Maybe Warren supporters don't want Bernie for president.

I voted for Warren (before super tuesday).
Biden is one if the few Dem candidates I did not give money to.
But if it's Biden, so be it. At this point, I'd vote for Romney if he could defeat Trump.
One of the hardest lessons for Seattleites (and west coast liberals in general) to learn, is that the rest of the country is just not like the west coast. It just isn't.
And if Biden is the nominee, he would do well to pick one of the Castro brothers as VP.

Dudes!
Where have you Been?!

Progressives Gotta Rally
Have we any fucking Leaders out there
ready to Fucking LEAD?

Let's hear it.

Sure, go ahead. Vote for Bernie. But most of the nation rejects his divisive socialist agenda, and your vote will be for naught. Bernie talks a great game but consistently delivers nothing. Go ahead and vote for him if it makes you feel relevant. But, it won't matter now.

"Senator Sanders earned endorsements
from fierce women of color... "

Precisely whattf we Need
Ferocity. Repubs got it in Spades.

And they're not at all about to hand back power -- Medicare for all, address Climate Change, Erase student Debt, even consider early childhood education and daycare, etc etc etc without a fucking Fight.

And the Country's about to experience the Worst Shutdown in my long lifetime; millions sick, tens of millions barely employed. If not Now, when?

Perhaps it's time we Bring It.

You don't Get it, Swifty.

Bernie's ALREADY Won.

Look at all the things that were 'Revolutionary' four short yesrs ago. Now part of every Dem's repertoire in varying degrees -- well, less varied now, with two olde White guys standing, but even Biden's now calling for shit he fought against a short while back.

But, and perhaps I'm wrong, Mr. Infallible, but of the two, Biden seems the most likely to cave.

Besides, a Biden presidency is highly unlikely to elict the crucial Enthusiasm required to Ditch Moscow Mitch and his far right majority, perhaps giving a social Democracy an Opportunity to Thrive -- along with US.

Not Bernie -- US.

Hey, Senators Nguyen and Lovelett -- the water's fine.

Please -- feel Free
to join the Fray
Hop on in!
Thanks!

@6 I don't care if Biden elicits the "crucial enthusiasm required to ditch Moscow Mitch." I care that Trump is no longer in charge and his tiny hands nowhere near the levers of power. That's what most of the voters on Super Tuesday care about.

I do hope Biden caves on your vision of social democracy. He is unlikely to get much through the Senate in any case, even if the Democrats take it.

I voted for Elizabeth, but screwed up and sent my ballot in early. If I had the chance to get my vote back I would change it to Biden. I think Bernie supporters really underestimate the animus many Warren supporters feel towards Bernie. Hell, watch the Rachel Maddow interview with Elizabeth and you'll see that Elizabeth herself feels that way! I hope she supports neither candidate and I hope WA goes to Biden!

"I do hope Biden caves on your vision of social democracy."

Now there's a Shocker.

Fuck them 87,000,000 un- and underinsured
in a fucking Pandemic, no less.

Fuck daycare that lets Parents go to work.

Fuck removing Student Debt that's Crippling
a generation or two.

Got it -- You got yours.
Okay -- go Buh-Bye 'den.

@4, great argument. If your vote doesn’t matter, then no harm in voting how you want. The antidote to non-electability is to elect them. See how that works?

8 - Indeed. Here's that interview:

https://youtu.be/gmiaNwnSw68?t=712

Bernie is a Ralph Nader on steroids.
Dream on Bernie Brothers, the fact that young people did not show up in significant numbers in 2010, 2014 and 2016 has ushered in very dark times in our Country. It’s going to take a least a generation to get back to where we were.
A Biden-Warren ticket would be the best possible solution to 2020. We have to win back the Presidency and the Senate to even begin to push for progressive measures.

Stop demanding a full loaf or nothing and pouting/whining and staying home. Stand up and ge counted, it’s a long process that demands patience and moral strength. It you’re future, stop setting yourself for failure.

@9 You got one out of three right. Fuck removing student debt. Nobody held a gun to your head to borrow that money for your worthless sociology degree. I paid for my education through military service and studying at night in my copious free time.

I'm all for Obamacare and daycare assistance. Women have enough problems without listening to Bernie bros telling them how to live their lives.

@14 People can't engage in normal patterns of family formation while bearing all that debt. If you're willing to write off an entire generation out of spite over "useless sociology degrees", well, that's a theory of justice, I suppose. Better luck next life, kids.

Its only money. If we can afford to fritter away a couple trillion dollars on killing Iraqis and Afghani peasants, we can surely find the cash to give these people some relief after they got ripped off by a predatory education industry.

After WWII, we spent lots and lots of Capital investing in Educating our returning Veterans -- and, Ms 'Pragmatic' we got back SEVEN DOLLARS for every Dollar invested in Educating them.

