Slate - The Establishment Didn't Destroy Bernie Sanders. He destroyed himself.

[TomCADem]

Excellent article that recounts how Bernie basically defined the establishment as pretty everyone who was not one of his fervent fans. This does not even address how his campaign has treated older voters as the enemy even though they get out and vote.

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/03/bernie-sanders-anti-establishment-lost-voters.html

For months, Sanders has talked about “taking on the Democratic establishment.” He ran on that message in Iowa and New Hampshire. Then, after becoming the front-runner, he went around the country boasting that his critics were right to fear him. At a rally in California on Feb. 17, he gloated that his enemies were “trembling” and “crying on television.” On Feb. 21, the day before he won the Nevada caucuses, he tweeted, “I’ve got news for the Republican establishment. I’ve got news for the Democratic establishment. They can’t stop us.”

Running against the establishment is standard populism. But to win with that message, you have to define the enemy narrowly. The more people you denounce as part of the establishment, the more you scare politicians and voters. If you’re proposing single-payer health insurance, for example, the smart move is to stipulate that you’re just targeting insurance companies. Instead, Sanders has threatened the whole medical sector. “We will take on the health care industry,” he vowed at a rally last week. On Monday, he repeated that line to a crowd in St. Louis. On CNN, he blasted the industry for supporting Biden: “The health care industry that is taking out their checkbooks? That is the establishment. We are taking them on.”

Sanders also attacks the press. Voters don’t care about the press, but they get antsy when a candidate sounds paranoid. Instead of playing to reporters’ liberal sympathies, Sanders depicts them as puppets of “the corporate media.” He accuses them of “freaking out” over his success and hurling “venom” at his campaign. Last week, when MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow pressed Sanders about his failure to turn out new voters, he insisted he was doing well, given that he was “taking on the corporate media.”

Sanders’ first defeat, on Feb. 29 in South Carolina, was a warning that he needed to assuage fears about his candidacy. Instead, he celebrated those fears as proof of his success. On March 1, he proudly told a crowd in San Jose, California, that the turnout at his rallies was alarming the establishment. The next day, in St. Paul, Minnesota, he repeated that message. When Sanders was informed that fellow candidates Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar were dropping out and endorsing Biden, he said it was no surprise, since the corporate elite was out to get him. And when Maddow asked Sanders whether he was specifically running against “the Democratic Party establishment”—not just a generic “political establishment”—he replied: “Democratic establishment. Yes.”

[4now]

1. He was his own worst enemy

I can't believe that I used to take him seriously

[TomCADem]

4. Sadly, I Used To Like Bernie, Too.

Originally, it seemed like he was mostly focused on pushing forth his proposals. Even as he started to make more and more character attacks against Hillary, I gave him the benefit of the doubt, until he started going off the rails and started to attack the media and the Democratic party, which overshadowed any discussion of his proposals or helping the working class.

Unfortunately, Bernie has become even worse. Yes, he has his same old stump speech, but now it is largely overshadowed by his attacks against everyone and everything that is not totally on board team Bernie. It seems like his actual proposals are now just used a as a prop to launch attacks on Democrats. And, if you don't happen to support Bernie, you get thrown into this evil "establishment."

Finally, it is sad how Bernie has attacked or suppressed younger progressive proteges. Beto O'Rourke was inspired by Bernie, but then his campaign ruthlessly smeared him, because they saw him as a threat. AOC was trying to be faithful to her New York constituents, yet his campaign demanded that she make appearances to prop him up, and then leaked unflattering info about AOC when she did not jump at their beck and call.

[True Blue American]

11. That explains AOC's

Actions when they had the vote. She was like Massie, threatening to hold up the vote if the members did not return.

She was reading the bill, was impassioned about what was happening in her District, but when her minute was up she sat down.

Maybe this was her learning curve if Bernie treated her that way. She hitched her wagon to a fading star that is sounding more like Trump every day and seems to have a talent for choosing has beens.

Sad to go out this way.

[ucrdem]

2. "I've got news for the Democratic establishment. They can't stop us."

Somewhere ages and ages hence that will be the phrase Bernie is remembered for.

[LizBeth]

3. Yes, Sanders did it himself. And he is still doing it ... to himself.

[Cha]

5. Thank you.. he made us the enemy and we

responded as such.

Don't know how they could have thought they would win with a 30% base.

Oh, JHC..

For months, Sanders has talked about “taking on the Democratic establishment.” He ran on that message in Iowa and New Hampshire. Then, after becoming the front-runner, he went around the country boasting that his critics were right to fear him. At a rally in California on Feb. 17, he gloated that his enemies were “trembling” and “crying on television.” On Feb. 21, the day before he won the Nevada caucuses, he tweeted, “I’ve got news for the Republican establishment. I’ve got news for the Democratic establishment. They can’t stop us.”

What's that saying.. "..pride goeth before.." what?

Yep, he did it to himself along with some help from his Stein Voter Staff.

Ah, so he was in Minnesota when he ".. was informed that Amy and Pete were dropping out and supporting Biden.." and "no surprise..". I bet it was a Big Surprise!. In fact a "shock".

And one reason for this pattern is Sanders’ constant message of antagonism. He has cultivated enemies instead of friends. Now he’s paying the price.

Can you imagine how Pete and Senator Amy Klobuchar and their former supporters feel about these accusations?..

Meanwhile, Sanders has escalated his talk of conspiracies. On Sunday, he claimed that “the establishment put a great deal of pressure” on Buttigieg and Klobuchar to “force” them out of the race. “What was very clear from the media narrative and what the establishment wanted,” he told George Stephanopoulos, “was to make sure that people coalesced around Biden and try to defeat me.” On Wednesday, after his defeats, Sanders again rebuked “the Democratic establishment” and insisted that “our campaign has won the ideological debate.”

