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Why Aren’t Democrats Pointing Out Bernie’s Vulnerability?
At the last Democrat debate, I thought I knew what was going to happen. Sanders is the clear front-runner. The others are falling further and further behind, and Amy Klobuchar is nearly out of it. There are many in the Democrat party who want Mr. Sanders to lose, particularly his opponents onstage with him in the debate.
So I presumed that Ms. Klobuchar would, at some point, say something like this: “Look, after three long years of us Democrats appropriately screaming out with righteous indignation about the improper influence of Russians in American politics, we simply cannot nominate a communist for the presidency!” But she didn’t. Neither did anyone else. I find that odd.
The recent Democrat obsession with Russians interfering in American politics would seem to be a real problem for Bernie Sanders. He honeymooned in the Soviet Union, has openly admired every communist dictator from Fidel Castro to Hugo Chavez, and his list of quotes praising communism is long and overwhelming. So surely there are some Democrats who anticipate problems in the general election from this angle. So why not take advantage of his vulnerability now, rather than waiting until he loses the general election?
I thought this would be a good angle of attack from Klobuchar, but she demurred. Warren couldn’t really criticize anyone for being a communist, since she appears to be one herself. Buttigieg can’t either, since his father was an open communist. Joe Biden’s record in the Obama administration is problematic, as is his son’s adventures in eastern Europe, so he should probably avoid criticizing the communist connections of Mr. Sanders. And Bloomberg and Steyer are stuck as the old white male billionaires asking for votes from the Occupy Wall Street crowd. And that’s all the Democrats have got.
So there you go.
I presume that there are many in the Democrat party who are concerned that someone who claims to be a socialist and appears to be a communist is going to be the Democrat nominee for president. This is a big deal. It’s an even bigger deal that Democrat voters across the country are voting for Mr. Sanders. JFK would be horrified (…and Lee Harvey Oswald would presumably have been a Bernie Bro).
I would have thought that if the Democrats actually nominated a lifelong socialist/communist, that would be a sign that the Democrat party is hopelessly out of touch with the American people.
But that does not appear to be the case. He is winning votes, in large numbers, all over the USA. The Sanders movement is not just sociology professors and La Raza activists. It’s people from all walks of life. It’s huge.
This is concerning to the Democrat party leadership, and it’s terrifying to me.
Mr. Sanders probably won the presidential primary last time, but the Clinton gang managed to take it from him. They don’t appear to be doing so now, probably because his victory is so obvious at this point, that they would be alienating a lot of Democrat voters if they take him out. That makes sense, I guess.
But why aren’t his primary adversaries going after him in the debates? He has a huge vulnerability. And his vulnerability is about to become the vulnerability of the entire Democrat party. Fix this now. Just tie him to Russia and communism. Russian interference in American politics has been in the news for years. Everybody’s talking about it. The ads write themselves. Problems fixed. Simple.
But none of his opponents have even touched this obvious weakness.
I find this fascinating.
Could it be that the Democrat power brokers really believe that Mr. Sanders represents the average Democrat voter? Could it be that they are right?
Of course not. That’s ridiculous. Right? The average Democrat voter is not a communist. Right? I mean, come on.
But then, why don’t they just fix this? Ms. Klobuchar missed a golden opportunity. And so did the Democrat party. I think.
As is so often the case when I think about the Democrat party, I feel like I’m missing something here…
Published in General
Hypothesis: They’ve convinced themselves that the “youth vote” is gonna put them over the top, and they don’t want to offend that mythical voting bloc by assaulting Bernie.
It’s like a remake of The Manchurian Candidate with the most obvious ending ever.
Convenient that he already had one heart attack this primary season, eh?
Democrats have always, according to them, been for the “ little guy” and the GOP for corporations. This is a big part of Bernie’s appeal. He rails against the evil corporations. We rail against evil government.
It’s about the VP slot. It’s a good bet that if Bernie wins, the VP will soon gain the presidency. The plutocrats are out of contention. Biden won’t likely outlive Bernie and has been there, done that. The gay mayor lacks sizzle. Liz has too much baggage. Amy is the least irrelevant of the rest.
