All About Bernie

It is hard to comprehend why Bernie Sanders does not just go away. Really. He is not a powerful speaker. He does not propose much of anything that is practical, especially given that he does not play well with others as proven by his political record. He does not have a broad-based political agenda; his agenda is rather narrowly focused and he is hard-pressed to even articulate his ideas on issues outside his comfort zone. These are all things that have been observed by myself and others in his two failed attempts to run for President. The one overriding part is despite all of this he has a dedicated group of followers who are enamored with his pluses and defend him against anyone who dares bring up his minuses.

Let me say that many people who know me well are surprised that I am not a supporter of Bernie Sanders. This is because they rightly see that he and I share so many of the same values, at least on the surface. What these people do not understand is that I seem to see something in Bernie Sanders that I find disturbing and disingenuous to the point that I cannot support him. Also, I am practical enough to understand that while I am Liberal it is more important to go forward a little than to press for a total Liberal agenda and lose; which is exactly what I fear would happen if Bernie were the Democratic candidate. I feel I am not alone here. This played a major role in the choice of Joe Biden when other Democratic candidates fell out of the primary campaign. Joe was a non-Bernie choice and this won convincingly when I do not think Biden was ever that popular on his own.

How did I get to this conclusion about Bernie? It happened before he officially announced his candidacy in 2016. Someone knocked on my door and wanted to talk to me about the need for $15/hour. I do not think he was ready to really discuss the issue in depth because it was quite obvious that he was out of his depth quite quickly when I stated my thoughts on it (you can see those here $15/Hour Minimum Wage). Needless to say he did not bring up the upcoming Bernie announcement as I am sure he was planning to do.

Lo and behold a few weeks later, Bernie made his big announcement and I had friends and family praising him from the rooftops. All the while I was still wondering what the big deal was because I still was of the opinion he was a one-trick pony with his $15/Hour Minimum Wage idea and that was seriously flawed and just a damned-ass soundbite.

Then he surprisingly won the Washington State Caucus. I abhor caucuses because of their inherent unfairness (see Caucuses) but needless to say, one had to take notice. So I did a little research into Bernie Sanders. I did a deeper dive into the person who was making so much noise. And this is what I found.

He was the Junior Senator from Vermont, elected in 2006. and had been elected to the House of Representatives in 1990. He ran as an Independent but called himself either a Democratic Socialist (most often) or a Social Democrat. He only ran on the Democratic Party for his convenience in the national election cycle. Otherwise he was not a Democrat, although he caucused with them. In his nearly 26 years in office he had introduced and passed 7 bills (2 to name post offices and 1 to declare March 4, 1991 as Vermont Bicentennial Day; all key legislation); in other words not really on the forefront.

It became quite apparent that Bernie Sanders is what the British would call a Backbencher. Someone who sits in the back of the legislative body making a lot of noise, exaggerating his or her importance, and doing very little.

Oh, lest we forget. He had already made a name for himself on the political talk show circuit. He had become a regular liberal pundit who could be called upon to make sure there was a counterpoint to any conservative point of view. The big difference between him and most other pundits was that he was an elected legislator.

If that were not enough, I discovered that at that time he had formulated no comprehensive group of White Papers on other policies. If you went beyond his speeches there was nothing there. The only thing I could discover on his ideas on foreign policy was that in the past he had politically aligned himself with socialist nations. But that was not an official foreign policy and he was deficient in stating one.

That did not keep him from winning caucus states. Mind you he rarely won a open-ballot state, save a couple of states that were classified as “white bread liberal”, but that did not seem to matter to his followers. While his followers were highly successful in caucuses where they could control the outcome by strength of numbers in small groups, if was obvious that his support was not universal.

It was if he had become the second coming (all puns intended). It was obvious that he could not win even the Democratic nomination in an open ballot but that did not matter to anyone. And when he lost, he did not have the courtesy or class to concede. Why? Because he had to “take his agenda to the convention”. Pretentious if you ask me. (Keep in mind, I really had no dog in the hunt but I was losing any respect that I could have had with him).

About this time, I started to see the Bernie Bro’s climbing out from under the rocks. They were willing to lie and cheat to get their agenda. They thought that anyone who did not vote for Bernie was a traitor (their words not mine). They referred to Hillary Clinton as being the same as Stalin (once again their words not mine). Then they called for boycotts of the general election, voting for Trump, or voting for a third-party candidate. Did they have an affect on the outcome of the election. Who knows? But they could have, in fact how could they not have had an affect. And they did not care. Equally disconcerting is that there is no way that Bernie Sanders did not know about these low-life slime speaking in his name. He never disavowed them nor their message. If anything he fueled their crap by his reluctance to quickly endorse the winner after he lost.

Now we roll into 2020. After breaking his promise to remain a Democrat, he switch back to being a Democrat in time to run again for the Democratic nomination. He is still a viable candidate because he still has the same strong following. Those enamored with him in 2016 think that he should have been the candidate and if he had been all would have been golden. The problem is that this time he is not the anti-Clinton candidate and he is running against a whole lot of other people and his numbers, while very good, are not a big. In fact, if they had been anywhere as big as they were in 2016 he would have been the runaway candidate early on. As it was he was a major player all of the way through. However, when it got down to the last two candidates, Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden, it became readily apparent that the majority of Democratic voters wanted nothing to do with Bernie Sanders. Polls show that Joe Biden is pretty much everyone’s alternative candidate but given a choice between Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden, they chose Joe Biden.

That does not keep the Bernie Bro’s from spreading conspiracies and hatred as they always have. It bespeaks to the level of maturity of them and I suppose if I am being mean, also the maturity of their cause.

Let us not forget about Bernie the Backbencher. He still thinks that he won something, even though he now is a two-time loser. He has stated that he feels he has a right to a place at the table in any discussions if Biden wins; not so, winners choose and if Biden invites him to any table it is his choice not Bernie’s right. But the most foolish? The “obscene wealth tax” he introduced in August, 2020. Not necessarily a bad idea on its own but complete and utter Bullshit. It has no support and no chance of even being voted on. It is just a way for Bernie to get his name in the press.

I wonder when he will leave the Democratic Party again? And I expect he will raise his ugly head and run again in 2024.