It's over Bernie! Voters rejected you.

[showblue22]

Link to tweet

[Cha]

1. And, BS Spent 4x More $$$$ to Lose than Joe Biden did to WIN!

Link to tweet

Awesome Find.. Tweeting this wherever it needs it.
So many love it on the Twitter feed.. Thank you, showblue & Jose!

[Cha]

2. Here's the best on its own..

Link to tweet

[Gustavo28M]

42. Reality Has Endorsed Bernie Sanders

Things can change. The epidemic shows that Bernie was 100 percent right on Medicare for All.

https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/reality-has-endorsed-bernie-sanders

The debate over the role of government in addressing income inequality, housing insecurity, debt accumulation, and health care continues, now against the grim backdrop of the raging coronavirus. It is difficult to articulate the speed with which the U.S. and, indeed, the world, has descended into an existential crisis. We are experiencing an unprecedented public-health event whose diminution and potential resolution rests with a series of prescriptions, including settlement-in-place orders, that will annihilate the economy. The deadly spread of covid-19 demands enclosure as a way to starve the searching virus of bodies to inhabit. The consequences of doing so removes workers from work and consumers from consumption; no economy can operate under these conditions.

American life has been suddenly and dramatically upended, and, when things are turned upside down, the bottom is brought to the surface and exposed to the light. In 2005, when Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath ravaged the Gulf Coast, it, too, provided a deeper look into the darkness of U.S. inequality. As the actor Danny Glover said then, “When the hurricane struck the Gulf and the floodwaters rose and tore through New Orleans, plunging its remaining population into a carnival of misery, it did not turn the region into a Third World country, as it has been disparagingly implied in the media; it revealed one. It revealed the disaster within the disaster; gruelling poverty rose to the surface like a bruise to our skin.”

For years, the United States has gotten away with persistently chipping away at its weak welfare state by hiding or demonizing the populations most dependent on it. The poor are relegated as socially dysfunctional and inept, unable to cash in on the riches of American society. There are more than forty million poor people in the U.S., but they almost never merit a mention. While black poverty is presented as exemplary, white poverty is obscured, and Latinos and other brown people’s experiences are ignored. As many as four in five Americans say they live paycheck to paycheck. Forty per cent of Americans say that they cannot cover an unexpected four-hundred-dollar emergency expense.

This is a virus that will thrive in the intimacy of American poverty. For years now, even in the midst of the economic recovery from the 2008 financial crisis, rising rents and stagnant salaries and wages have forced millions of families to improvise housing; nearly four million households live in overcrowded homes. This is the cruel irony of the San Francisco Bay Area’s shelter-in-place mandate: the region is at the epicenter of the U.S. housing crisis, as exemplified by its growing unsheltered homeless population. How do you practice social isolation without privacy or personal space? There are the crowded public offices that poor people congregate in to navigate access to services and income. There are the emergency rooms that function as primary health-care providers—not to mention the county jails and state prisons.

[Cha]

43. REALITY HAS REJECTED Sanders and his AGENDA.

[Paka]

3. All of the voters haven't spoken yet.

Over half the states still have primaries to go. It's very tiresome to be swept aside and reviled as a non-entity. My state is one of the many left to vote.

[George II]

8. Cancelling primaries that will prove nothing isn't sweeping anyone aside and reviling them....

....as non-entities.

Interestingly, many people say they want their vote to count, yet once the primary closes and the votes are counted, a small fraction of the registered voters actually get out to vote. Even in general elections roughly 50% of the voters actually do so.

Which states do you think Sanders will win, and what will the ultimate outcome be?

Even in softball we have a "mercy rule", a game is called after a certain lead is attained.

[Paka]

14. I don't care if my vote doesn't change anything.

I still want to vote. You might be surprised about Oregon which is where I vote. I don't play softball and democracy is not a game.

[George II]

22. Okay, what will your PRIMARY vote mean except for self-satisfaction?

[Paka]

27. And self-satisfaction is a bad thing?

[George II]

33. When you're dealing with the health and safety of millions of Americans and....

... we're faced with the most important election of our lives, YES!

