Penn State professor Sophia McClennen really, really likes Bernie Sanders. When she introduced Sanders at a rally on campus a week before April’s Pennsylvania primary, McClennen gushed, “As a professor who works on issues of social justice, human rights, and economic inequality, I can simply tell you that Bernie had me at ‘hello.’”
Conversely, McClennen really, really dislikes Hillary Clinton. “We are literally watching the Clinton campaign drain any claim to nuance, critical thinking, reasoned logic, and attention to facts from the Democratic party,” alleged McClennen in a recent screed for Salon. “The fact that Clinton is now the favorite of many on the right, with endorsement after endorsement pouring in, should be evidence enough of a real merging of the right and the ‘left.’”
In other words, McClennen suggested, Hillary’s almost an honorary Republican, given that her campaign, much like the GOP’s campaigns starting with the 2002 midterms, has in many ways been “dominated by binary thinking, irrationality, and panic…The number one reason that Bernie Sanders supporters are told they should vote for Hillary is to stop Trump…If the primary argument to vote for Hillary is out of fear—then the Democrats have now joined with the GOP in promoting a politics of hysteria.”
McClennen looked back fondly to a time when Democrats and Republicans were distinguishable (bolding added):
On Oct. 30, 2010, Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert held a rally on the National Mall in Washington, D.C….
It all feels like ages ago.
Today, both comedians have left their Comedy Central posts and many have speculated that if they had continued we wouldn’t be in this mess…
…When Colbert and Stewart took the stage, they didn’t openly associate reason with Democrats and fear with Republicans. They didn’t have to.
Ever since the post 9/11 era of George W. Bush the nation had increasingly witnessed a turn in the Republican party from conservative values to hysterical ones...
One party could process facts. One party considered them a conspiracy.
One party voted rationally. One voted illogically.
Well, the 2016 election shattered that neat little breakdown.