If we choose to Not Invest in our Future
this Country's got damn little point and
we'll be laughed at Planet-wide like
trump and Deservedly so.

'Kids' these day got Tens and Hundreds of Thousands of student debt for what used to be FREE or very nearly so.

Can they start families like that? Please.

Can they start Businesses like that? Highly Unlikely.

And now that Corporate America has Capitalized Education when we rule Educating our Future we do so at. our. Peril.

Where's my Senators?
Join in anytime you wanna.

Edited: And now that Corporate America has Capitalized (made a Killing) on Education, when we rule out, by (lack of) Income, Educating our Future, we do so at. our. Peril.

Education is what you make of it. Beauty is as beauty does. I'm not unreasonable. Help can be made available, but you have to give back. Like doctors do when they serve in rural areas or soldiers do when they serve at peril of life, limb, and any kind of future at all.

But, it's not "only money." It's the life and toil of everyone who made that money.

"Stop demanding a full loaf or nothing and pouting/whining and staying home." --@Ed

Bernie's GOTTA Negotiate. He knows that; Hell I thought everyone knew that. But, unlike Biden, who'll be right of Center, even before he begins, Bernie's gonna Negotiate from the Left.

This 'Democratic' appeasement/caving -- BEFORE THE NEGOTIATIONS EVEN BEGIN Bull Shite's gotta Be Over. Look wheretf it's gotten us.

We have about ONE fucking Chance remaining to make a 'Sea Change' -- a Shift, the Fuck away from Corporate Rule -- Fascism.

You seriously don't. want. it?

Nope, this Warren supporter will not rally around Sanders. I will not support the shouty, scorched earth candidate and I am sick of the my way or the highway attitude. Basically, I am very tired of the bullying. I don't like it in republicans why in gods name would I want it in a democrat?

Having a good list of positions is only good if they can be achieved and it is clear Sanders can not create a coalition to achieve anything. His best thing is pointing and shouting "x" sucks without creating a realistic plan to solve "x".

@19 -- TOTALLY concur.

Tuition-free college would have been better said; I think most of our Problem is the not giving back -- we should require our Citizens two years of (some type of) Service; it'd go a Long ways in teaching Value.

Repubs have been Shouting Down Dems for fucking Decades. It's time WE had us a Shouter.

Bernie WILL stand up -- for US.

Biden? meh; perhaps but
his Record indicates otherwise.

@21 -- are you a Biden-or-NO-one?

Go Bernie!

@22 We shouldn't "require" anything. If you're willing to step up, fine then you get the help you seek. If not, then fine you go on your own. "Requiring" is what authoritarians do.

Electoral College and Senate. We all want affordable Univerasal Health Care and all the stuff the Candy Man wants to give us Free. Unfortunately,. Can't just win popular vote like 2016.. Gotta win in hill billy states like where I grew up. Dems and Independents in those states ain't haven nunna that Democratic socialist crap, No snake oil, etc (OK some dem idjuts voted for Trump).. Just gotta stick a pole in Biden, put Elizabeth Warren or similar on the ticket and bash the hell out of the Spray tanned Evil Pumpkin, and his turtle faced democracy killing goon (Mitch). No no no, this aint ideal to have a choice between three old farts (sleepy, grumpy, and dopey). Sometimes its better to have a compliant figure head (Sleepy) that will listen and change, than hope that an obstinate old fart will change his ways (Dopey and Grumpy)

Good luck with that.

It is crazy to think that Bernie fans publicly announce they won't support the lesser of two evils, but Warren fans are supposed to support the lesser of two evils (Sanders), even though the third evil (Trump) is way worse than the second one (Biden). Allow me to borrow your ridiculous argument: there really isn't much difference. Fuck him.

Biden is leading in the head to head polls against Trump. He is doing better than Sanders. Biden is likely to get just about as many progressive policies enacted as Sanders, perhaps more (if, as polls suggest, he will have bigger coattails, allowing the Democrats to flip the Senate). It's funny -- I ran into a friend of mine who knows a shitload about the world, and he is the first person I've met who supports Biden. His reason was simple: no one else actually has foreign policy experience. Biden is wise. To gain wisdom you have to make mistakes, and Biden has made a shitload of mistakes. Let's hope he learns from it. I don't feel like Biden is much worse than Sanders -- it is very difficult to guess how a person will operate, once they get elected.

The progressives fucked up their chance, and I have to assume it was all do to sexism. Keep in mind, most progressive candidates suck. They reinforce, rather than contradict the stereotypes. I was a naive delegate for Jesse Jackson, but looking back, he had no chance. He was too much a caricature of a black leader -- literally a preacher. This is in contrast to Obama, who had a white mother, white grandparents and no history with the African American diaspora, let alone slavery. Kucinich was smart, but goofy looking and short (5' 7"). Yeah, it would be fun to see him run -- he would speak the truth, repeatedly, to power -- but he would get crushed, just because a certain percentage of the electorate never pays attention to the issues, only to the person. Likewise Bernie Sanders is weak. He is a secular Jew from Brooklyn. He starts out with two strikes against him.

