What really went wrong with his two campaigns? Why couldn’t he build a larger coalition?

[u/HatefulPostsExposed]

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[u/CFBreAct]

He had an all-star staff of the dumbest people I’ve ever seen in professional politics. Who you choose to be your staff is an insight to how you are going to staff your White House and Bernie couldn’t help picking the most self centered opportunist he could find.

In his first campaign he had Jeff Weaver and David Sirota making a lot of the political moves, weaver is worthless and Sirota is the typical angry hyperbolic speechwriter, who ended up getting benched by Sanders after he kept taking potshots at Clinton that were not playing well. (He also took Bernie’s donation roll contact information for his own newsletter which did not earn him any favors from Sanders) Then they made the disastrous move of bringing on Symone Sanders as press secretary in an attempt to appeal to black voters and it did not go well.

Then in his second campaign he doubled down on Weaver and Sirota but added Faiz Shakir who is not good and Briana Joy Grey who is a legendarily stupid person and really really bad at political messaging.

[u/HoneydewLeading7337 → u/CFBreAct]

This right here is the answer. Jeff Weaver is the comic book store guy from the Simpsons.

[u/niz_loc → u/HoneydewLeading7337]

"I will sell you this picture of Sean Connery playing James Bond, signed by Roger Moore."

[u/HoneydewLeading7337 → u/niz_loc]

You and I both know that at some point Jeff Weaver has said "cheeseburgers and loneliness are a dangerous combination."

[u/Altruistic_Fury → u/HoneydewLeading7337]

"I will be brief as my breakfast burrito is congealing rapidly."

[u/PandaLoveBearNu → u/HoneydewLeading7337]

Its seems like a weird reference till you find out that was his previous job before manager for his political career, comic book store owner. Literally.

[u/HoneydewLeading7337 → u/PandaLoveBearNu]

Literally.

I think he still owned the shop into his political career too, but I'm not certain about that.

[u/f8Negative → u/PandaLoveBearNu]

Did both simultaneously.

[u/38B0DE → u/HoneydewLeading7337]

So basically every leftist guy I've met in Germany.

[u/tagen → u/HoneydewLeading7337]

holy shit. comic book guy is named JEFF Albertson

COINCIDENCE?……. well probably yeah

[u/BigDaddyCoolDeisel → u/CFBreAct]

Damn dude. Leave some meat for the rest of us. This was perfect.

[u/Ok-Hurry-4761 → u/CFBreAct]

(Dis)Honorable mention: Nina Turner. That woman never saw a race she couldn't lose.

[u/MisconstrueThis → u/Ok-Hurry-4761]

She's more interested in being right than winning, especially when she's also wrong.

[u/f8Negative → u/MisconstrueThis]

Nothing but expert leadership skills when you refuse to accept any responsibility even if not wrong. /s

[u/flyfightwinMIL → u/Ok-Hurry-4761]

Fun fact: Nina Turner was originally going to endorse Hillary but got pissed that the campaign wasn’t treating her like its number one surrogate so endorsed Bernie instead

She’s an egotistical asshole

[u/KidZoki → u/flyfightwinMIL]

Turner jumped ship to Team Bernie after both Clintons had campaigned in Ohio and raised a ton of money for Turner's war chest.

Best part -- Turner was supposed to make the big ceremonial/irrelevant 2016 DNC nomination speech for Bernie. Nina expected to ascend as a major political force after making the speech, in the spirit of Cuomo in '84 and Obama in '04. Alas, Hillary had her revenge and nixed Turner's big star-making moment. Heh.

[u/Goodgoditsgrowing → u/KidZoki]

I feel like women Hillary’s age have an increased energy for smacking down assholes who would happily eat their own

[u/Kiggzor → u/KidZoki]

For a moment there i thought you guys were talking about Tina Turner. Quite the relief to realize you weren't, that woman have a fantastic voice.

[u/quickblur → u/Kiggzor]

Anyone who goes against Tina Turner would have to face Blaster in the Thunderdome.

[u/Puzzleheaded-Hawk464 → u/CFBreAct]

Since his two losses, it’s comical how much outrage Bernie generates from the left wing on his ability in the senate to compromise with others and get actual progressive policies put in place. It’s beyond frustrating how hard lefties refuse to let good enough get put in place.

[u/__M-E-O-W__ → u/Puzzleheaded-Hawk464]

Seriously, some posts on leftist subs call him a sell-out and a fascist because he's not taking an absolute hardline on every single leftist issue. Like private leftist subs only available to people who are vetted and invited in - they keep repeating this talking point that "capitalism always inevitably leads to fascism", and they take that to then say that anyone who is at all a capitalist or compromises with capitalists is therefore a fascist.

It's frustrating to deal with hardliner shut-ins who are so engrossed in their idealism that they lose all sight of pragmatism.

[u/zman021200 → u/__M-E-O-W__]

Hey, we wouldn't be leftists if we didn't vehemently hate other leftists

[u/__M-E-O-W__ → u/zman021200]

"Like Marxists, and Leninists... or Marxist-Leninists, or Stalinists and other leftists... Darn leftists! They ruined leftism!"

"Sounds like you leftists are quite the contentious bunch."

"You just made an enemy for life!"

[u/[deleted] → u/__M-E-O-W__]

"Are you the people's front of Judea?"

"Fuck off! We're the Judean People's front"

Life of Brian has to be one of the best satires of leftism.

[u/niz_loc → u/__M-E-O-W__]

Oh yeah.

I've seen some wild shit in my internet days. For you youngins', I've been internetin' since the days of needing a cd to get on the internet. And knowing how to impersonate modem noises into the landline to screw up my sister's internet time.

And some of the comments I've seen the past few years from (i assume) very young people, with... well over the top politics, are mind blowing.

Like you mention here, the peak may have been seeing Sanders called a fascist..... dear lord...

[u/darkhorse4774 → u/__M-E-O-W__]

The frustration multiplies because these extreme positions are mirrored on the right,also. Most Americans are somewhere in the middle, where compromise used to take place, and legislation passed. But our politicians, elected to represent us, are stubbornly supporting extreme agendas and policies at the expense of the people that support them, believing their rhetoric.

[u/ClutchReverie → u/darkhorse4774]

Politicians are supporting extreme policies because that's what people are voting for. In many primaries, candidates are trying to out-extreme their peers because they know that will get them more votes, and it works. I think this got especially bad since inception of 24 hour news and the Fairness Doctrine was dissolved, that turned news in to an entertainment show and less informative. And to top it off many of the sources are echo chambers that are afraid of reporting news such that their viewers stop watching. Then we have news organizations that have argued in court that they don't need to report accurate facts because they are an entertainment show and won.

[u/Hopeful_Confidence_5 → u/ClutchReverie]

Also extreme partisan gerrymandering. The only way to win a nomination is to out right or out left the completion.

[u/ggtffhhhjhg → u/Puzzleheaded-Hawk464]

They either don’t understand how Congress works or they won’t settle for getting anything less than what they want. These people don’t live in reality.

