PyramidHead
Contributor
Given that the centrist Democrats want Sanders to fail more than the Republicans do (and if you don't see this by now, there is a high probability you are one of those Democrats), it's likely to be the case that they have left no stone unturned with regards to "oppo" on him. So, by looking at what has been released in the run-up to Iowa, we can get a sense of what the most damaging, controversial skeletons are in Bernie's closet.
The Iowa caucus is tonight, and Bernie has been rising in the polls considerably since (a) Biden spent the last 3 weeks making everybody check his record on social security and (b) Warren failed to convince voters that Bernie thinks a woman can't be POTUS. At this critical moment, with so much at stake from them, the Democratic party establishment and its media cheerleaders are unleashing the hounds to attack Bernie on... checking...
Oh! It's Bernie bros again.
Wait, really? Like from 2016? Oh wait, there's more...
Sanders once likened poor whites to blacks under Apartheid
Democrats were forced to posthumously cancel Frederick Douglas shortly after criticizing this speech
Let's see what else is in the bag... and remember, this is the result of at least 4 years of research by a major political apparatus in the most powerful country on Earth. Surely they must have uncovered something truly frightening about Sanders to sink his candidacy. Ah. So there's this:
Bernie Sanders in 1972: U.S. Actions in Vietnam ‘Almost as Bad as What Hitler Did’
The DNC has claimed yet another casualty by framing this speech as problematic, and with heavy heart they were forced to also cancel Martin Luther King, Jr.
So what's going on here? In the runup to perhaps the most important primary of the race, where the momentum is either gained or lost and carries over into the next few early states before Super Tuesday, is this the best they've got? Two unearthed speeches where Bernie demonstrates he is absolutely on point by making correct comparisons that no other politician was making (or would even make today)? It's starting to look like they don't have much against the guy, and you really love to see it.
For more context, here is Peter Daou, a Clinton 2016 staffer who has become vociferously progressive since then:
Furthermore, the person responsible for doing the actual research on him in 2016 has been a part of Bernie's campaign since last May
Bernie Sanders Is Hiring a Former Hillary Clinton Staffer As Research Chief
My point? Bernie has been vetted. The idea that the GOP has this giant book of communist propaganda rallies or Black Panther meetings with Bernie in attendance is not only ridiculous (since at this point such oppo would have been deployed already), but it's probably bound to make his supporters like him even more anyway. We wish Bernie was as cool and as leftist as his critics keep saying he is.
In the general election, if Bernie is the nominee and doesn't get ratfucked at the convention, I predict the opposition research on him will just be more of what everybody has already seen a million times. He won't have to explain why his mind has changed or what his new position is, because he has nothing to apologize for. Comparatively speaking, Biden and Warren have a treasure trove of flip-flops, gaffes, poor policy decisions, outright lies, and compilation videos of making young girls uncomfortable (well, Biden has that anyway). All the GOP will say about Sanders is what he vociferously champions already, which is what the GOP has been saying about every Democratic candidate since time immemorial: he wants to expand the size of the federal government, spend money on helping poor people, raise taxes to fund generous welfare programs, make us less safe by reducing our military, destroy the economy by limiting the power of the free market, and will raise the deficit so high it bankrupts the nation! The only difference with Sanders is the fairly weak addendum of: and to prove it, he calls himself a socialist! Everything else, every last line of attack, is identical to what they used against Obama.
On the other side of the scale is what they CAN'T use against Sanders, that they love to use against other Democrats: they are crooked, corrupt, out of touch with ordinary people, only interested in identity politics, condescending toward people outside of their bubble, weak, capitulating, and they want to take away all your guns (any day now...), most of which is basically accurate when lobbed at more than half of Democratic presidential candidates in recent memory. But it doesn't stick when they try it on Bernie, because everybody knows he doesn't fit that mould.
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Other than the usual suspects, I would like to hear some takes by Republican or right-wing members of this forum. Do you think there is a giant iceberg of bad optics lurking in the GOP's file on Bernie that is much worse than what we've seen so far? Do you agree that the opposition that has been released thus far has not succeeded in making Bernie less popular among Democrats or independents? If so, what do you make of his chances in the general election against Trump, whose entire platform is basically one sustained attack on whoever his opponent may be?
