Bernie Sanders
Related: About this forumBernie and Hillary: the Sheepdog and the She-Wolf in Vegas by Paul Street
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http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/10/20/bernie-and-hillary-the-sheepdog-and-the-she-wolf-in-vegas/
Left critics of Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign inside the dismal, dollar-drenched, corporate-neoliberal and imperialist Democratic Party were born out by the first Democratic presidential debate in Last Vegas last week. In his first exchange with the CNN host Anderson Cooper and Hillary Clinton, Sanders spoke in terms consistent with Bruce Dixon’s early identification of Sanders as a “sheepdog” candidate – a “contender” whose basic mission is to rally reasonably disaffected voters and non-voters to the corporate and military Democrats by fueling the illusion that meaningful progressive change can be achieved by voting for history’s second most enthusiastic capitalist party...
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JackInGreen
(2,975 posts)Pretzel-like attempts to smear Bernie I've seen. Wasn't the sheepdog canard floated about 3 months ago?
Erich Bloodaxe BSN
(14,733 posts)in the general.
Demeter
(85,373 posts)If they want Machiavallian political tricks, they are looking on the wrong side of the debate.
I'm sure Hillbots want to believe this, so it's their loss when Bernie walks off with the Party, which he will. This I firmly believe. The distinction is too wide to bridge it with any amount of lying and hand-waving.
Erich Bloodaxe BSN
(14,733 posts)Despite the stupid propaganda tossed out about him, he IS a pragmatist, and will preach the 'lesser evil' if he feels the need has arisen. I just think a heck of a lot of his followers are not following 'him', per se. They're following the principles and ideals he stands for. And they won't simply put their allegiance behind yet another Democrat who stands for everything he doesn't, even if he asks them to. For the same reason a Clinton/Sanders ticket won't be any real additional draw - people who support those ideals will see that sort of ticket as a 'sell out'. They'll continue to support those ideals, not the man. They're not voting for Bernie because he's Bernie. They're voting for anti-US Imperialism, anti-worship of money and rule by money, anti-racism, anti-authoritarianism. They're voting for peace, equality, freedom.
djean111
(14,255 posts)Exactly. Exactly right.
djean111
(14,255 posts)And, of course, an attempt to marginalize.
From what I can see, all the new-to-politics people who are supporting Bernie will not be herded into the Hillary barn.
Politics is not "as usual". They don't hate her, they just see her more of the same corporate crap.
Show them a picture of Hillary hugging a child? They can counter with a picture of a child who has picked up a cluster bomb.
They are the ones whose feet will be in those boots on the ground required for a "more muscular' foreign policy.
They are the ones who realize that saving $2000 in interest payments over the life of a loan will not improve their lives one damned bit - and that the banks will get that money back in subsidies, most likely.
They are the ones who realize that Trump's, and other 1% families', kids will not be going to a school where college is free, so they know Hillary's comment was pure and utter bullshit.
I wouldn't count on those votes for Hillary. These people don't watch the cloying TV ads, they look stuff up.