Bernie Sanders urges Dems to 'stop the bickering' and back Biden

I think most Dems, especially those who are highly politically engaged and closely follow election news, are going to vote blue no matter who. So, I think Bernie is preaching to the choir here. I think the Dems who are worried about Biden are worried he doesn't have enough support among independents, and they feel independents are much less likely to just vote for the Democrat, no matter who it is.
Now, could just any candidate replace Biden and automatically win back any of the independents he is believed to have lost? I don't know. A lot of Dems seem to think that just about any other candidate would do better than Biden among independents right now, but I'm not so sure.
- Remember, Bernie Sanders did FORTY TWO events for Hillary after she was the chosen Dem candidate. More events than even she did for her own campaign!
  Then she had this to say about Bernie in her Hulu doc: https://x.com/bobby/status/1236349383890931713
  
  Hillary, much like Trump, is a symptom of what is wrong with the Democrats. "It was her turn" spat in the face of people who were excited about a progressive candidate and made the whole primary a sham.
  She was a terrible candidate. She was a bitter pill that many independents said "enough is enough" and voted third party or not voted at all.
  I am deeply concerned that as the Republicans move more toward fascism, the left are not going to have great candidates. We're going to get established, wealthy-class friendly candidates who are willing to throw crumbs at the working class. They'll bitch and moan about how they are losing voters, never looking at themselves, never realizing that we are literally voting to just survive.
  This election will be just like 2020. We aren't voting for Biden. We're voting against fascism.
  And I'm personally getting fucking tired of Democrats seeing that as a win.
  
  What an ungrateful cunt. I don't want to be in hell with that removed.
  
  Progressives need to learn this lesson: liberals will always shift the blame.
  
  Oh, now I understand. She's like, a real housewife of DC.
  
  Hillary "I believe marriage is between a man and a woman" Clinton. Yeah. Keep on satisfying those poor, misguided progressives.
  
  "Dont like the choices? Get over yourselves"
  Hillary like 6 months ago
- I think the other concern is voter turnout/enthusiasm. The last presidential election had extremely high turnout. Even if voters (in swing states) don't switch candidates but opt to stay home instead that could translate into a significant electoral problem too.
  
  You do have a point that turn out Is important, but a potential replacement candidate isn't guaranteed to increase turn out, they could be worse. And they would only have 4 months to try to fix things, which isn't a lot of time.
- I think you might be missing the point though.
  Those highly politically engaged Dem voters who will vote blue no matter who are bickering about whether Biden is the right choice, and the swing voters are paying attention.
  To an undecided voter, it doesn't inspire much confident to see that Biden's own supporters don't think he can do the job.
  The bickering amongst those who will vote blue anyway is costing the votes from the undecideds that Biden so desperately needs.

This Bernie guy seems pretty energetic and popular... why not put him on the ballot?
- I'd definitely do a double take. A good political decision? In the USA?
- Let's see, just to name a few: openly against civil gun ownership, openly against expensive private healthcare, openly against zionism and Israel's occupation of Gaza. This pisses off a lot of very powerful people, so probably not gonna happen

Or stop bickering and replace him ASAP.
But really, I don't think this is bickering. I think it's an intentionally slow drip of news to get people more receptive to the idea of replacing him with Kamala, so that it's not a bomb dropping all of a sudden, which would likely freak out a bunch of voters and cause them to lose votes. Boil the frog slowly and there's less of a splash.
- Well honestly it’s going to be a splash either way and the sooner they replace him, the better. Kamala is going to need more time to cook with and the sooner she can get out there, the sooner she can challenge Trump to a debate and flip this country around.
- I think this is the exact idea that Bernie is warning against.

Wishful thinking from Bernie. For fucks sake:
politics is showmanship, not an intellectual endeavor.
I fucking hate that, but it is the immutable truth.
You NEED a charismatic leader to win. Biden needs to fuck off.
I will ALWAYS cast my vote to most effectively suppress the republican traitor filth. But Biden’s a goner.
- Exactly. I cannot fucking believe he can say with a straight face that it's not an entertainment contest. It's the biggest American Idol contest there is and sure as shit isn't a job interview.
- It seems like the establishment is hell bent on making the choice Biden or Harris and Harris might be the only person less likely to win.
- I will ALWAYS cast my vote to most effectively suppress the republican traitor filth.
  And so you're going to vote for Biden, yes?
  
  Yes. I think he should fuck off, but I’ll vote for him. I think he’d lose. I hope to be wrong.
- I will ALWAYS cast my vote to most effectively suppress the republican traitor filth. But Biden’s a goner.
  If by goner, you mean you’re not voting for him- then this is contradictory.
  
  I will vote D no matter what.
- Incorrect.
  You are the reason conservatives win elections, because you tell Democrats not to vote for Gore because he's boring or Hillary because she's ill, or Biden because he's old.
  None of these irrelevant insults are stopping these people from doing their job.
  
  Fuck off. I voted Gore and Hillary. You’re not helping the situation by burying your head in the sand.

Oh, haha, first time trying to unify the left, huh?
- He's just done with our shenanigans
- Italians:

Drumpf is a living survivor martyr. Nothing is now gonna hold anything back. Every thing is now going to hit the fan.
- Honestly second thing I thought of when I saw it. First was that it was staged.

- What happened to letting the voters decide?
  "Everyone needs to get out and vote!"
  voters start bickering over who to vote for
  "NOT LIKE THAT!"
  If the man is too old, OK, but we all knew his age a year ago.
  Which is why its crazy he didn't have any kind of primary contender. Hell, its crazy he didn't just wrap this at one term and pass the torch to any of a number of popular and highly competent governors.

