Why I'm not a fan of Bernie Sanders
When it comes to politics I lean left. So you would think a Leftist politician like Bernie Sanders would just my thing, and for the broad strokes, yes he is. I approve of his messaging against war, social and wealth inequality, etc, etc.
So why(If I could) wouldn't I vote for him?
1: House of cards
Bernie first came to my attention when he ran in the Democratic Presidential Primary* in 2015. And he had some very exciting proposals. It was just that most of his policy promises, relied on each other so much, that if you removed one, the whole edifice would collapse. On top of that some of the proposals while implementable immediately(Education) weren't going to produce the results he needed(raising wages - thus overall taxable income - via producing improved, better educated workforce) in time to pay for other promises. And when you factor in the fact that he would be heading into office with a guaranteed Republican majority in the Senate for his entire first term, it was debatable if he could get ANY of his policies implemented, let alone all of them.
2: Bad Policy
Even outside his election policies, many of the bills he has introduced have been badly thought out. In reality, they made good headlines - but once you looked into them, didn't do what he said they would or had repercussions he hadn't thought through.
A Poster child of this is his drug policy. As a stop-gap for the exorbitant prices people in the US pay, he put forward a bill that would allow importation of prescription medicines from outside the US. When promoting his bill he kept pointing to Canada's much lower drug prices, creating the assumption that that was where any prescription drugs would come from. The progressive side of political commentary lambasted Senator Cory Booker(D) for not supporting it, pointing to his Drug Company ties. But it turns out there were a lot of others also not supporting it, including patient advocacy groups. They pointed out, Bernie's bill didn't allow prescription medicines to be imported from just Canada. It allowed importation from anywhere in the world! So someone price shopping for drugs could be getting drugs with no verifiable manufacturing or storage standards. Medicines could also arrive Out of Date or otherwise "not fit for purpose" and there would be little anyone could do.
It should be noted, when the bill was later amended to restrict drug importation to being only from Canada, Cory Booker did support the bill.
3: Sexual Harassment Issues
Now I am not saying that Bernie has ever harrassed people or encouraged such behaviour, but there are serious questions concerning his last campaign and the atmosphere it generated which need addressing. There are some issues which are broader than just Bernie, but when earlier this year when allegations arose, he did not handle it well. When asked by CNN’s Anderson Cooper if he had been unaware of the allegations, Sanders replied, “Yes, I was a little bit busy running around the country trying to make the case.”
People like to point out that it wasn't just Bernie's campaign that had harassment issues, pointing to HRC 2008 run. But apart from the fact to date there has been a total of ONE incident brought to light in Hillary's campaign: she was notified about it and personally managed the incident. Apparently not too busy.
Of course this may have been a legitimate point, if there had been only one case. But there has been multiple allegations(TIME mentions an open letter signed by 12 women, and, at a later meeting with Bernie about the issue, 30 people were expected to attend.) Based on these numbers alone Bernie has some serious soul searching to do, and to date I have not seen any evidence that this is happening.
4: Bad Management
When it came out about sexual harassment occurring within the Bernie 2016 campaign, one thing struck me (apart from the obvious). It turned out staffers were being paid based on not their job, but what they requested. This led to pay disparities between not only men and women, but also between levels of responsibility(one of the harassment cases stemmed from a subordinate being paid more than the person they reported to.)
When reading this, my first thought was "How do you manage a budget if you don't have a pay structure?" I did in fact ask this on a forum only to be told by a Bernie supporter "that sort of thing should be managed by someone else". Admittedly this is in no way equal to a response from someone in Bernie's management team(if there is such a thing), but the implication that setting up coherent chains of responsibilities, reporting, and payments across a nation spanning organisation ISN'T something that requires oversight at the highest levels just beggars belief. And, based on testimony from staffers, there was in fact no properly set up structure of management. "Disorganized and decentralised" was the term used by multiple staffers.
The reality is, since Bernie finished as Burlington Mayor in 1989, he has not done anything to show he could run a chook raffle let alone a country. Commentators complain about people spending to long in Washington - Bernie Sanders has been there since 1990. In all that time, as an Independent* he has had no responsibilities, except to get himself re-elected.
5: Bernie is an Old White Guy
There is nothing wrong about being old OR white(I will be both someday!), but alongside his almost 30 years in Washington, there are a lot of issues that OWGs don't see, since they don't effect them. Bernie is of the mind-set that if you put policies in place that improve life for the average American, everyone will benefit equally.
So far he has had to be dragged kicking and screaming to the realisation of systemic injustice. And when someone points one bit of injustice out, sure he re-thinks his position or sets an aide to write a bit of policy, but he doesn't look outside that one issue, to see the injustices all throughout the USA. He has big ideas for rebuilding America as a fairer, more equal country, but his policies are just simple ones like Medicine, Education, Taxation. There is nothing under that to fix the deeper issues that leave large minorities of Americans at risk, both financially and bodily.
An example of this is the harassment issue I list above. One of the interesting aspects of reading into this has been seeing what the original concept of the "Bro" was. While the phrase has come to mean a rabid Bernie fan, as with the "Obama Boys" of the past. the original "Bro" was someone much more sinister.
Giulianna Di Lauro Velez (https://theintercept.com/2019/01/10/bernie-sanders-campaign-sexual-harassment-sexism) and Rebecca Traister (https://www.salon.com/2008/04/14/obama_supporters) paint eerily similar pictures 11 years apart. Even if Bernie doesn't have a specific campaign proposal every moment of his being needs to scream "This is not right" just as he likes to do on a podium when talking about drug prices. And believe me, sexism is the EASY one.
Apparently Bernie has a lot of bridges to rebuild in the Black Southern community. When he was "a little bit busy running around the country trying to make the case", apparently making his case to Black Southerners didn't mean as much once polls showed he was in a losing position. Local Black activists have complained of him cancelling rallies in their areas. This sends a bad message to even the ardent supporter. They will see you as someone who thinks they are useful in the moment and otherwise disposable.
6: Gun Policy
Go to his webpage. Look what his official policy is on Guns. Actually you don't need to. The only thing it says is Bernie is pro States Rights in the question of gun control.
The man can stand up on the stump and say how he supports this restriction and that restriction, but while his official position is States Rights, all his talk means nothing.
*7: "Bernie is an Independent"
No. He. Is. Not.
He hasn't run a truly independent race since 1992. Since then every election he has won, both House and Senate, has been on the back of winning the Democratic Primary. Bernie has been in the wonderful position of being able to maintain the moral high-ground as an "Independent" but never having to step up and negotiate a bill or policy through Congress. Bernie has the luxury of getting a stage to grandstand on with none of the responsibility that goes with preparing a show. Why should anyone trust such a man to be able to get anything he wants done through Congress? Does he really expect the Democrats to do all his work for him as usual?