The White Entitlement of Some Sanders Supporters

[BobbyDrake]

As read on The Daily Beast:

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/06/05/the-white-entitlement-of-some-sanders-supporters.html

“Killary Clinton is stealing the nomination and the system is rigged against Bernie Sanders,” said the two young white guys standing behind me in line. They rambled incessantly about how she was cheating and could not be trusted. Superdelegates were their greatest frustration. Unelected delegates who could “decide” the nomination proved that the process was a sham that was intentionally set up to prevent Sanders from winning.

snip

The more I reflected on them, the more I realized the key point: They felt entitled to win, and a defeat meant that someone must have cheated or that their opinions did not matter, which of course couldn’t be true. They preferred to suspend reality and fabricate injustices rather than concede that Sanders has lost fair and square.

snip

These guys could not understand this struggle. They wanted immediate success and gratification, and they were not used to things not going their way. The issues and the lives of others had become irrelevant. All they wanted was for me to agree that they had been unjustly cheated, and that “Killary” and the DNC had rigged everything against them. I could not agree, so I had to walk away.

snip

A beguiling component of Sanders’s campaign is how the unintentional white tribalism that has been forged on shared economic hardships has boosted his campaign, while at the same time rendering him unappealing to the minorities he needed to win the nomination.

My brother and I are 3 years apart in age, roughly. I'm a Clinton supporter, along with the rest of most of my family. The difference between us? I'm a middle child, and he is "the baby." As in, "got everything he ever wanted," and "was never responsible for chores the way the rest of us were," and "basically lived an unrealistic lifestyle before having to make his way in the world." My parents bought my brother a new Honda Accord after he went to a trade school on scholarship, because that was the money they'd saved for him for college, but when he got a job with a union shop where "foreign" cars weren't allowed in the parking lot, he sold a well-built, fuel-efficient vehicle for pennies, all so he could buy a gas-guzzling American truck. Just to fit in among a mindless union shop. And that's the kind of thinking that brought him to Bernie Sanders, I guess. (This isn't a dig against unions, just against the brainless groupthink that can govern them most of the time.)

Sanders and Trump truly are two sides of the same coin, and that coin IS white entitlement, no doubt about it.

[beachbum bob]

1. I would refine this to "generation" entitlement and bernie has little support

with adult voters...those of us over 45....I see the same attitude with sanders supporters I see in several reddit forums like the personal fiance where they don't feel accountable for the mess they have made with college debt, personal debt...etc....that they are :the victim" and not the one who is responsible....sanders message is hey..."we are the victims" and its not our individual fault that we mess up....almost echos the huge push of the "self-esteem" bullcrap....where we have those that don't like to have nether winners or loser becasues it bad to inflict self-esteem issues on our kids


of course this make the kids pretty useless in real the world and thats what so much of today in sanders, his message and his followers

[BobbyDrake]

3. No argument here. Those are all good points.

I think Sanders draws his support from older former hippies and younger people who clearly want to be the next generation of hippies. The language they use sometimes, much of it seems to be about a system built on romantic or idealized ideas that just don't exist in the real world (outside some fiction novels, that is). It is very much like a religious movement, not just a political one.

“When religion and politics travel in the same cart, the riders believe nothing can stand in their way. Their movements become headlong - faster and faster and faster. They put aside all thoughts of obstacles and forget the precipice does not show itself to the man in a blind rush until it's too late.” ~Frank Herbert, Dune

[Cha]

2. Good Grief they're brainwashed.. sanders did that.. and

he still lost. I think that is just one of many egregious missteps.. why.

[BobbyDrake]

4. It makes me sad that the next generation of "progressives" is so hopelessly gullible. nt

[Cha]

5. It's really sad.. but we can always hope for the Pendulum to swing..

and a sea change takes place.

This wasn't cool @ all what did.. and I do believe in Karma. I think he wants to make sure that Hillary's midterm elections make it hard for her to get anything done.

It's our job to GOTV in spite of what he's done.

He'll keep having rallies even when he's in the Senate.. he won't be denied.

[BobbyDrake]

6. IDK, those rallies aren't cheap. Who is going to fund them going forward?

And how are they going to explain why money that could be spent on building a movement is being wasted on glorified photo-ops?

[Cha]

7. Oh that's right.. but he can fund raise off of every perceive slight he feels from Hillary..

"Keep sending in those $27 for the next big rally boys and girls!.. that's our movement!" lol

This is a perfect description of sanders.. have you seen it? I just saw that you did..

The Bernie Sanders I Thought I Knew Is Gone

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1107&pid=155635

You see, for Bernie, it’s still all about Bernie. It’s still about a god’s rise. He can’t accept Hillary’s rise and triumph — even if his denial risks the fate of the country. Has any politician in recent memory ever abandoned so much to achieve so little?[/div]

[Thinkingabout]

8. One of these days the young supporters will say they are sure

Glad they did not get him elected, it avoided a very large debt in which they would be paying.

[Surya Gayatri]

9. Wow, SO spot on. Thanks for posting.

[BobbyDrake]

10. I just thought it was a great example of the leeway that young white voters enjoy.

And the author, a black man, was quite clear that minorities don't have the same luxury. I thought it was a well-written piece, worth sharing.

Even if the primary is all but over.

[Surya Gayatri]

11. "...all but over!" Yippppeeeeeeeeee!

[BlueMTexpat]

12. Absolutely spot on.

This ...

The more I reflected on them, the more I realized the key point: They felt entitled to win, and a defeat meant that someone must have cheated or that their opinions did not matter, which of course couldn’t be true. They preferred to suspend reality and fabricate injustices rather than concede that Sanders has lost fair and square.

Yes - and the generational point made is also spot on!