He’s Just Like Everybody Else

Recently, I posted my personal rankings of the Dem primary candidates on Facebook, and a friend commented asking why I was down on Bernie. My post wasn’t an attack on Bernie or anything, but within the context of post about disinformation, I stated, “There is no logically consistent manner in which you can disqualify Kamala based on her position on truancy 20 years ago, while giving Tulsi a pass on her bigoted attitudes towards same-sex relationships and giving Bernie a pass on his numerous horrific votes in Congress.”

My friend responded with:

“why so down on Bernie? He’s got more integrity than virtually all the rest of them combined. He has always voted his conscience and never flip flopped or lessened his criticism to appeal to party leaders or big money. I get that some people think he is too old. Or, worry that he is too strident and are scared away because he unapologetically calls himself a “democratic socialist”. But, I honestly have no idea what bad Bernie policies you are referring too. Single-payer national healthcare plans are more economically efficient at meeting people’s needs cost-effectively. Medicare has a much higher satisfaction rate and lower costs than any private insurance. So why shouldn’t we have ‘Medicare for All’.”

Rather than ridiculing Bernie’s integrity in a Facebook comment, as I’ve done numerous times before, I decided to write this Medium post. The post isn’t intended to be a hit piece on Bernie (although I’m guessing that’s how it will be interpreted). It is intended to show that Bernie is very much like the other candidates and all humans. He has made mistakes, and he’s made lots of them. They would all be forgiveable were it not for Bernie’s own predilection for pointing fingers at others, and were it not for his followers doing that ten-fold. My (unrealistic) hope is that the next time one of Bernie’s followers complains that Warren was a Republican, Kamala was a cop, or Mayor Pete is a DINO, maybe they’ll think back to Bernie’s own past and focus on other, more important, attributes.

#BernieLostMe

My own history with Bernie is that I was a long-time supporter. I lived 20 minutes from the Vermont border in the late 80’s, and I was aware of him at that time. I even visited Burlington a couple of times while he was mayor. I was thrilled when he ran for Congress as a socialist, and I followed him throughout his career. I applauded his filibuster, I donated to numerous campaigns, and I was even initially supportive during his 2016 campaign. I’m still fine with Bernie. If we wins the primary, I’ll vote for him in the general. That said, he is one of my least favorite Dem candidates for 2020.

How did Bernie go from one of my favorite politicians to one of my least favorites? It mostly wasn’t about Bernie, himself. It was his supporters (both real & fake) that drove me away. When I started encountering obviously false claims about Bernie and outright lies about Hillary, I performed the most basic responsibility of every voter. I tried to prove myself wrong about a candidate I liked. Once I did that, it was easy to see Bernie for who he is and who he has been, which is essentially just another politician. I don’t hold that against him, and I forgive everybody for past lapses. What I don’t like, though, is a double standard. If Bernie and his supporters are going to examine and criticize the minutia of every act in others’ careers, then Bernie should be subject to the same treatment. Beyond that, though, the absurd claims like “He’s got more integrity than virtually all the rest of them combined” drive me away. Bernie isn’t saying that stuff himself, like Trump is, but it’s almost as bad when his supporters make those Trumpian statements.

In truth, Bernie has the same integrity as the rest of them, and my friend, and me, and Hillary, and virtually everyone else, with the exception of some outliers like the president.

What follows is a list of Bernie’s various transgressions and examples of his very normal level of integrity.

— Superdelegates — In the span of about a year in the 2016 primary cycle, Bernie went from accepting role of superdelegate, to railing against the superdelegates as part of a rigged system, to begging the superdelegates to overturn the results of the primaries and install him as the nominee. A person with the level of integrity ascribed to Bernie by his supporters would NEVER try to use a ‘rigged’ system to benefit himself. As far as I know, Bernie has also accepted the role of superdelegate for the 2020 primary. If Bernie had the integrity that his supporters claim he has, he would have said, “No thanks. The superdelegates are part of rigged system, and I won’t condone that system by being a part of it”.

— Gun control — Bernie’s worst vote was when he sided with Republicans and voted for the PLCAA, which provides gun makers and sellers with near blanket immunity from lawsuits. More than anything else (with the possible exception of Heller), that law has cobbled our ability to reduce gun violence. After almost 15 years, with a recent court decision, liberals have finally found one way around it, but the PLCAA is a really bad law that provides special protections for the gun industry that don’t exist for any other industry. Liberals and consumer advocates knew how bad this was at the time, but that didn’t stop Bernie from siding with the GOP on this one.

