Kos speaks for me

I see diaries, GBCW diaries, and other diaries, attack “Kos”, Markos Moulitsas, quite strongly, for voicing his opinions on the Bernie phenomenon.  His opinions on Bernie’s revolution.  On Bernie’s current behavior towards the assumed nominee for the Democratic nomination and the Democratic Party.

I don’t know or care about anything said on other sites, but from my reading of Kos’ posts on THIS SITE, I have to say that Kos SPEAKS FOR ME.  

In diary after diary I find myself in agreement with Kos 90% of the time, maybe 95%.  That is a vast majority of the time.     I also find myself looking at Kos’ path to where he currently is in regards to Bernie,  a state of irritation, impatience and downright disgust with Bernie and his team, and find myself there as well.

 Kos is PISSED OFF at Bernie, and so am I.   So, yes, I find myself agreeing with Kos much more than disagreeing, and feel that he actually speaks for me.   

Let me backtrack.  As an early Hillary backer I was very excited when Bernie decided to run for the nomination.   I thought very highly of him.  To me he was a virtuous man, a straight shooter, someone with strong principles.

Here are my early comments on this site when Bernie joined:

or socialism.  I think she'll be respective of him (he deserves a lot of respect) and laud him. He is my top favorite for VP, truth be told.  Watch GOP heads explode all over the country when that happens.  

This guy has integrity.  He has a lot to like.  I hope Hillary pegs him for VP (if she wins.)  He is a European-style social Democrat, and we need to emulate Europe's social net to not only be more humanitarian but also more competitive as a nation.  

I guess now we can commence with all that "It is a coronation" nonsense from some posters here.  There WILL be primaries, there WILL be robust debates.  

Great day for Democrats.  Two very good candidates have announced.  Compare to the 20-man/woman clown car on the other side.    

Apr 29 · 12:25:36 PM

I love Bernie. I don't think he can win,

but if he were to, I would be 100% behind him.  

As it stands, I really hope Hillary Clinton pegs him as a possible VP.  His sincerity is infectious, and he'll move the goalposts even further to the left.   Forget geographical concerns, Sanders is a winner.  

Over the next few months I still maintained quite a positive posture about Bernie, wanted him to be involved, doing important work for this country.  I had moved away from wanting him to be the VP because I had to agree, begrudgingly, with other commenters when this was discussed that with Hillary at 69 years of age herself by election day the country would want to see someone younger a heartbeat away, not someone who would be 75 years of age himself by election day.   But, I was thinking of Bernie as a good fit for the cabinet, treasury secretary perhaps.  

I have grown increasingly disappointed with Bernie over the ensuing months.  That stems from Issues that have been thoroughly discussed on this site.  Issues ranging from temperament to flawed solutions — Bernie’s ill-advised health care plan doesn’t add up (our own health care expert Brainwrap conducted an analysis of Bernie’s plan and found it wanting), to name one example.   But those were concerns of a policy nature that weren’t that severe.  Bernie, despite the flaws that had shown up, was still a good candidate to support were something to happen to the obvious front runner.   

But, it seems that during the campaign for New York, and then right after the New York primary results, things changed dramatically.  Bernie and his team decided to truly go after Hillary.  When it became clear to everybody, including Bernie obviously, that this nomination was not going to happen for him, all pretense was thrown into the wind.  Ever since, Bernie has been unrecognizable.  Downright nasty.   Looking to inflict maximum damage on his way out the door. 

So, Kos speaks for me here.  

He speaks for me in this diary, for example:

11 reasons why Bernie Sanders lost this thing fair and square

Bernie Sanders exceeded all primary season expectations and was en route to building something of a real movement. But rather than locking in those gains and settling in for a long-haul effort, he’s opted for a legacy-busting temper tantrum instead, heading out the (primary) door in a cloud of whining, conspiracy mongering, and blame casting. 

Legacy-busting temper tantrum...cloud of whining, conspiracy mongering, and blame casting.

Exactly.  In fact, a lot of whining, conspiracy mongering and blame casting.

Like a despotic dictator, he is so sure of his supremacy that he sneers at the choices of his electorate and seeks to callously toss them aside. He dishonestly tells his supporters that there’s a conspiracy standing between him and victory. 

Tough, sure, but I find myself agreeing here again.   The electorate has spoken, and loudly, yet Bernie pretends that it isn’t so.  He talks dismissively of the “Deep South” as if those votes don’t count just as much as votes in Michigan, Ohio or Pennsylvania do.  The talk of a “rigged” election is bizarre.  

Yes, Kos speaks for me.

