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Life Among the Berned
Politico ^

Posted on 07/26/2016 4:43:44 AM PDT by TigerClaws

"I I hope you realize the irony of what she’s doing,” Paul Czisny, a Wisconsin delegate for Bernie, said, nodding his head backward at a young woman standing in the stands, a piece of white tape across her mouth that said in stark black letters SILENCED. Periodically, she stood up and photographers rushed over, camera shutters whirring, to snap her admittedly very dramatic portrait. “She’s able to vote, she’s able to get elected as a delegate, she’s able to come here,” Czisny rolled his eyes. He’s as pissed off as anyone about the business of the DNC emails—“it just feeds the frustrations of the Bernie people”—but he was frustrated with people like that young woman. “Unfortunately, all they’re doing is aiding the Trump camp,” he said. “Virtually no one here”—meaning the Bernie delegates—“is going to vote for Trump, but will they stay home? Will they vote for Jill Stein [of the Green Party]? I find this maddening because we’ve seen this movie before, and if we think Bush was a disaster, Trump will be an even bigger disaster.” Story Continued Below

Like the other Bernie supporters in the Wisconsin delegation, he doesn’t love Hillary, but he would do the adult thing and vote for her come November. “Because I’m not selfish,” says 22-year-old Bernie activist Hailey Storsved, who led the student movement for Sanders at her university. “It’s kind of like saying, ‘I’m taking my ball and going home.’”

Monday night's Democratic National Convention felt, at times, like an unsettled argument - a restive Bernie Sanders contingent looking for opportunities to boo the primary opponent he'd been railing against for months, and boo everyone she'd invited to support her. But a big part of the argument was underway within the Sanders camp itself: How long to hold out against your own party's nominee? This is politics, after all: At what point did principle become a kind of vanity?

I tried to talk to the young woman with the tape over her mouth, but she refused to communicate, silenced as she was. Instead, she showed me a Facebook post she wrote. “The DNC is threatening that they might pull my credentials if I don’t take this off,” she wrote of her silencing mouth tape. Her name is Angie Aker. “They want to truly silence me. They don’t even want me to have this much free speech.”

A follow-up question about who she was and why she felt silenced resulted in her showing me her screen: another Facebook post. “FOR THE MEDIA LOOKING FOR CONTEXT ON MY “SILENCED” CRY FOR HELP: the establishment wants us to lie for them and say we are behind Hillary when it’s clear there hasn’t even been a fair primary,” she wrote. “I’m desperate to show somehow it’s not true.” Then she ran out of Facebook posts to show me, and commandeered my notepad to scribble me notes, like a modern Beethoven. “Everyone has to vote their conscience,” she wrote, echoing Ted Cruz at last week’s Republican convention. “I don’t know who I’ll vote for. But I know I won’t cast my vote out of fear anymore.” “We’re talking about the political maturation of left-wing politics,” said Peter Rickman, a young man leading the Wisconsin delegation, a long-time left-wing activist, and a Sanders supporter. He was going to get behind Clinton, rallying fellow Bernie-ites to her side because, as he said, “We don’t need to love Hillary, but we need to mobilize so that, after November, we’re fighting for a progressive agenda under a Clinton White House and not being on the defensive in a proto-fascist regime.” When I asked him about the silenced woman in his delegation, he too rolled his eyes at Aker. He leaned in conspiratorially. “She runs Upworthy,” he said, referring to the social media site. “Soon someone is going to put two and two together that she’s just doing this to get personal attention.” (Aker is actually the sponsored sections manager at the site.)

There was a periodic booing from behind the very polite and very pragmatic Wisconsin delegation, most of whom seemed at peace with the need to vote for Clinton in the fall. “Oh, that’s not us,” one of them told me. “That’s New Mexico.”

Up a few rows was the New Mexico delegation, which was in the thick of a civil war.

