Is it my imagination, or has the entire 2020 Presidential primary season just been one big...

[Sloumeau]

Last edited Mon Feb 17, 2020, 08:36 PM - Edit history (1)

purity test?

First, we had Senator Elizabeth Warren and Senator Bernie Sanders apparently make an alliance not to attack each other. This meant that they could stand together on Socialist and almost Socialist mountain and take potshots at everyone else for not being Lefty and Progressive enough. So, Liz and Bernie said that no one should take any corporate money ever. Perhaps one of the reasons that they keep insisting on this is because they were so far left that they knew that few corporations will actually want to give them much money and perhaps they were hoping to get everyone else to get into the same boat that they were in.

So, starting with last summer, we lost 20 candidates one by one, for one reason or another:

--Eric Swalwell said older people should get out of the way, so he's guilty of ageism.
--Former Senator Mike Gravel was too Moderate.
--Governor John Hickenlooper wasn't Lefty enough.
--Governor Jay Inslee was too Moderate.
--U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton was too far to the Right.

--Gillibrand pushed for Franken to resign, so she had to go.
--Former NYC Mayor Bill De Blasio wasn't Lefty enough.
--U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan was too Moderate.
--Castro accused Beto of actually not wanting to scrap the entire immigration system and just let people in, so Beto was not pure enough.
--Mayor Wayne Messam never made it to any debate, so he was toast.

--Former Congressperson Joe Sestak was too Moderate.
--Governor Steve Bullock wasn't Progressive enough.
--Senator Kamala Harris actually put Black people to jail when she was a prosecutor, so that, of course, made her not pure enough.
--Julian Castro had color, but was not a woman, so adios Castro.
--Marianne Williamson just was never going to fly.

--Senator Cory Booker had color but was not a woman and was not Lefty enough, so goodbye Cory.
--Former U.S. Rep John Delaney was too Moderate.
--Senator Michael Bennet was too Moderate.
--Andrew Yang had color and some wealth, but was not a woman, did not have enough wealth, and was not Lefty enough, so goodbye to the Yang Gang.
--Former Governor Deval Patrick had color, but he worked for Bain, so he was history.

As for the remaining eight candidates that are still running?

--U.S. Rep Tulsi Gabbard is too far to the Right to win.
--Tom Steyer has enough money to stay in as long as he likes, but he is not a woman, not a person of color, and not super Lefty, so he probably won't win.
--Senator Amy Klobuchar is a Moderate, so she's probably going to be toast eventually.
--Warren is a woman and Lefty, but not as Lefty as Senator Bernie Sanders, so she's will probably eventually go away as well.
--Former Mayor Pete Buttigieg has that whole black cop thing, so he's probably going away in the next month or two.

This leaves Joe Biden, Michael Bloomberg, and Senator Bernie Sanders. Joe Biden still has a chance, but he's been beaten up over and over again for his age, for being a Moderate, for not being a Person Of Color, and for being male. I'm still hoping for Joe.

Bloomberg is only doing as well as he is because he is massively rich and used his money to buy a whole lot of commercials and to set up a lot of people across the country for a huge ground game. He can stay in the race as long as he likes, but he also has massive baggage related to race, sexual harassment, and other things.

Finally, we have Bernie Sanders. He's the candidate who is oh so pure because he's actually a Socialist. Here's the problem with a candidate so "pure" and so far to the left. Out of the 435 members of the U.S. House of Representatives, only *three* are Democratic Socialists. This means that DSA Reps represent about seven-tenths of a percent of the entire House of Representatives. You can check this out at the link below:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Democratic_Socialists_of_America_members_who_have_held_office_in_the_United_States]

In the U.S. Senate, the only Socialist that I know about is Bernie Sanders. That means he represents one percent of the hundred member Senate. That is how popular Socialists and Democratic Socialists are in America--around one percent.

Also, all of the districts that these DSA Reps live in are *super blue*. In other words, if a district is not super lopsided with Democrats, DSA Reps do not get elected. Bernie Sanders is in a super blue state. That's how he got elected.

Democrats had a slight advantage in the 2016 Presidential election over Republicans--around 2-4 percent, depending upon how you measure things. But those DSA Reps and Bernie Sanders got elected in places where Democrats have from a 20 to 60 point advantage over Republicans. That is the only place in America where DSA Reps and Socialist Senators get elected. America as a country certainly does not have a 20 to 60 point advantage of Democrats over Republicans.

This is what happens when you insist on so much purity that you end up with a guy leading the Primaries in votes that is so far to the left that he almost falls off the scoreboard. Before the current crop of Socialists that hold national office, including both Bernie Sanders in the Senate and the three DSA members in the House, there were only four DSA members to be members of the U.S. House of Representatives since 1965. That is how hard it is for Socialists to achieve national office in America. Also, they were only able to do this by being in very, very blue districts. America is not even close to that Blue.

If it comes down to Bernie Sanders versus Trump, by all means vote for Bernie. However, those people who are not Democrats who want to make some money at the betting pools may very well be betting on Trump. No one as far Left as Bernie Sanders has ever been elected President or has even gotten the Democratic nomination. And the fact the Socialists only have a national penetration of about one percent, and then only in the bluest of districts or states, explains why I keep reading articles about how much Republicans want Bernie Sanders to be the nominee. For Bernie Sanders to win the Presidency would defy the election history of the United States since it became a country.

Donald Trump is a weak President. I believe that all we need to do to beat him is to run someone pretty darn normal. Bernie Sanders' positions, being so far from the center, are the least "normal" of any of the 28 Presidential candidates we have had (with the possible exception of Marianne Williamson).

I like Bernie Sanders just fine, and if I could snap my finges and replace Trump with Bernie, I would be more than happy with that. However, I don't like his chances if he's the nominee at all. As far as I am concerned, if Bernie Sanders wins the nomination, I will be sure to vote for him, but the race will already be over. Trump will have already won, and we Democrats will have done this to ourselves by always looking for the purest of pure candidates, and always thinking that almost every candidate was never pure enough.

[FailureToCommunicate]

1. This all sounds reasonable.