Former Aides to Bernie Sanders Form a Super PAC to Support Joe Biden

[yortsed snacilbuper]

Former top advisers to Senator Bernie Sanders are teaming up on a surprising new venture to try to rally progressive support for former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s 2020 campaign: a super PAC.

Jeff Weaver, who served as Mr. Sanders’s campaign manager in 2016 and as a top adviser in 2020, is leading the effort, which will focus on mobilizing the base of Sanders supporters — young people, liberal Latinos and “blue-collar progressives” — for Mr. Biden

link

[The Magistrate]

1. A Good Start, Sir

Would be repudiating this swill:

Link to tweet

[still_one]

5. Somewhat confusing based on what you pointed out

[The Magistrate]

10. It Makes One Wonder, Sir, How Weaver et al Define 'Supporting Biden'

So long as no sign is given this 'campaign in all but name' against the Democratic party and Mr. Biden has ceased, there is no reason whatever to suppose the definition of 'supporting Biden' will be anything else but trying to pressure Mr. Biden and our Party into adopting measures and policies Sanders has never been able to secure a majority of votes for among the relatively left-leaning electorate of our Party primaries, though Sanders and Weaver and the rest are certain these would be sure-fire vote-getters in the much more centerist and even right-leaning electorate of a general election.


“Beware the person that stabs you and then tells the world they’re bleeding!”

[still_one]

14. +++. I prefer, don't piss on my back and tell me it is raining.

[Tom Rinaldo]

7. No it wouldn;t. It would be counter productive to do so

The entire point of this initiative is reach relatively hard core Sanders supporter and convince them to support Joe Biden. In New York State specifically (where I live) I know a number of Sanders supporters who are upset about the primary being cancelled. They know Biden will be the nominee but they wanted to vote for Bernie. They wanted as many progressive delegates as possible to attend the Democratic Convention to be able to advocate for progressive policy positions, not to deny Biden the nomination.

For the sake of this reply it matters not at all whether their reaction to the news of the primary cancellation is a reasonable one or not. A case can be made either way but it really doesn't matter which case is the stronger one because what the above Sanders aids are doing has nothing to do with the status of NYS primary. It has to do with building support for Joe Biden among Sanders supporters. And it would decrease, not increase, their effectiveness at doing just that if those associated with this effort started out that journey by repudiating an official Sanders campaign statement, one which many of the people who they are trying to convince to vote for Joe Biden happen to agree with.

Condemn as swill any statements that originates from the Sanders campaign as much as you see fit and desire. Maybe they need sense talked into them and maybe you are just the person to do so. Have at it. But it will not help this effort to turn hard core Sanders supporters into Biden voters to ask these Sanders former staffers to align themselves against the Sanders campaign as they begin their outreach.

This is a positive move that they are engaged in. It deserves to be acknowledged as such for what it is. It is what we all want to see happen. There are many other venues and DU threads upon which to cast derision on other Sanders team stances. I have no problem with that. But here credit should be given where credit is due.

[The Magistrate]

12. I Seriously Disagree, Sir

I have no trust at all for a man who says that yesterday, and then turns around and says this today. I would not do business with him, I would consider any money lent him as a dead loss, I would not allow him near any of my portable possessions, and would treat anything he said as a lie until proven otherwise.

In this instance, some explicit repudiation is necessary. Otherwise this must be considered a subterfuge to continue Sanders 'campaign in all but name' (as indicated in No. 10 above), and that is how I regard it. Loyalty cannot be assumed, it must be proved.

Let him prove it, and I will adjust my view of the matter accordingly.

[msongs]

2. voters have the right to express their preferences...joe or donald or write in trump nt

[Hortensis]

13. Sanders drew very different groups of supporters.

And you're right. The full quarter of his supporters who refused to vote Democrat in 2016 and voted 12% for Trump, 2% voting for Trump by not voting against, and the rest effectively helping elect Trump and a Republican congress by throwing their votes away third party were exercising their constitutional rights.

THEY own the consequences of their actions every bit as much as any Republican and are vowing to do it all over again. I'm guessing you do not keep that company because you're here.

The other 3/4 of Sanders' supporters voted Democrat as they'd always intended then and always intended now. I'm guessing these guys were among them then as they are now.

This group of aides is going after mostly people who might not vote because they were confused about right and wrong and who was good and bad, and who actually really stands for what, by not always completely honest primary campaign rhetoric. But the primary is over and this is about only the future of our nation: liberal progressive, protectors of democracy, Biden/Democrats or massively corrupt, authoritarian, hierarchical, anti-democracy Trump/Republicans.

Those are our choices, and that's why they're IN with Democrats. To get the vote out for what is right and good and to do their best to convert any confused write-ins to votes for Democrats up and down their ballots.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

3. Missing from this group, apparently, are David Sirota, Briahna Joy Gray

and Nina Turner. Quelle surprise.

[Hortensis]

4. :) That's so good to hear. We all share every liberal Democrat's

and a lot of anti-Democrat leftists' aversion to Super PACs, but the Republicans created them to benefit themselves, and until we get rid of them they can sometimes be a valuable weapon turned against them.

Other top Sanders officials from the 2020 race who will be involved include Chuck Rocha, a senior adviser who focused on Latino outreach; Tim Tagaris, who oversaw digital strategy and fund-raising; and Shelli Jackson, a California strategist for the campaign. Mark Longabaugh, who worked for Mr. Sanders in 2016 but left the 2020 campaign early on, is also part of the new group. ...

“The senator is not supportive of super PACs. He is not supportive of this super PAC,” Mr. Weaver said in an interview Tuesday. “He certainly would prefer we had not done it through a super PAC,” he added. “Each of us has to make our own decision about how to move forward.”

Mr. Weaver said that, given the short time frame until the general election, this was the most efficient way for the Sanders movement to “lock in some of the gains progressives have made” by electing Mr. Biden and ousting President Trump.

Notably, none of the attack dogs who brag of voting against Democrats are part of this group mobilizing the base of Sanders supporters — young people, liberal Latinos and “blue-collar progressives” — for Mr. Biden.

And to not be hypocritical, too much money -- no matter WHERE it comes from -- is pernicious and detrimental to the democratic process. This election, the Big Money campaign doing its best to use floods of money to influence the voters was Sanders'. And the campaign that won with almost nothing but popular support born of trust and confidence was Biden's.

We have to get money out of politics, and to do that we have get enough power long enough to do it. That's like gravity, can't be wished away. I'm very glad these guys are on board.

[Jake Stern]

6. What a concept:

Taking a conciliatory approach to crestfallen Sanders supporters instead of demanding they get on board actually works.

[Aristus]

9. I think my 'get on board' sentiment arises from the Bernie-supporters

'No True Scotsman' beliefs; that those of us who didn't support Sanders (I did throughout the 2016 primary period, then voted for HRC) aren't real progressives. I take substantial issue with that.

If they can wake up to the fact that progressives have a choice; not a perfect choice, but a choice: vote for Biden, or condemn us all to a second Trump term, then we have a shot.

[Demsrule86]

8. Good for them. That should help with those who can be reached with rational argument.

[Indykatie]

11. Call Me Cynical - Weaver is Looking for a New Way to Keep The Money Flowing

He also probably feels the need to separate himself from Bernie's more toxic advisers so give himself an opportunity to work in politics after Bernie is no longer a factor.

[The Magistrate]

15. That Is a Possibility, Ma'am

Though to the best of my recollection, anyway, Sanders has been his only employer in politics, Weaver having started as his driver....