This is dicey ground, but I'd like a stab at explaining why the Sanders and Warren voting blocks are not nearly as aligned as the current deluge of hot takes presume them to be. 1/
I don't think Sanders' team understands that many of Warren's voters are not necessarily his if she drops out, and it isn't because of spite or snake emojis but a real skepticism towards Sanders' claims and his methods. 2/
By design, Sanders' team has tended to sell him as the man who invented all of liberalism. Climate change, healthcare, every issue. Others see him as a more mercurial party-of-one, as willing to sabotage liberal goals (guns) as support them. 3/
You might say Bernie's history is one of single-handedly inventing every major liberal stance. I might say Bernie's history is one of screaming into the void until people with better tactics tackle the very same issue and get the damn thing done. 4/
Obama was by no raging liberal, but it's called Obamacare, not Berniecare. Warren arrived and produced consumer protections near-immediately, on a scale Bernie couldn't. The point is Bernie critics do not see the same effectiveness his advocates promise. 5/
Similarly, Bernie team's go-to answer for how he will accomplish gargantuan structural reforms seemingly impossible for any president is that well, there will be a 'revolution', the public will now demand it, boom done. Ok, but ... that hasn't happened. 6/
Didn't happen before, and isn't happening now. It's going to happen when, exactly? And if it doesn't, do we get told that it's not Bernie's fault, it's the voters who got small? 7/
These are not insults being hurled, but substantive objections to his approach, serious doubts about his effectiveness, and some genuine concern towards what is seen as patterns of dishonesty by his Bernie-invented-everything surrogates. 8/
A recent Very Online claim was that Bernie near-invented climate urgency. Some of us met Al Gore, you know. We were there. And nobody "stole" M4A-style plans from Bernie, either—lots of different plans to get there, on many different timelines. 9/
Warren came on the scene with plans to achieve some of the things Bernie has long called for but has not been able to achieve through promised "revolution." That's very appealing. She's forged partnerships where Bernie has blamed enemies. Turns out that's more effective. 10/
A Warren presidency would be technocratic. Reform through regulation, knocking out some of the biggest economic and environmental dangers with pinpoint policy strikes. 11/
To fans, that she's not expecting a "revolution" is one of her selling points. Her plans are "how to do this if a revolution doesn't happen." Filibuster reform. Wall Street reform. Incremental healthcare policies. 12/
If Warren bows out of the race that doesn't mean her voters will suddenly become convinced that Sanders can deliver on things they don't think he can deliver on now. 13/
Some may shuffle off to the relative safety of Biden. It doesn't mean they hate sick children and want them to die. It means they don't think Bernie can deliver on his own claims. 14/
Or think Bernie is such a divisive figure that he can't be elected in the first place, after the attack ads start running. 15/
Sanders' most vocal allies have been ... not good ... at alleviating those concerns, rather than attacking those that voice them. This only reinforces, to some, the perception that Sanders has no good response to give. 16/
Again, this is the dynamic of how this is playing out. Doesn't mean anyone is wrong, or stupid, or should be attacked. But the notion that Warren voters are Bernie's to claim simply isn't what's happening here. 17/17
