# Why don't you support Bernie Sanders? (if you don't) **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [June 17, 2019, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-you-support-bernie-sanders-if-you-dont/835632 "2019-06-17T02:58:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 27
**Author:** ![Northeast\_Refugee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a183cd/32.png) [@Northeast\_Refugee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northeast_Refugee)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2019, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-you-support-bernie-sanders-if-you-dont/835632/521 "2019-10-02T17:41:46Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > Get well soon Bernie! I absolutely can’t agree with that sentiment. I hope he dies and I hope it’s sooner, rather than later. Bernie Sanders is an absolutely abhorrent human being, who went to USSR, saw the pain and suffering that millions of people were living in, and praised it all. One has to be an absolute moral degenerate to do something like that, and, by all appearances, Bernie Sanders is just such a man. Fuck him. ---
**Author:** ![Northeast\_Refugee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a183cd/32.png) [@Northeast\_Refugee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northeast_Refugee)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2019, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-you-support-bernie-sanders-if-you-dont/835632/522 "2019-10-02T17:44:46Z")
> [@CarnalK](#): > > Fascinating analysis that I haven’t heard a million times already. Thanks. > > While this doesn’t seem a serious health scare, it’s going to take him out for a while and definitely hurt his chances. I will be very surprised if his polling doesn’t get effected. “effected”? ---
**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:** [October 2, 2019, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-you-support-bernie-sanders-if-you-dont/835632/523 "2019-10-02T17:51:02Z")
> [@Northeast\_Refugee](#): > > Bernie Sanders is an absolutely abhorrent human being, who went to USSR, saw the pain and suffering that millions of people were living in, and praised it all. This is not an accurate representation of the facts as I understand them. ---
**Author:** ![Northeast\_Refugee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a183cd/32.png) [@Northeast\_Refugee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northeast_Refugee)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2019, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-you-support-bernie-sanders-if-you-dont/835632/524 "2019-10-02T17:54:45Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > This is not an accurate representation of the facts as I understand them. Is the video, where Bernie Sanders praises the virtues of living in USSR, not the accurate representation of the facts? ---
**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:** [October 2, 2019, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-you-support-bernie-sanders-if-you-dont/835632/525 "2019-10-02T17:57:53Z")
> [@Northeast\_Refugee](#): > > Is the video, where Bernie Sanders praises the virtues of living in USSR, not the accurate representation of the facts? Your description of those videos (one of which is a snippet with no context) is not accurate. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2019, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-you-support-bernie-sanders-if-you-dont/835632/526 "2019-10-02T17:59:52Z")
Northeast Refugee, rein that in. We limit overly worded and foul posts to the BBQ Pit. Please do so. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2019, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-you-support-bernie-sanders-if-you-dont/835632/527 "2019-10-02T18:05:12Z")
As a human being, I hope Bernie recovers from his heart problems and has a long and healthy life ahead of him. As a Democrat, I hope he realizes his mortality and decides running for President is not for him anymore. > [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > That reminds me. HAS he shown his taxes yet? Anyone? ---
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2019, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-you-support-bernie-sanders-if-you-dont/835632/528 "2019-10-02T18:06:43Z")
Interesting Development: [The Sanders campaign is canceling TV ad spending in Iowa.](https://twitter.com/MediumBuying/status/1179403871229267974?s=20) They just bought the ad space yesterday, to start tomorrow. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2019, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-you-support-bernie-sanders-if-you-dont/835632/529 "2019-10-02T18:11:32Z")
