Dear Bernie Sanders: Enough already

[Galraedia]

I can’t decide what makes me more sick and tired: Bernie Sanders or being sick and tired of Bernie Sanders.

Four years ago, Sanders’ refusal to accept the reality that he was not going to be the Democratic nominee for president dragged the 2016 primary race with Hillary Clinton all the way to the party convention in July — undoubtedly damaging her candidacy.

Four years later it’s like watching the same bad movie again. In 2020, Sanders has even less chance of overtaking Joe Biden. He’s performed worse than he did in 2016. Since the South Carolina primary, Biden has trounced him nearly everywhere they have faced off, and usually by double digits. Every theory Sanders had about the race — that he could mobilize white working-class voters to support him and that he would bring new voters to the polls — has been proven wrong.

The view of the party rank and file has been unambiguous: they want Joe. Indeed, a good part of the reason for Biden’s Lazarus-like rise, after poor showings in the early primary states, was widespread fear, among Democrats, of Sanders being the party standard bearer. Sorry Bernie, it wasn’t the establishment blocking your path — it was you.

Yet, Sanders trudges on, convinced that he has a “narrow path” to win the nomination. Forget for a moment that he would need to win approximately 59 percent of the vote in the remaining primaries to prevail. Is there even one state where Sanders can realistically beat Biden? Next week, voters in Wisconsin will cast ballots in the state’s primary. Sanders beat Clinton there four years ago by 13 points. The latest polls have him trailing Biden by 15 points. Will he drop out if he can’t even win there? Ha!

Read more: https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/04/03/opinion/dear-bernie-sanders-enough-already/

[William769]

1. Me too!

[empedocles]

2. The amount of Dem print, air time, and oxygen, - self-serving BS has wasted.

[Sloumeau]

3. The Thing That Wouldn't Leave!

[link:https://vimeo.com/70753317|]

[Thekaspervote]

4. +1000

[ucrdem]

5. He has had five years of free air time to sell his nonsensical proposals.

You can fool some of the people all the time but that isn't cutting it. Bernie needs a nudge.

[ballack]

6. The only way

Bernie can win the nomination if Biden drops dead before November 3, or the sexual assault allegation against him becomes an avalanche like in the Harvey Weinstein case. The reasonable thing for him to do is suspend his campaign but not end it officially. If something extraordinary happens before the convention or the general, he would very likely be the nominee, otherwise he has NO narrow path to the nomination, none whatsoever, unless mathematics have dramatically changed in theist month and none of us heard of it. He has no path to the nomination at all, bar the two factors I have mentioned above.

[ucrdem]

7. In either instance we are SOL and Bernie can have it.

Seriously. I see no other candidate who has the chops to do this. Biden was Obama's veep and that's where the buck stops.



p.s. welcome!

[thucythucy]

12. I doubt Bernie will be the nominee

even if the very worst happens.

If something horrific did happen, I would expect candidates who have dropped out to re-enter. It would then be decided at an open convention.

Bear in mind that 70% of Democrats said they want someone other than Bernie as the nominee. This feeling is especially strong among African Americans who are the largest and most reliable part of the Democratic base.

My personal preference would be Senator Warren, who I believe would be much stranger in the GE than Sanders. Or the convention might draft Governor Cuomo.

But whatever happens, Sanders will never be the nominee. If he's staying in hoping for this scenario, he's just plain deluding himself and his supporters.

And welcome to DU!

[Cha]

16. BS will NOT be the Nom under any Circumstances..

all the Smears in the World are Not going to work.

[ucrdem]

18. Oh absolutely.

And Bernie will linger until ejected from the premises, doing as much mischief as possible, which probably won't be too much, but some. I think Biden will win comfortably, but it's going to get very, very ugly. The point I wanted to make is that there is on one, certainly including Sanders, that has the capacity to win save Joe Biden. That seems to be the opinion of the rest of the electorate too!

[Cha]

19. Hey Sunshine..

he can "linger" all he wants.. the only thing he's doing is hurting his legacy such as it is.

My disgust knows no bounds.

Excellent point since Biden will save our Democracy and anyone standing in the way of that shows what they're made of.

Mahalo, ucr.. StaySafe!

[ucrdem]

20. I think his legacy will be 2016.

He owns that. But I don't think he'll have much effect on this race going forward, though not for lack of trying!

[Cha]

21. Exactly...

not for lack of trying.. and so many people are noticing.

[ehrnst]

29. It sounds like you have some hopes...

[LizBeth]

8. He knows he has lost. He knows there is not chance and he is staying in.

He is no Democrat. Democrats do not behave this way.

[COLGATE4]

9. Bernie - how can we miss you

when you won't leave???

[ballack]

10. As a Bernie supporter..

Bernie has always presented himself as a tough truth teller. I'm surprised he is leading his supporters on with the "narrow path to nomination" nonsense. He has NO path to the nomination, and he knows it. Why delude them as if they were dumb Trump cultists. We are better than that. It's OK to suspend but not end his campaign, bearing in mind Biden's age and sexual assault allegation against him, but deceiving his followers with fantasies should be beneath him.

