Sanders is no better than Hillary
Many in this forum have called Hillary Clinton a neocon, a moderate Republican, a Wall Street shill, have complained that she talks too much, is too loud, "cackles," and have signed on to virtually every attack on her by the right wing. But, it's easy to attack, and if we want to look at the candidate negatively, it's not difficult to create as unflattering a portrait of Bernie as has been done of Hillary.
Sanders pretends to be a big supporter of civil rights, women's rights, and gay rights, but he's nothing but a liberal vote. He's never accomplished anything for those groups in all his years in Congress. That's why he boasts so much about DOMA. Meanwhile, his DOMA vote accomplished nothing, perhaps because he simply cast the vote without making one public statement against it. There's a reason that most of the leaders in civil rights, women's rights, and gay rights don't support him.
Sanders views on foreign policy are the same kinds of views of the socialist international that embarrassed itself prior to WWII with its pacifism. If Sanders has his way ISIS and Assad will commit genocide unabated.
Sanders views on international trade are fundamentally bigoted. The poor underdeveloped countries have been demanding manufacturing jobs in exchange for access to their markets. Sanders wants to deny their people work, and has no plan for how he will then get access to their markets.
Sanders views on climate change are based more on religion than science. Scientists argue that fracking and nuclear power are low-carbon transitional energy technologies that we should use until we more fully develop renewable energy. Sanders basically wants to reduce all sorts of energy sources, which will ensure skyrocketing energy prices that will especially hurt the poor.
Sanders seems to think he is a religious leader, and I think he embarrassed himself with that stunt at the Vatican where he had to beg for a few seconds with the Pope. There's something disturbing about him going to the Vatican.
Sanders views on guns is right wing. He supports giving gun manufacturers special liability protection, unlike most other kinds of manufacturers.
Sanders campaign is in some ways racist. Like Trump, his campaign has been consistently geared towards white states and towards the kinds of people who have the time and freedom to attend caucuses, and he and his campaign have done their best to marginalize the truly diverse states. His campaign themes are largely that economic justice fixes everything, but that basically means that people of color remain further down that white people. A $15 minimum wage is great, but it does nothing for the rampant unemployment and discrimination against PoC.
Sanders is not particularly honest. He pretends he was a big supporter of gay marriage, yet he never spoke up about DOMA, never publicly endorsed Bill Clinton's many initiatives on gay rights, and did not support gay marriage until the Vermont legislature approved it. He pretends he is so against the Iraq War, yet he voted for regime change in 1999 and war appropriations in 2001. He claims he's so concerned about civil rights, yet he's spent the last half century living in a state that is less than 1% black and which played virtually no role in the great American civil and human rights battles of the last half century. Further, like Trump, he insists on keeping most of his tax records secret.
Sanders tax plan is rooted in a different era, an era when people had pensions and families lived together. Now, more and more people have 401Ks and like or not depend on the Wall Street. Sanders plan would hurt anyone who has a 401K.
Sanders is an old style ideologue, sort of a Ted Cruz of the left. No wonder Sanders has admitted to admiring Castro. Sanders sees the issues in simplistic ideological black and white thinking. A principle part of his campaign strategy are large rallies, just like Trump has, which promote groupthink and intimidation. FDR and JFK were never ideologues. They were far more pragmatic.
Sure, Sanders has some good ideas, and he's certainly better than any Republican.
But, Hillary supporters aren't fooled by Sanders. There's a reason he's losing. There's a reason that the single most consistently liberal constituency in the Democratic Party -- people of color -- support Hillary. They see the truth about Sanders.
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