Yeah that's a shame. I don't hate Yang but that burned a lot of his credibility for me. The CNN gig raised an eyebrow for me but ugh, supporting Biden? The establishment obviously has their boy, and are going all-in for him. All I can say is good luck America lol. 

And I'm probably essentially burning what few bridges I have left here but.. I'm growing increasingly disillusioned with Bernie as well. His campaign has been far too passive, "Joe is my friend" (wtf?) and being silent on the DNC's obvious collusion to keep out Tulsi. Despite her backing out of a prominent position in the DNC in 2016 to back him. He hasn't returned the favor, outside of one semi-supportive tweet. Big deal.. This guy is losing me. He's just too soft, and is AGAIN going to bow down before the establishment. I feel like he just isn't strong enough to bring any real change.

My list of favored politicians is growing ever thinner.. At this rate it's pretty much down to Kuscinch, Tulsi, Ron Paul, and maybe Ventura ha.

The one glimmer of hope is his millions of supporters are inevitably going to conglomerate towards another politician who closely aligns with their views when Bern inevitably lets them down again. Even if it takes some years, it will happen. Bernie's movement isn't about Bernie, but his (supposed) ideals/policy. The same way that on the right, the Tea party sort of began under Palin, failed there, and eventually migrated to Trump, the same will happen with the Bernie movement on the left. 

Anyway whatever. Ultimately I need to just take a step back and look at the big picture, and realize this bs isn't going to really affect my life personally one way or another. Whether it's Trump or Biden, things will essentially remain the same. It's a massive and complex machine and no one man is enough to significantly move the needle. It's more political theater than anything. I was never really naive enough to believe that M4A was going to be implemented anytime soon anyway, nor full or even partial student loan forgiveness. Even if Bernie got the nom, most of his proposals would be blocked by the more moderate Dems/GOP, which frankly is most of the base. Business as usual in America regardless.

Moren already addressed your first point.

As for the second one Yang said he'd only endorse someone that supports UBI and when he was running he mentioned that Biden was interested in learning more about it and constantly brought it up in conversation with him.

My message may sound a bit selfish on my part but it's something of a defense mechanism I guess for me to disassociate from this shit, and just put some perspective on things. Otherwise I'll drive myself nuts heh.

There's the student loan factor for me but I do have to put better perspective on it and realize there are many others that these policies affect much much more as you said. But again, that was my own naive decision I made when I was 21, just gotta dig myself out of it now that I'm wiser. Nothing else to do.

I just get very bummed about the state of things. I'll just leave it at that without getting into another rant.

That saddens me to hear man my condolences. We definitely need a better path to immigration in this country. The Trump (and partly the centrist) methods tend to be just trying to slap a bandaid on the issue without addressing the underlying causes or reach the root of the issue, which only makes things worse for everyone.

When it comes To Biden - I consider my mother a very smart woman and she seems to somewhat support the guy (think Warren was her first choice but still), and hell if Yang can endorse him and even Tulsi has defended him at a debate maybe he's not as awful as I think, or at least I try to tell myself ha. Just done with "business as usual" politics and backroom corporate deals and such. Banker bailouts, NAFTA/TPP, Patriot Act, war in Iraq, Glass Steagall, War on Drugs, etc.. All things the guy supports/voted for. 

Well I guess now the Bernie dream is over now. Andrew Yang ednorsement means jackshit. I don't get the logic behind endorsing a candidate who opposes everything you stand for. What good did it do Bernie to campaign tirelessly for a war loving monster? Biden vs Trump, same coin, different sides. I hope Bernie retires peacefully and not support Biden the way he supported Hillary. Endorse and move on.

Bernie's just a kind person in a cruel political landscape, you can't fault someone for that.

This whole primary had so many different people with so many different views but at the end of the day whoever the establishment and media props up and the elites want is who it's going to be. It's depressing to be sure but it's also optimistic in that despite all the odds (the smears, anti-Semitism, hate, etc.) someone managed to bring people from all walks of life to fight for the common good— to fight for a system that puts people over profit, and got damn near close to being the nominee. There's something truly inspiring about that.

