dice wrote:TheStig wrote:Dresden wrote:
I hear you on this. I'm a Bernie supporter, too, and my friends who are mainstream dems waste no opportunity to remind me over and over how the only reason Hillary lost was because Bernie supporters didn't get out to vote for her. And how Bernie supporters will be the reason Trump wins again, if that happens. No matter how inept the mainstream candidates are, no matter how badly they run their campaigns, no matter how many white, upper middle class surbanites decide to vote for Trump- it's still the fault of Bernie supporters.
Sometimes I like to ask them, "Ok, just tell me when I will be able to vote for someone who stands for what I believe in. If not this election, pick a future election, when I can finally vote for someone I can truly support. When will I be allowed to do that?" Because according to mainstream dems, the answer is "never"- there will always be a reason you have to support their candidate, and if you don't, it will be solely your fault we're stuck with 4 years of a schmuck like Trump or Bush.
This is why I'm annoyed with Bernie and AOC this time around. They became part of the machine and try to work with them.
they have never NOT been "part of the machine." what are you talking about? AOC wasn't even a public figure "last time around." and bernie sanders has been caucusing with the democrats his entire career. joe biden is his "good friend." his most notable achievements have come from working within the system: adding amendments to bills, getting funding for rural hospitals into obamacare (which he voted for), voting for the democratic candidate for president, etc.
The Tea party was effective because they held the Republicans hostage.
they didn't do ****. they got absorbed into the party, which has continued on the same course. the tea party's mission was fiscal conservativism. and yet the party keeps blowing up the debt with tax cuts at every opportunity
bernie sanders has actually played a major role in dragging the democratic party more to the left, creating room for people like "the squad" to win house seats, and more importantly heightening discussion about our woefully inadequate health care system. he alone has had more impact than the tea party
What this means is, Biden wants my vote, great, what are you going to do for me?
raise taxes to pay for social programs and reduce the deficit, for starters. restore the nation's standing in the world. give us a shot in the dark at building upon obamacare rather than backsliding and possibly having it eliminated, directly harming tens of millions of americans, including countless deaths and jacking up medical bankruptcies. be a competent leader IN A GODDAMN PANDEMIC. sharply reduce the chances of a cataclysmic foreign policy decision. prevent us from continuing to accelerate into the abyss of a rapidly overcooking planet. and for ****'s sake prevent RBG from being replaced by another scalia clone and stop the flood of young, unqualified right wing judges into federal courthouses
so basically the exact same thing that bernie sanders would have been able to accomplish as president...IF he was willing to navigate the labryinthian political considerations necessary to get stuff done rather than standing on a soapbox, which i'm not convinced he would have been able to do. that's right, there's an EXCELLENT chance that a biden presidency will be better for progressivism than a bernie presidency would have. might be hard to wrap your head around, but it's real talk
but maybe all of those things don't directly benefit you enough, regardless of how many hundreds of millions or even billions of people would benefit
hillary clinton not being elected prevented the supreme court from leaning left for the first time in generations, caused untold damage to our judicial system for generations to come. that alone should have convinced you of the importance of keeping donald trump out of office. but again, doesn't directly affect you. and apparently somehow doesn't inspire you. you, you, you
rationally speaking, voting is entirely about the gap between the two (or more) candidates. there's simply no way around it. bernie sanders lost in the primaries, which sucks. but the remaining choice is beyond clear. the gap between biden and trump is WAY bigger than that between bernie and biden. that's reality. just ask bernie sanders. i for one am not going to make life harder for countless americans and others across the globe just because i don't feel warm and fuzzy about the guy i'll be voting for. because that would be incredibly selfish
but if donald trump's generationally destructive single term in office isn't enough to turn on the light bulb for you and others with your mindset, nothing will. not even an even worse 2nd term
we still hadn't recovered from the dubya years when trump was elected. when people don't have the patience to take one step forward at a time, we end up taking two steps back at a time