> [@AlsoNamedBort](#): > > Interesting Development: > [The Sanders campaign is canceling TV ad spending in Iowa.](https://twitter.com/MediumBuying/status/1179403871229267974?s=20) > > They just bought the ad space yesterday, to start tomorrow. What happens to his campaign money if he drops out? ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2019, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-you-support-bernie-sanders-if-you-dont/835632/530 "2019-10-02T18:44:36Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > “Roland Reagan” ? The man with the splotch on his head fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2019, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-you-support-bernie-sanders-if-you-dont/835632/531 "2019-10-02T18:47:19Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > As a human being, I hope Bernie recovers from his heart problems and has a long and healthy life ahead of him. As a Democrat, I hope he realizes his mortality and decides running for President is not for him anymore. My thoughts precisely. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_S](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/46a35a/32.png) [@Max\_S](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_S)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2019, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-you-support-bernie-sanders-if-you-dont/835632/532 "2019-10-02T19:35:48Z")
> [@Northeast\_Refugee](#): > > From [praising food shortages and bread lines](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RiM-yNEQ93I) to […], Bernie proved himself to have absolutely no moral integrity or compassion for millions of people, who suffered under oppressive Socialist rule. Welcome to the Straight Dope Message Boards, **Northeast Refugee**. "You know, it’s funny sometimes, American journalists will talk about how bad a country is because people are lining up for food. That’s a good thing. " The context of that quote, according to [_The Federalist_](https://thefederalist.com/2019/02/19/bernie-sanders-well-actually-bread-lines-arent-quite-bad/) (a pretty out-there conservative magazine) and [a Fox News opinion from a _Federalist_ contributor](https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/bernie-sanders-once-said-breadlines-are-good-i-grew-up-in-communist-china-and-i-can-tell-you-theyre-not), is that in 1985 Mayor Sanders of Burlington, Vermont held a press conference about his trip to Nicaragua. The full conference is available from CCTV [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1ypRKzKsgU) with the exchange in question at about 24 minutes in. Burlington, Vermont started some sort of [sister-city relationship](https://www.burlingtonvt.gov/Mayor/Puerto-Cabezas-Nicaragua) with Puerto Cabezas, Nicaragua in 1984. That was the pretext for Mayor Sanders’s visit. I have transcribed the question and full response in the spoiler below. **???** : “What did you find that the people there needed most, ah-” **Sanders** : “Okay.” **???** : “-and what is it that the city of Burlington now do, and, umm…” **Sanders** : "Okay. One aspect of what is going on in Nicaragua, and where president - a-and again, what has to be understood is the economic problems of [DEL]Nicana[/DEL]Nicaragua are not unique in Central America, or in the third world. In fact, as far as Nicaragua _is_, one of the nice things that I saw is that as a result of government policy (direct government policy), in terms of the distribution of food, people are not hungry by and large. I think it’s fair to say, you know it’s funny sometimes American journalists will talk about how bad a country is because people are lining up for food. That’s a good thing. In other countries people don’t line up for food, the rich get the food and the poor starve to death. In Nicaragua people are not starving uh to death. One of the goals of the Reagan administration, uh, is very clearly to cause discontent in Nicaragua, _through_ the war which is _draining_ Nicaraguan resources; and through the embargo and other financial mechanisms. So you go around and you talk to people whether it’s in Puerto Cabezas or elsewhere, Puerto Cabezas for example, they have a hospital - I mean it’s hard to define it as a hospital in terms of the United States, it is wood, I mean it is clean, but it is extremely primitive. The equipment they have is extremely primitive. When the [governor] there, uh, of the region, Myrna Cunningham tells me that they have just expanded there and are adding a lot more beds. But they can’t complete the project because they are unable to get the lumber that they need, because the lumbering area is in the heart of Contra territory - People’ll go out and get killed - they cannot complete a hospital because of Contra activity. They are unable to get medical equipment, that they desperately need for their people, because of United States activity. I spoke to a very interesting man, the mayor of Managua, and this guy sits there and he says, ‘we need a hundred and fifty thousand units of housing. In Managua alone’, and believe me, he was not kidding! If you go around Managua you see shack after shack, people living in dirt floors, they need the housing, they wanna build the housing. And he says that the last year or two, _because_ of the war, so much of their resources are going into the war effort, but they don’t have the ability to, uh provide what they need. The prices of basic necessities are going up. You knock on a door and you talk to somebody, you say ‘how are things going’ and they say ‘things are going okay but the prices… of material is becoming too expensive’. Okay. Again, not only a problem in Nicaragua it’s a problem about South-it’s a problem of the entire third world. Small countries which are exporting commodities are not getting - costs them that much more for sugar, as opposed to tractors, or as opposed to oil. They’re all being hurt. But that’s, that’s what they were telling us in Puerto Cabezas: that they need medical supplies, they need books, there was a special concern that some people addressed to me in a meeting that we