General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: The visceral hatred for Bernie is starting to remind me of the RW hate for Obama. [View all]Caliman73
(11,767 posts)There are also some viable critiques on his approach and behavior. The problem is that it appears any critique is seen as "visceral hatred" and moving between the two extremes to have a real conversation about both the positives and negatives that Sanders brings.
Sanders should release his tax returns, like every other Democratic candidate should. For Sanders specifically, this is an issue of integrity. He rails against the wealthy for taking advantage of the tax code. His reluctance to release his own taxes suggest that there is something he does not want people to know. You know that his opponent in the 2016 primary released many years of tax returns as did other Presidential candidates.
Sanders does not "disrespect" women and minorities. He does however, show a very big blind spot in how he addresses the issue of race and gender. Sanders has focused almost exclusively on economic justice, but I have said before that you cannot focus only on money distribution without understanding how race and gender figure into the equation. This is not only "the rich want to take from the rest of us". This is the rich have systematically kept people of color and women from participating in the distribution and have used non-rich White men as a bulwark against access by labeling only White men as "the working class" or "blue collar workers". Sanders wants everyone to unite without understanding that those very same people women and POC should unite with, have thrown us under the bus time and time again. His message, which is good economically, comes off as condescending to women and POC.
No one says he is Russian or in league with them. You cannot however, deny that Russian trolls used Sanders' campaign to try to damage Clinton in the primaries. That has been established as part of the findings from the election.
Sanders is not a Democratic Party member. He caucuses with Democrats and has been pretty reliable voting for policies espoused by Democrats. He also criticizes Democrats regularly (not saying that it is completely invalid either) and tends to do it during inopportune times. His running as a Democrat in Vermont, winning, then not accepting the nomination to run as an independent smacks oddly as well.
I have not heard the criticism of his health care plan so I cannot speak to it.
I can't deny that there is visceral hate for Sanders. I do think however that the other side also exists where Sanders' flaws are overlooked and he is found to be blameless for things that he clearly has problems with. I don't see a problem with support for Sanders but I also understand why he is not high on the list of some Democrats. I supported him in the primary but saw his continued candidacy and continued criticism of Clinton up to an including at the convention as continuing to weaken her. His blind spot on race and gender is what makes me not support a run this time. If he does win the Democratic primary for 2020 however, I will enthusiastically support him rather than allow Trump to skate to another term.