On Twitter, Bernie Sanders’s supporters are becoming one of his biggest problems

[wyldwolf]

Sanders’s predominately white backers are targeting black activists or journalists who dare question the candidate’s civil rights record.

Earlier this month, I announced on Twitter that I planned to report on the disconnect between Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and black voters. Immediately, some of Sanders’s self-described supporters raided my mentions with patronizing tweets.



Of course, it’s not fair to blame Sanders for the vitriol of trolls. But at a time when he’s trying to build a relationship with black voters, his supporters can have a significant effect on his image.

Political consultant L. Joy Williams says Sanders could have won the allegiance of some black voters by responding to his supporters’ combative and patronizing comments and distancing himself from them. It would have been a good opportunity for the candidate to interact with black press and connect with black Americans, she said. “It’s not as if he went on NewsOne Now or did an interview with black press and said, ‘I am dismayed by the way some of those who support me are treating us (black voters).’ That never happened.”

The go-to defense for Sanders’s supporters is to mention the candidate’s involvement in civil rights protests in the 1960s. The implication is that black Americans owe their votes to Sanders today because he did the right thing by support black Americans’ rights 60 years ago. This patronizing position not only assumes that black Americans are one-issue voters, but also that their one issue has been solved for five decades.

more.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/09/23/on-twitter-bernie-sanderss-supporters-are-becoming-one-of-his-biggest-problems/

[daleanime]

1. Agreed.

The fact that he has so many is driving certain folks off the cliff.

[orpupilofnature57]

2. This is a ploy by Hillary thugs to take the ever growing Steam K-Street is powerless to slow up .

Millions spent in New Hampshire by Clinton, and those harmful supporters got Bernie in the lead .

[reddread]

5. another in a long string of epic failures

let's not underestimate their desperation.
get the word out and secure the process.

[orpupilofnature57]

34. + 1000 for Courage and Vision !!!!!!!

[Fred Sanders]

3. The implication that all AA problems and institutional racism will disappear with more income

equality is naive.

[ornotna]

7. I don't recall

Having seen a post stating "all AA problems and institutional racism will disappear with more income
equality"

Could you post a link? Thanks.

[Fred Sanders]

9. I would say....

you just saw one.

[ornotna]

18. I didn't see that there

I am unable to read between the lines as well as you I guess.

[beam me up scottie]

42. Who said that, Fred?

[Fred Sanders]

43. I am leaving some kind of vapour trail you are following? Good. I like all readers to see my posts.

And the responses.

You used up your quota of questions with me long ago.

[Scootaloo]

71. But you still haven't even opened your allotment of answers n/t

[Fred Sanders]

82. True. And I do tend to change the rules of questioning rather arbitrarily. My bad. My internet.

[BBG]

100. Fred said

Fred

[beam me up scottie]

101. Fred's good at that, he never answers questions though.

Must be an allergy.

But not to straw, Fred likes his straw men.

[Fawke Em]

140. Yep

[BeanMusical]

102. Lol!

Yeah, Fred says a lot of things that he can't back up.

[HooptieWagon]

68. No one has said that but you.

Your straw men don't fly here, we're used to all the false arguments Clinton supporters spew.

[BeanMusical]

104. +1000

[AgingAmerican]

78. Only Hillary supporters make that claim

I have never heard Bernie Sanders or any of his supporters make that claim. Could you please give us your source? Thanks in advance.

[jalan48]

80. It is interesting however that many seem to think Wall St. has the answers

to the high unemployment and poverty in black communities across the country. It's kind of the Democrat's version of trickle down I guess.

[elehhhhna]

91. Boom. Fact.

You hit the nail right there.

[underthematrix]

4. AA folks should not waste their time

with Bernie supporters. It's really just a waste.

[Wankle Ronnie]

6. I hope you forgot the sarcasm tag.

[underthematrix]

8. Nope. I didn't forget anything.

I really think it's a waste of time and energy.

[bvf]

13. What a truly ugly thing to say.

[underthematrix]

44. It's true. Most AA peeps

are not going to tolerate a candidate badmouthing PBO. That's the reality. So given that issue, it's best not to engage.

[bvf]

51. So your contention is

that most AAs are in 100% agreement with everything Obama?

Oh, OK. Next time I need someone to tell me what "most AAs" think, I'll be sure to look you up.

