Democrats need their votes. They won't get all of them. Progressives have leverage.
My mailbag:
"Peter: fuck you and your tired LIES"
The split within the left is animated in part by a convictIon by Bernie Sander most ardant supporters that Sanders was clearly, obviously, overwhelmingly the most popular candidate, and the one candidate who had a policy prescription that would address America's problems. Therefore, since he did not get the nomination there must--absolutely, obviously must--have been foul play. He was cheated. They didn't lose. They were robbed.
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| Vote, but not for Biden |
Trump is setting up the same story line now for himself, on a foundation of the left's belief they were robbed. The election will be illegitimate, too. Illegal votes will be cast by dead people, people who have moved away, from people who are not citizens. Trump has set the stage for Republican voters to feel exactly as Bernie Sanders supporters feel now. It is rigged. Fox News echoes and amplifies this story, realizing that they are trolling Democrats. Don't vote, Democrats,1
Notwithstanding Trump's campaign assertion that Biden is a puppet of the left, many leftist voters perceive it very, very differently:
"The problem with the Sanders-oriented left is that many of them wrote off Democrats as cheaters, corporatists, sellouts, capitalists, compromisers and (as the graphic above says, "paid trolls)" That's because THAT'S WHAT THEY ARE. They didn't get these reputations because "most of the politicians in the Party got such negative feedback from Sanders people on the left", they got these reputations because THAT'S WHAT THEY ARE. It isn't a 'perception problem' or an 'optics problem' no matter how gaslighters like you try to spin it that way. Bernie didn't 'fail to have alliances within the Democratic Party' THEY STABBED HIM IN THE BACK. So fuck you and your tired LIES. This is a Progressive page - go find a Centrist page to spread your bullshit."
David S., writing in a progressive Facebook group.
David's comment above incorporates most of the arguments i see expressed within Protressive Facebook groups. The comment below adds another element: leverage. If Sanders-oriented progressives withhold their votes--either not voting or voting for the Green candidate--they can tip the election to Trump. It would send a powerful message to Democrats, that they cannot win the electoral college without the votes of currently disaffected leftists. They can change left politics.
"Then I guess my vote will be amongst the 1% [who vote 3rd party] again 'cause I sure as fuck am not voting for that neo-liberal Piece of Shit Biden and condoning establishment cheating that got him annointed."
Michael B, writing in a progressive Facebook group.
Another comment:
"Hmm - maybe but he can't win the general without us - remember Hillary. Their being smug won't win us over - it's just stupid and spiteful. We need to keep the pressure on them - Medicare for All and marijuana legalization and record expungment ought to do it - at least if they want my vote. We have the power - but if we just roll over and promise our votes they will continue to kick sand in our faces.
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12 comments:
Noise on the Far Left. Attention-grabbing comments by a self-identified minority of Lefties at less then 1%. Noisy yes. Agitators maybe. Unable to grow beyond a slogan. Unable to realized they are being played by the Far Right. For that matter if Bernie Lefties weren’t complaining and agitating the Far Right and Q would have to invent them in their troll farms. (Note to self - check that out and report back) What the Bernie of Bust crowd want isn’t possible because their actions positively scare everyone around them. In the time of Covid nothing will get done until this virus is controlled. The current office holder shows no need to do anything to help the nation beyond enriching his friends, cultivating his base and spreading his brand around the world - even into space with his newly minted Space Force. So your candidate didn’t win and you complain about the state of affairs and when asked are you registered to vote you answer “No, why should I register? It’s rigged you know!” So you didn’t vote and now you argue that we, the electorate must listen to you... Why? Pull yourself together, do something productive and quit expecting that you deserve free stuff. Put down your electronic ranting machine, roll up your sleeves and figure out what you can do that will actually help! Believe me - when you do you’ll feel so much better. You might even prove your position to be workable and the majority will resoundingly embrace the ideas you want. Try it you might like it. It is a cure for the darkness of Trump. Do something to make things better.
From my viewpoint, I think that Biden is going to have a tough time winning.
Aside from his dementia, many progressive Bernie voters won't vote for Biden due to reasons espoused above, and Biden is going to lose a lot of the "Black vote" because many will either vote for Kanye West or Trump. Further, Blacks don't like Kamala Harris because she isn't one of them.
