Author unknown:
"I WAS SCOLDED RECENTLY BY A BIDEN SUPPORTER for pointing out negatives about Biden instead of positively promoting Bernie's policies. I want to clarify some things about that.
FIRST, please believe me that Bernie supporters would greatly prefer to have an election be all about policy. In fact, one of the main reasons why you become a Bernie supporter in the first place is because Bernie is the most issue-oriented politician we have.
HOWEVER, Biden, his supporters, and MSNBC have all made this cycle about Biden's electability, and have urged us that we can't even think about policy, because removing Trump is the only thing that matters, and even that we are "privileged" for still wanting to base a vote on policy. In fact, many Biden supporters have bought into this to the point of readily admitting that Bernie's policies are better, while still supporting Biden "because we have to beat Trump." You all have otherwise conveyed and demonstrated to us that you are not going to listen to policy arguments if we made them, because you only care about Biden's relative electability in a general election.
So if you don't like us talking about Biden's relative strengths and weaknesses as a candidate, instead of Bernie's policies, please understand that Biden and his supporters have chosen that terrain for this battle. It wasn't my idea. And you simply cannot expect to make the entire focus of your campaign "I'm electable," and then object when your opponents point out your negatives as a candidate. It can't work that way.
In the practice of law, we have a rule that you cannot attack the character of a witness UNLESS the witness himself makes it a point to assert what good character he has. Then he has "opened the door" to attacks on his character.
Biden has chosen this battlefield, and Biden has opened this door. If it's the only issue we're allowed to talk about, rest assured that we are going to talk about it. If you don't like what we're saying, you should have thought about that before you made the issue the electability of someone who can't successfully attack Trump's lying because he lies nonstop like Trump about his own record, who has credible allegations of rape against him like Trump, who is in clear mental decline like Trump (but more advanced), who can't successfully attack Trump's corruption because of his own family's nepotism, who falls apart and calls voters names and tells them to "vote for someone else" when he's questioned, who has the same problems as Hillary matching up against Trump in the rust belt swing states because of his votes on trade, and who does not contrast well with Trump on a belligerent foreign policy. What am I forgetting, because there is so much awfulness here.
And don't even act like I'm helping Trump, as if ANYTHING listed above is a top secret opposition research file. It's all laughably and pathetically in plain view, no matter how much the establishment-friendly corporate media tries to ignore it, and the Republicans have already started using it all against him.
We still have a chance to nominate a candidate who is at least honest, cogent, and creates a clear contrast with Trump.
Moreover, COVID-19 is about to put us in Great Depression conditions, and we need the FDR agenda that got us out of that, which is the agenda Bernie has been fighting for for 40 years. Bernie was made for this moment."
#DropOutBiden #StillSanders #Bernie2020
Don't overestimate the American voters responding to policy. If you do you are making a horrible mistake. Show me which election where that actually worked. Americans historically vote for someone entirely different from the Pesident they just had. I think it could very well be a brokered convention and it will be niether Bernie or Biden. That is my hope anyway.
Here, here.
Well said.
There are many flaws that can be pointed to concerning Biden and it is right to point to them during the primary in order to make informed decisions. For some reason, vote blue no matter who folks see it as a betrayal and will say that you are a Russian MAGA bot in a circular firing squad with your head up your ass. As if criticizing a presidential candidate for some very negative qualities automatically means that you are fighting for the other team and attempting to get Trump elected. The main reason I am so hard on Biden is because I know that he can't beat Trump. I want Trump gone as much as everyone else and that is why I feel that it is imperative that Biden go down now before Trump has an opportunity to tear him, and our hopes for the white house, to shreds.
That's a really good point you make about them selecting the terrain of the battle and then complaining when we fight on it. I've been talking politics non-stop for more than a year now and I have still found not a single person to give me an enthusiastic response to the question of why people ought to vote for Biden. There is no argument to make for Biden in regard to policy. His wife said it herself, you may like some other candidate more but you have to swallow it and vote for Joe. I would love for this discussion to be centered on policy. It's easy when your guy is by far the best in that realm but they have totally focused on electablity because they know Biden has a terrible record and weak sauce policy. So we point out the legitimate reasons as to why Joe is unelectable and for doing so, we are Russian traitors. i think it is telling that they have already started to play the blame game. We will again be the scapegoats for the loss of the establishment candidate. They must have little faith in their pick if they are already creating the narrative that it is our fault that Trump gets another term.
I think you nailed it in your assessment of why Biden is not a good match up against Trump. I would add that Biden stood with segregationists in the 70s. He has been vocal about his willingness to cut social security and medicare. He enthusiastically supported the Iraq war. And he was forced to drop out of a previous presidential campaign because of plagiarism and dishonesty.
I'm sure this post will be seen as an effort to help Trump. They overlook the fact that the primary continues. We are opposing a competitor to our chosen candidate. We are doing it because we know that Biden will be a disaster for the party and the country. Not to help Trump, the opposite, if Biden is chosen, it's a near guarantee that Trump wins.The only thing that can change that would be if Trump bungles this pandemic response to the point that it costs hundreds of thousands of lives. It could happen but so far, his numbers are up even though his performance has been terrible. We need a populist with a strong following and appealing policy to beat Trump.
For any Biden supporters out there. Please fill me in. Why Biden? I've been asking but never getting straight answers.
My take is there is still too much power and money to be conolidated with trump in the WH. Picking Biden over Sanders looks to me like the dems really want money and power for a few. We see how it lays out now that the pandemic seems to have altered things.
Why democrats refuse to understand the superior electability of a candidate running for policy, rather than running for flimsy electability, is the biggest mindfuck of the century. If they want to survive kleptocracy, they had better get over that.