General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: So Sanders is going back to running as an Indy for his senate seat. [View all]BainsBane
(53,032 posts)Why do you talk about him incessantly. Why use polls from May 2016 to claim it is a supposed indisputable fact that he would have one the GE? If they care so much about issues, why do we see so little discussion of them? Why such contempt for Democrats who support those positions?
Why the attacks on Democrats who want to discuss the details of a single payer bill? Why the continual insistence that Bernies attacks on the party are not only justified, but daring to disagree with them is divisive. Why the demands that one millionaire Bernie backer, including Stein and her voters, After another never be criticized while effective and progressive Democratic leaders are assailed? Why the movement to replace Pelosi with a conservative Dem who is anti-choice and later came out in support of corporate tax cuts?
If issues are what matter, why did so many refuse to even look at or listen to Clintons policy proposals even in the GE? Why do we see applause when Bernie adopts positions attacked when Clinton proposed them?
You keep claiming to care about issues, but dont manage to name a single one.
To claim it is only those who dont revere him who make discussions about him is fabrication. We wouldnt even think about him if his supporters didnt insist on making everything about him.
After the GE, I cautioned other Hillary supporters not to blame Bernie for her defeat. Since then, my view of him has dropped precipitously, not based on his primary challenge but his actions and statements since last November. And of course his supporters contribute to hardening those views.
You are correct that many, but not all, of those Sanders to Trump voters were independents. Jackpine radicals is a key example of former Dems. They swear absolute allegiance to Bernie while stating their goal is to destroy the Democratic Party. They celebrated Trumps election, make excuses for his immigration raids, defense of Nazis, and insist Clinton would be just as bad in North Korea.
A large portion of Sanders supporters are independents, tend to be white men more affluent than the Democratic base. That so many so easily switched to Trump should tell you his attraction had little to do with issues. Poly Sci research demonstrates that most people dont vote on issues but instead cultural signifiers, including race, gender and other cultural factors. That is certainly the case for those who refuse to look at Clintonss policy proposals and repeat every corporate media meme while refusing to look at evidence to the contrary.
Your use of that May poll to claim Bernie would have won is not only illogical but offensive. If only the votes of the majority of Democrats were nullified, is what that argument suggests. And now we see those voting rights under assault in the DNC, by the likes of Nomiki Konst, who is dedicated to ensuring the electorate is restricted to white property holders by replacing primaries with caucuses. There is zero difference between that and the Kobash Commission. It targets the same voters for the same reasons.
Meanwhile, we have seen not one effort to check corporate power. Not one. The sole function of that rhetoric is to attack Democrats. Ive seen people in the upper-middle class attack the poorest and most marginalized Americans as corporatist. They sit atop the world capitalist system, with only 0.2% of the world wealthier, yet claim to care about economic justice. Yet the justice they demand is more for themselves.
Weve seen Trumps election used as an opportunity to demand the party deprioritize or, in the case of some supporters, abandon civil rights and reproductive rights to focus on so-called economic justice, defined exclusively in terms of what benefits the white male bourgeoisie. That rolling back abortion rights will worsen poverty for women and children, who comprise 75% of the population, is of no consequence. Restore the party of FDR we are told, when Democrats represented who really matters. That the overwhelming majority of Americans were oppressed by that system is of no consequence. No matter how many times we raise the actual historical circumstances of that era, the rhetoric continues. Back to back alley abortions and Jim Crow, when LGBT Americans were locked in insane asylums. Thats the party we are told we must return to, bend the knee and accept that our place is to ensure their comfort and privilege. So in that sense it is about issues: white male prosperity. That is why we see demands for understanding of Trump supporters while Democrats are assailed as neoliberal corporatists.