I have been reluctant to write this but just can’t help myself: what is the deal with all of this harshness towards Bernie Sanders and, by extension, his supporters?
I understand pulling for Hillary Clinton—fine, terrific—it looks like your candidate will be the nominee. But why spend so much time and energy trashing her opponent?
Kos’ famous edict about March 15 set the tone: Hillary will be the nominee, the site will pivot towards the general election, no opposition to the nominee will be permitted. Since that time, there have been one or two positive comments from Kos about how Sanders should be proud to have made it this far. But there has been an ongoing desire on the part of Kos and other front pagers to take down Senator Sanders, to intentionally misrepresent his statements, to erect straw men that can be summarily dispatched.
To take just one, this idea that the system has been rigged against Bernie Sanders. I won’t get into the specifics of Kos’ takedown (there have been many, I am sure, and that would involve reading all of them again) but he has ignored the most obvious point: this race began with every single member of the Democratic establishment falling over themselves to endorse Hillary Clinton. The head of the DNC is the former co-chair of her 2008 campaign. For the past year, all of the mainstream media and most of the blogosphere has treated Hillary as the presumptive nominee. ‘Rigged’ is a loaded word but those facts illustrate how clearly the odds have been stacked against Sanders. And yet, he has attracted a tremendous amount of support from primary voters throughout the country—and she has not been able to clinch the nomination.
Are those of you who support Hillary Clinton so confident about her electoral chances against Donald Trump that you don’t think you will need this fall the millions of people who have supported Bernie Sanders? It seems like your intention is to rub Sanders’ supporters’ faces in their probable defeat. Am I, as a Bernie supporter, supposed to be enthusiastic about joining a candidate and her fans who have been so consistently vitriolic against my candidate?
In the 2008 primaries, I was for Barack Obama. Towards the end of the primary, I remember the PUMA movement—whatever. But, I don’t recall Obama supporters trashing Hillary and those who had voted for her. Perhaps there were but I don’t remember them. I could find dozens, perhaps even scores, of anti-Bernie pieces on this site in the past two months.
I have been coming to Daily Kos for some time—I see that I joined in July 2005. I had moved to to Texas from New York, and this was the rare forum that allowed me to hear progressive points of view.
Now, all I hear is Bernie is an asshole and clap louder for Hillary. If that is what you want the site to be, then fine. Like many, I am reducing my engagement here. I used to check it our four and five times a day—now I come once. Soon, I expect to disengage completely.
If this diary is even read, it will probably generate more anti-Bernie vitriol. The only thing I want everyone to consider is that, if the goal is to ensure that Donald Trump is not elected in the fall, is trashing millions of other Democratic voters really the best way to go?
