{"id":27787,"date":"2020-01-27T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-01-27T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/?p=27787"},"modified":"2020-01-27T08:37:11","modified_gmt":"2020-01-27T13:37:11","slug":"the-progressive-bloc-bernie-sanders-vs-the-democratic-establishment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/tartan-news\/2020\/01\/27\/the-progressive-bloc-bernie-sanders-vs-the-democratic-establishment\/","title":{"rendered":"The Progressive Bloc: Bernie Sanders vs The Democratic Establishment"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong><em>The Progressive Bloc is a weekly opinion column by Contributing Writer Quinton Bradley that discusses politics, society and culture from an unapologetically left-wing perspective.<\/em><\/strong><br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After days of hit pieces and baseless attacks hurled at Bernie Sanders, it appears that the Democratic establishment has called in one of their big guns: Hillary Rodham Clinton.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap\">If you\u2019re a fan of the Sanders campaign, you have a lot to feel optimistic about right now. For the past several weeks, the Vermont senator has been gaining solid ground in the polls lately. He has begun to slowly eclipse fellow candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), strengthening his razor-thin lead against her from December into a nearly ten-point lead in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.realclearpolitics.com\/epolls\/latest_polls\/democratic_nomination_polls\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">latest polls<\/a> as the first Iowa caucus peaks over the horizon.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To date, Sanders has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.opensecrets.org\/members-of-congress\/summary?cid=N00000528\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">raised<\/a> a total of $73.8 million, $42.9 million of which was raised solely by small individual donations (accounting for an astonishing 58% of his campaign\u2019s fundraising).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He is by far <a href=\"https:\/\/morningconsult.com\/the-most-and-least-popular-senators-in-america\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">the nation\u2019s most popular senator<\/a>, edging out Republican senator Susan Collins of Maine and fellow Democratic primary candidate Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), ranked second and seventh, respectively. And as if that wasn\u2019t enough, <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/ac8b95b2f1fec5f7a318cb6066128350\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">several voters<\/a> in the aforementioned state of Iowa care little for the \u201che said, she said\u201d smear by Warren in last week\u2019s debate.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube aligncenter wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ZbW0eSYsuKE?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;start=228&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span>\n<\/div><figcaption> The Hill\u2019s Krystal Ball called out Warren for her attempt to vilify Sanders as a misogynist. (The Hill \/ YouTube)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The fact of the matter is that the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.buzzfeednews.com\/article\/ryancbrooks\/bernie-sanders-elizabeth-warren-2020-democrats\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">Sanders campaign is heating up<\/a>. And almost as if on cue, corporate media staples such as the New York Times, CNN and MSNBC have been working overtime in their attempt to thwart a possible Sanders nomination.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Since the last debate, several acid-tongued anti-Bernie opinion pieces have appeared in The Times. Last weekend, MSNBC went as far as to have \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/news\/2020\/01\/18\/why-no-one-trusts-media-msnbc-slammed-featuring-body-language-expert-who-calls\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">body language expert<\/a>\u201d Janine Driver appear on the weekend morning show \u201cAM Joy\u201d with host Joy Reid to brand Sanders as a liar. Afterward, people on Twitter did some digging into Driver\u2019s background and revealed that she has <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/johnnyjohns211\/status\/1218658033259163648?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1218658033259163648&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.commondreams.org%2Fnews%2F2020%2F01%2F18%2Fwhy-no-one-trusts-media-msnbc-slammed-featuring-body-language-expert-who-calls\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">close ties<\/a> to former Vice President Joe Biden (surprise, surprise).<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-twitter aligncenter wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\nhttps:\/\/twitter.com\/meaganmday\/status\/1218586412867440641?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1218586412867440641&#038;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fhammersandpapyrus.wordpress.com%2F2020%2F01%2F21%2Fthe-establishment-democrats-relentless-smearing-of-bernie-sanders-is-getting-more-and-more-ridiculous%2F\n<\/div><figcaption> Jacobin Magazine\u2019s Meagan Day pointed out how blatant the media and corporate elite are in their combined effort to tarnish the Sanders campaign. (@meaganmday \/ Twitter)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-twitter aligncenter wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Here\u2019s your \u201c body language expert\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/AMJoy?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#AMJoy<\/a> <br><br>It\u2019s no wonder she had an unfavorable report on Bernie Sanders. <br><br>Evidently she\u2019s personal friends with Joe Biden. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/xMmOsXo45M\">pic.twitter.com\/xMmOsXo45M<\/a><\/p>&mdash; ForThePeople (@johnnyjohns211) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/johnnyjohns211\/status\/1218658033259163648?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 18, 2020<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><figcaption> Past tweets from Driver, proving that her MSNBC appearance was by no means a mere chance occurrence. (@johnnyjohns211 \/ Twitter)<br> <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>In spite of the anti-Sanders dog-piling and the Warren campaign\u2019s obvious ploy to paint him as a sexist, the media-led attempt to curb his steady rise has backfired and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.buzzfeednews.com\/article\/ryancbrooks\/bernie-sanders-elizabeth-warren-2020-democrats\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">led to even more support<\/a> among his followers according to Buzzfeed News.