Democratic Party Encounters Cliff. Jumps.
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- Date published:
11:58 am, March 4th, 2020 - 45 comments
Categories: class war, elections, International, us politics -
Tags: class war, corporations, elites, sanders, working class
At the eleventh hour it seems Obama has rung round and rallied the establishment troops behind…a guy whose mental capabilities are degenerating to such a degree that he regularly fails to string sensible sentences together and forgets where he is or what office he’s competing for.
Now, assuming for the sake of argument that Biden can be wrapped around and protected from public exposure, and assuming illusions around his mental competence survive any further Democratic primary debates such that he’s anointed the next Democratic Party contender for President – the result is five more years of Donald Trump. It’s that basic.
Democratic grifters are only concerned with whatever institutional power they can cling to. Five more years of Trump is good for business. Their gravy train come off the rails in the case of a Sanders Presidency.
That’s the sum total of their deliberations.
Thousands of Americans can die every year for want of access to basic health care. Hundreds of thousands of Americans can hunker down to sleep on the streets every night. Hundreds of thousands can go bankrupt because of medical costs. Hundreds of thousands can forego education or drown under student debt – and that’s all okay.
Democratic Party grifters have natural allies in the shape of corporate America (their pay masters). Pharmaceutical/oil/insurance corporations are gleefully funding attack ads to prevent a Bernie Sanders Presidency, while corporate media spins… and spins… and spins.
At the state level, polling stations will continue to be closed or their locations changed at the last minute (eg – Texas and S. Carolina), and more counts will be suspect (eg – Iowa), but hey – all that and more is what happens when elites of an entrenched status quo are threatened.
For them , it’s not about beating Trump. It’s only about defeating Bernie Sanders and keeping the working class in its proper place.
Hell. Even Tucker Carlson gets it.
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Fingers crossed that Bernie does well – both Bernie and Biden will struggle to unseat Trump; oh for a contender with Bernie's brains and Biden's heartbeat.
"Party Encounters Cliff."
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/latest_polls/general_election/
Headline results from the Lone Star state polls are fascinating:
Biden & Bernie, in Texas a Trump Toss-up.
Sanders is unelectable, just as Corbyn was. That some Dem's see Biden as the antedote to Sanders just shows what a mess the Dem's are in. My pick, FWIW, the orange man wins no matter who the Dem's put up from the bunch currently in play.
Your analysis rings disturbingly true Bill.
Ah, yes. How dare a political party hold an election for its leader, when there is even a possibility that they might elect a moderate candidate who holds positions that look more like the median party-voter.
WOW that is the worst straw man I've ever seen on this site. So in reality you got nothing, except cheap hustling for your corporate lords and masters.
How about you engaging with what was written rather than just make shit up.
My comment was significantly more factual than Bills 'shat the bed and cried about it' post, or your bleating.
Oh look, all you got is the usual from a corporate shill.
You could get your head out of your ass and at least pretend to be left wing on a left wing site. I know "It's hard" – so here is an open invitation to actually act like a social democrat. Which is the least you can be, and call yourself left wing, the very very least.
Because the devotees of left liberalism are in essence just right wingers who other right wingers hate. The left need to express their loathing of them just as much.
Pretty much irrelevant who gets the Dem. nomination I think you can lock Trump in for the win regardless.
Although what do I know – I thought there was no chance of him winning the last election.
Sadly you are exactly right here Bill, as I have mentioned here many times, these liberal fundamentalists are a far greater enemy of any real progressive movement than the Right….they are a deadly cancer to the Left and like the cancer they are, they are quite willing to kill their host in their fight for survival.
As Corbyn and now Sanders have exposed, you can' negotiate with extremists…which is what they are.
Turn Labour Left!
And that is why parties on the right tend to be more successful at gaining power than parties on the left. The left has a habit of destroying itself internally.
That's not unknown on the right either, but I agree that it's a much bigger issue for the left. A victory is more useful than a gloriously pure defeat.
I can't understand why left wingers think Sanders will be able to defeat Trump. Trump will paint him as the worst kind of left winger. He'll be tarred with being a supporter of oppressive socialist regimes all over the World. He'll be painted as anti-military (and therefore anti-Patriot). He will energise the Conservative base and put off moderate Democrats. His only chance of victory is if the US economy implodes between now and the election. That is a possibility but it is a very, very long shot.