OK, though. Whatever. People make mistakes. Recently, Bernie got on the right side of this issue and he joined the calls for the repeal of the PLCAA. BUT, throughout the 2016 campaign he defended that vote, and he defended it in a way that no one with immaculate integrity would ever do. His misled his supporters. He pretended that the law was about small gunsellers when the real beneficiaries of the law were giant corporations like Walmart. Even more disturbing were his statements that contorted the right to win a lawsuit with the right to be heard in court. Without hearing any evidence or a specific case, Bernie decided that these lawsuits have no merit and would deny people their right to be heard in court.

Again, this is all political spin. That’s fine in a vaccum, but it’s not how people of perfect integrity act.

— War Mongering — In the most recent debate Bernie attacked Joe Biden for his vote for the Iraq War. What Bernie failed to disclose, is that he, himself, voted for a policy of regime change in Iraq, twice. That regime change policy was one of the things Bush used to justify his war. None of the other candidates not named Biden voted for that policy. More importantly, Bernie voted for the 2001 AUMF, which provided Bush and future presidents with a ‘blank check’ to wage war througout the world without seeking congressional approval.

As bad as the 2003 AUMF was, the 2001 AUMF was worse. At least the Iraq War was limited in scope. Bernie’s war vote had no such limitations. Every single engagement (outside of Iraq) that we’ve been involved in since then has been justified by that 2001 vote. Benie didn’t only vote for a war in Afghanistan; he voted for war in Libya, Syria, Yemen, and everywhere else we’ve been involved. And, contrary, to the popular narrative, there were people besides Barbara Lee who knew enough not to vote for that ‘blank check’. My own representative, Sam Farr, didn’t vote yes on that abominable, endless forever war.

Again, though. OK. That’s fine. We all make mistakes. BUT, Bernie should really STFU about the Iraq War. Someone with the perfect integrity that his supporters claim wouldn’t attack others for their war votes, when he has his own, worse war votes.

— Tough on Crime — Bernie voted for the 90’s crime bill that he attacked Hillary for ‘supporting’. In fact, Hillary’s support was in the form of a portion of an interview and some speeches. It was done at a time when she was political poison, due to the failure of her single payer healthcare plan. In truth, Bernie had more to do with that law’s passage then Hillary. He voted for it. He then campaigned on that vote and as being tough on crime. When called out for this vote a decade later, his revisionist explanation claimed that in return for his vote he got some good things into the bill, and his followers accepted that nuance. Logic, however, would indicate otherwise. I wonder, did his followers ever asked themselves, what leverage an independent congressman from an inconsquential state used to gain ammendments to a bill that passed with a good majority? In fact, Benie had no leverage, and the ammendments he claims to have ‘gotten’ were widely supported.

Again, though, OK. Congressional votes are complicated. Every vote has nuance. That’s all fine, in a vacuum. BUT, people of the perfect integrity Bernie’s supporters claim don’t attack others for ‘supporting’ a bill that they, themselves, voted for.

…

Also, Bernie’s tough on crime stance didn’t just end with his support of the 90’s crime bill. He also voted against the demilitarization of police. In fact, Bernie was proud of his tough on crime stance for quite a while. Take a look at this portion of his website from 2006: https://web.archive.org/web/20061018180921/http:/www.bernie.org/truth/crime.html. In the 2016 campaign, it was Hillary who released a criminal justice reform package before Bernie did, and he only did so after being confronted by leaders of the Black Lives Matter (too) program.

Again, though. OK. That’s fine. Eventually he came around and that’s a good thing. BUT, his supporters claim nonsense like “he’s always been on the right side of every issue”, and that our leaders should ‘lead’, not follow. On this issue, though, both Bernie and his supporters seem to have forgotten his questionable history. That’s NOT how people of immaculate integrity operate. People of integrity admit their mistakes and apologize for them.

— Trolls — I’m no fan of John McCane, and his few good moments don’t make up for his bad ones, but this is what integrity looks like: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRq6Y4NmB6U

NOT ONCE, during the 2016 primary campaign, did Bernie try to reign in his supporters. He didn’t do it at the time he was introduced by someone who called Hillary a whore. He didn’t call out his supporters when they threw money at Hillary. He didn’t ask his supporters to stop their mysoginistic, obscene memes. Even when he knew that he was being helped by Russian trolls and bots, he didn’t disavow that support. He accepted and ignored it.

No. Bernie doesn’t have more integrity than the rest of the Dems combined. His integrity doesn’t even match that of John McCain.

