Where did Bernie's revolution go wrong?

[brooklynite]

Los Angeles Times

Bernie Sanders still has at least a mathematical chance to overtake Joe Biden in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination.

But to pull that off, Sanders probably needs to make dramatic changes to a campaign that ran into a brick wall on March 3, when he lost 10 of 14 states and the lead in delegates. He’ll get a chance on Tuesday, when six more states vote.

Super Tuesday exposed Sanders’ biggest problem, especially now that he’s in a two-man race: He has failed to expand his support much beyond the progressives he came with.

The Vermont senator says he leads a “multi-generational, multiracial movement” and argues that he is the strongest candidate Democrats can field to beat President Trump in November. But last week’s results knocked a gaping hole in that argument.

[Cha]

1. So many reasons..

[HarlanPepper]

9. This line might sum it up the best

“We’re trying to transform this country, not win an election, not just beat Trump,” he said. “The real question is: How [have] we come this far, taking on the corporate establishment?“

The problem with this for Bernie is that Democrats care more about beating Trump than anything else. Certainly more than they care about creating some kind of “revolution.”

That’s why he has lost, in a nutshell. He just doesn’t seem to grasp that at all.

[Cha]

12. Sorry BS.. we Want to WIN the ELECTION of our Life Time!

We care More About Our Country and Planet.. Nutshell.

Miscalculation on his part.

[HarlanPepper]

13. Yep YUGE miscalculation

[betsuni]

33. He can't see a difference between the two parties.

Since the sixties.

[DavidDvorkin]

2. Perhaps before it started

Sanders' seeming success at the beginning was illusory. The other side of the contest was divided among a number of candidates, and giant rally crowds are not predictive and don't necessarily reflect the public mood.

[PatSeg]

11. The large crowds were deceptive

Meanwhile, his campaign staff was disorganized and undisciplined. It was like no one was in charge and everyone was acting like a free agent. Bernie had the message and the energy, but not the organization to sustain it and grow his support.

[Gothmog]

3. From day 1, Bernie built a campaign to appeal to 30%

Link to tweet

So if, from day one, they didn’t think they needed more than 30%, why would they actually run a campaign and build a culture designed to win more than his 30% ceiling? As that article notes, even way back in early 2019, Sanders was picking fights and creating enemies out of potential allies.

We saw that in Sanders’ refusal to broaden his message to bring in more people. When I said exactly that on Meet the Press, that “the problem with Bernie Sanders is that he has the exact same message he had four years ago” when he lost to Hillary Clinton 60-40, the response from the Sanders campaign was, well, this:

Link to tweet

If your message wasn’t a majority message four years ago, and you want to win, wouldn’t you tweak it? They didn’t. Proudly and explicitly did not tweak it. They had zero intention of growing new support by broadening and expanding their message. (Sanders famously refused to even inject more biography into his stump speech to humanize him more.)

Sanders and his campaign saw that their ceiling was 30%, and they built an entire strategy around winning with 30%. That means that instead of seeing the other 70% of voters as allies, they saw them as THE ENEMY. Even when there was ideological alignment.

[Cha]

10. Which makes no sense.. I want a President who is a Uniter.

[OnDoutside]

20. I suspect that the less diverse people are part of his believers, the less he has to compromise, and

Bernie doesn't do compromise. He needed Pete, Amy etc to stay in as long as possible so that he could rack up delegates, by keeping the Biden vote low.

[Cha]

35. Darn.. just didn't work out the way he planned it.. to Pete and Amy..

[OnDoutside]

44. He was only days away from it working, that close

Phew, hopefully !

[Cha]

45. The timing of this whole thing is Phenomenal!

Last edited Mon Mar 9, 2020, 05:05 AM - Edit history (1)

It happened so fast to even process yet..

Have you seen this chilling seemingly random story?.. but maybe not so random..

Before the Clyburn Endorsement, an Elderly Church Usher With a Question

https://upload.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1287&pid=648915

[OnDoutside]

46. On such moments ...

[honest.abe]

4. The wrong messenger.

Bernie rubs many people the wrong way.

[Botany]

5. With Bernie

N/t

[relayerbob]

6. Turning it into a personality cult would be the first step off track, IMO nt

[Aristus]

27. I supported Bernie in the 2016 primaries, and voted for Hillary in the general, proudly, and excited

to have a female President for the first time.

Unfortunately, as you have pointed out, for too many Bernie supporters, it became a personality cult, in which surrendering to the enemy became preferable to knowing who one's true friends were.

No greater evidence for this exists than the fact that the Bernie people who stayed home on Election Day continued to insist that Trump and Hillary Clinton were cut from the same cloth. No amount of evidence to the contrary would dissuade them from this patently idiotic assertion.

I'm hoping that in the intervening four years, they have grown up and wised up, and that all the Bernie trumpeting going on online is from Russian troll-bots. I can't believe that any real progressive would be happier with four more years of Trump than a Democratic candidate who is not Bernie Sanders.

