Bernie Sanders Is Hurting Himself by Playing the Victim

[workinclasszero]

Bernie Sanders Is Hurting Himself by Playing the Victim
The Vermont senator could turn from movement leader into the messiah of an angry white male cult with his claims of a “rigged” nomination process.
By Joan WalshTwitterYESTERDAY 1:36 PM

It’s been five days since the conflagration at the Nevada State Democratic Convention, and the embers are still burning. Much of it has singed Senator Bernie Sanders. The intimidation of speakers and the misogynist death threats against party chair Roberta Lange have led to a wave of critical pieces by Bernie supporters—some of them now former Bernie supporters. Sanders’s loyal CNN backer Sally Kohn wrote in Time: “I Felt the Bern But the Bros Are Extinguishing the Flames.” Esquire’s Charles Pierce, who voted for Sanders, weighed in Tuesday: “It’s Time for Bernie’s People to Calm Down.” Sanders supporter Harold Meyerson now insists, “The Bros Are Undermining Bernie.”

In the pages of the Sanders fanzine Salon (for which I used to work), at least two Bernie supporters have written that it’s over: For them, the mayhem in Las Vegas has doused the burn. Even on Sanders-friendly Reddit, former Berners were leaving the fold. Much of the media has reacted with shock to the Nevada chaos, and Sanders surrogates have faced tougher grilling on cable news than they have for the entire campaign.

But the Sanders camp is defiant, with the senator himself condemning the threats and reports of violence, but—and you never add “but” to a sentence that’s condemning threatening behavior—insisting party leaders had it coming, because convention rules were less than fair or “transparent.” Sanders has continued to rip the Democratic Party for unfairness, and his supporters are now telling reporters there will be trouble at the convention in Philadelphia over the “rigged” primary process.

http://www.thenation.com/article/bernie-sanders-is-hurting-himself-by-playing-the-victim/

[savalez]

1. He was already done,

but this did him in more.

But the Sanders camp is defiant, with the senator himself condemning the threats and reports of violence, but—and you never add “but” to a sentence that’s condemning threatening behavior—insisting party leaders had it coming,

[workinclasszero]

9. That was the point when most Americans realized Bernie Sanders was unfit for the Presidency

of the United States of America.

We knew it all along.

[Historic NY]

12. +1

[liberal N proud]

2. I have always seen him as playing the victim

He enjoys that position and that is in part why he has always been an independent. It allows him to be an outsider and claim that no one will play his games.

[fleabiscuit]

16. A personal failing.

How can you not know, with all of the available historic evidence, that if you whip up people using rhetoric of corruption and rigged systems that they are likely to start turning angry and violent? He was ill prepared to jump on that dragon.

[Gothmog]

18. Sanders revolution has been a failure

[charlyvi]

3. He's behaving like a 12 year old.

They had it coming! Wah, wah.

You lost Sanders. There is no way you will surpass Hillary in pledged delegates, popular vote or supers, Grow up and try to take it with some degree of magnanimity and grace. Hint: you might want to YouTube Hillary's '08 campaign ending speech and her Dem National Convention speech.....That's how it's done.

[Historic NY]

13. Its what happens when you live on a couch until your 40 & do nothing...

your maturity becomes stunted, you live at an age your not. BS did shit after college except get out of physical work......he hit its big when he got elected mayor thanks to all those hippie friends he cultivated. Stunted growth , he never went back for an advanced degree, perhaps because it was beneath him.

[KittyWampus]

14. Brutal but true. The man never expanded his intellectual horizons after his teen years...

Most people grow out of that "know it all" stage. Not Sanders.

And those psuedo-intellecual garbage essays on rape fantasies and repressed sexuality=cancer. An attempt to seem smarter than he is. Like a preteen trying to fit in with the grown up kids.

[ismnotwasm]

4. That was a good read

Very fair analysis.

[BobbyDrake]

5. "Sanders fanzine Salon" Bwuhahaha, isn't that the truth? nt

[workinclasszero]

8. I liked that too

[nini]

6. Not with the perpetually persecuted though

They love this stuff. He is perfect for them.

[Gothmog]

7. That is a great article

[Cha]

10. burnie never would have made a decent POTUS.. "..and you never add “but” to a sentence that’s

condemning threatening behavior—"

burnie didn't know.. there's no buts.

Though Sanders supporter Charlie Pierce wondered why the campaign would make such a ruckus over only a few delegates in Nevada, I’m starting to believe that the point wasn’t the actual delegates—he trails her by about 280 at this point—but creating the appearance of a rigged system. Sanders himself entered the land of either fantasy or prevarication Thursday when he thanked supporters Thursday for a “victory” in Kentucky—even though he lost narrowly there to Clinton. The campaign said it was pondering a recount and would decide on Wednesday, but there’s still no word on that. Some of his backers have been alleging “fraud” in Kentucky, with absolute no evidence.

This is starting to get delusional, and dangerous to the American movement for social justice.

Ya think, Joan Walsh?!

This is exactly what BS is doing.

First of all, I don’t accept the presumption of moral and ideological superiority from a coalition that is dominated by white men, trying to overturn the will of black, brown, and female voters or somehow deem it fraudulent. There’s a growing element of male entitlement in the Sanders “movement” that supporter Sally Kohn articulates well:

Thank you for this, Working.

[KittyWampus]

15. He has no capacity for executive leadership. One of the things I like about Obama...

he is self-confident enough to surround himself with quality people and allows them to do their jobs.

[Cha]

17. Yes! And, it's been said that how one runs their campaign is how they would be in Office..

We dodged a cluster****.

[TwilightZone]

11. "more than 100,000 voters wrongly purged in Brooklyn"

Except that isn't completely true. Many of them moved and many more of them didn't respond to multiple attempts to contact them and update their information.

[Surya Gayatri]

19. Whininess does NOT become him. He appears infantile and unable to influence his own destiny.