This is not a good critique. If you go back in time, Vermont led the nation by enacting Civil Unions. It was a states issue first. So to say in 2016 that Bernie was being disingenuous about same-sex marriage in 2006… that argument holds no water. That is back-casting.
You cannot look back to 2006 and say that same sex marriage should always have been a Federal issue and anyone who didn’t lead the charge was a traitor to social progress… especially when there was a sitting Republican president, and it was the states who came around individually to same-sex marriage, one by one, for over 20 years, culminating in the SCOTUS decisions of the summer of 2015. That’s how it occurred.
Your critique is a poor attempt to rewrite history, in order to level a meaningless, weak attack.
These are the typical kinds of attacks on Bernie - they have to be specious, because Bernie has never waffled or shifted on social issues in his entire career. He’s been saying the same shit about inequality for more than 50 years now.
And on guns, you need to remember where Bernie comes from. He’s from Vermont. I lived in Vermont for 25 years. Vermont has no concealed carry laws. Vermont has an incredibly low gun crime rate: in fact, the lowest. Vermont has no metal detectors in the statehouse. Any yahoo can walk in with a gun, right into the legislature. But nobody does, because people don’t do that in Vermont.
And what is Bernie’s job? That’s right. Senator, representing Vermont. The senators vote in the interest of the state. They had better vote in the interest of the state or they are out on their ear.
So this critique of Bernie’s stance on guns is also thin at best, because Vermont has very little need for Federal gun laws. They do not apply to Vermont, because guns are not a big problem in Vermont. So Bernie has voted against these actions because they would be unnecessary for Vermont, and perhaps these laws should be thought through better and written better, to be more effective at gun control in the places that need it. But they are not needed in Vermont, and so your criticism falls flat when you look at it from Vermont’s perspective.
I could go on and on. Hillary supporters are looking for anything, any little kink in the armor to try and thrust their sword in. The fact is, Bernie’s record and principles are impeccable. He does not lie and dodge like Mrs. Clinton. He has never had a shady real estate deal. People do not die or commit suicide or go to jail all around him. His wife does not cheat on him with interns. He does not take money from Goldman Sachs.
Bernie is about as close to an everyday person as you will ever see in politics during your entire lifespan. He’s no god. Just a regular guy fighting the big fight that he’s always fought from the very beginning.
