Bernie Sanders Only Cares About Bernie Sanders

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Each election has what become its accepted narratives: themes that, over time, gel into what are considered reliable facts that are no longer vetted or questioned. As the Democratic campaign finally wraps up, it’s time to put two persistent ones to bed: Hillary Clinton is unpopular and limping to a finish, and Bernie Sanders is a progressive from way outside the system.

Neither could be farther from the truth.

-snip-

Mr. Sanders, for his part, has coasted on narratives of his own making. Disestablishmentarian? Please. Of course Mr. Sanders is a member of the establishment. Mr. Sanders is about as outside the nation’s power structure as Tom Donohue. I fail to see how a man who has been a member of the two most exclusive clubs in the country—the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate—for nearly three decades, could be anything but establishment. He lives the contemporary life of a powerful elected official. I don’t care if his shoulders need a quick brush-off. I don’t care how rumpled his suit is, or how few r’s he pronounces.

That’s branding. That’s a carefully constructed image.

And while he may not be Jay Rockefeller or Rodney Frelinghuysen, the country hasn’t been defined by that type of Joseph Alsop clubby sort of establishment in decades. The establishment doesn’t talk like Thurston Howell today. But if you are a stalwart in the corridors of influence, and if your decisions impact millions of people, and you wield extraordinary power? That’s establishment. Bernie Sanders did not go from a life of selling fruit at intersections or that of an ascetic hermit to running for President. You can be a kvetcher, a difficult contrarian and still be in the establishment (just ask Carly Fiorina).

As for being a progressive—other than saying how progressive he is ad nauseum—frankly, I just don’t see it. Senator, you’re no Ted Kennedy. There’s no solid legislative record of liberal lawmaking; and I don’t see him leading a single movement until he decided to run for President.


Bernie Sanders is a fighter for Bernie Sanders.

-more-

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/opinion/bernie-sanders-only-cares-about-bernie-sanders/ar-BBsVkP0?li=BBnb7Kz&ocid=edgsp

[GusBob]

1. Wonder if this shall survive the inevitable alert. Eom

[anotherproletariat]

2. He pulled the oldest trick in the book...go to college campuses because students are easily swayed

with promises of free stuff, then use the ensuing large crowds to tell everyone how popular his message is. Meanwhile, keep up the empty promises, and tell the crowds how everyone thinks they are ignorant but he is with them. Don't listen to 'the establishment' they always say, you can't trust them. This makes them believe that he understands their needs, and they become fiercely loyal (with an emphasis on fierce).

Every generation a new group of young people falls for this ploy. And again, to quote Obama..."If you think that the only way forward is to be as uncompromising as possible, you will feel good about yourself, you will enjoy a certain moral purity, but you’re not going to get what you want. And if you don’t get what you want long enough, you will eventually think the whole system is rigged. And that will lead to more cynicism, and less participation, and a downward spiral of more injustice and more anger and more despair. And that's never been the source of our progress. That's how we cheat ourselves of progress."

[fleabiscuit]

3. Kick

[Her Sister]

4. Great find! Bernie Sanders Only Cares About Bernie Sanders

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/opinion/bernie-sanders-only-cares-about-bernie-sanders/ar-BBsVkP0?li=BBnb7Kz&ocid=edgsp

Thanks for posting!

[IamMab]

5. I've thought the same exact things about Sanders and his "brand" strategy.

He's a consummate con artist, that's for sure.