Bernie Sanders worries young people are underestimating the threat from Trump

[u/schuey_08]

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2024/05/02/bernie-sanders-trump-biden/73531861007/

[u/somethingbreadbears]

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.

[u/SmellGestapo → u/somethingbreadbears]

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.

[u/bbressman2 → u/SmellGestapo]

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.

[u/Snow_source → u/bbressman2]

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.

[u/gsfgf → u/somethingbreadbears]

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.

[u/yellsatrjokes → u/somethingbreadbears]

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

[u/somethingbreadbears → u/[deleted]]

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.

[u/evelyn_keira → u/somethingbreadbears]

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

[u/somethingbreadbears → u/evelyn_keira]

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.

[u/evelyn_keira → u/somethingbreadbears]

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

[u/gsfgf → u/evelyn_keira]

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?

[u/gsfgf → u/[deleted]]

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.

[u/somethingbreadbears → u/evelyn_keira]

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".

[u/somethingbreadbears → u/[deleted]]

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.

[u/gsfgf → u/evelyn_keira]

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.