Source: Salon

I would like to qualify my position. I am a liberal from way back, involved in protests for women’s rights, civil rights and protection of the planet. I haven’t hidden behind a keyboard to yell and wave my hands, but have been on the front lines. I combated sexism in the board room, earning respect of my peers and eventually achieved a profession that involved international prestige in the technology world. But above all, I am a critical thinker; and in investigating and analyzing Sanders, I realized early on: he is a fraud.

Considering that I am a mother and a wife as well as originating from a very poor background, I have a unique perspective that many do not share. I lived and interacted with people of many nationalities and colors, struggled to pay bills, reinvented myself numerous times to try to survive and move forward. The one main area that I have taken pride in and that has helped in my personal and professional journey, is my intellect. I was taught at an early age to be suspect of those that made promises and didn’t have a strategy to accomplish them, and as I researched Bernie, he fit that description.

My father always quoted ‘actions speak louder than words’ and in analyzing the Sanders history, I found little in the way of validated actions and a lot of ‘words’ (as well as hand waving). Sanders so-called ‘message’ smacks of the same rhetoric of the 60’s radical Abbie Hoffman, and yet those that rabidly follow him without question, have never bothered to look into his dark past or question what he has really accomplished. They proudly post all of the bills that Sanders as ‘sponsored’ without the finality of seeing what was actually ‘passed’.

Of all of the situations that occurred during the 2016 election, the rise of the absolutely unacceptable behavior of the BernieBros, Bots and Crats exemplified what is wrong with those that were suddenly making demands and rabidly supporting without asking questions and the fact that Sanders said little or nothing about it showed his true face.

Source: DailyKos

The Message “Sounds” Good… But Reality?

I have devoted many years to working in the corporate world and if there is one thing that can be said, it is that it is often frustrating. Negotiating partnerships, establishing baseline strategies and launching new products involves working with everyone and making a lot of concessions. This is the real universe that we live in and it doesn’t always deliver everything that you want; but in the end, everyone needs to walk away feeling as if they have a ‘win’.

This is not the way Sanders functions. In his world, it is ‘his way or the highway’ and that is why so many that have tried to work with him have expressed disdain. In a 2016 Politico article:

“Sanders had big ideas but little impact on Capitol Hill. Democrats who worked with the Vermont senator say he contributed to the debate, but rarely forged actual legislation or left a significant imprint on it.”

Even Bernie himself will admit that he has always been known for ‘big thinking’ and yet there is little proof that he has succeeded with all of his pie-in-the-sky ideas. Now don’t get me wrong, as a species, we need the dreamers and the visionaries and we have seen them follow through. Individuals such as Elizabeth Warren and Cory Booker in politics and in the technology realms we have Steve Jobs and Elon Musk. These are people that make things happen. Sanders, however, lives in the outskirts of that description. While his message may sound exceptionally good, appealing in ways that have long been needed, his history has shown that all he does is ‘talk’.

Source: Snopes

Stop Including Him with Democrats

Sanders is the first one to indicate that he is not a Democrat. In fact, he has devoted many years to denigrating both Parties. He lists himself as a ‘Democratic Socialist’ and yet his belief system has been more socialist than anything else. But why should we think badly of that, after all, we exist in a society in which many programs would be considered as ‘socialist’?

There is a difference between a few programs and what Sanders has in mind. In a previous article that I wrote entitled: Discovering Bernie Sanders Siren Song: A Journey to His Dark Side, I include the radical extreme ideas that have been part of the Sanders story for many years:

“Known for railing against the U.S. government and the two main political parties, he held very little in the way of ‘gainful employment’ for a number of years. From 1971–1976 Sanders participated in the founding of the Vermont ‘Liberty Union Party’ which was a socialist organization and it was then that he decided to run for both governor and senator. His platform included a demand that the government takeover the medical industry and ‘all privately owned electric utilities’ and the idea of ‘nationalization of the oil industry’. His idea extended to the radical concept of: ‘without compensation to the banks and wealthy individuals who own them’. Additionally, he carried forward the Leninist concept of demanding that the U.S. government seize the wealth and assets of billionaires and carry out a redistribution ‘for all people’. One has to remember that these ideas smack of pure socialism and communism and do not correlate with a Democracy.”

