This Bernie Sanders Accident Investigator cartoon is a form of indoctrination to vote against you!

Anyone who doubts that media, cartoonists, and many others in the media must understand this Bernie Sanders Accident Investigator cartoon.

Bernie Sanders Accident Investigator cartoon

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Summary

The Politics Done Right host critiques a political cartoon discussed on CNN’s State of the Union, which mocks Bernie Sanders for suggesting Democrats didn’t turn far enough left. They argue that this cartoon misrepresents the reality of American politics by reinforcing the false narrative that Democrats are too progressive. The host points out that Democrats have largely failed to adopt truly leftist policies despite overwhelming public support for progressive issues like healthcare, childcare, and workers’ rights. They condemn the media’s complicity in promoting this narrative and emphasize the need for progressives to reclaim the truth and shift public perception.

Key Points:

• CNN’s Dana Bash highlighted a cartoon that mocked Bernie Sanders for wanting Democrats to turn further left, portraying that move as disastrous.
• The host criticizes this framing, arguing that Democrats have not moved far enough left to meet the needs of most Americans.
• Public polling shows strong majority support for progressive policies like Medicare for All, higher minimum wage, and affordable childcare.
• The media continues to propagate the myth of Democrats being “too left,” serving corporate interests and reinforcing status quo power structures.
• The host calls for progressives to push back against misinformation and fight for policies that reflect the real needs of working Americans.

This cartoon, and the media’s uncritical amplification of it, represents yet another attempt to gaslight Americans into thinking progressive ideas are radical or dangerous. In truth, the Democratic Party hasn’t turned left enough to deliver the economic justice and social equity that Americans overwhelmingly demand. The fight isn’t against extremism—it’s against the corporate media’s distortion of popular movements for justice, dignity, and a government that finally works for the people.

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In the political landscape of American media, cartoons have long been a way to distill complex ideological narratives into digestible, often humorous, frames. However, when wielded carelessly—or worse, ideologically—they become more than entertainment. They become weapons of indoctrination. The cartoon referenced by CNN’s Dana Bash, which mocks Senator Bernie Sanders for suggesting that Democrats didn’t turn left enough, is a prime example of how establishment media continues to gaslight the American public into voting against their own interests by vilifying the progressive left.

Let us begin with the cartoon in question. The artist depicts Sanders essentially sending the Democratic Party off a cliff with the implication that pushing the party further to the left is political suicide. The imagery is lazy, reductive, and dishonest. What this cartoon fails to acknowledge is the overwhelming public support for the very policies Sanders and progressives champion. It suggests that the Democratic Party is already so far left that further movement would be disastrous—when in fact, the opposite is true.

The real data tells a different story. Poll after poll shows that Americans overwhelmingly support progressive policies. A 2022 Pew Research Center study found that over 60% of Americans favor raising the minimum wage to at least $15 per hour. A Kaiser Family Foundation poll reveals that a majority of Americans support Medicare for All or at least a public option. Universal child care, paid family leave, student debt relief, and aggressive climate action consistently poll in the majority. These are not radical leftist ideas—they are mainstream policies by any honest metric.

Yet media institutions like CNN and political cartoons from corporate-owned outlets continue to frame these positions as fringe or dangerous. This misrepresentation doesn’t happen in a vacuum. It has roots in decades-long conservative efforts to shift the Overton window—the range of ideas deemed politically acceptable—toward neoliberalism and away from collectivist, worker-centered ideals. This rightward shift is no accident. As media critic Eric Alterman pointed out in What Liberal Media?, the myth of liberal media bias masks a deep and structural corporate bias that permeates our news institutions, especially as they increasingly depend on corporate advertisers and Wall Street investors.

The use of political cartoons to shape public perception is not a neutral act. It is a form of soft propaganda. It trains viewers to associate progressive politics with failure and absurdity, while letting the far more dangerous and reckless right-wing agenda escape scrutiny. In the very same segment, Dana Bash glosses over a cartoon trivializing the Trump administration’s use of Signal—a secure messaging app—for sensitive military communications. While cartoonists and media anchors chuckle over national security violations, they treat Medicare for All as a punchline. This discrepancy in framing reveals a deeper rot.

Moreover, this cartoon reinforces one of the most dangerous lies in American politics: that the Democratic Party has already gone too far left. In reality, the Biden administration’s most progressive moves—such as the expanded Child Tax Credit or student loan forgiveness—were temporary, partial, or stymied by moderate Democrats like Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema. Meanwhile, policies like the PRO Act, the Green New Deal, or universal healthcare remain sidelined, not because they lack support, but because they threaten corporate profits.

And that’s the rub. The centrist political class, aided by the mainstream media, would rather lose elections than win on a progressive platform that challenges the status quo. They fear losing donations from fossil fuel companies, insurance giants, and defense contractors more than they fear losing public trust. This cartoon, therefore, isn’t just a joke—it’s a message from the elite: stay in your lane, accept incrementalism, and above all, don’t dream of justice.

Progressives must recognize and call out this manipulation for what it is: an attempt to marginalize and delegitimize popular demands. The Sanders wing of the Democratic Party represents a vision of economic and social justice that resonates with working-class Americans of all races and backgrounds. The establishment’s fear isn’t that these ideas are too extreme—it’s that they’re too popular.

In the end, political cartoons like the one shared by Dana Bash serve as cultural touchpoints in the broader battle for narrative control. By lampooning Bernie Sanders and his call for more progressive policies, the cartoon doesn’t merely reflect opinion—it shapes it. That’s why progressives must continue to push back, to challenge these false narratives, and to build independent media ecosystems that tell the truth: Americans aren’t rejecting the left—they’re waiting for their leaders to finally embrace it.

If Democrats truly want to win—not just elections, but the future—they must reject the fear-mongering caricatures and embrace the bold, inclusive vision that progressives offer. Anything less is not just a political miscalculation—it’s a betrayal of the American people.