Not only is this undemocratic, it’s outright delusional. These are the same superdelegates representing the same establishment he’s repeatedly bashed and even sued. These are the superdelegates he spent the first year of his campaign blasting as an affront to the democratic process and illegitimate. NOW, things are different. Having lost the election, he expects these supers to overturn the will of the electorate, including the heavy preferences of key growth party demographics like Latinos and African Americans, in order to hand the nomination to the loser of the contest. 

EXACTLY.   It boggles the mind, no?  

2. He may want to disenfranchise them, but communities of color voted against Sanders

Take another moment to savor what that would mean—a party establishment ignoring the choice of the communities of color, who have heavily chosen a woman, to undemocratically hand the nomination to yet another white guy. That, my friends, is the essence of white privilege. It’s EXHIBIT A, and in case you are wondering, yes it fucking pisses me off. 

Ok, a bit heavy on the “white privilege” end of things, but overall, this segment speaks to me as well.  Bernie asks the Super Delegates to invalidate Hillary’s voters, most of whom happen to be minorities and women because HE is awesome?   The results of the election are what matters here.  Bernie has lost the nomination, fair and square.  Many Millions more voted for his opponent.  You don’t try to invalidate those Million more voters.  You respect them.  Bernie does not seem to respect the voters who voted for his opponent.  

4.  No, the system wasn’t rigged against him

The system was rigged, for sure, but in his favor. The first two states? Two of the most unrepresentative states in the union, states that glossed over his failures in reaching communities of color. It’s a calendar that benefits white candidates and silences the issues that matter to the communities that drive the modern Democratic Party. 

And how about them caucuses? Sanders won nine of 11, getting a significant percentage of his delegate haul from these undemocratic, exclusionary contests. In fact, those nine states are exactly half of his victory total. Take caucuses out, and Sanders is barely in the frame. 

Now, there’s nothing wrong with winning caucuses as long as they exist! In fact, Barack Obama owes his presidency to them. But designing a system that prevents people from participating and eliminates the secret ballot is exactly what rigging the system looks like, and it wasn’t Clinton that benefited from that. 

Once again.  EXACTLY.  The early states benefited Bernie, who had shown early signs of not being able to connect with minority voters.   Iowa, a state that is 96% White, was not going to expose Bernie’s problems with minority voters, neither was New Hampshire, a state 96% White and his direct neighbor to boot.   At the earliest South Carolina would be that state.    And, as we’ve seen from the results of actual highly attended primaries in states that also had caucuses, Washington State and Nebraska, caucuses don’t necessarily reflect the will of the voters in those particular states, they are very undemocratic.   If anything was rigged, it was in Bernie’s favor throughout this season.  

I could go on and highlight every segment of that diary.   Kos speaks for me here.

 I, too, am pissed off at Bernie for the way he has gone about this race ever since New York voted.  I understand where Kos is coming from here.   Yes, go on to the last contest, if you wish. Republican Cruz bowed out after Indiana, and he REALLY had a good reason to stay on, go all the way, since the GOP party establishment didn’t want Trump and could have found a procedural maneuver at the convention to prevent Trump from being the nominee, something that is exactly the opposite in the Democratic party.   But, Bernie decided to keep going, even though the New York results and then the Pennsylvania, Maryland, Connecticut and Delaware results a week after made clear that this race for the nomination is unwinnable for Bernie.  

 But, for cripes sake, after NY and PA, pull back on your incessant criticisms of our likely nominee.   Start aiming much stronger for our mutual enemy, Donald Trump.   Pull back on your charges that the primaries were rigged, your vows that there is a decent chance of being the nominee.   No, the primaries weren’t rigged, and no, there is no decent chance that you will be the nominee.

   It seems instead of what most such candidates would have done, Bernie just doubled down on it. He became more defiant, more acerbic, more cynical, more mocking.   To what end?  To help Trump get elected?  To give Trump material he can use against Hillary?    Now we are finding that Bernie is going to debate Trump at a Hillary bash-fest disguised as a “debate”.    Bernie is actively hurting the Democratic Party right now, he is actively helping Trump, and that is not a good thing for either the Presidential ticket or down ticket Democratic candidates.  

Damn right I am pissed at Bernie right now.   He was given what he wanted on the platform committee (an unprecedented, for the losing candidate, 5 members) and on the same day that was revealed he continued to rip into Hillary instead of FINALLY, upon reaching such an agreement, relaxing his incessantly negative commentary towards Hillary.  A “messy” convention?  REALLY? 

Yes,

Kos speaks for me.