A message for my far-left Facebook friends

[Chichiri]

(posted earlier this evening; feel free to copy and paste as needed)

There are people on my friends list for whom the only acceptable Dem ticket would have been Bernie Sanders and a clone of Bernie Sanders. They (mostly) understand the importance of voting for Biden/Harris in order to defeat Trump, and will do so. But what they don't understand is that it's not enough for Trump to lose; he must lose CATASTROPHICALLY. He must be defeated so roundly, by such a large margin, that there will be nothing to contest. We must come as close to Mondale-ing him as is possible in the 21st Century. And I'm sorry, but your half-hearted mutters of "fine I'll vote for Biden grump grump" aren't going to do the job. If you don't have the enthusiasm to give full-throated, full-hearted support for Biden/Harris, you need to generate it. You need to bring every person you possibly can to the voting booth, and any half-heartedness on your part is going to be contagious and counterproductive.

[Celerity]

2. lots of it going on these days, and working in AOC into threads just to attack her, threads that

had nothing to do with her

[ornotna]

13. Yep

And the beat goes on.

[brush]

3. Seriously? Are you now divided? IMO the OP is an appeal to GOTV, not a Sanders supporter slam...

as we do need to decisively defeat trump and trumpism forever.

[napi21]

4. I understand what your friends are like & i agree we need to Mondale DT. but I really

believe Joe picking Kamala has done a lot to generate the enthusiasm we need. Just a little while ago I posted how amazed I was that EVERYONE I've seen on TV since Joe's pick today has been not only smiling but grinning! I've never seen ssuch happy excitement about a VP candidate before! The post got a lot of replies & everyone of them were positive nd they were really happy too. The election is 80+ days away which isn't that long to think that excitement will last till then.

[bamagal62]

5. Does this far-left Bernie group

even exist.

[Grasswire2]

8. There are plenty of Dems who wanted Warren to bring along the Berners.

Not to be.

We'll just have to see what happens. We can tell people what to do, but can't make them do it.

[bamagal62]

10. But, are they willing to have Trump re-elected

because of their views? That’s the question. If they are, then they are not really far left.

[cayugafalls]

6. Telling people to clap and cheer and feign excitement is not going to work. It might backfire.

People have a right to voice their opinions. I had a discussion with my son tonight that did not go as glowingly as I wanted, but he understands how important the vote is and just wants his voice heard.

All the progressives want their voices heard. I guess I don't think it will be as contagious as you do, he has assured me that all his friends are still voting and voting for Biden, but they still grumble a little.

Part of having a discourse is allowing people to grumble and then come to an agreement that we can all live with...

Just my opinion.

[rpannier]

15. Part of having a discourse is allowing people to grumble

That right there is so correct.
Over the last 14 months I've had talks with my ex-pat friends here in Japan (surprisingly large number too -- very few teach). And just talking with them, listening to them, making and defending my positions when need be has worked really well
Letting people vent, state their feelings and such works wonders
It helps that I was never a Biden supporter (he was 8th on my list). I only started supporting him once it was clear he had won.
This does help when talking to the reluctant
I still believe one thing that hurt Clinton in the last election were some of her supporters who were dismissive of anyone who wasn't solidly behind her. There were lots of people here who were of the 'f-em she's gonna win' variety.

[HotTeaBag]

23. 'Just your opinion' is absolutely right on.

Some people just cannot and will not get excited by Joe Biden nor Kamala Harris, but will vote for them in order to rid the country of Trump.

We should be thankful that they aren't going to go third party or stay at home rather than demanding that they 'get everyone they know to the polls to joyfully vote for Biden/Harris'.

If folks want to clap and cheer for Joe, then by all means do so - not everyone wanted two moderates, some wanted actual and fundamental change and once again aren't going to get it.

[cayugafalls]

25. I'm confused. I agree with all you say

Last edited Wed Aug 12, 2020, 12:01 PM - Edit history (1)

Part of any discourse is allowing people to grumble and have differing opinions...I only used the word grumble to use the word in the op (grump grump)...

A good place to start getting actual and fundamental changes are by replacing the old codgers in the local city governments with new blood.

My apologies if you think I offended you, it was not my intention to offend anyone.

[HotTeaBag]

27. Oh no, not at all.

I think you nailed it - we have to understand (and give room to the notion), that not everyone who thinks of themselves as small d democrats and votes with us, loves the choices they have before them.

While not excited about it, they see our candidates as the far lesser of two evils but understand that Trump is the ultimate evil and MUST be thrown out of the White House if America is to survive and will vote for Joe/Kamala even though they aren't in love with them. And for that we should be thankful that they aren't just staying home or throwing their vote away on Kanye or writing in Walt Disney or something equally destructive.

