Slate Magazine: Yet another establishment Democratic frontrunner is failing to get the job done

[DemocracyMouse]

All last year some of us on DU have tried to convince other DU members that we need to return to our traditional, pre-Clinton, pre-Reagan roots. We need to get the nation back to democracy and inspire OUR base to turn out, just as Trump has. We must remember how much larger our base actually is.

Yet after a year of hearing "but Biden's more electable" we are now seeing how uninspiring such a mantra actually is. Bernie is bold like Trump and THAT's what makes him more electable.

But he's lightyears ahead morally, politically and environmentally. And that will take him and the Democrats to the Whitehouse if the older Democrats can trust their youthful counterparts, and trust their own inner idealistic self. Go bold and win, fellow Democrats. Bernie — surprise, surprise! – is a traditional FDR Democrat. 😊

Biden’s Inevitable Electability Is at the Bottom of a Crater in New Hampshire
Yet another establishment Democratic frontrunner is failing to get the job done.

By BEN MATHIS-LILLEY
FEB 11, 2020, 11:52 PM
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/02/joe-biden-the-would-be-sure-thing-is-a-distant-also-ran-in-new-hampshire.html
Joe Biden announced that he was running for president in April 2019 and soon led the Democrats’ crowded field by 25 points. His position in the Obama administration gave him instant access to top party donors and campaign operatives. He was endorsed by high-profile New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and California Sen. Dianne Feinstein before he even entered the race. His name recognition was as universal as possible, and his pitch to voters—he’s Uncle Joe, the hot-headed but trustworthy ol’ rascal who’s just as comfortable negotiating in Congress as he is bullshitting with the boys down at the union hall—was already locked in.

With 75 percent of precincts reporting on Tuesday in New Hampshire, Biden was in 5th place with 8.3 percent of the vote. In Iowa, he placed 4th. He now trails a socialist in national polls and is quickly being caught by a small-city ex-mayor who barely clears the age requirement and a guy who endorsed George W. Bush and Dick Cheney’s reelection at the 2004 Republican National Convention.

As writer Jedediah Purdy noted, Biden’s campaign was always about confidence: The confidence that he would be an “electable” candidate because everyone else had confidence in him too. But his campaign rallies failed to generate the enthusiasm or attendance that his rivals’ did, his debate performances ranged from adequate to totally incoherent, and he didn’t even raise that much money. There’s not much for him to fall back on now that the confidence in his collective appeal is beginning to collapse.

Right now, Biden looks likely to become the fifth consecutive Democratic candidate in an open primary who failed to become president despite starting with major support from the party’s most powerful figures. In 2000, designated Clinton successor Al Gore put down a challenge from liberal free-thinker Bill Bradley in the primary—a CNN story from March 1999 described Gore’s “orchestrated rollout of endorsements” demonstrating his clear hold on the Democratic establishment—but lost, as it were, to George W. Bush. In 2004, John Kerry succeeded in reining in outsider candidate Howard Dean—who’d been denounced as an unelectable “McGovern-Mondale” extremist by the Democratic Leadership Council—before Iowa but also lost to Bush. (In the party’s defense, it didn’t necessarily anoint Kerry—Dick Gephardt, another experienced moderate, was also running—but it definitely didn’t want Dean to be the nominee, in part because of his then-radical belief that the Iraq War was a bad idea.) Hillary Clinton started the 2008 primary cycle with advantages in polling, endorsements, and large-donor fundraising, but lost to Barack Obama. She nearly lost an even larger lead in the 2016 primary, and then, in the general election … well, you know.

Now there’s Uncle Joe, who seemed to believe his party connections and public association with Obama would be so strong that he’d be able to coast to a primary win without having to spend significantly on ads, develop any signature proposals, or even appear that often in public. There’s still a little time left to, like, start doing that stuff: Biden’s polling leads in Nevada (Feb. 22 caucus) and South Carolina (Feb. 29 primary) are shrinking, but they still exist, and wins there could help him keep his numbers up in the southern Super Tuesday states where he’s been expected to do well with black voters. But the candidate whose sales pitch was that he came with forward momentum pre-installed is, so far, completely inert. If he still wants to win, he’ll have to earn it just like everyone else, without any help from his important friends.

[EveHammond13]

1. trump already has Warren's number and he will use it.

[blm]

13. What number is that? Warren is an assassin when facing corruption.

Pretty sure that the financially corrupt, 6 bankruptcy Trump has a number that only Elizabeth Warren can twist till he chokes.

What number do you think he has?

