Bernie's In

but why would they do that? he's not a Democrat

In a two-party system he has no choice.
Same with Trump, he's not a Republican nor Democrat. Actually he's far out there where no party affiliation is necessary, yet he runs under the Republican umbrella.

I understand that if he wants to be elected, he has to run as a member of one of the two major parties.

That's not what I was addressing.

Wasn't me. Looks like it is voted back up now anyway.



You should see the mass of votedowns I got a couple days ago merely for standing up to Blatham when he derided the intelligence of people who disagree with him.



Off topic: My download of the new scan of Star Wars '77 is at 25% and my computer is still holding together for now. Fingers crossed -- maybe I'll make it.

The trouble with replacing the Democratic (or Republican) Party with a new one is, the existing party will fight to survive, and more than likely it will survive, which means the new party will fail.

Much more effective to try to argue for your viewpoint within the existing party.

I did.

The DNC would have to go to progressive from establishment, and I don't think that will happen.

I'll just address one thing I saw in this link. It is claimed he polls better against potential republican opponents than Hillary. That's largely due to how republican ads are working against Hillary now. If he wins the nomination, they will start telling all of America he's a communist. A large number of Americans will believe that crap, and those poll numbers will fade.

There's one problem with your analysis. The US is not a communist country. Bernie is a socialist in a capitalist country.

I don't see how that's a problem for my analysis. Yes, Bernie is a socialist in a capitalist country. Yes, America is very capitalist. We love capitalism and hate communism. Many Americans don't understand the difference between socialism and communism. So when the right-wing media tells the people Bernie is a commie, the charge will stick.

The right-wing media told people that Obama is a commie (and a Muslim and an Atheist and a Kenyan). Obama went on and won anyway.

Isn't American politics a great mystery? The republicans want to take away social security, and the majority of Americans depend on it to live. In most cases, social security alone is not enough to live on. What will people do without social security? Starve, lose their home, and die.

There are two key differences between now and 8 years ago:

(1) Obama didn't brag about being a socialist;
(2) Obama accepted money from large donors, and thus could defend himself against the attack ads.

Bernie's ideology and integrity have won him attention so far and have gotten people all excited, but they are going to come boomeranging back at him in the fall.

Watched some of the debate tonight, and I saw some things that reinforced my opinions of both of these candidates. Mainly that Hillary provides far and above more substance.
I've listened to Bernie Sanders for years every Friday on Thom Hartman's radio show, and something about him always left me feeling sort of meh. He talks in feel-good platitudes. He says the punchline populist **** that people want to hear. He doesn't provide any 'how' - any method - it's all "chicken in every pot" applause bait.
Just one example: When international trade agreements were brought up, Hillary's answer attempted to explain why trade agreements are necessary because the US as 5% of the world's population has to deal with the other 95%. To me, she was convincing as to why her views have changed from pro to con on TPP as it became clear that there was not enough protection for American workers. Bernie simply parroted the same lines about how he is against the American worker getting the shaft - of course to great applause. When Chuck Todd pressed him to tell how he would deal with the need for trade agreements with foreign countries, he just repeated the "the economy is rigged against the little guy" line. Unresponsive. Uninformative. But Bernie's for the people!!

Good observation.

I don't think so! Should Bernie win the Democratic ticket I assume Elizabeth Warren will be his running mate and together they'll be unbeatable.

Capitalism hasn't worked for the United States - the corporate greed has suffocated the middle class and what's left are the infamous 1 % who are trying to manipulate and regulate politics in this country - and the 99 % who are struggling are finally fed up. Politics is changing in the United States and not only the clever ones have realized that the 1 % on the top are scamming us for the last dime we've got.

Why do stupid people flock to Donald Trump? Because he is successful in their eyes and they hope he'll bring them a bigger paycheck as well. They don't realize that his father was the successful one and Donny boy inherited millions to make more millions. At that level it's easy to accumulate more wealth. Loudmouth Trump couldn't care less about Americans, he wants to be part of world history - good or bad, he doesn't care.

Would Elizabeth Warren help Mr. Sanders with the west? mid-west? south? non-whites? youth?

I don't know how she scans with any of those groups - but if I were on his team I'd be looking for a 40ish Latino governor or senator from the west or midwest.

I haven't seen the debate, but no doubt Hillary is smooth. She can talk and her rhethoric is superb and to the point, not to mention how quickly she responds to adverse questionings as we've seen at the Benghazi hearings.
Hillary has a huge team of experts coaching her along and they're clever and
shine the light on her perfectly from every angle. Obama came off as a loser in all debates he had with Hillary in 2008 and his rhethoric is by far superior to Sanders.

Having an excellent publicits and an entire team who feeds you with the perfect answers, is quite powerful. What Hillary cannot convey is sincerity and honesty. How can she be when the biggest crooks - banks, endorse her?

You could do a little research on your own Snood rather than relying on how what you see on TV reinforces your preconceived notions.

Agree with him or not, Sanders has spoken and written in quite a bit of depth on the issue of trade... not only as part of the campaign, but also in his 35 years in Congress.

If you are really interested in how Sanders has addressed this issue in depth, you can start here.

http://feelthebern.org/bernie-sanders-on-trade/

I don't know, ehBeth, I don't live in the south where people are mostly Republican. Elizabeth Warren has become a favorite among young people, though as she fights big corporations and banks. She's out there fighting for the underdog and it has brought her name recognition way beyond her own state.