A Likely Republican Attack Line Against Sanders, Ladies And Gentlemen

[The Magistrate]

A good deal of the continued activity of Sanders' campaign is pointing out ways in which they claim Mr. Biden is vulnerable to attack when campaigning against Trump. One frequently recurred to is a claim Mr. Biden will be attacked as an enemy of Social Security, on the basis of some decades old video footage. One does not see much of this kind of thing from Mr. Biden's campaign. Sanders supporters are inclined to be a bit dismissive of the very idea their idol has vulnerabilities in a campaign against Trump, and seem to take confirmation of this view from the policy of Mr. Biden's campaign to treat Sanders with kid gloves, and refrain from pointing out some areas of desperate vulnerability Sanders would present to determined and ruthless opposition in a nationwide general election.

Against Sanders, the facts of his open support for Communists in the Caribbean and Central America into the Reagan era, as well as his apparent support for the Iranian Revolution, would be dinned in to the public. Sanders is often praised by his followers for 'consistency' throughout his political career, and this is where he was at its beginning. These are not smears, these are positions of a party he stood as elector for in a Presidential election. It is hard to claim a man does not support positions of a candidate he is an elector for. It can be attempted, but not with much hope of success. 'Crazy Bernie the Commie' is simply too fat a target to be passed up, and it would not be.

Mr. Biden has a whole structure of Party identity to rely on in the question of Social Security. Everyone knows it is a Democratic program, everyone knows Republicans are its enemy. The charge becomes noise. The 'Crazy Bernie the Commie' line is different, there is just enough fact, and fact not too widely known, to give it real bite. Especially among older voters, who were of age during the Cold War. And the line would be helped along by Sanders inability not to say that one extra sentence to try and justify his youthful foolishness. Of course he wasn't really youthful, he was nearing forty years of age. No one really cares if 'Red China' reduced poverty, no one really thinks that quite excuses the Great Leap Forward or the Cultural Revolution or Tiananmen Square. Just as no one, particular people of Cuban heritage in Florida, gives the north end of a southbound rat whether Castro got more people able to read.

There does not seem to me any obvious way Sanders defends himself against this line of attack, pressed home in news coverage of rallies (video or otherwise) and the steady bombardment of attack ads on the airwaves, and of crafted personal communications on social media. This line of attack is something no Democrat wants to press against Sanders, out of concern for the sensibilities and loyalties of his supporters and followers. Our open enemies would have no such compunction.


"When things are not called by their right names, what is said cannot make sense. When what is said does not make sense, what is planned cannot succeed. When plans do not succeed, people become uneasy. When people are uneasy, punishments do not fit crimes. When punishments do not fit crimes, people cannot know where to put hand or foot."

[FailureToCommunicate]

1. Welcome back, Sir!

[Demsrule86]

2. I am pretty new...for sure compared to you! But it is great to have you. This is an excellent Post.

K&R...Thanks .

[The Magistrate]

4. Thank You, Ma'am

This is a vulnerability readily overlooked by people on the left, and it should not be.

[Demsrule86]

7. It was well argued...if some are open to persuasion...that should do it...kind sir.

[BootinUp]

3. Impossible to imitate your style Sir. Nt

[Mr.Bill]

5. It just baffles me that any of this stuff about Sanders or Biden

can't be totally overshadowed by Trump's highly visible support of ruthless dictators that have murdered thousands of people and are in power today. Why can't any voter with an IQ above 60 see this?

[The Magistrate]

11. The Reason Is Actually Fairly Simple, Sir

The comparison with Mr. Corbyn and Labour overseas makes it plain. Mr. Corbyn had said and done things, over a career as a leftist gadfly on the back benches, which made it easy to suggest he was no patriot, that he would side with the other party in a conflict or dispute involving Great Britain. To be perceived as lacking in patriotism, let alone as being anti-patriot, is fatal in a democratic polity. A great preponderance of people value patriotism highly, to the point many are actively repelled by persons they perceive have not got it.

