[Kaslin]

The Washington Post’s Philip Bump, a man whose analytical skills do not include understanding where babies come from, wrote the paper’s analysis, “Moderate Democrats are doing what Republicans refused to do in 2016: Getting out of the way.” Incidentally, “moderate” is the media’s preferred term for the collection of candidates whose views are far to the left of the average American but who are nevertheless not Bernie Sanders.

It’s absolutely true that the Democratic establishment figured out that a smaller field would help them get their preferred candidate. Who knows what sorcery and secret deals were made to get two viable candidates to leave the field prematurely.

But perhaps it’s worth noting the minor detail that Republicans won the 2016 general election by not doing what these pundits suggest should have been done that year. Not only did they win a presidency that experts had predicted might not be won by a Republican for many years to come, they did not face the catastrophic House and Senate outcomes that the experts predicted would accompany a Donald Trump candidacy.

The failure to stop Trump from winning the Republican nomination at the very least contributed to the fact that Republican voters got two Supreme Court Justices, 191 other federal judges, tax cuts, tax reform, departure from the administrative state-emboldening Paris Climate Accord, departure from the Iran nuclear deal, an unprecedented rollback of federal regulations, and a more restrained foreign policy.

By being unable to stop a Trump candidacy, the Republican Party managed to tackle some very difficult divides between its establishment and the voters who enabled their power, including on policies that seemed to exclusively benefit corporations and the wealthy, immigration, trade deals, the U.S. relationship with China, regular entry into wars, failure to end wars, and whether to cower in the face of unfair media attacks. The result is a party that is more unified than it’s been in a while. It didn’t just survive the 2018 midterms, it gained Senate seats even as it experienced the expected House losses. The party even has majority approval for the first time since 2005.

Why would the lesson for Democrats be that they must stop this type of possibility?

It is absolutely true that Sanders is an outsider the establishment resents, just like the establishment opposed Trump. And it’s true that the D.C. establishment in both parties would prefer to hold power in a minority situation than to win elections.

Sanders is a threat to that establishment. He really does have a different foreign policy than Biden about interventionist wars.

I do not believe we will defeat Donald Trump with a candidate like Joe Biden who supported the Iraq War. pic.twitter.com/8tII7O3Mal

— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) March 2, 2020

He disagrees with the establishment’s trade deals with China, and has for many years:

Since the China trade deal I voted against, America has lost over 3 million manufacturing jobs.

It’s wrong to pretend that China isn’t one of our major economic competitors.

When we are in the White House we will win that competition by fixing our trade policies.

— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) May 2, 2019

And he certainly has less cozy ties to the corporate class than many of the establishment.

Joe Biden has received contributions from more than 60 billionaires.

Does anybody think that we’re going to bring about the change that we need when you are indebted to 60 billionaires? pic.twitter.com/jGAwc6uTPA

— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) March 3, 2020

He represents a sizable contingent in the party. Yes, Democrats might be able to help Biden live to fight another day, until he once again reveals his apparent senility to voters. But in so doing, they might be killing their one candidate with energy and excitement in an effort to nominate someone like Biden.

Biden’s campaign is seeing strong fundraising and polling numbers, that can’t be disputed. Yet one of their more vulnerable constituencies are college-aged voters. This other TikTok featuring the same “please don’t make me vote for Joe Biden” tune has 48k likes. pic.twitter.com/5TG454OSNn

— Brittany L. Shepherd (@blrshepherd) January 2, 2020

If one didn’t know better, this idea that the Democrats need to learn from Republicans’ election-winning and party-unifying “mistake” sounds like they are following a playbook to not only lose the election but keep their nice little sinecures and perches at the networks, think tanks, newspapers, and other establishment positions.

[LouieFisk]

They are really working overtime not to make the same mistake Republicans did in 2016.
That mistake? Winning the election.

[Buckeye McFrog]

Unlike what happened in the GOP, where the bulk of the core voters supported Trump and got what they wanted, the Dems are deliberately ALIENATING their core voters who want Bernie.

It won’t end well for them.

[Don Corleone]

Democrats Are Learning The Wrong Lesson From 2016 GOP Primary

Plan "B" if Biden fails is to go ahead with their original plan "A", COMMUNISM for all (Except the ruling elite)

[Zhang Fei]

Biden getting the bulk of the support from the triple exit of Steyer, Buttigieg and Klobuchar. Whatever the actual numbers are, today's Super Tuesday results could shift them pretty radically:

