Ex-Staffers Say Bernie Has a Blind Spot on Women's Issues

[DonViejo]

‘I want to believe that old dogs can learn new tricks, but I don’t see it with this dog.’

Emily Shugerman
Published 06.07.19 4:37AM ET

Even for an older white man speaking at an event for women of color, the reception Bernie Sanders received at the recent She the People summit was chilly. Unlike the other 2020 candidates at the forum—including another white man—several of Sanders’ responses were met with groans. At one point, he answered a question about the recent increase in hate crimes by turning it back to a conversation on universal health care, drawing boos.

The reaction to Sanders did not surprise women’s rights advocates. The senator has one of the strongest and longest records on reproductive rights and pay inequality of the 2020 contenders, but he’s often criticized for not taking leadership on or prioritizing these issues—and, more recently, for failing to learn from his past missteps.

“You can put lipstick on the pig, but in the end the senator is someone who is actually very proud of not changing his ideas,” Sarah Slamen, a Texas organizer and Sanders’ 2016 state campaign coordinator in Louisiana, told The Daily Beast.

“I want to believe that old dogs can learn new tricks, but I don’t see it with this dog,” she added.

Sanders is a longtime supporter of the Equal Rights Amendment and set the standard for demanding 12 weeks of family leave during his 2016 presidential campaign. He co-sponsored the Paycheck Fairness Act and included pay equity for women workers on his economic agenda. He spoke about the need for equal pay as recently as last month, at a campaign stop in Alabama.

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https://www.thedailybeast.com/bernie-sanders-has-a-blind-spot-on-womens-issues-ex-staffers-say?ref=home

[stonecutter357]

1. let's go Joe !

[George II]

2. Long read, but very well done.

[R B Garr]

3. Looks like there is no chance at denying this anymore.

Wow.

[Cha]

39. Not really. :(

[mcar]

4. KR

[Irishxs]

5. He also has a problem with african americans.

[Blue_true]

23. He sees their issues as part of a broader set of issues that

center around pay and income inequality. He doesn't see that the hurdles they face truly ARE different.

[McKim]

6. More Bashing

So today we have more bashing of Sanders. Just a note to say it is tiresome.

[George II]

9. This is not bashing. These are serious issues. If it wasn't then Sanders wouldn't have spent...

....tens of thousands of dollars to fly two dozen women to Washington to address these issues.

[Gothmog]

20. Sarah Slamen is quoted in the article cited in the OP

Sarah was excluded from the meeting by sanders staffers on this issue evidently on purpose

I know Sarah. BTW Sarah just had a baby on May 5

Sarah helped to flip a tough Texas State house seat blue in the midterms

[BannonsLiver]

10. Facts aren't bashing

I actually do think these stories will become less frequent as Bernie continues to slip in the polls. The media won’t devote as much attention at that point.

[dgauss]

22. Facts aren't bashing?

Just from the excerpt in the OP:

"Old dogs"
"Even for an older white man..."
“You can put lipstick on the pig..."

I guess points made with those phrases are what some here consider facts.

There is this, but I doubt if it can compete with arguments using terms like old, dog and pig:

"Sanders is a longtime supporter of the Equal Rights Amendment and set the standard for demanding 12 weeks of family leave during his 2016 presidential campaign. He co-sponsored the Paycheck Fairness Act and included pay equity for women workers on his economic agenda. He spoke about the need for equal pay as recently as last month, at a campaign stop in Alabama."

[irisblue]

11. I see a difference between bashing, current criticism & vetting candidates

In Primary Forums.

For me & ONLY FOR ME-bashing would be (an very extreme example)

Candidate A beats their family members.

From wiki-Literally, bashing is a term meaning to hit or assault, but when it is used as a suffix, or in conjunction with a noun indicating the subject being attacked


Current criticism- I disagree with the current DNC decision to not have a debate in which climate change is the topic.


Vetting Candidates-bringing their past writings, speeches and political points & practices to be discussed today.


Every DUer is going to see thru their own POV.

So, McKim, would you please explain why you're describing this as 'Bernie Bashing?', cuz I'm not seeing your POV

[Hassin Bin Sober]

16. Lol. In a bad week like this they have to trot out some disgruntled ex employee.

He’s such a monster!

Sanders is a longtime supporter of the Equal Rights Amendment and set the standard for demanding 12 weeks of family leave during his 2016 presidential campaign. He co-sponsored the Paycheck Fairness Act and included pay equity for women workers on his economic agenda. He spoke about the need for equal pay as recently as last month, at a campaign stop in Alabama.

He also was one of the first to vote against the Hyde Amendment, which blocks Medicaid funding for abortion.

Jeez. You would think he sponsored anti abortion bills and said Roe went too far and a woman shouldn’t have complete control of her body.

[Gothmog]

21. Sarah Slamen is a good friend

Sarah is a fierce person who ran a campaign that flipped a state house seat in the Texas legislature

Link to tweet

[Hassin Bin Sober]

26. How does she feel about Biden?

[comradebillyboy]

28. Ask her...

[lapucelle]

30. "I don't think [Sanders] has to be the vehicle or the platform..."

“I don’t think [Sanders] has to be the vehicle or the platform for the movement that emerged from his campaign."

Drop her a note and ask her what she thinks of Biden if you're curious.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

32. The other poster said she was a "good friend"

If that’s true he should know.

It helps to read the whole sub thread

[lapucelle]

33. It helps to read the whole sub thread, including one's own response and the bolded words.

How does she feel...

