9 Questions for Bernie Sanders' Supporters

[wyldwolf]

2. Why would Bernie Sanders support the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter? I understand that it brought jobs to Vermont, but this is the most expensive weapon system of all time with a price tag of $1.5 trillion. Yes, trillion, not billion. Worse, it is plagued with cost overruns, doesn't fly, has software issues, and is not even capable of supporting ground troops. And yet, Sanders supports it for all the wrong reasons. As a senator and presidential candidate who vehemently argues for cutting defense spending and the problems of pork and money in politics, shouldn't his supporters expect more of him? Doesn't this reek of hypocrisy?

4. Is Bernie's approach toward young people the right path? President John F. Kennedy famously asked, "ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country." Bernie has promised free college education, which is great, though many of my fellow veterans will point out you can already get college paid for through something called the GI Bill. Shouldn't we be asking more of our young people? Dare we ask them to be citizens?

5. What exactly are Bernie's plans for Wall Street? While we're at it, Bernie plans on paying for his college plan through a tax on Wall Street speculation. I thought he planned on ending Wall Street speculation. So does he plan on taxing it? Or ending it?

6. Is Bernie really running a clean campaign? I get the disheveled grandpa look, but while Hillary keeps hammering him on the issues, it seems he is more focused on her character through statements that she is owned by Wall Street or that she takes Wall Street money, albeit only 3% of her total donations. Guess what, Hillary was a senator from New York, many of her constituents work on Wall Street. It's not like the banks are actually donating to her campaign, because, you know, that would be illegal.

8. Does national security matter to you? We live in an incredibly complex world and foreign policy is about much more than a single vote on the Iraq War. As a veteran, I know first hand the gravity of that decision, but I also question why Bernie is so hesitant to articulate a policy approach to our foreign policy challenges himself.

9. Why is the entire Republican party afraid of Hillary Clinton? On the subject of money in politics, Hillary has been in the arena for her entire adult life fighting for progressive causes. Bernie also deserves credit for being a great critic and a needed voice. But for those Sanders supporters who are adamantly against Hillary, I only ask if you think you too are susceptible to designs of special interests in politics. Why are hundreds of millions of dollars being spent to paint Hillary as untrustworthy, as power hungry, as any other awful stereotype we paint powerful and accomplished women with? And why are you falling for it?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/zach-iscol/9-questions-for-bernie-sa_2_b_9155894.html

[daleanime]

1. ......

[Dawson Leery]

2. Why is the entire Republican party afraid of Hillary Clinton?

Why has the right ganged up on her?


http://www.cnn.com/2015/05/28/politics/bernie-sanders-rape-essay-1972/

[NurseJackie]

4. "Why has the right ganged up on her?"

Why has the right ganged up on her?

Yes. Exactly. Excellent question AND observation. (People are noticing.)

[Perogie]

10. Cause she's an easy target.

[Perogie]

8. Because they hate her. There is no fear only hatred for her.

[FrenchieCat]

21. well you see....

it all started with the 1992 election.....

http://www.democraticunderground.com/110738887

[cantbeserious]

3. Spreading Ever More FUD - So Predictable

eom

[Punkingal]

5. Screw this crap....

I am not falling for anything...I don't like her record. I don't trust her because of her record, and her husband's record.

[Floridanow]

33. Sorry, but....

The African Americans that I meet seem to love Bill Clinton. I actually overheard an African American who was of age under Bill Clinton state that Black people he knew had cars and houses because they were able to get more job opportunities. African Americans have shown election after election that they understand and vote their best interests, that is why I am guessing that African Americans will turn the primary toward Clinton once it moves to racially diverse states.

[thereismore]

6. Answer to #9: They are not afraid of her. They hate her. nt

[jillan]

13. Exactly! And she claims that she will be able to get more done than Bernie.

Hello???? Haven't we've seen this movie over and over and over again? If there is one thing the repugs despise more than President Obama it's the Clinton machine.

She will spend her presidency playing defense.

[FrenchieCat]

23. No, you are incorrect....

what will bring out Republicans out of the woodwork to stand in line to vote is a self declared Socialist calling for radical revolution (the term used by a Sanders press person on MSNBC) and running on the premise of redistributing the wealth by taxing for spending and growing government bigger than ever before seen (which is exactly how they will frame Bernie Sander single payer plan).

[jeff47]

26. Sure! That's why Sanders gets WAY more crossover votes in polls.

Because they will all vote against him!!

Oh wait...

[FrenchieCat]

27. Wait till they are finished with him,

and then come back to see me.....

