Go Bernie! always true..vote Bernie!
34
"coveted" endorsements?
3
This article makes me furious. A NYT writer expressing surprise that Bernie’s campaign isn’t as hopeless as it was in 2016, *in the fictional world of the 2016 NYT.*
18
Why does this read like a paid ad for a Bernie campaign?
7
Amen.
5
I voted for George McGovern the progressive candidate in 1972. Against an evil President called Nixon.
George won Massachusetts
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/10/09/democrats-mcgovern-1972-trump-nixon-2020-215687
5
If Democrats do not nominate a progressive, then it is time for Democrats to lose. Not lose just this time, but lose every time.
The so-called centrists of the Democratic Party are corporatists. They would vote for oligarchs. And that is just the choice the non-progressive part of the Democratic Party wants to put before them.
Facing reality, progressives need to accept that it may take two election cycles to fix American politics. So split the Democratic Party, and make it lose this time. Use a third party campaign to establish ballot credentials for 2024.
Help fix American politics by sucking populists away from Trump, and by driving right-wing Democrats back into the Republican fold. Both results will rationalize American politics. Republicans will become more moderate. Progressives will become more numerous, united, and energized.
That will leave 2 rationally-aligned and naturally competing parties to slug it out. Progressives will win that fight every time. There is no time to lose. Confront the Democratic Party with an ultimatum now: Support progressives, or face a third-party challenge.
32
Bernie beats Trump. Pass it on. https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2020/president/us/general_election_trump_vs_sanders-6250.html
26
bernie booker ticket
1
We're all so weary and so terribly afraid that Trump will win. None of us know who's electable, it's always a crap shoot. This time more than ever. And honestly, this time (for the first time in my long life) I don't care who wins the primary. If Bernie or Liz wins, the moderates (and Republicans) will prevent them from accomplishing massive change, whatever we imagine in the fever of election season. Real life. If Joe or Pete wins, they'll have a strong and ferocious progressive faction preventing too moderate a presidency. In context, it's all good so long as we get this exceedingly dangerous, repulsive mobster out of the oval office, for now anyway.
Just, none of our candidates have the charisma that might be needed. Obama's a very hard act to follow. I deeply wish we had someone with his enormous appeal.
3
I repeat what I said before. Sanders with his stents and optimal healthcare could live to 100 but he will not be the democratic nominee. His time was in 2016 if he had won the Democratic nomination then he could have had a chance of being president. He had the energy of the youth behind him. His die hard baristas followers living in the basement of their parents as Hillary called them have moved on to other things. The college students hoping for free college tuition have graduated and probably worrying about the debt but have given up hope. The Medicare for all crowd is not thinking of the pie in the sky. He has the squad behind him and I am not sure whether that will be a liability or a boost.
Dr Taylor may think Socialism is back and no longer an idea that is considered toxic to a capitalist country like the USA. I disagree. Soviet style socialism is history . Bolivia and Venezuela style socialism is on the way to history. The Scandinavian style socialism is a myth. None of the Scandinavian countries are really socialists. Yes they have safety nets and social welfare but besides free Uni education and govt managed health care for all they are not Soviet style socialists. They have private companies and plenty of them and not more than a small percent are on govt payroll. US is already a socialist country. Free public education to high school. Medicare for all above 65. Social security from age 62. 1 billion dollars a day on Medicaid. 2 million on US govt payroll etc.
5
Bernie Sanders might win the Democratic nomination (unfortunately) and might even win the popular vote if he is their candidate. But he will never win in the Electoral College. The Henry Clay Democrats (so-called "progressives"), who would rather be right than be president, are deluding themselves and giving Trump an edge he shouldn't have.
1
Yes he’ll win, could have last time.
The reason Trump won was that ‘globalization’ ate the heart out of America and Sanders understands that – Trump used it. Bernie wants to undo the damage by repairing the substructure with attention to living standards of health and education and a basic return to a caring government and people see that. Trump fakery Sanders will feast on.
20
Hope is what drives people towards betterment. All will not achieve it, but some will. These are the people who make a society great for the masses. When you take away the opportunity for betterment through hard work and self directed effort, a society will become lazy and complacent. Power becomes concentrated in the hands of a few and everyone else is simply a pawn to enrich the lives of the few in control. Bernie Sanders will oppress society into mediocrity. His idea of societal betterment will lead only to an absence of greatness and no incentive to achieve. At that point, all hope is lost.
Ironically, the dystopia you fear would result from a Sanders presidency--a nation in which power is concentrated in the hands of a few and the rest of us are pawns with little hope for betterment--is a good description of what we have now. Sanders is trying to give hope to individuals and to the nation as a whole by making it possible for more people to get the health care and education they need to move forward.
35
@Vijay - Not having to lose your house to bankrupcy because of medical bills will lead to laziness?
Not having to end university studies tens of thousand s of dollars in debt will lead to laziness?
Protecting the solvency of Social Security will lead to laziness?
Insisting the rich pay their fair share will lead to laziness?
Reforming our electoral system so that it is not dominated by Big Money will lead to laziness?
How?
You may wish to read up on what Sanders actually proposes. It seems to me you are relying on what other people tell you he says.
https://berniesanders.com/issues/
34
If you want to know what Sanders actually advocates as his 2020 platform, don't take the media's word for it. Read it first hand. Go to Sanders' campaign website and check out the "issues" tab. You can also find information on FeelTheBern . org
And to find out what he has actually done in Congress, you can check out the Senate . gov website and find his speeches, amendments to bill, voting record, etc.
There's no reason to accept second hand, "curated" information these days.
31
Our partisan rancor, whether the result or cause of our government's inability to provide for its majorities would be assuaged by Ranked Choice Voting.
RCV would help to differentiate policies from personalities in the DNC primaries and prevent third rate spoilers.
RCV in general elections would help to differentiate policies from personalities and generally decrease Ad Hominem.
RCV might put a few political analysts out of a job--that's OK, we need more investigative journalism anyway.
13
You know Bernie is legit, and that may be what wins it in the end.
37
Essential to winning the presidential election is winning the Electoral College, which means building a voter base in swing states all across the country, those 5+- states HRC won by the smallest margin and the 5+- she lost by the smallest margin being especially important.
Which candidate at the moment seems to have that voter base?
Perhaps the map graphic at the top of this article sheds some light on that. It shows the number of contributors, rather than the dollar amount of contributions, county by county.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/08/02/us/politics/2020-democratic-fundraising.html
3
The author’s left wing information bubble is laughable. Bernie has been endorsed by the Squad! Black lives matter is on the Bernie train!
If you think those are signs of impending success in a general election in Florida or Ohio, you are deluding yourself.
7
@James - Florida & Ohio
Recent polls listed on Real Clear Politics show Sanders trailing Trump by 1% in Florida. That is well within the margin of error of the polls. So it's effectively a tie.
Another more recent poll in Ohio shows Sanders up 6% on Trump.
I don't place too much value on any single poll result. But the trend is in the right direction.
Florida
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2020/president/fl/florida_trump_vs_sanders-6842.html
Ohio
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2020/president/oh/ohio_trump_vs_sanders-6764.html
11
The message of Senator Sanders, the cheers of Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, and the politics of AOC and crowd will accomplish just one thing: make the Democratic party a permanent minority party.
His age will most likely deny him the time to break the five-time loser record of socialist Eugene Debs, but Sanders will destroy democratic congressional candidates in most of the country.
5
I read that Berne Sanders once escorted a bus with American cancer survivors from Vermont to Canada, so they could buy needed medicine at affordable prices.
Canada started universal health care in the 1960s! Imagine.
It's just over the border, yet our famous American 'free press' doesn't send reporters over there to inquire of some Canadians---hey, how do you like your HC? How do you pay for it and use it? Would you vote for any party pushing high profit HC?
Compare to the 37 millions Americans still uninsured--in the 21st Century! And millions more struggling to pay for their insurance. And still getting big surprise bills.
Our ACA, which citizens of advanced countries wouldn't put up with, is the best we can do---with insurance profits as 1st priority over our medical care.
See NYT recent column--
"Where the Frauds Are All Legal
Welcome to the weird world of medical billing." by Elizabeth Rosenthal.
Btw, when anyone is wounded by gun shots in most modern countries, their hospital treatment is paid for. Many Americans who survive our frequent shootings must go into big medical debt for treatment, recovery and loss of job income, and maybe permanent disability. A sequence of tragedy for them and their families.
Profits for gun makers and for hospitals and drug makers are the highest priority. Sold to us as preventing 'big govt' from interfering in our 'freedoms'.
26
Recent polling, for what it's worth, shows Sanders solidly in 2nd place, a few percent behind Biden and a few percent ahead of Warren.
This is polls by Quinnipiac, Monmouth, Politico, Harris, Berkeley IGS, all from within the last month.
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/latest_polls/
As far as I'm concerned, polls trying to judge DEM party voters' primary sentiments will tell us little about who has the best chance against Trump. Different questions and different groups need to be polled.
2
My reading of Bernie's so-called socialist message is that he will be a socialist revolutionary to the DNC -- and Congress. Wall Street, Big Pharma, the health industry will have to socialize --
share time -- with the 98%. That's a revolution -- in socializing.
5
The fact of the matter is, Sanders and those politicians like him, are really the only candidates who recognize that in order for America to survive and move forward and as history has confirmed, a kind of political "bottom up" revolution must happen in America because, to do otherwise and stick with the usual corporate/establishment neo-liberal bunch like Biden, Clinton and others of their ilk including Republicans across the board, will ultimately mean the Oligarchs have won and democracy in America is dead.
Go ahead , America, repeat the same mistake you made in 2016(and before), alienate the youth whose future you will have eviscerated and Trump will be re-elected, AGAIN.
26
We have a bunch of candidate who take corporate money (I call them bribes) and mostly do the bidding of corporate lobbyists—they serve their sponsors.
Warren seemed to be an exception but has now reversed course on Medicare For All, suggesting she might support it 3 years after taking office. Since the bill itself includes a 4 year transition plan, we’d be waiting at least 7 years for OUR tax dollars to provide us with healthcare. If she doesn’t change her mind. Again.
Bernie has consistently fought for us. He believes, as I do, that OUR tax dollars shouldn’t be given to corporate donors (who evade their taxes overseas in Panama and elsewhere)) or to military contractors who profit from mass murder.
We are facing crises—not problems. Including the destruction of the planet itself.
This is no time for “pragmatic” modest incremental reforms. That is death itself.
Sanders is the one.
30
Sanders should explain to voters that he wants to restore our previous generations' middle and working class upward mobility and security. We once led the world in this, now we lag. Our GINI Index intl ranking of upward mobility is behind many countries.
Sanders should use specific, concrete, real-people comparisons of average American's lives under our current system VS that of our better past, and other modern nations today.
Use FDR's New Deal example for govt action benefitting the citizen majority, including the start of Social Security, and the passing of sensible banking regulations that then prevented huge economic crashes for generations. Until Clinton/GOP repealed those laws in the 90s. Then in 2008 we had the biggest Crash since the Great Depression of 1929.
Use LBJ's Great Society-- starting Medicare for the elderly and voting rights for blacks, nation wide.
Just 2 examples out of many.
Taxes on the rich? Use examples even from the '50s. The tax rate for the highest portion of income of the wealthy was 91%---- and this was with GOP President Eisenhower's term.
That was centrist, not radical.
Also centrist was tax supported tuition for state university students. This is what helped expand the US middle class. Ending that support is weakening our middle class, as families are held back by huge college debt, and many student can't afford a degree.
Use before and after stories from our better past, for millions of Americans.
8
The potential problem with his campaign is not at all that he's a socialist. It's (1) that his writings and general lack of accomplishments during the 1970s provide ample fodder for attack ads (2) he's 78 years old, although it's also true that he's only 4 years or so older than Trump.
He's a good fund-raiser, to be sure. And he's been in Congress for decades--he has a record that people can judge. Though I realize some people might like to think of Sanders as somehow not mainstream, he's been part of the Democratic establishment for a very long time. Is that, plus his "new" ideas, enough? We shall see.
Unfortunately, the fear and hatred of Sanders will be defeated by the hatred and fear spewed by Trump. With Trump, his believers want to go back to a time when things never were while those for Sanders want to look forward to a time where things can change for the better. Once again, in the Divided States of America, as in life, irrational behavior will overpower rational thought.
Don't forget to vote. You still count.
4
@Guido Malsh
I think it is pretty clear now that if Trump is re-elected and there is a greater chance of that happening with a democratic candidate who is just another wishy washy corporate/establishment do nothing centrist, one cannot see over the next 10-15 years how the union can survive.
11
Let's see how he does in South Carolina. If Sanders can come second to Biden and steal a significant percentage of the African-American vote (even without winning a majority), I'm willing to admit he has a shot. I will, however, never forgive him and therefore never vote for him for his role in putting Trump in office in 2016.
2
@AJF
You are still in a state of denial and like Hillary, blaming others for her loss. Hillary and the DNC lost because they refused to read the tea leaves as to what was REALLY happening in America and her excuses are getting tiresome. When she lost the candidacy to Obama in 2008, records show that just as many if not more of her supporters voted for John McCain, not Obama , yet, he still won.
She could not beat the candidate (Trump) who had the worst presidential candidate ratings in history, that is why she lost, not Bernie.
21
Question:
( ) were responsible for flipping enough republican held house seats to turn the house democratic in 2018?
A. Democratic socialists
B. Moderate Democrats
C. Conservative Democrats
D. Independents running as Democrats
Question:
(. ) were responsible for Democratic victories in the 2019 governor’s races in Kentucky and Louisiana.
A. Democratic socialists
B. Moderate Democrats
C. Conservative Democrats
D. Independents running as Democrats
Question:
( ) were responsible for turning the Virginia legislature Democratic in 2019.
A. Democratic socialists
B. Moderate Democrats
C. Conservative Democrats
D. Independents running as Democrats
2
@Gordon - DEMs seem to have learned the lesson to run candidates appropriate to their constituencies.
AOC is the right candidate for Bronx & Queens, but would not be for Kansas' 3rd District. And Sharice Davids is right for Kansas' 3rd but not for Bronx & Queens.
The challenge for a presidential candidate, of course, is that the whole country is the constituency. This is why I think it's so important to look at swing voters in swing states. They're the ones that really decide.
3
13 million votes in a country of more than 320 million people.
1
Bernie's rankings on the national polls strongly suggest he would not win the Democratic nomination.
2
@David - Which polls?
At this moment I am looking at a number of polls on Real Clear Politics that directly contradict what you write, both nationwide and swing state polls.
14
@David
He jumped over Biden and Warren to take the lead in California which would mean automatically over 250 delegates.
14
@David - Can you point to some specific polls?
Recent poll results published on Real Clear Politics shows him dominating Trump nationwide as well as in several key swing states such as NH, NV, GA, PA and MI.
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/latest_polls/general_election/
5
Dems are watching these institutions fail miserably and become powerless as an American-fascist cult leader, with the support of his party, turns the country towards authoritarianism. Unfortunately, liberals do not have solutions when this happens—other than capitulating—and this is proven by history. They have become reactionary conservatives in hopes that it will somehow appease the far-right, but it won’t. It’s your show, though, and we’re all just along for the ride. Lead the way!
2
I cannot believe a positive piece about Bernie in the Times, there was on before that was at least not bashing him which shocked me. And this is a brilliantly written piece make no mistake. I cannot praise the author highly enough because he got all the cracks and crevices that the corporate Dems and the DCCC have had no interest in or were felt too much revulsion to look into. You know regular Americans and how they are hurting. We do not exist for them, other than puny, little annoying voices when they expect us to be thrilled with the status quo, since they are. Also the Organization of Nurses backs Bernie and they know a thing or two about how no one loves insurance companies.
My God, thanks to Bernie we are being heard! He believes in us, he has heard us for 40 years , never giving up on us. Bless him, bless him. Now watch some curious machinations with the candidates after this piece, twisting to appear caring and listening but still winking to their corporate donors not to worry.
Thankyou, thankyou with all my heart Keeanga-Yamahtta Tayor. You hang the moon for me!
19
Roughly 3/5 of all U.S. voters are over age 40 and fall somewhere on the middle spectrum, be they Democrat or Republican, centrist, center left, center right.
The remaining 2/5 are under age 40 but are polar opposites, with 1/5 fringe left progressive and 1/5 fringe right nationalists.
The math will never be there for those fringe 2/5. In many respects they could cancel each other out, save for the fact that the fringe right will always fall in line and vote for whomever is the GOP candidate.
Meanwhile, the 1/5 fringe left certainly have altered elections, notably supporting Obama in 2008 but not Clinton in 2016. Trump/GOP would love to see the fringe left spoilers again sit home and refuse to vote, as 4.5 million Bernie Bros and and black men did in 2016.
2
@Maggie - Every presidential election in our lifetimes has been won by the person who captures the eswing voters in a handful of swing states. It's an inevitable result of our Electoral College system.
The FIRST job of a presidential candidate is to persuade those voters.
"4.5 million Bernie Bros"
Those were not fringe left spoilers. They were swing voters (male and female alike) in swing states that Clinton failed to persuade to vote for her.
Another minor but related point about "Bernie Bros" ... Sanders has more support from women under 45 than any other candidate.
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/11/12/bernie-sanders-has-more-diverse-support-you-think
11
@J Jencks
That is not a primary resource, neither news or research.
Your Common Dreams site is fringe left propaganda.
This reader continues to believe Sanders is responsible for the rise of Trump - parroting Putin talking points, however innocently, all the way through the primaries, in combination with the Time's strategically timed highlighting of disinformation as to her emails, sealed the dirty deal the entire world is living with to this very day.
3
Thank you for finally admitting this......
"The leadership of the Democratic Party regularly preaches that moderation and pragmatism can appeal to “centrist” Democrats as well as Republicans skeptical of Mr. Trump. It is remarkable that this strategy still has legs after its spectacular failure for Hillary Clinton in 2016."
14
Bernie Sanders was a possible candidate for me until he indicated he would withhold military aid to Israel if they did not agree with his political issues. He and other secular and Reform Jews are now splitting American voters away from assuring the ongoing existence of Israel as a Jewish state. I am an American Reform Jew, but I am not in lockstep with Reform's leaders. We must never do anything to imperil the Jewish State. OK if you don't want to help, but at least don't hurt it
Anyway, I live in the Midwest and I do not think mid Americans are ready for Bernie. My feeling is that we must select Joe Biden to be the Democratic candidate or get ready for Trump 2020.R
2
@Ronald Ginson
Saint Bernie is also a longtime fav of the NRA and he them. But his acolytes overlook that.
1
@Maggie
That would be a lie Maggie.
Sanders has a lifetime rating of D-.
https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2016/jan/20/bernie-s/bernie-sanders-nra-report-card-d-minus-most-recent/
@Ginson
Israel doesn't need our $4billion dollars in MIC aid to exist; do they?
As for the Midwest, Sanders won those states last primary. Even your own stat Missouri it was virtually a tie HRC 49.6% to Bern 49.4%.
Since delegates are allocated proportionally, HRC won 36 of the 71 pledged delegates, and Bern the other 35 delegates.
Sanders can win in the Midwest; he did last primary.
10
I encourage my fellow readers not to rely wholly on what the media says are the views and policies of Sanders (or any candidate). I have seen many misrepresentations of his views.
Do yourself a favor and go to the source.
https://berniesanders.com/issues/
8
I support Sanders' candidacy and entirely agree here with Dr. Taylor. Anybody who has followed Sanders' town hall meetings from way back and read his book would be family with what she has written. Mr. Obama has had to make that comment, among others, to protect his centrist stand and reputation. The sad commentary on it is that while he was re-elected and served eight years, around 1000 Democratic Party candidate lost elections, all the way down ballot. Then, supposedly for "change you can believe in" in 2008, it seems very strange for "change" to have been regarded by scholars as THE main concept of importance to voters in 2016 (even controlling for bigotry). I firmly believe that Obama and the DNC in 2008 virtually anointed HRC for the nomination in 2016, no matter what concept would prevail--she was locked in. She nearly won her gamble of preaching to the coastal choir--nearly. It is obvious to me that the "change" (for a multitude of reasons) from which Trump benefited in 2016 is still desired by the general populace. Sanders is still the one to represent it.
15
A Monmouth University poll just came out today showing Bernie Sanders has the highest unfavorability of all major candidates for President, at 54% of registered voters, tied with Michael Bloomberg and even higher than Trump (52%).
https://www.monmouth.edu/polling-institute/reports/monmouthpoll_US_121019/
The author of this OpEd tells us that we must have some deficiency inability to understand if we can't see why none of that matters. May I suggest, alternatively, that if the author doesn't understand why having both and absolute and the largest majority of voters with an unfavorability rating of Sanders is a real problem for him in winning an election, then maybe the author doesn't even undertand the basics of how elections work?
5
@MadManMark - And yesterday a Quinnipiac poll came out showing Sanders beating Trump nationwide by 8%. (Same poll showed Biden beating by 9%.)
The country is awash with polls and it's easy enough to find one that supports our personal preferences. This is why I like the polling compilation sites like Real Clear Politics and 538, because this evens out the inaccuracies and helps to identify long term trends.
Incidentally, neither "favorability ratings" nor "nationwide" results are good indicators of how a presidential election will result. It's been shown that a significant number of people will rate a candidate "unfavorable", and still vote for him, out of party loyalty. Nationwide results aren't helpful either because they don't factor in the Electoral College and the importance of winning majorities in individual states.
9
I see the Russian bot/trolls are out in force.
Bernie will not get the nomination, but the point is to alienate as many potential Democratic voters as possible.
Note that if all the disaffected Bernie Brats stay home, it ensures Republican control of the Senate at least, and a Supreme Court packed with right-wing justices for the next 30 years.
Win-win-win for Russia, China, Big Oil, and the White Male Hierarchy. Good work, GRU.
