The last great presidential candidate. The only once I’ve ever actually liked.
Hopefully more senators like AOC will come around that were motivated by Bernie and can take the party over.
I hope liberals learn from this and start organizing. The billionaire-funded Democrat party will never pin blame on the capitalists that fund them to get working class votes.
Bernie’s coalition was filled with the exact type of voters who are now flocking to Donald Trump: Working class voters of all races, young people, and, critically, the much-derided bros. The top contributors to Bernie’s campaign often held jobs at places like Amazon and Walmart. The unions loved him. And— never forget — he earned the coveted Joe Rogan endorsement that Trump also received the day before the election this year. It turns out, the Bernie-to-Trump pipeline is real! While that has always been used as an epithet to smear Bernie and his movement, with the implication that social democracy is just a cover for or gateway drug to right wing authoritarianism, the truth is that this pipeline speaks to the power and appeal of Bernie’s vision as an effective antidote to Trumpism. When these voters had a choice between Trump and Bernie, they chose Bernie. For many of them now that the choice is between Trump and the dried out husk of neoliberalism, they’re going Trump.
Read Blackshirts and Reds
We need at least one new party in this country, and one that runs for local elections first to build a bench of people who can run for higher office.
Even if I didn’t believe the national Green Party was just a spoiler (regardless of how they started out,) they spend all their time and energy pushing a presidential candidate every four years rather than working on ground game.
I think states like Texas are actually fertile ground if you focus on what people are dealing with in their day to day life and start small-county commissions, town council positions, even sheriff if you have a county where the local sheriff is unpopular and your party platform is looking at criminal justice reform.
I also think pushing for changes to use ranked choice voting with proportional representation would generate long-term change. Single Tranferable Vote has worked well in Ireland, and historically it worked well in multiple American cities: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_transferable_vote?wprov=sfti1
I think the problem isn’t the cities, it is the rural bits in between that won’t want to give up their excess power per vote in the current system.
Those are also places where a lot of regressive candidates run unopposed and hold office for decades because they’re the only ones who have an interest in the position. Prime spots for someone with different ideas to throw their hat in the ring.
I was specifically talking about changing the election system, not just getting elected.
Liberals and neoliberals are the problem. The only solution is for progressives to start a new party. The DNC just showed that it is incapable of learning, constantly courting the right that will never actually vote for them, or telling billionaire donors to fuck off.
Liberals are just conservatives that refuse to take their masks off. Neoliberals even more so. These are the “white moderates,” and the “supporters of the MIC,” that Martin Luther King Jr., and Eisenhower warned us about.
Bernie showed us the way forward. Billionaires are merely dragons to be slain and ignored.
I’ve been seeing suggestions for that book a lot. I was even going to see if I can grab it from my local library, but it’s just an e-book for some reason. I guess I can read it on my tablet but i prefer physical books. I do want to support my library though by using them, so it’s a tough choice lol.
You can always check out the e-book version even if you go find a physical copy to read instead. I saw a librarian asking people to do stuff like that since the active use of library services let’s them argue for better funding and services.
Also, see if they have a physical copy at another branch. My local library is part of a network that spans across multiple towns, and they can often get books sent to them from other branches if they don’t have a copy themswlves.
Good idea. I haven’t used my local library in awhile, but I’m worried about library funding with Trump. It’s why this is the first time in a long time I looked into a book from the library. I’m using any excuse to like you said, argue their services are being actively used. It’s good to hear it confirmed that it does actually help librarians and that they’re encouraging that.
Please note that the “Bernie bros” that became right wing could have been psyops. I’ve seen a few ones stupidly admitting it, because Trump would have struggled against Bernie, maybe even have lost in a landslide.
The right are perpetually angry. They are angry when they win and angry when they lose. It’s a hallmark of their cult. There’s no pleasing these people because they don’t know what they’re angry about, they just prefer to be angry.
I want Bernie for president and I’m not even American.
