Bernie Sanders' (2019) MLK comments anger Barack Obama supporters

[TomCADem]

Remember how Bernie Sanders celebrated MLK day last year by taking it as an opportunity to disparage the Democratic party and Barack Obama? Of course, his supporters may argue that quoting Bernie's own words is divisive.

https://www.salon.com/2018/04/06/bernie-sanders-mlk-comments-anger-barack-obama-supporters/

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., has once again aroused controversy, this time after he made comments about President Barack Obama at an event honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. that critics claimed disparaged the first African-American president and supporters insist was taken out of context.

On Wednesday, during an event in Jackson, Mississippi honoring King's legacy on the 50th anniversary of his death, Sanders discussed the future of the Democratic Party with members of the audience.

"The business model, if you like, of the Democratic Party for the last 15 years or so has been a failure," Sanders told the audience, according to BuzzFeed. "People sometimes don't see that because there was a charismatic individual named Barack Obama, who won the presidency in 2008 and 2012."

Sanders added, "He was obviously an extraordinary candidate, brilliant guy. But behind that reality, over the last 10 years, Democrats have lost about 1,000 seats in state legislatures all across this country."

[NYMinute]

1. Bernie will never get the support of African Americans

He should drop out

[Cha]

2. YES.. how could we forget?

[guillaumeb]

3. He was obviously speaking about the 1,000 plus seats lost.

Many in the 2010 elections that allowed the GOP to take control of the House, and many states a well.

[TomCADem]

5. But Why Celebrate MLK Day By Trashing Obama and the Democrats...

...and instead focus on 2010 to pronounce the Democratic Party a failure. Why 2006 or 2008? You have one year when you lose control, then the Democratic party is a failure? And he wants to be the Democratic nominee? Why when every chance he gets he draws a false equivalency between the Democratic and Republicans "establishment."

[Cha]

12. Exactly.. why do that?

[guillaumeb]

14. I do not blame the Democratic Party.

First, I blame apathetic voters.

[Cha]

13. No, it wasn't.. like Tom said.. why "celebrate MLK

Day by trashing President Obama"?

[guillaumeb]

15. In my view,perhaps in the view of most people,

it was a bad decision that will not build allies.

We can know what the problem is, and work to solve it, but it is best in my view to focus on the real problems.

1) The GOP leadership is corrupt.
2) We need to do what we can to create another, bigger, wave in 2020.

[Cha]

16. Here BS is Again Gratuitously Dissing President Obama around MLK Day..

Link to tweet

[guillaumeb]

18. It was unecessary, and unneeded.

We agree on that, and probably many other things.

[dlk]

4. There is a reason most African-Americans don't/won't support Bernie

As a voting group, few are more politically savvy.

[demigoddess]

6. don't blame them. Don't like Bernie myself.

he has been hurting/accusing dems more than republicans.

[dlk]

8. I have personally met some avid/rabid Bernie supporters

I have always wondered about someone who expects to receive Democratic Party resources while refusing to join the party.

[demigoddess]

10. yep!

[thesquanderer]

7. Geez, THIS again?

This is Sanders talking about the failure of the party *despite* not *because* of Obama's presidency. It is not an attack on Obama by any means. (And "failure of the party" refers to the loss of all those seats.)

[TomCADem]

9. Yup. BS Just Keeps Making Divisive, Anti-Democratic Statements

For example, just a month ago, Bernie Sanders pushed a false equivalency blaming Republicans and Democrats equally for failing the American people, and the New York Times, too, for good measure! It is amazing how Bernie took no ownership of his own role in how Trump became President, but chooses to equally blame Democrats and Republicans.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/01/17/trumps-racist-demagoguery-only-works-says-sanders-because-too-many-americans-feel

"How did Trump become president?" Sanders said. "I think it speaks to something that I talk about a lot and that is the fact that...tens and tens of millions of Americans feel that the political establishment, Republican and Democrat, have failed them. Maybe the New York Times has failed them, too."

[Lexblues]

11. Don't leave out that Bernie wanted Obama primaried in 2012

[peggysue2]

17. That's standard Sanders

Democrats = Republican-lite. And Dems are always at fault.

So, tell me again why Sanders insists on running as a Democrat when elections come up? Well, the Senator for Vermont admitted it himself during the 2016 campaign, why he didn't run as an Independent: For the money advantage and the PR exposure.

Excuse me, I'll vote for an actual Democrat in the primary. And hopefully, one of those Democrats will be our nominee.