1
@arty - You write of alienating "potential Democratic voters" as a goal of "Russian bot/trolls", then proceed to call a contingent of potential Democratic Party voters "Bernie Brats" (with gratuitous capitalization), a phrase I find particularly insulting.
Interesting.
13
Trump won because, just barely, his votes were better distributed than Clinton's. So, which Democratic candidate has the broadest appeal? Who has more "nooks and crannies" of support. Take a look at the map below. Seems like a powerful statement Not sure why the Sanders campaign doesn't highlight it. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/08/02/us/politics/2020-democratic-fundraising.html
4
@Neighbor2 - A similar situation was evident in the Spring of 2016. It could be seen in swing state polling done during the primaries by Quinnipiac.
Seems to me Sanders needs to lasso O'Rourke as his running mate. Texas is on the verge. All 5 of its largest urban counties voted for Clinton in 2016.
Spring 2016 swing state polling
https://poll.qu.edu/2016-presidential-swing-state-polls/release-detail?releaseid=2345
3
Bernie is a loser. Angry, impatient, above all petulant, and if that is not bad enough, a socialist (Ms Taylor is wrong, that is bad news in much of America). Raw meat for Trump, who will be delighted at the choice. And of uncertain health to boot -- will he make it through a campaign?
The piece reeks of Ms. Keeanga-Yamahatta Taylor's desire to get noticed: embrace the most unlikely cause and run with it.
4
Sanders should run a better campaign to relate his ideas more to the main stream.
Ex pres Jimmy Carter stated that we veer toward Oligarchy because it costs so much money to run for any office now—vs when he ran against Reagan.
To remove blocks to public interest lawmaking, we have to 1st fund our elections with more public money --- predetermined-- not unlimited amounts--applying to all candidates, as a countervailing force against privatization. All out in the open for the public.
Voter majorities want to reverse Citizens United. Our media ignores this.
Discuss our past accepted policies of low or free state college tuition, to show this is NOT too left wing.
Very convincingly, Sanders once held senate hearings on health care funding in with witnesses from 4 nations---- Canada, Denmark, France and Taiwan. Not much covered in the news. Cspan has the video.
Sanders never cited this in his campaigns that I saw. Should be prominent. I cited this criticism at a book event in NYC to his campaign mgr, Jeff Weaver, who blamed the media. Not a good answer.
Sanders once escorted a busload of Americans from Vermont to Canada to cancer drugs they could afford. Imagine that. Put it in the campaign.
He could also cite our past generations of higher taxes on the rich.
Sanders should use these specific, real-people, examples of what's worked, instead of repeating the same old general phrases for years on inequality, HC, and the ruling corporate elites.
2
@Meredith - "fund our elections with more public money"
Sanders specifically calls for publicly funded campaigns as part of his policy platform, as part of a larger "money and politics" program that includes pushing for a constitutional Amendment to turn back Citizens United.
7
I’m not surprised Bernie is ahead in California and New Hampshire. He is, however, well behind in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Florida, and Wisconsin. These are the states that will decide the election. Bernie cannot win.
I like Bernie. I voted for him in the 2016 primary to push the Democratic platform to the left; but I am not deluding myself into thinking that he will be the Democratic nominee or can win if he were nominated.
People need to face reality. The whole world is not New York (where Bernie lost the 2016 primary, despite strong support in NYC), California, New Hampshire, or your graduate school classroom.
6
@RCT - I'm looking at Real Clear Politics and seeing Sanders beating Trump in states in which you say he is "well behind".
11/14 Pennsylvania
11/4 Wisconsin
11/4 Michigan
10/2 Ohio
And also beating Trump in states DEMs are not expecting to win
11/15 North Carolina
11/13 Georgia
11/4 Florida poll shows him trailing by 1%, well within the margin of error of the poll, NOT "well behind".
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/latest_polls/general_election/#
8
Didn't know the time opinion page had become a campaign propaganda page for candidates supporters. The biggest problem with Bernie Sanders is clearly stated in this piece, his unwillingness to compromise and believe that he is the only one that has the right answer. Our Republican type of government was founded for us to be able to compromise and move forward together as one nation. We already had four years of that attitude from the current occupant of the White House, we don't need four more years of another person with great ideas and self-righteous attitude.
3
@Juan - My gripe with the Democratic Party over the last 2 decades is that they start compromising before they even enter the room. By the time they're face to face with a GOP which has NO plans to compromise they have already given away the barn.
The result is a country awash with gerrymandering and voter suppression. And now we have people being subpoenaed before Congress, blowing it off, and facing NO consequences.
The real work is no longer being done by our political "leaders" but rather by the likes of SDNY prosecutors and DEM activists in "red" states who receive no support from the DNC.
11
@Juan
Talk about propaganda; who says Bern can't compromise?
Care to read some links that will say/prove you're wrong?
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/26/us/politics/as-mayor-bernie-sanders-was-more-pragmatic-than-socialist.html
https://www.brookings.edu/research/profiles-in-negotiation-the-veterans-deal-of-2014/
https://www.nationaljournal.com/s/624259/bernie-sanders-is-loud-stubborn-socialist-republicans-like-him-anyway?
Sen. Jack Reed:
“Last year when we had the scandal at the VA, he was incredibly effective, engaged in getting the legislation passed, in getting it funded. Frankly, without him, I don’t think we would have gotten it done because there was a lot of name-calling but there wasn’t a lot of constructive, ‘OK, here’s the resources. …’ And he did it,” Reed said. “And it was a great testament to his skill as a legislator."
Said McCain:
“I obviously am in strong disagreement with him on his basic philosophy of the role of government, but as far as an honest individual, to work with, to reach agreement, I respect Bernie Sanders.”
He added: “I will also say to anyone who will ask, Bernie Sanders is an honest man. He’s an honest man and his word is good. Once we reached an agreement, that agreement stuck. And now he’s brushing his hair, which is really a remarkable thing.”
Bernie has been compromising and deal making for decades. Do your own research.
NotMeUs
15
Please, anybody but Sanders or Warren. Please.
4
Very simple. Any D but Sanders! No Way!
1
This is liberal lunacy in black and white:
"But doubts quickly gave way to excitement when Mr. Sanders captured the coveted endorsement of Representative Ilhan Omar of Minnesota. She was soon joined by Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan.
The spirited endorsements of three-quarters of the so-called squad illustrates how Mr. Sanders’s campaign has grown from 2016..."
If your argument is that garnering the support of 3/4s of "the squad" makes you electable in 2020, you are literally living in a parallel universe.
6
I still have my olive-colored Bernie 2016 T-Shirt with the white eyebrows. And proud to wear it. I gave $600 to Bernie in $27 increments because he talks normal about stuff people care about. He's a team player and doesn't call people "deplorable." He's an old guy with nothing to lose and young people love him because he's a straight shooter.
His voice will cut through the fog of Trump Derangement Syndrome and we will get the engine of American progress moving once more in the right direction. Right now the ship of state is dead in the water while the captain and his rogue crew are busily stealing all the cargo by offloading it into various pirate ships.
We need to put an end this governmental piracy, take back the ship of state and put these pirates in the brig. Bernie will help us do this. Unlike Obama, who looked the other way at all the Bush violations of international law and Constitutional Law, Bernie will bring down the boom on Trump's sycophants and evildoers.
We have to be nice to everyone who voted for Trump because he promised to "drain the swamp." To quote the immortal quote butchery of G.W. Bush : "Fool me once . . . . shame, shame on . . . . well, fooled, ya' can't git fooled ag'in."
13
Being called a "socialist" may not end the career of a senator from Vermont or a representative from Queens, but it most certainly will not get you to 270 votes in the U.S. electoral college.
2
Sorry Bernie Sanders has NEVER been a team player. He has not gotten anything done in his years in Congress. And his delay in endorsement is the reason Trump is in the WhiteHouse!
5
Right.Right.Right.
I would be more than happy to have to pick between Warren and Sanders. They are the only 2 people running that seem to "get it". Centrists gave us Trump, neoliberalism, and run away corporate consolidation power. They should sit down and shut up and fall in line with where the majority of Democrats live.
7
I believe he says he's a democratic socialist, not a socialist.
6
@Bassman
Dear Bassman,
What is the difference?
1
And?
A green vegetable is still a vegetable and a vegetable is still good for you no matter what color modifies the noun.
3
My enthusiasm for Bernie waxes and wanes but the majority of his policy stances matches mine. I haven't paid close attention to this election on the Dem side vs. in 2016 but it certainly says something when the only candidate mentioned favorably by name when Trevor Noah's Roy Wood went to talk to Black voters was Bernie Sanders. One young women when asked about his heart attack said she would push his wheelchair if he needed it.
7
Why do neoliberal corporatists have a monopolistic claim on "centrism"?
Working-class politics have a tremendously broader appeal that transcends the historically new and rather peculiar two-party formations we seem to think are somehow natural.....
4
Great comment and congrats for breaking 700!
3
I am a 67 year old white female, upper middle class. I plan to vote for Bernie. I don't fit the Bernie profile and no one has asked for my opinion. I'm sure I'm not alone.
16
So many comment that Sanders is the most principled of the lot. I beg to differ. Recall that Sanders stayed in the 2016 primary for three months after it became mathematically impossible for him. During this time he vilified Clinton relentlessly and then waited for two weeks to endorse her after he lost. His anger at her was palpable and he inspired legions of his supporters to despise her, helping to drive down her favorability. 12'% of them refused to vote for her in the general, contributing to her her loss. Oh. And he ran against the party and claimed the primary was rigged (classic demagogic strategy.). Finally, he (not a Democrat) divided the party. These divisions still exist between the so-called progressives and the so-called moderates (many of us moderates are very liberal ideologically but politically, as pragmatics, we vote moderate.) Many of the most-left don't even legitimize more centrist candidates like Buttigieg who they think are Corporatist shills! Neoliberals! Repbulican lites! (I guess that's me.) No, when historians begin to write about him they will reveal the dark side of Bernie Sanders.
3
@Annie - "12'% of them refused to vote for her in the general, contributing to her her loss."
The first job of ANY candidate is to appeal to swing voters in swing states. That is where presidential elections are won. The 12% you refer to are the swing voters that Sanders was able to persuade but Clinton was not.
Swing voters have no obligation to vote for anybody. They have no party allegiance. You don't win them over by showing up in a red Ralph Lauren pantsuit in Coalville, and talk about how “We're going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business.”
Yes, I know it was a gaffe (as acknowledged by HRC herself), that it was taken out of context and twisted around. But that is exactly what campaigns are all about. That is what is to be expected and to be guarded against.
In 2016 America (or at least swing voters) wanted an "outsider", a "populist", someone like them and ready to fight for them. Clinton, from NY and DC, was the epitome of insider.
I voted for her in 11/2016 but she was not the right candidate for the time.
6
Bernie couldn’t beat Hillary and he won’t beat Trump. Run him at your peril. I’m a Democrat, not a Socialist. I won’t vote for a Socialist. I won’t vote for Sanders.
3
Obama is just plain wrong -- Trump was elevated (and Hilary deprecated) on the basis of "tearing down the system". Trump, of course, is unlikely to make anything worthwhile of it "from scratch". That will take a leader such as Bernie who can clearly recognize the true source of America's affliction and rally the American people to overcome it with integrity...
6
We must frankly discuss--- will cautious, centrist, big donor oriented policies win for the Dems. Is this the only way to defeat a criminal president who brings shame to the nation?
How long, Oh Lord, how long---must we wait for the progressive policies that are normal and accepted in most other democracies?
I've seen Sanders say he supports capitalism, however it must be regulated capitalism. Most voters would agree, tho that's not explained in our media.
In other capitalist democracies their capitalism is better regulated by govt elected by the citizens for their interests, instead of their govt being regulated by corporate elites to maintain profits and power.
That's why they have generations of HC for All. Here that's distorted into a revolutionary, anti capitalist idea.
Why is it revolutionary to say that the voice of the citizen majority should have influence on lawmaking in America? Contrary to our professed ideals of equality and upward mobility? Should we revise our school civics classes to show who really wields power in our once-admired country?
As you say, "Under normal circumstances, the multiracial working class is invisible. That's what's unAmerican. We have poor mainstream coverage by our 'free, independent' media.
Sanders "has been fueled by dollar donations from more than one million people, a feat none of his opponents has matched." We hardly hear about it. The implications of this huge fact have been ignored in our media.
11
Just in.
Sanders in latest Quinnippac Poll rising fast:
Biden 28.7 ( down), Sanders 17. Warren 15.
Big coup: he won the support of the Center for Popular Democracy Action, comprising 40 ultra-left groups with 600,000 members. He was fighting Warren for this and finally won on the second ballot. A big deal for a leftie.
Warren has the support of the Working families party, another left wing group, which last time endorsed Bernard.
The Bernie people were incensed when they endorsed Warren this time.
The bottom line is that Bernie is rising in the polls.
His supporters are stoked for a big win.
Warren is losing steam with her changes on issues she got from Bernard and her recent revelation of working for Dow against environmentalists.
It's getting more and more interesting.
3
Bernie Will Be Our Next President.
Bless the Lord.
8
I’m a center-left Democrat. This article makes me run for the hills. If Sanders wins the nomination, I know that the Democratic Party is not one that I can be a part of.
6
@Sandra - Might I ask what is it about Sanders and his policies/views that makes someone who identifies as "center-left" want to run for the hills?
11
@Sandra - What does "center-left" mean to you? What is it about Sanders that you disagree with so much?
5
Sanders claims that he's a democratic socialist (akin to numerous European leaders, past and present), not the kind of totalitarian socialists that ran the Soviet Union. The author of this piece appears to inadvertently parrot the Republican claim that the opposite is true. This oversight plays right into the hands of Trump and Fox News. We'll hear a lot of this distortion in coming months from the right; let's not hear any more of it from the left.
4
Oh, I understand his campaign.
I also understand that in 2018, the turnout among voters aged 18-29 was way up.
Way up to half that of those 65 , that is.
3
@Robert
Pew Research says your numbers are wrong.
"The three younger generations – those ages 18 to 53 in 2018 – reported casting 62.2 million votes, compared with 60.1 million cast by Baby Boomers and older generations. It’s not the first time the younger generations outvoted their elders: The same pattern occurred in the 2016 presidential election."
" Overall, Boomers cast 36% of ballots in last year’s election – their lowest share of midterm voters since 1986 – because of mortality, while the younger generations are still growing due to naturalizations and adults turning 18."
Bernie's base is growing.
https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/05/29/gen-z-millennials-and-gen-x-outvoted-older-generations-in-2018-midterms/
4
@Robert - Yes, if the young would actually get out and vote like we old fogies do they could transform this country. They have the power. They just don't know it.
2
@Dobbys sock - Your Pew number is for 18-53. Robert was only writing of 18-29.
Per the US Census Bureau voter turnout for 18-29 was 36%. For the population 65+ it was 66.1%, nearly double.
https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2019/04/behind-2018-united-states-midterm-election-turnout.html
1
Don't know if Sanders or Warren can win.
But, as some comment here show, many Americans are conditioned over years to think that something is being taken away from them by public interest policies. And by people who need public assistance, health care, education, justice protections, etc.
They don’t realize that their own security and futures are being weakened by our politics.
It’s not the poor that’s taking things away from our middle class. It’s the 1 percent, corporate elites and their sponsored politicians who are legally exploiting them.
The center of our politics is geared to the political influence of wealthy mega donors. After Citizens United, the voice of the people was legally muffled, since they can’t compete.
It’s the corporate donors who have been legally removing financial security, jobs, decent pay, affordable health care, and a decent retirement---all systematically weakened for the majority of middle and working class citizens.
The media don’t want to look ‘left wing’, by definitions set by the elites. Just 1 example, the media never tells US voters how generations of universal health care have been funded in dozens of countries--with wide support. What will FOX News say, if the media covers that?
Let’s get straight on who sets our political standards of what the US citizen majority deserves or doesn’t, as rights in a modern democracy. In the internet age, we're still cut off by 2 oceans and Canadian border.
8
You're right - lets trust the Democratic establishment and go with the choice they say is electable. Sure this didn't work last time, buts its bound to work this time. Passion is for the other side - let them fight all out for their beliefs, but that's not our way. Real change is scary - you never know what might happen - best to be safe.
3
In this household of white 'boomer' voters who polls say are not Bernie's demographic, we have believed in and voted for him from the beginning, so it's from that standpoint that I take issue with two of the professor's choices for how to argue Bernie's case.
First, as Bernie has been clear about, he's a "democratic socialist," a term that usually only the GOP seeks to muddle by leaving out 'democratic' and making the leap to try to tar him with a spurious false equivalence with Venezuelan dictators. The would-be dictator in the White House now is a raging exploitive conscienceless capitalist who warrants being tagged "totalitarian," not Bernie by a long shot.
Bernie speaks to the values and priorities that most Americans believe in, and his is the socialism we already have in Social Security and Medicare that almost all Americans hold sacred. So shorthanding him as simply a socialist is oversimplified and only feeds the fearmongering of his opponents.
Second, in re Bernie allegedly doing "class warfare": To the contrary, Bernie's platform is a redressing of the manifold grievances resulting from years of class warfare by Trump & Co.: reverse RobinHoodism - corporate welfare, etc., that have exponentialized economic inequality. Bernie's mission is to undo the class warfare we've witnessed in the demonization and defunding of those struggling to make ends meet without such things as food assistance, child care coverage, free public education, and equitable health care.
19
A great essay!
There is a strange sort of bigotry afoot in the US, whereby the centrist ruling class says, constantly, "You have to vote for one of us, because otherwise that awful Trumpist working class will give us four more years of Trump. Vote capitalist to save your soul!"
But the fact that some of white working class went for Trump last time does not mean that all of the white working class went for Trump. It does not mean that these same Trump supporters will not switch to Bernie, given the chance. And it does not mean that all of the working class is white, as Taylor notes.
Maybe the solution is to stop letting Biden and his supporters weasel their ways in through this craven calculation of what "they" will do, and to start asking who has the best platform. For working class people, and indeed for anyone who needs a planet to live on and a functioning society to live in, that's Bernie.
14
Back in April-May 2016 Quinnipiac did polls in swing states that showed Sanders out-performing Clinton in a face-off with Trump. The margins were enough that if they had been reflected in the actual election Sanders would have won most of the swing states, and the Electoral College.
The old labels of "Left" and "Right", and even Sanders' own "socialist", aren't that helpful anymore, not since the rise of Populism.
The reason Sanders led Clinton in those states was that he had a similar populist appeal as Trump, without the racism and misogyny. He appealed to people who wanted an outsider ready to fight for them and Clinton did not appear to be that person. These swing voters ended up voting for Trump or Johnson since they were denied the chance to vote for Sanders.
The same could happen again.
https://poll.qu.edu/2016-presidential-swing-state-polls/release-detail?releaseid=2345
8
@J Jencks
Absolutely. Polls showing those results started in Dec/2015. By Feb/2016 it was crystal clear (though underreported, of course) that Bernie was the country's most trusted, respected and overall favored Democrat - and matched up best against all Republican hopefuls. It was unequivocal. The fact that most Hillary supporters disregarded poll after poll showing this and many even didn't seem troubled by increasing evidence of campaign malfeasance on her side should lead them to reflect on their partial responsibility for Trump's election.
As it turned out, she was saved by Comey, who didn't acknowledge the FBI's investigation of her until AFTER she got the nomination (and even then only called it a "matter"). Those who remember how tight the race was in the spring of 2016 know that this would have been curtains for her campaign.
11
I voted for Bernie in 2016, so did my republican brother and his wife. And all three of us will do so again! He is the only candidate that has vision that our country can be great, and he has carried that vision for years. All the others only offer status quo. Status quo got us Trump. People see that the other advanced nations have social programs that enrich the lives of those citizens while they continue to have a strong economy. We know what is possible and we're tired of waiting for our turn to have it.
14
The author makes valid points about the ongoing strength of Senator Sanders's candidacy. He appeals to just those voters who peeled off the Democratic party and voted for Trump, out of desperation for shaking up the system that has treated them so badly.
I would ask, beg, may plead with this author and others writing on the campaign to cease and desist from equating the positions of Senator Sanders (which are those of a mainstream European Social Democrat), with those of any communist party anywhere at any time. Sanders does not in any way advocate for communism, nor has he ever implemented policies of that type in any position he has held.
11
@ToddA
OK.
why did he take his honeymoon is the USSR?
Why was he videod singing communist songs in Moscow?
I don't buy that he is a moderate leftie at all.
He still refuses to register as a Democrat yet wants our nod?
1
The author is insufficiently mindful of the reality that running up the vote in New York and California won't address the structural challenges that face Progressives in the Electoral College. The current House majority was primarily conferred upon the Democrats by moderate suburban voters.
Take a look at what's happening in the UK as they approach their election this week. Labour is running well behind the Conservatives, even though the Tories have been greatly weakened over the past few years. This is mostly because Labour has a leader in Jeremy Corbyn who's greatly beloved by Progressive activists, but consistently has a 60% disapproval rating with the general public.
2
@RGreen - With respect to your first sentence, it is clear that the key to winning the Electoral College is winning over swing voters in swing statesl. This has been the case in ever presidential election in my lifetime.
The mistake is in thinking that swing voters are "centrists". Some may be but certainly some are not. "Right", "Left", and "Center" are not helpful in this context.
Back in April-May 2016 Quinnipiac polled in swing states, comparing Sanders to Clinton in face-offs against Trump. Sanders consistently came out ahead of Clinton. This was because he had the "outsider" populist appeal that Clinton lacked and that swing voters wanted.
Sanders ... the "socialist" no less... had greater appeal with voters who eventually chose Trump over Clinton.
The biggest job of the 2020 candidate will be to win those voters back. Appealing to "the base" in those swing states just isn't enough to bring them in. The base is too small the the swing vote too large. There must be an appeal to swing voters.
https://poll.qu.edu/2016-presidential-swing-state-polls/release-detail?releaseid=2345
4
"Party elites believe focusing squarely on President Trump’s record will end his presidency, while others counter that the Democrats also have to champion bold policies."