[treestar]

28. Then their theory that Dump

Would be so bad that people would want a revolution hasn’t seemed to have worked. This is the point where we should all be turning to Bernie, under that theory.

[relayerbob]

29. I also voted for him in the primaries and HRC in the GE

True progressives should have flocked to Warren, who had better credentials. But she wasn't "Bernie". In fact, I always refer to him now as Sanders, because "Bernie" is an image, not a person. Probably many of the same people who believed Obama was going to deliver them unicorns, lol

[drmeow]

31. Me, too

Sanders 2016, Warren 2020. By the time I voted, if there'd been ranked choice voting Sanders would have beat Bloomberg and maybe (not 100% sure) Gabbard. If he were to win the nomination, I will hold my nose and vote for him.

Unfortunately the trumpeting is not just Russian troll-bots - one of my oldest friends has blocked my FB feed and I regularly hide her posts cause she's a Bernie fanatic. The straw that broke the camel's back was when I pointed out that she had posted a right wing talking point about taxes. I don't know if she voted for Hillary or not - I tried my best to convince her.

[Thekaspervote]

7. I'm just so happy this is going to come to an end soon

No sanders will probably not drop out even when it becomes obvious he’s lost, but the rhetoric will calm down

[George II]

8. It never really began.

[Gothmog]

14. Sanders' campaign plan to win the nomination with only 30% of the vote

This plan never made sense to me

Link to tweet

[comradebillyboy]

21. One would need substantial establishment support to pull

off that gambit.

[Gothmog]

40. sanders evidently thought that he had the committment of the establishment to support him

[comradebillyboy]

41. Sounds delusional to me. nt

[Julian English]

15. The BS campaign started to go wrong in 2012 when BS talked of challenging Obama

The criticism of President Obama by BS and his ongoing criticism of Obama did nothing to advance the Democratic and Progressive agendas.

When BS ran in the 2016 Democratic Primary, continued to run long after his campaign failed and only grudgingly conceded, then gave only half-hearted support his campaign went wrong further.

When he failed to acknowledge his role in tRump being elected, while minimizing the extent he'd lost to HiRC, he showed how wrong he'd been in 2016.

When he had a heart attack in 2019 but refused to acknowlge that this was a significant issues, he campaign was off the rails.

When the BS bros online harassment went into high gear but BS did nothing the train wreck went off the rails.

Now that Biden is the clear choice of the party and file but BS attributes to the establishment the wreck has begun to lose even salvage value.

History will not remember BS with any kindness.

[brush]

16. 1 word: Socialism.

[Julian English]

17. I have to disagree.

Last edited Sun Mar 8, 2020, 10:04 PM - Edit history (1)

I favor many socialist ideas, but I'm also a realist. B

BS is simply not the person to have progressive ideas become reality. BS simply lacks the skills to do so.

He's been mouthing these ideas for decades but never been able to get anything done.

Senator Warren in her relatively brief career has accomplished more that BS has in decades.

BS is just not effective at working with others, a skill you need to make change happen. Senator Warren has these skills.

[BidenBacker]

23. It's all about semantics

Let's not kid ourselves...Republicans love socialism just as much as any left-winger. As long as it helps THEM or is for things they like. Taking money from citizens and giving it to the military so that they can provide for the common good and ensure national security? That's "socialism". Injecting taxpayer money into Wall Street so that our economy doesn't collapse when they get too greedy and royally fuck up? That's "socialism". Providing government assistance to red states whenever their residents get devastated by natural disasters? That's "socialism". Giving farmers a handout when a trade war with China wipes out their income? That's "socialism". But they will never call it that or admit to it because God knows "socialism" is pure evil and un-American.

As popular as it is on both sides of the political spectrum, the word "socialism" still scares the living shit outta most Americans. "Fascism" should scare them even more, IMO. "Revolution" is a scary word to a majority of people...so it's not terribly surprising that folks are shunning Sanders.

"Change" doesn't scare most people. God knows we need it and Obama used it effectively. "Evolution" is non-threatening...Bernie woulda done a lot better if he had dropped the R.

It's all just semantics. I once worked on the MX missile during the Reagan years. Support and funding were flagging and the program almost got cancelled. Then in a stroke of genius Ronnie changed the name to "Peacekeeper" and suddenly it got a whole lot more popular because it was not nearly as ominous-sounding as "MX"...almost sounds like a toy that you'd buy for your kid. And so it got approved and we went ahead and developed and deployed it. It was the exact same rocket that had a bunch of nukes on it that coulda obliterated most of the planet but hey, how dangerous could something called "Peacekeeper" really be?

All just words. But Bernie was doomed the minute he slapped the word "socialist" on himself.

[brush]

38. Exactly. The naivete of the man is stuning in thinking the nation would elect a socialist.

It's like he has no sense at all of the country grew up in.

[NurseJackie]

19. I agree. It's the Socialism. We are not the Socialist party. We are DEMOCRATS.

And a "Democratic Socialist" is still a SOCIALIST, not a Democrat.

