Sanders supporter Nathan Robinson: Do everything possible to get people NOT to vote for Warren

[highplainsdem]

Last edited Sat Feb 1, 2020, 01:12 PM - Edit history (1)

Robinson is the editor of Current Affairs. (Also a friend of Sanders' press secretary, and featured in a Hear the Bern video uploaded by the Sanders campaign. See the video I added to the end of this OP.)

Link to tweet

IMPORTANT: If you do not want Joe Biden to get the nomination, we need to do everything possible in the next 48 hours to get people NOT to vote for Elizabeth Warren in Iowa. By not unifying behind Sanders, the progressive left is walking into a buzzsaw that will destroy us.

Editing to add that DUers should check out the entire thread starting with that tweet, which I don't have time to copy in its entirety.

But it includes these gems:

Every precinct that Warren cracks 15% in is horrible news for Bernie. But also: we don't want Pete Buttigieg dropping below 15%.

If you vote for Warren, you are voting for Biden. Period. If you're wearing a Warren shirt, it really says "Biden."


You might think, "Oh, well, Joe's 'momentum' can be overcome. Warren and Sanders together will have more delegates." This is important: there is ABSOLUTELY NO REASON TO THINK ELIZABETH WARREN WILL ULTIMATELY JOIN WITH BERNIE SANDERS.


She didn't endorse him in 2016. She tried to torpedo his campaign this time with a damaging allegation.

Even if all we assume is that her politics are "halfway" between Bernie and Biden, that still means she could side with Joe if he's the clear frontrunner.



There will be party pressure for her to do so, too. And she'll be offered inducements like the VP slot. Given that she has shown herself to be soft on Biden (declining to attack him hard on bankruptcy) and harsh on Bernie (accusing him of sexism), why think she's with Bernie?

Oh, and in case anyone thinks Robinson isn't connected in any way with the Sanders campaign, see this video featuring Robinson and uploaded by Sanders:

[squirecam]

1. I'm sure

Warren voters will get right behind this idea......

The thread comments are that Warren sucks and can’t win ....so Warren supporters should realize that and vote Sanders.

Great unifying message there.

https://mobile.twitter.com/NathanJRobinson/status/1223631372868296704

[highplainsdem]

48. I expect it to backfire. It should.

[getagrip_already]

52. This is disgusting....

Support your own damed candidate. Don't play games playing one against another.

Besides, warren voters likely won't jump to bernie. They despise him. Get over it.

[thesquanderer]

58. re: "warren voters likely won't jump to bernie. They despise him. Get over it."

according to morning consult, Sanders is the leading "second choice" for Warren supporters.

https://morningconsult.com/2020-democratic-primary/

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

2. Let me plug in my buzzsaw right now...

[Thekaspervote]

9. Buzzzzz buzzzz!! Warren won 2 mock causes last week in IA. 1 at UI the other at Drake

[highplainsdem]

43. LOL!

[BannonsLiver]

45. You speak for me.

[Cha]

59. lol!

Mine's ready..

[DanTex]

3. Here we go again...

[squirecam]

4. Warren is on the cusp

Of viability for delegates. To say she can’t win is absurd.

If the Biden camp tried that tactic at my caucus site, I’d make sure it backfired.

[DanTex]

5. This isn't the "Bernie camp". It's a guy who is not part of the campaign.

I'm sure I can find some Biden supporter who said something you disagree with too.

[squirecam]

10. Have you ever been to a caucus?

People show up and make speeches trying to sway support. That precinct captain is a local part of the campaign.

See also post #7....

[marlakay]

25. I lived in WA for 10 yrs

And attended two presidential caucuses, it is the strong that win.

I was able to talk a few people into Obama last time I went. I am glad WA changed to regular voting because I found it encourages a lot of peer pressure.

The speeches weren’t the part that changed people it was when they broke you into groups and if your person didn’t have enough you had to pick another.

[pnwmom]

32. Yes -- caucuses were all about peer pressure. And about extraverted people who like to talk

pushing introverts to justify their preference. And about more aggressive people, often young men, pushing less aggressive people to switch to their side.

I am so glad I've attended my last one.