This just isn't true. Where have any "party elites" said that only focusing on Trump's record will end his presidency? Please, find me one example, one.
Party elites want one thing, to win. Many of them believe, as I do, that running on trashing private health insurance is a losing proposition. How do you get from there, to "they only want to go after Trump and are against bold solutions."? Honestly, how? The very suggestion is quite frankly ridiculous. A public option, is a bold policy, it would be a monumental step for our country and its broken healthcare system. The ACA was in fact bold, in that it went as far as was politically possible at the time. The solutions proposed by every candidate on stage, are bold, some more than others. That some aren't bold enough for you, is fine, but lets not play make believe here, that's for the other guys, or at least it's supposed to be.
2
I voted for Bernie in 2016 (calm down, I lived in Montana where Trump was and is a shoe-in) and will happily vote for him again in 2020. I am sick of having to choose between namby-pamby, text-book Democrats and far-right Republicans. Why are we the only democracy in the world that gets just two choices, which, IMO, is really no choice at all. Bernie Sanders is consistent, passionate, experienced, and committed. Call his supporters socialists, social democrats, democratic socialists, New Democrats -- if we're really going to get hung up on name-calling, then America is in far worse trouble than I thought, and, believe me, it's in plenty of trouble. I am 70 yo and convinced that bold action is needed, the timid need not apply. BTW, the pic that accompanies this article looks just like the enthusiastic crowd I was part of when Bernie came to my city in September. No lie, the guy standing next to me was listening intently, and he was wearing a MAGA hat.
17
I like some of the core ideas of Sanders' campaign & would like to see us get to single-payer health care, work aggressively toward the goals of the Green New Deal & other targets to save our burning planet, decrease the military budget & toxic war-profiteering of the military-industrial complex, & more.
However, I think his public persona is a liability. His seeming constant yelling is a real turn-off, as is his rigidity. It will take finesse & willingness to negotiate to get anything through this recalcitrant Congress. In a time when we desperately need to rebuild diplomatic relationships & repair the nasty rifts created by DJT, I worry that Sanders will be doctrinaire.
Further, the health & resilience of Sanders, Biden, & Warren are worrying. Age & potential for sudden physical or cognitive decline cannot be ignored at their advanced years.
Feeling bludgeoned by these years with Trmp, I am more interested in Buttigieg, who is forward-looking & progressive w/o alienating the vast middle of the population. His progressivism is couched in moderate language that will draw in voters across various spectrums. Yes, he's young & hasn't marinated in Congress, but he is brilliant, will seek & take excellent guidance to heart, learns rapidly, is energetic & in his prime, is courageous & empathetic, is able to be flexible when needed w/o capitulation, & offers thoughtful calm—all of which this country needs in abundance now.
2
Try this logic on for size: Bernie, in 2016, when he was as hot as he ever had been, was or will be, could not pull together a sufficient coalition to beat Hillary. He put up a good fight but Hillary beat him handily. Now he's four years older and recently had a heart attack (a fact which I do not relish in the least since, whatever policy disagreements I have with Bernie, I think he's a decent guy).
Note that after Bernie lost to Hillary, Hillary got utterly blown out by Trump in the electoral college 304 to 227 (i.e., the vote that counts). She did win the popular vote, which is a nice consolation prize for the loser of an election as the winner took his place as the next leader of the free world and moved into the White House to determine policy on behalf of the most powerful nation in the world.
Fact is, if Bernie couldn't beat Hillary in 2016, ain't no way he's beating Trump now. Don't believe that? I say it's you and not me that doesn't understand, but time will bear this thing out.
5
@Bob - Study the polling results of the Spring of 2016. Sanders had greater appeal than Clinton in the key swing states, when facing off with Trump.
The problem with our primary system is that it does not identify the candidate with the best chance of winning a national election and the Electoral College. It identifies the candidate who is most popular with Democratic Party voters. But to win the Electoral College the candidate MUST win several of the swing states and the only way to do that is by winning swing voters. They are by definition excluded from the primary process.
https://poll.qu.edu/2016-presidential-swing-state-polls/release-detail?releaseid=2345
2
@J Jencks
I am well aware of this argument. I don't think it holds up. Any stat that applies prior to a politician having to face Trump is useless. Remember when Jeb was the front-runner with more money than g-d, a who's who of endorsements and GOP pedigree that would make a grown Republican cry? Then Trump took his shot at him, and he was finished. No one thought Trump had any chance of beating Hillary. They were wrong. Trump is phenomenally talented. Liberals have a hard time understanding this because it's hard to understand what you don't want to believe, but it is the reality whether you realize it or not.
No, thanks.
I personally have no problem with well-intentioned groups/candidates taking money from billionaires. But that seemed to be the essential thrust of Bernie's campaign - that even the appearance of impropriety by taking large sums of money is corrupt. So one could argue it's hypocritical or at least inconsistent/confusing. An endorsement by the Squad only strengthens my commitment to vote for anyone else. The four members of the House's left-wing "Squad" opposed a resolution put forward by Democrats to support a two-state solution in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
"This resolution not only endorses an unrealistic, unattainable solution, one that Israel has made impossible, but also one that legitimatizes inequality, ethnic discrimination, and inhumane conditions," Rep. Rashida Tlaib said Friday on the House floor. The Michigan Democrat has said previously that she supports a one-state solution because two states would enforce a "separate but equal" mentality.
The four Squad members, Rep. Ilhan Omar, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rep. Ayanna Pressley, and Tlaib, were the only four Democrats to vote "no" on the resolution.
I'm tired of his relentless yelling and past behaviours which include being hostile to women and paying them less than his male staffers. He's not a progressive he's an egotist.
6
Outrage is cathartic but it's not enough to win the nomination, nor should it be. Sanders appeals to voters who are rightfully appalled at our current state of affairs but he is a dreamer, not a doer.
Outrage will not prevail in a system awash in money and rife with corruption and Sanders has never demonstrated an ability to plan and execute anything like the Affordable Care Act or the Great Society.
3
I understand his campaign better than you do. I remember George McGovern, who I voted for. I understood his campaign. I remember Walter Mondale, who I voted for. I understood his
campaign. I understand Bernie's campaign. In fact, he is a direct throwback to 1972. He evidently has not learned anything new since then. He has the same chance of being elected as McGovern did.
Thank goodness he has no chance of being nominated.
7
Some of your comment has been recently validated. See the Democratic response to challenging an incumbent, a loyalty oath.
That stated, add the comments about the muck raking that comes with this voting process, the affect of a constant bombardment of lies becoming truth, the division that already exists in the polity and the potential interference with the voting, both the popular and electoral, and my hopes are not that high unless more comes out about tRump that shocks the public and elected officials and forces critical thinking. Add to that a quick nation wide class in civics.
My biggest sadness is the probable fact that all republicans will fall into line and disregard the oath of office they took to defend the Constitution.
1
I'd love to see a Sanders/Warren ticket. Which is fair, since many of Warren's ideas originated with Bernie. This way those who worry about Bernie's health can rest in the knowledge that Warren is a heartbeat away.
8
If we had let the DNC and top Democrats guide us with their continual call for "moderate" this and that, we would not have same-sex marriage in this country yet. Even Obama threw the LGBT community under the bus to pander to party elites.
Now, it's time to ignore the party when it comes to wealth. The DNC's methods have been discredited by their own lack of success. It's time for progressive ideas--not language and thought policing, but actual policies that make a difference in people's lives--to rule this country and save this planet.
295
If you would like to know why you don’t deserve support, it’s that word, “rule.” That’s how you get Venezuela as it presently is.
6
@Robert Oh, for heaven's sake.
43
@MWI ...
We have same sex marriage in this country because of the Supreme Court.... which only had the 4 liberal judges needed to make it happen because of guys like Obama and Clinton getting elected. How many SCOTUS judges did George McGovern put on the bench? How about Mondale? Obama didn't throw the LGBT community under the bus, he did what he had to do to get ELECTED. Thank god he did because John McCain would have placed right wing judges in the spots Obama filled, and we'd still be sitting here trying to get gay marriage legalized.
I'm sorry you're unable to grasp the simple reality of politics. It's much more the power of the electorate who drives policy decisions on issues that are politicized, vs "the party elites". This is even true on the right. It's why Sinclair Media and Fox News exist. So they can get their voters in line because you're worthless to your corporate overlords if you don't actually hold power, and you can't hold power without being elected. Is this starting to make sense now?
8
Not sure if Sanders can win, but I certainly hope he doesn't. Ideologues don't make great leaders.
6
So happy to see this article. Here is my personal arc.
1. Supported Bernie in previous election, donating a modest $30 to his campaign.
2. Voted for Hillary in general
3. Expressed early concern about his age this time around.
4. Placed myself in the Warren camp as a result of his age and my desire to see a female president.
5. After revisiting both candidates I have decided again to place my weight behind Bernie.
6. This article and these comments have further galvanized that decision, and tonight I will again donate to his campaign.
7. Bernie2020!
For those of you still on the fence, I often think back on the wonderful meme: "For every major mistake America has made in the last 30 years, there is a video of Bernie Sanders trying to stop it." Google it folks, Bernie is not just a politician; He is a sage with unimpeachable moral convictions.
20
@Ben Our arcs our parallel. I bet there are a lot more of us! Bernie 2020!
4
@Ben Great comment and you are a sage yourself. We are so blessed to have Bernie.
3
Truth: regarding the rise of Bernie Sanders! Finally. Catch up Baby Boomers and Neo-liberals.
9
Only Bernie can win back the hard-pressed working-class voters, abandoned by corporate Democratic politicians, who were fooled into electing Trump. Against incredible odds, Sanders and Socialism will win in 2020. The long stagnant backward times are about to end . . . .
15
I attended my first Sanders for President rally on July 1, 2015. Quite possibly before this and many of his other most fervent supporters of today had even given him a thought. I gave Bernie $27 at least nine times in 2015 and 2016. And yes, I voted for him in our 216 primary. I don't agree with everything he says, but it was still refreshing to hear much of it finally being said by a major candidate.
All of this explanation is to give some extra credibility to the sincerity of what I will say next: I am *tired* of activists supporting ANY candidate -- even one I've supported myself! -- declaring that someone must not "understand" something if they simply have a different OPINION about it. The statements you make here are not facts, with identifiable truth or falsehood. Just like some of the worst "Bernie Bros" in 2016 you really need to stop and consider that sometimes yoru more strident rhetoric is actually ALIENATING other Democrats more than you are PERSUADING them. Make your point directly ("this is how he can win") without making it all personal accusation ("you don't understand")!
3
If Bernie get the nomination, he wins.
16
Yes. And he will God willing :-)
4
Yes, if the New York Times can publish a headline claiming that a very large audience does not understand Sander's campaign, then it means his message is not getting out and means that very large audience is unlikely to vote for him.
The entire job of the campaign is to make everyone understand it with zero effort.
@Steve Read the article again.
2
While I would vote for a discarded piece of Styrofoam if it were the Democratic nominee against Trump, an aging politician with an angry demeanor and obvious cardiovascular issues would not be my first choice.
Bernie's heart may be in the right place, but that won't matter if it stops working. Our government is on the verge of needing life support. Our candidates should not be.
4
A compelling message but he is old and sickly and doomed to fail. He hasn’t convinced his opponents across the aisle while in the Senate for years and now he is going to force the red state Senators to change their ways from the White House?
2
The endorsements of the "Squad" make me less interested in his candidacy.
I will not vote for him in the primary, but if he is the candidate I will vote for in spite of the endorsements of the knuckleheads in the "Squad".
2
Pure Socialists are every bit as much out of touch as pure capitalists are. Especially in the USA where the socialists are so bold as to call themselves “democratic socialists” wherein the emphasis is placed on socialists that will allow democratic presence within socialism, which means you get to vote on measures which have already been decided upon by the collective, a la Kim Jong Un style. That’s a creativity killer!
Lets face it, this Karl Marx utopian thinking is old hat! It’s not modern thinking in any way. There are segments that fit into a modern word but large amounts of it can be tipped into the dumpster! Just like many pure capitalist ideals can be shoved over the cliff. As usual, modern methods are an interwoven mesh of old proven items from both sides and new concepts. People clinging to old words like “Socialist” and “Capitalist” are just lazy and too set in their ways to come up with new things we all need to move forward.
We don’t live in an us vs. them world; we live in a world of potentiality, a place for everyone to possibly enter into the happiness zone, which we all have wanted for centuries.
@William Perrigo - Kim and Marx have as little to do with Sanders as they have to do with Trump.
It's hard to talk about ideas if we don't have words which in turn have generally understood definitions. Granted, "Socialism", "Capitalism" and "democratic socialism" are words and phrases that are thrown about willy nilly. Nonetheless, we need to talk ... and listen ... to each other. So we better start coming up with some definitions.
2
Oh really. You mean, “from the realm of necessity to the realm of freedom?”
Hey, guess whose idea that is?
Many of you people are ignoring the giant dummy in the corner.
TRUMP
I just read somebody's comment that if the super delegates steal the nomination again, that person will stay home (again).
Well, last time I held my nose and voted for Hillary. She was obviously the lesser evil (compared to Donald).
Now we no longer have the luxury of looking for the candidate with the most perfect program. We just (must) elect somebody to rescue our country from the demon who is subverting it. That savior seems to be Joe Biden.
If you really want to vote for Swedish-style democratic socialism 4 years from now, then hold your noses and vote for Joe now. Your chance will come.
1
The lines against Bernie in the form of DNC concern trolling already mirror exactly what the GOP is going to say. The attacks will be 'old news' and already the narrative around them is tired and not likely to really arouse anyone not already planning on voting Trump.
All the other candidates are to be protected in the primary, most voters haven't seen Biden's teeth almost falling out or his eye filling with blood as he rambles on and on about God knows what. The DNC can't control the narrative once we are in the general. So a competing narrative will emerge. Bernie already deals with that competing narrative from the DNC, so the RNC one won't really change anything. The rest of the front runners however are very vulnerable. If i were on the Trump re-election team i would be very worried about facing off against Bernie.
8
The author completely lost me with "the coveted endorsement of Representative Ilhan Omar of Minnesota. She was soon joined by Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan." Getting endorsed by 2 Representatives that couldn't win a competitive district to save their lives depended on it doesn't do a thing to help the argument that Sanders could win. I read the rest of the piece, but that single sentence was enough to make me question everything that followed.
4
@Horace Buckley exactly. Their endorsements mean nothing to attract new voters that were not already in Bernie's camp!!!
I think the writer is overlooking the fact that Republicans, let alone Independents ( along with a whole bunch of moderate Democrats ) would not vote for Bernie. That is simply the facts.
And please remember, Bernie is not and has never been a Democrat. He resigned from the party the day after he lost to Clinton in 2016. She was a flawed candidate, but the damage he did ( withholding his support ) was what capitulated Trump into the White House. We need a candidate that will gain the backing of Independents and moderate Republicans. That is certainly not Sanders or Warren in my mind. Bernie is as bad as Trump
3
Mr. Sanders has been in the Senate for over 10 years. What major piece of legislation has he brought to the floor, or even co-sponsored? (And I'm not referring to something with 30 sponsors).
Bernie is a destroyer, not a builder. He wags his finger and tells everyone what they are doing wrong. That's not what we need for a President.
4
If you sent a rabbi among the Taliban, assuming they let him be, what do you expect he will achieve? The Senate is a highly partisan clown show of special interests run by a circus master called McConnell.
Get real and be a mensch. Bernie is our savior. Bless him and may he bless us by becoming our president.
3
Dr. Taylor, you are such an inspiration. Solidarity!
3
The difference between the Dems and Republicans now is only social ideology. Both have been pretty much aligned when it comes to fiscal responsibility, war/interventionism, taxation, and economics.
Sanders is an old school democratic in that he is proposing progressive fiscal, tax, and economic policies. Matter of fact I stopped calling myself a democrat in the 00s. I prefer being called a progressive now.
The democratic party has too many oligarchs now that want to keep the status quo that enriched them. Sure they will donate to green peace and advocate for woman's equality but when it comes down to real transformative change they will fight against it.
Bernie 2020
13
This article is a nice contrast to another in the NYTimes today:
Gail Collins and Bret Stephens ask "Can Any of the Democratic Candidates Save the Party From Itself?"
The article neither mentions Sanders nor references his campaign. No mention. None. I find that curious. And amusing. Mostly because he actually IS the one Democratic Candidate who can save the Party from itself, crony capitalism and runaway income inequality.
19
Cynical candidates have developed an ability to outgrow their convictions in order to win power. Cynical citizens have given up on the election process, going to the polls at one of the lowest rates in the democratic world. Such an atmosphere inevitably distances our society from its leadership and is thus a fundamental threat to the principles of democracy. It also calls into question what motivates a run for office – in many cases, apparently, only the desire to occupy it. Fortunately for the political process, there remain a number of committed individuals who are steadfast enough in their beliefs to run for office to benefit their fellow Americans. Such people are willing to eschew political and personal comfort and convenience because they believe they can make a difference. One outstanding and inspiring example of such integrity is the country’s only Independent Congressman, Vermont’s Bernie Sanders.
Pete Buttigieg on candidate Bernie Sanders.
8
PETE BUDDIGIEG on BERNIE
Sanders’ positions on many difficult issues are commendable, but his real impact has been as a reaction to the cynical climate which threatens the effectiveness of the democratic system. His energy, candor, conviction, and ability to bring people together stand against the current of opportunism, moral compromise, and partisanship which runs rampant on the American political scene. He and few others like him have the power to restore principle and leadership in Congress and to win back the faith of a voting public weary and wary of political opportunism. Above all, I commend Bernie Sanders for giving me an answer to those who say American young people see politics as a cesspool of corruption, beyond redemption. I have heard that no sensible young person today would want to give his or her life to public service. I can personally assure you this is untrue.
5
I knocked on doors for Bernie in the last election. I contributed to him in 2016 and am contributing to him again. He has impressed me with his answers to questions. Although he has been attacked as a socialist for asking for a living wage, for opening public colleges to all, for calling for universal health care, and other programs which would benefit all Americans he has never wavered. He will not take big donations from millionaires. We need a president who has the courage to stand up to power.
15
You need to talk about how you will grow the pie, not just how you will will slice it up for redistribution. America is at it’s core a country of dreams, success and aspirations. Why do so many poor people buy lottery tickets when they have close to no chance of ever winning? Any candidate who doesn’t understands this will loose to Trump in 2020. And yes, that’s you Bernie, if you make it that far.
He has talked about how to grow our economy while still accomplishing our goals. The GND is exactly a plan for that! Even the housing bill and many others create jobs for those displaced by today's changing market. The student loan forgiveness is a huge bubble that could take down our economy and forgiveness heads that off AND all those people can then contribute to the economy. He plans on tax incentives to companies who pay a living wage and who allow regular workers on the board and stock shares and many other exceptional ideas.
Please take the time to go to his web site and read the plans. Each one is brilliant and they build on each other for a comprehensive way forward to grow jobs, the economy, help displaced workers, and assure all Americans have access to a minimum standard of live with living wages, health care and college.
5
I don't see how endorsement of "The Squad" has any political significance at all. They are all newly elected congress women who won in progressive-leaning districts. What was significant, though rarely reported, was the endorsement by former labor secretary and longtime Clinton family friend Robert Reich in the 2016 election.
4
As a Republican who will vote for anyone running against Trump, even Sanders, I certainly hope that the Dems' nominee is not Sanders. I believe only a centrist can tip the scales in the 4-6 states that matter. I also believe Sanders would jeopardize carrying VA, NC, GA and FL.
It is not just Sander's policies that hurt him with the center, he is thin skinned (and we know what that is like), and his attacks on the press give me much concern.
6
If Senator Sanders gets the nomination I would certainly work my heart out to get him elected over Trump, but for now I think his policy ideas are far too pie in the sky for voters to wrap their heads around. Yes as has been mentioned the majority of voters don’t vote on policy issues, but emotion. Two great books that sums up why Trump won in 2016 is STRANGERS IN THEIR OWN LAND by Arlie Russell Hochschild and THE POLITICAL BRAIN by Drew Westen.
Politics are complicated, and so American voters need a candidate who not only understands the complexity but the ability to explain it in such a way that it’s immediately understandable and easily digestible. If Bernie is that candidate, great! If not, there are plenty of others to choose from.
1
Wow, tons of kudos to this author and to NY Times for actually running this article. Fantastic article and one that most people have seen as self evident since 2015 while others, such as the bubbled and elite media have not, and its been super frustrating. Imagine being in second place and not get mentioned once in for instance, a PBS overview of the 2020 race, and THAT WAS JUST LAST WEEK.
16
I hope all Democrats and independents vote for Democratic nominees next November. Winning the presidency will end the current administration's crimes against the planet and the middle and working classes and our betrayal of historic allies (except Saudi Arabia, which should be questioned).
However, if Democrats don't also control the congress, none of these progressive policies will become law. We need to donate, register voters, and get the vote out for Democrats on every level of government.
7
Bernie is a tireless worker for everyone. His policies help government become the public servant it should be. His integrity and willingness to tackle those who are destroying our democracy is so impressive.
His climate plan now rate A- by Greenpeace and the best climate plan of any candidate by Sunrise is typical of Bernie's plans. Let's have a person in the White House that we all can be proud of.
18
Bernie Sanders’ poor loser attitude and divisive messages helped put Trump in the White House in 2016. Bernie’s time was 2016, and he didn’t win the nomination. His time has passed. It’s time for Sanders to step aside and enthusiastically and sincerely support another Democratic candidate, or, if he can’t do that sincerely, then just return to the Senate and focus on his work there.
4
He went to 39 rallies in 13 states on behalf of Hillary. That’s your definition of a sore loser?
