 The Washington Post published an article by Dana Milbank whose wife works for John Hickenlooper by the way and in this article He's going to argue that Bernie Sanders is the Trump of the left. I Mean you could have really anticipated that this would be their new line of attack because now that Bernie Sanders has the name recognition Now that his policies are overwhelmingly popular Now they have to find some other way to bring him down and discredit him so what this journalist is trying to do is compare him to Donald Trump and say that his tactics are not only similar to Donald Trump He's still hateful albeit in different ways. He's still scapegoats albeit in different ways, but also Just like Donald Trump anything that we say about Bernie whatever criticisms we lob against him like Teflon Don He's able to deflect so while I'm reading you this article Just try to pay attention to all the subtleties here because it's evident to me that Disdain and contempt for Bernie Sanders just oozes out of every single sentence And I don't think you can characterize this as anything but a hit piece so we're gonna take this paragraph by paragraph here and I'll tell you why I take issue with what this author is saying So he writes on paper the independent from Vermont doesn't make sense Democrats are a party of youth and he's 77. They are a majority female and he's a man They represent the emerging multicultural America and he is white Statistically, he is the worst option against Trump an NBC News poll this week found that there are more voters with concerns about Sanders 58% than there are for former vice president Joe Biden at 48 percent Senator Elizabeth Warren at 53 percent Senator Kamala Harris or former representative Beto O'Rourke at 41 percent each Sure, it is the case that descriptively speaking Bernie Sanders does not look like the average modern Democrat However, the reason why Individuals who are young from all demographics overwhelmingly support Bernie Sanders is because he represents us Substantively, which is why as one Vox article puts it his base is diverse and very young Because what people don't acknowledge is that there's a real difference between Descriptive representation and substantive representation Descriptive representation just means that we have people in power that look like us that are the same colors and ethnicities and gender identities as us but substantive representation means that they're actually Passing policies that protect us that improve the lives of marginalized communities now political science research Does show that more often than not descriptive representation oftentimes does directly translate into Substantive representation, but the reason why young people and people who wouldn't traditionally like an old white male like him Is because he represents us in a meaningful way. He's in tuned to what we want he understands the struggle of Millennials more so than any other politician and understand that young voters will determine who wins the selection either by voting or Staying home. So what we need to do is have someone as the Democratic Party nominee Who's going to be able to energize the base who more often than not actually can determine the election in? 2008 it was young people who got Barack Obama elected if we stayed home He wouldn't have been able to win So you've got to have a candidate who's appealing to young voters and Bernie Sanders is that candidate? so it doesn't matter that descriptively speaking he doesn't look like us and he's old what matters is that he represents us and has real plans to improve our lives and They don't see it because they don't really care about the policy substance, but normal people do now He also says here that statistically Bernie Sanders is the worst option to go against Donald Trump and What is his evidence for this? One poll he cites one poll I mean come on if you're a journalist then you need to know and really I think he probably does know that citing one poll isn't really that persuasive in terms of evidence or arguments because Polling data itself if you just look at one poll that's not very reliable But if you look at aggregate polling data It is more reliable and if you look at Aggregate polling data when it comes to head-to-head matchups between Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump It does not show that he's the worst option. It shows that he's one of the best now to be honest It doesn't show that he is the best option because currently Joe Biden has the overall largest Lead in head-to-head matchups with Donald Trump He's eight point seven points ahead and Bernie Sanders is four point three points ahead now Of course, that's not as good as I had hoped It wasn't as good as it was in 2016 but it's still incredibly early and at this point in time Bernie Sanders still fairs better than Pretty much everyone else. He fairs better than a Rourke and Harris But I mean what we've got to understand here is that what happened in? 2016 is likely going to happen again the more that Bernie Sanders Sanders that I call him standards the more that Bernie Sanders Stays in the spotlight the more that his likability goes up He's now the most popular politician in America and I think the opposite will probably happen with Joe Biden I think that the more that he talks the more that his likability will decrease now also as the field shrinks and Bernie Sanders gets more of the spotlight. I think that that number will increase But nonetheless getting back to the overall assertion here that statistically he's the worst option It's factually incorrect and this author should acknowledge that by making that argument by citing one poll to make his point You look like a hack. You look like you're trying to cite the numbers That prove your argument while disregarding the other numbers that disprove your argument like for me I have been arguing for years now in this podcast that Bernie would have won. He would have defeated Donald Trump But I am at least honest enough to acknowledge that currently when you look at aggregate polling data Joe Biden is polling better than Bernie against Donald Trump. That's just the fact. I can't change it. Do I hope it changes? Yes, do I think it will change? Yes, but I'm still being honest about the factual and statistical realities currently This journalist is being dishonest now He also argues yet Sanders has both money and movement his campaign on Tuesday announced the Hall of 18 2.2 million in the first quarter from 525,000 individual contributors the other major populist early favorite Warren has floundered in both money and popularity and Undeclared front-runner Biden now looks vulnerable to accusations. He inappropriately touched women kicked off by a prominent Sanders 2016 backer who served on the board of Sanders political group now Let me just pause there because remember how I told you before I read any of this that Distain for Bernie Sanders just oozes that's part of it It's subtle, but he's trying to prime you to think that you know, maybe This was encouraged or maybe even spearheaded by someone close to Bernie Sanders Maybe Lucy Flores didn't come out Because she was just genuinely feeling uncomfortable by Joe Biden and thinks that the American people should know about her experience It must have been catalyzed by Bernie Sanders. So back to his argument here He says meanwhile Sanders himself remains untouchable in a Trumpian way Claims of mistreatment by male staffers from women who worked on his 2016 campaign Yawn his resistance to releasing his tax returns Whatever the idea that Democrats need a unifying figure to lure