[underthematrix]

143. Hmm - so here's my truth

The AA community has not agreed with everything President Obama has done. In some cases, it was the policy itself, or its framework, or its timing or the manner of implementation. However, with that said, the AA community has a deep and abiding respect and love for President Obama. For seven years, the AA community has endured white fear, white hate, white paranoia, white ignorance, white jealousy and white violence regarding everything about President Obama. The keyword here is "white." Some Bernie supporters look like and talk like those who hate PBO.

The most offensive thing Bernie has said and often repeated is the LIE President Obama abandoned his coalition after he was elected and then re-elected. Bernie's supporters have repeated the same lie here many many times. If the lie was true, Bernie should have been able to capture the hearts and minds of the Obama coalition. He hasn't, he can't and he won't.

If a Bernie supporter misrepresents what PBO has done and is doing, I believe AA folks should HIT BACK HARD by exposing the lie with a link to the truth, using the hashtag #BernNotice. But ultimately I think the focus should be on reviewing, analyzing and commenting on Bernie's policy agenda and how he plans to implement it in a very dysfunctional hateful political environment. Then I think we should tweet and retweet our findings. This should be our focus instead of getting into twitter wars with people who are stuck somewhere in the Matrix.

[Live and Learn]

147. Bernie never said that at all. What Bernie and many of us, and I believe Obama himself probably

agrees in hindsight, has said is that Obama shouldn't have wasted time attempting to get Repugs on his side (who were clearly never going to cross over) and should have simply stuck to the truth of what he really wanted to do instead.

I, at least, and think many other DUers would agree that Obama actually did an amazing job in what he did get passed. We just wish he could have done even more and call out mistakes we see when they occur. That said, i still think he will go down in history as a rather amazing ad effectual President.

Bernie plans to use the FDR approach to getting the votes he needs instead of placating the far side. What he said wasn't meant to denigrate Obama but to highlight the way he would do things differently.

[Fawke Em]

141. So, they're not going to tolerate Hillary, then.

She's bad-mouthed him more than any other Democratic candidate.

[underthematrix]

145. Yez. HRC did some serious damage to her relationship with the AA community

in 2008. But she's family so if it's a choice between Bernie and Hillary, the majority will go with HRC. But if Biden gets in that would change because AA peeps see Biden as someone who has stood strong with PBO for 8 years adn that means a whole lot.

[Scootaloo]

28. Why's that?

[pangaia]

31. Then vote for someone else.

[underthematrix]

45. That's why it's called a primary

[orpupilofnature57]

35. Bernie nor his supporters could care less it's not a suck up contest , His History speaks for itself

while he was marching with MLK Hillary was working for Barry Goldwater, and you can't skew that fact as much as you might try, or you just didn't know, Well now You do.

[stevil]

49. Either you didn't read the link

Or you are mocking the article/writer.

[orpupilofnature57]

74. Either what I tried to convey was lost, Or Defending Your Candidate against unfounded Harassment is,

Misogynist if it's Hillary's sycophants, Racist if referring to his record of support for racial equality or bringing up the Lie the BLM didn't protest Hillary because the room was filled , when it's a proven fact she made a deal, and as usual it was exposed and not forthcoming information that She gave, or BLM .

I read the link and it's one K-Street opinion, and Black politicians don't speak for all Black people, I make Calls for Bernie events and he has A lot of Minorities behind him, African Americans especially .

[stevil]

99. Just in case you missed it....

From the article:

The go-to defense for Sanders’s supporters is to mention the candidate’s involvement in civil rights protests in the 1960s. The implication is that black Americans owe their votes to Sanders today because he did the right thing by support black Americans’ rights 60 years ago. This patronizing position not only assumes that black Americans are one-issue voters, but also that their one issue has been solved for five decades.

[whathehell]

130. What crap. No one "owes" anyone a vote & that was never implied

in the case of Bernie or anyone else.

The only thing "owed," might be some respect and consideration.

[orpupilofnature57]

138. + 1000

[Snotcicles]

11. shame on you.nt

[MissDeeds]

79. Perhaps they would be better served

by supporting a candidate who uses Black dialect when speaking/pandering to Black audiences.

[Fawke Em]

142. This

[Aerows]

10. Sanders biggest problem

is that he isn't Hillary Clinton, and Hillary Clinton supporters can't seem to accept the idea that Democrats could possibly support anybody except Hillary Clinton.
Daily there is a new attempt to come up with reasons why Bernie Sanders will fail, his supporters are lousy human beings and that the universe in general is against him.

