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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums538-Did Sanders Blow It For The Democratic Left? Or Was The Nomination Always Out Of Reach?
Link to tweet
The Sanders/Warren wing is smaller than the Obama/Clinton/Biden wing of the party, even though the Sanders/Warren wing tends to be more active and visible, especially online, said Benjamin Knoll, who teaches American politics at Kentuckys Centre College. The Sanders wing of the party is hugely popular among younger Democrats, and time and time again they simply dont show up to vote in primaries at the same rate as older voters.
He added, In 2016, the establishment wing coalesced around a single candidate, Hillary Clinton, and was able to beat back Sanders. This time it may have been possible for Sanders to follow the 2016 Trump route by having a core third of the party and splitting the establishment vote, allowing him to emerge with a plurality. But the Democratic primary electorate coalesced around Biden after South Carolina....
Of course, thats not to say you cant make a compelling argument that 2020 represented a golden opportunity for the left and they simply fumbled it.
The left embraced two Northeastern liberals with entirely predictable weaknesses with older black voters, and neither Sanders nor Warren did much to connect with those voters.
Sanders and Warren did not focus enough on convincing voters that they were as electable as Biden, even as polls showed Democratic voters were obsessed with picking a candidate who could beat Trump.
Sanders and Warren embraced getting rid of private insurance in favor of Medicare for All, a position that is controversial even among Democrats and was easy for the center left to cast as both impractical and a barrier to defeating Trump.
Neither Sanders nor Warren had effective strategies for defending themselves from attacks from the partys center left after they surged in the polls.
After his win in Nevada, Sanders did little to engage Democrats who didnt already support him; in fact, he antagonized them.
Warren was unwilling to drop out and endorse Sanders before Super Tuesday, even as the weaker center-left candidates consolidated around Biden.
Sanderss campaign apparently planned to win the nomination by getting a plurality of the vote (30 to 35 percent) in a crowded field and it didnt appear to have a real plan for a one-on-one contest against Biden.
...Finally, some of the more campaign-centric narratives seem clearly contradicted by the structural case I laid out above. Bidens support among black voters was strong before he formally started his campaign, and none of the other candidates including two prominent black ones (Sens. Cory Booker and Kamala Harris) ever really dented it, so its hard to say that flawed black outreach was a particular failing of Sanders or Warren.
RandySF
(58,752 posts)Gothmog
(145,124 posts)NurseJackie
(42,862 posts)And, thankfully... it failed. We now have our nominee: Joe Biden.
I think he's never going to run for president again. This is is. It's over. Last one. Last try. Last dance.
William769
(55,144 posts)That right there even his supporters did that. Good riddance.
Cha
(297,131 posts)Election days since they don't mail in or previously go to the polls?
I'M part of the left and am for Biden??
msongs
(67,394 posts)Tarheel_Dem
(31,232 posts)diverse political party, it just doesn't make sense to start our nominating process with the two whitest states in the country.
brer cat
(24,557 posts)like Bernie who don't appeal to AA voters.
OnDoutside
(19,952 posts)Sanders campaign's plan was to win both Iowa and New Hampshire, using those unrepresentative wins to browbeat voters in to believing that there was no alternative candidate who could win. That might have succeeded but for Mayor Pete firstly, and the massive screw up in the Iowa count.
gab13by13
(21,299 posts)Joe has a hard row to hoe, everybody better get behind him now because talking negatively about Bernie so much isn't going to help.
It sure looks to me like the importance of Bernie's main issues, 15.00 minimum wage and health care for all would be nice to have in a time of pandemic. It's smart of Joe to come out and start endorsing parts of Bernie's platform. Those grocery workers and hospital cleaners are sure earning their 13 dollar/hr wages now.
TreasonousBastard
(43,049 posts)they may have had, it just couldn't overcome the stasis of the general population.
People do not always act in their best interests without some guarantees. And even with guarantees it can be tricky.
beachbumbob
(9,263 posts)ck4829
(35,043 posts)Almost everything is "leftist"
brooklynite
(94,498 posts)Sanders didn't get a majority of votes in the 2016 campaign, so he would need to find ADDITIONAL voters in 2020. Every respected political analyst would tell you those were center-left voters to his right. He chose to believe there were non-voters to his left that he could inspire to show up.
MineralMan
(146,286 posts)They never had more than about 35% support. How could they not have known that candidates would drop out after not doing well in the primaries? And most of those candidates appealed to the same voters who would have voted for Biden before Sanders. As we have seen, that's exactly what happened.
The Sanders campaign was doomed from the start, because it did not add new followers. Same folks as in 2016, except that Elizabeth Warren got some of them on her side, but not enough to stay in the race.
Once it got down to just Biden and Sanders, Bernie had nowhere to go but out.
The Magistrate
(95,244 posts)First, the man believed his own dream, that he could rally sleeping millions who really did in their hearts yearn for revolutionary change in a left direction.
Second, the man was incapable of realizing that his destructive behavior during the 2016 campaign had roused cold hatred for him among millions of rank and file Democrats, even a great many who hold left and progressive goals dear.
MineralMan
(146,286 posts)Senator Sanders never outgrew his youthful infatuation with socialism. He never quite understood that socialism as a political philosophy had never actually succeeded as a practical governmental system. Even today, over 50 years after his youthful period, he repeats things that were commonly said in the 1960s.
Second, Mr. Sanders lives inside his own head, and believes what he believes about the power of his plan. As he finds supporters who second his ideas, the confirmation cognitive bias takes over and reinforces his incorrect reasoning about his chances of success. Thus, he does not recognize any destructive behavior in himself or his followers.
He is an impractical man with impractical ideas. Such men commonly fail to realize those ideas.
The Magistrate
(95,244 posts)His devotees dub this 'consistency' and 'sticking to principles' but it is in fact a fatal flaw. A man who believes at sixty exactly as he did as twenty displays a crippling deficiency in the workings of his mind.
MineralMan
(146,286 posts)If I reflect on my thinking in my 20s, I can scarcely recognize myself in it.
Hortensis
(58,785 posts)Gothmog
(145,124 posts)Link to tweet
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