This Clintonite Dares Say So; It’s Just That He’s Wrong

Clint Irwin has penned one of the most bizarre reactions to this week's elections in Virginia, "No One Dares Say So: The Bernie-or-else Myth Dies in Virginia":

"Sanders refused to endorse Northam for Virginia governor. Northam won big anyway. Not a peep from the media."

Virginia is an increasingly-blue state and an anti-Trump wave ran through these off-off-year elections. Sanders endorsed Tom Perriello, the much better candidate, in the Democratic primary; had Perriello been the Democratic candidate, he too would have won. The Northam win says nothing about Sanders at all.

"Not to mention: though few in the media dare depart from the false question of rigged-or-not primaries, he did lose to Hillary Clinton by four million actual, real votes from actual, real, living, non-conspiracy humans. No Sandernista has ever disputed this, only kept up a constant veil of distraction with claims and accusations that fall apart as soon as one points to, well, four million voters. (Obama beat her by a mere 200k. But Donna Brazille said the primary was rigged! No, she didn't. It was FOUR MILLION VOTERS that rigged the primary.)"

While it's amusing the Clintonites think they can refute the fact that the primary/caucus process was rigged by pointing to the results of that primary/caucus process, such an approach is hardly enlightening or anything that wouldn't be corrected by a basic lesson in logical fallacies. And, of course, the claim of 4 million votes is a fiction, as there is no meaningful "popular vote" count in a primary/caucus process. Brazile did, in fact, say the process was rigged. She later tried to walk it back but that descended into a pointless game of semantics.

Your analysis of Sanders' policy agenda is no better.

You hint at Hillary Clinton's after-the-fact lie that Sanders was copying her policy proposals; in the real world, it was Clinton copying Sanders throughout that process.

You insist Sanders is advocating "standard Democratic political positions" then lead with single payer healthcare, a proposal that, prior to this year, had no support in the Senate other than Sanders himself; when he'd introduced his most recent iteration in 2015, no one--not one other senator--stepped up to support it. Now--because of Sanders--a quarter of the Senate Democratic caucus has endorsed it. There has long been a significant pro-single-payer faction in the House, including Sanders during the whole of his time in that body, but there, too, most Democrats have refused to endorse it and as in the Senate, the House leadership is opposed to it. Earlier this year, in fact, Nancy Pelosi was circulating memos telling House Demos they shouldn't endorse the idea. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee under Pelosi actively works against single-payer advocates. No Democratic platform has ever endorsed single-payer either and, in fact, it was only a year ago that Clintonite rightists blocked an effort to write it into the platform. You make it sound as if Sanders merely "copied" Vermont's failed effort on this issue but Sanders has publicly advocated single-payer healthcare since at least the early '70s and has introduced single-payer legislation over and over again during his time in congress.[*]

How much of a "standard Democratic political position" is "a livable minimum wage"? You point to an ABC News article that is mostly about states offering very modest minimum-wage increases (mostly not up to a livable level), and while you characterize them as "deep blue states," 9 of the 19 listed are, in fact, Republican states. Sanders supports a genuine livable minimum wage: $15/hour. That has only been passed in two states (neither of which have fully implemented it yet) and a handful of localities around the U.S.. Sanders introduced a $15 minimum wage bill in 2015 and only 5 other Senators supported it. This year, he reintroduced it and 22 Senators--nearly half the Democratic caucus--have endorsed it. As with single-payer, Sanders has been leading the way.

You don't like that idea of Sanders as an innovator. Regarding the awful Citizens United decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, you offer this:

"Did he lead the fight against Citizens United, the Supreme Court decision that opened the floodgates of money into politics? No. In 2014, well before Bernie made it seem as if he had been the only one who thought of it, Senate Democrats, under the leadership of Tom Udall and Chuck Schumer, fought for an amendment to the Constitution that would reverse the decision."

Sanders has condemned the overwhelming influence of money in politics--which, in fact, long predates Citizens United--for literally the whole of his time in public life. It's been one of the primary themes of his entire career. Citizens United was issued in 2010. Sanders condemned it right from the beginning. In 2011--years before that 2014 Udall amendment you're citing--Sanders introduced an amendment to overturn the ruling, the first constitutional amendment he had ever introduced. At that time, only one other senator (Mark Begich of Arkansas) endorsed it. Sanders has gone on to reintroduce this amendment in every new congress since and made it a major issue in his presidential campaign. Sanders has also supported the Udall effort, though it's much more limited than his own (though you're unaware of it, Udall first introduced his proposal around the same time as Sanders).

This is amusing...

"Since the late 70s, the first test for any new administration is the Virginia gubernatorial race that follows the year after a presidential election. Virginia marks the first chance to say NO! to the new administration and with one exception since 1977, invariably does."

And with that--but seemingly without you, yourself, taking any notice--you refute your own central argument. Bizarrely, you write that "All of Bernie's threats and bullying and demands had not mattered," but you cite no threats, bullying or demands from Sanders in this matter, nor did Sanders offer any. After Perriello was defeated, Sanders didn't have a dog in the governor's fight. He didn't endorse anyone there or work for or against anyone and the election went exactly as, historically, it always does (and as noted, if Perriello had been the candidate, he would have won as well). You seem to be living in some parallel universe when you insist that this race reflects on Sanders then offer a Trump-style persecution fantasy about "yet not a peep from the media" about this supposed major blow to Sanders. "No one. The post-mortems were for the Republicans--but Bernie, once again, was spared." The corporate press, which largely despises Sanders, never passes up a chance to attack him. It's just that this particular race offered no chance to do so.

--j.

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[*] And Vermont's plan wasn't really a single-payer plan, which is part of what made it unworkable and killed it. It's an issue that can really only be effectively addressed at the federal level.