[highplainsdem]

16. See the edited OP for a Hear the Bern episode featuring Robinson.

He's connected to the Sanders campaign. Not employed by it, but definitely connected to it.

[DanTex]

18. LOL. "Connected." Six degrees of Bernie Sanders!

[highplainsdem]

22. If you think having worked with and being close to Sanders' press secretary is six degrees of

separation. LOL.

It's very unlikely that Robinson would have posted those tweets without checking with Gray, and even if by some unlikely chance he had, no chance he'd have left the posts on Twitter if she or Sanders objected.

[Cha]

61. Whatabout!!! The OP isn't the only one saying this

about BS.

Tarc (9,118 posts)

57. Had two Bernie guys come to my (NH) door last night with a similar argument

They are positioning Sanders as the one who can thwart Biden, if the progressives would unify behind.

2016 me would be surprised at 2020 me saying that this may be becoming a reasonable argument.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1287&pid=463490

[Cha]

62. "Don't vote for a woman. Especially not a younger, more successful woman who will enact pretty much

Link to tweet

[JudyM]

6. This!

How many times...

[highplainsdem]

44. See the edited OP for the Sanders campaign video with Briahna Joy Gray talking to her old friend

Nathan Robinson.

This isn't just from some unknown Bernie bro with no connection to the campaign.

[highplainsdem]

14. See the edited OP, especially the video featuring Robinson uploaded by the Sanders campaign.

[DanTex]

17. LOL. So they interviewed him once, and that means they now control his twitter account?

[highplainsdem]

20. He and Sanders' press secretary are close. Watch the video.

No way he'd have posted those tweets if the Sanders campaign didn't approve.

No way he wouldn't have heard from the press secretary immediately if she or Sanders objected to them.

[DanTex]

21. Close! They might even have had drinks a couple times! *shudder*

[highplainsdem]

23. Gray calls him a friend. She used to write for his magazine. Watch the video.

They're old friends, not casual acquaintances.

[DanTex]

30. Who cares? Joe Biden was "good friends" with Strom Thurmond and Jesse Helms.

Does that make him responsible for every little thing those guys said? Of course not.

Even funnier is that it's not even Bernie that's friends with this guy. It's already two degrees of separation. And still people are trying to hold Bernie responsible for every tweet this guy sends out. Absurd!

[pnwmom]

34. Biden's campaign isn't tweeting out messages from Thurmond or Helms. n/t

[DanTex]

35. This tweet didn't come from the Bernie campaign. It came from a friend-of-a-friend.

[pnwmom]

37. And the Bernie campaign didn't upload the video?

https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1287&pid=462052

[highplainsdem]

40. ???? I think you mean the Sandeers campaign, which uploaded that video with Sanders' press

secretary and Robinson.

[pnwmom]

41. Yes, thanks, I'll fix.

[highplainsdem]

42. Thanks!

[frazzled]

7. This is the problem with caucuses

In a primary, everyone goes into their polling place and fills out a ballot, privately and secretly, reflecting their choice with no interference. Campaign activists are not even allowed within a certain radius of the polling place to try to influence people.

In a caucus, you have to go stand publicly in a group for a particular candidate, and people come to harangue you and try to come to their candidate's group ... especially if your candidate doesn't have the largest number of people in it. Bullying and shame play a large part. I've been there, I've done it, and through public embarrassment and semi-coersion been dragged into another candidate's "group."

Glad I've mostly lived in states where you can vote your choice undeterred.

This is why turnout for the Iowa caucuses is a measly 15%. People don't want to endure that, and so the results are highly unreflective of the general voting populations' actual preferences. That was proven in Minnesota in 2016, when the caucus winner (Sanders) was followed by a nonbinding primary vote soundly for Clinton. That's why they, thank goodness, finally changed from caucus to primary for this election cycle.

[squirecam]

12. Yep

Nt

[SharonClark]

29. Bullying and shame play a large part?

Not in my caucus in Iowa. These are my neighbors, I have to live with these people the rest of the year, no one would be allowed to shame and bully.

