"Basically, if you were designing the perfect target for Republicans...you'd create Bernie Sanders."

[highplainsdem]

Found this thanks to a tweet from Bloomberg advisor and Trump torturer Tim O'Brien, who's been posting a series of tweets about Sanders' weaknesses.

Full quote from that 2016 Slate article:

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2016/04/polls-say-bernie-is-more-electable-than-hillary-dont-believe-them.amp

Basically, if you were designing the perfect target for Republicans—a candidate who proudly links socialist economics to hippie culture, libertinism, left-wing foreign policy, new-age nonsense, and contempt for bourgeois values—you’d create Bernie Sanders.

That Tim O'Brien tweet:

Link to tweet

Among the things the GOP could surface about Bernie are “his advocacy of public toddler nudity and genital touching as cures for porn.”

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2016/04/polls-say-bernie-is-more-electable-than-hillary-dont-believe-them.amp

Another:

Link to tweet

Sanders “cited studies claiming that cancer could be caused by psychological factors such as unresolved hostility toward one’s mother, a tendency to bury aggression beneath a ‘facade of pleasantness’ and having too few orgasms.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/04/us/politics/bernie-sanderss-revolutionary-roots-were-nurtured-in-60s-vermont.html

[Progressive2020]

1. Bloomberg Followers

My understanding is that Bloomberg and his Campaign are paying people substantial amounts of money to go online and smear Sanders and Sanders' followers. So, Bernie has an army of volunteers and contributors, whereas Bloomberg has to hire Trolls because he has no real followers. Bernie's people represent democratic processes, whereas Bloomberg is a Plutocrat who thinks that he has the right to buy the Presidency.

[highplainsdem]

4. I'm a Biden follower who's long admired Tim O'Brien, who's one of Trump's top critics, and also

a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and editor.

And I agree completely with what O'Brien says about Sanders.

[ProfessorPlum]

22. And he only had to go 50+ years to find something to criticize.

Surely, a mature discussion of the problems we face today

[IluvPitties]

25. Did he say these crazy things or not?

[ProfessorPlum]

45. do you really want to compare crazy things Biden and Sanders have said over the last fifty years?

Because you will end up being incredibly ashamed of Biden. It's not even close. The guy's reputation is of a gaffe machine.

[IluvPitties]

49. I am sure he hasn't praised communists or talked about toddlers touching their genitals...

[ProfessorPlum]

50. you'd better hit the google machine before you make such claims

with Biden, almost anything can come out of this mouth.

how about we focus on things people have said about how they would govern in the 5-10 years? that might actually even be relevant, especially since we can be more sure of the context instead of just ignoring it.

[IluvPitties]

57. If Biden has said similar things to Bernie

in regards to weird sexual fantasies, the USSR, Cuba, Nicaragua or toddlers touching each other, let me know. I'd run away from Biden in a heartbeat!

[sweetloukillbot]

28. And yet Samders supporters only need to go back 60 years to find civil rights actions

And Sanders great strength is that he doesn't change his thinking, right?

[ProfessorPlum]

43. please explain this word salad if you can

[sweetloukillbot]

51. Um... Sanders was arrested at a civil rights protest 60 years ago

And he marched on Washington.
And he hasn't done anything since. He couldn't even be bothered to show up in Selma yesterday.
I guess there weren't enough potential delegates for him there. Too busy going to a concert in LA.

[ProfessorPlum]

53. I'm starting to think you just make statements and never bother to look up whether they are true or

not.

here are a couple of balanced lists of Sanders work for minority rights, including what he has been working on since the march on Washington.

https://www.salon.com/2015/07/22/20_examples_of_bernie_sanders_powerful_record_on_civil_and_human_rights_partner/

https://www.ontheissues.org/domestic/Bernie_Sanders_Civil_Rights.htm

[brush]

33. Please! One doesn't have to go back 50 years. There's quite a bit of much more recent...

and also damaging oppo on Sanders. He regularly appeared on the "Tom Hartman" radio sow for years proudly espousing his socialism—just plain socialism mind you, not"democratic socialism".

