In an interview with the Guardian from his home base in Burlington, Vermont, Sanders urged the Democratic president to inject more urgency into his bid for re-election. He said that unless the president was more direct in recognising the many crises faced by working-class families his Republican rival would win.
“We’ve got to see the White House move more aggressively on healthcare, on housing, on tax reform, on the high cost of prescription drugs,” Sanders said. “If we can get the president to move in that direction, he will win; if not, he’s going to lose.”
The US senator from Vermont added that he was in contact with the White House pressing that point. “We hope to make clear to the president and his team that they are not going to win this election unless they come up with a progressive agenda that speaks to the needs of the working class of this country.”
Sanders’ warning comes at a critical time in American politics. On Monday, Republicans in Iowa will gather for caucuses that mark the official start of the 2024 presidential election.
Biden faces no serious challenger in the Democratic primaries. But concern is mounting over how he would fare against Trump given a likely rematch between them in November.
Every once in awhile I catch myself thinking about how different the world would have been if Bernie was president and it’s just so fucking sad.
I get that all the other problems would still exist, but there would be a glimmer of hope to cling on to.
I voted for Bernie and he would have been great, I always find myself thinking about Gore winning more often. I have more respect for Bernie for sure but we’d have been in such a better place by 2016. Jesus, there’s a non-zero chance that the 9/11 warnings don’t get ignored and the US definitely doesn’t invade Iraq or Afghanistan. The housing bubble would probably still have burst in a bad way but I doubt it goes down the same way. Supreme Court wouldn’t be as full of neocons and zealots.
Not just that if Gore had won and 9-11 would have still happened we would have likely seen a push away from oil starting in the early 2000s. I think Gore could’ve turned that into an opportunity to say “to hell with these middle east authoritarians and their oil, we can do better for ourselves and better for the planet.”
Unfortunately I was 6 when 9-11 happened so I didn’t have much say in these matters.
Gore would have been a timeline-changer. I would vote for him now. I wonder if he’s a viable candidate at this point?
Wilson threw us onto the bad timeline.
Goddamnit, when can we get some time machines already!
If nothing else, I’m fairly sure Gore would have actually read his intelligence briefings.
Yeah, this was always my big one too. I’m a green at heart, but I learned a brutal lesson then, that I’ll carry inside of me forever. A lesson that has only gotten reinforced by the slow march of modern fascism.
Democracy requires dialogue, patience, empathy and compromise. The alternative is authoritarianism, and the unavoidable power struggles that come from too much centralized power in a world with ambitious humans. We need to remember that, and dialogue and compromise with our, in many ways younger-self progressives, instead of trying to corral them. We can do this. We are not too afraid.
Give em hell Bernie.
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/11/14/16640082/donna-brazile-warren-bernie-sanders-democratic-primary-rigged
https://www.independentdelaware.org/the_dnc_and_rnc_are_private_corporations
Niiice
Totally getting ranked choice voting in 2028; 2026 if the midterms work out. /s
Ugh…you’re 1000% right. That timeline sounds wonderful.
Yeah I think with gore we’d’ve had a good chance of being the world leader in switching to green energy right around when hummers got popular instead.
His EO’s alone would have accomplished more in one term than any Dem since LBJ.
Fix the whole last century and just assassinate Wilson in 1911-1912 before the damn election.
It’s possible we’d be in a better situation now. Lots of obvious things like not tossing out known facts about terrorism efforts and having a climate change awareness leadership. There’s much that would still be the same, like the system of consumerism that is the core of much of our problems. One person in a limited power seat can’t fix that, I’m not sure anything can outside of failure of the system itself. But I do think we would have at least avoided that one historic turning point that revved back up the military drive of the US. Even GWB’s administration was looking into ways of reducing the military into smaller, more mobile parts until suddenly we went into revenge mode. Or useful crisis mode.
We might be thinking about Biden winning his second term as Nazis take over the US in the future - Get your friends to vote
I do wish he had been president, but I also wonder how much of his agenda he could have gotten past congress, even if Democrats were in charge. Most Democrats are, at best, about preserving the status quo and I hate having to vote for them just to stop the people who will make things even worse.
