alanjjohnstone
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As we are only speculating about Sanders, Matt and ALB may be right. I don’t believe so.
Equating Corbyn in a British post-Brexit atmosphere with Sanders is apples and oranges. It was their dithering over Brexit that did the Labour Party in, not Corbyn and the smears against him.
If polls are to be trusted (and i am sure many now doubt that they can) in a hypothetical race between them, done both in 2016 and 2020 Sanders consistently out-performed Trump in almost all the different polls.
In 2016 many Sanders voters in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin voters backed the Vermont senator in the spring and Trump in the fall, according to an analysis of exit polling — well over twice Trump’s total margin of victory in those states, which were critical the Electoral College. Sanders would have won the union vote which went to Trump in all the rust states Trump gained and still holds some of.
But, as i said, its all speculation for you and i and when Biden wins, any post mortem on why he won will paper over all the unwelcome truths that he could only muster luke-warm enthusiasm. Little will be said or explained why Trump retained and increased his total of voters. The professionals Democratic Party-functionaries will pat one another on the backs for winning 2020.
Sanders would have been slaughtered and he knew it, which is why he caved in to Biden.
That is not how i read it. Sanders was in a far better position than Biden to defeat Trump. He may have alienated the hard-core Trumpeteers with his “socialism” but they were not amenable to any influence, anyways. Those hurting economically would have come on board with Sanders for the M4A and bail-outs for workers, not the corporations.
Sanders was not part of the Nafta or Chinese free trade deals and was a vigorous opponent to them. Trump could not use that against Sanders in the rust belt that saw jobs out-shored.
Nor could there be any questions over Sanders on his ethics or sincerity. He had no Hunter Biden latching on the name.
Surprisingly along the Mexico border Trump out-voted Biden in many places. Sanders had a much stronger Hispanic base than Biden.
Sanders was not seen as a part of the Wall St/Washington establishment and many pro-Trump votes were for that exact reason…he was seen as an outsider…same as Sanders would have been.
What defeated Sanders was the bias of the DNC leadership and their complicit media.
They say Sanders sympathies with Cuba and Venezuela would have lost him the Florida vote…in the end Biden lost that too.
Sanders caved in because like all liberals he was subject to the lesser evil option…better Biden than Trump.
What is interesting is will President Biden reward Sanders with an important position in his cabinet or not. I doubt Wall St will approve of Sanders being appointed Labor Secretary, the post Sanders is angling for.
We can forget all about the “radical” Justice Democrats…they now have no leverage whatsoever…
It is the Republicans like Mitt Romney who hold it and the DNC will ensure that it is those former Republicans already tipped for positions in the Biden administration will get those appointments.
How this all pans out for the rest of the planet, is exactly what you say, Matt, what difference would any of them make.
But in 2024 the Democrats with the Senate blocking all its reforms and a Republican-biased SCOTUS, except for limited presidential executive orders – who is going to be blamed for little progress and all the pain…the Republicans or the buck stops here at the Oval Office. I speculate that the blame will be on the Democratic Party for false promises and Kamala Harris won’t be able to shake off her responsibility as the VP
Once again the election shows that Sanders was the best choice to run against Trump as moderate Democrats cannot pick up moderate Republican votes.
My question is …What will those left progressives do when they have a lame duck president unable to move policies to the left … even if he had the will to do so which he hasn’t got since now he has to compromise and make concessions with individual Republican senators to get anything passed.
It is going to be Trump-lite without the big ego
In Pennsylvania and Michigan Trump supporters demand stop the counting…in Arizona they demand continue the count…guess where they are trailing…
One more observation
Republicans hold the Senate so the likely president Biden will be impotent…and come the 2022 mid-terms, the Democratic Party loses the House of Representatives. Biden is a one-term president with Republicans winning in 2024.
And for the liberal progressives, none of their hopes of pushing Biden left will materialise. To appeal to the Republican voters, the Democratic Party will in fact shift to the right.
Biden will blame the Republican block for no substantial reforms. A few cosmetic changes such as re-joining Paris but no green policy of substance.
