Just an annoying gadfly. Good.
Yes, Bernie Sanders is a gadfly. And that's a good thing. We need more of them.
Sanders is often tagged with that one word description by unimaginative reporters and pundits as well as Clinton supporters.
A gadfly is a person who interferes the status quo of a society or community by posing novel, potently upsetting questions, usually directed at authorities. The term is originally associated with the ancient Greek philosopher Socrates, in his defense when on trial for his life.
The term "gadfly" (Ancient Greek: ?ύ??, mýops[1]) was used by Plato in the Apology[2] to describe Socrates's relationship of uncomfortable goad to the Athenian political scene, which he compared to a slow and dimwitted horse.
During his defense when on trial for his life, Socrates, according to Plato's writings, pointed out that dissent, like the gadfly, was easy to swat, but the cost to society of silencing individuals who were irritating could be very high: "If you kill a man like me, you will injure yourselves more than you will injure me" because his role was that of a gadfly, "to sting people and whip them into a fury, all in the service of truth." This may have been one of the earliest descriptions of gadfly ethics.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_gadfly
Bernie has been a gadfly throughout his tenure in Congress. But it's relatively easy to ask those questions, to needle the powers that be when you are a relative unknown. Bernie gadflied when he railed against pharmaceutical companies and arranged bus trips to Canada for cancer patients to obtain less expensive drugs. He gadflied when he filibustered the Bush tax cuts for hour after hour.
Bernie has often played the part of the person that loudly points out the obvious that most speak of sotto voce. He has jabbed away at the body politic, pointing out its deficits and introducing prescriptions that could easily be ignored by the democratic establishment and the MSM. Just an annoying gadfly.
Bernie had the guts to keep being a gadfly throughout this primary season. He didn't change for political opportunity. He just carried on being Bernie.
Good.
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