[Gothmog]

35. Sarah moved to Dallas and helped flip a state house seat to blue

Sarah also had a baby on May 5. I will send her a Facebook message but I am not going to call a new mom with a baby. I may to give to Sarah’s candidate

[Cha]

19. This is from an ex staffer of BS'..

you might want to drop her a note?

[Gothmog]

36. I might next week

[Blue_true]

24. Even you must admit that very soon, the leftmost of the party will have to choose between Warren or

Sanders. Stuff like how responsive Bernie is to all needs of American women of all colors will play into whether Bernie or Liz gets to go nose to nose with Joe.

[LibFarmer]

7. Excellent article

Thanks for posting.

[frazzled]

8. It's true for all candidates: it's not just about their voting records

or position statements. It's about something more, and they need to "get" it.

The "more" that struck me viscerally and that I still can't unsee, was the moment when Sanders was speaking after his primary victory in Wisconsin, and his wife was standing next to him on the stage, smiling broadly and lapping up the acclaim with him. He reached out his arm and brushed her back, apparently saying "Don't stand there," or "Don't stand next to me." She receded to behind. It was a punch in the gut, and I thought, if my husband ever did that to me he would be toast (he wouldn't, of course). Whatever one can say to defend this small but symbolic action (I personally don't think there's really anything one could say, but whatevs), it was a window into personal character regarding women. He could have all the votes on record he wants: that one moment spoke volumes, to me at least.

Another example occurred for me way back when Bob Reich was running for governor in Massachusetts, where we lived at the time. We'd been supportive. So one Saturday morning the phone rang, and a male voice asked to speak to my husband, who had just left and was going to be out of the country for ten days or so. I didn't want to tell a stranger that he wasn't there and would be unavailable for some time, so I asked to take a message. The voice identified itself as calling on behalf of the fundraising comittee for the campaign, and so I said, "Oh, you can speak to me then, because I am a supporter." And he said no, he would call back to speak to my husband. Even after my polite protest, he refused to talk to me. It was like the freaking Sears siding salesman asking to speak to the man of the house and refusing to talk to the little lady! It really bothered me, so after a few days I decided to write to Reich himself to explain that his campaign staff needed to temper such interactions. I received an email back from him saying that he was forwarding my email to his wife to respond. His wife!—that made me even madder! So I get the email from the wife, who says that "Bob has been a great supporter of women's issues, like abortion and equal pay." Now I was really pissed: she'd missed the issue entirely, the issue being a woman's right to be involved with all aspects of a campaign (economics, foreign policy ... and yes, fund raising!). I voted for the guy, but I never forgot this gap between "getting" women's issues and simply supporting a range of obvious Democratic legislation. He failed on the former, big time.

Men, you have to walk the walk, not just talk the talk.

[crazytown]

12. Thank you for this.

My mother was a Doctor. As late as the ‘70s she went to medical conferences, was introduced as a medico then asked ‘Is you husband here’?

[Hortensis]

18. :) Back then I remember 3 nationally known black female

politicians, major groundbreaking warriors for equality, who separately and in different years, when asked whether being black or female was the greater handicap, all replied female. The only name I remember for sure is Shirley Chisholm, but the others are known to all.

My attitudes would have (have been) exactly the same as Frazzle's. Not quite the same, but when we moved to the south 20 years ago, I set up all our household accounts in my name simply because I was doing it, had my ID at hand, etc., and all but one was changed without permission to my husband's name. I was so irritated I actually went to the trouble of making them all change them back.

I've always felt Sanders' principles on equality were in the right place -- all men created equal -- but that his heart just wasn't in dealing with distractions from his theme that all problems ultimately arise from class conflict.

[cwydro]

34. I remember that incident on the stage.

I felt bad for her, and I won’t say what I thought about him.

[SouthernProgressive]

13. Thankfully he is cratering.

Otherwise we would have a real problem with women come time for the general. Some of his writings would make for commercials that would be brutal to our side. One commercial running his rape fantasy will do him in. It will also harm democrats all across the country.

[Gothmog]

37. Agreed

[NYMinute]

14. I loved the article

although it is quite long.

[Gothmog]

15. Sarah Slamen is a friend

Link to tweet

[comradebillyboy]

29. That is an illuminating article she wrote.

[Cha]

38. Thanks, Goth..

[Hortensis]

17. Of course he does. He thinks and says much the same things

in the 20-teens as he did in the 1970s. His range of political issues that really interest him s very narrow and further limited by how they fit into his socialist/class warfare worldview.

Now, my husband's a bit older than Sanders, but he's always been friends with women and I can't remember the last time he needed a wifely poke to keep him from embarrassing himself in discussion. He is seemingly permanently wired to appreciate 1940s gender humor, but he is far too well trained to reveal it to anyone but me and only deliberately then when he wants to irritate.

[Gothmog]

25. I love Sarah's quote

Link to tweet

[MaryMagdaline]

27. People forget that Elizabeth Warren criticized the Obama

Administration for being an all boy’s network or words to that effect. I like to think we have forgotten because President Obama heeded the message and after first two years had a strong female presence directing policy. His administration was extremely pro-female.

Anyone can whine about criticism. It takes a leader to listen and adjust.

[MineralMan]

31. Say what you will, but his reception at She the People was what it was.

It's all about perceptions, isn't it? The perception there was that Bernie Sanders didn't talk about the issues of black women at a conference of those very women, really. He has his set piece, and he delivers it, whatever the audience.

So, his reception wasn't particularly encouraging. That's reality.

[Cha]

40. Exactly, MM