Bernie Love Dies Hard
June 11, 2016
by William P. Meyers

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Denial of Reality as a Leftist Personality Trait

"Believe, Believe in Victory,
Love, Love is easy as one-two-three." — Talking Heads '77

I was not surprised when a lot of progressive Democrats, angry white men, and a number of normally-to-the-left-of-the-Democratic-Party types bought into the campaign of Bernard (Bernie) Sanders for President of the United States. Sanders has a long history of using the Left in Vermont to get himself a comfortable government paycheck.

But it sure is interesting to see which people were so caught up in the collective Bernie mind that they can't let go. They occasionally post something in their own words, but mainly they just Like stupid Facebook pictures. Latest: "Come November, my ballot will say Bernie no matter who the democratic nomination is" [sic]

Of outstanding psychological importance is the idea that: Hillary is Not the Nominee! Bernie actually won! We will see that at the convention!

Followed by Hillary stole the election! Old people's votes don't count! Black people's votes don't count! Only Bernie votes count!

Denial of reality is a coping mechanism almost all humans engage in from time to time. I know many of the Bernie lovers pretty well. They generally are not more in denial of reality than your average Republican. They can tell the difference between the sun shining and a rainy day. True, they tend to smoke more marijuana than maybe the national average, but that does not explain it. Not all heavy smokers are in love with Bernie.

He told them what they wanted to hear: that they are not at fault for their circumstances, that the system is rigged. Yet most of the ones I know got a college degree or more at some point, and quite a few have upper-middle class parents. A couple have 1% parents.

I think many truly believe in social justice and are against war. To maintain their psychological state they have to overlook Bernie's tiny faults (F-35 support, Afghan War vote, votes against immigration, failure to work to build a movement outside Vermont for the last 50 years ...) and magnify Hillary's (the bitch who got free medical insurance for all low income children in the U.S., spent her life promoting women's rights, etc.).

But that is a given of any political contest. Beyond the normal partisan energy, many of them fell for Bernie like Mary Magdalena fell for Jesus.

I have to face up to the facts: the psychological makeup of leftists is not generally different than that of the extreme right. Or the ordinary middle. The Bernie Bots are natural born followers. Sheep. No different than any other followers, except they are predisposed to like cranky old white male socialists displaying anger against women.

And of course, they hate me right now. I'm immune to Bernie fever largely because I drank the leftist Kool-ade too deeply in my past. Just like when I started drinking alcohol as a teenager. I came to a place where I was vomiting all night, and then I was more careful with alcohol. Yet some people bounce off that kind of experience by becoming alcoholics.

I am sure there are already people writing science fiction short stories, set fifty years in the future, showing the adventures of a Sanders cult. He is a modern day Joseph Smith. A uniquely American prophet, or con artist, or a bit of a mix of both.

I have found it to be a good principle in life to be as clear about reality as possible, and to distinguish it from wishful thinking. That is no easy task. My parents and society raised me to believe in all sorts of bullshit, and it's been hard to sort through it. It's a complex world, filled with liars, but that is no excuse for mental laziness. Much less believing someone deserves your undivided loyalty just because he has figured out what you want to hear.