Comments by "wvu05" (@wvu05) on "Hear The Bern Episode 19 | Building Coalitions (w/ Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor)" video.

We need to work like mad to make sure that he gets to 1990 pledged delegates. If he does that, no one will have a chance to take it away.
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@GLORYNEVADASMITH Maybe do something to actually get Bernie nominated. Make calls, knock on doors, talk to your friends, download the BERN app, make a donation. Find a local group that is working on the nomination. Maybe a local DSA chapter or a local Bernie group. Keep working and then work some more. Instead of obsessing over conspiracy theories, put some of that energy into getting him elected.
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@ReVeralife Maybe put some of that energy into getting Bernie over the line in the first place so you don't have to hope for acquiescence. Part of this conspiracy rests under the idea that the Democratic establishment would rather lose to Trump than win with Bernie, but if people show up in Milwaukee, they will suddenly back down? Richard Clarke once said that conspiracy theories rely on believing in both the total in competence and total shrewdness of the government all at the same time. As for me, I will keep doing the work to get Bernie to 1990.
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@ReVeralife You are forgetting one key thing: if a candidate gets below 15% in a state or Congressional district, that vote goes into the ether. If this is really an effort to block anyone from getting a majority, this is the absolute worst possible way to do it. Bloomberg isn't about splitting the vote, his candidacy is about the establishment having second thoughts about Biden's ability to win. The ideal number of candidates if the goal is to block a majority is three or four, not 15, because 15 means it is easier to not be viable, whereas in theory, Bernie could win 16%, and second place could get 14.9%, and Bernie gets all of the delegates. Understand the rules when commenting on the game.
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@GLORYNEVADASMITH So, you abhor negative campaigning against the guy who willfully breaks the law and the Constitution on a daily basis and praises Nazis, but you want him to tear into Biden harder? Yeah, that makes sense. Also, the goal is not to win over Trump supporters. If they still like Trump, they are probably too far gone. The goal is to turn out your own supporters.
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@GLORYNEVADASMITH So, they are part of the conspiracy, too? The theory has been quite obvious for a while: peak at the right time. Harris made her move at the first debate, and look at where she is. Any candidate who made their move early is already crumbling, and even the MSM has begun to realize that he is peaking at the right time. So, let me get this straight, you have no ability to do anything like talking to other people in order to try to help a once in a lifetime candidate win, but you have all of this energy and ability to organize a flash mob if he doesn't? [In Dr. Evil voice]: Riiight. Well, since you want to talk about skills, here is mine: I am very good at finding the logical inconsistencies and contradictions in just about every argument. So, f you want to come at me with excuses, make sure that they are at least something where the most basic debater or lawyer wouldn't be able to do a flow sheet and see the obvious problems.
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@marci.abraham If this were a one-on-one occasion, I would agree with you. A public forum where people are spreading the notion that Bernie can't win anyway so we should go with a strategy based on that is completely different. By letting stuff like that go on Bernie's website, other people might see it and become discouraged from doing the actual work needed to win (the same reason why I try to discourage conspiracies that say that Bernie can't win), and THAT is why I pointed out the problem with that thinking.
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@marci.abraham Well, I would suggest that seeing what it is based on and the actual evidence is vital. When Bernie supporters insist that the field is so big not because a) a lot of people who probably should have run the last time who were afraid of the Clinton machine and b) people who thought, "if Trump could win, so can I," it greatly affects our credibility. Running 15 candidates mist likely means over 20% of the vote goes into the ether, thus making it easier for viable candidates to get delegates. Saying "it is impossible for Bernie to win the nomination on the first ballot, so go protest" dampens enthusiasm, which is why it so angers me when I hear "the DNC won't let Bernie win." If they deny him the nomination no matter what, why are we giving up our weeknights and Saturdays to go do the work to get him to 1990? If people want to help Bernie, then they should help. If they think that this conspiracy is real, then provide better evidence than something that disregards the threshold for winning pledged delegates. If others see that such despair is counterproductive, even if the person I am talking to doesn't, then I would argue that it was beneficial to draw out the hypothesis and test it.
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@ReVeralife But you're not. Any minute that you spend organizing a protest in hopes that this will lead to the establishment finally accepting Bernie is time not spent organizing to get him to 1990. If Bernie wins Iowa, he wins New Hampshire, and he probably wins Nevada, too. The campaign has the funding and the staff to be ready for a big Super Tuesday push (the other day, I was at a phone bank party making calls to Minnesota) to capitalize on this effort. There are 37 days between the last contest and the convention. It will probably be obvious long before then if the race is deadlocked. That is plenty of time.
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