No, ya didn't.

And, he still hasn't learned..

What Sanders fails to understand is the connection between his defeats and his rhetoric. It wasn’t the media or the Democratic National Committee that turned Buttigieg, Klobuchar, and millions of voters against him. It was Sanders. His relentless message of conflict, along with his expanding list of putative enemies, attracted a fraction of the electorate but alienated everybody else. As the primaries narrowed to a two-man race, his base was no longer enough to win. The establishment didn’t destroy Bernie Sanders. He destroyed himself

Thank you for this article, Tom.. some of us knew so much of this except I didn't know what he was saying at the California Rallies about us or that he learned in Minnesota that Pete and Amy Endorsed Biden!

[BlueLucy]

8. I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall...

when he got the news.

Hi Cha!

[Cha]

9. Yes or a wee

spider.. I always like them better. lol

Aloha, BlueLucy

[True Blue American]

12. Amazing what we learn on DU!

[Cha]

13. Yes, it is, True Blue American and I appreciate

it so much!

[True Blue American]

14. And to thnk

Last edited Thu Apr 2, 2020, 04:40 AM - Edit history (1)

I waited a long time to join after being asked by friends.

[Cha]

16. I got a computer in 2002 to join DU, after the

tragedy that was bush.. happened to America in 2001.

Glad you finally joined!

[True Blue American]

21. 2000 for me

My Son insisted I needed a computer. Built me one. He is my Guru!

Now, my Grandson is in his third year to be a computer Engineer.

[Cha]

24. Wow.. your son sounds like

a genius! Good on your grandson, too.

I remember my dad built a tv for us way back in the day.

[True Blue American]

25. No, just an Engineer

That has been designing machines for 30 years. All the men in my family were that way. He had the patience of Job teaching me. Solve my questions with a phone call.

I am better now but still hate to type and the IPAD SC is no help at all. They make mistakes for me.

We had computers at work. They gave us 2 lessons, but I was one who practiced and helped others who were terrified. Seems quaint now.

[Kahuna]

15. True. I remember that tweet. He made the Dem voters the enemy. Not smart. nt

[Cha]

17. He got us

mad because it was so unfair.. and the GOTV responded.

Aloha, Kahuna.. StaySafe!

[Dopers_Greed]

6. Sanders is essentially Trump on the left

It was quite dismaying to watch my progressive friends lobbing homophobic insults at Buttigieg, and misogynistic insults at the women candidates.

But all for Bernie, right?

[Cha]

10. A whole heckava lot of

good it did them.. but they never learn.

[True Blue American]

26. Well, I do hope Party leaders

Learned a hard lesson this time. I still blame those who changed the rules to allow this.

Democrats need new, young leaders. The only 2 leaders of the DNC I still respect are Terry McAullife and Howard Dean.

[True Blue American]

22. They were not really

Progressive if they threw darts at Mayor Pete. That man is one of the most brilliant in Politics.

If this were another time Pete would have been another Obama, but we need experience to clean up the Trump/ Republican ignorance and vindictive actions of the last 10 years.

Pete is just beginning and you can bet he will have a prestigious position.

[The Magistrate]

7. True, Sir

Sanders' campaign this year has made crystal clear a few facts about his 2016 run. Sanders reveled in his support from 'working class whites' that year, and he took it as indicating real support for himself and his policies, crowing that he had shown 'working class whites' could be moved to the left, if properly approached by a charismatic leader like 'Bernie'. What actually happened was that Sanders simply chanced along to reap the benefit of a quarter-century campaign of hate directed at Mrs. Clinton from the right, whch fed into 'white working class' distaste for 'uppity broads', and reluctance to vote any woman into high office. This year that constituency has deserted him, and is voting for Mr. Biden, because they really don't much like lefty radicals, nor old men who harangue them in strident tones about revolution. It is understandable Sanders should have made the mistake he did about why 'working class whites' voted for him, because it has been his deepest dream since his college days to lead the 'white working class' by inspiring them to act on leftist lines. But it was a foolish error, something only a cable news pundit or worse could be expected to make from the facts in hand. Had Sanders' not gone once too often to the well and run this year, he could have continued to preen himself on inspiring the 'white work class' and moving it to the left under his direction. It would not have been true, of course, but it would have looked swell in print and online....





"From Bernie’s perspective, dropping out of a race once you have no chance of winning is peculiar behavior that can only be explained by the work of a hidden hand. For most politicians, though, it is actually standard operating procedure. Only Sanders seems to think the normal thing to do once voters have made clear they don’t want to nominate you is to continue campaigning anyway."





"When things are not called by their right names, what is said cannot make sense. When what is said does not make sense, what is planned cannot succeed. When plans do not succeed, people become uneasy. When people are uneasy, punishments do not fit crimes. When punishments do not fit crimes, people cannot know where to put hand or foot."

[grantcart]

18. Bernie's Sanders never missed an opportunity to miss an opportunity. nt

[Cha]

19. Ikr..

[Squinch]

20. He has made himself pointless and pathetic.

[True Blue American]

23. Yes he has!

But that is what happens when you place yourself above the common good. You expose the real you!

[NurseJackie]

27. His time in the spotlight is nearly over and he knows it...

... this is a campaign in its death throes. His campaign needs a respirator. It's about to die a horrible and agonizing death. Sadly, that will be their own decision. It doesn't have to be this way. The only thing that's preventing a calm and reasonable and peaceful transition into supporting our party's nominee is Bernie himself. He's the one who's calling the shots and he is the one who will be judged harshly by historians.

[Cha]

28. This deserves a kick..