I predict that Trump with get more than 300 delegates votes and win going away. Biden will get destroyed by George McGovern-like numbers.
I have a 102.4 fever, chills, sore muscles. Blury vision.
I may need to take time off.
Peter Sage
Oh gosh, sorry Peter.
Get well .... soon.
Wow, Peter, I hope you get well soon! Not good!
Too bad the first person is anonymous, as I would like to compliment him or her on that letter. Several good points made.
I think the jury is out as to how much effect the withdrawing of the leftists will have. The reason why a lot of people did not vote in 2016 may have been that Hillary was so vilified that some people could not vote for either candidate. Others just assumed that Hillary would win, and that they were not needed. Biden is liked, at the very least, by the "average Joe". I do think I have seen articles that black women are liking Kamala, and surely love the fact of a black woman on the ticket. Also, people had to have been reassured about Biden's competence after the Thursday speech!
A lot can happen in the next 70 or so days. If a vaccine is found, and starts allowing the economy to improve, that would be in trump's favor.
It will be interesting to see what happens in the republican convention next week and if it changes the polls.
Peter,
Please take care of yourself...I don't like the sound of your symptoms given the double digits in Jackson County cases of Covid. I so much appreciate your openness to diverse opinions, although I sometimes differ with your seeming embrace of status quo neoliberal economics.
In terms of the progressive take on the rigging of the Democratic Party...it's all true going back to 2016 where hard-core progressive Keith Ellison was set to take over as DNC chair after the exposure of Wasserman-Shultz/Donna Brazile. Obama stepped in and put his thumb on the scale that favored Perez. Since then, "To rig primary against Bernie, DNC chair Tom Perez nominates regime-change agents, Israel lobbyists, and Wall Street consultants." (Copy and paste that quote to find the article.)
People like Anonymous are either willing adherents of the Democratic elites neoliberal order that has overseen the vast extraction of wealth from the lower classes to the already wealthy or they are uneducated on the issue...sad because there is so much supporting evidence.
Also sad is the Democratic centrists willingness to completely dis the Left and villify true progressives over the now DNC scuttled progressive proposals that are supported by a majority of Democrats (Medicare-for-All, divestment from fossil fuels, the Green New Deal and marijuana legalization). "The worst part is that dispassionately recounting any of these facts obviously proves you love Trump and Putin — at least that’s what you’ll be told if you dare even whisper this. In our tribalized politics, war is peace, freedom is slavery and dissent is disloyalty. Failure to match the rah-rah spirit of the Blue Team, refusal to get psyched for the charade, asking questions about inconvenient facts — it all means you must be on the Red Team and are being paid in rubles, comrade."
Bernie did not create the problems that existed before Trump and brought us the faux-populist Trump but they do want a RESTORATION to that "normal" that created him. That does not fly with the real-life experience of a generation most impacted by neoliberalism, the ideological coup that has sneakily subverted our society over the last 50 years, raising the fortunes of the financial economy, private equity firms, at the expense of the real economy experienced by most Americans. The Democratic elites are playing with electoral fire, but even if they lose, their personal portfolios are unlikely to suffer.
Andy Seles
I tested negative for Covid. Normally test results take a week! For some reason I was given a higher priority and had results in a little over an hour.
So pleased you don't have the plague, Peter.
Regarding the thread of comments, it disheartens me that the discourse of some of my colleagues on the progressive Left is as uncouth and ugly as the Right. I don't understand why people want to become mirror images of those they think are so wrong. Folks, rise to civility. One's comments are less, not more, persuasive when they are cast in the language of vile vituperation.
Peter,
I hope the test is trustworthy. Are there false negatives? Hope you can lie low for a few days and carefully monitor your progress on whatever you have. Thanks again for all you do!
Andy
War is peace. Lies are truth. Please make Orwell fiction again.
Aaron Coleman is a clear and current example of what Andy says:
https://theintercept.com/2020/08/21/aaron-coleman-the-19-year-old-progressive-who-won-his-kansas-primary-speaks-about-his-troubled-past-and-promising-present/
Biden got a lot more of the "Black vote" than Bernie, so I think that Trump and Kanye aren't going to do any better.
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