Hello, my name is Justen and I'm 22 years old.
Bernie justified his vote against the Brady Bill instead of acknowledging that it was a mistake
I think this can be very subjective, and not clear cut (such as it is with climate change or vaccines). I've read that this would've lead to gun manufacturers being held liable for the actions of gun users. That's completely wrong. It makes sense to have gun manufacturers liable for guns which break and cause harm in some way. It does not make sense to have gun manufacturers held liable for a user shooting someone. Similarly, car manufacturers aren't held liable if a user drives into other people on purpose. But if a car malfunctions, then the manufacturer can indeed be held liable. Also, if you really are a long time supporter as you claim to be, you'll have known of his gun stances for a while.
he next day I perused the Bernie Sanders reddit forum. I was shocked. Everybody who happened to say that Bernie didn’t do well was shouted down, while manipulated online polls (often with people claiming to vote multiple times in the comments) showing Bernie had won the debate were trumpeted.
This happens all over Reddit, not just this sub. People vote down things they don't like. No sub is free of that.
As time went on, the vitriol spewed by those on reddit and other sites towards anyone who didn’t support Bernie grew worse.
The same can be said of other candidates. It's just more obvious for Bernie because his online support vastly outnumbers those of other candidates.
Anything that didn’t totally preach the gospel of Bernie, that was perhaps not entirely positive, that perhaps treated him like a person running for president instead of the person ordained by God to save America, was decried, the people behind it vilified.
That's not true. Look at the case of BLM. Don't cherry pick.
Worse still, I saw white people telling people of color how to vote. “How can Hillary be leading so much among African Americans? Don’t they know Bernie’s policies are better for them?” I don’t know, isn’t it up to them to decide whose policies benefit them the most? Maybe they might have some trouble trusting an old white man from New England?
How does that relate to Bernie? In addition, I'm Asian, and had such questions myself in regards to minorities. It was easy for me to look at his record and question why other minorities would not want him. I see nothing wrong with questioning when one doesn't understand something.
I also learned that Bernie called for a primary challenge against Obama in 2012. Why would he say that? The last three times an incumbent lost (Ford in ‘76, Carter in ‘80 and Bush I in ‘92) the general election, the incumbent had to stave off a primary challenger; Ford with Reagan, Carter with Ted Kennedy, Bush with Pat Buchanan. Getting into a dogfight in the primary would’ve meant almost certain defeat come November. I wondered why Bernie would try to nuke Obama’s reelection bid.
Because many think Obama did not do a great job, including myself. I do think he's gotten better over the past year, but it'd be ignorant to leave out the mistakes he's made.
I compared Hillary’s and Bernie’s policy platforms. I found that, while Bernie had great ideas, he was light on actual plans. The hard numbers weren’t there. Taxing Wall Street to make tuition at public colleges free is a great idea! At what rate will you tax? Would participation be up to the states or the federal government? Would students get direct assistance or only the universities? Would universities have to change the way they operate? Would there be any requirements about the curriculum?
He's releasing them soon.
I found it interesting, too, that so many of Bernie Sanders’ senate colleagues have endorsed Hillary. To me, it shows that they’re ready to fight for Hillary’s platform on January 20th, that she has a better chance of governing than Bernie does. She has the entire party ready to fight for her. Bernie will probably be the one fighting with the party. I can’t see representatives from marginal districts or senators from purple states sticking the neck out for his platform the way they did.
Martin O'Malley would be fighting against the party as well, if he were doing better and had a chance at the nomination. Basically, what you're saying here (if it is you who wrote it), is that we should all just back Hillary because the Democratic establishment chose her. Come on. I 100% do not trust the establishment of either party, their big money donors, and so on. This is a terrible argument.
His flubbing of foreign policy questions