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Chris Hedges: Bernie Sanders is Giving Legitimacy to the Democratic Party

Gaza Protest at Israeli Consulate in San Francisco 11-19-2012

Image by Steve Rhodes via Flickr

Dandelion Salad

with Chris Hedges

VulgarTrader on May 7, 2015

You can get this and other episodes of Null’s show here: https://thegarynullshow.podbean.com/e/the-gary-null-show-050615/

[Hedges begins at 7:43 minutes into the video.]

From the archives:

Invest in Activism, Not Bernie Sanders by David Swanson + The Problem with Bernie Sanders by Ashley Smith

Chris Hedges: Prison State America: Corporations Use Inmates Like Slaves

Noam Chomsky: Hideous. Sadistic. Vicious. Murderous. + Transcript

Chris Hedges: How Prisons Ripoff and Exploit the Incarcerated, Part 1

Clare Daly: Ireland Pimped Out Like Prostitutes for Obama, A War Criminal + Transcript

See also:

What I learned about Bernie Sanders by Kristen Martin

Populist Except for Pentagon by David Swanson

What should the left say about Sanders?

46 thoughts on “Chris Hedges: Bernie Sanders is Giving Legitimacy to the Democratic Party”

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  7. When everyone agrees on something , I get a little cynical . so , it looks like I have to play the dissenter on this . I did so with my article on the Arizona law on illegals , so why not now . ?

    if you looked at what I said on the other post on Debs , I wont repeat myself . suffice to say that — everyone is jumping the gun .

    1. Just because Sanders has said nothing yet , doesn’t mean he wont . He can be very blunt , and these issues will come up . so , let us not the mob mentality and just jump on him . you can all jump after he says something .

    2. He just announced and is getting warmed up and has been asked stupid questions in Iowa that have not much to do with anything important .

    3. As is his style he will say something on the issues raised of import . until than , why judge him ?

    4. Maybe ( have you thought about this ) he just might change his position on things overseas ? of course that would not please any of you , because the what would have to complain about ? in a culture of complaint it is tuff to break the addiction .

    5. BE PATIENT . this is no panegyric to Sanders …or even praising him . No. it is –a stop jumping to conclusions warning .

    • Actually the dissenting opinion is in not supporting Sanders if one is on the left. But you are not on FB to know that.

      I go with antiwar/anti-death candidates only. I cannot support anyone who is for the military, especially overseas.

      • the dissenting view is the dissenting view . J.S. Mill said that if everyone agrees on something, the one person who disagrees must be heard above all . it is only thru a dissenting view that causes a collison that truth comes forth .

        now Lo, if you say that the dissenting view is coming from the left ..then it does not matter where it comes from , it matters that there must be dissent against dissent for sake of a ”collision ”.

        • And your point is? Are you going to support Sanders regardless of his positions on the military, etc. along with millions of others? That is not a dissenting point of view.

        • you know me better than that . of course I wont support him . but you must understand what I am doing here –I am in dissent against dissent not because of the questions , but because of the assumptions .

          I am the one who is setting up the antithesis for the sake of argument so that there can develop a dialogue with a dialectic ..that will come to a collision point .

    • How do you deal with Sanders’ statement that if he loses the Primary Election, he will support Hillary Clinton? Of course, many of his supporters will NOT vote for her, but many will.

      People love to support a savior. I already have one: Jesus, so I’m not looking for another one.

      • Assumptions :

        1. First off you are assuming that Hillary Clinton will be the nominee . Others have yet to announce in the Democratic party for the office of the presidency .

        2. The next assumption is that Sanders has enuff pull to bring in Sociailists to vote Democrat.

        3. The statement that people love to support a savior is true alright , but i do not think that it has anything to do with Sanders, or you not puttting trust in Sanders or voting for him .

        the way people are piling on here sounds like just another group of idealogues that are jumping to conclusions . Hence the need for dissent and against dissent . Someone’s voting record in the Senate is not jumping to conclusions . that is valid .

        The jumping to conclusions is already having pre-judged his possible answers by inference, innuendo, allegations , ideological purity . it is a very subtle form of character asassination .

        my argument is not about Sanders , its about the importance of critical thinking , and critical thinking DEMANDS that we hold opposing views in our mind at the same time . One cannot do that with assumptions .

        • It’s not an assumption when Sanders has already said he would support the nominee if he loses the Primary Election. Right now, the person with 92% in the polls is Hillary Clinton, like it or not. See: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2015/06/23/theres-a-new-poll-number-that-shows-just-how-likely-hillary-clinton-is-to-be-the-democratic-nominee/

          I have no idea how many real Socialists would vote for Bernie Sanders. I don’t know whether I will or will not vote for him in the Primary Election. It depends if he’s still on the ballot when my state votes next year.