Mostly, it's a daily reason to tell Bernie Sanders supporters to STFU and get on board the Hillary Clinton train.

We get that you don't like that we are enthusiastic about someone other than Hillary Clinton. We get that you would like for us to either shut up or get on board with Hillary.

But you know what? You are accomplishing the exact opposite of what you want because every baseless smear against his supporters, no less, just makes us dig in our heels and makes the Hillary Clinton campaign look petty.

But carry on, and see how it works out for you.

[Hortensis]

27. What Aerows doesn't get is that he/she is 100% wrong about

the attitudes of other Democrats. Almost all of us like Bernie and his message a lot. I am one of many who will be glad to vote for him if he progresses to the point where he can win in the general -- and have said so many times, seemingly all to deaf ears.

IMO, this thread is full of examples of Bernie supporters regarding fellow Democrats as opponents instead of allies. It may be that as Bernie campaigns in more states he will catch fire with larger populations and his candidacy rescued by large, new influxes of supporters.

Fingers crossed.

[Aerows]

33. I get that

telling Bernie Sanders supporters that they suck every day, day in, day out is counter productive.

[Hortensis]

37. Please tell me how you would like your fellow Democrats to

discuss this election, Aerows.

[Aerows]

55. Telling Bernie Sanders supporters

every day that they are racist, obnoxious, etc. (and both of those things have been said REPEATEDLY) doesn't make them want to vote for Hillary Clinton.

I would have thought this is basic common sense, but apparently, it isn't if the amount of posts that say exactly this is any indication.

[Hortensis]

58. Okay. Thanks. Have a nice evening, Aerows.

[BeanMusical]

105. +1

[JoePhilly]

61. We find it easy to believe you would not support Hillary.

Some of the louder of your group have been complaining about Obama for over 6 years.

Not only am I not surprised, I predicted this reaction prior to the 2012 election when many of you were hoping for a primary of Obama.

[Hortensis]

12. Judging from the tone of some supporters here, this is not a surprise.

I suggested on one post that Bernie supporters should want to appeal to the quiet readers who visit for information, rather than repelling them with right-wing-style attacks on other Democrats, and a response from one was that he "wasn't afraid of them." Gave up trying to figure that out real quick, but the notion that the enemy to be defeated is on the left, not the right, seems pretty typical of some.

If this behavior is spreading "out there," it may ultimately doom his candidacy. A left-wing version of the Tea Party is not the change people are looking for.

[Aerows]

16. Like I said

We get it - you want us to either shut up about Sanders or support Hillary.

Sorry, primaries don't work that way. Sanders has earned my support.

Maybe Hillary Clinton, her campaign, and her supporters should work harder to earn the support of those Democrats that support Sanders by convincing us why we should support her instead of Bernie?

Obviously the "He can't win" route has been an epic fail, so why not tell us why we should support her instead?

[Hortensis]

39. I support Bernie, Aerows, although I'm afraid I'll have to end up

voting for Hillary. Your ball.

[ornotna]

53. Are you saying

That depending on how Aerows posts on this board will determine who you will vote for? Odd.

[Hortensis]

60. No, Ornotna. Aerows and I were having a little interchange and I was

seeing if we could bump it up to a little conversation. Good night.

[BeanMusical]

106. Very.

[Cosmocat]

134. I am voting for Bernie

And I find I spend most of my time here gagging over what a lot of his "supporters" post.

It's right wingism (not HIS policy or how HE acts, but the tenor and tone of his supporters), gone left.

I have sort of conceded myself to the understanding that to win today this just might be the kind of fanatatical energy a candidate needs.

I just keep trying to focus on him.

[Hortensis]

135. Fanatical energy got white leaders to decide they'd better agree to

sit down with church and other conventional black leaders. The situation's quite different here, of course.

There's always schmuckery involved. I'm remembering some idiots calling for black women to do their part for the revolution by - quick - having babies, lots of babies. That went over REAL big.

[ibegurpard]

14. ah the memo must be back to how awful

Bernie supporters are. Bit late to the game with this he is.

[in_cog_ni_to]

15. Today's recycled meme...fifth time over.

Bernie's a racist. Got it.

