Thread by @DeanBaker13

It's time for Fun with Dana Milbank, the segment where we mock his efforts to mock Bernie Sanders washingtonpost.com/opinions/berni… in the Jeff Bezos owned @washingtonpost (Thread)

The body of Milbank's piece is a section where he takes a number of quotes from Sanders which are supposed to be ridiculous. Let's go through them in turn.

The first Sanders quote, “The crisis that we are facing today is not complicated. . . . We have a government that ignores the needs of the working people . . . yet works overtime for wealthy campaign contributors and the 1 percent.”

Let's see, we have Donald Trump negotiating a new NAFTA that will give big Pharma even larger profits, the trade deal with China is likely to encourage outsourcing by providing stronger IP protections, and both parties in Congress rushed to save the Wall Street banks in 2008

Of course, it wasn't possible to do much to help underwater homeowners and folks like the @washingtonpost opinion page writers wanted us to worry about the deficit instead of putting people back to work. But let's move on.

Milbank tell us " he mocked those who questioned ideas such as Medicare-for-all ('the establishment went crazy, media went nuts, still is'), and he celebrated his prescience." It will be hard to get to M4A, but it is not a crazy idea, in spite of what many news outlets say

Then Milbank gives us "He channeled rage at the 'vulgarity' of a 'grotesque' and 'corrupt' system, the 'absolute hypocrisy' of Republicans, corporations that 'lie' and billionaires who 'buy elections.'"

Hmmm, not sure what Milbank thinks is wrong here. If he ever bothered reading his own paper he would know about corrupt corporations like Well Fargo, that get rich ripping off their customers or Perdue Pharma that made a fortune pushing opioids.

He could also read about billionaires who are serious contenders as presidential candidates solely because they are billionaires. And of course, he could read about the vast sums they contribute to candidate who promise to make them even richer.

Then Milbank tells us, "Of the wealthy, he said, 'Many of them are bandits,' and he said if Republicans 'don’t have the guts to participate in a free and fair election, they should get the hell out of politics.'"

Then Milbank tells us "Of the wealthy, he said, 'Many of them are bandits,' and he said if Republicans 'don’t have the guts to participate in a free and fair election, they should get the hell out of politics.'"

Is there anyone other Dana Milbank's friends who questions the assertion that many of the wealthy are bandits? Again, Washington Post readers would know this.

And the point about the Republicans being scared of free and fair elections refers to their massive efforts at voter suppression. Apparently Mr. Milbank hasn't heard about this.

Anyhow, there are plenty of reasons why someone may not support Senator Sanders or prefer another candidate, but Dana Milbank's efforts to portray him as a crazy left-wing Donald Trump most reveals Milbank's prejudices and ignorance.