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The Establishment Strikes Back
Townhall.com ^ | March 7, 2020 | Michael Reagan

Posted on 03/07/2020 4:50:24 AM PST by Kaslin

Everyone talks about the power of the Republican and Democrat Party establishments.

It's real - just ask Bernie.

He quickly found out how powerful the Democrat establishment is this week when Mayor Pete and Amy Klobuchar both called it quits just in time to help Joe Biden rack up some impressive primary wins on Super Tuesday.

Bernie Sanders is a socialist, an outsider.

Outsiders always have a tough time. But good, likable candidates like my father in 1980 can defeat the party establishment.

Bernie isn't exactly likable, but he was looking pretty strong there for awhile- almost unstoppable.

He had a lot going for him.

Big, energetic crowds. A clear and unchanging message calling for bigger government, radical economic change and social justice. Lots of campaign money rolling in. Friendly coverage by the liberal mainstream media.

But his big mistake - the one that caused Democrat powerbrokers to quickly crush him just as he seemed to be cruising to the nomination - was when he went on "60 Minutes" and staunchly defended Fidel Castro's literacy and educational programs.

The Democrat establishment woke up and said, "Whoa, wait a minute. We just lost Florida in the fall."

Bernie had to know that with half a million Cubans living in Miami, a presidential candidate in a general election who says nice things about Cuba's communist government is committing political suicide.

But "principled" Bernie couldn't help himself.

He's a living ideological relic of the 1960s, when leftists like him excused, justified and even applauded the oppressive, impoverished and primitive dictatorships of Cuba and the Soviet Union.

Half a century later, with the USSR's evil empire long gone and Eastern Europe free, Bernie still actually believes all that 1960s leftwing claptrap.

He's one of the reasons the Cold War lasted so damn long.

When the Democrat bigshots heard Bernie praising his hero Fidel- and stubbornly refusing to pull it back - it scared the bejesus out of them.

Biden was getting weaker and goofier every day, but to the party establishment he was suddenly again looking like their only hope to beat Trump.

So the Democrats - the party of diversity - got rid of the rest of their women candidates, their young candidates, their billionaire candidates and their candidates of color and ended up with two very old white guys.

Anything could happen, but Biden now looks like he'll win the nomination unless he completely goes off the rails - which might happen in the next CNN debate on March 15.

By then Idaho, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota and Washington will have held their March 10 Democrat primaries and half of all delegates will have been chosen.

Biden and Bernie will debate one-on-one for two whole hours - if the old coots can last that long.

Both of them are going to need extra doses of vitamin B-12. Instead of water on his podium, Biden will be swigging Red Bull.

Whoever wins their debates, Bernie is never going make the Democrat establishment happy by obediently dropping out of the race like Mike Bloomberg and the others did.

That means it's going to be hot and nasty at the Democrat National Convention in Milwaukee this July.

If Biden wins the nomination, according to the Democrat establishment's plans, the party's big problem will be getting Bernie's young army of left-wingers to get out of bed and vote for Biden on Election Day.

Good luck with that.

In the general election, no matter which woman he picks as his VP, old Joe Biden and his stale, "moderate," leftover Obama-era policy ideas will be a longshot to beat Donald Trump.

But the Republican Party and the Trump campaign better be careful.

Voters don't always vote on policy. They often vote on personality - "Do I like you?"

That "likability" advantage helped Donald Trump pull off his upset against Hillary. But whatever weaknesses Biden has, he will never be as unlikable as she is.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: berniesanders; joebiden

1 posted on 03/07/2020 4:50:24 AM PST by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

Gotta stop crazy bernie, damn what them young folk want!!


2 posted on 03/07/2020 4:55:34 AM PST by weezel
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To: Kaslin

The author has this all wrong. The Democratic Party leadership didn’t throw Bernie under the bus over a stupid TV interview. He was never going to win the nomination, no matter what happened ... and he knew it better than anyone.


3 posted on 03/07/2020 4:59:14 AM PST by Alberta's Child ("Oh, but it's hard to live by the rules; I never could and still never do.")
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To: weezel

Bernie is not the scary one. It’s the millions of brainwashed kids supporting him are the problem both now and in the future.


4 posted on 03/07/2020 5:00:03 AM PST by oldasrocks (Heavily Medicated for your Protection.)
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To: Kaslin

“Bernie Sanders is a socialist, an outsider.”

It is NOT because Bernie is an avowed avowed socialist that he is an outsider. It is because unlike the lying Dim established, he is an AVOWED socialist. The Dim establishment is as committed to socialism as is Bernie. But they have an agenda, written into their party DNA - socialism by gradual measures, so by the time their agenda is complete, the people will not have - along the way - identified as socialism until it is complete. Bernie pools the wool OFF of people’s eyes, and the Dim establishment knows the people are not yet ready.

The Dim establishment just as dangerous as Bernie, and far more deceitful.


5 posted on 03/07/2020 5:04:36 AM PST by Wuli
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To: Kaslin

How does Biden’s agenda differ from Sanders’? Has anyone asked Biden about his views on Castro and Cuba? Obama WENT to Cuba to kiss Castro’s ghostly ass and demonicRATS had no problem with that.


6 posted on 03/07/2020 5:34:54 AM PST by Texas Eagle (If it wasn't for double-standards, Liberals would have no standards at all -- Texas Eagle)
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To: Kaslin

Typical Michael Reagan exercise in missing the point. He writes about the horse race aspect of the demonicRAT campaign without realizing that Biden and Sanders are on the same horse.


7 posted on 03/07/2020 5:38:55 AM PST by Texas Eagle (If it wasn't for double-standards, Liberals would have no standards at all -- Texas Eagle)
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To: Kaslin

The GOP establishment wanted to stick us with Yeb! in 2016.


8 posted on 03/07/2020 6:04:31 AM PST by Lurkinanloomin (Natural Born Citizens Are Born Here of Citizen Parents_Know Islam, No Peace-No Islam, Know Peace)
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To: Kaslin


9 posted on 03/07/2020 6:08:21 AM PST by Vlad The Inhaler (I love Mankind - It's Just Most Of The People That I Can't Stand)
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To: Kaslin

Or has the DNC simply studied the facts (Trump is wildly popular with his base) and decided that 2020 belongs to Trump? Sanders or Biden will be sacrificed like an elderly Eskimo on an ice flow.

Once these fossils are gone, the Dems can advance a young slate of candidates who are radical in OAC’s way, not the 60’s way of Sanders. Or they can move to the center./s

Then again, eight years of Trumponomics will have produced a surging & successful capitalist system. To run against that will require either a revolutionary candidate or a go-along-get-along like Mondale (”sure, the Reagan economy’s good, but I can make it even better, and fairer, too”).

IMO things look bleak for the DNC at this point.


10 posted on 03/07/2020 8:26:09 AM PST by elcid1970 ("The Second Amendment is more important than Islam.")
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