04.02.2016 09:55 AM

There’s a reason why New Democrats love Bernie Sanders

They have an unerring instinct for a losing proposition.

22 Comments

  1. Kelly says:

    Clinton is going to go to jail over her use of a private email account for government business. At the very least it shows a shocking lack of judgement and severely weakens her. Unfortunately the Democratic nomination process is rigged thanks to the super delegates. The whole US system is a sham. Two right wing parties taking turns doing the bidding of billionaires isn’t democracy. Its an Oligarchy.

    • Barry says:

      Secretary Clinton has not been indicted or even been declared as being a target of the ongoing FBI investigation into the email matter. The scope of the investigation, at this point, is to determine the classification process for the emails. Any other purpose has yet to be made public.

      At 2.5 million more votes and 220 plus more pledged delegates (far more that President Obama ever had on her) the Secretary has a commanding lead that is all but insurmountable. This is known as “math”. The increasingly negative attacks by the Sanders campaign over the last week against Secretary Clinton demonstrates his campaign’s painful realization that winning national democratic polls or states means precisely nothing. Its all about the delegates and with a 220 plus delegate lead Secretary Clinton is all but uncatchable. Candidates for office rarely plead for additional debates when they are winning. In short, the facts do not fit your narrative and your assertion she is somehow weakened is ridiculous on its face.

      I suspect that the GOP is looking at the Super Delegate provisions of the Democratic Party nominating process and kicking themselves in their behinds that they don’t have an equivalent Trump killer to use at their nominating convention.

    • Bill Templeman says:

      Kelly, what do we make of corruption in the US election process, the “Strip & Flip” strategy? http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/36110-focus-is-the-2016-election-already-being-stripped-a-flipped Has the election already been bought?

  2. Ron Waller says:

    Sanders is as socialist as Lester Pearson.

    Of course, back then, establishment Liberals didn’t expect lucrative speaking fees, consulting fees and token board positions when they left office. That’s why they represented the people instead of plutocrats.

    Canadians will be a lot better off if Junior ends up following a real liberal like Bernie Sanders instead of a bribe-taking facade like Hillary Clinton. (Of course, Junior’s motivational speaking fees will be a lot juicer under another Clinton administration, if there’s still a civilization left standing for him to flap his gums in.)

  3. davie says:

    Democrats will tend to vote for whomever the nominee is…Republicans will tend to do the same.

    For the rest of the voters, I see 2 camps: those who support what Sanders is representing (Jill Stein is there, too); and those who support what Cruz/Trump/ Kasich/Clinton represent.

    When Clinton is nominated for the Democrats, I am sure many who support Sanders’ positions will not vote for that nominee.

  4. Michael Bluth says:

    Many Americans see this as four bad choices.

    Hillary will be the most unpopular major party nominee since Goldwater, unless Trump wins the Republican nomination.

    Kelly, I think you are right. The basement email server is going to sink Hillary’s chances.

    Such a bizzaro year that Ted Cruz is who the Republican establishment is sorta coalescing around.

  5. Ronald O'Dowd says:

    Kelly,

    Big to differ: what Rodham Clinton did was a gross error in judgment. To that extent, it will hurt her in the general election to some degree. What she did was not criminal — the e-mails on her server were not classified when she received them. However, some did become classified after the fact.

    • Michael Bluth says:

      Ronald,

      Hillary’s private email server hasn’t been proven to be against the law … yet.

      Does that explanation pass the smell test? No.

      If the ballot question is “Do you despise Hillary or Donald less?” then the private server will cost her some votes. What if an indictment comes out during the general? That is a possibility.

      • Ronald O'Dowd says:

        Michael,

        An indictment is theoretically possible but would she have taken the decision to run had it been at least probable?

  6. Ronald O'Dowd says:

    Warren,

    I agree. Obama’s support from young people pulled along other voters — à la Ted Kennedy. Obama wasn’t as far to the left as Sanders. Young people voting for him will actually repel many other voters.

    In addition, if Trump is denied the Republican nomination (which he won’t be IMHO), an independent run will almost definitely win it for Clinton.

  7. Steve T says:

    Sanders is the only person who might result in Donald Trump being President. It’s really that simple.

    I have small-c conservative family in the U.S., and they are aghast at Donald Trump and everything he stands for. They are willing to “hold their nose” and vote for Clinton, but there’s no way they will vote for Sanders. They will just stay home and not vote – for the first time in their adult life.

    I suspect many centrist Americans are in the same boat. So, if Sanders is the nominee, very few centrists will vote, meaning we have President Donald Trump. Egads.

    • Ron Waller says:

      What is really and simply self-evident is that Americans are not nearly as easily henpecked as Canadians. They fought for freedom and democracy. We pretend we have freedom and democracy.

      While Abraham Lincoln delivered his Gettysburg Address that defined what people consider modern democracy — government of, by and for the people — our forefathers were saying democracy is a terrible idea. We need an upper house of upper-class aristocrats to control the government. J A MacDonald, probably while drunk, called it “sober second thought.” And it’s incredible to see Canadians venerate this appalling concept, ignorant of its actual meaning.

      The polls show Sanders beats Trump. Sanders is simply an FDR who can bring in a New Deal before the world collapses into a world war it will not walk away from. Something better than the original FDR who came in when the world was reeling.

      People who think we need more bribe-taking politicians to save us with the same failed economic ideology that simply allows rent-seeking plutocrats to loot wealth — a process that put the global economy on life support — are simply not thinking.

      So henpeckers, do your thing. But Americans are not going to listen to you. They are not going to run around like headless chickens. If the world has any chance of survival it will come from America as it did in the 1930s. They may be lowly populists, but they have what Canadians and the British do not: balls.

