR.
I don’t support Biden, but I’ll vote for him.
I’d feel so much better about that vote if the Education plank of the DNC’s platform were Sanders’ Marshall Plan for public education. That I could get behind.
Teachers were among Sanders’ largest groups of contributors, due to his support of public schools. The DNC has a lot of fence mending to do with teachers (cf Arne Duncan), whose contributions to the safety net of the neediest of kids is currrently on display and publicly lauded. Now is the time.
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This made me tear up, because it’s exactly how I feel! The only thing I would add is that I believe elections were tampered with like Michigan. And I believe it’s the corruption of the DNC who is responsible. Bernie took a commanding lead in the beginning primaries and people were wondering when Biden was going to drop out. That’s when they started to play dirty, in my opinion.
Thank you for writing this!!! Not me, us!
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You argued for Bernie. You canvassed for Bernie. You made phone calls for Bernie. You knocked on doors for Bernie. You attended Bernie Sanders rallies. The only thing you didn’t do was vote for Bernie in the primaries. That is why he lost the nomination.
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You do know that is pure bovine excrement, right? Why would someone canvas, rally, phone bank, etc. and then not vote?
It’s funny how you just assume that the election results were legitimate when we have factors like the Shadow app, the exit polls being significantly off from the actual vote tallies, four states voting during a pandemic and the entire DNC suddenly lining up behind an obviously cognitively impaired candidate.
And yet, I bet you think da Russkies stole the 2016 general election, don’t you?
SMH
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Oh, almost forgot my favorite part. On Super Tuesday Alabama and a couple other states reported a Biden win with, get this, *1% of the precincts reporting*. That’s pretty good prognosticating if they can guess the outcome of an entire state primary based on 1% of precincts. Those people should play the lottery!
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EVERYBODY showed up and voted for Bernie and then the DNC STOLE his votes.
The-Office.com/landslide.jpg
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Bernie’s supporters DID show up at the polls.
They DID vote for Bernie.
Bernie DID rack up a LANDSLIDE win in Michigan.
And then over THREE HUNDRED THOUSAND of Bernie’s votes were stolen. Made to disappear, right in front of our very eyes, like magic, handing the election to Biden. And they did in state after state. We HAVE the proof!
The-Office.com/landslide.jpg
SO TELL ME: Who do you complain to when the people in charge are the ones coordinating the election rigging?
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Do you actually think the link you provided is any kind of proof that 3,000 votes in MI were stolen? You would need to provide much stronger evidence than that.
I think what some folks don’t see here is that there are short-term and long-term concerns. Short-term, we need the most realistic option other than Trump as president. Unfortunately we don’t control the will of the voters, and they were voting in higher numbers for moderate candidates from Day 1, so they prevail for now. However, long-term we progressives can influence how things take shape if we don’t make ourselves look like conspiracy loving, all or nothing fools who helped Trump get re-elected, and if we can move things back a non-ideal amount to the left rather than keep them far right for another four years.
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Half of us didn’t vote because our primaries haven’t been held yet! Why are you so okay with disenfranchising us?
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I haven’t voted, either, same reason. Will vote for Bernie in July in NJ to show my support for progresse-ism, but know, as he does, that he won’t win the nomination unless a miracle happens. Assuming no miracle, prepared to vote Biden in November. No complaints about people voting Berni in the primaries.
Maybe the primary system sucks and those of us in late states are always disenfranchised. Let’s come together and do something about that. Let’s abolish the disenfranchising Electoral College. But for now these things exist, they are the reality we must deal with.
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No, sorry DanSheehanMusic I am NOT voting for Biden. The voters did not vote in higher numbers for the moderate. The primaries already held are hopelessly compromised. Please don’t push your “realism” on me. It amounts to enabling rigging and cheating, and I will not take part in it. Please consider me a lost cause.
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Voters did not vote in higher numbers for the moderates? So if you add the votes for Biden, Buttigieg, Klobuchar vs Sanders and Warren the latter have gotten more votes? Don’t push my realism on you? Sorry I’ll sit back passively while extremist purist idealists hand Trump his second term.
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DanSheehanMusic Bernie can still win the nomination, and he doesn’t need a miracle to do it. Neither candidate is anywhere close to the required 1991 delegates. There are enough delegates still in play for Bernie to reach that number. This contest is not over.
