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Louis Proyect wrote<https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/bernie-gets-more-cash-from-war-inc-than-any-2020-candidate/>

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/bernie-gets-more-cash-from-war-inc-than-any-2020-candidate/
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I hold no special brief for Bernie, but I do think this article has to be read critically, especially since it suggests things in its heading that it suggests only with significant qualifications in its content. It is on the whole a biased and unfair heading, as well as being in its totality a biased article. It is written by a defense analyst who has worked for both the Democrats and the Republicans. Writing this as he does for the American Conservative, why do I suspect he's not a Sandernista?

The headline attributes those contributions to "the defense industry." That's carelessly or intentionally misleading. The article seems  to accurately report the findings of the survey, and it is probably credible to the extent that it suggests that Bernie is protective of the economic benefits to constituents' employment prospects that result from keeping production of the ridiculously expensive and impracticable, “too big to fail” F-35 aircraft in his jurisdiction.

One comment appended to the article states "I went to the open secrets page and he's getting less than 1%**of his donations in 2020 from individual donors who work in the defense industry."

And "According to Washington Post: When not counting transfers, 77 percent of Sanders’s fundraising this year came from donations of $200 or less. That’s the highest share of small-dollar donations relative to total fundraising among all major candidates.*"*

The article acknowledges that the contributions that the headline implies come from industry employees and not from the defense industry contractors themselves. The article acknowledges that "Defense industry PACs, and the corrupting influence they have over compliant politicians, are not the source of this money...and most seem to be from engineers, technicians, and other non-management types." So not from owners or managers, but from workers, more particularly then from mid-level workers it would appear. It is plain enough to me that, in terms of total individual contributions to Bernie's campaign which presently exceed those made to any of the other candidates, the proportionate number of contributions from employees of the defense industry is at least as much as or more in keeping with his support from the working class generally, as it is a reflection of defense industry support.

Politicians, moreover, know the difference. He cannot reasonably take his acceptance of that support from workers as obligating him, in the way contributions from corporate industry create obligations to the politician, to support the defense industry and all it entails tout court.


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