How an Anti Sexist Candidate got cast as Sexist

[booley]

I am not bringing this up not to rehash the Sanders/Warren thing so much as given an example of a much larger issue.

Most of the attacks on Sanders arent' on his policies. (though those do exist But on his Character. Particularly on the parts of his character that are considered his strengths.

So a guy with a great record on women's issues becomes sexist.
A Guy who has a great record civil rights is cast as someone who doesn't' really care about minorities.
A guy who is the only Jewish candidate in the race is accused of antisemitism.

.... Over time, people stopped being able to recall these specific incidents, if they ever caught wind of them at all. “Bernie’s sexist” was just a feeling many people had, and they didn’t know where it came from. This is how baseless rumors harden into consensus. It’s how we ended up with MSNBC analysts saying that “Bernie Sanders makes my skin crawl. I can’t even identify for you what exactly it is. But I see him as sort of a not pro-woman candidate.”

The only way to deal with such distortions is to push back with the truth.

In this case, the truth is this: whether or not it was originally her idea to do so, Warren consciously chose to weaponize unverifiable rumors about the content of a private conversation between her and Sanders in order to damage him in the eleventh hour, as he was rising in the polls and she was falling. She was intentionally ambiguous in a way that encouraged the worst possible interpretation of Sanders’s contribution to their conversation. She got a big applause at the debate by sparring with a fictitious version of Sanders who doesn’t believe women can win presidential elections.

And now we have media figures implicitly comparing whatever Sanders said to Warren to sexual assault, and suggesting that skepticism of her account is tantamount to disbelieving a rape survivor — cowing people into silence about what very plainly transpired before all our eyes.

Sanders’s campaign is on the rise. If we begin to see an uptick in chatter about his supposed misogyny, we shouldn’t be surprised. And we shouldn’t let it slide, either. If we hear someone say that Bernie Sanders doesn’t think a woman can be president, we should recount this story to them. We should help them understand that it’s all a game of telephone, and that there’s too much at stake to keep playing.

https://www.jacobinmag.com/2020/01/bernie-sanders-elizabeth-warren-sexism-controversy-woman-president?fbclid=IwAR0S6yWq8Vx_nojZHHhJRVno-gyYmZIrX5wXtsMfhfKuN4-A3a6mV0vujT8

[booley]

1. The pattern is almost universal

Contrapoints explained this and though she wasn't' talking about this, the pattern she lays out fits perfectly.

A Rumor becomes hardened as fact. It morphs, grows, and even infects by association.

So "Warrens says Bernie said a thing" to Bernie did say a thing" to "Bernie is sexist" then "The Sanders camp are all misogynists"

And the original claim never needs to be proven. Indeed, the original context is soon forgotten since it doesn't' help push the narrative.

[Autumn]

2. Bernie is on the rise. That's why all this and now one of the talking points seem to be baggage.

[booley]

4. I agree

and I understand this was probably inevitable.

Though I still think we need to really be aware of the tactic because OH MY GODDESS do a lot of people fall for it time and time again.

[ehrnst]

42. Yes, the swarming of any criticism or unflatter facts that are discussed

shows an unflappable faith on the part of several of his supporters on DU in the ability of him and his talking points to withstand any and all normal vetting whatsoever.

[Autumn]

45. I don't have faith but nice try. I respect Bernie because he represents my goals. Unlike others.

[ehrnst]

46. I think you are a true believer.

Last edited Fri Jan 17, 2020, 10:10 PM - Edit history (1)

His goals aside, I don't see the interpersonal or legislative skills to be POTUS. If one doesn't have the ability to get all these goals into existence, they are just hollow promises.

His performance seems to be satisfactory as far as the very small, white population of Vermont is concerned, but the Oval Office is something that requires a temprament, emotional intelligence, diplomacy and ability to tolerate people who don't agree lockstep with you.

He's near the end of his career, and this is very exciting for someone who feels overlooked.

I hope that he takes it easy once the primaries are over.

[The Valley Below]

3. Sanders has an atrocious record.

Horrible!

[booley]

6. yeah sure buddy

Even after I showed he doesn't.

But I guess it helps some to say that rather than talk about the Iraq war vote, the bankruptcy bill, certain bussing bills, who has sides with the financial industry more.....

Keep it abstract and one may never have to back up what one claims.

[The Valley Below]

9. Oh, he does. His record will sink him and deservedly so.

[booley]

26. you know just saying that does not make it true

I think there is a very good reason why so few attacks against Sanders are on his record. I just gave you Sanders ratings from the NAACP. And his record on women's issues.