[Paka]

41. It is for exactly that reason that valuable voices should not be silenced.

By daily speaking out and discussing the issues, Senator Sanders is giving all of us a guift. If you can't see and understand that, so be it.

[Cha]

16. And, it's a Real Mercy Rule.. people are

actually endangering their lives to go out in Public unless they're all going to be mail-in?

BS campaign is continuing to bash the presumptive nominee and only helping trump at this point in history.

[Sympthsical]

20. There are primaries for other offices

Or should we cancel those as well?

And is cancelling elections a precedent you want set with Trump at the wheel?

[George II]

21. Yes there are, and in a number of states those are on different dates. In CT, our primary.....

...for President was in April (it's been moved to June), but our primary for State Representative, State Senator, and some municipal offices isn't until August.

BTW, primaries aren't elections, they're primaries. The election takes place in November.

[Sympthsical]

23. It's not so for every state

California does it all at once.

Primaries very much are an election. We’re electing a nominee. So that’s some nonsense.

[Blue_true]

26. Those elections will take place if Sanders drops out.

Don't use them as a crutch because when you do, you are not being straightforward.

[Sympthsical]

35. I think Sanders should concede

But the people who want to cancel primaries worry me.

[Blue_true]

37. Like you pointed out, there are local races and location issues that

are being resolved on the ballot that also has a presidential primary. To totally cancel those ballots is wrong, as you state. But if Sanders drops out, that makes the presidential part of those ballots irrelevant from the Democratic Party side (though, only a handful of state republican parties are even attempting to put on a republican presidential primary).

[The Magistrate]

9. Concession Of Defeat By 'Bernie', Sir

Will not cancel primaries. These are necessary still for selecting Congressional candidates, and candidates for state and local offices.

'Bernie' needs to accept his defeat, to realize, as it were, that Democrats 'just aren't that into him'. He is like the character in some comic movie who is told by a girl he desires there's not a chance in million she will date him, and replies 'so you're saying there's a chance, right?'





"From Bernie’s perspective, dropping out of a race once you have no chance of winning is peculiar behavior that can only be explained by the work of a hidden hand. For most politicians, though, it is actually standard operating procedure. Only Sanders seems to think the normal thing to do once voters have made clear they don’t want to nominate you is to continue campaigning anyway."





"When things are not called by their right names, what is said cannot make sense. When what is said does not make sense, what is planned cannot succeed. When plans do not succeed, people become uneasy. When people are uneasy, punishments do not fit crimes. When punishments do not fit crimes, people cannot know where to put hand or foot."

[Paka]

15. But Senator Sanders hasn't conceded,

...and I still want to vote for him. As a US citizen, by birth, for over 79 years, I'm entitled to that right.

[The Magistrate]

17. No, Sir, But He Should

A good man, a patriot, a person with the best interests of the people and our country, would do so. That instead he persists in his petty, egotistic jihad against the 'Democratic Establishment', when the need of the hour is concentrating all available forces to remove this cheap thug Trump from office, brands him as a worthless, foolish, self-important scold at best, with the worst he could be taken for left to the imagination of the reader. Whether you want to vote for him is the least important factor in the situation imaginable. I want a great many things which have not happened, and which are not going to happen, and I manage to bear up under the burden. You claim nigh on eighty years drawing breath on the planet, and still cannot see the mawkish irrelevance of 'it's my right to do some wholly futile gesture or other' in a time of crisis. The appropriate phrase would seem to be 'get over yourself'. You and your feelings are not nearly so important as all that. Grow up.





"From Bernie’s perspective, dropping out of a race once you have no chance of winning is peculiar behavior that can only be explained by the work of a hidden hand. For most politicians, though, it is actually standard operating procedure. Only Sanders seems to think the normal thing to do once voters have made clear they don’t want to nominate you is to continue campaigning anyway."





"When things are not called by their right names, what is said cannot make sense. When what is said does not make sense, what is planned cannot succeed. When plans do not succeed, people become uneasy. When people are uneasy, punishments do not fit crimes. When punishments do not fit crimes, people cannot know where to put hand or foot."

