Bernie Sanders 2020 campaign megathread v2 (pg 77 - declares victory in Iowa)

[Libertas Vel Mors]

Lol @ all everyone talking about how Sanders is in second, but failing to acknowledge he's actually slipping and falling in the average and the only reason he's in second is because of Warren's even greater fall. Sorry to burst anyone's bubble, but showing up at a couple of HBCUs won't make him the 46th president. Honestly speaking, Pete Buttigeg is much more likely to reassemble the lilly-white Sanders 2016 coalition as of now (and theoretically win with it) than Sanders is, especially with Warren falling because of his recent surge.

1.  Buttigieg is still behind Sanders in national polls
2.  Sanders support has been the most stable of any 2020 Dem

How does that contradict what I said?

Sanders is not "slipping and falling" and he has more staying power than Buttigieg.

Sorry, lost track of this convo, but Sanders has fallen almost 4 points over the last 2 weeks (19.5 to 15.6 in the RCP average) while Buttigeg has gone from 8 to 11.4.

[NOVA Green]

Was watching the Teemster town hall last night. Bernie was last up out of all the candidates. He got by far the best reaction out of all the candidates present. I think its partly because there were some pretty strong Sanders supporters already in the audience, but its still a good sign for him.

It was in Cedar Rapids Iowa, and the Veterans Memorial Coliseum and invited (Biden, Bullock, Buttigieg, Harris, Klobuchar, and Sanders) with James Hoffa currently the President of the largest Union in the USA.

https://teamster.org/videos/2019/12/teamsters-host-townhall-event-2020-democratic-presidential-candidates

https://www.thegazette.com/subject/news/government/teamsters-to-host-6-democratic-candidates-in-cedar-rapids-20191122

"Presidential candidates who agreed to sign the union’s three-point pledge on retirement security, freedom to unionize and fair trade and participate in an on-camera interview with the Teamsters were invited to attend the forum."

Haven't had a chance to watch yet, but I would imagine this would get significant local news coverage within Iowa, as well as coverage in the upcoming Teamsters publication that is sent to all Union Members through the mail (I know this bcs I was roomates with a guy who was Teamster Warehouse Worker, so I would read his Union Pub after picking up the mail for the house)....

Thing is that there are currently 1.4 Million Teamster Members throughout the US, not to mention how many spouses and adult kids from Teamster families, let alone retired Teamsters that still have a pretty decent retirement package from the Union Pension fund, despite the attempts of Mob to take control of the money after they sent Jimmy away to Prison, and then murdered him shortly after he got out of the joint....

Meanwhile TDU (Teamsters for a Democratic Union) is still around, and struggling to build a bottom-up movement within the Teamsters Union....

http://www.tdu.org/

http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/20632/teamsters-for-a-democratic-union-reform-labor-workers

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2018/09/08/team-s08.html

The Trucking Industry is increasingly dominated by Non-Union contracts, where both Short-haul and Long-haul Truckers are becoming "Independent Contractors" where they got to buy their own wheels their own insurance, and have nothing of the traditional protections that used to be the case....

Meanwhile, within the warehousing sector, the Teamsters have not been able to advance dramatic ground in recent years, despite the massive growth of eCommerce in the form of companies such as Amazon and Target that have FCs (Fulfillment Centers) and DCs (Distribution Centers), in back breaking warehouse work where although wages might start at $15/Hr in non-union shops we have no ability to shut down the warehouses or the trucks to get decent wages and working conditions...

Hell, I know I worked in one of those joints, as did my Wife, Daughter, Son-in-Law, etc....

I tried to organize a Union in that warehouse, but reached out to the ILWU who answered back before I got a response from the Teamsters (Maybe I should have gone with the 2nd choice)...

No wonder that Bernie met with massive applause at that Teamsters Hall in Cedar Rapids (2nd largest City in IA).....

[NOVA Green]

So on Rev Al Sharpton's show earlier today, it was announced that Bernie is planning a Week tour of SC within the immediate future....

Context was with the end of the Harris campaign and Bernie having the 2nd highest level of support among AA Voters....

[redjohn]

If Sanders wins NH and NV, as I think he will, it's pretty important that he does better than expected in SC. It'll be a test of whether he can keep Biden's margins down in the south. I think it's pretty likely Biden underperforms HRC in the deep south, especially now that Sanders is a household name and is building a much more sophisticated campaign than last time around.

