If only people my age actually fuckin' turned out.
They should have, but it probably wouldn't make a difference. The superdelegates controlled the nomination.
Not in 2020, the DNC changed the rules after 2016 so they don't get a vote unless no one wins on the first ballot, and Biden won on the first ballot. Biden straight up just got more votes than Bernie in 2020
Hillary straight-up got more votes than Bernie in 2016 as well. To my (and in retrospect, the entire nation's) regret.
I voted for Bernie twice, and whenever a Democrat is running against a Republican, I will always vote blue. I'll continue to try to influence the Democratic party by voting in primaries. A ton of local elections are being won by increasingly progressive candidates, and they are going to graduate to higher offices over time
I was so distraught and in denial about Bernie not getting the nomination that I wrote him in. Sorry I think I helped Trump by doing that.
Nah, man, I don't think any of us really were expecting the result we got. I protest voted for fuckin' Johnson of all people in the 2016 General because I was certain that my vote wouldn't mean jack. I mean, I was in a safe blue state, so it didn't, but God, the feeling in my gut watching the results come in, knowing that my fellow American citizens were fucking vile enough to elect Donald fucking Trump, and that I hadn't even cast a vote in (meaningful) opposition? To at least add a little more voice to the ridiculousness that was the electoral college overriding the vote of the people? It hit hard.
Except we never elected him. The EC did. He lost the popular vote by several million votes with relatively low turnout, despite damn near record turnout.
I did too
Was your district one vote away from voting for Hilary?
If not, then your single vote did not have a measurable impact.
It took thousands of people, in a handful of very specific districts, swinging to Trump. He didn't even win the popular vote, he never has, and likely won't win it again.
Sadly, that's true if you were in a swing state. A lot of people didn't like HRC and didn't think trump could win or cared if he won, so they didn't vote for HRC and we got trump. I'm worried the same thing will happen again in 2024. Please people please, don't let it happen again. Vote for Biden whether you like him or not and we go forward from there.
Vote for the person you want in the primaries, then vote for the party you want in the general. Whether you like it or not, there are only two choices, R or D.
Remember, this is not just about who is POTUS-- it's about which people will be appointed to run all our government agencies, which people will be appointed to the Supreme Court and the Federal courts. That directly affects our lives. trump put 3 more right wing extremists on SCOTUS, and now it's 6 to 3 maga over progressive. If Hillary had been elected we would have a progressive majority instead.
Went to one of his campaign rallies before the primary in San Francisco. God was he an incredible speaker. You could feel the energy pulsating from those hands haha.
Yep. It’s unbelievable how so many people think that they can create change by staying home. It also blows my mind that so many people seem to always have so much to say…
But for some reason… only every four years. Never after elections.
It’s almost as if there’s an agenda to their need to convince others not to vote.
The real problem wasn’t an unjust primary, it was imbalanced media coverage and support prior to the primary. Debbie Wasserman Schultz wanted Hillary to win the nomination, and skewed media coverage in her favor. She stepped down after accusations, but only after the damage was done.
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/23/us/politics/dnc-emails-sanders-clinton.html
Although there is a silver lining in getting 12+ years of Senator Bernie vs. the maximum 8 years of President Bernie.
It wasn't just Debbie, she just took the fall, it was the democratic party doing what's best for the democratic party. Bernie wanted to tear down Super PACs, better to lose than to let him win and ruin that money. I think we forget that even when one side is likely to be drastically better for us, that doesn't mean that either side is always necessarily good.
Oh I’m certain there’s plenty of corruption in even the most altruistic facets of politics. You’re right that she took the fall, but I also read plenty of concerns from other members of the DNC that challenged her firm stance against Bernie. To your point though, she wasn’t likely acting alone.
I don't have any direct sources to link but I remember seeing some pretty appalling omissions of Bernie Sanders during the 2020 primary.
They'd literally put up a little infographic on the screen that would say something like
Democratic primary front runners:
1 Joe Biden
3 Pete Buttigieg
4 Michael Bloomberg
And it was like, WTF! Bernie Sanders, at #2 would just be completely omitted. I saw many news sources doing this kind of thing.
With that, and seeing how they reacted to help the rich stop losing their asses when the hedge funds were getting raped via their illegal shorting of GameStop stock solidified for me that all media is controlled by the rich and they're controlling all the narrative - to the detriment of the 99%.
She didn't even really fall. Clinton gave her a job on her campaign immediately after she stepped down as DNC chair. She couldn't even wait until after the election to bail her out. She had to immediately give her a job she clearly made up for her (I think it was something like Honorary 50 State Outreach Chair), just to give Sanders voters a giant middle finger before the election.
It's what stripped away any vestige of credibility I wished to grant NPR at the time. Was aghast at the coverage tilted to kneecap Sanders.
Every generation of leftists has its moment of realization that electoralism doesn't work and that the state is not a neutral entity.
Electoralism doesn't work if you approach it as the end be all of all political battlefields. If you consider it one battlefield of many, from which you won't get total victory, but from which you can get substantial stuff, it's useful.
The SPD used to be radical, you know. All the social-democratic parties were.
Electoralism deradicalizes and demobilizes the working class, as the means become ends themselves. The politicians end up the leaders of the movement through their position as figureheads and spokesmen for "the people's demands. To be a politician you must strive to be electable. You gotta satisfy wealthy donors to finance your campaigns. This puts pressure on you to make your platform moderate. This is what happened to most of the social-democratic parties of Europe.
Furthermore, the structure of state and the economy means that the unelected state bureaucracy (such as the various managers and officials in the various governments and agencies, or the armed forces) can struggle against you and stifle reforms, while capitalists can use the threat of disinvestment, capital flight, and capital strikes to pressure you, seeing as how they control the economy and you rely on them as a politician to build roads, for example. This happened to the Labour government during the 60s and 70s. The state bureaucracy violently put down the Allende government and the Bosch government as well.
Finally, it accustoms the proletariat to place its fate in other people's hands. It disengages people from direct action.
<3
But then I can't shake the feeling that after struggling to get anything done overnight in a hostile political environment, the very same bored and fidgety, easily-distracted, easily-manipulable potential voters wouldn't have shown up to support Bernie in the 2018 midterms.
"Consistency and perseverance are key, you need to vote in every election, from school board and city council on up, if just one day a year, maybe two", but then they groan in annoyed boredom, doomscrolling their cellphones with one eye, not even paying attention to you (or Bernie) anymore.
Hes older than both of the current ones no?
It's true that Bernie is old, but it's more true that he's old school.
Still has a better idea about what's going on than either candidate. He's one of the few senators standing up for the Palestinians.
Yeah but 8 years ago he was 8 years younger! Also a billion times smarter than the other candidates but no one seemed to care.
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