Just because the 2020 primary was the most winnable doesn't meant it was winnable. The US left has no power base to counter right wing attacks. Historically leftist power comes from an organised working class with strong unions. A left of centre candidate like Bernie needs to ride a wave of labour activism if he is to defeat the oligarchs and their lackeys.
Yeah, "most winnable" in this context means "for the first time in decades there was a left-ish candidate who may have had a 25% chance to win at the outset of the race." That's better than any other primary in living memory, but it's nowhere near a slam dunk (or even a coin toss).
Good point. If Bernie had gone all-in from Day 1 of the 2016 campaign (instead of initially running just to get healthcare in the national conversation, and because he couldn't talk Elizabeth Warren into running lol) that might have been a real contest. And conservative Democrats wouldn't have had the Trump gun to hold to voters' heads, because no one took Trump seriously at that point.
Yes, obviously, but even if that were true, even if corporate media didn't own people's mind, they were gonna just shot him and their whole family and blame it on some Qanon freak that will suicide by five shots in the back; two days later zero news channel would talk about it; and most people would just go with it.
Wait, was the 2020 primary an easy layup that the Bernie campaign incompetently pissed away, or was it full of near-insurmountable structural barriers including stuff like "we'll just murder you if you get too close"?
None of the campaign's mistakes were bad enough to classify as "really stupid shit," and concluding in hindsight that he never even had a chance is just cope.
No, pretty much all of the Bernie campaign was at least defensible -- i.e., stuff you can reasonably argue was a good decision at the time. "Really stupid shit" is stuff that is so obviously wrong that there isn't even a plausible excuse for doing it.
What do you mean "allowing"? Could he have cut Biden's mike? Could he have put on the video evidence right there in the debate? No, the best he could do is reply "that's not true and there's video to prove it, you can go see for yourself" -- which is what he did. I think he would have benefited from a more aggressive tone and a more pointed approach at that last debate, but now we're talking about precisely calibrating the tenor of 90+ minutes of extemporaneous speaking. This is fine detail, not unjustifiable, unforced errors.
"Really stupid shit" is stuff like ignoring important states, making a huge issue out of things people don't care about, being unprepared on major topics, falling for obvious bait (Warren's DNA test comes to mind), etc.
That depends on how coordinated the powerful were, and how much effort they would have had to put forth to sabotage the campaign. One reasonable takeaway from the primary is that the powerful got really lucky, and that they probably won't be as lucky next time around. Imagine a re-run of 2020 where:
The pandemic (or another equivalent story) his a month earlier
The Tara Reade story (or an equivalent) breaks a month earlier
Mainstream Democrats don't have a popular two-term president with the clout to coordinate a mass drop out before Super Tuesday (historically, this is rare)
Would the party be able to consolidate around a centrist candidate in time? How much (more) ratfucking could they (and would they) pull off? Would any amount of coordination or ratfucking be enough if Bernie had twice as many supporters?
You are forgetting about the GOP, if Bernie won the primary, every single news outlet would somehow suddenly praise Trump, while telling people the country will explode and children will cry blood if evil gomunism won the white house. Corporate democrats would just openly bash Sanders and will talk about not voting or something like that.
Corporate democrats would just openly bash Sanders and will talk about not voting or something like that.
I don't buy this. First, this didn't happen when Obama (painted as an evil muslamic gommunist who wasn't even a real red-blooded 'Merican) won the primary in 2008. Second, no one wants to risk getting frozen out by a winning administration. Third, "Vote Blue No Matter Who" had been drummed into people's brains for 3.5 years at that point, and not even the American propaganda apparatus can erase that kind of messaging overnight.
Just because the 2020 primary was the most winnable doesn't meant it was winnable. The US left has no power base to counter right wing attacks. Historically leftist power comes from an organised working class with strong unions. A left of centre candidate like Bernie needs to ride a wave of labour activism if he is to defeat the oligarchs and their lackeys.
Yeah, "most winnable" in this context means "for the first time in decades there was a left-ish candidate who may have had a 25% chance to win at the outset of the race." That's better than any other primary in living memory, but it's nowhere near a slam dunk (or even a coin toss).
The most winnable was 2016, that primary was the real missed opportunity.
Good point. If Bernie had gone all-in from Day 1 of the 2016 campaign (instead of initially running just to get healthcare in the national conversation, and because he couldn't talk Elizabeth Warren into running lol) that might have been a real contest. And conservative Democrats wouldn't have had the Trump gun to hold to voters' heads, because no one took Trump seriously at that point.
You mean the one where the DNC literally admitted in court they could rig the primaries if they wanted to? And this was proven legal.
Yes, obviously, but even if that were true, even if corporate media didn't own people's mind, they were gonna just shot him and their whole family and blame it on some Qanon freak that will suicide by five shots in the back; two days later zero news channel would talk about it; and most people would just go with it.
Wait, was the 2020 primary an easy layup that the Bernie campaign incompetently pissed away, or was it full of near-insurmountable structural barriers including stuff like "we'll just murder you if you get too close"?
Bernie campaign did some really stupid shit, but they weren't gonna win anyways. I didn't make the meme, I'm just sharing it cuz it's funny
None of the campaign's mistakes were bad enough to classify as "really stupid shit," and concluding in hindsight that he never even had a chance is just cope.
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No, pretty much all of the Bernie campaign was at least defensible -- i.e., stuff you can reasonably argue was a good decision at the time. "Really stupid shit" is stuff that is so obviously wrong that there isn't even a plausible excuse for doing it.
For instance, you can make a reasonable case that going negative on Biden would not have worked. You might still disagree with that assessment, but even if it was a mistake it wasn't so far outside of the realm of possibility that it qualifies as "really stupid shit."
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What do you mean "allowing"? Could he have cut Biden's mike? Could he have put on the video evidence right there in the debate? No, the best he could do is reply "that's not true and there's video to prove it, you can go see for yourself" -- which is what he did. I think he would have benefited from a more aggressive tone and a more pointed approach at that last debate, but now we're talking about precisely calibrating the tenor of 90+ minutes of extemporaneous speaking. This is fine detail, not unjustifiable, unforced errors.
"Really stupid shit" is stuff like ignoring important states, making a huge issue out of things people don't care about, being unprepared on major topics, falling for obvious bait (Warren's DNA test comes to mind), etc.
Yes, it's cope, but do you really think the powerful were just gonna let him win the presidency?
That depends on how coordinated the powerful were, and how much effort they would have had to put forth to sabotage the campaign. One reasonable takeaway from the primary is that the powerful got really lucky, and that they probably won't be as lucky next time around. Imagine a re-run of 2020 where:
Would the party be able to consolidate around a centrist candidate in time? How much (more) ratfucking could they (and would they) pull off? Would any amount of coordination or ratfucking be enough if Bernie had twice as many supporters?
You are forgetting about the GOP, if Bernie won the primary, every single news outlet would somehow suddenly praise Trump, while telling people the country will explode and children will cry blood if evil gomunism won the white house. Corporate democrats would just openly bash Sanders and will talk about not voting or something like that.
I don't buy this. First, this didn't happen when Obama (painted as an evil muslamic gommunist who wasn't even a real red-blooded 'Merican) won the primary in 2008. Second, no one wants to risk getting frozen out by a winning administration. Third, "Vote Blue No Matter Who" had been drummed into people's brains for 3.5 years at that point, and not even the American propaganda apparatus can erase that kind of messaging overnight.