There are some other things transpiring in American politics right now. But we must note that Democratic leaders are now unabashedly stating what Bernie Sanders supporters said over and over in 2020: the party pushed Joe Biden primarily to stop Bernie.
This was never in doubt, it was said from the beginning. The fear is that someone who refers to themselves as a socialist cannot win in the rust belt swing states. Pro-labor positions in general don’t do well in the midwest, it’s a central area in the fight to dismantle unions.
Not that Hilary won them either though.
Bernie drew in crowds in the reddest of states. And without the DNC dog piling on Biden he was likely to win.
Crowd size is not a sound method for predicting voting results.
The fact is his message resonated regardless of political ideology.
I lived in MAGA country in 2016 and when they found out I was a Bernie supporter they told me they liked him, both for his hatred of billionaires and for his steadfast adherence to his principles even if they didn’t agree with him.
I have heard this from every conservative I’ve talked to about that election.
He was the most popular politician in America for YEARS after that election. He’s still more popular than either Biden or Trump.
I think that, if the DNC’s kneecapping of him had not succeeded, someone might have shot him. They just can’t have that shit. Think of how MANY people with how much power he was sticking the finger directly in the eye of.
Him and his fuckin mittens
That I agree with. Any certainty he would have won in red states is misplaced though, elections are not that predictable. He might have. He might not have. He certainly wouldn’t have gained support from anti-communist types though, and that line of attack would have been employed heavily by the repubs. They do it anyway even with neolib dems.
Democrats’ fear is that they can.
I don’t think you’ve ever spent much time in the rust belt if you think that region of Trump country wouldn’t have a very negative knee-jerk reaction to just the simple word. They very much like the idea of income inequality, the whole “if I work hard enough, I can be Jeff Bezos too” idea. They do not understand things like systemic advantage, sounds too woke.
And all we have to do to get them to vote for us is to move to the right.
That has a limit, as Joe Manchin found out.