Berning up the comments section

TUESDAY, Oct. 20 — “The trouble with Bernie,” a recent City Pulse editorial by columnist Mickey Hirten, has been the source of some heated online political discussions.

To date, the column has generated over 600 comments on the online version and has been shared nearly 25,000 times on Facebook and Twitter.

The article is an opinion piece about presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, including his politics and his political temperament. Hirten based the column on his experiences with Sanders while Hirten was editor at the Burlington Free Press in Vermont.

Published just days before the election season’s first Democratic debate, the column offered a cynical view of the politician. Hirten refers to Sanders as “always full of himself: pious, self-righteous and utterly humorless.” He also noted how Sanders appeared “burdened by the cross of his socialist crusade”.

Mickey’s most memorable exchange with the senator came during a series of questions regarding Sanders lack of political endorsements for other progressives.

“He jumped out of his seat, told me to go f*** myself and stormed out of the edit board meeting,” wrote Hirten.

While Hirten paints this as a proof of Sanders’ stubbornness, many commenters saw a toughness they appreciated.

“Guess what, we tried the suave, corporatist ‘liberal’ Obama, who doesn’t have a ‘stick it to ‘em’ attitude. That got us nowhere. Time to stick it to ‘em.” said commenter @GearMentation.

“Bernie Sanders reminds me of Harry Truman. I think the times require such a man.” said commenter @disqus_Plzxu7wKEe

Others were not impressed with Sanders’ short fuse and continued to draw ties between his hostile temperament and the limited amount of legislation he has been able to successfully push through Congress.

“An almost complete lack of endorsements from his peers demonstrates Sanders does not work well with others. He has introduced hundreds of bills in Congress, which died a quick death because he did not build a bipartisan coalition to ensure their passage. He has one of the worst track records on Capitol Hill in terms of succeeding when he introduced new legislation.” said commenter @KeystoneDave

Commenter reader Michael Planck agrees with Sanders’ policies, but doesn’t think the Oval Office is the best place for him.

“We need someone concerned about gun violence, foreign affairs, women's rights, the environment, in addition to economics,” said Planck. “And frankly, I think Bernie is more capable of affecting tax policy in Congress than he would be in the White House.”