[Paka]

28. The last delagate count I saw, Biden had 1,151.

Get back to me when he has locked up 1,991. Until then, the only claim that can be made is that he is the frontrunner. Presumed nominee, yes, but he has yet to secure the votes needed on the first ballot at the Convention. That is a simple fact.

[The Magistrate]

29. You Do Understand Simple Arithmetic, Sir, Do You Not?

You do understand how proportional allocation of delegates works?

You do understand that no quick 'knock-out' is possible, because each contender gets a delegate share apportioned to the share of a state's vote received?

If your answer is yes to all these questions, and it had damned well better be, if you are an old fellow commenting on matters political in a forum not known as a haven for people afflicted with a muddled mind, then you will be aware that under these practices an existing lead of several hundred delegates is insurmountable. 'Bernie' is getting roughly a third of the vote, and Mr. Biden the rest. To overtake Mr. Biden's lead, 'Bernie' would need to reverse this proportion, roughly doubling his share of the vote in all future contests. That is not going to happen. We both know it, and so does everyone else commenting on this forum. What will happen is that with each contest Mr. Biden's lead will widen, though owing to the practice of proportionate allocation, it will take some while to actually cross the line. Taking this for grounds to hope 'Bernie' has some chance is moonshine.

It is noted you did not engage the meat of the comment you have replied to. It is clear enough why 'Bernie' wants the contest to continue. He is not running for the Presidential nomination of the Democratic Party, 'Bernie' is engaged in an attempt to overthrow the 'Democratic Establishment', and in this attempt, has not the slightest regard for the damage he might do to the prospects of putting this cheap thug Trump out of office. "Bernie' is quite willing to see the people and the country come to the harm that would ensue should the cheap thug Trump remain in the White House, if only the 'Democratic Establishment' is brought low.

The question is, why do you set such value on making a futile gesture? You are of an age that ought to be well past nonesense like that. Futile but grand gestures are the business of young men, who are both angry and a little foolish. Their actions are understandable, given their inexperience of the world, and pride in coming into adult state. But things that are ornaments to a young man of spirit are often disfiguring to a man of mature years and wisdom. A devotion to futile gestures is one of these things. So the question naturally arises ---why? Do you lack wisdom? Have you preserved an indomitable immaturity through all your decades drawing breath? Or do you share the 'Bernie' purpose, and dedicate yourself to his nihilistic crusade? Are you of the view that the 'Democratic Establishment' ought to be broken, and that it is the chief obstacle to advancing left and liberal and progressive policies? Haven't you the wit to see that nothing can be done to achieve progress in the direction all of us here desire, unless the christo-fascist reactionary right is turfed out of office? How is it that you manage not to see that doing this is the chief duty of anyone who calls himself a leftist or a liberal or a progressive in the present peril facing our people and our country?







"From Bernie’s perspective, dropping out of a race once you have no chance of winning is peculiar behavior that can only be explained by the work of a hidden hand. For most politicians, though, it is actually standard operating procedure. Only Sanders seems to think the normal thing to do once voters have made clear they don’t want to nominate you is to continue campaigning anyway."





"When things are not called by their right names, what is said cannot make sense. When what is said does not make sense, what is planned cannot succeed. When plans do not succeed, people become uneasy. When people are uneasy, punishments do not fit crimes. When punishments do not fit crimes, people cannot know where to put hand or foot."

[Paka]

32. Men may give up futile gestures.

As a woman, I've earned the right to hang on them as long as I desire. You make a lot of empty claims as to what Senator Sanders wants and/or doesn't want and I don't think you are in a position to read his mind. No one really knows what is going to happen and that includes both of us. Life has many crazy twists and turns. You are making a lot of demeaning accusations and it was my understanding this forum has rules against that.

As long as Senator Bernard Sanders stays in the race he has access to a forum where he can discuss the many issues that must be front and center at this critical time. His voice is a necessary one in this discussion. And when your beloved Biden picks Nina Turner as his VP, I will personally speak to Bernie about bowing out.