Character is a more subjective thing. Harder to quantify than say whether someone voted in favor fo the Iraq war, said he would vote for it again, has consistently sided with the financial industry,...

[George II]

44. Just about EVERY Democrat in the Senate in 2017 had precisely the same NAACP rating, including....

....all the Senators that were and still are vying for the nomination - 52 in all (meaning even a republican or two!). And you gave a selective, cherry picked record on women's issues. Many women's rights advocates would disagree.

[George II]

29. But you didn't show that.

[Autumn]

7. One could easily say that, to use your own words about Bernie that

"Biden has an atrocious record.

Horrible!"

[Gothmog]

36. I agree

I am good friends with a lady named Sarah Slamen who was the head of sanders Louisiana campaign and a senior person in Texas. Sarah was one of the sanders employees who was sexually harassed during the 2016 campaign. She disagrees strongly with the OP
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016224223
The good news is that Sarah ran the campaign that flipped one of the Texas state house races from red to blue. I need to donate to Sarah's candidate who is up for re-election

[The Valley Below]

37. Thank you for posting this.

Everyone should read the post that you linked to get a dose of the real record of Bernie Sanders and his campaign.

[Gothmog]

38. I brought back a couple of bernie signs from the national convention and gave them to Sarah

Sarah and I disagreed as to the choice of candidates but I respected her and at the time she appreciated the signs

[The Valley Below]

39. That was kind of you, especially given your experience at the convention.

[Gothmog]

40. Sarah is a friend who I had a disagreement with

I did want these signs and at the time Sarah was thrilled to get these signs. I am so proud of the fact that Sarah ran a campaign that flipped a state house seat from red to blue

[Watchfoxheadexplodes]

5. Warren called him out and Sander's supporter's

Cry foul 😭

[booley]

11. You are at step two

te part where an unproven accusation is taken as fact.

Don't' provide any reason why it would be fact, especially when the available facts contradict it.

treat it as fact so you can move to step three.

Thank you for proving my point. I appreciate that.

[Watchfoxheadexplodes]

18. I could flip that on you

So Bernie's side is fact?

Did you see his reaction? Then his flustered debate performance?

[booley]

28. Which make smore sense?

That Sanders has been lying for over 30 years, saying he believed a woman be president. That he encouraged Warren to run for President in 20q6 even though he thought she couldn't' win?

OR he didn't really say that?

Did you see his reaction?

The part where he denied having said that and the moderator acted as if he hadn't' and everyone laughed along with Sanders at the absurdity?

OR the part where Warren confronts him over what she knows was an open mike?

he might have been flustered. His friend just appeared to call him a lier and reinforce a smear campaign against him. And then after saying she didn't want to discuss it more, insisted on a public confrontation. I would imagine anyone would be upset by that. Good people are often shocked by bad behavior by others.

[BuffaloJackalope]

8. And this is why I can't support Sanders.

Warren didn't start this. Sanders fucked up. There are plenty of witnesses. He should just come clean & apologize, and move on.

[booley]

16. Warren is the one who leaked the story

Or more specifically her campaign is.

Yeah she did start this.

There are plenty of witnesses.

By their own admission, those aides were nto int he room.
Other people familiar with the conversation deny this.

So why are some second hand accounts credible and others are not?

Indeed, why Warren leak this, then pull back saying she didn't' want to talk about it?

To further quote the article

Warren is a former star lawyer, familiar with the fine art of intentionally ambiguous phrasing. Her unwillingness to provide any other context or clarification to her statement that “I thought a woman could win; he disagreed” seems to indicate that as far as she was concerned, people could make of the statement what they wanted. And she’s smart enough to know what they’d make of it.

[Bummfuzzle]

22. From what I understand the story was out there and reporters got confirmation, not leaked.

Do you know for a fact that Warren people "leaked" it? I hear otherwise with people that are informed. Or are you spreading assumptions Warren people purposely leaked this?

I heard she had talked to people after the meeting. Reporters already had heard this. They were able to get four confirmations after Sanders attack script. They did not go out and leak.

[BuffaloJackalope]

30. So, Sanders can say any damn thing away from public scrutiny

no matter how demeaning & offensive it is?

You're just confirming my opinion.

[Uncle Joe]

10. I believe that was Karl Rove's strategy,

"attack an opposing candidate's strength."

That was a good read.

Thanks for the thread booley.

[The Valley Below]

12. Only one campaign in the history of American elections

has seen female staffers on a campaign feel compelled to unionize against their candidate to protect themselves from widespread sexual harassment and gender-based pay inequality by "management."

