# Bernie Sanders to give his own State of the Union response **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [January 29, 2018, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bernie-sanders-to-give-his-own-state-of-the-union-response/807758 "2018-01-29T20:01:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2018, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bernie-sanders-to-give-his-own-state-of-the-union-response/807758/21 "2018-01-30T01:29:38Z")
> [@Johnny\_Ace](#): > > In other words, you haven’t looked at him in any way and simply double down on your criticism of him. No problem, the President does it too, right? Lol, seriously? I guess it was because he is such a hard worker that he was unopposed in both of his primary and offerex the governor candidacy. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Ace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/6bbea6/32.png) [@Johnny\_Ace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Ace)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2018, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bernie-sanders-to-give-his-own-state-of-the-union-response/807758/22 "2018-01-30T01:33:29Z")
> [@CarnalK](#): > > Lol, seriously? I guess it was because he is such a hard worker that he was unopposed in both of his primary and offerex the governor candidacy. Tripling down, and still you know nothing about him except what I’ve posted and his famous last name. Looks like the Trump virus is catching. To use his word, Sad. ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2018, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bernie-sanders-to-give-his-own-state-of-the-union-response/807758/23 "2018-01-30T01:38:27Z")
> [@Johnny\_Ace](#): > > Tripling down, and still you know nothing about him except what I’ve posted and his famous last name. > > Looks like the Trump virus is catching. To use his word, Sad. Ok. You love your golden boy. I get it. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2018, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bernie-sanders-to-give-his-own-state-of-the-union-response/807758/24 "2018-01-30T02:15:06Z")
> [@dalej42](#): > > The only thing I want to hear Bernie Sanders say is that he’s sorry for helping to elect Trump. I am so sick of this shit. If Bernie was added to the ticket as the VP, HRC would have won, but no. If almost any other Dem led the ticket, Trump would have lost. If HRC had actually paid attention to the rustbelt at all she would have won despite being HRC. Stop blaming Bernie for Hillary somehow being a worst candidate then the orange nutjob that won. Oh, I agreed with the first part of your Op, Bernie shouldn’t bother with a State of the Union response. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Ace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/6bbea6/32.png) [@Johnny\_Ace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Ace)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2018, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bernie-sanders-to-give-his-own-state-of-the-union-response/807758/25 "2018-01-30T02:29:51Z")
> [@CarnalK](#): > > Ok. You love your golden boy. I get it. Wrong, bub. I hate bullshit. Especially ignorant bullshit. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2018, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bernie-sanders-to-give-his-own-state-of-the-union-response/807758/26 "2018-01-30T02:46:30Z")
> [@Johnny\_Ace](#): > > Maybe to get elected, but he’s one of the hardest-working, most serious people in the House. He’s also excellent at fundraising, which ingratiates him greatly with the Party. And, he passed up an invitation to run for MA governor to remain a Representative. > > Might be a good idea to find out a little about the guy before you pop off about him. Do you realize a significant portion of the voters are tired of dynastic families. Most of us would be very happy to never have another Bush, Kennedy or Clinton run for President. Of course I would take a Kennedy over Trump but that is another story. ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2018, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bernie-sanders-to-give-his-own-state-of-the-union-response/807758/27 "2018-01-30T04:25:02Z")
> [@Johnny\_Ace](#): > > Wrong, bub. I hate bullshit. Especially ignorant bullshit. Calling him one of the hardest working members of Congress is about the most classic piece of political campaign bullshit there is. So maybe you don’t hate it so much? And from his wiki, I assume this is what you mean by how “serious” he is: > [@](#): > > On July 24, 2013, Kennedy was one of seven members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) who voted against the Amash-Conyers amendment to limit Section 215 of the Patriot Act, which tried to restrict NSA surveillance programs. In contrast, a majority of both CPC members and of Democratic members of Congress voted for the amendment, while Kennedy stood out as a supporter of the party leadership. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Ace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/6bbea6/32.png) [@Johnny\_Ace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Ace)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2018, 6:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bernie-sanders-to-give-his-own-state-of-the-union-response/807758/28 "2018-01-30T06:55:29Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > Do you realize a significant portion of the voters are tired of dynastic families. Most of us would be very happy to never have another Bush, Kennedy or Clinton run for President. Of course I would take a Kennedy over Trump but that is another story. I’d take Mickey Mouse over Trump…but not Ted Cruz. That’s not the point, anyway. CK, because of his automatic presumption of ‘guilt,’ doesn’t even bother to check into it before casting baseless aspersions (three times). At least this time he managed to cherry-pick a single vote. And yes, a lot of people do that, especially Republicans. CK can’t even use that excuse. ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2018, 9:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bernie-sanders-to-give-his-own-state-of-the-union-response/807758/29 "2018-01-30T09:26:02Z")
We wouldn’t want Americans to know there are other options and lines of thought than center-right and extreme-right. The horror. What a surprise that another one of these comes from Dale. Bernie didn’t do shit to cost Hillary the election. It’s not like he told people to write him in or stay home and not vote or anything - he was out there unambiguously screaming that people needed to defeat Trump and vote for Hillary from the moment she had the nomination. He was one of Hillary’s biggest cheerleaders. So how did he do all this supposed damage? By showing Americans that there were people out there that actually spent their lives genuinely trying to serve the public and not their corporate sponsors? The horror. We definitely need to get rid of that. The idea of a state of the union response is stupid. The state of the union is a constitutionally mandated responsibility of the president. Our media is so incredibly bad at presenting an actual reasonable, balanced viewpoint that this weird token effort seems comically misplaced. Maybe we could try being responsible and balanced where it makes sense and matters rather than pretend that a presidential cheerleading speech needs some sort of counterpoint. But this apparently isn’t even a media thing. Bernie is streaming a response for people who want to hear Bernie talk about this issue to voluntarily seek out. Objecting to that is incredibly obnoxious. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2018, 10:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bernie-sanders-to-give-his-own-state-of-the-union-response/807758/30 "2018-01-30T10:29:50Z")
> [@CarnalK](#): > > Ok. You love your golden boy. I get it. 😕 Why the peculiar antipathy against an admirable public servant? And then you go all the way to … Wikipedia! … to find a single centrist vote you disapprove of? Al Gore, Jr. was the son of a Senator. In your “thinking” did that make him ineligible for public office? ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2018, 11:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bernie-sanders-to-give-his-own-state-of-the-union-response/807758/31 "2018-01-30T11:57:35Z")
> [@SenorBeef](#): > > Bernie didn’t do shit to cost Hillary the election. It’s not like he told people to write him in or stay home and not vote or anything - he was out there unambiguously screaming that people needed to defeat Trump and vote for Hillary from the moment she had the nomination. He was one of Hillary’s biggest cheerleaders. So how did he do all this supposed damage? He did the damage by not quitting before the rules the Democratic establishment wrote said he had to quit. Also by not joining the Democratic party before the rules the Democratic establishment wrote said he had to join. Also by not staying in the Democratic party after the the point that the rules the Democratic establishment wrote said he had to stay. Also he probably wore white after Labor Day or something. Sanders was very clear from the beginning of his run that he didn’t much expect to win, but he wanted to make sure that certain issues crucial to progressives would be discussed. He did far, far better than anyone (okay, me) thought he would do, because those issues really resonated with a lot of people. He stayed in as long as he thought doing so would be an effective way to signal-boost his concerns; once that was no longer effective, he fully and unambiguously endorsed Clinton, but continued to talk about the issues that were important to him. Does that mean he’s not a Good Team Player, or that he’s not a Loyal Democrat, or that he used his shrimp fork to eat the fucking salad? Okay. For progressives who want to see things like universal health care, he did more to advance our interests than any Democratic politician has done since FDR. ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2018, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bernie-sanders-to-give-his-own-state-of-the-union-response/807758/32 "2018-01-30T12:32:57Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > 😕 Why the peculiar antipathy against an admirable public servant? And then you go all the way to … Wikipedia! … to find a single centrist vote you disapprove of? > > Al Gore, Jr. was the son of a Senator. In your “thinking” did that make him ineligible for public office? You are comparing Gore Sr. to the royal family of Massachusetts? I don’t have any peculiar antipathy, I was just bemused to see the Kennedy scion described as an “up and comer” and amused at Johnny’s scrappy defence of him. The guy has almost no political history so yeah wikipedia is all the research he’s getting out of me. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2018, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bernie-sanders-to-give-his-own-state-of-the-union-response/807758/33 "2018-01-30T12:53:35Z")