[Moderateguy]

11. Do you have any proof to back up for wild assertions?

[bdamomma]

34. Bloomberg

is paying "his volunteers" money, so they are not his volunteers.

[democratisphere]

2. Yes.

Unfortunately there are voters blinded by BS BS.

[HarlanPepper]

3. If only there was a word for that.

[democratisphere]

5. Word search came up with "LOSS".

[HarlanPepper]

6. Ha!

Was not the word I was thinking of but that works too!

[democratisphere]

9. Keeping it mean and clean.

[highplainsdem]

10. LOL!

[ProfessorPlum]

7. basically, if you were designing the perfect fighter for the working people of America . . . you'd

create Bernie Sanders

[W_HAMILTON]

12. I would say the perfect fighter for the working people of America...

...would be someone that has actually accomplished something for the working people of America.

[mgcgulfcoast]

14. I suppose that eliminates Biden then.

[W_HAMILTON]

16. If you truly think that, then you should read up on Biden's accomplishments.

But of course, I wasn't the one touting any one particular candidate as the prototype for a fighter for the working class to begin with. I was just pointing out that if you were to create one, you would probably want to create one that actually has led on accomplishing something for the working class.

[ProfessorPlum]

21. Biden's accomplishments for working people include the revised bankruptcy bill

that has helped to put so many people in inescapable debt. thanks, Biden. And I say this as a one-time resident of the state of MBNA, I mean Delaware, where he is worshipped as a Demi-god.

[sweetloukillbot]

29. Why is Biden cited for this

It was a Republican bill, passed in a Republican Senate, during a Republican Presidency. Biden didn't break the tie, It had a supermajority of bipartisan support.

But it's Biden's fault.

[ProfessorPlum]

41. The answers lie at your fingertips, if you only choose to use them

https://www.salon.com/2015/10/21/joe_bidens_greatest_betrayal_the_one_senate_vote_that_makes_it_hard_to_support_a_biden_run/

https://www.gq.com/story/joe-biden-bankruptcy-bill

https://prospect.org/politics/bidens-votes-on-the-bankruptcy-bill-middle-class-joe/

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/5/6/18518381/baccpa-bankruptcy-bill-2005-biden-warren

etc etc.

As a Warren supporter, you should know this front and back.

Among other things, the bill also forced debtors to enroll in an "instructional course concerning personal financial management." The requirement still exists even though there's little evidence of its efficacy. Additionally, the bill made it more difficult to force creditors to stop harassing debtors for repayment after bankruptcy protection had been filed. As if all of this wasn't bad enough, the Biden-supported legislation prioritized credit card debt repayment over child support repayment, forcing women who are owed back support to negotiate with credit card companies over the debts owed by their exes. Furthermore, the term "debtor" was changed by the BAPCPA to "household" so that the new means test would take into account the total earnings of an entire household, rather than one debtor -- including, for example, a teen daughter's babysitting money.

Worse yet, the bill contained nothing to crack down on abusive practices by predatory lenders, including punitive interest rates and penalties.

Unforgivably, Joe Biden was one of the leading cheerleaders of the bill.

[sweetloukillbot]

58. Here's a tip - condescenscion won't win people over to your candidate

And you still haven't explained why Biden's responsible for a Republican bill, in a Republican congress, that past with bipartisan support, and would have passed without it, that the Minority leader voted for, that was signed by a Republican president. Of course, if you read past the headlines, you'll see he worked to lessen the impact on a bill that was going to pass anyhow.

Meanwhile Sanders is sitting in the corner doing nothing, or maybe he's napping like he did during the Impeachment.
Leadership!

[ehrnst]

27. If you wanted an effective fighter for the people who gets results, you'd create Liz Warren. (nt)

[Vivienne235729]

31. +1000 I wholeheartedly agree with that. I hope she will be running 2024.

We just need to get trump out of office first. But I really would like to see her M4A push in the future. We desperately need that.

[David__77]

8. Libertinism? Ha I love it.

...