Please don’t tell me to prepare to vote Biden in November. Even a miracle will not make that happen. If Bernie isn’t the nominee, I’m voting Green. I will not vote for a corporate candidate who represents nothing I believe in and only got where he is through a concerted rigging campaign against Sanders by the DNC. No one can make me deal with your “reality.” I reject it outright.
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DanSheehanMusic Again with the “purity” accusations. As AOC noted, that’s called having values. I will not vote for someone who shares no values with me. This type of rhetoric has been pushed by Hillary supporters for five years. You cannot have the DNC do everything to sabotage the candidate who offers the people genuine relief, then turn around and ask for our vote. Everyone likes to call their opinion “reality.” It’s typical propaganda. The fact is, what you call “realism” is your interpretation. Here’s some “realism” for you: I am NOT voting for Biden even if you hold a gun to my head. Please give up on me. The Green Party represents everything I support–Green New Deal, Medicare for All, affordable housing–which is why I am voting for them.
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And yet, YOU are asking for votes from the Democratic Party members?
Why not just back a Green Party candidate from the get go?
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Don’t want to risk a Trump victory obviously. Plus we don’t know who Green nominee is. Was not fond of their last ticket. In particular Jill Stein irresponsibly would go on about how there is no difference between a Clinton and a Trump presidency which is tremendous bullshit just like it’s pure unadulterated bullshit with Biden. And Bernie and Warren agree. Maybe consider they might have more insight into Biden than you or me. Change the system to make Green victory at all possible if you want Green party rule. Under current system not remotely possible
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Sure. I’ll support Biden. I’ll support Biden when he commits to Medicare for All, the Green New Deal, Student Loan relief and at least a move more accessible college education for young people at a goddamned minimum.
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This is incredibly wrong headed.
This is NOT the message we need to be sending to liberals right now.
The message we need to be sending, and the strategy we need to be deploying, is to make clear that enough Sanders supporters are going to walk and vote third party (or stay home) to make *certain* that Biden loses – and that the Democratic Party is taken down for good. It is imperative that the Democratic Party be taken out. Completely. It needs to be ended. Otherwise this insanity of two corporate controlled parties running the country will continue for another century, and the entire planet will literally burn down around us. The reason to send this message to liberals right now is that Biden might well go into melt down – and if he does we need to make sure that we seize that moment to nominate Sanders, not some corporate Democrat who cannot win and won’t save our country from corporate rule. Here is my message to liberals and Biden supporters:
To Liberals: We Are NOT Supporting Biden, It Is Time For Revolution
I had a recent debate with a liberal who:
1. demanded I vote for Biden against Trump
2. when I said ‘no’ because Biden has dementia and should not be put in charge of nuclear weapons (especially after actively seeking to start a war with Russia) he literally told me we should be in a war with Russia, and
3. when I said I would actively campaign against Joe Biden being elected, pouted that I had no business or power to go after Biden nationally and I should instead pay attention only to what he considered to be Quixotic local Green organizing which he imagined was somehow my only sphere of influence.
This was my reply..
100% Wrong. I am a leader in the Green Party and in 2016 I mobilized nationwide to make sure Hillary Clinton did not win the presidency. As a Green organizer I was interviewed by Bloomberg for hundreds of papers all over the US and the world, pointing out that Hillary Clinton is a war criminal and urging everyone to vote for Jill Stein. And in 2020 I and thousands of other political leaders are going to do the same and do everything in our power to make sure that Biden loses. We will be helping to lead independents and fed up Democrats all over the country to vote for third party candidates instead of Biden. And we will probably succeed.
So this election is about to be a wake up call to liberals to stop being fools and supporting a corporate neoliberal party and its corporate bought candidates like Joe Biden – because when you do so, we will go after those unacceptable candidates (who threaten the very survival of all life on Earth) with everything we’ve got.
[and when this liberal threatened to share a screen shot of my remarks with others to somehow shame me and my party, I added]
Please definitely share this with all of your liberal and progressive friends. Because they should be forewarned and fully aware that we Greens (along with a lot of very pissed off Sanders supporters and other third party organizers) are now going to go after Biden and the Democratic Party, to bring them down permanently.
This is now a war and we are going to treat it like one.
And if Biden goes into meltdown, you and the other liberals can potentially save yourselves from all of this by RISING UP and DEMANDING that Bernie Sanders take his place.
Finally, even if I were a powerless nobody it would absolutely be every bit my business to help go after Joe Biden and the Democratic Party to bring them DOWN, because that is what responsible citizens are required to do in this crucial moment to save our country and our planet.
