The Root: Pipe Down, Bernie Sanders

[guillaumeb]

79. So is any criticism of Democratic Party policy permitted?

This site is filled with people criticizing or supporting every aspect of the Democratic Party and its platform in the 2016 election. Is such criticism restricted to certified Democrats? Whatever that might be? And who decides what qualifies one to criticize?

Bernie Sanders, the Independent, votes with the Democrats probably as much or more often than does Joe Manchin of W. Virginia. So the idea that only certain Democrats are allowed to voice criticism seems to me to be counterproductive and illogical.

As to the phrase "working class", the last time I looked most people are working class. That term needs to be understood as a factual statement rather than seen as a purely political term. Class analysis does not in itself deny the obvious power of appealing to race as a means of division.

In my view Sanders should have constantly pointed out that race is one of the means used to divide the working class.