84 Comments
User's avatar
Linda Silfven's avatar

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.

Expand full comment
Kim Cronan's avatar

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”

Expand full comment
Kari Bentley-Quinn's avatar

This is what I have been trying to say. You can't go forward if you are starting 4 steps backwards. We'll be lucky - VERY LUCKY - if we get back to where we were two years ago. Which is farther backwards than we were in 2016. Decades of progress, just gone.

Expand full comment
Kim Cronan's avatar

I don’t think we’re gonna be that lucky this time around. For the first in my life, I’m truly afraid the US won’t be able to recover from the rapidly approaching shitstorm

Expand full comment
Kari Bentley-Quinn's avatar

Same. But we are gonna try anyway

Expand full comment
Kim Cronan's avatar

Hells yeah we are! I became a grandmother this year, & I’ll be damned if that little girl & my daughters are going live in this country with fewer rights & freedoms than I’ve enjoyed my entire life. We are not going back

Expand full comment
Kimberley M Mueller's avatar

Grandmas unite! I’m not leaving a shite world to my grandkids either!

Expand full comment
Jenni Plumer's avatar

It's definitely not looking good for us. Musk is meeting privately with Putin and Iran both. Trump is taking lessons ftom Orbàn. R Senators are signaling that Trump appointments will be confirmed. We are dangerously close to totalitarianism. And Biden is meeting with trump at the white house & normalizing him for the cameras. This isn't a drill. The time to act was 4 years ago and they failed us.

Expand full comment
Kim Cronan's avatar

Trying not to let my mind spin out endless disaster scenarios but yeah, the situation in this country is as dangerous & frightening as I’ve ever seen. What kind of action would you like to see taken?

Expand full comment
Jenni Plumer's avatar

Because I believe we must follow the rule of law, even while the other side is simultaneously trampling it, there isn't much left to do at this time, other than speak out at every turn. The only thing that can save us now would be republicans in congress and the scotus refusing to allow the trump administration to break the law. That's unlikely, but it becomes impossible if no one speaks out against him. I'd like to see the Biden Harris administration talk truthfully about this transition and what it will mean for democracy. Instead, Biden shook hands with trump while smiling for the cameras, conveying that everything is going to be great and democracy will carry on. I'd like to see the news media, (aside from far right fox, Newsmax, etc) speak about the fascist plans trump ran on and how everything he is doing now indicates he meant every word. Instead, we see most of them trying to curry favor with him, nornormalizing him. Many will probably end up jailed (or worse) for things they have said in the past. That's a horrible realization, but abandoning principle and changing course now won't save them. He's extremely vindictive and doesnt ever forgive or forget. Representative Dan Goldman is pushing a resolution to be voted on in the House that explicitly states that trump cannot serve a 3rd term by law. Yes, it is already stated in the 22nd Amendment, and a resolution wouldn't really mean much, but it would force a vote for all of us to see. I keep hearing everyone talking about resistance, but I am seeing almost no actual resistance. 💔

Expand full comment
Tee Ree's avatar

What a traitor. When the going gets tough he immediately, without hesitation, jumps on the Republican talking point bandwagon. He can fuck straight off the edge of the cliff like the rest of the traitors.

Expand full comment
Tee Ree's avatar

Forgot to say thanks Shannon and Justin for keeping it real!

Expand full comment
Mark Asch's avatar

As we used to say. Right on Shannon. It’s time Bernie learned to stfu

Expand full comment
Alicia Norman's avatar

I am glad you said this. My most recent Substack article addressed this kind of stubborn inability of progressives to support those who most closely align with their politics because the candidate isn't perfect. I got some heat from a progressive in the comment section but as my old pastor used to say, a hit dog will holler. It's baby steps. By sitting things out or attacking Dems, they make us take steps backwards, not forward. This mind-numbing idiocy will ensure they never get the things they want. We can't progress with the infighting and division.

Expand full comment
The Opinionated Ogre's avatar

A hit dog will holler and they holler a LOT.

