Leftwing senator advises ‘unification of progressive people in general’ because threat from Republican ex-president is too great
Progressive US voters must unite behind Joe Biden rather than consider any of his Democratic primary challengers because the threat of another Donald Trump presidency is too great, Bernie Sanders has said.
“We’re taking on the … former president, who, in fact, does not believe in democracy – he is an authoritarian, and a very, very dangerous person,” the senator and Vermont independent, who caucuses with Democrats, said on NBC’s Meet the Press. “I think at this moment there has to be unification of progressive people in general in all of this country.”
Sanders’ remarks came as Trump continued grappling with more than 90 criminal charges across four separate indictments filed against him for his efforts to forcibly nullify his defeat to Biden in the 2020 presidential race, his illicit retention of classified documents, and hush-money payments to porn actor Stormy Daniels.
Despite the unprecedented legal peril confronting him, Trump enjoys a commanding lead over his competitors in the Republican presidential primary, polls show.
And though polling for now shows Biden generally is ahead of Trump, that has not stopped Robert F Kennedy Jr and Marianne Williamson from mounting long-shot Democratic primary challenges – or third-party progressive candidate Cornel West from running.
Sanders himself was the runner-up for the Democratic nomination in the 2016 White House race won by Trump and in 2020, with West among his supporters. But Sanders this time quickly endorsed Biden’s re-election campaign, a decision which prompted West to accuse him of only backing Biden because he is “fearful of the neo-fascism of Trump”.
The senator responded to that criticism on Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union, saying, “Where I disagree with my good friend Cornel West is – I think, in these really very difficult times, there is a real question whether democracy is going to remain in the United States of America.
“You know, Donald Trump is not somebody who believes in democracy, whether women are going to be able to continue to control their own bodies, whether we have social justice in America, [whether] we end bigotry.”
Sanders didn’t elaborate, but his remarks seemed to be an allusion to the Trump White House’s creation of the US supreme court supermajority, which last year struck down the federal abortion rights that the Roe v Wade decision had established decades earlier.
That court also struck down race-conscious admissions in higher education as well as a Colorado law that required entities to afford same-sex couples equal treatment, among other decisions lamented by progressives.
“Around that, I think we have got to bring the entire progressive community to defeat Trump – or whoever the Republican nominee will be – [and] support Biden,” Sanders added on State of the Union.
Sanders nonetheless said he planned to push Biden to tackle “corporate greed and the massive levels of income and wealth inequality” across the US. On Meet the Press, he suggested he would urge Biden to “take on the billionaire class”.
Those comments came about four months after Sanders called on the US government to confiscate 100% of any money that Americans make above $999m, saying people with that much wealth “can survive just fine” without becoming billionaires.
I’ve been having a number of conversations on Hexchan recently trying to make sense of their politics. The most common instance of their hateful hypocrisy I’ve encountered is this constant assurance that they support trans people while immediately attacking and dog piling and trans people who point out that the situation would be much worse under Trump.
I live in Massachusetts. We are a very blue state and we’re one of the best places in the world to transition. We have informed consent, legal protection of our basic rights, and mandatory insurance coverage of trans health care, which state insurance also covers. Whatever you think of the DNC, the Democrats in Massachusetts are absolutely allies of trans people who’ve worked to actively protect our rights.
Still, I’m well aware of the danger that federal law could potentially pose. I know there may be a time when I have to flee the country if things get bad enough, and that’s a lot more likely under Trump.
But they don’t actually care about my rights, happiness, or safety, or those of any other trans people. They don’t care what happens to us, they just want to use us as a bludgeon to dunk on people.
The hexchanners who aren’t actively Russian trolls seem to be little more than useful idiots for conservatives, minimizing the damage they do to vulnerable populations and engaging in high school level pettiness and hate.
Just want to mention a couple things. I work with a group that ensures that people who are trans or gay get asylum in Germany and also get reasonable safe transit. Of course I could do more, but we even brought a trans person from the US who effectively fled what you describe to the right resources so that they could get asylum here (and also into contact with the doctors so that HRT prescriptions don’t have gaps). I am involved in what is now majorly labeled queer politics since the early 90s when the FRG was a place often more restrictive than the GDR in terms of law.
I do regularly read and sometimes post on Hexbear, I read up your comments (which account for quite a bit of your posting history with this account there) and can understand some of the aspects you mention, but don’t get why you conflate the personal slights against you with an assigned bad position for them. The latter includes words like “hexchan”.
You do believe that there are some factions in some states of the USA in which the democratic party acts well and secures some of your rights, this is what you hope to strengthen when you defend the democratic party. Plenty users have not as much faith as you do (often people who do have quite a political history themselves, too) including a not small variety of trans users who answered you. Even some in the US and some of them disagree with your outlook. That is a difference of politics and a difference of mental models.
Is disingenuous at best and more reasonable slander. I get that you want to be safe - and hexbear users want that, too, for others, for themselves and for you. However they have a wide range of life stories, users from places the US bombed are posting regularly. They were bombed under Obama too, with harsh police procedures and reduction of rights for LGTBQ folk. Some want a USA that isn’t as easy at the trigger of military “intervention”. Being able to experience multiple points of view is part of a global society and internationalism which is in my eyes the only way for us non cis-endo hetero people to survive long term. Shunning a community of up to 20k users cause you have political differences and slandering them is something you can do, but it will count for what liberal privileged trans users do.
Can you please link to this hateful hypocrites I am genuinely curious.
link to the hexbear thread she participated in
Where is the transphobia? It just looks like they hate both trump and Biden?
I do believe I said “immediately attacking and dogpiling trans women who point out that the situation would be much worse under Trump”, not using transphobic slurs or whatever.
Nice astroturfing, though. I see you out here.
Okay I read your comment wrong. Sorry about that.
But referring to your thread on hexbear, it seems that they are intent on speaking bad about Biden rather than supporting trump. Which is fair since Biden and the Democratic Party have been involved in destruction of millions of lives.
The problem here seems to be American culture where you have to treat one side as the devil and one side as the god. Anyone slightly in between is accused of worshipping the devil.
You’re correct without doubt that under conservatives, bigoted policies may increase. But they are also increasing under the Democrats albeit slowly. They are barely doing anything as rights get taken away and it’s necessary to call them out for it. I can see trans rights getting demolished under any future administration because the political system in the US works against the interests of minorities.
Nope. Blocked the community and all the users who replied. Go dig around in their trashcan of an instance if you like. Or just tell them you’re trans and want to make sure Trump doesn’t get into office so you don’t have to flee the country and watch them come out of the woodwork.
You just said you’re more leftist than everyone and didn’t respond to a single comment with an actual reply
I see no one being hateful or hypocritical
No you have not. There is absolutely no pro-Trump sentiment among Hexbear users. You are full of shit.
https://hexbear.net/post/451217?scrollToComments=false