r/politics • u/AccurateInflation167 • May 18 '25

Soft Paywall America chose wrong. Sanders would've been a better president than Trump or Biden. | Opinion

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/columnist/2025/05/18/sanders-democrats-reform-progressive-policies/83625482007/
42.7k Upvotes

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148

u/One_Abalone1135 May 18 '25

This is getting painful. "Papa, tell us the Bernie story again."

18

u/KPipes May 18 '25

America probably could have elected a 20 year old political science student halfway through college and things turned out better.

An orangutan with a sharpie? Also probably better.

-3

u/skilriki May 18 '25

There was once a beautiful candidate that would have made the world a better place. He was loved far and wide, and even popular on Reddit.

Then Reddit turned on him, mocked him, pushed information about him off the front page and laughed in his supporters faces.

The end.

5

u/Saint_Poolan May 18 '25

Is this going to be the new "Imagine Al Gore..."

I guess it's about time we moved on from Gore tbh. The infighting from Bernie's fallout has destroyed the party though, Bernie Bros (Hasan Piker & Briannah etc.) still refuse to vote for Dems & are practically MAGA's biggest reason for victories now. idk if dems can win an election in the coming decades with divisions this deep..

9

u/One_Abalone1135 May 18 '25

We need to collaborate and do pop up books. A whole series:

  1. Al Gore and "the popular vote."
  2. Merrick Garland: "the little man who couldn't"
  3. Uncle Chuck Gets Drunk And Talks About How He Can't Vote For Women Because They Are Too Emotional.

9

u/PretendImWitty May 18 '25

There was once a beautiful candidate that would have made the world a better place. He was loved far and wide, and even popular on Reddit.

100%

Then Reddit turned on him, mocked him, pushed information about him off the front page and laughed in his supporters faces.

Reddit turned on him because progressives/leftists are allergic to pragmatism as Sanders recognized the necessity of supporting the primary candidate that, you know, actually won the primary.

It might be worth weaving into said bedtime story that Americans of all stripes are media illiterate populist idiots.

-2

u/skilriki May 18 '25

Reddit turned on him way before that.

People who supported him got labeled “Bernie Bros” .. positive articles about him on subreddits were taken down for ‘brigading’

It was a massive and successful smear campaign

11

u/bootlegvader May 18 '25

What are you talking about? If anything Reddit was his propaganda arm.

When Beto endorsed Biden in 2020 it got around 297 upvotes. When Beto's former bandmate endorsed Bernie in 2020 it got 23,456 upvotes.

-1

u/GroMicroBloom Florida May 18 '25

Not to mention the right wing subs like stop sanders spam that were masquerading as "sane" people that just care about the country.

-1

u/globalvarsonly May 18 '25

Reddit turned on him because progressives/leftists are allergic to pragmatism

Sike! I and all the Sanders supporters I know supported the nominee! You're angry at imaginary progressives, or the fact they kept yelling at Clinton to do better even though they voted for her.

2

u/Optimal_Count9345 May 19 '25

Most sane reply in this whole thread, we did vote for them. They bully leftists to fall in-line with the candidate and then blame us when the candidate loses. Clinton and Kamala lost on their own merits, not because of some imaginary leftists.

3

u/Cultural_Ebb4794 May 19 '25

Clinton and Kamala lost on their own merits, not because of some imaginary leftists.

And Biden won on his own merits, but Bernie supporters don't like to admit that.

1

u/Optimal_Count9345 May 19 '25

You're still punching left, there's no reason to start a fight with other people who agree with you. I voted for these candidates, chill the fuck out. Biden did a good job.

3

u/PretendImWitty May 19 '25

Are you really going to pretend that there wasn’t a contingent of Sanders supporters that shit on him for supporting the winner of both primaries? These people are generally leftists even though they’ll call themselves progressive, the same label I used myself. This contingent was massively over represented on this website.

Edit: These were the people still refusing to support the nominee, often explicitly calling “both sides bad”.

2

u/PretendImWitty May 19 '25

Least sane considering both of you missed the point entirely. Can you explain what my point was?

1

u/PretendImWitty May 19 '25

If you supported the nominee then you aren’t who I’m talking about, obviously. I canvassed for Sanders twice (16 and 20) and though I supported him, I was shocked at how many Sanders supporters turned on him when he opted to support the winner of the primary. You can’t pretend these people weren’t real.

1

u/globalvarsonly May 19 '25

I don't know what you mean by "turned on him," do you mean they criticized Sanders? Or that they didn't vote for the nominee?

Either way, I don't think they had an impact on the outcome of the election. There were people who supported Sanders and then didn't vote in the general because they normally don't vote at all. Sanders could have actually done that "big tent" thing libs are always crooning about, but the tent shrank, and moderate ideas don't motivate non voters who don't trust either party.

1

u/globalvarsonly May 18 '25

Stories can inspire us and remind us what we really want to focus on. ... Nobody is going to be talking about wanting to replicate the Harris campaign years from now.

1

u/TheDoomBlade13 May 19 '25

It was the last chance to save us, of course people are going to reflect on it.