[Anti Democrat Democrat Club]

https://twitter.com/AnnieGrayerCNN/status/1203809357923639296?s=19

My king is alive.

[GeneralMacArthur]

He's such an asshole.

Also, it's impossible to take anything away from "Sanders gets the most applause at event" stories.  His supporters specifically pack these events and artificially create these scenes because they know it plays well in the media.  No other candidate does this, just Sanders.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

He's such an asshole.

Also, it's impossible to take anything away from "Sanders gets the most applause at event" stories.  His supporters specifically pack these events and artificially create these scenes because they know it plays well in the media.  No other candidate does this, just Sanders.

Maybe you can ask to be put on this page.

https://berniesanders.com/anti-endorsements/

[GeneralMacArthur]

He's such an asshole.

Also, it's impossible to take anything away from "Sanders gets the most applause at event" stories.  His supporters specifically pack these events and artificially create these scenes because they know it plays well in the media.  No other candidate does this, just Sanders.

Maybe you can ask to be put on this page.

https://berniesanders.com/anti-endorsements/

This is the most immature thing that has ever been published by the official campaign of a presidential candidate, maybe ever.

Makes sense that it appeals to you.

[Landslide Lyndon]

https://twitter.com/AnnieGrayerCNN/status/1203809357923639296?s=19

Is he the same guy who said that it's Clinton's fault that Russians propped up his campaign?

[Starbucks Union Thug HokeyPuck]

He's such an asshole.

Also, it's impossible to take anything away from "Sanders gets the most applause at event" stories.  His supporters specifically pack these events and artificially create these scenes because they know it plays well in the media.  No other candidate does this, just Sanders.

Maybe you can ask to be put on this page.

https://berniesanders.com/anti-endorsements/

This is the most immature thing that has ever been published by the official campaign of a presidential candidate, maybe ever.

Makes sense that it appeals to you.

"Mom!  Can I be on Crazy Bernie's anti-endorsements page if I clean my room?!" 

[GoTfan]

He's such an asshole.

Also, it's impossible to take anything away from "Sanders gets the most applause at event" stories.  His supporters specifically pack these events and artificially create these scenes because they know it plays well in the media.  No other candidate does this, just Sanders.

He's an asshole because he refuses to engage in a fundamentally dishonest debate?

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

He's such an asshole.

Also, it's impossible to take anything away from "Sanders gets the most applause at event" stories.  His supporters specifically pack these events and artificially create these scenes because they know it plays well in the media.  No other candidate does this, just Sanders.

Maybe you can ask to be put on this page.

https://berniesanders.com/anti-endorsements/

Wow, FDR and Frederick Douglass are on that page!

[Anti Democrat Democrat Club]

https://twitter.com/BernieSanders/status/1204148636579483654?s=19

He's such an asshole.

[Starbucks Union Thug HokeyPuck]

He's such an asshole.

Also, it's impossible to take anything away from "Sanders gets the most applause at event" stories.  His supporters specifically pack these events and artificially create these scenes because they know it plays well in the media.  No other candidate does this, just Sanders.

How does one “artificially” cheer at a Sanders event?  

Anyway, more GREAT NEWS for Mr. Sanders.

https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/1204350066313564161?s=21

[Shadows]

Bernie Sanders is breaking barriers with young Latinos. Now he just needs them to vote

As this coming year's nominating contest swirls into view, Sanders, the resilient democratic socialist from Vermont, will be counting on the support of Latinos, a kaleidoscopically diverse voting bloc that could swing races in states like California, Nevada, Florida and even Iowa, to help him -- and the progressive movement he stoked four years ago -- deliver the "political revolution" his supporters, staffers and volunteers have worked for so long to realize. In interviews with leading Democratic Latino strategists, pollsters, activists and Sanders' highest-profile backer, Ocasio-Cortez, a common thread emerged: Sanders, bolstered by notable early investments in Latino outreach and underscored by more nuanced messaging than typically directed at this diverse community, has created a growing sense that he might not only win with the community in states like Nevada and California, but chart out a new path for how Democrats seek and earn Latino support.

https://edition.cnn.com/2019/12/08/politics/bernie-sanders-young-latino-voters/index.html

[redjohn]

I hope Sanders brings AOC back to Iowa for some rallies in January before the caucus. He's done wonders this cycle to make his campaign less centered around a certain demographic that he excelled with last time, and I think that's done a lot to open up new support. I also think bringing around good surrogates and personalizing his campaign more (as he's been doing) will help take away some support in Iowa from Biden and Warren.