[The Magistrate]

34. Always Pleasant To Have My Points Confirmed By An Opponent, Ma'am

I should have checked, but your comments conveyed such a blend of arrogance and self-importance and foolishness it never occurred to me they might not be written by a man. In my experience, women display far more intelligence than that, both intellectually and emotionally.

The claim 'you can't read his mind' is one of the more laughable staples of a flailing debater. It is nonesense. Everyone draws conclusions about what another person thinks and intends, from observation of that person's actions, and attention to their words. A few people are such smooth and consummate liars or actors as to be able to maintain a sort of shield over their true mind, but this is a very rare (and very dangerous) quality. It may be dismissed from consideration for ordinary purposes, and there is no reason whatever to suppose Sanders possesses this quality. He would of necessity be a far more supple individual if he did.

'Bernie' has said quite clearly, for years, that he considers the 'Democratic Establishment' the chief obstacle to the advancement of left and progressive causes. He has stated he regards the 'Democratic Establishment' as a hostile force, even within the course of this current campaign. He has stated the two major parties are like tweedledum and tweedledee. He has said explicitly, "I am not, and never have been, a liberal Democrat." It seems only courteous to take him at his word.

Since there is no possibility he will secure the Democratic nomination for President, people must cast about to discern some other reason he continues to campaign nominally for that position. Here we have for guidance his previous behavior, the disruption he superintended at the 2016 convention, and his insistence on securing meaningless changes in the Party platform and rules concerning how the nominee would be chosen in the next campaign, the one we are in the middle of. We have the 'support', lukewarm by the kindest imaginable description, he gave to the Party's nominee in 2016. Together with his known statements, and his long-standing Marxist background (which breaks through in reflexive attempts to defend Castro and Mao, when asked for a simple denunciation of authoritarian regimes), it is clear that 'Bernie' has no interest at all in electoral victory for the Democratic Party, unless he should be its standard bearer, which it is obvious he will not be, and never will be.

'Bernie' runs as a wrecker. His actions assisted this cheap thug Trump in 2016, and can only serve to assist this cheap thug Trump this year as well. When a person persists in actions which can only have one result, others must conclude that the result he achieves is the result he intends, particularly when there has been ample warning of those consequences, and they are so obvious a mere tyro can see their danger at a glance.

The fact is Sanders campaigns not to gain the Democratic Party's nomination for President, but to weaken if not wreck the 'Democratic Establishment'. For 'Bernie', ousting this cheap thug Trump and ending the Republican majority in the Senate is barely an afterthought to this long-standing purpose. Once Sanders' supporters face this fact squarely, they may be able to decide honestly what their best course in this election is: voting against 'Bernie' in any future primary, and for Mr. Biden and Democrats all down the ticket to the lowest office on the ballot come November.

It is probably true that Sanders sees destroying the 'Democratic Establishment' as an essential precondition to defeating this cheap thug Trump et al, and so by his own lights perhaps he means it when he says he will do all he can to defeat this cheap thug Trump. But that belief is so self-serving and delusional it deserves not just scorn but contempt.






"From Bernie’s perspective, dropping out of a race once you have no chance of winning is peculiar behavior that can only be explained by the work of a hidden hand. For most politicians, though, it is actually standard operating procedure. Only Sanders seems to think the normal thing to do once voters have made clear they don’t want to nominate you is to continue campaigning anyway."





"When things are not called by their right names, what is said cannot make sense. When what is said does not make sense, what is planned cannot succeed. When plans do not succeed, people become uneasy. When people are uneasy, punishments do not fit crimes. When punishments do not fit crimes, people cannot know where to put hand or foot."

[Paka]

38. Perhaps DU is the wrong location for me.

However, since this is the only site I post on I'm not qute ready to give it up during my shutin period. Besides, I'm beyond the age and just masochistic enough to not care about any insults you seem compelled to hurl. I will take a moment to defend against your dismissal of my intellectual capacity. After multiple University degress and spending many decades as a microbiologist doing hands on scienfific research, I have many collegues who would gainsay that. I am proud to be a published scientific researcher in a field that gives me some particular insight into the health issues at stake.

