In an interview with the Guardian from his home base in Burlington, Vermont, Sanders urged the Democratic president to inject more urgency into his bid for re-election. He said that unless the president was more direct in recognising the many crises faced by working-class families his Republican rival would win.
“We’ve got to see the White House move more aggressively on healthcare, on housing, on tax reform, on the high cost of prescription drugs,” Sanders said. “If we can get the president to move in that direction, he will win; if not, he’s going to lose.”
The US senator from Vermont added that he was in contact with the White House pressing that point. “We hope to make clear to the president and his team that they are not going to win this election unless they come up with a progressive agenda that speaks to the needs of the working class of this country.”
Sanders’ warning comes at a critical time in American politics. On Monday, Republicans in Iowa will gather for caucuses that mark the official start of the 2024 presidential election.
Biden faces no serious challenger in the Democratic primaries. But concern is mounting over how he would fare against Trump given a likely rematch between them in November.
He’s right. Biden is coasting into this election. Reminds me of Hillary in 2016.
So odd how dems always fumble it away.
Eh, Obama went hard on election stuff and so did Bill. This hubris seems recent and tied to a belief that Trump isn’t a serious candidate.
Did the same thing with Dubya.
“That other guy is terrible” is a really bad way to go into an election.
Neither side knows how to fix things, but one of them lies and says it does. Being the incumbent doesn’t help either, because if you do say you know how to fix things the obvious reply is “well why haven’t you done it then?”
Neither side knows how to fix things, but one of them lies and says it does.
I would argue both sides know how to fix things but neither one is willing to do ALL the work required … especially when it comes to re-regulating Wall St, taxing the rich across the board (like they were post-WW2), and clamping down on the billions of dollars donated through super PACs that essentially buys elections.
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the Clinton campaign proposed intentionally cultivating extreme right-wing presidential candidates, hoping to turn them into the new “mainstream of the Republican Party” in order to try to increase Clinton’s chances of winning.
Gotta love this 'murican culture of nurturing the worst of the worst then wondering why it backfires. Saddam Hussein, Osama bin Laden and the Colombian drug cartels come to mind.
It’s not like hes won before, right? /s
It’s almost like it’s on purpose… Like the offense and defense of the capital class…
Surely the people that own everything wouldn’t use the government to get what they want.
Of course not! It’s the best democracy in the world, anyone can buy it!
What, regulatory capture is real? Surely voting harder will fix that.
That’s because the corporatists that control the messaging want some periodic austerity to keep the working class in line. “You should be happy with what we give you” or something like that.
Yes… odd
Every once in awhile I catch myself thinking about how different the world would have been if Bernie was president and it’s just so fucking sad.
I get that all the other problems would still exist, but there would be a glimmer of hope to cling on to.
It wasn’t just Bernie who got the screws from Democrats. Henry Wallace got the same shaft from Democrats. On the other hand, Republicans don’t have populist fliers, they have fascists fliers who are promoted to the top.
A significant portion of the US population think Biden is a communist, how would Sanders have a chance of winning enough votes?
There’s a reason Trump fought so hard to have Bernie as the democratic nominee in 2020.
a significant portion of the US population thinks trump is a fascist, how would he have a chance of winning enough votes?
there’s a reason hilary fought so hard to have trump as the republican nominee in 2016.
…
am i doing it right?
I’m not doing another conversation with you so you can ghost it when it gets to difficult to counter then report my comments.
this is poisoning the well. (a form of ad hominem)
it’s also a lie.
and what i said is true.
and here is some more truth: i don’t want you to respond to anything i ever say.
Modlogs are public.
Anyone who wants to can look at it.
Have a nice day.
i hope they do.
i can’t seem to find my reports. can you link them?
Have a nice day.
Have you seen this video yet?
Bernie’s Legacy w/ Killer Mike https://youtu.be/ZlZaVtCT5HI
Never forget the movement… Not me. Us.
