Bernie Sanders (Un-)Endorses Cenk Uygur in CA-25 race

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

Well...umm...err...wow.  So that just happened.  Good to know I can still be surprised in 2019   You've gotta wonder in light of this if - even on a basic common sense level - Sanders has the judgement necessary to be anything other than a complete disaster if he were to somehow end up being elected President.  Not gonna lie, this sure looks like a genuine disqualifyingly dumb act on Sanders.

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

Every time I feel myself warming up to Sanders, he does something like this.

This x1000

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

https://twitter.com/cenkuygur/status/1205574348922408960

https://twitter.com/cenkuygur/status/1205574349664792576

https://twitter.com/daveweigel/status/1205588371860525056?s=21


What the f**k?

Well that was pointless.

My guess is Sanders' campaign went into damage control mode and quietly made it known to Cenk's campaign that Bernie was gonna retract his endorsement.

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

https://twitter.com/ChristyforCA25/status/1206288599555035136

I think it's more concerning that Christy Smith would retweet a chaos agent like Mendoza Ferrer. I'm sure you could find dirt on Cenk (and Lord knows there's a lot of it) that doesn't come from someone who would throw the election to Trump if it meant stopping us on the left. These #NeverBernie donut-types should be shunned as the chaos agents that they are, not applauded and platformed.

But hey, real life isn't Twitter! The Mr. Danes and Mendoza Ferrers of the world have no influence from the establishment. Nothing to see here, everyone, move on!

Don't know who Mendoza Ferrer or this Danes person are, don't particularly see why I voters should care either.  Certainly see no reason to think they have any meaningful influence.

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

Don't know who Mendoza Ferrer or this Danes person are, don't particularly see why I voters should care either.  Certainly see no reason to think they have any meaningful influence.

Good thing I never said they had influence on voters. They do have an influence on the establishment, though.

You can only take a look at the tweet I posted - not to mention Jake Tapper citing the same woman - to realize this. We can also talk about the time that noted disgrace to journalism Brian Williams decided to feature a Donut Twitter troll tweet as a response to #MyBernieStory. Or Neera Tanden choosing to associate herself with raging anti-Semites or apologists for literal Nazi murderers because the victim was a Bernie supporter. M. Mendoza Ferrer isn't as terrible (she's simply engaged in red-baiting and personal attacks against Bernie), but the point stands. The average American doesn't care about these assholes, but the policy-crafters and the media certainly do.

The people who say that "real life isn't Twitter" don't realize that because of social media, real life is being blended into it, and that includes the news. Instead of watching the nightly news or reading the paper, people can simply fetch the news on-demand from whatever sources they see. With Twitter, they can curate their own feeds to see whatever they like. What I'm trying to say is that these people aren't "legitimate news sources". They're glorified letters to the editor, and they erode actual political discourse.

Every time these toxic people are retweeted by an aspiring congressional candidate, it gives them legitimacy. While Christy Smith may not have the same reach as Cenk Uygur, she has more political power and will likely attain more. Neera Tanden, as the president of CAP, has more influence on the Democratic Party than Nina Turner. We don't need to explain Jake Tapper's reach, or MSNBC's. Every time a respected figure extends their reach, it gives them a platform and an endorsement as "real news".

To put it in more establishment-friendly terms, what Christy Smith just did is the equivalent of AOC or Ilhan Omar retweeting one of the Chapo guys. While it may not seem like the Hoarse Whisperers or M. Mendoza Ferrers of the world have influence on the people themselves, they have the ears of those with power.

No offense or anything, but I really think you're missing the forrest for the trees here and making a bit of a mountain out of a mole hill in the process.  I think we'll probably just have to agree to disagree on this.

snip

Except these chaos agents aren't instigating anymore damage on the political discourse because none of them have any real impact on elections and toxic behavior.

Fair enough - they aren't the ones "doing damage". The ones who are doing so are the people in power treating these Twitter rants as legitimate political journalism.

I could go on about people in general being affected by Twitter as well. Recall that the Bernie people basically memed "Kamala is a cop" into a negative talking point, and turned the perception of Beto into what Buttigieg actually is. There's a trickle-down effect from the Twitter types, and we've reached the point where ****posting is being seen as legitimate discourse.

You could county the number of people who have any prominence in shaping the liberal masses of American politics. MSNBC for instance has been fairy neutral on Bernie Sanders, even going far as to have his presence on Chris Hayes show, much to the disgust of the Democratic base. This is more like if Donald Trump started to retweet from Alex Jones or David Duke, real life flame throwing  surregates who want to burn the system.

