Bernie Sanders and me here pictured together in New York City, October 2016
This story is not much of a surprise. The attacks have grown relentless. The mainstream Democrats – including many baby boomers – are attacking Sanders without shame, claiming that his supporters are mean, when in fact, his supporter are really just sick of everything and trying to explain the truth about how mainstream Democratic candidates have grown too comfortable with the bad habit of taking big money from private vested interests, and then serving those interests to maintain their good relations and keep their own selfish ambitions intact once they are elected and in power. Many of these mainstreamers are unwittingly saying, basically, that the United States cannot do what had been done in literally every other industrialized nation. That affordable, universal healthcare and a cleaner environment with sensible laws reigning in big polluters is essentially a pipe dream, and that a more measured response by the money takers is what is required. After all, this is how things have always been, have always worked.
Of course, the problem that supporters of Bernie Sanders have been pointing out, again repeatedly and without any ambiguity, is that this is not working. If it ever has, it certainly has stopped working for the majority of Americans a long time ago now.
It seems like the trend these days among mainstream Democrats and their supporters is to suggest that Bernie Sanders supporters are mean and aggressive. That they are borderline militant, which is to suggest radicals, reinforcing the notion of Bernie Sanders and his political movement being somehow communist, which in itself is quite ridiculous.
When asked about this phenom (the most militant people have been referred to as “Bernie Bros.” in social media and mainstream media), Bernie Sanders himself said that these people are not, in fact, part of his movement, and that he wants nothing to do with them. They do not represent anything that he really stands for.
Here were some of his comments when asked about it:
“We have more than 10.6 million people on Twitter, and 99.9 percent of them are decent human beings,” Sanders said. “If there are a few people who make ugly remarks, I disown those people.”
“They are not part of our movement,” he concluded.
Sounds about right to me.
And then, there are emerging reports that Russia is trying to help the Bernie Sanders campaign. Apparently, this is not brand new news, but was something that the Sanders campaign was informed about over a month ago. Yet, as he continues to emerge as the clear Democratic frontrunner in the White House race, these kinds of desperate attacks and attempts to discredit him, or cast shade upon his legitimacy.
Increasingly, though, people are wising up. I think that they are tired of the traditional politicians seeking big money sponsors and relying on character assassination and smear campaigns. Bernie Sanders has stayed on message, not just throughout this campaign, or even just since his 2016 campaign. What he is running on now in hopes of gaining the presidency is what he has believed in and consistently championed his entire life, even before it was "cool" to do so, as Buttigieg suggested on the debate stage days ago.
You just can never tell what to believe these days.
Frankly, as the saying goes, haters are going to hate. There are some mainstream Democrats who absolutely loathe Bernie Sanders with a passion, and some have gone so far as to suggest that they would not support him even if he wins the Democratic nomination. But Bernie Sanders is simply stating outright what almost everybody really is thinking and knows already. He is exposing the corrupt core of both parties, and the American political system more generally, and he is not pulling his punches. And those who are protesting the loudest are the ones most guilty of this corruption and general conduct that is unworthy of the trust that Americans are supposed to have in their elected officials and so-called leaders. Hillary has been one of his most vocal critics.
But you know what I think?
To borrow from the words of Shakespeare: "The lady doth protest too much, methinks."
Here are links to articles about the smear campaign being waged against Bernie Sanders. The first one is a recent piece by Kara Voght of Mother Jones which was just recently published, where I took the quotes from Bernie Sanders about disowning the so-called "Bernie Bros." The second one is an Op/Ed piece published in USA Today a couple of weeks or so ago, from an author who admits that Sanders is not his personal first choice, but who nevertheless suggests that Democrats need to take Sanders seriously. Finally, the last piece is from the New York Times from spring of last year, and as the title suggests, it is about mainstream Democrats who are pulling their hair out when it comes to the momentum that Bernie Sanders had back then, and which has obviously only grown since. Please take a look at these articles, as they are worth looking at, each for their own insights:
Bernie Sanders Was Called Out for Online Supporters’ Vicious Behavior. He Shut It Down. By Kara Voght, February 19, 2020:
“They are not part of our movement.”
https://www.motherjones.com/2020-elections/2020/02/bernie-sanders-debate-condemn-twitter-supporters-attacks/?fbclid=IwAR06HuhCwI0av8WuHYANqEZzBqa_EoSjSRoE6I7L9Is7de4bz6oidHWvvuw
Moderate Democrats have a duty to consider Sanders. He has a clear path to beating Trump. by Jason Sattler, Opinion columnist February 9, 2020:
Bernie Sanders isn't even my favorite senator running for the 2020 nomination. But I see his potential to unite the Democratic Party and oust Trump.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2020/02/09/bernie-sanders-could-beat-donald-trump-2020-column/4694526002/?fbclid=IwAR0JOlYIip9A_XQIkx5MZexaSf2BwAaawtopZdDHjkTNHhS4b13UdCKTtEk
‘Stop Sanders’ Democrats Are Agonizing Over His Momentum by Jonathan Martin, April 16, 2019:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/16/us/politics/bernie-sanders-democratic-party.html?fbclid=IwAR0imK61GbMmo6MmP6sjvFLmom5tPqmenxdIhY5xC2Hm92kpSKTVPFLkZQc
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