The corrupt 20th century is over. The 21st century revolution is now well underway and you need to choose whose side you are on. The corporate oligarchs, or the revolution.
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I like the way you think. Count me in.
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I wish more Sanders supporters would respect the fact that Bernie chose to run as a Democrat in their primary, and to accept the results of the Democratic primary voters, and that he does NOT want you to vote third party.
When Bernie asks you to support Biden, do you think he’s part of the conspiracy against himself??? Think it through, people.
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I voted for the libertarian candidate in 2008 and 2012….I voted for Trump in 2016 since the LP nominated 2 clowns for president…this year i will probably go back to voting for the libertarian candidate (if it is safe to do so).
Just wanted to say I really liked this article…yes you all have the right to be furious….I liked it until I got to the end….where you talked about the possibility of voting for Biden.
Come on….the choice is obvious….never Biden….Biden is not worth the risk of going to a public place….you don’t know if the poll workers or other people who are voting got Covid19. It would be such a pity if some of you got infected because you went to vote for Joe Biden….and if you got infected by someone who came to vote for Trump.
Besides that risk….do you really trust Biden even if he says he is going to adopt some of Bernie’s policies?
There’s no possibility he can break his promises as president? and what about the Republican controlled Senate…you think they are going to approve Medicare for all legislation?
Biden….and even your man Bernie Sanders….had the opportunity to pass Medicare For All back in 2009 when Democrats controlled the 3 branches of government…they controlled the White House, the House of Representatives, and had a filibuster proof majority in the Senate…they could have passed everything that you wanted…Green New Deal. Medicare For All, $15 per hour minimum wage, etc….the Republicans could do nothing to stop them…but instead all the did was to pass Obamacare….and now you all are so gullible that you expect them to do what they failed to do in 2009?
There’s no guarantee Biden will even be alive or not have completely lost his mind by November….no guarantee he will not do or say something really stupid between now and November.
So to me the choice is clear….never Biden….maybe someone other candidate…maybe his VP….maybe a third party candidate…or even better yet, stay at home.
Fool me once….shame on you….fool me twice….shame on me….don’t forget 2016
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“You didn’t listen to us in 2016 when we said Hilary Clinton was unelectable.” –
Actually, she was HIGHLY electable. Which is WHY she took the popular vote by 3 million. And yes, she lost in the Electoral College, but that had nothing to do with being “unelectable.”
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Dan, this is a terrible argument. X was not elected. Therefore she was electable? You would fail any Philosophy or Logic 101 course.
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HRC lost the EC by a rat’s ass – due to a series of illegal moves by the Russians, Cambridge Analytica, and the Trump organization. To extrapolate from that to a conclusion that she was inherently “unelectable” is sophistry of the rankest sort.
The Shrub got appointed to the Presidency, twice – and he was easily the “least electable” candidate on record.
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Dan, a lot of what was done was not illegal. Maybe it should be – but it wasn’t. Electability is a matter of who you’re up against. It’s not a universal quality. HRC had a lot of negatives. A lot of people despised her – some for ridiculous reasons but many for valid ones. Pitting a neoliberal against a neofascist is political malpractice. And look we’re doing it again! This is part of what I mean about listening to progressives. Putting it all on the Russians is the height of dishonesty and intellectual laziness. I’m not saying they weren’t involved but if someone shows your secret message, they deserve blame for exposing your secret. But you deserve blame for the shitty stuff you said, too. The secrets exposed show HRC and her campaign were dirty, racist, antisemetic and deserved what they got.
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It had nothing to do with secrets or hacking Email.
CA stole massive amounts of demographic data from Facebook, then turned it over to the Russians, who used it to create targeted social media campaigns in very narrow demographics in the 4 swing states. Trump even said as much.
The rest was all smoke and mirrors.
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Dan, you and I both know this data was not stolen. It was freely given by Facebook – a corporation that makes few promises about keeping our data private. CA was not the only factor. There were many. If the DNC had run a more savory character, let’s say a populist who beat Trump in nearly every head-to-head poll by huge margins, then CA would not have done as much damage. HRC sucked. Face it. That’s why she lost. Biden sucks. History may be about to repeat itself, and people like you will simply enable the people responsible with media propaganda BS.
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CA was a sufficient factor.
I understand that you’re bent out of shape, but once again, this was a long shot. Bernie’s not a Dem; he didn’t even bother registering after 2016. He was an outsider trying to hijack the nomination of an organization that he doesn’t belong to. Why you think he got “screwed” is beyond me.
