Given the decline in support for Comrade Sanders, his followers need something to do. Hey, why not start an anti-Biden movement? Great idea.
And on the first day... “#NeverBiden, #WriteinBernie and #DemExit2020 hashtags began trending on Twitter.”
The significance of the problem became apparent in the same string of primaries that put Biden on the cusp of the nomination.
In Michigan — a state critical to Democrats’ efforts to reclaim their general election footing in the Rust Belt — just 2 of 5 Sanders backers said they would vote Democratic in November, regardless of who became the nominee, according to exit polls. Four in five said they’d be dissatisfied with Biden as the Democratic standard-bearer.
Urban myth or reality there is a consensus that disgruntled Bernie Bros helped elect Trump in 2016 by staying home or voting for him. As 2020 approaches and Biden has begun to seem inevitable, the burning question is not if but how many of these far-left voters keep their votes to themselves.
Do they stay home and impact down-ticket races? Do they vote for the party but not for Biden? Do they protest vote for Trump or Write in Bernie?
A bit of each is likely but the depth and breadth of that can’t be known. We’ve also got eight months of everything that can happen in the world until then.
There is certainly anecdotal evidence that for many progressives, Biden represents everything they dislike about mainstream Democratic politics. On “The Young Turks,” which draws millions of viewers, Krystal Ball, the former MSNBC host, said she couldn’t vote for Trump.
Not voting is a vote. Do they hate the DNC establishment more than four more years of The Donald? I find that hard to believe but here we are talking about it.