Who said anything about Kennedy being “ineligible for political office”? This will probably be his first national exposure, so we’ll see how he does. It’s generally a thankless task to be the 2nd act in the performance, and maybe the folks who are tired of the Clintons are ready for another Kennedy. Who knows? One hates to dis the guy just because he comes from a famous family, but that’s also no reason to think he’s some “up and comer”. He may break the mould, but I sure hope the Democrats are not thinking of running someone from MA again. Or anywhere in the North East, for that matter. The record has not been good since, you know, that _other_ Kennedy. And that was 60 years ago. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2018, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bernie-sanders-to-give-his-own-state-of-the-union-response/807758/34 "2018-01-30T12:55:09Z")
I have no problem with this. So a politician wants to make a speech? Go for it. It doesn’t take away from the “official” Democratic response – people can watch both, if they want. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2018, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bernie-sanders-to-give-his-own-state-of-the-union-response/807758/35 "2018-01-30T13:03:43Z")
I also don’t have a problem with having Joe Kennedy III give the response – from what I’ve seen, he’s a good young Democrat, and good young Democrats are the ones who should be giving the SOTU response to a Republican President. That doesn’t mean he’s going to run for President. If he’s talented, let him continue in the House, then run for MA Governor or Senator at some point, and if he’s good there too, then we’ll see. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2018, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bernie-sanders-to-give-his-own-state-of-the-union-response/807758/36 "2018-01-30T13:31:48Z")
> [@SenorBeef](#): > > We wouldn’t want Americans to know there are other options and lines of thought than center-right and extreme-right. The horror. And one of the options is Bernie Sanders, and another Maxine Waters. The extreme left, and La-La Land. And the official option is a politician who got into office because of his name, after losing the election with a candidate who got the nomination because of her name. I get the Democratic commitment to environmentalism, but doesn’t that take recycling a bit too far? Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2018, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bernie-sanders-to-give-his-own-state-of-the-union-response/807758/37 "2018-01-30T13:45:30Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > And one of the options is Bernie Sanders, and another Maxine Waters. The extreme left, and La-La Land. > Shodan If Maxine Waters is La-La Land, the president is Ulysses translated into Esperanto and read by a meth-head out of order. As long as Republicans have their guy read the SOTUniom, there’s no room for criticizing the Democrats’ choices. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2018, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bernie-sanders-to-give-his-own-state-of-the-union-response/807758/38 "2018-01-30T14:14:24Z")
You’re missing the point - this is what the Dems are offering as alternatives to Trump. A commie, a fruitcake, and a tyro with a gaudy name. This is the best you can do? Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2018, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bernie-sanders-to-give-his-own-state-of-the-union-response/807758/39 "2018-01-30T14:15:44Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > You’re missing the point - this is what the Dems are offering as alternatives to Trump. A commie, a fruitcake, and a tyro with a gaudy name. This is the best you can do? > > Regards, > Shodan When the best you can do is namecalling, I’m not real concerned with whatever you intended the substance of your criticism to be. Good luck with that, though! ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2018, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bernie-sanders-to-give-his-own-state-of-the-union-response/807758/40 "2018-01-30T14:17:42Z")
> [@](#): > > Quoth **Shodan** : > > I get the Democratic commitment to environmentalism, but doesn’t that take recycling a bit too far? OK, credit where it’s due, that one was actually funny. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bernie-sanders-to-give-his-own-state-of-the-union-response/807758.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bernie-sanders-to-give-his-own-state-of-the-union-response/807758.md?page=3)