We tried. And almost got him. But then the DNC Services Corp rigged the game against us to stop him.
I’ve said this before but the DNC is actually just another wing of the Oligarchy. They exist to provide a fabricated conflict so that people think it’s a divide based on ideals, not on class divide it truly is. Look at the wealth of all of the leaders in the DNC. It’s pretty much the same circles and wealth as the RNC.
I don’t think it is quite that simple. It is more like part of each party is controlled by that interest but there are also people who genuinely try to achieve something matching their own world view, some of those good, some bad.
People keep saying they list due to reaching out to moderate republicans. No, they ARE the moderate republicans. They won’t do anything that will upset their wealthy donors.
Is there a chance for him to win vs Trump if he was chosen as the primary?
I think the Democrats are too far right, but that’s not what lost them the election. What lost them the election is that voters think the President controls the price of groceries, and if cheaper groceries means killing a lot of brown people, that’s a small price to pay.
Trump is going to prove that the President controls the price of groceries by enacting tariffs on imported food and getting rid of all the people who catch, raise, and harvest our food. He’s going to make grocery prices go through the roof.
I’m sure that will be blamed on someone else. Probably trans people.
It’s a toss up between them or the “illegals.” While they do hate trans people, it’s a more convincing argument for people who aren’t complete idiots to say it’s because of an increased demand caused by non-citizens taking resources from patriotic American citizens™
More like Democrats lol.
And the same immigrants they deported which keep help keep grocery prices down without all the subsidies so the people at the top can price gouge us during a pandemic only to line their pockets and have Republicans shoot down every chance Democrats try to legislate against it.
…something, something, Bernie warned us about this in a video 20 years ago, something, something, status quo…
It is so incredibly refreshing to hear someone with (however limited) power say what I’ve been seeing with the naked eye.
A four-hour drive through rural America last week showed me this: trump signs in the very poorest and the very richest yards, for miles and miles. There was the occasional Harris sign for obviously middle-class dwellings but not all.
He describes the plight of these people correctly, and while they haven’t been offered enough by the dems, they aren’t choosing the republicans because they are offering them more. They’re choosing them because they fear change and the Republicans promise to protect them from change. The fear comes from ignorance / lack of a decent rural education system.
Not American, but I saw it as the opposite: that US voters are sick of the status quo. They want a radical change candidate who’ll shake things up. They want anything but business-as-usual.
Not to discount stupidity and racism. There’s that too, but I have to hope it’s mostly borne out of fear.
Yeah, that is a very weird position to hold, the status quo is shit for me but I don’t want change. Not disagreeing with you though that it is that way.
People are pretty good at adapting to even pretty lousy conditions if a steady-state can be maintained. We all have very strong loss aversion though. You can capitalize on the most extreme versions on this in populations that don’t have a loss buffer, lack diverse skillsets , and have had limited exposure to diversity of any sort. Tell them someone that looks different than them is going to change the food they eat, build a different place of worship next to their church, and take their jobs away from them by working for much less and you’ve got an effective boogeyman that you can promise to defend them from (while stealing from them even). Hell, it works so damn well you can tell them that these boogie men will eat their pets and they will take you seriously.
I’m tired of being told how awesome the economy is. It’s great for the rich, but the cost of necessities like housing, food, and healthcare has outpaced the CPI, so we all feel worse. A cheaper big screen tv doesn’t help much if you can’t afford the basics.
Aggregate economic data only says so much. Lots of INDIVIDUAL people are suffering. While the CPI is one basket of products, everyone has their own, and this everyone has their own rate of inflation. So saying wages have kept up with inflation is a fallacy on 2 fronts. Some saw income outpace the CPI, others it did not and they’ve lost income. But even among the former group, everyone had a personal rate of inflation that may well be higher than the CPI.
Instead, the wealthy and politicians look at averages and medians and assume it’s just negative feelings. But we were alive in the 90s. We were alive in the early 2000s. We know about the 50s and 60s. We know the economy used to be better for working people. We want better.