Then they had to watch as "management" tried to spin this as a "pro-union" move.

Gaslighting and "re-framing" only works so long.

Time has run out.

[booley]

17. Oh look, and not one citation

Your claim as to why Sanders campaign workers unionized is so twisted and devoid of facts as to be pretty much slander

Here's a citation

The Unionization had to do with money and the fact that Sanders's messaging was pro Union/worker. Yes there were complaints of sexal harassment but you make it sound as if that was the primary reason. That's just a flat out lie.
Nt to mention how absurd for you o say that the Sanders campaign fixing a problem is a problem.

Warrens' campaign also unionized. Does she also have a sexual harassment problem?


https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/5/9/18538272/bernie-sanders-campaign-staff-union-contract-details

Gaslighting and "re-framing" only works so long

.

Well on that we AGREE!

Might be why this attack hasn't actually hurt Sanders.

[Skidmore]

23. If you Google, you'll find more stories than this one.

Who's gaslighting?

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/03/15/sen-bernie-sanders-campaign-workers-vote-unionize-2020-election/3179737002/

...In January, Sanders apologized after multiple women said allegations of sexual assault within his campaign were not properly addressed during his 2016 bid for president.

The allegations from multiple women who worked on Sanders' campaign surfaced in the New York Times, which criticized Sanders' campaign for not adequately addressing incidents of sexual harassment, sexist mistreatment and pay disparities between men and women. ...

[The Valley Below]

31. Exactly. Hardly an unknown story.

Spin. Spin. Spin.

Watching it makes me dizzy.

[jalan48]

13. We saw how Bush turned Kerry's war hero record against him and took the heat off of Bush's

cushy job stateside during the Vietnam War.

[Sloumeau]

14. I believe Warren. eom

[booley]

19. So?

That statement means nothing.

Can you explain why Sanders encouraged Warren to run for President in 2016?

A belief that contradicts the facts doesn't' really mean anything.

[sheshe2]

34. I have seen this posted many times. No link.

Can you explain why Sanders encouraged Warren to run for President in 2016?

So was it another private meeting of he said she said? When did this meeting happen.

A belief that contradicts the facts doesn't' really mean anything.

So true and works both ways.

...........................

From your OP article

Warren consciously chose to weaponize unverifiable rumors about the content of a private conversation between her and Sanders in order to damage him in the eleventh hour, as he was rising in the polls and she was falling. She was intentionally ambiguous in a way that encouraged the worst possible interpretation of Sanders’s contribution to their conversation.

A meeting in here own home where she graciously invited him to dinner to talk future plans.

This just another opinion piece slanted to BS by Jacobins Megan Day. Was she in that room, the private meeting? She has first hand knowledge? I didn't think so.

OP article basically calls the senior Senator of MA a liar. "Unverifiable rumors", as if Warren weren't in the room.

Unbelievable.

[ehrnst]

43. She was more of a threat to his opponent than him?

He changed his mind?

He does that sometimes.

https://www.newsweek.com/bernie-sanders-denies-sending-campaign-volunteers-trash-elizabeth-warren-1481762

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/01/14/sanders-admits-anti-warren-script-early-states-098786

Perhaps he was thinking of this:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2014/04/27/elizabeth-warren-i-hope-hillary-clinton-runs-for-president/

[yardwork]

15. Or maybe it's because his supporters are all over the Internet with green snakes.

Just a thought.

[booley]

20. What I am talking about predates those green snakes by years

I mean we could talk about the green snakes.

Why now? Why Warren?

Sanders has been attacked numerous times for years. This is hardly the first smear ever laid against him.

So why the anger?

Could it be that so many Sanders supporters had a high opinion of Warren?
Could it be that her allegation makes no sense and she refuses to provide details?
Could it be that if what she said is true, then she happily kept this to herself for over a year until her poll numbers began to slip?
Could it be that Sanders supporters feel betrayed and hurt by someone they thought better of?

just a thought.

This is a side issue to my point of course. Maybe we could discuss that instead. But just a thought.

[yardwork]

24. The snakes - a highly coordinated response, I notice - are part of a pattern.

A Bernie supporter I know in RL is very angry (to put it mildly) that these damn wimmen Elizabeth and Amy are running against Bernie. They're doing a disservice to the world, I'm told, and so they're "reptilian." And lots of other bad things.

And this same Bernie supporter still says horrible things against Hillary.

No other Democratic campaign's supporters do this.