Expand full comment
JO JACKSON's avatar

He is wrong. He selfishly is using us to vent his frustrations and ill placed criticism. It is past time for him to do better. He has never been a team player. We have lost recurrently with him not willing to support the bigger picture. Yes. STFU

Expand full comment
Ethereal fairy Natalie's avatar

🎯👆👆👆👆"He has never been a team player!" yup, he tries to do good, but his ego makes it all about him. I always saw him as a mirror of Tangeranus in the ego department, and promising ponies he could never make materialize.

Expand full comment
Kari Bentley-Quinn's avatar

I have been wanting him to STFU since the day he decided to run. Welcome!

Expand full comment
James Bush's avatar

Come on now , I just followed you.

Expand full comment
Saralyn Fosnight's avatar

I liked Bernie as well but frankly Liz Warren was my girl and that of many of my women friends. I tend to think of Bernie as a gadfly and just not pay really close attention to his criticisms. I don’t agree with him at all about the Democrats. I have two degrees and consider myself a supporter of the working class. That’s what my Trump-loving extended family is. They just don’t vote for their own self-interests. I was in a union when I worked for Consumers Reports Books, a part of Consumers Union in Yonkers, NY. I worked in numerous minimum wage jobs over the years. I am not an elitist I just like to make enough money to live. I don’t see myself as anything resembling the kind of anti-worker person Bernie seems to think the Democrats have become. I just don’t see it. I agree with the author of this piece, I wish he would just stop! Biden was the first and only president to walk a picket line. That should mean something to every single Democrat. And also to Bernie Sanders.

Expand full comment
Kari Bentley-Quinn's avatar

I will never ever forget how she was treated by the "I'd vote for any woman JUST NOT THAT WOMAN" crowd. EVER.

Expand full comment
A Declining Democracy's avatar

Liz Warren was more thorough and more thoughtful about progressive policies. And Biden adopted a lot of her platform. She is always the bridesmaid and never the bride. But I love her and am glad she retained her Senate seat.

Expand full comment
James Bush's avatar

Yes , I liked her also . Got the book about her . Another one in the giant stack .

Expand full comment
Laura Camp's avatar

Warren was my choice, too. She's just right about so many things, and a forward thinker. Time for new leaders, now. Schumer needs to give another Senator like Warren or Klobuchar a chance to lead the minority.

Expand full comment
Karen Scofield's avatar

Great article this morning ☕ Shannon and will reStack ASAP 💯👍

Expand full comment
Sean McCoy Writes's avatar

I followed the same Bernie trajectory in 2016. I have followed his career for years, and was excited about what he was talking about. He did not have my support in 2020. He's Berned his last bridge with me, he can definitely fuck off. He can go and caucus himself.

Expand full comment
Amy's avatar

I agree! What is his problem? Kamala had so many things that she was going to do for the working class people and now it's all gone to hell! It's really unbelievable that you Americans actually did what you did! The whole world is going to suffer because of it!

Expand full comment
James Bush's avatar

The people that did this . Are the ones who don't watch any news at all , or hate Government telling them that there are rules to live by .

Expand full comment
Suee33's avatar

agree, it is coming together to have the MOST unqualified cult followers - seems like the Peter Principle in SPADES!!!

Expand full comment
Eileen Dougharty's avatar

It took Bernie MONTHS to endorse Hillary after the primaries way back when...old Mittens has always been a sore loser. Octogenarian white male millionaires to the back, please.

Expand full comment
Suee33's avatar

He is somewhat like dump, taking advantage of a situation. Certainly not being helpful at all - except for his own niche brand, maybe. SO, F all the way off, Bernie!

Expand full comment
Rebekah West's avatar

Yep. I was tweeting at him and the media he was yelling into non stop how ridiculous his comments sounded but finally unfollowed him. When he sent this message through his email, though, which has said the exact opposite for years (GOP, not Dems), I ended my sub. Trump and Co are literally only helping the 1% and 10% Sanders has spent his entire career railing about. Name a Trump “policy” that helps people. Not a comment, a policy.

Expand full comment
EFS's avatar

Bernie has achieved genuine crank status.

Expand full comment
Groovy Blue Hipster's avatar

Thanks Shannon…Truth to Power! 👍🏽💔

Expand full comment
L.D.Michaels's avatar

Spot on !

Expand full comment