[jeff47]

29. So Clinton's campaign is utterly incompetent?

Clinton's campaign is so incompetent they can't run any opposition research-based attacks against Sanders?

Isn't that a reason to not vote for Clinton?

[Floridanow]

34. Vermont tried to enact Single Payer.

And failed. Where was Senator Sanders and did he play a role? If Senator Sanders was not involved, why? The effort was the first attempt to enact Single Payer and would have sent a powerful signal had it got enacted. The progressive democratic Governor of Vermont, the person that tried to get Single Payer there, is a Clinton supporter.

[Rocky the Leprechaun]

36. Please ask Clinton supporter Peter Shumlin, Governor of Vermont.

He ditched it, without even trying.

[jillan]

40. Welcome to DU Rocky!

[jillan]

39. He was (is) a Senator that works in DC. He's not in the Vermont legislature.....

You do understand that, hopefully.

[tecelote]

7. Is Bernie's approach toward young people the right path?

Snip: Is Bernie's approach toward young people the right path? President John F. Kennedy famously asked, "ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country."

It's not for "our country" anymore, our tax dollars support corporations, the wealthy and the profits from our wars.

We want our tax dollars to support "Our Country".

That's the thing.

Hillary's people have had it just fine. Time for the 99% to benefit from our efforts fairly.

That's all we ask. A fair cut of the pie.

An America for all Americans.

[flamingdem]

9. The speculation tax needs to be fleshed out - this is an idea being implemented in Europe but

there it's to help poorer countries fight climate change.

I personally wish for that instead of putting it towards free college. There are already a lot of programs that help lower income families get a college education. There need to be more but the USA needs to do its utmost for climate change first.

[DanTex]

11. Excellent questions. The fact that only 3% of her donations come from Wall Street is something that

Bernie supporters can't seem to grasp. It's just too far at odds with the narrative.

[cali]

12. I'll answer those game playing slanted questions

1.) Bernie is flat wrong to support it. He does so for jobs in Vermont.

4.) Bernie does ask them to be citizens. That's one of the main pillars of his campaign.

5.) Where does Bernie say he'll end wall street speculation. I sure can't find it.

6 ) yes he runs a clean campaign. It's a flat out lie that only 3% of her contributions come from the financial sector. It's 10%. And when did you stop beating your wife.

8.) Hillary's judgment re foreign affairs is deeply flawed, from the IWR to Libya to Syria. She's aligned with the neocons and considers Kissinger a mentor

9.) I don't give a shit, but probably because they expect her to be the nominee



Here's a good article about the F-35, including comments from Bernie.


http://readersupportednews.org/godot

[Floridanow]

35. So.

Is not knowing that North Korea only has one dictator something to be proud of? Sanders looked like a deer in headlights ,during the Thursday night debate, when he was asked a foreign policy question. The difference wasn't the Clinton was a former SOS, it was like an adult debating a child. It is possibly to pick a person off the street who could have answered foreign policy questions better.

[frylock]

14. Hillary wants to sell F-35s to Israel. Looks like she supports the program as well.

Hillary Clinton Goes to Militaristic, Hawkish Think Tank, Gives Militaristic, Hawkish Speech

Leading Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton this morning delivered a foreign policy speech at the Brookings Institution in Washington. By itself, the choice of the venue was revealing.

Brookings served as Ground Zero for centrist think tank advocacy of the Iraq War, which Clinton (along with potential rival Joe Biden) notoriously and vehemently advocated. Brookings’ two leading “scholar”-stars — Kenneth Pollack and Michael O’Hanlon — spent all of 2002 and 2003 insisting that invading Iraq was wise and just, and spent the years after that assuring Americans that the “victorious” war and subsequent occupation were going really well (in April 2003, O’Hanlon debated with himself over whether the strategy that led to the “victory” in his beloved war should be deemed “brilliant” or just extremely “clever,” while in June 2003, Pollack assured New York Times readers that Saddam’s WMD would be found).

<snip>

As for Israel itself, Clinton eagerly promised to shower it with a long, expensive, and dangerous list of gifts. Here’s just a part of what that country can expect from the second President Clinton:

I will deepen America’s unshakeable commitment to Israel’s security, including our long standing tradition of guaranteeing Israel’s qualitative military edge. I’ll increase support for Israeli rocket and missile defenses and for intelligence sharing. I’ll sell Israel the most sophisticated fire aircraft ever developed. The F-35. We’ll work together to develop and implement better tunnel detection technology to prevent arms smuggling and kidnapping as well as the strongest possible missile defense system for Northern Israel, which has been subjected to Hezbollah’s attacks for years.