Hey, AA's know who Bernie is, what his Civil Rights record is and how he would fight for them to have jobs, no more prisons for profits and would work his ass off for them. If they don't want someone who is genuinely concerned about their plight in life - go ahead and vote for More of the same Hillary! It's their life. Vote for Hillary!

[Aerows]

21. If Hillary Clinton supporters

spent half the time they spend telling Bernie Sanders supporters how awful they are and how he can't win instead convincing us WHY we should support Hillary Clinton, they might get somewhere.

Tell us why you agree with her policies. Tell us why you think she is a superior candidate. Telling us we suck isn't going to win you many, if any, converts.

[in_cog_ni_to]

36. They can't argue on the issues.

Bernie's correct on every single one and they know it.

Instead they resort to "Useless White Supremacist Liberal", his hair is messy, he and his supporters are racist, he hasn't done enough for the AA community. ("not good enough, Bernie&quot , he's racist, his crowds are too white, count the black people in the crowds, he's racist, he hangs with Cornel, so he hates Obama, he's racist...

It-will-never-stop, so the AA community should just vote for More of the same, Hillary. If that's what they want, have at it. They can have her!

[whatchamacallit]

17. His biggest problem is Clinton surrogates and propagandists

poisoning the waters with bullshit.

[BeanMusical]

107. Well said.

[Doctor_J]

19. The hillarians are getting really desperate

Her campaign now consists of three planks.

1. It's past time for a woman president
2. Bernie can't win the ge
3. Bernie's supporters are white supremacists

She loses on every single issue.

[Number23]

20. K&R this piece has generated quite a bit of discussion in the AA group

Though of course, this is all old news to us.

[Hortensis]

48. New theory: Dog-with-bone syndrome?

As only one element, of course.

Whoops. Maybe I posted this at the wrong place, because didn't most of the combativeness toward AA start after criticism of Bernie?

Nevertheless, it just crossed my mind that simple possessiveness, or perhaps desire to control, might explain much of the rejection of people who actually like him, while ignoring distant enemies (GOP) who emphatically don't want a piece of him. AA here would be Democrat or leaning left also and thus might seem too close to the bone, or prize, for comfort.

Anything, or have I been breathing the air here too long?

[Number23]

52. It is most definitely... something.

[Hortensis]

115. Right. :) Maybe there's a gene for attacking one's own tail...

[OilemFirchen]

54. There is little on the Internet more satisfying...

than discussion board participants proving that a particularly nasty impression of them is true.

[Number23]

56. Don't touch it. Just leave it on the floor

There is little on the Internet more satisfying than discussion board participants proving that a particularly nasty impression of them is true.

[Warren DeMontague]

22. THIS IS AN OUTRAGE!

I REFUSE TO VOTE FOR BERNIE SANDERS' SUPPORTERS IN THE DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY, NOW!

[beam me up scottie]

26. LOL!

[in_cog_ni_to]

40. Heh!

[elehhhhna]

93. Omg fine. Then I will vote for Hills supporters -

GOLDMAN SACHS FOR PREZZYDENT!!!

[Scootaloo]

23. "Of course, it’s not fair to blame Sanders for the vitriol of trolls." - But let's do it anyway?

[bvf]

30. Nailed it. n/t

[Warren DeMontague]

38. We seem to be operating on a 10-14 day cycle with these deals.

Last edited Wed Sep 23, 2015, 09:09 PM - Edit history (1)

Right now it's "Bernie's supporters are racists (or volvo drivers, dashiki wearing white dudes, communists, shoplifters, twitter trolls, stale egg mcmuffins, fill in the blank) and we are awfully concerned that they are alienating large swaths of minorities (or auto enthusiasts, dress shirt manufacturers, ayn rand devotees, mall security guards, other twitter trolls, mcdonalds customers, etc)"

in a few days it will switch back to "unelectable". Then it will be "why do you hate Hillary" or "Bernie's a cult leader". Then we'll get whatever other recycled meme of the day pops up.

This one has been through the wash what, 4 or 5 times now? I'm surprised they keep dragging it out, but I guess it's easier than talking about actual issues.

Which is sort of the bottom line with all this crap.

