Meet Bernie Sanders' 2018 challenger

[JCanete]

163. and he also tried to do that with policy. He gave the Republicans no reason at all to make

compromises. They had no reasons to sign on to moderate legislation and give us a bipartisan product, because the best we could do was to get that moderate compromise within our own party, which is entirely unacceptable. There was nothing we could put forward to scare the shit out of republicans because they knew no single payer was coming. They knew no public option was coming. We sucked. And then, even after watering down this legislation, we ran away from it, refused to defend it vigorously or to present the next steps that would make it better. If we were going to behave that way, we should have just gotten the better bill in the first place. It didn't save our seats, now did it?

When republicans are in office they go for draconian ass shit, and a few of our democrats too often vote in favor of some "lesser evil" because they are "afraid" of what the Republicans might get passed without them, or who they might push through the nomination process...etc. why don't we do what they do unless we don't want to win? Our determination to support very moderate middle of the road candidates means that we can't push as hard on populist rhetoric without making those in our own party look bad, assuming they get elected, and that means we can't make these ideas familiar and popular with the American people. We are entrenching our political realities, and then saying our hands are tied because of them, and it is hurting, not helping our brand. Sure, this might get us seats, but not enough of them.


It isn't true that Dems and Repubs are just as bad, unless the point is, they are both continuing us in the wrong trajectory, for different reasons. If the Democratic approach is one that loses us elections and keeps us in the minority party, you can't blame that wholly on the people who weren't sold on us...you have to put some of that blame on the party. If they were taking on the media and the money that is making this result happen, I'd say "okay, you are doing all you can with far less money, so yeah, this is an uphill battle." But they are taking the money from these corporations and people with deep pockets and trying to be their friends while they nudge them in the right direction, and these corporations and individuals are saying, "sure, after we drag you through hot coals with our media and donor support for your opponents, if somehow you still manage to take power, we'll talk."

And if when our dems ARE in power and they can finally legislate some of these ideals that they have told their voters they are in favor of, they simply take them off the table because they are too hard, that may have perfectly calculated political reasons, but it understandably raises suspicions.