4
This is really not complicated. We, as voters, have a choice to make – protect the crumbs we are currently allocated or fight to control the entire menu. I’m going for menu control. #Sanders2020
27
Perhaps the way to defeat the most corrupted president of all time is to run the least corrupted opponent of all time. I'd nominate Sanders for that honorific. That would be a contest people could understand. If we as a people choose bad (again) then at least we and the world will know how morally bankrupt we have actually become.
20
The only one more out of touch than Bernie ,,, is the professor.
5
Tell that to the MILLIONS of people sending him their lunch money every month.
9
Of course he can win. But the establishment will do everything to stop him. Why shouldn’t Americans have what citizens of every other first world nation on earth have had for decades? Because the establishment, Dems and Republicans, represent Wall Street, not the people.
24
Bernie not only endorsed Hillary in 2016, he also campaigned for her. The polls showed that he would have had a better chance of beating Trump in 2016 if he had only gotten the nomination.
Bernie's key advantage is his ability to attract swing voters who are turned off by both political parties. He will win the nomination and win the presidency if he is allowed equal time with Trump.
People who are afraid of Bernie should take the time to look at some objective sources on his biography and not just listen to the spin on the corporate media.
The Republicans will talk about millions of people who have died under Communism and bring up North Korea and Venezuela. But none of this is relevant. Labor unions were always illegal in Communist countries. Most of the countries with strong Social Democratic Parties that have already carried out the reforms that Bernie advocates are members of the NATO and the European Union. In all of these countries people pay half of what we pay for health care, have a longer life expectancy, and experience less crime than we experience.
Bloomberg, Bezos and other billionaire owners of the mainstream media will manufacture lies to stop him, but they are losing credibility.
This is because Bernie is honest and unlike all the others, he understands exactly what this country needs and has already proven through his career that he knows how to transform our country into a real democracy.
20
"After all, the United States government spent more than half of the 20th century locked in a Cold War against Soviet Communism. That an open and proud socialist is tied with Ms. Warren for second place in the race speaks to the mounting failures of free market capitalism to produce a decent life for a growing number of people." Even as a summary statement of the argument, it seems like a non sequitur to me. In any case, I think concerns about age and about performance in the last presidential primary season also deserve attention (and this applies to some other candidates too).
1
We heard the same story about Bernie in 2016, nominating Hillary because she was considered a much stronger opposing candidate to Trump, primarily due to her moderate policies.
We all know how that turned out. I don't believe most Americans vote on policy, I think they vote on emotion and a feeling of empathy with the candidates. Bernie might be the best of the candidates to resonate with voters across the spectrum.
18
@Matt And had Sanders been awarded the nomination despite the fact that he received almost 4 million fewer votes than Clinton, do you seriously think that actual Democrats would supported him in the general election? Going into the general election after having ignored the will of Democratic primary voters would have resulted in a Trump landslide.
1
@Horace Buckley
"And had Sanders been awarded the nomination despite the fact that he received almost 4 million fewer votes than Clinton, do you seriously think that actual Democrats would supported him in the general election?"
You have a point, but you don't mention the fact that the DNC and power brokers rigged the primaries, which at least partly accounts for HRC's winning the nomination despite being arguably the most hated woman in America.
Not to say the hate was deserved, but she was not an ideal candidate, and Bernie would have won the general election.
4
A Socialist Revolution! Sure, why not!
"Revolution" is a nice word that helps rally up supporters, especially young ones. But there is nothing revolutionary in proposing increases in minimum wage, free college at State universities, or universal health care. Those are policy proposals, the vast majority of which have been implemented in the majority of Western countries for decades.
Socialism? It goes together with the use of the word Revolution. There is nothing Socialist in Sander's platform.
So sure, bring on the Socialist Revolution. We are not sure what it is, but it sounds good.
5
All I hope is that Sanders, once it’s clear he’s not electable, gets behind someone who is.
We don’t need a repeat of 2016 where Sanders in the last weeks, did more damage to Clinton than trump.
The new “Ralph Nader” spoiler type, Sanders basically elected donald trump. Thanks a lot Bernie - I’m still feeling the “burn”
7
I will not vote for any candidate who does not support Medicare for All. Why shouldn’t Americans have what citizens of every other first world nation have had for decades? Nobody ever answers that question.
17
as has been well documented on other parts of the internet, see rach maddow's assessment of Sanders' efforts in July of that year (14 events, town halls etc...) you're under informed... he can't take responsibility for how her campaign failed in certain ways
5
@Zejee Then that means you will not be voting or wasting your vote on some 3rd party candidate. That's essentially a vote to re-elect the worst President in the history of the country. And I assume you will be fine with Trump appointing a couple more Supreme Court Justices like Kavanaugh and Gorsich? If that happens you can count on more attacks on the environment, heath care, women's reproductive rights, LGBT rights..... ect.
1
I don't know about you, but I truly enjoy a generous helping of humor in an op-ed. Thanks for the chuckles, Dr. Taylor.
2
There are only three, truly "grass roots" candidates this time around (besides Trump, actually). Bernie Sanders, Tulsi Gabbard and Andrew Yang.
IMO, a Bernie/Tulsi ticket with Yang, Warren and Nina Turner in the cabinet country could transform our country toward what most Americans really want.
4
That might happen ... in your dreams -
Micheal Bloomberg is the only guy who can take on and beat trump.
Happily he is also the best candidate.
Significantly more qualified than all the other democratic candidates taken together, to run the country and move us in a thoughtful, fact based, progressive direction.
2
@Steven
Well, it is true that no one will be dreaming about Bloomberg running the country.
3
The guy couldn’t eve run Midtown Manhattan. He is a great trader and businessman but a disaster as a politician.
4
I've lived most of my life in swing states -- NV, MI and WI -- Bernie is the candidate that can win in the swing states.
Workers in the industrial midwest do not want to listen to lectures on how how free trade benefits all parties and/or the dangers of mercantilism, they want a candidate who can speak to the "American Carnage" of good jobs being shipped overseas.
Trump is a phony populist offering snake oil solutions. Bernie is the real deal with solid plans that will benefit the working class.
23
His age and health are the only things that concern me.
1
@Betsy Groth APRN
All it means is he needs to select a good, younger VP running mate - and there are at least four who come to mind. When Candidate Obama was asked what the most important thing was when choosing a VP running mate he said, "Some one who will make an excellent president should something happen to me."
6
I stopped reading once I got through the paragraphs touting his endorsements from the Squad and then blaming the media that he isn't doing better and then trumpeting all the support he is getting from the marginalized and the oppressed. I'm sorry, doesn't the headline say something about what I don't understand about his campaign? His advocates are even more tiresome than he is.
5
It’s tiresome being unable to afford for-profit health care. It gets to be tiresome rationing your meds (the most expensive in earth).
It’s really tiresome spending down your retirement savings to pay for what your expensive for profit health insurance won’t pay (happened to me).
It’s very tiresome, being unable to afford higher education unless you are willing to take on onerous high interest debt that will take decades to discharge.
11
At last Americans will be able to vote for somebody who actually SHOULD be president.
16
In 1987 Bernie, on video, admitted that what is now known as his Medicare for all plan, would bankrupt the country. He admitted the astronomical costs.
A far cry from how he's now saying it would save money.
He also recently admitted those that make more than 29k a year would see their taxes increase under his plan but he skirts around how much. So kiss seeing any effect from that pay raise of yours goodbye.
Especially since prices and taxes across the board will go up with his plans that will get passed back down to you.
He's only running on the Dem ticket for votes and that upsets many Democrats. Many Dem politicians do not support him. Without their support and some Republican support, most everything he's saying is pandering and a pipe dream.
Even Executive Orders would be temporary as the next president can wipe them away pretty easily.
He's an unrealistic candidate with highly unrealistic ideals. He's making promises he knows he can't keep and his supporters will likely be very disappointed with the end result of what does get offered.
He says billionaires shouldn't exist while saying some funding for his plans will come from billionaires. If they didn't exist where would he get his funding from then?
He's a car salesmen. Nothing more. Idealistic but not grounded in the reality of economics or politics.
3
Every study that has ever been done reports that Medicare for All is LESS expensive than for profit health care, the most expensive health care on earth. No other nation spends what US spends on health care. Only in the USA do elderly regularly ration their meds (I used to, until I discovered I can get the same meds in Canada at 1/4 the cost). Only in the USA do people start GoFundMe and BEG for money to pay medical bills. USA has the highest infant mortality rate and the lowest longevity of any other nation in the OECD.
Why is this acceptable?
9
Why pick on car salesmen? We have to buy cars from someone.
1
Why is bernie unelectable -- people like me, people who will never forgive him for handing the 2016 election to trump. If he is the Democratic nominee I will not vote in the Presidential election next year, but will still give my vote to the "below the top" Democratic candidates.
2
@Lewis I do not understand your comment, sir. When he lost the nomination, he supported Ms Clinton. During the primary, he campaigned on issues. He did not denigrate her.
Can you clarify?
17
And Bernie is the only candidate I will vote for. With the possible exception of Warren. My family needs Medicare for All and free community college or vocational education. So do most American families.
10
@Lewis
I share your disdain for Sanders and for the behavior demonstrated by a segment of his supporters in 2016. However, don't be like Bernie: in 2020, vote for whoever wins the nomination. It is our only way out of this nightmare.
When's the last time America elected a candidate that definitively wasn't the "one most people would rather have a beer/other non-alcoholic drink with" in the race?
I think I first heard that asked in regards to the 2000 campaign, and I honestly can't think of any example offhand. It's been a close/debatable answer in a few elections, maybe, but I don't think the answers to this would have been appreciably close in 2016, 2012, 2004, 2000, 1996, 1992, 1988 (though not 100% sure on this one?), 1984, and 1980. That's probably worth thinking about amidst these discussions of "electability" in the contemporary age, even as it might also be a strange commentary as to how people consistently vote in general elections.
12
@Food for The general consensus is the Kennedy/Nixon televised debate. That was the moment when telegenic, relatable qualities began to gain prominence over everything else.
1
@Food for
Not exactly an argument for Sanders. I prefer to enjoy my alcoholic beverage without hoarse yelling, or fearing being stuck in the eye by a wagging finger.
@Food for In 2016 primary I would have chosen Hilary Clinton to have a beer with but voted for Bernie Sanders. I’ll do it again, beer schmeer.
5
but Sanders has zero record of getting anything done. Anything.
As far as the network of new taxes he's rolling out, who's going to pay them?
Who's going to create the jobs that keep workers paid in a Sanders presidency??
1
He was pretty successful mayor of Burlington, and won several terms as Senator. What are the achievements of other candidates?
12
The New Green Deal will create thousands of jobs. Bernie has made Medical for All a front line issue.
7
@Smokey geo Not so, my friend. He has a good record in the Senate, working across the aisle as well as with Democrats.
Are you believing what FOX news says about him? I suggest you find another source of information.
Besides, he is campaigning for change, not the status quo. He voted in the House against the invasion of Iraq. Against defanging consumer protection from Wall Street gambling.
The principle is, do you agree with the changes he is proposing?
4
No matter the issue of polling you love or dislike most - the only very important issue to consider is that polling today, to get a plus or minus 3% is specifically impossible no matter what the algorithms. Any American can see this simply by comparing poll figures which are sometimes almost clones of each other - not because the pollster is too savvy, but because the ease of fooling the pollster app(s) is so easy. Today any good hacker can create millions of "fake" telephone numbers and e-mail addresses that in every way are authentic - down to the GPS location of the server and even the user. Artificial intelligence (AI) is at least several years from gaining the ability the "get what you pay for" and even then - as AI advances so do highly paid experts who can mess with them is so many ways that they cannot be counted and dismembered. If you believe, for instance, President Trump actually had some "help" paid or free from people in Russia or in Beverly Hills you are correct in thinking those people could not be traced no matter how many "indictments" against Russians exist today. Yes. certain contractors can tell, for certain, almost what nation hacking originates from - but even this is getting harder to do. Hear about "huge" samples that make hacking impossible every day? - yet the sample size means little or nothing in 2020 or now. You could poll everyone in the nation that may vote but you cannot make certain that the person exists or that they are able to vote.
1
Yea, well yes you do need to tear down the party to save it. If you offer voters, like me, another conservative posing as a liberal you will go down hard in the election. I'm not referring to party, I'm referring to philosophy. Conservatives like the status quo ---- it is their security blanket. They like the views of the rich oligarch's supporting our politics since Citizen's United. They think they can con us again after their last candidate called working class voters who wouldn't support her "deplorables."
10
Sanders seem to be the only candidate who is very consistent and stable in almost every policy issues. There is enough reason to believe that most of his 2016 supporters still strongly support him.
Now failure of Trump in almost every aspect, mainly for working class and rural Americans (for their stagnant or not much changing financial prospect in Trump era) are expected to vote for White male Bernie.
15
Barack Obama, now a BIG rich corporate disappointment, and other corrupt Corporate Democrats will do anything to derail Bernie Sanders, and they did in 2016. He is the only completely honest candidate who has ALWAYS stood for the same high moral principles, values, and people oriented government programs--for the last 40 years! He is FOR the people, unlike all those PAC and big donor candidates, and those who are already in Congress, taking bribes from their most important "constituents," RICH PEOPLE, and corporations. Vote for Bernie Sanders. This is the only way we will have the government, and the social values most people want. This is the path back to general prosperity and security for the entire country. Bernie is the strongest candidate, has the most donors, the best fundraising program, and the most volunteers. Bernie beats tRump, in a landslide. Do yourself, and your family, a favor. VOTE BERNIE. Stop listening to power hungry, money grubbing, corrupt Corporate Democrats, who only want to tell you what we CAN'T do, but promote no other worthy plans.. And you had better shove Republicrooks out of the Senate, while you are at it. It's the only way to get the legislation we need. No more billionaires. Take back our democracy.
21
People, we are not electing a dictator. Even if Sanders, or Warren or really anyone, was elected President, first, their ideas would be tempered by the House, the Senate and the Judiciary. Sanders or any candidate may have a plan, but the way our country works, most ideas are moderated by the will of the people. Executive decisions cannot create health care.
Trump is dangerous to us because he does not follow rules and laws, and could make our country a dictatorship. Want a dictator? Watch your income and your freedoms disappear.
I will vote for the Democratic candidate that seems the brightest, most capable, and is able to deal well with opposing parties and the rest of the world.
5
Good executive orders could pave the road to become the laws. And although it is nice to work with the opposite party, as the experience showed, sometimes it not possible and you will be stuck between doing nothing or use the executive orders to make something done.
3
Have you seen Bernie Sanders plan to get M4A or other bills passed? Have you bothered to look? You know those plans that an overwhelming majority of the American public want? I think if you haven't listened to the plans to get them passed and haven't realized the meaning of "Not me, Us" or "Organizer in Chief" then you are truly missing out on an opportunity to be part of something great. Saying that it will be difficult, we shouldn't even try is pathetic and the reason that so much has gone wrong in our country. It's time for the majority American public to band together to demand change.
16
@Iconoclast Hey, you are preaching to the choir. Is this a response to my comment?? You seemed to place this as a response to me. I am simply saying that no bill or law gets through without enough approval of governing bodies. This constitutional fact, tempers laws through the will of the people. If the will of the people is Medicare for all, so be it. The Constitution was set up so no one person gets their way all the time. We do need to polish it a bit after Trump has shown us the loop holes. But my point is vote for someone who has the constitution at heart, and is a democrat, and then the process begins.
1
Tearing down the current healthcare system will affect 20% of the US economy, in (mostly) a negative way. Paying off all student loans - non-fraudulent contracts willingly signed and which resulted in services transferred - will cost billions, and making college free will cost trillions more. I'm a lifelong Democrat. These proposals will lose in 2020.
3
Read sander’s healthcare bill. he accounts for all costs even for those currently working in the industry.
9
But think: No sick child will go without health care. The elderly won’t have to ration their meds. People won’t lose their savings (happened to me), their homes, or go bankrupt paying medical bills. No one will have to start a GoFundMe and beg for money to pay medical bills.
Every young person will have a chance to go to community college or vocational school—and get a good start in life without being burdened by high interest debt that takes decades to discharge.
American families will have more money in their pockets.
4
Misogyny among communities of color also helped put Trump in office. Just check the drop in Black voters in the three states that made him president. Her "failure" resulted in a three million vote win.
Part of HRC's lack of support among younger Black people was the mythology that "super predators" never existed. This generational divide was on stark display in my own precinct in NYC (which is majority Black), with older Black women voting for HRC in droves while the men and younger generation sat at home. I still recall poor Erica Garner standing on stage next to Bernie saying, "She called people like my father super predators." Oh no, child. That's so many kinds of wrong. Just one of many times Bernie missed a McCain moment.
If Bernie's the nominee I'll happily vote for him. I know he won't be able to put his most disruptive plans through Congress, after all. There's a huge elephant the author's missing, and that's the deep, wide-spread anti-Semitism that stains this country. It's so wide there's not a single community or political movement which isn't tainted, including those the author identifies with.
Bernie won't emphasize the fact that he's the literal embodiment of what the Republicans have dog-whistled as a "New York Liberal" for decades, but they sure will and, unfortunately, a lot of folks who identify as Democrats, and even "liberals," would either vote for Trump or stay home. Should he be the nominee, prove me wrong. Please.
3
What is “disruptive” about Medicare for All? Isn’t it more “disruptive “ that too many Americans cannot afford for profit health care?
Cannot afford college education?
4
from your mouth to God's ears!
4
In 2016 primary, Bernie was the only candidate who polled beating Trump. He was the rock star of the Dem Party, filling stadiums wherever he went. But the NYTs ignored him or called him an “old curmudgeon” if his name came up at all. He is still ignored or dismissed by the MSM. But at this point in American history, the majority of Americans needs are ignored - no gun control, no healthcare reform, no infrastructure, no job security - the only people that qualify for socialism are the wealthy with their tax breaks, right to work laws, archaic religious dominion, charter schools and military vendors (looking at you Prince and DeVos). Minority rule is not tenable, ignore Bernie at your own peril.
25
It is unhelpful to, yet again, have an article in the NYTimes equate Senator Sanders positions with Soviet Communism.
12
His ego allowed Trump to be elected, by splitting the Democrat vote. I am so sick and tired of white male arrogance.
5
@Mary
How about the white female ego of Hillary Clinton? She seemed to have a hard time accepting Bernie's popularity.... Bernie clearly polled much better than her against Trump - and every other Republican candidate - in poll after poll. There may have been some ego involved in not recognizing this... or the campaign trickery... or having her campaign take control of the finances and "day to day" operations of the DNC (as later acknowledged by Donna Brazile).
4
He did 38 rallies for and endorsed her. You are unreasonable and can't accept that HRC's campaign was trumy terrible. Joe Biden is HRC v 2.0, so don't make the same mistake!
5
Arrogance is arrogance. Hillary Clinton is not less arrogant than most arrogant white men I know.
3
Amen! If Bernie had been the Democratic nominee in 2016, he would have crushed Trump. He can do it again. Americans want a candidate with a positive program to restore the middle class and lift people out of poverty.
Centrist rhetoric is defeatist. Anyone who fears alienating centrists fails to understand that it is passion and enthusiasm that motivate people to vote. Being part of the frozen chosen is a sure-fire recipe for defeat - again. We cannot endure any more so-called government by the fascist bully and his cronies. We need positive change. AOC and her colleagues are right - and Bernie can win.
17
Myself, I try to stay well clear of pronunciamentos—especially those that sound just like Trump, if you change three words.
1
Having libraries, public schools, police, fire protection, and universal health care (single-payer) for all; are examples of socialism. Separating mothers from their children, banning immigrants base on race, and religion, calling news you disagreed with "fake news"; are examples of fascism. That, in a nutshell, is the difference between Bernie, and Trump.
18
if being socialist is not longer a disturbing thing, many Americans do not understand economic history.
Very scary, indeed.
6
Bernie Sanders has little chance of winning the Democratic presidential nomination let alone the presidency. He is far too progressive for the majority of Americans. His policies sound good on paper but in reality will not convince Americans they will work. They are just too expensive to ever implement. Someone has to pay for all of these and it will be the taxpayers. This appeals to to those who want something for nothing.
Black Americans and Latinos have been doing very well under President Trump and their unemployment numbers are the lowest they have ever been. Most Americans have also been thriving under President Trump paying fewer taxes and seeing an increase in their 401ks. The economy is growing and the stock market is soaring. We have not been in such sound financial condition before. Let the good times roll on and on.
How is it going in Venezuela for the people under a socialist president? Not so good I am afraid. Venezuela was once one of the richest nations in South America. No more. The people are starving and barely getting by. This scenario could occur here if we get a president like Bernie Sanders. There is very little chance this will happen as Americans are too smart to elect a man like Bernie Sanders. Why would they when things are going so well for most?
And yet, almost half of the workers work for the minimal wages that could not cover living expenses. The healthcare cost is growing way faster than salaries creating burden not only on poor but on the middle class. Educational debt is crushing young workers, with no prospect of high paying jobs. Many do not have 400$ in their emergency funds, and just job loss from ruin. And that is when economy is booming, what happened when recession comes? I remember the Great Recession was right after the great economic boom of 20s.
4
Huh. After trumps tax cuts for the rich my tax return shrunk by half. But nice try.
4
@KMW
"Venezuela was once one of the richest nations in South America. No more. The people are starving and barely getting by. This scenario could occur here if we get a president like Bernie Sanders."
Let me correct that for you: "Venezuela was once one of the richest nations in South America. No more. The people are starving and barely getting by. This scenario could occur here if we re-elect a president like Donald Trump."
And please let up on Venezuela. That country is an autocratic country and with a severely mismanaged economy based on petroleum, *exclusively.*
We do you guys never mention Sweden, France, Norway, etc?
Or, for that matter, the autocratic capitalistic countries like Franco's Spain, or Hitler's Germany?
Perhaps too much like Putin and Trump's dream Amerika?
1
I don’t know what Democrat can win. But I am sick of watching the democratic establishment with help from main stream media outlets turn over their platform and voice to moderate Republicans. The Democratic Party establishment stands for nothing and is pandering to the old republican guard. That’s all. It is time to return to FDR principles and not the grand old part of Reagan.
