The party base will turn out and vote for Bloomberg if he is the nominee

[Kaleva]

The base votes in every election because we know how important every election is. We are self motivated.

The base votes for our candidates because we know how important it is to defeat Repubs and third party candidates at every level.

The single most important principal every member of the base has and one we don't compromise on is that we support and vote for our candidates.

We here at DU are part of the base as we'll support our candidates during the general and vote for them on election day.

To be sure, members of the base fight amongst ourselves during the primaries but that's the nature of the beast. Once we have selected our nominees, the base comes together.

Furthermore, we of the base know we alone can't ensure victory. We work on GOTV for our candidates the best way(s) each of us can do.

[Tom Rinaldo]

1. "It's our Duty to vote for Bloomberg" is not exactly a galvanizing or inspirational message

I don't deny that it is "true" should he end up as our nominee, but I'm just sayin'

[Kaleva]

2. Defeating Trump and other Repubs is pretty good motivation for me.

[jimfields33]

3. I'm wondering about the college students

Yes they are a lower participation group, but we don’t need them even lower. Is Bloomberg exciting enough. I know it shouldn’t matter, but it does.

[zackymilly]

7. I don't see many college students supporting Bloomberg after his racist rants came to light. n/t

[jimfields33]

8. Valid and excellent point

[Kaleva]

18. I imagine there are college students who are fine with another 4 years of Trump

Maybe we of the base ought to spend more time educating them about the dangers Trump and a Repub controlled Senate pose to the nation and the world?

[cherryinpa]

35. OK

How did that "alternative to Trump" work out in 2016 for us?

[Kaleva]

36. Hillary won about 3 million more votes then Trump

A swing of about 80k votes in three key states and we'd be working to get Hillary re-elected this year.

[Demsrule86]

29. If the first two primaries are any indication, they don't vote.

[cherryinpa]

4. Sad

Saying this as a Biden / Klobuchar supporter so believe me I am VERY skeptical of the Bernie bro’s but thinking Bloomberg’s gonna save us is fantasy. I remember the postmortems here after Nov 2016 when the common consensus was that we needed a positive vision, we needed something like a strong message that we’re not just an alternative to a Trump.

And here we are again 4y later being pitched the “alternative to Trump”.

Will it be sufficient to win the core Democrats like DU posters? Yes, probably most of them. But can you imagine the reaction on our left leaning folks if we install a Republican Billionairre?

Biden, Klobuchar, Warren, Pete and even Bernie are all Democrats or ally’s with decades supporting the party and we should chose from them, now need to look to a Wall Street messiah.

[BlueMTexpat]

6. It sounds like we

are kindred spirits in many ways.

[cherryinpa]

15. Its makes me angry

It makes me angry especially with respects to Klobuchar and Warren; two women that have deep investment in this party. If my preferred candidate (Biden) can't make it then this should pass naturally to Klobuchar or Warren.

Yes, sometimes it is about who DESERVES it and who has EARNED it. Just 10 years ago Bloomberg was praising the accomplishments of W and now his sins are washed away in the blink of an eye with his billions, while Klobuchar and Warren are left standing by the side.

I never thought I'd see something like this happen.

[BlueMTexpat]

16. It is surprising ... and

also disgusting to see. IMO.

But some are all too ready to waft on any prevailing wind or follow any bright shiny new thing, without really thinking things through.

I've seen it happen over and over and over again in these 76 years. It seems to be an endless cycle. And some seem never to learn
earn from their mistakes.

But I persist ... and will until my dying day.

[pandr32]

26. Bloomberg may please with his VP pick

He has also pledged to support whoever wins the nomination if he does not--and he will spend heavily because defeating Trump is his goal.
The reality is we have gone so far off-kilter we need Bloomberg's help. We cannot afford to blow him off.

[BlueMTexpat]

5. I am inherently skeptical of ANY candidate

who only runs for one office as a Democrat and that is for the Presidency.

To me, that indicates a Democrat "of convenience" who wants to piggyback on Democratic Party resources, rather than one who truly espouses the principles of the Democratic Party. Bloomberg is in some ways an anomaly because he is self-funded and hasn't so far had to rely on Democratic Party resources such as debates, etc. But he still raises WAY too many red flags for me.

I am sorry to see that several here at DU, of all places, so readily jump into the column of ANYONE ELSE when we still have some exceptional candidates in the running who have either run for office ONLY as Democrats or who have been life-long Democrats.

But that's JMO. And a sad one. IMO.

[evertonfc]

9. and so will

suburbs and moderates. Half the people in the crowd of 1000 last night in Nashville had no true party affiliation.

[CentralMass]

10. Count me in among those who hope he is not the nominee.

There seems to be an implication in your posts and comments about bloomberg that somehow the base feels differently about him then any of the other candidates. Are you saying that the base won't vote for Bernie Sanders :, or Pete Buttigieg?
In a few weeks it will have been 42 years since I registered as a Democrat. My first presidential election was in1980. I have never missed an election and have never failed to vote for the Dem nominee.
However, i dont want a guy worth $62 billion in charge of a government whose members are being increasingly funded by monied interest from foreign and domestic billionaires. The media is also almost exclusively owned by billionaires who own the news cycle.

