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Bernie's not watching the same Kamala clips as I am if he thinks she's ignoring the working class. Your definition of working class: "a white man with his sleeves rolled up, not a Honduran woman cleaning houses, wondering what she’s going to do now that she’s discovered she’s pregnant and she lives in Texas" is spot on, too.

But even if we stick to the Bernie version of "working class," she is spending a ton time in union halls. A ton. And she can't fight misogyny on her own. If Bernie wants to really help, he should say to men, loud and clear: "Man up and vote for Kamala."

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Thank you for this comment!!

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Hoo boy, I agree with you one thousand percent about Bernie. Thank you. I still can't watch Sarandon in anything because of 2016.

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I can’t either!! And it’s too bad, because some of those movies are damn good.

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You capture my disdain for Sanders and his cadre of sycophants. They more than anything were key contributing factors that led to the first Trump administration.

I remember my timeline on Twitter being clogged with Bernie Bros behaving as bad as and often worse than the MAGA groupies.

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There were horrible. You should see the vile stuff listeners called in/wrote in when I was on a radio tour with my book on the election and got invited to “progressive” radio shows. And I agree, they more than helped elect Trump. That’s one of the arguments in my book, and it earned me their forever hatred.

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I remember the shit show that they were spewing on Twitter, and the whole “Rose” twitter phenomenon. The worst of that ilk was Brianna Joy Gray.

I saw that she has joined Substack, and I blocked her instantly, I do not need her horrible takes anywhere near my notes feed

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Oct 20Liked by Susan Bordo

I’m an old white man who voted for Bernie in my state primary, but voted enthusiastically for HCR in the general election. I warned my “Bernie Bro” friends to hold their noses if they had to, but vote for Hillary because Trump would warp the Supreme Court. In my state it didn’t really matter because Clinton won easily, but unfortunately it did in others.

I like the basics of Bernie’s economics, but have always doubted that he has the temperament for President. Joe Biden’s superpower is his ability to keep his eyes on the prize, accept 70% success as a win, and work with anyone and everyone to get there. Bernie has none of that, but I suspect Harris does so I joyfully voted for her and blue all down my ballot.

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I like your trajectory! Believe it or not, when I was in my early 20’s my ideas were pretty much the same as Bernie’s. (If you’re an old white man, you and I are probably close in age, too.) But a lot has happened since then, and some of us have been more attentive to those changes. Some of the basics are still attractive, but Bernie talks as though they’ve come down from heaven directly to him. On a tablet, inscribed in stone. And, as you say, he’s constitutionally incapable of looking at the larger picture. He had every right to challenge Clinton in the primary—although some of his tactics were contemptible—but once she was nominated, he just couldn’t let go. And still can’t!! He’s a phenomenon!

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Oct 21Liked by Susan Bordo

I like Bernie right where he is, in the Senate pushing Social Democrat ideas. I’ve always liked Elizabeth Warren, but also like her better in the Senate than White House. Both seem better at presenting ideas and facts than they are at building the coalition needed to actually run a successful presidency. A Senator can be narrowly focused on a particular issue or state, but the President has to serve a huge, diverse country knowing they can never please everyone. I think Harris has the temperament for it, not sure the other two do. Plus she’s younger than them.

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Oct 20Liked by Susan Bordo

Can anyone cite legislation that “Career politician” Sanders has introduced or gotten passed? Working class my butt. The “man of the people” owns three houses. The gun owning white man from very white Vermont stays silent on guns when the shootings happen. Search what wife Jane did to Burlington College before she bailed. They’re both disingenuous about a LOT of things. We do know the Russians have given money to the NRA. Connect the dots. Kamala should ignore Sanders. She has great instincts. *That’s* what “Kamala SHOULD do.”

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Uggh, you just reminded me about Jane! I’d pretty much banished her from my mind. Now I’m seeing her in there, and UGGH.

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Oct 20Liked by Susan Bordo

This is pretty typical of a narcissist.

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I believe he’s gotten a couple of post offices renamed, in his own bill in the senate. Otherwise he just jumps on the works of others.

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Oct 20Liked by Susan Bordo

Susan, I saw an interview with Bernie when he was first elected mayor of Burlington. He was saying identical things to what he says today. He’s an extraordinarily spoiled one trick pony.

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He got his script in the 60’s, when privileged white kids first discovered income inequality. It’s basically the unrevised Marxist playbook, which (and you can excuse Marx but not Bernie, as Marx was writing in the 19th century) has no racial or gender analysis at all. And despite a bit of lip service to race but NO understanding of gender at all, Bernie has stayed with it.

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Kamala has done an awesome job and Bernie has always bothered me as (as the other commenters say) a self congratulatory narcissist who can’t seem to say anything new ever. I had the privilege of early voting for Kamala yesterday in NC (it took an hour 45 minutes because my small city really only has one super close early voting location). My daughter (almost 5) waited with me and mostly talked to people on the line (I could honestly tell they were likely Republicans by their tshirts because they wore various Christian themed shirts like Faith over Fear or Freedom and Faith, etc). We mostly chatted with each other and people asked whether she was in elementary school yet because she is so tall like my husband. I was proud of her for waiting (mostly) patiently, and I was glad to have this opportunity to go ahead and vote for Kamala because I have really been blown away this week by how well she handled everything.

