BS Hits the Fans

Or, the longer version of why I’m unfriending and unfollowing Bernie Sanders supporters.

I didn’t want disappointment to turn into dislike, and that was happening. I decided it would be better for me to walk away sad than to walk away mad. Better for both sides. This has been an extremely sad few weeks for me.

The root of the matter is that my friends either:

·         didn’t read what I posted,

·         didn’t believe me when I pointed out for the last year that Bernie Sanders was consistently flooding the internet with deceptive memes,

·         don’t care that he is a dishonest bully who is trying to steal the Democratic Party’s platform and take credit for what others have done – while at the same time criticizing them and lying about them

·        crashed a primary and is taking money that he does not deserve from the party

If people don’t read me, don’t trust me, or aren’t loyal to the people that mean so much to me, I don’t understand why they would want to be my friend on Facebook since most of what I do there is politics and writing.

Not long ago, most of my friends were saying too many old white men in politics was a problem, and that we needed more women, young people, and minorities. They hated that McConnell tried to hold the country hostage in order to get his way. They damned the media for being irresponsible. Black Lives Matter, stricter gun laws, and education mattered greatly to them. I was the one who vowed to point and laugh at people who rejected facts and weren’t honest but many of my friends agreed that facts matter, and that we need to demand facts and honesty from everyone (including media). We all disliked bullies.

Then, I noticed friends sharing Bernie Sanders’ dishonest memes in which he touted being the only person speaking about a number of issues. Before long, he was claiming that only status about just about everything any Democrat had ever said or done (done being the important word, since he blabs and others do) and, apparently, some people think the only thing that matters is wagging fingers and raging, because they pretended that Sanders and Warren were the only ones doing anything. But, the truth is, until Sanders launched his ‘steal the Democratic Party right out from under their noses’ campaign, both of them were little more than one flat note tunes with little to show for all their screaming. Yet, their fans call them progressive. 

Progress: move forward or onward in space or time

I think move is the important word in this definition. Twenty-five years of screaming the same thing without getting anywhere doesn’t count by my estimation. Senator Sanders has introduced 354 bills (20 this year) throughout his career. Three of those were enacted: two renaming post offices and one a Veterans COLA in a year when SS also received a COLA. To me, the fact that this man has had so few successes means he either doesn’t work well with others, he doesn’t care enough about his bills to rally support, or he lacks the pragmatism or intelligence to know what he can get through. This is not presidential. 

Most disappointing to me, though, was the change in people after Senator Sanders announced he was taking the Democratic Party hostage by jumping into the Democratic Party primary with the stated goal (originally) of “forcing” Hillary Clinton and the party to his way of thinking. To me, a person who sets out to “force” the people he has always criticized and rejected to do things his way is a bully. Suddenly, some of my friends didn’t think hostage taking and bullying were so bad anymore. Nor did they think the last thing we needed was a dishonest, old, white man anymore.

Some of the very people who were so unhappy with the dishonest media are in hostage-taker, bully heaven now that the media is misrepresenting in favor of their no-tangible-success, screaming hero. Because, I guess, screaming and shaking a finger is good enough for them. This shouldn’t have been the surprising, sad realization for me that it was because, after all, if they were willing to fall for and share his deceptive meme invasion, they weren’t nearly as discerning or astute as I wanted to believe they were in the first place. When I see them sharing right-wing lies about the person he most wants to bully – it’s inexcusable.

Suddenly, stricter gun laws wasn’t a priority anymore, because Sanders has a horrible record on that issue. And, my news feed was starting to look like a Tea Party convention with nonsense typed in all caps, crazy punctuation, total BS lies passed off as truth, memes and hashtags (Seriously,friends? This is how you want to look?) as directed by his campaign. I was disappointed. 

Disappointment turned into disgusted, though, when I saw people I knew liking and sharing the disgusting meme that Sanders’ supporters created with the Black Lives Matter activists pictured, and the words Stupid Lives Matter, I asked everyone who was a Sanders supporter to please unfriend me. Some did. I’m slowly weeding out the others as I see his face and disgusting deceptive messages on my feed.

I’m not asking anyone to be like me or to think like me. I’m simply saying that I never, ever want to see his face or hear his name again. I know that’s not going to happen but I can at least control my Facebook page. Also, it’s going to take some time and reflection to understand how much I should trust people who are easily manipulated, and willing to help bully people and organizations that are extremely important to me. The people who are trying to bully me on his behalf, by posting memes (ugh) about how I am splitting my party that he crashed in order to split it when I point out how deceptive he is are making my head spin. 

Consistency matters to me. Asking me to think attending a MLK march many years ago makes a person qualified to be president (I did the same and don't consider myself qualified) but that I am not supposed to take seriously his rape fantasy essay written after that because it was so long ago is inconsistent.

Words matter to me. Honesty matters to me. The Democratic Party and protecting it from infiltration matters to me. What if Sarah Palin and Donald Trump decide they want to run as Democrats next time, since people who may or may not be Democrats but pretend they are will criticize every Democrat who calls them on their own BS?