Trump, of course, will not deliver that. But Harris didn’t inspire confidence she would, either.
My wife is a teacher, so we use her healthcare, but I still peek in at the healthcare at my job when enrollment comes along, just to be diligent.
It went up 20% this year, from $600 to $720. If you make $30K a year and got a 3% cost of living adjustment, you make less this year than last year from healthcare alone.
Food, gas, rent, cars, childcare, utilities, everything is up. I guess it’s cool that US steel or something might be doing well, and the stock market is up, but that minimally affects the day to day of most people.
My raises, baring promotion, are 2% a year. I did the math. I’ve lost $10,000 a year to inflation at this point. In aggregate it’s around $22,000 at this point.
And yet every newscast has a stock ticker. Even NPR gives the stock index ratings several times a day.
Even Trump loved ranting about his stock market.
Stock markets are just one measure though. Just like you don’t know the weather by just looking at a thermometer, you don’t know the economy by just looking at the stock market.
We don’t really have to worry about what Trump offered, he got less votes than last time on the same tired platform. The problem was Democrats through and through not being left at all. Losing millions of votes that way. Some people can play the lesser of two evils game, but as we just saw there are not enough people who can vote while holding their noses.
I held my nose, but the numbers clearly show it was a Democrat failure to communicate, empathize, and/or initiate with voters.
I held my nose, but the numbers clearly show it was a Democrat failure to communicate, empathize, and/or initiate with voters.
But they got Dick Cheney on board!
I think Bernie is giving too much credit to Americans. IMO the election doesn’t show that the Dems abandoned anybody, it shows that half the voters in the country are fucking idiots. To help them you would have to trick them into letting you. Unfortunately most people with that ability are assholes who are only going to use the amorphous mass of stupidity for their own benefit.
this is the real based take. may the salt of your enemies enhance the flavor of your meals.
The election Margin was under 200k people in 3 states. Correctly people in safe states voted for what they wanted not what they had to do.
America needs more people like Bernie, too bad Republicans and Democrats are hopeless and don’t get it
The Democratic party has failed us. We need an actual workers party and we have about 3 years to build it.
Join PSL if you have not already
I have my first PSL meeting on Sunday, I’m really anxious (hello social anxiety) but I’m bringing my husband. Organize or die is what I’m thinking! I’m sorry your post brought out miserable people
Capitalism does not need to go. Croneyism needs to go. Our government has for decades been catering to the corporations that run America, from Amazon to the Railroad. They helped these massive corporations consolidate their markets by regulating small and new players out of existence. They take their money and make sure they don’t lose their spots on top.
He’s spot-on. I’m pissed and do want change.
Both sides do.
It’s just a shame that was the only real option on the ballot.
This is exactly what happened - not that there weren’t any real options on the ballot, but that people are fucking idiots. You don’t even get that this comic is about you.
It’s really not and you’ve missed their point. Tbqh it’s more about you than about them.
For once I disagree with Bernie.
You can blame the DNC for being useless and out of touch but they always have been, nothing changed there. You can blame them for their shitty messaging and not listening to the concerns of working people … ditto.
What changed in this election is that millions of people, who know Trump is a a liar, a criminal, a rapist, a narcissist … I could go on and on. Well, they decided to vote for him because none of those negative traits were sufficiently off-putting.
This was a test of the collective character and morality of the nation and the United States failed that test miserably. Put it down to a poor standard of public education, Russian/Iranian/Chinese propaganda, accelerationism, racism, misogyny, whatever mix of reasons you’re comfortable with. Could the DNC have done better? Absolutely. Would the DNC doing better have won the election for Harris? Probably not, given the margin of victory.