19
as another commenter pointed out, based on Bernies climate action proposals alone, he is far and wide the best candidate for this day in age... couple that with the fact that he appeals to a broad array of people of different ethnicities and the youth spectrum within AND beyond racial difference, as well as the fact that he has a history of great support for and from military vets and his allegiance to the Independent party and you start to see how people in red states who despise traditional dems may really lean his way more than is commonly thought... THAT is how you beat trump and win the white White House. certainly that is not where the work stops. many of the people running for public office have done very well and will do even better when people see that "YES WE CAN"
16
Republican opposition, obstruction, obstreperousness is not magically going to dissipate or certainly won't disappear in 2020 and beyond, no matter the Democratic nominee or Democratic Presidential winner. Sanders is a non-starter candidate who would not have a chance against Trump in a general election. Bernie would be vilified by Trump and conservative media to at least the same degree as Mrs. Clinton.
2
Polling shows Bernie consistently beating Trump and in many instances, he is the ONLY candidate that beats Trump. You are greatly underestimating his support and overestimating the support for establishment candidates who will lose to Trump just like 2016.
5
Black lives didn't matter when blacks (and others) failed to turn out for Clinton in 2016. We now have two racist Trump judges on the Supreme Court.
The idea that Bernie, a socialist Jew, will be accepted is laughable.
4
Monthly $27 donator, nearly daily $2.70 donator.
Family near the 1% mark.
Worked at Hedge...
Family is from Austria where I’ve seen the incredible health care and education system.
Not to mention public housing.
Bernie is spot on.
Need to redistribute budget from guns to butter.
Change who is footing the bills from the labor class to the owner class.
There should be no multi billionaires...
If they don’t want to pay tax. They can donate it away.
18
So nice to see The NY Times publish a positive piece on Senator Sanders and finally get some diversity of opinion on its op ed pages
13
Yes. I agree. Maybe they will also move Sydney Ember to cover Pete Buttigieg instead of Bernie. She being the daughter-in-law of the current Bain Capital CEO, their interests would be more aligned.
7
I hope they read this excellent piece over at The New York Times . . .
9
Hogwash! He is fading fast right next to Warren as they both fall and Buttigieg takes over but still leading the pack even if the Times won’t admit it is Vice President Biden. And the fact that the “squad” is endorsing him is all the more reason not to vote for him! Say good by to the two socialist the American people have eyes and ears and we see and hear what they are saying and it’s not the American way!
4
Eugene Debs ran from jail and got 6% nationwide- "Oh the times they are a changin'."
2
I have concluded that, after Einstein's remark decades ago that the three greatest problems facing humanity are greed, stupidity and ignorance, that humans must be compelled by laws to do right. They are problems and seem to be intrinsic.
Go Bernie!
6
Reject the corporations, vote for Bernie.
16
Yeah, that’ll work. In Trump’s favor.
Bernie Sanders does not like billionaires. How childish can you get?
1
Sanders and his Janus head Warren cannot win the Midwest and absolutely will hand us 4 more years of Trump in a general election.
Keeanga- Yamahtta may think she understands America but from this article it is sadly obvious she is living in leftie woo woo land.
America will never choose a proud Socialist, Jewish, atheist who to this day refuses to join the Democratic Party.
Sorry, it ain't gonna happen.
But you can always dream on.
8
I guess Simon says so :-)
2
Far left is the greatest gift for 2nd term for Trump!!! Guys you seriously still believe that the US is about what you hear on the coasts?!!
4
Remember Bernie was beating Trump by 12% two days before the 2016 election!
11/6/16 Sanders 56% Trump 44%
http://big.assets.huffingtonpost.com/Gravis_Sanders_Election_Poll.pdf
9
I love you Bernie Sanders!
Please everyone donate to his campaign if you can afford it!
14
If we knowingly embrace and elect a president under the total control of a Russian KGB chief, we can certainly elect a socialist.
And I'll take the socialist every time over a Russian stooge.
10
The US wasn't ready to elect a woman in 2016 and still isn't ready to elect a Jew in 2020.
2
There are a lot of reasons why he's unlikely to win, but being Jewish is not among them.
1
Says who? Did you think the country was ready to elect a black (ok half black) man in 2008 who’s absentee father was as close as you would get to a Marxist (he had a file as big as it gets and got even Harvard to get rid of him as a researcher).
2
Sometimes I think that I want Sanders to be the Democratic nominee, just so that when he loses by a landslide to Trump in 2020, we can finally burst the Lefty dream and move on to more plausible national candidates the next time around.
But then I realize that another term of Trump likely means the end of these United States, so that makes me hope again that Sanders will not be the 2020 nominee.
Please, please, please take your collective heads out of the Woke Bubble: Sanders has no chance of winning a national election. He will win Vermont, San Francisco, Seattle, and NYC, yes, and surely Madison / Austin / Ithaca and such as well, but not Ohio, Wisconsin, Florida, or Pennsylvania.
And if you think that the Media's been tough on ol' Bernie, just wait until it digs up the truly crazy stuff from the 70s, 80s, and 90s. Bernie's love affair with the Sandinistas, Castro, and the Soviet Union is just the tip of iceberg.(But we'll give him a pass on his embrace of the budget-busting F-35 war machine...)
4
Socialism has lead to the deaths of millions. Why in the world are some people trying to change the meaning of the word instead of simply using a different word?
Call your movement "Capitalism with a Safety Net" if you want to mirror the policies of Scandinavia. But as long as someone is going to willfully identify as any sort of socialist, I will take them for their word and vote against them - just in case they really embody the true meaning of socialism.
“No cause, ever, in the history of all mankind, has produced more cold-blooded tyrants, more slaughtered innocents, and more orphans than socialism with power. It surpassed, exponentially, all other systems of production in turning out the dead. The bodies are all around us. And here is the problem: No one talks about them. No one honors them. No one does penance for them. No one has committed suicide for having been an apologist for those who did this to them. No one pays for them. No one is hunted down to account for them. It is exactly what Solzhenitsyn foresaw in The Gulag Archipelago: ‘No, no one would have to answer. No one would be looked into.’”
Until that happens, there is no "after socialism." . Kids who in the 1960s had portraits of Mao and Che on their college walls —the moral equivalent of having hung portraits of Hitler, Goebbels, or Horst Wessel in one's dorm—now teach our children about the moral superiority of their political generation.
Alan Kors
1
Yes, it is possible to “understand” Bernie’s campaign and not agree with it. But it is good to see patronizing progressive attitudes clearly displayed, as well as the inability of “progressives” to accept any disagreement.
3
I can't help but notice that the people who are going around saying that Sanders can't win in 2020 are the same people who said Trump couldn't win in 2016. I have since learned not to listen to these people, and so should you.
9
God, I wish I could understand the appeal of Bernie Sanders. I like some of his policies. I am a proud tax and spend liberal. But I just cannot figure out why he bothers me so. I think it might be the cult of personality that surrounds him. It may be that I don't think that his supporters will continue to do the heavy lifting necessary to actually see his ideas come to fruition. I fear that they will vote for him and then think their work is done. Ohhhh no, my friends. Then it will just be beginning. I think Bernie will have EXACTLY the same problems Obama did. Republicans will block anything and everything he tries to do.
5
Bernie unlike Obama is an incredible fighter. He was a miler not a sprinter!
He believes passionately in what he preaches. Obama is an excellent orator but I never believed that he was passionate about what he preached.
I will vote for Bernie and I know he will do everything humanly possible to get our country as close as to a just and fair nation as dreamt by John Rawls.
6
Power to the People!
Sanders for President 2020!
15
Goodness gracious ! I had not noticed that at fist, but the picture of Senator Sanders with his fist raised eerily reminds me of Che, Fidel and Hugo Chavez . Venceremos ? Really, Bernie ? Perhaps you should think about what your gestures suggest .
2
As long as Sanders is rubbing shoulders with uncouth incendiary figures like Linda Sarsour he will never win the nomination, and will never get my vote.
3
Vote Bernie for big bold change in 2020!
12
Never Mind. I am bracing for another 4 years of Trump
Just wondering if tho GOP clamp on WH and with help turn USA into a nightmare of the 1940's (you know where )
Wishful thinking let to max temp increases in last 3 years and Supreme court only yesterday let Kansas "pro-life" legslation stay put !
Thanks "Hillary" nay sayers . and others on the fringe Trump is here to stay .. Thanks to you guys
3
What about a Elizabeth Warren / Bernie Sanders ticket...this would be a winner against TRUMP!
3
Sure the Berns for President... and of course...
AOC as his Vice-President (she can make up for the fall-off in outrageous and divisive presidential tweets when the Trumpster departs)
Ilhan Omar can run Defense as the Secretary - NATO will totally love her
Rashida Tlaib as Secretary of State - so measured and rational - she will be a breath of... well something)
Ayanna Pressley to Secretary of the Treasury. (What can I say - this one might be a bit of a stretch)
The only Democratic candidate who can beat Donald Trump. See: 2016.
9
"Socialist", as is customary with most labels, is problematic because it does not truly encapsulate the essence of what Bernie Sanders is all about. A more fitting label would be "FDR Democrat". Indeed, I think Bernie Sanders is attempting to bring about a continuation of the philosophy and programs of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the Democrat's most effective and successful politician ever.
When I think of socialist, I think of someone who wants to place all means of production of an economy under the control of the government. This is not what Sanders wants to do. He wants to make sure that the American economic system works for all citizens and that economic power and wealth are not held disproportionately in the hands of a few to the detriment of the many. What this means is that he is the most democratic of all politicians and ironically perhaps a savior of capitalism. Can a capitalist system survive that is as totally skewed and unequal as what we see in America today? It is doubtful.
All Americans should be thankful that a person of Sander's intelligence and concern for the welfare of the average American has come along to challenge the destructive power of the American plutocrats we see today. For me, supporting Bernie Sanders is a no-brainer. Unless one is a greedy laissez faire capitalist only concerned about one's own wealth and well-being, supporting Sanders should be the best position to take.
8
This is a fantastic peace that doesn't even touch upon one of the most critical elements of this campaign that separates Bernie from others: climate change.
We just do not have the luxury that past generations had to fuss around the edges on climate. Broad sweeping changes are critical now.
Bernie is the only top candidate pushing the Green New Deal and the Green New Deal is the only legislation that gets close to addressing the scale of the tasks ahead.
Honestly, I do not understand how people can purport to believe in climate science, but fail to support the only candidate willing to act on it.
14
Sorry but the majority of the country doesn’t want anti-business, anti-growth, tear down healthcare, open borders, soak the rich, green new whatever policies. Only respondents on NYT comment strings seem to want these things.
You can’t declare war on business, agriculture, aviation, border security, pharma, rich people, and healthcare and expect to win an election.
6
Let's hope the DNC doesn't make the same mistake twice.
9
Finally, NYT acknowledges Bernie instead of incessant attacks on his policies. This is a welcome change and hopefully an onward trend. The newer readers on NYT does not want you to peddle articles from those who have political agendas - liberal or otherwise. The young readers of Times are an educated bunch who can see through patterns. We have an abundance of information, we read NYT because we hope and trust you to represent the truth as is.
7
I have been somewhat skeptical about following one old white cranky fascist with an old white cranky socialists but I am beginning to see how that might be just what we need.
The thing about Bernie is he has been honing this message for 50+ years and it comes from him as honestly as a breath.
Warren might be the anti t rump because of the joy she brings to that populist message.
The rest of the field is just fine and dandy. There is not one of them who is not head and shoulders above the squatter in our White House.
When I read about how Obama was such a centrist from these comments I want to remind all that had democratic voters done their part of bargain in 2010 we would not be in this mess today.
4
Ask any Canadian even the very rich.They want the Canadian,European health care system where if you are very sick you go to the hospital and there is zero bill when you leave the hospital.
6
When will the NY Times writers learn to differentiate between socialist and social democrat? You are doing a disservice to your readers by not differentiating between socialist governments and social democratic governments. There is a big difference. Socialist, historically refers to communist countries; social democrats, to the Nordic countries. Bernie calls himself a socialist and the media think communist. Bernie, on the other hand says socialist and thinks, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark and Finland.
9
@Kwip Not to be pedantic. We also need to differentiate between social democrat and democratic socialist. Bernie now identifies with the latter. As do many of his supporters. That's not necessarily a bad thing. However, without definition as to the difference between the two, I find it hard to evaluate the current and potential goals of the candidate. Scandinavia is social democrat.
Poor NYTimes, has to write a positive article about Bernie, after once again ignoring his candidacy other than his heart attack. No matter that his ideas are what are driving the electorate and many of the candidates.
And as the Times knows darn well, Bernie isn't a "socialist" he is a democratic socialist - but don't let that get in your way.
7
Apparently Starbucks employs a lot of teachers. Who woulda thunk?
1
Sanders has spent a lifetime as a legislator and achieved very little. Who does he connect with? He has no political party.
He is a goofy old guy who speechifies but gets nothing done.
4
Great article but please stop referring to him as a Socialist. He's a Democratic Socialist. Big difference! Using the term socialist plays right into the hands of the right wing and the ignorant.
7
Could this be a break in the ice of NYTimes determined resistance to Bernie Sanders. I hope so. With your help Bernie is even more likely to win. Vote!
6
Sure, a Jewish/atheist cranky old man with exceedingly little experience in implementing actual policies, and with serious health issues (and who still hasn't released his health records) will win in the US swing states of 2020.
I guess the main thing working in his favor is that he would be the "un-Trump." But alas, that didn't work for Clinton in 2016, and, in his way, Sanders possesses as extreme "negatives" for lots of folk as Clinton did in 2016.
4
And the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency will come from where, exactly?
4
People have underestimated Bernie Sanders for his entire career.
14
Nobody knew who he was for most of that time!
Mr. and Mrs. Independent Voter -the majority political persuasion- will run screaming to Trump if Sanders, with his soft Marxism, is the candidate.
2
The fear that many have about Sanders doesn't spring from his policies or ideologies, it comes from his limited appeal to a broad swath of the electorate who are afraid of radical change. He worries me. So does Elizabeth Warren, even though she is my favorite candidate in this primary race.
Do I vote ideologically or do I vote strategically? If we agree that defeating Trump is the primary goal, can we afford to choose a candidate who stands a low likelihood of achieving that objective? Many voters - independents - who don't want the sweeping changes promoted by the progressives won't vote for Bernie or Elizabeth, and their votes are absolutely essential to victory. What good does it do to give the nomination to a candidate who will lose?
Despite favoring many of the ideas espoused by Sanders and Warren, I want the Democratic nominee to be the person most likely to prevail in November, even if that person's platform is an uninspiring trek down the middle of the road. Give me a winner; we can stir the pot later with a Democrat in the White House and a Democratically-controlled Congress. If a progressive can be that person, so much the better.
3
When one turns 65, one moves to a socialist country without leaving the United States. Health insurance costs are reduced significantly and - for those who go with basic Medicare plus supplemental - care can be provided by any provider in the US who takes Medicare. Then there's Social Security.
I know many folks in the 55-65 bracket who are struggling to make ends meet after being laid off, terminated or outsourced only because they worked hard for 35 years and were making "too much" and now haved aged out of the perceived job market.
Sen. Sanders knows how negotiation works in a post-Reagan Congress. Start with Medicare for All, not some watered down version and, unless there is a lanslide in the Senate, you may get Medicare For Some. Start with Medicare for Some and you'll get nothing.
6
Ironically, the author's glowing belief in Saunders electability is the exact proof why he would loose badly to Trump. Nothing put forward in the article is going to appeal to moderates, disaffected Republicans, and even some Democrates. I look forward to voting against Trump, but I'd never vote for Saunders.
3
Of course Sanders is still popular. Anyone offering virtually every major life need other than housing for free (maybe he will offer that too) would be. We are all wired to love "free," if only his version of free were true. There are many reasons we are not Denmark - diversity being a very large one. 150 languages are spoken just in LA. The main difference between the US and Denmark, however, is not just language, culture, or class, it's the military. It's impossible to afford the largest military in the world, and have a capitalist state with a large social welfare program simultaneously. So, if that's what everyone truly wants, be prepared for a much smaller military budget (a real $300B - same as in 1984, not the over $1T today), and the draft - likely for both genders - cause there is no way to pay for both for all of Bernie's 'wish list' without truly breaking the bank. We are already in hock to the tune of $22B in just Federal debt. Vermont tried public health care, and could not afford it without raising taxes by 20%. Because of examples like that, it's unlikely even 10% of Sanders programs would be enacted. Kinda like his record of bill passage in the Senate. And, yes, despite all the shortcomings of his proposals, I'd vote for him over the other guy, but that's a very, very low bar.
1
Bernie's supporters also tend to vote at a significantly lower rate than others. I realize the author wasn't attempting to declare Bernie the future president, just suggest its possible. But when only 33% of the young voters he refers to showed up in the mid-terms, which was an incredible 10+ percent increase, it seems pertinent to address the reality that it's not the most reliable voting block.
3
Bernie is great. But the hostility of a near-50% minority (at least) to universal health care, his priority, is a huge roadblock.
Dems need not just the Presidency; they also need both houses of Congress, the courts and the states, in other words a decisive consensus. In the rest of the developed world probably 2/3 to 3/4 of the electorate favor some version of public health care. Not in the US, which has an obstructionist, anti-social-democracy bloc like nowhere else.
A Sanders victory will not be the end of the journey, rather just one more mile on the long, long road to the standard of social and economic equity that most of the developed world has already attained.
3
An excellent assessment of the quiet revolution that's happening among Sanders supporters throughout the country that newspapers like the New York Times go out of their way to ignore. One of the best Op-Eds printed in years.
11
Wait, most of Bernie's donors work for Starbucks, Amazon, and Walmart? I thought he did not accept corporate donations.
2
He cannot win either the Democratic nomination or the presidential election. The green pastures of Princeton is so far removed from what's happening in the electoral college of heartland. And, I am one of those 13 million who voted for Sanders last go around!!
3
Very much appreciate this analysis. The irony is that Sanders is not a threat to anyone, not even rich people. He wants everyone to have a fair shake and a chance at a decent life in this country. After all, how many billions do the super-rich need to live comfortable lives? They need to be a lot more generous to the society that made them rich in the first place.
Sanders' brand of socialism is democratic socialism - it's FDR New-Deal politics - not Soviet-style communism. He recognizes that what has made America truly great was its (imperfect but improving) democracy and its ability to give ordinary people economic and social opportunities. As he says, if other developed nations can give people healthcare, education, freedom from the threat of poverty, political rights, family leave and childcare, disability and retirement benefits, modern infrastructure, etc., while taxing their wealthy fairly, then why can't we?
15
Enough with the "Bernie wins all the polls in all the states" claims; therefore, he beats Trump.
What I see is Bernie wins a majority of Democrats in many states. That does not equal 272 Electoral College votes. And never will.
4
Sanders appeal, based on a lifetime of consistent support for working and marginalized people rather than the privileged is genuine, and his grass roots efforts are unique. He is inspiring to many who have hopes for a fairer, more peaceful world.
That said, as a nominee his age is against him. Also, though the GOP, thinking he is useful for them to undercut Clinton Biden etc, have largely refrained from attacking him. But if he were the nominee there can be no doubt the GOP will dig up any extreme statement he ever uttered and proclaim it out of context or even make one up. I have also no doubt they would tap into anti-Semitism both overt and subtle to use against him. Sanders and his supporters don't seem prepared for that.
2
This entire article is predicated upon the assumption from this sentence: "Mr. Sanders’s improbable rise to Democratic front-runner..."
But Sanders is not the Democratic front-runner. He's behind either Biden, Buttigieg or Warren in every one of the early states. And his support has not significantly grown since he announced. It's hard to get a lead in delegates when you don't win any states.
That said, if Bernie eventually becomes the nominee I will vote for him. But I'm not convinced that his ideas about how to deal with Congress are feasible. Republicans don't care how many protesters there are outside the Capitol Dome. They're voting for the wealthy every time. And Bernie doesn't have a very good track record working with Democrats in Congress. He needs to learn how to compromise to get anywhere, and I suspect he doesn't realize that yet.
2
America was supposed to be the land of opportunity and upward mobility for average citizens.
But policies in the public interest, vs the private interest, are labeled socialism by many in the US.
So to avoid the ‘left wing’ label, and look more centrist, the main media avoids discussing and analyzing those policies that would help the average American.
They may quote the various political factions--for media drama-- in our campaign, on health care, taxes, etc, but they don’t explain to the public how to finance what most other countries have as centrist policy.
Now, especially, the impeachment situation dominates the media time 24/7. Of course it’s very important, but the media is using it as an excuse for staying away from discussing policy issues crucial to our lives and well being. And which the 2020 election must be about.
We have to protect our democracy from Trump, but go beyond that to pass laws in the public interest, to fulfill America's professed credo. If we don't, future Trumps are waiting to swim to the surface of the swamp.
3
"Much of the media, though, has been stuck in 2016 and has missed the ways that the Sanders campaign has transformed into a tribune of the oppressed and marginalized."
Since when has "a tribune of the oppressed and marginalized" ever won a national election in the United States? This entire article proceeds from the fanciful premises that 1) the oppressed and marginalized constitute a majority of the citizenry; 2) they identify as such and intend to vote that way; 3) the oppressed and marginalized will vote at all.
I contest all three assumptions. Recent history demonstrates conclusively that even the oppressed and marginalized will vote Republican when their racial animus is activated.
8
@Duncan
Re "since when"? Ever heard of FDR?
3
Or Lincoln?
2
The US does have big govt socialism--- for the wealthy, the big donors, the corporations. In return for campaign donations our govt passes laws for lower taxes and weak regulations on big business, thus they can call the shots in lawmaking in their favor.
By contrast, individual average Americans have only small govt going to bat for them--thus lack influence on lawmaking affecting our lives. We can't compete, and are not organized. We just stand in long lines to vote for what we're offered.
