"Four short years ago, the entire left rallied behind Bernie Sanders and was devoted to expanding a straightforward working-class agenda to a populist audience."
You have a VERY different memory of this than I. Four years ago, the left fully fractured itself between Sanders and Warren, with neither candidate willing to step down and endorse the other at the end. If they had pledged from the beginning that whichever of them had less support would ultimately drop out and endorse the other, then their combined coalitions would have won. Instead, the Bernie Bros turned to smearing Warren with the most blatantly sexist lies, and Sanders refused to step in to refute them. So the two camps ended up at each other's throats when they should have been allied.
Warren was never a left-wing politician, she was a dedicated progressive democrat, but nothing more. Warren did endorse Biden if you don't recall. I think anyone committed to actual radical necessary social change would have endorsed Bernie a thousand times before endorsing Biden. It's extremely contradictory to say that Warren is left-wing while she endorsed a right-wing Democrat Joe Biden when she did not have to (Bernie did later because he lost). I think Warren pulled a lot of liberals who were sympathetic of certain social policy but didn't vibe with Bernie's rhetoric. I also think Bernie pulling "bro-cialists" who may have grown up right-wing but were convinced by his working-class agenda cannot be ignored. Bernie's campaign was more than just Democrats, he spent a ton of time over the years reaching out to rural and traditionally red areas. These are things that Warren did not do.
There is no blame you can put on Bernie for establishment media completely overblowing tiny pockets of social media which have no bearing on the real political stage, there just no evidence that this was a problem. Bernie advocated for women's rights his entire career. If you want to make that argument then fine, but why did Warren endorse Biden who openly advocated against abortion well into the 2000s and agrees with the Catholic church's view while merely tolerating Roe v. Wade?
Bernie 99% chance would've picked Warren as VP, I wouldn't characterize the left as divided- Warren is a social liberal who made a decision to bend the knee just like everyone else who pretended to care about medicare for all that election.
I’m a Warren Democrat. I was savaged for it all over social media by bernie-bros. I was one who might have been reached, but it was too toxic and vicious and I wanted nothing of it. On Super Tuesday, in VA, even though I knew Warren had no chance of winning, I voted for her anyway. It wasn’t because I’m ill-informed, it was because I had no interest in allying with you lot.
And before you accuse me of being neoliberal or whatever other navel-gazing you bro-cialists are fond of doing, I’m a 30 year disability and healthcare rights activist with many successes under my belt. I don’t just TALK about progressive change, I’m part of many changes for disabled people.
Big Bernie movement faults. For me, no disability rights agenda. 65 million Americans are disabled. When he finally posted a disability rights agenda, it was vague, clearly not written by disabled self-advocates and fell short on a population who have the highest per capita poverty rates of any other American minority group. Huge oversight on the part of your movement to ignore disabled people. And no, Medicare for all isn’t enough of a disability rights agenda.
Bro-cialists were also incredibly dismissive about Roe v Wade. If I could have a nickel for every bro who insisted Roe v Wade wasn’t in REAL danger, I’d be rich. It felt like gas-lighting to women. And look how wrong they were. In fact, the House just submitted a national abortion ban bill.
Then there was all the talk in 2016, when Black voters in southern states overwhelmingly broke towards Hillary, that southern state primaries don’t matter as much, when 60% of American Black people live in southern states. Bad call to use that talking point and massively alienated many many Black voters.
I do agree with student loan forgiveness, but Bernie and his movement don’t seem to get how badly that plays to working class and people experiencing poverty. Warren was much better with that messaging and brought more people into that fold.
If I’d not voted for Warren in VA on Super Tuesday in 2020, my vote wasn’t going to Bernie, and every Warren voter I knew felt the same.
The toxic ableism, elitism, misogyny, and yes, also racism with “leftist” bros have turned off too many in a majority female party. The attacks on identity politics when for many of us, without them, our groups are ignored and gas-lit, are also a killer for your movement. I had no acceptable choice in 2020 but Senator Warren. With all that had gone down between scolding, dismissal, and in your face misogyny, I will never align with any of you. It’s not how you win people over. Even your comment above, claiming Warren voters were just ill informed, fuck you DUDE, you still don’t get it.
