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Mike__M

(1,052 posts)
Sun Jan 24, 2016, 01:00 PM Jan 2016

Atcheson: What the Mainstream Doesn’t Get About Bernie Sanders

What the Mainstream Doesn’t Get About Bernie Sanders

It just might be that the nation's electoral dropouts have found a candidate they can believe in. If so, that changes everything.
by John Atcheson

A Common Dreams piece, it's mostly a "Black Swan" refutation of Krugman.
This excerpt caught my eye:


...the fact of the matter is that “none-of-the-above” has won every election since 1960, with some 40 to 50 percent of those eligible to vote not voting. That is, the number of potentially eligible voters who stayed home was larger than the number voting for the winning candidate. And the dirty little secret is that America is a left of center, progressive electorate on an issue-be-issue basis, and many of these are the ones who stay home in disgust at their lack of choice.

and

It just might be that in Bernie, the dropouts have found a candidate they believe in – and they're ready to quit cursing the darkness and light a few candles.

You can bet if they do, Bernie will win, Congress will be vastly different, and the same pundits who poo-pooed the whole idea of a Sanders candidacy will be on the Sunday television shows explaining how and why it happened.
14 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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randys1

(16,286 posts)
3. If congress changes in the process, then the results will be dramatic and wonderful.
Sun Jan 24, 2016, 01:09 PM
Jan 2016

Does the Dem party have decent liberals on ballots challenging the rightwingers?

Enough, at least?

I haven't analyzed the entire House elections obviously.

stillwaiting

(3,795 posts)
9. I think if Bernie wins the White House that the election 2 years from that one will have
Sun Jan 24, 2016, 04:02 PM
Jan 2016

A LOT of primaries.

And, for very good reason.

We will have a lot of work to do.

And, we MUST focus on any Democratic Senator that is up for re-election as well if they are owned by Big Business. Their 6 year terms made Big Business target the Senate first and for very good reason. There are many Democratic Senators that are going to need to go if we are to make "our" Congresscritters represent us.

When we're successful with the first round of Senators, maybe, just maybe we won't need to repeat the process 2 years and then 4 years later. Maybe they will serve us first. And, if not, we'll need to keep kicking them out. It's the only way to get elected Democrats to do our will over Business's interests.

Immediately after Bernie gets elected we move on to Phase 2. And, Bernie would support us every step of the way.


Mike__M

(1,052 posts)
14. Here's a couple
Sun Jan 24, 2016, 09:48 PM
Jan 2016

Patty Murray (D) WA
Endorsed Hillary Clinton
up for re-election 2016
I haven't heard of any Democratic challenger

Maria Cantwell (D) WA
Endorsed Hillary Clinton
LAST Senator to get on board Iran deal
up for re-election 2018

Fumesucker

(45,851 posts)
4. Oh, they get it all right, that's what's giving them conniption fits
Sun Jan 24, 2016, 01:14 PM
Jan 2016

The great unwashed voting?

If Bernie gets the nom the fainting couch industry will go on round the clock shifts to keep up with the demand.

99Forever

(14,524 posts)
5. "... and the same pundits who poo-pooed the whole idea of a Sanders candidacy..."
Sun Jan 24, 2016, 01:15 PM
Jan 2016

...will be on the Sunday television shows explaining how and why it happened."

Exactly.

 

highprincipleswork

(3,111 posts)
7. Right On! Let's take this thing. With belief and positivity and with the ability to get it done.
Sun Jan 24, 2016, 01:42 PM
Jan 2016

I'm talking getting it done together, by the way, not through the magical intervention of either Trump or Hillary or even Bernie, who I support wholeheartedly.

Bernie talks about us all working together for the kind nation that we truly desire, and as he says, if we stand together there is truly nothing we cannot accomplish.

Working together is one of the higher values of life, possibly the only reason the human race has achieved what it has achieved so far.

There is so much more we can achieve in this way. And we can't do it by sitting at home or by going defeatist on every last desire we ever had. That has only played into a continual diminishment of our way of life, and i have had it with that philosophy.

MisterP

(23,730 posts)
13. right--the Obama campaign was about Obama, not any of the things he promised
Sun Jan 24, 2016, 04:29 PM
Jan 2016

"I serve as a blank screen on which people of vastly different political stripes project their own views"

hence the sheer height of weeping emotionality and the lack of any will to follow up or hold to account--exactly what a political class needs; no matter how "liberal" his instincts (what is this, 2010?) he was still always an "icebreaker" for Rahm to punish any state rep who wasn't a corpo

Obama's backers thought he could bring political revolution through sheer force of personality, that rather than changing how healthcare was paid the state's sheer power would simply grant everyone good health on its own without the need for any details

 

Akamai

(1,779 posts)
10. Great article! And the central point seems irrefutable -- Bernie can win the "none of the above."
Sun Jan 24, 2016, 04:07 PM
Jan 2016

His stances on all of the major issues are agreed to by the majority of Americans.

When people ask him about his "odd" beliefs, he can sure ask them, "What is odd about the beliefs of the majority of America? What odd beliefs are you talking about? Aren't YOU concerned about income inequality? the "too big to fail" banks? the loss of jobs overseas?, Climate Change?" etc., etc.

Maybe someone should come up with a contest to pick the best songs to inspire people to vote for Bernie! And maybe even Bernie would sing it. (He has sung "This land is your land" in a moving fashion.)

Go Bernie!

WHEN CRABS ROAR

(3,813 posts)
11. Are these really dropout voters
Sun Jan 24, 2016, 04:09 PM
Jan 2016

or just disinterested and ignorant nonvoters.
Huge amount of teenagers have never voted for decades.

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