Most of the groundwork has been done and the seeds of change have been planted and watered so in the future it will be that much easier. Of course it won't be Bernie (hopefully AOC or Nina Turner), but there will be someone to rise to the occasion and hopefully it won't be too late.

There is a lot of change we can still do, you don't have to wait every four years. Focus on local campaigns and hold your Reps accountable, so if they're not listening to their constituents (i.e. you) and only to special interests VOTE THEM OUT. Real change is hard, it starts from the bottom up and it doesn't come from any one man or woman. There's a reason Bernie made "Not me, Us!" his campaign slogan, it's because he fully knows this too.

This only invigorates me even more to work harder to enact the kind of change that benefits all people, especially those with the least.

I'll pay close attention and hold Biden accountable if he's the president just as I've held Trump accountable, as we all should.

Well, I wouldn't be too pissed at Yang, he just sees how the primaries worked out and backs the winner. Because we can call the shots, if nothing miraculous happens this looks a lot like it is over for Bernie.

But besides that, it seems to push progressive politics needs the difficult way. Voting Bernie Sanders into the white house would've been a strong push for progressive politics. But it seems the easy way is out, and it needs hard fights for every single progressive policy to be implemented. As it always was. It is disappointing after so much hope was possible, but it is no different than before.

The only way the DNC will change is, if it's members are replaced by progressives. So more progressive challengers to corporate democrats are needed, like AOC, Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar. Many more of these progressives have to be elected in different positions. It seems that is the only way change can happen. And all these single fights, that will be difficult and in many, many cases unsuccessful. But that's the way it is.

*sigh*

What makes me mad is how the media spins it and makes it look like Bernie hindered Clinton and was the reason she lost. As you said, he tirelessly campaigned for her. And the media treats him badly despite that.

Bernie should have started a major third party in this country. If anyone could have pulled it off, he could have. Instead, he's going to capitulate to the Neolib/Neocon establishment YET AGAIN and then try and shame his supporters into voting for Biden (of which 70% will say thanks but no thanks). Then Trump's going to inevitably win because of all the young people and PoC staying at home on election day, and the Democrats are again going to blame the "Toxic Bernie Bros" for his victory, while having zero introspection whatsoever. I already know how this freaking plays out. It's predictable at this point. So if they're going to point the finger at these people anyway, they might as well split off.

If Bernie spearheaded, say, the new Labor or Social Democrats of the US, joining with the likes of Kucinich, Tulsi, Gravel, Nina, AOC, Andrew Yang, Williamson, etc.. I really think he and they would have brought MILLIONS with him. It's already known that roughly a third of this country identifies as neither Democrat OR Republican but "Independent." I really feel like many of these people are looking for a political home, and neither the GOP or DNC can quite provide it. I know this is increasingly the case with me, especially over the last 5-6 years. 

But no, instead the Democrats continue to shift increasingly to the right and Authoritarian, whilst trying to pull their actual left wing supporters with them.. Then shaming them into voting for their manufactured corporatist centrist candidate, when the FARTHER right candidate on the Republican side inevitably wins the election, and the cycle will repeat..

In a country as vast, populated, and diverse as America, with well over 320 MILLION people, it's absurd to me that we continue to peddle this failing duopoly of just 2 major political parties, and try to gather everyone into these 2 massive umbrellas. If the Brits can pull off 3, so can we! And the Dems have made it abundantly clear at this point that they have NO room or love for actual progressives, shaming them as being "divisive," "toxic," or "secret Russians" or some other bullshit. I say it's time the people on the left start to take the message and split off from these centrists. 

But again.. if Bernie doesn't do it, it will happen with someone else, rest assured. And maybe sooner than we think.

I haven't commented here in a while because I've been waiting for the last two weeks of voting to play out to get a clearer picture of where things were going, but I think the picture has become clear enough to merit comment at this point. (Like I said before, one could not count Biden out until the vote in South Carolina. Now one sees why I said that.)

