Will the Revolution Be Monetized? Bernie Sanders' 'Dark Money' Org

[Hortensis]

47. It seemed strange to me that National Nurses United would

support with SO much money a farther-leftist candidate like Bernie Sanders with a long record of hostility toward the Democratic Party, the party that gave them the ACA. Yes, some support, but that much to one candidate whose no-achievement record from the very beginning caused virtually all other large donors to refuse to fund his campaign? Nurses tend to be stable, sensible, dependable. The size of the donations just seemed strange, inappropriately large.

All the healthcare workers I've ever chatted with, and there have been a fair number over the years, have been supporters of the ACA, usually strong. They'd be glad of further advances beyond that initial giant one, of course, but I never caught a whiff of the contempt and rejection Sanders' noisier supporters have for the ACA.

Well, the obvious guess why appears to be correct: Similar ideology in the organization's leadership. The NNU was formed by uniting several nurses' groups, and its executive director is Bonnie Castillo, who until 1991 was a member of the Communist Party. No crime in that, of course, and she's an activist who's done a lot of good work, including leading a strong union in an anti-union era. But it does suggest how the organization's donations came to be channeled in a direction that is most likely far more reflective of her ideology than of the large body of its members.

And the other officers, Deborah Burger, Zenei Cortez, and Jean Ross, are similarly farther-left oriented, noting that these are all women of impressive accomplishment. It explains why they strongly support Sanders' version of Medicare for All, in spite of the grim prognosis for both successfully passing something that extreme into law and not having it struck down by the courts, including by the conservative majority on SCOTUS. That is somewhat out of the norm because nurses overall tend to be committed to protecting, not just expanding, patient care. Also, large numbers of nurses are conservative; there are plenty of Republicans and Trump supporters among them in spite of everything.

They actively worked to elect Sanders and participated in farther-left activities in other ways. Okay.

Revealingly, and shockingly to me, though, last month they joined Sanders in refusing to support the Democratic house bill to protect the ACA from Trump's newest attempts to dismantle and to expand and shore up coverages and reduce premiums. The reason was that a better ACA might weaken political support for the Sanders' version of the MfA, which at best wouldn't be passed for another 3 years or so and couldn't be fully implemented for another 7 years. How many years do they intend to hurt people and even patients by opposing improving coverages and care through the ACA when we can?

Btw, they also positioned themselves on the side of the Sanders delegates against Nevada's Democratic Party after disruptions by Sanders delegates rising to rioting at the NV state convention, publishing an account of grievances that was both contradicted and otherwise not supported by investigative media reports at the time and that completely failed to mention any of a long list of egregious, even potentially criminal behaviors by some Sanders delegates.

So, in any case, there's some insight into how the NNU's extra-big money support for a candidate overall much farther to the left than their membership came about, and very likely continues.