In contrast, Warren had only one: she has a vagina. Imagine you are told about a candidate that is significantly younger than Sanders. Not only that, but he hails from Oklahoma! Oh, and he has spent most of his life outside politics. In between stints as a stay at home dad, he managed to get an audiology degree, followed by a law degree. But he wasn't a coddled rich kid, going to prep school, then an Ivy. No, he graduated from public and state schools. Yet he climbed the fucking ladder of academia, teaching at Rutgers, Michigan, Penn and then Harvard. The first (and only) person to teach at Harvard Law with a degree from a state school. Oh, and he used to be a Republican, but then, based on evidence he gathered, he switched. He became a progressive because based on his own (obviously very high) intellect, it is the best way forward. He went from thinking that people took advantage of bankruptcy laws to realizing that it was the last act of someone desperate, and then fought for laws and regulation that would benefit the downtrodden.

But he didn't stop there. He pushed for a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. When the economy collapsed, he was hand picked to oversee the committee rescuing it. So while he has plenty of nasty (and true) things to say about banks and bankers, he is not a demagogue. He actually understands this shit, and has worked with bankers in fixing a financial disaster created by them. Holy shit, a left winger that actually understands finance in much the same way that Gregg Popovich understands basketball -- that sounds great.

Oh, and he is tall and pretty handsome!

What is the catch, you wonder. Uh, he isn't a he, he is a she. Oh, oh, well, fuck it then. I'm gonna vote for the old dude.

Yeah, sorry if I'm not excited about Bernie. He is a terrible candidate, even if his message is great. You Bernie supporters had your chance, but you picked the wrong horse.

@8 Oh, so Warren and her supporters calling Bernie Bros angry was classic projection.

Got it.

There are two number 8's because some web programmer hired by The Stranger doesn't understand how multithreading works.

@8 And I think Warren supporters really underestimate the way Bernie supporters feel about being labeled a "Bernie Bro" and being unable to have any dialogue or accept any criticism without being told that we are "harassing" or bullying. I'm a liberal woman, and there are many women like me who voted for Bernie, in my case primarily because Warren caved on the core essence of her values "getting money out of politics" when she accepted money from a PAC right before Super Tuesday. Her website states "In my campaign I've pledged not to take money from federal lobbyists or PACs of any kind..And when I'm the democratic nominee for president I'm not going to change a thing in how I run my campaign. No PACs. No federal lobbyists." This is just one of many examples of how she DID change her campaign, and in my opinion why she lost. You are obviously entitled to endorse whoever you wish and we are not going to impose our views on anyone. However, if Elizabeth endorses Biden, it will be yet another example of her inauthenticity which is all many Bernie supporters were trying to call out. Our political system is filled with so much corruption that needs to be rooted out at its core, and us calling attention to this is not an attack on "women" or on "you". It is trying to share the truth. I think a great choice for Elizabeth would be to endorse Tulsi Gabbard because at least that would be consistent for her support of "women running for president" and female rights, which seems to be the only issue she has not backtracked on.

@29 Just keep digging that hole and making my point! You dudes are never gonna get it. Peace out!

@31 As I stated in my first comment I don't think that she should endorse anyone. And, I did not say Bernie bros.

@33 No YOU did not (and thank you!) but many of your fellow Warren supporters instead of engaging in dialogue have viciously attacked me or censured my posts when all I did was point out a fact or say that progressives should unite around a particular issue. What I was pointing out in my comment above is that Warren supporters are not the clear "victims" here. I have been attacked viciously or simply not allowed to express my voice by many Warren supporters. You are not the only ones who have been "bullied".

I don't think Bernie can beat Trump or win the nomination for that matter. He's just too far to the left for most people's tastes.

In the unlikely event that he does win the nomination, I'll vote for him to get rid of Trump but I believe he'll end up accomplishing very little because of his politics and he'll be a one term president when we need someone who can win two terms.

You Have Got To Be Kidding. The time to rally 'round was back when Warren was ahead. @28 says it all. Bernie Bern just had to stay in the race because the Bern. Now we have Joe as the best rallying point to beat Trump. I didn't see the point of Biden, but the voters have shown me the light. I'm going to be working for him just like I did for Liz. Now the Berns piling on Biden, just like they did at Hillary, and the gops thank you. Time to back off y'all and let the winner win.

Great idea!

Already voted for Bernie!

And remember, they won't count your ballot if you don't check the box for party on the back and sign it.

I’ll vote for whoever gets the nomination. Either one will be fine, and much better than trump.

@40 - Okay, but who gets your vote for the primary?