[Hindsight was 2020]

It’s funny but Biden/moderate later focus on Warren has let Bernie quietly get back into the second spot and within spitting distance of Biden

[Mr. Smith]

Bernie Sanders is breaking barriers with young Latinos. Now he just needs them to vote

As this coming year's nominating contest swirls into view, Sanders, the resilient democratic socialist from Vermont, will be counting on the support of Latinos, a kaleidoscopically diverse voting bloc that could swing races in states like California, Nevada, Florida and even Iowa, to help him -- and the progressive movement he stoked four years ago -- deliver the "political revolution" his supporters, staffers and volunteers have worked for so long to realize. In interviews with leading Democratic Latino strategists, pollsters, activists and Sanders' highest-profile backer, Ocasio-Cortez, a common thread emerged: Sanders, bolstered by notable early investments in Latino outreach and underscored by more nuanced messaging than typically directed at this diverse community, has created a growing sense that he might not only win with the community in states like Nevada and California, but chart out a new path for how Democrats seek and earn Latino support.

Still, many of the same observers warned that the Sanders campaign's ambitions are staked on a strategy that demands a break from historical convention -- drawing out young voters. The median age for Latinos in the US today is only about 28 years old, which offers the campaign some reason for optimism. The Sanders campaign offers "a case study in how strategic, continued, ongoing investment in a community can pay off," said Stephanie Valencia, co-founder of Equis Labs and Obama's deputy Latino vote director in 2008. "And I think one of the things we have come to learn is that there are certain elements within the Latino community who are primed to support Democrats and progressives, but aren't just going to turnout because it's an election. They need a nudge to the polls."

https://edition.cnn.com/2019/12/08/politics/bernie-sanders-young-latino-voters/index.html

It'd be very intriguing to see if such a coalition could circumvent The South altogether, which is allegedly tanked for Biden.

[Shadows]

Amid Bernie Sanders’s ‘Resurgence,’ a Progressive Coalition Endorses Him

The Center for Popular Democracy Action, a coalition of more than 40 progressive community groups totaling about 600,000 members, will on Tuesday endorse Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont for the Democratic presidential nomination, signaling that Mr. Sanders’s political standing among the party’s left wing has rebounded — or even risen — in the months since he suffered a heart attack.

For C.P.D. Action, the endorsement means it will now marshal its affiliates — more than 600,000 members across the country — to organize voters in support of Mr. Sanders in the primary. Leaders said there will be a particular focus on reaching racial minorities and a grass-roots strategy to bring new voters into the process. Mr. Sanders, Ms. Warren and the former cabinet secretary Julián Castro were finalists for the group’s endorsements. C.P.D. Action did not release raw vote totals from its affiliates, but the Vermont senator secured a commanding 75 percent of the vote on the second ballot against Ms. Warren, said a person familiar with the process.

Source - NYT

[Adam Griffin]

Don’t Think Sanders Can Win? You Don’t Understand His Campaign

The spirited endorsements of three-quarters of the so-called squad illustrates how Mr. Sanders’s campaign has grown from 2016 when it was criticized for being too white, too male and for underestimating the salience of race and gender oppression. Some of that criticism was overstated. Indeed Mr. Sanders won 52 percent of the black millennial vote in 2016 and was supported by Black Lives Matter activists like Erica Garner, who passed away in 2017. But Mr. Sanders took the criticisms seriously anyway.

Instead, Mr. Sanders has reached the typically invisible, downwardly mobile working class with his language of “class warfare.” He has tapped into the anger and bitterness coursing through the lives of regular people who have found it increasingly impossible to make ends meet in this grossly unequal society. Without cynicism or the typical racist explanations that blame African-Americans and Latino immigrants for their own financial hardship, Mr. Sanders blames capitalism. His demands for a redistribution of wealth from the top to the rest of society and universal, government-backed programs have resonated with the forgotten residents of the country.