We the People can't get what the American colonists demanded when they overthrew King George--'Representation for Our Taxation'. That basic ideal of America's founding is termed Socialism today.
11
@Meredith Your comment wins. Please report this anywhere and everywhere, Meredith.
1
For those that think Michael Bloomberg and other corporate/establishment types are the answer, consider the following. In spending his millions and interjecting himself into the primaries while refusing to enter into any of the debates, Bloomberg's main and ONLY REAL purpose is strictly an attempt to derail the success of the progressives like Sanders and Warren, no other reason. Remember, this is a man who has run as in Independent, republican and democrat and runs only when it is in his interest for whatever political party he deems fit.
I would submit(and so do others), that if he makes no headway in these primaries(and he probably won't)in another attempt to derail the process, do not be surprised that he runs as a "Third Party" candidate.
It has become very clear that the wealthy like Bloomberg along with "Third Way" Wall Street democrats and others and even so-called "democrats" like Sen. Joe Manchin of W. Virginia, have made it very clear they would rather have Trump as President than Bernie Sanders and if they get their way, democracy in America is dead.
6
The reality is, they have been getting their way, for at least 50 years.
Both parties have so successfully consolidated power the people are effectively locked out of decision making; Sanders is the true blue Democratic Socialist who will rip the heart and soul out of their game.
While hardcore Trumpists are a bit of a problem, I believe many of them now see the conman and charlatan that Trump is, and they may surprise all of us and swarm Sanders.
Eleven months from now, all decent Americans will rejoice as Trump becomes history, and Trump ? Who cares, I hope his disappointment finally shuts him up.
5
If Bernie Sanders called himself a Democratic capitalist instead of a Democratic socialist we would not be having this conversation about his electability. Honestly, it was a strategic mistake on his part to use that term.
3
@MRod
Why Lie, forget the labels and look at the policies!
4
The views of this columnist are rather solipsistic. Moderate democrats and 'progressive' republicans who might look at another dem will not vote for Sanders. Also, any candidate who states in an old video (and we all know that Sanders does not alter his opinions over the years, good or bad) that "Bread lines are a good thing" will not last as that clip is played over and over again on media. He has certainly overachieved in his political career in the US, but he is not going to be the president of anything. Dems would do well do get behind Bloomberg who probably has the best chance to win in a general election, as Biden seems to be fading. Klobacher is a close second. Emotions run high in politics but emotions are the last thing we need now. We need a technocrat not an ideologue.
2
Earth to Democrats: If Bernie wins 25 MILLION more votes of "marginalized, multi-racial working class people" than Hillary did on both coasts, but fails to win Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania, Trump wins. There should be NO other strategic concern other than to win enough electoral votes. Hello? Is it because they teach self-esteem instead of civics in public schools nowadays that otherwise perfectly intelligent people can't seem to grasp this fact? It is also a wonder to me that the same people who regularly complain about the rampant racism, sexism, homophobia, and every other imaginable oppression in this country, are the very ones that say that people in the Midwest are going to come out in droves to support a Jewish socialist from Brooklyn who's close to 80 and has already had one heart attack! How many of these people have every spent any time in the Midwest, I wonder?
FACT: the only reason Democrats gained control of Congress in 2018 was because moderate candidates prevailed in purple suburbs. Candidates like AOC mostly lost.
I like Bernie and would vote for him, primarily because he sticks to class politics, instead of getting into the poisonous morass of identity politics, BUT empowering his most ardent supporters gives me great pause: self-righteous, humorless, intolerant, many of them stayed home during the 2016 election, or voted for Jill Stein rather than to sully their precious political purity, thus delivering the country to Trump.
12
Your last point is a myth that has been releasing disproven. If you claim to like him and his policies than flavored for him. His policies and the movement he is building are the reason I support him. It is fear the keeps you concerned about which way others will vote and given the horror show of the current regime I certainly understand that fear. But it is that fear that the GOP is counting on. It is the core of trumps message. Believe in something bigger. Believe in the policies you claim to support and agree to do the work to see them put into place. If all of the people who claim to support his vision stand up to their fears by holding the publicly elected officials accountable then we can achieve that vision.
3
I love these phantasmagorical essays on the certainty of victory of whoever the writer is mesmerized by. Please publish more. You could even recommend what to consume while reading them.
Reality check: the Democrats are a disorganized bunch of no-hopers. The time for policy wrangling was at least 3 years ago, after they realized what a hopeless show they put up in the 2016 election. The time for grass-roots reorganization was 3 years ago at least. The time for getting to know and understand the voters who so unceremoniously rejected their candidate was 3 years ago.
But no. They doubled down on what didn't work. It won't work this time either.
5
Bernie's got great ideas but how is he going to get them accomplished using his signature clenched-jaw finger-stabbing you're-all-wrong-and-I'm-right lecturing style? I'm definitely not for the moderate attempt to please everybody but would like to see a moderately tempered person get some real work done for the people.
5
This article show shows the religious-like fervor of Bernie supporters...anything deviating from their ideological purity is seen as dark and evil. Bernie people: it’s not that we’re scared of change or don’t think he can win, it’s just that many, many of us Democrats don’t agree with all of his positions. Sheesh.
5
@IntentReader That's how WE felt when you crammed Hillary down our throats and attempted to call people nasty epithets who considered not voting for her. I sucked it up and did so. I will NOT vote for Bloomberg or any other pro-corporate Democrat, after a lifetime of voting for this, my own party. My message to the DNC backers: it's not that we don't understand the risks. It's just that the biggest one is giving up our vote to YOU again.
1
"But doubts quickly gave way to excitement when Mr. Sanders captured the coveted endorsement of Representative Ilhan Omar of Minnesota. She was soon joined by Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan."
Excitement from where? The Trump campaign?
4
How wrong is Obama about almost everything? You only need to look at his remark that Americans are not in the mood to “tear down the system and remake it.”
How does he think Trump got elected?
How does he think Trump will get defeated?
13
So glad to see this in the NY Times. Once upon a time, when climate disaster wasn't around the corner, it might have been okay to try and stick with the status quo. It would have been wrong and a mistake but it might not have meant the end of the world as we know it.
We, collectively as in all of us, all over the planet and everything on it, are on a path to disaster. It will be like a tsunami in its stealth and destruction which is why humans are so resistant to the threat. Once the tipping point has been reached, the effects will be horrifying and quite quick.
We need a President who is willing to face the facts and do something proactive today, while we still have a bit of time. Anyone, including those in control of this newspaper should be pushing hard and loud for the candidate who actually has a plan to fight the coming climate calamity and is willing to fight to make it a reality. Anything less than that and we are all doomed. But don't take my word for it, just ask a climate scientist.
13
Please lets stop misusing the word "socialist." Bernie Sanders doesn't propose that we nationalize all means of production in some type of proletarian paradise, although that may have been his Marxist fantasy 50 yrs ago. His supporters, and his detractors, need to understand that. Whatever Scandinavian models we might point at are very successful capitalist systems. National healthcare and free education are not socialism!
9
If our country has a trillion dollars to waste in Afghanistan, then we can afford universal healthcare at home.
21
”Mr. Sanders’s popularity among these voters may be what alienates him within the political establishment and mainstream media.......It is remarkable that this strategy still has legs after its spectacular failure for Hillary Clinton in 2016.”
The DNC Convention & The Electoral College will be the deciders even if most citizens vote for Sanders. He was winning against Hillary so decisively in debates, the DNC ceased all debating between them last time.
And if he doesn’t address that somehow now. I will continue not to donate to him unlike I did last time. Is he conning me just for his personal war chest? I would prefer him or Warren but Party system seems rigged without doubt!
2
Moderates would rather vote for a smiley-faced robot that cuts your taxes and also murders children, rather than the angry-faced robot that raises your taxes and also provides health, housing, and economic justice for all.
5
Bernie is a rock. Everybody else is jumping on to various smidgeons of his program, which is basically "spread all that surplus wealth." To paraphrase TJ (not trader joe's) a person cannot eat more than one steak at a time (or in some cases, veggie tempura:)
4
This editorial rings true for me. Let's say we are in a four way race with Sanders, Warren, Biden and Buttigieg. Mayor Pete dies after South Carolina after only one black guy votes for him -- by mistake --'cuz his name is right under Biden on the ballot. The key then is who wins the Sanders/Warren smackdown. I think the winner of that fight will be determined by -- drum roll, please -- Stacey Abrams. If she goes with Bernie, for example, the age issue is negated, and you have a young black woman on the ticket who is focused like a laser on increasing the turnout of people of color, and exposing and suing anyone who gets in their way.
The Warren folks will get behind Bernie, and Bernie will also get the Obama/Trump whites who just want to blow up the system.
Could work, but Stacey has to come to the party at some point.
3
Much of this essay was interesting and persuasive but sorry, I don't need more generalizations, such as being called an elite for not supporting Sanders. For one thing, there are about, oh, 20 Democratic candidates to consider, and more important, you don't know me.
And what the heck was that reference to Soviet Communism at the end of the article? Talk about shooting yourself in the foot. Bizarre.
5
You think Sanders can win?
You don't understand American voters.
5
As per Obama: “average American” doesn’t think we need to “tear down the system and remake it.”
Pity.
1
Tell this to the million of American voters sending him their lunch money every month.
1
Love all that he stands for.
Go get 'em, Bernie!
6
Sanders has the support of just 17.4% of likely Democratic primary voters (RCP average through 8 December), and only 31% of Americans self-identify at Democrats (Gallup, September '19). It's impossible to conclude those numbers "vindicate" Sanders' championing of "bold policies." I am all for bold ideas, but this is not the time for a quixotic embrace of starkly unpopular ones.
5
Let's remember that corporate monopolies and wealth mega donors have been legally financing our elections, setting the rules for what's labeled left wing vs center. Esp since the S. Court's Citizens United decision, which most voters and many politicians want to overturn.
Fear of being called a socialist in America, for columnists and politicians, has infected our media. The GOP state media FOX News can intimidate the other media to staying centrist in a very distorted political spectrum.
The socialist label thrown out by the GOP is for them an insult. It can so label someone negatively that they lose the prestige and influence they want to hold on to.
So our moderate, cautious media and politicians tailor their statements accordingly, while still looking humanitarian.
Meanwhile in the 21st century, the US still lacks affordable, universal health care, and are generatons behind the dozens of other capitalist democracies. That shows the power of the American elites, in "the world's greatest democracy."
Pretty nifty con.
3
Bernie has integrity and he may yet have this swing voter's vote. What I don't get is why he doesn't run as an independent. What has the Democratic National Party done for him, except ignore him and have their "superdelegates" steal his primary votes and give them to Hillary?
5
Both the most popular comments as well as the opinion piece reflect a patronizing attitude: the wider electorate has failed to understand Bernie but once they do, they will like him. This was the same argument I remember from my youth when the left wing of the party told us that once we understood the 1972 Democratic nominee, George McGovern, we would vote for him. What the left did not understand then as well as now is that most of the population does not want its incomes rearranged, does not want the society reordered, and does not think that they live in an oppressive state.
What the author refers to as the coveted endorsements of three of the four members of The Squad can and will be used as a selling point by the Republicans. In the language of the Soviet-era Pravda, it is no accident that Donald Trump once clasped his hands in prayerful pose before the cameras, looked heavenward, and said: "Oh please, please, please give me crazy Bernie" for an opponent.
2
The ongoing battle between the class-focused Left and the race-focused Left is amusing. The reason the World Socialist Web Site published those "1619" interviews with McPherson, Wood, and Oakes was to attack what they see as the distractions and counterproductive pursuits of race-based identity politics.
Both have absurd ideas about economics, but because the latter (rightly, in my view) see other issues at play besides the supposed evils of capitalism, the former get infuriated. The divisiveness of the latter they see as potentially -- nay, necessarily -- destroying the class-based solidarity without which the path to Paradise is unnavigable. And class-focused socialists will not burn the future on the alter of this or that vision of racial justice, when what is needed for racial justice is what is needed for all other forms of justice in our most unjust of unjust worlds: socialism.
But these cliques, filled with stunning geniuses as they are, agree on socialism of one variety or another. As Hayek observed, "The more intelligent an educated person is, the more likely he or she now is not only to be a rationalist, but also to hold socialist views. The higher we climb up the ladder of intelligence, the more we talk with intellectuals, the more likely we are to encounter socialist convictions."
Myself, I understand Sanders's campaign AND believe he can -- though not that he will -- win. Those facts synergistically frighten me. The leftist echo chamber now rivals the Right's.
To state that Bernie Sanders can win against Trump is utter fantasy. Then to cite the disenfranchised working class as his key to victory is even greater fantasy. Those same folks comprise the very 90% of Republicans that approve unwaveringly of Trump's 'style'.
Already the campaign strategy is to brand the Democrats as socialists. True? It is a real stretch of one's imagination to see them favor a socialist, east-coast Jewish man that pledges to caucus with the Democrats. Evangelicals only support Jews of the old testament, as it supposedly provides the historical backdrop to their religious dogma. Or are we pretending otherwise?
4
".... the argument for a centrist Democrat might sound compelling. If the country has tilted to the right, should we elect a candidate closer to the middle than the fringe? If the electorate resembles a left-to-right line, and each voter has a bracketed range of acceptability in which they vote, this would make perfect sense. The only problem is that it doesn't work like that, as Piketty shows. The reason is that nominating centrist Democrats who don't speak to class issues will result in a great swathe of voters simply not voting. Conversely, right-wing candidates who speak to class issues, but who do so by harnessing a false consciousness — i.e. blaming immigrants and minorities for capitalism's ills, rather than capitalists — will win those same voters who would have voted for a more class-conscious left candidate. Piketty calls this a "bifurcated" voting situation, meaning many voters will connect either with far-right xenophobic nationalists or left-egalitarian internationalists, but perhaps nothing in-between" https://www.salon.com/2019/06/02/there-is-hard-data-that-shows-that-a-centrist-democrat-would-be-a-losing-candidate/
1
He wins the nomination? I stay home. Now multiply me by millions.
2
The millions you are talking about are sending him their lunch money every week. You go ahead and stay at home.
It is a free country still.
2
In the 2016 election I was an enthralled Bernie bro and am still angry at his terrible treatment by the DNC. Times have changed. We now have an extremist in the White House and many voters yearn for normal and not the opposite extreme that Bernie represents, regardless of how egalitarian that might be. By way of prediction, if Bloomberg does not win the Democratic nomination and runs as an independent, no one will win a majority. The election will be decided in the House and a Democrat will prevail. In any case, if Bloomberg does not run, Trump will win.
1
Sure,times have changed. That is why a person with extreme views like Bernie needs to stand against the current POTUS who also has extreme views. A person with moderate/centrist views will surely lose because he/she will seem weak and shallow. You need one who is passionate, unwavering and may seem angry but that is what is needed in today's America. Someone different. Yes, times have changed and so should we(when it comes to electing someone to be POTUS)
4
Bernie, more so than any other candidate (with the exception of Trump), walks the talk. That alone is probably like a fresh breeze to many Americans who have been left in the fog for so long. And he has a likability factor Trump couldn't match in his dreams. As the field withers, he maintains both his posture and strengths. I'm beginning to think he is the one.
14
I greatly admire Bernie Sanders and I disagree with those who don't think that he'd be an excellent and effective president. One thing that is seldom discussed is that he was a very popular and successful governor (granted, that was for a very liberal state, Vermont). His record as governor and in the senate shows that he does have a pragmatic side and can work with a variety of stakeholders. This is something Elizabeth Warren can not demonstrate and it's doubtful she would be as capable (for those who are trying to choose their progressive candidate).
BUT - you don't steady the ship that's veering sharply to the right by trying to whip it hard to the left (insert nautical terms if it helps you with this...). To do so is to threaten capsizing the boat. The path to sanity and stabilization is through moderation. We may need to learn that the hard way, but eventually, it will be a lesson learned.
In the meantime: Think independently, vote independent!
2
Bernie ran for governor a couple times and lost.
@Wayne Schiefelbein
Hillary Clinton tried for the Presidency TWICE and lost, Richard Nixon tried and LOST. Times change.
2
This column misses the point- Bernie Sanders is not, and has never been, an effective politician. He has accomplished virtually nothing in decades in the House and Senate. He has never grasped that politics is about compromise because he is unwilling to do so. His supporters laud the fact that his message has not changed in years- I see it as an inability to learn or adapt. While he, and any of the Democrats still in the field, is vastly preferable to Trump, I'd rather have a candidate who can both win and be a good president. It would also be nice if he would decide whether or not he wants to be a Democrat.
6
I am always grateful for the voice of Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, so I was surprised and delighted to see this piece in The Times today. She describes more eloquently than I can the frustrations and desires of Sanders’ diverse working class coalition, a population that is too little represented in this publication. I’m a white, affluent “boomer.” When I try to explain to my friends, most of whom don’t support Sanders, what the Sanders campaign represents to the struggling and voiceless population in this country, they don’t seem to understand. But they need to. The outdated paradigm of some moderate center, a majority of contented voters who only want incremental change, is not applicable to this time of extreme income inequality, an increasingly embattled working/middle class and the beginning stages of the climate change catastrophe. At this point in history, a return to “normalcy” is a fantasy. We either embrace bold action or see more right wing demagogues step into the void left by the inertia of the Democratic Party. It gives me hope to see the movement that has coalesced around Sanders, the sort of multiracial movement some of us hoped for in the 1960s. It’s a expansive vision for a more democratic future. And in these dark times, it is also a joyous vision. I wish more of my friends and the readers of The NY Times shared it.
14
@Kathryn Levy
40 yrs. of "normalcy" and the democratic party becoming "Republican Lites" is what got the country Trump. Let us hope that "insanity" does not rear its ugly head again.
5
Even if you agree with Sanders' policies, game it out. Even if he can win the general election, he is unlikely to carry the Senate---and if he does, the Democratic majority will have a number of "Blue Dogs" in Red States who won't embrace his plans for sweeping overnight change.
I have no problem aiming for Medicare for All, but you're not going to get there in one election. If Sanders or Warren showed that they understood that, they might have a chance of winning both the general election and a like-minded majority in Congress. But there is little evidence of that from Warren, and none from Sanders.
Emotion may sway the like-minded, but you need to convince other people, too.
3
@Andrew Winton
You have to start somewhere, money and corruption is destroying democracy in America and the only way to do something about it is electing politicians unencumbered by the "bribery" that is rampant in government in BOTH parties and elect those that refuse bribes!
4
Bernie's campaign is a once in a generation chance at real, progressive change. He's got the record, the movement, and the vision to actually lead on climate change legislation, Medicare-For-All, and holding Wall Street accountable.
If you look at our history, we've been here before, and we've taken giant moonshots that still benefit us today - rampant times of greed and corruption CAN lead to unity, solidarity, and a resetting of the unfair levers in society. We've been here before, and it is not crazy to say we can be so much better.
Why on earth would you settle for anything less?
20
NYT just published an article about a reporter's experience with health care billing which elicited over a thousand comments, each a damning critique of U.S. healthcare, each implicitly, sometimes explcitly, cries for Medicare For All. Warren has backed away from her earlier support. Sanders never wavers.
76
Bless you for bring it up Sir.
Bernie is a true mensch. We love him like a brother. May he bless us as a nation by becoming our president and delivering us out of the abyss we have fallen into.
27
@michael ....yes, the article you cite is
"Where the Frauds Are All Legal
Welcome to the weird world of medical billing." by Elizabeth Rosenthal. 1275 comments.
Also --
"That Beloved Hospital? It’s Driving Up Health Care Costs
It’s easy to criticize pharmaceutical and insurance companies. But we spend much more on hospitals."
9
@michael
Medicare for all shifts who pays for what. It does not address what we're paying for or why. American medicine has some fundamental flaws that only Marianne Williamson addressed truthfully.
Calling Bernie a socialist is what he does. Bernie, like AOC, calls himself a Democratic Socialist. Socialist is actually a term from Marx, a 19th century thinker and writer who greatly influenced the emergence of Communism, especially in Russia and China in the late 19th and early 20th century. It is no longer possible for THAT definition of socialism to make any sense because so little of our American economy today is actually based on the type of manufacturing that determined economic health in those days - low skilled workers toiling away on complex huge machinery to mass produce goods. Today most of our economy depends on brain power and energy - an investment in human capital and often in nature (dams of rivers, solar collectors which transfer the power of the sun to electricity, oil extraction).
It still takes large equipment and incredible complex refineries to make and deliver useable energy in the form of of natural gas or electricity. So that part of our economy remains rooted in socialism. But the largest percentage of our economy is rooted in education, professional relationships, and digital capital (e.g. Facebook, Apple).
Socialism in the 19th century is therefore mostly meaningless today except as a slogan meaning favoring the interests of the lower 90% over the interests of the upper 10%.
That's why old people are so horrified by "socialists" who remember when 35 million people starved under the unproductive communists during the Stalin era in Russia.
1
Wow, that's a lot of Kool-Aid, folks.
4
More like Chateau Petrus vintage 1961, if you ask me.
1
Once again Bernie Sanders is not a Socialist and calling him that helps the Republican party tactics on scaring people on the scary word. Read the definition of the words. Socialism VS Social Democracy. Bernie is a Social Democrat as with many Nordic Countries and countries like Switzerland. They all enjoy Capitalism but a regulated one, not one totally run-a-muck and out of control like in the USA.
11
He refers to himself as a democratic socialist.
1
@Susan Thanks for the correction, but I hope we all get the point.
@Frances
Yes. And furthermore, they usually use the definition of communism to define socialism.
Socialism: A political and economic theory of social organization which advocates that the means of production, distribution, and exchange should be owned OR regulated by the community as a whole.
It's the "or" part they usually leave out.
3
What a pity a good article had to finish with this,
"After all, the United States government spent more than half of the 20th century locked in a Cold War against Soviet Communism. That an open and proud socialist is tied with Ms. Warren for second place in the race speaks to the mounting failures of free market capitalism to produce a decent life for a growing number of people."
