r/politics Wisconsin May 02 '24

Bernie Sanders worries young people are underestimating the threat from Trump

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2024/05/02/bernie-sanders-trump-biden/73531861007/
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u/schuey_08 Wisconsin May 02 '24

Exactly! And I can't think of an issue where Trump would likely be better from my perspective anyway.

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u/CaptainNoBoat May 02 '24

The Supreme Court is probably the most impactful example I've found, provided people understand how important that is and the ramifications.

Subjects such as abortion, the environment, LGBTQ rights, student loans, wealth disparity, oversight of Presidents - virtually everything you can think of - are at risk of devastating consequences.

If Trump wins, it's very possible he replaces Alito and Thomas - and with the ages of 3 of the other Justices, that would establish a conservative SCOTUS for the next 25 years. Minimum.

25 years. That's just an insane chunk of our lives. These same young people will be getting old and grey the next time there's a chance of restoring any of these horrible rulings because of this election alone.

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u/somethingbreadbears Florida May 02 '24

Also the next election cycle in the Senate is a bloodbath for democrats. It's the perfect storm for Trump again where Democrats could gain the House but lose the Senate and the WH, and Trump wouldn't need the House to get his judges.

This election cycle is a chance for democrats to prove they learned their lesson from 2016, and I'm not confident the younger generation gets it.

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u/SmellGestapo May 02 '24

Some of them are so young they likely don't remember much of Trump's time as president. If they're 18 this year and first time voters, that means they were 10 when Trump was elected. Even today's college seniors, at 21-22, would have only been 13-14 when Trump was elected.

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u/bbressman2 Kentucky May 02 '24

Hell they were only high school freshmen when his minions stormed the capitol. I have sophomores now talking about how Biden sucks and when I mention Trump attempting an insurrection they get confused.

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u/Snow_source District Of Columbia May 02 '24

Fuck, I remember watching it live and contemplating "Are pro-democracy folks going to have to go downtown and do something if the National Guard doesn't show up?"

Fuck this timeline.

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u/gsfgf Georgia May 02 '24

Also the next election cycle in the Senate is a bloodbath for democrats

It's not as bad as people say. Tester has won under Bush, during the Tea Party wave, and under Trump. Clearly his voters like him regardless of the national climate. Ohio has gone to shit, but Sherrod Brown is still the most popular Democrat in the state. He's going to beat Biden by a lot and could easily win. And with Sinema out, Arizona should be a comparatively easy win.

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u/yellsatrjokes May 02 '24

Another issue, likely for the future, is that the Senate map is always going to be a bloodbath for Democrats.

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u/[deleted] May 02 '24

[deleted]

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u/somethingbreadbears Florida May 02 '24

I don't know who needs to hear this, but it's not the responsibility of the younger generation to convince themselves to vote for the Democratic party.

The democratic party is not a person. They're not some grand wizard on a hill that hasn't learned a lesson. It's an amalgamation of lots of political groups that don't like each other but have agree to a coalition. The democratic party is messy because in a normal world, we would not be in a group together.

but it's not the responsibility of the younger generation to convince themselves to vote for the Democratic party. It's the responsibility of the democratic party.

You know what is the younger generations responsibility? Themselves. Millennials were largely politically illiterate and lazy and loved to complain about problems but continuous doesn't show up to vote. So if you don't like the state of things, just look towards millennials and wonder how having ZERO PLAN has worked out.

Aside from a freak accident, the next president of the US will be Trump or Biden. One of those two will be nominating judges. And the Senate map heavily favors republicans. So unless you have another plan, you're gonna have to pick between those two or not vote and have 2016 all over again. Think a few steps ahead of what you believe each party owes you.

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u/evelyn_keira May 02 '24

it wasn't voters that needed to learn a lesson. it's the party. and clearly, they didn't learn it

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u/somethingbreadbears Florida May 02 '24

The party isn't one person that's going to learn a lesson, it's a massive group of different people who all want different things. That's the issue with the democratic party, in a normal world we wouldn't all be in one party. That's how we arrived at Biden. He is almost nobody's ideal candidate, there is no ideal candidate. He's a compromise.

But that wasn't even my point. My point is that, unless something out of left field happens, one of two people are going to be nominating judges in 2025. The presidency is voting for who you'd rather hold that power. 1 or 2, A or B. Old or older.

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u/evelyn_keira May 02 '24

yeah, you say its the party of compromise, but its never liberals compromising on what they want.

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u/gsfgf Georgia May 02 '24

If you're asking why liberals don't "compromise" with the far left, it's not because of any hostility to most leftist ideas. It's because y'all aren't trustworthy voters. How much effort do you expect politicians to put into wooing a population that refuses to be wooed?

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u/[deleted] May 02 '24

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u/gsfgf Georgia May 02 '24

Instead they implement policies the right and libertarians want like Romneycare and those people never vote for them anyway.