I'll happily vote for whoever wins the D nomination, whether it's Sanders or Biden. I voted Warren in the CA primary, but I'm not taking it personally that she lost. Either candidate would be infinitely preferable to another 4 years of Trump. I know, so boringly unpolarized.

If Bernie supporters want Warren support then it probably wasn’t a great idea for the Bernie Bros to fervently picket Warren’s last 2 rallies in town. Picketing that thang like they were Westboro Church at Evergreen State College. It was disgusting and now they’re getting what they deserve.

I was a Warren supporter, couldn't help myself. I have a weakness for super-intelligent people.
But I went ahead and voted for Biden at this point.
In my opinion the great mistake of 2016 was Democratic lack of enthusiasm for Clinton and lack of push-back on the barrage of lies.
If we want this election we will have to fight for it.

Raindrop dear, I voted for Warren. If I had to choose between the two remaining candidates, I think I'd choose Biden. I have followed Senator Sanders for years, and agree with many of his positions, but his schtick tires me. He's just an angry old man screaming at the clouds, with a bunch of disagreeable supporters.

But if he's the candidate, I will vote for him.

@45 -- "5. He ["doktor" OMO] cast a
pregnacy spell (friutfulness of the worm)"

You mean, like 'the Alien'?
Scary shit, that.
Um, No, thanks.

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention el Numero Uno:

"1. Bringing back your ex lover to you. (dick Enrlargment)"

Gonna just let that one lie.

I was a Warren supporter too.

I’ve happily switched my vote to Sanders in the primary. I happen to like sending a signal that I support many of the economic policies that Sanders does. The left in this country could do with a bit more populism. And I vastly prefer Sanders foreign policy.

But, since it appears that Biden is most likely to get the nomination, I’ll happily vote for him in November.

Alternate headline: Hey Bernie Supporters, It's Over, Time To Support Biden.

Actual Headline, from the NYT:

"Bernie Sanders Has Already Won the Democratic Primary

He set the tone, determined the issues and tugged the party toward him.

'Look, we all have big progressive plans,' Biden said, as if to reassure Democratic voters. Michael Bennet touted bipartisan immigration legislation that he helped to write as 'the most progressive DREAM Act' ever put together.

That’s when Sanders won the Democratic primary.

He won it when his rivals talked more about whether Medicare for All could ever get through Congress than about whether such a huge expansion of the federal government was a good idea in the first place.

He won it when they competed to throw many more trillions than the next candidate at climate change. He won it when the disagreement became not about free tuition at public colleges but about the eligibility of students from families above a certain income level.

He and his supporters shouldn’t feel defeated after Super Tuesday. They should take a bow."
--Frank Bruni in today's NYT

Well, it's far from Over, Frank, but, don't mind if we DO.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/07/opinion/bernie-sanders-democratic-primary.html

@32 Thanks for proving my point.

@26
Another winning argument. So the fact that, for example, you're required to have a license and insurance to operate a motor vehicle is..what exactly? Authoritarianism?

Nooooooo, it's called regulation. I'm so sorry your apparently libertarian ass can't stomach that, but srsly, get with the civilization program, ffs.

A comment on the article @50:

"As senator, Biden showed his appreciation to the credit card industry. He helped draft and was a key supporter of the financial industry’s much-favored bill, the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 – a bill that made it harder for consumers to get protection under bankruptcy.

Senator Biden voted for the bill 4 times, before it finally passed into law in March 2005. Mr. Biden also voted against amendments that would have given mortgage relief to veterans and others victimized by predatory lending.

Even worse, he supported repeal of Glass-Steagall, the firewall that separated investment and commercial banks. Many credit that repeal for the financial meltdown of 2008 that cost 10 million families their homes."
--Jack Luzkow; Saint Louis, MO 5h ago

Not to mention, limiting witnesses at Anita Hill's hearings,
firmly cementing Clarence Thomas onto the USSC.

Compared to social Democrat Sanders, Biden is pretty far Right.

Okay, one more:

"Whatever Bernie is doing and has done, he is undoing 50 years of a massively successful effort by the plutocratic class of domestic oligarchs to undo all the advances that Eleanor and Franklin put in place and which blossom through the 1960's.

Eleanor and Franklin, even Eisenhower, Kennedy and LBJ all built on the big changes in our country; getting women the right vote after thousands of years of being treated like slaves, getting African Americans the right to vote, working towards ending poverty and the New Deal had created a steeply progressive income tax system which put an in end to the disgraceful levels of wealth inequality that made America seem more like a Tsarists oligarchy during the Gilded Age of U.S. plutocrats.

Under neoliberals like Bill Clinton, Biden and others, the Democrats deregulated Wall Street, gave the TBTF huge systemic profits with even larger systemic harm to consumers through the 2005 bankruptcy law Biden championed and the repeal of the depression era anti-trust regulations like Glass-Steagall Act, which together set America up for the 2008 TBTF [too Big to Fail] induced financial massacre of the middle class.

