2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: There's no good reason to anathematize Bernie and his supporters. [View all]BainsBane
(53,154 posts)But I can tell you that Bernie has absolutely zero insight into my concerns as a voter. I don't like demagogues. I don't like politicians who refuse to listen, who are more concerned with playing to cameras than working to pass legislation. (Hard working would require something to show for 30 years in congress when he has one piece of major legislation to his name in all that time). I don't like multi-millionaires who pretend to be part of the white working class, who engage in a bizarre self-delusion that they are like rust belt workers who have labored in factories their whole lives when their own life bears no resemblance to that. I don't like the fact he plays on the public's ignorance of civics, that he uses talking points for years on end without ever giving any thought to how those goals would be implemented ( see the NYDaily News interview). I don't like how he blames others for legislation he voted for, or announces on a debate stage that it's an outrage that Gitmo is still open after he four times voted against closing it. I don't like the fact he made the important issue of campaign finance small by convincing voters it was all about Clinton's moral failings, while he himself committed more campaign finance violations than any major candidate, perhaps ever. I don't like that he used his presidential campaign to enrich himself off the donations of his supporters by paying his family some $14 million in ad placement fees that he funneled through the shell corporation Old Towne Media. That he did so while acting sanctimonious is all the more objectionable. I don't like how he misled voters with empty promises he had no intention of keeping, and I don't like his misrepresentations of his own voting record. I find his refusal to take responsibility for even his own votes to be reflective of a weak character. I don't like the way he scapegoats certain businesses while promoting corporate subsidies and immunity for others-like guns and sugar. I don't like his pretense of being a champion for common people while refusing to even talk to Latino residents whose community he decided should serve as a toxic waste dump for the waste of the white bourgeoisie of his state. I don't like his sanctimoniousness when he so often fails to live up to standards he sets for others. I don't like the fact he refuses to tolerate criticism and that he built a campaign around unquestioning loyalty and in which far too many of his supporters sought to enforce absolute obedience through harassment.
Ultimately I loathe him because he loathes me, as he made repeatedly clear during the primary. I care about abortion rights, which makes me the establishment. I care about equal opportunity, whereas he is certain women run (and vote) on their gender alone. I don't like the way he insulted African American voters as the Confederacy or not smart enough to vote for him. He speaks of Democratic voters in disparaging terms and clearly prioritizes the white male GOP voter above people like me, whose rights are nothing more than identity politics.
He is an extremely divisive figure and has used this GE defeat to promote himself by sowing even more division. I want nothing more than to never hear his name again, but given his obsession with the cameras, I have no such luck.