Bernie Sanders, A Personal FAQ

Hey Nick, are you going to vote for Bernie Sanders?

Nope.

Why not?

He's a Democrat. I don't vote for Democrats.

Why not?

Because I'm a socialist.

But isn't Sanders a socialist?

Not really. At best he's a social democrat, and now that he has joined the Democratic Party he can't even realistically be called that.

Well, would you vote for a social democrat who wasn't in the Democratic Party?

Sure. I voted for Bernie Sanders when I lived in Vermont.

So...you're a social democrat?

No.

Well, could you unpack any of this a bit instead of just being gnomic?

This ain't a bad start.


Well, if that's true, why vote for a social democrat?

Well, Marxists organize alongside social democrats, vote for social democrats (sometimes) and then, when the social democrats turn to the right, say "See! See! This method doesn't work!"

Oh, come on! Like there were people doing that in Vermont?!

Sure there were, and are. Here's a taste, from back before you likely ever heard of Bernie Sanders.

So you're definitely not voting for Clinton then, right?

Of, fuck no.

What about the Supreme Court?

You're saying that because you've analyzed the last 100 years of court decisions based on the party of the President that appointed the justices, right? You really really have, yes, and you're going to share that analysis with me right now, right?

Uh...moving on. What about sexism! BernieBros!? Isn't the real revolution voting for a woman?

Let's ask someone from a country where they did that!



Not necessarily, eh?

Can't Bernie take over the Democratic Party and move it to the left?

No, and only temporarily on the rhetorical level, just in time for the election. See also Jesse Jackson, Jerry Brown, Howard Dean, etc. See sheepdogging.

Why can't he?

The Democratic Party represents certain interests, number one (essentially industrial capital and some elements of finance capital) and number two there are any number of safeguards in place to keep insurgents from taking over political parties. Google "superdelegates" if you like. The Democrats actually depend on superdelegates more than the Republicans do.

But sometimes you post links on FB that seem to support Bernie, or at least Bernie over Hillary, don't you?

Just because I won't be voting for Sanders doesn't mean I can't poke fun at Clinton's cretinism.

Are you calling all Clinton supporters cretins?

No. Some of you are just bloodthirsty!