Progressives (Liberals)

Imagine what would happen if in primaries, candidates would go after each other's negatives...

I think, even if it were true, that there's likely less there than meets the eye. It's a statement taken out of context. We don't know any of the details of the conversation. It could have been an offhand comment concerning the tactics of the Trump campaign and the mood of the electorate. I'm not a Sanders-worshiper by any means, but I respect him and I find it very hard to believe that he meant this as blanket statement to apply for all time.

I think you are quick to dismiss the attacks as not coming from the candidates.

You seem to be bending over backwards to excuse the comment.

**** happens in campaigns, including disinformation. I'm just being prudent. And I think it's wise to keep our heads cool and not get all outraged at the slightest suspicion of impropriety.

Honestly, I don't intend to get sucked into this rabbit hole....I'll be voting against Trump in November.

The flip side is don't rush to excuse bad behavior because you like the person or because they aren't Trump.

There is a certain type of Extremely Online supporter of Bernie Sanders who tends to dismiss the importance of Russian interference in our elections. But just now, Sanders himself strongly condemned the latest news that Russia is already sabotaging the 2020 election, and in so doing, illustrated why this matters with a rarely articulated argument that deserves more debate.
...Sanders responded sharply to this news, pronouncing himself “alarmed” by Russia’s effort to hack Burisma and interfere again, and ripping Russia for disinformation campaigns designed to divide the U.S. along racial and social lines:

Quote:

Let me be clear: we must not live in denial while allowing Russia and other state actors to undermine our democracy or divide us. Russia targets the divisions in our society; we will work to heal those divisions. We must do everything we can to strengthen our democracy and build a society based on social, economic, and environmental justice, and equality and dignity for all.

To understand the argument Sanders is making here, read his 2018 foreign policy speech, which is all about what he terms a “struggle of enormous consequence” taking place “throughout the world”:

Quote:

On one hand, we see a growing worldwide movement toward authoritarianism, oligarchy, and kleptocracy. On the other side, we see a movement toward strengthening democracy, egalitarianism, and economic, social, racial, and environmental justice.

Sanders cites Russian interference in our elections on Trump’s behalf as an important front in this struggle, noting that Trump is “ultimately more sympathetic to Russia’s strongman form of government” and to this kind of authoritarianism and kleptocracy “than he is to American democracy.” This must be countered with “a strong global progressive movement.”

In other words, Sanders speaks to the threat of Russian interference not through the sort of neo-Cold War frame often derided by some of his online supporters, but through a frame that pits liberal democracies that share a common, if sometimes wobbly and ineffective, commitment to international institutions against a global movement of “oligarchic authoritarianism.”...