Remember when debbie Wasserman shutlz stole the dnc nomination from bernie to give it to Hillary?
That one rug pull gave donnie the win.
Remember when this was challenged and the court ruled the Parties have no obligation to play fair
With an election coming up, the Schrodingers Leftist dilemma is in full force, even on Lemmy -
Where we’re simultaneously both powerful enough to be personally behind every Republican win of the past 20 years, and also so insignificant that we must be ridiculed and bullied at every turn to remind us that we have NO PLACE in their party they blame us for not backing.
The best part is that most of the time people hit both sides of the coin in the same comment.
What
Centerists, or people who voted for Biden in the primaries tell progressives and leftists we’re minority viewpoints within the Democrat party. Implying that we have no business trying to influence the direction of the party. These same centerists also blame us when their garbage candidates don’t win in the general election and tell us things like “Biden was a good compromise” or “You got pretty much everything you wanted” despite neither of those things being true.
Centerists got so comfortable winning elections on their own they forgot how to compromise and accuse anyone else trying to negotiate as “throwing a tantrum”.
Valid criticism. The left has been brilliant at ignoring what used to be their core problem field.
You’re confusing “the left” with “democrats”.
lol democrats are not the left
In the context of elections where a two party system guarantees that any potential third party will be lose - yes, they are.
There’s far right and center right. It’s time to stop calling neoliberals “the left.” Call them center right or even just center, but stop enabling the illusion of democracy by calling Democrats “the left.”
Neither are any working class voters who pick Trump because Biden doesn’t inspire them.
What exactly is their core problem field right now?
Procorporatism with some entitlements for boomers.
I would argue their core issue is that fundamental democratic values can’t co-exist with rich people’s drive to get richer. Democracy is all about equality and rights … whereas the drive for personal wealth supersedes everyone else’s rights except the rich.
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I’m sure Biden and “his team” want to win, but not at any cost. Certainly not at the cost of taxing his donors and using the money to help the working class.
How would that policy be enacted even if they did? Congress certainly will not pass it.
Of course congress wouldn’t pass anything like that. Ultimately they all play for the same team-- Capital. The “bully pulpit” and executive orders are largely reserved for things like supporting genocide, and antagonizing our geopolitical rivals.
Even a clearly over reaching executive order that immediately gets smacked down by the courts would relieve the pressure.
Ahh yes, the classic “there’s no reason to support good policies because other people do not.”
What a bunch of losers.
Lemmy is largely populated by children who lack the intellectual maturity to appreciate that democracy is about compromise and that winning elections doesn’t mean that you get to do everything you want.
There’s this myth that somehow Biden can just wave a magic wand and get everything he wants, but he’s not doing it because in spite of being arguably the most powerful man on the planet, he’s secretly in the pocket of corporate America. It’s a very childish view of the world and is entirely disconnected from reality.
This is an extremely common trope from establishment Democrats who like to pretend the left is just naive children. Let me make this perfectly clear to you. Yes, we get politics. Yes, we understand that Biden can’t get everything he wants. Yes, we get that Republican obstruction is a thing.
Now, here are some things for you to try and grasp. Most of the time, Biden and the Democratic establishment is leading the opposition against the left. The establishment also plays dirty to get their unpopular candidates past the primary, then blames the left when they lose in the general.
It’s not generally the politically active left that doesn’t vote blue. Most of us are well practiced at holding our noses at the ballot box. It’s normal non-political Americans who see no point in getting engaged when neither party even speaks to their problems.
Say it louder for those in the back.
Say it loud for those in the front too.
