Back in February and March, I was super-depressed about how well Bernie Sanders was doing in the early primaries and caucuses. Then Joe Biden won South Carolina and became the consensus favorite for the nomination. I was shocked by how quickly Biden wrapped things up and then I was doubly shocked by how quickly he lined up prominent endorsements. Barack Obama and Bernie Sanders endorsed Biden within the same week. The fact that Obama came out full-throated for his former VP, well, that was a no-brainer. But considering how Sanders dragged out the process in 2016, he got in super-early to quasi-endorse Biden when Biden became the consensus favorite. Was it all about “lessons learned” from 2016? Or does Bernie Sanders just like Joe Biden more than Hillary Clinton? I don’t know. But Sanders got a prime speaking slot on the first night of the virtual Democratic National Convention. Here’s his speech:
I’ve never enjoyed his speeches so I didn’t watch this. Sanders urged his supporters to back Biden, which he’s been urging since May, basically. He said, in part: “This election is the most important in the modern history of this country. In response to the unprecedented crises we face, we need an unprecedented response—a movement, like never before, of people who are prepared to stand up and fight for democracy and decency—and against greed, oligarchy, and bigotry.” Yeah but 2016 was the most important in modern history too, but… whew. I’m tired.
Also, remember how the Bernie Bros turned “Kamala is a cop” into a thing last year? Now Bernie Sanders himself is calling Kamala Harris “incredibly smart and incredibly tough” and “an asset” to Biden’s campaign. Sanders says he fully supports the Biden-Harris ticket, and that all of his supporters need to get behind the ticket. We’ll see.
Photos courtesy of Getty.
I’d rather see people like Bernie talk at the DNC than republicans. His voters were democrats but also independent voters, so we’ll see if Biden/Harris can get his independent voters to show up. But let’s not act as if the DNC is doing a great job reaching out to them. They can’t help but push the message “Don’t worry, Joe won’t go left” and it’s depressing. I don’t live in the US so it’s not really my problem, but this reminds me a lot of 2016 when Clinton tried to appeal to conservatives and it didn’t work out back then either.
What strikes me though is this – there are republicans actively working to defeat Trump like RVAT and The Lincoln Project. They don’t attack Biden but put their money and time in supporting him. Whereas I see so many former Bernie staffers and left wing people who seem to attack Biden and Dems all the time but don’t even go after Trump and the republicans. They voted/threaten to vote third party or not vote at all and encourage their followers to do so too. So how can they demand a seat in the table or try to influence a party they don’t even support or won’t even vote for?
They attack dems for trying to work with republicans because they (usually) stand for everything they’re against. I have no problem with republicans trying to get rid off Trump – but it’s not a good strategy to adapt to center right positions to appeal to them more, which is what Biden has been doing (“nothing will fundamentally change”). I understand the most important thing for everyone is to beat Trump, but what you get in exchange is just as important, so I hope Biden/Harris will do more to get people on the left (who they take for granted just like minority voters) to support them. This is my opinion as onlooker, who thought the same thing about Clinton/Kaine.
That’s an out-of-context quote. He was telling rich people that even if he raised their taxes nothing will fundamentally change for them.
As for the progressives (not all just the loud, obnoxious ones on twitter), they can hold Biden/Harris accountable when Trump is out of the office. Because all they’re doing now is sowing division and discouraging people not to vote or throw away their vote to third party. Their purity tests along with the inability to compromise and throw tantrums when their candidate loses makes them such a toxic group.
IMO, Biden has reached out and made many concessions to the progressives. That’s why Bernie, this time around, has been more enthusiastic in supporting him. Plus the Dem party is a big tent of different groups – not one group is gonna get their way 100% of the time especially if the majority of the base support moderate positions.
You know, maybe that is the core issue. The “big tent” has reached maximum capacity. So people who can’t/don’t want to get in line leave. Maybe that is necessary to break away from the two party system. Like you said, there are unhappy republicans who don’t want to vote for their party anymore either. But I guess that’s not going to happen anytime soon in the US.
I actually got curious and looked it up, 45% of Americans didn’t vote in 2016, that means that many people don’t trust in the democrats or the republicans, so maybe new parties are the future.
Many of the registered voters in 2016 couldn’t stomach voting for Hillary. Because she’s Hillary Clinton or because she’s a woman or because they thought she had it in the bag. Bernie getting less votes in certain places during the 2020 primaries basically meant In 2016 he got anti-Hillary votes rather than a vote for him. But Biden, a white man, doesn’t have that issue so he got those votes this time.
