Bernie goes Biden, “Reopening America,” and independent voters.
Everything is happening all the time, I guess!
Good morning! While it’s typical for us to hardly leave our houses, this is getting to us, too. Thanks for taking the time to learn more about the world instead of watching another god awful reality show! Here’s what we got today:
Bernie officially endorses Biden: Bernie Sanders joined Joe Biden on his Monday campaign stream to officially drop the endorsement. We’re not surprised and you shouldn’t be either!
Reopening America seems like a pretty wild undertaking: conversations about “reopening America” have now permeated both sides of the aisle, but we’re lacking in one critical area: testing. This is on top of the various regional pacts we’re now seeing makes “reopening” seem pretty dang daunting.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez thinks Biden hasn’t done enough: AOC may be one of the most important leftist voices in this country. She doesn’t represent all of progressive thinking, but her opinion and endorsement should probably be a big deal to the Democratic nominee. Joe Biden needs to reach out and think about how to get leftist votes if he wants to win.
Kill your idols except we mean that in a totally metaphorical way and don’t want you to do violence, it’s Tuesday! Let’s do this thing.
ELECTION 2020
Bernie Sanders Officially Endorses Biden
Bernie Sanders popped onto the Joe Biden campaign stream (which all tend to be incredibly weird and kind of scary, if you’ve yet to catch one) to announce his full backing of Biden’s run. You shouldn’t be surprised. For most people, it shouldn’t even impact how you vote.
Sanders Plays By The Rules Often
I know it may be disconcerting for some voters that Sanders, the most left-leaning serious candidate this country has ever seen, backed Biden, a relic, sex pest, and Corn Pop combatant. Let’s be serious here though: Sanders signed the Indivisible Pledge. He was always going to back the nominee. And unfortunately, on a personal level, he actually likes Biden!
It’s never enough for some people, but center and center-right Dems will hold whatever decisions Bernie makes over the heads of every progressive for the next four, eight, who knows how many years. It was an inevitability—and getting to say that Bernie endorsed Biden before even Warren did allows some level of defense.
Bernie Sanders is a sitting U.S. Senator. To him, that means that abiding by many of the norms of electoral politics (“the lesser of two evils” mentalities, for starters) could be the only way he retains any institutional power in the coming years.
Sanders just genuinely believes in these kinds of things and it’s not surprising. Even if you’re the kind of person who thinks you should withhold your vote or vote third party, you’ve got to recognize why someone may argue that Trump needs to be defeated at all costs.
You might, like Sanders, think that defeating Trump is the most important element of this election. You may even think that, under the right pressure, Biden could actually lead the most progressive administration of any of our lifetimes. You could also believe that the Democratic establishment hasn’t learned a lesson from 2016, feel alienated from the party, or just don’t want to participate in electoral politics this time around (especially on account of just how awful Joe really is). These are all valid, but whatever your feelings are, Sanders’ endorsement shouldn’t change much.
Sanders Kicked Off a Movement, But It’s Bigger Than Him
The buck does not stop here. For many people, the two Sanders campaigns (and campaigns he subsequently inspired) were a much-needed awakening. It was a realization that leftist ideology may yet have a place in America. Realizing this power was on the table—and creating momentum behind “fighting for someone you don’t know”— is a wild success. That said, we cannot place all of those desires and passions on one man.
Electoral politics are not the only kind of politics. If you want to transform parties and get more people into office who believe the same things you do, great! You can also start a co-op, help organize in the workplace, attend a rally, organize a rally, get involved with local political groups, or even just talk to a loved one about their priorities in the world.
The march goes on as Sanders gets older and we need to start thinking beyond the presidency for the next four years and who the torch will be passed to as the face of actual left politics in the U.S.
Bottom line: don’t freak about Sanders endorsing Biden because it’s the right move for him, whether or not that means it’s the right move for you. It may sway people into voting or not voting, but it won’t change the movement at its core.
CORONAVIRUS
Looking Ahead to “Reopening America”
Donald Trump really, really wants to mitigate some of the financial damage caused by coronavirus, and that means getting people back out into the world as soon as he can. He’s not alone though: governors across the country are beginning to think about how to reopen their economies. There is a lot to consider when we talk about what ending, or slowing down, many of the practices we’ve adopted to keep us safe, but two we want to look at more are coronavirus testing and regional pacts.
