Weren’t many here and Hillary Clinton herself calling Tulsi a russian asset and not in jest? (Tulsi sucks for a lot of reasons so I’m not using this example to defend her) I’m not sure about that.
Pete gets harsh treatment because he is so emblematic of what is wrong with the Democratic party. And he is 37 or whatever. So he is choosing this path for himself either because he think it gives him the best chance to win or because he is so blind he can’t see the reality of the current state of the US.
Is it correct that it will help Sanders if people vote for him instead of Warren? I mean, yeah.
It might matter less than you think, though, because of the 15% viability threshold. If at your caucus location, less than 15% of people vote for your candidate, you get to switch your support to a “viable” candidate who polled more than 15%. So in any location where Warren polls under 15%, anyone willing to switch to Bernie will get a chance to do so anyway - and Warren is polling under 15% statewide. That said, if supporters switching from Warren to Sanders tip her under the 15% threshold in certain locations, that’s huge for Sanders.
Weirdly, we kind of want a decent showing from Buttigieg, because we want him over the 15% threshold in most locations, as his supporters tend to break for Biden.
Yeah I mean more specifically, it seems like anyone whose order of preference is Warren > Bernie > Anyone who isn’t Biden could most effectively make their vote count by voting strategically for Buttigieg… ie helping to keep Pete above the 15% mark and increasing the chances of other Warren voters getting to switch to Bernie
Nathan J Robinson has spent the past 2 years trying to point out how Warren and Sanders are such different candidates (with an emphasis on disparaging Warren as an establishment plant) so he can fuck right off with his theory that Sanders should ldo just absorb all of Warren’s votes now.
As a Bernie supporter I think this is a fair point.
I also think whoever is in 2nd should bow out asap but it’s my understanding that the Bernie/Warren support doesn’t overlap as much as it once did or should.
First of all, my disagreement with NJR is in his characterization of Warren and his preference for Bernie. We are in agreement that they’re different candidates. I’ve said that more than anyone ITF. Second of all, I do think Bernie should absorb Warren’s votes but only because she’s lost too much support and Bernie is my 2nd choice. That’s a personal preference though. I wouldn’t be presumptuous enough to direct everyone else to do the same and I would recognize that directing others to strategically vote without consideration for their own preferences is not a realistic thing that can be organized anyway (side note: There’s a good chance NJR also recognizes this and his tweet was intended less as a call to action than a self fellating validation of his work to make Bernie the sole choice for progressives, so telling him to fuck off is wholly appropriate). Third of all, if there is a time for Warren voters to jump ship it’s not before the first vote is cast in Iowa.
And finally, if you’re going to strip away all complexity from a scenario to reduce the problem into a simple logic exercise, structuring your argument into “if A then B, ~A therefore ~B” is a well known logical fallacy.
I’d guess many (or most) of Warren’s support that had Bernie as their second choice has already migrated to Bernie in the last few weeks. It’s a very bad assumption that Bernie’s just going to absorb her remaining support. And I think it’s a bit early to throw Warren in the unviable camp.