As for creating a separate party – well might be good on paper but don’t think it will translate to winning elections. Bernie, even running as a democrat, couldn’t get enough people to vote for him. His mythical youth vote never showed up. They’re super loud online but tweets don’t translate to votes as has been shown in the primaries.
So it’s really a binary choice. Either a democrat or a republican will win. Trump or Biden. No way around it.
An interesting thing to note, in 2018 you got the blue wave where moderates flipped red seats and won back the house. Hopefully they can do that with the Senate this year too.
@robin the problem with that philosophy is that it rarely works. If you look at countries that have a million different parties each with their own reps, they still have to find a way to create a coalition government to get anything done. Otherwise the government collapses. The nature of politics has always been give a little, get a little. The only time it’s not is under brutal dictatorships that rule everything with an iron fist. As Joe Biden said, which candidate/party will give you the most of what you want? Will it be the one that is filling the cabinets with corporate overlords and the judgeships with incompetent and unqualified candidates?
Not impressed. Soon as I saw him go into his old man mad face & voice, I took a bathroom break. The rest of the convention was just what I needed.
I like Bernie, but I still don’t think he grasps how crazy and cultish a lot of his supporters are. Hopefully they see this and vote for Biden, but I’m still seeing a ton of people on social media tearing down any and all Democrats (including very progressive ones) who aren’t Bernie. It really is like a cult of personality centered around Bernie Sanders. And I say this as someone who voted for him in 2 primaries.
I was a a Bernie support and I am now 100% behind Biden. I also backed him 2016 and then became an enthusiastic Hilary supporter. I think there is a small, vocal, and obnoxious group of his supporters that will never be satisfied. They’re mostly young white men, but Bernie appealed to a wide variety of people. I think most of crazies of written him off as a “sellout” at this point anyway and I don’t think there is anything he could say to change their mind.
Green leaf I strongly supported Bernie in 2016 and 2020. In 2016 I also enthusiastically voted for Clinton and will do the same for Biden in 2020. I can retain my ideological convictions while acting pragmatically. I think a lot of the die hard Sanders people are young and haven’t Yet learned that you get very little of what you want in life without some sort of compromise.
wheneight, Respectfully disagree. He and his handlers saw the crazy cult and embraced it, carrying on through this latest primary when he took so long to concede to Biden. My bottom line with him is his piss poor record through all of his terms. Lots of bloviating and colleagues reporting even when he’d show up for committees, did very little.
Most of Bernie’s supporters are reasonable and will vote for Biden but there is a subset of his voters who think he has turned his back on them and want to burn everything down and are telling people either not to vote or to vote third party/write-in-candidate.
Those are the ones that – like MAGAites – absolutely cannot be reached.
I was in Burlington, Vermont two years ago and happened to be at a restaurant where Bernie’s birthday celebration was going on. It was a private event for family, friends & employees but when the event ended and he left, he was absolutely MOBBED by energetic and enthusiastic supporters. I mean MOBBED as if he were Brad Pitt or the Pope. It was weird and a bit surreal…and I say that as someone who voted for Bernie in the 2016 primaries (and would’ve probably done the same this year had I not felt the need to support and embrace the enivibility of Biden). Seeing that cult of personality that his supporters had/have for him freaked me out. It’s great to be enthusiastic about politicians and politics in general, but there is a very fine line between enthusiasm and fanaticism. The Bernie Bros blatantly disregard that line entirely.
I voted for Bernie in 2016 because I liked his ideas. I had no idea that it would become a cult. They are almost as bad as the QAnon people. I voted for Hillary too and for Biden. The stakes are too high this time to hold grudges because your candidates didn’t win and I think only the most immature and recalcitrant would fail to realize that. I know that if Bernie was the nominee, his expectations would be that the party would fall in line and support him.
Lol, his cult members have been crying for months about how Bernie sold them out. He either doesn’t grasp how crazy his supporters are or has ignored it.
Exactly. They’re not voting for Biden. They will either write in his name like last time, or not vote at all. His supporters aren’t Democrats, and neither is he.
So far, it seems to be fewer. I don’t remember the source, but they said somewhere between 8-12% of Bernie voters in 2016 didn’t vote for Hillary, whereas so far it looks like only 2-4% isn’t going to go for Biden.
