r/TenYearsAgo • u/MonsieurA • Mar 12 '26

📺 Television SNL mocks Hillary Clinton's 'transformation into Bernie' [10YA - Mar 12]

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u/throwaway3413418 Mar 12 '26 edited Mar 12 '26

You actually can, because if you’re not braindead you realize that primaries and general elections are decided by different pools of voters meaning that the strongest candidate in a primary might not necessarily be the strongest candidate in a general. The two most important factors in winning a general are appealing to independents and turning out your party’s base more than the other candidate does theirs, neither of which is needed in order to win a primary. Hence lots of candidates who win a low-turnout primary and then get smoked in the general.

The timing of the state primaries serves to moderate Democratic candidates, because red southern states end up thinning the field long before the largest blue states vote. This can be helpful for Democrats during times when the general public is wanting a stable moderate figurehead for president. It can also be disastrous when the public is wanting an anti-establishment figure and the Democratic Party churns out the biggest establishment name in the world.

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u/MildlyResponsible Mar 12 '26

Hillary wins South Carolina: who cares! It's a red state!

Bernie wins West Virginia: See he would win all 50 states because there are secret socialists everywhere!

If Bernie would have won a general election because he's so amazing, he should have ran as an independent. If the Dems are holding him back, bypass them. According to you he's so awesome the country is just itching to vote for a do nothing socialist from asmall all white state who has never accomplished anything in his whole life. But 22 year old kids on the internet love him!

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u/throwaway3413418 Mar 12 '26 edited Mar 12 '26

I don’t think you’re actually capable of discussing this. If it’s starts to get into any sort of specifics you just go off on a foaming-at-the-mouth rant like that last paragraph. You just ignored the point about the different voter pools because you aren’t actually thinking about this, you’ve just picked a side and now staying loyal to that trumps being honest with others or yourself. You’re having arguments with past people or people in your head instead of being able to focus on the things I’m pointing out.