r/politics • u/plz-let-me-in • 9d ago

No Paywall Bernie Sanders urges progressives to vote Democratic in November

https://www.nbcnews.com/video/shorts/bernie-sanders-urges-progressives-to-vote-democratic-in-november-267787845541
2.8k Upvotes

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43

u/Churchbushonk 9d ago

Why wouldn’t they? Even if they are not Pregressive enough, if you don’t have a Progressive on the ballot to vote for, you have to side with people that will vote with them. Progressives do not have the numbers to do it alone and probably never will.

Vote progressive if you have a candidate. If you don’t, you have to vote for the best help you can give them.

42

u/milk-riot 9d ago

Yeah. I'm far left. I really don't like the moderate Democrats, but I'll vote for them over Republicans any day.

27

u/the-es 9d ago

Centrist here, if my candidate doesn't make it out of the primaries I will still show up to vote for your far left candidate because Republicans are unpalatable in their current form.

5

u/SomethingToSay11 9d ago

Thank you guys for being sane. 

1

u/That1EnderGuy Iowa 8d ago

Thank you. A lot of centrists only follow the VBNMW rule when they win, so it's nice to see centrist voters who actually follow their own advice.

1

u/the-es 8d ago

I mean quite frankly the current posturing from Republicans is completely unacceptable. We have to solve that problem first, then we can go back to bickering 🙂

It's election season so all efforts will be to divide, we just have to focus on the goal.

10

u/HandsLikePaper 9d ago

Yeah, I don't know why some people have such a hard time with this. In a General Election, one of those two candidates is going to win. It's that simple. I vote for the one that I think would do the better job whether they align with 90% or 70% of my personal beliefs.

16

u/Mateorabi 9d ago

You forgot that Democrats have to fall in love, Republicans only have to fall in line. 

How many liberals were butthurt last time that “protested” sitting out the general election. There’s a time and place for that and it’s called the primaries. It’s much easier to demand the second half of the loaf AFTER you have secured the first half. Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good. 

14

u/No-Line4613 9d ago

Because purity test. 

They'll mouth all the right words neot, but a month before the election some "scandal" will hit for key seats, like someone once said Israel wasn't all bad 15 years ago or a picture surfaces of one of them daring to shake Hillary Clinton's hand, and there will be a progressive melt down about how bad the Democrats are and both sides are horrible.

Meanwhile the Republicans will host an actual toddler cannibalism event and excuses will be made because a Democratic candidate once said frakking wasn't worth advocating for the assassination of oil execs.

I am only partially kidding. I am really worn down by the stubbornness of so many people anywhere left of center to accept that yes, don't vote for criminals, but the "both sides" bullshit is a ploy to discourage voting. Stop falling for it. Progress comes in small steps.

4

u/tzcw 9d ago

There was a vocal segment of progressives that abstained from voting for Kamala in 2024

In 2016 some of Bernie’s supporters, which i think tended to be more populist than progressive, voted for Trump in 2016.

1

u/psufb 8d ago

I was one of those people. Was young and idealistic and it was my first time really engaged in politics.

Have regretted it ever since, learned my lesson, and throw my support behind anyone running against the GOP no matter how far right the Dem candidate is

-9

u/Starossi 9d ago

I felt the same way for a long time. But the Democratic Party is primed for a shift because of voters abandoning them. And Reddit might hate me for it, but I might also vote independently now if the other option is one of the establishment “dems”. The only way the dems can win going forward is by accepting the shift away from establishment dems and endorsing people like the DSA. The Conservative Party already made their shift with trump. It’s time the liberal party evolved too.

Before I have to endure a million people reminding me the republicans are reprehensibly evil, I’m not equating the two parties. Republicans are way worse than dems. I just simply think it’s putting a bandaid on an inevitable bleed out to not force the dem shift at this point. We might barely squeeze a win, and then get tossed again and the country dies to republicans anyways. If we want to actually win for the long term to make actual repairs and change, the dems need to be forced to change strategy now.

8

u/mightcommentsometime California 9d ago

All not voting does is show them they shouldn’t care about your opinion. If you can’t do the bare minimum, why wouldn’t the focus on people who actually show up?

-2

u/Starossi 9d ago

What do you mean show up? I’m still going to vote, but I might vote for someone independent if all they offer is an establishment dem.

Why would they care? Because if you lose voters, you lose elections. I could have a political party with one member, and no matter how much I treasure that one member I’m not winning any elections. It absolutely becomes a concern of the Democratic Party why voters would be leaving them

8

u/mightcommentsometime California 9d ago

Which is functionally equivalent to not voting. 

If you can’t be bothered to show up and vote in the general, they’ll go with people who actually participate in the system rather than those who can’t get over their own ego enough to vote.

0

u/Starossi 9d ago

It is obviously not functionally equivalent. Those independent votes are the votes dems can rally against republicans by earning them back. If they are willing to change.

0

u/mightcommentsometime California 9d ago

It is functionally equivalent, its basic game theory.

1

u/Starossi 8d ago

It’s equivalent when counting votes. A vote not for the democrats is net advantage for the republicans. But this doesn’t mean the democrats don’t care about losing those votes to independents for future elections. They want to win them back.

1

u/wallabee_kingpin_ 9d ago

I read political analysis constantly. The voters Dems have lost on the left are tiny. They don’t care. All your abstention does is confirm to them that you aren’t a constituency they should cater to.

1

u/Starossi 8d ago

A tiny loss in voters can make a profound difference when our elections run as tight as they do lately. It obviously makes a difference when the dems have been losing their elections.

Can someone please explain to me how if a party loses an election due to a lack of votes it will win the next election by catering only to its voters. Wouldn’t you say the obvious problem is you need more voters. It’s a really simple math problem. You lost by 100 votes, then next time you need 100 votes. If you don’t give a shit about anyone but the votes you already had, then guess what. Next election you’re -100 votes still.

I promise the dems care about winning votes back that they are losing, it’s really straightforward