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josie's avatar

Do you assume the fix is in and Bernie is going to be maneuvered out?

Asked by josie (30934points) February 4th, 2020

The Iowa caucus. Looks bad for Bernie by my reckoning.

My Dem friends have two bad dream scenerios
One, that Bernie is the candidate and thus Trump wins.
Two that he is not, and Trump wins anyway.

Either way, at least in my crowd, they want Bernie out.
Is the process of moving him aside beginning in Iowa?

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19 Answers

tinyfaery's avatar

Let me get my tin foil hat before I get infected.

Berners will say it is, but it’s was simply a problem with the app. The left is getting as bad as the Trumpers. Everyone is such a reactionary.

Zaku's avatar

No.

The thinking you describe is mostly alien to me, except that the corporate-owned DNC doesn’t want Bernie to be the candidate.

My thinking is more like:

If Bernie is the popular choice, and the DNC forces some other corporate pawn to be their candidate, then the two party system has truly disintegrated and both parties need to be abolished.

If Bernie is the candidate against Trump, Bernie will win the actual popular vote. If somehow the election is rigged for Trump, there should be a revolution.

If the USA actually prefers Trump to Bernie Sanders (which I do not believe it does), then it’s probably time for me to seek asylum somewhere else.

KNOWITALL's avatar

I do. Both parties are threatened by his popularity and want him shut down. They can’t let anyone in who’s not Dem or Rep at this point.

Response moderated (Writing Standards)
SQUEEKY2's avatar

Personally from an outsider looking in at your country, big money will never let Sanders take it, he truly is someone finally for the little guy and the wealthy will have none of that the little guy is for bleeding, exploiting and crushing in wealth’s greedy never ending quest for more wealth.

gorillapaws's avatar

The reason Iowa is so important is that it’s supposed to be a big win with the press/public. You’re supposed to be seen on stage as being presidential as the winner of the first state. Whether by incompetence, fuckery or a combo of both the Iowa Democratic party managed to negate the value of the win for whoever won (it was forecast to go to Bernie).

If we assume that the app failed due to incompetence and not malice by a bad actor(s) somewhere, I still think the party could have released the preliminary results they did have confirmed (with photos of the ballots) on the night of. The fact that they’re taking nearly 24 hours to release something like 50% of the results is very suspicious to me as far as their motivations. Regardless of why it happened in the first place, I absolutely believe they’re capitalizing on the chaos to ensure that Bernie doesn’t get his “victory moment” and that Biden isn’t getting trashed for coming in 4th place.

Smashley's avatar

It’s a useful narrative that Mr. Sanders, a seasoned politician, may use to his advantage. Why should we expect less? He’s been pretty effective at building an identity of victimhood, and if he obfuscates the truth well enough, he can play off a loss or weak showing, without his supporters getting too worried about his broader appeal.

I feel worse for Buttigieg if he legit won, since his path to winning was a bounce in early states propelling his popularity, and now he doesn’t get a news cycle, though he clearly overperformed.

ucme's avatar

How old is the bloke?
He looks like 110 or something close, so will his heart even hold out?

Darth_Algar's avatar

You make the mistake of confusing incompetence for malice.

zenvelo's avatar

The DNC staff may be maneuvering that. There was a proposal floated last week to allow super-delegates even more participation in the convention, to block Sanders.

Thank goodness that people like AOC will be in place to block that.

Darth_Algar's avatar

@ucme “will his heart even hold out?”

They’ll claim he’s perfectly healthy, but….he did have a heart attack 3 or 4 months back.

hmmmmmm's avatar

@Darth_Algar: “You make the mistake of confusing incompetence for malice.”

You can’t blame people for interpreting it as malice when you have a party that is trying to stop Sanders, Pete kills the most important poll (Des Moines Register) right before the Iowa caucus as Bernie is ascendant in polls, Pete contributed to Shadow Inc last year and took part in the Stop Bernie meetings, Shadow Inc CEO is former Hillary for America and is staffed with the same people attempting to stop Sanders.

It’s not a stretch.

ucme's avatar

@Darth_Algar Well then I wish him well, but he should maybe live a more serene life away from politics.

tinyfaery's avatar

Glad I got the tinfoil out.

kritiper's avatar

Never assume anything.

gorillapaws's avatar

@hmmmmmm This is an interesting discussion by Nomiki Konst, who was formerly inside the DNC. Some of the details around this app are disturbing for sure.

johnpowell's avatar

Americans taking the jobs of Russians..

Smashley's avatar

@hmmmmmm – to clarify, Pete did not kill the Des Moines Register poll. He complained that there a definable technical problem was skewing the data in at least some cases, and there was. It was the Register who pulled the poll out of an abundance of caution. Nate Silver was pissed that they were so captured by fear of the perception of impropriety that they scrapped a whole poll without trying to isolate and remove bad data. Pete’s campaign did contribute twentyish thousand dollars to Shadow (terrible name for election app programming company, btw), but is that enough to buy an election, really? Biden thought it was worth a grand, and Gillibrand gave 30k, which obviously explains her surprise win last night.

Ahh.. it’s good to be back in election season. It’s like a roller coaster that may or may not end at a brick wall.

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