During Tuesday's Democratic presidential primary debate, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders was directly asked about Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren's recollection that in 2018 he disagreed with her when she said a woman could win the 2020 presidential election against Donald Trump.
On the debate stage in response, Sanders said, "I didn't say that."
By directly denying the accusation, he insinuated Warren lied about their 2018 conversation. After the debate, CNN picked up audio of a conversation between the two where Warren confronted Sanders about calling her a liar. Now, Sanders could have explained himself by stating that it was a misinterpretation or a misunderstanding — in a way that avoided calling Warren a liar.
But from what I've seen of his base, that is not what they expect. His base expects total perfection from their candidate, and therein lies the problem with the "Bernie bros."
Both Warren and Sanders play to the same constituency in terms of policies. Both are the furthest left of all the Democratic candidates, which is why, up until now, they have not come at each other's throats. But the thing about Sanders' supporters is that they blindly support Sanders because their logic runs on wishes rather than results.
Unlike Warren, Sanders pitches leftist progressive ideas that he says can be completed on tight timelines regardless of the available resources, political or otherwise. For example, Sanders pledges an immediate transition to universal healthcare, while Warren promotes a proposal that would make the transition over a period of years, which is frankly more feasible. But Bernie bros do not care about feasibility. They associate radical proposals with how deeply Sanders cares. There is no middle ground for them. As long as Sanders aggressively promotes plans to quickly achieve what his supporters view as a perfect world, they will consider him infallible, regardless of practicality.
I think this is why Sanders cannot admit that he ever said anything that could ever be construed as sexist — it is off-brand.
Even though I've seen many progressive pundits admit it would be difficult for a woman to win, not because of their inability to lead but because of deep-rooted societal sexism, Sanders cannot send out the perception that he ever said anything that ought not to be said in the perfect world that he so aggressively pursues. The stability of Sanders' base lies in his perceived infallibility and his deep belief that a perfect society can and should exist immediately. Therefore, even suggesting that a woman may have a harder time winning goes against his perfect society. A supporter of women should declare that a woman can win the White House — to say it can't happen due to residual sexism is a sign of not wanting it enough.
