Robert Reich is the Wrong Guy to Defend Bernie on Planned Parenthood

Chris Hayes had him on last night for clarification on Bernie's pigeonholing PP as 'the establishment.'

It was a rather curious exchange where Hayes seemed to be asking Reich whether or not PP really is the establishment or not. He also said that he doesn't know if Dems hate the establishment like the GOP base hates theirs which was a good point. 

But Reich's response was just totally unresponsive. He more or less skated over PP and launched into a speech about 'giant corporations and special interests' which shows why he supports Bernie-he has the same blinders the Vermont Senator does. 

Reich basically wasn't worried about PP he just wanted to talk about Bernie's populism against money in politics. 

What Bernie does not do so well on is 'identity politics' issues like race and gender where he tends to subsume these issues into a larger talk about money in politics. 

Issues of race and gender-but I will argue especially gender-tend to be given short thrift. He was called out for this attitude on race by Black Lives Matter. While he has since learned to discuss race a little-though he clearly is still not conversant with the real issues of race like HRC is-on matters of gender he has little to say. 

At the Black and Brown Forum he had stated that we have made more progress on gender than race. I think you watch the treatment of Hillary Clinton's campaign both in 2008 and even 2016 and have to conclude the opposite is the case. 

I think Hayes meant well but he was missing the bigger piece of this. The issue is not so much whether or not PP 'really is part of the establishment or not' but what it says about the Senator's prioritizing of the issue of a woman's right to choose and more broadly women's rights. 

Does he understand the myriad ways that  sexism is still very pervasive on politics, the corporate world, and our lager society? 

As to the word 'establishment' I think the reason it raised such hackles with Bernie is that for him the word is a dirty word, a swear word. Based on his attitude on all things 'establishment' this is a significant marginalizing of an organization that is under terrible attack from the GOP Congress and where a woman's right to choose-and access to safe, affordable healthcare-is under attack in red states across the country. 

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/07/planned-parenthood-abortion-the-war-is-over

You can argue in a sense that PP is part of the Dem establishment which is the whole problem with a sort of blind attack on all things establishment. With all the furor about money in politics, you can argue that PP is a lobbying group that does some vitally important work. 

Which suggests that simply doing away with all 'lobbying' might not be for the good as PP's lobbying helps give many women across the country a voice rather than taking away their voice as Bernie's attack on all things 'establishment' suggests. 

You could argue that PP is both establishment in the Dem party but also a group that fights for some very vital things.