I'll repost my comment from the last dicsussion on this:
Some reasons why Bernie failed:
- Bernie ran a much worse campaign in 2020 than in 2016, he sounded like any other democrat (orange man bad, putin is terrible etc etc).
- Bernie filled his campaign with highpaid DNC consultants who fucked up out-reach on multiple fronts (don't have the sourcing ready on this but Fiorella Isabel did a lot of good work talking to people in Bernies campaign who were very frustrated with the campaigns direction).
- Amongst democrats 70% of the electoral still believes the media is an imperfect but fundamentally impartial arbiter, instead of the corrupt corporate tools of US capital tied to the hip of the DNC they really are.
- Bernie tried playing nice with the media hoping they would give him a chance see nr 3 for why that would never happen.
- Bernie offered a critique of capitalism by focusing on the current living conditions for the vast majority of americans, but that is not enough, if you want to win, you have to convince them that you are willing to fight. Bernie never went against the establishment and thus never gained true outsider status like Trump got in 2016.
- Bernie never critiqued the democratic party for betraying workers or Obama's term for how much of a disaster it was.
- Bernie russia gated, while not as much as other democrats, it made him sound like all the other democrats, and it still came back to bite him, both when he was forced to partake in the senate hearings (discussions with people inside the campaign said this cost him dearly in Iowa) and in the end when it was used against him right before Nevada.
- For most of the democratic primary electorate this election was "about beating trump", Bernie kept saying "joe biden is my good friend, he's a decent guy and he can beat trump", making his candidacy too risky for suburban liberals who mainstream media kept telling that Bernie was a commie radical and could never win an election.
- Bernie was terrible at picking allies, he burned bridges with other progressives and it left his campaign a lot weaker.
- Snakes on a campaign (warren was clearly a spoiler candidate meant to divide the progressive wing of the party)
Finally, maybe don't concede the primary to a demented racist rapist corporate sellout warmonger when you entire agenda is being proven right by a pandemic and subsequent economic depression. Especially when millions of working people have given you money and are putting their hopes in you helping their lives.
Maybe he could at least fight to get some concessions from Biden like he did in 2016, but instead we got the obvious bullshit that was "the task forces", we don't need another group of people to brainstorm "how we fix the problems", the fixes are obvious at this point.
Task forces are always meant to sap enthusiasm and energy from people. Almost nothing meaningfully left will come out of these task forces, and even less will be implemented as law.
Finally, maybe don’t concede the primary to a
demented racist rapist corporate sellout warmongergood friendBernie was terrible at picking allies, he burned bridges with other progressives and it left his campaign a lot weaker.
Examples?
Wasn't Zephyr Teachout one? She was an up and comming progressive that said something (can't remember what) "impolite" about Biden (i think) and Bernie distanced himself from her and applogized for what she said.
I think this opinion piece is it... Zephyr Teachout's opinion piece in the Guardian, "'Middle Class' Joe Biden has a Corruption Problem..."
Washington Post opinion piece about the opinion piece and Bernie's response, by Paul Waldman... from the first paragraph...
"Bernie Sanders did a strange thing the other day: He apologized to Joe Biden for an op-ed written not by him or his campaign but by a supporter, law professor and anti-corruption crusader Zephyr Teachout."
There was also some people who made pretty good videos independently supporting Sanders, who were brought into his campaign and then dumped when the "cancel culture kids" found something they didn't like about the content creators.
-Media designating Biden as the one true king.
-Bernie being overtly nice/non aggressive to competitiors to try to avoid the narrative of being 'Hilary's spoiler'
-Warren not dropping out (making her 2/2. Purposely not running in 2016 to allow centrist reign, and purposely running in 2020 to be progressive spoiler)
-The arrival of Coronavirus timed exceptionally well. Just slammed his campaign. (remember Biden campaign encouraging people to vote PRE-Masks? Bernie campaign became subservient and told people to be safe.)
There will be a lot of resentment towards Bernie in this thread I bet, so I just want to clarify- he implemented the most awesome rallying cry that gave me goosebumps. Just the theme I believe the entire left should revolve around. The idea of bettering your neighbour's lives, not just yourself. Class solidarity.
I might add to your list... though its more speculation so....
A packed field of candidates (like the Repubs had to deal with during their 2016 primaries) might have helped to dilute votes from those who vote regularly while also bringing in some of the non regular voters who are more ID pol inclined, helped push news cycles where Bernie or populist policies wouldn't/couldn't be covered...
Right—in 2016 they tried coronating Hillary early on and it backfired, somewhat, because it drew attention to her shitty record/lack of charisma, and Bernie could differentiate early on. In 2020, the crowded field meant that Biden and Harris (who had the most billionaire support) could swoop in due to machine politics.
If only the Medicare for all lobby had written Clyburn a 10 million dollar check...
Well, the obvious answer is “Obama called all the centrists and got them to drop out and endorse Joe”, that was certainly a part of it.
But it can’t be overlooked that Bernie’s whole gambit was “appeal to the people who normally feel alienated from politics because nobody represents them”, the thinking being that if you could engage enough of those non-voters, you could overcome the various disadvantages of running against a hostile Democratic Party. I think it’s safe to say that gamble didn’t pay off, in hindsight.
