I'll vote for Biden over Bernie, since I already can't vote for whom I want. I'd prefere Bernie, but there are serious concerns about how well he'd do in the general.

It basically comes down to flipping votes instead of generating new ones. There are conservative leaning folks who will vote for Biden over Trump, but will vote for Trump over Bernie. Flipping the votes of people who are going to vote anyways is, imo, a better strategy than trying to get people to vote who normally don't - which every single campaign ever has tried to do.

Either one will be one and done. Biden's not going to be cognizent enough to run again in 4 years (if he even is now). Bernie is old, but he has very little support in Congress, and has a history of sticking to ridged ideology when dealing with congressmen. His ideas are grand and sweeping, and you need tremendous support in both chambers to get them done. I don't think he has the backroom dealmaking skills to negotiate his will through congress ,and by the time 2024 rolls around he will have gotten very little of what he wants done.

Remember, the repubs will be screaming communism and socialism are taking over from the rooftops and use everything they can to screw it up. There's a large contingent of conservative dems that just won't be onboard with everything and are more worried about getting reelected than supporting Bernie.

I think you are totally correct.

Here's why I almost definitely won't vote for Biden. Even if most of us Berners show up for Biden, as we did for Hillary, he still won't win because he does not inspire the high turnout needed to overcome the lopsided representation of the electoral college. So the scenario would be that I degrade myself, compromise my integrity and morality by voting for the guy who wrote the crime bill, the guy who enthusiastically supported the Iraq disaster, the guy who is very loose with the truth talking about getting arrested to see Mandela, (completely false) the guy who is clearly in cognitive decline, and still we will lose. The result will be more Trump regardless of how I vote so I won't do it.

If something changes between now and then and it seems that there is a real chance he could win, I'll vote for him but as it is, no can do. It's not worth the slap in the face to my dignity if there is no chance it will change anything anyway.