Bernie Sanders just endorsed then un-endorsed Cenk Uygur
December 13, 2019 8:52 PM   Subscribe

Candidate Cenk Uygur has been criticized for offensive comments about women, among many other things. Sen. Bernie Sanders drew criticism this week after endorsing Cenk Uygur, a California congressional candidate with a history of using racial slurs and making demeaning comments about women. Uygur is running for the seat left vacant by the resignation earlier this year of Rep. Katie Hill. (previously) On Thursday, Sanders called him “a voice that we desperately need in Congress,” according to the Los Angeles Times. But others say Uygur has been using his platform for years to make offensive statements about women, Jews, Muslims, and other groups.

Sander's has un-endorsed Uygur- but there is evidence he was warned and forged ahead anyways until the backlash fomented.

Oddly, in a race Sander's endorsement might have real meaning, the Senator from Vermont has been silent. Some progressives are disappointed that the Vermont senator has yet to back Texas Democrat Jessica Cisneros.
The Vermont senator’s absence is particularly glaring because of the breadth of support Cisneros already enjoys. The Laredo native, who at 26 would be the youngest-ever woman elected to Congress, is backed by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), and a broad array of progressive organizations and labor unions that typically stick with incumbents. The latter group of endorsers includes EMILY’s List, the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, a branch of the Communication Workers of America, MoveOn Action, and the League of Conservation Voters.

As of today, Senator Sanders has not endorsed Jessica Cisneros.
posted by Homo neanderthalensis (11 comments total)

This post was deleted for the following reason: Sorry, but US primary news will go a lot better here if we avoid posts that are basically attacks on a particular Dem candidate because, as we learned in 2016, that turns into a never-ending cycle of pain and anger. Unless it's actually big, *major* news, let's skip the "Candidate makes misstep" sort of thing. Thanks! -- taz



 
Bernie Sanders inhabits the character of "ideal Roman" so well. But every once in a while, a book's cover slips off
posted by knoyers at 9:01 PM on December 13, 2019


Couldn't remember which asshole this was - it's the asshole from The Young Turks.
posted by muddgirl at 9:08 PM on December 13, 2019 [1 favorite]


Meanwhile his whole damn thing right upfront has been like if some German immigrant guy named his show "The Nazi Party" but that's just... not noted.
posted by save alive nothing that breatheth at 9:17 PM on December 13, 2019 [4 favorites]


The only openly racist and misogynist person I know loves Uygur, so he's definitely bad news.

Is there anything stopping Hill from running for her own seat and showing the haters that the left doesn't give a shit about her sex life and that her evil ex husband doesn't have any say in her future?
posted by dobbs at 9:17 PM on December 13, 2019 [4 favorites]


I wonder how many Uygur stans who want us to forgive him for his comments from way back in the halcyon days of 2016 have also been harping on Elizabeth Warren about not registering as a Democrat until 1996.
posted by tonycpsu at 9:35 PM on December 13, 2019 [9 favorites]


This just irritates me to no end. Waiting to hear the inevitable whining about how feminists don't get the important economic issues Uygur raises and how the coming revolution can't afford to get stuck on merely social issues. Uyger is a jerk.
posted by frumiousb at 9:36 PM on December 13, 2019 [7 favorites]


This (Santa Clarita) is my hometown, and if there is someone everyone there “loves”, it’s assholes moving into town who immediately try to take over shit. Christy Smith (the non-insane Democrat with endorsements from Pelosi and Warren amongst others) is not only already their State Assemblywoman, she went to Hart High and College of the Canyons. Dems in town are going to vote for her.

2nd place in the “love” category is anyone trying to undercut their upper middle class lifestyle. The only reason the area went blue in 2016 is that the Paul Ryan tax bullshit really put the hurt on most people buying houses there (because of the $750k interest deduction limit). The, in retrospect AstroTurfed, tax protests in 2010 had 100’s of attendees. Bernie’s message does not play well there, and it’s pretty strange he publicly backed a race where he would get ruined if he were on the ballot.
posted by sideshow at 10:11 PM on December 13, 2019 [3 favorites]


I think non-leftists tend to frame leftists in certain ways that don't fully explore what's going on too. I've seen leftist whining, but I've also seen counter-whining and the dynamic is you get two groups of people who aren't interested in take the harder step of getting into the mindspace of the other person. In progressive discourse, we call this process empathy, but it's hard because it is a process of fostering a robust theory of mind of someone else. In these two cases, my leftist inclinations automatically tell me that a) Sanders chose Uygur at first not because he wanted a misogynist but because he feared another pro-corporate Democrat, and a) Sanders was silent on Cisneros not because of gender but because he saw that they already had a public, jointly held rally with his federal-level opponent Elizabeth Warren. Whether these were wise, rational, or tactical choices is moot (e.g., the former backfired, and with the latter the third article speculates that he could have pragmatically benefited by endorsement), especially in regards to weighing the costs on being passive about patriarchy and misogyny. If I were in Sanders' position as a leftist I'd be worried about those threats too from Warren and establishment Democrats, so I don't envy his having to make these binary choices to deal with them.
posted by polymodus at 10:13 PM on December 13, 2019 [7 favorites]


Why endorse anyone in that race, though? I remember 4 years ago Sanders was incredibly cautious to endorse, what has changed?
posted by muddgirl at 11:14 PM on December 13, 2019 [1 favorite]


Cenk actually does fucking suck but people have been letting him slide for years so it's a little remarkable how fast he is treated as a broadly notorious character when it's embarrassing to a presidential candidate. That said it sounds like it was starting to come into play in his race already anyway so somebody did fuck up here.
posted by atoxyl at 11:17 PM on December 13, 2019 [2 favorites]


I suppose he has higher polling and thus more to gain and more to lose this year than 4 years ago, that might be the answer.
posted by muddgirl at 11:17 PM on December 13, 2019


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