Listen Liberal & a (Bad) 2020 Dem Primary Prediction

Editor’s note: as part of an ongoing project to turn ninaillingworth.com into a central hub for all of my writing (in response to ongoing censorship of my work by billion dollar tech companies) I’m spending parts of this month cross-posting older material from other platforms; my apologies for any potentially unwanted email notifications.

Annoyingly enough, completing this project faithfully includes posting my bad predictions too; even if you’ll still never convince me the 2020 Dem Party nomination contest wasn’t rigged against Sanders on Super Tuesday.

 

Thomas Frank’s Listen Liberal & Bernie’s Path to Victory

Look, I could spend a lot of time making excuses here but the simple truth is that while this is an excellent essay, and I was quite fond of it when it was first published, it turns out that I was completely and totally wrong. Not just kind of wrong, but directly and utterly wrong. I specifically said that nineteen some-odd Democratic Party candidates weren’t going to give up their presidential asperations to help Joe Biden beat Bernie Sanders and that, more or less, is exactly what happened in the end. I really have nothing to say for myself here, except perhaps I underestimated the power of a former President telling you to drop the f*ck out and endorse his former Vice President, before he ends your career on the spot. On the upside, there’s some decent analysis of why I really enjoy Thomas Frank’s work, but don’t always agree with him; ultimately however, there’s no escaping the fact that this might be the single most wrong prediction I’ve ever made in this space. Let’s never discuss this again.

 

“Although the issues that drive the democratic socialist movement behind Sanders are entirely different than the issues that drive Trump Nation, the dynamics of the struggle that propelled the swine emperor to victory are clearly being replicated on the Democratic side, with Bernie Sanders (and to a lesser degree, perhaps Elizabeth Warren.) Any policy or ideology based attack on Sanders, is effectively going to be an attack on the base – and in the meantime, every vote a candidate can snatch away from Sanders is going to help Joe Biden as much, or more, than any other candidate on the stage.”

 

To read more about “Listen Liberal” by Thomas Frank, and my oh-so-close, but ultimately wrong prediction that Bernie would win the 2020 Dem Party nomination over on Can’t You Read, click on the quotation block above, or the title header below.

 

Listen Liberal & Why Bernie Will Win

 

 

 

• nina illingworth

 

Independent writer, critic and analyst with a left focus. Please help me fight corporate censorship by sharing my articles with your friends online!

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“It’s ok Willie; swing heil, swing heil…”