Trump’s vote was largely static. He didn’t add significant support in any way. We already knew a third of the country was filled with regressive assholes. The reason he won was that over 15 million people who voted for Biden in 2020 sat this one out. This was 100% a messaging failure and the DNC deserves all the blame. Sanders is absolutely right here. We wanted to hear about unions and job protection and taxing billionaires, not see Harris try to court right wingers while paling around with that fucking ghoul Liz Cheney and her war criminal father. They fucked up, they lost.
Trump’s vote was largely static. He didn’t add significant support in any way.
That’s my point. Trump is a known quantity now and he didn’t lose support. That’s a failure of the US electorate.
Ask yourself why Harris had to run a near perfect campaign to even stand a chance of winning while Trump ran a campaign that should’ve seen him lose badly, in a more informed and moral country, and still won.
Because she’s party of the administration in power and people aren’t happy right now, so they blame whoever is in power even if it’s not quite their fault. They don’t care that the rate of inflation slowed to basically normal, they care that things are still expensive because their wages haven’t risen to match the raised inflation and their savings are lower. It used to be easier for incumbents, but as the conditions in the US continue to degrade from late stage capitalism and 60 years of neoliberal policies, I have a feeling it will continue to be the opposite.
Holding the line won’t work with people getting poorer every year (and if your wage doesn’t match inflation or the rising costs of housing or transportation, that’s what happening, you’re getting poorer).
Bro if you call that campaign “near perfect,” have I got a bridge to sell you.
That’s not what I said, not even close.
She wasn’t even the candidate for most of it… she was only the candidate because the other guy had to be replaced for having egg salad for brains
I’ve been wondering about exactly this, do you have any statistics you can point me to? No hard feelings if it was a thing you saw but didn’t save.
Nah, you’re wrong to blame the voters.
It’s time to take an honest look at DNC leadership and ask some difficult questions - why aren’t they interested in doing more to actually win votes? Will they ever learn that pandering to corporations for bribe money is a losing strategy?
Besides, Trump actually got fewer votes this time around than 2020. So your premise is flawed there too. It’s just that Harris and the DNC got way less. Dems lost this one and if you ask me it’s because of their Israel First policy and fierce commitment to ongoing genocide and denial of reality. Couple that with insane inflation directly and negatively impacting people’s material conditions, and somehow Trump was able to pose as the change candidate. Politically, that’s all that matters when the people are miserable.
The people who voted for Trump do deserve the blame. In some sense, they deserve the biggest share of the blame. After all, they voted for him.
The Democratic Party failed us all, though. They also deserve a significant slice of blame.
Alright this is gettin a bit much, Bernie endorsed all of this shit. The change he’s talking about was on the ballot and he was pushing the conservative coddling moderate.
He was trying to do everything he could to prevent Trump. That meant holding his tongue so as not to encourage people against strategic voting. It’s a very dumb system we have, but it’s not Bernie’s fault we’re in it.
Now that the general is over, he can speak his mind again. And probably a hint of getting ahead of the Democratic Party’s inevitable blaming of the left for this loss rather than an ounce of introspection.
Not everything, one thing, the same thing everyone here was trying to do, the same thing the DNC was doing, trying to appeal to conservatives. This is the result, no one wanted conservative democrats, but everyone was holding their nose and pushing for it.
Now after the fact people are trying to act like they support progressives.
What else was he to do? Sometimes the lesser of 2 evils is the only choice.
Endorse an even lesser evil, perhaps even popular good? Why was Kamala the only person in the world that wasnt Trump?
Because no one else could win.
She didnt win. Thats literally the only thing you see in her, and even that is not there.
And what, you think Putin’s favorite Jill Stein would? Cornel West?
She came far and away the closest.
With a Bernie endorsement? Without democrats fighting to ban them from even being allowed to run? If progressive voters supported progressive candidates?
But nah, theres a photo of Jill and Putin in proximity of eachother. And you cant even bother to think of a reason to oppose West.
There was a zero percent chance them winning, Bernie endorsement or no.
i hope Bernie discovers Fediverse and stop using the broken bird site
…i get his correspondence via email…