Says the immature child posting on Lemmy…
Both parties in the US are in the pocket of corporate America to some degree (Citizens United made it legal anyways), it’s just that one party actually cares about having a functioning country with a decent living standard for people and the other will happily burn it to the ground to hurt minorities and gain short-term power. What you see is the frustration in the general US population that sees the Republicans openly ruining things while the Dems have their hands tied by the underhanded tactics Republicans use and talk about “reaching across the aisle” and compromising with the fascists. Stuff gets done, but you often don’t hear about it or openly see the effects of Elizabeth Warren taking corporations to account for their actions compared to the 1.3 anti-trans laws per day that Republicans tried to pass in the first 6 months of last year.
Yeah, and democracy isn’t perfect.
We’ve seen that from the very beginning of the US.
Who knows what’s happening in their heads… but my guess is they think that once the ‘3rd party people’ fall back in line they will regain the lead so they don’t have to worry. And the rest is Biden being as establishment as you can get so obviously he’s not interested in any radical policy changes.
With an election coming up, the Schrodingers Leftist dilemma is in full force, even on Lemmy -
Where we’re simultaneously both powerful enough to be personally behind every Republican win of the past 20 years, and also so insignificant that we must be ridiculed and bullied at every turn to remind us that we have NO PLACE in their party they blame us for not backing.
The best part is that most of the time people hit both sides of the coin in the same comment.
You can look at my post history and see I’m pretty far left, but I’ll be pinching my nose and voting for Joe Brandon, the reason the GOP has built so much power over the years is because their base always pinches their nose and toe the party line. Voting for the lesser evil is still keeping less evil out of the world.
Voting for less evil is still addition of evil. Everyone parrots this “blue no matter who” shit but dems have done nothing to stop fascism or serve the needs of citizens, because they benefit from those systems and citizens going without. Voting mid right instead of far right is still voting for the right, voting Democrat doesn’t stop the march to fascism, it just delays the official kick off date by 4 years as Republicans continue to seize power unchecked from the bottom up.
I’ve always voted third party and will continue to do so cause I’m over this vote between fascism and fascism but with a rainbow pin on its cap. If Democrats wanted the votes to beat Trump, they should have run Bernie who won the primary in 2016 instead of running status quo Hillary then having a court decree that their voters are, legally, not shit to them.
I’ve said it before and I’ll keep shouting it from the rooftops - if leftists are so fucking important to Democrats maybe they should stop dedicating their lives to insulting and belittling us. 🤷
If you vote third party you have no right to cry when Trump win. You are as much responsible for it as anyone who didnt vote.
If you vote Democrat you have no right to cry when Trump win. You are responsible for voting for a party that explicitly demonizes half of their supposed base as they screech at us for not voting for them.
I don’t wanna vote for Biden, so I’m going to twiddle my thumbs while other people vote for wish.com Hitler.
“I’m so against moving away from my right wing duopoly I’m going to call the guy who’s only a few shades less right wing and has done nothing to stem the rise of fascism because his party benefits from the same mechanisms being exploited by fascists ‘oUr OnLy ChAnCe.’”
Voting for Biden doesn’t stop fascism, it delays it for 4 years as dems continue to turn a blind eye to fascists overriding every system from the bottom up until next time.
It’s not the leftists. Oh the Democrats blame it on them. But we saw this in 2016 with Hillary. It’s a hurt working class that feels like they’re being ignored.
“leftists” is just what the centerists are willing to call us even if it’s not technically correct. The point is they blame us for not winning the general elections but outright vote against us in the primaries. It’s fucking pathetic.
All I know is I get called a socialist all the time and I can’t get in contact with this Soros guy for my check. Seriously though, it is pretty screwed when you can tell whose going to get the nomination by who gets the party chair positions.
If Biden doesn’t at least say he wants to do something about housing affordability then I won’t be voting. I’ve voted blue my entire life.
It’s the same with the AFD in Germany. People were so busy insulting those who vote AFD and telling them how stupid they are that now even more people vote AFD. I wonder how anyone thought this was going to make them vote for a different party?
Centerists literally screaming at people they have to vote Democrat because a vote for a third party will destroy democracy.
