But Bernie is Not a Democrat...

[BlueWI]

347. On DU, these quotations are presented frequently.

The protracted attention paid to every Bernie Sanders utterance is sure to circulate, repost, and analyze any quotation of Sanders that is critical of the Democratic party. There's no way I could miss this even if I tried.

As I mentioned earlier, I can understand why Bernie's recent statement is concerning to some who feel that message discipline in the way Democrats are perceived is a key to electoral wins. I don't see these critiques in the same way, because I definitely think that nationally, there are certainly ways that Democrats can contribute more to mainstreet economies. This includes policies referenced in Sanders' critique of the banking system (too big to fail is too big to exist), of Wall Street and college access, where a penny tax has been proposed on Wall Street trading to fund expanded college access, on reducing the influence of money in politics through small donations and non-corporate contributions, as other Democrats including Kamala Harris are now adopting for their campaigns, and infrastructure spending, to name a few areas. There is a lot to discuss here, important points about how economic policies can be promoted that lead to sustained growth in Main Street economics, but these DU discussions never go beyond the kerfuffle over one liners from his speeches.

Bernie is Bernie. He's not a Democrat, although he has close relationships with Democratic senators and many voters. The conversation about him on DU lately is very superficial, with very little policy analysis or appreciation of the need to expand the party's base and win. That's why I am not down with the pattern on this site of piling on with individual statements. I think we're all intelligent enough to reason for ourselves, and we ought to respect one another enough to make our observations and move on. That way, we can inform each other, stay courteous, and go on to act locally and win elections.