I voted for Bernie every chance I’ve had, but I genuinely doubt he could have achieved the current level of success much less something better.
Without a Congress full of like-minded people, it would have been a struggle. I think we can have someone like Bernie for president one day, but it’s people being passionate and engaging with every vote and every election.
You underestimate the “soft” or indirect power of the bully pulpit.
Biden uses his speeches to reinforce the status quo and talk about how at our soul we are a good country - something no one except people who already have all their major tangible needs addressed care to hear.
Bernie has always talked about direct and material type needs - like healthcare, rights - not only social, but also economic - and how little Americans have on average when it comes to social safety nets compared to even modest economies across the rest of the industrialized world… issues that a vast majority of disenfranchised would-be voters want addressed, but otherwise have given up hope for.
Never mistake that a populist activates a ton of apathetic voters, whether first time or those long disengaged. It’s how Trump could take a person like Cesar Sayoc, who didn’t give a shit about politics before Trump - and turn him into a sticker covered madman dipshit terrorist. It’s how he convinced a bunch of assholes attending his rally to literally storm the Capitol.
Populism is powerful. And it is only possible to be most effective when a country’s elected leaders have done little to address real material condition type problems, ripening a populace grown restless, desperate and angry for any change… and unfortunately - more likely also to be vulnerable to demagoguery.
Though I agree with you that Bernie may not have been able to do things directly, I can guarantee you he would’ve indirectly gotten more people actively working - both from a citizenry perspective and those who would work to be elected into office themselves for the change that is needed.
Don’t forget that people like AOC literally ran after volunteering for Sanders’ 2016 presidential campaign.
That’s a really great point and something I hadn’t really considered.
Undoubtedly they would’ve sabotaged Bernie every chance they got, just like the labour party sabotaged Corbyn in the UK. Both of those parties are glad they only had to sabotage during the elections.
Remember when debbie Wasserman shutlz stole the dnc nomination from bernie to give it to Hillary?
That one rug pull gave donnie the win.
Remember when this was challenged and the court ruled the Parties have no obligation to play fair
With an election coming up, the Schrodingers Leftist dilemma is in full force, even on Lemmy -
Where we’re simultaneously both powerful enough to be personally behind every Republican win of the past 20 years, and also so insignificant that we must be ridiculed and bullied at every turn to remind us that we have NO PLACE in their party they blame us for not backing.
The best part is that most of the time people hit both sides of the coin in the same comment.
What
Centerists, or people who voted for Biden in the primaries tell progressives and leftists we’re minority viewpoints within the Democrat party. Implying that we have no business trying to influence the direction of the party. These same centerists also blame us when their garbage candidates don’t win in the general election and tell us things like “Biden was a good compromise” or “You got pretty much everything you wanted” despite neither of those things being true.
Centerists got so comfortable winning elections on their own they forgot how to compromise and accuse anyone else trying to negotiate as “throwing a tantrum”.
I can’t decide if you’re doing that on purpose.
i read this same exact bunch paragraphs earlier. why is it here again?
Or if Gore won
I mean, he did.
The 2000 election was decided by the Supreme Court, not the voters.
This is the most upsetting part, he fucking won, and we still have to live with the consequences of the GOP blatantly stealing the election
But, But Bernie would’ve turned us into the USSR! /s
A significant portion of the US population think Biden is a communist, how would Sanders have a chance of winning enough votes?
There’s a reason Trump fought so hard to have Bernie as the democratic nominee in 2020.
a significant portion of the US population thinks trump is a fascist, how would he have a chance of winning enough votes?
there’s a reason hilary fought so hard to have trump as the republican nominee in 2016.
…
am i doing it right?
I’m not doing another conversation with you so you can ghost it when it gets to difficult to counter then report my comments.
this is poisoning the well. (a form of ad hominem)
it’s also a lie.
and what i said is true.
and here is some more truth: i don’t want you to respond to anything i ever say.
Modlogs are public.
Anyone who wants to can look at it.
Have a nice day.
i hope they do.
i can’t seem to find my reports. can you link them?
Have a nice day.
did you finally find the block button?