A better idea than Sanders's far-fetched electability argument

[Gothmog]

Where is sanders' magical voter revolution? How will sanders get his agenda adoptied without this magical voter revolution

Link to tweet

“Have we been as successful as I would hope in bringing young people in? And the answer is no,” Sanders said. “We’re making some progress. But historically everybody knows that younger people do not vote in the kind of numbers that older people vote in. I think that will change in the general election.”

So he has alienated moderates in his own party (including African Americans, whose massive support for former vice president Joe Biden he ignores, preferring to attribute Biden’s success to “corporate Democrats”), and has an even worse shot attracting — and is off-putting to — the sort of suburban women who helped deliver the House majority to Democrats in 2018. But don’t worry, young people will make up for all that! Democrats are supposed to take on faith that the people Sanders needs to make up for those he has given up on and those who have not yet appeared will save the party in November.

Democrats need not accept this preposterous bet, and on Super Tuesday did not. It surely makes more sense to bet on the voters who actually did show up in droves just as they did in 2018. (Consider what happened in Texas: “With unwavering support from black voters in the cities and a surge in the suburbs, Mr. Biden notched his most significant win of the primary calendar here … netting him a large and unexpected share of Texas’s 228 pledged delegates.”

The Sanders strategy — if you vote for me, they will come — is so ludicrous that Sanders is not trying to smooth over the rough edges he has spent a lifetime.

[George II]

1. His voter revolution is dependent upon the youth vote.

[Cha]

2. GO JOE BIDEN! & HILLARY!..

Link to tweet

[William769]

3. I wish we could post that video.

"He has the experience. He knows what needs to be done, he can repair the damage that he would be inheriting, so I think that is what was going on in people’s minds" as Joe Biden won every state but 3 on Super Tuesday."

[Cha]

5. I'm about to post this tweet as an OP..

this laptop windows10 Edge won't let me post Vids or pics. I know weird.

But tweets are fine!

[DanTex]

4. Jennifer Rubin is a right-winger who accused Obama of siding with the "Muslim World" over the US.

I have no idea why any Dem would listen to anything Jennifer Rubin says.

[ehrnst]

7. Because what she says actually makes sense, and she's capable of change...

unlike some public figures.

[DanTex]

9. LOL. You think she's changed?

[Demsrule86]

10. The never Trumpers have changed and for the better I think.

[ehrnst]

11. Well, since I read the post, I have more insight into that than you do.

That's rich from someone who puts faith in Jacobin... which displays more hatred for the Democratic Party than Rubin is.

[uponit7771]

13. Some republicans have experienced a shock even with Trump ... no joke. Some are woke now

[LanternWaste]

12. You don't find it in the least bit ironic your charge?

I have no idea why any Dem would link to so many of the authors you yourself do on a daily basis.

But I get it... when convenient, indict others for the same practice we ourselves do consistently. Holding others to a higher standard than we hold ourselves to is a go-to tactic you employ with both rapidity and consistency.

[dware]

6. Hey, it worked for Kevin Costner.

[Demsrule86]

8. +1000000 K&R

Great article and very true.

[Gothmog]

14. From day 1, Bernie built a campaign to appeal to 30%

Link to tweet

So if, from day one, they didn’t think they needed more than 30%, why would they actually run a campaign and build a culture designed to win more than his 30% ceiling? As that article notes, even way back in early 2019, Sanders was picking fights and creating enemies out of potential allies.

We saw that in Sanders’ refusal to broaden his message to bring in more people. When I said exactly that on Meet the Press, that “the problem with Bernie Sanders is that he has the exact same message he had four years ago” when he lost to Hillary Clinton 60-40, the response from the Sanders campaign was, well, this:

Link to tweet

If your message wasn’t a majority message four years ago, and you want to win, wouldn’t you tweak it? They didn’t. Proudly and explicitly did not tweak it. They had zero intention of growing new support by broadening and expanding their message. (Sanders famously refused to even inject more biography into his stump speech to humanize him more.)

Sanders and his campaign saw that their ceiling was 30%, and they built an entire strategy around winning with 30%. That means that instead of seeing the other 70% of voters as allies, they saw them as THE ENEMY. Even when there was ideological alignment.