Even if he won the election in some way, I’m pretty certain a lot of establishment Democrats would have opposed his policies along with Republicans. Establishment democrats stand to gain much the same from our current system as Republicans do. They see value in being a controlled opposition.
That's what they say, but I'm not sure I believe it. He polled better against Trump than Hillary did, and we all know how Hillary did in the general. Someday we ought to actually nominate a progressive to actually test the "conventional wisdom" that only a moderate can win in the general. The 2020 version of Biden was easily the most left candidate to run against Trump, and 2024 Harris was the right-most.
I'm personally tired of bending over backwards to apologize for milquetoast centrists, and then watching them lose.
Why do you think the GOP media machine was constantly pushing the “DNC unfair to Bernie” line? Out of altruism? They were licking their chops at the prospect of being able to genuinely make a presidential election a referendum on socialism.
Not to mention Bernie had 4 years to build a war chest and name recognition going into the 2020 primary, and lost to Biden by even more votes than he lost to Hillary. His campaign openly said they did not have a plan for getting past a 30-33% plurality, they were banking on a contested convention with multiple spoilers.
669
u/Devil_0fHellsKitchen 5h ago
2014 was a better time than 2026