I know all of this has been said before, but fuck it:

At the end of the day, he just didn't have it in him to go as hard against the establishment Dems as he needed to.

I think the propaganda got to him and he genuinely believes it was his fault that Trump won in 2016 and desperately doesn't want to be blamed again (Even tho he totally will be no matter what he says or does).

What we ideally need is basically a leftist version of Trump (As in not prejudiced, but with the same shameless, boisterous, don't-give-a-fuck attitude).

    • RION [she/her]
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      4 years ago

      man of steel

      Stalin come back

        • ChairmanAtreides [he/him]
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          4 years ago

          Stalin most definitely was in heavy hitters gang and had libs who coughed smoking the tiniest of darts put in the hemp farm gulags

    • livingperson2 [he/him]
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      4 years ago

      I was genuinely surprised when he lost. I thought that one was in the bag.

        • livingperson2 [he/him]
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          4 years ago

          This is a great point, but it's one that confuses me. Why don't people maintain their principles even when they're old? Or is that generation gonna die and leave behind a bunch of pissed off leftist millenials and zoomers? If that's the case, maybe we should just....wait it out? I mean I'm being a little hyperbolic- we can't abandon our communities and comrades to the wolves for ten years or however long it takes - but you get what I mean.

    • cracksmoke2020 [none/use name]
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      4 years ago

      It's a difficult way to move because a lot of the popularity of these two figures was explicitly because of the compassion they held for basically everyone.

  • cumwaffle [she/her]
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    4 years ago

    i really don't think that would work.

    The problem is that the majority of libs don't actually see a problem with the establishment and generally like it, hence the cult aroud Pelosi and RBG.

    They trust the media, they trust the corrupt as fuck dems in power and they genuinely don't see anything wrong with electoralism. A leftist version of Trump wouldn't work with the libs.

    • budoguytenkaichi [he/him,they/them]
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      edit-2
      4 years ago

      I think it's worth a shot at least, since we've already seen what happens to a "polite" evenly-slightly-left candidate: They get steamrolled by the Dems/media in the end.

      • cumwaffle [she/her]
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        4 years ago

        yea i think it might work if Biden actually wins and does fuckall for the next 4/8 years, this might finally get the libs to become disillusioned and go for an anti-establishment candidate

      • hogposting [he/him,comrade/them]
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        4 years ago

        They get steamrolled by the Dems/media in the end.

        It's a mistake to think that this happening to Bernie means it will 100% happen to anyone in his mold that tries again. A lot had to go right for Democrats to kneecap him like they did.

      • grisbajskulor [he/him]
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        4 years ago

        It's kinda depressing that if Biden was the one with the heart attack and Bernie was the one sounding like the posterchild for high functioning dementia, we'd still have lost.

  • PorkrollPosadist [he/him, they/them]
    ·
    4 years ago

    Bernie was the pinnacle of Liberal idealism. All that shit Montesquieu and Rousseau scribbled about virtue being the essence of a republican state, Bernie was the embodiment of that. I can only hope his failure paves the way for people to move beyond Liberalism, because if Bernie couldn't deliver us to the promised land, no Liberal can.

  • Bread_In_Baltimore [he/him]
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    4 years ago

    Surely then, they will get elected and the Bourgeoisie will say "oh, I understand, here is the means of production 😀".

    • marxisthayaca [he/him,they/them]M
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      4 years ago

      I think Bernie could have ran an effective tactic of recording his meetings with CEO executives and leaking them to the press about how adamant they were to kill poors.

    • emizeko [they/them]
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      4 years ago

      2018 me would have been mad at you for this, 2020 me says protracted people's war

    • mittens [he/him]
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      4 years ago

      I figure it would've been sort of like what happened in Mexico, that is a clear continuation of bourgeois politics with some adoption of social policy which makes for deeply contradictory policy in action which at best it's frustrating for the more left-leaning base and at worst it's fodder for established opponents to sink in the idea that Bernie was the same as everyone else. Though because the president becomes the defacto leader of its own party, Bernie would've singlehandedly ended Obama's influence and all the enroached bad actors would lost massive influence within the party. I mean, not seeing Hillary's face again would've been satisfying in-of itself.

      • hogposting [he/him,comrade/them]
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        4 years ago

        Bernie would’ve singlehandedly ended Obama’s influence and all the enroached bad actors would lost massive influence within the party

        Which itself would have been huge. One big downside to a Biden administration is that careerist rats like Mayo Pete will get to keep building their resumes.

      • Bread_In_Baltimore [he/him]
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        4 years ago

        Do you really think the establishment Dems would've just gone away? Like I honestly can't believe people thought electing one socdem would have basically any lasting effect on the political landscape. There is a zero percent chance Hillary would've fucked off forever and Mayor McCheese would 100% be scurrying around trying to advance his career.

        • mittens [he/him]
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          edit-2
          4 years ago

          Mayor mccheese is the rat god? Yeah, careerists always be careering, and I have to recognize that Hillary would definitely appear on television to voice "healthy criticism" against the Bernie presidency. I don't think the effect would be lasting either, but it would've net us some soild 4 to 8 years of the democratic party being more than a wet tissue. It's obvious that a Bernie term would've been limited, but I find it hard to recognize where the limits would realistically be. I don't think it's particularly useful to think about it that much either.

    • eduardog3000 [he/him]
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      4 years ago

      No, but Bernie's socdem shit like Medicare for All would likely get passed, assuming a Dem senate and ending the filibuster anyway.

      • Bread_In_Baltimore [he/him]
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        4 years ago

        Homie I'm sorry to break it to you, but M4A will never, ever happen. Not from a Bourgeois system in a time when the rate of profit is cratering and a competing power is making imperialism harder and harder. In fact, you're going to see more and more European countries hollowing out their systems as the years go by.

  • tg4414 [he/him]
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    edit-2
    4 years ago

    Michael Brooks (RIP) always made the point that socialists and leftists didn't read Machiavelli enough. If we want the movement to succeed, we need to manipulate the levers and play hardball whenever we get the chance for the greater good.

    • GVAGUY3 [he/him]
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      4 years ago

      Lenin and Stalin were very brutal in getting power.

  • artangels [he/him]
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    4 years ago

    the system helped enforce its power by bernie caring more about his work relationships over actually giving us healthcare.

    • grisbajskulor [he/him]
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      4 years ago

      Tho if Bernie and friends (#SQUAD) were some form of American Leninists I can imagine them gaining ground for the dems with radlib/socdem rhetoric, followed by a coordinated simultaneous break with full throated agitation. It's a silly thought experiment but I could kinda imagine a universe where that happens?