2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: There's no good reason to anathematize Bernie and his supporters. [View all]Kentonio
(4,377 posts)I did have to laugh at "They chose to BELIEVE uncritically. My own approach to politics and life generally could not be more different" though. I'm pointing out little things like how complexity and nuance make a voting record not just a black and white matter, and you casually brush it off as 'excuses'.
I don't need to believe anything based on his explanation, I actually took the time back then to go back and research exactly what happened during the periods in question. That's what you do when you're not willing to believe uncritically, you actually put in the work to find out the truth instead of just believing what some media outlet with their own biases might choose to tell you.
As for change through the presidency, you're making the assumption that we're just talking about one man in the White House. I'm not, I'm talking about the movement he was leading which would have had a sizable effect on both house and senate races, but instead was replaced by Hillary's movement. The one that failed. If you lead your party into the White House, it would be a brave house or senate member of your own party who then turned around and refused to back the mandate you'd just been elected on.
I do actually agree with you on one point however, which is the dangers of a single person building up a cult of personality. It's hugely dangerous and can be horribly damaging to democracy in the long term. The problem currently however is that with the gerrymandering of the right, the complete lack of trust in the political system from the public, and the massive corruption that is campaign finance, I sadly believe we're probably at a point where only a leader on the left who inspires that kind of personality worship can still restore decency to the system. Sanders was someone I was willing to take that risk on, because he has a lifelong record that we could examine and see that he really had believed the same core things for his entire adult life.