Bernie Sanders: You're No One to Talk on Identity Politics

[ericson00]

Last edited Tue Nov 22, 2016, 08:17 AM - Edit history (1)

apparently, Bernie has said that one of Hillary's campaign's big flaws was overuse of identity politics. While I agree in part, let's not forget that Bernie was the one who put Cornel West, Mr. Identity Politics himself, Capt. Critical Race theory, a man who didn't even endorse/vote for Hillary, on the DNC platform committee. Or Jim Zogby, another Sanders DNC appointee, who is an activist for Arab/Muslim identity politics, which Bernie courted and did so hard.

Bernie was the one who attacked her gay rights cred over Bill Clinton accepting the 1990's reality regarding DOMA, as well as cred with the African-American community over criminal justice reform. Bernie never gave the Clintons credit for getting issues like "tough on crime" or "welfare" out of our politics for 20 years.

So Bernie, stop embarassing yourself and your party already. OOPs, forgot, you didn't even join the Democratic party. But your fan Tulsi Gabbard seems to be very happy your primary opponent lost the general election, now that she could be in the Trump Administration.

Additionally Bernie, Hillary might not have gotten so into identity politics had it not been for your run. She did it to "prove" how progressive she was, where otherwise she could've been more moderate and beaten Trump.

[NCTraveler]

1. Bernie was deep in identity politics as recently as yesterday.

Employing sexist rhetoric is identity politics. Guess he really thinks it's what worked for Trump.

[athena]

2. Good point!

Why is it that appealing to white men at the exclusion of everyone else is not considered "identity politics", but advocating for tolerance, kindness, and unity is? Why is it that when a woman runs, she's really saying, "Vote for me because I'm a woman", but when a man runs, he's not saying, "Vote for me because I'm a man"?

[ehrnst]

5. It's not "identity politics"as long as you are talking about white men, apparently

so that makes it completely OK to focus like a laser on their complaints.

[leftofcool]

3. Bernie should not be talking at all.

[BlueMTexpat]

14. 1! eom

[Cobalt Violet]

4. Stop bashing Bernie.

[ehrnst]

6. Criticizing does not bashing. (nt)

[Cobalt Violet]

8. Then why is criticizing Hillary considered bashing.

I've had 3 post removed recently for just criticizing hillary. This place has become such and echo chamber and big bubble that is not very welcoming to the democratic wing of the democratic party.

[ericson00]

9. Hillary is and was a Democrat. Bernie is still not a Democrat

that's why.

[DemonGoddess]

7. K&R!

[yardwork]

10. K n r

[uponit7771]

11. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!SANDERS DIDN'T SAY DITCH IDENTITY POLITICS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm still sore over West but I'm not going to put words in his mouth either.

go back and read what Sanders said in his speech to the 1000 students, not what the click bate stories said he said,

Se didn't say ditch Identity politics or that going after the disaffected wasn't the thing to do

He said something along the lines of don't advance people who are going to give the same thing the republicans are going to give us.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/11/22/1602890/-Bernie-Sanders-identity-politics-economic-populism-and-the-Democratic-Party

In other words, one of the struggles that you’re going to be seeing in the Democratic Party is whether we go beyond “identity politics.” I think it’s a step forward in America if you have an African-American head or CEO of some major corporation. But do you know what? If that guy is going to be shipping jobs out of this country and exploiting his workers, doesn’t mean a whole hell of a lot if he’s black or white or Latino.

The article was straight up click bate relative to what Sanders said

[Paladin]

12. K&R.

[ehrnst]

13. His opponent for Governor was a target of that sort of rhetoric

"Liberals were angry I was running against a female Democrat," Sanders recalled in his own memoir, Outsider in the House. Sanders, for his part, inflamed the tensions, arguing at the time that Kunin was an empty suit. "[M]any people are excited because she's the first woman governor," he told an interviewer in 1986. "But after that there ain't much." In another interview, he suggested the governor was coasting by on superficial approval. "I think [her] popularity is not very deep," he said. "In other words, she does very well on television. She has an excellent press secretary." (she won by a good margin)

Days before the election, a group calling itself Women for Sanders took out an ad in the Burlington alt-weekly Vermont Vanguard asking voters whether they would choose "substance or image." Sanders' record, the ad said, "is one of commitment, support, and substantive accomplishment—not just rhetoric and symbolism." The message was clear: Don't vote for the woman just because she's the woman.


"He'll grab an issue and because he's so determined and passionate about it, it makes it seem like he cares more than Hillary," Kunin says. "He can say things with a forcefulness that most women can't. If a woman shouted all the time with her answers like Bernie does, she'd be booed off the stage. So women still have to behave well, where men don't have to."

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/01/bernie-sanders-madeleine-kunin-feminism

[R B Garr]

15. Wow, he has quite a history with denigrating women's political accomplishments!

That's a clear pattern emerging here. That's from 1986!

[romana]

17. Projection

He's an empty suit with a lot of words, and just as much a part of the establishment as he rails at others for being. But, like Trump, he's skilled at projecting his own weaknesses onto his opponents.

[kcr]

19. Wow. So there was at least one other time where "Vote for me! I'm the man!" didn't work for him.

You would have thought he would have learned from that.

[Ford_Prefect]

16. It seems President Obama agrees with Bernie's critique of the party's strategies.

And one message I do have for Democrats is that a strategy that’s just micro-targeting particular, discrete groups in a Democratic coalition sometimes will win you elections, but it’s not going to win you the broad mandate that you need,” Obama told reporters during a joint news conference in Lima, Peru, on Sunday.

“We need candidates — black, white and Latino and gay and male, we need all of that. But we need all of those candidates and officials to have the guts to stand up to the oligarchy. That is the fight of today.”

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/11/bernie-sanders-democrats-identity-politics-231710

[uponit7771]

18. Obama has never said identity politics wasn't important

[andym]

20. President Obama has a way with words. nt.