As most of the readers of this blog know, I don’t endorse candidates in Democratic primaries.
Here is where I stand.
I read a comment a few weeks ago on Twitter where someone wrote that he would vote for a toothbrush over Trump.
I agree. I am a member of the Toothbrush Party.
I would vote for my beautiful, loving, compassionate mutt Mitzi over Trump.
I think he is a danger to our society and to the world. Mitzi is not.
I think he is determined to destroy the federal government, department by department, agency by agency, by putting fools, sycophants, and those who share his contempt for government in charge at every level.
He is packing the courts with religious zealots.
He will completely control the Supreme Court if he is re-elected.
He is destroying the government’s ability to administer justice fairly and impartially.
He has fired dedicated career officials because they were loyal to the Constitution, not to him personally.
He has embraced dictators and autocrats while alienating our allies.
He thinks he is above the law and can do anything he wants, without regard to the Constitution.
I will vote for anyone on the Democratic ticket opposing Trump.
Do not sit home if your candidate doesn’t win the nomination.
Do not vote third party.
Vote for anyone who will save us from this stupid, arrogant, petty, ignorant man who sits in the White House.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I will vote “blue no matter who” if and only if the Democratic nominee reflects the will of the people. But if there is cheating at the primaries/caucuses like last time, or if the superdelegates override the will of the people, there is no reason to vote for an undemocratic Democratic candidate.
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If you don’t vote, get ready for four more years of Trump. More Trumpers on the Supreme Court. Ask RBG what she would do.
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Imagine Trump in a second term. Drops Pence and puts Jared on the ticket. Ivanka for Secretary of State. No need to bring on Don Jr or Eric because they are running Trump Inc.
Think of the possibilities!
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If the unDemocratic Party forces an unpalatable candidate down my throat (and the throats of everyone else), get ready for four more years of Trump. You can’t give someone the middle finger and then expect them to show up and cheer for you.
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That’s how we got Trump. How do you like him?
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Why not endorse someone in the primaries? What is your rationale and that of NPE? Take a stand. You won’t fall down or crumble. I promise. And you won’t be judged. You’re entitled to your opinion.
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Robert,
I didn’t have a single candidate. I gave small amounts to several candidates. Sanders, Warren, Amy, and Joe. I didn’t want any of them to lose because they didn’t have any money. I don’t think my $100 kept any of them afloat. I liked all of them, some more than others. I didn’t care that they didn’t agree about everything. I am not an ideologue. I wanted to help them all. None is perfect. I remember a book I read many years ago called “Idols of the Tribe,” by Harold Isaacs. He wrote about the psychology of small differences. That’s what I saw happening among the Democrats. Sanders is farthest to the left, but Elizabeth Warren is in agreement with him on most issues. I like Elizabeth a lot; I met her privately a few years ago and thought she was the smartest elected official I had ever met. Warren, to me, was the sharpest debater. Amy never broke out, but I found her reasonable and thoughtful. It bothered me that Joe is closest to the party establishment, which has been too close to what used to be the Republican center. That Republican center—the party of Ike—has been obliterated by Trump. The GOP is now the party of racism, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia, allied with the world’s dictators, scornful of science, disdainful of reason, logic, history, and ethics, hostile to the Constitution and the rule of law. Lying is their MO. Trump and his administration are anathema to me. I despise and loathe what he has done to our country. As I wrote earlier, I would vote for a toothbrush over Trump.
Given the nature of the current administration, I can happily vote for any of the candidates.
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Dienne, I am a fervent supporter of Bernie Sanders. I detest the DINOCRAT wing of the Democratic Party. But seriously?!?!?!?!?! You will not vote against Trump if Biden wins the nomination? I’m sorry, but that is bats**t crazy.
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Remember when Trump said if he didn’t win the election was rigged? He said that non-stop during the final months of the 2016 campaign. Either he won, or the election was “rigged”.
When I hear Bernie supporters sounding exactly like Trump, I actually feel less inclined to vote for Bernie. If Bernie doesn’t win the primary, that means it was “rigged” and corrupt. Biden is insane and racist and sexist and corrupt and only cares about pleasing corporate masters. We have heard all of that from Trump and now we hear it from Bernie supporters when their candidate loses some momentum?
