Bernie Sanders' Economic Inequality Town Hall Draws 1.7 Million Live Viewers

[DanTex]

278. Why the qualification? Why "assuming"?

No qualification. Vote D post-primary, period. All this talk of "assuming" is what convinces some people to go the Nader route, which has disastrous consequences. There is very clear history of a part of the far-left intentionally helping the GOP win elections to trigger a "revolution". This isn't theoretical. It's not something to toy with.

I actually agree with you that the Dems are too far right, and that is one of the things that ails us. You're also right that there is no upside whatsoever to deregulating banks. But, like anything else, replacing those Ds with Rs will make everything worse. Bad Ds are much better than Rs.

Also, rationally, has the Nader strategy actually succeeded in pulling the Dems left? Can anyone honestly argue that, well, sure Nader brought us W, the Iraq War, the Bush Tax cuts, the right-wing justices, the economic collapse, but it was worth it because after Nader the Dems truly embraced progressive policies, leading to a left-wing political revolution? Of course not. All he did was piss people like me off that would otherwise be allies in trying to move the Dems left.

This is why, as much as I don't like the Joe Manchins and the Third Way policies and all that, until I hear them advocating for voting Republican or third party (which does happen, e.g. Joe Lieberman, Zell Miller), I view them in a much more positive light than the Nina Turners.


What to do about corporate-friendly Dems? Primary them. Period. And if that doesn't work, then vote for them in general elections anyway, and try primarying them again. Particularly in blue states -- in some red states, moderate Dems is probably the best we can do. But blue state moderates like say Dianne Feinstein should be primaried. But here again the far-left stands in the way. Just look at DU sentiment on primarying Feinstein. I'm pretty sure that before the whole Bernie-or-Bust thing, people here (and Dems in the real world) would be much more favorable to the idea of getting someone more progressive than Feinstein out of a deep blue state. But now the concept of primarying moderate Dems has been tainted with association to Bernie-or-Busters, which causes people to react with revulsion. And I will concede that in some cases this revulsion is irrational. But it's also understandable: the people calling loudest for primarying Feinstein are the same ones that backstabbed Hillary in order to help Trump become president.

Which is why, as I said in my last post, the groups that want to use primaries to move Dems left need to be extra careful and explicitly and repeatedly emphasize the importance of voting D even where their primary challenges fail.