<more>

https://theintercept.com/2015/09/09/hillary-clinton-goes-militaristic-hawkish-think-tank-gives-militaristic-hawkish-speech/

[SoLeftIAmRight]

15. # 8

very stupid question

$1,000,000,000,000 every year - the whole military industrial complex - the national security monster

I sleep well at night - just hope they do not go after me

[Gregorian]

16. These are good questions. And where it says Bernie, it should also say Hillary.

I actually mean this in the sense that it should apply to everyone.

[Ken Burch]

17. The Republicans WANT to run against HRC. They know she's the weaker candidate.

You can't be weaker in the head-to-heads with the GOP candidates now and ever be stronger later.

[Ken Burch]

18. 1) The F-35's were a done deal by then. Bernie's position on them would only matter

if he could actually have stopped the F-35's. So that was a strawman.

[Vattel]

19. The silliness never stops.

#2, for example, is just nonsense. I wouldn't vote for anyone who wanted to cancel the F-35 given how close it is to being finished. Talk about a waste of money. Nobody is proposing that, certainly not Clinton or Sanders. The claim that it "doesn't fly" is absurd. Clinton called it the "most sophisticated fire aircraft ever developed." I guess the author thinks she is dumb.

Unlike Clinton, Sanders has called the program wasteful, but it would be even more wasteful to cancel it now, and he realizes that.

[Dems to Win]

20. Repubs win points from their own voters when they bash Hillary

Their grassroots hates Hillary with a passion. It's throwing red meat to the circus crowd.

Repubs have believed for over a year that Hillary will be their opponent (as have Democrats). Of course they will take every chance they get to bloody her nose. They are softening her up for the big fight they are going to wage in the fall, they assume.

I don't buy the argument they are afraid of Hillary, never have, really. At least no more than they are afraid of Obama or any other Democrat. jmho

[Vinca]

22. So what happens to people who do not qualify for the military and want to go to college?

Are they relegated to Walmart cashier jobs because they can't avail themselves of the G.I. Bill? By the way, back when JFK gave that speech, there actually were free colleges. Prior to Reagan people often moved to California to become residents so they could get a decent education they might not otherwise be able to afford. I don't get the enthusiasm for discouraging free or low cost college if it means an educated population. Did it ever occur to you this might be more of the Wall Street banksters rearing their ugly heads? No tuition = no student loan = no moolah for investors.

[Floridanow]

37. People who do not quality for military

Could perform public service for 4 years, similar to what AmeriCorps does. Afterward, they get 4 years of GI Bill like college or trade school support.

[basselope]

24. Missing a lot of questions.. but why not...

"2. Why would Bernie Sanders support the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter? I understand that it brought jobs to Vermont, but this is the most expensive weapon system of all time with a price tag of $1.5 trillion. Yes, trillion, not billion. Worse, it is plagued with cost overruns, doesn't fly, has software issues, and is not even capable of supporting ground troops. And yet, Sanders supports it for all the wrong reasons. As a senator and presidential candidate who vehemently argues for cutting defense spending and the problems of pork and money in politics, shouldn't his supporters expect more of him? Doesn't this reek of hypocrisy? "

When originally voted for it was not the most expensive weapon system of all time and had a projected budget of 400B and brought jobs to his home state. Bernie has been very critical of the project as wasteful and problematic. However, this is current the plane of choice for the US military. So, you either fix it, as they are doing OR start from scratch.

"4. Is Bernie's approach toward young people the right path? President John F. Kennedy famously asked, "ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country." Bernie has promised free college education, which is great, though many of my fellow veterans will point out you can already get college paid for through something called the GI Bill. Shouldn't we be asking more of our young people? Dare we ask them to be citizens?"

Forcing people into military service doesn't make or not make them "citizens". Also Bernie has asked for free PUBLIC colleges (like we used to have many years ago). GI Bill would still exist for those who want to go to private colleges.

"5. What exactly are Bernie's plans for Wall Street? While we're at it, Bernie plans on paying for his college plan through a tax on Wall Street speculation. I thought he planned on ending Wall Street speculation. So does he plan on taxing it? Or ending it? "

This is a basic misunderstanding of the issues on your part. Main plans for Wall Street are the break up the big financial institutions, which will reduce much of the power of wall street, since it is now controlled by companies like Goldman Sachs. Once you put Glass Steegal back into effect, you won't have the same conglomeration of power. His college plan is based on a FTT (Financial transaction tax) such as the type we had in this country from 1918 until 1966. Studies have shown that the tax he is proposing .5% (.05 per $1000) will have exactly 0 impact on trading and raise over 40B. Breaking up the big banks will not "end" wall street, but it will significantly reduce the influence a single entity can have on our economy and political process.

