Bernie Sanders is arguably a man of conscience. And other than his rape-fantasies from the 'seventies, I've not seen much about the man to question his intentions, his good will.
The thing about Bernie is, attract massive crowds (of mostly older white folk it should be noted) as he currently may, the vast majority of people in the US (Democratic Party-affiliated or otherwise), know nothing about his record. Bernie right now is a purely symbolic representation of two things, both of which overlap:
a) Wishful-thinking for Elizabeth Warren as candidate for President
b) A half-hearted protest against the (not altogether inaccurately perceived): corporatism, cronyism, vested interests in established politics of Hillary Clinton.
Self-described Socialist Sanders may well have been speaking of issues that relate now in the twenty-first century for decades, but that's no guarantee that he can concoct a message that resonates across boundaries of race, class, gender, age. He only has a place (as a protest against Hillary) in the primaries because Warren declined to run, and he hasn't really been tested politically in the past. The more progressive elements of my makeup want to root for Bernie at least a little, but the fact is, he hasn't a chance.
Democrats are rallying around Sanders, in lieu of Warren, because they don't want to accept Hillary as a fait accompli, and because they hope (perhaps vainly) that his candidacy could draw her slightly to the left (as if that would guarantee anything after the elections).
Meanwhile, something similar is going on with the Republican party with Donald Trump, the ultimate manifestation of right-wing Tea Party corporatist id, taking second place in leading polls, draining the oxygen from the campaign from more serious candidates who might lose their place in key debates due to Trump's presence, and his inevitable celebrity dominance in the attentions of the media.
The whole thing's a fucking circus. Ultimately, Americans will be given the choice between a slightly less and slightly more-right-wing asshole Capitalistic Corporatist
scumbag to be President. And those who choose to endorse the one or the other will see (as intended) their opposite fellows as radical anti-American extremists. By design.
* Slightly less brief than I started out intending...
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