Agree. Increasingly he seems the exact mirror image of donald in the 1. Cult-like following, 2. unrealistic pie-in-the-sky promises 3. unimpressive record in governance–and as you say “rabble-rouser, not a leader” 4. attempt to be an outsider, 5 hubris-- IMO in these he rivals donald. True just to run for prez would require hubris…Bernie’s seems excessive.
Yup - trying to prepare for a second term of donald. (need airsickness bag please).
Among the numerous things that donald could do to defeat Bernie is the use of just one word. Cruz used it successfully against Beto in a debate, and I think it did a lot of damage. ‘socialist’.
The young Bernie supporters who ‘won’t vote if they can’t vote Bernie’ – and also a pretty big danger to the chances of a democratic victory. Just like 2016, that kind of vote is a vote for donald.
[quote=“darcy, post:34, topic:86551”]
And turned it into a formidable block of
believers [/quote]
That is the cultish thing that seems trumpian IMO
It is my considered opinion that both Sanders and Trump are egotistical dictator wannabes. There is a striking difference in their characters, however. Trump is a moron while Sanders is intelligent. This is a case where the moronic egotistical dictator wannabe is the lesser evil to the intelligent egotistical dictator wannabe.
About the “socialist” label, I have come to think about it a lot more recently. It surely is a word that scares some moderates, but I wonder what people who fled from communist countries (China, Vietnam, North Korea, etc.) or those who have relatives in those countries feel about the word?
Of course “socialist” in Sanders and his followers’ eyes is a totally different thing from what happened in those countries, but for people who shudder at the mere presence of this word, I don’t think they would bother to listen to what Sanders has to say about it.
I know Asian turnout has always been low and that the most prominent of them seem to be democrats. But will the prospect of a “socialist” country motivate those who have an unpleasant past in socialist countries come out to vote against democrats in large flocks? I haven’t found related date yet and hope to see some in the future.
The too old trope will play itself out soon as Trump struggles to keep up with Bernie, who is in much better mental and physical health than Trump. Bernie’s mind is sharp and while so many have been indoctrinated in hate and will be hard to change, those with the ability to think clearly will see the difference between steady thinking on one hand and out-of-control narcissism and dementia on the other.
In the end, its really about policy and government, not personalities. This is true because rapidly accelerating global heating forced by carbon dioxide production couldn’t care less about personality. 2020 will be quite different from 2016, in large part because the world will be much hotter and we will need cooler heads to prevail.
America won’t do away with socialism. The army, a socialist institution if there was one, is here to stay. I don’t see Trump and the GOP being able to replace it with a capitalist, mercenary army any time soon, although they will continue to try.
Same is true for public education. The GOP under the leadership of Betsy DeVos is working mightily to take money for public schools and put it into corporate and private hands, but the entire effort is only damaging the education of the younger generation by trying to remove science and teacher’s input from the educational experience and not training enough children at a high enough level to compete with technological education that is now going on elsewhere.
Same is true for public prisons and police forces. The GOP has worked hard to find a way to privatize these socialist institutions and have made considerable inroads with private prisons. Unfortunately, as a way to reducing crime these changes have been a total failure. Consequently, rather than change, the modern GOP now acts to cover up criminal acts rather than send criminals to jail. Its reached the point that it is now a widely accepted joke that the GOP is “tough on crime”.
I’ll think about what you say later. But what I want to stress is the different ways people feel about the word “socialist” because of their different backgrounds.
You might find it to be a wonderful idea mainly about economy and social structure, but for people who fled from socialist countries, the word reminds them of torture, persecution, etc. Both of you are right, and actually you are talking about two different things that happen to share a name “socialist”. The challenge is to convince those people to listen to your version of “socialist”, which I think would be difficult.
Nope, a moronic egotistical dictator wannabe is the lesser evil when compared to an intelligent egotistical dictator wannabe, thus Trump is the lesser evil when compared to Sanders.
I have voted in every election, except when in Vietnam, if Mr Sanders is the nominee I will vote but not for president. I have a bad feeling about him and just can’t see him or Biden as taking the office, My generation has done enough damage to his society time we slowly fad away.
Yeah, that’s a weird metric. I was waiting for aggregate poll results indicating Sanders is on top. I saw none. When I look for them online, Biden is on top.
I actually share a lot of your views about the difference between a moronic and an intelligent egoist.
But I think the three-branch system requires a party to control as many branches as possible in order to be effective. As you can see right now, Turtle is probably doing more harm than Trump himself.
The presidential election in the US has always been quite individualistic, especially recently, but I think it would be better if the president is considered as a branch, an institution that interact with the other two branches, instead of just an individual.
I’ve looked at studies done in 2016 which showed that among young voters, 18-30 years old, Sanders was capturing 60-70% of minority support (African-American, Asian-American, and Latino). This was slightly more than his “non-minority” support.
Well, he’s leading in the polling among all declared candidates, and leading in fundraising, so there’s that.
But it’s ridiculously early, so unless one candidate is the “frontrunner” by a country mile (and Bernie isn’t), at this point in the process I’m not sure it means all that much as far as chances of actually winning the nomination.
And of course Biden has been consistently ahead of Bernie in the polls, he just hasn’t declared yet.
So we’ll have to wait until Biden gets in (I’m assuming he will). If Biden hold or builds his lead in the polls once he’s officially in the race for a while, he’d be the clear frontrunner – though by no means a shoe-in. (If Biden ends up staying out of the race, that could boost Bernie into more obvious frontrunner status, because Biden will be officially out of the running, and because polls show Bernie is the second choice among a plurality of Biden supporters.)
But in the meantime, and for whatever it’s worth (probably not all that much) it’s not unreasonable to call Bernie a “frontrunner.”
Because, at this moment, among those running, he’s currently at the front of the pack, at least in terms of polling and fundraising.
Thanks, I was kind of aware of that, just not so sure without data to back it up. I think it would be great if someone can get the percentage of older generation of Asians in case they turn out to be the “silent majority”
Surely you’re not implying that Dems shouldn’t be at each others throats and everyone should just calm down and see what happens over the summer and into fall…