Why it didn’t I don’t feel confident in stating with authority at this point, there were a lot of curve balls (unprecedented dropping out of candidates before Super Tuesday, pandemic preventing in-person voting, etc.).
I think it’s safe to say that gamble didn’t pay off, in hindsight.
If you want to make that play you have to go scorched earth on the party establishment like Trump did in the republican primaries in 2016, Bernie didn't do that, he critized the system but never the elites, if you want to convince people that you will fight for them, you have to actually show it. Why would Bernie never critique the failed Obama presidency? why did he keep going around saying "Joe Biden is my good friend", it's because he's more worried about not becoming Ralph Nader and being good friends with the democratic establishment.
there was also a good bit of numbers fuckery
and lets not forget, bernie dropped in early april (the eighth iirc) and biden wasnt able to get enough delegates to be the nominee until june.
biden ran unopposed for over a month before he won. (edit: something like twenty states primaries were held during that period)
:dem:
it was fixed. the discrepancies in the vote totals compared to the actual numbers all favoring biden and hurting bernie prove it, same case with bernie vs. clinton.
In Iowa, they did their best to prevent Bernie from gaining momentum from an early victory. 🐀 It might be years until they release the full exit polling data, but in nearly all the states with a paper voting record, Bernie won. (Sans WA, which was a very narrow defeat.)
South Carolina was always going to be a layup for Joe “One Black Friend” Biden, but that’s undoubtedly where the real fuckery began.
I can’t help but feel a little smug at Dems whining about voter suppression in Texas right now: ye reap what ye sow.
His previous support for Clinton hurt his credibility with non-voters, his silence in the face of the media onslaught demoralized his base and when he did speak up the disproportionate and favorable coverage of the other candidates diminished his impact
Also half the elections were rigged and Obama called in his favors
What's the evidence for supporting Clinton in 2016 hurting his credibility among non-voters? Non-voters are almost by definition a diverse cohort, and their only consistent feature is a personal disengagement from politics. I don't think many of them, presented with the appeal that Bernie Sanders is the candidate trying to take on Wall Street and change the Democratic party from the inside, would respond with "ah, but didn't he concede in 2016 and throw his weight behind Clinton? I think I will continue to not vote."
To me that theory sounds like the magical thinking of disempowered radicals, that we actually already have popular support, and we simply need to call on the masses to join us with a strong enough voice.
To add on, Bernie did not build a groundbase of leftist or progressive support within the local parties, as in getting loyal members to join and take control of the democratic parties of each state or district. (If you're going to play the electoral game you have to actually play it)
That left him at the whims of machine politics, which he seemed to think he could overcome with sheer number of votes. But voter suppression turned out to be the main tool of Democrat machine politics, which basically denied him any chance of breaking through.
That and the ultimate machine politic, the will of the former president, basically nuked his chances on super Tuesday. The day before Super Tuesday (March 2nd) Obama called the centrist democratic candidates (Pete, Klob) and pushed them to drop out and support Biden. This made Biden seem like the inevitable candidate and severely weakened Bernie's already vulnerable razor-thin majority that he had over each individual candidate. (Remember when corp news kept saying "Bernie actually loses against all of the votes for the other candidates combined"? That literally became the reality when Obama made his calls.
Bernie should have tried actually organizing his people not just for his campaign but within the parties to solidify his base and make it less vulnerable between 2016 and 2020.
I think comparing how Trump won as an outsider and how Bernie failed to do so, there's a big difference: Obama. See Trump could critique the shit out of the RNC, cause like they didn't have a president for 8 years and Bush isn't really well liked. You gotta go all the way back to Reagan to find a really beloved Republican president. But the last Democrat was Obama, who is still wildly popular. So you can either go scorched earth and risk alienating a fairly large chunk who still really, really like Obama or you can not and fail to seem much like an outsider. And since Biden's whole campaign is basically "you'll kinda have Obama again", people who may like Bernie more but just want a Democrat to win and like Obama don't end up caring enough to vote in a primary. But just because we know his strategy failed, I don't necessarily know that the other strategy would have worked out. I think his problem differs heavily from 2016 in that Biden was a much tougher opponent due to how strongly linked to Obama he was, and I think that link would always be almost undefeatable.
Trump also had billionaire patrons and donors independent of the other candidates. The Mercers and others spent a lot of money and hired a lot of the people that got Trump through. All of gamergate was done by people working for Robert Mercer. Bernie simply didn't have this reserve of money giving him regular shots in the arm. And yes, of course, Obama stepping (stomping?) on the scales for Bernie made all the difference.
It's good to analyze at face value but this is always the deciding factor. The entire global capitalist order and the interests of the American empire vs a loosely connected network of socialists running on momentum alone. They know they only have to disrupt the momentum and fracture bases to cripple the effort. Where as you can splinter their empire 1000 times over and it would still be an incredible challenge to overcome.
All of gamergate was done by people working for Robert Mercer.
this sounds fucking insane and I wanna hear about it. I'm aware of Milo, but who else?
The media / the DNC / Obama were in the bag for Biden because god forbid people might actually think things could change for the better or get a little human dignity.
My friend joe
I'm kinda convinced Sanders didn't really want to win.
Because he gave up when it mattered most. He wasn't willing to shoot the hostage, and paid the price for it
