Leftwing senator advises ‘unification of progressive people in general’ because threat from Republican ex-president is too great
Leftwing senator advises ‘unification of progressive people in general’ because threat from Republican ex-president is too great
Progressive US voters must unite behind Joe Biden rather than consider any of his Democratic primary challengers because the threat of another Donald Trump presidency is too great, Bernie Sanders has said.
“We’re taking on the … former president, who, in fact, does not believe in democracy – he is an authoritarian, and a very, very dangerous person,” the senator and Vermont independent, who caucuses with Democrats, said on NBC’s Meet the Press. “I think at this moment there has to be unification of progressive people in general in all of this country.”
Sanders’ remarks came as Trump continued grappling with more than 90 criminal charges across four separate indictments filed against him for his efforts to forcibly nullify his defeat to Biden in the 2020 presidential race, his illicit retention of classified documents, and hush-money payments to porn actor Stormy Daniels.
Despite the unprecedented legal peril confronting him, Trump enjoys a commanding lead over his competitors in the Republican presidential primary, polls show.
And though polling for now shows Biden generally is ahead of Trump, that has not stopped Robert F Kennedy Jr and Marianne Williamson from mounting long-shot Democratic primary challenges – or third-party progressive candidate Cornel West from running.
Sanders himself was the runner-up for the Democratic nomination in the 2016 White House race won by Trump and in 2020, with West among his supporters. But Sanders this time quickly endorsed Biden’s re-election campaign, a decision which prompted West to accuse him of only backing Biden because he is “fearful of the neo-fascism of Trump”.
The senator responded to that criticism on Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union, saying, “Where I disagree with my good friend Cornel West is – I think, in these really very difficult times, there is a real question whether democracy is going to remain in the United States of America.
“You know, Donald Trump is not somebody who believes in democracy, whether women are going to be able to continue to control their own bodies, whether we have social justice in America, [whether] we end bigotry.”
Sanders didn’t elaborate, but his remarks seemed to be an allusion to the Trump White House’s creation of the US supreme court supermajority, which last year struck down the federal abortion rights that the Roe v Wade decision had established decades earlier.
That court also struck down race-conscious admissions in higher education as well as a Colorado law that required entities to afford same-sex couples equal treatment, among other decisions lamented by progressives.
“Around that, I think we have got to bring the entire progressive community to defeat Trump – or whoever the Republican nominee will be – [and] support Biden,” Sanders added on State of the Union.
Sanders nonetheless said he planned to push Biden to tackle “corporate greed and the massive levels of income and wealth inequality” across the US. On Meet the Press, he suggested he would urge Biden to “take on the billionaire class”.
Those comments came about four months after Sanders called on the US government to confiscate 100% of any money that Americans make above $999m, saying people with that much wealth “can survive just fine” without becoming billionaires.
Everywhere I go I'm usually the oldest person in the room, and I've been hearing that line since long before I'd ever heard of Donald Trump.
Always, the left has to support whatever bland middle-of-the-road candidate the Democrats put forward, candidates who seem idea-free and utterly without passion, because the Republicans have a terrifying candidate. Gotta take boring over terrifying.
And Bernie's right. I ain't arguing.
Sure is a bucket of swill we're always forced to drink from, though.
Yes, Bernie, we know. We will because we have no other choice. Because of how absolutely broken and corrupt our entire political system is, we can vote for a ideologically repugnant lame-duck conservative or a literal fascist.
No matter how much we hate Biden and the DNC's corrupt, self-serving conservatism, we still have two brain cells to rub together and do, in fact, understand that "both sides" are most definitely NOT the same.
West to accuse him of only backing Biden because he is “fearful of the neo-fascism of Trump.
That quote shows how frankly, stupid, Cornel West is. Game theory & math show that it is impossible for a 3rd party run to succeed with US style FPtP voting in place. Get rid of that & then we can talk, but not to you, shit for brains.
This is why the 2 party system is fucking bad. In the Netherlands we have a wide range of parties we can vote for, no need for strategic votes like this.
Look. Am I going to vote for whoever the democratic nominee is? Yeah.
Am I going to be saying the democratic party is generally also racist, transobobic, capitalist, and don't really give a shit about you? Also yes.
The republican party being more racist, transobobic, and capitalist doesn't mean the democratic party isn't. And I'm sick of people pretending otherwise.
If your whole selling point is "Yeah, things are still gonna be shit for you, but at least we're not Nazis!" then at some point you're going to lose again.
Yeah, life is going to be no better under the Republicans either, but some people's lives will be significantly worse, and for some voters, that's enough.
"He's not hurting the people he needs to be hurting." That's an actual quote from an actual Trump voter. That's what you're dealing with. For some, happiness is a zero sum game. They'll quite happily suck down a spoonful of warm shit if some other sucker has to suck down two.
