A few weeks back I wrote a diary story in response to Bernie Sanders critics’ claims that the Senator hasn’t been attacked:
“Sanders hasn’t been attacked yet.”
I went over some of the attack ads and smears that were lobbed at Bernie while he racked up fourteen election wins leading up to today.
Now Sanders’ detractors claim that he is popular simply because the Republicans are going to attack him even more. They believe that attack ads and propaganda on a national level will doom Sanders and kill our chances of victory in 2016.
I’m here to clear that up: Bernie is already being attacked at the national level!
Below the fold, I’ll show what a major right-wing propaganda site is saying about Bernie and his policies today. I’ll take the plunge into right-wing territory to show how some Conservatives are trying to tarnish the Senator from Vermont.
My cache will never be the same (until I clear it.)
Let’s take a look at Briebart.com:
This story was actually pretty tame, barring the slightly unflattering shot of Bernie. The reporting was not editorialized, although I think the point of pointing out this meeting was to link Bernie to Obama. I’m sure you know what Briebart’s readers think about our current POTUS…
Another Briebart article on the same story garnered a lively comments section (Potential trigger/NSFW):
This is getting fun! It looks like “rape” comments referencing Bernie’s “creative writing” from the past, and attacks on Obama as a “Marxist-in-chief” or “Socialist” are in order.
What “rape” story? NPR provides the details:
So what did Bernie Sanders write and what did he say about rape?
The essay by the Vermont senator, who officially kicked off his presidential campaign this week, isn't long — only a page. Warning: The bit about rape comes at the very beginning, as does some not-totally-safe-for-work language:
"A man goes home and masturbates his typical fantasy. A woman on her knees, a woman tied up, a woman abused.
"A woman enjoys intercourse with her man — as she fantasizes being raped by 3 men simultaneously.
"The man and woman get dressed up on Sunday — and go to Church, or maybe to their 'revolutionary' political meeting.
"Have you ever looked at the Stag, Man, Hero, Tough magazines on the shelf of your local bookstore? Do you know why the newspaper with the articles like 'Girl 12 raped by 14 men' sell so well? To what in us are they appealing?"
Sanders then goes on to explain his ideas about gender roles and eventually gets at a sharper point — that traditional gender roles help create troubling dynamics in men's and women's sex lives.
I recommend checking out the entire piece from NPR. They do a good job covering this story from multiple angles, as usual.
Yes, Sanders wrote some awkward words about gender in the 1970s, but its became a non-story since Bernie and his campaign have apologized and moved on from it early last year:
What has the Sanders campaign said?
The Sanders campaign quickly tried to distance itself — and the candidate — from the 43-year-old essay. Campaign spokesman Michael Briggs called the essay a "dumb attempt at dark satire in an alternative publication" in an interview with CNN, adding that it "in no way reflects his views or record on women." He added, "It was intended to attack gender stereotypes of the '70s, but it looks as stupid today as it was then."
How much of a story is this? From Charles Cooke for the National Review:
Bernie Sanders wrote these words — and a lot of drivel besides – in 1972. Maybe he was young and foolish. Maybe he was a different man back then. Maybe society was unrecognizable and he had bought into all sorts of faddish psychology. Who knows? And frankly, who cares? Sure, the Democratic party would crucify a Republican for the same offense. But they shouldn’t. A society in which people are drummed out of politics for things they wrote 43 years ago is an ugly society indeed. Sometimes the best way to address hypocrisy is to take the high road. This is America: land of second chances. This is a place of redemption and of reinvention and of continual learning. Nobody honestly believes that Bernie Sanders is a sexual pervert or that he is a misogynist or that he intends to do women any harm. [...]
Read more at: www.nationalreview.com/...
I am getting the feeling that the commentators over in Briebartland are more concerned with attacking Trump and saving their own party than smearing Bernie.
Now we get to comments on an actual attack article from Briebart (see cover picture), covering Chris Matthews on MSNBC asking a state legislative candidate how Bernie planned to pay for his proposals:
I’m not worried about any of this. Typical Conservative nonsense that has been said about every single Democrat since the Internet was a thing. I do want to point out one specific comment:
The American people will not elect a “socialist” president.
Has anyone else read this EXACT SAME comment used on Daily Kos in several places? I know I have…
BTW, if you are wondering just how Bernie’s proposals will be paid for, click here to get that info straight from the campaign.
I saved the “best” for last:
Oh NOES… not George Soros?!?!!
Breitbart News has found, however, that Sanders’ economic policies have been molded in part by experts with deep ties to top one-percenter and billionaire George Soros.
In 2011, Sanders convened what he referred to as an “expert advisory panel” to help draft legislation for Federal Reserve reform in the wake of a damning top-to-bottom Congressional audit of the U.S. central banking system.
Sanders’ panel of experts was stacked with economists tied to Soros. One prominent member advocates a “new economic order” no longer dominated by the U.S., while another is the leading proponent of the “shock therapy” economic doctrine of radical economic transformation deployed at times to detriment in Eastern Europe.
Last July, Sanders convened another panel of economists to advise the Senate on the Greek and international debt crises. The panel consisted of many of the same Soros-tied experts.
So Bernie had some help writing policy by some people with ties to a billionaire. Big deal.
A common misconception among the anti-Bernie crowd is that Bernie and his supporters have a blanket hatred of the rich. That is false. I, and I imagine other Bernie supporters, appreciate people like Warren Buffett for their charitable efforts. I have no ill will against someone who is giving a significant amount of money to help people in need.
I want the richest people in this country to pay their fair share of taxes, so that giving back to the community is a shared requirement rather than an optional charity. People who profit off of the rest of the country should help their fellow countrymen succeed. That doesn’t mean that rich people are “bad” people. Issues like this aren’t black-and-white, but many (50?) shades of grey.
This is the kind of infantile “logic” that I expect from Conservative pundits. I’m supposed to drop support for Bernie because one time he got help from people who are connected to a very rich man to write regulatory policy? This attack only works if you think Bernie has blanket hatred for anyone who is wealthy, and even then this would be a stretch. This is another nothingburger that will fall on deaf ears in the general election if Bernie is nominated.
FWIW, there are also some articles on Hillary on Briebart, focusing on her email issues and her campaign in general. I’ll spare the details and just say that yes, Conservatives still don’t like anyone with Clinton in their name.
This is just a small taste of what’s being written in the Conservative media about Bernie Sanders right now. He is being attacked in all the typical Conservative ways by all of the usual suspects. While I’m sure that these attacks will work on people who are already die-hard GOP voters, this isn’t going to sway all of the people who have already heard these attacks levied against Obama, Bill Clinton, etc. and voted for them anyway.
A vast majority of Americans know better than to let George Soros or cries of “Communism” drive them away from the voting booth.