— Fraud — Bernie lost the last primary by the middle of March, 2016. He lost because he virtually ignored big southern states like Texas, Georgia, and Florida. He was too far behind by mid March to come back. He knew that, just as everyone else who pays attention knew that. There simply weren’t enough undecided voters in enough big states to make up the difference.

OK. Fine. That doesn’t mean he should have quit his campaign entirely. It did mean, though, that it was time to wind down the dishonest attacks on Secretary Clinton, whom he claimed to have the utmost respect for. It did mean that maybe it was time to stop going all out for small dollar donations. Many of Bernie’s younger supporters were giving more money to Bernie than they really could afford, and, he was essentially defrauding them by pretending he could win.

Even worse, though, he kept the charade going after the California primary in June by talking about a contested convention. Some of Bernie’s delegates even showed up at the convention thinking that he could somehow be the nominee. They held that belief due to his own false statements, and the fact that Bernie didn't bother to provide information to his own delegates before the convention. That’s not how people of perfect integrity operate.

— Corruption — Tad Devine was a senior strategist in Bernie’s 2016 campaign. He also had a private company which did video and production work for the campaign. In other words, an influential member of the campaign was also someone who profited from campaign spending. It was a Trumpian type of conflict, and Tad Devine’s company walked away with about $5 million of those $27 dollar donations. If Bernie had the integrity his supporters think he has, that conflict would never had existed.

— Scapegoating — Bernie spent most of the 2016 campaign scapegoating ‘millionaires and billionaires’. He appealed to people’s emotions, anger, and willingness to place blame in a way that was similar to what Trump did with Muslims and immigrants. Scapegoating, anger, and emotional appeals are effective ways to run a campaign, but people of perfect integrity know how dangerous these techniques can be and they avoid them. Beyond that, it should be noted that the entire time Bernie was blaming millionaires for the country’s problems, he was a millionaire himself.

— Lies — In 2015, at the beginning of Bernie’s primary campaign, he promised to run a positive campaign. Soon thereafter, he starting attacking Hillary. Technically, that’s a broken promise, rather than a lie, but he’s had his fare share of real lies too. Those are well documented at Politifact. Additionally, in the last debate, he claimed that his Medicare-for-All bill doesn’t dismantle the current system, when, in fact, that’s exactly what it does. That’s not how people of perfect integrity behave. People of perfect integrity are honest and live up to their promises.

— Misrepresentations — Medicare-for-all isn’t very much like Medicare, which can cost up to $400/month for Part A alone, for people who haven’t satisfied the work requirement. Medicare also has a private component, and, well, is very different than Bernie’s plan. To some extent, Bernie’s bill is more like Medicaid, as implemented by states like California. So, why doesn’t Bernie call his program Medicaid for all? Why doesn’t he name it something completely different? Well. Medicaid has some negative connotations, and Medicare has a good reputation and Bernie is capitalizing on that reputation, even though his bill isn’t at all like Medicare.

Again, though. OK. That’s fine. Politicians and corporations often use innacurate names as branding techniques. People of perfect integrity DON’T do that, though. People of integrity are honest.

I’m against Bernie’s Medicare-for-All bill for a variety of reasons, which I’ll write about in another post. In the context of this post, however, how is it that my Bernie supporting friend, thinks that Medicare for All is just giving Medicare, as it stands, to everyone here?

That’s how Bernie’s supporters drive me away. They don’t do their homework and they blindly repeat plattitudes without proper research. In fact, the plan my friend seems to be referring to is closer to Mayor Pete’s Medicare for All Who Want it plan. And, Mayor Peter, describes his honestly using the words, “create a version of Medicate”, despite his alledgedly having only a fraction of Bernie’s integrity.

Wrap Up

One more time, I’ll say that this isn’t intended as a hit piece on Bernie. The case I’m making is that Bernie isn’t as perfect as his followers claim. He’s just like you, me and everybody else. The items I’ve listed above are just the things that came to mind over the past few days. I didn’t go out looking for stuff. Given that, I’m sure there’s more to be found, just like there is with every other candidate. When it comes to their pasts, they all have done things not to like.

For my part, I think we should forgive past mistakes and judge the candidates on their policy proposals, how they perform in the debates, and the words that come out of their own mouths. I encourage everybody else to do the same.

Bernie might become the nominee. If that’s the case, I will vote for him, and maybe I’ll even go beyond that. The more his supporters drive me away, though, the less likely I am do to that.