Monitoring Biden and other Contemporary Events

I suppose at this point in time we ought to note how calm, rational and level-headed Bernie Sanders has been. It's pretty much 180 degrees away from the bellicose anger of some of his most ardent supporters.

I suppose part of my point is that Bernie was/is less unreasonable and uncooperative than many of those who hung around his campaign.

If Bernie had been elected his coattails would have given Democrats an absolute majority.

Biden's saying he supports keeping the filibuster...

...and hugging Republicans will be the end of his slim majority if he doesn't make some quick changes.

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If Bernie had been elected his coattails would have given Democrats an absolute majority.

I think that's debatable. I think Biden's wins in the later primaries showed that many voters were looking for an alternative to Sanders. The fact that they all fell in behind Biden makes me doubt whether Sanders really had that much general – as opposed to activist – support.

I never believed Sanders could win the election — and I had my doubts about Biden as well until it became obvious how badly Trump screwed up the covid response. I wish the primaries functioned better than they do – there's talk about improving the process every four years and every four years it's the same old **** show.

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Biden's saying he supports keeping the filibuster...

But not because he thinks it's a democratic feature worth preserving, only because (and I believe rightly) getting rid of it without a commanding majority would result in a worse situation than we already have. But I don't want to dwell on Biden vs Sanders. The two seem to have an understanding and Sanders has helped to move Biden's policies quite decisively away from the center, even if Biden's instincts are still influenced by his desire for bipartisan comity.

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...and hugging Republicans will be the end of his slim majority if he doesn't make some quick changes.

Some progressives in the Democratic Party seem to relish the idea of punishing him in '22 by sitting on their hands. To my mind, "progress" is an ongoing process and more could be accomplished by building on anything Biden can accomplish rather than just allowing the GOP to reverse some of the real gains that have been made by letting them take total control once again.

I suppose it’s true that IF Bernie had won the primary and then defeated Trump in the general, Bernie’s “coattails“ may have brought in a wave of supporters that may have been the necessary push to get good things done.

…But maybe not.

I think it bears pointing out that there were a LOT of Bernie supporters who made similarly confident-sounding speculations about Bernie’s chances to beat Biden and then Trump, back during the primaries.

They were wrong.

I suppose there’s entertainment value in postulating what “could have been” or even boldly stating what “would have been” - if Bernie had been president.

But it’s a guess. An educated guess, at best.
My guess is that Trump would have crushed Bernie in a general.

In any case, we’ll never know.

I reregistered as a GOP.
Its gotta start somewhre.
ve got a real douche-bag Legislator named SMUCKER and he certainly is.