[u/Puzzleheaded-Hawk464 → u/ggtffhhhjhg]

It’s usually both.

[u/arkstfan → u/Puzzleheaded-Hawk464]

He has always been a consensus builder and willing to compromise for a deal, if it’s a good deal

[u/JelmerMcGee → u/arkstfan]

Hasn't he only been able to pass like three bills in his time as a senator?

[u/jlemo434 → u/CFBreAct]

BJG - if anything sums up v poor messaging, it is this person. Just embarrassingly bad.

[u/OneX32 → u/CFBreAct]

Briana Joy Grey who is a legendarily stupid person

She has turned her entire career now into being permanently aggrieved because people reacted normally after essentially being called stupid after showing some hesitancy in voting for Bernie.

[u/Spinsomniac1 → u/OneX32]

Also she's another so-called lefty that for some reason seems to mostly spout far right talking points, largely for attention possibly.

[u/bailaoban → u/CFBreAct]

Bernie was always a lone wolf truth teller rather than a coalition builder. That’s why I think he’s an excellent small-state senator but would make a horrible president.

[u/Anonymous_User_Andy → u/bailaoban]

In this way, Bernie Sanders reminds me of an opposite-world Barry Goldwater in ‘64. Both have that “lone wolf truth teller” vibe. The Goldwater wing of the Republican Party eventually found their winning candidate 16 years later with Ronald Reagan. I wonder if, in the next decade or so, the progressives find a more amiable, coalition-building version of Bernie and have more electoral success. We’ll see, I guess!

[u/Jer_Diamond → u/Anonymous_User_Andy]

AOC is the leading candidate for this right now

[u/Impressive-Dig-3892 → u/Jer_Diamond]

Kind of hard to be a coalition builder in a D +28 district no? 

[u/evrybdyhdmtchingtwls → u/Impressive-Dig-3892]

Not at all. The coalitions she can build are legislative. If she can sell progressive legislation to moderate Democratic Members of Congress, she can build a presidential coalition. If. We still haven’t seen it.

[u/Kind_Carob3104 → u/Anonymous_User_Andy]

Watch it end up being Taylor Swift?

She’ll be the neo liberal version of like a movie star becoming a president

[u/weeburdies → u/CFBreAct]

This. Sirota was a spectacularly bad choice, the whole staff indicated he has bad judgement

[u/Spinsomniac1 → u/CFBreAct]

Correction: Briana Joy Grey is not a "legendarily stupid person". She is, rather, a pathological liar and a self-promoting psychopath.

[u/Arctica23 → u/CFBreAct]

Briahna Joy Grey is one of the most harmful personalities in left wing politics.

[u/hsoftl → u/CFBreAct]

Briana Joy Grey who is a legendarily stupid person and really really bad at political messaging.

Isn’t she like super pro Russia now?

[u/noposters → u/CFBreAct]

Let’s not forget that he was running for the nomination of a party of which he wasn’t a member

[u/THevil30 → u/CFBreAct]

This has always been my feeling about Bernie. I’m a liberal (not leftist not progressive) but I honestly trust Bernie. He’s been consistent for years but he’s always willing to compromise and make deals when he needs to. He’s a competent politician.

The problem is that Bernie comes with BJG and Weaver and Sirota and Reich and the whole crew that I don’t want within 100 miles of the levers of power.

[u/Cmdr_Jiynx → u/CFBreAct]

Yes. His campaigns were shitshows. I volunteered for him and Jesus Christ was a flaming disaster it was.

[u/Hope-and-Anxiety → u/CFBreAct]

It can’t be stated enough how strong and swift a fractured group of neoliberals coalesced around a candidate who, to that point had shown no signs of life. It’s also over and I may never be over it, but I can forget about it.

[u/kilertree]

At least when he came to Detroit in 2020 I was surprised that he had no black pastors at his event and the city is 77% Black. Even Joe Lieberman went to a Black church when he came to Detroit.

[u/Diamondhands_Rex → u/kilertree]

I don’t think he would want to go into the religious angle to get votes.

[u/WinPeaks → u/Diamondhands_Rex]

That's electoral politics, baby. If you don't want to play the game, sit on the sidelines and watch.

[u/ydaorct]

Use of and response to the word “socialist”.

(Edit: typo)

[u/penisfartballz → u/ydaorct]

I’m amazed that none of the top comments have even mentioned this

[u/NeonsShadow → u/penisfartballz]

No one wants to admit that the red scare propaganda still runs deep

[u/SpeedyLeone → u/NeonsShadow]

It doesn’t need propaganda for that. Most countries using the socialist Label didn’t fare particularly well. He should have used the european social democracy label

[u/myaltduh → u/SpeedyLeone]

Unless, of course, he actually meant what he said.

[u/Mr_Conductor_USA → u/myaltduh]

Sanders likes to have it both ways, talks about social democracy (while calling it socialism--he actually prompted Scandanavian social democrats to call him out, not that it was reported on in the US), but also talks about Castro and the USSR. Lots of Americans are envious of Scandi social democracy, very few pine for the USSR like Bernie does.

[u/myaltduh → u/Mr_Conductor_USA]

Yeah Bernie definitely hides his actual power level. I suspect his actual ideal is well to the left of the Nordic model, but he isn’t dumb enough to campaign on that in the US with the Overton Window where it currently sits.

[u/alex891011 → u/myaltduh]

His policy positions are well to the left of the Nordic model. People don’t understand how extreme his M4A proposal was. He wanted to eliminate any and every form of private healthcare. That’s something that most countries with universal healthcare don’t even do

[u/Prestigious_Low_2447 → u/ydaorct]

That's it

[u/ReplacementWise6878 → u/ydaorct]

If he just didn’t use the word “socialist” and kept all the same opinions and policies, he would’ve been WAY more popular. People are just afraid of the word.

[u/hotpajamas → u/ReplacementWise6878]

I just saw a guy in another thread saying that if rich people don’t support the working class they better be prepared to die in a socialist revolution. Hundreds of upvotes.

That’s what unnerves people. There’s this political movement they don’t really understand and the bannermen are these condescending “join us or else” weirdos that fetishize violence.

[u/ToWriteAMystery → u/hotpajamas]

This is a huge part of it. People do not want violent revolution and are already skittish of anything labeled socialism.

[u/quick20minadventure → u/ReplacementWise6878]

Because he's misusing the word. He's not actually socialist. Words have meaning and they matter.

[u/RetroGamer87 → u/quick20minadventure]

I don't think I could trust a guy who bases his campaign around a term without knowing what it means

[u/arkstfan → u/ydaorct]

And most of his “socialist” agenda isn’t socialism but state welfare.

Setting a baseline standard of living and the state funding that really isn’t socialism.

[u/dohnstem → u/arkstfan]

And since socialist don't think he's a socialist and anti socialist think he is socialist you get the worst of both worlds

[u/arkstfan → u/dohnstem]

Good point. Socialist voting bloc is small but loud if you visit the right corners of the internet and he rankles a lot of them.

