Bernie had no choice. No crowds due to COVID-19. Besides, he was already losing ground to Biden, post S. Carolina. Good man, this Bernie dude.
Y'all are fast. I just heard on the news that he's dropping out. This was the right thing to do and while there will probably be a lot of bitterness among his supporters this is a necessary step to hopefully defeating the current office holder. I'll repeat again what I've said. I don't agree with Sanders on several issues and while I agree with him on the problems such as the sorry state of healthcare in this country, the wealth gap and Climate Change I don't agree with his approach. He does deserve a lot of credit for keeping those issues in the forefront and also for increasing the importance and relevance of the Progressive side of the political spectrum. I do still feel he could've done more in the last few years. I think strategically it was a mistake to not formally join the Democrats and he, and many of his followers, seemed more interested in being revolutionary outsiders than working with the party to get things done. Sanders political career is far from over and he still has a lot of sway in shaping what happens from here on out. I believe he will do as much as he can to defeat Trump and I think he will do so with more vigor than he did in regard to Hillary Clinton. 4 years of Trump have probably shown him how damaging Trump is and also I think he has a much better relationship with Biden and a true friendship while there is open hostility with Clinton.
Let's hope Joe moves across his aisle and involve Bernie in some of his platform... after the elections.
Well stated. I hope we don't get a repeat of the "if I can't have Bernie, I won't have anybody". But Trump is so god-awful there just might be unity to get him out. Which there will have to be, given the myriad ways of suppressing the (Democratic) vote.
I wish this would have happened sooner, but glad it finally happened. Every day he was in the race was a day that helped Trump. Hard to not respect Bernie as a person even if you don't agree with his pie in the sky goals. He's been fighting the good fight his entire career, but he lacks the fundamental pragmatism needed to actually make things happen in this country as it currently exists. In a perfect world I would vote for him in a heartbeat because I agree with literally every one of his goals for this country, but we don't live in a perfect world. The only thing that matters is getting Trump out of office. I don't care if they have to prop up Biden's corpse weekend at Bernies style, anything better than Trump who has basically used this country as his toilet paper. He needs to do everything in his power to rally his base to that cause. I legitimately don't know if this country will ever be able to recover if Trump gets re elected after the way he's behaved. It will only embolden him further.
I don't know if Biden would personally involve Sanders but he's already moved towards some progressive goals.
Kudos to Bernie. History will remember him as a major figure during this period. I think possibly even more so than if he won the nomination, or even became president. Few people have moved public sentiment more in the past few generations more than Bernie. The Bernie platform does not die with his candidacy.
No doubt. $15/hour and other benefits would not have happened without him. It just so happens every in the field just emulated that idea.
I think it’s very important, and a little surprising, that Bernie decided to drop out and give Joe Biden a clear path to the nomination. After all, it’s still early April. I hope it’s viewed as a signal to his supporters that Biden truly isn’t Hillary Clinton, that “they aren’t all the same,” and that voting for Biden is of paramount importance, something Bernie understands. By dropping out, he has made that clear, in my opinion. This isn’t a time to bring up 2016, which I did as much as anyone, now that Bernie has ended his campaign, or to gloat, either. I won’t be. This is a time to unite across party differences, across ideological differences. To make bridges between the different camps, and there are more than two, taking the best ideas and genuinely try to implement them by working hard for victory in November. Victory electing Joe Biden, victory keeping the House majority and getting at least a tie in the Senate, and victories down ballot. That last is crucial. The states! The legislatures! Redistricting is close at hand, and the manipulation of boundaries by the Republican Party in a effort to both divide the country and keep an ideological minority clinging to power must end. That means a lot of work across the political spectrum, bringing in independent voters, those on the Left who remain bitter, those on the Right who claim they hate trump, but keep defending him. We need every vote. We need to do everything possible to get those voters to vote early. Wisconsin proved that the ruthless leaders of the GOP in some states, and certainly on the national level, will do anything to remain in power. Even putting the lives of voters in genuine danger by attempting to restrict early voting, voting by mail, etc., by trying to force voters to vote in person, the hope obviously being to reduce turnout in a massive way. Turnout always being a boost to the Democratic Party. In short, any effort to make voting easier for Americans struggling with self-isolation will be resisted by the GOP, self-isolation which will still be in existence in large areas of this country on November 6th, in my opinion. Write, email, text to your representatives and demand expanding