- cross-posted to:
- us_news@lemmygrad.ml
- politics@hexbear.net
- cross-posted to:
- us_news@lemmygrad.ml
- politics@hexbear.net
Leftwing senator advises ‘unification of progressive people in general’ because threat from Republican ex-president is too great
Progressive US voters must unite behind Joe Biden rather than consider any of his Democratic primary challengers because the threat of another Donald Trump presidency is too great, Bernie Sanders has said.
“We’re taking on the … former president, who, in fact, does not believe in democracy – he is an authoritarian, and a very, very dangerous person,” the senator and Vermont independent, who caucuses with Democrats, said on NBC’s Meet the Press. “I think at this moment there has to be unification of progressive people in general in all of this country.”
Sanders’ remarks came as Trump continued grappling with more than 90 criminal charges across four separate indictments filed against him for his efforts to forcibly nullify his defeat to Biden in the 2020 presidential race, his illicit retention of classified documents, and hush-money payments to porn actor Stormy Daniels.
Despite the unprecedented legal peril confronting him, Trump enjoys a commanding lead over his competitors in the Republican presidential primary, polls show.
And though polling for now shows Biden generally is ahead of Trump, that has not stopped Robert F Kennedy Jr and Marianne Williamson from mounting long-shot Democratic primary challenges – or third-party progressive candidate Cornel West from running.
Sanders himself was the runner-up for the Democratic nomination in the 2016 White House race won by Trump and in 2020, with West among his supporters. But Sanders this time quickly endorsed Biden’s re-election campaign, a decision which prompted West to accuse him of only backing Biden because he is “fearful of the neo-fascism of Trump”.
The senator responded to that criticism on Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union, saying, “Where I disagree with my good friend Cornel West is – I think, in these really very difficult times, there is a real question whether democracy is going to remain in the United States of America.
“You know, Donald Trump is not somebody who believes in democracy, whether women are going to be able to continue to control their own bodies, whether we have social justice in America, [whether] we end bigotry.”
Sanders didn’t elaborate, but his remarks seemed to be an allusion to the Trump White House’s creation of the US supreme court supermajority, which last year struck down the federal abortion rights that the Roe v Wade decision had established decades earlier.
That court also struck down race-conscious admissions in higher education as well as a Colorado law that required entities to afford same-sex couples equal treatment, among other decisions lamented by progressives.
“Around that, I think we have got to bring the entire progressive community to defeat Trump – or whoever the Republican nominee will be – [and] support Biden,” Sanders added on State of the Union.
Sanders nonetheless said he planned to push Biden to tackle “corporate greed and the massive levels of income and wealth inequality” across the US. On Meet the Press, he suggested he would urge Biden to “take on the billionaire class”.
Those comments came about four months after Sanders called on the US government to confiscate 100% of any money that Americans make above $999m, saying people with that much wealth “can survive just fine” without becoming billionaires.
Everywhere I go I’m usually the oldest person in the room, and I’ve been hearing that line since long before I’d ever heard of Donald Trump.
Always, the left has to support whatever bland middle-of-the-road candidate the Democrats put forward, candidates who seem idea-free and utterly without passion, because the Republicans have a terrifying candidate. Gotta take boring over terrifying.
And Bernie’s right. I ain’t arguing.
Sure is a bucket of swill we’re always forced to drink from, though.
I guess the important thing is that one should do other things in addition to voting for the bland somewhat shitty candidate that’s at least better than the other guy.
Unionising and getting involved on the local level are two good starting points. Encouraging others to unionise and to get involved locally is also good.
Oh, and reading up on alternative election systems and teaching people about it would be good, but maybe too ambitious. Who wants to listen to anyone ramble on about ranked choice or whatever.
This is the correct answer that so few of us realize. We as a people are able to do more than one thing at once. Yes, we should still vote for the lesser of 2 evils, AND we should also make progress to improve the system itself.
I think yours are better points, but also: voting in the primaries. I’m sure Bernie would support a more progressive candidate as well!
Just show them the CGP Grey videos, they’d short and entertaining way to introduce people to alternative voting systems
Y’all really need to reform your voting system. We have a preferential system over here in Australia. It’s not perfect but it feels like our democracy is a lot more robust and diverse because of it.
When you have two parties in power that would both lose from a more representative system, how do you go about getting better representation?
The Democrats passed RCV in Maine. The #fascist #GOP banned it in Florida.
These two things are not the same.
Oh I absolutely agree, one party wants a capitalist dystopia while the other pushes for a genocidal fascist hellscape with an out of control climate and the return of Jim Crow or worse.
Democrats are by far the better alternative, but can the Democratic National Convention be trusted to implement a voting system that would see them face competition from the left? Don’t rely on them, people need to push it hard in addition to voting.
Man wouldn’t that be great. Half the country wants ranked choice voting but the ones in power don’t actually represent us they represent who is paying them.
If the “ones in power” represent those who are paying them… maybe the ones in power are the ones doing the paying?
That is exactly correct.
This is why I, at the time, was sort of happy that trump won. I hoped that dems losing what they thought was a sure win to an assclown like trump would make them shape up and put forward some actual candidates that the people could truly get behind. Instead they doubled down with milquetoast shitlibs. We’re never going to get out of this rut of voting for the lesser evil without ranked choice voting.
I know this is the wrong server to say it, but there were some things I liked about Hillary. I am still convinced that her gender played far more of a role in people’s hatred of her than they will ever be able to accept.
Yes, she’s still a neo-liberal, but she’s further left than most of the Democrats, and we consistently see that the supermajority of non-Republican voters are simply not as progressive as most of us are. Hillary had a well-conceived labor plan and respected unions. She liked the idea of single-payer, if not enough to spend too much political capital on it. She was left of Obama and of Biden, if still to the right of her “progressive” so-called roots.
Here’s my non-opinionated counterpoint. Trump bested Hillary on Labor when his plan was “kick out immigrants and deregulate coal so you get your dangerous job back”, and she had a 100 page labor plan that involved things like subsidized retraining of coal workers. The Democrats have learned that you will not win Labor by favoring them. A bad lesson.
X: [Doubt]
You don’t understand how politics works if you thought that Convicted Sex Offender Treason Trump winning in 2016 would result in anything other than Biden winning the nomination in 2020. The first thing literally guaranteed the 2nd thing.
I think a big part is that progress is slow, I want it faster but as the old generation dies off we will get further left politicians but also right so hopefully with internet and general empathy we can overcome conservatives.
Then be your own Goldie Wilson. Run yourself. Enough of my neighbors have told me that I should run, that I am even though I don’t believe I am qualified.
I’m running for city council, but if I win in 2026, the fascist that currently holds the chair, and constantly complains about it, won’t be attempting to actively harm the community the way they currently are.
Also if I win, and continue winning the 2 terms of city council, 2 terms of mayor, then I’m done, because I’ll be 60 at that point and served 16 years in government. At most they could get another term or two out of me as a state level senator or representative. I’m not sticking around past my 60s. Got too much to do.
Just to clarify that this is something that happened often for primaries? That’s new to me, even the primaries for 2020 election it didn’t seem to have that outright pressure and just politicians and people in public eye endorsing one or the other.
The talk of even if you don’t like then vote for them cuz other is worse I only heard really leading up to presidential election.
For what it is worth though I do not watch the news or talking heads and never have, I always prefer reading articles, so maybe I’m just out of the loop on that part of our culture.
I’ve stopped voting for the worst of two evils. I leave it blank.