Yesterday, Bernie Sanders finally suspended his campaign. It’s been clear since early March that Sanders didn’t have a real path to the nomination, no matter what his minions and bros claimed. So, Joe Biden is our de facto nominee. I didn’t vote for Biden in the Virginia primary, I voted for Elizabeth Warren, and I didn’t support Biden early in the primary in 2019, I supported Kamala Harris. But even I got on board the No More Malarkey train a while back. Basically, as soon as the South Carolina primary was called, it was clear that Democratic voters were “coming home” to Biden, someone they have trusted for many years. Do I think Biden is the best possible option? Of course not. The best possible option would have been Harris or Warren. But the Bernie Bros smeared the f–k out of Kamala early and often, and Warren was ignored for months by the male-led media and political commentariat. So this is where we are.
Personally, I remain angry at Sanders and his toxic followers and I’m not going to forgive them anytime soon. Two months ago, they demanded that everyone kiss the ring and anoint Sanders. Now that the Sanders campaign crashed and burned under their own mismanagement and toxicity, they’re demanding that Biden “earn their vote” and demanding that Sanders “push Biden further left.” These are the same people blanketing social media and every comment section to smear Biden, just like they smeared Warren and Harris. I don’t know, maybe I’m getting too old, but I really hope the Democratic establishment truly ignores all of these motherf–kers who are attempting to hold the election hostage? Especially since they have historically been the loudest, most aggressive and most misogynistic “activists” around? Still, Biden tried to go for a conciliatory, ass-kissing energy to the Bros:
I know Bernie well. He’s a good man, a great leader, and one of the most powerful voices for change in our country. And it’s hard to sum up his contributions to our politics in one, single tweet. So I won’t try to. https://t.co/Z6OkCDWFNm
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) April 8, 2020
And to Bernie’s supporters: I know that I need to earn your votes. And I know that might take time. But I want you to know that I see you, I hear you, and I understand the urgency of this moment. I hope you'll join us. You're more than welcome: You're needed.
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) April 8, 2020
If you’d like to know what kind of energy the Bros are bringing to Biden’s gracious attempts to bring people into the big tent, just click on any of those tweets and read the responses. There’s a fundamental problem in this country: too many people do not understand how political processes work. They honestly thought that King Bernie could wave a wand and bring Medicare-for-all and now Joe Biden is the reason why that won’t happen. Meanwhile, Mitch McConnell is packing every court with 30-year-old Fox News contributors and I just can’t.
Additionally, there are still people fretting over how little attention Biden has gotten during the pandemic. The thing is, Biden has been in a difficult place politically in the past month – unable to hold rallies or any public events and unable to properly attack Trump because Bernie Sanders was still in the race, and Sanders’ goons were still attacking Biden over everything. Now with Sanders out, Biden gets to direct all of his energy towards Trump. And not only that, with Sanders out, we’ll now get a vice-president announcement AND high-profile surrogates. Barack Obama, Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, John Lewis, Jim Clyburn, the Clintons, and more. They’ll all be endorsing Biden and working as surrogates for his campaign in the coming weeks and months. Something to look forward to.
Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Avalon Red and WENN.
That actually is a pretty great statement.
Vote like your lives depend on it, because they DO.
Who’s the running mate going to be?
I hope the bro’s calm down and come to their senses in the next few months. We are all supposed to be on one side. I personally don’t think they are as powerful as they think they are.
And this time they don’t have a woman to blame – so likely they won’t be AS vicious.
I’m glad he’s being conciliatory to Bernie Bros. It’s smart. I hope he holds his nose and speaks to Republican voters in a warm and gracious manner as well.
It may be satisfying to ignore or insult these people but it’s not the way to win votes. At the end of the day the most important thing is getting Trump out of the White House.
The Lincoln Project, a collection of fairly high powered Never Trumper Republicans, endorsed Biden yesterday. And they’ve done some very good anti-trump ads, also. Hopefully, many more moderate Rs who could never bring themselves to vote for a Democratic Socialist will go for Joe.
Bernie ‘dropped out’ but is saying he’s going to stay on the dnc ballot and continue to accumulate delegates in order to influence the convention. “The struggle continues”
No endorsement. No call for unity. And that’s reflected in the behavior of his people. Trumps actions are literally killing people daily. Literally putting kids in cages daily. You can miss me with ‘earn’ my vote. If 4 more years of Trump doesn’t motivate you now that we are down to the final two then I have nothing for you. This isn’t the primary anymore-this is prime time.