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I also live in a red state, and one of my daughter’s proudest days (she’s now 25) and mine was when she voted for the first time. I have Harris/Walz signs all over the front lawn and window—I live in Lexington, which is one of the two blue islands in a sea of red—but won’t let her drive my car because of the ones on my car too.

Congratulations on casting your vote early!! Can’t wait to do mine!!

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Oct 20Liked by Susan Bordo

I share your disdain for Bernie and can only stand to read about him in short bursts so I have to go back and read your essay some more. Often, the excellence of your prose will get me through the disturbing content, but I’ve lost friends and family over Bernie and it’s still painful.

It’s been clear for a while, and your essay demonstrates this to great effect, that Bernie is a narcissist. Not malignant like Donald, but nevertheless living a lie. Like Donald, he has a cult who is willing—was willing in 2016—to throw the whole country under the bus. Indeed, the only thing that Bernie has accomplished is to have amassed a large group of followers who seem to have no issues at stake besides supporting Bernie.

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Agree with all of this. I actually felt a little nauseous after writing the piece because it revived my anger. But when he had the nerve to go on MSNBC to tell Kamala what she “had to do to win,” I just couldn’t let it go by.

And yes, very much a narcissist. And maybe not so non-malignant either. After all, he helped give us Trump in 2016!

Hope you and your family are well. Cassie and Edward (who is still teaching, running, and riding his bike) are doing fine. They’re upset about the country, too, but are better at not letting it disturb their days than I am!

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I think you nailed it- this is an ego problem. In his segment Bernie takes care to mention he’s not a Democrat but caucuses with them. It’s critical to his sense of self that he’s seen as being the Lone Ranger fighting for the working man. I don’t think he understands that women’s issues are the country’s issues. And he doesn’t want to give more than grudging credit to any woman. There’s a reason we know his followers as Bernie Bros even though women supported his campaigns too.

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“I don’t think he understands that women’s issues are the country’s issues.” Exactly. Remember when he called Planned Parenthood an “establishment” organization? He owes us all an apology for calling reproductive issues “peripheral” in 2016. Of course, we’ll never get that apology!

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Oct 20Liked by Susan Bordo

Worse than an ego problem. Look up narcissism in the DSM and it will all become clear.

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Oh my gosh! Thank you for putting into words the frustration/anger I feel towards both Bernie Sanders and Michael Moore

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You’re welcome!! This is why I do it. In writing like this and other places, I think of myself as an “anger-translator.” A voice for the pissed-off!!

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Oct 21Liked by Susan Bordo

Absolutely frustrating that even l“progressive” men cannot help themselves. Constantly mansplaining to women. Yes, I am glad they are on the right side of history but really? Get over yourselves guys, get the woman elected and then let’s solve every fucking issue in the entire world.

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Didn’t Bernie refuse to share his mailing list with Hillary? I wonder if he has shared it with Kamala. I’m betting not.

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Yup, I remember. Grrrrrr.

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I am bored silly with the dickcockracy telling Kamala what she should do, and with the dogmatic ‘holier than thou’ attitudes of both the far right and the far left. The incessant posing while we are all threatened with tyranny, environmental disaster and the attack on equal rights is pathetic. None of these dangers are as immediately threatening to most men and so they continue on with their self important drivel instead of standing up and fighting for Kamala . Do they think that her proposals for mortgage down payments, tax credits for people with newborns, or getting people who actually believe in equal rights on the Supreme Court matters more than their own ideology or not? Have they even noticed that Walz has a pretty progressive record? Maybe jealous that Tim get and Kamala get results?

Thanks for writing this, I needed to know that I’m not alone in my frustration with Bernie. Maybe AOC needs to have a chat with him.

Happy Birthday Madam President 🌊🌊🌊🌊🌊🌊🌊

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For some reason, I’m blocked from “liking” this comment. But it’s letting me comment. So I will: You are far from alone!! I would have gone crazy during the past decade without my FB friends who are sick of the self-aggrandizing dogmatism of both the extreme right and the extreme left. Why am I blocked from liking your comment?

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Now I have to check all 134 stacks I read. All I can think of is that I must have pushed the wrong button in a middle of the night session of reading until I get sleepy.

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I just found that I did have you blocked, I certainly didn’t intend that.

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OK, good to know!!

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I don’t know , I’m flattered that you would like my comment . I’ll look at my settings.

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Oct 20Liked by Susan Bordo

I don't get the Bernie thing with the democrats. I really don't. He is not a democrat and yet they let him f**k up their primaries and then the election. He is constantly on State of the Union on CNN and I have yet to figure out why he is on there. He was years ago a true spoiler for Hillary. So of course they had him on. But I don't know why anyone still gives him the time of day. He's a narcissistic nasty old commie geezer (a real lover of the Soviet Union) without one ounce of redeeming value.

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We are on the same page again, girl!

As to what’s been wrong with the Democrats, I could write a whole stack, even a book, on that!

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The backstabbing needs to stop.

Every sane person should be focused on comprehensively ending Orange Con Don’s and VD Jance’s shot at the title.

We in the rest of the world are begging to you yeet those fuckers into the stratosphere. Please! 🙏

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Australia.

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“In the rest of the world”—where do you live, Kate? And can I move there if Trump gets elected?

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Thank you. I’ve been preaching this message for eight years, and those Bernie bros are still digging in their fucking heels. 😒

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Yeah. They’re stubborn like Bernie.

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