"6. Is Bernie really running a clean campaign? I get the disheveled grandpa look, but while Hillary keeps hammering him on the issues, it seems he is more focused on her character through statements that she is owned by Wall Street or that she takes Wall Street money, albeit only 3% of her total donations. Guess what, Hillary was a senator from New York, many of her constituents work on Wall Street. It's not like the banks are actually donating to her campaign, because, you know, that would be illegal. "

Yes, he is running an extremely clean campaign and you are not considering money paid into her SuperPac.

"9. Why is the entire Republican party afraid of Hillary Clinton? On the subject of money in politics, Hillary has been in the arena for her entire adult life fighting for progressive causes. Bernie also deserves credit for being a great critic and a needed voice. But for those Sanders supporters who are adamantly against Hillary, I only ask if you think you too are susceptible to designs of special interests in politics. Why are hundreds of millions of dollars being spent to paint Hillary as untrustworthy, as power hungry, as any other awful stereotype we paint powerful and accomplished women with? And why are you falling for it? "

They aren't at all. They WANT her to be the candidate, because she is so easy to take down. They also understand that the more they attack her NOW the more it looks like they are afraid of her. That's how politics work.

[Dems to Win]

25. Young people today don't have the same opportunities as young ppl in the 60s

Today's kids are expected to take out a home mortgage worth of debt in order to go to college. In California in the 60s, public universities were indeed tuition free.

Bernie wants to relieve the crushing burdens on today's young people. The toxic combination of high college costs and abysmally low wages.

No, I don't want kids to join the military to pay for college. I don't want anyone to feel forced to join the military for economic reasons. (I'm an idealist who would like to abolish America's standing army, as the Constitution envisioned)

Kids today can join AmeriCorp, but as I recall the stipends are so low it really doesn't get a person much progress toward paying for college.

Why NOT provide our young people with the same benefits and advantages as Germany does?

[jeff47]

28. 1 question for Clinton supporters

Why do you insist on treating Sanders supporters like utter fucking morons? Perhaps treating adults like adults would be a better approach.

[Floridanow]

38. Why did Single Payer not get enacted

In Vermont and did Senator assist democrats when they tried to enact Single Payer? I don't view Senator Sanders supporters as morons. But I do see people who are buying into words from a Senator who couldn't or didn't help get a major progressive goal for his home state.

[jeff47]

41. Relatively centrist governor who panicked over the 2014 election results.

Shumlin freaked out when Democrats lost 2014, and fled.

Should we choose the person who's blocked single payer all the way back to her 1993 efforts instead to get it passed?

Also, the battle for single payer has been going on for 80 years. Thinking that we will abandon it if we can not win in the next two is a pretty obvious way of calling supporters morons.

[FrenchieCat]

30. #6

Is Bernie really running a clean campaign?

Hell-to-da-no!

That's a campaign promise not only broken,
but shattered into a million pieces!

[EdwardBernays]

31. Answers

- The Clintons are neck deep in the F35 and Boeing. They've taken hundreds of Grand from Boeing and her campaign chairman owns a lobbying firm that represents them.

Bernie has clearly stated his position. Only dishonest of ignorant people think their situation is even vaguely comparable.

- Bernie has asked a lot of young people and is not hiding tax increases or his call for people to be involved in politics. What has Clinton asked? How is that a real question?

- who said he planned on ending it? He wants to discourage it, and frankly considering how much money we're talking about he could easily do both.

- only 3% of her donations? So you don't include the endless cash she gets from lobbyists that represent Wall St? Because why be honest in a hit piece eh? I find it frankly ironic that such a dishonest question is framed in the context about Bernie honesty. Laughable as well.

- if you wanna see who everyone is scared of, ask why both parties and people like Goldman Sachs are doing their best to attack Bernie. No one is scared of Hillary, except people that don't have the cash to afford her.

[Floridanow]

32. There is an air of naiveness to the Sanders

Supporters. And that is sad given the stakes. I only hope that Blacks and Hispanics erect a firewall for Clinton, both groups have a nose for understanding their best interests. Too much is at stake, the country can't withstand a republican in office after President Obama.

[farleftlib]

43. it's naivete not naiveness

But you're right about much being at stake, that's why I'm voting for the candidate who can soundly defeat any republican -- Bernie Sanders.

[ancianita]

42. I like these questions, and as a Bernie supporter I've come up with a few of my own. nt