I am in full agreement with you - what you said is an important point.

[cayugafalls]

29. Thanks for that.

I just misread. Late night and I'm still kind of groggy. I'll edit my title a bit...

[HotTeaBag]

30. Don't, your title is right on - just like everything else you said.

[Cha]

7. Too bad everyone doesn't get that we need All Hands On

Deck!

At least motivated Groups like the Lincoln Project does!

[rpannier]

17. I agree with this statement

Part of having a discourse is allowing people to grumble
To bring people along you have to let them decide on their own
Let them find a reason to vote for Biden -- or against trump
It's easy to say, "It's so obvious." because it's obvious to Biden supporters (and to Trump supporters)
As I posted to the person above, I spent the last 14 months here in Japan trying to get people (some had voted for trump in 2016) to vote for whomever the Democratic nominee was.
The ones who came around, came around on their own; A few who voted for trump last time, have said they won't vote for trump, but they also won't vote for Biden. I'll take that as a half-win
What helped more than anything to get people to come around was when their own (trump '16 voters) decided they couldn't vote for him again. They're the best sellers. Lincoln Project is helpful, but those three people from Michigan who voted Trump in 2016, but won't now are much better at selling why not to vote for Trump (I think the three were on MSNBC. I found it on youtube here

Kyle Kulinski is a good example of someone on the left who has (on his own) pretty much decided to vote Biden as well

[Gothmog]

9. We must work on GOTV like crazy

I know that we are gearing up to fight trump/GOP voter suppression. I was on a zoom call for a group recruiting lawyers to fight voter suppression. This is going to be a major fight and we have to really GOTV

[LisaM]

11. Watching the sheer happiness of so many on TV today

would have won me over if nothing else had (to be clear, she was my first VP choice).

For whatever reason they showed a number of photos from the primaries with Biden, Harris, and Sanders and what struck me was that in most of them, if not all of them, Biden and Harris were smiling and Sanders was glowering.

This is a very joyous ticket.

[Crunchy Frog]

12. A half hearted vote is still a vote.

There's going to be lots of excitement and enthusiasm, but we can't expect it from absolutely everyone.

I would personally not try to antagonize or alienate the half hearted, but rather thank them for their vote and move on.

JMHO.

[rpannier]

20. Amen x10000000000000000000

I would guess between 15 and 30% of the people who vote Biden are voting against Trump
Every election has those that vote for this candidate, those that vote for that candidate and those that vote against
Take their votes with open arms

[cayugafalls]

22. Exactly! The important thing to remember is to vote trump out.

That is exactly what I did with my son, thanked him for his vote and we moved on.

You nailed it. I think they feel like they are letting us down (at least my son did) for even grumbling and all they want is for their voices to be heard.

[crickets]

28. +1 -- thank them for their vote and move on.

You can't force happiness on someone. That's just not how it works. Give people time to come around to a point of enthusiasm on their own, and if it's gonna happen, it will. If not, a vote is a vote. Don't look a gift horse, etc.

[Doreen]

14. If Bernie actually gives a shit he will work his ass off at convincing

all of his followers to vote for Biden/Harris. He needs to drive home what they will get if Biden/Harris wins and what will be taken if trump/mother wins. Oh, oops, I meant pence.

[rpannier]

18. Not true

There are many Sanders voters who moved away when Sanders called it quits in the Spring
And your reply title, that's the sort of sh*t that p!$$es them off
Try to avoid it when talking to people who voted Sanders

[Doreen]

26. Yeah, true, sorry.

It just made me made when he did that in 2016. I was a Bernie supporter in 2016.

[Skittles]

31. good luck with that

[Raine]

16. A win is a win

if someone doesn't feel it they just don't and it can't be forced.

[rpannier]

19. Help them find a reason

You are right, you cannot force them

[Sherman A1]

21. While I understand

People are entitled to their opinions, even when they don’t agree with your viewpoint.

I will vote as soon as my ballot arrives, then I will hand carry it to the BOEs office for collection. I am also tuning out the election and all the “Breaking 24/7 Cable Noise Infotainment Fill Airtime Between Ads For Drug We Never Knew We Needed” hoopla surrounding it.

[HAB911]

24. I understand if reluctant to try this but..............

Fun link to play with, this is a Search of who of your "friends" Liked Donald J Trump's FB page..

it could be edited for anyone else by changing the id at the end of the url, pretty sure

https://www.facebook.com/browse/friended_fans_of/?page_id=153080620724

[mvd]

32. Well, I think we are more united than in 2016

That is good. Some just can’t be convinced - I have seen people who have even abandoned Bernie. But most are willing to listen. If we can get a more progressive Democratic administration this time, that is a first step. Sometimes things don’t come all at once, especially with the big money in politics.