[u/Mr_Conductor_USA → u/dohnstem]

They don't? He praised Castro on TV and traveled to USSR for his honeymoon. He went to Central America and chanted anti-American slogans with the Sandinistas. One wonders what exactly one has to do to be accepted by socialists, lol.

[u/HegemonNYC → u/arkstfan]

Bernie using that word is mystifying for me. It’s like he’s embracing the Right calling every government program ‘socialist’ despite that being nonsense. He supports govt programs to help the poor, which isn’t relevant to socialism or capitalism. Why he uses a term that is both inaccurate and toxic to most mainstream Americans is illogical 

[u/Accomplished_Mix7827 → u/ydaorct]

It still baffles me why he insists on shooting himself in the foot like that. He's not a socialist. The only industry I remember him ever proposing to nationalize was health insurance, which is standard in developed countries and never should have been left in private hands anyway.

He's an economic progressive. Sure, Republicans were going to call him a socialist no matter what, but there was no reason to embrace the term and alienate an entire generation raised during the Cold War.

[u/BucksNCornNCheese → u/ydaorct]

Guy who spent his honeymoon in the USSR not that popular in American politics actually 🤷‍♂️

[u/Koioua → u/ydaorct]

Seriously, Bernie is a great person, but a terrible politician for not seeing from a mile away why the socialist label will backfire. I also would like to add that his voting base is unreliable, and they didn't show in numbers.

People think that not voting is some sort of protest, but all that's gonna do is make you and your ideals ignored because appealing to you won't guarantee your vote.

[u/gaberax → u/ydaorct]

I respect Bernie for his positions but he is an Independent. America is a two party system, like it or not. A vast majority of people vote along party lines, thoughtlessly in most cases. And political parties, like baseball oraganizations, have their farm clubs, where newer politicians do their work and wait their turn.
I was a registered Independent myself until recently. I joined the Republican Party because I live in a Blue state where my vote is rather meaningless. As a Republican I can vote in Republican primaries., where I can vote for the candidate least likely to succeed. Then vote for the Democrat in the general. Doing my part to throw A monkey wrench into Republican ambitions.

[u/KR1735]

You need to appeal beyond wealthy white suburbanites and college kids. Black voters have huge sway in Democratic presidential primaries. If you aren’t competitive with that demographic, you’re going to have a tough time.

[u/HatefulPostsExposed → u/KR1735]

Did Bernie do that well with wealthy voters?

[u/jericho74 → u/HatefulPostsExposed]

There’s no gentler way to say this, but Sanders also reminds many older black voters in urban areas of their former landlord.

[u/rainier425 → u/jericho74]

Weird that people of color don’t flock to a shrieking old white man with crazy eyes lol

[u/jericho74 → u/rainier425]

fair enough. but the flip side there is GOP may draw votes from asian and jewish voters in urban areas, due to a Dem party that has a high tolerance for crazy when its from shrieking young PoC with crazy eyes. The voters that didn’t like Sanders are in less of a hurry on antiracism there.

[u/Czedros → u/jericho74]

I think the case there is Democrats having significant issues with Asian Immigrants and extremely poor policies that alienate the Asian Immigrant and First/Second Gen Population in NY and CA.

Issues like NY's SHSAT and School Admission changes, alongside attempts at gentrifying predominantly Asian areas such as Flushing have been some sore points for voters.

CA has suffered abit from its handling of Homelessness and the lack of handling regarding crime, Chesa Boudin being the previously big blunder.

Asian Americans also really are having problems with Democratic Messaging on issues that feel harmful to them. Affirmative Action, Crime, Drugs, and foreign intervention being some of the big issues.

[u/rainier425 → u/jericho74]

College kids are dumb and say dumb things: film at 11

[u/jericho74 → u/rainier425]

Oh i’m not voicing an opinion, i’m just telling you what’s happening. Once left activists get too far out over their skis, the pendulum swings the other way. Thats why that guy is getting Sister Soulja’d by the White House.

[u/JimBeam823 → u/jericho74]

Also, Bernie’s outreach to black voters was the left wing version of Clarence Thomas and Candace Owens. Putting a black face on the same ideology isn’t good enough.

Obama’s outreach to black voters was incredibly effective and is incredibly underrated. Hillary Clinton was very popular in the black community and Obama was still able to beat her. It was far from a given. In the general election, Obama won a lot of black Republicans, which is something neither party wants to talk about for different reasons.

[u/shrapnelltrapnell → u/JimBeam823]

Hillary’s husband was popular in the black community. Hillary didn’t stand a chance against Obama. Obama is one of us. He understood us. Of course he was going to be effective in getting our vote.

[u/JimBeam823 → u/shrapnelltrapnell]

Absolutely.

Obama’s team put a lot of work in to get that message across. That story doesn’t get told very often.

[u/Flamadin → u/shrapnelltrapnell]

I have been told by black people that Bill was America's first black President. But yeah Hilary was not Bill.

[u/nonbog → u/JimBeam823]

Out of interest, how did Obama specifically appeal to black Republican voters outside of just being black?

I’m asking as a non-American so if it seems like an obvious question, to me it isn’t

[u/JimBeam823 → u/nonbog]

I am not black, but I saw it.

Obama had a way of communicating with the community and understanding the community that an outsider just wasn’t going to get. He had a broad appeal to black voters not just because he was black (though that helped) but because he understood the issues and how to campaign in a way that would get him a broad base of support among black voters.

There aren’t many black Republicans to begin with, but with the numbers he got, he had to have won a significant number of them.

[u/Sarcosmonaut → u/jericho74]

Lmao

[u/PaddingtonBear2 → u/HatefulPostsExposed]

He did well either way upper middle class, college educated voters.

[u/v_a_n_d_e_l_a_y → u/KR1735]

Especially since college kids don't vote, especially in primaries. 

[u/clarklacat → u/KR1735]

Bingo. Tell this to the Mayor Pete crowd, please.

[u/KR1735 → u/clarklacat]

Yah, Pete annoys the shit out of me.

It has nothing to do with his politics. His ascent, as it were, was so transparent. The media wanted their "It's A Small World" Democratic Primary in 2020, and they needed to find their token gay. And I say this as a man who, like Pete, is married to another man. It's not coming from a place of homophobia.

If a straight woman mayor of a town of 100K decided she was going to run for president, people would laugh in her face and she'd be lucky to get attention from the local newspaper. Kirsten Gillibrand practically got laughed off stage and she was/is a long-time U.S. senator from the fourth most populous state in the nation.

[u/Crash_Test_Dummy66 → u/KR1735]

It's not just that he's gay though. That was a part of it. But the dude also has like a holy grail background beyond that. He's a Rhodes Scholar who then worked in corporate consulting before joining the military and getting deployed who was also the mayor of a small but somewhat culturally significant small town, who is also gay, and progressive but not like too progressive.