The Iowa caucus is tonight, and Bernie has been rising in the polls considerably since (a) Biden spent the last 3 weeks making everybody check his record on social security and (b) Warren failed to convince voters that Bernie thinks a woman can't be POTUS. At this critical moment, with so much at stake from them, the Democratic party establishment and its media cheerleaders are unleashing the hounds to attack Bernie on... checking...
Oh! It's Bernie bros again.
Wait, really? Like from 2016? Oh wait, there's more...
Sanders once likened poor whites to blacks under Apartheid
Democrats were forced to posthumously cancel Frederick Douglas shortly after criticizing this speech
Let's see what else is in the bag... and remember, this is the result of at least 4 years of research by a major political apparatus in the most powerful country on Earth. Surely they must have uncovered something truly frightening about Sanders to sink his candidacy. Ah. So there's this:
Bernie Sanders in 1972: U.S. Actions in Vietnam ‘Almost as Bad as What Hitler Did’
The DNC has claimed yet another casualty by framing this speech as problematic, and with heavy heart they were forced to also cancel Martin Luther King, Jr.
So what's going on here? In the runup to perhaps the most important primary of the race, where the momentum is either gained or lost and carries over into the next few early states before Super Tuesday, is this the best they've got? Two unearthed speeches where Bernie demonstrates he is absolutely on point by making correct comparisons that no other politician was making (or would even make today)? It's starting to look like they don't have much against the guy, and you really love to see it.
For more context, here is Peter Daou, a Clinton 2016 staffer who has become vociferously progressive since then:
Chairman Daou said:
Furthermore, the person responsible for doing the actual research on him in 2016 has been a part of Bernie's campaign since last May
Bernie Sanders Is Hiring a Former Hillary Clinton Staffer As Research Chief
My point? Bernie has been vetted. The idea that the GOP has this giant book of communist propaganda rallies or Black Panther meetings with Bernie in attendance is not only ridiculous (since at this point such oppo would have been deployed already), but it's probably bound to make his supporters like him even more anyway. We wish Bernie was as cool and as leftist as his critics keep saying he is.
In the general election, if Bernie is the nominee and doesn't get ratfucked at the convention, I predict the opposition research on him will just be more of what everybody has already seen a million times. He won't have to explain why his mind has changed or what his new position is, because he has nothing to apologize for. Comparatively speaking, Biden and Warren have a treasure trove of flip-flops, gaffes, poor policy decisions, outright lies, and compilation videos of making young girls uncomfortable (well, Biden has that anyway). All the GOP will say about Sanders is what he vociferously champions already, which is what the GOP has been saying about every Democratic candidate since time immemorial: he wants to expand the size of the federal government, spend money on helping poor people, raise taxes to fund generous welfare programs, make us less safe by reducing our military, destroy the economy by limiting the power of the free market, and will raise the deficit so high it bankrupts the nation! The only difference with Sanders is the fairly weak addendum of: and to prove it, he calls himself a socialist! Everything else, every last line of attack, is identical to what they used against Obama.
On the other side of the scale is what they CAN'T use against Sanders, that they love to use against other Democrats: they are crooked, corrupt, out of touch with ordinary people, only interested in identity politics, condescending toward people outside of their bubble, weak, capitulating, and they want to take away all your guns (any day now...), most of which is basically accurate when lobbed at more than half of Democratic presidential candidates in recent memory. But it doesn't stick when they try it on Bernie, because everybody knows he doesn't fit that mould.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Other than the usual suspects, I would like to hear some takes by Republican or right-wing members of this forum. Do you think there is a giant iceberg of bad optics lurking in the GOP's file on Bernie that is much worse than what we've seen so far? Do you agree that the opposition that has been released thus far has not succeeded in making Bernie less popular among Democrats or independents? If so, what do you make of his chances in the general election against Trump, whose entire platform is basically one sustained attack on whoever his opponent may be?