had about the deisre to have the kids (the Creole children) maintain their English identity, so they want teachers and programs that could, uh, teach the children English. Specifically, Mr. Sanders was not praising food shortages and bread lines. He asserted, “one of the nice things that I saw is that as a result of government policy (direct government policy), in terms of the distribution of food, people are not hungry by and large. […] In Nicaragua people are not starving to death.” The question was what the people of Puerto Cabezas needed most from their new sister city of Burlington, and the first part of Mr. Sanders’s response was that they are good on food. With the specific context of what the people of Puerto Cabezas needed most in 1985, I find no room to criticize Mr. Sanders over his response unless there is a factual dispute he should have known about as to whether the Nicaraguan people were starving. Taking his quip out of context, I see no implication other than that breadlines are better than starving to death, which I agree with and find uncontroversial. Therefore I find your critical focus on this particular snippet of Mr. Sanders’s speech to be unwarranted. ~Max ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2019, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-you-support-bernie-sanders-if-you-dont/835632/533 "2019-10-02T19:37:12Z")
If Bernie’s out, it becomes a Biden-Warren 2-horse race. ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2019, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-you-support-bernie-sanders-if-you-dont/835632/534 "2019-10-02T19:41:48Z")
I can’t help but think Bernie’s heart problems might hurt Biden’s numbers a bit too. It reminds people that really old dudes often have serious health problems that younger people don’t. We may see a bigger jump in the polls for Warren or even Pete. ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2019, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-you-support-bernie-sanders-if-you-dont/835632/535 "2019-10-02T19:47:01Z")
Either one would be fine by me, as would Biden. Best wishes, Bernie with your health. If Bernie does exit the race (I would vote for him if he somehow takes the nomination, BTW.) what do his supporters do? That’s been my biggest problem with Bernie, after all. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2019, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-you-support-bernie-sanders-if-you-dont/835632/536 "2019-10-02T19:55:09Z")
> [@bobot](#): > > Either one would be fine by me, as would Biden. Best wishes, Bernie with your health. If Bernie does exit the race (I would vote for him if he somehow takes the nomination, BTW.) what do his supporters do? That’s been my biggest problem with Bernie, after all. Warren seems like his natural successor. They are ideologically similar. ---
**Author:** ![Heffalump\_and\_Roo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heffalump_and_roo/32/7691_2.png) [@Heffalump\_and\_Roo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heffalump_and_Roo)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2019, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-you-support-bernie-sanders-if-you-dont/835632/537 "2019-10-02T20:31:07Z")
Best wishes to Bernie and his supporters for Bernie’s speedy recovery. ---
**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:** [October 2, 2019, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-you-support-bernie-sanders-if-you-dont/835632/538 "2019-10-02T20:56:40Z")
> [@Procrustus](#): > > What happens to his campaign money if he drops out? Official campaign funds can be transferred to his next Senate campaign, at least. I believe he could transfer it to the national campaign too busy not sure of all the rules. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2019, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-you-support-bernie-sanders-if-you-dont/835632/539 "2019-10-02T21:26:41Z")
> [@Heffalump\_and\_Roo](#): > > Best wishes to Bernie and his supporters for Bernie’s speedy recovery. Altho Bernie is not my 1st choice for President, it’s important to have his voice in the senate, so i wish him well also. ---
**Author:** ![Heffalump\_and\_Roo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heffalump_and_roo/32/7691_2.png) [@Heffalump\_and\_Roo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heffalump_and_Roo)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2019, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-you-support-bernie-sanders-if-you-dont/835632/540 "2019-10-02T23:17:32Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > That reminds me. HAS he shown his taxes yet? [Yes.](https://berniesanders.com/tax-returns/) > [@](#): > > Sen. Bernie Sanders today released 10 years of tax returns including his 2018 return. The release, nine months before the first votes are cast, recognizes the changing expectations that all candidates, not just nominees, should release their taxes. > > The Sanders’ tax returns, which are straightforward and uncomplicated with few additional forms or deductions, are in addition to the financial disclosures that Sanders has released every year since 1991. 2019 is now included. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-you-support-bernie-sanders-if-you-dont/835632.md?page=26) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-you-support-bernie-sanders-if-you-dont/835632.md?page=28)