Why did Bernie go to Nicaragua in 1985?

[left-of-center2012]

Mark Shields on the 'PBS News Hour' tonight mentioned Sanders' honeymoon in Russia
and mentioned Sanders also had gone to Nicaragua in 1985.

Why did Bernie go to Nicaragua in 1985?

[guillaumeb]

1. Are we going back to the red scare days?

Perhaps a Senator with a list of known Communists in the State Department?

[David__77]

7. John Kerry went the same year and condemned Reagan while there.

It’s a good thing.

https://apnews.com/8b7c3a16cb2014a762d59a2418138560

[Happy Hoosier]

8. This will be an issue in the GE...

... should Sanders get the nomination. Sanders had better have a better story.

[David__77]

9. He was doing what John Kerry did there the same year.

Condemn Reagan policy: https://apnews.com/8b7c3a16cb2014a762d59a2418138560

[Callado119]

17. Some how I think saying "but, but John Kerry" isn't going to make this go away..

John Kerry didn’t praise Castro or honeymoon in the Soviet Union..

[ChubbyStar]

19. Your point?

[David__77]

24. I didn't say "but."

And, in fact, I like what John Kerry had to say. Lots of progressives stood strongly against US/Reagan policy.

[Happy Hoosier]

25. Did John Kerry honeymoon in the Soviet Union?

Has John Kerry embraced the label of socialism?

Sanders supporters can pretend this won't matter, but it will. Fair or not, it will.

[David__77]

28. No, the head of the AFL-CIO John Sweeney was a socialist organization member.

DSA specifically. Sanders didn’t belong to DSA to my knowledge. Democratic Congress members have.

I recall Bush I criticizing Bill Clinton for his 1969 trip to Moscow.

[guillaumeb]

16. What was the US doing in Nicaragua, and to Nicaragua in 1985? eom

[David__77]

23. I don't think it was a good thing.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological_Operations_in_Guerrilla_Warfare

[still_one]

32. Exactly, and that is the point. Saying that John Kerry went there isn't going to cut it

[jcmaine72]

14. Yes. Anything to disparage Bernie and paint him as a disloyal Commie.

Even if it now means championing Reagan's talking points on Central America.

The Bernie bashing here is getting absurd and is rapidly degenerating into an obscene parody of itself.

[Happy Hoosier]

27. you STILL don't get it.

It doesn't matter what we think here. It doesn't matter if it's fair.

What matters is how it will be spun by the MAGAts. And this will be spun as him hatiung 'Murica and lovin' the commies. It will. Fair or not.

[still_one]

33. I guess some people don't remember the swift boating of John Kerry. What they will throw at Sanders

in my view will be far worse, and make the swift boating of Kerry look like child's play

[Boulevardier]

34. The MAGATs are going to dump all kinds of dirt on whoever the Democratic candidate is.

Recycled redbaiting from the last century? Meh.

[Happy Hoosier]

38. Old people vote. You watch. NT

[HarlanPepper]

26. Better get used to it if he's the nominee

$2 billion worth of shit like this is going to be dropped on his head by the GOP.

[MFM008]

40. The republicans

Will go there.
They will live there.
Maggots doing it now with the Moscow trip.

[LongtimeAZDem]

42. How many of our candidates participated in a rally where the crowd chanted

"Here, there, everywhere, the Yankee will die!"?

If you don't see that as a problem, I don't know what to tell you.

[guillaumeb]

43. If you are familiar with the US role in Nicaragua,

no more needs to be said.

[LongtimeAZDem]

45. I am, and that won't make any difference when the ads come out

[guillaumeb]

46. And if Biden is the candidate,

we can all write those ads as well.

No matter which candidate we run, the GOP attack machine will start up.

Remember war hero John Kerry running against AWOL Bush Jr.

[nobuddy]

2. To seize the means of production

[denem]

13. ROFL

Seize the plant!

[UniteFightBack]

3. Normally I would say this is so far back who cares...but the GOP will weave a narrative and

this would fit in quite nicely....going all the way back to 1985 - then all the other shit.

It ain't good.

[aikoaiko]

4. This should help.

https://newrepublic.com/article/154096/making-sense-bernies-sandinista-sympathies

[lunasun]

5. + 1985 This would be right before the international law court ruled against the US in 1986

The court held that the U.S. had violated international law by supporting the Contras in their rebellion against the Sandinistas and by mining Nicaragua's harbors.

In regards to laying mines, "...the laying of mines in the waters of another State without any warning or notification is not only an unlawful act but also a breach of the principles of humanitarian law underlying the Hague Convention No. VIII of 1907."

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicaragua_v._United_States

[David__77]

6. Hopefully to condemn Reagan policy like John Kerry did during his visit.

https://apnews.com/8b7c3a16cb2014a762d59a2418138560

They both went in 1985.

[Polybius]

10. He was way to the left in the 80's

He's much more reasonable now.

[ChubbyStar]

20. But he still did it

Want to erase history? I do not.

[Boulevardier]

35. Bernie can be proud of going to Nicaragua in 1985. He was on the right side.

[Polybius]

39. So what?

I don't care what he did in the 80's, they started 40 years ago. Whatever he did before 2006 or so doesn't matter, unless it's something racist. Then we can go back a few decades.

[Tarc]

11. Why are you reviving Reagan-era talking points?

[left-of-center2012]

12. dot dot dot

"Mark Shields on the 'PBS News Hour' tonight mentioned Sanders' honeymoon in Russia
and mentioned Sanders also had gone to Nicaragua in 1985."

[Hassin Bin Sober]

18. Because they have nothing else

[ChubbyStar]

21. Now a story where Bernie Sanders faked sick to stay home from school

What a bastard!

[Skid Rogue]

15. Nice...

A whole heck of a lot of us thought about going to Nicaragua in 1985. (35 years ago) I knew a handful of people who went. We're liberal Democrats, of course we went.

[k2qb3]

22. Everyone left of Marco Rubio is a commie anyway...

and the people weaving the narrative aren't sure about him.

I'd be more worried about a "socialist" who'd never been anywhere really.

Only thing I think is a legit problem is Castro in FL., but I think there's potential strength in other swing states people aren't seeing.

I also think, at the moment at least, the weaknesses of other candidates are being discounted while the focus in on Bernie.

[Boulevardier]

36. Castro's dead and so are most of those Cuban exiles who hated him.

[George II]

41. I know several Cuban exiles who hated Castro. They're quite alive, thank you.

[NurseJackie]

44. That kind of resentment and contempt also "runs in families" who were most affected...

That kind of resentment and contempt also "runs in families" who were most affected. I'll bet you there are some 2nd generation family members of Holocaust survivors... nobody is arguing that those family members don't care simply because "it's over" and because "they weren't there" personally.

People who suggest such things are making very shallow and weak arguments. Sad.

[lutherj]

29. Why did Orwell fight in the Spanish Civil War? You call yourself "left of center"?

Read some history.

[roody]

30. The same reason I went.

I went to check out the lies we were fed by the MSM, and lend solidarity to the blockaded Nicaraguans. Those were my reasons anyway.

[Gravitycollapse]

31. Getting a nice 50s McCarthyism vibe from DU lately.

Republicans won’t even have to do any work. They can just sit back and let us destroy ourselves.

Good job everyone.

[democrank]

37. Gee....why don't you ask Ollie North?