My apologies if someone else has already posted a diary about this Politico article: www.msn.com/…
According to the article, entitled “A Never Biden Movement Vows Not to Vote for Joe”, only two out every five Bernie supporters in Michigan will commit to voting for Joe in the general election.
“In Michigan — a state critical to Democrats’ efforts to reclaim their general election footing in the Rust Belt — just 2 of 5 Sanders backers said they would vote Democratic in November, regardless of who became the nominee, according to exit polls. Four in five said they'd be dissatisfied with Biden as the Democratic standard-bearer.”
For the record, I primaried for Bernie against HRC but voted for her in the general I am a progressive, though I voted for Biden.
People who have made a serious commitment to one candidate or to a movement they associate with the candidate, sometimes need time to mourn and reorient. I hope that Bernie supporters will see that legislation on issues that they (and the rest of us) care about have already passed the House and, if we take the Senate, will be signed into law by any Dem president. I hope they also will realize that if we don't take the Senate and we have four more years of Trump, then representative government will be over and none of the issues they (or the rest of us) care about will be addressed. And I hope that they realize that the stereotype of Republican-collaborating corporate Dems is out of date and that there is extensive common ground among Dems on the issues.
Meanwhile, however, some people who would like to be influential with Bernie voters are apparently committed to re-electing Trump:
“There is certainly anecdotal evidence that for many progressives, Biden represents everything they dislike about mainstream Democratic politics. On “The Young Turks,” which draws millions of viewers, Krystal Ball, the former MSNBC host, said she couldn’t vote for Trump.
“But you can leave it blank,” she said, referring to the November ballot.
Ball said she is an "undecided voter" because "if they always can say, 'Look, you've got to vote for us no matter what, you've got no other choice,' then they're always going to treat us like this."
This is the kind of thing that gets me irate:
“The rationale for us is that our votes need to be earned and that we’ve been taken for granted, and the party never moves to us,” said Alyson Metzger, a 54-year-old writer and progressive activist in New York City who supports Sanders. “If they install Joe Biden, I will not vote for Biden. … This is not democratic what’s happening in the Democratic primary.”
I cannot think of a polite way to respond to this woman. Apparently she thinks it is okay to be an activist and open her yap in public to spout her “thoughts” without ever bothering to learn the slightest thing about Democratic polices, platform positions or recent legislation. End of rant. I will now clamp down on my mouth and be polite.
We are going to need every vote we can get in the critical swing states of Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, possibly Arizona as well. Republicans know they will lose if our turn out is high. Last election they won Mich with only about ten thousand votes. They are hoping that disaffected voters will stay home. Indeed, they are counting on it.
Somehow we need to communicate to those who may choose to stay home in November. I know that screaming at them won’t help, though I totally feel like doing it. I know people who are threatening to not vote. They show up on my Facebook feed and are real people. They are coming from a point of view that I just cannot understand: the point of view that elections are about them. To me, elections are about us. But regardless of the anger and fear that they provoke in me, I try (sometimes not successfully) to communicate these points:
- The DNC did nothing to block Bernie. In fact, they changed the rules to accommodate him. He simply has not gotten the most votes.
- It was not essential for the promotion of progressive ideas to elect Bernie anyway. PROGRESSIVES HAVE ALREADY LARGELY SUCCEEDED. The House has passed over one hundred bills from everything from climate change to voter rights to strengthening unions to lower prescription drug costs. And this is in response to the participation of progressives in the Dem party including Bernie running in 2016. So stop feeling alienated! We have our seat at the table.
- Besides, Presidents do not pass laws and have limited influence on what laws Congress passes. Therefore, electing Bernie would not have the affect of passing progressive legislation that is written 100% the way progressives wish. Legislation will be a compromise regardless of who is president. (And the H0use legislation is good)
- If we don't take the Senate, nothing will pass Congress regardless of who the Dem president is.
- The goal of the Republican party is to turn us into a one party pseudo democracy that is really a kleptocracy with Christianist overtones. They are doing this by court-packing, voter suppression, fake news, corruption of all kinds—all of which the Democrats are fighting . If they get another four years, the voices of progressives will be irrelevant at the federal level. The voices of all Democrats will be irrelevant.
So we need every vote to survive We need every vote to move forward on progressive issues. Thank you for reading this.