Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Unions, and Liberal Groups – Oh, What a Tangled Web

There was a time when I respected and supported Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and Unions. I joined groups that professed to be for Democrats only, supportive of Democrats, liberals, or progressives, as well as groups that marketed themselves as non-partisan groups that fight for liberal causes. For many years, I supported liberal groups because in doing so, I had an opportunity to address specific issues head-on, and to spend time and work with like-minded people. The idea of a Sanders/Warren or Warren/Sanders, or Sanders/anybody, or Warren/anybody ticket was attractive. I supported them because they agreed with and supported ideals that the Democratic Party and I had long fought for and supported.

I never worked a union job but appreciated the role that unions played in providing the salaries, benefits, and holidays that I enjoyed in my non-union jobs. I verbalized my appreciation to union leaders and members when I had the chance, stood with them and for them when the opportunity arose and even created that opportunity when it didn’t arise without my help, and I offered my full support when they were under attack.

The groups were first to disappoint me. As groups like MoveOn and CREDO became more about being biggest and best, and first to shoot out email and petitions before anyone else, I lost interest. It seemed they were more about themselves, building mailing lists, and getting media attention than they were about issues, which they were often ready to drop as soon as something else was the big news item.

Over the past couple of years, as Warren and Sanders let their fame go to their heads, the writer in me paid close attention to the audience they targeted, as well as how purposefully and systematically they manipulated that audience. What I saw was not attractive nor was it anything I could continue to support. Sadly, today, I liken it to the tactics the people who called themselves tea party used, which was also the tactics Hitler used (repeat the same lies until people are so beat down they actually believe them). I criticized the Republican Party for allowing that group to destroy what was left of their party. I would be a hypocrite if I remained silent now when I see people trying to do the same to my party. I don’t like hypocrites or want to be one.

For a while, I excused Senator Sanders and assumed his groupies were the meme machine pumping out deceptive information so fast I’m surprised it didn’t shut down the internet, and he wasn’t attached to them. Time showed me, though, that he was not innocent. He did not denounce their actions and many of those memes came out under his name and on his Facebook page. That’s when my respect and trust in him waned.

Then came TPP. Senators Sanders and Warren both pumped out lies (I tried to call them deceptions but they quickly rose to the level of lies when they were debunked repeatedly and both doubled down on their misinformation). They both lost me there.

And the unions joined them. I understood, to some degree, and was patient with union posturing. Unlike politicians, I thought they deserved wiggle-room for championing very specific causes for a specific group of people, where politicians are responsible for looking out for what is best for everyone concerned. As time went on, though, and more information came out, I wasn’t able to excuse them, either. Walmart. That sums it up in a word, but I’ll explain.

Walmart and their cheap Chinese products have done serious damage to this country - to workers, to wages, to tax-payers, to small business owners, to manufacturing jobs – to everyone that these people profess to care so much about. Yet, they say little – if anything – about Walmart and they want to let China lead in trade? That’s what shooting down TPP would do, along with a host of other non-progressive disappointments.

So, in my view, today – I cannot trust anything that is coming from Sanders, Warren, or the unions that support them.

Like demented, delusional, disgusting, dishonest, extremely dangerous Rand Paul, Bernie Sanders is against the gun legislation we need in this country, thinks rules don’t apply to him, and thinks it is okay to crash a party primary. That is not okay with me. Nor is it okay for groups with titles like Democrats Only, Democrats 2014 – 2016, Democrats anything to instruct members not to say anything negative about  Bernie Sanders. Bernie Sanders is not a Democrat; he is a spoiled spoiler.

And, it is absolutely not okay for anyone to lecture me about dividing the party since I am sticking with my party and its Democratic candidates (many of the people trying to lecture me and others are not even Democrats). I will continue to talk about the reasons that I dislike Bernie Sanders: he is not a Democrat, he is not honest, he is feeble, he likes guns, he thinks rules don’t apply to him, he lied about President Obama and TPP, and he jumped in where he doesn’t belong because he wants to split the party. That is the only reason anyone joins a primary race. Seriously, for those who don’t understand the process, the only reason for joining a primary race is to split the party. It’s natural when a candidate jumps into her/his own party primary but ugly when people jump into the primary of a party they don’t even belong to.