Let's start with the good news because (from a left perspective anyway) there's less of it. The good news is that voter turnout overall was up last night compared to 2016, as has become a pattern throughout this nominating contest. It follows a clear trend of Democratic victories ever since Donald Trump's election: in the 2017 off-year elections, in the 2018 midterm elections, and in the 2019 off-year elections. An uptick in Democratic turnout in the 2020 nominating race combined with the reality that we're in fact continuing to hear more Republican office-holders than Democratic ones announce their retirement and also the recent coronavirus outbreak crisis that will definitely define both this and next year for this country and the corresponding, inevitable economic recession that appears to have already begun (the perceived strength of the economy being the only area where Trump has polled above water overall)...putting it all together, I no longer worry that Trump will be re-elected this fall. He won't be. He will become a rare one-term president. The Democrats will gain the White House this fall, and will also wind up with the balance of state governorships, a larger majority in the House of Representatives, and possibly also overall control of the U.S. Senate as well. This will be another Democratic year. All the signs are there. That's the good news.

The bad news is that it also definitely won't be Bernie Sanders at the top of the Democratic ticket. This brings me to a topic that we need to discuss, which is the matter of why this happened. It's an important subject because the progressive left seems to be struggling in similar ways just about everywhere, not just here in the United States, by which I mean that, as a movement and a general set of ideas, it appears to be less popular today than four or five years ago, or even just three years ago. Whether it's Jeremy Corbyn's Labour Party in the United Kingdom meeting their worst electoral showing since 1935 late last year after a sizable gain in both the popular vote and number of seats held in 2017 under the same leadership or whether it's Canada's New Democratic Party selecting a youth-backed progressive leader and going on to win just 15% of the vote last year, their worst showing in some 15 years and down sharply from 31% under the leadership of moderate trade unionist Jack Layton in 2011, or whether it's Bernie Sanders failing to win the most votes among working class and union households last night or even the majority of former Elizabeth Warren supporters while also failing to appeal outside of youth vote or to even turn out younger voters (the youth vote declined both relatively and objectively last night compared to 2016), there is a definite pattern going on here, and these really are just a few of examples of it that I could highlight. (Need I mention all the recent electoral defeats of the left wing parties elected in and around the 2000s in Latin America of late?) Neoliberal parties still win national elections sometimes (e.g. France, Spain, Canada, probably the U.S. at the end of this year), but progressive parties and candidates are struggling pretty well across the board. At this point, we need to talk about why. There are a number of issues I could identify that are worth discussing. Some of them are specific to individual candidates and parties, but others are shared by the progressive left broadly and internationally. I don't know if said conversation should take place on this thread or whether it merits a separate thread of its own because I really would want to bring people from outside the United States into that conversation too. But it needs to be had.

However, I will briefly speak to one of the main problems I felt the Bernie Sanders campaign had specifically, which has been his supporters. During the last two weeks wherein Sanders' support has fallen off, he has continually been called on to answer for the behavior of his supporters. Disproportionately to any other campaign, Bernie Sanders supporters have earned a reputation for toxicity and insular thinking, often including misogynistic tendencies specifically. I can think of no better example than the inexplicable, frankly insane vitriolic hatred of both Elizabeth Warren and her supporters by Sanders supporters throughout this campaign season. Sanders supporters have displayed more contempt for Warren than for any other candidate despite the fact that, programically, Warren was the rival candidate Sanders had the most in common with. In fact, some of them have even launched a movement to primary Warren in 2024! This reality is probably why the majority of Warren supporters have landed in the Biden camp in her absence from the race despite being in closer programic alignment to Bernie Sanders. I think the treatment of Warren by Bernie supporters was likely the deciding factor for them in choosing who to support post-Warren.

I'll have more to say soon, but have to go to work now and wanted to start out this conversation with that point this morning.

Biden is just a boring, slow version of Trump, he cannot win. Bad choice, DNC. Hopefully the VP choice can differentiate him, but do Americans really vote for VP?

I was skeptical of Bernie’s chances too, but at least it would have been an interesting fight with more opposing policies rather than a, “My opponent’s policies go not too far enough!”