Sanders is out

Bernie Sanders has withdrawn from the US Democratic primary process, leaving Joe Biden as the presumptive nominee. I personally find the support for Sanders in the climate movement hard to understand and frustrating, as I can’t see what he has done that convinces them that he would lead effectively on climate change. Rather, it has seemed clear as state after state voted that Sanders’ political revolution was never going to happen. He wasn’t really part of the Democratic party and didn’t really have their support, and nor did he have the support of any influential constituency in America (progressives obviously don’t count as influential, in part because of their love for no-hopers like Sanders).

Hopefully a great majority of Americans will have the clarity of thought to see that virtually anyone is better than Trump, and vote accordingly in November.

Author: Milan

In the spring of 2005, I graduated from the University of British Columbia with a degree in International Relations and a general focus in the area of environmental politics. In the fall of 2005, I began reading for an M.Phil in IR at Wadham College, Oxford. Outside school, I am very interested in photography, writing, and the outdoors. I am writing this blog to keep in touch with friends and family around the world, provide a more personal view of graduate student life in Oxford, and pass on some lessons I've learned here.

10 thoughts on “Sanders is out”

  2. Thank You, Bernie Sanders — Next, Political Revolution Continues

    Amanda Harvey-Sánchez

    I, like many others, am saddened by today’s news that Bernie is ending his 2020 campaign to become President. I am heartbroken for what this may mean for the general election and millions of Americans and people around the world. But more than anything, I am inspired, grounded, and hopeful for the future of the movement that Bernie helped build.

    Personally, Bernie Sanders played a pivotal role in shaping the way I approach electoral politics and grassroots mobilization. Four years ago, when he made his first run for President, I was an undergraduate student and a fledgling activist and organizer. I had just experienced my first significant campaign loss (fossil fuel divestment at the University of Toronto), and I was utterly overwhelmed and dejected. Bernie’s vision for a people powered movement for progressive change re-ignited my passion for activism, and set aflame a new interest in electoral organizing as one of many tools we employ as organizers in our broader struggle for justice.

  6. What’s After Bernie Sanders?

    The news about Bernie Sanders suspending his presidential campaign is a challenge (not a defeat) to build a broad, anti-colonial left outside ruling class political parties. Amid the global COVID-19 pandemic, which has resulted in mass layoffs, rent strikes, and working-class mobilizations, his withdrawal couldn’t have come at a worse time for his supporters. But the politics of cynicism and reaction — which fester as uncertainty grows — are incredibly dangerous in a time when the future of the planet hangs in the balance.

  10. Many on the party’s progressive wing give him little credit for this. In the primaries, they wanted to abolish private health insurance; today, many want to defund police departments. Some warn, or threaten, that if he fails to take a turn to the left on such causes he risks losing the election. Aimee Allison, who heads She the People, an organising and advocacy group for women of colour, urges Mr Biden to “meet the moment [and] turn protesters into voters. If he doesn’t…he’s not going to be able to close this fatal enthusiasm gap he has now.”

    There are two problems with this. One is that the Democrats’ greatest recent success, winning back the House in 2018, was brought about not by progressives who retained safely Democratic seats but by centrists taking seats previously held by Republicans. The voters they won over then are the sort of people Mr Biden needs now. The second is that it would be inauthentic. Mr Biden’s persona is that of a moderate: a decent, reassuring figure running, as he often says, to “restore America’s soul”, and offering, as a surrogate put it, “a return to civility.” That is the Joe Biden for whom a majority of Americans twice voted when he was on the same ticket as Mr Obama.

    …

    But no one else in the race managed to convince the party that they, rather than Mr Biden, were the candidate best placed to defeat Senator Bernie Sanders, widely seen as unelectably far to the left.

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