"Four short years ago, the entire left rallied behind Bernie Sanders and was devoted to expanding a straightforward working-class agenda to a populist audience."
You have a VERY different memory of this than I. Four years ago, the left fully fractured itself between Sanders and Warren, with neither candidate willing to step down and endorse the other at the end. If they had pledged from the beginning that whichever of them had less support would ultimately drop out and endorse the other, then their combined coalitions would have won. Instead, the Bernie Bros turned to smearing Warren with the most blatantly sexist lies, and Sanders refused to step in to refute them. So the two camps ended up at each other's throats when they should have been allied.
Hey, thank you for reading even if we disagree.
Warren was never a left-wing politician, she was a dedicated progressive democrat, but nothing more. Warren did endorse Biden if you don't recall. I think anyone committed to actual radical necessary social change would have endorsed Bernie a thousand times before endorsing Biden. It's extremely contradictory to say that Warren is left-wing while she endorsed a right-wing Democrat Joe Biden when she did not have to (Bernie did later because he lost). I think Warren pulled a lot of liberals who were sympathetic of certain social policy but didn't vibe with Bernie's rhetoric. I also think Bernie pulling "bro-cialists" who may have grown up right-wing but were convinced by his working-class agenda cannot be ignored. Bernie's campaign was more than just Democrats, he spent a ton of time over the years reaching out to rural and traditionally red areas. These are things that Warren did not do.
There is no blame you can put on Bernie for establishment media completely overblowing tiny pockets of social media which have no bearing on the real political stage, there just no evidence that this was a problem. Bernie advocated for women's rights his entire career. If you want to make that argument then fine, but why did Warren endorse Biden who openly advocated against abortion well into the 2000s and agrees with the Catholic church's view while merely tolerating Roe v. Wade?
Bernie 99% chance would've picked Warren as VP, I wouldn't characterize the left as divided- Warren is a social liberal who made a decision to bend the knee just like everyone else who pretended to care about medicare for all that election.
I’m a Warren Democrat. I was savaged for it all over social media by bernie-bros. I was one who might have been reached, but it was too toxic and vicious and I wanted nothing of it. On Super Tuesday, in VA, even though I knew Warren had no chance of winning, I voted for her anyway. It wasn’t because I’m ill-informed, it was because I had no interest in allying with you lot.
And before you accuse me of being neoliberal or whatever other navel-gazing you bro-cialists are fond of doing, I’m a 30 year disability and healthcare rights activist with many successes under my belt. I don’t just TALK about progressive change, I’m part of many changes for disabled people.
Big Bernie movement faults. For me, no disability rights agenda. 65 million Americans are disabled. When he finally posted a disability rights agenda, it was vague, clearly not written by disabled self-advocates and fell short on a population who have the highest per capita poverty rates of any other American minority group. Huge oversight on the part of your movement to ignore disabled people. And no, Medicare for all isn’t enough of a disability rights agenda.
Bro-cialists were also incredibly dismissive about Roe v Wade. If I could have a nickel for every bro who insisted Roe v Wade wasn’t in REAL danger, I’d be rich. It felt like gas-lighting to women. And look how wrong they were. In fact, the House just submitted a national abortion ban bill.
Then there was all the talk in 2016, when Black voters in southern states overwhelmingly broke towards Hillary, that southern state primaries don’t matter as much, when 60% of American Black people live in southern states. Bad call to use that talking point and massively alienated many many Black voters.
I do agree with student loan forgiveness, but Bernie and his movement don’t seem to get how badly that plays to working class and people experiencing poverty. Warren was much better with that messaging and brought more people into that fold.
If I’d not voted for Warren in VA on Super Tuesday in 2020, my vote wasn’t going to Bernie, and every Warren voter I knew felt the same.
The toxic ableism, elitism, misogyny, and yes, also racism with “leftist” bros have turned off too many in a majority female party. The attacks on identity politics when for many of us, without them, our groups are ignored and gas-lit, are also a killer for your movement. I had no acceptable choice in 2020 but Senator Warren. With all that had gone down between scolding, dismissal, and in your face misogyny, I will never align with any of you. It’s not how you win people over. Even your comment above, claiming Warren voters were just ill informed, fuck you DUDE, you still don’t get it.