Remember when people said Bernie wouldn't be able to get anything done because he couldn't work and compromise with politicians but Biden could?
I haven't been paying attention to US politics recently and was just wondering how well that argument held up. :biden:
It never needed to hold up. It just had to get him in power.
I can't tell you how many people I called when I phone banked that agreed with Bernie, but wouldn't vote for him because "he couldn't win." All they had to do was stoke the fear that Trump would get elected again. There was no reasoning with people once that fear was ignited (my experiences)
That was it. Trump was the perfect heel to get Biden elected. All the media had to do was stoke enough fear of what Trump might do and prop Biden up as the only candidate that could defeat him. Add in that people were burnt out and pissed off at Trump for bungling the response to corona. If Trump actually gave a shit about the virus and clamped down early I think he would have won. Trump should have ran on universal healthcare called "Patriot Care" or something.
Not even. One more stimulus check and we'd be talking about how Trump can win "against all odds."
Tbh even for the wrong reasons and instinctively they were correct imo. Bernie wouldnt have been allowed to govern or be president. Even if he won against Biden. Even if he "won" against Trump afterwards. Of course that would be still benificial for us cause it will highten the contradictions massively and would have led to many people radicalizing .
I do think that many working class even without class conciousness subconciously feels the pulse of the system and the trends of our times and rejected that social democracy and Bernie will help them materialy not cause it wouldnt in theory but because they know in their bones looking at america and feeling the systems attitude that it wouldnt be allowed to. And the media yelling about it for other reasons confirms this for them. And thats true in many countries at this point. No matter how many votes it got or no matter if it "won" on paper. That things wont really get noticably better through elections and changing presidents cause thats how things are . Our job isnt to tell them "no you are wrong the good tm politicians and reformists will help you with new welfare state policies ennacted under our current system" and every step along the way say "fight and vote for this and and these politicians and it will help and we can win" cause thats a lie. In time these people will be correct and and if that was your messaging as "the left" they cont believe you again if you say "actualy try this non reformist organizing now, this CAN work" even if you are right the next time
Sofact is that the people that said "i wont vote for him cause he cant win cant get it done" are correct even if they are just saying it without any material or class analysis but just cause it was put in their skull by the media. That message represnts the simple fact that he entire system showed that it was dead set in not even allowing middle of the road social democracy not just against neoliberalism but even against Trump. Rigging the primaries against him was the first line of that and it worked pretty well. There would be many more in the actual election, senate, inaguration, media , heart attack guns, manufactures scandals etc waiting to keep Bernie from winning and his policies from being ennacted.
Socdems and welfare state policies were allowed only when the system and staus quo decided to . And it would actualy be the correct move for capitalists to do it again now with Bernie. It wouldnt have cascaded to some revolutionary movement that would challenge them. It would be a good new deal move to "save capitalism" and keep the people complacent until the next round of neolibelarism. But its obvious that the entire state and directed media machinery of the bourgois decided (maybe it will come back to bite them) to not do that. And it wouldnt happened. Social democracy and socdem president wouldnt be "forced" on them while they were trying their best to prevent it. This isnt how that worked historicaly.
This isnt doomerism for a communist. Like i said the further Bernie got and the more open conflict and contradictions happened between him and his agenda and the system before it failed on its goals the better it would be for radicalization and our narrative. Privided that he actualy tried to fight for his agenda and policies and didnt bend backwards and compromise into Bidenism
I'll always appreciate Bernie wrecking himself on the reef of the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie to show people the reality of bourgeois democracy. Unless he's extremely subtle I don't think that was his intent, but it is quite illustrative.
In "power"
Lol I'm not actually sure why I phrased it that way but yeah "power"
Same experience with text banking here. People said they didn’t like Biden, but needed to defeat Trump. Even pointing at polls showing Bernie doing better than Biden would be dismissed.
2016 was the last real chance to catch a break in the executive, imo.