Bernie Sanders
Related: About this forumIt seems very odd and surprising that
the Hillary supporters are so intent on mischaracterizing Bernie Sanders' words and actions. Remember, these are the people who have the polls on their side and, at this time, the AA vote. It's like a higher ranking candidate hitting downward, which is considered by politicians to be a mistake.
Class and integrity are earned. They are no more an entitlement than what Hillary views the GE candidacy. But the arrogance and ignorance of some of her supporters denigrates what the presidency should be.
Hillary's votes and positions are further right than President Obama's. That is verifiable. Yet the Third Way, New Democrat mentality is to support Corporatists and further globalization. Letting Hillary slide into Bernie's positions on the issues does not, by any means, make them equals.
Bernie is and has been fighting for the same people that support Hillary. But Hillary, knowing she needed to get off centrist ground, moved left, JUST FOR THE POLLS SAKE. Yet her supporters seem incapable of connecting the dots. And they will be the ones who complain the loudest when she moves back to center-right. It is a very sad state of affairs for her defenders.
Scuba
(53,475 posts)Bernin4U
(812 posts)Who would try to take a cheap shot at you, then as soon as you'd turn around, they'd be rolling on the ground and fake crying?
Hydra
(14,459 posts)They claim everything is fine, but they are shaking in their boots. I don't think they are worried about this primary(whether they should be or not), they are worried that the Third Way thing is not selling any more and that the Left will leave and start a new party...leaving them with about 10% of the vote they were once holding.
At that point, they become irrelevant, and all their money disappears.
We're at an interesting point. I'll be curious to see what happens over the next year.
jeff47
(26,549 posts)Old Codger
(4,205 posts)seeing the same thing that happened last time around....Scares the shit out of them...
in_cog_ni_to
(41,600 posts)no need to attack your opponent. Especially with bogus, idiotic things like sexism, racism or Bernie's anti-Obama (the meme Du Jour) which are all just laughable and make HER and her supporters look foolish.
Yeah, her internals are not looking good.
PEACE
LOVE
BERNIE
senz
(11,945 posts)She (they) will stamp out anything that they think might stand between her and ultimate power.
(Aw gosh, she's so admirable.)
Qutzupalotl
(15,010 posts)wilsonbooks
(972 posts)Some of them will like it and others are on the team regardless of the issues.
senz
(11,945 posts)They don't care what she actually does. That is irrelevant.
TBF
(33,948 posts)he didn't scare them in the least.
Bernie, however, definitely has their attention. Two similar looking guys, both likely driving Volvos, and they are having very different reactions to them. Gee, I wonder why?
Major Hogwash
(17,656 posts)She only moved to the left of center on some issues in the last 3 or 4 months in order to make an attempt to sway some people to vote for her, who otherwise would wind up voting for Bernie.
It's an old, rather obvious, silly political game most of the Democrats have played for the last 30 years -- talk and act as liberal as they can in order to garner as many of the votes from Democrats they can get in order to win the primaries -- and then walk back toward the center to appeal to some of the moderates in this country to attempt to win the General Election, hoping they won't lose the vote of the alienated Democrats that voted for them in the primaries, by constantly using the "lesser of two evils" argument.
Once the primaries are over, she intends to move back towards the center on many of these same issues, and maybe she will even go clear to the center right on some issues, in order for her to go head-to-head with whoever the Republican candidate will be in the General Election.
The problem is . . . and it is clear to anyone that has paid any attention to her voting record . . . she has never voted from the left.
Most of her votes were either mediocre, down the middle, centrist votes, or to the center right.
She didn't have much of a challenge in 2006 when she ran for re-election for the Senate, so she no longer needed to pretend to be liberal.
She just had to defend her mediocre, middle-of-the-road voting record against a foaming-at-the-mouth Republican.
She spent 6 times more money on the race than the Republican did in order to get re-elected, spending a little more than $33 million to keep her seat in the Senate.
That's a lot of money to spend for a Senate campaign, but she wanted to be in the Senate when she ran for President 2 years later in 2008.
Her plan was going along pretty good, that is, until Obama started his campaign for President just 3 months after getting in to the Senate in 2007.
It's just not in the stars for her to be the President of the United States.
She should have learned her lesson in 2008.
Bernin4U
(812 posts)I remember Pat Buchanan mentioning it years ago, how in the primaries you run out to your base, then if you make it to the general you run as fast as you can to the center. He was talking about a repub at the time, but everybody on the McLaughlin panel knew it was old hat.
So both sides have been doing it for who knows how long. The question is, why does it still work? And just how "last minute" on an issue can someone's "evolving" be, before we have a problem with it?
floriduck
(2,262 posts)At this time in my life (I'm a senior), I no longer feel like a democrat. They left me years ago and I mistakenly believed Barack Obama would right the ship. It only took a few months for me to recognize he was nothing close to the answer. He did some good things; better than a republican would have. But his pro-corporate cabinet and his trade agenda lost me. I live in Washington and both my lady senators voted to support the trade deal. So now I have no one in my district that represents my interests.
Maybe having a Republican president would screw up this country so badly, a real breed of liberals would gain a stronghold after the damage and dust settles. But I cannot vote for Hillary because I know what she will do to damage this country further. So I'm committed to Bernie, even as a write-in if he loses the primary.
wendylaroux
(2,925 posts)MisterP
(23,730 posts)half his family to Hitler is the *face of white privilege in the party*)
senz
(11,945 posts)His supporters are going after Bernie like there's no Hillary in the race. The only sense I can make of it is that O'Malley hopes to be Hillary's VP.