Oh yeah, the US tax payer was snookered into bailing all those TBTF out and they subsequently went on to double,. triple and quadruple the profits with other major financial amalgamations like Blackrock sweeping into to become the nations new price hiking slum lords."

--Tom Paine, Los Angeles 5h ago

@43 and generally: it may have escaped your notice, but most people in the country are pretty obnoxious. Sure, Bernie bros can be a pain in the behind. But you know who else sucks? Deplatforming puritans whose method of “argument” is to call people names and shut down debate (and ideally get them fired too) and quite a few of them liked Warren. And “centrist” “moderates” (many Bloomberg or Biden supporters) who are basically I-got-mine-lite with a side of we-like-our-conservatism-with-more-style. And let’s not even get started with Trump supporters.

So yeah, everybody sucks. Especially if they’re politically engaged.

Which is why I don’t judge the candidate by her or his supporters.

@52 No, spunkpuppy, mandatory Federal service is not "regulation." It's the draft. Want to be drafted? I suspect not.

National Service Must be Required:

Two years. We (will have) paid for your Education. Your Doctor.

Your Daycare and your roads. etc all that shit and that shit ain't free, and now it's Payback time; what can you do to pay us back -- come up with something Good and we'll see what we can do for you. For US.

Why not?

You know, a Social Democracy where we the peeps getta pick and not get our picks picked out for us by an iron-fisted Corporate hand/claw: The Craw.

Seems such an EZ choice, to me...

@58: Apparently, have western European social democracies been falling out of favor in recent years.

https://www.politico.eu/article/matteo-renzi-martin-schulz-italy-germany-who-killed-european-social-democracy/

who-killed-european-social-democracy

Wanna know who stole European Social Democracy?

Your boys the dick CHENEY and Sideshow bush, when they set off the hand grenade in a hornet's nest in the Middle East. The ones who survived were forced out, and where oh where might the Refugees go?

Elections have Consequences.
Like Wars.

The Obama quote is disingenuous. He basically praised Bernie for being an idealogue. Much the way you praise your uncle at Thanksgiving for still being able to talk politics.

@57 Want some years of Federal service, with free health care, good food and clothing, a modest salary each month, and lots of opportunities for travel? The Army recruiting office would be delighted to talk to you. Big bonuses for the combat arms if you're male.

@64 -- it was a Tacky move on Bernie's part
perhaps I'll let him know.

@65 -- Today's army would not be delighted with me.

But when all your Tools are the fucking Military all your friends can begin to look like Enemies. Specially with the current devil in the WH who wouldn't know an Enemy if it shat in his hand.

We need more Healers, not more Warriors.

This Planet's fucking OVERRUN with them already.
Child soldiers, ffs. WTFF.

@66 Would that we could do without soldiers or a military at all. But, the world being what it is, we cannot. So, we should have the absolute best ones on the planet, and we do.

This is one reason I voted for Buttigieg and at one time considered Tulsi. I want the military to be commanded by someone who knows what it is to be under real fire, and not the "sniper fire" of Hillary (the most reluctant vote I ever cast).

I voted for Senator Elizabeth Warren. I will vote Democrat no matter what in November. I just hope we don't get another November 8, 2016 disaster all over again. The electoral college is grossly outdated and really needs to go.

Warren hasn't endorsed Bernie
Electability
Bernie didn't support the last woman to run for President after he was out of the race

@55 too many Bernie supporters are tilting against windmills, helpful windmills at that.

I also think the candidate we’re discussing is nothing more than his or her supporters, and this article’s call to action drives that point home hard.

What's Berning Man's realistic plan to win purple and red states? What's Berning Man's plan to win back Senate? Yelling and Pointing to the choir isn't enough? Especially when 1/2 of the choir couldn't be bothered to go vote.

Never Sanders. Never Trump.
The stock market is in a slump.
Four Horsemen are out there riden'
The only choice now is Joe Biden.

Never Berners
SLOW learners
Gave us Hillary
Even Billary

was way too
Pro-Corporate.

End Fascism!
Vote for a Social
DEMOCRACY

@71 -- Really wanna know?

Bernie Sanders Positions on the Issues:

https://berniesanders.com/issues/

And if you want a Quiet Person
(with a Histroy of folding to
Corporate Interests), sure
Feel free -- go with Biden.
Just kick back, easy, and
Watch that insidious
INEQUALITY
widen.

Bernie's got MY
-- O U R --
the 99%'s
Backs.

Ah Kristofarian... This aint about kickin back, and being easy... its about taking control of Senate and Exec branch... Many of the so called moderates like myself.. want same changes you and Berning man want.. just know without going through a true Revolution (ala Russian and French) you must be in the room rather than shouting outside the door. What really got lost during Obama's 1st inaugral speach is that he told people that it would be a lot of hard work to make the changes.. The people became complacent, and the evil doers (Mitch, Tea Parties ect..) basically neutered his fledgling movement. Monday morning quarterbacking says Obama was too passive and accomodating, I still suggest their is either some level of negotiating and compromise or else revolution, which I do not believe 99% of 99% want.