[mgcgulfcoast]

13. Wasnt Trump the "perfect" target for us in 2016?

Who gets the big crowds? Sanders. Go ahead and nominate a "safe" candidate. We are supposed to be about big ideas, not safe compromising half measures.

[RandiFan1290]

23. That 'safe' candidate

lost the down ballot races too

[ehrnst]

24. You mean the qualified one?

Obama: “Not me, not Bill, nobody” has been more qualified for president than Hillary

[brutus smith]

47. Being qualified and being electable are two different things.

trump had 0 qualifications.

[ehrnst]

59. You mean "electable" like being able to convince Democrats to elect you as the nominee?

Nice try with the derail, tho.

[brutus smith]

60. ¿????????????

[ehrnst]

63. .....

[ehrnst]

65. Nader and McGovern got the big crowds, too....

But they didn't pan out into a large numbers at the polls.

On Oct. 13, 2000, 15,000 zealous progressives packed Madison Square Garden for one of Ralph Nader’s super rallies. They paid $20 each for admission, evidence of their passion, since political rallies are almost always free. That year, many on the left were disappointed with the Democratic nominee for president. Al Gore was a wonky centrist and a stilted speaker who appeared to possess few core principles. For progressives, his association with Bill Clinton, icon of triangulation and political compromise, counted against him. At a time when the left was outraged over our corrupt campaign finance system, Gore was dogged by questions about money he’d received from sketchy donors with ties to foreign governments.

At best, Gore offered progressives a continuation of politics as usual. True, the Republican in the race seemed a right-wing buffoon, but Nader told his followers to vote their hopes, not their fears, and his message about citizens banding together to overturn entrenched, amoral corporate interests spoke to many people’s deepest aspirations. Bush and Gore, he said at Madison Square Garden, are “both for cracking down on street crime but ignoring corporate crime, which takes far more lives.” In response, the crowd erupted in chants of “Let Ralph debate!” Young people flocked to Nader, and hip musicians played his rallies: The lineup in New York included Eddie Vedder, Patti Smith, and Ani DiFranco, whose ’90s cool had not yet evanesced.

Nader concluded his almost hourlong speech by calling the evening “the most memorable political rally of the year 2000.” Some who were there felt they were witnessing the flowering of an epochal social movement. “The protest movement that has been growing on a grassroots level, as evidenced by the World Trade Organization demonstrations in Seattle, reached its political coming-of-age last night,” the Village Voice wrote.

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2016/09/ralph-nader-and-the-tragedy-of-voter-as-consumer-politics.html

[Quixote1818]

15. And everyone also thought Trump would be easy to beat. Truth is no one knows period! nt

[highplainsdem]

17. kick

[betsuni]

18. True.

[Callado119]

19. Yup, any one of these could be fatal..and that's just the tip of the iceberg..

[tritsofme]

20. If Bernie Sanders didn't exist, the Russians would have to create him.

[ehrnst]

26. That's clearly why they're promoting and supporting his candidacy, along with Russia.

[Hortensis]

30. If you were designing a candidate to appall liberal Democrats

who want a strong, very competent and strongly principled president who shares their commitment to liberal democracy and a stable prosperous structure for everyone to pursue their happiness in, you might well create a massively incompetent populist strongman leader who could draw enough malcontent, antagonistic populist types from across the spectrum to subvert your party, take power, and start creating an imperial presidency by destroying congress's power. Or promising to.

And even if his only outstanding ability was for self aggrandizement via charismatic delivery on the stump, unencumbered by respect for the many millions he lied to, if he was assisted by very tech-savvy enemies determined to take us down, in bad times we now know that can be enough.

[Ferrets are Cool]

32. Sanders is the LEAST electible candidate running today.

Hell, Steyer would have an easier time getting elected in the general than BS.
I used to be idealistic and really wanted Bernie to run for president. I just didn't realize how polarizing the "Socialist" tag is. It will CRUSH him and us if he is our candidate.

[ProfessorPlum]

42. every poll contradicts this

but I'm sure you "know" it to be true through some other means.

