polarization which caused them to vote for a depraved whackjob and which would continue even if COVID killed Trump off within the month. It'd just be transferred to whoever was hustled into his place as candidate. Who knows, might even gain strength?

they've moved to entitlement recipient "cleansing." By now, in order to justify past behaviors and to set themselves up for how they're using pandemic disease, I'm sure they've turned their virtue and the unworthiness of those who will die into something akin to a religion.

Assisting die-off in order to cut more taxes for the "deserving," and cheating their "undeserving" lower income voters even as they are forced to pretend to serve them, is the form "it can happen here" is taking in today's America. So far.

When you know the candidate, scurrilous liars can't confuse and trick you by misrepresenting details.

It also makes knowing what's truth and what's gong to be a lie easy. Dirty politicians depend on sowing doubt and confusion, not just the lies themselves. But when you know who Biden is, you know what the intent and end result will have been. No need to look up dozens of complicated legislative histories to find the truth.

Btw, shouldn't Sanders be warning people of the Republicans' plans to destroy SS? Isn't deliberately confusing people about who's doing what by telling them Biden's also an enemy of SS itself a dangerous failure to protect it from the Republicans?

Confused, doubting Democrats who don't know what to think don't vote, while Republicans don't bother with confusion or doubt, they just vote their party.

dirty methods in pursuit of power and who compete with each other for many of the same followers I'd cross the street to avoid being associated with.

But certainly, even if Trump doesn't actually know what it is to be a good person, Sanders is absolutely certain he is. I don't doubt for a minute the sincerity of their self evaluations and that both are completely lacking in doubt about those. Or seemingly anything else.

Sorry, Applegrove. Enough of that. I understand that some take Sanders at his own evaluation and need further experience to look beyond. I already did that long ago, though. Sanders didn't meet my standards in any way even before he helped turn the nation over to the Republicans to destroy our progressive government, there being too little difference to matter between Republicans and Democrats. Sanders has no doubt about the righteousness of his actions, no dissonance disturbs him, and no guilt.

And that is a huge problem. Fact is, charismatic populist leaders who use dishonest "I alone can fix it" authoritarian deliveries to surround themselves with not just innocent believers but unsavory characters eager to destroy our institutions don't just repel me, they make me look for something to stomp them with before it's too late.

margins both parties have had in this century.

Political scientists expect this to continue for some while, with power possibly thrown from one party to another in election after election in a very destabilizing and undermining manner.

Therefore I say: ANY candidate who runs a splinter or third-party campaign from the left in this environment IS, by definition and de facto, willing to accept continued Republican hold on power as an alternative to winning.

That wasn't a new reality in 2016, and it won't be in 2020. Third party input could be a plus back in the New Deal and early Reagan eras. It's a recipe for national destruction in this one.

Witness post 2016.