[Scootaloo]

41. I want some neckbeard in a fedora from twitter to call me a stale egg mcmuffin. Fucking DARE them!

[Warren DeMontague]

85. yeah, that's a triple word score, right there

[beam me up scottie]

50. You missed the latest: Why did Bernie dump Vermont's nuclear waste on poor Latinos?:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1251617475

[AuntPatsy]

59. It really is stupid, history tells us over and over again how easily people are manipulated...

The easiest way to approach elections is to listen, study, verify and ultimately use common sense....leave the hero worship to the fools...

No one and I mean Not one human being alive sits above reproach, anyone who puts - especially a politician on an unreachable pedestal deserves what gets thrown down on them....

[sarge43]

77. Fair and balanced

I'm wondering how the author knows all those tweets are from actual Sanders' supporters. I guess he didn't get the memo "On the internet you're anyone you want to be."

[mopinko]

24. if bernie is going to harness online activism to propel his candidacy,

he needs to speak up here.
i am a sanders supporter, but i have no problem w hillary.

but you cant take web activism good w/o dealing w the bad.
he is plugged in enough to take the initiative, and give his over the top supporters a tweak.

[Scootaloo]

32. I presume he is aware of that old adage, "don't feed the trolls"

[Mnpaul]

124. When is Hillary going to give her supporters a tweak?

expecting a candidate to take responsibility for "so called supporters" on the internet is beyond ridiculous. I saw some vile garbage on a forum bearing her name yesterday. Why aren't you calling for her to speak out as well?

[mopinko]

136. because she isnt the one running a groundbreaking online campaign.

that's why. he has chosen this arena. he needs to figure out how to use it, and he should see what the problems are.
he is also the one who has taken a firm no personal attacks stance, since forever.
he is trying to change the landscape.

[GeorgeGist]

25. Seriously dude ...

this is juvenile.

[MissDeeds]

72. It's all they have

People are on to this crap. Last time they tried to smear Bernie he got $1.2 million in donations in just a few days.

Dirty politics by a desperate campaign. Big surprise.

[beam me up scottie]

29. HC supporters are the ones who keep posting racist ops on DU:

Harrop is a right wing racist who called Obama an "exotic":

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1251&pid=616086


And then there's the trifecta: calling Bernie a racist, anti-Semitism and using racial slurs:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1251506371


I have more examples of how Hillary's supporters are her biggest problem here if you need them.

[Ed Suspicious]

46. No quit in you folks, is there. Keep on trying!

[bobbobbins01]

47. That person Desareon isn't even a Sanders supporter.

He's just an all around terrible person who is trolling and somehow this gets blamed on Sanders supporters? This is just a complete falsehood, the writer of that article, and the OP should be ashamed.

[Scootaloo]

62. meanwhile the OP author seems to be pulling for Rubio.

Twitter's a weird place.

[artislife]

57. Keep at it.

If by some chance h makes it to the GE, don't expect a lot of support....


I am almost back to my Super Tuesday levels of disgust with h and her minions.

[Vattel]

63. more garbage

[TheProgressive]

64. Desperate Hillary Supporter (DHS) (tm) post alert!

Must admit, the Clinton political machine is running every play they can to bring down Bernie...

I ask you, do you really want to vote for a candidate (i.e. Clinton) who resorts to republican dirty tricks to win?

[Scootaloo]

76. Alt + 0153 = ™

Use it - ahem - liberally

[TheProgressive]

87. I was wondering how you all did that!...thanks.

[restorefreedom]

65. this is a rerun

rehash of an earlier thread.

can you guys please get together and coordinate these "bernie supporters are the devil" threads?
my home page is getting very cluttered

thanks!

[Gothmog]

66. Great Article

This is a good article

[artislife]

67. It will be my mission to get this in front of every Latino site etc

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/06/18/hillary-clinton-immigration_n_5507630.html

"They should be sent back as soon as it can be determined who responsible adults in their families are, because there are concerns about whether all of them should be sent back," the potential 2016 presidential candidate said in an interview with CNN's Christiane Amanpour. "But I think all of them who can be should be reunited with their families."

Because the reason they are crossing is
http://www.thenation.com/article/why-children-fleeing-central-america-will-not-stop-coming/



To avoid becoming the victims of gang violence, tens of thousands of children like David have fled El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras for the United States. As their numbers skyrocket, lawmakers in Washington have sought to “repatriate” these refugees as quickly as possible. The Obama administration initially sought to change the 2008 Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act to allow the 52,000 or so child migrants who have arrived on US soil in the last nine months to be deported without going before an immigration judge. (Under the TVPRA, unaccompanied minors from countries that do not share a border with the United States are handed over to the Department of Health and Human Services, then go before an immigration court that will determine their fate; those hailing from Mexico, on the other hand, can accept “voluntary deportation” and return immediately.)

