This article at Jacobin explains how the "liberal" side of corporate media wants to shut down, avoid, ignore, and miss anything that could be seen as negative for Biden. This represents delusional thinking on the part of DNC-supporters, Biden supporters, anti-Bernie people, and corporate media "liberals." The article makes clear the Republican and right wing media apparatuses, and their supporters, are already keeping track of Biden's brain farts and those instances where Biden outright lies. And what the article doesn't make clear enough for me is that Bernie is not calling out Biden's lies, and doesn't make fun of Biden's brain farts. Bernie stays within policy disagreements he has with Biden, who he consistently calls, quite honestly, his friend. He is, in fact, friendly with Biden over the years. And it is there, where some lefties and Saagar Enjeti over at The Hill: Rising, want Bernie to behave akin to the way Trump personally and viciously attacked his primary opponents in 2016--and still behaves in that insolent manner with reporters.
The point of the article is we need to cut off RIGHT NOW the bullshit that Bernie staying in the race hurts Democratic Party prospects for the fall election against Trump. We need to cut off RIGHT NOW the line that Bernie is selfish, when he stands for a movement and a set of policy ideas Biden continues to reject--unlike when Elizabeth Warren refused to line up with the progressive movement before Super Tuesday when her campaign was the walking dead. Remember how the type of people now calling for Bernie's withdrawal were often the same saying, two months ago, it was so terrible to demand Warren quit the race, as if it was sexist to even say she should quit the race?
Bernie supporters' demand that Bernie continue to stay in the race, continue to speak up for the important policy issues that need to be addressed, and yes, be willing to speak about Biden's vulnerabilities, is not malicious. It is, again, not undermining the Democrats' chances against Trump. In the 2016 primary, Bernie did not attack Hillary Clinton about her email scandal, yet that is what the Republicans, and the more conservative and right wing sides of the corporate media, hammered her with throughout the summer and fall election of 2016--which reached a frenzy when, days before the election, James Comey, then head of the Obama administration's FBI, released a report that sounded like re-opening the government's investigation into her emails. And no matter how many times we note how more Democratic Party Bernie primary supporters voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016 than Hillary Clinton primary supporters voting for Obama in 2008, the lies continue from MSNBC and CNN talking heads, and their fans in social media, about Bernie and his voters costing Clinton the election.
Bernie supporters' demand that Bernie continue to stay in the race, continue to speak up for the important policy issues that need to be addressed, and yes, be willing to speak about Biden's vulnerabilities, is not malicious. It is, again, not undermining the Democrats' chances against Trump. In the 2016 primary, Bernie did not attack Hillary Clinton about her email scandal, yet that is what the Republicans, and the more conservative and right wing sides of the corporate media, hammered her with throughout the summer and fall election of 2016--which reached a frenzy when, days before the election, James Comey, then head of the Obama administration's FBI, released a report that sounded like re-opening the government's investigation into her emails. And no matter how many times we note how more Democratic Party Bernie primary supporters voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016 than Hillary Clinton primary supporters voting for Obama in 2008, the lies continue from MSNBC and CNN talking heads, and their fans in social media, about Bernie and his voters costing Clinton the election.
So, let's stand tall RIGHT NOW, and tell these people, like the odious and ridiculous Whoppi Goldberg, to stop clutching their pearls about Bernie staying in, and worrying about talking up any information that highlights Biden's vulnerabilities. Biden is a vulnerable candidate in substantive and personal ways Bernie is not. Yes, I get that Bernie's vulnerability is more about discomfort among the wealthier Democratic Party base in the suburbs. However, if Democratic oriented suburban types really believe Trump is the existential enemy corporate media has taught them to believe, above all other existential issues (climate, systemic inequality, medical, and student debt), then, as Republican suburbanites, who felt Trump was grotesque, voted for Trump in 2016, more-than-sufficient-Democratic-oriented suburbanites will vote for Bernie over Trump in 2020. And maybe, if corporate media does not stand in the way too much, there will be a more enthusiastic and higher turnout among the younger voters, people of color, particularly Latinos, and others who do not normally vote--which will fuel a sweeping Democratic Party victory.
The corporate media continues to push the belief the primary is over, and Biden is the nominee. Yet, Biden keeps slipping and sliding through interviews and unwatched podcasts, and avoids showing any true leadership--all while the virus crisis makes the political landscape, and our very lives, fluid. Yes, the current delegate numbers do not favor Bernie. I get that. But to give up, when there are substantive differences between Bernie's and Biden's agendas is self-defeating for anyone who supports Bernie's policies and Bernie's worldview.
Biden supporters, and those who still believe in the corporate media and the DNC, are delusional in closing their eyes and sticking their fingers in their ears about Biden, and repeating to themselves, "Everything will be okay if you Bernie supporters just shut up already! Biden is the most electable candidate!" Yeah, sure, I get the latest FoxNews poll of Biden up by nine points over Trump. However, if anyone thinks that will hold when the barrage of anti-Biden ads come, using the wealth of information Trump and the Republicans have amassed from the recent comments and gaffes from Biden, and they then reiterate Biden's NAFTA and corporate trade deal support, his anti-consumer bankruptcy law changes he pushed through, and wishy-washy abortion record, we may still see a Biden national popular vote victory, but there will be an Electoral College loss, courtesy of the Rust Belt--Hillary Clinton's graveyard in 2016. Let's also remember a majority of delegates Biden has secured thus far come more from the Confederacy States, where no Democrat, not even Sanders, is going to win against a Republican, and certainly not an incumbent, Trump.
And really, folks. If you don't believe me Biden is not the most electable, and think he appeals to "moderate Republicans," just talk with your friends who style themselves "moderate Republicans." I have yet to see or meet one willing to vote for Biden. And, if you find one or two who will, that fact is overwhelmed by the lack of enthusiasm for Biden among Democratic Party voters, who appear resigned, through corporate media propaganda, that Biden is to be the nominee. I said it months ago, and say it again: Democratic Party voters must wean themselves from their trust in corporate media talking heads, and that includes pampered yutzes such as Whoppi Goldberg. When it comes to Whoppi, it is fairly easy to imagine what Fontaine would have said to Whoppi and her rich person's conventional wisdom: "I say haaay! What's which your rich bitch shit, anyway?" Remember, that is Fontaine, not me, talking. We know Fontaine. Whoppi, however, has long forgotten.
And really, folks. If you don't believe me Biden is not the most electable, and think he appeals to "moderate Republicans," just talk with your friends who style themselves "moderate Republicans." I have yet to see or meet one willing to vote for Biden. And, if you find one or two who will, that fact is overwhelmed by the lack of enthusiasm for Biden among Democratic Party voters, who appear resigned, through corporate media propaganda, that Biden is to be the nominee. I said it months ago, and say it again: Democratic Party voters must wean themselves from their trust in corporate media talking heads, and that includes pampered yutzes such as Whoppi Goldberg. When it comes to Whoppi, it is fairly easy to imagine what Fontaine would have said to Whoppi and her rich person's conventional wisdom: "I say haaay! What's which your rich bitch shit, anyway?" Remember, that is Fontaine, not me, talking. We know Fontaine. Whoppi, however, has long forgotten.
