The sad, unfortunate, and even scary thing about too many of the Bernie supporters: [View all]

[RBInMaine]

Last evening I was on a website with a recording of interviews of voters in WI. One Bernie supporter, a young college aged guy, said, "If there wasn't a candidate like Bernie in this race, I probably wouldn't even be voting today."

This is so damn telling, and it is what we see with so many of his supporters, especially the young ones. First, I would say "great" that he's coming out and voting. That's always a good thing. But the ROTTEN thing about this type of voter, and there are TONS of them, is that if they are not TITILLATED by a candidate then they REFUSE to even get off their asses and come vote. Bernie is saying some good things about very needed reforms in our government and society, but he is also peddling great sounding big promises that he knows would be EXTREMELY hard to actually deliver. He is mostly about huge TALKING POINTS, but when pressed for DETAILS, he fumbles and stumbles and just talks about how the "millions of political revolutionaries" are going to protest these things into existence. Now, if this young college aged man won't even vote unless he is hearing big vague pie in the sky promises, then how is he ever going to have the time, energy, and MOTIVATION to engage in a LONG, TOUGH, INVOLVED "political revolution" to enact Bernie's massive agenda???

MANY of Bernie's supporters are understandably frustrated, so he is getting a lot of the "anti-establishment all-emotion frustration vote." But they are NOT committed, long-haul political activists loyal to the Democratic Party who vote CONSISTENTLY and support our longterm goal of beating Republicans up and down the ballot in EVERY election. I have to ask, how many Bernie supporters just went in and voted for Bernie yesterday? Did they vote for Kloppenburg for their Supreme Court? Did they campaign for her? That election had "YUGE" stakes. Doubtful because she just LOST to a right wing Scott Walker-friend asshole named Bradley who was far less qualified. How much work did they do to defeat Scott Walker when he was running in the three elections he won? There has been a TON of reason for them to be ACTIVE and VOTE well before Bernie Sanders came around promising free tuition.

Bernie is doing little to nothing to help other Democrats who can beat Republicans. Is this a "revolution"? There is no REAL "revolution." He is not really putting together a LONGTERM, SUSTAINED, political movement. He is offering a bunch of big great-SOUNDING promises and attractive rhetoric to young folks and frustrated people, but it is VAGUE, and there is no in-depth grasp of all the implications of those promises nor any DETAIL on how he actually plans to ACCOMPLISH the goals other than to say "The millions of revolutionaries will make it happen."

The Bernie folks need to wake up and smell the coffee in a big way. REAL political activism and accomplishing REAL change is about MUCH more than being titillated into the voting booth for one primary election by a candidate merely SAYING things that sound great.