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Not willing to give Sanders a fair shake, it appears that the establishment democrats have turned to Clinton in their latest smear attempt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Related Article<\/strong><br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/politics\/2020\/01\/21\/2020s-first-democratic-debate\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"2020\u2019s First Democratic Debate (opens in a new tab)\">2020\u2019s First Democratic Debate<\/a><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>In both an upcoming Hulu documentary and a recent <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/features\/hillary-clinton-full-a-fiery-new-documentary-trump-regrets-harsh-words-bernie-1271551\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">interview<\/a> with The Hollywood Reporter, the former First Lady voiced her disgust regarding Sanders, saying that \u201cNobody likes him, nobody wants to work with him, he got nothing done.\u201d<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the interview, Clinton was even more venomous, saying that the candidate and his supporters (trashing them under the worn-out \u201cBernie Bros\u201d moniker) have been responsible for \u201c&#8230;relentless attacks on lots of his competitors, particularly the women.\u201d<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What was even more bizarre was the implied parallel that Clinton made between Sanders\u2019 campaign and President Trump\u2019s campaign in 2016 when she said \u201c&#8230;it&#8217;s the culture around him&#8230;it should be worrisome that he has permitted this culture&#8230;I really hope people are paying attention to that because it should be worrisome that he has permitted this culture&#8230;And I don&#8217;t think we want to go down that road again.\u201d<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Exactly what \u201cculture\u201d are you talking about, Ms. Clinton? Those who support universal health care and view health care as a basic human right, not a privilege afforded to a lucky few? Those who yearn for an end to the war-mongering and foreign interventions that you\u2019ve been <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2016\/04\/24\/magazine\/how-hillary-clinton-became-a-hawk.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">notorious in supporting<\/a>? The rising <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/politics\/meet-the-press\/deep-boiling-anger-nbc-wsj-poll-finds-pessimistic-america-despite-n1045916\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">anti-corporate sentiment<\/a> among the American public?<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hillary Clinton\u2014noted foreign policy Warhawk, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/story\/2016\/10\/hillary-clinton-wall-street-speeches-podesta-emails-229689\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">Wall Street cheerleader<\/a> and 2016 electoral candidate who managed to lose in what should have been a slam dunk victory against one of the most disliked presidential candidates in history by virtue of her own arrogance and indifference toward America\u2019s working class\u2014has the nerve to tell Americans to feel \u201cworrisome.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cNobody likes him,\u201d yet he\u2019s the most popular senator in the country. The \u201cculture\u201d surrounding his campaign is \u201cworrisome,\u201d yet he has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/views\/2019\/11\/12\/bernie-sanders-has-more-diverse-support-you-think\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">one of the most diverse groups of supporters<\/a> among anybody else in the field, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vice.com\/en_us\/article\/gyzjmb\/bernie-bros-women-under-45-make-up-a-larger-share-of-bernie-sanders-base-than-men\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">especially in the case of young female voters<\/a>.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Clinton\u2019s harsh words angered many people on Twitter Tuesday morning, making her the target of the hashtags <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/search?q=%23ILikeBernie&amp;src=trend_click&amp;pt=1219671944133513216\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">#ILikeBernie<\/a> and the sarcastic <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/search?q=%23nobodylikeshim&amp;src=trend_click&amp;pt=1219720894890889222\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">#nobodylikeshim<\/a>, which were both trending.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-twitter aligncenter wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Hillary Clinton lost to the dumbest &amp; least qualified candidate of all time. Yet she has the audacity to refer to this election&#39;s frontrunner as &quot;unlikeable.&quot;<br><br>Many PEOPLE &#8211; not DC politicos &#8211; love Bernie b\/c of what he represents: US.<\/p>&mdash; Ana Kasparian (@AnaKasparian) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AnaKasparian\/status\/1219631675019350025?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 21, 2020<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><figcaption> \u201cThe Young Turks\u201d host and executive producer Ana Kasparian minced no words when she grilled the former First Lady on Twitter. (@AnaKasparian \/ Twitter)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>If anything, these attacks against Sanders do nothing more than motivate those of us who support the senator\u2019s campaign.&nbsp;<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One can speculate about the \u201cWho,\u201d the \u201cWhat\u201d and the \u201cWhen,\u201d but regardless, you can count on the corporate elite pulling out all the stops to prevent Sanders from getting the nomination if he starts to further close the polling gap between himself and Biden.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Democratic establishment is starting to get nervous. And they should be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Quinton Bradley<\/strong><br>Contributing Writer<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Quinton Bradley is an Ohio-based writer. He runs a blog called<\/em><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/hammersandpapyrus.wordpress.com\/\" target=\"_blank\"><em> Hammers and Papyrus<\/em><\/a><em> and can be followed on Twitter<\/em><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/QBAbstract\" target=\"_blank\"><em> @QBAbstract<\/em><\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Despite their push-back, the corporate media has been on the losing end of the Sanders surge.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10416,"featured_media":27803,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2616,2109,3327,3],"tags":[3369,3382,3367,2905,3883],"class_list":["post-27787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-opinion","category-politics","category-tartan-news","tag-2020-democratic-primary","tag-2020-election","tag-bernie-sanders","tag-quinton-bradley","tag-the-progressive-bloc"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Sanders-Silhoulette.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5s3vR-7eb","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27787","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10416"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27787"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27787\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27805,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27787\/revisions\/27805"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}