“No, never,” said a young man named Rusty Pearce, a Sanders delegate from the state. “This is a political revolution and a political revolution doesn’t just stop.” “We will continue to work to elect progressives up and down the ticket,” said a freckled middle-aged woman named Nicole Renee Peters. She also wasn’t voting for Hillary. “I’m not for Hillary and I’m not for Trump,” she said defiantly. “I will never vote for Hillary.” Most of their state delegation, they both told me confidently, was for Sanders and felt the same way. “Unfortunately, that’s not true,” chimed in an older woman named Theresa Trujeque standing next to me with a Hillary sign. “The majority is for Hillary.” Twenty-four delegates out of 43 were for Hillary.

“That’s with the superdelegates!” Peters and Pearce interjected.

After some squabbling and eye-rolling at me—Can you believer her? Can you believe these two?—they agreed that there were 18 delegates for Hillary and 16 for Bernie.

“They’ve been telling us to shut up all day,” Peters complained to me.

“They’ve been fighting and booing all day,” Trujeque complained to me.

“They don’t respect us,” Peters nearly yelled.

“They’ve been fighting with the poor delegates with Indiana,” Trujeque scolded. “It’s not respectable.”

“Well, I don’t find it respectable that Hillary Clinton lied under oath!”

“In the Democratic party, there’s room for disagreement,” Peters insisted. “Instead you’re exercising fascism.”

“I’ve been involved in the Democratic for years and there’s no fraud, no corruption we take care of everyone. Some people have never been involved.

“I’ve been involved for many years!”

“Well, I’ve never seen you!”

“That’s because I’ve lived in New Mexico for almost a whole year!”

“Well, then don’t try to change us New Mexicans!” The Bernie people told me elaborate tales of how the DNC outfoxed and cheated them at every turn—and there were very many turns, so many we had to keep going over them for clarity until they pointed defiantly to a young man, the communications director for the New Mexico delegation, eyeing them nervously. “He’s going to take our credentials away as soon as this interview is over!” one of them said. It was the first the young man, named Joe Kaburek, heard of it. “We need to do a better job of talking to them,” he said diplomatically.

In Cleveland, a Cruz underground refused to concede and get behind their party’s nominee, and their candidate gave them the satisfaction of a principled last stand: he refused to endorse a man they loathed in every fiber of their being. In Philadelphia, the Bernie holdouts had no such luck. Their man endorsed a woman they loathe with every fiber of their being, and asked them to vote for her in November. Instead of getting booed, like Cruz, they were the ones doing the booing. They booed Lily Ledbetter, they booed Cory Booker, and they managed to refrain from booing Michelle Obama. When Elizabeth Warren spoke, the Bernie hold-outs of Michigan sat there in grim anger, arms crossed, fake birds pinned to their hats. They liked Warren, but didn’t like that she was selling out to Hillary. “Not for sale!” some of them yelled.

When Bernie emerged on stage, they screamed his name and his slogans—“This is what democracy looks like!” Many of them cried and refused to believe it was over. “It’s not over!” some of them shouted. “Nooooo!” others hollered. Up and down this Midwestern section, Bernie supporters who so reviled superdelegates were praying for them to see the light and switch to Bernie’s side tomorrow, thereby annulling the popular vote of the Democratic primary, which had not been in their favor. “You never know how many people have turned since Wikileaks!” one Michigan delegate told the correspondent of Michigan Radio. She held out hope that tomorrow’s vote would tilt toward Bernie.

“Are you going to vote for Hillary in November?” the reporter asked her.

“I’m voting for Bernie tomorrow,” she said, defiantly.

“He asked us to vote for him tomorrow.”

“He also asked for you to vote for Hillary in November,” the reporter pressed.

“I’m voting for Bernie tomorrow!”

Nearby, a schoolteacher named Tammy Lewis sat weeping softly. “We’ll never have a chance like this again,” she said, dabbing her dark eyes with a white tissue. Her husband, she said, was a NAFTA victim and she wasn’t about to let TPP destroy her family a second time. But she was at a loss after Bernie’s speech. “He’s doing what he has to do,” she said with a melancholy admiration. “He knows he has to stop Trump. He’s a good man.”