And I don’t like ugly.

If it doesn’t make sense . . .

FYI: I can't be shamed into wanting to be stupid. If something doesn't make sense to me, no one is going to convince me that I will regret being unpopular for refusing to stick with people who support the senseless practice, belief, or misinformation train. That's not who I am and certainly not who I want to be.

Some of the same people who criticized Allison Grimes and Jack Conway for not supporting President Obama (although the criteria they use to develop their criticism is flimsy and it actually boils down to these two didn't demonstrate support in the exact ways at the exact times the critics wanted) are not supporting President Obama on TPP and TPA. Not only are they not supporting him, they are spreading misinformation about TPP and TPA and stating, with no reservations, that they do not trust him, believe him, or wish him well. That is much worse than what they are criticizing Allison and Jack for doing, and, I am positive, matters more to President Obama than their imagined slights by Alison and Jack. This makes no sense to me so I totally reject the people who are doing it.

Some of the same people who criticized the Republican Party for not taking a stand when the people who called themselves tea party took over and ruined what was left of the Republican Party are now criticizing me for taking a stand against the group of people who are poised to do the same to the Democratic Party. I would feel like a loser and an idiot if I remained silent when I saw this happening, and I would absolutely be a hypocrite. Being a hypocrite makes no sense to me so I will not do it.

I tossed a ratty old shoe out on my page a couple of times. I didn't name names, identify owners, or try to give that shoe to anyone. I honestly had no one in particular in mind to catch that shoe when I tossed it. However, a couple of people snatched that shoe right up, put it on, decided it felt comfortable, and claimed it. Then, they (and others) got very upset with me for saying it was theirs – when, in fact, I had said nothing of the sort. But they had. This makes no sense to me. None. So, I will not apologize for how uncomfortable that shoe feels to anyone who decided to own it.

I am a life-long, yellow dog Democrat. I love this about myself. Unless the Democratic Party changes drastically, this will not change for me. The hundreds of people who have worked campaigns with me, made calls from headquarters with me, attended meetings and debates with me, rallied with me, protested with me, stood on street corners holding signs with me, carried petitions for signatures with me, watched the things I have written over the last twenty years, had more than two conversations with me - all know that I support my party and its candidates. Now, people who know this about me are trying to say that I should "stick together" with people who pretended they were like me but are wandering away from the party and/or President Obama – most of them because they are siding with someone who is not a Democrat (unless he changed his party in the last five minutes) and/or someone who was a Republican a few years ago because she thought they were better at business, and whose Wikipedia page indicates she might still vote for some Republicans. Thinking I should "stick together" with people who became unglued makes no sense to me. I'm sticking with President Obama because he has been consistent and he has stuck with me.

There is not a single person on this earth that I believe cares more about this country and the people in this country, this world and the people in it, and doing what is best for the most concerned than President Obama. I don't think anyone who is criticizing him on TPP and TPA knows as much about it as he does, or cares as much about doing what is best for the most concerned. And, I don't know a single person whose opinion about this I trust more than his. Not sure there is anyone whose opinion I trust as much as his. It makes no sense to me for people (who know much less about this than I do, and who have gotten most of their information from memes), to criticize me (when I have read every word on the White House site, listened to every speech the President has given, read countless articles, and attended an OFA phone brief with David Simas, Assistant to the President and Director of the Office of Political Strategy and Outreach and Luis Jiminez, Counselor to the U.S. Trade Representative) for sharing information. So, I will continue to share facts and point out when people are sharing misinformation. And anyone else who wants to send a private message and call me a sheeple will receive the same FUCK YOU response the last one got.

Other than brewing this, I had a wonderful Mother's Day and hope everyone else did, too.