Wish I was exaggerating, but that is what he said tonight on twitter:
Kos is referring to the now debunked story by TPM claiming that Bernie said we should abandon or “ditch” (a word I use in quotes because it was used by TPM, not Sanders) identity politics, when in fact he said the exact opposite, calling for identity politics to be complimented by a anti-corporate economic populism. If you don’t think Bernie was misrepresented and misquoted (“taken out of context” doesn’t come close to describing what happened) read Bernie’s full comments here:
You can see for yourself that he nowhere says to “ditch” identity politics, but in fact actually acknowledges the value of diversity for its own sake, before saying that diversity is not enough, and that we must move “beyond” just identity politics to an economically just society. Also note that nowhere does Sanders use the term “white working class,” but rather just “working class.” This is not by accident. He is not talking about just white people. He is talking about ALL people that have not shared equally in the benefits of capitalism. This is not an either/or message of multiculturalism OR progressive economics, but rather an attempt to argue that we can have both. Those claiming he is drawing such a dichotomy should consider whether it is they who are projecting their own belief that only one or the other is possible onto him.
But the larger point is that even if Bernie had been saying what TPM and Kos claimed he said, which numerous others have indeed wrongly and problematically argued, Kos stating that neo-nazis running our government is worse than what Bernie said is absurd, ridiculous and beyond any sense of reasonable hyperbole. I remember when I used to come to this website in the 2000s for solace from the Bush era. Now I come here to despair at the mass delusions of centrist Democrats who see the world through a sad and narrow prism of corporate ethnic and gender-pluralism. Whether it is because Bernie or his left-wing successor becomes the next President, or because fascism takes permanent hold of this country, either way we are all about to learn first-hand that corporate centrism, no matter how open to diversity and social rights, is not a stable and sustainable political system. I hope to god it is the through the former and not the latter that we learn this lesson.
EDIT: If you think this was not what Kos was referring to in his above tweet, read down his twitter feed to see the multiple other tweets criticizing Bernie’s comments that he retweeted just shortly before this summary tweet. For instance, he retweeted this tweet shortly beforehand: