As most of you know, Bernie Sanders suspended (but did not outright abandon) his Presidential campaign last week. 1 A number of Sanders supporters were mighty unhappy with the development, and one of them, a real-estate agent from southern Oregon named Lara Convery posted a lengthy screed on Facebook. Her post made it’s way into my feed. In it she just blistered the media and the Democratic establishment and promised that this would be her last post (not likely!).
Although not a “Bernie Bros” (since she is not a guy), her response may be a good representation of how Bernie fanatics feel about this development. In what she wrote, she is not completely wrong, and yet she is also completely wrong.
Here is the entirety of her post:
| This is my last FB Post: Dear America With Bernie Sanders suspending his campaign today dies any hope I had in a better country or world. We are fucked, for lack of a better word. No presidential candidate in the history of elections has won Iowa, NH and Nevada and not secured the nomination. Let me say it again: NO ONE IN THE HISTORY OF PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS HAS WON THESE SWING STATES AND NOT WON THE NOMINATION EVER! Rest assured the powers that be saw this and took control to RIG, VOTER SUPPRESS AND CHEAT this election. Biden could not win a prize in a Cracker Jacks box, let alone a primary. I have never been more disgusted in a country or a fake election process in my life. Bernie raised more money than any other candidate based on donations of $27 or LESS. Do you know how many people have to donate small amounts to reach 46 million per quarter? A LOT. No corporations, no billionaires, no big oil, big Pharma, banks or media companies…..JUST WORKING CLASS AMERICAN PEOPLE. Benies rallies exceeded the thousands every damn time, even in the freezing temperatures. In the larger cities they were always 25-35 THOUSAND PEOPLE. Joe Biden was lucky to have 200, if he even bothered to campaign at all. The Exit polls were so skewed that if this happened in ANY OTHER COUNTRY the UN would have intervened. Off by over 10% in most states, the sign of election fraud is anything over 3%. You guys bitch and moan about Venezuela and Brazil and intervening in their elections so they can live in a “democracy”, WELL LOOK AT YOUR OWN COUNTRY PEOPLE! Polling locations were closed in poor, latino and college communities, but your precious TV would not comment on that because they are paid off as well. EVERY SINGLE STATION. This includes NPR and all the ones you think are legit. They are NOT. And yesterday we saw the absolute lowest point in the history of this countries faux election process, with people in line to vote for hours, risking their lives IN A GLOBAL PANDEMIC. If you think for one second the Supreme Court of Wisconsin was not paid off to overturn the governors ruling you are not paying attention. This is Nazi America, and no I don’t say that lightly. But when your basic right to vote, the basic foundation that this country was founded on is taken away then what are you left with? When we are being stripped of every right to choose even when it comes to mandating medical procedures (ie vaccines) you are teetering on complete fascism. When we are the only industrialized country without national healthcare, because we are lied to and told we cant afford it, then what are we? When we watch this sham of a government continually bail out TRILLIONS TO Wall Street, BIG BANKS and CORPORATIONS, while we beg for a measly ONE TIME PAYMENT OF $1200 to make sure our kids eat, what are we? When we are out of work and the economy is tanking but yet we still are supposed to pay rent and bills WITH NO HELP FROM OUR OWN MONEY what is that? When Big Pharma and Big Insurance are so dominating that if you get a cancer diagnosis or an auto immune disease there is a good chance you will have to declare bankruptcy and most likely have to start a Go Fund Me to pay for it, what is that? When people are dying because they cant afford medications in this country what should we call ourselves? When “WE the People” have lost all control of a nation that is supposedly “For the People and By the People”, then what are we left with? We are supposed to have “NO TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION”, let me assure you : THERE IS NO ONE REPRESENTING YOU…. So we pay trillions in taxes with ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO SHOW FOR IT, and we don’t even bother to protest or wonder why there is no one who gives a shit when we need help. And yes I mean right now. No one is fighting for you. Except