Sanders’ Nevada Win: It’s About Voting on What You’re FOR
“The establishment, which I guess I’m a part of after all these years, seems to know as much about electability as a donkey knows about calculus,” --
Democratic Party Labor Strategist
You’d think there was a meteor headed toward earth with the potential to End It All, based on the reactions to a Presidential candidate who’s garnered 1.7% of the delegate votes needed to win the Democratic nomination in July.
I’m not putting down Senator Bernie Sanders’ win in Nevada. His campaign worked hard in the state and it paid off. They actually talked with people and asked them for their vote.
(For those of you who don’t read my columns regularly, I voted for Senator Elizabeth Warren. I’m writing about Bernie Sanders today because I’m just disgusted by the bs being served up on social and mainstream media.)
An attempt by the Culinary union leadership to drive down support using the “don’t you want to keep your present insurance?” argument failed as the rank and file realized their hard won benefits didn’t help their friends and neighbors.
Entrance polls suggest he won with 29% of whites, 51% of Hispanics and 27% of blacks. 65% of caucus-goers under 30 years old went for Sanders, along with every other age group except for caucus-goers over 65 years old, which former vice president Joe Biden won.
Just a few weeks back it was a consensus viewpoint that Biden would dominate in Nevada, which was reformulated as the election neared to Biden needing a strong showing, and now some in his camp would like us to believe a more than two-to-one drubbing was somehow okay.
Cue the freak out... via Politico, which calls an organization primarily funded by individuals associated with the banking industry “center-left.”
“In 30-plus years of politics, I’ve never seen this level of doom. I’ve never had a day with so many people texting, emailing, calling me with so much doom and gloom,” said Matt Bennett of the center-left group Third Way after Sanders' win in Nevada.
https://twitter.com/Alyssa_Milano/status/1231714509573672960?s=20
Some are saying Trump’s all-but-guaranteed a second term. Others are saying it’s Russian plot. MSNBC’s Chris Mathews went off the deep end, comparing Sen. Bernie Sanders projected win in the Nevada caucuses to the Nazi takeover of France.
Via Common Dreams:
...Saturday marked a clear escalation in hostility from MSNBC's on-air personalities as Sanders' diverse coalition of supporters propelled him to a landslide victory in Nevada, the third consecutive state in which the senator has won the popular vote.
Nicole Wallace, former communications director for the George W. Bush White House, described Sanders' multi-racial, multi-generational coalition as a "squeaky, angry minority" and accused the senator of deploying "dark arts" as she introduced Democratic political consultant James Carville, who proceeded to declare Sanders' win in Nevada a victory for Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The Washington Post now says down ballot candidates are running away from who they think will be the party nominee, because Mike Bloomberg’s campaign told them about their in house analysis.
Washington Post editorial page editor Fred Hiatt wants readers to believe that there is no difference between Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders’ understanding of climate change. His op ed quotes one source: Patrick Pouyanné, chairman and chief executive of Paris-based Total, one of the world’s biggest oil and gas companies.
One local wag took to Twitter to inform the world that the Vermont Senator is “Hitler lite.”
This onslaught of denial and deception amounts to some weapons grade desperation. The Never Trump Republicans and mostly mythological middle roaders are short on facts and long on Very Serious Pronouncements.
Hence we’re hearing things like “Trump will crush Sanders, like Nixon did to McGovern,” and Bernie is a SOCIALIST will will bring out the guillotines for his enemies should he win.
There can be no denying that Donald Trump THINKS Sanders will be his weakest opponent; how else could a man so self-centered see somebody who cared about others?
https://twitter.com/AdamSerwer/status/1231620069387571205?s=20
Some Bernie supporters, seeing the flailing of the “moderates” looking for a consensus to stop their guy, are saying the Democratic establishment is looking to rig the results. Yup, that’s what’s going on.
It’s the way things have always been done. But so far, anyway, the egos in the middle of the road don’t want to quit their campaigns.
The problem with any of the potential standard bearers for a centrist consensus, is that they mostly don’t come with an army of volunteers.
There’s a huge difference between a dozen people canvassing and hundreds of people reaching out. In recent elections, organized labor has been the primary source for people-power used by Democrats.
I’ve got news for the Dems in the Middle in Disarray: Sanders has a significant following in labor.
Steve Rosenthal, a veteran Democratic labor strategist who has been focused on mobilizing working-class white voters in a trio of battleground states — Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — said it would be foolish to discount Sanders’s appeal there.
“The establishment, which I guess I’m a part of after all these years, seems to know as much about electability as a donkey knows about calculus,” Rosenthal said. “We always get it wrong. . . . The voters are going to tell us who’s electable.”
Waaay too many partisans are saying they won’t vote unless… blah, blah, blah.
Here’s a thought. Perhaps, just maybe, Sanders has tapped into something. Maybe it’s the economy not working that has people motivated. Maybe it’s the 20 million Americans who have started a GoFundMe campaign for themselves or a loved one to pay for medical care.
And there are more than 250 days until the general election. The coronavirus could tank the economy. Trump’s health problems could take him out of the picture.
Another candidate could zoom to the top of the polls. Here’s the present delegate count:
Latest Dem National Delegate Count (1,991 To Win):
Sanders 37
Buttigieg 24
Biden 12
Warren 8
Klobuchar 7
Above all, don’t vote out of fear, vote out of conviction!
https://youtu.be/IaENxg0vP78
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Lead image via DonkeyHotey