Just when it appeared that The New York Times was tempering its obsessive adherence to neoliberal orthodoxy (see Monday's unsigned editorial "
Emmanuel Macron’s Unfettered Powers"), we get Yamiche Alcindor's very yellow piece of journalism, "
Attack Tests Movement Sanders Founded," and the answer from the Obama/Clinton camp to Bernie's second run for the White House:
But long before the shooting on Wednesday, some of Mr. Sanders’s supporters had earned a belligerent reputation for their criticism of Hillary Clinton, the Democratic Party and others who they believed disagreed with their ideas. Sanders fans, sometimes referred to derogatorily as “Bernie Bros” or “Bernie Bots,” at times harassed reporters covering Mr. Sanders and flooded social media with angry posts directed at the “corporate media,” a term often used by the senator.
The suspect in the shooting in Virginia put a new spotlight on the rage buried in some corners of the progressive left.
Mr. Hodgkinson filled his Facebook page with photographs of the senator and quotes from his speeches. Mr. Hodgkinson also wrote messages filled with expletives directed at the president, and a post in March said: “Trump is a traitor. Trump has destroyed our democracy. It’s time to destroy Trump & co.”
On Tuesday, Mr. Hodgkinson posted a cartoon on Facebook explaining “How does a bill work?” “That’s an easy one, Billy,” the cartoon reads. “Corporations write the bill and then bribe Congress until it becomes law.”
“That’s Exactly How It Works. ....” Mr. Hodgkinson wrote.
That is not far from Mr. Sanders’s own message. On Saturday, during a conference in Chicago filled with Sanders supporters, he thundered, “Today in the White House, we have perhaps the worst and most dangerous president in the history of our country,” to cheers from thousands. “And we also have, not to be forgotten, extreme right-wing leadership in the U.S. House and the U.S. Senate.”
Note that the throat slasher in Portland, an alt-right psychotic, although being a fascist, said something nice about Sanders during an anti-Semitic rant online. After his killing spree ant-rights flocked to the Oregonian website and proclaimed that he wasn't a right-winger at all, but a Bernie Supporter.
ReplyDeleteYou see what this is. The bungled okeydoke that was going to be Clinton's casus belli, and which has been used to delegitimatize Trump (as if he needed delegitimazation) is not giving a boost to the neoliberal Dems or Clinton herself.
Who has it given a boost to? Hint: He's still the most popular politician in the US.
So these incidents bad-jacketing Sanders could have been predicted.
Agreed. But when are the elite going to get the message that some sort of gum-drop sprinkling needs to begin post-haste? Corbyn kicked ass last week because he ran as an unabashed socialist, a peacenik. I would have thought by now, after Trump, that the mainstream parties, in addition to Labour, would have started to appropriate some social-democratic messaging. But it looks like Macron's victory and Rutte's victory before that has created a perception among neoliberals that they can keep bobbing and weaving to victory.
ReplyDeleteI don't thinking yelling "Boogie! Boogie!" is going to work against Bernie.
By the way, for some reason the controllers of comment have returned me to an identity I had seven years ago. I may sign in as Bob In Pacifica but I'm still Bob In Portland.
ReplyDelete