Con Man Bernie Sanders for President
by Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org – Home – Stephen Lendman)
Sanders is a human equivalent of an undemocratic Dem Trojan horse, a con man throughout his political career as Burlington, VT mayor, House and Senate member.
His voting record belies his public advocacy – like other dirty politicians, time and again saying one thing, doing another, voting 98% of the time along party lines, his soul for sale at the right price like virtually the entire Congress. Rare exceptions prove the rule.
He’s America’s most popular con man, fooling many people some of the time, his foolhardy supporters most of the time. He’s a progressive socialist in name only, never the real thing.
Tuesday on Vermont public radio, he announced his candidacy for president in 2020, saying:
“I wanted to let the people of the state of Vermont know about this first. And what I promise to do is, as I go around the country, is to take the values that all of us in Vermont are proud of — a belief in justice, in community, in grassroots politics, in town meetings.”
“That’s what I’m going to carry all over this country. I think the current occupant of the White House is an embarrassment to our country.”
“I think he is a pathological liar…I also think he is a racist, a sexist, a homophobe, a xenophobe, somebody who is gaining cheap political points by trying to pick on minorities, often undocumented immigrants.”
He lied about the agenda he’ll follow if elected president. He’s right about Trump, dead wrong claiming “any objective observer would confirm…that in the last year and half or so, the Democratic party (sic) has moved in a far more progressive direction than they were before I ran for president.”
There’s nothing democratic about supporting wars of aggression, color revolutions, old-fashioned coups, neoliberal harshness, and police state crackdowns on nonbelievers.
Sanders once shamefully called Hugo Chavez “a dead communist dictator.” After usurper in waiting Guaido illegally declared himself interim Venezuelan president, Sanders turned truth on its head, saying:
“The Maduro government in Venezuela has been waging a violent crackdown on Venezuelan civil society, violated the constitution by dissolving the National Assembly and was re-elected last year in an election that many observers said was fraudulent.”
All of the above are bald-faced Big Lies. Adding “the economy is a disaster,” he failed to mention US economic, financial and sanctions war, along with low oil prices.
Nor did he denounce Guaido’s illegal power grab and the Trump regime coup attempt, saying only that “we must not go down that road again,” a way inadequate remark.
Throughout his political career, he’s been a loyal servant of powerful interests like other undemocratic Dems, pretending otherwise.
He’s more opportunist than populist or progressive, doing pathetically little in Congress for things he claims to support – universal healthcare a glaring example.
His Senate vote could have killed Obamacare, a healthcare rationing scheme based on the ability to pay, designed to enrich insurers, drug industry bandits, and large hospital chains at the expense of Medicare for all – everyone in, no one left out, what he supports in name only.
His dirty business as usual voting record belies his call for revolutionary change, a wolf in sheep’s clothing like other duopoly power pols.
If otherwise, he wouldn’t be presidential material. His support for Israel’s killing machine is especially troubling, backing its wars on Gaza, naked aggression by any standard.
He blames Hamas for Israeli high crimes. He supported Senate legislation, calling on the UN to rescind the Goldstone report – exposing Israel’s December 2008-January 2009 slaughter and destruction on the Strip.
He opposes Palestinian statehood based on pre-June 1967 borders – 22% of historic Palestine unless Israel willingly goes along, an impossibility.
He supports vetoing Security Council resolutions on Palestinian statehood without a settlement – based on Israeli imposed terms.
He ignores US support for ISIS, al-Qaeda, its al-Nusra offshoot, and other terrorist groups. He called US aggression in Syria a “civil” conflict, saying settling it “requires Assad’s departure.”
He’s hostile to Iran, Russia, China, and other nations on the US target list for regime change, supporting illegal sanctions war on these countries – instead of forthrightly denouncing what’s going on in these and other nations.
He called for “a unified stance with our international allies in order to effectively address (nonexistent) Russian aggression” – ignoring the real thing supported by nearly all Republicans and Dems, including himself, endless US wars against humanity.
On his feelthebern site, he said “(t)he entire world has got to stand up to Putin.” The “entire world has got to” condemn US war on humanity Sanders supports through silence and voting for what demands opposition.
After ignoring Hillary’s 2016 primary triumphs in New York, Massachusetts, Nevada, Arizona, and elsewhere by election-rigging, Sanders endorsed her – the most ruthlessly dangerous presidential aspirant in US history, instead of denouncing her extremism, the threat she’d pose to world peace as commander-in-chief of the US military.
Sanders is part of the problem, not the solution, a dirty politician like most others in Washington. The 2016 Dem party platform he endorsed ignored US naked aggression, war-profiteering, Wall Street grand theft, putting privilege and profits over the general welfare, while turning a blind eye to growing censorship and tyranny.
Like most others in Washington, Sanders backs what just societies deplore. On the wrong side of vital issues, his voting record reveals the true measure of the man – a figure to oppose, along with other undemocratic Dems and Republicans.
VISIT MY NEW WEB SITE: stephenlendman.org (Home – Stephen Lendman). Contact at [email protected].
My newest book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III."