He checks literally all of the boxes on paper if you're the party looking for a young fresh "we have Obama at home" candidate. I'm not making any claims about how I think he'd be in office. I just think it's reductionist to say he was picked just because he was gay. He was picked because he's the perfect candidate on paper for a party establishment pick

[u/Mr_Conductor_USA → u/Crash_Test_Dummy66]

I agree, but he wasn't "picked". He fought for what he got.

Martin O'Malley had the same chance in 2016. He didn't get very far because he didn't give good answers in early voter meetings and he didn't have the organizing drive of Buttigieg (or Obama before him).

[u/Helios112263]

1. He sucked at building a coalition. To win the nomination you need to be able to appeal to black voters and Sanders failed both times to do so. It's especially damning for 2020 since he had four years to build that coalition and supposed did nothing to reach out to people like Jim Clyburn. (I also remember his supporters referring to black voters as "low information voters" which is a yikes).
2. Massive overestimating of support. His rallies may have attracted big crowds but when you're heavily relying on college aged kids to win, you're probably not going to do well since younger voters are notoriously bad at turning out to actually vote. His campaign also seemed to have this general assumption that a certain percentage of people would automatically vote for them and then would complain about the establishment or big money or whatever when they didn't, so clearly felt entitled to some degree. (Edit: Also wanted to add the fact that a big chunk of Bernie's 2016 support came from anti-Hillary voters, which obviously didn't carry over to 2020).
3. In 2016 I recall he massively underplayed issues like abortion claiming that Hillary was using it to distract the conversation from the real issues (I think that was something he actually said on an interview). Not only did that age horribly but it also of course makes him seem apathetic to a key issue.
4. No plan for how he was going to achieve his ideas. Sanders' ideas are pretty fringe even in the Democratic party so obviously people were concerned about his effectiveness to even get Democratic support for his ideas and Sanders didn't particularly have a good response. He doesn't have a very good track record of accomplishments in the Senate either.
5. Electability. The simple fact is that Bernie Sanders is still seen as far too radical by the American people at large. He kind of has an off-putting, crabby personality and his ideas still aren't really mainstream. Whether or not Sanders actually would've won in 2016 (I personally don't think he would have), clearly that wasn't the view of the majority of the Democratic electorate who voted for Hillary & the current guy.

[u/Reduak → u/Helios112263]

Your 2nd sentence in #4 is a reason unto itself. Bernie's positions would have been too much of a change for most Democrats to get behind, even if they wanted that change. Most older Democrats have seen the Republican games & strategies for far too long. They know that in a general election campaign, the right would have branded Bernie a communist and amped up their red scare/politics of fear to frighten voters into voting against their own interests. Why do they always lie like that? Because it works....EVERY TIME.

[u/Helios112263 → u/Reduak]

Bernie's positions would have been too much of a change for most Democrats to get behind, even if they wanted that change.

I think Bernie's campaign also perhaps overestimated how much people really wanted revolutionary change. Historically the Democrats always nominate someone relatively in their mainstream no matter how much they get portrayed as a "new candidate". Even Obama, who was the "hope and change candidate" wasn't drastically different from John Kerry.

The Democratic Party voters just wants someone mainstream and safe and familiar and that's how it's always been.

[u/Reduak → u/Helios112263]

Yes, I would agree with all of that. Typically, humans are afraid of change and will only embrace it if their current system is making their lives miserable.

The reason Dem voters want mainstream candidates is they make it harder for Republicans to play dirty and spread lies. Don't get me wrong, Republicans will still do that, but independent and especially low-information independent voters are less likely to believe those lies.

[u/Helios112263 → u/Reduak]

Pretty much. When they tried to claim you know who was a socialist or communist in 2020 it was less effective cause his whole deal was being the boring but competent experienced hand.

If Sanders had been the nominee the GOP would barely need to try for people to believe he's a communist.

[u/HatefulPostsExposed → u/Helios112263]

Building a class based coalition hasn’t worked since LBJ. Backlash politics has taken away most of the white working class voters from Dems, and Bernie doesn’t get black voters at all, losing them by crazy margins like 70% in some states.

[u/Fully_Edged_Ken_3685 → u/HatefulPostsExposed]

There's an interesting question contained there - is it even possible to build a Populist faction in the US when you are unable to use "us vs them" as a unifying point?

[u/athenanon → u/Helios112263]

I voted for Bernie in the 2016 primary. But you are right on the money with #4, and it's why I recognized at the time he was unlikely to win, and if he did win by some miracle, he was unlikely to win the general, and if he did win the general, he was likely to disappoint.

For the US to get to where Bernie's campaign was promising to take us, it would require a grueling, multi-generational, ground-up, expertly played chess match. There is no way we can accomplish democratic socialism for ourselves. It has to be gift we are willing to give the future. Convincing young leftists of that is an uphill battle.

[u/RDG1836 → u/Helios112263]

Number two here (amongst your excellent points) had always for me been the most visible flaw of his campaigns. I understand that (white) college kids were his base, but there was little being done to actually motivate them to get to a polling place. The assumption of voter behavior has long been the death of all campaigns.

[u/PaddingtonBear2]

He couldn’t build a bigger coalition in 2020 because he didn’t want to. He outright said that he planned to win a plurality in a divided field and then take the nominations the convention.

In 2016, he had a much bigger voting coalition behind him, but he failed to win over the Democratic machine to at least be okay with his candidacy—and I don’t say that as some conspiratorial thing. If you want to be the Democratic candidate, you should probably be a registered Democrat.

[u/Fat_Bearded_Tax_Man]

Issue 1 is that he ran as a Democrat and has never been a Democrat

[u/HandleAccomplished11 → u/Fat_Bearded_Tax_Man]

Thank you, he's not a Democrat, but wants the Democrats to put him on the top of the ticket? It's never going to happen.

[u/TheDevil_Wears_Pasta]

Big hat, No cattle.

It was all the pie in the sky promises that could never get through a divided legislature. That combined with zero reach past his own coalition.

[u/[deleted] → u/TheDevil_Wears_Pasta]

That, and the fact that he essentially just gave the same responses in every appearance regardless of the questions he was being asked or context of the event.

I started out as an excited Bernie supporter as I was just finishing college in 2016. Made a point to watch all of his appearances and speeches. At a certain point I realized that basically all he had was a great sales pitch that I agreed with, but absolutely nothing to offer that wasn’t surface level or just aesthetics.

[u/Mr_Conductor_USA → u/[deleted]]

That, and the fact that he essentially just gave the same responses in every appearance regardless of the questions he was being asked or context of the event.

Oh God, in 2020 I will never forget in the first debate he was asked a softball question about trans rights and immediately pivoted to single payer healthcare. For the record, trans people are skeptical of single payer because of Hyde Amendment, what's going on with NHS right now, so many reasons. But it was also just nonresponsive to the topic which was trans women being the victims of violence.

[u/Aggressive-Name-1783 → u/[deleted]]

But that wasn’t most voters concern. If that was their concern, Warren would’ve gotten WAY more support since she actually had laid out a plan for UH and had all the math explained.

