Why the attacks on Bernie aren't working.

[ismnotwasm]

71. Ok.

I could make a similar case for the attacks on Biden, although the reasoning would be a tad different.

But that’s not what I want to talk about

When I arrive at work met with blood and feces and trying to save lives in a broken system, it’s not Bernie I think of. It’s a complex layered structure, healthcare and I’ve yet to hear one single politician address American healthcare with reality, other than Hillary Clinton. And that was in the 90’s. If that makes me a “centrist” fine. I’m used to language and changing goalposts. I remember when I became a “radical feminist”

Young Doctors are hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt. It’s a path fewer have chosen. Books, institutions, professors and teachers all play into his cost. As does cost of living. Forgiving debt is great. Then what? Oh yes. Tax Wall street. I believe that takes a legislative process.

Climate change has been on the table since Al fucking Gore,— actually before that— and part of what needs to happen is a rejection of the consumerist lifestyle. Once down that rabbit hole, intellectually with plastics and oil, there is never any going back.

My oldest daughter, a late genz or an early millennial (I was a young mama) who is neither a republican or a Democrat (they are both awful she says, but this is better than her “republican” leanings after her deployment) has the smallest carbon footprint of anybody I know. It’s amazing. And she really dislikes Bernie Sanders.

Obama tried will climate and some of his efforts are still bearing fruit, but it wasn’t enough. Why? Because people stop listening at the point it interferes with their comfort.

Like in matters with race

I work with a lot of educated Millennials, mostly white, and most of them have had some exposure to public Health and social justice. Some of them love Bernie, but a lot of them feel as I do, that the typical broad outlines presented a “plans” Bernie Sanders and other candidates present aren’t realistic. They are kind of indifferent. When you work in healthcare you see policy roll out in real time, like the ACA. The sheer need overwhelmed that system, and I hope whatever healthcare plan we end up with, takes the lessons of the ACA into account.

The minute someone offers something even slightly more comprehensive or complex, like Elizabeth Warren, they get derided. “She has a Plan” was the mocking comment I read about her. Yes. She does.

Some candidates who never had a chance whatsoever, like Jay Inslee, were actually inspiring in their commitment and in Inslee’s case, actual implementation of workable policy.

No, Bernie Sanders followers and supporters love him a lot. They believe in him. And if those are the folks you are trying to reach, well ok then. You are absolutely correct.

I don’t know If the black community, say, will warm up to Bernie the nominee, as opposed to Bernie the candidate.

I suspect everyone is so tired of the personality disorder presidency, the sheer drama load, that the nominee will get the vote. Who will bother to vote is a much bigger concern.

I’m undecided for a reason, while I will vote for the nominee, (still think that will be Biden), tossing “centrist” out to someone who does their own research is a bit counterproductive.


But in a way, I’m glad to know what to call myself now. I was back to being a plain ol feminist, with an anti-racist agenda, riding the waves and changes of feminism. Now I’m a centrist feminist. I guess.