Which is still way too many people who for some reason do not see the threat that the GOP presents.
I’m gonna say some truth sorry. Sanders “gets along” better with Biden because Sanders is an old school leftist misogynist who thinks “the girls” are there to clean up after the brilliant men in the movement. literally, clean up. Do dishes. And he will not lose to a woman. He was infuriated. he has spent his life c*ckblocking women from power. Just look into his running record in Vermont. One of the first races he ever won, was against a qualified woman and he told everyone he was a better feminist than she was, which is EXACTLY what his orbit spent 2016 telling people about Hillary Clinton. #neverforgive #neverforgot #diemad
Every. Last. Word. Of. THIS !!!!
Beautifully put Darla.
darla, you nailed it. Thank you.
Thank you!
He was very tepid in his support for Hillary in 2016 which cost her. Meanwhile he is in full support of Biden. I absolutely agree with the explanation you gave.
THIS. His and his supporters actions in 2016 are part of his legacy.
Might want to double check the difference between “truth” and “opinion,” Darla.
Or it could be he learned his lesson. Bernie got a lot of shit for Hillary losing and I think it showed this time around. He has his die hard just like Trump but I think he also lost a lot of supporters too. Either way, I’m not making him an issue in this campaign, he either gets in line or he gets run over.
Preach.
Yeah whatever…..we shall see if his cult actually goes out and vote. He isn’t dependable to Democrats and Democrats need to realize it already. I really think WOC are going to save Biden ….BET
I think it’s safe to say- with the pandemic and economy and being on the brink of a civil war- that this election was probably the most important one in modern history. Every election is important, but I get why this one is so huge.
Bernie is rigid in thinking and planning. Recall his attack on Elizabeth Warren and when she confronted him he refused to speak with her. He’ll have his place in a new administration and remain a senator. I doubt he’ll be offered any role in Biden’s WH. He never shows any signs of deep felt sympathy or empathy for others. “It is what it is.” 🙂
Good job, Bernie. We need you to defeat the dictator. No joke.
I love Bernie and Liz and I’m sad neither of them won the primary (especially Liz, who was my preferred candidate). I feel less and less connected to establishment centrist Democrats but I’d still walk across hot coals for vote for Joe this November and a lot of my friends who supported Bernie feel the same way because I’ve talked to them about it. I’m volunteering to be a digital organizer for Biden, too. I don’t care that my preferred candidates didn’t win the primary. I want a president who will restore dignity to this nation and repair our international alliances, and I know Biden can do that. The Democratic party always has a harder time because it has to pull together a big-tent coalition whereas the Republicans just focus on wooing white men who are insecure about their masculinity and are racist, and to a lesser extent the Karens who lock their car doors when a Black man crosses the street in front of them. They can have a more targeted message which is a strategic advantage in campaigns. Meanwhile Democrats have to persuade people from lots of different backgrounds who hold a wide variety of policy stances, like the Bernie people AND the moderates. It’s a hard job and involving Bernie is a smart step because of the big-tent coalition thing.
I’m a Warren supporter, too. My hope is that she gets something juicy in the Biden administration, hopefully to draw blood from the traitors in the GOP.
But I am ALL IN on the Democratic ticket.
I don’t like Biden or Harris much. I would have preferred Bernie. But I’ll vote for them, obviously.
I thought Bernie gave a good, unifying speech. Many of his supporters (not all but enough) seem to think they are “too pure” to vote for Biden and I just can’t with that kind of entitled privileged crowd. We literally have to settle to some degree with jobs, homes, relationships, etc but these bro’s can’t vote for someone they deem less than perfect? Do they also refuse to date anyone who isn’t a brainiac supermodel or have they realized reality is different than expectations sometimes. I hope his Bernie bro diehards are listening and get over themselves and vote for Biden/Harris.
I still love Bernie. Ever since I saw the images of college aged Bernie protesting at the civil rights march in the 1960s and being arrested, and his love for Martin Luther King, we really missed out on a good man.
Biden is trying to appeal more than just progressives. What’s wrong with that exactly? By the way, if you vote or write-in anyone other than Biden, you are a Trump supporter. You aren’t progressive, you aren’t cool, you aren’t standing up for what is right. You are voting for four more years of chaos, death, and division. I love Bernie Sanders and voted for him in the primary. Now it is time to be an adult and move on. Let’s get Biden elected and be done with this fucking nightmare once and for all.