A Low-Level Staffer

Recall that some students with a sign at a Bernie Sanders rally questioning whether Sanders would support Palestine were ejected. That was all the news I saw, and I wondered whether Bernie himself had instructed his staff on handling the situation.

Two days after the students were ejected, a day after the group posted about the encounter on Facebook, a Sanders 2016 spokesperson acknowledged a campaign staffer was behind the ejection and that an error had been made. “What happened was a poor decision by a low-level staffer and doesn’t reflect campaign policy,” the spokesperson said.

  The Intercept

Okay, but I now wonder two things. 1) Is this damage control, and Bernie really will brook no dissent against Israel? 2) How does a "low-level staffer" get to make such important decisions?

At a town hall event last August, Sanders lost his temper with supporters who had interrupted him to question him about U.S. support for Israel, telling them to “shut up,” and attempting to change the subject to ISIS. During Israel’s 2014 military campaign against the Gaza Strip a plurality of Democrats described the action as “unjustified,” while Sanders was part of the unanimous Senate consent supporting Israel’s actions. He has continued to defend the “Protective Edge” operation as a legitimate act of self-defense, albeit one in which Israel “overreacted.”But the ejection of pro-Palestine students from the Sanders rally surfaced a bigger question with a potentially more disturbing answer: Can this candidate, beloved by the left wing, learn to cope more tolerantly with protest and dissent?

That may be the most important question for any candidate in today's American political scene.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.