Many of the people criticizing him here aren't neoliberals. I'm sure not.Neoliberals are all YOU GOTTA APPEAL ACROSS THE AISLE but only on their terms.
But I have done a lot of work with the democratic party in the south and while it's far from perfect especially in regards to foreign affairs, Bernie throwing all the work Mississippi democrats put in to appeal to the white working class along with closing the partisan gap due to energizing non-voters and minorities under the bus because racist white people keep flocking to other racist liars is pretty fucking dumb if he wants to be president or even win a primary in those states.
Again he's calling the most effective presidential campaign in Mississippi since the 70's a failure because 90% of the white voters are racists and flocked to the racist candidate. He's completely ignoring the democratic base and all the people that put in work day after day to close that gap.
In short, this:
Welp. He probably only closed the gap because of black voters. They don't count, gotta coddle some racists.
I like Bernie and he's my 2nd choice but he does a really bad job at talking to/about democrats in the South. And whatever the dude is an old white guy who's lived in Vermont the past 30 years, I don't expect him to be perfect. But he's also running for president again so I expected him to be better than he was before on this issue, and he's not.
And yes it is funny that self proclaimed progressives are all behind Bernie courting the racist whites 100% while ignoring that democrats have been putting forth programs that Bernie also advocates for, and they just... don't vote for them. Bernie and his hardcore base can delude themselves into thinking that white Missippians will all of a sudden vote for Obamacare expansions and better education when it's coming from his mouth but they've rejected it from all the other democratic candidates before. Kansas had to bankrupt itself on an insane scale before they finally stopped electing Republicans and that was still only temporarily.
And yet the people who defend Bernie in this thread and advocate him courting the white vote also throw a hissy fit when John Bel Edward's, Joe Manchin et. al open their mouths because while they're not leftists and pretty shitty people they're still Democrats who appeal to white people enough in their state to vote for them and they're a helluva lot better than the alternative.