[blm]

33. For two days Sanders campaign let a conspiracy spread

because they didn’t want to admit that the script the canvassers used was given to them by the campaign itself.

So the online supporters went after Warren tooth and nail on Saturday and Sunday believing the planted conspiracy theory that an anonymous person planted the script as a set up against Sanders.

On Monday the Sanders campaign admitted the script came from them. Too late to curb the zealotry which was unleashed on Warren.

I think Warren has shown restraint, but, also hope she wears a bulletproof vest.

[boston bean]

51. Maybe it is well deserved?

Could be a valid explanation b

[George II]

25. Quite a stretch, and based just on that dust up on Tuesday night?

Your first three links:

"a great record on women's issues" written in 2016 by Heather Gautney, Senior Researcher, 2016 Bernie Sanders Presidential Campaign

But remember that his previous campaign was rife with sexual abuse and harassment and he paid his female staffers roughly 70 cents on the dollar vs. males in the same job. That's why they unionized this time around.

"a great record civil rights"

From a report where 52 Senators have exactly the same rating, including every Senator that is or was running for President*, and including John Tester! Nothing to differentiate him from the other Democratic candidates.

"the only Jewish candidate in the race is accused of antisemitism"

Not by any Democrats, and your source says that the charge of antisemitism is being contemplated, he hasn't been accused of antisemitism (yet).

*Harris, Bennet, Warren, Klobuchar, Booker, Gillibrand, Brown

I stopped reading there.

[SidDithers]

27. He doesn't have a great record on women's issues or civil rights...

no matter what his campaign staff say.

It's not that he "doesn't care" about women's issues or civil rights, it's that those topics are considered to be "identity politics" and are secondary in importance to his core issue of economic injustice.

And he thinks that by fixing the economic imbalance in society, racism and sexism will be fixed too.

Which is flat out ridiculous.

Sid

[myohmy2]

35. exactly...

...it's shameful what the Bernie-Bashers are doing to a great candidate...

...shameful...

[ehrnst]

41. ...Goodness me...

...you'd think that Senator Sanders was a hothouse flower, incapable of enduring the insult of criticism of any kind...

... the lack of confidence in the strength of his ideas to stand up to posts on DU is just astonishing...

[myohmy2]

47. ...go ahead...

...joke about it...

...you are sowing seeds of division...

...

[BuffaloJackalope]

48. So, Sanders can say any damn thing away from public scrutiny

no matter how demeaning & offensive - and divisive - it is?

[Scurrilous]

49. Gender inequality is a women's issue.

A contributor to gender inequality is male self interest, thinking about your needs above the needs of others around you.

Sound familiar?

Bernie Sanders Has a Secret

“His work was to be a politician,” Guma said. “He put everything into what he was doing.”

“I don’t know what he did for money,” Troville said. “Everything was always campaigning. Everything was always organizing. Everything was always writing.”

“He was totally involved in his attempts at running for office,” Marvin Fishman, who knew him at the time, told me on the phone."

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/07/bernie-sanders-vermont-119927


“Bernie’s sexist” was just a feeling many people had..." I have a feeling Jacobin isn't letting reality intrude.


How Bernie Bros and Trumpistas See Their Guys Is Really Weird to the Rest of Us

<snip>

The editors of the left-wing magazine Jacobin and MAGA-loving artist Jon McNaughton don't let reality intrude on their hero worship.

"The hard-left magazine Jacobin makes no secret of its love for Bernie Sanders, who rarely (if ever) is criticized in the journal's pages. In fact, they dig the socialist Vermont senator so much they've made a poster of him straight out of Mussolini's cult-of personality playbook (Il Duce staged bare-chested photos of himself threshing wheat and skiing the Alps, among other things).

Does it matter that the 78-year-old millionaire recently had a heart attack and is one of the least athletic-looking figures in national politics? Not to the Bernie Bros at Jacobin. The cover is graced by a stylized image that is reminiscent of the art deco (a style in vogue internationally during the reign of Mussolini) and figures "Bernie and the Squad" as cyclists about to blow by Sleepy Joe Biden and Goofy Elizabeth Warren.

Bernie's domestiques (hey, why are women doing all the support legwork?) consist of, from left to right, Ilhan Omar, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Rashida Tlaib (I assume that the fourth member of AOC's squad, Ayanna Pressley, was dropped from the illo because she has officially endorsed fellow Massachusetts resident Warren for president). Showing some serious entrepreneurial chops, Jacobin is selling poster-size reprints of the cover for just $14.95, plus shipping and handling. They've only made 200 copies, so get yours now.