People seem to be able to cry for Syrians and others as long as they are going to countries in Europe. As a nation, we need to ask why children are coming up from south of the border. And the foreign policies our Sec. of State has been making over the years that has help create the environment.

Yeah, I listened to Rev. Wright and I was right there with him when he quoted Malcolm" The chickens are coming home to roost." That was and is the Truth.

Hillary is a part of the problem. I am looking for a better solution!

[SidDithers]

69. DU rec...nt

Sid

[ibegurpard]

86. lol

Of course!
How about that NDP though eh?

[BeanMusical]

109. Somehow I doubt that he's a big fan of the NDP. Too much to the left.

[Art_from_Ark]

146. Is there a UKIP equivalent in Canada?

[DrBulldog]

70. One sentence revealed it all . . .

"This patronizing position not only assumes that black Americans are one-issue voters, but also that their one issue has been solved for five decades."

You know absolutely nothing about the single solitary white guy who continually shows up quietly at open Black Congressional Caucus meetings YEAR AFTER YEAR.

[AtomicKitten]

73. Hear, hear.

You know absolutely nothing about the single solitary white guy who continually shows up quietly at open Black Congressional Caucus meetings YEAR AFTER YEAR.

[MisterP]

90. they have to keep the conversation as far away from issues and records as possible

there's just so many bubbles to maintain these days

the author might not even BE a Clintonista-and-hang-the-consequences, but the trope of the "progressives have crippling race problems" is just too tempting

tomorrow they'll be condemning Sanders for being a straight guy with kids

[orpupilofnature57]

148. + 1000 for Courage and Vision !!!!!!!

[beam me up scottie]

75. And yet a HC supporter said Clintons owned blacks, women and other minorities:

All Your Base Are Belong to Clinton

3. Blacks. As Toni Morrison said, Bill Clinton was the first Black president--until Obama was the first Black president. Hillary is married to one of these man, and she was Secretary of State for the other. In addition, she is Obama's anointed successor, and in 2008 she very graciously buried the hatchet at the Convention and campaigned for her primary opponent in a way that other Democratic nomination losers (see Ted Kennedy 1980) did not. Can Sanders peel away Clinton's Black support? Maybe. But people who live in fear of being shot by the police for no reason at all take politics pretty seriously. They are not likely to give up a "sure thing" in order to take a chance with something new.

[left-of-center2012]

81. Sanders’s supporters

Oh those rascally Bernie supporters.

[yardwork]

83. This is counter-productive, obviously.

[Kang Colby]

84. Who cares what Bernie's handful of supporters think?

Last edited Wed Sep 23, 2015, 10:54 PM - Edit history (1)

Certainly not the DNC, the majority of American voters, or our future female Commander-in-chief. Thankfully, Sanders has such minimal viability America's candidate won't have to debate fantasy world nonsense more than six times.

[Scootaloo]

88. Don't underestimate him

[BeanMusical]

110. What's a Commander-and-chief?

[Kang Colby]

111. A typo.

[Fawke Em]

144. You must have big hands.

Coz there are far more supporters here than my hands could hold:

[PatrickforO]

89. Anybody can say anything on Twitter.

That's the thing. This russian starr might very well be a troll paid a nice shiny nickel for every tweet.

[sarge43]

94. Twitter for political insights??

Next You Tube for the finer points of String Theory

[beam me up scottie]

103. ZING!

[PatrickforO]

113. I wouldn't be surprised.

See, here's the point. We have an OP with one guy posting derogatory, racist things and all of a sudden we have trouble with ALL Bernie supporters. Gee. So...THIS apple is green, so ALL apples are green. That's a fallacy, and that fact is my point.

[sarge43]

120. Agree

My badly stated point is to begin with how do we verify it's even an apple? It could be a lime. We can't test the premise and neither could the author.

Elaborating on my snark, 140 character message really doesn't allow for detail. It almost begs for a hit and run, ie trolling. How many of those messages are troll's or Sanders supporters being jerks, unless a master hacker gets to work, no way of knowing.