“I’m voting for Bernie tomorrow, that’s what I came here to do,” she said with a quiet sadness. Would she vote for Hillary in the fall, as Bernie had asked of her? “Maybe,” she said, lost. “I don’t know. I know I have to stop Trump, too. But the choice is either I press the pause button or go back in time with Trump.” She rose to leave and wiped her eyes.

“It’s not what I wanted,” she said, and left the hall.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/07/life-among-the-berned-214099#ixzz4FVuoZCjM Follow us: @politico on Twitter | Politico on Facebook


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 2016dncconvention; feelthebern
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If they realized Hillary paid off Bernie, they might not be so quick to 'get in line' with the sellout.

A very dark night. Has been Paul Simon croaking out his best known song was a perfect summation of the night. Bernie came out and did the same thing. Same song, but when it mattered in the campaign and last night he was just there was a sparring partner - a fake fight meant to boost the champ. You had to feel sad for his fans who really thought he was there for a real fight in the first place.

Leftist talking heads told us the Republican convention was "chaos" "infighting" and when Dems acted far worse it was "democracy in action."

Illegal aliens telling us what American citizen should do politically... Michelle Obama telling us about her slave-built White House, though after $100 million worth of taxpayer trips she now tells us we live in a great country... Cory Booker doing the fake preacher with no substance schtick, which we've already heard for 8 years... Elizabeth Warren with eyes bulging on a warpath... and Bernie capping it off portraying his Handout Express faux campaign as some great accomplishment when all it accomplished was legitimizing Hillary as if she'd won a primary while taking $27 from kids behind on their student loans because socialism doesn't work. A stark contrast to the America most Americans want to live in.

Will the BernieBots sit quietly as the Wall Street jets fly in and Hillary is anointed? Or will they turn their backs and walk out? That's the only truly dramatic question left in this otherwise scripted fiasco.

1 posted on 07/26/2016 4:43:44 AM PDT by TigerClaws
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To: TigerClaws
"I hope you realize the irony of what she’s doing,” Paul Czisny, a Wisconsin delegate for Bernie, said, nodding his head backward at a young woman standing in the stands...

I would have liked to see a picture of that

2 posted on 07/26/2016 4:49:24 AM PDT by Steely Tom (Vote GOP: A Slower Handbasket)
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To: TigerClaws
We’re talking about the political maturation of left-wing politics, said Peter Rickman .. a long-time left-wing activist, and a Sanders supporter.

FOFLMAO !

3 posted on 07/26/2016 4:56:11 AM PDT by tomkat
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To: TigerClaws
“In the Democratic party, there’s room for disagreement,” Peters insisted. “Instead you’re exercising fascism.” >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Just maybe the Berns are waking up to a very basic fact that all Republicans know:

 photo Liberal_Fascism_28cover29_zpsde84d15c.jpg

4 posted on 07/26/2016 4:56:58 AM PDT by Candor7 ( Obama fascism article:(http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/05/barack_obama_the_quintessentia_1.html)
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To: Candor7

Probably the last good thing Goldberg wrote.


5 posted on 07/26/2016 4:57:54 AM PDT by Chickensoup (Leftist totalitarian governments are the biggest killer of citizens in the world.)
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To: TigerClaws

“...he doesn’t love Hillary, but he would do the adult thing and vote for her come November.”

There isn’t an adult in that room, period.


6 posted on 07/26/2016 4:59:10 AM PDT by moovova
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To: moovova

Tweet gif of Susan Sarandon having a terrible time and she responded that it was accurate


7 posted on 07/26/2016 5:05:50 AM PDT by RummyChick
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To: TigerClaws

This from Politico who submits stories to the DNC for approval


8 posted on 07/26/2016 5:06:00 AM PDT by Donglalinger
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To: TigerClaws

——the political maturation of left-wing politics——

Actually, it was death rather than maturation. Death was caused by, the result of what was in reality murder.

