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How to Abet the Right: Bernie Sanders and the Damaging Political Laziness of Blaming Democrats
Back in 2016, Bernie Sanders’ campaign in the Democratic presidential primary breathed life into American electoral politics, adding vibrancy and breadth in vigorously elevating working-class interests and making the inequities of the U.S. class system a central issue in the national political conversation. He didn’t shy away from the “S” word–socialism–and reporting at the time indicated a growing curiosity and positive inclination in voters toward socialism, suggesting an at least momentary thawing of the debilitating “anti-communist” ideology which has been so deeply embedded in American culture and thought and which has without a doubt severely hamstrung progressive political discourse and thinking for generations.
Sanders has persisted in his crusade as self-proclaimed champion of the working class; but his self-congratulatory advocacy has sunk to the level of self-aggrandizing grandstanding that actually gives oxygen to right-wing talking points, levying great harm against working-class Americans and their families. Moreover, in what seems like it can only be bad faith, Sanders grossly misrepresents the Democratic Party and the realities of the political processes of–and obstacles to–change available in the three branches of government.