Flawed premise and insufficient data.

[Fearless]

92. Complete bull.

[mak3cats]

95. YAWN!!!!

[MannyGoldstein]

96. I actually saw this today:

a Sanders supporter cutting that tag off of her mattress that you're not supposed to cut off. No shame! None!

Regards,

TWM

[NRaleighLiberal]

97. Pathetic, but predictable. Unrec.

[Thinkingabout]

98. Not sure how many of the AA group is expected to be receptive to considering Bernie when they are

given some of the information I have seen here.

[PatrickforO]

114. Which is WHY they are being given, or should I say

'fed' this information here. Because one guy on twitter does not all Bernie supporters besmirch. I'm thinking SOMEONE or SOME GROUP of people are using a pretty darned big brush.

Or am I wrong here?

[leftofcool]

119. Except, it's not just one guy on Twitter.

While I think WAPO is mostly full of it in their articles. The picked up on this not for just one complaint but for many. At least as I understand it from people who have had their FB pages attacked, Twitter accounts attacked, etc...

[workinclasszero]

108. Zealots often damage

the very people they support.

Bernie needs to address this in a very public way to stop the bleeding with PoC, if that's possible at this late date.

[BeanMusical]

112. Zealots often damage

the very people they support.

Hillary needs to address this in a very public way to stop the bleeding with all potential voters, if that's possible at this late date.

[Vinca]

116. Bernie's "bleeding with PoC" is myth.

Like Hillary's emails, if you beat the drum long enough and loud enough people will believe the story.

[Hortensis]

117. I was wondering, assuming Bernie draws a far, far larger pool of more

conventional supporters over time, if that may solve most of this potentially grave problem all by itself. Most of the public does not know Bernie exists and doesn't visit political sites, so perhaps those who say this is of little note are right.

Thinking about it strategically, I'm wondering if Bernie's bringing this up publicly would be a mistake, no matter how well done. It would for sure draw a lot more attention to undesirable behavior among some of his supporters at a time when Bernie is trying to broaden his appeal. I'm guessing it would have absolutely no effect on their behavior. As it continued, any coverage would be to the effect that he could not control his own supporters. And, of course, it might offend those supporters to no purpose.

[leftofcool]

118. This make sense.

It has gotten so bad that even major newspapers are drawing attention to it. After what happened to Howard Dean, I am not surprised. But you are right, if Bernie addresses it publically, it gives credibility to vitriol and it won't stop anyway.

[Hortensis]

121. Ouch to major newspapers aleady. "Fortunately,"

most people don't read newspapers either.

[leftofcool]

125. I think you have to be over 60 to still enjoy newspapers

Maybe 55.

[Hortensis]

128. Uhoh. I confess to missing spreading them out. That morning event

of chatting across our big breakfast table as we passed sheets around and pushed each other's out of the way is long gone.

We have our screens, with far, far more information, continually updated, but it's not the same, probably in part because you can never feel you've actually finished. We take the NY Times on line now, and I just realized that I never close my tablet with the satisfaction folding up the paper once held.

[whathehell]

133. Yeah, and that really matters, right?

[gollygee]

137. Who are "more conventional supporters?"

I'm not sure what that means.

[jalan48]

122. It's beginning to look like this is all Hillary has to run on against Bernie.

"Bernie, you're a great guy but your supporters are terrible. America, can we afford to have a President who's supporters are obnoxious?"

[brooklynite]

123. I've never held Bernie's supporters against him...

I like Bernie and his policies. But I think he'll be massively outspent by the Democratic, and platitudes like "the 99% will rise up" don't provide a convincing alternative. Money isn't the only think you need, but it is a threshold item.

[djean111]

126. Bwah! - that one would sure backfire. ROFL and all that. n/t

[whathehell]

132. "Bernie, you're a great guy but your supporters read newspapers"

[Broward]

127. The conservatives that have infiltrated the Dem Party will stop at nothing to beat back the threat

that Bernie poses.

[Fumesucker]

129. If by "infiltrated" you mean "welcomed with open arms (and bank accounts)" I agree...

[cherokeeprogressive]

131. Why the fuck would anyone question Bernie Sanders' record on civil rights?

Just tell me that much.

I'll tell you what... anyone who would is an idiot is what I think.

[MoveIt]

139. being patronizing and smearing people

the wyldwolf should know