Discussion for article #247166
This was a horrible moment for Sanders, and absolutely killed him in Florida. I don’t think it will play well across rest of the country either, and it would be on endless loop in a General.
A self proclaimed socialist campaigning on wanting a revolution, on tape praising actual revolutions in Nicaragua and Cuba? Just no.
And it plays particularly bad with Hispanics that have experienced those revolutions up close and way too personally.
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It will be much talked about coming weeks, no doubt. Quite honestly, I’m just relieved it happened at this point, not in the general with him being the nominee.
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He’s right on the remarks quoted and on his explanation. Now if he said of Castro that he “loves his commitment to democratic freedoms,” as G.H.W. Bush once said of Ferdinand Marcos, prompting even the Wall Street Journal to balk, we would have something to complain about.
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It’s one thing for angry White voters, filled with Clinton Hate, to turn to the only alternative which isn’t some insane Rethugs. But Sanders was advocating true revolution not some de facto political standby. For Joe and Jane Sixpack Democrat around the country, I can’t see how that plays well with them.
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He’s right about Castro improving health care and education, but yeah, stuff like this would be deadly in a general election–Josh’s comments are absolutely right. I love Bernie, I ID as a democratic socialist myself, and I hope his run is pulling the party and some of the country to the left. But between quotes like these and his $15 trillion tax increase, he would get slaughtered, and we could well end up with President Trump. I wish a Sanders effect would take place at the state and local level instead, where Democrats are hurting the most these days.
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It will piss off Cuban exiles for sure and endanger Florida but I doubt it will negatively affect Hispanic perceptions in general – My Chicano in-laws if anything will be impressed by someone who’s arguing against North American hegemony in the region.
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I’m pretty sure the Sixpacks are a Republican family, but they live next door to the Pinot Noirs who always vote Democratic.
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Question: Is Clinton Hate endemic to angry Whites only, or can angry voters in other demographics also catch it? Asking for a friend.
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Find a few El Salvadorians, Nicaraguans, Guatemalans, etc. about how wonderful the Sandinista revolution was. From either side.
And in terms of a General? My god, you see how the right has pounded Obama for “apologizing for America”. They will absolutely crucify Sanders not only for that video, but for the response he gave tonight. That link that they want to make, Socialism=Communism…and they all hate the American way? Bernie just delivered it up on a silver platter.
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He wants to have his cake and eat it too. You can’t separate the brutality of the totalitarian Castro regime from it’s “social advances”. Those advances were made by the barrel of the gun, and not of free will.
Safe to say that if Bernie ever becomes the Democratic nominee, we can just shade in Florida as dark red for the general. Even with a younger generation of Cuban Americans who stand with the President in the support the embargo repeal, it’s quite a leap from saying the long suffering Cuban people no longer should feel the brunt of these punitive diplomatic measures from a long dead era to saying Castro had some really swell ideas about how to run a country.
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It needs to be vetted to see how the electorate reacts most definitely. I suspect that it will have much less resonance in 2016 than it would have 20-30 years ago, but we really don’t know until it is out there! I hope it is discussed at length, since this is one of his potentially YUUUGE liabilities.
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I said this earlier on another post about the debate so let me put it in this more appropriate post:
Hey, did everyone see the clip they showed during the
debate of that CCTV (Soviet) tv interview with Bernie back in the day
where he praised Ortega and the Castro brothers? Don’t worry if you
didn’t catch it, because the Republicans will be running that on a
24-hour loop if Bernie is the Democratic nominee.
His heart and his thoughts are in the right place, but if you wonder why the GOP is praying
that Bernie becomes the nominee, this is just one of the reasons. They
have been throwing the kitchen sink at Hillary for about two decades
now, they haven’t even started to rev up the right-wing slime machine
against Bernie yet. But they are ready.
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“Joe Sixpack” are needed to win states like Ohio and Pennsyvlania in the general election.
And if Bernie and his supporters ever want to actually make things like Universal Healthcare or free higher education a reality, they’re going to need “Joe Sixpack” on their side and flipping current red congressional districts blue for Bernie to pass his legislative platform. Otherwise, President Bernie isn’t going to come any closer to making Universal Healthcare a reality than Obama did (less, quite likely)
When I hear snide and condescending remarks by Bernie supporters about working and working poor Americans like this, it sure makes it seem like their supposed concern for the working class proletariat is really just some phoney affluent white hipster tribal identity bullcrap.
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So here we are. I agree it’s good this is happening now. Let’s remember that Sanders’ stance on our Central American policies and actions in the Reagan years was the correct one, at least if you’re a Democrat. I have long anticipated this national conversation, and I think Bernie has what it takes to make a sane, convincing argument that finally beats back the right wing’s fear-mongering form of bullshit patriotism that has historically rendered elected Democrats aquiver. Go Bernie.
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I don’t know, there are two separate groups of Cuban’s. The older exile community who are the most vocal opponents of Cuba, and a normalization of relations, are not likely to vote for a democrat anyway. The younger Cuban 1st and 2nd generation American’s, are much more supportive of changing the US stance, and opening relations with Cuba. That Sanders is open to that, can help him with those groups.
In the general, most American’s could care less, I think. The ones who do care, and who it makes a difference with, again, aren’t likely to vote for a democrat anyway.
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Oh please. That demographic is making it clear as day that they feel cheated of what they believe was an earned, rightful seat to the table. Now the table’s gone and they’re sitting on the floor. With the rest of us. And that’s part of what really grates to them.
One of the reasons why Clinton does well with a diverse demographic is because were not all ANGRY! Many of us want a better life but are realistic about how to get it and who is the best person to have as a conduit for that positive change in the WH. The “angry voter” you speak of are predominately people who feel as though they’ve lost something they had and should rightfully always have.
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+1000. Anyone who thinks Bernie’s answer, or the video itself, is a good thing should have their head examined. Attacks like these will be 24/7 in a general, and I’m sorry, American’s are not ready to elect a communist revolutionary (as he would be tagged). I thank, thank, thank Univision for taking this shot at Sanders. His inability to answer it was very telling.
It hard to believe, but Sanders just made “tank boy” look like a good general election candidate. Sad, but true.
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Uh, no. The people who care about this stuff aren’t all raging Rethugs. There are plenty of rank and file Dems in the country who vote Dem and do care about Sanders radical political stances.
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Everything pisses off Cuban exiles. And for them, what other Latinos have gone thorugh in their countries pales to their experience living in horrible, horrible Miami while dreaming of reconquest.
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