Because he consistently beats Trump in the polls. And he's not a drooling moron
Sanders is radioactive in Florida and can't win there, which means he'd have to carry both Ohio and Michigan against Trump.
So, Bernie goes from supposed frontrunner with moderates splitting their votes among themselves to being the guy splitting votes with Warren, while the party consolidates behind Biden.
Who woulda thunk it.
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Kevin Drum of Motherjones is much more skilled with words than I am. He expresses my view more precisely and concisely than I ever could:
Also, let's remind ourselves of who the "Democratic establishment" really are. They're mostly the ordinary people that have survived the gruelling process of putting themselves forward for political office and learned what works for winning office in a wide variety of diverse electorates. As such, they have developed actual expertise and judgement. They want to win elections, and their views of the best candidates to do that deserve at least some consideration and respect.
They are not some secret society of lizard-people plotting behind closed doors to come up with nefarious schemes to make life worse for most people. The Repugs have that political niche sewn up.
OK I will then..they are "cowardly, centrist corporatists" at least he acknowledges that obvious truth…
Seeing as South Carolina has voted for a Republican in every presidential election from 1964 to 2016, with the exception of 1976 with Jimmy Carter, why on earth would the Democratic Party take that particular States primaries vote as the Gold Standard of whom to rally behind?
Well, South Carolina's Democratic primary voter base has a roughly similar demographic composition to the national Dem primary voter base as a whole.
Prior to the SC primary there were questions about Biden's popularity across the base, and there was a distinct possibility that someone else would be more appealing to the diversity of the whole party.
The SC primary solidly confirmed Biden's popularity across the wide range of demographics in the Dem electorate, and that none of the others comes close. That removed the doubts about Biden, and gave the impetus to coalesce around him.
"South Carolina's Democratic primary voter base has a roughly similar demographic composition to the national Dem primary voter base as a whole"
No, but similar to some of the other Southern States.
Obama won the nomination in 2008 with a strategy that included racking up huge margins in southern states with large african-american populations. 8 years later Clinton defeated Sanders with a similar coalition.
Black voters make up a huge swathe of the democratic primary electorate. Why would you not want their voice to count?
Well done bill!
I see all the usual corporate lap dogs are upset by your post.
Gossy gets a pass, as he at least admits he loves corporate control of society.
Bill,
How did your support for Corbyn go with general election voters?
If Sanders is the Dem candidate he will be slaughtered by Trump. Every dumb thing he has said about how good Russia, Cuba, etc are, will be bought to the fore by Trump. Voters in the US will then think that Sanders is not their guy. In the US being a socialist is seen as much more objectionable than being a philanderer. After all they have had plenty of these in the White House. Kennedy, Clinton and Trump being the more obvious examples.
If the orange one were a normal person, you'd be correct.
I just think 45 vs Sanders will be two guys yelling at each other. Sanders will probably win. My doubt about Sanders is whether he'd manage to do anything legislative if he gets elected.
Warren will destroy 45 in a debate. HRC was a conventional politician like Biden, and conventional politicians can't deal with the cheeto-in-chief. I reckon Warren will treat 45 like the little boy he is and absolutely nuke him. And then she has the desire and the ability to work with others that a change-level president needs to embody.
Well, yeah. That's why I voted Warren. But based on today's results, her chances of becoming the nominee have just dropped to precisely zero. Treasury Secretary would be a good use of her talents, tho.
Well, it ain't looking good for her, but it's still way early to be calling winners.
But whoever faces 45 should get some mothers of toddlers as debate coaches. Just three days on "no, poop in the toilet, dear" and "you know that's not true, how did the vase really fall off the table?" and "put that down, that's yuck" and "no Donny, share, be nice to people".
It may still be too early to call winners. But Warren's only plausible path to the nomination now requires other people to suffer severe medical events. Although those other people are indeed in demographics where severe medical events are uncomfortably likely, particularly given one of them is reasonably likely to become POTUS, that's just not a plausible path to the nomination.
Warren will destroy 45 in a debate. HRC was a conventional politician like Biden, and conventional politicians can't deal with the cheeto-in-chief.
Clinton *did destroy* Trump in the debates. But because she's a woman every forceful point she made was seen as being shrill or angry. Warren would face the same prejudice.