Kristo... I really think that it would be instructive to talk and listen to or meet Trumpers and more conservative Dems. Not necessarily to change your position, but to really get a sense of where there heads are at. I went to Trump rally in 2016 (Lynden WA).. Very Very informative to talk to Trumpers and counter Trumpers.. Pounding a sledger hammer in mud just get mud on your face.. must be more strategic.

1969, I'm five years old, tanks on my street holding back race riots in NE Ohio ... look where we are and how far we still have to go.. Progress is 2 steps forward - 1-1/2 steps back, 3 steps forward -2 steps back.. it F&NG brutal.. but its how change happens.

micro, do you really believe Joe Biden's
gonna Inspire the Masses required to
Change the Senate?

I have both pro-trump and pro-Hillary siblings and they're not remotely concerned with the creeping Corporatism (read: Fascism) that's taking over US and the entire Planet.

Perhaps America's not ready for the kind of social Democracy FDR and LBJ brought US, which brought us a Thriving Middle Class. A Middle Class which has been sytematially decimated by the R. Raygun Revolution.

Shall we return to yesteryear's Massive Inequality, before things like Social Security and Medicare -- and social Democracy -- saved tens of millions of our Citizens' lives?

Cause that's Precisely where trump, Moscow Mitch, FOX and all their Republican buddies wanna take us back to.

We have a choice between Corporatism and social Democracy. We will NOT be having both.

"When the economists Anne Case and Angus Deaton first published their research on 'deaths of despair' five years ago, they focused on middle-aged whites.

So many white working-class Americans in their 40s and 50s were dying of suicide, alcoholism and drug abuse that the overall mortality rate for the age group was no longer falling – a rare and shocking pattern in a modern society.  

Case and Deaton -- a married couple who are both economists at Princeton -- try to explain the causes in a new book, 'Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism.'

Their basic answer is that working-class life in the United States is more difficult than it is in any other high-income country.

'European countries have faced the same kind of technological change we have, and they’re not seeing the people killing themselves with guns or drugs or alcohol,' Case says.

There is something unique about the way the U.S. is handling this.'"

Yes, there is. In the Civilized World, it's called taking care of your Citizens.

In America, it's Socialism -- for the Rich -- and Rugged Individualism for everyone else.

Despair? Yeah, the "bottom" 90% have it -- in Spades.

From "How Working-Class Life Is Killing Americans, in Charts" by David Leonhardt and Stuart A. Thompson, March 6, 2020

More at:
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/03/06/opinion/working-class-death-rate.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage

Kristo, I have followed Bernie for many many many years.. There have been other Bernies,of varying degrees (not at all being dismissive of the issues they stand for which I whole heartedly support) (Nader, Kuccinich, Jesse J, ect..) The truly big problem is... they scream about the problem.. but aren't able to get much accomplished.. (relative to the expectation that their most ardent followers have).. Soo the big question, is the strategy and tactics really effective? I want results not finger pointing. Crazy.. Kim Kardashian (who I've always loathed the whole reality TV stickt) helped get some criminal justice reform .. (was there some photo op moment for the Orange menace sure).. Was there a result.. good result (better)..

What I believe the best strategy should be is to get a compliant yet progressive friendly president and Senate, and work like devils at the local/state level for more progressive agendas. DC politicians aren't really making the day to day policies that change peoples lives. They can however thwart progress via judicial appointments and funding of regulatory agencies.

Think Seattles, Kashama Savant.. AOC, ect.. It is much easier to localize change and then let it spread (I think this might be a chinese proveb)..

One comment from the article, above:

"Ironic, isn’t it. Every day the New York Times publishes stories about the challenges faced by ordinary Americans and also every day the Times also publishes articles and opinion pieces tearing down the last candidate standing who wants to go after the causes of this despair.

Joe Biden may be a soothing presence but I doubt his corporate backers will allow him to address these issues even if he, a staunch defender of the status quo his entire political life, wanted to."

The big Challenge for Berning Man.. Europeans have a fundamentally different approach on life than people in US. MOST not all folks in US ultimately want to get rich, once they have reached a level of stability. People in America live to work, where in many other countries the people work to live. I've worked both in Europe, Canada, and US and the differences are striking.

What is common is that people hate and fear change. This is the psychological reality that Berning man and supporters have to embrace. Fear (chronavirus, climate change, ect..) make people LESS apt in their best interest than logic would dictate.

Comment above (@81) from Brooklyncowgirl, USA. March 6.

Micro, sure the Citrizenry is Frightened -- we have wholly-Corporate owned Mass Media selling us Fear, cars, fear, drugs, and more fear.

