How long until Bernie quits?

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shortylickens

No Lifer
Jul 15, 2003
80,287
17,079
136
Just saw in the news Bernie has stopped all his facebook ads, and rumors increase he's dropping out.
 

ewdotson

Golden Member
Oct 30, 2011
1,295
1,520
136
SS age sometimes needs to be adjusted as life expectancy increases. Is this the pitiful anthill people are willing to die on?
I'm generally fine with Biden, but the problem with raising the social security age is that the life expectancy increases are *not* uniform across the population. Lower income workers simply don't live as long as ones that are well off. There are really good arguments to make for starting with removing the contribution cap.
 

cytg111

Lifer
Mar 17, 2008
23,993
13,519
136
For me, the problem with voting for the Green party is that there will never be 3 viable parties in the country, so it's really a symbolic vote, and that's fine, but I think it's the worst of 3 potential symbolic votes, the other two being writing in Sanders, and leaving the ballot blank for president and voting for down ballot races.

What we saw in 2016 is that everyone just added Clinton's vote totals to the Green Party vote totals and concluded that if Stein hadn't "split the vote" Clinton would have won. As hilarious as it is to watch that, they really are dumb enough to believe it, so they're not learning the right lesson. It's a similar issue with writing in Sanders, in that case the assumption is that anyone writing in Sanders is a fanatic who would never vote for anyone else anyway, and that's not really true, I'd vote for any progressive. Another problem with that is that Sanders is widely expected to endorse Biden, and at that point he's dead to me as a candidate, would never vote for him again if he betrayed his platform like that.

So that leaves the last option - not voting for president and just voting down ballot. I think this is the right way to send a message. Neither candidate is acceptable, the end. Your symbolic vote gets aggregated with principled voters of other political stripes as well, it's not like the Gary Johnson / Jill Stein thing last time.

Oh you think it cant get worse than it is now? With Trump another 4 years? Another 1-2 SC justice picks? Further eroding at the democratic barriers, separation of powers, IA's? Russification of your country etc. etc? Also, what has Ukraine done to you? They had your back as buffer to Russia, now you turn your back? Like you did with the Kurds in Syria? Over what? A hurt feeling? Shame.
 

Blackjack200

Lifer
May 28, 2007
15,995
1,686
126
Oh you think it cant get worse than it is now? With Trump another 4 years? Another 1-2 SC justice picks? Further eroding at the democratic barriers, separation of powers, IA's? Russification of your country etc. etc? Also, what has Ukraine done to you? They had your back as buffer to Russia, now you turn your back? Like you did with the Kurds in Syria? Over what? A hurt feeling? Shame.

Uh, I think it's guaranteed to get worse than it is now, barring a miraculous turnaround in the primary.
 

UNCjigga

Lifer
Dec 12, 2000
24,938
9,221
136
Just saw in the news Bernie has stopped all his facebook ads, and rumors increase he's dropping out.
He's going to suspend his campaign and recommend that states with upcoming primaries cancel in-person voting or cancel them outright with regards to coronavirus. The virus is forcing his hand.
 

VRAMdemon

Diamond Member
Aug 16, 2012
7,017
8,546
136
The virus is making him most likely to choose to suspend and wisely so...

It would be helpful if Sanders would approach Biden about having some forces join his campaign with the proviso that there are opportunities for forces loyal to Sanders to play roles in his administration. Joe and Bernie ought to work together to agree in principle in terms of having some Sanders-leaning supporters as economic advisers and even cabinet members (i.e. Labor, Treasury, or Commerce, for instance).

But if he insists on having debates and makes no efforts to cooperate with Biden, he's discouraging his supporters from voting. I expect that many, if not most of Sanders voters will support Biden, but there are a number of Sanders supporters who see him as their only hope for the future and will need to be pushed to vote. Sanders also needs to dispel the notion that Biden can't get progressive legislation passed - Sanders knows that's not true. He's just feeling bent because there was a period when it looked like his revolution would succeed and he may be having a hard time accepting that it's over.
 

nakedfrog

No Lifer
Apr 3, 2001
59,239
13,843
136
It's hard for me to imagine Bernie running again in 2024. Hopefully a younger progressive will pick up the torch.
 

Blackjack200

Lifer
May 28, 2007
15,995
1,686
126
It's hard for me to imagine Bernie running again in 2024. Hopefully a younger progressive will pick up the torch.

Only legit progressive I see with a national profile is Omar, and she's not eligible. Maybe Tlaib? Haven't looked that closely at her yet.
 

VRAMdemon

Diamond Member
Aug 16, 2012
7,017
8,546
136
The questions that should be asked is that Bernie supporters sure make a huge amount of noise on the internet. But then they apparently don't actually turn up at the voting booth.

They are mostly young, and we know that young people don't vote as much as older people. So it's easy to dismiss them with snarky comments about "kids today" , who think twitter is the real world.

It would be interesting to know how many Bernie supporters are actually out there, and how many of them voted? How many of those posts on social media are from actual human beings, not just bots? There seems to be a disconnect between the amount of passion Sanders can attract (he filled stadiums) and the low numbers of votes he actually receives.

Just speculation, and using my daughter as an example, it may be an issue of how people express particular feelings. You'll see a lot of Sanders supporters speaking about the importance of passion and emotion and energy. These are feelings you want to express through dramatic gestures, like going to a rally or a protest march or even just ranting on an online forum. But passion and emotion and energy don't move a person to fill out a registration form and mail it in and then drive down to the polling place to stand in line. The Sanders campaign has had difficulty directing the support it receives along the path where it will be most useful.
 

Bitek

Lifer
Aug 2, 2001
10,676
5,238
136
Why quit when you're running against a guy with dementia? You hold out until the bitter end hoping the guy does something that the voters can't ignore. Something that will force Biden to drop out due to health reasons and in this case, actual health reasons.

I don't know who is doing Bernie's ad buys, but if he's doing it as he's done in the past, he's already made a shit-ton off of it and there is much more to be made. Typically, 20% of the ad budget goes to whomever places the ads. In the past that has been Bernie's wife. If you ever wondered why so many people are running for the Presidency, now you know. Remember the huge field in the last election on the Republican side? This kind of bullshit is not party specific.

And it's all perfectly legal. It's a good thing to be the person making the rules.

Biden is not quitting, he'll be running against The Dotard in the fall, assuming Donald J Berder King doesn't die of CV before then.
 
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