These are the same people who voted for Biden in the primaries intentionally to block progressive and leftist candidates from getting elected and now they want to act like we’re responsible for propping up their garbage candidate.
Dems are just mid rights who don’t care if you’d rather slave away and not afford healthcare or housing with a masculine pronoun instead of feminine (or vice versa)
To be fair, attention span is short. Anything the administration does too early before the election will be completely forgotten by November.
True!
This is the problem, Biden is a historically pro-union president and people don’t seem to recognize it. His appointments to the national labor board are responsible for the resurgence of unions were seeing.
Rare sane voice in the mass of users that shift with the whims of the GOP.
Can’t pass up an opportunity to blame progressives and leftists can you? It’s not that Joe Biden is a procorporate piece of shit. No no, it’s those young 40 year old kids with their tiktoks that are the problem.
Get real Boomer. Biden was a terrible candidate and anyone who voted for him in the 2020 primaries is a selfish piece of shit.
Didn’t single out anyone. Attention spans are low across the spectrum.
I didn’t vote for him in the 2020 primary. I’m all for election reform to move away from FPTP and the lesser-evil voting strategy it necessitates. But as it stands, voting is FPTP in this election, so I’m definitely going to vote for the proto-corporatist over the fascist, and I’m going to encourage actions that make the fascist staying out of power more likely.
Single out the selfish piece of shit boomers who voted for Joe Biden in the primaries.
Whatever you say bud. You can complain, or play the hand you’re dealt. Can’t do much about it not. If you disagree with what happened, get out ahead of primaries next time and promote the candidates you like. If more people vote for another candidate, that’s just democracy.
Buddy, if you didn’t vote for Biden in the primaries who did you vote for? And why aren’t you willing to acknowledge there was no good reason to vote for Biden in the primaries?
I voted for Bernie, but alas he did not win the primary. More people voted for Biden, so he did. That’s the hand we are dealt.
I’m only saying there’s no benefit to complaining about it now. Biden is shitty, but Trump is shittier. So it goes.
So are you willing to call out the people who voted for Biden in the 2020 primaries for the selfish pieces of shit they are?
Just a quick fyi here:
Kudos to the Guardian for calling Trump a demogogue. At least they say the truth when no North American news source will.
That’s just bullshit. Many North American publications have called him far worse than a demagogue. You’re saying something that “feels” right but that isn’t actually true. It’s part and parcel with how disconnected from reality so many of us have become.
Communist Trolls: The left doesn’t say enough bad shit about Trump!
Left and center news calling him a white supremacist, neo-nazi courting, racist, rapist, cheating, fat fuck, and now smelly fascist for 8 years now.
Suckers for propaganda: Uhhh… Biden supports Jews exterminating Muslims! I’m helping!!! Why didn’t all of America vote for Bernie! It was the evil Democrats! It couldn’t be that he was more popular and appealed to the sensitivities of anyone over the age of 40! Nor could Bernie court enough young voters to care to vote.
This coming from someone that has voted for him every chance I got. Which was exactly once lol. Bernie hasn’t challenged him for the nomination at all. There’s a reason why, and it isn’t because he’s cowtowed.
Call me stupid, cuz I don’t know. But why isn’t anyone challenging Biden in the media? Or even talking about Marianne Williamson’s (who I thought was a challenger) bid for the Democrat ticket?
How do we not have people lining up to replace Biden on the left?
Without the support of the DNC they know all they can do is weaken biden.
Media is a scary thing. Progressive ideas are so popular rn, and yet centrist and corporate donors still control everything. This election cycle has been such a slow boil and everyone seems to be tapped out already
Trump has both parties strangled and nobody is willing to make inroads for third parties or ending FPTP. Voters are abused spouses that aren’t willing to fuck off to the shelter or streets because it will suck.
