Are Biden's falling polling numbers due to the Pandemic?

[The Magistrate]

77. Good Analysis, Sir

Sanders is certainly falling short of his marks compared to his last effort. Several likely reasons come to mind.

First, he is no longer a novelty. This is one reason young voters are not turning out in the same numbers. He is a tune from a 'golden oldies' segment, so to speak. Some people still play the old tunes, most move on.

Second, a goodly portion of Democrats, people who consistently vote in Democratic primaries, who are active in local party activities, who consistently vote for Democratic Party candidates, hate the man with a passion. These people are eager to turn out to vote against 'Bernie', and inclined to give neither quarter nor mercy to him. They have seen the harm he does to their Party, and want him stopped. Hate is a powerful motivator. A lot of tosh is talked by pundits and such about giving people something to vote for. It is nonesense. A civics textbook view of things. People are more likely to vote against something than for something, if they genuinely hate and fear what they vote against.

Third, Sanders was the beneficiary of a good deal of misogynist feeling among 'white working class men' in 2016, which he mistook for the people rallying to his cause and showing they were eager for leftist policies if only approached by an authentic radical such as himself. This was a delusion, which he believed and probably still believes, because it is what he has craved all his adult life. One thing a sensible man learns as he grows to maturity is to be wary of seeing in the world around him what he wants to be true. When you think your dream is coming true is when you need to look at things with especial skepticism. You may still conclude it actually is happening, but first you ought to apply with rigor the old News Bureau test: "If your mother says she loves you ---- check it out." But Sanders wanted to believe, and still wants to believe, and probably will never quite let go of that wonderful feeling of fulfillment he enjoyed so four years ago. For none of those people, who voted for his gender rather than his policies, when all is said and done, are voting for him now.





"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."