Is that really the case, or are you simply very easily swayed by propaganda pieces that confirm your bias?
I read through the first article you posted and was taken aback by the sheer amount of propaganda the author, Bonnie Kristian, managed to push. Let's start with her premise: "Sanders is not as progressive as he says he is"
Immediately, she tries to steer the narrative as "Sanders isn't a progressive, either!", attempting to contrast his record to Hillary Clinton's, who, by every measurable metric, is, and always has been, much more conservative than Bernie Sanders..
Bad start..
Her main examples used are his voting record on the issues of: Gun reform, criminal justice reform, and foreign policy, so let's examine those..
Gun control: Sanders received a D- rating from the NRA in 2018
"Sanders' staff has tried to explain his comparative conservatism here as part and parcel of representing Vermont, a left-wing but gun-friendly state, but either way, his is hardly a super-progressive record on guns."
"comparative conservatism" - that's an interesting choice of words for a man who received a D- rating from the NRA... "super-progressive", as if "comparatively", an 'F' rating is presumably "super-progressive"... What's a D-? Just standard ol' progressive..? If Sanders received a 'C' or 'B' rating from the NRA, Kristian might have a valid point to poke at, but he has a D- rating.. No rational person would look at that and conclude Sanders is soft on gun control regulations. One final point about this hardlined stance on Sanders on gun control; the exact same people levying the criticism about his voting record and his staff's response to it about representing Vermont citizens are the exact same people who vehemently defend Senators like Joe Manchin and Claire McCaskill who actively vote with the Republican party more than 50% of the time, so spare me the faux outrage over Sanders on his gun control regulation record, it just comes off as extremely hypocritical and disingenuous
Criminal justice reform: "The rhetoric is right. But Sanders' record says otherwise." (here, Kristian actually cites 'The Federalist', to validate her point. A well known right wing propaganda website designed to smear Democratic and left wing politicians)
Kristian continues;
"For instance, Sanders sounded a similar note back in April 1994, decrying America's ballooning prison population and its ties to poverty. But just one week later, he voted to pass the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, a centerpiece of Bill Clinton's "tough on crime" shtick, which, among other things, mandated a life sentence for anyone convicted of three drug crimes; expanded the list of death penalty crimes; lowered the age at which a juvenile could be tried as an adult to just 13; and appropriated billions to expand the prison system and hire 100,000 new police officers."
The Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 was written by Joe Biden, supported by Hillary Clinton, and signed by Bill Clinton
It's interesting how Kristian chose to only include the negatives of the bill in the article, most of which Sanders has publicly available statements in which he's clearly opposed to, like drug crimes, and the death penalty..
According to Wikipedia;
"Following the 101 California Street shooting, the 1993 Waco Siege, and other high-profile instances of violent crime, the Act expanded federal law in several ways. One of the most noted sections was the Federal Assault Weapons Ban. Other parts of the Act provided for a greatly expanded federal death penalty, new classes of individuals banned from possessing firearms, and a variety of new crimes defined in statutes relating to immigration law, hate crimes, sex crimes, and gang-related crime. The bill also required states to establish registries for sexual offenders by September 1997."
So I wonder why Kristian didn't include any of the positives of the bill in her article..
Foreign policy: Bernie Sanders was the only Independent congressman to vote against the Iraq War Resolution. His foreign policy record speaks for itself
It took me an hour to deconstruct this propaganda piece. I simply don't have the time or the will to deconstruct all of them, and that's the point... That's why they're produced at such an exceptional rate. They can't all be combatted, and that's why it's so easy for propaganda to spread.
This was a detailed, thorough analysis of one of your citations. I simply can't do this for all of them, that's why it's so important for you to be able to spot bullshit when you see it before you post it.
All corporate mainstream media has a very specific agenda to sell, that is their entire purpose. That's why they hire pretty thoughtless people who don't rock the boat and pay them millions of dollars a year to say what they want them to say to millions of viewers. It's why Fox News is so successful.
I just spent a considerable amount of time responding to this. I would appreciate a reply from you
I appreciate you spent, what to you, seemed a considerable amount of time and effort to malign this article. Who among us can't appreciate how labor intensive copying and pasting content from wiki is. Hell, you even changed the font color 3 times. I don't know how you do it man. I for one don't have time to address all the hyperbole in your little text mountain, but the author did make some salient points, despite your best efforts to shit on them.
You claim Hillary
by every measurable metric, is, and always has been, much more conservative than Bernie Sanders..
Progressive Punch Score: Sanders 97.18
Clinton 92.19
https://progressivepunch.org/scores.htm?house=senate
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2007/8/10/369633/-
That seems closer than you're claiming.
You say, if Sanders received a '
C' or '
B' rating from the NRA, Kristian might have a valid point to poke at.
His score was a C- in 2006.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2016/01/26/everything-you-wanted-to-know-about-bernie-sanderss-record-on-guns/?utm_term=.3789573305a6
You say because he voted against the Iraq war resolution his position on foreign policy speaks for itself. You omitted the authors points about Bernie's plans for the drone program, intervention in Libya, the Afghan war, and maintaining the conflict in Iraq.
Is that because his policies are in fact no different than other democrats?