If Democrats wanted to, they could run a candidate against him.
They actually couldn’t really. Bernie wins the Democratic primary in his state then just runs as an Independent. He’s the chosen representative of the Vermont Democratic Party.
My SO and I have joked that while I could never win a local election, if I ran, I might just be able to get within punching range of our shitty representative.
Sure thing, wish for this perfect future where good politicians just spring up organically rather than expect a politician here and now in reality to have any sort of successful plan.
And give me a break with this ‘blame Warren’ crap. When she was leading and Bernie had just had a heart attack, he stayed in rather than bowing out to build momentum. Two egotistical politicians both thought they had the right (or responsibility) to stay in a race to represent their ideas and politics. Warren’s voters definitely 100% would not have made Bernie win, and in all likelihood a Warren polling at 50% still wouldn’t have caused a runway as all the others suddenly decided the economics of M4A was the most important issue for Democrats to spend the entire primary on.
Except now one of these egotistical politicians is preparing people to take over and the other doesn’t seem to have any plan for what happens after he retires or (more likely) dies in office.
That’s the whole thing this is all about. A new party competes against the main party in general elections. Otherwise, whatever the name says, it’s just a caucus. The Democrats already have the Justice Democrats recruiting progressives to run in primaries. They also have the Working Families Party, which is closer to a real party than either the Justice Democrats or the Tea Party, but they still don’t really compete with the Democrats outside of primaries (they go “head to head” in New York, but usually to represent votes for the same candidates).
I’m not from Vermont so I don’t know much about local elections, but as a comparison, Warren has multiple politicians in Massachusetts she’s groomed to have national prominence that could take over for her when she leaves. I can’t think of anyone even from Vermont that’s been involved in any of his campaigns or speaking tours.
I’m not talking about Bernie not succeeding in his campaigns, I’m talking about how he seemingly hasn’t put any effort into grooming a successor for his very own seat in his very own state. That’s not a media problem.
Elizabeth Warren is younger, but if she keeled over tomorrow there are multiple good politicians she’s groomed to rise up in Massachusetts. If Bernie dies (or just retires) we’re probably going to get some well funded neoliberal like the other poster said.
The Tea Party ran in Republican primaries. They aren’t a new party.
I like the Working Families Party because it focuses on the economic disparities rather than identity politics.
The WFP is awesome, but this is definitely not their politics. And they’re awesome precisely because they don’t act that way.
This headline (if it were to be believed) is meant to comfort us, but instead just reminds me a drunken Fox News anchor is running the department as they’re saber-rattling against a major military force.
Historically is doing a lot of work there. Remember the 2020 primary? Because like half the early primary was moderates looking for a better candidate than the default pick. His events were weakly attended and his fundraising was mediocre.
But more importantly, not all help is beneficial. Once you’ve got enough stink on you, being a public face of the party isn’t necessarily helping it. I still maintain Nancy Pelosi, with her stock trading, billionaire heiress weddings, kente cloth kneeling, and left punching was a drag on the party. She reminded a lot of people about their negative opinions of the party every time she was in the headlines.
And I think Biden’s the same. He’s weak, old, delusional, and status quo, and above all he’s heavily responsible for our loss. The more the party props up old leaders just because they were leaders, the less it speaks to being able to make the changes needed to win.
It was also practically non-existent in the most recent Democratic campaign, but this guy still wants to scapegoat it as the cause of our doom. Somehow I’m not confident his concept of “true leftists” really do hold this as a core principle when it’s a priority to purge them for expediency at the first opportunity.
It’s almost exactly the message of the shitty centrists just with a left (trust me bro) window dressing and both deserve the same amount of respect. They’re just being practical.
Because it leaves open the potential for a Democrat v. Republican v. New Party election (at whatever level, not just presidency) and that’s likely to improve Republican chances. Where the progressive candidates are strong it’s better for them to beat the centrist in a one on one then take on the Republican with their center-left voters. Where they’re weak the most a three way contest does is maybe make the right win over the center.
There are many many races without real Republican challengers where a new party could challenge moderate Democrats from the left, but in those situations the Democratic primary is the real vote and you might as well just win there.
Bernie isn’t holding anyone back. It would be odd if he was. When he goes, he’s likely to be replaced by a milquetoast neolib at best.
And you don’t think that’s a bit of a failure on Bernie’s part? He’s been in office since the beginning of time and had a national progressive leadership profile for a decade and hasn’t been able to find a successor in Vermont to groom and grow in all that time?
“We’ll win by converting Republicans… but as leftists.”
Stop chasing that stupid fucking dream of a left coalition that’s just gruff manly workers without all those whiners talking about things that don’t affect you and might even have made you feel bad once upon a time. Solidarity isn’t a quiet nod and a “trust us”, it’s showing up for your fellows and having their back even when you’re not in the firing line.
“We’re not going to talk about your issues, but you should believe we’ll fight for them once we have power” is literally why the Democrats just lost. But like the anti-woke centrists you’re still going to pretend wokeness, which was approximately 0% of the Democratic campaign, was the problem. That’s why you can’t be trusted to say you’ll get to it as soon as the politics that caters only to your interests gains power.
Nazi symbolism is “gutsy”. God Elon-stans are such fucking losers.
This world wide web has gotten a lot less webby over time as each page tries its damnedest not to give you options to go anywhere else.
I’m pretty sure defense attorneys will also have a field day claiming a Tesla for sale on a lot is government property.
Then he would have disavowed it and apologized for it immediately. You don’t accidentally Heil Hitler and then just pretend it didn’t happen.
Lol, no they haven’t, and if you have a hard time seeing a chest pounding and sharp arm raising as a Nazi salute but buy a frozen frame of a wave as potentially equivalent you’re deep into the conservative media ecosystem looking for a reason to excuse him.
It’s not a hand wave, it’s a frame-perfect Nazi salute with the beginning middle and end. There’s nothing he could have done to make it more accurate a Nazi salute other than speaking German at the time.
Not “rather than identity politics”. What about that makes you think they’re not about social justice? They’re dedicated progressives, not class reductionists.
A multi-racial party doesn’t mean you downplay racism, it means the party has solidarity across races. That’s what solidarity is.
https://thegrio.com/2025/03/07/anti-dei-efforts-are-anti-black-activist-maurice-mitchell-lays-out-the-consequences-of-diversity-rollbacks-and-a-plan-for-resistance/