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During the demonstrations in Charlottesville last weekend, hours before James Alex Fields Jr. plowed his Dodge Challenger into a crowd of counter-protesters on the street leaving one woman dead and many other people critically injured many centrists andliberals couldnt help but use the spectacle of neo-Nazis and fascists coming together on the streets for a cynical attack on the progressiveleft.

If the Bernie Bros wanted to make a show of force on behalf of progressive values,Saturdayin Charlottesville would be a good time,tweetedMieke Eoyang, the vice president of centrist think tank Third Way, implying that supporters of Bernie Sanders dont stand for progressive values where it really counts (i.e., in opposing racism and fascism). Neera Tanden, the president of the Center for American Progress, alsologged on to Twitterto take a swipe at those to her left:

We have actual fascists marching with torches. Maybe everyone on the progressive side could focus on the enemies of progress in front of us

— Neera Tanden? (@neeratanden) August 12, 2017

This remark was clearlyaimed at left-wingers who have been critical of the Democratic Party, with theimplication being that leftists are more interested in picking on liberals than fighting fascists, and have been helping the latter by dividingthe progressive side.

These comments and others like them were cynical and disingenuous for a number of reasons. They became particularly shameful after the terrorist attack that occurred later that day, as itwas left-wing activists from groups like theDemocratic Socialists of America(DSA), the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) and Black Lives Matter who were on the front line protesting the neo-Nazis, and who ultimately put their bodies in harms way. Heather Heyer, the 32-year-old woman who lost her life in the attack,was aprogressive activistand Sanderssupporter; if we must put it in these terms, she was a Bernie Bro.

One day before the Charlottesville demonstrations, the Washington Posts Dana Milbank published acolumnpromoting the same Bernie Bro narrative that center-left liberalshave been spreading since last years Democratic primaries. In a piece slamming Bernie Bros and sisters (at least Milbank acknowledges that millions of women also supported Sanders), the Post columnist argued that progressives are coming to the Republican Partys rescueby sowing division in the Democratic Party and attempting to enact a purge of the ideologically impure. The left-wing purity police, continued Milbank, are emulating the mistakes of the Tea Party movement that made the Republican Party the ungovernable mess it is today.

Consistent throughout these centrist or liberal criticisms of the progressive left is the notion that leftists are inadvertently (or perhaps deliberately) helping those on the right, whether its Republicans in congress or armed fascists in Charlottesville. The Bernie Bro trope, which remains fashionableamong Beltway insiders even a year after being discredited, puts forward two seemingly contradictory ideas: first, that Sanders supporters are purity police who will never win elections because they are too rigidly dogmatic and progressive, and second, that Sanders supporters are mostly white malereactionaries who loved Bernie solely because he was a white man (anddetested Hillary Clinton because she was a woman).

The latter claim never had much validity, and wasdebunked back in early 2016when voter turnout and pollingdata revealed that support for Sanders was based more on age than gender or race. Younger adults, includingyoung women,overwhelmingly supportedthe Vermont senator over Clinton. Yet more than a year after the primaries ended, Clintonites remain committedto this fabrication. When progressives criticized potential 2020 Democratic candidates Sen. Kamala Harris and Sen. Cory Booker for their neoliberal politics last month, for example, some liberals reflexively charged the left with sexism and racism.

In an excellentarticleresponding to these allegations for Current Affairs, Briahna Joy Gray points out that some of the most prominent leftists criticizing centrist Democrats like Booker and Harris are, in fact, women and people of color.The bro stereotype entirely erased the perspectives of countless women and people of color who did not share the center-left political position, writes Gray, who notes that a simplistic and cynical version of identity politics has been used to derail progressives whose record of commitment to racial justice, gender equality, and LGBT issues has historically eclipsed that of the Democratic Party itself.

The second major tenet of the Bernie bro mythology that Bernie supporters engage in purity politics is less patently offensive, and on the surface more plausible. Progressives are, after all, passionate about their political beliefs, and care about whether a politician is genuine in his or her political convictions. But the notion that left-wingers are starry-eyed idealists who will rescue the GOP if they dont fall in line and play nice with the Democratic establishment has about as much veracity to it as the notion that Bernie supporters are a bunch of white male dude-bros. Indeed, many liberals seem to have already forgotten that it was the pragmatic leadership of the Democratic establishment that led to the nationwide collapse of the Democratic Party and to Donald Trump in the White House.

The reality is that theBernie bros and sisters are the pragmatic ones in this dispute, and have a much better understanding of the current populist mood in America. This has been on full display over the past several months, as liberals have become more and morehystericaland obsessed with Russia and the DNC hack,while progressives have made the fight for universal health care their No. 1 priority (next to resisting the Trump administration and neo-Nazis). ABloomberg surveyfrom last month revealed which side is more in tune with the American public: A plurality of Americans (35 percent) believe that health care is the most important issue facing the country, while only 6 percent think that our relationship with Russia is the top issue. Furthermore, polls indicatethat agrowing number of Americans a majority in many cases support universal health care.

It seems clear, then, that the progressiveleft is tryingtorescue the Democrats from themselves.It also appears that centrists and many liberalsare not interested in having an honest debate,and would rather smear progressives (e.g., the Bernie bros or the alt-left)than engage in good-faith discussion.Even after young progressives were killed and injured on the streets of Charlottesville protesting neo-Nazis, liberals continued their smear campaign:

The Alt Left, in their drive to smear the impurityof Clinton on economic justice issues, excused the racism and bigotry that is Trumpism,tweeteda prominent liberal and editor for the website Daily Koson Sunday.

Only when progressives unconditionallyembrace the hegemony of Democratic Party leaders and their neoliberal policies, it seems, will mainstream liberals stop smearing them.

Originally posted here:
Forget the liberal smears: Leftists aren't covertly aiding the alt-right they're battling it - Salon