There is truth to this argument about a subset of Sanders' supporters and surrogates using vitriol to attack opponents. Though, Bernie does not sanction or encourage such action, it still exists among his supporters. However, this has become the new reality of American politics in the wake of Trump normalizing so much reprehensible behavior. As a Sanders supporter, I avoid politically engaging on twitter and facebook where aggressive SJW, Antifa, etc types are unfortunately part of the Bernie support. They are an aggressively vocal group that will derail any serious political discussion very quickly and resort to their base instincts. That's why I would rather stick to debating policies and ideology and doing so in private among family and friends or on forums like this one (because we all support the Rockets).
What do you mean? After he had the heart attack, Bernie is the one that said he'd release all his medicals before the primary voting started. He's the one that said the people have a right to know the health of the people they are voting for. He didn't live up to the statements and is now saying he probably won't. Why wouldn't it be a legit question to ask about?
i think this is a good description of it. The flipside with the GOP is that most Trump supporters aren't racist, but racists tend to support Trump. It's similar here - most Bernie supporters are fine. But he also attracts the people on the left fringes who are more vitriolic/etc than your average person. They did it Saturday in New Hampshire as well: https://www.foxnews.com/politics/bu...ade-jeers-and-cheers-3-days-before-nh-primary On Saturday night, as Buttigieg spoke at the Shaheen-McIntyre 100 Club Dinner, Sanders supporters in the crowd inside the Southern New Hampshire University Arena showered the candidate with jeers of “Wall Street Pete!” Supporters of other candidates don't tend to do this kind of stuff - they support their person but they don't after their opponents quite the same and very personal way. You see it here on this forum with the use of "rat" and other similar things that come straight from Bernie message boards.
"Bernie message boards"? No, I just think you have a severe blind side for the attacks on Bernie and his supporters. Again, Bernie has been attacked by the other candidates plenty of times and the candidates, people who post here and many mainstream sources have a rather patronizing view of Bernie and his supporters. Is calling Pete "Wall Street Pete" any worse than the media and candidates like Bloomberg saying that Bernie is like Trump? That's even a worse insult in the eyes of the moderate/main stream circles than being called "Wall Street so and so".
Well its an issue because Bernie is trapping himself.... my point is its an issue voters in this election really aren't going to make a decision based on. It's Bernies fault that he's getting caught in bad faith political arguments, but my opinion is it's sort of a waste of time to argue. Trump is obese, old, and mentally unwell but not one of his voters will not vote for him because he could keel over in the oval but Bernie won't. Bad health and age is why we have vice presidents and why in this election the VP pick will be very important to ensure this issue isn't allowed to become a real issue. If Biden nominated Bernie to be his VP pick then yeah... I could see this issue picking up steam, but it wont be. Both Biden, and Bernie will be smart (one would hope) about their VP pick so they can be able to tell voters "If I die in office, what you care about in my candidacy won't change." Nobody thinks that if Trump dies in office, VP Pence will all the sudden start being an advocate for Medicare for All. Nobody thinks if president Bernie keels over in office that his VP pick will all the sudden start advocating for tax cuts for billionaires.
Where there's smoke, there's generally fire. You don't see these complaints about Biden supporters or Amy supporters or anyone else. You don't see campaigns complaining like this about any other candidate's supporters. You don't see mass attacks on people no one has ever heard of like you did when that one PAC endorsed Warren instead of Bernie. You really only see it with the candidates that have some cult-like followers: Bernie & Trump, and then Hillary to a degree in 2016 (and Obama to a smaller extent as well). You'll see me criticize Bernie. You'll see other people criticize Bernie. What you won't see is use of coordinated language and insults. Or specific attacks all starting on one day across all mediums - the attacks on Pete in his thread a few months all started literally the same day, all with the same criticisms, and it wasn't just here. At the time, I mentioned that someone put out a bat signal to go attack Pete, and the Bernie supporters ran with it. That happens a lot. And it's not just some big coincidence. And they DO engage in a lot of the same strategies as you see with Trump supporters - arguing that they are the outsiders and everyone else is corrupt; the media and the parties are consipiring against them; when they lose, it's always someone else's fault, etc. Again, you don't see this with any other campaign. These things aren't just being made up.
I'd agree with that. But Bernie made it an issue for two reasons: he wanted to create a contrast with Trump, and then he needed to give people confidence post-heart-attack when Warren was surging. He's getting called out now for going back on a promise he chose to make when it benefited him. He's presented an image of being non-hypocritical and honest and accusing other people of not being so. So when he does things contrary to that, it's going to come out. I don't think Chuck Todd or gotcha moments have anything to do with it.
Who in the media has said Bernie is like Trump? When did Bloomberg say this? please provide these links because I have not seen any of this.
New quinnpiac poll has Bernie at a whopping +8 nationally. First poll Bernie has had a large lead in. 538 has Bernie leading at a 44% chance to win the primary, with 2nd being nobody at 28%, and 3rd Biden at 16%. Bernie is the front runner currently, of course this could change rapidly based on the outcomes in NH/Super Tuesday. If Bernie wins, it will be interesting to see if dems stay on their #Unity train, or become a bunch of Hillary Clintons (stronger together, right?...)
Two new polls today also show him with leads nationally (+10 and +3). The problem is that it's largely from everyone falling back than him moving up. He's at 25%, which is essentially back to his April 2019 high for him, but still lower than both Biden and Warren's peaks. The big question for him is IF the other candidates ever drop out, does he keep picking up support, or does he have a ceiling? My guess is he has a ceiling around 35%, but we'll see. The longer this is a many-candidate race, I think the better for Bernie. Winning begets winning, and the more states he can win at 35%, the more likely he is to break out and become inevitable.
In the polls that ask for 2nd choices, Warren's supporters seem split - I'd guess about half go to Bernie. But some of her support is gender-based; some is based on being a more palatable Bernie. But yeah, I agree that Warren dropping out benefits him the most. Tonight, his best outcome would be winning and Warren finishing 5th (Amy finishing 2nd or 3rd would be ideal as well to jumble the moderate lane some more).
Sanders has been consistent and damn near prophetic for 40+ years and what's that got him? A label as a crazy old man commie who can't win!?!? Personally, I think Sanders doesn't defend himself enough against the attacks. I'd rather he not rely on supporters he can't control and instead do it himself more loudly and more often.
Now you had an anchor on live TV reading and agreeing to a quote comparing Bernie supporters to Trump supporters and Nazis. Obviously not commenting directly in Bernie the parallelism has obvious implications.
