Hacker News

points by gadders 15 hours ago | 0 comments

Well, "they" did their best to stop Bernie running.

They succeeded.

I remember reading the online news about those primaries as they happened. Bernie wins this state in a landslide. Bernie wins that state in a landslide. Suddenly he's not on the ballot in most of the remaining states. At the end he doesn't have enough votes, oh dear too bad so sad. Some sort of investigation happened, but concluded the DNC has the absolute right to run primaries any way it chooses to.

[–] amenhotep 14 hours ago

> Suddenly he's not on the ballot in most of the remaining states

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Results_of_the_2016_Democratic...

Why are you just completely making things up?

[–] buellerbueller 14 hours ago

HRC was also given the power to effectively run the DNC (while a candidate in the primaries!) in exchange for some funraising. There were bunches of other shenanigans.

To me, it all seems to boil down to the notion that Bernie would credibly have "drained the swamp," which would have effectively tanked the careers of a lot of long-serving Democratic folks who were not aligned with his populist/progressive agenda. Simply by hiring people that would have aligned with his vision, this was such a threat to existing power, it had to be stopped. Yes, the Rs are worse (in my opinion), but this gives me plenty of distrust for the Ds. Institutions eventually become more about institutional survival than about their "core mission."

[–] raptor99 4 hours ago

Remember also that it turned out that the chair of the DNC (Donna Brazile) was able to let Hillary (or at least Hilary's campaign) have access to the CNN debate questions in advance

[–] caconym_ 13 hours ago

At some point during that primary season I was driving in my car listening to my local NPR station and they had a story about these two candidates. I shit you not: they were introduced as "Hillary Clinton" and "the socialist senator from Vermont".

For some reason I remember that moment as vividly as I remember pulling out in the car with my mom on the way to school and hearing that a plane had hit the WTC.

[–] swed420 12 hours ago

NPR has been capital-endorsed garbage for a long time now. NYT is no better.

The Sanders campaigns just made it painfully obvious to anybody paying attention.

[–] linuxftw 12 hours ago

Remember when Hillary won all those coin tosses?

[–] buellerbueller 9 hours ago

https://www.npr.org/2016/02/02/465268206/coin-toss-fact-chec...

[–] mentalgear 14 hours ago

Yes, that was the Clinton-controlled ('wealthy donors') DNC that excluded Bernie from a fair competition to become the Democrat's Candidate - which by all metrics and polling from the party's base and non-party members he would have won.

So, the Clinton-controlled DNC from 2016 put Trump in the White House.

The positive message is that since then the Democrats have been infused by Sanders-like independent Democrats that want to do the right thing, but we must keep on pushing to rid and guard the DNC and party administration off the corrupt billionaire influences.

[–] 999900000999 13 hours ago

At a certain point you realize both parties ultimately serve the super rich. The DNC would rather have Republicans in office over electing real progressives.

If you look outside the US Bernie is actually a moderate. We're not talking about abolishing money or seizing the means of production. Just maybe, somewhere between minting a new trillionaire every year and pregnant women sleeping outside we can find a compromise.

Unlimited money for wars all over the planet, but if you lose your job and have a chronic illness you're screwed most of the time.

Sometimes your screwed even if you have a job and good health insurance. It's a magic game of musical chairs to see what's covered or not. What's out of pocket , etc.

[–] mentalgear 12 hours ago

Absolutely agree, Bernie is seen as politically 'normal' by most (western) countries. Only Amercians having become gradually skewed by Reagonomics (or better his puppet masters) that are so (ab)used by predatory capitalism would think of him as outer left, whereas most of the world sees in him a centrist (as would 1950s golden-era American voters).

[–] 999900000999 12 hours ago

I don’t think theirs any possible way Social Security or other New Deal programs could be enacted today.

Although it can be argued this should be handled state by state instead. Unemployment pays about 1k per week in Washington , but only 400$ a week in Illinois.

My big fear is a right leaning federal government will eventually dismantle the social safety net entirely. If not that expect rent seeking, ie paying fees to private companies to get your social security checks

[–] 999900000999 7 hours ago

Edit: Illinois actually goes up to around 850 if you have children and starts at 628$, my mistake

[–] emchammer 9 hours ago

For the sake of discussion, can you clarify who you refer to by "puppet masters"?

[–] midev 14 hours ago

Can you explain why you shouldn't rely on media memories as truth?

> Suddenly he's not on the ballot in most of the remaining states

Can you list these states? This should be easy to verify.

> concluded the DNC has the absolute right to run primaries any way it chooses to

Can you cite a law that tells private parties who they must support?

[–] raptor99 4 hours ago

If by "they", you are referencing specifically the DNC establishment then you are correct.

[–] BobaFloutist 12 hours ago

By voting against him?

[–] swed420 15 hours ago

So did Dems

[–] gadders 14 hours ago

I don't think the Dems are still the party of the working class.

[–] amanaplanacanal 14 hours ago

There is no party of the working class. Hasn't been since Clinton in the 90s moved to the right.

[–] MisterTea 14 hours ago

Pretty much this. Voting in this election will give me no peace of mind.

[–] Arodex 8 hours ago

And won.

The truth is that Americans hate the working class. They idolize the super rich.