Yesterday, on our local Progressive FB page, a guy asked the following, “Now that Bernie is out can anyone explain to me why I should vote, since I’d only be voting against trump and not really for Biden?” He was taken to task with some intelligent responses. I didn’t respond because if I had, it would be something like WTF, you dumb POS!!
A gracious and eloquent statement. I saw mixed reactions from the Bernies yesterday. Some were accepting, just hoping that their issues would be addressed. Others weren’t sure what to do. Others switched to Trump. It was pretty evenly split.
ETA and, of course, Trump had to jump in and blame Warren because a smart woman is always responsible
First, we all know I loathe Bernie. He is an empty suit & always has been. His supporters are worse. (Had to nerve to go after John Lewis? Get his name out of your nasty mouths) Mainly because of their “purity politics” stance, As if that has ever been a successful strategy in the world of negotiation which is sadly what politics have evolved to. stance. (It delivered to SCOTUS the likes of Gorsuch & Kavanaugh)
Biden is a good man. His speech & his campaign has the same tone, a return to decency. He wasn’t my first or second choice. (Pete & Elizabeth) I DO believe he will right the ship & is surrounding himself with the voices of the future (Pete, Kamala, Cory, Yang, Amy) & whether it’s palatable or not he has GOP friends in the senate & House. Those things will truly matter to dig us out of the sh&t pile Trump has buried us in.
When Bernie announced he was suspending his campaign (yes that means he can still take your money) yesterday (something he didn’t do for HRC because misogyny) my first thought was “Release the Obama” I can only imagine how terrified the Orange Buffoon must be at this moment. He always feared Biden which is why he was violating the Constitution to get dirt on him. Now he will have to see Obama in all his eloquence talk about how truly bad a president he has been.
I hope all of Trump’s nightmares (of him facing the music & going straight to jail) come true in vivid breathing technicolor nightmares. Of course I have alway said I would vote for Satan sailing in on his catamaran (even though I think Satan more of a pontoon boat man) if it meant getting Trump out of office.
I think it will be Biden/Harris & that gives me a little hope in this time of terror. Everyone stay safe & vote the monsters out
Well said. I can’t wait for the Obamas to launch a full on offensive in support of Biden. As for Sanders and his followers, they can pound sand. I’m not worried in the least bit about them and their threats. If their supports would get out and vote, they could have won the nomination for him. Instead they’d rather harass and abuse Democrats online and off.
I think it’s extremely telling the Obamas haven’t endorsed Biden yet. His lead has been cemented for a while now.
I think there is a non-zero possibility Biden will likely be swapped out at the convention, with his declining state cited as the reason. I think the Obamas are going to play this very cautiously and wait until this possibility is confirmed either way.
Bernie is incapable of supporting anyone other than Bernie. He needs to be ignored until he fades away, and I believe he will a lot faster than many are deluded into thinking. Too much happening. By summer will anyone other than russian trolls, gop trolls, and a few bitter women-hating dead enders care? Nah.
Joe affiliates, builds consensus, Bernie does not. I do foresee Joe building a strong administration with not only the best people but 50% female.
Problem is that Regan figured out how to win the undying loyalty of the far right for the Republican Party. There is a far left, for whom economic justice is paramount. The democrats have stayed firmly in the center on economic issues and never brought the far left in permanently. The party is fractured because of that. Obama bailing out banks but not average workers did not help. Joe telling billionaires their standard of living won’t go down is not helping. And we know that they have to operate under the conditions that do exist not conditions we wish existed. But that’s cold comfort for struggling people. I can accept it because I’m doing well. Democrats have been able to win a 4 national elections since Regan by appealing to centrist republicans and independents. That is getting harder and harder as political identity is becoming more entrenched. If the Democrats don’t become a big tent on economic issues like they are on social issues I don’t see them fairing well. A real living wage, worker and labor protection, access to healthcare, education, and housing have to be front and center on the platform. And if the far left would really look at Biden’s platform they’d see things they would like. Both sides have to come together with one another before the centrist wing starts talking about courting Republicans.
I totally agree. You would think with Covid-19, that Americans would see their current system is failing them and it would be an easier sell but atlas it is not. Furthermore, the bailout unanimously approved by congress is mostly a corporate bailout and doesn’t help the people or the front-line employees.
I strongly agree with two things you mentioned:
@Aang said – Obama bailing out banks but not average workers did not help.