Another observation i would put out there.
Our fellow-workers are prepared to risk Covid-19 than risk their jobs and Trump’s open the economy is resonating with them
Another indication of the poll turn out and remember it is not all over yet
Biden’s current tally of 69,759,833 surpasses the 69,498,516 amassed by Barack Obama in 2008, the previous record.
The total is already more than 3.9 million higher than the number of votes secured by Hillary Clinton in 2016 when she won the popular vote but lost the presidency to Donald Trump.
Trump’s total so far – 67,160,663 – is also more than he polled in 2016, and more than Obama polled in 2012.
It places Trump third on the all-time list.
I suppose that these figures are somewhat influenced by the increase in the US population.
Denying the right of a nation to exist should be very pertinent for Germany. After all it ended the GDR and FDR independent status. But the USSR was dismantled, Yugoslavia was dismembered. Nation-states are not immune from being removed from the map. Czechoslovakia was divided into two. And here in the UK the United bit may be soon coming to an end with Scottish sovereignty. And as you say, Robbo, we have a principled stand against all those attempts to re-map the world.
And we hold an analysis that opposes all religions including all the Abrahamic ones.
As for your point, YMS, indeed a we always say, what concerns the working class in one country is the concern of socialists everywhere regardless of nationality.
But what we do is in the open and is fully transparent. What the Israel embassy endeavoured to do was to covertly finance a propaganda campaign within the Labour Party on behalf of the interests of the Israeli government, not aimed for the benefit of Israeli citizens. That i suggest colours the integrity of those LP members willing to go along with such practice, that they were indeed putting nationalist/zionist loyalty ahead of their membership loyalty. Yet this aspect was not investigated by the report or deemed relevant to the issue.
Imagine if someone was an Orangeman within the Labour Party and the Lodge had been secretly paying the campaign bills to reject the Good Friday Agreement. Or if Sinn Fein was responsible for secretly financing those with Republican sympathies in the Labour Party.
The 2020 presidential election had the highest turnout rate in 120 years
At 66.9%, the turnout rate of the voting-eligible population was the highest since 1900.
Tues 10th is the the deadline for mail-in votes for Alaska and Nevada and the 12th for North Carolina
There has also been some interesting ballot proposition results
Even if Biden becomes president, the Democratic Party does not have a majority in the Senate. Anything Biden proposes will be opposed by the Republicans…
The UK Health Alliance on Climate Change (UKHACC) includes 10 Royal Colleges of medicine and nursing, the British Medical Association and the Lancet, representing the doctors, nurses and other professionals says the climate crisis cannot be solved without action to cut the consumption of food that causes high emissions, such as red meat and dairy products. But it says that more sustainable diets are also healthier and would reduce illness.
The UK’s health professions has called for a climate tax to be imposed on food with a heavy environmental impact by 2025, unless the industry takes voluntary action on the impact of their products.
Now the bookies tip Trump
Betfair are giving Trump a 60% chance of winning a second term in the White House, up from 39% when polls opened on Tuesday morning.
Biden’s odds of a win among bets on the Betfair Exchange have fallen to 40% from 61% earlier.
So far no militia poll-checkers intimidating voters. Biding (Biden) their time?
This is an interesting essay on Trump and the question of fascism
The US Republic, Trump and the Authoritarian Fear Mongering Club
In reference to the open letter Chomsky and other intellectuals wrote warning of the impending end of democracy, the author writes
“…It does not make much time for the signers of the letter to get to the president. “Whether Donald J. Trump is a fascist, post-fascist populist, an autocrat, or just a bumbling opportunist, the danger to democracy did not arrive with his presidency and goes well beyond November 3rf, 2020.” It is admirable for the signatories to take the long view, though such language can come across as silly. For one, the scholars, having been so caught up with seeing authoritarianism everywhere, have probably neglected to identify the content of democracy with any precision. There is also surely a vast difference between terms such as “fascist” and a “bumbling opportunist”…”