Polling Data

Poll	Date	Sample	Sanders	Biden	Bloomberg	Warren	Buttigieg	Klobuchar	Steyer	Gabbard	Spread
RCP Average	2/20 - 3/3	--	26.8	23.8	15.3	14.8	9.0	4.7	2.0	1.0	Sanders +3.0
Morning Consult	3/2 - 3/3	961 LV	28	36	19	14	--	--	--	--	Biden +8
Morning Consult	3/1 - 3/1	2656 LV	29	26	17	11	10	3	--	--	Sanders +3
Reuters/Ipsos	2/28 - 3/2	469 RV	29	18	15	10	10	4	2	1	Sanders +11
Yahoo News/YouGov	2/26 - 2/27	811 RV	27	21	14	18	10	4	2	1	Sanders +6
Morning Consult	2/26 - 2/27	5334 LV	33	21	17	11	10	4	3	2	Sanders +12
IBD/TIPP	2/20 - 2/29	325 RV	23	20	13	17	7	6	--	--	Sanders +3
FOX News	2/23 - 2/26	507 LV	31	18	16	10	12	5	2	1	Sanders +13
Economist/YouGov	2/23 - 2/25	584 RV	30	20	11	16	9	4	1	4	Sanders +10
The Hill/HarrisX	2/23 - 2/24	470 RV	28	17	19	8	12	3	3	2	Sanders +9
Reuters/Ipsos	2/19 - 2/25	1808 RV	29	17	16	12	11	4	3	1	Sanders +12

[Grimmy]

Sanders is an outsider?

[Zhang Fei]

Texas primary poll:

Polling Data

Poll	Date	Sample	Sanders	Biden	Bloomberg	Warren	Buttigieg	Klobuchar	Gabbard	Steyer	Spread
RCP Average	2/28 - 3/2	--	29.5	28.0	18.0	14.5	4.5	3.5	2.0		Sanders +1.5
Data for Progress (D)	2/28 - 3/2	300 LV	28	30	20	15	4	3	1	--	Biden +2
Emerson	2/29 - 3/1	450 LV	31	26	16	14	5	4	3	2	Sanders +5
CBS News/YouGov	2/27 - 2/29	635 LV	30	26	13	17	6	6	0	1	Sanders +4
Data for Progress (D)	2/23 - 2/27	513 LV	30	21	21	13	9	5	1	1	Sanders +9
NBC News/Marist	2/23 - 2/27	556 LV	34	19	15	10	8	3	1	1	Sanders +15
CNN	2/22 - 2/26	387 LV	29	20	18	15	8	3	0	1	Sanders +9
Univision/U. of Houston	2/21 - 2/26	527 LV	26	20	20	11	6	2	1	2	Sanders +6
Dallas Morning News	2/17 - 2/26	586 LV	29	19	21	10	8	4	1	1	Sanders +8
UMass Lowell	2/12 - 2/18	600 LV	23	20	18	14	7	9	4	--	Sanders +3
University of Houston	2/6 - 2/18	1352 LV	20	20	12	17	11	7	3	1	Tie

[Zhang Fei]

CA primary polls:

Polling Data

Poll	Date	Sample	Sanders	Biden	Warren	Bloomberg	Buttigieg	Klobuchar	Steyer	Gabbard	Spread
RCP Average	2/28 - 3/2	--	35.0	23.0	16.0	14.0	6.0	4.0		1.5	Sanders +12.0
Data for Progress (D)	2/28 - 3/2	516 LV	32	25	16	17	5	3	--	2	Sanders +7
Emerson	2/29 - 3/1	545 LV	38	21	16	11	7	5	2	1	Sanders +17
CBS News/YouGov	2/27 - 2/29	1411 LV	31	19	18	12	9	4	3	1	Sanders +12
USA Today/Suffolk	2/26 - 2/29	500 LV	35	14	12	16	7	5	3	3	Sanders +19
Stanford/YouGov	2/26 - 2/28	1020 RV	28	19	18	13	9	6	4	3	Sanders +9
CNN	2/22 - 2/26	488 LV	35	13	14	12	7	6	3	1	Sanders +21
Berkeley IGS	2/20 - 2/25	3002 LV	34	8	17	12	11	6	2	--	Sanders +17
KQED/NPR	2/20 - 2/23	1069 LV	37	12	20	6	11	5	3	2	Sanders +17
Monmouth	2/16 - 2/19	408 LV	24	17	10	13	9	4	5	2	Sanders +7
UMass Lowell	2/12 - 2/20	450 LV	24	13	16	12	12	7	2	4	Sanders +8

[wildcard_redneck]

I think that the Demonrats got spooked by all of the sob stories that the bought-and-paid-for RINOs told them about lost campaign donations and kickbacks that they will never get thanks to President Trump.

[NTHockey]

>>And it’s true that the D.C. establishment in both parties would prefer to hold power in a minority situation than to win elections.<<

Money quote! It’s all about power and with the power comes money. Lots and lots of money. Socialism is alive and well in the Fake Congress. We have our money taken from us and they take it for all the “hard work” they do.

[Alberta's Child]

The GOP would have suffered a dumpster-fire disaster in 2016 if it made a bunch of backroom deals to clear the way for establishment favorite Jeb Bush to win the nomination.