If you and he don’t like the rules that the Dem Party operate under, you’ve got a couple of options.
Get involved in the party and try to change the rules – but since we live in PA, and our primary is almost moot, the major change to lobby for would be to move the date. Not much you can do about Iowa unless you want to move to Iowa. It’s their state, their rules.
The other option would be to organize a bona-fide 3rd party. Teddy Roosevelt pulled it off.
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I like how you Dems pretend you really think the Electoral College is so unfair, but have nothing to say about a convoluted primary system which is made up of a patchwork of caucuses (which disenfranchise anyone who can’t vote in person on the caucus day), closed primaries (which disenfranchise anyone besides registered Democrats who have a stake in the selection of the candidate) and open primaries (the only actual democratic option). And caucuses usually have inscrutable rules that can change at will, oddly always in the Establishment’s favor.
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Any idea WHY Iowa uses the caucus system?
Ans: because they WANT to. There is no “primary system.” There are 50 different “primary systems” (plus a couple of outliers) designed and operated by the party in each separate state. The DNC can not more change any of those than you can.
Actually, closed primaries make the MOST sense… because they are, as you noted, run by and for “registered Democrats who have a stake in the selection of the candidate.” Who ELSE should get to vote in that election?
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“Who ELSE should get to vote in that election?”
Fine. If you don’t think independents have a stake in that election, then don’t ask for our votes in November. If you want our votes in November, we need a stake in selecting the candidate. Your choice. Can you win without us? If so, stop bellyachin’ when you lose.
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If you WANT a stake in selecting the candidate OF A PARTY… then REGISTER as a voting member OF that party.
Seems to me this is a classic case of wanting to have your cake and eat it too.
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That doesn’t make any sense at all. There are two parties, both PRIVATELY OWNED BY BILLIONAIRES, both parties to a joint agreement which blocks ANYONE ELSE from participating in televised debates, townhalls, etc with candidates of those two parties, ergo, they are only allowed to debate each other. The general public has no idea anyone else is even interested in the job. And only those two parties are eligible to receive public funding for their campaign. It’s a closed shop and those parties feel free to cheat and rig their own elections to ensure outcomes favorable to their billionaire owners. That is what happened to Bernie twice. They LITERALLY stole his votes. See this screen capture:
The-Office.com/landslide.jpg
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That would be a valid argument if the party could win it by itself. It clearly cannot and therefore must be willing to work and compromise with non-party members, at least if the party wants non-party members to vote for it.
Once again, either you need my vote or you don’t. If you think you can shut me out of the selection of the candidate, then apparently you think you don’t need my vote, so please own the results in November. If you do need my vote, you have to earn it.
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You’re under the mistaken impression that you’re in the driver’s seat here. I dunno – maybe you ARE willing to just sit tight and watch the whole thing burn. But if you actually give a shit what happens the next four years, you have a decision to make. If this is just about having a hissy fit because the primary didn’t work out the way you wanted… well, you know what to do.,
The rest of us will carry on.
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[…] via Bernie Sanders Supporters Have Every Right to Be Furious | gadflyonthewallblog […]
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Thanks for the reblog.
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ALL THE CRITICISM BEING LEVIED HERE BY PEOPLE WHO DON’T GET HOW IT MAKES SENSE TO VOTE FOR BIDEN IN THE GENERAL ELECTION SINCE BERNIE WON’T/CAN’T WIN BY HIS OWN ADMISSION APPLIES TO BERNIE HIMSELF. YOU PEOPLE ARE IGNORING WHAT BERNIE HIMSELF ACKNOWLEDGES. CONSIDER THAT HE MIGHT HAVE A BETTER PERSPECTIVE THAN YOU!!!
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In this case, Bernie is wrong. He can still win the nomination. Neither candidate is anywhere near the required 1991 delegates needed. Unfortunately, that piece of garbage Obama interfered and convinced Bernie to quit and parrot the argument of Biden supporters instead of staying in until every state gets to vote. At least by keeping his name on the ballot, Bernie is acknowledging that he can still win the nomination.
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Don’t forget TN went ahead with a primary just hours after an EF4 tornado. People could not even get to the polls because there was so much destruction.
I refuse to mourn. I refuse to give up on a better world, on a political revolution, and on “Not Me, Us.” And I refuse to vote for Biden. All the bullying in the world will not change my mind. I voted for Jill Stein in 2016 and will vote Green again this year. Biden supporters, don’t tell me I have only two choices when you rigged the entire primary process to destroy my hope, then declared that process over when half the country, including my state, had not yet held their primaries. I repeated many times, it’s Medicare for All or no vote.
