We keep hearing how “uninformed” Bernie is. One day it’s New York City 1%-ers insisting it is so, the next day it’s a CEO who makes $20 million a year but wants to downsize, offshore and outsource just a little bit more, the next, it’s their journalistic and online echo chamber.
Hey, maybe they’re right. Maybe it’s true.
But if so, then why does Hillary Clinton keep stealing Bernie’s “uninformed” positions?
Throughout the whole campaign, Bernie hardly can get a phrase out of his mouth before Hillary jumps in, finishes the sentence for him and then tries to take credit for the whole she-bang:
1). Bernie: (Visits picketers, decries Verizon outsourcing and wage/benefit cuts.)
Hillary: Me too. Put out a statement. See my webpage. Workers love me. Executives too. Done.
2). Bernie: (Announces endorsement of big NY union at raucous union hall reception.)
Hillary: Me too. They put out a statement. See their webpage. Workers love me.
3). Bernie: (Addresses labor rallies as his “brothers and sisters”, as he has for years.)
Hillary: Me too. Always did that. Not new. Totally not.
4). Bernie: I want to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour nationwide.
Hillary: Me too. Ish. OK, $12. Increments. Some day. NY’s raise to 15 was all me though.
5). Bernie: Corporate tax avoidance is a scourge that must stop now.
Hillary: Me too. Me too. Corporate tax avoidance is bad and I now plan to fight it somehow.
6). Bernie: We must take serious and rigorous steps to fight and undo income inequality.
Hillary: Me too. Always said it. Big part of my life’s work. What?
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7). Bernie:
xThis country belongs to all of us, not just the billionaire class. That’s what this campaign is all about.
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) 10 mai 2015Hillary: “This country belongs to all of us, not just those at the top.”
(Said during her victory speech after winning...on Super Tuesday)
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8).Bernie: I’m a progressive.
Hillary: Me too. I’m a moderateprogressivemoderate is it general election time yet?
9).Bernie: We need to regulate Wall Street more aggressively.
Hillary: Me too. Never changed a view or a vote. Wall Street funds me I mean fears me.
10).Bernie: Not me, us.
Hillary: Me too. I mean we too. Darn it! “We mean us too.” That sounds weird. Eh, what he said.
11). Bernie: “No bank can be too big to fail”
Hillary: “No bank can be too big to fail”. Didn’t mean break-ups! Gotcha! Heh.
12). Bernie: We must get corporate money out of politics.
Hillary: We must get corporate money out of politics except the part that goes to me.
13). Bernie: We must say no to fracking.
Hillary: Me too. Definitely no to fracking. Unless people want to frack. Then it’s OK.
14). Bernie: Just say no to building Keystone XL.
Hillary: Me too. No way. Just as I always firmly believed starting two seconds ago.
15). Bernie:I support single-payer universal health care.
Hillary: Me too. Except not single-payer. And universal sometime somehow but not sure when or how. Specifics? Um...it’s true there are no specifics in my opponent’s impossible dream that every other wealthy democracy has implemented. Whew.
16). Bernie: We must end mass incarceration.
Hillary: Me too. Always for ending mass incarceration. Superpredawhatnow?
17). Bernie: (participated in 1960s civil rights movement, arrested protesting segregation).
Hillary: Me too. Except not arrested. And not in the 1960s. Brock, tell em Bernie photos are fake.
18). Bernie: I opposed Bush’s disastrous Iraq War waged under false pretenses.
Hillary: Me too. Forgainst it all along. Not my fault. All Dubya.
19). Bernie: I opposed NAFTA from the beginning.
Hillary: Me too. I opposed NAFTA the second I stopped my years of publicly advocating for it.
20). Bernie: I opposed TPP from the beginning.
Hillary: Me too. I opposed TPP the second I stopped my years of publicly advocating for it.
Pretty amazing to see the front-runner in the race adopt so many “uninformed” policies, positions and statements of principle. Stay tuned to the debate tonight to see if Hillary figures out any more of Bernie’s ideas she can manage to appropriate as her own!
It might be wiser to choose the Democratic candidate who gets it right the first time, consistently.
If we don’t, we will have a lot of work to do to make sure Secretary Clinton’s “evolved” views move from campaign lip service to fervent policy advocacy and, when possible, implementation.