
Bernie Sanders' Political Revolution - josho
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/bernie-sanders-political-revolution-20151118
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josho
I know this isn't normal fare for this crowd, but I'm genuinely interested in
the perception of Bernie from Americans.

As your northern neighbor what I'm hearing from Bernie is what I had hoped we
would have seen from Obama. But I'm really curious how Americans react when
they see someone describe themself as a democratic socialist.

~~~
ddingus
This American is too, and for similar reasons. Our last President put me
firmly in the "left" camp. I was a Republican for a number of years. Honestly,
I am not entirely sure what the party is now. I don't recognize it, and have
genuine concern over it's ability to govern in a rational, meaningful way.
Scary, to be blunt. Some of my former party is, "rubs shit in hair on TV"
crazy too, to be blunt again.

No joke. What happened? I have my ideas, but I'll save those for another day.
You asked for impressions, and I put that there for context. (sorry to my
Republican friends here. I don't mean it bad, but that is how I really feel
and I don't like that I feel that way at all.)

I'm in. Bernie has put a policy vision out there that is very well aligned
with the best interests of most Americans. It's needed and appropriate right
now.

Anecdotally, I can tell you:

A lot of my peers are very interested in Bernie. They worry over his ability
to win the general election, and that's well justified given the state of our
political dialog at present. It's largely broken, and there is a very strong
economic bias in the media and much of education aligned against the ideas
Bernie is advancing. And this, despite considerable history and data from
other parts of the world that offer solid support for those ideas.

Young people are looking at Bernie. He doesn't have the sparkle Obama has.
But, his message is resonant. Many have expressed considerable frustration to
me. They don't see the value of participation. When reminded of our 8 years of
Bush, they do give that some consideration.

I could sum this up as, "They are inclined to vote for whoever Bernie ends up
voting for, if they vote at all."

Back to my peers: I'm rather ordinary in the scheme of things as are most of
my peers. They are a variety of types, men, women, business owners, C and V
level people, working people, minorities, etc... Mostly middle class, with a
few outliers. I'm a middle aged, fairly well educated, ordinary white guy. :)

Well educated peers seem to focus on the practicalities. They know all the
socialist FUD is garbage, but they also know an awful lot of people buy that
garbage. Clinton is the favorite, and she's moderate risk too. They like
moderate risks, and they like that, because they've had their share of trouble
and remember the late '00's well.

Some of the more politically active ones are worried about the party
excitement being tepid and how that can actually turn into non votes and how
that empowers the Republican party. I have few peers very interested in the
Republican party beyond entertainment purposes.

Most of my peers worry the Republicans could win, given enough apathy and or
some serious mistake or gaffe on the part of Democrats. This also favors
Clinton, as it's the stable, more expected, more moderate path. Extremism
isn't favorable in most of my peers view. That's associated with controversy
and that with bad economic times.

Most of my peers are worried about economic times. They have kids, those kids
are living as a group suffering very significant unemployment and little
buying power in a world that demands more of both from them. Bernie is
attractive, but risky. What to do?

That question is being asked by more people than I expected.

I know a few people giving to Bernie regularly. I am. And that's unusual for
my circle of familiar people. It's even more unusual to talk about it much.

I have been asked to do that by interested and motivated people twice, and
it's not even election year. I find that notable.

Most of my peers are lefties of some sort or other. Nearly all of them are
solid left on social issues. No brainer there. Why make life harder for some
of us over what are pretty lame justifications, if they even are? Good, that's
sorted, moving on then. Seriously, live and let live, and no one I know is
without their gay friends and women struggling with various things. Minorities
are familiar to many of my peers as well, some being minorities. There is a
lot of basic unity on this. Surprising, but a solid trend for a while now. If
I were to guess, based on conversations, it's like difficult economic times
became a distinct priority over deciding who are "those other people" and what
we should do about them and "those things they do" Also, my younger peers, and
my own kids, have a very clear difference, and that is they don't like posers.
It's better to be honest about who you are than to present some facade or
other. This is inverted from my own youthful experiences. Also notable.

Economically, they vary. Most are moderate, some are extreme in spots, like
markets vs government, and a few are right leaning, anti tax, privatize types.
Of that group, most do not express any love for Clinton at all, and I've had
one ask direct questions about Bernie and what socialism is. As in: "Isn't
that evil? What am I missing?" kinds of questions and those dialogs have been
somewhat interesting. My peers who are strongly aligned with the right have
their doubts and really do wish there were more options, mostly Libertarian
ones.

Hope more people post impressions on this thread. It might be an interesting
bit of anecdotal data...

Greets Neighbor!

I have resolved it largely along the lines my younger peers have. I'll be
voting for whoever Bernie votes for.

If that's Bernie voting for himself, great! God speed, and hope we win! If
not, then I'll feel pretty good about that person, likely Clinton, who will
likely do us some good, just not maybe the better good we might want. I can
easily live with that. Obama did about the same, and it's definitely better
than what we had before Obama.

 __I rattled this off as a rough summary of the conversations I 've had over
the last few months. It's just anecdotal impressions, what you asked for.