I think there have been too many isolated incidents over the entire network (the only one I think shows consistent bias is Williams's show) for them to be neutral (the most recent being Chuck Todd mocking Bernie supporters/his racist and sexist dismissals of them on national TV). It's also interesting that half of the time, the ones making these criticisms of Bernie are #NeverTrump Republicans, but that's none of my business.

(About "donut twitter" not having an influence - I also forgot to mention them employing Zerlina Maxwell, who has literally fabricated negative stories about Bernie to set the "Bernie Bro" narrative. But Buttigieg faking black endorsements gets no coverage. FOH.)

If you want to think this problem is rampart look no further than the man who keeps hiring these people. The same man who's staff voted for Jill Stein.

The fact Bernie hasn't denounced Cenk racist/misogynist/antisemtic/homophobic comments shows the true character that hasn't been exposed by the media. A man who surrounds himself more with fratty progressive men than with people who continue to resist against Donald Trump.

For the third time - "what about the Bernie Bros" is not an excuse for your side's behavior, or a political position.

- Whatever my views on Sanders, I've never dabbled much in the "but muh Bernie Bros" schtick, but the stuff Cenk said is pretty horrible.  There's really no equivalency between that and what Cenk said.  Cenk's comments rose to the level of horribleness that it is absolutely legitimate to attack Sanders for not denouncing him after the endorsement fiasco (which, if nothing else, certainly demonstrated horrible judgment on Sanders' part).

- Also, Sanders didn't turn Beto into anything.  Beto turned out to be a well-meaning clown who was hopelessly in over his head and consistently embarrassed himself on national television in the debates.  Even if you view Buttigieg as a trojan horse for Clintonite corporatism (which we obviously disagree on), it's pretty clear that whatever fault Buttigieg may have, being an intellectually vapid empty suit isn't one of them. 

I mean, Sanders folks have certainly tried to brand Pete as that, but it hasn't worked because the difference between Beto and Pete is clear as day to anyone who has heard both men speak, much less someone who has seen them share a debate stage.

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

https://twitter.com/ChristyforCA25/status/1217820375494512646

**** it, Cenk for Congress. If I want chaos agents and divisive agitators in my government, I might as well take the ones that agree with me.

I've followed Katie Hill's career, and Christy Smith is no Katie Hill. I thought she was better than Caforio, and she proved me right in her short career. Out of all the swing state freshmen, she was one of the two best (and the other's my Congressman). More importantly, while out of Washington, she's used her voice and platform to heal. She clearly does privately support Warren, but is much more conciliatory, expressing her frustration with Bernie's supporters.

This... this is beyond the pale. There's a massive difference between "Hey Bernie cultists, can you not be divisive?" and "Bernie has no class or substance." There's even a starker difference between "Biden and I wouldn't be in the same party in another country" and "Bernie has no class or substance". It sucks that I'm going to have to go back and support a man with so many warts, but our Congresspeople shouldn't be platforming divisive screeds bashing another candidate, let alone posting their own.

Dude, no offense or anything, but part of having Bernie being taken seriously is that people are gonna come at him much harder.  You'll give yourself an ulcer if you get this riled up over every tweet implicitly criticizing him.  

Tbh, it remains to be seen whether Sanders or Warren was lying.  My guess is Bernie said it in what was understood to be an off-record conversation, but Warren strategically leaked it as a Hail Mary hoping to create a "moment" during the debate.  But the truth is that we don't know and neither Sanders supporters nor Warren supporters should be talking about the incident with the level of certainty they have been.  Sometimes politicians lie, even ones we may really like.  

Beyond which, Sanders endorsed frigging Cenk, a misogynistic, genocide-denying two-bit con artist.  In other words, he tried to f*** over Smith for no discernible reason and arguably made it harder for Democrats to hold the seat in the process.  

I think I'm pretty good about not doing the whole "muh evulz Bernie Bros" thing some folks here do, but Bernie really started this.  Christy Smith doesn't owe him jack and frankly, I wouldn't have blamed her for attacking him using much stronger language than she did here.  

You've said a few times "we [Sanders supporters] tend not to forget" or words to that effect.  Well, that sort of mentality cuts both ways.  Folks tend not to forget when Bernie screws them over either, if you see my point.