Bernie Sanders bothers me to my core. And I don't know why. I wish I could encapsulate this feeling of bothersome in a tweet, hashtag, or meme that would be easily digestible to the fast food culture of America but I can't and that bothers me too.
Growing up my mom cultivated in me the internal
bullshit meter that I naturally had. This BS meter has served me well when I
listen to it and when I don’t, has guided me back like a touchstone when the
consequences of ignoring it become too great. Once, when I was on the verge of
9 and my brother 19, my mother and older sister asked me what I thought of my
brother’s girlfriend Pam after spending a day with her (accompanied by my
little sister). Pam had done all she could to gain the favor of her boyfriend’s
little brother and sister and I saw right through her. When my mom asked me
what I thought of Pam, I said instinctively that she was a bitch and instead of
being punished by my mom for using such a bad word, she laughed and agreed. I
had succinctly encapsulated a horrible beast that would in the future near tear
my family apart. (If only they had listened!)
This talent of mine has even dazzled my last Korean
co-workers who were amazed that I could read a student on the first meeting.
They called my gift ‘sensing’ and wondered how, with my limited Korean language
abilities along with my once a week exposure to each class, I could know the
true character of a student. I couldn’t quite explain. Many times people think
I am quick to judge but when I am proven right are either amazed or ignore this
talent until they need it. I once saw right through the husband of a popular
American couple in Korea. This couple had glamoured all my friends. They
thought of this couple, especially the husband, as a gold standard; cool in
their near hipster affectations. I thought the husband was a slut and the wife
full of shit. The husband proved just that and the wife has now renounced her
smug ways by divorcing the slut husband. (I still think she is full of shit but
maybe this will come to light later.) But I digress, as I am quick to do.
So I have thought long and hard about why Bernie
bothers me and I have come to the conclusion that he is a condescending bully
who thinks he is near perfect in his messiah complex and damns anyone who
doesn’t live up to his idea of perfection; which incites his Bernie Bros, and
the female equivalent, to antagonize Hillary Clinton so much so that it borders
on, if not spills over, into nasty misogyny. This encapsulation is far from a
hashtag and couldn’t quite be a meme. Maybe a tweet, but in Twitterland this
tweet would quickly be absorbed by the constant chirps of social media.
Last night’s debate though may have helped in
exposing Bernie for the bully he is. Numerously telling Hillary to be quiet,
getting the white privilege problem wrong, and getting angry when his record
was called into question but near leering at how flawed Secretary Clinton has
been in her long history of public service. I wish he had exposed himself more
for the bully he truly is, near in kin with Trump than this cool hipster chic of
Vermont open-mindedness. But Santa doesn’t always give us the gifts we want.
And yes, for the record, I know Hillary herself is
full of shit on a lot of topics but she wears it on her sleeves and strives to
do better when she knows better. If Santa truly knew my heart, I would have
gotten a Biden bid but alas that didn’t come to pass. (Unless Hillary is
indicted—we can only hope.) Biden/Warren ’16
