Lawrence O'Donnell: None of Sanders' bills can pass w/out votes of the Dem senators he's taunting

[highplainsdem]

This is O'Donnell's response, minutes ago, to Sanders' divisive tweet last night:

Link to tweet

Not one sentence of President Sanders legislation can pass without the votes of every Democratic senator who he's decided to taunt as "the Democratic establishment." Currently 14 senators support Medicare For All. Does he plan to insult the rest into voting for it?

Sanders' foolish tweet:

Link to tweet

I've got news for the Republican establishment. I've got news for the Democratic establishment. They can't stop us.

[LakeArenal]

1. Sounds so not Democratic.

[nycbos]

2. Yup.

Help I'm being repressed.

[dalton99a]

3. The Revolution will fix that problem

In fact He alone can fix it, and it will be very easy

[LiberalFighter]

6. Yes! I work well with those that I taunt.

I get my way every time. Even when I don't want to.

There has been plenty of times throughout history of this happening.

[aikoaiko]

4. Did Lawrence ODonnell just call Dem Senators petty and vindictive over hurt feelings?

I'm confident Democratic Senators will put the interest of the people ahead of their feelings.

[highplainsdem]

8. No, he just called Sanders foolish for insulting lawmakers whose help he'll need.

And O'Donnell is right.

The majority of Democratic senators do NOT think MFA is in the interest of the people.

And Sanders will never be able to insult them into agreeing with him.

[aikoaiko]

9. Well I do think most Senators want every American to have access to healthcare

And the ACA doesn't do that.

[highplainsdem]

11. None of our candidates are running on making no changes to the ACA.

[aikoaiko]

14. But none of the changes guarantee everyone is covered or

won't go bankrupt from out of pocket expenses.

At least as far as I can tell.

[Mariana]

12. Apparently he thinks they will harm their own constituents

just to spite Sanders. I think better of them than that.

[BeyondGeography]

18. Bernie's lefty cool kid bullshit is what's petty and vindictive

Warren’s the best friend he’ll ever have in the Senate. She has stuck her neck out on MFA further than anyone in this campaign and her reward has been non-stop taunting from the Bernie faithful and now from The Great Man himself, assuming he’s lumping her in with Senators who are just as far to the right of her as they are to Bernie on most every issue. Why? Because she has dared to call him out on his fecklessness towards his snake emoji tweeters and the gaping holes in his own MFA stance?

Whatever, O’Donnell is right. How does this guy intend to get anything done? Trump campaigned on catering to the worst in people, their greed and hatreds. Bernie needs to cultivate well-intentioned friends in Congress if he’s going to get anywhere as an actual leader. He’s a soon-to-be 80-year-old man with a heart condition. Time is not in his side. And as the Sun King of the left (after him, the deluge), there isn’t much of a succession plan that I can see. So maybe try something new and stop alienating people, Bernie. You’re not going to make the most of your opportunity with bile like this.

[Docreed2003]

19. +1

[treestar]

28. We are often told we should

take care of the feelings of the young voters and Bernie supporters who won't vote at all if we taunt them too much.

[aikoaiko]

29. Sure, but these are Senators LOD is speaking about. Professionals.

[treestar]

31. With Dotard in office

it seems all professionalism has suffered.

[Cha]

32. Of course not and you should know that.

[Cha]

5. Props to LO'D! He has "news" for BS. Shouldn't sanders be

thinking ahead to that possibility?

[Gothmog]

7. Lawerence is correct

Link to tweet

?s=20

[Cha]

17. Thank you for that, Goth!

[Blue_Tires]

10. You'd think even the Berners would figure this out

by now...

Personally I'm not too keen on a possible president who sees both parties as equal enemies and who thinks he can just send his online troll army to change people's minds...

[mzmolly]

13. He will yell at us for four years vs get anything done.

I'm tired of yelling.

[Happy Hoosier]

15. Bernie is a terrible leader.

Leaders build bridges, they do not burn them. I’ll vote for him if he gets the nomination, but it will be a disaster.

[Cha]

16. Yes, leaders build bridges and coalitions.. they

don't tweet out threatening "I got news" divisive tweets.

[dbolski]

20. Bernie has said if he becomes president he plans to continue organizing his grassroots

army to put pressure on members of congress who don't co-operate with passing his agenda. He never said he would do it alone. None of his supporters expect him to. That's why his motto is 'Not me, us'.

[Hav]

26. That sounds horrible besides being incredibly naive

Like a dictator sending out his goon squads to bully and threaten those who disagree with him. Yeah, that's a great vision.

[Tom Rinaldo]

21. I'm no insider, Lawrence, but the answer is obvious and not what you suggest

First and foremost, Bernie's power of persuasion rests on his success in persuading the public to back him. If he doesn't win the nomination, or if he does so but then loses the presidency, he will have little leverage. But for some reason winning changes the equation, because winning indicates a lot about where the voting public stands.

If Bernie Sanders actually becomes President of the United States we enter into a brand new ball game. If the constituent voters of our Democratic Senators start to cheer a Sanders policy on, how many Democratic Senators will then still resist? There are Republican Senators even today who are not on board with all of the policies Trump is pushing, but how many of them are willing to oppose their party base?

If Sanders fails to win the Democratic Party base he will fail to win the nomination or the presidency. But it is not as if Sanders needs to implement his full agenda on every issue if he does win, which is what Lawrence's question presupposes. If Sanders, in the opinion of the voters, manages to keep the ball moving forward toward those goals, he will have succeeded.

[dsc]

23. so why didn't he get the Senate to impeach

or help save the ACA, or do much of anything with this supposed popular support?

[Tom Rinaldo]

24. Because the Republicans have the majority, and the Republican base controls their Senators

It's not a difficult concept. Whoever is popular with the Democratic electorate will have leverage with Democratic Senators.

[dsc]

25. oh no he has repeatedly said, as have his supporters, that they would go into KY and use popular

support to change their minds. He also is opposed to getting rid of the filibuster meaning he needs GOP votes. So again, I ask, why didn't he use his popular support to get the GOP to change?

[yaesu]

22. Isn't that the same comcast employee who said tRump would never win the 16' election? nt

[Cha]

27. KICK

[Scurrilous]

30. LOL

He's still pretending it's viable when his own supporters have said the opposite.

[Mr. Sparkle]

33. He would need the "establishment" Dems to get anything done.

Im not sure he has thought this through.