Yes, Bernie has criticized the Democratic Party...but so what? the DLC criticized it much more. [View all]

[Ken Burch]

After all, the whole point of the DLC was to viciously attack the Democratic party and demand that it become nearly-indistinguishable from the Republicans...the criticism THAT group(whose members include a lot of one-time Republicans, btw)has flung at the party has been far, far more vicious and wounding than anything Bernie ever said.

Unlike Bernie, the DLC pushed the party to abandon the poor and to accept the racialization of poverty.

UNlike Bernie, the DLC pushed the party to accept the racialization of the debate about crime(which is why the things BLM protests about are happening)

Unlike Bernie, the DLC pushed the party to distance itself from any real opposition to institutional racism.

And unlike Bernie's criticism, the DLC's criticism did horrible damage, damage we are still trying to undo almost a quarter-century later.

Unlike Bernie, the DLC pushed the party to abandon workers(which is what dissing unions and pushing for "free trade" means).

Unlike Bernie, the DLC pushed the party to embrace a militarist and(let's just say it)imperialistic foreign and military policy.

So yes, Bernie criticized the party for these things.

So did millions of Democrats, some of whom stayed, some of whom were driven out by despair.

The criticism was and is justified.

Bernie was right about every criticism he made about the party's direction in the last thirty years, and whoever we nominate this year needs to admit that, because admitting that and acknowledging that all the rightward changes in policy did nothing but damage, both to this party(which, other than winning the White House, almost totally collapsed in the Nineties) and to the country(which probably only elected George W. Bush because the DLC pushed the debate in the direction of total surrender to the Right and near-total acceptance of the Right's arguments within our party). We need to listen to what he is saying, because, despite his age, he represents the future of politics in this country, and his arguments are the arguments our party need to be making if we are to win elections and, just as important, actually set the terms of the discussion rather than just react to what the forces of ugliness and hatred and greed impose.