Biden’s procorporate bullshit is what’s strangling the chances of a Democrat victory. He fucked the BBB, negotiated down on student loan forgiveness, argued with us about how much stimulus money he campaigned on, blocked the rail strike, signed off on Yellen and Powell’s war on the working class, gave a handout to corporate America with the chips act and continues to support Israel against wishes of the voters he depends on.
If Biden loses it’s because Biden is a piece of shit.
Because it would be a good way to ensure a Trump victory. I hate that it’s come to this, but unfortunately it’s the reality.
Marianne is the one who had letter drafted from her staff to take her race more serious & focus on getting on more ballots than Iowa & New Hampshire. Huh, I wonder why nobody is taking her serious.
if Trump wins the corps also win and the people lose
if Biden wins the corps also win and the people lose
did either of these two put up a fight for worker’s rights and higher wages?
did either stand up for women’s rights or bodily autonomy?
did either stand up and defend journalist being silenced?
did either do anything to quell the militarized police force?
did either help Captain Planet at all with restoring Mother Earth?
did either candidate do anything to protest against the size of the military budget?
what did either candidate do that directly makes the citizens better off?
where is the difference?
He said that unless the president was more direct in recognising the many crises faced by working-class families his Republican rival would win.
No, The Guardian, you missed the whole fucking point.
The important thing Sanders said is that unless the president was more direct in recognizing the many crises faced by working-class families then our entire democracy would be destroyed.
This is an existential threat, not a goddamned motherfucking horse race, and I am sick and tired of the media supporting fascism by treating it like the latter!
Yeah Biden lost me when he outlawed the rail strike (please dont link me to electrical union statement). Frankly its just been downhill from there anyway.
Don’t link you evidence that the unions themselves thanked Biden for his help and they got what they wanted without striking?
he outlawed a rail strike and you want to link me a statement from an electrical union that opposed the strike from the beginning and always had sick days. And then I point out how not everyone got any sick days from this, the ones who did didnt get what they would have gotten from a strike, and outlawing strikes poisons any future union bargaining. Im tired of fuckin democrats coming in here to tell me how it was a good thing that the unions didnt get to collective bargain, they dont need any influence on labor because employers and the government have their best interests in mind.
Most of us rank and file union members think that he did what he had to do because inflation was already out of control and shutting down the railroads risked tipping the country into recession which would’ve guaranteed a “red wave” election in '22 as well as the reelection of Trump, both of which would be far more dire for working people.
Local 10 till I die!
damn man union members not even believing in collective bargaining. Yeah, it would have had consequences, that’s why it works. And it historically improves the economy, with increased pay for workers able to spend more into the economy.
“Leftist”/Dum-Dum left yet again being the most anti-labor aspects of the Democrat party despite waving union issues around, sadly. They are so fickle and searching for some wild thing to justify quitting & trying to hand the GOP a win at a moments notice. They won’t put the work into listening to great workers like yourself & what it takes to get the job done.
You’re the one celebrating a president for blocking a strike.
The are reasons for strikes and goals behind them. The strike isn’t the thing they are after its a tactic for getting the deals labor wants. You have to follow the whole labor negogation and negogations didn’t end because the strike was. The only hiccup was sick days and many of thd unions got that in the end.
You are looking for something superfical to be angry about.
Call it whatever you want. I’m not voting for Biden again.
One rich IBEW pencil pusher doesn’t represent every rail worker. You know how we determine the will of that many people? Through voting and they voted against the contract Biden shoved down their throats.
If Americans can’t realize for themselves that Biden is the most progressive president we’ve had since Jimmy Carter then we deserve Trumps dictatorship. I’m not saying Biden is adequately progressive (he’s not), but can anyone name a more progressive president in the last 50 years?
bringing up the idea of voting third party is not a good choice here, huh? If i did that, i would get a lot of copypasta ‘but trump’ if i did so I’ll just say this instead:
Since we all know we need a third party eventually, what do we think we could do to make that happen in the future? (After this election i mean, and trump disappears forever, melted by our vote power.)
