Going back and listening to those live primary eps is real sad. Like they really were going all out and trying and caring and doing some genuinely real organizing, getting the whole crowd to sing Solidarity Forever like gd it really felt like a change was possible
I went to iowa for bernie, held a whole shit load of phone banks in chicago for him during the early primaries, and even canvassed during covid right up until he dropped.
Maybe Im a silly doomer but I really do feel like bernie was a once in a lifetime opportunity to get anything remotely different. AOC would be an "obama" type at best who promises a lot and delivers nothing.
I'll never forget how many people I called who said they were going to vote for a different primary candidate because "all the candidates agree with Bernie on his policies anyway"
I remenber the day before south carolina and CNN/MSNBC was doing some fuckery in telling everyone that Bernie had been helped by Russia or whatever tf And i encountered some angry boomers.
The silver lining in all of this is that, if anything, at least the resistance libs are completely defeated. Blue maga disengaging from politics altogether does potwntially create an opportunity in 2028.
As much as I love the chapos, I never understood why they believed Bernie would ever move the needle. It's like they've never read basic theory.
Even if, miraculously, bernie would get elected, he'd be a lame duck at best, and only continue the trajectory of American empire, or get immediately assassinated as soon as he started fucking with the rich people's money.
Bernie could have been a second FDR. He wasn't Lenin but he could have done a lot of good for a lot of people.
Of course now we know unfortunately our succdem grandpa is kind of a wimp. But we didn't know that in 2016.
I highly, HIGHLY, doubt Bernie would be able to do anything. The levers of power in the western world are 100% in the hands of capital, with no real leftist movement to pose a threat to the ruling powers to influence anything.
Even back then, it was obvious for anyone who had read some basic Lenin.
Bernie's function was to coalesce all the strands of semi-leftist movements and strangle them in the crib.
I highly, HIGHLY, doubt Bernie would be able to do anything. The levers of power in the western world are 100% in the hands of capital, with no real leftist movement to pose a threat to the ruling powers to influence anything.
Which is why they said Bernie could be the next FDR. A capitalist president. The guy who was in charge when american capitalism was saved by a combination of minimal planning, war and the new deal tackling a few of the worst contradictions found in the economic model. Sanders would have never been Lenin. He would, at best, been a guy who enacted capitalist policies that do not entail removing the copper wiring from the walls.
You can make an argument that american capitalism has developed into a financialized phase that makes it all impossible. That american industrial policy is too invested in financial bubbles and pretending that the government doesn't do industrial policy (it does, but just for Raytheon, Big Tech and Tesla). But that's a different argument from saying that Bernie was not revolutionary. Rather, you're claiming that the USA's leeway within the framework of capitalism is too limited even for an FDR.
He had a real base of popular support. That matters a lot. Then again barfsack ocrumbo couldn't even get us a public option so
It doesn't matter anyway we are worldbuilding
Then again barfsack ocrumbo couldn't even get us a public option so
He didn’t want it in the first place. The whole point was to compromise away from it and scapegoat it on people like Lieberman.
God I hate him so much
Everything we exist in is his legacy, trump, Biden, all of it.
Either of those outcomes would have been wonderful radicalising moments for a ton of supporters though
When Bernie won the Iowa caucus in 2020, it seemed like he could win the primary
If anybody shouldn't have to, it's the senior ranking person caucusing with the Democrats in the Senate.
