How did the Bernie Sanders campaign, which
started out positive and full of love, honesty and good energy, turn into a movement that has
attracted so many people driven by rage who will destroy a person whether they
have good reason or not, and vent their anger on the nearest and most
convenient victim, inventing justifications for their behavior?
Senator Elizabeth Warren, the darling of the further left for her fearless outspokenness, has become the latest
target of their venom since she endorsed Hillary Clinton. A Mother
Jones piece by Pima Levy alerted me to it. The Senator's Facebook page is inundated
with insults from Sanders supporters. It's horrifying. There is a lot of disappointment
that is simply and honestly expressed, but there a ton of abuse too. The
comments could be coming from Trump's Twitter account. There are no holds
barred. The core message is you have
disagreed with me; ergo you are a disgusting human being. A dishonest bitch,
a sleazy woman, a sellout, a traitor, a hypocrite. And a stupid, even mindless one.
All her years of public service wiped out
in an instant in their minds. The idea that Warren might be able to think,
might be better informed than they are and less inclined to swallow conspiracy
theories hasn't registered. None of the angry Sanders supporters who clearly
adored her before have paused to question themselves. None of them have stopped
to think what it must be like to be on the receiving end of their invective.
They trot out the same old tired and
ridiculous rants about corrupt Hillary and how she and the Democratic Party don't
care about the 99%. As always there are no facts, no specifics, to back up the
generalizations. Just pure, unmitigated rage and pleasure in hurling abuse.
Some even level dark threats, and that
isn't new either. They've been playing the blackmail game for a while—choose Bernie
or we'll vote for Trump. Many say they have left the Democratic Party and will
never return, and seem to think that Sanders will run as an Independent or that
Hillary Clinton is on the verge of being indicted and sent to jail for using a
private server when she was Secretary of State. I find it interesting that none
of them question why there isn't an FBI investigation into Jeb Bush for using—you
got it, a private server.
And yet these Sanders supporters are the
ones who look down on Donald Trump followers, scorning them for their stupidity.
Senator Elizabeth Warren is a courageous
woman, passionate about democracy, and never afraid to criticize policies or elements
of the system that she profoundly disagrees with. She has fought for what she
believes in and has also been hammered by the far right but has never lost her
focus. She doesn't deserve to be targeted in this way. But painful as I'm sure
it is, she's a fighter. Abuse doesn't weaken her, it strengthens her resolve.
As it does Hillary Clinton's and Barack
Obama's. And Hillary Clinton is going to be the next US President, whether
Bernie Sanders runs as an Independent or not, whether his die-hard supporters
vote or not. There simply aren't enough of them for Sanders to legitimately
win.
Photo: By United States Senate - http://www.warren.senate.gov/images/Warren%20Headshot.jpg, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=25541088
