Missing the whole Bernie Sanders point

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37. Here's my biggest concern: two words - "Avowed Socialist."

Let me just say the following before going any further:

This is not MY own personal fear - OR objection to Bernie Sanders' views.

I have NO problem with "socialist"-type policies. Hell, Medicare and Social Security are exactly that. Socialist-type policies are aimed at the greater good instead of the benefit of the individual. What benefits, or works for, or helps - ALL of us, not just some specialized little privileged pockets of us. Sometimes I think that socialist solutions are urgently needed!!!! Most of the time they involve redistribution of income - and I think there are many cases when that is needed for the sake of income parity and leveling the playing field - TO BENEFIT THE GREATER GOOD. HOWEVER - it presents a really serious problem in how things are framed and advertised and promoted and propagandized - especially toward those who are the most easily influenced, AND the most gullible.

Those two words, "Avowed Socialist," is what we're ALL gonna get jammed down our throats, going into the general election, if Bernie Sanders is our nominee. It's already become a usable buzz phrase. I heard it just this morning from Donald Trump - I think it was during his latest CNN interview. It's not gonna stop at Donald Trump's lips, either. It's gonna come back and bite us all in the ass. The great unwashed out there in Low-Information-Voterland is gonna swallow it whole and vote GOP. The CONS are going to throw images of Josef Stalin and Vladimir Putin and Lenin and Trotsky and the hammer and sickle and all that. We're going COMMIE, you guys!!! COMMIE COMMIE COMMIE!!!!! SOCIALISM!!!!! SOCIALISM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They'll start calling the Sanders Campaign Headquarters the Kremlin and carry on like Osama bin Laden had risen from the grave and began to wear the Soviet flag as his personal campaign cape.

And that's all the low-info voters out there will need to hear, with Pox Noise and hate radio crankin' it 24/7/365. And it'll be another "Hello, president bush". It won't matter what Bernie Sanders says or what he stands for by the time we get to the general election. Because at that point, all the great unwashed will be counted in, too, and most of them are easily swayed by the ding-dongs and the hysteria types and the wet-the-bed types and the pearl-clutcher types and conspiracy freaks. It'll scare them stupid (or in their case, stupider - cuz they're already plenty stupid) and they will not hear anything else he'd have to say, regardless how valid his points or his solutions are. They just will close their ears. Guaranteed. If you doubt me at all on this, just think back to all those ridiculous pathetic bagger idiots yelling about "SOCIALISM!!!!!!" while they were holding misspelled protest signs that screeched "Keep Yer Hands OFF MY MEDICARE!" If you doubt me at all on this, just think how many bagger-jerks resist the Affordable Care Act - when they are among those in exactly the most desperate need of that kind of social program. Just think of all the people out there who need policies like what the Democrats tend to come up with - and vote against them every time because they're trained by now to vote against their best interests. Yep. They're out there. They're STILL out there. And they haven't learned squat. And most of 'em are still blind as bats and deaf as doorknobs toward that message. The vast majority of them are VERY easily scared. And fear-mongering is one of the things our adversaries do best. They scared voters away from Michael Dukakis by plastering Willie Horton posters all over everywhere - TO SCARE VOTERS. If Bernie is our nominee, be prepared to see Josef Stalin posters everywhere and Bernie hammer-&-sickle t-shirts on every CON operative in Christendom.

I have next-to-NO confidence in the smarts of the average American voter. NONE. I expect them to go for the stupid, to be herded around like cattle, to go complete and total lemming on us, and leave whatever intellect or independent thinking or critical fact-baesd reasoning they might have had - at the door. I know what will manipulate them and scare them into voting CON. The GOP understands motivation out of fear. So does ISIS, for that matter. And so did bin Laden. All the really successful and ruthless leaders understand this. Fear WORKS. Fear motivates. Fear energizes. Fear. And the fear of those dreaded dirty Commies of yesteryear is STILL strong and STILL easily stoked. Count on it. And whoever thinks it won't have an effect "because the American People will SEE! The American People will UNDERSTAND!" is severely over-estimating the intelligence of the general electorate. Hell, I've even HEARD that dual statement - "but... but... but... the American People will SEE! The American People will KNOW! The American People will UNDERSTAND! And they Won't Be FOOLED!" from numerous Democratic strategists and talking heads over the years - and they wind up being wrong every damn time. Joe Madison was one of those on MSNBC all the time and he used to infuriate me with that! Yeah? Seriously? They'll SEE? My ASS.

I'm really sorry to have to say this. I hate having to make this point. But we all have to be VERY strategically aware here, if we expect to keep the White House.
I love a whole lot about what Bernie Sanders stands for.
I agree with a whole lot of what Bernie Sanders stands for.
I support MOST of what Bernie Sanders stands for.

But he's gonna scare voters away if he gets the nomination. Suddenly we'll have a brand new 21st Century "Red Scare". You think you heard 'em yowl "I want MY America BACK!!!!!" when Barack Obama arrived on the scene? Dear God in Heaven - just wait til they think "The Russians Are Coming!!!!"