Historians will probably look back on this time with a lot of confusion in their attempts to analyze and categorize exactly what happened in America's political realm. As evidence continues to leak out we will find that the Russian and Macedonian purveyors of "fake news" appealed to both the extreme right and the extreme left and they ate every word of it up, without fact checking.
The results of two campaigns that were anger-based, both Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump, allowed the election of an unqualified white supremacist that alienates our allies, talks in word salad and encourages hate, bigotry, racism and sexism. As we reel from this condition, we try to regroup and decide what needs to be done to change it. The Democratic Party, for all of its successes and failures, has made the choice to focus on "Voting Blue" to get the Republicans out and try to reverse the damage that they have done. However, it appears that the Bernie Sanders group would rather contribute to another GOP win, as their focus is simply attacking the Democrats.
The 2018 midterms are being held as a potential beacon of hope. More Democrats have lined up to run for office than at any other time in history and at rates that catapult them beyond whatever the Republicans are presenting. The DNC has created a newer and more enlightened platform, offering more transparency and trying to correct areas that received criticism of the past. But apparently this isn't good enough for the Sanders supporters, as they are still hot on the trail of yelling "Bernie would have won" or "no neo-liberal shills". Even the Unity Tour that was presented to try to bring many of the factions together was a complete disaster as Sanders took this as an opportunity to rip the Democratic Party apart while his cult followers chanted in the background. For anyone that has been monitoring this situation, you would see a group that can't seem to let go of the 2016 Presidential election, an obsession with Hillary Clinton hate and a continued generation of the same anger that one sees on the extreme right.
Their goal is to destroy the Democratic Party as they see it and their limited scope of vision doesn't show them that this is exactly what the Republicans want. They are doing the bidding of the GOP.
Their Purity Test: No One is Good Enough
This time, probably more than any other, almost feels like a battle between "good and evil". As we watch the daily onslaught of legislation that the Republicans and Trump are passing, we see the very fabric of our country being ripped away. Liberals are trying to make sense of what actions need to be taken, what appropriate movements need to be set in place and the methodologies that are required to bring about an end to this horror show brought about by the GOP.
Democrats include a broad group of individuals from many sides of the spectrum and the one thing that has been a sense of pride is that there is a respect for all. Dems have also historically not thrown any of the core issues under the bus to glean additional votes, because selling out is just that. However, this is not the case with the Bernie bros, bots and crats as they seem to see themselves as the harbinger of a non-existent revolution, using a litmus test of purity for acceptance of any potential candidate. What it ends up coming down to is that no one is "pure enough" to pass the Bernie Sanders test, except Sanders himself. An odd choice as he is in his seventies and ageism is one of the rallying cries that this group had against Hillary Clinton. Yet another demonstration of how the Sanders supporters can't see through their own hypocrisy.
Politico ran an article on the "purity" topic: Bernie backers' attacks on Democrats infuriate the party — Demands for ideological purity are stoking divisions heading into the 2018 midterms and 2020 presidential election, and included:
"Prominent Democrats are increasingly riled by attacks from Bernie Sanders' supporters, whose demands for ideological purity are hurting the party ahead of the 2018 midterms and 2020 presidential election, they say.
But it's not just the outside agitators that Democratic lawmakers, operatives and activists are annoyed with: They're tired of what they see as the Vermont senator's hesitance to confront his own backers, either in public or through back channels."
It continues with:
"The mutual mistrust goes beyond the establishment vs. insurgent divide that defined 2016's presidential primary. Some Democrats from the progressive wing of the party agree that he needs to do more to rein in his supporters."
For anyone that has an understanding of how political situations work, looking on the outside in, the Sanders group seem to have a lack of understanding or even a perception of what the Republicans are doing to the country.
Sanders supporters rarely mention or share any of the empathetic feelings that other liberals have in fighting the Republican agenda. They spend their time on social media, railing against the Dem Party, complaining about how the system is rigged and threatening to throw all of the neo-liberals out, as they stomp their feet and make their demands.
