Very interesting... https://t.co/6afzycgoLi— Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) February 24, 2020
Yeah, except:
This is an M.O that comes from the top: We are pure; you are not. You are with us or you are corrupt Establishment criminals. If you challenge us, we will call you names, bully you, threaten you.
This is not all Bernie Sanders supporters. In fact, it’s a minority; many truly believe in the cause, in income inequality destroying the fabric of America, in universal health care being a universal right, in all of it. Fine.
But there were no great policy debates on the floor of that convention; they weren’t even debating emails servers or Wall Street transcripts. This was raw fury, nasty enough this weekend in Las Vegas to disrupt a convention in the name of … what? What is the endgame here?
Take over a state party that may be the best in America? Stop Hillary Clinton from winning the nomination? Make a lot of noise, eat a lot of pizza and look down on everyone?
These are small-picture people. Instead of accepting the plain facts that Clinton won the caucus and out-hustled Sanders at the state convention, they want to talk about arcane rules being imposed, whether chairs were really thrown and if anyone should make a fuss out of chalk on walls and sidewalks (even if the messages were hateful).
These are people who think it’s fine to scream obscenities at a sitting U.S. senator, Barbara Boxer, believe it’s part of their First Amendment rights to call a state party chair corrupt and who insist they are cheated out of something that was never theirs. If this is the Sanders revolution, give me the Establishment.
That was 2016. This was just recently:
Here's Bernie Sanders press secretary Briahna Joy Gray on CNN comparing demands for Sanders's medical records to birtherism and dismissing them as "a kind of smear campaign." pic.twitter.com/rZOm4a3Rg8— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 19, 2020
A lot of people were upset at Chris Matthews comparing the collapse of opposition to Sanders in Nevada to the French being defeated by Nazi Germany. Most of the complaints were that Sanders lost family in the Holocaust, and Matthews was comparing the Sanders campaign to Hitler (Godwin's Law is real). Not so much complaining about comparing asking for a candidate's health records (can he do the job?) to racism. (Hell, the local school superintendent here has to have a physical every year, and the school board gets the report. It's not a secret, it's a requirement to be sure the Chief Executive is in good health and can do the job.) And Bernie loves to have enemies, too:
Well, except for Republicans and corporations (which most people work for, by the way) and people with money:Trump and his friends think they're going to win by dividing our people up based on the color of our skin, where we were born, our religion or our sexual orientation.— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) February 23, 2020
We're going to win because we are doing exactly the opposite: We are bringing our people together.
I cannot take on the billionaire class and powerful special interests alone.— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) February 21, 2020
I need your help to make sure our movement is successful.
We have 11 days until Super Tuesday. Now is the time to knock doors and get involved! https://t.co/0gzurtl5gF
Every campaign needs an enemy, I guess.
I've got news for the Republican establishment. I've got news for the Democratic establishment. They can't stop us.— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) February 22, 2020
But how many amorphous and poorly identified "others" do we need? Is resentment and revenge the only language our political discourse speaks now?
Where are the trolls? Send in the trolls. Don't bother, they're here.
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