But America is vastly more Courageous
than our Corporate Masters would have it.

What's it gona take to Wake America Up?
And Totally Piss her off?

I dunno.

But I'm pretty Certain
it's NOT yet another Centrist.

"There have been unexpected swings in this race. Thirty-two states have yet to vote, and probably about thirty-two thousand more insults, epithets, and lies are still to come from Trump, as he attempts to distort the picture of the candidates and of the country. 

Senate Republicans are revving up an investigation related to Ukraine and Joe Biden’s son Hunter, too, which Senator Ron Johnson [R - from Wisconsin!] contends will be useful to a 'Democratic primary voter.' 

One hopes that, amid all the distraction, Biden and Sanders and their supporters will still be able to see one another clearly.

'What this campaign, I think, is increasingly about is: Which side are you on?' Sanders said on Wednesday. There is an answer both for him and for Biden: Trump is on the other side."

  From "Biden, Sanders, and Trump, After Super Tuesday"

"Trump should be scared of both candidates—but he has a bully’s instinct for identifying points of tension." 

By Amy Davidson Sorkin, March 8, 2020

Where are Senators Joe Nguyen and Liz Lovelett?

Why are they not right here,
defending their most
Excellent Op-Ed?

[My pinkies are getting Tired!]

@84: Fine to not be a centrist ideologically, but history and logic dictates that the hearts and minds of centrists and independents are typically required to win presidential elections.

@72: Voting for Biden is voting to give up on change in anything but name. By itself, removing Trump from the White House is meaningless. If all we get is Trumpism done by a nominally nicer person, that will doom the Democratic Party to a huge defeat in 2024. Biden will need to come up with a POSITIVE case for progressives to vote for him-if he treats progressives like Hillary treated them, there's no way they will go to the polls.

And quite frankly, Biden wouldn't get any votes against Trump that nobody else could get. There's no huge demand for a "get Trump out, but don't CHANGE much of anything" candidate.

Also, you've made several posts in which you've implied that you don't feel your service in the armed forces is treated with the respect you think it should be. Is that actually how you feel?

If so, why? Nobody in this thread, other than you, has even discussed the military.

88 - Biden would be a nicer Trumpism?

Wow, if I actually wanted Trumpism - I'd much prefer the current concoction. Nasty and spicy!

micro, I hear what you're saying re Local politics; as did the US Chamer of Commerce when they read the Powell Memo -- a blueprint for taking over the USA (a Political Revolution! one you never heard about? -- join the Club), a blueprint so Remarkable it landed its author a position on our Supreme Court (right where usag/terump's Personal Lawyer Billy Barr's headed), and they brought us The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC),* in 1973, and ever since slowly and insidiously took over America; now we have trump and KkKonnell stacking the Court -- ALL the Courts -- and stymieing democratic Legislation, so yeah, we gotta get ALL that back, too.

And the way we do it is to get Money the fuck OUT OF OUR Elections and getting the Citizenry Involved. We're gonna need a Free Press, too -- so let's cut a Check for that, while we're at it -- WHO Else is gonna keep an eye on them (THANKS, Eli!)?

That Will NOT Happen with a Republican Senate; so, do we aim for "Safety," or, risk it all on a (NON-violent) Political revolution that gets everyone off their asses? 

Corporate Rule is just around the corner.
We don't have a whole lot left to lose.
Well, lots (and LOTS) of us.
And More every day... .

*a nonprofit organization of conservative state legislators and private sector representatives who draft and share model state-level legislation for distribution among state governments in the United States.[2][3][4]

ALEC provides a forum for state legislators and private sector members to collaborate on model bills—draft legislation that members may customize and introduce for debate in their own state legislatures.[5][6][7] 

ALEC has produced model bills on a broad range of issues, such as reducing regulation and individual and corporate taxation, combating illegal immigration, loosening environmental regulations, tightening voter identification rules, weakening labor unions, and opposing gun control.[8][9][10][11] 

Some of these bills dominate legislative agendas in states such as Arizona, Wisconsin, Colorado, Michigan, New Hampshire, and Maine.[12] Approximately 200 model bills become law each year.[8][13] 

ALEC also serves as a networking tool among certain state legislators, allowing them to research conservative policies implemented in other states.[10] 

Many ALEC legislators say the organization converts campaign rhetoric and nascent policy ideas into legislative language.[5]

Why vote for a candidate the progressive youth movement can get behind? They don't come out and vote. Prove you support your candidate and the candidate's position. There's only one way to do that get off your collective asses and vote!

How about "no" with a side of "fuck you"?

One comment on:

"The Simple Reason the Left Won’t Stop Losing
Progressives need to care more about winning."