I don’t think those Bernie supporters represent what Bernie stands for, but they sound so much like Trump that it becomes completely off-putting. If that is how they tried to get votes in South Carolina, no wonder Biden won big.
Bernie supporters are doing great harm to his campaign when they repeat the same right wing talking points that Trump spews against democrats. It turns voters off. It makes people think that the Medicare for All really is a bad idea since Bernie supporters aren’t defending it but just attacking the other candidates as “racist” or “corrupt”.
Some voters are SCARED of Bernie’s new ideas. They like some of them, but also worry about how they would impact their own lives. I honestly think Bernie needs to fine-tune his message to address that instead of allowing his supporters to shout “if you aren’t with us, you are corrupt and supporting racist Biden”. And then they blame a “rigged process” that is only fair if Bernie wins. It insulting to all the primary voters when Bernie voters claim that the “rigged” process is the only reason Bernie didn’t have sweeping victories in every state, but Warren and others lost because they just weren’t good enough.
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Th polls are showing Sanders with a SLIGHT lead in Texas. If Biden wins that state, then we might be headed for a brokered convention. And it might well be possible that he would win the nomination in the second vote, in which the unelected DINOcrat superdelegates vote.
And if that happens, as much as I oppose “The Bankers’ Friend,” Status Quo Joe, I will campaign enthusiastically for him.
Four more years of IQ45, Vlad’s Agent Orange, Jabba the Trump, would be a disaster for our country. His vile legacy would extend, via the courts, for many decades. He must be stopped, and anyone who encourages others not to vote against him out of spite is serving Trump’s interests. That person, for all practical purposes, might as well be any other chump in the crowd before Trump on the stump.
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The polls are showing Biden with a slight lead in North Carolina. So, if Biden wins Texas and North Carolina, we could end up with a brokered convention.
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If Bernie wins a plurality of pledged delegates, I wonder how many so-called moderates will, as the MSNBC pundit coined the phrase, “vote blue, no matter who“. Interesting how people act when the shoe is on the other foot.
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Then you will vote for Trump. Don’t let grievance politics get in the way of rational behavior. There is every reason to elect the Democratic nominee. Even if its Bernie, I’ll vote for him though I’d rather have a Democrat head the ticket. And I’ll work hard to convince everyone I know to vote for him. You’ll vote for Trump? Hard to believe. Every non-voter actually votes for the winner.Right now we are in a primary, not the general election. The primary candidates all know and agreed to the rules.
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I am afraid there are many who, like dienne77, have no problem with another four years of Trump.
It is clear to me and others (including dienne77, that the Democratic party is deeply flawed.
A remedy for that is not to be found in four more years of Trump or the buyout effort of Bloomberg, or sitting out the election altogether. That stubborness will garantee the Trumpsters a win. We are already at the threshold of being too late to reverse the dictatorial powers he and Republicans are putting in place aided by stacked courts.
I will be 85 next month. I am unlikely to be alive and competent to vote in another presidential election. Count me in as a member of the Toothbrush Party.
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I don’t want another 4 years of Trump (and I don’t think dienne77 wants that either). We want a government “for the people” and not a government for the wealthy, elite people. If the flawed Dem “Party” decides to rig the system again, in favor of the preferred billionaire backed candidate, the “people” will decide to stay home…..again. The Democratic Party has been exposed and “the people” are now starting to realize that their vote doesn’t really matter. Kind of a slap in the face! You can’t keep doing this to people and expect to get a different result. God help us, but we are screwed!!!… and HRC needs to shut up and retire because all she doing is throwing gasoline on a lit fire.
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I am completely mystified about why some Sanders supporters are entirely convinced that the primary is “rigged” because their candidate could not win a majority of delegates.
Do Elizabeth Warren voters think it was “rigged” because she didn’t win more primaries? Why is it always Bernie who is “victimized” by the evil DNC and not any other candidates who lose primaries?
And are they claiming that the primary was not “rigged” in states that Bernie wins, but it was “rigged” in every state where he doesn’t win? Those older African-American women voters in South Carolina who liked Biden better than Bernie were part of the “rigging” that was done to insure that Bernie lost?
There is something very unappealing about Bernie supporters who clim that the only outcome that proves that the primary isn’t “rigged” is having Bernie be the nominee. It is so condescending to the older African-American voters who Bernie has been unable to win over.
