Meet the Republicans pulling for Bernie

[brooklynite]

Politico

Republicans like their chances of keeping the Senate in 2020. But there’s one thing they think would all but seal the deal: Bernie Sanders as the Democratic presidential nominee.

Some GOP incumbents are practically cheering him on, confident there’s no way a self-described democratic socialist could win a general election against President Donald Trump and that he’d drag other Democrats on the ballot with him.

“It would be good for us to have a nominee like that,” said Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), who is up for reelection next year and sounded downright giddy about the prospect of Sanders representing Democrats at the top of the ticket.

Trump and the Senate GOP have explicitly designed their 2020 strategy around Sanders, beating the anti-socialism drum incessantly and attempting to tether every Democrat on the ballot to what they call a creep away from capitalism and toward collectivism.

[Ohiogal]

1. On the other hand

That’s rich! Do Republicans realize that we tether each and every one of them as enablers of the worst president in our country’s history?

[thesquanderer]

2. If they genuinely hope to run against Sanders...

...they should save the ammunition for later. Beating him down now ("Trump and the Senate GOP have explicitly designed their 2020 strategy around Sanders, beating the anti-socialism drum incessantly" ) makes it less likely he'll win the nomination, so for them, knocking him this early is counter-productive. Unless they really don't want to run against him.

[Celerity]

12. they are doing it to tar and feather ALL our candidates as socialists (which equate to commies in

millions of reactionary pea brains out on the fruited plain).

Even Bernie is not a socialist anymore (has said for decades he supports a regulated form of capitalism and does not want state control of the means of production), has not been for 30 or so years. The Rethugs are thus framing bog standard social democracy falsely as 'socialism'. It is disastrous for the nation on every level. Bernie is to blame to a large degree for falsely self-labelling as a dem soc. The DSA itself is chocked full of people far more radical than even democratic socialists, many are outright open Trotskyites and even revisionist Stalinists and Maoists, which furthers helps the false reactionary American framing/conflation of socialism equalling communism. It is a huge clusterfuck.

[watoos]

3. Why are we bashing our candidates here?

I could say bad shit about every one of our candidates but I choose not to because that's a job for Republicans.

[brooklynite]

6. Because this isn't a platform for only positive, happy stories

If you want to post a story critical of my choice, be my guest.

[Gothmog]

4. From my twitter feed

Link to tweet

[ehrnst]

5. Eye opening. (nt)

[BeckyDem]

7. Meet the one Republican most Dems despise pulling for Biden.

Biden's affinity for Cheney is apparently quite mutual. In August 2015, for example, Cheney said he hoped Biden would run for president in 2016.

"I'd love to see Joe get in the race," Cheney said at the time.

https://www.businessinsider.com/joe-biden-dick-cheney-comments-resurface-amid-2020-campaign-2019-5

Are you sure you want to go down this road?

[George II]

8. I learned about things like this early in my life. My father, a life long Democrat....

.....would change his party affiliation to republican when he saw there would be an upcoming republican primary (mostly for NYC Mayor or local Councilman) He'd then vote for the weakest republican in the primary and afterward would switch his registration back to Democrat.

It's not a surprise that republicans would like trump to run against Sanders, just as Mueller demonstrated that the Russians preferred him to run against trump the first time around.

[Stellar]

9. Of course they would say that about Bernie. They want to scare his supporters...

but that ain't going to work. Bernie got a big bump at his town hall on Fox news and that's why others want to join Bernie on Fox.

When to watch:

Sen. Bernie Sanders: Had his town hall on in April.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar: May 8
Mayor Pete Buttigieg: May 19
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand: June 2

What to watch:

Julian Castro confirmed to AP that his campaign is in the process of scheduling a town hall with Fox News.
Sen. Cory Booker also said he’s considering one.
Beto O'Rourke told AP he would be willing to appear on the network.

https://www.axios.com/fox-news-2020-democrats-town-halls-76caa1b0-170b-466f-bc66-15399cb9c83b.html

Bernie just has more supporters and he scared the he'll out of FOX 'news'.

[rgbecker]

10. In recent Monmouth.edu poll about attitudes about Socialism...

55% (Majority) are positive or neutral!

" The poll finds some contradictory opinion on what socialism means to the public. Most Americans say that socialism “takes away too many individual rights,” either a great deal (35%) or somewhat (25%). Just one-third say this phrase describes socialism not much (13%) or not at all (20%). On the other hand, half of the public feels that socialism “is a way to make things fairer for working people,” either a great deal (15%) or somewhat (35%). Just under half, though, say this describes socialism not much (11%) or not at all (33%)."

" Applying these terms to a policy proposal that many say has its roots in socialism provides an illustration of this dissonant opinion. Specifically, a majority of Americans either strongly (41%) or somewhat (17%) favor creating a universal health care system while fewer than 4-in-10 either strongly (26%) or somewhat (11%) oppose this idea. When asked how they view this proposal in systematic terms, 37% describe universal health care as a socialist policy while just 4% describe it as a capitalist policy. However, a majority (53%) say they see universal health care as neither socialist nor capitalist."

"Democrats are the most likely to strongly favor (65%) establishing a universal health care system and see it as being neither socialist nor capitalist (76%). A plurality of independents (42%) strongly favor universal health care and 55% see it as neither socialist nor capitalist. A majority of Republicans (54%), though, strongly oppose universal health care, with 75% saying it is a socialist policy.

“We shouldn’t ignore the possibility that ‘neutral’ could be a way for some Americans, especially Democrats, to couch their policy preferences without using a term that has historically negative connotations. This is going to be a real challenge for left-leaning candidates in the 2020 presidential race. The party base seems to be saying, ‘We like your platform, just don’t use the word socialism to describe it,’” said Murray."

Lots more at the link.

https://www.monmouth.edu/polling-institute/reports/monmouthpoll_us_050619/

[Blue_Tires]

11. Get ready for 10,000 Berners to alert on this...