Bernie’s voters are not loyal Democrats. They will sit out if Bernie is denied the candidacy. This will doom any Democrat ticket without Bernie.
If no one has the electors to take the top of the ticket in the first vote at the convention, there will be a push to move Bernie to the VP spot (they need his votes) and draft someone else on top of the ticket. If Bernie has the most delegates, he probably won’t relent. I have no idea who could be drafted for the top of the ticket. Hillary? Bernie won’t like that. Pelosi? Schumer? It’s not a good situation.
Just for the record, when I said “take him out,” I meant defeat him in the primary election.
I did NOT mean “take him out” in the Clintonian sense.
Just to be clear…
Yes. Why take yourself out of contention by irritating the frontrunner, when he is old and has a bad heart?
A new poll out says 3 of 4 Democrats would vote for a socialist. I assume that all the politicians have seen such polls and are scared. Politicians are very risk averse when it comes to loosing their gig.
I’m pretty sure that Bernie’s electability problem is the centerpiece of Mini-Mike’s campaign. So some of the Dems are talking about it. There have also been a number of significant editorials on the point, and Carville and Chris Matthews have been quite vocal on the issue.
{My bold.} Hmm, sounds good to me. (:
Get ready to pass the popcorn.
Whew!
They want positions in his administration should he win . . .
I think we need to keep our eye on President Obama. He will be hugely influential at the Democratic Party Convention, and he has been quite vocal in expressing his alarm at the candidates’ socialism-loving positions and speeches:
I have no idea why Democrats won’t attack Bernie.
I have no idea why Bloomberg does not drop $100 million of negative ads on Bernie.
My only guess I have is that we are seeing the replay of the Republican Party in 2016, when no one would take on Trump until far too late, to avoid upsetting strong Trump supporters. We know how that turned out.
Recall, my good friend, that they aren’t opposed to the Russians because they are communist. They are opposed to the Russians because they think it is cudgel with which to beat Trump.
Bernie’s entire political career turned on him, being a mostly unknown local loser, getting drafted to run in a mayoral race against a long-standing and unlikeable incumbent, and barely winning. By like dozens of votes. The fact that the state’s university is in the same town where he won that first election is not a coincidence.
Leaving alone his cozying up to commie authoritarians, and having spent a big chunk of his life speaking about how fantastic the largest murderers in history were, his record in Congress is abysmal – he was never part of any real coalition, he has virtually no legislation that he authored ever be passed, and he and his family have made a lot of money from his connections (his wife, his step-daughter, etc).
There’s lots to work with here. Which means something else is going on. I’m wondering if it’s a few of the other leading candidates keeping their powder dry for the upcoming primaries (especially today), so they can open fire if he becomes the clear leader, or if they’re just angling to be considered as part of the administration if he gets the nomination, and then wins.
Whenever we ask why people stay in these races too long, the above is the reason why – and why they don’t literally tear each other apart in these debates. That’s not the approach I would take. It seems to be theirs. Which seems to be entirely rooted in self-interest.
Bernie is the only one telling the truth about his politics. We can’t have that.
The Democrat base is far left. The kids, who are disproportionately Bernie’s base, want free stuff, especially student loan forgiveness and free medical care. Communism is something they did NOT read about in History class because they have no History class or it is taught by Marxists like Buttplug’s father.
Youth vote and the changing demographics of the U.S. Obama’s win over Romney in 2012 — when the languid pace of the economic recovery and the foreign policy troubles should have allowed Mitt to pick up the victory — convinced enough Democrats that they were ideologically in the majority and had no reason to either hide who they were anymore or play the same type of ‘historic first’ candidate strategy to gin up turnout, as Obama did with African-American voters and as many Dems thought Hillary would do with female voters.
A female without the quarter-century of baggage that Hillary had accumulated might have pulled it off, but the far left of the Democratic Party thought why go with a crony capitalist like Hillary when either she or Bernie would go into the general election with at least 240 to 250 electoral votes, from states that will never again vote for a Republican for president due to the demographics changes.
