(CNN) In the last 24 hours, the following things have happened in the Democratic presidential race :
1) Former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg ended his campaign and he's endorsing former Vice President Joe Biden in a Texas rally tonight.
2) Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar decided to drop from the race and endorse Biden. She'll also be at that Biden Texas rally.
3) Former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (Nevada) announced his endorsement of Biden, citing the former vice president's ability to "assemble the largest, most diverse coalition possible to defeat Trump and lead our country following the trauma of Trump's presidency."
4) Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth , as well as a slew of other House members, former senators and former governors who represent states set to vote either on Tuesday or later this month, endorsed Biden.
This is what it looks like when the party establishment, deeply concerned about the prospect of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders as the Democratic nominee against President Donald Trump, starts putting the necessary pieces in place to try to keep the Vermont democratic socialist from winning.
How large are their concerns? Within 72 hours of Biden winning his first state in the nomination fight -- a larger-than-expected victory in South Carolina -- the entire field of pragmatic/moderate/establishment types have left the race, with the exception of free-spending billionaire Mike Bloomberg.
And you can bet that if Bloomberg doesn't wind up with more delegates than Biden after tomorrow, the former New York City mayor will come under huge pressure to put his ego aside and get behind Biden too.
(Now that doesn't mean that Trump's Twitter claims implying that Democrats are trying to " take it away " from Sanders are accurate. There is nothing nefarious about endorsements and drop-outs, this is just Politics 101).
Asked about the movement on Monday , Sanders told reporters, "Look, it is no secret ... that there is a massive effort trying to stop Bernie Sanders, that's not a secret to anybody in this room. ... The corporate establishment is coming together. The political establishment is coming together and they will do everything. They are really getting nervous that working people are standing up."
Still, it's not at all clear to me that the Democratic establishment can actually stop Sanders. The Vermont senator looks headed for victories in California and, to a lesser extent, Texas on Tuesday. And there's virtually no scenario I can imagine where Sanders doesn't end Super Tuesday with a clear delegate lead over Biden and everyone else.
The actual goal for the establishment may well to simply keep Sanders away from the 1,991 pledged delegates number that would formally make him the party's nominee.
Even if successful, of course, that effort would likely require superdelegates to decide the nomination -- in Biden's favor -- on a second ballot. Which, well, could be problematic.
doggydayafternoon on March 3rd, 2020 at 05:34 UTC »
In the next few weeks and months we are going to see a larger increase in the number of Coronavirus patients. A lot of that will be people who are too scared to miss work, too scared that if they are wrong about getting tested they are going to pay thousands of dollars. So they wait it out. They stay home, or they tell their spouse or children to go to work / school because they don't want to bankrupt the family because they have a common flu. That infection spreads, and it continues to spread. Eventually finally the person infected finally sees the doctor, and for them it is too late. Their family has spread the disease, but they are ok because it was caught earlier.
I just want to scream. The health insurance is fucking the people in the US. You can fucking get denied by seeing an in network hospital, doctor(s), but they decided that the procedure to save your life isn't covered. I am getting older approaching 40s and is moving to Canada or Europe the only way I can survive without going medical debt here in the United States?
We need someone who yells at the health insurance companies, or gives us a much better disruptive solution than just pay your health insurance bill, we can at least guarantee that you won't have to worry about preexisting conditions.
I will support anyone that can take the healthcare options in Europe, Canada, and a few other countries and implement it here. Then yell at the health insurance companies for continuing to fuck over the people of the United States. Again, a lot of my posts go to the same thing. I want children to be able to get into trouble, go to the doctor, recover and not have the health insurance companies drag the family into medical debt. I feel crazy continuing to say this, but it happens in this country, and it is sick.
hallaquelle on March 3rd, 2020 at 02:58 UTC »
I think what a lot of people don't understand is that for many progressives, their political and ideological identity is the most important part of their identity. The same way that women, black people, Hispanic people, the LGBT community, etc constantly have to pressure the Democratic party to represent them and their values, many progressives feel the same way. They are a political minority that has been neglected time and again, even though most people agree with them on a moral level.
When we see state parties, superdelegates, former Presidents, sitting members of Congress, candidates who just dropped out, candidates who dropped out a long time ago, the media, the media, the media, when all of these people are working against Bernie, especially after they realize Bernie actually has a chance to win, it feels bad. It feels like oppression. Some people will laugh or say that I'm being overdramatic, but those people are really failing to grasp what makes Bernie supporters so passionate and energized, which can also make them angry and resentful when it feels like their voices are falling on deaf ears.
Progressives literally just want everyone to have liveable wages, unconditional access to healthcare, a chance to get an education, a fair criminal justice system, money out of politics, and a habitable planet for future generations. These should not have to be radical ideas. This is literally just the modern take on the new deal and the civil rights movement. When it feels like everyone in the Democratic party is working against those goals, it feels like they don't belong in it.
People are not Bernie or bust because they worship Bernie and hate everyone else. He's literally just the only person espousing those ideals. It felt like Warren could be another one, but she wavered as her campaign struggled. Some Bernie supporters do go negative and they should not, but it's not out of hatred. It's out of frustration. We're never given even an inch, yet we're always asked to give a mile back just to stop the lesser of two evils. It sucks. It's alienating.
When you look back at the South Carolina debate, every candidate on that stage thought they were attacking Bernie, but they were actually attacking a political minority who they then expect to get in line after blatantly insulting their ideology. All the while pretending like they give one fuck about unity. They don't. You can't reject the most important aspect of someone's identity and expect them to fall in line.
If Biden is who the party wants, go for it. I'll probably end up voting for him if it comes down to it, but I won't blame any person at all for not doing so. If you blame them, you really don't understand what progressive ideals mean to progressive voters. This should not be surprising. Marginalizing a group of people that literally just want to create a better country for all of us, it's a losing strategy just like it would be for any other minority.
NihilsticEgotist on March 3rd, 2020 at 02:37 UTC »
Consider me naive, but based on what I've seen the past few days, I legitimately do not think the establishment wants a contested convention. That NYT story was just a trial balloon, and once they saw the immense backlash they decided that it would be best to pool their resources into one last-ditch effort to boost Biden to getting a plurality so they can nominate him and say "hey, you said the popular vote decides, well Joe got the popular vote". I don't know what they're planning to do if Bernie comes into the convention with a plurality, but they probably know it's going to be an absolute shitshow.