Experts Say We Need Tests
The availability of testing has been an issue ever since COVID-19 began affecting the daily lives of Americans. Now, as conversations about when and how we will reopen the country begin, it seems that testing is still lacking.
Experts warn that if we’re to ease social distancing, we need to be able to test enough to identify new clusters of coronavirus and prevent them from spreading further. Those same experts also say we’re no close to the capacity we need.
With an already-strained health system, we shouldn’t continue relying on crisis measures just to get by. Being able to adequately test means we can better prepare and shift resources to wherever they’re needed without putting health workers in unnecessarily dangerous positions.
There is some evidence to suggest that aggressive testing tactics can help curb the spread of coronavirus.
The Regional Approach
What if we just said “screw keeping these sates UNITED, let’s just chunk off into a bunch of regions like the Western Alliance or the Eastern Pact during this global pandemic? That’d be rad!”
Yeah, it’s on the table. Two groups of governors, one on the East Coast and the other on the West Coast, are considering creating regional working groups to develop a plan on reopening their economies and lifting COVID-19 restrictions.
On the East, we have the governors of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Delaware, and Rhode Island. On the West, it’s the governors of California, Oregon, and Washington. They’re actually calling it the “Western States Pact” and we’ll leave you to determine whether or not that’s badass.
On the table: regional cooperation, letting economic and public health officials work together, and cooperative decisions about how to control the spread of the virus in the future.
This is in stark contrast to the President’s statements, who says it’s up to him, not the states, as to when the country reopens.
If it feels like this is the final blow that might crack this country apart, try not to freak out too much: the nature of controlling a pandemic means that tackling it on a more regional level is going to be more effective. While national guidelines could be helpful if we had a more reliable federal administration, there’s no “one-size-fits-all” approach to dealing with a pandemic where demographics, local economies, and many more factors can play a role.
ELECTION 2020
AOC Calls Biden’s Olive Branch to the Left Insulting
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez recently did an interview for The New York Times in which she was mostly asked about Joe Biden and his campaign. The big takeaway? Biden’s not doing enough in her eyes and certainly not enough for AOC to offer a “full-throated endorsement of his campaign,” but there’s still plenty of time for that to change.
AOC’s Endorsement is Valuable
When the primary was still up in the air, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was the most coveted 2020 endorsement—aside from former presidents. She’s a freshman congresswoman with an immense reputation, with many expecting her to carry the progressive torch nationally. While the progressive movement in the U.S. may not be a monolith, AOC’s feelings could serve as a good temperature gauge for where leftists are at with the former VP.
The Biden campaign has not reached out to Ocasio-Cortez at all.
AOC notes that she believes his olive branch to progressives, lowering the Medicare age to 60, doesn’t go far enough. Hillary was considering lowering it to 50 and that was, like Joe’s plan, in addition to a public option. She’s also unimpressed with his rhetoric and outreach surrounding Latino voters.
She also makes the tightrope walking of demanding more from a candidate without being “divisive.” It’s a word those of us on the left are slapped around with all the time, but unity ought to be earned, not a given.
Can Biden Really Win the Progressive Vote?
If you ask us? We’re a little more cynical about the idea that Biden can win over some of the more valuable parts of Bernie’s voting bloc. Independents may also be getting fed up with Trump, but that doesn’t indicate that Biden can pick them up.
On Medicare for All, Biden seemed to indicate he’d veto the bill as President unless there was a better way to pay for it. When the biggest opponent in your primary made this his central issue, you’d think you’d show a little more willingness to at least consider the policy.
Briahna Joy Gray, former National Press Secretary for Sanders, said she doesn’t endorse Biden today.
Rhetorically, Biden’s campaign is still seemingly putting down socialism. Believe it or not, Joe, some socialists do engage with electoral politics and this kind of language is the exact definition of divisiveness.
Bottom line: If Joe Biden is really trying to court the progressive vote, he’s not doing a stellar job of it. His entire campaign during the primary wasn’t great though. If he continues to fumble with building the coalition beyond what he’s already built, he may find himself in trouble later in the year.
END OF THE LINE...
That’s it for today.
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The Bread Line
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