The DNC wouldn't be in this mess if they didn't play the women card in 2016 while screwing Bernie over. Now we're stuck with two old men who's out of touch with the younger generation of Americans.
Could the democrats put someone under the age of 60 in place?
Trump is fucking awful. Republicans in general are awful and will set back that country another 20 years.
But Jesus, is an 80+ old guy the best the democrats have? He's qualified, intelligent and experienced. But he's also in an age bracket that's easy to hang shit on, which is exactly what the Republicans need.
I was always going to vote for Biden, or at least against Trump, but I have to say between the NLRB CEMEX decision and finding out that the train workers did get some paid time off with the Biden admins help, I'm more enthusiastic than I was 6 months ago.
Ultimately, despite constant obstructionism they (Biden admin) are making more progress than they get credit for.
A lot of people have been taught to have an idealized concept about Democracy.
The reality is democracy is the worst system... except for all the others.
In an ideal world you'd be able to vote for a candidate that is a perfect match for your political positions. But we're pretty fucking far from an ideal world.
The reality of democracy is that isn't about getting exactly what you want. It really only gives you a way to remove terrible people from power. And keep terrible people from gaining power.
Yeah that sucks, but it's better than living in an authoritarian system where you have to use violence to remove terrible people from power. And likely fail and die while attempting to do so.
If Trump wins, that's what it'll be, an authoritarian system where you can't remove the terrible person from power by voting.
If Biden wins, it'll be more bullshit, but you'll be able to vote again in the next election after that.
Sure, vote for Biden, but if all you do is rely on a vote for the other capitalist puppet you're not actually dong anything to stop fascism, or even achieve any significant change in how things are run, it's literally just a band aid on a cancer at this point, a band aid that serves to lull you in to a false sense of complacency as you enable the machine to keep chugging on:
Out here desperately hoping that the fake leftists propping up Trump are mostly Russian trolls or just a pocket of internet children. I think actual real life people on the left in the US largely get how dangerous this could be.
I'll vote for Biden, just like the people on the Titanic turned on the water pumps. It might buy slightly more time. Maybe.
Lets not pretend though that either of our only 2 parties, Neoliberal and Fascist, are going to improve our worsening situation.
All we're voting for is the rate of collapse. At the end of the day, the people who bribe both parties need to be checked to address that. And that's clearly not going to happen. So collapse is inevitable.
Progressive US voters must unite behind Joe Biden rather than consider any of his Democratic primary challengers because the threat of another Donald Trump presidency is too great, Bernie Sanders has said.
“We’re taking on the … former president, who, in fact, does not believe in democracy – he is an authoritarian, and a very, very dangerous person,” the senator and Vermont independent, who caucuses with Democrats, said on NBC’s Meet the Press.
Sanders’ remarks came as Trump continued grappling with more than 90 criminal charges across four separate indictments filed against him for his efforts to forcibly nullify his defeat to Biden in the 2020 presidential race, his illicit retention of classified documents, and hush-money payments to porn actor Stormy Daniels.
And though polling for now shows Biden generally is ahead of Trump, that has not stopped Robert F Kennedy Jr and Marianne Williamson from mounting long-shot Democratic primary challenges – or third-party progressive candidate Cornel West from running.
Sanders didn’t elaborate, but his remarks seemed to be an allusion to the Trump White House’s creation of the US supreme court supermajority, which last year struck down the federal abortion rights that the Roe v Wade decision had established decades earlier.
That court also struck down race-conscious admissions in higher education as well as a Colorado law that required entities to afford same-sex couples equal treatment, among other decisions lamented by progressives.
The original article contains 530 words, the summary contains 233 words. Saved 56%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
This will always be the choice for people on the left, at some point you have to bite the bullet and stop supporting right wingers like Biden just because Trump is worse.
The left people want won't win the presidency until they at least win a governorship or a senate seat. The last time we had a radical departure from those that came before them in the white house (politically speaking, not skin color) we had a 4 year long Civil War backlash.
Don't worry, I won't be voting for Cornell West nor Biden nor Trump, and no one should. Since voting is absolutely the least someone can do, I'll be voting for a non-capitalist candidate.
Sorry Bernie. I love ya but i voted for biden as parting gift when i left the party in 2020. If the dems et al cannot/will not keep him from running themselves then they get no vote from me, since clearly governance is beyond them.
I ain't telling anyone to do the same, but I'm done playing the Democrats game.
This is a misplay but if you look at the numbers Kennedy is losing to Biden in polls by a large 50% margin but also I've never heard of this site so beware its credibility:
I'm not keen on Biden continuing at his age. Because you're voting for his vice president at that age.
I don't think Biden could beat Trump again. Every person who got laid off during Bidens administration will have something to say about it in the voting booth. Democrats need to push up a better candidate.