> And even if we could get a President [[ Kirsten Gillibrand | Gillibrand ]] in 2020, another lukewarm Democratic presidency will not only further impoverish and destabilize the working class and its suffering institutions, it will also all but guarantee that 2024 brings us POTUS Hamburglar in an SS uniform. No, it’s Bernie or bust. I don’t care if we have to roll him out on a hand truck and sprinkle cocaine into his coleslaw before every speech. If he dies mid-run, we’ll stuff him full of sawdust, shove a hand up his ass, and operate him like a goddamn muppet.
--Amber A'Lee Frost, "[[It's Bernie, Bitch]]"
> centrist wonks always complain that political slogans that can fit on a protest sign are naive or reductive. it's the complete opposite: to build constituencies of support, you need memorable, moral appeals: tax the rich, build public housing. easy.
--[[ https://twitter.com/james_m_wilt/status/1087456177888342021 | James M. Wilt ]]
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= Why Sanders? =
* In an age where [[ https://theintercept.com/2019/01/21/ocasio-cortez-marginal-tax-rate/ | 59% of people, and even 45% of Republicans, support the idea of raising the top marginal tax rate to 70% ]], someone actually willing to do that and articulate the power structure behind why instead the rate keeps falling seems like a better candidate than, you know, those that don't.
* He's too old, you say? Well somebody better warn [[ Joe Biden | Biden ]], then . . .
* Of course people [[ https://twitter.com/Nasty_007_/status/1088994502315003905 | will claim again ]] that he shouldn't be allowed to run in the Primary since he's "not a Democrat", ignoring the problem (which those same folks would undoubtedly decry) of vote-splitting that would then result, or that the combination of Democrats being generally unpopular in many states yet their //policies// often polling well in those same states means a non-Democrat on the ticket is probably a //good// thing for electability (which party loyalists so often claim to be terribly concerned with).
* He's an old white man . . . but that framing neglects how epochal it would be for a //Jewish person// to be elected president, or for that matter a //non-religious// person (although that might indeed be weaponized against him in the unlikely circumstance that he becomes the Democratic candidate like he should).