It makes it hard for me to trust the author's thinking when she finally - as well as tiresomely and frustratingly - falls into that small-minded and lazy US trap of equating social policies (as practised in many European countries) with communism. One word, socialism in this case, has many different meanings. And equating Bernie's brand of socialism with Soviet Russia is just ludicrous and falling into the trap right-wingers are setting for you every day when they want you demonise any hint of socially-inspired government policy.
Free-market capitalism is working happily in countries all across Europe, where enterprise and entrepreneurship is welcomed and promoted constantly. The only difference is that it is combined with social policies (or socialist policies, if that makes you feel better) that make society a fairer and more welcoming place.
9
Not only will he win, but win by an historic landslide, carried into victory by the too long ignored and disenfranchised poor and middle-class.
20
Best piece I've seen so far making the case for Sanders as the candidate for the multiracial working class. Also a helpful look into the demographics of his diverse base of support and related grassroots fundraising success.
One of the reasons polls underestimated Sanders so badly last time is their bias towards "likely" Democratic Party & dem-leaning Independent voters. They neglected to factor how much his campaign would appeal to the large swath of folks feeling left out and unengaged with the political process. I think there's similar factors at play with polling this time, but he has a much larger and better organized ground game. His biggest challenge is overcoming media bias (particularly on tv news) and particularly how that has led many 50+ voters to believe he can't win.
Older voters who "like and agree with Bernie," but are resigned to the Democratic Party mostly being symbolic opposition to the GOP are hesitant to vote for him unless they think he has a good chance at winning the nomination and beating Trump. I think anyone who's really paying attention sees that according to many metrics right now, he can win the primary and general elections next year.
15
No question Bernie has the most committed supporters but here are the facts not addressed in this piece
1) Bernie's support is way down from 2016.
2) In 2016 Bernie build a grass roots movement and tied the annointed establishment candidate in Iowa. Now Bernie, who has spent more $$ than any other candidate in Iowa, is polling behind Mayor Buttigieg who no one had heard of a year ago.
3) In Bernie's backyard of New Hampshire Bernie is no better than in a 4 way tie for first, not just with Warren who can also claim NH as her backyard but with Biden and Buttigieg who cannot.
4) New Hampshire is the only state where Bernie has a claim on the lead. This is telling because unlike last time, Bernie is not an unknown on the rise. People have seen his shtick and they'r e not buying.
5) Moving more broadly, the author thinks having supporters like AOC is important. It is not about them. We just had an election in which every congressional seat was up for grabs and crushed the GOP. Why? Because we had pragmatic Democratic candidates like Elissa Slotkin, Max Rose, Elaine Luria, Connor Lamb, Chrissy Houlihan and Antonio Delgado. They didn't win by calling for revolution or structural change. The folks that won in the contested districts are nothing like Bernie.
6) Bernie is not a great politician. He knows nothing of persuasion, to say nothing of compromise or healing. In his eyes, that's because he is principled. That's not the way politics works.
7
@David
One would think 2016 taught us that political polling data is terrible at predicting the future. Sanders outperformed the polls in Michigan by 20 points in 2016. Pollsters gave Hillary a 99% chance of winning, in some cases.
Polling is based entirely on the concept of "likely voters," as though pollsters are soothsayers who know which people will and will not show up to the polls.
Point 6 is especially absurd given Bernie's record as mayor of Burlington. He wound up winning the support of numerous constituencies, including business owners, because of the rationality of his policies.
It wouldn't surprise me, given your location, to learn that you're entirely dependent on the current corrupt status quo for your livelihood.
5
@David
I guess you didn't see the latest polls where Bernie has climbed into the lead in California and the hundreds of delegates in that state alone that go along with it.
4
@Deus
Thanks for catching that. You are correct that Sanders leads in the Berkeley poll although statistically tied with Warren. But, (i) that poll is a complete outlier, no other poll has him in first and (ii) 538 which rates the methodology of the polls doesn't rate the Berkeley poll well. In the top rated Survey USA California poll, he is ten points off the lead and in the well rated Public Policy Institute poll, he is third. But, if he makes a big move in the polls which he hasn't so far, then for sure you will have a better argument.
@ Claude
"It wouldn't surprise me, given your location, to learn that you're entirely dependent on the current corrupt status quo for your livelihood."
This is exactly that kind of intolerant comment, so common among Bernie's supporters, that will undermine him with most Americans. You and Bernie don't merely disagree with opponents, in your eyes, they are all impure.
5
I am a 78 year old Indivisible member, European-American, and am crazy about Bernie Sanders. He is honest, and has great ideas. He speaks directly to people, and has their and my trust.
I liked Howard Dean years ago. Hillary was disparaging to African- American Black Lives Matter teenagers. Hillary and the DNC were nasty to Bernie's campaign in 2016 in California. I like Medicare for all, and the Green New Deal. Bernie talks about climate change. And what he says about the disappearing
middle class is so true. His campaign rallies are joyful.
24
The notion of Bernie Sanders being elected President in 2020 is absurd. It’s simply not going to happen. Furthermore, if by some miracle it did happen we would have almost total political gridlock for the next 4 years.
Democrats need to ditch the rigid ideology of the far left and embrace a nominee who will act as a nonpartisan independent rather than the leader of a political tribe.
Mike Bloomberg is absolutely the best chance to defeat Trump in 2020. Maybe our only chance.
4
@Doug M - - - What's crazy is that NO non-progressive Congressional Democrats come forward to differ with the Hard Left running their party.
In contrast, D.C. was alive with GOPers disagreeing with Pres. Trump early on, and a few still trumpet their disagreements with him. But the GOP has always been more diverse.
1
@Doug M Mike "I want to tell you how large your sodas can be, and deploy nationwide stop-and-frisk to lock up black people" Bloomberg has no business running for office.
1
To say Hillary Clinton's campaign against Trump was a failure has to be put in context. She received almost 3 million more votes than Trump. Unknown to her, Russia was sending out attacks against her on social media in key swing states. Also, just as she was gaining momentum to clinch the election with about 2 weeks to go the head of the FBI informed Congress that a new investigation of her emails was underway even though he knew no details and it turned out here there no new emails involved. Given what happened makes if very hard to draw conclusions about her strategy. Also, she moved pretty far to the left advocating for free college tuition and a $15 minimum wage and in fact probably had the most progressive agenda that any Democrat has ever run on. Therefore it is hard to say if she was too far toward the center or too far left. Exactly what is the best strategy for for the Democrats remains a puzzle.
9
If these workers have the LEAST comprehension of world history, Sanders is toast.
Even GOPers credited Bernie the Soviet with sticking to his guns and being a proud, consistent socialist.
But socialism HAS never worked and CAN never work because humanity will coast when it can and must have a profit motive to do anything close to its best.
It's a testimony to the obedience and fear in the hearts of Russians that their Soviet experiment lasted as long as it did -
- but then again, they had ZERO experience in democracy OR the ironclad system of justice that democracy demands to protect it.
Even Scandinavian couples are so over-taxed that they cannot afford to have kids. Minimal income and sales taxes in Denmark start at 65% put together.
1
@L osservatore I'm sorry, but you don't seem to have your facts straight, or even your terminology. Scandanavian couples are much better off than US couples, unless they happen to have high paying jobs (which most people do not). Those high taxes go toward paying for very family friendly benefits. Bernie is also not advocating socialism as it is traditionally understood (direct government control of industry), except in limited cases (e.g. health insurance). Additionally, his vision of socialism is actually not consistent with what he advocated when he was younger, which was a more pure/traditional socialism.
7
This article, like others written by Sanders acolytes, fails to mention one thing: where are the Representatives and Senators who are on board with Sanders' calls for wealth redistribution? Unless I missed a memo, medicare for all, free college, and a $15 minimum wage all require bills, mark ups of those bills in the appropriate committees, floor votes, then reconciliation between the House and Senate versions. Bernie bros are all about Sanders, but with the exception of The Squad, all of whom are freshman with less than zero legislative power, no other legislators are signing up for the Sanders agenda. Oh, and by the way, Sanders isn't a Democrat. Were he to win, do you honestly think that any Democrat outside of the Gang of Four would lift a finger to help him with his legislative agenda?
4
Glad to see this light shed on the very genuine, informed, and massive breadth of working class support for this man that often gets lost or condescended to in mainstream "analysis"
I think to misunderstand Bernie's appeal speaks to certain privileges– a privilege of visibility in the political sphere, financial privilege, the privilege of getting by within current corrupt systems. His ideas are not all that radical to any other developed nation, but they do hinge on ensuring basic human dignities to the least privileged among us– and that, to some who have never known the injustices of life without them, requires empathy that may feel at times, radical.
18
Dream on. If you thought Nixon v McGovern was bad for the Dems, Bernie would be a wipeout, and Trump would be free to rig the next election for the House of Trump to succeed him.
1
Please. Bernie needs to run as an independent. He is not a Democrat. He should have run as an independent last time. Instead of blaming the DNC and everyone else that doesn't think Bernie is the answer, run as an independent. Doing so would be in line with his principles. A socialist is not a Democrat. I am a registered Democrat but do not subscribe to the tenets of socialism. Nor will I vote for an angry old man past his shelf life. Sorry if that offends some but as a boomer, I look to the younger generation to lead the way.
5
Bernie has a lot of FDR in his ideas . . . and the times have interesting similarities, if not exactly the same as the 30s. People see the successful counties of northern Europe. And Warren is too much an ideologue for my taste. Bernie has the cred. and if you read the history, he has always been pragmatic. All he needs is a younger VP - and there are several highly qualified possibilities, male and female. He's lookin' good. Right person for the times, highly qualified.
14
So glad to learn that Bernie, who is too pure to be a Democrat, is going to be the next President. Why bother with primaries and the election. Let's just inaugurate him now.
2
Not one word on Red America.
This entire advocacy piece is based on a false premise: that it is the voters of the US who are to won over. This is not true. It's only the red voters of some purplish states.
And it doesn't even allow for two major possibilities: that many mainstream Democratic voters will hold Mr. Sanders' core beliefs in repugnance, and that the GOP, silent so far, will unleash all of the opposition research on his it so carefully hid away last time.
1
@Bob T Sorry, Bob, but GOP voters are a minority in this country. We need to turn out people who don't normally vote in order to defeat them.
3
So here's the deal. I'm not a Bernie supporter, but if he's the nominee, I will enthusiastically vote and fiercely defend and work for him in the general.
I hope all the fervent Bernie supporters will do likewise if he does not win the nomination. The stakes are far too high to bear a grudge, even if the nomination contest becomes unpleasant down the road.
I hope I'm being completely out of line when I entertain even a smidgen of doubt on this.
11
@Marc You can't frighten apathetic Americans who've seen the failure of our political system into supporting another corporate Democrat.
If you want to get Trump out of office you should volunteer to help ensure Sanders is the nominee.
8
@Marc I fear you are right to be concerned. I am a moderate democrat who would never vote for Bernie in the primary, but will fight for him tooth and nail if he wins the nomination.
But I know many true believers who argue there is little difference between Biden or Mayor Pete and Trump. They may well cost us the election and our very democracy.
4
@Claude You need to be mature enough to vote for the democratic nominee even if your first or second choice don't win.
To compare any democrat running to Trump is little more than willful ignorance.
The author is out of touch with reality. Millions of Americans are struggling with debt and poverty, but "police brutality" is so rare as to be irrelevant.
There are about a million law enforcement officers. A few of them use excessive force, and it can amount to brutality or even murder. But that's rare: one reads about such accusations less than once per month, and not all of them are valid. Perhaps 10 per year, in a country of 340,000,000 people and over 20,000 homicides per year. So rare that it should not be a political issue, unless you are trying to fabricate one.
3
I proudly voted for Sanders in his 2012 re-election to the Senate, and, after moving to Idaho two years later, I proudly voted for him in both the local Democratic caucus and again the primary.Sanders is that rare pol these days who puts service first and well ahead of career. He spurs memories of the late Frank Church.
20
The Democratic Establishment needs to get out and talk to normal everyday people. Most agree with Sanders and Warren's philosophies. Then need to stop speaking to people who are just like them. Status Quo in their thinking
23
He can certainly win the Democratic Primary.
He would have won in 2016 had Hillary not knee-capped him.
Problem for Sanders is the General Election.
All those "Populist Nationalist Independents" who he thinks love his policies don't actually love Socialism.
They love Capitalism, they just want a level playing field and the Establishment seems hell-bent on keeping the unfair playing field afloat, hence the IG Report, Afghanistan Report and Drive to Impeachment.
All of these 3 things remind voters coast to to coast that the very nature of a bureaucracy is self-preservation and what you're watching is what happens when the bureaucracy (or Administrative State) takes underhanded methods and tries to usurp the will of the people.
These Nationalist Populists aren't going to go for Sanders since most of them who aren't Marxist/Socialist in thought are already in the bag for Trump...and big time.
I'm a long time moderate Conservative who could rightly be called Traditional or Establishment who has..herself...overcome my disgust of Trump to appreciate the role he's playing, which is to take on the Establishment of DC that has perturbed the entire Left leaning Populists and the Right leaning Populists.
But don't act disappointed when Bernie only wins 5 states in the General.
Again, those Populists supporting Trump are not going to abandon him for Sanders because they view themselves as redblooed Americans..not Marxists/Socialists..or even Democrat Socialists.
2
An excellent, informative column, and I'm glad to see it in the NYTimes. Bernie Sanders' career, and especially his improbable and inspirational run for the 2016 nomination, with its impassioned second act this time, has had a transformational effect on the Democratic Party. Voters know that; will the Party leadership come to their senses?
This time around, I have a preference for Elizabeth Warren, but she would not be where she is without Sanders beside her. Will they both be beaten out by someone more "electable"? That's painful to contemplate. Eventually, I think, one will have to throw support to the other, but I trust they will remain allies, and the resulting campaign will be amazing.
12
This is silly. If Democrats want a one way ticket to another four years of Trump, by all means, keep wasting your time, money, and effort supporting Sanders. Like Ralph Nader before him, Sanders will later be known as a politician who contributed to a generation of Republican minority domination in American politics, from Gore's loss in 2000, through the end of this Trump era. Sanders has a good, genuine heart. But, Hillary is right. He screwed up so much for the Democrats in 2016, and if he's not careful, he'll screw up 2020 as well.
6
@JG Sanders endorsed and campaigned for Hillary in 2016, even after the superdelegates decided for everyone else and dropped him like a brick. What more did you want from him?
It is a fact that Sanders has a unique appeal with some voters that won't come out for any other Democrats.
You will not catch Bernie calling people "deplorables" behind their back or in an open mic, he's genuine and even people who disagree with him respect that.
3
When i was 21, I was so enthusiastic about George McGovern. i couldn't see how Nixon, the illegal bomber of Laos and Cambodia, could win. And then a landslide for Nixon changed my perspective.
We don't just need a new president, we need a new Senate if any democratic proposals will be enacted into laws. Executive orders will not fix health care. Bernie will not heal the divide in this country. I love the man, but don't trust his ability to administrate.
I am willing to vote for him, but I don't see him as a healer.
5
Let's try to understand why the democratic establishment and the mainstream media are trying their best in marginalizing (that is the correct word) Bernie Sanders.
The candidate is a person who has dedicated all his working life to get this country to a point of adopting a Rawlsian system of justice and fairness. When I hear Professor Rawls at Harvard where I was studying mathematics in the seventies, I was struck by the elegance (and of course truth) of his argument. A just society is one where everyone goes to sleep without who they will wake up as and are indifferent to that fact.
What that actually implies is that the government has to ensure that the needs of the least fortunates are attended to before the rest of the society's utility is maximized.
Bernie Sanders is the epitome of a mensch. He is truthful, caring for his fellow humans independent of their color, sex, gender, intelligence, wealth, income, health, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity and religion.
He will fight for universal healthcare and free public education for all. He will fight for a clean environment. He will fight for a true democracy where Citizen United type of disgusting concepts will be sent back to the hell they came from. He will fight for leveling the field in terms of wealth and income. He will fight for ending idiotic post-imperialistic wars, inflated military budgets, unfairness in corporate and individual taxation. He will turn our country into a decent nation. Bless him.
34
Thanks for the speech. Ot doesn’t change the fact that if we nominate Sanders, I will vote for him and we’ll get clobbered.
Yesterday's NYT article on how Finland is attracting big business by providing primary social services like free health care and education for the general population is another great argument to vote for Bernie.
32
I don't care how he chooses to label himself. He is an unqualified liability. He was willing to pass the baton to Trump. Decades of epa work and human rights out the window. His accomplishments beyond his Vermont echo chamber are minimal.
5
Finally, someone writes an article that gets it. 2/3rds of the country is flat broke despite working at least one full time job and the pundits still seem to think that moderate, Republican-lite policies are all people will vote for. I2020 is going to prove the beltway pundits wrong yet again. Great article.
23
You don’t understand the American intelligence. Please, I’ll be forced to write in a candidate which will basically be a Trump vote. He can not win.
4
"the party leadership has begun to fret in public about universal health care and other ambitious proposals. "
Maybe they should just follow Trump's lead and just lie about everything. Promise the moon and ignore any calls for "details." After all, the people who voted for Trump did not care about details and just took him at his word that he "alone" had all the plans and would fix everything. The fact no "plans" of any sort ever materialized, nor has anything been fixed, has not phased his followers in the least.
Then again, Dem voters are not as trusting as repubs, or maybe not as gullible. Actually Dem voters were (and are) too smart to fall for lies. Not so for Repubs. They just like hearing what they want to here, no matter if it is all lies.
4
@Joe,
What people never say in the healthcare debate, but is obvious to anyone informed about healthcare (I'm a doctor, trust me ;-) ) is that we already pay ALL the costs of healthcare; those that are insurance-related AND those not reimbursed by insurance. It's an inefficient, costly and ineffective way to manage healthcare. It can bankrupt any of us when its our turn to pay. True social security has to distribute this cost of healthcare equably. We've all got to get into the same risk pool. This can be accomplished in a straightforward way. The Canadian Medicare-for-All Bill, when it was enacted into law, consisted of 6 pages - compare that to the Affordable Care Act!
5
Bernie can't win because Tsar Putin thinks he can't win; Putin helped Bernie in 2016 with his IRA, and he's probably helping him now too, to ensure that his puppet Trump wins re-election.
Search for "Senate Intelligence" "RUSSIAN ACTIVE MEASURES CAMPAIGNS AND INTERFERENCE" and see the report volume 2. Search for "sanders" in the PDF, and read the paragraph.
@Astrochimp
Sadly, this echoes a paranoid thought disorder prevalent among corporate democrats.
2
It's not that surprising because these people hear all the bad screaming leveled at Socialism. However with a smattering of education they see how much of America is Socialist already.
All Police and Firefighters, Socialism.
All retirees and other recipients of Social Security, Socialism.
Big Pharma or AG subsidies, Socialism.
Postal Services, Socialism...and the lit continues.
Our nation is practicing Socialism Lite for decades. People see and know this.
6
Sanders vs. trump. The election we should have had in 2016.
18
A Sanders candidacy would make his accolytes feel all tingly, but it would end up making George McGovern look like a big winner. Trump and the Republicans, with all the added power of Wall St. and the medical industry, et. al., will make sausage out of him. The Bernie "bros" will bask in their righteousness, while we have four more years of madness.
2
@Frank O : It's not 1972. The resentment of social change that doomed McGovern has died down, except among the Trump cultists, but the economic pain felt across the middle and working classes, negligible in 1972, is immense.
16
@pdxran
Absolutely correct. And history does NOT repeat itself.
1
This is spot on. Everything important, and I mean everything, hinges on Bernie Sanders winning the nomination and the election. No one but Bernie can turn around and reverse decades of environmental, social, economic, and political destruction. He has the will, the intelligence, the commitment, the vision and the perserverence to carry through these policies which so many people share. If we don't do this in 2020 it will be too late. That would be an unspeakable tragedy.
26
Coveted endorsement of Ilham Omar, followed by AOC and Rashida Tlaib.
I'm a liberal feminist, and I don't like the abrupt and sudden changes called for by Sanders. Gradual change and adjustment is the way.
I want to pay more taxes. I can afford too and I should. But Bernie, and yes Warren, have swung too far to the left to promote sudden and abrupt changes that most Democrats do not want.
The Squad represents a vocal minority of Democrats. And the fact that Mr. Sanders is the top recipient of the professions listed leaves out a lot of moderates. Moving to the left lets Trump win. Moving to the center will help defeat him.
I want a Democrat in the White House. And as you've probably guessed, I'm a Boomer.
6
Pretty clear what a winning ticket would be: Sanders and Pete or Sanders and Klobuchar. Because Sanders would raise the serious enthusiasm required to get out not just the progressive vote but also the black, latino, young, etc. vote AND the midwest working class vote (because he speaks their language, authentically), all of which is REQUIRED to win. (sorry for the all-caps but this point can't be missed, as Hillary did in 16).
Yes, what's also required to win is the moderate suburban vote. Which is why Pete B. or Amy K. would be a perfect running mate. Neither one of them excites Sanders base (he'll take care of that) but they both reassure the moderates. And because Sanders is so old (hate to say it but it's a reality) moderates could take solace in there's a fairly decent chance the VP will end up as POTUS. In this case, Sanders age is a pro and not a con. It's a fairly decent way to get the suburban moderate vote: they can hedge their bet.
Personally, I'd vote for any Democrat in this election (not joyfully, for some of them) but I sure wish Mitch Landrieu had gotten in the race. But a Bernie/Pete or Amy ticket would be pretty great.
5
"Party elites believe focusing squarely on President Trump’s record will end his presidency, while others counter that the Democrats also have to champion bold policies."
This is a false dichotomy. Democratic moderates believe in the need to offer *effective* policies to advance Americans' health care and widely-shared economic growth. Drawing manichaean distinctions between progressives and "elites," and "bold" plans and none, are counterproductive name calling.