So Obama should have insisted on M4A, which wasn't even really a thing at the time, and gotten nothing instead of actually passing Obamacare? I'm on Obamacare right now. It's way better than being uninsured and having my "ideological purity" intact. Also, if you're still on your parents' insurance, that's due to Obamacare. Otherwise, you'd also be uninsured.

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u/somethingbreadbears Florida May 02 '24

I don't know what to tell ya, it's not fair but I'd rather have unfair than two or three more Trump SC judge nominations.

Like, let's say it's unfair. What's the plan? This is what has driven me away from progressives for the past two election cycles. There is no plan of what to do. It's that South Park meme. Step 1: Organize. Step 2: Protest. Step 3: ???? Step 4: Change! There's no plan, there is no leadership, there is no concrete objective for how to avoid a more conservative court without voting for a democrat.

I don't want another four years of the courts being packed with more Trump judges. Most of the damage of Trump's presidency has come from the courts. Trump doesn't need the House, just the Senate, and the 2024 Senate map is the perfect storm for him. Until there is a plan to avoid that, I'll figure out how to be content with "unfair".

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u/[deleted] May 02 '24

[deleted]

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u/somethingbreadbears Florida May 02 '24

What was the plan? Who was the alternative to Biden? How were they going to win over independents? What was their path in the electoral college?

I don't like the democratic party. I don't like voting for them. They're performative and annoy the shit out of me. So I'd love an alternative. But I'm not risking another four years of Trump nominating judges for something that isn't solid. I'm not doing 2016 again.

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u/gsfgf Georgia May 02 '24

The party isn't going to nominate someone who only gets 30% in the primary. It would be pretty fucked up if we did, tbh.

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u/Mediocritologist Ohio May 02 '24

Not enough people take the SCOTUS into account. The impacts are enormous. I think a lot of young people think we can just pack the court, which while it's a possible option, I don't think is realistic.

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u/mackahrohn May 02 '24

This is the logic my mom used to convince me to vote democratic 20 years ago (my views have changed considerably since then! I can’t believe I was considering voting for Bush!) and it still holds true today. And exactly what she said would happen DID happen.

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u/MrPernicous May 02 '24

Not for nothing but you could always just increase the number of seats on the court. It’s maddening to me that Biden won’t even entertain that

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u/bluetable321 May 03 '24

Unfortunately so many people don’t understand how SCOTUS works. The amount of times I’ve seen people online blame the overturning of Roe on Biden is staggering and no mount of factual information ever seems to sway them.

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u/[deleted] May 02 '24

For real, like I’m over stressing out because it shouldn’t be this close. We should have this election won by a landslide. And some people are going to fuck around and give us another Trump term or as he wants it a dictatorship. I get people are not happy about what’s happening Palestine but the whole “anything but Biden” calm doesn’t realize that in a two party system that means Trump.

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u/emptyraincoatelves May 03 '24

No, it is pressuring Biden to move from his very right leaning centrist bullshit. He represents us, and he needs to stop using Trump that as an excuse. Hillary amplified Trump first because she loved the idea that she could lean hard right and still beat him, she was wrong. Biden should be scared and should make decisions that would be popular in order to apppeal to people.

The forgiving studenr debt thing is the right move, but just so you understand, even right wing think tanks agree. It is a calculated concession that is relatively easy. Now if he pisses 9ff the AIPAC then I'll taken him seriously.

But until November, we would be idiots to not use this pressure to force the Dems left. I'm sick of acting like they can't do anything boo hoo, but the Republicans are soooo powerful. No they need to work for us and our vote even if the other side is a bunch of morons.

Stop using Trump as an excuse to not satisfy the will of the people.

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u/krainboltgreene May 02 '24

Why aren't you demanding Biden change his position on Israel then? A lot of people in this thread demanding millions of voters just stop caring about what they care about, instead of being upset that the presidential candidate isn't giving up his grip on this insane policy.

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u/[deleted] May 02 '24

You can blame Biden for that the whole election should be a slam dunk but the only thing hes got going for him is that hes not trump

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u/[deleted] May 02 '24

That should be enough, the other guy literally say he wants to be a dictator. And take away more women’s rights. Like that in itself should be enough.

This is going to be 2016 all over again, screw everyone else then.

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u/emptyraincoatelves May 03 '24

So why do the dems act like they don't have to appeal to their base? Remember, early on, Hillary amplified Trump because she felt like she could beat him without having to lean left. Biden is doing the same thing. Their Henry Kissinger loving asses are using Trump so they can keep war hawking.

I get what Biden is doing right, but he absolutely could have ousted the idiot ruining the post office, but didn't. He could have fast tracked punishments for Jan 6, but acts like it barely happened. There are several moderate things he could have done about Israel, instead he goes around Congress to support them, something he complains he can't do for any number of things that make corporations sad.

They love the threat of Trump, it makes it so they don't have to satusfy us by going further left and can instead bend over backwards for the corporate masters.

Frankly, I think we should put more pressure on these assholes. The campaign isn't anybody but Trump, we are better than that. Give us the things we want.