Sanders by attacks on this line can readily be made, and would readily made, to appear to not just lack patriotism but to actually be an anti-patriot. Someone who supported the other side in a global conflict, during which the very existence of the nation was at stake. Many of us on the left feel we are a bit above such things, Sanders certainly does, and this makes defense against the line almost impossible, because the person subject to the attack is genuinely bewildered by it, and the instinct to explain, to educate, even to preach, perhaps the most natural reactions when a person is confronted with something he or she perceives rooted in ignorance, will prove fatal if indulged in. It will simply accentuate the person's evident difference from the common national sentiment, and his feeling he is above the rest, and feels he is better than they are. That leads to electoral oblivion.


"When things are not called by their right names, what is said cannot make sense. When what is said does not make sense, what is planned cannot succeed. When plans do not succeed, people become uneasy. When people are uneasy, punishments do not fit crimes. When punishments do not fit crimes, people cannot know where to put hand or foot."

[LanternWaste]

6. It seems almost moot at this point.

There's nothing left in Sanders' campaign but a few more days and a few more words before he eventually bows out and resumes his job at being an effective beltway-insider career-politician.

[The Magistrate]

8. That Is The Optimistic View, Sir

I see no reason to suspect Sanders will act honorably and do the right thing. This is his last throw, and he seems a pig-headed fellow. He has done all he could to sabotage once. I expect people to do what they have done before. His followers are wont to tout his consistency over his career, which is tantamount to saying the man does not and cannot learn. Perhaps he feels he has no mistakes to learn from.

I agree there is no chance Sanders will secure the nomination, but if he were to have done so, it is foolish to pretend he would not be cut to ribbons, and this would be one of the knives. One has only to look at the recent experience of Corbyn and Labour in the United Kingdom.


"Optimists get bitter disappointments. Pessimists get pleasant surprises."

[LanternWaste]

9. A gentleman's wager then. I believe he withdraws by end of day tomorrow (Friday).

Not out of a sense of loyalty or grace or unity, mind you; but only because he's crunching numbers in his head, and realizes his best scenario is still a negative cost-benefit to both himself and his effectiveness in DC post-election.

[The Magistrate]

10. A Wager I Would Be Pleased To Lose, Sir

Be well!

[The Magistrate]

12. I Regret Having Won Our Wager, Sir

If Sanders were a better man, we would all be better off.


"When things are not called by their right names, what is said cannot make sense. When what is said does not make sense, what is planned cannot succeed. When plans do not succeed, people become uneasy. When people are uneasy, punishments do not fit crimes. When punishments do not fit crimes, people cannot know where to put hand or foot."

[NCProgressive]

13. Some people undervalue the impact of the socialist label

which is akin to the proverbial head in the sand.

The all-encompassing, self-created illusion is that BS's policies are so great that 90% of the voters will support him and embrace socialism. Evidence diametrically contrary notwithstanding.

Illusions have that effect on people's minds.

[Gothmog]

14. I am glad that we will not have a socialist at the top of ticket

Link to tweet

[Maeve]

15. There is another part that I hesitate to say

I live in a red area of a red state and grew up in a rural part of it. One of the things some of the right mean when they say he's a "socialist" is...he's Jewish. The strains of anti-Semitism in this country are somewhat hidden, but they have peeked out in the past three years. Remember the tiki-torch march and the chant "Jews will not replace us"? It's there, but polite folks still don't say it. Instead, they will call him a socialist or bring up his NY background or talk about his harsh accent or how grumpy he can sound...they may not tell you that there's deeper reason, but...oh, they will talk happily about our Judeo-Christian values, but the emphasis is on the Christian part.

I hesitated to write that because it's not being talked about--we're still ashamed of that prejudice for the most part. But it's there. I wish I could say it wasn't, that liberalism had won the day, but...

