Image Source: Zero Hedge

Whenever you have the misfortune to come across a Bernie Sanders supporter aka “Berner” you can anticipate pretty much the same repeated, cut and paste rhetoric. It is much the same as dealing with a TrumpTroll as they have a litany of standard responses as well as accusations. It might begin with the “anti-establishment” message, their belief in a purity test for candidates, their disdain for the Democratic Party, and it ultimately rolls into a never ending Hillary-hate montage. Amid all of their ranting and yelling there is one thing that they completely miss and have no concept of: that the results of their whining and refusal to work together causes Republicans to be elected and they have no idea how these actions harm the poor and middle class; and frankly, don’t care. The mere fact that it doesn’t affect them personally, puts them into the one class that they hate the most: the elitists.

I have had the distinction of doing a lot of research on Sanders and if there is one thing that this group refuses to acknowledge is that Sanders isn’t the messiah that they crack him up to be. I have also written quite a few articles about ol’ B.S., including his dark history and the fact that he has devoted many years in politics and has accomplished very little. Even Sanders admits that he is more of an “idea man”, with little in the way of knowing or even wanting to know how to make things work; but in the eyes of his followers, his message is what rings clear to them and they are too young, stupid or naïve to recognize that this “message” is the same one he has been screaming for over forty years; he just finally found a group to listen.

The problem with this group is that for all of their holier-than-thou attitudes, their demands that politics should be perfect, and that “both parties are the same”, they have little or no understanding of how things work or even being a part of true “change”. If you tell them that taking a stand to not vote or vote third party will harm the very core of the people in the country that need Democratic policies, they give you a blank stare.

The truth is — this group is neither affected nor harmed by the foot stomping stand that they take and they don’t have any empathy for those that are hurt. In their eyes, they want to see the political structure burned to the ground so that they can begin their little revolution to make things right again; and it doesn’t matter how many people die.

Image Source: Slate

So Who Are the Sanders Bros, Bots and Crats?

If Sanders has one problem it’s that he cannot appeal to minorities, people of color or even the disabled. There is only one real demographic that follows him and a majority of his supporters are mostly young Caucasians and some older. They consider themselves to be “progressives” and yet they share quite a few traits of the Trump supporters: a cult attitude, refusal to fact check and extreme emotional hate for anything that doesn’t agree or comply with their miniscule belief system. This description is far from “progressive” as it actually reflects an attitude of extremism, and it’s not the kind that can move a message to a positive front such as saving the planet, ending a war or moving towards equality for all. In this case, they are already demonstrating that they are willing to throw some of the core values of the Democratic Party under the bus to achieve their one to two issue agenda. Many of the bots and crats are already talking about moving women’s issues as a non-priority and in this they are showing that they are truly elitists.

When you have a loud and obnoxious group that is spewing demands without a care about the fallout for those that will feel the effects of their “conscious voting”, they emulate the exact same behavior as any extremist cult and yet they are too blind to see it.

In my article: BernieCrats: People That Just Woke Up To Politics?, I cover a few of the topics that demonstrate how out of touch these people truly are:

“There are many reasons why a majority of people of color didn’t ‘feel the Bern’ and unless you have been embedded in, lived with or are part of that group, it will continue to be a point of denial for the BernieCrats. The bottom line is that they have heard these stories before and Sanders doesn’t have demonstrable actions or history to prove his words. Add to this the fact that there were very few people of color involved in his campaign and they simply turned their backs on Sanders. This was not the case for the Hillary Clinton campaign, where the demographics ran the gamut including a lot that represented those that were disabled.

“In a 2016 Daily Beast article, author Keli Goff, a Black American woman indicates: ‘Black writers and activists who have had the temerity to challenge Sanders’s record have been targeted by his supporters in ways that go against not just civility but even decency. I should know. I’m one of them. For having the gall to share my perspective, buoyed by polling data, that self-described socialists are pretty much unelectable to the American presidency, his supporters attempted to harass me offline. (‘)’

This author, like many from that time on, has experienced personal attacks from the BernieCrats in the same way that the Trump supporters have done. This happened to people of color as well as not for anyone that questions the ‘almighty policies’ of Bernie Sanders.

While the younger people have been heavily involved as BernieCrats as well as some older, a majority of the Baby Boomers have not been part of the Sanders crowd. For that you will hear an explanation of ‘blame’ from the BernieCrats in that everything that is wrong with the country and the universe is because of the Baby Boomers. Although some of this may be true, simply due to those that have disposable incomes, anyone that has an ounce of common sense realizes that one demographic does not dictate all of the government processes. Voting does.”

Image Source: Pinterest

It’s Easy When You Don’t Pay a Price: Let them eat cake

Many of the Sanders supporters have been students and this is a typical age group that may be working to get their degree, but have absolutely no clue what it’s like to live paycheck to paycheck, face discrimination in the job place, try to put food on the table or deal with health issues. They live in a bubble existence, and while they may say that many of the issues that they stand for is to assist others, their actions prove that they don’t give a damn because their decisions have wreaked havoc on those that are living in the real world.

Their petulant attitude about not being required to “vote for the lesser of two evils” brought about the election of Trump. While a majority of the Sanders supporters did eventually vote for Hillary Clinton, there was a large swath that sat the election out or even voted for Trump himself as a “protest vote”. An article in the Atlantic covered this topic with a response for a Sanders supporter that expressed his interest in voting for Trump:

“But this is a glaring example of motivated reasoning. He really doesn’t want to vote for Hillary Clinton, regarding it as a reward for a Democratic establishment that he loathes. So he has almost convinced himself of a possible future where a Trump win increases truth-telling against bullshit; causes the Democratic Party to shift dramatically in his preferred direction; inspires a tectonic shift in Congress; and triggers a constitutional crisis that improbably leaves the United States better off.

What I want to warn this voter and anyone indulging in the same thought process is that they’re indulging in a dangerous fantasy, one that combines extreme pessimism and extreme optimism in an extremely confounding way. On one hand, the voter would have us believe that electing Hillary and working hard to pressure her from the left to make gains in progressive priorities is pointless or doomed to failure. The system is so corrupt that it’s time to burn it down and start over.”

But here’s the problem. The Sanders voters seemed to be self-focused on the problems that they personally are experiencing and this often includes large college debt and lower paying wages and they have absolutely no clue what some of the rest of the country is going through and frankly, don’t care. Their microcosm of existence is the only thing that they are worried about and Sanders used the exact same “anger” that Trump used to rile up his followers.

While the election is over the attitude is not and the Sanders supporters continue to have a “let them eat cake” opinion as they refuse to endorse any Democratic candidate that doesn’t pass their personal “litmus test” of purity. The blinders that they wear don’t allow them to see the devastation that Trump and the GOP have caused. Their never ending chant of railing against the Democrats proves that they are clueless.

In my article: Sanders Supporters Focused on Anti-Democrat Instead of Ousting Republicans, I include:

“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.”

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.”

The bottom line is that the Sanders supporters have created an entirely new definition of “elite” for themselves. Their belief that no other opinion or ideology should be considered is the baseline of their platform, and they are now the “elitists” that they hold so much disdain for.