So that’s where their collective heads are at in 2020, believing that Hillary lost because she wasn’t far left enough in 2016, and you’re not going to change those peoples’ minds — or at the very least, make them go back to hiding who they really are — unless the Democrats nominate a far left candidate who gets pounded in November. Bernie’s opponents may think that’s the best strategy for this year, but they know his hard core backers don’t think so, and probably wouldn’t turn out in November for a nominee who won by painting Sanders as too far left to beat Trump in the general election. That’s why any attacks against Bernie are tepid at best (Bloomberg’s zinger last week wasn’t about Sanders’ ideology as much as it was about him being the type of guy he rails against with his ideology).
No better person to run against than Trump though. People haven’t been trashing Russia over “communism” for 30 years now. They trash Russia for being an expansionist thugocracy. On that score, Bernie will almost surely be tougher than Trump, even if he’s not as Russia crazy as establishment Dems,
I’m actually curious how the Trumpers will square their hatred of socialism with their love of authoritarianism in this election. Bernie will certainly tempt them….but its not clear the arguments will hold up.
As a result of Bernie’s praise of the Castro regime there is a lawsuit in Florida to have Bernie removed from the Democratic Florida primary ballot, because he’s not a democrat. It makes sense – in a closed primary state – only party members are allowed to vote in the primary, why would an outsider be allowed to run? If you want to see chaos, wouldn’t it be grand if this lawsuit is successful and Bernie is removed from the Ballot in all closed primary states? (or even just Florida) I think this would effectively end the Bernie campaign. He’d be unable to get to a majority of the delegates for the convention.
What would he do next? Quit and go 3rd party in the general election. The army of Bernie Bros, could be organized over the summer to get him on the ballot in enough states to give him a shot to win… Or does he stick with the Democrat process as a write in candidate? To cause a riot(s) at the convention? Either way its a disaster for the democrats.
If Bernie is the democratic nominee, the way I see it, is that Florida is gone, perhaps the entire south is gone. I see candidate Bernie virtually guaranteeing Trump a second term.
Given the damage that Bernie could do to the down ticket democrats, and AOC challenging squishy liberals in safe seats (who only vote her way 80% of the time) I can see the democratic house delegation getting cut nearly in half.
I know its too early to count chickens – but man… Its an interesting thought.
There is no there there. They are mindless boobs, cynical manipulators, and activists who actually believe this stuff. The rest will vote for a Republican or stay home.
I was wondering about that.
Seems like fighting the last war.
I really hope that people point out that Bernie was the chairman of the VA Committee when that scandal broke about all those VA hospitals were so awful.
He had plenty of warning about what was happening but he chose to look the other way. Shame!
I’ll answer your highlighted comment.
The answer is easy. Our love of authoritarianism exists only in your mind. It does not present a problem for actual pro-Trump Republicans.
I’ll answer your highlighted comment.
The answer is easy. Our love of authoritarianism exists only in your mind. It does not present a problem for actual pro-Trump Republicans.
I might also say that kids are dumb, ignorant and while often more educated (loose term which doesn’t really mean much now) at most on technical subjects which, by themselves provide no insight into how the world, local, national, international politics works, what things mean, the risks, and opportunities communities, towns, cities, states face. These take time and attention. Most people used to absorb accumulated wisdom whether they understood it or not didn’t matter, it was part of the culture and we’ve lost it. If we do not fix our schools, and that means decentralize and treat them all as private independent entities, and if parents do not transmit culture we lose. Which civilization over the centuries has come back from major decline.
Last week some leftists, who really do love authoritarianism, attacked the owners of a small Mexican restaurant north of Tucson because they attended the Phoenix Trump rally and could be seen on the stage behind him. There was a social media attempt to damage their small business, We went there last night for dinner and it was jammed. Lots of Trump hats and tee shirts. It’s only a tiny place where you order at the register. No beer or booze. The food was good and we will go back. Maybe a few NTs in AZ should go try it.
I’m sure his answer would be the same as someone I know who works at a VA hospital: “It’s all the fault of those damn Republicans in Congress for not giving us enough money.”
If the VA is providing the same supports and products at a higher per capita cost that private medical organisations then surely that’s easily disproved?
They’ve been insincere about their purported convictions for so long that they’ve been blind sighted by the fact that they have to convince people who don’t already agree with them…. and all of us who don’t agree with them think they’re creepy, we do our best to avoid them.