Rare case of disagreeing with you, Bernie.
- I have an unpopular opinion. Swapping candidates a couple months from election will look really disorganized and even weaker than keeping him. Especially to swing voters. And it’ll be rushed. I doubt the replacement will be well known, so you expect me to get to know, learn who they are and develop a platform in a couple months? I think they’d lose too.
  It’s too late. The spineless centrists controlling the party waffled too long and I bet they cost the election again. Just like in 2016. I’m really disappointed in the Democratic Party and how it’s condensed it’s power more towards the top and quite frankly, am tired of their muted response to things like project 2025 until months before the election. It’s been around since. Before trump was elected, but without a catchy name. I passed around the leaked documents on it in 2017.
  I’m just reminded of ‘Baby I’m an Anarchist’ by Against me! Lately. I’m not an Anarchist, but I feel the lyrics about the my fellow spineless liberals
  
  Swapping candidates would look really, really bad.... unless he comes up and says "I had a talk with my doctor, he says I've developed a chronic condition that I didn't know about past year. I can't do it anymore, but here, vote for my VP, who you all already voted for once anyway, and would take over anyway if this thing kills me".
  He can leave out that the chronic condition is just notgonnawinatall, and his doctor is also his pollster.
  
  They are disorganized and always will be because they are not a hegemon like the Republicans.
  
  I think that's why they're floating it now. They're getting people primed to accept someone as the replacement that they already recognize. (My money is on Kamala Harris.)
  
  Other countries have their entire election cycles in a few months. It's a joke to think it's too late for Biden to drop out.
- He understands the two party system we're left with. If we don't back the democratic candidate we will be fucked by the 30% of the population that wants Cheeto Messiah in the white house.
- Yep. But let's explore this further under the hood.
  Nobody of the progressive caucus can break ranks lest that be used against the party as a wedge-drive issue by operatives later, whether Biden stays in or not.
  Bernie was essentially promised a high level committee position if he traded falling in line with Biden. This his returning of the favor.
  Calls for Biden to step down will be completely ineffective from the progressive coalition anyway. Biden is a centrist and doesn't hold much respect for them. The people who matter are the likes of Clyburn and Pelosi.

A thought I haven’t seen offered much, but could give Biden an ego-soothing role instead of being put out to political pasture - a Harris:Biden ticket.
She gets to be the energetic go-getter at the front (that the Maga hate-oil salesmen are shrieking about atm) while Biden can play the ‘elder statesman’ role of advice and experience to Kamala instead of running himself. You defuse a lot of the competency/decline arguments against Biden, and gird against one of Harris’s biggest threats - her lack of international experience.
Kamala is not a political unknown, but Biden is losing/equal right now to Trump with the DNC money & publicity machine working for him the last eight years. I’d argue Harris has a better shot if those efforts are swung her way. I don’t like Harris, but needn’t convince me to vote team blue - it’s the ~9% undecided we need to convince.
- I mean, this isn't an awful idea...
  The real world logistics probably make this more complicated than implied, but I don't mind the intent.
  
  It's not a good idea because Kamala is pretty unpopular.
  She comes off as out of touch and condescending, just like another certain candidate that lost to Trump in 2016.

I'm with him 100% on the first bit - at this point, the single most important thing the Dems have to do is stop bickering.
As for the rest, at this point I don't even much care. I can see arguments both for and against in both directions - either choice is going to involve some risk but either choice can be made to succeed.
So the important thing, and really the ONLY important thing, is to pick one and run with it. Stop with the dilly-dallying and the second-guessing and the bitching and moaning and hand-wringing and make a choice and stick with it, so we can focus ALL of our attention on pounding those fucking fascist traitors' dicks into the dirt.

Bernie or bust!

I agree. The asked. Biden responded. Move on. The ticket has a vp. Its fine.

Right his whole life, correct here too.
- He also told supporters to vote for Hillary in 2016 and Biden in 2020. But... he does tell voters to make up their own decision
  
  I agree with all three sentiments.
  
  And he was right both times.

Fucking thank you, Bernie. Glad someone with a spine said it.

Kamala - Bernie. Let it happen you fucks!
- No, biden then bernie. Its the only way bernie would be president

The opinion piece: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/13/opinion/joe-biden-president.html

Does Bernie want to lose?

It’s nice to see the majority of the democrats are reasonable people and will continue backing Biden.
- tbh, I don’t think reasonable people would think an 80yr old is the best fit to run a country. Edit: Especially after publicly shitting the bed on multiple occasions
  
  These are reasonable people who at this point are faced with a choice between that 80 year old and Trump.
  The Democrats could have run someone else, should have run someone else, didn't run someone else. So those are now the two options.
  
  Isn’t he 81?
  
  But a 78 year old is?

Yesss, that's satisfying.
- Satisfying to hear Democrats throw yet again another election?
  
  Not a big history guy, are you?

All the socialist’s heads just exploded.
- No, we left this lib behind a long time ago.
  We're all China-stans now.
  
  Aaaaaand that’s why no one takes your seriously.
  
  The US might be a capitalist, colonialist country sprinkled with panderings of faux-socialism and heading towards fascism, but I would hardly call that an improvement over another capitalist-in-all-but-name, fascist, colonialist country with eroded communist foundations.
  Whatever atrocities you believe the US is committing in terms of subjugating and exploiting poorer countries and its own working class, China is doing the same thing but only with a bit more subtlety.

politics is showmanship, not an intellectual endeavor.