You have a right to your opinion that Senator Sanders should bow out, but I'm not alone in feeling that he is offering vital attention to the pertinent issues daily. If discussing the issues where Trump is complely unable to function is helping him, then you have a very different view of things than I do. The current situation is bigger in scope than any single party. This is the future of the country and democracy itself.

Good Luck and Have a Nice Day!

[The Magistrate]

46. Whether You Are Alone In Your Feelings Or Not, Ma'am

Last edited Tue Mar 31, 2020, 11:31 PM - Edit history (1)

Is immaterial to whether they are sensible, or in accord with the political needs of the moment. So, for that matter, is academic excellence, even in a health-related field. Sanders divides an effort that cannot afford to be split. Continued support for him, even by people who may agree with his stated goals, aggravates that split, and does so to a greater degree the longer it keeps him in countenance to continue.

It is a grim hope but a real one that the terrible mismanagement by the cheap thug Trump in this crisis will move the country to a sound rejection of him, but the degree to which he has successfully appealed to the basest impulses of his base supporters presents a danger to our prospects of evicting the wretch from office. It is an elementary axiom of strategy that effort must be concentrated on the decisive point, and not dispersed among several points. Again, this is not something you should need explanation of, but evidently you do. If Mr. Biden and the Democratic Party must continue to contend against both Sanders and the cheap thug Trump at the same time, they must violate this basic principle, and the effectiveness of the chief effort, against the cheap thug Trump, will necessarily be reduced below the best level that could be achieved.

This forced reduction in concentration of effort, to the detriment of efforts against the cheap thug, is employed by Sanders in an attempt to blackmail the Democratic Party, into making concessions to him. Concessions he has not the votes to warrant. That the concessions are largely meaningless does not lessen the damage giving in to Sanders will produce. Knuckling under to Sanders' blackmail will give onlookers the impression Mr. Biden and our Party are weak, and the last thing a candidate for high office can afford is to leave an impression of weakness. People value strength and rally to it, this is a basic truth of politics in a democracy. Meaningful concessions to Sanders would have an even worse effect, because a good portion of the voters we must count on are repelled by Sanders and do not want him or his proposals to be those of our Party. These far outnumber the comparatively small numbers, as a portion of the national electorate, which giving in to Sanders might gather in. Might is used advisedly, because there is no certainty Sanders has either the capability, or the desire to bring his followers into the fold. He has often said he is not, and never has been a liberal Democrat, and has for years taken the 'Democratic Establishment' as his chief enemy.

This seems sufficient to meet the needs of our exchange, and I have other things to attend to. If you think my address to you constitutes insult, rest assured were insult my intention, what you read would considerably harsher. The claim of being insulted when an accurate description is proffered of one's political position, and its self-evident consequences, and of the objective worth and likely roots of personal needs that are pressed as justification of that position, is an old trick here. It does not carry much weight.


"Americans love a winner! And hate a loser!"





"From Bernie’s perspective, dropping out of a race once you have no chance of winning is peculiar behavior that can only be explained by the work of a hidden hand. For most politicians, though, it is actually standard operating procedure. Only Sanders seems to think the normal thing to do once voters have made clear they don’t want to nominate you is to continue campaigning anyway."





"When things are not called by their right names, what is said cannot make sense. When what is said does not make sense, what is planned cannot succeed. When plans do not succeed, people become uneasy. When people are uneasy, punishments do not fit crimes. When punishments do not fit crimes, people cannot know where to put hand or foot."

[Blue_true]

25. So when do you call it quits?

If Biden smash Sanders in Wisconsin in a week, do you see then that there is no hope? What if Biden beats Sanders in the first 50% of the next states to vote, do you still insist that all states have not voted, so Sanders should stay in, even when him winning is beyond mathematically impossible?

[Paka]

39. This is no longer about winning the nomination.

This is about having a platform for the issues we are currently facing.