disaffected Trump voters in key states never mind Okay, let me ask you this. How is Bernie not a Unifying figure the overwhelming majority of the Democratic Party's base supports Bernie Sanders Sure, there's doughnut Twitter and the 8% of the party who dislikes Bernie Sanders, but by and large He is overwhelmingly popular with the Democratic Party's base and on top of that when you talk about these States that we have to win back such as the rest belt Well, if you look at the policy substance Medicare for all One of the many policies that Bernie Sanders is championing doesn't just have support Among the overwhelming majority of the American people but a majority of Republicans now Support it Republican voters support Bernie's health care policy over Donald Trump's health care policy And maybe that's due to Donald Trump not actually articulating a health care policy of his own But nonetheless the things he's talking about are overwhelmingly popular So how can you contend that what he's saying is not a unifying message when he has a populist message It just seems like this journalist is being intentionally obtuse And it's just just trying to see the world in the skewed way that DC consultants and elites see the world But normal Americans if you just talk to one of us, we don't see the world that way We don't agree with you. He does have a unifying message He has a message of inclusivity and a message that will bring out the working class because we've been largely ignored By both political parties. There's nothing more unifying than that He continues Sanders isn't Trump in the race-baiting Lender-cheating fact avoiding porn actress paying Putin loving sense But their styles are similar shouting and unsmiling anti-establishment and anti-media Absolutely unconvinced of their own correctness attacking boogeymen the 1% and CEOs in Sanders case instead of immigrants and minorities offering impractical promises with vague details lacking nuance and Nostalgic for the past note the subtle jab there at Sanders policies It's less hateful perhaps to blame billionaires than immigrants or certain globalists for America's troubles But the scapegoating is similar a similar crowd could likewise prevent Democrats from presenting a clear alternative To Sanders tempting if Trump be in message that a nefarious elite is to blame for America's problems Universal health care higher education and child care are within reach Sanders said to cheers If only we stand up and tell this 1% that we will no longer tolerate their greed in real life It's not so simple, but in our new politics Maybe it is so this may be a quintessential example of a false equivalence because he's comparing Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders policies and saying they may be different They may exist on different ends of a political spectrum, but they're still both equally impractical Donald Trump Supposedly saying that Mexico will pay for a wall on our southern border is as equally impractical as us getting the same health Care system that every other country in the developed world has that's the argument. He's making I Mean, I don't know what else to say, but that you're a hack and we see right through you and he also says here Donald Trump like Bernie Sanders has this tactic this tendency where there's a boogeyman and they scapegoat all of America's problems and Maybe Bernie's brand is less hateful because he's blaming billionaires and not immigrants But nonetheless, it's still scapegoating wrong except the problem with your use of the word scapegoat in this context Is that a scapegoat assumes that you're really only trying to blame that individual or entity? For expedient purposes, you're doing it because it's convenient to do so But when Bernie Sanders blames the 1% for all of our political issues and economic woes He's not scapegoating. He's being factually correct about what's taking place And if you care about statistics like you claim you do Let's look at some of these numbers the richer getting richer and president Donald Trump just passed a tax law that gave rich people the biggest benefit Deos are paid 361 times that of the average worker while 40% of Americans can't cover the cost of a $400 expense nearly half of workers make less than $30,000 per year and the federal minimum wage hasn't been increased since 2009 The world made more billionaires than ever in 2017 and those billionaires became 20% richer Meanwhile homelessness has been on the rise in the United States now for two years in a row and on top of that Fact it's not just that elites have all the money They also have all of the political power in what's supposed to be a democracy because studies have shown that Americans have a Statistically insignificant impact on policy outcomes whereas elites have a disproportionate say on what policies actually get passed So for Bernie Sanders to point that out. He's not being hateful He's being truthful and he's showing that he has courage that his opponents lack Because even though people in the Democratic primary who are running against them are smart enough to acknowledge That it's the elites who are ruining not just the economy, but our democracy They're too afraid to say it because they're trying to court donations from them They know that these elites can help them get elected. So they don't want to demonize them too hard But Bernie Sanders, he's actually calling it like it is and you say that He's demagoguing in a way that Donald Trump demagogues and uses anti-immigrant rhetoric That's your argument Bernie tells the truth and you compare him to Trump's Demagoguery what a disgusting thing to say you're literally pretending that his quote-unquote hatred for the rich is Comparable to Trump's anti-immigrant hatred and demagoguery. I don't even know how anyone can take this article seriously It's just it's disgusting You're making a moral equivalence where there is no equivalence between Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump They both may be angry But one is angry for unjust reasons and the other is angry for just reasons So when Bernie Sanders calls out the billionaire and the oligarchs, he's doing it because Their greed is ruining the economy and it's contributing to income and wealth inequality that ultimately is hurting Americans when Donald Trump Calls out immigrants and says that they're invading the country what he's doing is trying to use Fear mongering in order to get you to think that he's gonna save you from this big bad Immigrant boogeyman that scapegoating what Bernie Sanders is doing is truth-telling Objectively speaking because we know that immigrants are not the problem if you look at statistics, they're not the problem But conversely if you look at the impact that the greed of oligarchs is having They are the problem by and large So this is a disgusting hit piece against Bernie Sanders and it's clear that the author is a little bit butthurt that he's getting a lot of backlash for it But if you're gonna write something this hacky, I think that you've got to expect and anticipate criticism because that's absolute nonsense And it's obvious it's just a smear because the left largely does not like Donald Trump So if you can tie Bernie to Trump then that helps to demonize Bernie Sanders It gets everyone primed to believe that if you want more instability then vote for Bernie because he's just the opposite version of Donald Trump Um, yeah shame on you. This is a disgusting hit piece Mike is a total loser. So don't hit the subscribe button, okay? And whatever you do folks do not hit the notification bell either Mike treats me so unfairly