"'Over at The Nation all sorts of progressives are saying they will sit out the election rather than vote for Biden. Their personal moral purity counts more than winning. It is the same thing that cost Clinton in 2016. It is my biggest worry about 2020.' [--@reb]

Consider Trump awarding Rush Limbaugh the Presidential Medal of Freedom at the State of the Union last month. Some would say it should be rescinded. But even if we could do that, should we?

Why not let it stand for all eternity as a testament to presidential abuse during this administration, as a warning to future generations of what they must desperately try to avoid.

On the other hand, if Democrats cannot pull it together this year, perhaps this medal will simply blend in with many others like it as the "new normal" in an autocratic America of our own creation, one that might last far longer than any of us could imagine.

So what will it be? Which path will we choose? Which history will be the one that our children and their children and all the children to follow will be studying?

What is it that we really want for ourselves?

In the end, aren't these really the questions we need to be asking?" --Blue Moon. Old Pueblo 55m ago in reply to reb

Article By David Leonhardt, Opinion Columnist NYT
March 8, 2020, 8:01 p.m. ET

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/08/opinion/sanders-democratic-primary.html#commentsContainer

Totally with Bernie, now.

@94 - "It is the same thing that cost Clinton in 2016."

Well, that, and (quite) a few other things....
Bernie campaigned, hard for Hillz
(how does the Math
work on that?).
rhetorical ^

If Republicans can soil their purity by voting for Biden in the general election, surely progressives should be able to summon the fortitude to do the same.

A little Levity
Bernie vs. Biden
via Jimmy Fallon:

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/05/arts/television/jimmy-fallon-biden-sanders-super-tuesday.html

There is something terribly troubling that alot of voters (Dems) didn't vote 2016 and jumped ship for Trump. Not convinced Berning man wouldn't have faced the same outcome. Weird cosmic juices? There is no conjecture about what Trumpfuckastan is going to be like. The next few weeks will see what the voters in the Midwest think. For me almost any Blue Do. Voted for Wallstreet Hillary, cause I knew what a gong show, Trump would be. He has far exceeded my fears. Perplexed at how a country of 350+ million people so rarely turn out really compelling candidates. Two 75+ year old men.. wow..

Some of the most enlightened.insightful Dems are gone, didn't, run and/or polled poorly (Yang, Warren), so we got what we got. Yang actually really gets some the scare shit we face, and had fresh solutions..
.
Pushing Biden to articulate a vision that isn't just a retread of 2008-2012 is an extremely good thing. Forcing Berning man to look soberly at how to appeal to 60-75% of electorate that are moderates and risk adverse is a good thing. To be blunt..both in my opinion are a bit like eating stale bread. Not moldy, but would prefer something fresher. None of their analysis is new nor are the solutions really unique or compelling.

For now, gotta keep the eye on the near term ball, getting rid of Adolf and Heinrich is the goal. Can't do anything moderate, progressive or light bending without accomplishing these two daunting tasks.

@77 & @99 microliving: You were 5 years old in 1969? So was I.
Good to find a contemporary and even better, who often reads on the same page.

@101: Centrists are the majority middle.

@101 Doesn't matter to me what you think, when the markets are melting down and coronavirus fear is stronger than ever, socialist Bernie Sanders doesn't have a snowball's chance in hell of being elected. Nationwide polls have Biden ahead by double digits this morning.

@106 Then don't vote, I don't give tinker's damn what you do. Bernie Sanders is the reverse of the bad penny that is Trump and he and his crazy policies would be just as bad for the country as Trump is.

@108 And that's what gonna win tomorrow and every election hence. Bye, Felecia.

110
Repeating myself here,
but Swifty's In-Fallible.

UN-able to be Wrong.
Like The Fonz, only
not nearly as Cool.

Here's an awesome Rebuttal to Swift's 'Surety':

"@3 They're neck-and-neck, so you might as well be criticizing Biden for the same.

The difference is that Biden is in the early stages of dementia and has an atrocious record. He's a soft target. You're trying to re-run 2016 with a less competent person - how do you expect that to go?

In contrast, you're speculating about Sanders. You haven't seen his strategy at play since FDR won 4 times in a row.

You can take that smugness right to a 2020 loss, where I assume you'll blame voters (again) for not lining up behind the milquetoast centrist with an anti-labor history." --Shirakawasuna on March 9, 2020 at 9:59 AM ·

I am totally down for a Sanders/Warren administration!

Let's do this!

VP Warren should negotiate for a fully gender-diverse cabinet and half of the agency appointees, and she should get it, too!

I voted Warren in the primary since I sent in my ballot a week ago. I'll vote for whoever the Dem candidate is, but I hope it's Biden. Did Biden blame a socialist conspiracy when he lost Iowa, NH, and NV? Did he attack Bernie on his heart troubles? Did he send his supporters out to spread right-wing talking points? Or did he admit he got beat, picked up his shovel, and kept digging? That's all I need to know. Bernie and his cult of toxic "Bros" are not the answer.