2016: Bernie Sanders among top 25 of Congressional recipients of NRA donations

[Tom Rinaldo]

185. This whole thread is premised on "artful smears" of Sanders

Not retracting that evidence shows that he got no donations from the NRA and damning him for accepting less money from the same "gun related" sources than Hillary received money from are just two obvious examples of that.

I took objection to your saying his campaign theme was that Hillary was owned by Wall Street. If true that would be a powerful charge, even if it wasn't his campaign theme. Charges of various sorts however did fly from both directions, as is often the case in primaries

For the record, if Sanders was insinuating anything it was that it is hard to not be influenced by people from whom you accept very large amounts of money from. First and most important, even an overt claim that someone is influenced by a special interest is a very different charge than saying that they are owned by them. Republicans have long held that Democrats were owned by Big Labor, which was false. Realistically though Democrats were influenced by Labor, but that is not the same thing at all. It could just mean that Labor always had access to Democrats who accepted their money, to plead their case on issues with no promises made in return. In the case of Unions it is clear that Democrats never were owned by them. Sanders did not insinuate that Clinton was owned by Wall Street. He said that he liked her, and that she was a million times better than the Republicans they were both running against. And now this thread insinuates that Sanders is owned by the NRA even though he earns a D grade from them. The NRA would love to have a high profile Democrat who they could give an A grade to. Sadly for them Sanders does not qualify because their grade scores are based on how different politicians vote with them on specific issues and Sanders votes against the NRA far more often than not. True ,Hillary votes against them even more consistently, and full credit to her for earning an F grade, but the record in no way shows that Sanders is in bed with the NRA.

Yes of course, all in opposition to Democrats winning will attempt to exploit any splits among us that appear, and splits among us ALWAYS appear during hotly contested primary races. That was true when Hillary ran against Obama also. On the other side George Bush Sr. decried Reagan's "voodoo economics" and ended up as his vice president. That's politics in the big league. What was different this time was the Russian attack on our democracy which weaponized every fissure they could find.

The other thing that is different this time is that some of those who strongly supported a "losing" Democratic nominee for President remain hyper vigilant for any opportunity to cast her opponent for the Democratic nomination in a negative light well over a year after the 2016 election. I have refrained from criticizing Hillary for mistakes she might have made in her campaign that made it easier for the Russians to help steal the election. She is a masterful politician and a strong public servant, and no one will ever be perfect. Instead I try to stay focused on the united fight we must wage against the Republicans, Hillary and Bernie supporters alike.