the opportunity to vote from home. We are already seeing completely bogus claims that voting by mail and early registration leaves our democratic system open to fraud. That is a lie! There is no proof that it is an issue. None, except on bizarre websites and blogs that pump out conspiracy theories based on nothing but their imagination, and from elsewhere. Want proof? Google how Oregon handles voting. They’ve had very expanded voting opportunities for 20 years and without the issues so many in the GOP cry about. They aren’t the only state, either. Take a few minutes to do a little research if you’re skeptical. Events four years ago showed that many of those “theories” were produced by foreign intelligence agencies in an effort to reduce turnout, promote division in our country, and elect the person that has proven to be not only an abject failure as a leader, but the absolutely worse person to be in charge during this unprecedented crisis. So don’t feed the trolls. You know who they are. Take that time instead to work for victory in November. If you have ideas about how to help make that reality, put them out there. We need everyone. This is the most important election in my memory, and I’ve seen a few. All in my opinion. Do what you can! After all, if you are like me, you have -
Yeah I tend to think that what happened yesterday influenced Bernie on a personal level because, whether you support him or not, Bernie is a good man and cares about people. He saw that there could be other Republican state officials that weaponize the virus to use in their favor to punish Democrats, and Bernie wanted no part in his supporters getting sick and dying just to cast their vote for him. If you were a strategist, you would have at least waited until the Wisconsin results came out, and also see if you could get some live rallies in towards the end of the Covid crisis. I think he did this today because simply he is a good man who cares about people and it was the right thing to do.
Purely anecdotal, but I've seen people saying they will now write in Joe Exotic rather than vote for Biden or Trump. I don't understand it. Sanders is voting for Biden. The distance is between Sanders and Biden is one foot. The distance between Sanders and Trump is one football field. Why give up something to the guy who is a football field away?
They are ideological idiots. It is incomprehensible, so one has to assume that they are either incredibly immature, secretly support trump, or just not very intelligent. One of the 3. Of course, it could be all 3. Very well said. You spell it out and I agree. If his own supporters don't see it that way in some fashion, I have to wonder just what is wrong with them.
I understand it. I've been on the losing end of many campaigns, campaigns that I've donated too and volunteered for. I was very bitter during the 2010 MN Governor's race when the Independent Tom Horner swept all the major newspaper endorsements in the state and was within striking distance in polls only to get blindsided by Obama coming to campaign for Mark Dayton. That said I weighed the options and don't regret my vote for Horner. Horner was a former Republican and many MN Republicans blame him Dayton winning.
I will repeat that I don't like Biden. I can't stand him personally and if he wins I will probably skip watching a lot of his speeches and briefings because I can't stand a lot of his mannerisms (MALARKEY). This is though a binary choice now. I'm not happy with it either but this is where we are at. Unless something very unusual is going to happen Jan. 2021 the President will either be Joseph Biden or Donald Trump. We know what Trump is. We know what he has done. There is no reason to think he will change. All the talk in 2016 that once Trump got into office he would moderate and find gravitas none of that happened. If anything he is worse now. I will roll my eyes, look away and etc.. when Biden rambles on about some "truthful" story about the mean streets of Wilmington but I'm not going to worry that he is selling out our foreign policy to the Saudis because they buy a lot of his toys.
There are Trump followers who never voted Republican or at all. Same with Bernie, I guess. Kinda bizzare how "so in the game" they are even when their boy is gone. Their powerlessness and inaction is telling. Spiteful, really. I'm neutral to Biden's personality, but I get where you mean. Anita Hill hearings encapsulate real Biden when he's in confrontational mode. He's also boastful and muddles up details. The man has several Homer Simpson moments without the satire. Being in Obama's shadow along with his son dying raised points that I don't usually bother to inventory. Wilmington can be pretty rough though. When I worked there, I learned it had the highest crime rate in the US for a small city. It's peaks and valleys in its extreme. Half financial tax haven HQ. Other half is totally wrecked by poverty. I don't think he'd be caught dead in the mean streets unless it's to pay off an angry coke supplier for one of his...dependents.
Undaunted Sanders Supporters to Carry On Campaign Without Candidate: call Sanders' announcement "an insignificant setback."
It’s an easy choice when you remove the personality and just focus on the policy and self interest. Does anyone realize what the difference is in the Supreme Court case on striking down the ACA if Biden is in office vs Trump in a second term? Does anyone realize the real life impact that will happen if Trump picks RBG’s replacement instead of Biden? The consequences are huge... well unless you are a millionaire or a bigot or a millionaire bigot.