Bernie….. He was our only hope. Biden cant win, the Democratic Party may as well hang it up because the DNC will be decimated by this. I know I will #demexit today, along with the millions of others who are Bernie or Bust. It was a promise and not a threat. We said look at 2016 and learn, but you didn’t. You just beat the same damn dead horse again. Biden is Trump-lite and Hilary 2.0. Biden is also a RAPIST. And the rape apologizing that I have seen from #MeToo, #TimesUp and the Women’s March is one of the most disturbing things I have ever witnessed. You can no longer say “I dont know why women dont come forward”….BECAUSE NOW YOU KNOW. We fought hard, but its the dying of the light….we cant fight this….it is way to powerful and they have way too much money…. AND WHEN YOU OWN THE MEDIA YOU OWN THE MINDS OF THE PEOPLE OF THIS COUNTRY. Your only hope America is to: THROW YOUR TV OUT! IT IS A BRAINWASHING DEVICE. YOU CAN NOT THINK FOR YOURSELF AND WATCH IT. YOU CAN NOT BE “WOKE” AND WATCH IT. YOU CAN NOT CLAIM YOU ARE “EDUCATED” AND WATCH IT. There is absolutely no excuse left to watch it. You know it is bought and paid for propaganda, so stop watching. Take responsibility. They own the media, so they will keep winning. I know I will be turning off Facebook. It was my last link to the media and I will be damned if I support this massive mind fuck. The algorithm is so powerful you cant fight it, same with YouTube and Google. Censorship is real, and we are being manipulated on all fronts. And this isn’t about Trump. It never was. You can hopefully see now, “they” get whoever they want in office. Trump didn’t “accidentally” get elected people. They put Trump there and then told all of you he was the big bad wolf…When really THEY ALL ARE THE BIG BAD WOLF. The whole machine is bad. But you fell for it hook line and sinker and blamed Trump for all of it, lets just beat Trump and it will all be ok. We were fighting the whole disease, not the symptom. We were fighting the cancer, not the nausea. But you never got it, because you won’t turn off your TVs. This is a joke and I am done. I am going to leave this mess to go to the country and work on my spiritual healing, it is all I have left. The collective consciousness is in pain, Mother Earth is hurting, people are suffering on a massive scale and we somehow think Joe Biden is going to save us. Its literally the most hilarious thing I have ever heard. I am going to grow vegetables in the middle of nowhere and if I need to move out of America I will. This is that bad. To all of my friends and comrades who have fought, knocked on doors, made phone calls, protested, shared knowledge, donated money, created visibility and in general just helped the cause, I thank you and I applaud you. It is not easy being the ones who fight. We have been bashed, shamed and made fun of this whole time by friends, family and all the moderate Normies who just don’t see yet. But I see you. And I love you. But today my hope dies. Trump will win 4 more years easily…. Welcome to the Hunger Games….. May the Odds be Forever in Your Favor….. |
Before responding to her screed, I just want to remind people that:
- I have been a fan of Bernie’s since 1981 when he was first voted into office as the Mayor of Burlington VT.
- I voted for Bernie in the 2015 Massachusetts primary (although I switched my allegiance to Elizabeth Warren in 2019).
How Lara is not completely wrong in what she wrote
If the current pandemic is proving one thing, it’s proving that Bernie is right on the merits far more often than he is wrong. In particular, if we had Medicare for All right now we wouldn’t have to worry about people being thrown out of work and then losing their health care.2
The pandemic is also underlining how much our safety net has been shredded since Reagan became President, how drastic financial inequality has become in the United States, and even how uneven the consequences of the pandemic are among different racial communities. Sanders has made income inequality one of his top issues for his entire career, and the pandemic is proving that he has been absolutely correct about this all along.
How Lara is completely wrong in what she wrote
However, Lara is completely wrong when she claims that there is “no one fighting for [us] except Bernie.”
- That is completely wrong. There are plenty of people fighting for us, including for example, Elizabeth Warren, Ralph Nader, Alexandria Occasio-Cortez and the rest of her “squad.”
- There are also thousands of other people fighting for us both in and out of politics, some with greater and some with lesser effectiveness.
