Say what you will about West Virginia’s Senator Joe Manchin but you have to admire his gumption. If only the “left” had someone who had as much audacity and backbone to stand up to Biden and the neoliberal cronies who have an iron grip on the Democrat caucus; instead “progressives” are stuck with cowering Twitter warriors like Bernie Sanders, AOC and the rest of the Fraud Squad who have perfected the arts of useless indignation paired with perpetual inertia.
I’ve been saying for years that Bernie could tie up the Senate if he chose to and bring everything to a screeching halt in the upper chamber of Congress in order to get his desired results. Over and over again, this factual assertion of mine was met with incredulity and enmity; Bernie Bros and Babes kept saying “he is only one man, what do you expect him to do?” This spurious defense would be followed up with some hairbrained rationalization as otherwise intelligent liberals reverted to QAnon logic by noting that Bernie was playing the long game and that we must elect more populists like him in order to effect change.
If you can afford to play the "long game" or whatever Bernie Sanders and the Squad have in mind, then congrats on the privilege
My family cannot afford the "long game"
— Nick is a Dr. Cornel West Democrat 🥋 (@SocialistMMA) August 11, 2020
Four years after he was screwed over by Hillary Clinton and less than a year after that violation was repeated by Buttigieg in Iowa in order to clear the pathway for Biden, Bernie has become a ghost of himself as he yields a symbolic gavel as the Chair of the Veterans’ Affairs Committee and plays the part of a sheepdog for establishment. He has less fight in him than a chihuahua that smoked the Cali’s finest dank; the truth is that Bernie plays the part of Rambo on Twitter only to become Bambi once he enters the US Capitol. DC hasn’t seen an ineffectual fraud like Bernie since…Bernie Sanders. He is in a league of his own; I really can’t think of a man who wasted so much potential and political capital for the sake of acceptance from the very insiders who despise him and twice destroyed his campaign.
In a Senate that is split 50/50, Bernie Sanders had the perfect chance to be a kingmaker and become an ultimate swing vote in order to leverage his position to fight for his supporters’ interests. Instead he ceded the ground to Joe Manchin and stood idle like the vacuous mannequin that he is; Bernie showed his true colors and it’s yellower than mustard. With Republicans refusing to give an inch, the only way to pass the pork-laden “stimulus” bill was through unanimous Democrat support. Manchin realized this and played hardball while Bernie jumped Double Dutch.
Interesting. The Republican Party claims to be the party of the working class. Yet, according to a recent Pew poll, 63% of lower-income Republicans support the covid relief bill that we just passed - but not one Republican voted for it. They sure LOVE working people. No doubt.
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) March 9, 2021
Manchin brilliantly coerced Democrats until he got what he wanted; every “progressive” wish was stripped out and replaced with the bullshit slogan that is “fiscal responsibility”. Funny how fiscal responsibility is abandoned when it comes to the desires of Wall Street but the prayers of the poor, working and middle-class are answered with Republican talking points. Bernie could have done what Manchin did and refused to vote “yea” until and unless a $15 minimum wage provision, Medicare for All and taxing billionaires were included. Instead, Bernie took to Twitter like a teenager in need of Adderall and vacated the field to Manchin.
I don’t know what it will take for Bernie supporters to realize that their man is a counterfeit social justice warrior who is more interested in getting retweets than he is in making an impact in the Senate. Maya Angelou once warned us to believe people when they tell us who they are; well after refusing to fight for his voters in 2016 and 2020, after declining to join the battle over the stimulus bill and stabbing his base in the back for the sake of token power in the Senate, all but deadenders and those beset by cognitive dissonance see Bernie for what he is—a shyster with a Brooklyn accent who speaks the language of poltroons.
Now that the deed is done, Bernie will no doubt rush to Twitter to offer his daily screeds against injustice and rant against the excesses of crony capitalism. Someone should tap the Cowardly Lion from Brooklyn and remind him that he is a powerful man who has the means to effect change but chooses to infect us with his meaningless diatribes and pablum worthy of Sarah Palin. While Joe Manchin flexes his muscles, Bernie will continue to curve his enthusiasm and kick his loyalists to the curb. Feel the Bern has a whole new meaning, while he plays footsies with neoliberals, @BernieSanders incinerates progressive with inaction and torches what's left of his legacy by choosing expediency over principals. #CowardlyBernie Click To Tweet
“Things gained through unjust fraud are never secure.” ~ Sophocles
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