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Clinton and Sanders Shift Criticism to Praise
On Friday, both candidates backtracked. Clinton called Sanders remarks about her a “misrepresentation,” adding she doesn’t “know why he made them in the first place.” Again asked if she thought he’s qualified to be president, she said she’d “take him over Donald Trump or Ted Cruz any day.” She called debating each other’s qualifications “pretty silly,” adding elections are about “who can…get things done.”
A previous article called a Clinton/Sanders ticket likely, saying his popularity among young voters combined with most women for her look likely to defeat any Republican challengers. Allying with the most ruthlessly dangerous presidential aspirant in US history means he’ll support her pure evil, permanent war advocacy, possible confrontation with Russia, China and Iran, maybe with nuclear weapons. It should convince his diehard supporters they’ve been had, deceived by a dirty business as usual con man masquerading as populist.
By PATRICE GREANVILLE![Screen Shot 2016-04-07 at 8.16.26 PM](data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg'%20viewBox='0%200%20800%20446'%3E%3C/svg%3E)
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For a long time we have been saying that Bernie Sanders is no real socialist, that he is actually a fraud, at best an inept, weak New Deal politician incapable of taking on a mature and sophisticated gangster state. That’s not to say that an able and courageous politician could not do some damage to the plutocratic empire (as long as s/he lasted), just that we think Bernie Sanders is almost certainly not the man for the job.
Tonight, at a moment in the campaign fraught with great expectations, Sanders gave a simply shameful performance on a major platform, CBS Evening News, showing he just doesn’t have what it takes, in fact that he has the backbone of a wet noodle, and that he’s not even a savvy politico, quick and principled and righteous enough on his feet to stare down a notorious propagandist for the status quo like Charlie Rose.
Instead, in barely four minutes, Sanders collapsed, allowing Charlie Rose to browbeat him without penalty into an ignominious retreat, forcing him into a babbling admission that he would, indeed, at the proper time, deliver the alienated flock—his fabled “Sandernistas”— back into the unrepentant, unreconstructed Democratic party fold. No wonder many have accurately pegged Sanders as a sheepdog, for that is the actual role he will eventually play in this pathetic election.
The exchange was instructive as even a 4th-grader might have shown a stiffer spine than Sanders. After all what kind of self-respecting candidate would have failed to push back against Rose’s transparent and highly unprofessional badgering (not to mention his free-of-charge endorsement of Hillary Clinton)? Well, not only did the “people’s candidate” fail to respond in kind, but, pressed by Rose, sheepishly conceded he was not prepared to blame anyone for the Iraq War, and certainly not Hillary, despite the fact this woman was and remains a key player in the facilitation of many heinous imperial crimes—from Iraq to Libya and Syria, Honduras, etc., and, if elected, probably many more demanded by her true constituency—the US plutocracy. Some champion! I suppose Sanders’ excuse for his craven retreat is that we must all jump on the ABT (Anyone But Trump) bandwagon or else the sky will fall. Haven’t we heard that kind of dishonest argument before?
Charlie Rose is a master of urbane manipulation.
Given these facts, we reiterate our position: the only sane and effective posture is to stay home on Nov. 4th. And continue to oppose and organize. America desperately needs a movement, and one Not controlled by either of the wings of the corporate owned duopoly. It needs an oppositional movement with the kind of leadership that will assure survival against the inevitable persecution laid out by the forces of repression: legal, judicial and extra-judicial, for those will surely come. Meantime, do not vote. The system needs the circus of these useless, no-real-choice elections for its own self-legitimating propaganda, both before clueless Americans and the rest of the world. Deny it this legitimacy by not participating in elections, while agitating for fundamental change at all levels. There’s no working democracy left in America. Wherever it counts, illegitimate plutocratic power has made such public elections a farce, irrelevant, useless, and a shell of what they are supposed to be in a true democracy. The government by the super-rich and for the super-rich is no democracy. Say no to their criminal and cynical game. Understand the problem and work to build genuine alternatives. The United States and the world it drags around are dying from lack of genuine democratic leadership. It’s really up to you.
Patrice Greanville serves as TGP’s editor in chief.
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Bernie Sanders clarifies comments about Hillary Clinton’s qualifications
A commenter on YouTube could not contain himself:
Jai Guru Deva Om