How It Ended for Sanders

[RandySF]

Like Republicans’ attempts to hurt Mr. Trump during the 2016 race, Democrats’ nascent efforts to undermine Mr. Sanders never got off the ground. The few that did were largely ineffective.

There are no more smoke-filled rooms. In the end, Mr. Sanders lost the race himself.

With his devoted base of support, the question facing Mr. Sanders’s campaign was always about his ceiling — not his floor. Could he grow his following from the minority bloc that stuck with him in 2016?

After four years of preparations, more than $100 million in donations and 414 days of campaigning, the answer turned out to be no.

In many state primaries, he performed worse than he did four years ago, despite significantly higher turnout. Efforts to win over black voters, a group he struggled to woo in 2016, largely failed.

The coronavirus pandemic only deepened the challenge for Mr. Sanders, effectively freezing the primary with Mr. Biden well ahead. The question quickly became when — not if — Mr. Sanders would accept defeat.




https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/08/us/politics/how-bernie-sanders-lost.html

[DURHAM D]

1. Us Democrats are funny people.

We always care about what is in their heart.

[brush]

2. And true Dems coalesce behind a true Dem not a sometime Dem.

He never learned the strength of belonging to a party/ Sanders' big mistake was dipping in and out of the party just when he wanted to run for president. And being a socialist of course.

If he had just joined the party and stayed in he might've won our nomination, either last time or this time and he'd be the one announcing platform planks.

Of course he would've had to stop attacking the Democratic Party establishment.

Pragmatism and compromise were never his strong points though. Too bad.

[demtenjeep]

3. I agree

I like how you put it dipping in and out of the party when he wanted something.


I have long said you want to run as a D you need to be a D

[Cha]

4. "There are no more smoke-filled rooms. In the end, Mr. Sanders lost the race himself."

Tell that to jill stein.

Mahalo, RSF!

[la-trucker]

5. Make no mistake - he is still running

The "hail Mary" is hoping that in the remaining primaries, Biden voters will stay home while Sanders voters would show up and give him a lot of wins. Then he can jump back in the race. It is what they are hoping for.

[BlueLucy]

6. I don't think that's it.

I'm sure he knows there is no chance of that remotely happening.

[RandiFan1290]

8. Primary is over

Welcome back to DU

[Cha]

9. This is Post Mortem.

[Gothmog]

7. Why did Bernie Sanders drop out? The progressive majority he needed doesn't exist

There was no magical voter revolution

Link to tweet

Biden’s vision has now won out: He is the apparent Democratic nominee after Sanders suspended his campaign Wednesday following a mid-pandemic Wisconsin primary marred by vast polling site closures and a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that effectively invalidated many absentee ballots. (Sanders said Monday, given the risks to voters, his campaign would not engage in traditional efforts to get them to the polls.)….

And in particular, his decisive win over Sanders in the primary — without even campaigning in many states — further highlights the limitations of progressive politics in America, at least in winning a national campaign.

Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist, made a bad bet on the existence of a national progressive majority (as did Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., who ran as a progressive populist but dropped out after Super Tuesday). It turns out there's nothing even close.

In fact, it’s not even clear that a progressive majority exists within the Democratic Party. What does exist is a moderately center-left party with a vocal progressive element.

Sanders frequently said on the campaign trail that he was leading a “multigenerational, multiracial movement,” pledging to mobilize an army of new, young voters. But it turns out older and moderate voters are the ones that grew as a share of the Democratic primary electorate since 2016 — and they favored Biden by a wide margin.

Take the South Carolina primary on Feb. 29, which Biden won, or the 10 of 14 states he captured on Super Tuesday: In all, he appealed to the same coalitions that boosted Democrats so strongly in the 2018 midterm elections, turning out large numbers of suburban voters, while maintaining support from longstanding elements of the Democratic coalition, particularly African American voters.....

Still, with the 2020 Democratic primary process essentially over, it’s clear that the hard-core Democratic left was deluded in their assertions that they were the new Democratic majority. They are going to need a better grip on reality if they are to be successful at the national level moving forward

[Hortensis]

10. Perhaps Sanders should return to DC and become useful

now that his campaign is over. O'Donnell was just explaining that Senator Van Holland is always on call to rush to the senate to stop McConnell from pulling a fast one. I'm sure he could use some backup since McConnell is ALWAYS trying fast ones.

Sanders complains that his near three decades in congress have been a waste of time, but but he can make a difference in his remaining time by JOINING the large progressive Democratic majority.

Put the demagoguery away, Sanders, and finally start living the progressive principles you claim. Do your job: Fight FOR progressive government, not against it.

[robbedvoter]

11. That first paragraph is typical NYT. Gets better after that.

I think the “Revolution “ spent about half a billion in its two attempts to create chaos in two elections. Some day, we’ll find out the origin of most of it. Especially as in the second attempt the base was half but the $ was double. And his losses were never humiliating, only inspiring. He was never told to knit, just to keep speaking up. MSNBC promised to hire more smart Burnie people. NYT even in this article paints him as some sort of victim. Like they do with 🍊.

[Tarheel_Dem]

12. BS' problem was always going to be the Obama coalition. They were never going to support him.

Many of us have long memories, going all the way back to Obama's tenure.

[Just_Vote_Dem]

13. if Sanders had joined the Democratic party 30 years ago

and tried to change things from the inside, he might have had a better chance to achieve his goals. Instead, he wound up as an outsider gadfly who saw very few of his ideas actually take shape.