5 Comments

What do you mean? Progressives have a great future. Now they've taken up the neoconservative flag they can never fail and will be promoted to the high heavens.

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We sometimes talk about presidential candidates without referencing their personal ability to communicate and connect with voters, separate from their policy positions.

Sanders, like Obama in a different way - is a one-off candidate as a communicator. He is really good! Clear, strong, simple, and you never question his sincerity. Those who would take his mantle - albeit candidates with some appeal - don’t seem to have that kind of skill/talent at this point in their careers.

Part of this perceived “skill and appeal” probably involves some buried sexism among many voters, who are clearly still more comfortable with an (politely termed) “established figure” and a more familiar style.

But you can’t deny that Bernie is a standout campaigner. We have seen time and again that you can still win without that, but his successor will have to measure up there as well.

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The 2020 Sanders campaign seemed to be dominated by middle- and upper-class young whites and blacks who, like many in their cohort, were monomaniacally focused on race and gender and completely averse to class discussion. It put them in the blinkered position of thinking they spoke for working-class black voters (the prestige media went right along with that) -- which proved catastrophically incorrect.

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Bernie is the modern day McGovern, loved by the left, and, no one else.

Building a Democratic coalition is like herding cats, Biden was the least objectionable and 24 is not foggy, it’s like CD 10, a crowd. DSA outside of urban centers is only three letters in the alphabet.

Bernie and Comey elected Trump, 24 could be a circled firing squad… we need a snake-filled room …

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Bernie didn't elect Trump. The Democratic party elected Trump by railroading one of the most unpopular politicians in recent US history through the nomination process. Hillary was unpopular nationally as a First Lady, as Secretary of State, and as a candidate for President.

The fact she almost won is a testament to how unpopular Trump is himself!

Frankly, her campaign was terrible, she has negative charisma, and she's just fundamentally hateable, in the same way the people posted on the now defunct r/punchablefaces were.

Bernie would have beaten Trump in 2016. Plenty of people didnt like Bernie, but there is a deep seated disdain and animosity for Hillary that goes beyond just automatic Republican voters, especially in the Midwest.

Its easy to blame Comey since his misleading statements were probably a last minute difference maker, but Hillary's own unpopularity was a bigger factor, and if the election campaign has been honest the false stories about Trump's supposed ties to Russia would never have been pushed either.

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