[DemocracyMouse]

2. Go bold for democracy and we will win.

Going bold for Bloomberg, the monopolies and corporations, will not inspire the Democratic base. It'a also fundamentally against what our founders had in mind when they gave the finger to European aristocracy. Are you, in effect, pro aristocracy? That aloof, indifferent, self-serving Bloomberg expanded stop-and-frisk policing on blacks and Latin Americans, and crushed my old neighborhood in Williamsburg, Brooklyn with rezoning and tax giveaways to his rich friends in corporate real estate. Are you rich? If not, Bloomberg could care less about you.

[pnwmom]

3. If Bernie is a traditional FDR Democrat, then he should drop the false label of "socialist"

because they're not the same thing.

FDR was a very wealthy man and would never have called himself a socialist. He believed in capitalism -- a well-regulated capitalism with a safety net. Just like Elizabeth Warren and most Democrats believe in. Why Bernie is so eager to wear the label of socialist is beyond me.

Who did call themselves socialist?

The Soviet Socialist Republic (aka the Soviet Union)
The National Socialist German Worker's Party (aka, the Nazis.)

Here is a list of socialist countries. It doesn't include the Nordic countries Bernie admires, because they have capitalist systems, and their leaders are Social Democrats -- not Democratic socialists.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_socialist_states

[DemocracyMouse]

4. I hear you on the label thing.

Oddly, the label has worked in one respect: it's given Bernie a lot of press.

I agree that we get stuck in a mind-numbingly stupid "SOCIALISM" vs "CAPITALISM"....

As I've said in DU before, we need to forge the sword of "Socialism" into the "Ploughshare" of infrastructure. This should be the new diagram:

1) Situate infrastructure at the center of a circle.

2) Assemble civic economy around that.

The first catalyzes (through roads and education) and regulates the second.

[Garrett78]

5. More and more people are understanding the truth of this:

https://www.currentaffairs.org/2020/01/putting-the-nazis-were-socialist-nonsense-to-rest

[Garrett78]

6. Outsider status carries a lot of weight at this time, and Biden was always a weak frontrunner.

The electorate continues to change. The wisdom of the past is becoming unwise.

Much of what passes for conventional wisdom is rooted in a misunderstanding of so-called "independents" and "swing voters." True swing voters are much smaller in number than some suggest (the estimates that they make up 20+ percent of the voting population is absolutely nuts), and what they tend to "swing" against is the status quo or the party that's been in power (in a race against Trump, those voters are more likely to gravitate toward Sanders, because he can be viewed as more opposed to the status quo than his Dem rivals and more opposed to the status quo than the asshole who's been in the White House for the last 3 years). As for "independents," most are highly partisan but hate partisanship. They aren't middle-of-the-road or swing voters, even if they like to think of themselves that way or self-identify as such. Multiple studies have confirmed this. The average independent today is more partisan than the average party-affiliated voter of the 1970s. They're also less likely to vote than party-affiliated voters, but it's clear that many of them (and many disenchanted youth) love Sanders (while the rest of the Dem base will vote for Sanders even if they aren't wild about him). Sanders has become increasingly electable, because there's a large number of voters who either won't vote or will vote 3rd party unless Sanders is the Dem nominee. We let the socialism label scare us at our peril. Letting Bloomberg buy the nomination would be far more devastating, as many members of the base will feel alienated and turnout will be greatly suppressed.

Perceptions of who is viable/electable and who isn't are rooted in the above misunderstandings.

Lastly, this is a very important read: https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/9/9/20750160/liberalism-trump-putin-socialism-reactionary.

[DemocracyMouse]

8. Excellent points. Especially about Bloomberg suppressing turnout from younger voters

.... and Bernie Sanders increasing turnout.

I'd like to add that if Sanders gets the nomination, like all smart politicians his rhetoric will tack to the "center" and he will present his ideas as more traditional (which they actually are if you compare them to the pre-Reagan era).

[Demsrule86]

10. Wisful thinking...based on the numbers, Sander did not increase youner voters and those that came

out often voted for Buttitigieg.

[MFM008]

7. Im reserving judgement

until super Tuesday, its just to early to start demanding who drops out and who doesn't.

[Demsrule86]

9. I love Biden...but I would say that Sanders did horribly in a neigboring state...and I remain more

and more convinced he will not be the nominee...a good thing since he would lose a general...I would vote for him of course. But if it comes between Sanders and Bloomberg and it may, I vote Bloomberg without hesitation.

[uponit7771]

11. IA & NH had 4 neighbor candidates this year !!! WTF ?! People smell their own farts

... and conclude there are roses in the air

[DemocracyMouse]

12. Gross.

You are comparing a brilliant and passionate American patriot like Warren to a fart? Are you 100% sure that is the best use of our time here on DU?