His anti-American or anti-Democracy actions and words have been a mainstay throughout his history. In the same article I include:

“Still 1985, Sanders had a resolution passed in Burlington that would defy President Reagan’s embargo against the communist-controlled Nicaragua. It was then that Sanders made a trip to Managua to attend an anti-U.S. rally that was also attended by Soviet officials and was sponsored by the Sandinistas. Reports came through that Sanders stood with the crowd that chanted ‘Here, there, everywhere, the Yankee will die’. It’s important to note that the trip was said to have been paid by the Sandinista government and in turn, Sanders invited Daniel Ortega, the Sandinista leader to visit the United States.”

While common sense individuals recognize that we have a dire need to change the direction of the country from an oligarchy and return it to a Democracy, radical socialism is not the answer. The same people also realize that we exist in a political tightrope condition that is based on ‘money’. Sanders was given full credit in 2016 for altering the view of how an election can be fought through his individual donations (often around $27), but this is a slippery slope. When you are facing the Republicans that have the backing of such mega-donors as the Koch Brothers, et al, depending upon these donations is not realistic, no matter how much we want to hope that they are.

Sanders is not a Democrat and never has been. While he may have moved the dial for the Democratic Party a bit more ‘left’, his appeal seemed to have a smaller demographic: mostly young white people and some older white people. This does not represent the Party and people of color quickly realized that he was just another ‘white guy making promises’.

Bernie has also been known for his ‘purity test’ for Democrats that he approved/disapproved of. In his own state of Vermont, the Democrat that was running was a woman and when she didn’t pass his personal ‘litmus test’, he supported the Republican.

These actions simply prove that he is willing to do anything to undermine those that he doesn’t like, including putting an opponent in office.

The bottom line is: if Sanders wants something totally and radically different than the status quo of either of the parties, he needs to establish his own.

Source: Twitter

Sanders Sexism

Bernie supporters will be more than happy to post a list of bills that Sanders sponsored that carry shades of women’s issues, however, again, actions speak louder than words and the mere fact that Sanders didn’t have any women in the higher realms of his campaign is just the first area to question. The fact is, in the many years of his political life in Vermont, he has not had any women or people of color in responsible positions.

Male Sanders supporters are coming forward to downplay women’s issues, often regurgitating that women’s issues should be removed as a major topic from the Democratic agenda. I am shocked when female Sanders supporters step up and state the same type of thing.

In a Guardian article, a young woman author includes the following:

As one Sanders supporter wrote:

“Yes, equal rights for women and minorities are critically important. To consider these ideals progressive, however, seems passé. At this point, it’s more fair to suggest they are traditional. Gender and civil rights and equality may remain under attack from the right, but these ideals are positively engrained in two generations of Americans. Progressive voters, at this stage in our young country’s political history, want to challenge corrupt systems. The prison-industrial complex, the military-industrial complex, the financial-industrial complex, and the other lobbies that control our politicians and our government, for example.”

While the younger crowd seem to see Sanders as someone that has ‘lived through it all’, there are many of us that have as well. We have continued to fight the ‘good fight’ from working with kids to advance science to standing up to the corporations when they made bad decisions. If there was one thing that became very apparent, it was that Bernie hid behind ‘equality’ and yet didn’t really believe in it.

Those of us that fought on the frontlines for women’s rights can never expect that younger generations will offer any thanks or appreciation. It is part of the human condition, just as many forget about the hard fought and painful fight of the suffragettes. However, Sanders’ views about women extend back quite a few years and was exemplified when, as he continued his life being unemployed, he wrote the 1972 ‘rape article’ in the alternative newspaper, the Vermont Freeman. Entitled ‘Man — and Woman’, it was republished in Mother Jones in 2015.

If Sanders’ position on women’s issues was great, why did almost all of the women’s organizations support Hillary Clinton? The answer isn’t that she was a woman, it is that they weighed Hillary’s history versus Sanders and Hillary did indeed spend many years of her political life bringing the attention to many of the issues for women. Bernie may have supported a few bills, but women were not a priority in his overall scheme of socialism.

All through the election we saw examples of misogyny. Supporters of both the Republicans as well as extreme tea party left would criticize Hillary’s clothes, makeup, her hair and color choices. However, Sanders could show up looking like a disheveled crazy man, wearing a cheap suit and that was simply ‘ok’ with them. He would continually interrupt Hillary with his hand-waving, a psychologically-designed action of dismissal, and ‘mansplain’. But his supporters seemed ignorant of his well-establish ploys, and seemed to be oblivious to the fact that he didn’t use them when he was talking to men.

Source: Politifact

But it’s not just women’s issues that Sanders has a problem with. In a Politifact comparison as to who is actually ‘more progressive’: Hillary or Bernie, Hillary won.