Bernie Sanders endorsed Joe Biden on Monday, during a livestreamed chat between the two old friends.
During their conversation, Sanders called on everyone to hold their nose and vote for Biden, which is something I certainly plan on doing, because I’m not a dummy who thinks electoral politics is anything but harm reduction!
“Today, I am asking all Americans—I’m asking every Democrat; I’m asking every independent; I’m asking a lot of Republicans—to come together in this campaign to support your candidacy, which I endorse, to make certain that we defeat somebody who I believe is the most dangerous president in the modern history of this country,” Sanders said to Biden. Sanders added, “We’ve got to make Trump a one-term president, and we need you in the White House. I will do all that I can to see that that happens, Joe.”
Biden, for his part, has already begun to make moves in an attempt to appeal to progressive voters, though they’re still laughably insufficient. He will have to do more, and during the livestream, he seemed to acknowledge that running a campaign centered on nostalgia isn’t enough. “We just can’t think about building back to the way things were before,” he said, adding, “It’s not enough. We need to build to a better future.” In a sign that the Biden campaign recognizes the need to win over Sanders supporters, Biden and Sanders shared that they are creating six joint task forces focused on policy creation, with a focus on the economy, criminal justice reform, climate change, immigration reform, and healthcare.
One step Biden should take is to pick up his goddamn rotary phone and call Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who in an interview shared that his campaign has yet to reach out to her. “The whole process of coming together should be uncomfortable for everyone involved—that’s how you know it’s working. And if Biden is only doing things he’s comfortable with, then it’s not enough,” Ocasio-Cortez said. She added, “I will be supporting the Democratic nominee in November. I would just hope that the nominee supports our communities too.”
And a New York Times analysis of the presidential race makes it clear that Biden is going to need all the help he can get to defeat Trump in November. According to the Times, Biden, “despite his reputed appeal to blue-collar workers, has made little to no progress in winning back the white voters without a college degree who supported Barack Obama in 2012 but swung to Mr. Trump in 2016.” Remind me again how Biden was the only electable one?
Here’s the part that personally sent me into a paroxysm of panic:
As a result, Mr. Trump appears to retain his relative advantage in the disproportionately white working-class battleground states that decided the 2016 presidential election. Mr. Biden leads in polls of registered voters in these states, but by a narrower margin than he leads nationwide. It raises the possibility that Democrats could win the most votes and lose the White House for the third time in six presidential elections.
Did I eat two KitKat bars? Maybe! Will I phonebank for Biden during the general election? You betcha!
Oh yes, good, wonderful, great!
- After Donald Trump shared a tweet that included a call to fire Anthony Fauci on Sunday, the White House is now insisting that Trump has no plans to fire our sexy public health daddy. [New York Times/Washington Post]
- Maybe chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine… are not… a cure??? [New York Times]
- Can we make Elizabeth Warren the person responsible for managing the federal government’s response to the pandemic already? [Washington Post]
- A sailor who was aboard the USS Roosevelt, the aircraft carrier whose captain was removed from duty after a memo he wrote detailing the coronavirus outbreak on his ship leaked to the press, has died from covid-19. [CNN]