What Bernie Sanders did for Me: An Exemplification of the Worst Possible Traitor in the Progressive Movement!

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By E.L. Alexander

I used to think I was a democratic socialist. Until I met the propaganda league of Bernie Sanders, and then that whole concept changed. This problematic man has brought me to tears and frustrations over this past year, much to the delight of his vicious male and perhaps female followers. I believe in a social safety net. I believe in a wealth tax—I understand the inequality of wealth in this country and I think it needs to be addressed drastically.

We need all access healthcare and we need to meet the basics in this society by taxing the billionaires/rich we now have. We also need universal Basic Income(UBI) –I never used to think it was a valid thing to do, but after Andrew Yang presented the ways in which companies like Amazon were overriding small businesses, and the sale of personal information without payment, I understood more clearly how those big companies need to be taxed more fairly on international retail purchases with a Value Added Tax (VAT). Elizabeth Warren and Billionaire Tears are my concept in reality. I find some interest and constructive agreement with many Marxist ideas—but I do not buy into ANY type of absolutist doctrine. Ever.

I was once a fundamentalist Christian. Spirituality is helpful, but not when you are told what to think about everything. When critical thinking is excluded from spiritual development, then it is not a useful practice—so to about socialist Marxist propaganda—it is simply a replacement for a belief system in capitalism or Christianity or Islam. It is most concerned with following the dogma and procedures—Catholic confession becomes self-criticism in Marxism—and even public confession. I believe in the practice of communal good, not in a propaganda that can be militant and not address the serious problems communities face if they are not in the initial realm of intention in the dogma.

I DO NOT, however, buy into a propagandist agenda of what Bernie Sanders professes. There is “class is everything” buy-in. There is a belief that all oppression comes from class issues. There is also a belief that if the government provides all needed employment, all people will be equal, and all will be well. This deadens innovation and art and a belief in flying free in economy or a world.

I was in high school in the 1980’s, when the cold war was at its highest. I would be an idiot if I, for one second, allowed myself to feel that the way the Cubans and the USSR organized their governments was anything but a yoke around its citizens. I do not give one rat’s ass if it was done by a very specific socialist propagandistic way. It was not equal-it was not even, and it was not good. Bernie Sanders thinks it’s better than anything we have, but he’s wrong. We have to have the kind of government that can do the right thing and harness a social safety net if the legislators get off of their asses and do something for the people.

Bernie Sanders political campaign was one of division. Jane Elliot (white anti-racist educator) has said Bernie Sanders will walk—for about 50 yards, and then jump into a car for expediency. The story really is he is doing the walking for show. I think Bernie Sanders does a lot of things for show. He misses the mark on race and on sexuality issues as well as women’s issues.

So, what, do you wonder, did Bernie Sanders do for me? Not one bloody thing. His followers harassed me online and in person. If I say anything critical of him, they still harass me. When Elizabeth Warren called out Bernie Sanders for sexist comments he made about women not being able to beat Donald Trump, they HATED her. The HATE bubbled out like poison all over the internet. Thy called this woman of much distinction and accomplishment a snake. Bernie Sanders has not addressed the racist and sexist issues in his campaign, and he is indigent in any responsibility he should have taken to defend his supposed friend. I cannot support anything having to do with Bernie Sanders. The emotional damage from his supporters was devastating to me. I will never support him, his followers or anything he says. I was also ostracized by my local progressive group for my criticism of Sanders. It caused me a great deal of pain. That man has no place in progressive politics—nothing he does is progressive—he only causes harm. None of his ideals are things he actually values—they are not pragmatic things he has ever gotten accomplished and he will never be someone whom I admire. I am glad Elizabeth Warren called him out, had the integrity to keep her composure and has remained a very wonderful and amazingly strong woman throughout.

Our government is still growing and learning. The extreme capitalist values must be tempered with a better understanding of what it takes to have a society that can be innovative as well as fair. Joe Biden needs to choose Elizabeth Warren as the author of an economy that is capitalist, fair and productive. We can improve the lives of all Americans by addressing poverty, racism and oppression head on, fair taxation and all access healthcare.

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