i think a pretty subtle but very insidious line of argument against sanders by people like neera is that bernie is divisive, and they compare this to trump at times. sanders is only "divisive" in the sense of identifying class struggle in his rhetoric 1/

putting aside the fact that his rhetoric is *correct* in this regard, it's particularly gross to compare this to trump because it implies sanders' "divisiveness" is the same as trump's. trump divides in terms of race, he identifies latinos and muslims primarily as enemies 2/

whereas sanders identifies a system that appeases the rich while leaving the poor and middle class to rot as the victims. what makes this an especially disgusting argument is that it implies the rich are victims along the same line as minorities targeted by trump while also 3/

ignoring that many of the people who would be most helped by sanders' policies are the ones trump targets. this makes the argument that sanders' divisiveness is the same as trump's an argument that seems to me to be inherently racist 4/

as it manipulates the racism used by trump to provide cover for the rich while also using that manipulation to keep a socioeconomic system in place that systematically oppresses the people that trump vilifies to his base 5/

basically when people say sanders is "divisive" and compare it to trump they are capitalizing on trump's racism to protect class interests, interests that often hurt the people that trump targets