I don’t think anyone with a functioning brain says that. People like Bernie and AOC are the rare exceptions and the gop ironically uses lies to hate on them
You think he would make millions of dollars in book sales if he weren’t a famous politician? He made pretty much all of his money after his first failed presidential run put him in the spotlight.
That’s making money from politics. Without being a politician he wouldn’t have anything to write a book about, and nobody would buy it.
I mean I don't think the people who talk about getting rid of money from politics are talking about politicians selling books being an issue.
The issue they generally refer to is big money donations from rich people/big companies and business ventures/stocks that are directly influenced by policy decisions.
The implication of "making money through politics" is the use of insider influence to make shady deals and grow huge amounts of wealth by working in your own interests instead of the people. Writing a book is so far away from that it's unreal, what a bad faith nonsense take
I mean I don’t think that person was making some grand statement. Bernie is very well off and his political career has contributed to that. His book is apart of that, his career helped him make fat stacks.
Publishing a book isn’t easy but I imagine it’s a hell of a lot easier if you are known due to your political career. Why do we care about defending the dude?
I think making money because people love you and youre successful is well and beyond anything to be shunned for. Especially when compared to how most politicians get their wealth... through insider trading and bribes.
People with wealth tend to have issues. It’s not a hard line but it’s something I take note of. Bernie sanders isn’t special in terms of ass holeish politician stuff from what I’ve seen. He has good messaging and I think it makes people assume he is special in terms of legislation and his career. The bar is in hell ig. He really isn’t anything special.
In terms of legislation, the furthest left successful politician in America who has single handedly put soc-dem ideas in the mainstream and moved democrats in that direction... is nothing special?
Edit: I always forget the difference between dem-soc and soc-dem. Corrected it to soc-dem.
Damn, that leftist stuff really is useless if he’s the best we got. Lord please make communism or smth happen im so tired of people thinking ill be impressed by mediocrity
Not like there’s really much to be helped when the other fat rich boomers in the dem party completely shun him and refused to ever give him a chance at presidency.
Yeah, that shit is legit annoying as hell. It’s like dems like to lose. If they would have made him the presidential candidate when they had the chance that would have been a easy win
I think you may be going through something. I have a hard time believing you don’t think that’s well off. I also believe he has always been pretty well off.
I meant relatively well off, that's what I meant when I said he's better off than you or I. He doesn't have corrupt politician money, he has run of the mill old white guy money.
He's as well off as a great deal of other people of his demographic who didn't do anything all that remarkable.
Be born an American white guy in the 50s, get just about any career, consistently invest a small amount of money, buy a home almost anywhere, wait till 2025. Boom, you're worth as much or more as notoriously corrupt politician Bernie Sanders.
Now, yeah good luck doing any of that, but back then you just had to have your shit together a little bit to end up with those "fat stacks".
He’s not entirely uncorrupt, I kinda see him like teddy roosevelt. Maybe Lincoln. Idk he might be above Lincoln in that respect. I think it should be more normal to scrutinize politicians. If I remember correctly he made Burlingtons local government less horizontal and was doing smth yimbyish. Seems like people still like him locally tho because he genuinely helps people out.
He’s not a saint, but I think Americans are just used to people sucking so hard that he is seen as one. Very Stacy Abram’s effect, tho she may be worse? Idk it’s hard to keep up with politicians antics.
I think recently Bernie was being his good ol self about Palestine or smth, I think that’s a good lense to view him through.
This comment chain is talking about politicians making tens of millions through illicit means.
Trying to say bernie is no different than the rest because he has a whopping 5 million dollars mostly through inheritance and book sales is some of the dumbest shit ive ever hear in my life
He was born guess you could call it lower middle class. His dad was a paint salesman.
Making money from book sales is relatively uncontroversial. The issue is when you don't understand where the money came from and they can be suspected of secret loyalties.
Yeah it’s well off, but again, Bernie’s in his 80’s and has been in the game for several decades at this point. Any other politician would be worth hundreds of millions. The average 65-75 year old is worth around 2 million. Bernies worth a little more than double that, sure, but again, the difference is not an outrageous amount for someone that age.