Hillary murdered Bernie

There is no longer a far left that will be in contention for going it alone

Hillary murdered it


9 posted on 07/26/2016 5:07:13 AM PDT by bert ((K.E.; N.P.; GOPc;WASP ....Opabinia can teach us a lot)
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To: TigerClaws

In the final analysis, Bernie Sanders was nothing more than a Democrat shill - the Pied Piper of the DNC - whose job it was to deliver the young and impressionable millennials, who expressed no love for Hillary, directly to the feet of Her Royal Thighness. Then last night, he admonished his lemmings to follow Hillary off the presidential cliff, while promising to continue his phony “revolution” at some future point.

Are they that stupid? Judging from the glassy-eyed and bewildered anger of Bernie’s newly minted neo-revolutionaries, I suspect that most will outgrow their self-imposed delusion. But at least for now they know one thing for certain -— they’ve been played like a Stradivarius by a corrupt Democrat machine.


10 posted on 07/26/2016 5:09:07 AM PDT by Ancient Man
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To: moovova

“...he doesn’t love Hillary, but he would do the adult thing and vote for her come November.”

What a propaganda piece Politico puts out.


11 posted on 07/26/2016 5:17:22 AM PDT by MNDude (God is not a Republican, but Satan is certainly a Democrat.)
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To: TigerClaws

“Her husband, she said, was a NAFTA victim and she wasn’t about to let TPP destroy her family a second time”

These people are incredibly ignorant and flat out stupid.


12 posted on 07/26/2016 5:28:03 AM PDT by Romans Nine
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To: TigerClaws

In his quest to deliver the true believers to Shrillary, Bernie delivered the communist manifesto last night and claimed that Shrillary was for all of that, too.

We’ll see how she splits the baby.


13 posted on 07/26/2016 5:32:26 AM PDT by randita
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To: Chickensoup

Unfortunately, that is true. Tyranny of Cliches was not half the book that Liberal Fascism was.


14 posted on 07/26/2016 5:32:58 AM PDT by oblomov (We have passed the point where "law," properly speaking, has any further application. - C. Thomas)
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To: TigerClaws
The leaked emails proved that Politico was one of the media outlets the DNC ran talking points through disguised as "news" items.

This looks to be the same, in the vein of a limited hang-out.

Let the bernouts have their cry and then all behind Hillary to stop the evilllllllll Trump.

15 posted on 07/26/2016 5:36:25 AM PDT by Pietro
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To: RummyChick

“Tweet gif of Susan Sarandon having a terrible time and she responded that it was accurate”

I saw that...and it tickles me pink.

(er...pink as in happy, not pink as in commie pinko...)


16 posted on 07/26/2016 5:46:35 AM PDT by moovova
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To: TigerClaws

Bernie’s Babies are incredibly stupid to believe that Bernie’s campaign wasn’t a Clinton operation from the start. I enjoyed watching their reactions to reality punching them in the face, and how the party leaders put them down.

Also, don’t forget that the Dementocrats had an openly proud child molestor speak at the convention. They aren’t even trying to hide their inherent criminality anymore. President Trump should appoint someone to arrest every single person connected with the DNC, given that each person would be convicted.


17 posted on 07/26/2016 6:32:26 AM PDT by Objective Scrutator (All liberals are criminals, and all criminals are liberals)
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To: TigerClaws

Isn’t it required that you excerpt “Politico”?


18 posted on 07/26/2016 7:27:24 AM PDT by Bigg Red (You're on fire, stupid!)
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To: Ancient Man

Excellent analysis!


19 posted on 07/26/2016 7:29:07 AM PDT by Bigg Red (You're on fire, stupid!)
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To: Objective Scrutator

openly proud child molestor

&&&
Who?


20 posted on 07/26/2016 7:30:54 AM PDT by Bigg Red (You're on fire, stupid!)
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