[Blue_true]

44. Voters are rather clearly saying that they want Biden's prescriptions.

Why don't you accept what a strong majority of democratic primary voters are saying they want?

Do you think that your rationale about how to solve issues is better than theirs? If you do, what causes such complete arrogance?

[Paka]

45. I simply believe all rational voices are welcome.

It's not a matter of one voice being better than another. It's simply looking at the full spectrum and not discounting any one point of view. An exchange of different ideas can be very beneficial. Limiting issues to one voice is my idea of true arrogance.

[fallout87]

31. Preach!

Im with you there... dont let the dog pile discourage you.! It sure as hell hasn't discouraged me. It aint over till its over.

[Paka]

40. The attacks do get tiresome.

I'm tough enough and old enough to let them slide off when it is our future at stake. Not so much my future as the youth in the country who face a very grim road ahead. Like Bernie says, we have to be ready to fight for those we don't even know.

[LVZ]

4. Bernie Bros are MATH DENIERS

[JoeDuck]

5. Rejected?

Would it not be more accurate to say that voters picked someone else? If not winning in the primary elections amounts to voter rejection, then it seems to me that a lot of former candidates were rejected by voters. That doesn't leave anyone to run for vice president.

[Hav]

6. It always depends on the candidate and situation

For instance, some candidates never gained traction and had to drop out before even one vote was cast.

On the other side, considering how a large majority of the supporters of the dropped out candidates flocked to Biden and that BS lost considerable support in comparison to 2016 which means that even many of his former supporters got fed up and tired of him, I'd say rejection from at least a part of the electorate is a fitting description.
The decision to support one candidate in a 1 on 1 race can be seen just as much as a rejection of what the other candidate brought to the table, especially if one those candidates is divisive and attacks the party he wants to be the leader of 24/7.

[Cha]

11. No.. the OP got it Exactly right.

[The Magistrate]

18. Rejection For One Office Is Not Rejection For Another, Sir

But of course you knew that....





"From Bernie’s perspective, dropping out of a race once you have no chance of winning is peculiar behavior that can only be explained by the work of a hidden hand. For most politicians, though, it is actually standard operating procedure. Only Sanders seems to think the normal thing to do once voters have made clear they don’t want to nominate you is to continue campaigning anyway."





"When things are not called by their right names, what is said cannot make sense. When what is said does not make sense, what is planned cannot succeed. When plans do not succeed, people become uneasy. When people are uneasy, punishments do not fit crimes. When punishments do not fit crimes, people cannot know where to put hand or foot."

[jaxexpat]

7. perhaps,

but if democrats fail to embrace the message which Bernie has pushed, we will, again, relegate ourselves to also-ran status. We cannot persist if we coast along, accepting the casual corruptions of power as acceptable practice, and hope to retain a loyal voting block. Nor should we accept being overruled by our 'betters' whose purpose seems to always wind up functioning as a backstop for the status-quo, a firewall against a passion for justice 'going too far'. This democracy must always be in a state of revolution/evolution or else it's not a democracy at all. Electoral success and complacency are not necessarily synonymous.

[Cha]

10. Np "perhaps" about it... you can see the results from

the primaries in the OP. The Voters Rejected BS and his agenda.

[jaxexpat]

12. Disagree Cha,

Bernie has definitely lost his bid. There's no reasonable doubt about that. However, elements of his agenda (and I think we may be on the same page anyway) have awakened a national sub-consciousness that suspects we can have a more fair society or at least not have to tolerate the blatant injustices endemic to unchecked wealth inequality. This hasn't been talked about much by the Democratic party since Johnson, if my recollection is not too cloudy. There's a baby in that bath water.

[Cha]

13. Don't care. Facts are Facts and will be no matter how much

anyone denies them.

