Days ahead of the Nevada caucuses the state’s influential culinary union decided to sit this one out. They’re not endorsing anyone. Why? Well, because right now, they all suck. And if they don’t suck, they’re peddling action items that will screw them over. It’s become nasty between the Culinary Workers Union and the Bernie Sanders campaign after the former distributed leaflets to their members about the dangers concerning Sanders’ Medicare for All proposals that will gut 150+ million private health care plans. And a lot of union members’ health care plans will be shredded by a Sanders administration. For the past decade, Democrats had warned voters, scared them actually, that GOP tweaks to Obamacare amounted to them taking away people’s health care, only for them to actually push an agenda that…takes away people’s health care.
What about Joe Biden? Well, Politico, who covered this blow-up, noted the former vice president ties to the state but added his disastrous defeats in Iowa and New Hampshire prompted this union to hold off endorsing him (via Politico):
Nevada's powerful Culinary Workers Union will not endorse in the presidential primary, while criticizing Bernie Sanders’ signature Medicare for All proposal, according to three sources with knowledge of the decision.
In declining to pick a candidate — but sharply criticizing Sen. Bernie Sanders’ signature policy position, Medicare for All — the union created an opening for Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar, two moderate Democrats with little demonstrated support in the state.
And it was a further setback for Joe Biden, who has been desperate to reassert himself after two demoralizing performances in Iowa and New Hampshire.
For Buttigieg and Klobuchar, the non-endorsement represents an inroad to Latino voters in a state where both candidates are polling in single digits – but coming off strong finishes in Iowa and New Hampshire.
[…]
The refusal to endorse is a repeat of 2016, when the union decided to stay out of the bitter primary between Sanders and Hillary Clinton.
This year, the union helped drag itself into the crossfire by criticizing Medicare for All in a leaflet to members that outraged Sanders’ supporters and other progressive groups. Union leaders were “doxed” by having personal information released on social media.
When you have unions telling their members about Bernie’s ideas and how they’re bad—you know it’s bad. Medicare for All is ruinously expensive and it’s just not a winning agenda item. In Pennsylvania, some top union leaders were also adamant that they would tell their people to stay home or vote for Trump should Sanders or Warren become the 2020 Democratic nominee. In the Keystone State, Sanders’ commitment to a universal ban on fracking, which will kill hundreds of thousands of jobs in the must-win state, is just a bridge too far.
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