Not a "phantom movement", Mr Hedges, it's the crack "letting the light get in"!

I've had mixed feelings about Chris Hedges' writings in the past. My first post about him, in 2010, Chris Hedges, one of America's Rare True Leftists began:

I'm interested to see the natal chart of Chris Hedges, journalist, author, war correspondent, and peace activist. His writing alternately inspires and troubles me. In some of his articles at Truthdig, he comes over as potentially aggressive, paranoid, pessimistic and doom-ridden. Although, I have to say, what he writes aligns very closely to how I'm beginning feel - most of the time - that there is no longer any "proper" leftist thinking left in USA politics.

He comes up again in a 2013 post Rebel? How?

I gave up following Mr Hedges' weekly contributions at Truthdig.com a while back, he had become so depressingly negative that I'd started to lose all respect, and felt bad about that. This week, though, I ventured into his latest piece:
Bernie Sanders' Phantom Movement.

Its title didn't bode well for this Bernie supporter! I read it and sighed heavily.

I now have lost remaining respect for this author. I shall refrain from posting the bitchiness (yes, bitchiness) Hedges embeds, however artfully in his piece. At time of writing there are more than 2,880 comments beneath Hedges' article. A fairly small, frequently offensive coterie of Hedges' dyed in the wool fans comment at length, pounce and counter even the mildest of pro-Bernie commentary. There are many comments echoing my own, buried and unloved one, but at least nobody thought mine important enough to jump in to argue and cause an unruly rise in my BP. I've seen observations around the net insisting that many of Senator Sanders' supporters can be abusive to people who disagree with them; I assure you that these Hedges' acolytes are worse - more adamant, rude and supercilious than the group known as "Bernie-bros".

I'm not going to quote any of Hedges' words, his piece is linked above. I will copy- paste a couple of very good comments from the multitude in that long thread. These commenters express my own feelings much better than I ever could:

From "SpecialAgentA"

Nietzsche observed that one should be vigilant about oneself when fighting monsters, as the fight itself can turn one into a monster. Chris Hedges here accuses Bernie Sanders of cowardice for trying to present an argument to the American people through what's left of the democratic system as best he can. This is a pretty remarkable charge, a "low blow" that would make Hillary Clinton proud.

Frankly, given the actual record of Sanders and his effectiveness thus far, Chris Hedges might want to take the beam out of his own eye before trying to take the splinter out of Bernie's. I mean, let's be honest, Sanders is risking his life in publicly taking on the billionaire class, the MIC, the legacy of Kissinger, the oil and gas industries, big pharma, the Iraq debacle, etc. Also, Hedges calls for "open confrontation" and overthrow, as the billionaire class cannot be tamed. Really? What happened in the 1930s? And why would one believe that open confrontation and overthrow would somehow result in a better world? (Ever read about the Russian revolution?)

Isn't the secret story of the last few decades partly that the ultra rich have come to believe that new technologies of media propaganda, surveillance and militarized policing and control make new excesses of greed and inequality possible and sustainable? And if they are right in that (i.e., see Egypt, Arab Spring, or Turkey, etc.), shouldn't America try to break the bonds of corporate control democratically, at the grass roots, instead of by, well, whatever it is that Chris Hedges is calling for?

From where I sit, Sanders has already impacted the larger political discourse, more than Hedges ever has. Presumably, this is a good thing. Of course, as Sanders keeps saying, no President can change things alone and millions would need to get involved to really change things for the better, but Hedges chooses to ignore that essential part of Sanders' argument. Anyway, I don't think he's a coward and I don't think he's wrong to be trying what he is trying, even if it conflicts with whatever vision Hedges has of how change should unfurl.

And

From "Ed59"

Chris Hedges is a brilliant and courageous advocate for the powerless of this country but sometimes adherence to a very principled analysis can keep someone from being able to take advantage of a timely opportunity to make significant PROGRESS in the right direction.

Sanders has people discussing why the middle class is being crippled and by whom. He is both using the Dem party and simultaneously attacking it by his challenge to the Clinton/DNC machine. I would not dismiss what can be achieved by a Sanders presidency since I also know that gradual progress can turn from quantitative change to a qualitative one - people can be educated and connected to support a real change if not pushed up against a wall. We've seen that from US Marxists that for decades have never contributed to ANY real movement from the 60's onward as they philosophized and "struggled" incestuously over petty squabbles and became unable to achieve anything, remaining disconnected from workers and average humans.

What does Chris suggest - that we should ignore this current possibility to open the eyes of millions to the "system" by not supporting a Sanders who is openly challenging the status quo ? Do we wait for the ideal 3rd party to somehow materialize out of the ether ? Sometimes the "principled" left effectively just circles back around in a circle and ends up achieving the same effect as the worst elements on the right wing or just nothing at all. How can Chris Hedges refuse to work with this opportunity.

Is Sanders a saint - is he a messiah - NO. He is a special man in a special time with a unique chance to contribute to making progressive change - or at least to making people consider that they CAN contribute to real change. Why dump on this movement Chris with nothing more than ultra-leftist exclusivity. Chris - come on - this kind of tear down of Bernie is not of service to the people. Don't let "perfect" be the enemy of good. Chris you know that movements evolve and then can erupt at some point but they have to evolve first. Tell me how you would get from your position to creating a movement that can make all the changes you mention are needed WITHOUT an evolution of the minds of millions people over time - people that at this time are very far from your ideally formed revolutionary self who has all these issues resolved?