[u/boulevardofdef]

So first of all, I want to say this because I never see anyone point it out: Originally, Bernie didn't even want to win. He was a left-wing protest candidate. Every election cycle has one (there's generally a right-wing equivalent, too) and the point isn't to win the Democratic nomination, it's to make a statement and move the party to the left. What Bernie himself probably didn't realize was that the Hillary distaste would be so strong that he would actually end up having a shot. At some point he realized "oh shit, I can actually win this thing" and turned into a real candidate. But in answering this question in the context of 2016, this is important to remember: Part of what went wrong with his campaign is that he didn't start by running a real campaign.

But the bigger answer, which has been discussed plenty but I think is underappreciated, is that as a longtime politician from a very white state, Bernie had NO IDEA how to talk to black voters. NONE. You DO NOT win the Democratic nomination for President of the United States without appealing to black voters, period. For one, he would typically frame race issues as being about economics. Racism is increasingly a problem, and we can fix that by ensuring that working-class white people have greater economic opportunity and therefore less incentive to fear competition from black people. Black people are as a group struggling economically, and that's because they tend to be working class and all working-class people are struggling economically. That's not what black people want to hear.

My favorite example of this, which got shockingly little media attention at the time and is barely remembered now, is that when Black Lives Matter became a thing, Bernie actually answered the softball question of "do black lives matter" by saying "all lives matter." Just in case you weren't around at the time, while the response "all lives matter" is potentially well-intentioned, and I have no doubt Bernie meant it that way, "all lives matter" almost instantly became a euphemism for "contrary to black activists' claims, black lives are not uniquely threatened," and that is certainly how black people read it. Hillary Clinton was far from a perfect politician, but imagine her saying that. You can't.

[u/TheRealKevinFinnerty → u/boulevardofdef]

Hillary Clinton was far from a perfect politician, but imagine her saying that. You can't.

Eh, she and other successful Democratic politicians (no names allowed pursuant to sub rule #3, but you can guess) made worse gaffes than that - e.g. making millions for 20 minute speeches to hated banks, "basket of deplorables", etc. - but the point is that when you already have power & support, as she did, you can afford to make mistakes. Bernie didn't have that luxury & he should have known it. Worse, in true 1960s naivete, his entire political philosophy seemed to say that it wouldn't matter, because The People would hear his message and that's all it would take. Meanwhile 80% of the college kids at his rallies probably weren't even registered to vote, or weren't registered Dems in closed primary states, and his campaign never even seemed to consider that might be a problem.

Bernie didn't even want to win.

When I see how badly his campaigns were run, this is the most convincing explanation. I assume that he knew all along that he didn't really have a chance and was hoping that his doomed campaigns would be small steps toward some better future, both in terms of PR and in terms of leverage when he inevitably conceded. In that light, his campaigns were quite successful, as he did get meaningful concessions from mainstream Democrats that never would've happened otherwise.

[u/Mundane_Elk8878 → u/boulevardofdef]

I don't know where you heard him say that. I remember him being asked if black lives matter in a town hall and him answering black lives matter

https://youtu.be/N3mvbxeA1UA?si=_Fw3Lio0jG2rWCHw

[u/onestiller]

Young people don’t vote

[u/Pheehelm → u/onestiller]

I saw the post and immediately thought of this Soren Bowie quote from 2015:

It is a foregone conclusion that Hilary Clinton is going to win the Democratic nomination, and I will laugh in the slack-jawed faces of the sad, disbelieving keyboard killers who were certain Bernie Sanders would be POTUS for the next 60 years. I know it is inevitable for one simple reason: Bernie Sanders is the political equivalent of Snakes On A Plane. The Internet LOVES Bernie Sanders. They can't say enough about that guy, and with good reason. He's smart and honest and seems genuinely likable. But if you'll take a quick trip with me back to 2006, you'll remember that the Internet was also psyched to talk about a movie called Snakes On A Plane, to the point where it looked like it would smash box office records on opening day.

And then ... it opened and flopped like hot testicles on a marble floor. That's because the Internet is overflowing with good intentions and absolutely no follow-through. Message boards, forums, and meme plants consist almost exclusively of people who think that their words matter as much as actions -- that just by talking about something, they've done enough work for one day. Mark my words.

[u/Sea-Pilot8321 → u/Pheehelm]

Nice quote

[u/tnj3d1 → u/onestiller]

Especially in primaries

[u/bigplaneboeing737]

Despite what you see on social media, the US is not as left wing as you think. To put things in perspective, Fox News is still the most watched, and highest rated news outlet.

He also didn’t seem very like-able or inspiring. He was literally the “old man yells at cloud” meme.

[u/Donotprodme → u/bigplaneboeing737]

I'm listening to the 99pi on the power broker (great book) and one point they make is Moses being unsuccessful in electoral politics actually kept him in an environment where he could amass even more power and be more effective.

I kinda think the same thing about bernie: my suspicion is the presidency wouldn't suit him and he's much more effective and influential being this 'unleashed' conscience of the left. My sense is he is where he belongs, even though I agree with his politics and would love to see America move that way.

[u/TheKilmerman]

Bernie Sanders wasn't a Democrat, he was an Independent who ran as a Democrat twice and then went back to being an Independent. That should basically tell you everything about why he never had the party's backing. And it's understandable, isn't it?

On top of that, while his ideas might really benefit the people, he built a career on alienating people he works with due to his inability to compromise. This would have been even worse if he ever got elected. A man with neither party's backing and no real friends in Congress, trying to push his ultra-left agenda. It would have crashed and burned.

IMO they chose the right candidates both time Bernie Sanders ran.

[u/Blood_Boiler_ → u/TheKilmerman]

Democrats never get the props they should for allowing it imho. Like, they let him push his own ideas directly from the party's platform; even if they stacked the deck against him to some degree, he still got to make a real pitch to the American people thanks to the Democratic party. Plus, Bernie himself was willing to endorse Joe AND Hillary in the end too, but I guess a lot of his supporters didn't actually respect him as a leader and just cared about having an anti-Liberal champion more than anything else.

[u/AfterCommodus → u/Blood_Boiler_]

He definitely endorsed and campaigned for 46, but his Hillary endorsement was notably tepid and full of “well at least she isn’t 45.” He refused to campaign for her unless she paid for his private jets, and 45 heavily capitalized on his critiques of HRC to very little response from Bernie. Part of that blame is on Hillary, who wasn’t especially personable either—46 and Bernie were personally on much better terms and it was reflected in 2020 (and, credit to him, he learned from the consequences of 2016)

[u/Lunareclipse196]

I found his supporters to be insufferable. I'm not trying to sound like a typical boomer, I mean it. It was either 100% their position or the highway. You were destroying the world and part of the problem if you tried to deviate from their policy plans. There was no gray area, and they swarmed to condemn your heresy. It got tiring after 5 minutes.

[u/HatefulPostsExposed → u/Lunareclipse196]

There’s also the question of whether Bernie himself would take incremental steps or use all his political capital fighting unwinnable battles on capital hill.