      (NOT an United Empire Loyalist.)

    • bluegreenblogger says:

      yeah, but the centrists can do the math too, and many will hold their nose and vote when push comes to shove. But yeah, Saunders will depress turnout, but if Trump is nominated, he will be mobilising a new bloc of voters, who mostly didn’t vote before. A’ la Rob Ford. Bugger could win. Who knows, but it is fun to speculate.

  8. Art says:

    Clinton has been attacked viciously by Republicans for decades and she is still the most admired woman year after year for twenty years now. Email probe is a blown way out of proportion. She will be the next President, much to the chagrin of righties and lefties everywhere. Actually, most lefties will mellow out after she is elected. She is smart and tough and I have always admired her.

    • Mark says:

      True that.

      Hillary has been through a lot in her years of public life, she’s handled everything from place of great strength and I can’t imagine any of the other candidates, Republican or Democrat, that could fill the role of POTUS as well as she could. Given enough latitude, Clinton can accomplish a hell of a lot. She will have to face a storm of sexism from the Republicans akin to the racism Obama faced, but she’s well equipped to handle it. None of the other men remotely have the temperament to face the complexity of issues that comes with being President.

      • Ronald O'Dowd says:

        Mark,

        No question Rodham Clinton is by far the most qualified. But that is neither here nor there. This race is about the subtle effects of latent sexism — before the fact. That’s what will kill Clinton at the ballot box and give us the most unqualified and clueless candidate as Commander in Chief. Pray, mighty hard, for the USA. It’s Trump’s for the taking as Republican nominee.

      • Kelly says:

        Chomsky said it best, “Clinton is a lot like Obama, only more militant” .

        In other words the rich will get richer, and more people will get blown up by drones. No real progressive could vote FOR her, only against a republican candidate who would be even worse. It speaks to the fraud that Presidential politics has become. Oligarchs buy elections and they buy Congress and Presidents are basically left to wreak havoc on the world stage. Domestically people are left to fend for themselves.

  9. Al in Cranbrook says:

    I cannot recall in my lifetime a sadder, more discouraging list of contenders for the White House than the two leading candidates in each of the parties.

    Rubio was the best of the entire lot on either side – gone! Kasich, of the three remaining GOP contenders, is by far the most plausible and fit for the position of POTUS – fat chance of that!

    And clearly nobody on the Democrat side even wanted the job, so they end up with an old socialist who has pretty much accomplished SFA in his whole life, and the wife of a former president packing more baggage than a FED EX 747.

    Frankly, it’s kinda scary stuff, especially considering it’s the most critically important office on the entire planet.

    Apparently one of the most common questions asked of Americans who travel globally is, WTF is going with the US???

    Yeah, no kidding!

    • Art says:

      Wife of an ex president eh. I guess that’s how a right winger would see the ex Senator of arguably the most important State and ex Secretary of State of all the States. As your beloved P.M. once said, it’s 2016 dude. Time to evolve.

  10. Mark says:

    The reason New Democrats love Bernie is simple; he’s what Mulcair never was –likeable.

    The observation about the NDP having “an unerring instinct for a losing proposition” is totally accurate. I’ve been watching Dippers across Canada for the past 2 years and have been noticing this very pattern myself. Its become shockingly obvious that the Dippers habitually set themselves up for failure. Its a systemic flaw that, if not addressed, could lead to the eventual demise of the NDP.

    But going back to Sanders. I think New Democrats see the momentary success of Bernie Sanders and compare it with what Mulcair had going in Canada. The difference between the two is that Mulcair isn’t, and never was a true socialist. When he became leader it was a bargain of sorts; this shrewd Quebec politician with a history of centrist/almost right leaning opinions becomes leader and takes the NDP to the promised land. That obviously didn’t materialize and now they’re stuck with this pseudo-socialist. With Sanders, New Democrats identify with a guy who’s been fighting the good fight for decades. He speaks and its genuine; he smiles and its genuine; he’s the real deal that the NDP never got.

    The thing that New Democrats are failing to realize is that they’re not accepting their current reality. Canada is not England with Jeremy Corbyn, and Canada is not the US with Bernie Sanders. (Incidentally, a UK newspaper prints article with headline: “Six months in, Jeremy Corbyn is already one of history’s great opposition leaders”; Labour Party should be wise and look to Canada’s NDP for things not to do). In our political landscape, the Liberals have totally and completely engulfed the territory the NDP had been gaining since the 90s. The Liberals have pretty much eaten all of the NDP’s lunch and the space on the left of the Liberals is essentially nonexistent. Now you have some prominent Dippers across Canada publicly expressing pleasant satisfaction with the new Liberal government. Justin Trudeau has, without a doubt, filled a role that Mulcair failed to do himself. He is arguably the new face of pragmatic progressivism in the western world and New Democrats are still trying to live out their dream vicariously through the Bernie Sanders campaign.

  11. Luke says:

    Warren,

    I am surprised you don’t see the writing on the wall. Americans are pissed, and are tired of ordinary politians. That is why the awful Trump and fairminded Sanders are generating the support they are. If it comes down to a boring, untrustworthy, ordinary lying politician that Americans disapprove of (Clinton) or a lying terrible bigot who says anything he wants to avoid sounding PC and therefore appear different, I’m afraid they will take the latter. Trump has. An appeal, sad as it is, and Clinton, although way better, is unappealing and represents an awful lot of what Americans appear to be tired of. Sanders is trustworthy and Americans view him favourably. His message is consistent across decades of public service and many of his goals are not even radical if we simply compare to almost all other industrialized countries. Politics is changing in American right now, and Clinton has missed it. Democrats nominate her at their own risk.

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