I don't agree with everything that Bernie does, but I respect him because he does a lot for the steemit community that most don't realize.
By the way, we can empirically show data on how haejin is destroying the reward pool and how he is causing damage. Bernie isn't causing that same damage to you. I mean for the most part, bernie is going to simply ignore you unless you give him a reason otherwise.
Anyways my problem surrounding haejin is that the entire situation going on here is talked about, at length, in the white paper under the section of voter abuse and would be defined as collusive voting and in response it is stated (in the whitepaper) that users of small and large accounts should work together to nullify the votes... So its not like this "lynch mob" (as many put it) is completely uncalled for.
Now I wont say that bernie has done no wrong everyone to some extent is damaging the steemit community whether it be how they talk or vote, but then again I am not flagging haejin because bernie told me to otherwise I would have started flagging him back in January or December...
As for your question about this conflict being like modern politics, while I agree there are similarities, I would argue that there are major differences as well and its those differences that are key.