It is condescending to women who liked Elizabeth Warren or Amy Klobuchar or even Kamala Harris to declare their primary losses are due to their own ineptitude, but Bernie was “robbed”.
I still think Bernie can win the primary because he gets the votes of people who support him. If he doesn’t, it isn’t because the primary was “rigged”. It is because Bernie didn’t make his case to enough voters. And one reason that Bernie is likely to lose is how condescending some Bernie supporters are and their threats to not vote for the democratic nominee if it isn’t Bernie.
Those Bernie supporters sound just like the Bloomberg supporters who claim they won’t vote for Bernie if he is the nominee. Instead of trying to convince voters that their candidate is offering good policies, they spew ugly and nasty attacks on the other candidates and claim either Bernie or Bloomberg is “more dangerous” or “no worse” than Trump.
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NYCPSP….There have been numerous news stories about how the Clinton Foundation propped up the DNC with a lot of much needed cash (they were broke!)….so HRC became the darling. Believe what you want, but the DNC decided who would be the candidate in 2016 regardless of what “the people” wanted. Yes, I do think that the system is rigged and I think that Warren hasn’t gotten the coverage and support from the DNC that is owed to her. Ever wonder why a few weeks ago it was ALL about Bernie?…..because he was the best way to beat Bloomberg. Now that Bloomberg is pretty much washed out, the DNC and their smart media will start propping up who they want to win…..regardless of what “the people” want. Do I think the Dem Party actually changes votes or miscounts….NO….but I think they play big in the public opinion/spin area and they know how to craft “the message” in their favor. They want Biden because it’s no different than Obama or HRC and it stands to keep the billionaires in charge. I love Bernie, but I would vote Warren. Heck, I would have even voted Mayor Pete in a pinch, but Biden I can’t stomach. If it comes down to Biden, I will vote for him while holding my nose because 4 more years of Trump will likely give me a stroke or a heart attack.
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LisaM,
Now you are saying the Clinton Foundation illegally used its charitable money to pay the DNC and prop it up? You really don’t understand how that is simply not even close to being the truth? That agreement between the Clinton Victory Campaign and the DNC is typical – either it gets mischaracterized as the corrupt HRC using charitable donations to bribe the DNC, as you posted here, or the “crime” is what could have been done because nothing actually was done. Except the “conspiracy” that the debates were scheduled on weekends because in this day of the internet, not scheduling them on weekdays was a plot against Bernie! Or if a DNC staff said something mean about HRC in an e-mail it was a sign of how terrible HRC was, but if a DNC staff said something mean about Bernie, it was because they had “rigged” the election to insure his defeat. It was absurd and hypocritical — no matter what, every word was construed as “rigging” even if nothing was actually done.
Meanwhile,Trump can demand Ukraine investigate his political rival and actually hold up foreign aid, and people say “well you can’t prove why he did that so he is innocent.” But the DNC does nothing but because an e-mail “proved” they didn’t like Bernie (and also proved they didn’t like HRC but that can’t be mentioned), that means the DNC secretly rigged the election for HRC to win, even if the DNC did nothing but schedule debates on the weekend.
(Sadly, I think HRC would have been a far more progressive president than Biden — and she proved to me she understood the charter issues better than most when she spoke in front of a pro-charter audience in South Carolina and explained better than Bernie or Warren ever has what is wrong with charters.)
Biden’s campaign didn’t “prop up the DNC” and had no secret agreement with them. In fact, when Buttigieg started amassing support, he was supposedly the candidate of the corrupt DNC, then Bloomberg was, and now it’s right back to Biden. I have no doubt that if Warren had won more votes than Bernie, some of his supporters would have claimed it was because the DNC “rigged” it for her. (In fact, someone here kept posting links to pro-Bernie articles that intentionally painted Warren as corrupt and unethical and a liar and someone who could not be trusted to do anything but the bidding of the DNC billionaire overlords.)
There is an excellent chance that had HRC won instead of Trump, Citizens United would have been overturned by a far more progressive Supreme Court. That would have gone a long way to electing progressive legislatures nationwide! Instead, money still talks, and it is a shame that some Bernie voters were so determined to destroy that evil DNC that they made it near impossible to ever get money out of politics. Trump picking 2 young right wing justices with the chance to choose even more?
Anyone who repeats right wing propaganda to destroy which candidate ends up being the Democratic nominee is complicit in pushing the Trump right wing agenda. That goes for disaffected Mike Bloomberg voters if Bernie wins the nomination, and disaffected Bernie voters if someone else does.