It's like the difference between poop and poop with sprinkles. Underneath it all... it's still poop.

[CatMor]

18. It went wrong when only three primaries were run ..

and Bernie and the media were calling the whole primary for Bernie. It was ridiculous. What use was it without the other 47 states and two territories. Its not over yet but things are sure looking good for Biden. The media played a big roll in implying Bernie was going to be the nominee and everyone seemed to go along with them. I think they hate it that they're eating crow now.

[comradebillyboy]

22. The media was salivating over a Sanders-Trump contest. They

would up viewership and increase profits with that match up.

[CatMor]

24. Yep .. They did it to Hillary and now are doing it to Biden.

They don't care about the country, just their viewership and profits.

[onetexan]

25. Just the idea of "revolution" is wrong from the getgo

Using words like revolution and socialist scares the heck out of people, except young people. Moreover, what he preaches about are all unrealistic ideas without real solutions to implement them.

[bearsfootball516]

26. The constant railing against the "Democratic establishment" did him in

You know what the Democratic establishment is? African Americans in the South, in the heart of Detroit and across the county. It’s the single mother who has made a life for herself and her child. It’s the blue collar workers who belong to a union and are worried about losing their job.

You can’t win the Democratic nomination without the Democratic establishment behind you.

[pampango]

32. His policy ideas are popular but 'socialism' scares Americans.

The policies and the word don’t scare Europeans as much. The right, here and there, can’t stand ‘socialism’.

[LakeArenal]

34. That's the thing... Ideas are great.

So great that others carried them better

But Bernie has become an arm flailing, agitated character.

And man oh man, he made that ad edited to look like Obama is endorsing him.

That’s a tactic. One I think disqualifies him.

[RDavisJ1]

36. I'm hungry, but make me something different to eat.

Bernie, outside of being a Presidential candidate, is an Independent.

Bernie comes to the DNC like someone who has no food and was welcomed in to join a family for dinner.
Bernie comes in sits at the table and starts complaining about how the table is set up.
Bernie then complains about the food being cooked and demands that the food should be different.
Bernie then demands that the dinner shouldn't be just for the family and it should be packaged and given out to everyone else.
Then when asked to leave the table, he starts yelling about how the family doesn't care about anyone but the family.

Then he stands outside the house with other hungry people chanting and being angry that the family hasn't given them their food while calling them names and demanding they should make only food they approve of and should let everyone in.

[Funtatlaguy]

37. Young people came to rallies but didn't vote

[SMC22307]

39. Donald Trump in office. Too much craziness and instability.

We need sanity and stability.

[NYMinute]

42. We'll read all about it in the next Sanders' book

for sale on Amazon and in Walmart.

My suggestion for the title - "My fourth mansion"

[SidDithers]

43. Not dropping out when he should have in 2016...

That doomed him to maxxing out at 35% voter support in 2020.

Sid

[Blue_Tires]

47. Deep breath...Where do I start??

Last edited Mon Mar 9, 2020, 10:51 AM - Edit history (1)

(and for the record I've been saying this for 2+ solid years here so there's nothing that folks don't already know)

1. He threw a tantrum in 2016 and kneecapped Hillary's chances.

2. He repeatedly made excuses for Trump and his cultists with that "economic anxieties" bullshit and avoided calling out his obvious racism until it was "cool" to do so.

3. He screamed and yelled about having some say over the new DNC head and despite giving Perez his seal of approval, he still turned on him.

4. He screamed and yelled about having some say over the 2016 postmortem DNC "Unity Commission" and despite the commission adding 5-6 of Sanders people to the board, they proceeded to piss all over everything.

5. Sanders could have built up a LOT of trust and goodwill had he actually stayed in the party after 2016 and worked to improve things from within... But clearly he wanted nothing to do with having to be front and center on the news whenever the Dems did something bad. For him to just flip the switch when he feels like it shows Sanders only sees the Democratic Party as a means to an end.

6. Not only did Sanders make ZERO EFFORT WHATSOEVER to reel in his "zoo" of online trolls, nutbars, doxxers and harassers on social media, they are actually *worse* this time around. More than *anything*, these jerks eroded a lot of Sanders' support in 2016, and instead of kicking them out they almost seemed to be an official in-house arm of the campaign for 2020. Yes they were pieces of shit four years ago, but this year when they're talking about "purging" moderates and sending us to the guillotine, we're going to fight back in our own way.

7. Sanders could have built up a LOT of trust and goodwill by hiring people who actually knew how to *win* races instead of the same old rogue's gallery of the "Democratic Hater All-Star Team" and I don't even need to name names.

8. He still continues to see the Democratic party as just as big an enemy as the GOP, throwing out bullshit random accusations of vote rigging and collusion every time he's on camera...

[betsuni]

48. Flawed candidate.

[Gothmog]

49. This is amusing-betting market has Hillary being more likely to be nominee compared to sanders

Link to tweet