[pnwmom]

36. There is a lot of peer pressure going on in caucuses that could be perceived as bullying,

in my experience. In 2016, my husband immediately remarked on how many young men were in attendance -- and they weren't held back by the need to get along with their neighbors. I had never met any of the people in my particular caucus group before. And there was no one there in charge of making people play nicely.

[highplainsdem]

46. I posted an OP earlier today asking if Iowa caucus goers will be able to record video if there are

any disruptions:

https://www.democraticunderground.com/1287461582


Or if people they know are current Trump supporters show up to re-register as Democrats and meddle.

[pnwmom]

39. Clinton won the WA primary by 54% but Bernie won the caucuses by 73%. But this year

fortunately, we've switched to the primary.

[Me.]

8. Like How?

lying, cheating, slurring her?

[MineralMan]

11. Insidious back-stabbing!

Did Bernie authorize this? If so, it's disqualifying in my opinion.

[Thekaspervote]

13. +1000

[highplainsdem]

15. See the edted OP for a Sanders campaign Hear the Bern video featuring Robinson.

He definitely has connections to the Sanders campaign.

[DanTex]

19. Of course Bernie didn't authorize it. But your opinion is already that Bernie is

disqualified, as is everyone else who could possibly care about this.

[squirecam]

24. This goes both ways

Your opinion is that Bernie and his campaign is always right and the others are wrong. I’ve seen thread after thread you’ve started.

[DanTex]

26. Not at all. For example, when Rashida Tlaib booed Hillary, I said that was wrong.

I call things like I see them. I also don't go around saying anything is "disqualifying" of any Democratic candidate.

[lapucelle]

27. Fans appear to also be resorting to weird fake content from reddit.

Not a good look for any candidate.

[highplainsdem]

28. ???? What weird fake content?

[lapucelle]

31. ...

[highplainsdem]

38. Oh! Got it! Had to look upthread for the weird image taken from reddit.

[sheshe2]

49. ...

[samnsara]

33. good heavens!

[peggysue2]

47. Such lovely people!

And they all seem to support one particular campaign.

Hummmmmm.

[sheshe2]

50. Anyone surprised by this?

UNITY!

Not.

[Kurt V.]

51. i read robinson. I've also had a twitter exchange with him. his mistake is thinking

there is a more substantial voter overlap with warren than the other candidates.

[bluedye33139]

53. Warren is my number one choice right now, has been for months

And I'm open to other Democrats.

The idea that progressive Democrats will be slaughtered in a buzzsaw if Sanders does not win the nomination is absurd.

The progressive Wing of the Democratic party is growing stronger all the time, and I don't know why the defeatist attitude exists.

Democrats will not support Jacobins, and the Jacobins do not support the Democratic party. To some extent, Sanders has support outside of the party with progressives who hate the party, and I always think that's where a lot of this negativity comes from.

Progressive Democrats are not going away and I believe that the future of the party is to be a voice for progressivism. But not for purity tests.

[getagrip_already]

54. Why are bernie and trump so afraid of joe?

Why are they stooping so low to try to take him down?

Why isn't it working?

Questions........

[jg10003]

55. Breaking news: politician wants people to vote for him, not his opponent.

[DonCoquixote]

56. I feel sad to say this.

But this is exactly why many of us are very, very tired of Iowa, and these other small states, who conveniently have a lot less brown or black people getting the loudest microphone in the media. The truth is, the front matter is decided by a bunch of places whose election are not going to be anything like what actually happens in November. These places are known for being egotistical, arrogant, and positively enamored of the fact that the spotlight is on them. Nevermind the fact that many of us remember very unpleasant facts, like the fact that 53% of white women voted for Trump. Of course, we all know that those coveted votes are worth more than whatever we brown or black stepchildren bring to dinner. It's been that way ever since the 1980s when the "Reagan Democrats" became some sort of holy Grail quest for the party.

[Tarc]

57. Had two Bernie guys come to my (NH) door last night with a similar argument

They are positioning Sanders as the one who can thwart Biden, if the progressives would unify behind.

2016 me would be surprised at 2020 me saying that this may be becoming a reasonable argument.

[Cha]

60. Thanks for that, Tarc

[BlueLucy]

63. Well, this worked out great.