Bernie NEVER said that POC and LGBTQ don't have it worse than working-class whites.

[Ken Burch]

No one who organized(not just supported from a distance or marched only where it was safe, but organized) in the freedom movement would ever believe anything remotely like that.

And he has never ever called, nor would he ever call, for ANYONE to stop speaking out or organizing against institutional oppression. Or argued that those struggles should be set aside in the name of some over-generic notion of the greater good.

Nor has he ever said that achieving economic justice would end all forms of racism.

All he has said is that POC(most of whom are also working-class)LGBTQ people and working-class whites can and should find common ground on economic justice issues AS the fight against institutional bigotry is passionately carried on.

That finding this common ground, while always addressing differing degrees of group suffering with equal commitment, will be crucial to winning the fight against institutional bigotry.

And that when people of all races, genders, sexual orientations of creed who unite to fight BOTH forms of injustice, the defeat of both is much, much more likely, because the conditions that create backlash against oppressed communities will be much, much less likely to even exist.

There is no contradiction between recognizing that some communities face greater oppression and hardship, on the one hand, and recognizing that the majority of people in this country face hardships that that majority shouldn't face, that no decent society should expect the majority to face.

It's perfectly possible to be particularist and universalist. It just takes imagination and the will to change life.

Bernie's supporters sincerely get it, I think, that a lot of people have deep historical reasons to distrust any political leaders. We are driven by that same distrust, if for sometimes differing reasons.

But the candidate we support has listened, has changed, has made real efforts to address the legitimate concerns that were raised. He knows more needs to be done, but he has responded.

If you give him a chance, you will be rewarded with a president who will work harder than anyone else in the race to address the oppression you so rightly condemn and that we join with you in condemning.

And you will be making the best choice you could make in pursuit of the oppression-free society and world we all want to build.

What can you be sure of getting if you choose anybody else?

[MADem]

1. Bernie Sanders Claims He’s a Longtime Champion of Marriage Equality. It’s Just Not True.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/outward/2015/10/05/bernie_sanders_on_marriage_equality_he_s_no_longtime_champion.html

[Smarmie Doofus]

5. Here's what feelthebern.org says about the issue:

>>>>>What is Bernie’s history on same-sex marriage?

He has long been a supporter of same-sex marriage, voting against the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) passed by Congress in 1996. In 2015, he said of that vote: “Back in 1996, that was a tough vote. Not too many people voted against it, but I did.” (In fact, he’s the only presidential candidate in the 2016 race who can say that.)

As both a congressman and later the junior senator from Vermont, he supported that state’s 2000 civil union law and 2009 law legalizing gay marriage. In 2011, he called on President Obama to “join in supporting marriage equality.”

In 2013, he co-sponsored the Uniting Families Act, which would have allowed partners of any legal U.S. citizen or resident to obtain lawful permanent residency. This bill was primarily intended to allow LGBTQ residents and citizens of the United States to bring their partners into America, just as members of opposite sex couples are able to do.

When the Supreme Court overturned DOMA in June 2015, he praised the historic ruling that legalized same-sex marriage across the country.>>>>>http://feelthebern.org/bernie-sanders-on-lgbtq-rights/

What , if anything, is misleading or untrue?

[MADem]

6. The article cites chapter and verse and provides video. He said what he said. In 2006.

and he didn't come around until 2009. And anyone who didn't say "Oh, good, at last!" after the SCOTUS decision isn't a liberal, progressive, or even slightly to the left of the aisle.

Is it the Crime of the Century that he dithered? That he OPPOSED SSM for VT just ten short years ago? That he found it "divisive?" (HIS WORD). That he preferred Civil Unions for VT even though MA already had equality?

That's an individual decision. He certainly wasn't the only one to so do.

But that link is fact-based. He hasn't "always been there." He just hasn't.

[1StrongBlackMan]

2. Strawman Alert ...

No one (that I am aware of) has said: Bernie said that POC and LGBTQ don't have it worse than working-class whites.

[Ken Burch]

3. The claim that he thinks fighting bigotry is less important than economic change is the same thing.

It's about the myth that Bernie dismisses the importance of fighting institutional oppression.

He never has dismissed that.

And there has never been a situation in which victims of institutional oppression ever found better allies in the establishment than among grassroots activists.

[thereismore]

4. You are trying to reason. It's not always welcome here. nt

[1StrongBlackMan]

7. "Trying to reason", is correct ...

But this attempt is not welcome BECAUSE this, like many, many, many of that poster's "reasoning" posts is a failure, as it starts with a false proposition (AKA, a Straw man, i.e., no one has said what he is basing his argument on).

Now ... if someone responds it will be several rounds of goal-post moving and equally fallacious argumentation until he arrives at his boiler-plate "I'm the Victim here because you (by repeating my words, verbatim) are twisting my words ... Bernie really is the best for you" language.

I seen, and responded to, the routine more times than I'd like to admit. It gets tiring; but more, boring.

[thereismore]

8. I sense your frustration. There is a lot of it going around. I, for instance, got frustrated

by too many posts of our mutual friend with nothing but a snarky word or two in them. It goes on on both sides.

[1StrongBlackMan]

9. But the difference is ...

the one posts snarky one or two word posts, that when read successively make a legitimate, intellectually honest, point (one that certainly can be disagreed with; but, a legitimate point, none-the-less) ... the other writes essays based on false propositions, i.e., "Bernie NEVER said that POC and LGBTQ don't have it worse than working-class whites", when no one has ever said that, making all (most) of his posts intellectually dishonest.

[thereismore]

10. We'll sort it all out, in time! nt

[1StrongBlackMan]

11. I'm hoping that the sides accept the democratic sorting out of this process ...

Sadly, I suspect that many will not.

[firebrand80]

12. How does he plan to address it?

I watch every debate, his answer to the race problem is "create more good paying jobs."

Even more alarming than that, I have heard him say that his #1 priority is campaign finance reform. He apparently believes that once we get to some undefined state of "big money out of politics," that all the other dominoes toward his "political revolution" will fall (anyone not holding their breath waiting for this to play out is a "no we can't" pessimist).