I have supported him in 2016 and 2020 because I believe his ideas should become the bedrock of the Democratic party platform, especially MFA, although I was never enamored with the man himself. I would like his followers to reform the Democratic party from within, at least try to find out if that is possible, instead of being delusional.

[Tarheel_Dem]

11. Only the BOB'ers still believe the "sexual assault allegations" have any basis in reality. n/t

[Cha]

17. No. Stop Trying to Smear Joe Biden.

[still_one]

23. JPR slow these days?

[nolawarlock]

24. Allegation?

Sheesh. That word means anything these days. Reade's allegation is practically the flimsiest in all of recorded history.

[DenverJared]

25. It is uncouth if not grotesquely malicious

to smear Biden who has had a flawless political life with smears that have been discredited.

[nolawarlock]

27. More on this allegation ...

I will state, with absolute conviction, that I do not believe that a single Bernie supporter believes this Tara lie. Anyone, even those with the reading level of a Dick and Jane book, could discover how many times this individual's story has changed, how it was just touching, then it was fingering, but before all that he was her great "old boss" and she left DC because of aliens—um oops—I mean the alleged mistreatment of Putin by our government. I mean, give me a break here. NOBODY believes this. NO ONE. Anyone who says they do is a liar and I'd say so their face. This is such sheer desperation that, still, not one of Bernie's paid surrogates is taking this on, head-on, while Nina Turncoat chucks out the occasional emoji of curiosity towards some who are talking about it.

It's bunk. Everyone knows it's bunk. I don't think it even rises to the level of an allegation, much less accusation. It sits purely in the realm of fan-fic if you ask me.

[Captain Stern]

13. Good article...and fuck Bernie Sanders.

I used to consider Sanders as a part-time Democrat, or full-time leaning Democratic guy.

Now, I don't even consider him a friend of our party.

To me, Bernie Sanders = Jill Stein.........yeah, the policies they support fall a lot closer in line with ours than they do the Republican's, but neither of these folks are friends of the Democratic Party.

[brush]

28. And they rail against Democrats much more than against repugs.

It's always about attacking the Democratic Party establishment—1960s campus radical speakers corner—where Sanders hasn't progressed from.








–

[LongtimeAZDem]

14. If Biden dies, the party will pick a Democrat; probably Cuomo, Newsome, or both

Bernie will never be sanctioned by the Democratic party

[The Magistrate]

15. Sanders Typifies A Sort Of Identity Politics, Ma'am

Last edited Fri Apr 3, 2020, 05:54 PM - Edit history (1)

Sanders in his colossal egotism conflates support for certain policy goals with desire for him to be the leader of a movement to achieve those goals.

This is nonesense.

Even leaving aside the fact that most of those goals are general among Democratic voters and enjoy broad support among Democratic office-holders and Party officials, virtually no one, not even among Sanders' supporters, thinks he can actually achieve them should he come to hold the highest office in the land.

Expressions of support for Sanders are made as a marker of political orientation. Expressing support for Sanders says 'I'm not a moderate, I'm well to the left of most people', and as with most such things, serves to identify a 'cool' group separate from the general run of 'squares'. People doing this do not even particularly want to prevail, in the sense of being in the majority. It is axiomatic that a majority can never be 'cool', the feeling of being 'hip' and part of an 'in-crowd' depends on being outnumbered by the host of the unwashed and unenlightened. The point is not to achieve any political goal, to secure any discrete reform, it is simply to be sure one is perceived as a particular, and special, kind of person.

People who have an actual interest in achieving the goals widespread among Democrats, the goals of all left and progressive and liberal persons in general, recognize readily Sanders is far too flawed as a politician, and as a personality, to make any progress towards their goals. They know Sanders has not achieved any measurable advance towards them in his long Congressional career. They know Sanders' claim to hold patents and copyrights on these goals is nonesense, because they know their own desires pre-date Sanders, and exist in their hearts and minds without the slightest reference to him or influence by him.

In short, while Sanders imagines himself to be the indispensable man, an overwhelming majority of Democratic voters are clear in their minds that Sanders is quite dispensable, and are determined to see him disposed of, as soon as possible.





"From Bernie’s perspective, dropping out of a race once you have no chance of winning is peculiar behavior that can only be explained by the work of a hidden hand. For most politicians, though, it is actually standard operating procedure. Only Sanders seems to think the normal thing to do once voters have made clear they don’t want to nominate you is to continue campaigning anyway."





"When things are not called by their right names, what is said cannot make sense. When what is said does not make sense, what is planned cannot succeed. When plans do not succeed, people become uneasy. When people are uneasy, punishments do not fit crimes. When punishments do not fit crimes, people cannot know where to put hand or foot."

[sop]

26. This is what Ralph Nader would have done had he run in the Democratic primary.

[ehrnst]

30. K&R