My Middle-aged White Lady Perspective: Signs, Signs

Chase Stevens/Las Vegas Review-Journal via AP

Everywhere are signs.

And thankfully, we have them, so we can tell whether it's a Trump hate-fest or a Sanders hate-fest.

It's been reported that many potential Sanders delegates in Nevada were disqualified for, among other things, failing to register as Democrats in time, or failing to respond to requests to verify information or to provide missing information that would have allowed them to become delegates.  Those who did register in time, or who answered the follow up requests for things like a current address, were accepted.

The "failing to be Democrats" in order to participate in Democratic Party activities (and similarly on the Republican side, the failure of the Trump kids to get registered in time to vote in New York) is something that I have complained about since the onslaught of 'independents wanting their voice to be heard' became the focal point of this presidential race - so I won't belabor that point.

I've been equally disgusted by the amount of actual or threatened violence at events, primarily the kind of thing we've seen at Trump rallies where the candidate has encouraged his fervent supporters to get protesters out of the room, or has offered to pay for their defense, and so on.

And of course there's been a ton of online nonsense, from BernieBros to Hillbots and worse names that I won't repeat, people who at least appear to spend their time looking for negative mentions of their favorite candidate (or sometimes even not positive enough mentions) and then they go to town. Reporters have been targeted, as have official campaign people and just normal people expressing an opinion.

So now we have last Saturday night, where without the signs I would have guessed this was as Trump thing.

It's been vile. It's been threatening messages, threatening my family, threatening my life, threatening my grandchild... I'm scared for my family. Scared for my kids.

Who deserves this treatment? Roberta Lange, chair of the Nevada Democratic Party. From the NY Times article,

Although Hillary Clinton won the Nevada caucuses in February, the Sanders campaign worked hard to win delegates at county conventions and was hopeful that it could emerge from the state with an equal number of delegates or more.  But the state convention, held at the Paris Las Vegas Hotel, deteriorated into chaos after nearly 60 of Mr. Sanders's potential delegates were deemed ineligible amid a dispute over rules.  The convention concluded abruptly after security staff no longer felt it could ensure the safety of the participants, many of whom were yelling and throwing things.

Here's another longer, more nuanced report, one which also notes that Sanders (and Clinton) both lost delegates who did not register timely and that the Sanders folks got out of hand. The article also notes that, by  a slim margin, Clinton had more delegates at the convention than Sanders did.

Mrs. Lange, again according to the Times article, received more than a thousand phone calls, including ones suggesting she needed to be in jail, or "hung in public execution" and other death threats.

Is it because I'm old that this stuff annoys the hell out of me? Is it just my middle-aged white lady perspective, or are other people disgusted by this? Is the Sanders campaign disgusted by this?

Um, no. A campaign spokesman noted that the campaign was "still determining" whether to challenge the Nevada results. And of course, they don't "condone violence of any kind" but at the same time, you know,

The senator believes that the Democratic Party all over the country would serve its own interests better if it were to figure out a way to welcome people who have been energized and excited by his campaign into the party. It would behoove the party to be more welcoming and engage those people.

I've got an idea: let's welcome into the party people who aren't going to trash the living room, or pee in the pool, or kill the hostess if they don't like what was served for dinner.