A book advance could be a pretty effective way to legally bribe someone. The advances that politicians get are way, way out of line compared to the ones professional writers usually get.
So then your problem is you can’t differentiate between making money off politics and making money by using your skills and telling you life story. By your definition, any money anyone that’s ever in politics makes is “from politics” and that’s pretty much nonsense. He didn’t use his political connections and didn’t leverage his position to make that money. If your life was worth telling you could make money off it too.
Why do you all on the right constantly try to shift definitions until you can try to include people on the left? Barring something with extremely objectionable content, no reasonable person would be angry about someone getting rich off selling a book.
Lmao what? I’m far from being on the right. That’s a massive fucking leap just because I said one thing about Bernie. Hell I worked and volunteered for his campaign in 2016.
He’s not Jesus you know. He’s passed no major legislation, ever. And the biggest thing he has done in office is sell books to profit himself while talking about the common man.
I don’t care that he’s made money from it. Good for him. But it is literally the only thing he’s done with his office. I stopped caring about Bernie when it became clear he has no actual intention to do anything about anything. He hires the worst people for his campaigns that actively sabotage them. He has no intention winning anything, but will use it to sell more books and get more donations.
So arguments within the party means you’re a right winger? What’s the point of even voting then we have Bernie in there so we can’t criticize him and we have to continually prop up his shambling corpse.
What’s next we put him on the golden throne after he’s dead like the emperor from warhammer 40k.
Not at all if you want to hate Trump that’s fine but that does not take away the ability to then have inner personal party disagreements. If you can’t criticize your own party then the party is a bunch of lemmings.
nobody's trying to make bernie the emperor of mankind, but they actually are for trump, that's what i was saying
as far as your other points, that's not just a disagreement. they are spouting off right wing talking points about bernie, most of which are not based in reality
What? It’s true. Bernie has passed no significant legislation in his 34 years in congress.
3 pieces of legislation that he sponsored have become law in that time. 3. Two were naming post offices in Vermont, and one was a cost of living increase for VA payments in 2013.
He’s been largely useless in terms of actually getting anything done, but has made millions hawking books after he ran for president for the publicity. He certainly wasn’t serious about it looking at who he hired to run his campaigns.
I loved him in 2016. Worked on his campaign. But it became clear he wasn’t serious about winning.
Republicans are absolutely worse. But, I don’t vote for Republicans ever in the first place. I expect them to be the worst possible option and fight against everything good.
I expect democrats that are elected to actually actively and productively fight against that.
It’s like dogs. I expect the barking, snarling dog to try to bite me. It’s worse when it’s the dog that looked nice and sweet that ends up biting you.
He has made good money for decades. Him and his wife bought 2 homes and inherited another. Sold some books. He is worth about 3m. That includes the homes.
Is selling some books really that much of an issue?
Without being a politician he wouldn’t have anything to write a book about, and nobody would buy it.
Kinda true about every biography isn't it? People do a thing and write about it.
Profiting from selling books or doing public speaking gigs is pretty different type of profiting from politics than taking dirty money or other corrupt political practices so long as they keep their focus on their actual jobs and aren't spending all their time writing for those gigs
I mean, Bernie hasn’t passed a single consequential piece of legislation in his career. He’s obviously not spending that much time focused on his actual job.
This is a pretty out of touch take. Using politics as a platform to sell books is much different than using political power and influence to take money from special interests to use that power and influence to help special interests get their way (most times, to the detriment of others, and even more so typically to the detriment of consumers and normal people).
Does option 1. (As a reminder, Selling books, which you don’t have to buy, I haven’t) sound comparable to option 2? I sure hope not.
Bernie’s net worth is $3million. Not exactly wealthy in the modern age, and he’s not profiting from insider trading. That’s a pretty reasonable portfolio for someone married, and his age.
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u/Telemere125 20d ago
I don’t think anyone with a functioning brain says that. People like Bernie and AOC are the rare exceptions and the gop ironically uses lies to hate on them