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All we want is a fair election.
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And all Trump, Putin, and the GOP want is a rigged election.
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Amen, I will vote for any Democrat in the general election, Trump MUST be dumped. Even Bloomberg would be marginally better than Trump. I’m voting for Bernie in the primary but you can’t put all your eggs in one basket, Bernie might lose, then what. Please, let’s not have a replay of 2016 with the ideological purists like Chris Hedges (he is a great man but…). Vote Democratic, don’t waste a vote on 3rd party, we need a blue wave.
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I’ll vote for the Democrat but I hope it isn’t Biden.I don’t think he has any idea how big the problems in the US are, nor does he have the capacity to solve any of them.
He isn’t Donald Trump but that’s about all he has. Is it enough to win? I don’t know. I hope so.
The people he hires are just so freaking depressing. Anita Dunn? Really? Again? She’s a freaking lobbyist for some of the worst policies in the country, including for-profit colleges that brutally ripped off the most vulnerable college students. Why do Democrats hire these people over and over and over? Why can’t they find and hire someone OUTSIDE the horribly corrupt and captured status quo?
Biden will bring all the Obama ed reformers back too- they’ll flock back from their consultancies and think tanks and billionaire funded anti-public school political orgs and we’ll get the same old market based garbage they’ve been pushing for 20 years.
But, yeah. I will once again vote for people who actively work against the interests of my grown children and community, because it is true they are better than Donald Trump, who is absolutely horrible.
I feel sorry for young people. They got a raw deal. I came up in a better, more generous, more hopeful country. Sadly, I wasn’t able to keep it for them. We’re handing them a real mess and we keep insisting they vote for the same people who made the mess.
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I too, feel sorry for young people and the legacy that we have left for them. I hope my young adult children and their peers will be able to make lemonade out of lemons and bring back a better America for ALL Americans. My daughter will get her first chance to vote this election cycle and she had registered herself as “Independent”….she had to back down and change her voting status to Dem so that she could vote for Bernie Sanders and that made her pretty darn angry! Too much “compromise” and “back scratching” has left us in this mess.
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Biden ALSO isn’t Bloomberg. He ALSO isn’t Booker.
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I agree with every word in your post. Trump has got to go.
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If Biden wins, I will enthusiastically support him. Then, I will spend the next four years fighting him on healthcare and education and much else. But it will be a LOT better than having IQ45 in the office. Perhaps actual Democrats in the House and Senate can drag him kicking and screaming into the freaking 21st century.
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Ah ha. Vote Toothbrush.
>
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Amen
Sent from my iPhone
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Anybody but Trump. And please oh please don’t pull the Bernie was robbed schtick, and sit out the election. I still believe that is part of what led to Trump’s victory last time. I am an education voter, and I think Bernie is better on that issue, and on many others, but I can work within the system to elicit change. Trump is a danger to our having any sort of future at all. I am not going to stress over the policy details when I see my country going up in flames.
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Well said, agree 100%!
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Randy Rainbow agrees that any Democrat will Do. If you watch Randy’s latest Broadway-quality performance, do not forget that at this time in 2016, there were almost twenty candidates competing for the Republican nomination to run for president, and it was a circus, too, but every RED choice was a bad choice.
Near this end of this video, Randy says, “Just pick anyone alive and breathing … or anyone BLUE!”
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Agreed! As I’ve read elsewhere, if the flying cockroach has a D after its name, it’s got my vote.
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The spite of people like Dienne may usher in the end of democracy in America, since Trump has given many signals that he’s a wanna-be autocrat and viciously attacks anything that stands in the way of absolute power. To my knowledge he’s never uttered a word of praise for democracy –isn’t that a huge red flag? If Trump has another term, the Supreme Court will be radicalized and we may never have another valid election again as GOP voter suppression will go into overdrive, the intelligence agencies will abet Russian vote tampering, etc. All this will make DNC “rigging” seem quaint. Trump will use the politicized Justice Department to tame the oligarchs like Bezos and Bloomberg and Zuckerberg as Putin used trumped up charges to bring Russia’s once-feisty oligarchs to heel. Independent media could be shut down. We could end up in a fascist state with Fox as the sole media source. That’ll show the DNC!
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