As each new Democratic candidate steps forward into the light as a potential hopeful, the Sanders bros, bots and crats literally rip them apart with their criticism, which runs the gamut from accepting donations to not enough priority on "free for all" stuff.
If you cruise through a number of social media pages, one of the outstanding questions that has been top of mind has been the query as to why the Bernie Sanders supporters have been oddly quiet in their criticism of Russia, the RussiaGate investigation, the horrors of the Republican agenda and the GOP itself? The same social media sources will show other liberals, including self-professed Democrats, organizing and rallying the charge for the midterms, while the Sanders group hangs onto the same trendy terms that worked so well for them in the past, slinging them against any liberal or Democrat that doesn't line up with their extreme view.
The one piece of important information that they seem to overlook is: Bernie Sanders is NOT a Democrat and to introduce him as a player when all he has done is project disdain for the party is not only foolish, but dangerous.
Sanders has a long pro-Russia history and it appears that his supporters are complying with his beliefs in this realm as well. A NY Times article addresses the question in their article:
Why Don't Sanders Supporters Care About the Russia Investigation? where they state:
"As a rising generation of leftists increasingly asserts itself within the Democratic Party — and may, eventually, have the opportunity to shape foreign policy — it must articulate a new approach to Russia consistent with its core values. This approach should be driven neither by the interests of the national security state nor by the energy sector. Instead, it should aim to block Russia's kleptocratic elite from safeguarding its assets in the United States, to clean up the influence of foreign lobbying on Washington and to shut down tax havens for billionaires everywhere. The investigation into the Trump campaign's Russia ties provides an opportunity to focus on these issues."
This is a well-positioned article that meets the topic head on, placing the blame on many variables; and yet the article may "talk" about the reasons, but it doesn't give a direct answer as to why the extreme left refuses to even think about RussiaGate. The only bare bones excuse that is offered is that the extreme left, like the extreme right, seem to think that the investigation into Russian meddling with the election process is a conspiracy theory.
But there is one thing that is conveniently avoided when talking about the extreme left and the election: The Russian and Macedonian purveyors of fake news not only targeted both of these extreme sides, knowing they wouldn't fact check, but made a lot of money off of them.
Could it be that the extreme left refuses to acknowledge that they were duped by the same propaganda as the extreme right? Mueller's Investigation is Too Big For Them to Continue to Ignore
For many of us that are closely following Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation, we are seeing that this condition is bigger than anyone may have previously thought. The massive interference is a spaghetti mess that goes beyond just the Steele dossier, and enters into the direct manipulation of the voters via psychographics using Cambridge Analytica and a long and well-coordinated plan to undermine the American voting system and have U.S. citizens themselves destroy from within.
This concept may smack of conspiracy theory beliefs for those on the extreme left, and yet this is the group that prides themselves on the use of technology. Those of us that have been involved in understanding how data mining, business intelligence and the tech world operates also recognize that this topic is absolutely do-able and is on that is being used by corporations on a daily basis.
The Bernie Sanders supporters seem to want to focus on taking the Dem Party down, while conveniently ignoring that the Presidential election itself is quite possibly illegitimate. This so-called "tech savvy" group is proving that, like an old sci-fi film, they know how to use the technologies but have absolutely no idea how they operate and the methods that can be employed to influence them. When combined with the possibility that the hate and anger that they experience has been deliberately channeled, it is much easier to just remove it as a serious topic.
As those with critical thinking processes continue to connect the dots on RussiaGate, the Trump regime and even the potential GOP involvement, we recognize the severity of the situation and the Constitutional crisis that we are existing in.
For the rest of us, whose liberal stands have encompassed a number of years and many elections, we are continuing our focus to encourage Democrats in their run for elections and to bring about a "Blue Wave" for the midterms that outshines anything that has ever been seen before.
This article, under the title ,Sanders Supporters Focused on Anti-Democrat Instead of Ousting Republicans, appeared on Medium on January 1, 2018. It is by S.Novi
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January 2, 2018
Post Script. Register voters. Let's win the 2018 mid-term elections big. The Sanders crowd needs to behave but no matter what, we can't let these folks stop us! #DemocraticVictoryIn2018
