Rage, rage against the dying of the Bern. Photo: Paul Sancya/AP/Shutterstock Over the past week, Bernie Sanders’s odds of winning the Democratic primary have collapsed — even as the case for his nomination has become sturdier than ever before.
All of which is a real shame, since tapping Biden to preside over our nation’s coming economic and epidemiological challenges would likely be to “let a good crisis go to waste.” In my own view, the case for believing that Joe Biden is significantly more “electable” than Bernie Sanders has never been strong. For most of this year, the two candidates have been performing roughly as well against Trump in both public and internal polls, while boasting similar modestly negative approval ratings among the general public .
The second, related premise is that external conditions shaping the 2020 general election would be sufficiently unremarkable as to render the “quality” of the Democratic nominee highly salient. As Chait concedes, the same political science consensus he cites to establish the electoral hazards of ideological “extremism” also holds that the “quality of a candidate is not the only, or even the main, determinate of election outcomes,” with background economic conditions being far more decisive.
One unstated premise of Chait’s case against Sanders was that the senator’s nomination would be all political risk and no substantive reward, even from the perspective of his socialist supporters. After all, the bounds of legislative possibility in 2021 will be set by Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, not Joe Biden or Bernie Sanders. And on most domestic issues, the former vice president’s stated position is to the left of the median Democratic senator’s.
And it is hard to believe that — if Joe Biden enters the Oval Office next year with Corporate America still on its back — that the former “Senator from MBNA” will exploit the opportunity to its fullest. Especially when some of his top advisers are reportedly pushing for him to let J.P. Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon or Bank of America vice chairman Anne Finucane lead the Treasury department, and Michael Bloomberg command the World Bank.
EricLevitz It’s unbelievable to me that seemingly smart people seem to believe that voters pass legislation. Has no one noticed the gun control debate. Most bills can’t even make it to the floor let alone pass. The idea the Bernie’s policies would have more likelihood to pass is absurd.
Just imagine the difference between a Sanders admin stimulus package (debt forgiveness, GND investment, new housing) and a Biden one (we have no idea, but with how much outside pressure and how little scrutiny those fights face, not unlikely more corporate bailouts like 2009)!
EricLevitz Oh hell no
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