At this point in a field of candidates that was as high as 29 and as of NH has thinned by 21, one candidate has won the popular vote in the first two states. Yet many say that he isn't the front runner and that he should drop out.

[UniteFightBack]

11. If you don't want Bloomberg IT'S TIME to rally around Biden then. nt

[DanTex]

12. That theory didn't work in 2016.

Of course, some of the base will turnout, but the question is how much. In 2008, we had a candidate that inspired and motivated the base. In 2016, less so. That's why, even though in 2016 the opponent was much more odious, there was still more turnout in 2008.

It's true that political junkies like us here on DU will turn out no matter what. But not all of the base is like that.

[Kaleva]

13. The base turns out in every election

That's the singular thing that identifies us. We are the rock solid core. The foundation. The base.

[ForEverGlades]

14. Exactly right

Hyper aware folks like those on DU aren't anywhere near a significant portion of " the base " unfortunately.
A huge percentage of us here, myself included, would have to hold our nose with vise-grips to vote for Bloomie.
Bloomie's recent record includes advocating a brutal stop and frisk policy in minority neighborhoods, rantings about minorities being the entire crime problem.
Many understandably equate this record with plain elitist racism.
Let's not forget his significant contributions to GOP candidates across the country and his love for W.
So...GET OUT AND VOTE FOR BLOOMIE!!
Why?
Because Trump is racist and a Republican!!
Ummm.....Quite a rallying cry.

[jimfields33]

19. I am even more stumped that he still has supporters

After saying blacks caused the housing crisis. Maybe I’m in a bad horror dream.

[ForEverGlades]

20. It's uhhh..." remarkable "

Remarkable is always a safe adjective, right?

[jimfields33]

22. Very true.

[StevieM]

30. 2016 was all about an email server.

Our previously well-liked and well-respected candidate got swift boated. And that affected a lot of people, including some Democrats.

[uponit7771]

17. And it'll be suppressed if he still supports racial profiling

[democrattotheend]

21. That didn't work out so well in 2016

Unfortunately, too many people stayed home or voted third party because they thought Hillary wasn't progressive enough, despite her long history of fighting for progressive causes.

With Bloomberg I fear it would be worse - most of his progressive stances (with the exception of gun control and climate change) are positions he's come around to pretty recently, and there's a lot of reason not to trust him to stick with those policies once the primaries are over. For example, he supports a $15 minimum wage now, but where was he when workers in NYC were trying to raise the minimum wage while he was mayor? Democrats in the city council had been trying for years to get a minimum wage hike and it didn't happen until De Blasio took over. And he was opposed to raising it at recently as 2015, when he said "I, for example, am not in favor, have never been in favor, of raising the minimum wage." https://www.ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/politics/2019/12/12/michael-bloomberg-on-minimum-wage-now-backs-15-dollars-minimum-wage-2020-presidential-election

Yes, people can evolve in their views, but when they evolve on too many things right before running for president it becomes suspicious. And I honestly wouldn't care so long as he sticks with these policies after the primaries are over and actually implements them, but his convenient shifting in the past makes me skeptical that he will.

[Kaleva]

23. Those people are not the base.

What identifies us, the base, from others is that we vote for our nominees each and every election and we work to GOTV.

[TeamPooka]

24. I will vote for the Democratic nominee in November. If it's Bernie, Bloomberg, Mayor Pete,

I will vote for the Democratic nominee in November. If it’s Bernie, Bloomberg, Mayor Pete, Or even Bozo the clown

[Garrett78]

25. Many will not. And we would lose badly.

https://www.currentaffairs.org/2020/02/a-republican-plutocrat-tries-to-buy-the-democratic-nomination

[blueinredohio]

27. I would hope if you're a true blue democrat you wouldn't have to be

convinced to vote blue no matter who.

[customerserviceguy]

28. Good luck

with getting African-American turnout at the polls with Bloomie at the top of the Democratic ballot. Trump would love to grab 15-20 of the black vote, or see it go to a third party. We saw during the SOTU speech that he's been pandering for the votes of people of color.

[Baclava]

31. He could have real problems in CA, OR, WA, CO

Will people buy his apologies?

Mike Bloomberg Saying '95% of Your Murderers' Are 'Male Minorities' Goes Viral

Stop and Frisk "I think we disproportionately stop white people too much and minorities too little"

Bloomberg on marijuana: Legalizing 'another addictive narcotic' is perhaps 'stupidest thing anybody has ever done'


Bernie is attacking him too

"We do not believe that billionaires have the right to buy elections"

[customerserviceguy]

32. While I'm fairly certain

that all of the states you cite will vote Democratic, even if Bloomie's the nominee, the states I'm worried about are the blue wall states that Trump took away from us in 2016.

[Baclava]

33. Sorry, I was talking about the primaries, people getting ahead of themselves, primary races first

But you are right, everyone should back blue after the nomination, but thats a long long way away

[flotsam]

34. The party base will turn out and vote for a bowl of tapioca if it is the nominee! N/T