@Chelle says – IMHO, people were looking for a hero. Needed a hero around this issue. They didn’t feel—and that’s the key word—a strongman’s presence with how the Obama Administration settled things. Yes, Obama and his administration stopped the nosebleed but people needed a sense of protection and revenge, a little scorched earth. They needed the imagery and feeling of strong father but they didn’t get that and they needed that, which in some ways is the politics of politics. I hate to say it but Trump fills this voids very well for his people. Of course, this is just one aspect of what people need—this type of grandstanding, but Trump’s show of strength 🙄 is partly what endears his folks to him.
@Aang mentioned – factions within the Democratic Party.
@Chelle says – I totally agree with you here as well. The party seriously needs to begin work (like 5 – 8 years ago work) to unite it. There is such a huge chasm between the left, the center left, and the center right from everything from social justice and civil rights to fiscal issues. It’s great to be a part of a diverse and robust party that has room for nearly everyone but conversations or something needs to be held to reconcile the views and needs of its voters. The folks at the fiscally progressive end of the party are definitely getting tired of the fiscal right side of the party (the corporate wing and fiscal conservatives) dictating demanding the left side’s obedience. Wins in the social sphere will no longer appease and satisfy. What Bernie has been good at—but not great at—is shining a light on the needs of blue color and service industry workers and reminding folks that there are class differences within the party. We should be able to see it now more clearly with who gets to stay at home during COVID19 with pay and/or work from home with pay versus who has to go to work and who has been laid off (in most instances). Anyway, anyway. None of that is to say that
the fiscally progressive left should gobble the party whole but simply to say that there needs to be a reckoning because the Democratic Party won’t always have a god awful character like Trump who will almost force us to put our differences aside and to work in unity toward his/her defeat.
Peace.
if economic justice truly was paramount to the far left, they would have pushed Bernie to use all that capitol he had in working with Clinton and to do everything in their power to prevent a Trump presidency, especially after seeing the game McConnell/the senate was playing with judicial nominees (SCOTUS, in particular).
I got into it with a few of them when they were attacking Warren because she dared to adjust her position on M4A (in my view, in order to make it more palpable to the genera public and realistic to achieve). It’s really disappointing that some of the bros would prefer ongoing chaos of Trump to the more moderate policies of Biden. I hope their friends and family can bring them around by November.
Joe is a class act. Michelle Obama will be campaigning for him too hopefully. I just love her.
As for the toxic Berniebros (not all but the really nasty ones), they’ve never been gracious in winning (first couple of primaries) and even less so in defeat. Some of them are no better than the MAGA voters
I’m almost out of hope on this.
The number of people I saw who were just like “F*ck it, now I’m not voting, I hate Biden and I don’t owe anyone my vote” was just depressing as hell. I get it – he’s not my first vote either. He is an establishment Democrat, he’s old, and he’s got a rape allegation made against him. It is a really big, bitter pill to swallow. The thought of having to ask survivors of sexual abuse to case a vote for this man makes me sick to my stomach.
But, this is it. This is our absolute last stand and unfortunately, this is what we have to play with. Four more years of 45 running around loose will see the end of every kind of social program, every kind of environmental control, every remaining bit of financial oversight – basically anything he hasn’t already gutted and we will see poverty, death and violence on a scale most of us have never witnessed and there will be nothing to be done because he will have completely stacked the courts to ensure it. This country will be a smoking ruin. And he doesn’t care if he’s sitting on a throne of bones because all he cares about is being at the top imposing his will. How people can be cavalier about this, I don’t know.
The one thing we have going with Biden is that he knows he has to play ball. He knows that he and the rest of the establishment Democrats are rapidly aging out and they HAVE to revive the party or it will be stone dead after the next election. The GOP isn’t worried because they have been steadily welcoming and grooming every fringe lunatic they can get their hands on because it all works in their favor. The left needs to get over the obsession with purity tests and make believe moral high ground and shooting each other in the face in order to win the most self righteous award. Because this is it.
This is a great post. I just do not think Biden is up to any of the challenges you’ve discussed here. He’s just not a good candidate and cannot seem to hold it together during public appearances. This is just bad and I’m very worried.
The people who said they wouldn’t vote for Biden didn’t for for Bernie. I’m sick of the bro’s saying That all hope is lost because Biden can’t beat Trump. My question to them is how was Bernard going to beat tRump of he couldn’t beat Clinton or Biden?
The bro’s were always attacking other Democrats but never Trump, makes you wonder. They are no different than the deplorable trumpsters.
Saying the fix was in because the DNC wanted a democrat; well Bernard is not a democrat. He attacks democrats and wonders why the party doesn’t want him to be their nominee.