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coming from a socialist perspective the reason Bernie Sanders failed is ironically because Bernie Sanders touts MMT (Modern Monetary Theory) instead of a working class socialist revolution.
Bernie Sanders is not a socialist or at least remains fairly moderate out of fear of causing a disruption. What he instead preaches is MMT (Modern Monetary Theory) which is a means of understanding the economy through the lens of a modern and accurate understanding of fiscal policy and to use it to the advantage of the average person. Note that this is still capitalism as it has not abolished the private means of production. Modern monetary theory accurately describes the function and funding of social services of a federal state in a capitalist society, it posits that spending comes before taxation much in the same way shareholders take on debt before the corporations sell products and can take on as much debt as possible before selling their good or service provided the resources are available and provided the currency is strong as is the case of America. When the federal government asserts that it cannot fund Medicare for all, or student debt forgiveness all the while increasing military spending and bailouts for corporations it is lying to you. However alas this is inherently the failure of MMT which socialist economists like Marx or Bakunin address. The state can absolutely spend on resources to enrich the working class because the working class produces an access surplus of resources for the corporations and state that however it chooses not to because the capitalists own the state and fiscal policy revolves around the profit motive and upwards wealth accumulation via exploitation. So while proponents of MMT accurately describe fiscal and monetary policy the mechanisms that drive the capitalist system are ethereal mysteries to them and they choose to seek to solve the problem at hand by positing that the capitalist class ought to be taxed more which they of course in reality object to with an iron fist because nothing matters more to them than profit accumulation.
Under capitalism the bourgeois (ruling class a.k.a the capitalist class) own the means of production. That means they own the factories, the public services, the corporations, offices, financial institutions and any other form of private property. For the bourgeois to generate wealth in a capitalist society they must have workers and workers whom they extract surplus labour value from, hence the term wage slavery. They may also extract wealth produced by the workers via taxes, rent, interest, and other forms of usury. Upwards capital accumulation via exploitation and the profit motive is integral to wealth accumulation for the capitalist class. Despite being unnecessary and expensive middlemen in production they accrue the greatest wealth and rig the economy to their favour. The capitalist system is also rife with contradictions such as the diminishing value of labour, that is as the workers produce ever more in surplus of goods the wealth gets accrued to the capitalists in ever more access while the wages of the workers remain stagnant and lose their value as inflation increases, therefore they cannot spend as much or enough to sustain themselves even though capitalism has a consumerist economy and relies on it to keep the profits flowing.
Now the reason why socialism is the opposite of capitalism and is anachronistic to the ideals of the bourgeois is that it posits that the workers are the very foundation of society and drive industry therefore they ought to own the means of production, self manage their workplaces, public services, and government via direct democracy and consensus, and must own the full product of their labour. Socialism being the working class movement it is seeks to empower the working class person by granting each and every one of them the ability to vote on each and every policy change or on matters of production as opposed to “voting” for a politician in an electoral setting. To make it happen either the workers start revolution via general strike and insurrection, or dictatorship of the proletariat, or by strengthening labour unions as the syndicalists do. The goal of socialism is to abolish the private means of production and free people from wage slavery, rent, interest, and other burdens that arise from the capitalist system.
With that in mind I leave you with a quote.
“The state cannot abolish at will the value of the money that is issued for the very simple reason that, in a capitalist economy, it is not dominant and all-powerful. Capitalist companies, banks and institutions rule and they make decisions on the basis of profit and profitability. The state cannot overcome or ignore this reality.”
– Michael Roberts
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[…] go door-to-door, organize and hold rallies for our chosen candidates. We navigate political labyrinths of red tape in an edifice labeled “Democracy” but at every […]
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We were cheated out of Bernie twice. The Republican party has more than its fair share of ignorant voters, but so does the Democratic party. So many Democrats voted for Biden simply on the premise that because he was Obama’s VP he was the best choice. I voted for Obama twice, and would again. But Biden was never the best choice to fill his shoes. Sanders was. I wrote Sanders in rather than being forced into a choice between two candidates that I don’t like at all. I can’t stand Trump, but if he wins deal with it and learn.
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[…] I was a Bernie Sanders guy and probably will be until the day I die. […]
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[…] I was a Bernie Sanders guy and probably will be until the day I die. […]
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[…] 4) Bernie Sanders Supporters Have Every Right to Be Furious […]
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