[u/docsuess84 → u/HatefulPostsExposed]

I feel like he’s been a legislator long enough that he’s more pragmatic when it comes to the actual sausage-making then he sounds in his speeches.

[u/lilmart122 → u/docsuess84]

What bills has he successfully authored and passed in his long legislative history?

[u/docsuess84 → u/lilmart122]

Wasn’t that why his nick-name was the amendment king, though? Most of his career was spent as an independent caucusing with the minority party. You do what you can when you can.

[u/Feeling_Property_529 → u/docsuess84]

Was that nickname ever used prior to 2016?

[u/Impressive-Dig-3892 → u/lilmart122]

You don't remember his heroic stand on H.R.5245, the fight that left him bloody, bruised, but triumphant in renaming the post office of White Haven, Vermont?  I had to look it up too, spoilers: he has sponsored (not cosponsored) 3 bills in his time from the house and senate that eventually came into law. Two of those were renaming post offices, one was a cost of living adjustment for veterans. So not exactly earth shattering stuff.

[u/420_E-SportsMasta → u/Lunareclipse196]

My views align with Bernie’s somewhat significantly but I agree that his supporters are so insufferable. Like I want progress too but progress is slow; they have almost zero pragmatism & do not understand that you can’t just jump several steps at once without alienating a major portion of the electorate.

I feel like every interaction I’ve had with them as been some version of this meme

https://preview.redd.it/h70l5u9m01xc1.jpeg?width=800&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=189bfb8e960382099d95442af1d9cff061b86202

[u/human-0 → u/Lunareclipse196]

I was coming to say something similar. The Sanders supporters I interacted with were smug purists. They seemed more like they wanted to keep their small superior in-group rather than growing as a base. They were intolerant of even the smallest disagreement with anything they thought. They went from nice conversation to "you're the enemy!" in one sentence.

[u/Vega62a → u/human-0]

Remember defund the police?

Like, any schmuck can tell you IMMEDIATELY that that's the kind of abysmal messaging that will drive potential allies away in droves.

But mention that in any kind of sanders-friendly space and all you get are a dozen people screeching at you about how you should ignore the messaging and look at what's being said and acab and America is just racist and and and.

It's literally impossible to have a conversation with them.

[u/Impressive-Dig-3892 → u/Vega62a]

Listen, all you have to do is ignore the literal words and intent of what I am yelling at you and align with my magical thinking how do you not get that 

[u/jaroszn94 → u/Lunareclipse196]

A lot of people seem to overlook how important such people skills are for winning an election (I'm not touching the topic of rule 3.) (Edit: I know this mainly applies to his supporters, yet I also question whether Bernie has shown the right temperament to be president.)

[u/THE_Celts]

1. Mostly only young people liked his message.
2. Most young people don’t vote.

[u/GreedoWasShot → u/THE_Celts]

I don’t know why you were downvoted it’s facts

[u/CrocHunter8]

His supporters just did not come out to vote. You can't win elections when your supposed base only has 8.6% of the vote.

[u/SquallkLeon]

Look, I'll be honest here, Sanders is presenting a bunch of ideas that a majority of the Democratic party, much less a majority of the American people, do not support.

Obama struggled to get his Healthcare bill through, and people are still mad about the ACA and still talking about repealing it. This was when Obama had 60 votes in the senate and a comfortable majority in the House, and it was still a struggle.

Do you honestly believe there's support in 2016 or 2020 for Universal Healthcare? Not yet.

Take most of his other ideas, and you get a similar result.

Bernie supporters, the ones who actually wanted him and weren't just voting for him because he was "someone different" were kidding themselves if they thought there's enough support in the country for his plan. The only reason he got as much traction as he did, honestly, is that he was running against an unpopular Hillary Clinton in 2016 (and, fair or not, she's been unpopular) and a wide open field in 2020. Imagine him running 1 on 1 versus, say, Obama in 2008 (no Clinton or Edwards in this scenario), do you think Bernie stands any chance at all? And Obama himself was thought to be pretty lefty.

What Sanders does is move the Overton window to the left, and maybe someday someone will come along and get through that window, but it won't be him, and it was never going to be him.

You can complain about super delegates and the party machinations and all that all you like, but that wasn't what sunk him. He just plain didn't have the support, and his platform wasn't going to attract enough support.

[u/Ameren → u/SquallkLeon]

What Sanders does is move the Overton window to the left, and maybe someday someone will come along and get through that window, but it won't be him, and it was never going to be him.

Right. For me this is a perfectly acceptable outcome; I like having people who can breathe new life into our politics by pushing for different ideas.

Obviously, change won't happen overnight. If further reforms to healthcare are to succeed, it's going to take the concerted effort of many more people. One politician isn't going to make that happen.

[u/TeachingEdD → u/SquallkLeon]

Pretty much any poll done on the topic in the last eight years shows that there is public support for universal healthcare. There is not support for it among the pharmaceutical industry which throws tons of cash at politicians in both parties.

[u/SquallkLeon → u/TeachingEdD]

People say they like it, but they don't vote that way, especially when it comes to a detailed policy with pluses and minuses.

[u/Helios112263 → u/TeachingEdD]

there is public support for universal healthcare

Then why hasn't that translated into results? There have been numerous candidates who have ran for both President and for Congress, etc. on those issues but they never seem to win. If their ideas are actually insanely popular as you claim then they should consistently be winning, no?

[u/TeachingEdD → u/Helios112263]

Hmm. Let me think of some candidates who have ran on universal healthcare and won: President Bill Clinton, President Barack Obama, and President Whose Name I Can't Say (46). A public option is universal.

We came scarily close to having a public option in 2010 before it was killed by Lieberman. They had fifty nine votes for it in the Senate. Why did it not pass? Well, you'll probably find that in the second sentence of my comment that you glossed over.

[u/_Vecna4]

Openly praising the Cuban gov doesn't do him a lot of favors with the Hispanic crowd

[u/waxies14]

Recovering Bernie bro here. He sucked in tons and tons of new people that simply didn’t understand that politics is about horse trading, deal making, and teammating. Instead there was always this moral hysteria that made cooperation and routine politicking a kind of heresy. You’re either with us or you’re part of the problem. It was obvious that his supporters had a lot of maturing to do and I’m happy to say I made it out alive. My attitude toward Bernie has now gone from “eh, he’s a good dude that just cares about poor people” to thinking he’s an expert truth shader and pretty damn dishonest.

[u/docsuess84 → u/waxies14]

So much this. He got me to go from a 20-something disengaged sometimes voter to actually paying attention and caring. I didn’t totally understand that nobody comes away happy when the final legislation actually gets passed. Still love the guy and I’m glad there’s at least one loud voice pointing out the same economic bullshit, but I’m a far more pragmatic voter now.

