Pre-Super Tuesday Presidential poll

If Bernie is your guy, by all means vote for him in the primary.
Come November, it will be a binary choice (assuming Biden wins the Democratic nomination):

Vote for Biden, he wins, you probably won't get everything you want but have a chance down the road.
Don't vote for Biden, Trump wins, you certainly won't get anything you want plus a whole lot you don't and might not have another chance ever.

 

I’m not saying that I feel this way, but let me share with you what I’ve heard from some Sanders supporters. Some feel that biting the bullet and voting for Biden, if he gets the nomination, only solves the temporary problem of Trump. Long term, though, it reinforces to the DNC that they can trot out and stack the deck for moderate candidates who don’t want to change much — who don’t seem to understand some of the deeper struggles of millions in this country. There are a lot of progressives who just don’t see that as a good thing for the long term health of the country.

 

Then those longterm Sanders supporters are a fucking suicide cult. Christ.

 

Under 30 voters make up a small portion of the electorate. If they were larger, Sanders would be doing much larger.

That's not to be dismissive of younger voters, but you've got to go where the voters are. It's older and less progressive than many of us want to admit.

Biden has policy issues he needs to explain or clarify. Sanders has more than that. Biden is also likely to get more vociferous backing from others in the Democratic party. You think Dems are going to let Hunter Biden attacks go unanswered? Now, do you think Sanders' missteps like the Castro comments will get support?

This is a pragmatic election.

 

I say this as a progressive - Progressive candidates need to start winning lower ballot races and work their way up.

It's just like third party candidates who run empty campaigns for president and then complain about their voice being drowned out. You've got to prove you belong.

The 2018 midterms were a good start. But it's going to take a lot more wins in a lot more areas for there to be enough groundswell to shift the party left.

 

Have Trump for another four years and see how healthy the country looks then.

 

A big part of "progress" is showing up and staying engaged, not just turning up every four years and complaining that nobody is progressive enough for you. Moving the ball a little closer with each push and not giving up. I also think people on the left don't "look back" and see the progress they have made in recent years. Obamacare, gay marriage, pay equity, etc. I think if nothing else, Bernie has established a structure and organization for continuing engagement for those on the leftier edge of of the party. I'm hopeful he has plans to maintain the organization going forward. He's established a solid "brand" that I know several people have run under in state and local races - and won.

 

but then the DNC will be ready for an

Agent
Of
Change

 

Biden sticking his foot in his mouth is not a new thing. I expect the claim that it is a sign of mental dysfunction from his opposition, but the heart attack Sanders recently suffered is a far more legitimate reason for concern. The chances of a heart attack are much higher among people who have already suffered one.

 

It'll be hard to accomplish that change from inside a prison camp.

 

Progressive candidates are still sink or swim in a lot of places. Here in Florida, Andrew Gillum was an exciting candidate that progressives were jacked about. And he got a lot of votes, but not as many as the Trumpist that beat him and won the governorship because Gillum couldn't get the Cuban-American population in south Florida as excited about him. And that probably also ended up costing Bill Nelson his Senate seat to the criminal asshole Rick Scott.

As much as Gwen Graham sucked and was about as exciting as skim milk, she would've won in 2018 and Nelson would've probably kept his seat.

The bottom line is the progressives and the moderates have to play together. The turn off for moderates when it comes to Bernie is that they don't feel like there's a seat for them at his table. But there's absolutely a seat for progressives at the moderates table.

 

Gilliam was by far the best candidate but I always felt there was no way Florida would elect him
I don’t know if the same shit was pulled that Stacy Abrams faced in Georgia but with Florida’s history it’s a good bet