[The Magistrate]

24. Not A Sustainable Line To Press, Sir

The flaw in it is the unstated premise that many ideas popular among Democratic Party primary voters are somehow the exclusive property of 'Bernie', and originated with him. They are not, and did not. Expanding health insurance, increasing the minimum wage, and a variety of other things, are longstanding goals not only of Democratic Party primary voters, but of most Democratic office-holders and officials as well. To state rejecting 'Bernie' is rejecting or opposing these goals, or betraying them, even, is ludicrous. The conclusion of the great preponderance of Democratic primary voters is that 'Bernie' is too flawed as a politician to have a hope of translating his words into enacted law, and too flawed as a candidate, with his Marxist background, to have any chance of success in a nationwide general election.






"From Bernie’s perspective, dropping out of a race once you have no chance of winning is peculiar behavior that can only be explained by the work of a hidden hand. For most politicians, though, it is actually standard operating procedure. Only Sanders seems to think the normal thing to do once voters have made clear they don’t want to nominate you is to continue campaigning anyway."





"When things are not called by their right names, what is said cannot make sense. When what is said does not make sense, what is planned cannot succeed. When plans do not succeed, people become uneasy. When people are uneasy, punishments do not fit crimes. When punishments do not fit crimes, people cannot know where to put hand or foot."

[Cha]

19. Kick!

[fallout87]

30. The primaries are over? No way?

Have a link to proof? Could have sworn they are still going on...

[HarlanPepper]

36. Have you seen any elections being held lately?

The world has moved on. Soooooorrrryyyy.

[Gothmog]

47. How 'Never Bernie' Voters Threw In With Biden and Changed the Primary

sanders was appealing only to 30% of the party and after South Carolina the rest of the party moved to Joe Biden to stop sanders.

Link to tweet

Rarely has political momentum flipped as quickly as it did in the first half of March, as Mr. Sanders lost serious ground to Mr. Biden before the coronavirus slowed their race. There are well-known reasons for the shift: Moderate candidates like Mr. Buttigieg and Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota rallied around Mr. Biden. He enjoyed demographic advantages, particularly with black voters. And turnout among young voters and liberal nonvoters did not surge, failing to reshape the electorate as Mr. Sanders had hoped.

But beyond ideology, race and turnout, a chief reason for Mr. Biden’s success has little to do with his candidacy. He became a vehicle for Democrats like Ms. King who were supporting other candidates but found the prospect of Mr. Sanders and his calls for political revolution so distasteful that they put aside misgivings about Mr. Biden and backed him instead.

In phone interviews, dozens of Democrats, mostly aged 50 and over, who live in key March primary states like Massachusetts, Virginia, Michigan and Florida, said that Mr. Biden’s appeal went beyond his case for beating President Trump. It was his chances of overtaking Mr. Sanders, the only candidate in the vast Democratic field they found objectionable for reasons personal and political.....

These voters’ willingness to unite against Mr. Sanders helped Democratic Party leaders stave off his insurgent campaign and has made Mr. Biden the all-but-certain Democratic nominee. The convergence behind Mr. Biden also highlights a critical difference between this year’s primary and what happened to the Republican Party in 2016. Four years ago, establishment Republicans were openly skeptical of Mr. Trump after his victories in early primary states, but a fractured field and split primary vote allowed him to amass an insurmountable delegate lead, reshaping the party in the process.....

Ahead of Mr. Sanders’s presidential run in 2020, his campaign did not concern itself with smoothing tensions among voters who supported Mrs. Clinton in 2016. He did not seek the endorsements of many party leaders, who were always unlikely to back him, but could have been swayed from being openly antagonistic to ambivalent.

As a result, after a strong finish in Iowa and wins in New Hampshire and Nevada, Mr. Sanders did not benefit from an assumed truth of presidential campaigns: that early-state victories help bring in voters from other factions. Instead, people like Lori Boerner of McLean, Va., said Mr. Sanders’s performance sent them searching for a candidate who could stop his rise, and after the South Carolina primary, they landed on Mr. Biden.

The vast bulk of the party does not like sanders which is why Joe Biden is going to the nominee

[Gothmog]

48. sanders is trailing by almost 40%

Last edited Thu Apr 2, 2020, 07:52 PM - Edit history (1)

Link to tweet