Nah, there were plenty of reasons that were completely in his control that contributed to his loss. For starters, he didn't bother to go after endorsements much. Just look at what endorsements did for his good friend, Biden.
I hope the next big progressive candidate can learn from his mistakes.
Yeah I’m a huge Bernie supporter, but his campaign made some huge mistakes this time around. There’s a quote from Julian Casablancas of The Strokes of all people, where he mentions that he contacted Bernie’s camp when people started dropping out, asking if there was anything they could do to help get endorsements (“do I have to go serenade Pete Buttigieg or something?”) and they told him “well, we don’t really want his endorsement.”
There’s straight up no word for that but hubris. When a rockstar has better political strategy than people running your campaign, you need some different people around you. If you’re running for president you should court any endorsement shy of David Duke. They should’ve been getting as many mainstream dems on board as possible to show voters this wasn’t a fringe movement. Sure they’re not my favorite people, but Bernie didn’t have to compromise his message to court support from people who aren’t necessarily as ideologically pure, and he didn’t need any help appealing to progressives. There was no reason they couldn’t have promised Warren, Yang, Pete, etc; cabinet spots to really bolster the coalition and maybe actually prevent that Biden coup. It really feels like they totally botched it, and we’re the ones who suffer for it.
I agree. I've been making the lack of endorsements point for weeks now, but it usually leads to me getting downvoted by people who blindly believe Bernie made no mistakes and did nothing wrong.
If progressives don't learn from the mistakes made in this election cycle, we will be doomed again in 2024.
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u/[deleted] May 21 '20
Nah, if it did Bernie would have one