- cross-posted to:
- us_news@lemmygrad.ml
- cross-posted to:
- us_news@lemmygrad.ml
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.
Okay. As a moral standpoint, I understand that. Hell, I support it.
But from a pragmatic standpoint… what good does that do?
From a pragmatic point, what good does voting for Biden do?
Nope. I asked first. Answer or don’t, don’t pull that childish shit.
Not voting for Biden means that Biden is one vote further away from being president.
Now it’s your turn.
Yeah, no, sorry, that’s still not an answer, unless you’re trying to say Trump would be better.
I repeat: how does that help?
It helps because it signals to the DNC that they will not simply automatically win by default with their shittiest, most rightwing nominees because the other option is slightly worse on a couple of fronts.
It shows that people do not see them as a viable alternative to the GOP unless they actually become an alternative to the GOP.
There’s a reason why Trump won last time and it’s this attitude of entitlement that you’ve embodied which is at the core of this.
If you’re so set upon preventing another Trump presidency then recent history is a lesson for you, or at least it should have been, and attempting to browbeat people into voting for detestable DNC nominees is a failed strategy when you should be pushing the DNC for compromise with people further to the left of you rather than demanding that people further to the left of you capitulate simply because you feel that they ought to because you have a false sense of moral righteousness.
You want my vote for the democratic nominee? Then uphold the values of bourgeois electoralism and earn it.
Okay, that’s a much more cohesive answer, thank you! I can follow that, and I can see a line of moral reasoning. From a moral standpoint, not only do I support you, I mostly agree with you. I’m sure we’d disagree on some finer points, but from a big picture standpoint, cool.
Now. All that in mind. How can I use that to keep a fascist rapist who empowers other fascist rapists out of the highest office in the land? If there’s a way, please let me know. As far as I can see, I can take a very reasonable moral stand, or I can help stop orange soda Hitler from being in office, but I can’t do both. Please show me how I’m wrong.