          There are far too many unanswered questions on Sanders’ views on critical issues. And we need to ask those questions, hence, my blog post: https://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2015/07/11/sen-bernie-sanders-i-have-some-questions-for-you-by-lo/

        • Again Lo –I view this as jumping the gun . There will be a handful of Dems announcing soon and that 92% will go down . That is the nature of polls and people . Also take into account more possibly Clinton scandels , and what if she has a major health problem ?

          a real Socialist that is informed will most likely vote Green anyway . this notion that Sanders will be stealing real Socialists into the Dem party is highly unlikely .

          Back to the un answered questions : he just announced . as I said –have some patience . he will have to answer them in due time and he can be pretty blunt at times. Everyone wants answers NOW . and the rest of us want patience and we want it NOW . the latter is me .

          again –to recap –this discussion is not just about Sanders . I am not defending Sanders because he has not said much yet . I am simply stating that a rush to judgement is rather rash .

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  16. OK- Thank you for this article.

    i noticed a number of references to Scottish and Irish. Well speaking as an Irish Republican raised in Co Armagh, northern occupied Ireland.

    O’Malley is attempting to sheepdog the Bernie Sanders folks- who is attempting to sheepdog for Wall Street Queen Hillary Clinton.

    Both O’Malley AND Sanders are sheep dogging. Both are trying to make the current system appear to be legitimate. When it patently is not. We can assume that they are both doing so knowingly and both for any personal gain. like say ‘stroking of egos” and “very important positions” inside the halls and walls of power.”

    Actual Socialists and anti-capitalists try to break down the walls and halls of power, thereby giving ordinary folks a chance to live decent lives. These two are doing the exact opposite. They are reinforcing the walls and halls of power.

    Thank you dandelion for this piece.

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  22. The R & D Parties in the U.S. have minor differences, nowadays and collaborate very well on key issues. Of course, the Democrats also seem to have enough “blue dog” members siding with the Republicans, who of course vote against every kind of progressive legislation proposed by members of Congress.

    We are an ignorant, (willfully, by choice) uneducated society mesmerized, through successful advertising and marketing, the “rich and the famous, who basically have nothing but scorn for us working stiffs.

    But across the Atlantic, the Brits are regressing as well with the latest elect results.

    David, you may have read this already but It was on http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article41788.htm from Matt Carr’s website
    http://infernalmachine.co.uk

    We are returning to the “dark ages” of ignorance, superstition, falsification of facts, and eventual serfdom of a two-class system.

    As Alfred E. Neuman says: “What Me Worry?”

  23. On this side of the big ocean, perfidious Albion, resting uncomfortably amid the roaring seas that surround us, ponders her future with grim stoicism….I defer to Lesley Docksey, she frames the scene passionately well ~

    “We the people are not those who deal in perfidy. So where are the people who make up the body of the giant, where are those who will wake up and say “Enough!” On this dark and depressing day, our land needs us…..”

    http://www.globalresearch.ca/britain-no-longer-great-but-doomed-to-another-five-years-of-pain-and-austerity/5448285

      • Truth is, New Labour bears the crimson stain of the blood of those tragic innocents. Bush-Blair’s Iraq misadventure opened the flood gates of hell, and now the consequence of that catastrophic foreign policy have come back to haunt the party, that in so many other respects really did effect some extraordinary tangible changes in these islands.

        The big problem in the UK is the sad faith so many aspiring clowns have in the so-called “special relationship” ~ it is remarkable, their level of ignorance about brutal US realities. You hardly ever hear anyone citing Chris Hedges for example. There is this pervasive notion that we are equal “partners” with the US! Ha, what a joke that is….I only wish some of these dreamers would do their technical homework, analyse the PR blag or at the very least listen to someone insightful like Paul Craig Roberts.

        The fact is, Scotland is now the great counterweight to the truly cosmopolitan epicentre that is London ~ money bags central. We are probably witnessing the birth of a whole new regional consciousness elsewhere in Britain, but that is a desirable regionalism, almost impossible to grasp or realize, without acknowledging its embedded context ~ the volatile European (especially the South, Spain particularly) and (for Scotland especially) that broader Scandinavian/Icelandic North Sea zeitgeist ~ dramatic cultural tectonics shaping quite radical new socio-political landscapes.

        Tariq Ali is always worth listening to for serious analysis, but the best thing I’ve heard in the last couple of days is Charlie Brooker’s satirical Election Wipe (BBC 1.) I don’t think you can watch this in the US, but should you find a way, it is surpassing hilarious ~ really captures the absurdity of the media-electoral charade.

  25. If Irish politicians, like the man and woman giving speeches during the program, are the only politicians capable of speaking the truth, perhaps for U.S. president Mr. O’Malley deserves a look. 🙂

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