Nah, she debated him. As if he were an adult. Sure, she won the debate, but that wasn't the game he was playing. He was working charisma/emotion, she was working credibility/merit.
If she'd called out his infantile behaviour, his literal standover tactics, like a matriarch then he'd have had better chance of his image being damaged.
Bill
you are right about this one. Don’t know how Biden can stay in the race with all his gaffes, he is all over the place & it’s not just tiredness. I have seen some of his verbal gaffes on Twitter & although they are funny they are also sad as I think he is well past it. But while Bernie could debate better than Biden I believe he is too far left to be elected as US president
Bill And Bazza,
Biden is winning because voters are voting for him. Presumably they prefer him to Sanders. Their democratic choice. Maybe they just prefer his folkiness to Sanders anger. As well as his record of achievement.
As Andre pointed out, it wasn't the evil (Buttigeig, Klobucher, et al) elites who saved Biden, it was the voters of South Carolina. They came out for Biden even though just about everyone else had written him off. There must be some aspect to Biden's character that generates trust among voters in the south even when the chips are down.
Only when he had the huge win in South Carolina (60% of all votes compared to Sanders at 20%) did the centre establishment swing behind Biden. Presumably Buttigeig has his eye on the Secretary of State role, and Klobucher would be a good fit as VP.
Maybe they just prefer his folkiness to Sanders anger passion
FIFY
Unrelenting millionaire funded anti Sanders propaganda, has nothing to do with anything, of course.
its no great stretch to have (another) alzheimer's sufferer in the Whitehouse when you consider all of Trumps afflictions
4 March 2020 at 8:34 pm
A country whose leader is democratically elected is considered to be a representative of the majority of its people. Therefore it should come as no surprise that most American presidents are morons, nutbars or psychopaths – or all of them rolled into one.
The only recent one who doesn't fit this bill was Obama but he wasn't American according to the morons, he was from Kenya. 😉
Biden is the candidate you select when you have given up on democracy.
The lot of them are troppo. Look at how they treat each other in the course of daily life. Supposed friends at that. Conflict and rancour is their daily bread. They shout and demean – it’s normal.
The median American is a nasty idiot. It’s a civilisation in decline.
The awful bit is we here have been importing this shit for years now. The ugliest phase so far has been the tenure of John Key.
Expect more of that unless we become wise to it.
Reminds me of Bernard Shaw's great quote – "America is the only country to have passed directly from barbarism to decadence without passing through the intermediate phase of civilisation." (Man and Superman, the Revolutionary's Handbook.)
It is Sanders who shouts and rants. Biden seem to go for folksiness and good humour. A lot of voters seem to like that.
warren withdraws throws her support to sanders he dies of a heart attack as president and warren becomes first woman president
if American people really do want to "drain the swamp" then Sanders is their best chance by far. Not guaranteed but their best opportunity. To paint things in simple terms, whilst acknowledging some subtleties may be lost
Biden, he stands for/typifies the pre Trump status quo. The 'establishment'.
Sanders is about draining the swamp and changing the establishment. When he says to people "it isn't working for you or for us" he points to the economic and social settings that need to change. Real change.
Trump talks about 'draining the swamp' and how the establishment isn't working for people and then points to "those people over there" and "those unnamed forces" as the reason. Leave the economic and social settings as they are however, and Trump can continue pocketing tens or hundreds of millions of dollars a year, and seeking where ever possible to minimise paying his fair share of tax.
Sanders. No, not perfect. An old white male indeed, like the other 2. But if America wants change, real change, and to drain the swamp, Sanders is their best opportunity.
Widespread, systematic and purposeful voter suppression
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/mar/02/texas-polling-sites-closures-voting
Also:
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/09/12/report-court-ruling-caused-mass-voting-place-closures-southern-u-s/2272866001/
(via)
How do many, bar the truly committed, eventually manage and almost as relevantly–bother–to vote in US elections? Around 100 million eligible, do not vote. Trump like most recent Presidents got in via a bent Electoral College, FPP, heavily gerrymandered, cash flow based system. With roughly 50% eligible voter participation in a good year.
What a degenerate society the USA has become.
Hillary will be VP, Biden will be decades incompetent and step down over health issues, and the world will finally get the Queen it deserves.