Bernie Sanders is increasingly in trouble,
mostly with folks who describe themselves
as supporters of Bernie.
Just a few weeks or a couple of months ago,
and part of this was Bernie Sanders endorsing
Joe Biden.
That enraged some people on the left.
And Bernie Sanders now said in a new interview
in very definitive terms, basically exactly
what I said on Monday about this entire abolish
the police, the fund, the police thing, which
was he's not for defunding the police, that
some departments need more money, but that
many changes and reforms has to be have to
be made.
And this was a very wide ranging interview
with The New Yorker.
I encourage you to check out the entire thing.
But listen, call me a neo liberal right wing
nut.
But I agree with Bernie Sanders, which increasingly
has people furious with me as well, which
is just a strange turn of events.
Let's look at what Bernie said.
Bernie, when asked about these defund the
police movements, said, quote, Do I think
we should not have police departments in America?
No, I don't.
There's no city in the world that does not
have police departments.
OK.
So this is this is just a hard no on actually
getting rid of police departments.
Fair enough.
So some people are angry with this, but some
folks believe this part is reasonable.
Bernie goes on.
What you need are I didn't call for more money
for police departments.
I called for police departments that have
well-educated, well-trained, well-paid professionals.
And too often around the country right now,
you have police officers who take the job
at very low payment, don't have much education,
don't have much training.
And I want to change that.
So, again, Bernie pointing out, sometimes
police are underpaid, sometimes police are
undertrained.
Sometimes a department doesn't have enough
officers to actually do community policing
rather than what I call cheap policing.
So that's me editorializing.
I'm now adding onto what Bernie Sanders said.
Bernie goes on, quote, I also called for the
transformation of police departments into
understanding that many police departments
and cops deal every day with issues of mental
illness, deal with issues of addiction and
all kinds of issues which should be dealt
with by mental health professionals or others
and not just by police officers.
So, again, Bernie, spot on.
Exactly as I said on Monday, I added mental
health training for officers themselves to
better de-escalate, adding to police departments,
more mental health workers, straightup, who
can request support from police if necessary.
Bernie goes on to say, quote, I think we want
to redefine what police departments do, give
them the support they need to make their jobs
better defined.
So I do believe that we need well-trained,
well-educated and well-paid professionals
in police departments.
Anyone who thinks that we should abolish all
police departments in America.
I don't agree.
So this is very straightforward.
I like that.
Bernie is also pointing out that a lot of
times when we look at funding, we would mostly,
I believe, all agree that funding for military
like elements for police, including certain
weapons and riot gear, armed vehicles, et
cetera.
That is funding that should be cut.
But cutting salaries, particularly when in
many parts of the country, police are dramatically
underpaid, including being so underpaid relative
to the cost of living that they have to live
far from the area they are policing, which
is not good for the community.
I made this point earlier this week.
Sometimes you actually may need to increase
the amount that is going to salaries as an
example while decreasing the amount that is
going to militarization and equipment.
So there have been two primary reactions to
Bernie Sanders saying this.
One reaction is people are furious with Bernie
Sanders.
Once again, Bernie sold out again, just like
he sold out by endorsing Joe Biden.
And to them, I say, what really happened here?
Like, in other words, did you so misjudge
Bernie?
All of these years you believed he was the
most honest politician, the most genuine politician,
the best guy that we needed.
And then now in six weeks, Bernie says, I'm
endorsing Biden and we should vote for him
and defund the police is not something that,
you know, you need to have police.
And now you realize that all along for the
last year, two years, five years, however
long you've supported Bernie, your assessment
of him was just wrong.
What does that say about your judgment, if
that is your reaction?
Now, the other response has been, well, you
know, abolish the police, defund the police.
It's not literal.
It's a metaphor for reform.
But that is where a lot of the problem is
coming from these conversations of we've got
to defund the police and abolish dismantle
police departments.
Well, you you do need police, though.
Like who are you going to call in the middle
of the night if someone burgled your house?
Well, no.
Oh, no.
I mean, I don't actually mean defund or abolish
the police.
What I mean is this stuff David Pakman said
on Monday.
Well, then maybe we agree.
But the movement needs to do better branding
because there are some people who do want
to abolish the police.
But either way, the right is seizing on it
and we're getting crushed.
Right wing media has spent all week just arguing
about the left wants to defund and abolish
the police when even a lot of the people saying
it don't actually want to do that.
So it does to me seem like Birney's position.
Might just be too status quo and not radical
enough for some of Bernie's most ardent followers.
That that actually may be the case even without
straw Manning or mischaracterizing Bernie's
position or without making a personal attack
on Bernie.
It's possible that Bernie's position on this
issue is just not radical enough for some
of the people that supported Bernie in 2016
and in 2020.
Now, I saw one other perspective when researching
this.
I saw some Bernie supporters who said we don't
really believe Bernie means this.
So understand what the argument is.
There are some Bernie supporters who believe
that deep down, Bernie does want to abolish
the police.
But in this interview, he's pretending that
he doesn't.
In order to mainstream Joe Biden's view, which
is the same, and that it's sort of like a
tactic.
In other words, Bernie wants to defund the
police.
But as a posturing move to help Biden, Bernie
is lying and pretending that he doesn't want
to defund the police.
If you believe that, then you believe that
Bernie Sanders is incredibly dishonest.
And I don't know how you could otherwise support
him.
Like if you believe Bernie is actually just
straight up lying in this way, that then you
should question why why you're even why you're
even still defending Bernie in any way.
I don't know if I'm honest with you guys,
and I would never be anything less than honest
with you.
I'm actually concerned about how quickly some
Bernie supporters abandoned Bernie after he
endorsed Biden and said a few pragmatic things.
And a lot of Bernie supporters abandoned Bernie
very quickly, attributed the most bad faith
interpretations to everything that Bernie
has said and done since suspending his campaign
and endorsing Joe Biden.
Like this was the guy for you and you abandoned
him this quickly and say he's either disingenuous
or a shill for Biden or whatever.
To me, that makes me question whether you
were really that strong of a Bernie supporter
from the get go or you were only supportive
of him as far as he was saying the things
you wanted to hear.
And it wasn't really Bernie you supported.
It was Bernie, as long as he says what you
want to hear.
And then as soon as he doesn't, Bernie is
no longer, you know, the genuine thinker that
you met.
Many, many said that he was.
I don't know.
But it is definitely concerning what we're
seeing.
