Again: this is why, if Bernie is still on your ballot, you should vote for him if he would have been your choice even if “it doesn’t make a difference”. We still have the ability to drag Biden further to the left. https://twitter.com/raffi_rc/status/1249773499322757120

This is also *why you should vote for him*, even in addition to him not being Trump.

Do I like that he’s the nominee? No. Do I implicitly trust him? No, but you shouldn’t implicitly trust any politician, even if you like them.

He is moveable. That’s what matters.

This is what @AlexandraErin has expressed so often and so well: how we destroy the Republican party is we try to get very progressive/left nominees, and then we vote for the nominee even if we didn’t vote for them initially, and then we primary them again.

We don’t huff and flounce. We don’t hold the line on ideological purity in the name of something something principle. We get. Shit. Done. And we get shit done by looking to the future and being transactional. Because that is how you get things done.

Do you want progressive policies? This is what you do. You “settle” in the name of long-term goals. You keep your eye on the prize.

Joe Biden is not progressive enough, but if his campaign is smart, they’ll see that they need to appeal to us, and there’s evidence that they are.

Maybe it’s an empty sales pitch. So vote for him and then be the biggest pain in his ass until it’s *not* empty.

But otherwise you’re just making excuses, and you either don’t want to actually get things done or you’re unwilling to accept how we do that and you need to get it.

No, I’m not preemptively blaming people saying they won’t vote for Biden for a Trump victory. Firstly that’s an oversimplification of how things happen. Secondly he hasn’t won yet.

What I’m saying is you‘re either willing to do what it takes to get things done or you aren’t.

We vote for Democrats, we scream at them to go left, and then we primary them with Democrats who are already pushing what we want, and then we vote for the nominee again, repeat.

And that’s how you destroy the Republican party. That’s how you make them cease to exist as a viable political entity. You get coldly transactional, you sacrifice a sense of moral superiority, you learn how to take advantage of openings and flexibility.

Bernie already gets this. He sees a chance to influence, to push, so rather than stand outside and pout he’s jumping in there.

That’s why whenever Obama needed a vote for something watered down that was far less than Bernie wanted, he voted for it.

Incrementalism isn’t spinelessness. It’s strategy. Yes, it would be amazing if we could do it all at once in one fell swoop. Yes, the moral clarity is on our side. But you either are willing to do what it takes to get it done or you aren’t.

Voting for Joe fucking Biden and then making his life a living hell is how we get it done. Bernie gets this. We all need to follow his lead.

By the way if you want to give me shit for this, your beef is with Bernie. Not me.

They are fucking evil, and their strategy has also been marvelously successful. Maybe we should consider why that is. https://twitter.com/storyslug/status/1249785473612025861?s=21 https://twitter.com/storyslug/status/1249785473612025861

And I apparently need to fucking mute this thread, which doesn’t surprise me in the slightest.

Look, if you don’t want to help at least get out of the way.