[The Magistrate]

16. True, Ma'am

That is a staple of reactionary propaganda. From the beginning, Bolshevism was widely viewed as a Jewish plot, and in many places and circles the term Bolshevik and Jew were considered interchangeable. In more fevered swamps on the right all Stalin's crimes are to this day represented as massacre by Jews of Christians, with Hitler viewed as engaged in righteous vengeance in his extermination campaigns.

[Gothmog]

17. sanders is a very weak general election candidate and trump would destroy sanders

sanders is a very weak candidate and would be easy for trump to destroy. In addition to the well written 101 page memorandum with oppo on sanders with a 1000 pages of backup from the Clinton campaign trump has his own oppo file on sanders that would destroy such a weak and divisive candidate like sanders.

Link to tweet

trump had a two foot thick book of oppo research on Sanders http://www.newsweek.com/myths-cost-democrats-presidential-election-521044

They ignored the fact that Sanders had not yet faced a real campaign against him. Clinton was in the delicate position of dealing with a large portion of voters who treated Sanders more like the Messiah than just another candidate. She was playing the long game—attacking Sanders strongly enough to win, but gently enough to avoid alienating his supporters. Given her overwhelming support from communities of color—for example, about 70 percent of African-American voters cast their ballot for her—Clinton had a firewall that would be difficult for Sanders to breach....

So what would have happened when Sanders hit a real opponent, someone who did not care about alienating the young college voters in his base? I have seen the opposition book assembled by Republicans for Sanders, and it was brutal. The Republicans would have torn him apart. And while Sanders supporters might delude themselves into believing that they could have defended him against all of this, there is a name for politicians who play defense all the time: losers....

The Republicans had at least four other damning Sanders videos (I don’t know what they showed), and the opposition research folder was almost 2-feet thick. (The section calling him a communist with connections to Castro alone would have cost him Florida.) In other words, the belief that Sanders would have walked into the White House based on polls taken before anyone really attacked him is a delusion built on a scaffolding of political ignorance.

sanders was such a weak primary candidate that the Clinton campaign did not use its oppo but trump would have fun destroying such a weak candidate like sanders

[Hortensis]

18. Swiftboaters are character-assassinating Democrats as being like Sanders.

Even after Sanders drops out, he will be portrayed as the true face of all us evil liberal socialist commie fascist Democratic whackadoodles who hate our nation and are trying to destroy it.

Unfortunately for Democrats, Sanders really does give the RW swiftboaters way too many palpable nuggets and odd questions to wire into and dangle from their poisonous constructs. And it's believed just Russia alone would have more to provide whenever Putin chooses. We can only hope opening that particular box would risk backlashing very badly on the treasonous Republicans, but that would still leave all the rest of his 50 years of wannabe socialist revolutionary baggage.

[The Magistrate]

19. True, Ma'am

And the longer he carries on, the more solidity the claim would have with ordinary voters....





"From Bernie’s perspective, dropping out of a race once you have no chance of winning is peculiar behavior that can only be explained by the work of a hidden hand. For most politicians, though, it is actually standard operating procedure. Only Sanders seems to think the normal thing to do once voters have made clear they don’t want to nominate you is to continue campaigning anyway."





"When things are not called by their right names, what is said cannot make sense. When what is said does not make sense, what is planned cannot succeed. When plans do not succeed, people become uneasy. When people are uneasy, punishments do not fit crimes. When punishments do not fit crimes, people cannot know where to put hand or foot."

[The Magistrate]

20. Since The Zone Is Being Flooded By An Energetic Partisan

It seems appropriate to break my usual policy and simply kick a piece of mine to the top....





"From Bernie’s perspective, dropping out of a race once you have no chance of winning is peculiar behavior that can only be explained by the work of a hidden hand. For most politicians, though, it is actually standard operating procedure. Only Sanders seems to think the normal thing to do once voters have made clear they don’t want to nominate you is to continue campaigning anyway."





"When things are not called by their right names, what is said cannot make sense. When what is said does not make sense, what is planned cannot succeed. When plans do not succeed, people become uneasy. When people are uneasy, punishments do not fit crimes. When punishments do not fit crimes, people cannot know where to put hand or foot."