Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., said in an interview with NBC News that he will encourage progressive voters to still back Democrats on the ticket in November even if moderates are victorious in the primaries.
I think he’s just being pragmatic. He endorses progressive challengers in the primaries, and then he urges his supporters to support Democrats in the general instead of splitting the liberal/leftist vote and handing the Republicans a win. He often gets blamed for losses anyway (Hillary supporters are still mad) and he’s made some bad picks (Fetterman and Platner come to mind), but the growing success of progressive and DSA candidates this year might be vindicating this as long-term strategy.
It’s not really pragmatic, though. The DNC being a private corporation with no obligation and a demonstrated unwillingness to hold fair primaries means that primaries are a compete dead end. Therefore, the only real change will come from independent candidates winning. I would think Bernie as an independent would be championing independent candidates, but instead, he’s helping the plutocrats to funnel that independent energy right back into the controlled opposition party so we continue to get nothing but red and red-violet plutocrats indefinitely.
That’s one perspective. I would argue that, given the ways in which the two parties have created election laws to protect their duopoly, third-party and independent candidates will rarely be viable. Instead of spending finite resources attempting to compete with the massive Democratic party machine in the general election, where a splitting of the liberal/leftist coalition could very possible (if not probably) result in a win for thr far-right, seizing the levers of power of said machine through primaries is not only safer, but more likely to succeed.
I think he’s just being pragmatic. He endorses progressive challengers in the primaries, and then he urges his supporters to support Democrats in the general instead of splitting the liberal/leftist vote and handing the Republicans a win. He often gets blamed for losses anyway (Hillary supporters are still mad) and he’s made some bad picks (Fetterman and Platner come to mind), but the growing success of progressive and DSA candidates this year might be vindicating this as long-term strategy.
It’s not really pragmatic, though. The DNC being a private corporation with no obligation and a demonstrated unwillingness to hold fair primaries means that primaries are a compete dead end. Therefore, the only real change will come from independent candidates winning. I would think Bernie as an independent would be championing independent candidates, but instead, he’s helping the plutocrats to funnel that independent energy right back into the controlled opposition party so we continue to get nothing but red and red-violet plutocrats indefinitely.
That’s one perspective. I would argue that, given the ways in which the two parties have created election laws to protect their duopoly, third-party and independent candidates will rarely be viable. Instead of spending finite resources attempting to compete with the massive Democratic party machine in the general election, where a splitting of the liberal/leftist coalition could very possible (if not probably) result in a win for thr far-right, seizing the levers of power of said machine through primaries is not only safer, but more likely to succeed.