How Bernie Sanders Exposed the Democrats’ Racial Rift

[lovemydog]

37. Yes, it's true.

We've been talking here for a long time about these exact issues. One of the first things we discussed here and in the Barack Obama group, shortly after Sanders announced his candidacy, was how difficult it would be for him to get the large majority of Obama coalition behind his candidacy in large enough numbers to beat Clinton, who helped campaign for President Obama and who served as his Secretary of State.

There were a lot of nasty paternalistic posts from anti-Clinton and pro-Sanders people. To me now, it's all water under the bridge. I haven't forgotten how ignorant they were though, they were so full of righteous scorn and wishful thinking. It most definitely opened my eyes to ignorance and hate and white privilege that can exist among people who call themselves 'progressive' or more precisely 'more progressive than thou.' I've even stopped using the term progressive because it sickened me so much. I now call myself liberal. Attacking people online for not being 'progressive enough' has got to be one of the stupidest wastes of time I can possibly imagine.

Another thing the Sanders campaign has taught me (and I blame his most rabid supporters more than I blame Bernie) is that one doesn't convince others by berating and insulting them at every turn. I've also found that I prefer talking with my friends here in this group over talking with some dangerously hysterical people in other groups who seem to rack up thousands of posts with nothing but hatred and scorn for every liberal who actually spends their entire lives trying to make the world a better place.

Ah well, it's over now. I do hope his campaign has sparked some good things among those who supported him. Primarily, the desire to get involved to improve the political system by running for local and state and congressional elections. And by interacting with many more people like us, who recognize that social issues and political and economic issues are largely about treating others with dignity and respect.