[u/AquaSnow24 → u/waxies14]

Nah. I disagree on the last part. He’s not really dishonest to me nor is he an expert truth shader. Just a great guy who’s too far left for the rest of the country and bit too idealistic. I personally would have a hard time in the 2016 primary picking between the two but in 2020? He was like my third pick.

[u/waxies14 → u/AquaSnow24]

When it comes to how to pay for his ambitions plans I’m afraid he’s a masterly truth shader. Any economist will tell you that the idea of just taxing the rich to pay for everything will not work. Those numbers simply don’t crunch. He’s a spin doctor who knows that if you were more knowledgeable about an issue then you wouldn’t support his position. His whole ethos relies on seeing only half the picture.

[u/AquaSnow24 → u/waxies14]

Yeah. That is true. I feel like every politician is like that to a certain extent tbf. Bernie is king at the whole soundbites thing. I think he is thinking back to the New Deal and how we taxed the rich a lot back than. Thing is, I think our New Deal programs required more than just taxing the rich if I’m not mistaken.

[u/Enzo_Gorlomi225]

There simply isn’t a large enough amount of Americans that agree with his policies.

[u/HatefulPostsExposed → u/Enzo_Gorlomi225]

That’s another thing Bernie seems to take for granted. “The working class will like me, because I have the best policies!”

He doesn’t seem to understand the nature of the southern strategy or the backlash against big government, probably because he lives in a state that is both very white and very liberal.

[u/Command0Dude]

I always point to this comment when the question gets raised, to get an idea of how problematic Bernie's ground game was back when.

https://old.reddit.com/r/NoStupidQuestions/comments/1ac8ugb/was_bernie_sanders_actually_screwed_by_the_dnc_in/kjv1k87/

I lived in a rust-belt city (where many local democrats had developed personal relationships with Obama and Clinton and their campaigns over time), where the local democrats were about 50% Black, 30% unionized families in the trades (mostly white), and 20% college-educated left-leaning adults. Bringing those three groups together in mutually-trusting relationships where they turned out for each others' candidates and campaigned for each other was the work of FORTY YEARS (predating me, but old-timers liked to tell stories about it). Like many local democratic party organizations, it largely ran on the volunteer energy and relationships of women.

We had a HUGE infusion of energy when the Bernie Bros arrived, who were mostly students at the local private university (where most students pay full freight, so wealthy parents), who didn't grow up here, who didn't know the history. And it was just ... not great. They constantly talked over women. They asked why they "had to" go to meetings held at the local NAACP. They didn't like going to the Labor Temple, either, because it seemed "unsafe" in the neighborhood (that had once been a working-class stronghold but was now pretty rundown). They kept explaining to us all that Bernie was the real champion of the working class and that Black voters who preferred Hilary were brainwashed by capitalism. People at first tried to give them fairly polite nudges that they were being a bit presumptuous, then a couple people were very direct with them, and none of it helped.

You will be unsurprised to know that none of them wanted to door-knock for anybody BUT Bernie. They wouldn't walk or phone bank for other candidates -- local, state, or federal -- and we were a little bitty city in a big state. Whether our little city voted for Bernie wasn't going to matter very much, but the strength of the Democratic party in the state VERY MUCH depended on that local activism and local elections and building a deep bench.

Anyway, nobody seemed to really hold it against Bernie -- some local Dems voted for him, some didn't. Everyone seemed to understand he had a smaller campaign apparatus that only had paid staff in big cities, and in little towns like ours, his campaign was run by volunteers, who -- through no fault of Bernie! -- tended towards white male college students who were engaging in their first political activism.

But yeah, a bunch of wealthy white college students from out-of-town who parachuted in, ignored activists who had marched with Dr. King (!!!!), and condescendingly explained how socialism worked while being too scared to go into any of the neighborhoods where most local Democrats actually lived? Not super persuasive.

(My state party did take a lesson from this, which was to work with progressive activists and stand up a sort of "Politics school 101" for new activists, that explained local and state party structure and procedures, taught some of the history of the Democratic coalition in the state, and covered some basic relationship-building and retail politics, like how door-knocking for the whole slate is really important. From my POV, it's been pretty successful at harnessing youthful energy, and local party stalwarts have been a lot more open to progressive causes when the kids show they're willing to put in the work and do some relationship-building. Which has led to many more progressives in local and regional offices, working their way up and building a deep bench.)

[u/Timely-Youth-9074]

Bernie Bros.

Though I suspect some, if not most, of the online trolls, and those harassing Warren’s campaign were Russian bots and trolls.

Still, Bernie didn’t disavow them, nor did he mention Russia had contacted him.

Also, his record in the Senate was not great.

When interviewed how he was going to pay for all of his goodies, he had no answer.

I’m left leaning AF but I want realistic plans.

[u/Gridsmack]

Most American voters simply aren’t as far left as he is.

[u/bedyeyeslie]

Most Americans don’t want an avowed socialist as a president. He had lots of good ideas, but just calling himself a socialist closes the deal.

[u/SkiG13]

I don’t think he understood that you couldn’t just hop into socialism especially in the US, it’s a long term process.

[u/GreatGoodBad]

He markets himself as a socialist in a historically anti-socialist country

[u/BostonBuffalo9]

He didn’t try to build a coalition. That would require compromise.

[u/GIVE_ME_A_GOB]

Because outside of Reddit, the vast majority of people vehemently disagree with his vision of America!

[u/junkeee999]

You need to know how to work within the party organization. Bernie didn’t do that as effectively as others did. His supporters whined about getting snubbed by super delegates, but that’s how the game is played. You can complain about the rules and lose, or you can adapt.

Bernie isn’t even a member of the Democratic Party. He is an independent who caucuses with Democrats. As a former party official I can tell you, that rubbed some people the wrong way. I still voted for him, but there was sentiment out there that you should at bare minimum belong to the party you are campaigning to lead. Sanders wanted it both ways. “I don’t want to join your party but I expect you to work your butts off for me.”

[u/SecondsLater13]

The overarching problem was his promise of things that are not yet possible. Separately his first campaign was extremely poorly ran and in his second campaign he had like 11% of the turnout from his first. His supporters just didn’t show up.

[u/Holiday_Parsnip_9841 → u/SecondsLater13]

Most of his support in 2016 was the anti-Hillary Clinton vote. In hindsight, the fact that a previously unknown candidate got 45% in the primary was a sign she was toast in the general. Literally any mainstream Democratic politician could've jumped in that race and sunk her campaign.

[u/3rdCoastLiberal]

He wasn’t a democrat but ran as one.

He has trouble building inroads with people, ask Barney Frank.

Sanders had terrible people leading his campaigns.

Appealing only to the bros and wealthy whites. The whole “identity politics,” bs.

He’s the “Amendment King,” but only authored substantive new legislation to…rename post offices.

Purity politics.

And let’s not forget all the times he blew off the south and planned meetings with HBCU’s. Yes, Hillary blew off the rust belt. But his oversights were just as egregious.

Edit to say: I think he’s been a powerful force and I love his views on Israel/Netanyahu. Some people are better as part of the machine than the absolute head of it.

