I’ve wanted to get this off my chest for some time, so thanks Daily Kos for providing an outlet.
I’ll get straight to the point — as a female minority, I want to give one piece of advice to all the voting Democrats out there: If you want to to vote anti-establishment, don’t vote for the old white guy. The assertion that Bernie Sanders, the career politician from Vermont, is anti-establishment is laughable. I actually have a problem with the whole “anti-establishment” rhetoric anyways. It sounds dumb when it’s coming from the right to justify why they like Trump. At least Trump, who has never served in an elective office, and has no political experience whatsoever, could pass as not being part of the establishment. But this same rhetoric coming from the left in defense of a candidate who is not only part of the establishment, but whose entire congressional career is built on a foundation of the most vile and immoral source of big money — the NRA — sounds worse than dumb. Bernie Sanders would not be an established Senator today if it weren’t for the big money he got from the NRA, so he owes them a lot.
The current “anti-establishment” fever is destroying the Republican party. Instead of looking to the level-headed policy makers with years of experience, the neo-cons on the right have come to value inexperience and “revolutionaries” when they choose their representatives. A lot of good that has done us. Now we have an “anti-establishment” wing taking hold on the left. I think the idea of a “revolution” sounds just as ridiculous coming from the left as it does from the right. I never thought I’d see the day when progressives would attack a solid, experienced, fought-her-way-to-the-top, female progressive like HRC. It makes me nervous for the future of the Democratic party — uneasy to see us going down the same path that is now destroying the GOP. But what really gets me is all these attacks are to lift up a candidate who himself criticizes revolutionary, anti-establishment ideas. This is the same candidate who called the idea of reparations for persistently oppressed African-Americans as “futile” and “divisive”. Oh really? Says the guy who proudly calls himself a socialist and is running on a platform of raising taxes, universal health care and free college tuition. Talk about futile and divisive. And if you want to talk about divisive, now we have Bernie to thank for attacks from the left on Planned Parenthood and the Human Rights Campaign. Just wow.
Don’t get me wrong, I kind of like Sanders. When I hear him talk about Wall Street Reform and free health care, I totally agree with him, but I also don’t hear him saying anything much different than what HRC says on those subjects. However, on one of the issues that matters most to the liberal cause — gun violence prevention — he is a severe failure. And these failures only serve to highlight how much a part of the establishment he really is; especially the big-money-funded gun lobby establishment. I know Hillary is not perfect, but for God’s sake at least she doesn’t compare the mass murder of 1st graders by a lunatic armed with a semi-automatic weapon to someone getting killed by a hammer as a way to defend profiteering gun manufacturers. That’s a comparison that gun-nuts have clung to, by the way. Thanks a lot, Bernie. That was helpful.
So, in closing:
1.)Sanders very much established and decades-long political career is built upon NRA big-money.
2.)If you want to vote anti-establishment, don’t vote for the old white guy, i.e., just more of the same ‘ol, same ‘ol.
3.)Thanks, Bernie, for showing us that divisiveness comes just as much from the left as it does from the right.
3.)HRC 2016.
P.S. I am not a professional blogger or writer. Just a mom and a lady scientist with a lot on her mind. Don’t worry, I’m not quitting my day job.
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Update: Holy Cow! I didn’t realize that my fellow democrats could be so creative with their criticism. As I pointed out, and so many others so gently pointed out, I am a new writer. I suppose I should have left a link, or something, to show that yes, Bernie is actually an NRA beneficiary. This is actually something I heard from a woman who works at a women's shelter about why she couldn’t support Bernie, and I agree with her 100%. Did you know that the majority of mass shootings begin as domestic violence events? Kind of puts Bernie’s support of the Charleston Loophole in a whole new light, doesn’t it?
So for all you in denial out there, here’s the article (thanks to gshenaut, for posting it in the comment section):
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/how-the-nra-helped-put-bernie-sanders-in-congress/2015/07/19/ed1be26c-2bfe-11e5-bd33-395c05608059_story.html
Also, I see that people were really bothered by the way I called out “old white guys”. Note, I wasn’t attacking anyone in general (as you all did to me, ha ha!), just the majority in rule at this point, including Sanders through is decades-long political career. Given that those most bothered by that label are also calling themselves “anti-establishment” it is very odd to me that you would come to the defense of those that overwhelmingly represent the establishment. Different strokes, I suppose.