In November, Walker Bragman wrote a thoughtful op-ed for Salon, “More like Reagan than FDR: I’m a millennial and I’ll never vote for Hillary Clinton.”
In Monday’s piece for the Hill, “Don’t call me a ‘Bernie Bro,'” Bragman writes of the attacks he’s faced since then.
One of the attacks, soon after the piece, came from Salon’s former editor, Joan Walsh. Considering it’s impossible not to know Walsh is a Hillary supporter, her dislike is to be expected.
Seriously did @salon sponsor a contest to find the dumbest dudebro writing about Hillary Clinton? https://t.co/7WCe9tFQZa
— Joan Walsh (@joanwalsh) November 30, 2015
Plenty of other useless allegations of sexism and complaints about Bernie Bros, have been made, including ironically from Bill Clinton of all people. Amanda Taub, in a more recent piece from earlier this month, mentions Bragman by name in her piece for Vox, “The debate over “Bernie Bros” isn’t about Bernie Sanders at all.”
Taub writes:
Taub fails to explain what Bragman’s comment has to do with gender.
While Bragman did not back down on the point behind his article, he did express a sort of regret. In his opening paragraph for the Hill, he writes:
Bragman’s point is a fair one, but he shouldn’t have to explain himself. Hillary’s personality likely “repels” plenty of people.
There’s also Bragman’s reflection of white privilege:
At least the paragraph continues by mentioning:
He also rightfully says “if we are to have a real discussion, we also cannot ignore the sexism against female Bernie supporters at the hands of Hillary supporters.”
Hillary is already the party’s front-runner. It’s bad enough that the DNC has punished Sanders supporters with their superdelegates system. Can’t a young man who happens to be white and support Bernie Sanders catch a break? One would think that a tenant of liberalism would be expressing a sense of tolerance and open mind, but that’s clearly not the case here.
