Sasha Stone
https://medium.com/sashastone/the-bernie-sanders-i-thought-i-knew-is-gone-1b2dc67385de#.uvcjmn860

How must it feel to feel like a god? Bernie Sanders knows. At the end of each of his debates with Hillary Clinton, he never turned toward her or the news anchors. He always turned to his cheering, adoring fans, soaking up the sunbeams of their love each and every time. Who wouldn’t?

Who is the real Bernie? Is he not the guy I once thought he was? The guy whose videos I watched, who was always ready to give voice to the anger many of us felt whenever Republicans blocked any progress Democrats tried to make? I begin to ask myself: How could that guy be getting so few endorsements from his colleagues anywhere in Congress? Why does this Bernie Sanders act like he doesn’t have a son? Why does this Bernie Sanders treat his own wife so disrespectfully? Finally, why does this Bernie Sanders seem unable to face the reality that he has lost the primary to Hillary Clinton?

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The famously obstinate and “holier than thou” temperament Sanders projected was off-putting to his colleagues. Well, to most of them. Not, as it turns out, to an ally who is now the sole focus of his ire — Hillary Clinton. Clinton was a Senator who COULD work with everyone, and still does. As fellow senators, they were on cordial terms, voting along the same lines 93% of the time. They remained friends for over a decade — until the pain of losing to his former colleague became too much for Sanders to bear. It wasn’t just that he was being beaten “by a girl.” It was that he was being beaten by the woman he had first encountered when she was the wife of Bill Clinton, the woman who had the gall to achieve what he couldn’t — delivering a near-socialist healthcare package to Capitol Hill as First Lady. That effort wasn’t pure enough to suit Sanders, the man who never compromised. Too many forces stood in opposition for the Clinton health care plan of 1993 to prevail. Hillary Clinton, though, was undaunted by such roadblocks — she was and is a doer.

All the same, it must have irked Sanders that this woman who had gained prominence as the wife of Bill Clinton rose so fast to be elected Senator from New York and then swiftly proceeded to get things done. She was only in the Senate for two terms, but she accomplished more in that time than Sanders had done during twice as many years in D.C. He would claim that’s because she’s “establishment” — he’d say they’re all establishment, everyone but him. Yes, they are. That’s our government. That’s how it was designed in the Constitution. Three branches, very much established. You can lay blame or credit for solidifying that establishment on FDR, who was as establishment as they come. (You, Senator Sanders, are no FDR).

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