Of course, it's not just progressives who fetishize their strongmen. Jon McNaughton, whose website describes him as "an established artist from Utah whose new paintings have attracted the international attention of millions over the last few years," makes a living selling paintings of Donald Trump that walk the line between ultra-earnest kitsch and winking self-parody as expertly as Philippe Petit danced between the World Trade Center's Twin Towers back in 1974. McNaughton is nothing if not prolific and it's hard to choose a single image to represent the way he depicts Trump as superhuman. In one painting, for instance, Trump is roughing up former FBI head Robert Mueller. In "MAGA Ride," the president is riding a red-white-and-blue chopper with First Lady Melania Trump along for the ride like any other biker chick."

Link to tweet

https://reason.com/2019/11/21/how-bernie-bros-and-trumpistas-see-their-guys-is-really-weird-to-the-rest-of-us/

[lapucelle]

50. Bernie alumni seek meeting to address 'sexual violence'

The signees are looking to change what they call a pervasive culture of toxic masculinity in the campaign world.

More than two dozen women and men who worked on Bernie Sanders’ 2016 presidential campaign are seeking a meeting with the senator and his top political advisers to “discuss the issue of sexual violence and harassment on the 2016 campaign, for the purpose of planning to mitigate the issue in the upcoming presidential cycle,” according to a copy of letter obtained by POLITICO.

“In recent weeks there has been an ongoing conversation on social media, in texts, and in person, about the untenable and dangerous dynamic that developed during our campaign,” they wrote.

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/12/30/bernie-sanders-campaign-harassment-1077014

Former Bernie Sanders Staffers Voice Concerns About 'Sexual Harassment and Violence' on 2016 Campaign

https://time.com/5490813/bernie-sanders-campaign-sexual-harassment/

Be Your Own Hero — Because Bernie Is Not It

https://medium.com/@mashamendieta/be-your-own-hero-because-bernie-is-not-it-c4add2e08029

Sexism Claims From Bernie Sanders’s 2016 Run: Paid Less, Treated Worse

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/02/us/politics/bernie-sanders-campaign-sexism.html

Politico Reveals Allegations Of Sexual Harassment Against Top Sanders Campaign Aide

https://www.vpr.org/post/politico-reveals-allegations-sexual-harassment-against-top-sanders-campaign-aide#stream/0

Bernie Sanders Responds To Allegations Of Sexism, Harassment By Aides

https://www.npr.org/2019/01/03/681815362/bernie-sanders-responds-to-allegations-of-sexism-and-harassment-on-2016-campaign

Bernie Sanders says he was not aware of claims of sexism in 2016 campaign

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jan/02/bernie-sanders-campaign-sexual-harassment-allegations-2016

Bernie Sanders addresses campaign sexism and harassment claims

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/bernie-sanders-addresses-campaign-sexism-and-harassment-claims/

Bernie Sanders’ Bungled Response To Sexual Harassment Claims Won’t Cut It In 2020

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/opinion-bernie-sanders-campaign-sexual-harassment-2016-2020_n_5c2e50cce4b08aaf7a975068

Bernie Sanders Admits Mistakes in Dealing With Sexism Allegations as He Launches Bid for Presidency

https://time.com/5532361/bernie-sanders-2020/

Bernie Sanders apologizes for allegations of sexism in 2016 campaign

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/1/3/18166725/bernie-sanders-sexism-sexual-harassment-2020

Bernie Sanders Will Meet With Former Women Staffers About 2016 Campaign Sexism And Harassment

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/rubycramer/bernie-sanders-women-meeting-2016-campaign

What Bernie Sanders should have done about sexism in his campaign

https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/03/opinions/bernie-sanders-apology-opinion-kohn/index.html

Bernie Sanders apologizes to women who allege sexist treatment during his 2016 presidential campaign

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/01/02/bernie-sanders-apologizes-alleged-campaign-sexual-harassment/2469618002/

Sanders apologizes to women who said they were harassed during his 2016 campaign

https://www.politico.com/story/2019/01/03/sanders-apologizes-2016-campaign-harassment-1078250

***************************************************************************************************

****************************************************************************************************

Isn't it odd that Jacobin never covered the the whistle blowers' letter about the sexual violence, sex discrimination, and pervasive predatory culture of toxic masculinity in the BS campaign.

I wonder why?

[greatauntoftriplets]

52. Bloomberg is also Jewish.

Steyer's father was a non-practicing Jew.

Fact checking is important.