He wasn’t going to get them free anything with out the support of at least one party, while he’s screaming burning down both parties. I’m glad he’s gone, he needs to retire for good.
I just don’t understand people. Is Biden the dream candidate we all wanted, especially with a such a large field of interesting candidates? Absolutely not. But he’ll do a good enough job and what needs to happen is everyone needs to get in line no matter who we originally supported or we are getting another 4 years of Trump. I don’t understand why Bernie’s supporters don’t get it. Do they WANT another 4 years of Trump? Just to prove some kind of point?
Ummm, I’m not a bro and I personally preferred Bernie. I never attack people on their views nor platforms, because I’m a grown adult. But if Biden is the Dem nom, then I’m their for him. And I also was not a die-hard Bernie fan, nor am I some young pup in my 20’s.
I like Bernie and I do think he helped push the dem agenda farther left which is good IMO. However his supporters seem so out of touch with reality. They seem to think that there is some conspiracy that Bernie did not get the nomination but he just couldn’t bring out the votes- that’s how democracy works! And he’s not even a Democrat, he just runs as one every four years. And I fail to see how someone Who has been a senator for 30 years is somehow antiestablishment. Joe isn’t my favorite choice but I’m 100 percent backing him. I cannot even imagine the privilege these Bernie Bros have to throw A fit and sit out the election because their perfect candidate did not get elected and risk another four years with the president Cheeto.
I’m very concerned about the battle for mail in votes. Donald Trump doesn’t want it because, as he said, he wins when fewer people vote. Now it’s up to the 50 states to decide whether to have mail-ins. So on a state by state basis, they will decide. This is unsatisfactory. Again, contact your Congressmen and women (House and Senate) to demand mail- in voting be added to the next Coronavirus recovery bill. We cannot have this demented loser again. Just do it!
I believe that the majority of Bernie supporters will turn out and vote for Joe, because they did so for Hillary. These are real people who believe in policies that will help our country live up to our ideals. We should not confuse these fellow travellers with the thousands of shadowy online figures who are pushing a divisive and destructive narrative. In fact, an alarming number of agitators are most likely just bot swarms sponsored by hostile foreign powers. It’s a waste of time to engage with them. Mueller had evidence of this in the 2016 election:
“The Russians ‘engaged in operations primarily intended to communicate derogatory information about Hillary Clinton, to denigrate other candidates such as Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, and to support Bernie Sanders and then-candidate Donald Trump,’ according to the indictment.”
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2018/02/17/indictment-russians-also-tried-help-bernie-sanders-jill-stein-presidential-campaigns/348051002/
Biden will have to work hard to get out the vote among young people. Bernie claimed that they were his people and they didn’t come out in the numbers he said they would, so I’m not saying he was GREAT at that, but Biden isn’t any better. I’m 26 and I don’t know a single person in my age group (22-34ish) who’s happy about Biden being the presumptive nominee. (Warren was my candidate; the people I’m close with are all Warren/Bernie supporters). I believe he is decent and honorable, and I trust him. He would bring back competent governance, he would do something to restore our standing in the world. But in order to create the turnout required to win the election, he will have to capture the hearts of young people, and he’s just not that good at that.
I also bristle at the characterization that Bernie’s supporters are a monolith. There IS a toxic faction that is very bad. I won’t make excuses for any of those people. However there are also lots of normal people–my coworkers, my friends, our parents–who were Bernie supporters who were genuinely enthusiastic, not combative or angry. I supported Warren, but I never once felt attacked by my friends who supported Bernie, even if we disagreed on policy issues. It’s very frustrating as a young person to see the party return to the establishment center. Obama didn’t win in ’08 by espousing ‘business as usual.’ He promised radical change, he promised hope, he promised a better world. Even if he turned out to be more centrist than he said he would be (largely because of the dysfunction within the legislative branch), the promise of a changed nation was SO motivating to us. Because the status quo isn’t working for my generation and the Gen Z-ers, who are the most diverse generation in the nation’s history: mired in trillions of dollars of student debt, unable to start families or buy houses because of the prohibitive costs of living and stagnant wages, less than half as likely to have health insurance as our parents’ generation, facing the existential threat of climate change. Now we are facing an economic depression (the second one for older millennials) at formative stages of our careers. I believe Biden will restore the government, if elected. I believe he will repair some of the damage. I believe he will act with honor. I do not believe he will promote a progressive agenda that addresses all of these problems. Of course I’ll vote for him, because the alternative is intolerable! But it is very disappointing as a young person for it to come to this.