[Ferrets are Cool]

44. Every "poll" said that Hillary was going to win in a landslide

how did that go for us?

[ProfessorPlum]

46. granted, polls can be wrong

but do you have ONE shred of evidence that points in the other direction? From anywhere?

[Ferrets are Cool]

52. Only if what I see with my own eyes "evidence"

The "socialist" label began proliferating about 6 weeks ago on social media and has been the most prevalent political meme I've seen.
What evidence do YOU have that the label will NOT lose the election for us?

[ProfessorPlum]

54. ah, "anecdata"

I see.

My data is that polls and surveys are showing that most people don't give a shit about labels, but are drawn to policies that put more money in their pockets or do something good for them.

[Ferrets are Cool]

55. Once again, like you said, polls can be very wrong

Nothing I say will change your mind and vice versa. Vote your conscious.

[brush]

56. Yes.The fact that trump and the repugs want to run against Sanders. They're rooting for him.

Last edited Mon Mar 2, 2020, 01:13 PM - Edit history (1)

[Act_of_Reparation]

62. OH SHIT EVIDENCE

LET'S PUT IT IN SCARE QUOTES AND DISCREDIT IT BY WAY OF ONE ANECDOTAL EXAMPLE.

[bdamomma]

35. Socialism

seems to be the word most used. Does anyone realize that socialism is being practiced by the non existent party of the republicans, they steal from the non existent Middle Class for decades to line their own pockets, call it reverse socialism, and we have been squeezed throughout the years. We need a replica of the "New Deal" to regain our standing in society.
'

I only wish we the people would give those at the top 1% a lethal dose of radicalism that would shake them to their core and to be wary about us. Damn. Wouldn't that be great. If not now, but when?

[MuseRider]

36. Right up front I will say

that I have not read any of this, only the parts that are quoted so I do not know how this was used. In my mind, being not as old as Bernie but certainly around and thoughtful during the 70's, I remember a lot of odd stuff coming from a lot of men because women were beginning to stand up. There was a lot of reaction but not knowing where these quotes came from I have no idea what he was using them for. What I will comment on is this, "Sanders “cited studies claiming...". So he cited something that someone else wrote, at least in this case. Again, I have no idea how he used this cite but it is not HIS comment.

Look back into the 70's and you will find a ton of this kind of crap. It was supposedly very intellectual to write this stuff, much of it random thoughts that were used to continue on looking for an answer. The balance of the sexes was dramatically changing and men were not taking it well. Many of them wrote and tried to figure it out. I think they were all surprised to find out there was nothing really behind it other than we are not going to take your shit anymore, we are women and whole without you.

Knowing who I was and who my friends were back then I am very happy that I do not have to account for the dumb ass crap I did or wrote then.

[scarytomcat]

37. and republcon light loses every time to real one

But will vote for anybody but a republcon

[Stuart G]

38. Yes, and Well Said.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

39. And his demeanor is what they want too. Low on warmth

Low on inclusion and reaching out. The last thing they want to combat is Biden's nice guy personality. Easier to have it be one yeller yelling against another yeller.

[NurseJackie]

40. "...public toddler nudity and genital touching as cures for porn..." --- I think I'm going to be sick!!

Among the things the GOP could surface about Bernie are “his advocacy of public toddler nudity and genital touching as cures for porn.”

Oh, good lord! I think I'm going to be sick!! No, seriously, the thought of this makes me want to vomit. That's some fucked up shit right there! And after GOP commercial featuring things like this is made and broadcast on an endless loop until Election Day 2020... well... the American voters will feel sick and will reject Bernie Sanders as strongly as I do now. We can do so much better with a REAL Democrat and not a Socialist.

[brutus smith]

48. repubs will use "coruption" or "socialism".

Take your pick.

[andym]

61. Republicans' ideal Democratic candidate would be someone who triggers their racist, sexist

homophobic and nationalist feelings directly by their identity. GOP is the anti-diversity party. But Democrats can't let what Republicans want stop us from nominating the best candidate.