Monday, June 20, 2016

WILL BERNIE SANDERS BE #JUDAS SOON?

Here's a story from Massachusetts that I missed last week:
NORTHAMPTON -- Sen. Elizabeth Warren's endorsement of Hillary Clinton has sparked more backlash in Northampton -- this time in the form of roadside graffiti.

On Sunday, a small crowd of Bernie Sanders supporters dressed in black and demonstrated silently as Warren delivered a speech at the World War II club, in outrage over Warren's support for Clinton.

And now, graffiti reading "#JudasWarren Sellout" in large red letters marks a concrete structure on Route 5 just before the entrance to I-91.



The related tweets aren't subtle:




It's widely assumed that a Bernie Sanders endorsement of Clinton is inevitable, although it may take a while. But it seems to me that Sanders has to choose between endorsing Clinton and remaining the leader of his movement -- a significant percentage of his followers will simply declare him #JudasSanders immediately after he endorses, assuming he ever does.

That's one more reason I think he won't endorse, even if he mounts an anti-Trump campaign. I don't think the angriest Berners will accept even massive platform concessions as sufficient reason to make common cause with Clinton. Or it's possible that if he gets what he wants, even he'll start to feel that some of the purists are too pure, and he'll blow them off. We'll see.

15 comments:

KenRight said...

Will Bernie demand Clinton move Trump's way as part of a deal?


http://dissidentvoice.org/2016/06/leading-antiwar-progressives-speak-favorably-of-aspects-of-trumps-foreign-policy/

Steve M. said...

If you believe Trump would be a dove as president, even relatively, you're too stupid to breathe.

(And yes, I'm talking to you, too, William Greider. What the hell happened to you.)

jsrtheta said...

Oy. As a former western Mass resident (in the five college region), I am not surprised by this behavior. It's something in the water, I think. And I'm not talking Quabbin Reservoir water, either.

There is a tie between Vermont and western Mass, going back a long way. What most western Mass residents in my time, and now, apparently, have in common with Vermont is a certain soundtrack featuring banjos and the voice of Burt Reynolds.

I have known people who fled Vermont in horror, with good reason. Vermont straddles the 18th and 19th Centuries reluctantly, and much of western Mass thinks this both desirable and quaint. It is neither. It is Waldenesque thinking, which was simply self-absorbed even when it was written. Frankly, that entire pond begs to be nuked, if only to shut up current and future Ayn Rand devotees. I miss Massachusetts more than I can say, but I ain't blind.

Anyone who thought that a senator from Vermont would in any way be prepared to be president, even of his high school AV club, is truly deluded. It doesn't help that said senator would have horrified even Madison.

Bernie, it's done. You may think spending time in Washington taught you the real world, but that's simply mishegas, as your origins in Brooklyn should have taught you. (Though your stay in Chicago really should have straightened that out for you. Seriously, if you want to understand reality, Chicago could have taught you all you really need to know.)

Philo Vaihinger said...

I don't think the angriest Berners will accept even massive platform concessions as sufficient reason to make common cause with Clinton.

Right.

So, no concessions.

Robert said...

Exactly, Philo. Hillary doesn't need to put the citizens needs before those of the corporate elite to get votes. Democrats will still vote for her over Trump. They have no other choice.

Soccer Dad said...

ok, so 0.001% of Bernie supporters are young and stupid
so what about the other 99.99% of us who are mature and not happy with the idea of supporting someone who praised H Kissinger ?
or are millions of dead Vietnamese and Cambodians a mere detail ?

OK, Hillary is better then Trump or Jeb!, but that ain't saying much

Further, Bernie had perfectly reasonable, no, strike that great ideas - enhance soc sec, socialized medicine, free college tuition, get money out of politics at least somewhat
- and you all trashed him cause......I guess you were jealous that he had the commensense to suggest ideas that help really poor people, as opposed to the well to do who blog ?

just not gettin it, but hey, liberals, circular firing squad facing in, future dem party would be helped by all those young bernie bros, but hey, lets just trash em cause we are as mature as they is...

Cathie from Canada said...

He is NEVER going to concede, nor is he ever going to endorse Hillary.
The next big fight will be over whether he gets to speak at the convention anyway. I really hope Hillary holds the presidential vote on the first night (instead of waiting until the third night) just to make things clear to his supporters that he is NOT going to win.

Anonymous said...

" As a former western Mass resident (in the five college region), I am not surprised by this behavior. It's something in the water, I think. And I'm not talking Quabbin Reservoir water, either."

It's the Colour Out Of Space. New England is Lovecraft territory, after all, and not only the coast.

jsrtheta said...

@Soccer Dad: No, he got trashed because he had no clue how to accomplish any of those things.

And you know something? Go to, say, 63d & Stony Island on the South Side of Chicago, and ask people how important free college tuition is to them. My guess is "not very." Bernie just never understood what the truly needy in this country want. He doesn't understand them or even know them. And that's why he was never going to win the black and Hispanic vote.

Bernie: A white man for white people!

Steve M. said...

I haven't trashed the Sanders message. I've been angry about the way he's conducted his campaign since it became impossible for him to win. I'm angry about his followers' acceptance of conspiracy theories and the inability to choose wisely between a conventional left-centrist pol with flaws and a fascist-wannabe sociopath ignoramus.

Unknown said...

Pretty embarrassing post. Bernie has endorsed every Dem since '84.

You really show in your writing you have little idea who he is - and random twitter feeds mean nothing. I get the Clinton people need to feel like victims - but this was just silly.

I worked for Bernie in Iowa, New Hampshire and New York. Very few that I met had any doubt he would endorse Clinton. He loses nothing but the Nader types who were a minor part of his campaign.

You don't know what you are talking about.

Never Ben Better said...

Hey, Bill Dan, you been to Liz Warren's Facebook page recently? Seen the shit-ton of outraged "Sellout!!!!" comments on every post there? Hundreds upon hundreds upon hundreds of 'em? Oh, but those I'm sure are no true Scotsman -- ah, not real Sanders supporters. Naw, couldn't be.

aimai said...

Christ is anything more nauseating than watching a lifelong democrat and an actual pro McGovern supporter blamed for the sins of Henry Kissinger? What was she supposed to do--kill him to avenge the inability of anyone else to try him for his crimes? What the ever loving fuck? The entire rest of washington has continued to break bread with Henry Kissinger but Hillary Clinton is the one who is retroactively assigned his murders?

Robert said...

Kissinger is who HRC gets her foreign policy advice, aimai.
Don't take my word for it. Take the word of the presumptive Democratic Presidential nominee.
You know her. She voted for GWB's Great iraq Clusterfuck.

If you want to complain about HRC's treatment, complain that all the right-wing stuff her husband did is unfairly being draped around her neck.

Personally, I'd love for her to denounce her husband's disastrous (for the working class and poor) policies. Who knows, if she does so, she might even get some votes from the liberals her husband ran out of the Democratic Party in the 90s.

petrilli said...

An immature idiot wrote that piece of graffiti. It's an undeserved insult to Warren that her years of public service belie. No more deserved than the insults so gleefully lobbed at Sanders on this blog. Two sides of the same useless fickle coin as I see it.