Adding to that, Mr. Sanders is the top recipient for donations by teachers, farmers, servers, social workers, retail workers, construction workers, truckers, nurses and drivers as of September. He claims that his donors’ most common employers are Starbucks, Amazon and Walmart, and the most common profession is teaching.

Mr. Sanders is also the leading recipient of donations from Latinos as well as the most popular Democrat among registered Latinos who plan to vote in the Nevada and California primaries. According to Essence magazine, Mr. Sanders is the favorite candidate among black women aged 18 to 34. Only 49 percent of his supporters are white, compared with 71 percent of Warren supporters. Perhaps most surprising, more women under 45 support him than men under 45.

[Adam Griffin]

It'd be very intriguing to see if such a coalition could circumvent The South altogether, which is allegedly tanked for Biden.

In the not-so-distant future, it's possible. However, non-white, non-black voters will continue to be undervalued in comparison to black voters both in mathematical terms (because of geography; clustering vs diasporism) and by politicians (because of outdated rhetoric) for some time to come. That can't be the case for any strategy that successfully minimizes the South.

There are plenty of data-points that show the writing on the wall for the soon-to-be largest minority Democratic voting bloc:

• 2016 was the first election where black voters did not comprise a majority of non-white Democrats
• 2018 was the first election where black voters did not outnumber latino voters (overall)
• Since 2014, the share of non-white Democrats who are black has declined from 57% to 48% (in '16) to 46%; for latinos, their share has increased from 27% to 33% to 35%

As alluded to above, non-black non-white voters who are Democrats face a fair number of disadvantages. Geographically, a disproportionate share are scattered in rural and/or heavily-Republican areas compared to black Democrats, making it far more difficult and unappealing to organize them (you can see this in the state-by-state coalitions: black voters are the largest Democratic group in 6 jurisdictions, compared to latinos in only 2). The end result is that they make up a tinier percentage of voters in most contests.

There's also precedent to consider. First, non-black non-white Democrats don't exactly have a high propensity for voting in general, which makes it difficult for campaigns to invest huge sums of money when the chance for meaningful returns are shaky at best. A lot of this growth has been organic, which tells you just how many potential latino and asian Democrats are still lurking in the shadows across the country. Furthermore, there's messaging to consider: non-whites can't just be lumped into one category for the purposes of primaries and organizing in general, which means a significant shift in focus away from one group and toward another will be palpable and structural. This will inevitably result in plenty of hot takes about how shifting focus away from a (then) minority within a minority within the party is tantamount to "abandoning the base" and so forth.

At any rate, don't expect something like this to work in 2020 unless latinos decide to go 2:1 for Bernie and/or the rest of the country starts leaning meaningfully in his direction.

[Eraserhead]

It's crazy to see the New York Times actually printing some positive stories about Bernie lately. I wonder what got into the water over there?

[Anti Democrat Democrat Club]

It's crazy to see the New York Times actually printing some positive stories about Bernie lately. I wonder what got into the water over there?

Of course, MSDNC is still on their gaslighting, victim-blaming bull****.

[GoTfan]

A very interesting read from Business Insider

https://www.businessinsider.com.au/bernie-sanders-internet-as-utility-plan-explainer-2019-12?r=US&IR=T

It's a very interesting plan, to say the least. Generally it uses a combination of anti-trust laws and FCC regulation combined with public funds.

[GeneralMacArthur]

A very interesting read from Business Insider

https://www.businessinsider.com.au/bernie-sanders-internet-as-utility-plan-explainer-2019-12?r=US&IR=T

It's a very interesting plan, to say the least. Generally it uses a combination of anti-trust laws and FCC regulation combined with public funds.

We should just do universal fiber.

Google Fiber was killed because of sabotage from the existing ISPs.  Not only did they attack Fiber with every weapon available, they also had their technicians physically sabotage Fiber, doing things like "accidentally" cutting lines, causing outages, etc.

Universal 1GB/s internet could be revolutionary.  Right now streaming is the most difficult thing for an ISP to handle, but after Netflix disrupted the industry by making streaming a requirement, the ISPs had to adapt.  Maybe with 1GB/s internet widely available, someone will come along with the next brilliant new service to take advantage of it, that would never have been discovered without the feasibility provided by fiber.

We have the technology, we have the test cases, we know how to make it work if the government puts its muscle behind it.  Let's keep America the most technologically advanced nation in the world.