Hillary Attacks Bernie, Reminds America Why She Lost

Hulu, apparently focusing on niche markets rather than anything with broad appeal representing what Americans in aggregate actually want, has produced a four-part series entitled “Hillary”, highlighting one of modern America’s most intensely disliked political figures. It is set to premiere at Sundance, but in an attempt to hype up what nobody has seen and therefore can’t label propaganda, she gave an interview with The Hollywood Reporter on a wide range of subjects, most notably her attacks on Bernie Sanders a mere two weeks before the Iowa caucuses.

It would be easy and lazy for a conservative/libertarian to merely pretend to take joy in Democratic cannibalism – but in this case? Her attacks on Bernie are unhinged distortions of reality. Had she attacked him for policy or being extreme, naive, or dismissive of basic economics, there could be common ground with at least some of her side. But, as usual, Hillary Clinton can’t even pull off that… and is so awful that the correct position is defending the damn socialist.

There are three attacks she actually leveled – all of which fell flat when stacked up against the public record.

The first was that nobody likes him. This one is completely and easily dismissed on it’s face. His support is so deep that he nearly won against her in the primary the year it was “her turn”, when she had all the machinery of the DNC behind her before the primary even began. His supporters are not just devoted, they’re primarily fanboys that practically worship him in a way reminiscent of my old Ron Paul days. More than that, he’s well respected for being principled and consistent, even among many who think he’s consistently wrong.

And dear God… Hillary passing judgment on someone’s likability? Even most of the people who voted for her because they hated Trump more were aware of how awful a person she is. Even if Hillary meant to imply that Bernie was just disliked by his colleagues in the Senate, well… That was the attack leveled against Ted Cruz. Neither man was elected to get along with others in Washington, and both are only more liked by their supporters if they don’t.

Currently, on Twitter, the hashtag #ILikeBernie is trending, promoted by people like Tulsi Gabbard in order to show that “nobody likes Bernie Sanders” is not just ridiculous, but the denial being a sense of pride in the way that Trump supporters owned Hillary’s attacks about “Deplorables”.

The second attack she leveled is that he got nothing actually done despite decades in the Senate and what she cites is so few bills in his name. In other words, she doesn’t even understand the way in which he was effective. His far left politics was able to push moderates in his direction, able to pass what he’d see as baby steps that may not have passed otherwise because of his pressure towards something even more extreme.

And it’s been incredibly effective. To the extent that his philosophy represents a significantly larger amount of government, he’s succeeded beyond the wildest dreams of pragmatic progressives of the past. He’s been in the Senate for decades, and essentially every. single. year. Government has grown. This is true of entitlements. This is true of overall government spending. This is true by the amount of regulations and federal laws. This is true measured by how many areas of human activity the federal government has assumed as their responsibility. There is almost no metric that shows government has done anything but grow, in significant ways, consistently, while he’s been in office.

Has he accomplished everything he’d like in the form he’d prefer? Of course not. But his influence has contributed to making not just Democrats more brazen and extreme, but he helped make the GOP essentially Democrat-lite and willing to expand rather than shrink government (just ‘not as much’) as the best they could offer their base. Instead of shrinking government, the GOP became the party of progressivism going the speed limit rather than doing the responsible thing of putting the car in reverse.

Seeing the passage of laws directly authored as the only way to judge the success of a legislator is an incredibly lazy way to view one’s impact. And his most lasting legacy and accomplishments? It will likely be seen only after he’s dead, accomplished by those inspired by him and his ideas carrying on his revolution. It’s not a result I’d label positive, but to pretend he was ineffective is insane.

The third attack against Bernie is the effortless, convenient victim olympics charge that he is a sexist. He ran against Hillary, who happens to be a woman. He’s running in the lane of his choosing in the 2020 primary against Warren, who is likely at least more of a woman than she is a Cherokee by a significant margin. Focus tested, implying he is a sexist fits all the boxes when only looking at those he’s caused headaches for the most.

“It’s his online Bernie Bros and their relentless attacks on lots of his competitors, particularly the women. And I really hope people are paying attention to that because it should be worrisome that he has permitted this culture — not only permitted, [he] seems to really be very much supporting it. And I don’t think we want to go down that road again where you campaign by insult and attack and maybe you try to get some distance from it, but you either don’t know what your campaign and supporters are doing or you’re just giving them a wink and you want them to go after Kamala [Harris] or after Elizabeth [Warren]. I think that that’s a pattern that people should take into account when they make their decisions.” (The Hollywood Reporter)

This comes on the heels of another manufactured scandal in the same vein. This Sanders/Warren spat… I mean the parts that are actually them rather than a proxy war between their supporters about whether Warren only appeals to affluent whites or whether Bernie scares too many people off, is a simple one.

Apparently, as the story goes… in 2018 Bernie told her a woman couldn’t be President when she talked to him about running.

The woman best known for lying about her heritage and her son going to private school. The woman being unable to convincingly drink a beer, and unwilling to admit taxes would go up to pay for her healthcare plan as a worthwhile trade-off despite being asked roughly 42 times in a row – says this happened. The guy who’s been so consistent in Congress over several decades that he’s been likened to a socialist version of Ron Paul says it didn’t.

The effect of the #MeToo movement may just mean that women are supposed to be presumed to be more trustworthy than men, but the effect of consistency in public life tells the opposite story here. This may provide a convenient line of attack for Hillary to use against a former political opponent that is among the many people (not herself) she blames for 2016, and maybe we should just, for some reason, trust her.

I never desired to write anything defending Bernie Sanders, but it’s 2020. And things are what they are. Bernie Sanders may have the wrong ideas, but not the wrong character.

I’d say the 90s called, and they want Hillary back… But America didn’t want her then either.