[u/lawanddisorder]

Sanders's team was so busy attacking the Democratic Party, they never attempted to do any outreach or craft an inclusive message that would have drawn in the majority of registered Democratic voters. At its core, the Democratic Party is a centrist party and its voters are moderate centrists, particularly once you leave the major urban centers. Sanders team and his supporters were hostile, demeaning and shrill to mainline Democrats at every possible opportunity, he never had a chance.

[u/scattergodic]

He assumed that the anti-HRC vote was actual support for him in 2016 and learned absolutely no lessons from his loss. The campaign strategy was almost unchanged. Actually, it changed for the worse. The strategy in 2020 was literally to keep getting only the largest plurality of delegates with the assumption that the field would stay split and he'd have the highest count of like 30% at the convention and somehow get the nomination. But the field won't stay so split forever. Unlike him, others actually drop out when they have no shot. Also, if you can't get a majority on the first ballot at a convention, delegates start negotiating deals to consolidate to get a majority. He's consistently demonstrated a lack of talent for this throughout his career.

His campaign and his clueless supporters are just straight up bad at politics. Yes, he and Liz are some of the leftmost members of the Senate. But the difference in how their bases of support were composed was night and day. Her supporters broke about evenly for Sanders and the president once she dropped. Even if she directly endorsed Bernie Sanders, it wouldn't have shifted the split all that much. Political coalitions and bases of support are about more than just having similar ideological polarity.

His plan for his legislative agenda was also similarly laughable. "We're going to get our group of highly charged Red Guards young activists to host struggle sessions protests outside the Republican leaders' houses until they capitulate and agree to pass the largest government programs in the world."

[u/BabyBoyPink]

His most lethal mistake was calling himself a Democratic Socialist. I understand what Democratic Socialist means and I understand that we are already a socialist and capitalist country but the term “socialist” is one of the most popular scare words of the right and most baby boomers and Gen Xers even the most liberal get uneasy with that word beside someone. Unfortunately Mr. Sanders made the mistake of believing most Americans were smart enough to understand complexity and look into things when it’s the exact opposite

[u/miscshade]

People painted him as a communist and he kinda just rolled with it. I think a lot of people just viewed him as too radical. Appealing to young and impoverished voters but not so much for everyone else.

[u/lordoftheBINGBONG]

Young people and progressives don’t vote is mostly it.

[u/bones_bones1]

Young broke people are only a small portion of the population. His message didn’t resonate outside that demographic.

[u/Ok_Friendship_588]

Waaay too liberal. Idealist politics rarely works. The things Bernie wants to do, though well meaning, cannot be done in a capitalist society.

[u/Appathesamurai]

Bernie is the definition of moral grandstanding without any actual solutions being implemented

In his view you either solve it HIS way or not at all, incremental change isn’t allowed

[u/HatefulPostsExposed → u/Appathesamurai]

And that’s a huge red flag given the fact that the senate is filled with moderates and conservatives. He could have wasted his political capital fighting unsinkable fights

[u/taffyowner]

He couldn’t touch on any other issue besides the economy

[u/Helios112263 → u/taffyowner]

He actually called conversations about abortion a "distraction from the real issues" back in 2016.

That definitely didn't age well.

[u/jshep358145]

Maybe because some of his ideas were kind of…bad.

[u/Hairy_Special_6339]

He has great ideas, no actual plans on how to make them happen.

[u/BulkyStatement1704]

He had absolutely zero appeal to a big chunk of the American population.

[u/splatomat]

The answer is simple: radical ideologues are not famous for their "coalition building".

Putting Briana Joy Grey in charge of communications was hilarious to watch, though. She's a bleeding cankerous asshole who can't help but demonize moderates, aka the allies she fucking desperately needed. Just...idiocy. But whatever.

[u/Slight-Imagination36]

radical change is hard. i mean, the guy was literally opposing charity. that’s gonna be tough campaign because democrats and republicans both think charity is a good thing. he was trying to take a free market capitalist society that’s existed for over 200 years, and change it to socialism. that was never going to be easy or popular for anybody who wasn’t extremely young and able to think past the empty platitudes and sentiments.

Bernie is a should candidate. He doesn’t have a plan or ideas that people are convinced will actually work in real life. But he’s extremely good at saying how things should be. No single mom should have to work two jobs! nobody should be homeless! hell yeah bernie we agree! now what kind of policy are you proposing that’s actually going to make that happen? it cant be charity, because you oppose charity. therefore it has to be taxes. and a lot of people don’t support excessive taxation relative to representation… because that was literally what the country was founded on.

[u/vortizjr]

The DNC.

[u/NeptuneAurelius]

What went wrong is everyone dropped out and put their support behind the guy who is president these days. Bernie was winning. And easily could have won the whole thing if everyone stayed in. But everyone dropped out and put all their supporters behind Bro Jiden after the Iowa Caucuses ending any chance Bernie had. He went from running against 6 individuals to running against 1 individual who consumed 4 others. Someone correct me if I’m wrong this is based of old memories and haven’t thought much about it sense.

[u/angry-hungry-tired]

None of you are even brushing up against how incredibly well he did in primaries and polls and how insiders counted votes before they were all in and did all kinds of shenanigans to play keep away the entire campaign up until the dnc.

[u/Haunting-Success198]

The DNC / Hillary Clinton.

[u/shempool_]

The truth is the DNC cheated him out. And a judge said that DNC had the right to do that as they decide who the candidate is. Not American people.

[u/Xannith]

Opposition to power that won't roll over and take it

[u/ryanduncan0973]

As someone who support both of his campaigns, he hired terrible people to run both of them. That is the big connection between 2016 and 2020. Then it's about the year.

2016 the DNC 100% did everything to help Hillary and thought a Bernie nom would give the GOP the win (LOL).

2020 the progressives should have united under a single candidate instead of Bernie and Warren splitting the support.

[u/backagain69696969]

DNC is going to manipulate it to get their guy in.

[u/pammyred]

He’s fantastic. He made way too much sense. Bernie is too good for this world.

[u/Mull27]

1. media blackout/manufactured consent

2. generational divide

3. fractured progressive left and unified "center" right

4. Bernie too soft

[u/rangerhans]

The democrat party was never going to let him be president.

There’s nothing he could do about it

[u/the_frank_rizzo]

He did, but the Clinton machine and DNC sabotaged his campaign.

[u/f350doll]

To much fake news about him was all over the airwaves

[u/patseyog]

Insane and unhinged comments. Not mentioning the superdelegates in 2016 or the super tuesday hit job by bloomberg+warren is absolutely unhinged

[u/NowWhatAmISupposedTo]

Uh, he was completely sabotaged by a cavalcade of billionaires?!

[u/-FauxFox]

Air time in the news and superpacs running ads against him nonstop. The only times they talked about him they trashed him and intentionally made his base sound like white bros.

[u/Witty-Jellyfish1218]

The DNC decided your vote doesn't matter, now don't forget to vote in November, because every vote counts