- Bernie is not like Jesus Christ, he is not somehow annointed above all others.
Secondly, Lara is completely wrong when she makes the case that only Bernie can win the election. There are a number of reasons to believe that Bernie would have a harder time winning than Biden. These include:
- That his self-identification as a socialist is still a big problem with older Americans and a number of swing voters.
- That he has not gotten much traction with the African-American community, a crucial community in the Democratic cohort.
- That he has not been able to draw young people to the polls to match their enthusiasm, while older voters and African Americans are still as reliable as clockwork.
- And while this should not matter in a better world, that his identity as a Jew will still work against him, as there are clearly still many anti-Semites among American voters.
Third, Lara is completely wrong when she implies (without stating it) that Bernie would be able to enact his agenda if elected.
- If we don’t flip the Senate blue in 2020, then anything on Bernie’s agenda (if he were elected President) would be dead on arrival. That much is clear. 3
- Even if the Senate was flipped, Bernie’s agenda would still face an uphill struggle because of (1) the rules around filibusters and (2) that his agenda is to the left of most mainstreet Democrats.4
- Bernie’s voting record and Biden’s voting record is not dramatically different. Certainly there are some differences on a few important bills, but their voting record has, by and large, been more sympathetic than antithetical.5
Fourth, Lara completely ignores the important contributions that Sanders has already made to moving the dialog left.
- Sanders has already made important contributions to the dialog especially (along with Elizabeth Warren) on issues like Medicare-for-All and raising the minimum wage.
- We will continue to need his voice and his votes in the Senate, just like with Elizabeth Warren.
- With his national platform, Sanders will have a critical voice in the post-pandemic analysis and in formulating policy prescriptions.
Fifth, Lara completely ignores the importance of the Supreme Court.
- In this next election, the fate of the Supreme Court hangs in the balance. Despite her heroic efforts, Ruth Bader Ginsburg cannot continue on forever. The Trump appointees have already done lasting damage to voting rights, and it’s about to get much, much worse.
- Lara’s “I’m taking my ball and going home” attitude completely ignores the crucial difference between Trump making the next set of Supreme Court appointments, as opposed to those that would be made by Joe Biden.
A couple of additional points:
- Lara’s anti-television and anti-mainstream media rant isn’t much better than the anti-media rant’s conducted by Trump and his minions. While there are certainly things to object to with respect to the main stream media, at this point there are enough places where a person can get the information that they need, if they choose to make the effort. And the television is not a “brainwashing device.” That’s simply a crazy overreaction.
- I’m not blowing past Lara accusation that Biden is a rapist. That accusation has apparently been made very recently by a woman named Alexandra Tara Reade who was, for a short time, on Biden’s Senate staff. There have always been concerns with Biden’s character — allegations of plagiarism sank one of his Presidential runs, and Biden has been known to be “handsy” for a long time — but there are reasons to be cautious about this particular allegation that are set forth in an article on Medium.com.6
- Sanders remain on the ballot in the rest of this year’s primaries, “in order to win more delegates to bring to the Democratic National Convention.”
- And we Or the indignity of a President who is still attacking the Affordable Care Act, and refusing to reopen the open enrollment periods for people who’ve been thrown out of work.
- Biden’s situation would not be much better than Bernie’s if the Senate is not flipped blue.
- Bernie has only been a member of the Democratic party for the brief periods where he ran for President. After running as a Democrat in 2015 Bernie remained an Independent in the Senate, and only switched back for his 2019 run. Also, that the Affordable Care Act is still under assault despite — as I never tire in pointing out — having been a Republican idea that emerged from the Heritage Institute, should give us all some idea of how difficult it would be to get Medicare for All enacted.
- It is also generally acknowledged that when Bernie was the Mayor of Burlington (his one “executive” position) his approach was noticeably pragmatic, and not ideological.
- That does not mean that these allegations don’t concern me. They do. But it’s a little late in the game to bring them forward now. It would have been much better to discuss these when Elizabeth Warren, Amy Klobuchar and Kamala Harris were still in the running.
A good read, well written, and insightful.