Shut the Fuck Up, Bernie
Read the fucking room, man.
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Shannon asked me to post this article for her. She was concerned I might offend my legions of Bernie supporters.1 I’ve spent the last year tearing into the alt-left/Brocialists non-stop, although not Bernie himself. Still, my reaction to her concern was “LOL!”
While I didn’t have the bandwidth to do more than give Bernie some side-eye over his recent comments, Shannon is a little more personally invested, and everything she says is on point. Seriously, Bernie. Shut the fuck up.
During the 2016 primary season, I was a major Bernie Sanders supporter — much to Justin’s dismay.2 I had multiple sweaters and T-shirts that expressed support for him. I argued with Hillary Clinton supporters that Bernie would be better for the job. I even joked once that I was going to get a tattoo of Sanders’ face (Justin said he would mock me forever).3
I moved on when Sanders lost the primary and threw my support to Hillary. Unfortunately, a lot of far-left Democrats did not do the same and we got Trump. I did not support the senator four years later when he ran against Joe Biden. I believed he’d let the fame go to his head.4
Bernie did the right thing during the most recent election and supported Kamala Harris. However, as soon as she lost, he was making excuses and blaming Democrats.
On “Meet the Press,” days after the election, Sanders claimed, “The working people of this country are extremely angry. They have a right to be angry. You got an economy today doing phenomenally well for the people on top. It is not working for the working class. All right? How do we address those issues?”
The senator went on to blame Democrats for not passing legislation to increase the minimum wage, Social Security benefits, etc.
As a member of the Senate, it was astounding to hear him claim Democrats abandoned working-class Americans. The Democratic Party has repeatedly introduced worker-friendly bills. For example, the Biden administration worked with Bernie Sanders and other lawmakers to expand the child tax credit. Republicans voted against it.
Democrats have also repeatedly introduced legislation over the last decade to raise the minimum wage. Republicans blocked every bill. The left is responsible for the Affordable Care Act and its benefits, which helped American workers obtain quality health insurance. Democrats support unions. Biden and his staff got involved in a number of conflicts between unions and companies to get better deals for workers as they did during the auto worker’s strike.
Democratic lawmakers have also tried to pass bills dealing with paid family leave, expanded maternity leave, etc. The Biden administration tried to help people with daycare costs. Republicans have blocked all efforts to help working-class people.
Instead of contributing to the conversation in a positive and productive way, Sanders continues to perpetuate the myth that the Democratic Party does not support working-class Americans. As one of those working-class Americans, who also pays close attention to politics, it absolutely fucking appalled me. He could have used that energy to tell the American people all of the ways that the Republican Party has failed them, but chose to attack the people he caucuses with.
Worse, he doubled down after former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi called him on his bullshit.
This is a pattern with Bernie. As soon as the going gets tough, he joins the toxic Internet trolls and blames Dems for everything. Are there ways the party can improve? Obviously. I largely support Bernie’s agenda and his message, but this was too much for me.
Instead of using his platform to educate, Bernie continues to use it to shit all over the Democratic Party. It’s a damn shame and high time he just shut the fuck up.
Democracy did not die in November of 2024 but the assholes have their knives out and it's up to us to keep them from their bloody work. Despair and surrender are what they want. Resistance is what they’ll get. Stay strong. We beat the fascists once and we’ll fucking do it again.
There are 354 days until the first Blue Wave and it starts in Virginia, Wisconsin, and Pennslyvania.
There are probably at least three or four of you out there. Sorry, but this had to be said.
Ugh! Shannon wasn’t even remotely as bad as some others, though. One of my close friends, Glenn, drank of the Bernie Koolaid so deeply that he started calling me a Republican when I wouldn’t stop pointing out that Bernie had lost the primary. He eventually started to tell people I was a liar and that they shouldn’t listen to anything I said. We didn’t talk for several years after that.
I absolutely would have.
To Bernie’s credit, when he lost, he didn’t run a scorched earth campaign again. All of his surrogates did, though. Fuck those assholes.
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I have to agree. I love Bernie’s passion for workers and he is right that they need help. But he should’ve made clear that Democrats are trying every day to get them relief, while, as you say, Republicans block every attempt. I can only hope that working people will realize with this Trump administration that they voted for the wrong party.
Sigh. I love Bernie & what he stands for, & I definitely think liberal politicians need to stop wasting time, energy & money compromising their positions in some futile attempt to appear more moderate & appeal to people who are never going to vote for them anyway. But I’m really tired of supposed progressives sabotaging the efforts of the democratic party, then putting all the blame on them when the left loses elections & lacks the power to legislate effectively. Pretty sure getting dragged backwards doesn’t qualify as “progress”