Bernie's raw assessment of the US in 1978 was right on. Bourgeois politics are a funny thing. As someone who has become a career senator of this very state of "poverty, wage slavery, and mind-destroying media and schools," you have to wonder how much he has either (1) compromised his principles, or (2) changed his views to maintain this career.

Is he the best of the rotten bunch? Clearly. Does he still seek some justice for the US working class? Of course. Does he hammer away at corporate corruption and excess? Absolutely. But what price has he paid and continues to pay along the way? Enabling and supporting imperialism, endorsing a power-hungry crook like Hillary Clinton, inevitably endorsing a belligerent Joe Biden, backing the racist & classist Democratic Party, calling Hugo Chavez a dictator, belittling Cuba as an evil dictatorship, playing into the Russiagate nonsense, etc.

Is he playing the power game? Perhaps. Are these "necessary evils" the price of admission? Probably. But at what point does playing this game start to mock the importance of principle and integrity? What does it say about someone who is able and willing to play this game? And what effect does this spectacle have on the much-needed formation of a class-conscious proletariat?