How long would we need to wait? (Don’t want to steal votes from Democrats mind you) would they’re ever be a time where that wouldn’t happen? If we asked the DNC about timing, do you think they would help us get one started? If we tried and somehow succeeded in getting something off the ground, how might both parties feel about that attempt? Would they be for or against? If they were against, would they try to crush it? If they tried to crush it, what would they do to crush it? They probably wouldn’t use force first, so maybe they’d use words. What might they say about it?
Good questions. As with most things in society, true change has to start small. So you have to start by changing the messaging. With greater organization and messaging you start local and build a foundation. It drives me nuts that we have these conversations every 4 years about the presidency and then everybody goes back to their lives for another 4 years. Meanwhile the corporate machine is continuing their messaging that “government bad, worker’s rights/unions bad, minimum wage bad, welfare bad, education bad, stock market good”. What do you expect?
Yeah. If i use myself as a barometer of what regular people are capable of, i simply don’t have the time n money n energy to start my own campaign or put time and money into a smaller political entity, to try and build them up for the next, out even the next next presidency.
I mean, were talking realism it would be a small party that won at the local level first yeah? Or so I’ve been told.
So we’re talking decades. I have thought idly about how something like that could even happen over that time, and the only realistic starting point i can’t think of is a pipe dream on its own, UBI.
I cannot think of another way the common man could compete with all that corpo monkey
I get it. Maybe we can all just start by changing the conversation and focus on the positive things Biden has done and encourage more of the same. The narrative is only focusing on the negatives and that will affect polling and voting.
The narrative is only focusing on the negatives and that will affect polling and voting.
Good. Biden losing the general election is the only way the fucking pieces of shit who voted for him in the primaries will get the fucking message. Stop voting for procorporate trash in the primaries. We won’t show up for them in the general.
Centrist Democrats would rather lose and have a hereditary dictatorship run by the Trump family than treat workers with respect.
Bernie is in Biden’s back pocket, he’s incredibly influential to the presidency right now. Bernie has helped Biden come up with nearly every progressive policy he’s rolled out. This statement actually will mean something.
Bernie has helped Biden come up with nearly every progressive policy he’s rolled out.
Which ones?
He played an important part in pressuring rail companies to give workers more sick time and remove the advanced notice clause, the Inflation Reduction Act, Build Back Better, the infrastructure bill, and several executive orders.
Fuck Joe Biden for blocking the rail strike.
Your comment seems detached from reality, Biden appointed people to the national labor board and they changed the rules so that when companies try to do their anti-union fuckery, unions get automatically implemented:
https://prospect.org/labor/2023-08-28-bidens-nlrb-brings-workers-rights-back/
This is why we’ve been seeing so many successful unionizations and strikes lately.
I think the operative word in his post was “centrist.” By that, I’m sure he means center to right Dems like Pelosi and Manchin.
The corporatist profit loving ones who would rather climb a ladder to tell a lie than stand on solid ground and speak truth.
https://fortune.com/2024/01/03/members-of-congress-profit-from-stocks-2023/
Neither of these people, nor the dozens of lawmakers like them, support unions in a real way. They care about money first and appearance of support to their constituents second. Pelosi keeps getting reelected because she’s the biggest money maker for the DNC.
Pelosi keeps getting elected because she’s one of the best Representatives and speakers in the US history. What a fucking muppet
Yeah she’s the best for rich people. The rest of us find her to be a procorporate piece of shit just like Joe Biden.
And minorities, and LGBT and poor people
She has a long and storied record
Pelosi has not been good for poor people or LGBT. We live in a capitalist society and the damage she’s done to the rights of everybody who works for a living far outpaces any good she has done. She’s a corrupt piece of shit.
You can’t cherry pick Biden’s appointments and claim worker support. Biden also appointed Janet Yellen and reappointed Jerome Powell who are both in an outright war with the working class. Fuck Joe Biden.