2
"The leadership of the Democratic Party regularly preaches that moderation and pragmatism can appeal to “centrist” Democrats as well as Republicans skeptical of Mr. Trump. It is remarkable that this strategy still has legs after its spectacular failure for Hillary Clinton in 2016."
I'm honestly starting to believe that the Dem establishment would rather have Trump for four more years than Bernie. Paid to lose.
6
@KATHLEEN
Hillary's "spectacular failure"won by 3 million votes). And the strategy DID have legs: we won the House through moderates, not progressives. This article is extremely biased and playing fast and loose with the facts.
Let’s not overstate facts. Sen. Sanders did well in the 2016 Democratic primaries. But no self-proclaimed socialist has run a nationwide campaign, much less won one. No socialist has faced the onslaught of the 24-hour slime machine known as Fox News screaming “socialist!” over and over and over. A Sanders candidacy comes with many concerns.
107
@Tom Clark A Sanders campaign comes with an enormous donor base, a huge on-the-ground organization, consistent high polling, and great enthusiasm.
51
@Tom Clark
Sanders message resonates well with the Trump voter, CNN was surprised that Trump voters like Bernie Sanders and did a report on it last week.
Social Security which every American receives at 65 years old "IS" socialism.
Food assistance which millions receive in poor red state districts "IS" socialism.
Sanders helped Walmart workers in Red States get a $15 dollar an hour minimum wage.
Trump has not done anything for the poor Red States; the voters there are listening to Sander's message.
Trump tweeted an angry message to Fox News after 75% of their viewers said they liked what they heard from Bernie Sanders at the Fox News Town-hall.
Anyone who does not believe Sanders can win the young white male Trump voter has not been paying attention.
84
@PeaceLove - isn't the military also a socialist entity? Everyone chips in with their taxes and the military is there to help protect everyone.
If you want confuse a Republican who is anti-socialist, just ask them why they don't like the military.
27
He can’t win he won’t win.
2
@Derek B
Keep saying it. That is what my kid brother used to say when he didn't want something to happen that was good for others bot not for him. He seldom got what he wanted out of the big fellow up there :-)
3
If the election boils down to a choice between an aspiring banana republic dictator and a socialist, I suspect the American people will opt for the former.
I have yet to read any argument that convinces me otherwise.
1
@Michael Roush
Try the polls.
1
Surprising to find a pro-Bernie Sanders piece in the NYT, whose staff columnists (by my reckoning) have all thrown tomatoes at him since 2016. This writer is correct: the MSM and its privileged scribes are out of touch with the depth of disaffection in the country that Sanders understands.
19
The most noteworthy aspect of the endorsement of Sanders by Reps AOC, Tlaib, and Omar is not that any of their endorsements are "coveted," certainly not by anyone wanting to get a majority of votes in Nov 2020, but that three Congresswomen who are so often falsely tagged as anti-Semitic chose to endorse the only Jewish candidate in the race. Their endorsement of him helps them far more than it does him.
1
Sanders is the anti-Trump. He is real and committed to working class America. Consistent. Values based. Honest. Thoughtful, clever, and hard-working. He is the antidote for what ails is- both Trumpism and corporate Democrats.
15
the only genuine one...and our last chance to change our lives...and replace Trump...
6
"Focusing squarely on President Trump’s record will end his presidency?" Isn't that nothing more that absurd Clinton redux with some major/minor updates?
Trump won precisely because he postured (fantastically) as an "outsider". People are discovering that traveling down the road of tax breaks for the wealthy greased by racism and xenophobia is less a change and more a return to the roots of an America that most of us either wanted to forget about or actively deny that it ever existed.
Sanders is no Stalin wannabee. Stalin (and his heirs: Ulbricht, Mao, Kim Il Jung, etc.) were a product of a revolution isolated and torn apart by a civil war (1918 to 1921) promoted by multiple invading imperialist powers and then ravaged by Hitler in WWII. Stalin was the bureaucracy's "policeman of inequality". The Soviet Union died in 1991.
Sanders, in actual fact, represents a compromise much as FDR (a "traitor to his class") was a compromise that forestalled the rising tide of working class discontent in the depression-era USA.
Sanders taking office would serve as a buffer. The most powerful sections of capital would retain control. You may have a weak-kneed form of "universal" medical care in Britain but the City of London is hardly a nexus of world revolution. The problem with Wall Street is that it's driven by an appetite for wealth that can never be sated. Hence the contradiction and resulting political confusion.
Sanders would be a "time out" on the road to fascism or socialism.
6
Sanders has at least as much of a shot as anyone, and the NYT, et al, know it. That's why they ignore him. Literally: Try to find a mention of Sanders in this PBS segment: https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/12/03/hes-justerased-pbs-2020-segment-finds-time-klobuchar-sestak-and-bullock-completely
Hardly an isolated incident: https://fair.org/home/sidney-embers-secret-sources/. Not to specially pick on the NYT: it's across the board.
I don't know what these PR geniuses trying to Stop Sanders think they're up to, but, like, people notice this stuff. I think, or at least would like to think, that it's a net gain for Sanders. People who know more, like Ryan Grim, certainly think so: https://theintercept.com/2019/12/08/the-bernie-blackout-is-in-effect-and-it-could-help-sanders-win/
6
Aye me! The Far Left trying to fool itself yet again into thinking that the rest of America secretly agrees with them, when they never have before and are less likely than ever to start now.
2
For marketing purposes, I wish Bernie would call himself a Social Democrat. Because Americans are brainwashed concerning socialism, and because he isn't promoting Socialism, but rather a Nordic ethos.
GO BERNIE!
7
I'm tired of talking about Free College for millennial's. The house is on fire and we are all going to burn.
Wake up and smell the coffee.
This man is an anachronism. MOVE ON.
2
@mj
Anachronism? Isn't it strange then that young people (who probably don't need coffee to wake up) like him so much?
2
Guess what. It’s not just a coalition of minorities and labor that would support Bernie. There’s also the youth vote, climate change activists, and middle class white suburbanites like me who are sick of the abuses of this corporate kleptocracy we’re living in.
21
The thought that Bernie could win sends shivers down the spines of the wealthy and the religious.
Americans have been conditioned to believe that the USA is simply the best at everything it does, so trying to tell them there's a better way is like trying to push water uphill.
Reagan poisoned the well with his assertion that the government was inefficient and inept. As was said of him at the time, he was an amiable dunce. But the people pulling his strings are the same ones who now denigrate Bernie.
That a vacuous grifter like Trump could be elected president by pretending to be a populist, has some people very worried indeed. Why not a real populist like Bernie?
9
This religious person is a Sanders enthusiast. I don’t think I am the only one. And I am sure, absolutely sure, more can be persuaded.
7
I’ll vote for Bernie, Michael, Elizabeth, Joe or even Pete. My vote is a given. The question is the ten percent of goofball undecideds.
2
Exactly!
1
Welcome to the Democratic circular firing squad 2019. Trump will eat Medicare for all for lunch and ask for seconds. It’s the electoral college for god sake!
2
Bernie is the democratic version of Trump.
3
voters are angry at politicians in 2016 and rebelled to elect the anti-political types....maybe the same all old true in 2020...vote in another anti political type-Sanders,,,anti in that he is honestly passionate, speaks in a simple manner, is against the big businesses that annoy all of us ( they pay little or no federal taxes), and t his targets are everyone's most hated- insurances firms, drugs manufacturers, high pried and unregulated colleges ( tuitions that are out of control)
sanders can win....
imagine the debate....a proven liar and show boat fake against a passionate, hard working man of the people with no money and no hidden tax forms
5
It is remarkable that an older, white, millionaire, Jewish male can do well in today’s DEM party. There’s a genuineness to him that’s appealing. One believes that he believes. So, why does someone like myself, who shares most of his demographic (except I’m middle aged and middle class), not care for him? That’s a legitimate question ... I truly don’t know. Anyone?
2
You note that he Democratic Party leadership doesn't understand Sanders' campaign. One of the frustrating things for non Washington or New York based Democrats is that the leadership seems to understand precious little. I have an awful feeling of horror about this election if it remains in the hands of this inept crew.
9
I'd like to take this opportunity to ask the NYTimes why Michael Barbaro (the Daily podcast) doesn't grill other candidates on their support of murderous international tyrants and campaigns (including Saudi Arabia) with the same insistence with which he grilled Sanders on his support of Sandinista leaders over 30 years ago. It's a fair question to pose Sanders, when placed in context (and Sanders must also become more skilled at answering it).
But without this context, it's just a disingenuous move by the NYTimes to tarnish him. Surely you people know the history. While all human rights abuses are inexcusable, this was in the context of US-support for the far worse Somoza and Contra abuses. The US government uses moral relativism ALL THE TIME to justify much worse than a meeting with Sandinistas. And this was 30 years ago!
To repeat, I'd like to see why the foreign policy consensus of consent to instances of foreign human rights abuses (as long as they're right-wing) is seldom questioned by the NYTimes, while you uphold our society's taboo against expressing any sympathy for the self-determination of people who are reacting to generations of US-backed murder by installing communists in power.
7
Bernie Sanders is the only candidate who is capable of tearing Donald Trump apart during the fall 2020 campaign. None of the others have what it takes.
When Trump was campaigning in 2105, Sanders was the first Democrat to publicly call Trump "a pathological liar" - the most important characterization of Trump in public life until now.
Sanders repeated this in public dozens of times before the 2016 election.
Bernie Sanders has spent the last 4 years making a solid case that Donald Trump is a pathological liar and a fraud unfit to be president.
Let's let Bernie get the job done.
5
Nixon '72.
1
As relevant as Napoleon 1805 or Mehmet the Conqueror 1451.
3
Wow! An altogether positive article about Bernie Sanders! Thank you nyt, finally!
For the 2016 election, I had planned not to vote anymore for US prez, determining that anybody who wanted that office must be crazy, a terrible human, or both, based on previous examples; then along came Bernie, and at the rather old age of 75, i found myself...thrilled. The dems call themselves the party of the middle class. Most of what I know about that class comes from scrubbing their toilets and floors, changing their sheets, cleaning out their refrigerators w/ 20 kinds of mustard, each used once, etc...
I actually took Bernie's advice and voted in 2016 for Hilary whom I have never liked nor trusted, and later cursed myself for falling once again for the lesser weevil.
No More! this next election will be the last one I vote in, and I'm going to vote for Bernie Sanders, whose stated opinions most nearly reflect my own.
Join me
11
Gosh, 20 years ago Progressives were considered to be the same as Communists. Considering Bernie, they still are.
1
Excellent. All we have to worry about is the DNC.
7
"Don’t Think Sanders Can Win? You Don’t Understand His Campaign
There was a time in America when being called a socialist could end a political career. Not anymore"
Total Leftist nonsense.
Sanders will not get the nomination....and you know it.
3
Actually, Donald Trump's analysis --just two days ago--is the best snap political take on Bernie's so-called "socialism," which is really just a fulfillment of the promises in Pres. Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal. As Trump said to a sample audience of the top 1% in Florida--such as Sheldon Adelson----to paraphrase--"if Bernie or Warren get elected--you'll be out of business in 15 minutes, and you know it." Yes--the New Deal--precludes vast corporate/familial wealth, doesn't it? And Bernie combines New Dealism --which went out of fashion about 1972--with another factor unexplored by the NY Times-- Judeo-Catholic Social Thought and its core idea of just distribution of resources. Bernie speaks more like a Catholic Bishop--arguing from principles that sound straight out of Papal Encyclicals such as Gaudium et Spes and Pacem in Terris--than the Bishops themselves or Joe Biden, who has no clue what Catholic social teaching is. And this second factor--of social justice from the Judeo Christian Tradition---which Bernie instantiates so thoughtfully--needs to be explored by the NY Times staff in some articles, please. We are not talking--"socialism"--just--a just social system--defined as--economic equality for all which--is quite a different political animal than socialism. In 2019 it looks--only looks "radical" to an average American but it is the everyday norm for people in Europe and Canada.
5
Bernie Sanders may ride disaffection to the Democratic nomination but him winning the presidency is as likely as seeing a pink unicorn in a snowstorm at the 4th of July parade in Scottsdale.
3
The New York Times needs to step up their coverage of Bernie and stop acting like its a foregone conclusion that he will not win. You are being blindsided like the 2016 Democratic Party. Pay very close attention. This is happening.
8
Bloomberg is the only candidate who candidate who can beat DJT. I doubt DJT will be impeached before the 2020 election.
1
@BJM Running with the stop-and-frisk New York billionaire candidate whose main strength is credibility on the economy, against the incumbent who is also a New York billionaire but who now owns the booming economy with record Dow and employment numbers? Seems like a losing proposition.
We need a sufficiently different kind of candidate, one who appeals both to those for whom the economy is not working and to those for whom moral integrity is important.
You know who I'm talking about.
2
Bernie Sanders will restore power to the PEOPLE!
6
It strikes me as a bit delusional to think that an elderly Jewish socialist from the Northeast can win a national election. Current events seem to indicate that it will be less likely in 2020 than it was in 2016, and that was not very likely.
2
He is a mean nasty fraud. I admired him for demonstrating the emperor, Hillary, had no clothes. But that was then, all we have now is lying and shouting.
Every debate we hear there are 80 million uninsured or "underinsured" Americans. Where is this number coming from and why hasn't the press asked? During the ACA debate there were 40 million uninsured Americans. Since then Medicare expansion covered 20 million and the exchanges 12 million. There are less than 10 million uninsured Americans, and that's because they choose not to get insurance. The courts have said penalizing them is unconstitutional, but anyone can buy subsidized health insurance whenever they want, even after they've gotten sick.
And underinsured? How many drivers or homeowners are underinsured? You're going to take health insurance away from 140 million Americans who BOUGHT it and like it because it's unfair to someone who chose not to buy what Bernie considers the right amount of insurance? That's not socialism, that's Marxism.
The man blames "speculators" for the price of housing, yet he owns 3 houses. Blaming "speculators" for shortages is a Marxist technique. He bought his 3rd house from federal money his wife received as a severance package when she left the presidency of a college. The college then closed. And he has the gall to say the system is "rigged" for others. All this was on the front page of the NYT.
He is a "million-ayhe". He is the man. Stop shouting at us you fraud.
3
Nobody who has actually needed their insurance likes it. Absolutely nobody.
2
...issue orientation "trumps" trump orientation...as Hc learned 2016. DNC has not learned.
2
Bernie and Trump are both opposite ends of the horse shoe. Both came from political obscurity to be the finalist for president. It’s ignorant to think Russian influence only benefited Trump in 2016.
Door Mat perhaps? Or Cone Head?
2
I understand the passion that Bernie Sanders's constituents feel. And I admire that but the reality is he represents a vocal minority. He doesn't have the appeal or base to defeat Donald Trump.
The NYT continuously puts forth opinion pieces like this authored by a college professor from an elitist university on the east coast. At some point the NYT and the Sanders' backers will realize that this does not represent most of America. Bernie Sanders is an admirable man who has zero chance of winning in November 2020. Please stop with this Fox News style propaganda.
1
This column illustrates how completely detached Ivory Tower liberal elites are. They are as far removed from working class reality as the billionaires. Sanders could potentially score a perfect vote (zero) in rural areas, being Jewish will not help in the Midwest, kiss the South goodbye (including North Carolina and Georgia, swing states of the near future), ask blacks how they really feel about Jews, Michigan (lots of Muslims) would be lost. Sanders would get the most enthusiastic votes ever cast in an American election, but elections are won by quantity of votes rather than quality, and he would lose in a landslide. And did I mention that he is 78 and just had a heart attack?
This article is a pipe dream, wholly inconsistent with the polling data in the swing states that the Times presented last month.
2
@PR Don't believe the hype!
I love articles like this. It shows how out of touch the Dems are with the vast majority of citizens in the US. It also paves the way for another Trump presidency. Keep articles coming like this and you’ end up with Bernie vs The Donald and Bernie will lose that draw every day of the week and twice on Sunday.
1
Why haven't Sanders and Warren teamed up, like six months ago? They would capture a plurality of the Democratic vote and we could relax a little knowing who the general-election winning ticket would be. Sanders in the top slot, then if or when he decides to retire, Warren can appoint a younger VP. This seems like such a no-brainer to me that when I look at the Dems now I get suspicious. Between Pelosi's foot-dragging on impeachment (which weakened the case) and the party's failure to coalesce around a viable presidential ticket, is it possible the wealthy elites in the party are, on some level, OK with Trump winning again? Quiet as it's kept, I think the answer might be yes; the stock market is still sky high after all.
4
I am a Canadian who has recently had first hand, first class experience with socialized medicine, and I know there are so many people in your country who would love to live under a similar system.
So why is there such resistance and fear from so many others? Why does it take so much money to succeed in politics? Why are so many locked in dead end jobs that will never get them even a taste of the American Dream? Why will most of those people, despite their lot in life, still cling to the remnants of an archaic system that has no future?
Those of us who have lived with socialized medicine understand its limitations, but will fight tooth and nail to keep it safe from the nightmare that is your for profit medical system. We hope you can join us soon in this and many other fronts.
5
Even though Democratic Party establishment and main media down play Bernie Sanders campaign, he has many staunch supporters who are not gullible mistaking socialism with communism. He has a mosaic of supporters who will continue to support him . At present stage of American politics we need to elect leaders who can change the establishment for the benefit of many common people. Lincoln was against slavery and fought against establishment and changed American History.
3
This is a time for calm not bold. There will be no luxury of
sweeping change let alone trying to overcome labels this time around.
It's time for Sanders to anoint a successor to grow the
movement he has started. It is naive to nominate him.
In many ways he inflicted uneccessary damage to
Hillary in the primaries last time.
Geez, Democrats get real with someone who will win!
215
Bernie beats Trump consistently in polls from 2016 through now. If Biden is the nominee, Trump will eat gaffe-prone and cognitively challenged Joe. Buttigieg is an empty suit that will dampen Democratic enthusiasm. And how did that centrist strategy work in 2016. We can’t afford NOT to nominate Bernie.
283
@T H Beyer "In many ways he inflicted uneccessary damage to Hillary in the primaries last time." Actually, I would say that Hillary inflicted unethical damage to Sanders in the last campaign. When Al Gore was presented with the GOP playbook, he gave it to the FBI. When Hillary got the questions in advance, she thanked Donna and used them to her advantage. And the Hillary Victory Fund took money from the states they never recovered in an unethical end-run around campaign donation limits. Watched a Sanders' Iowa town hall on C-SPAN yesterday. He's doing just fine, thanks. I don't think you're going to find another Bernie, who hasn't veered from his core beliefs in 40 years, anytime soon. Try testing that on any other politician, who blow with the voters' wind. Like Mayor Pete, for example, who's making up his platform as he figures out what will get him elected.
267
@allseriousnessaside - if he does manage to get the nomination, you'll finally see a picture of Bernie you've never seen before paraded in the press like nothing else.
19
Bernie is the same man who took NYC Fresh Air kids to Vermont and found his calling. In a field of rehearsed
policy nuanced candidates Bernie is an aging hippy who wants to give peace a chance and gi extend the American dream to the disenfranchised. Many voters embrace those visions.
8
Win or lose, Bernie’s message does not waver and he does not back down from fear-mongering labels like “socialist.” I am so proud of the causes he champions and he will always have my vote. Honesty and integrity are of the utmost importance to me. The two-faced “pragmatists” who lie to the primary base can get lost. They’ve broken all trust.
14
This "average American" does think we need to "tear down the system and remake it". But the leadership in the democratic party wouldn't know that, because no one cares what I think. I'm a progressive woman from a blue state, so my vote is completely taken for granted. Most of the democratic leadership is busy pursuing "lunch bucket Joe" and swing state voters, and I am left without representation, except by Warren and Sanders. Note to corporate democrats who promise more of the same: Don't take my vote for granted, you might not get it.
13
@Kathryn Neel
Your comment that you're a "progressive woman from a blue state, so my vote is completely taken for granted," struck a chord with me.
I am a more-than-progressive-actually-liberal woman in a red state, and my vote is not even considered. I tried joining the state's Democratic party, but it is dysfunctional at the moment. Every day I wake up depressed, and every night I have trouble sleeping because of worry over the future of our great nation.
I have supported Bernie with donations for more than three years and will continue to do so. If we want to ensure that Trump is cast out of office and that Trump's influence will be erased from governance, then Bernie is not our only hope, but he may be our best one.
5
One thing to admire about Bernie is that he has not changed his message in 30 years. Of course, he is not a socialist in any form that would be recognizable to any real socialist.
4
@Joe Rockbottom
A person who hasn't changed his message in 30 years doesn't have the flexibility or nimbleness to be president.
2
Thanks to the electoral college, working class white voters in a few states (e.g., PA, Ohio, Michigan) will decide the election. The only Dem who can beat Trump with those voters is Bernie. Thus, even though he’s not my favorite, he has my vote.
9
Great article in the middle of the impeachment which will light up the GOP and make certain Trump will not be impeached. Sanders has a target on his back as big as the state of Texas - Jewish socialist. He also has the same ideas he has had for years because in Vermont they work great but not in the US Congress. I admit that Warren is my first choice with Corey Booker as her VP but if Sanders is the party choice I will sit at home as his supporters did for Clinton. And as someone already commented, his supporters will sit at home as they did in 2016 if he is not the candidate. He's an independent for a reason - he can barely say the word Democrat without adding socialist. Sanders is not the guy the GOP will let win and you are naive, as is the writer of the opinion piece, if you think the GOP will not do a Swift Boat on Sanders as they did on Kerry and Clinton. Finally, as a man with a heart condition that I have dealt with my whole life I would say putting Sanders in the White House is truly asking for him to not last out one term - check out how it aged Obama and even more clearly Reagan. Warren has still got the get-up-and-go the office requires. And Corey Booker will widen her voter base and is a great VP choice. Together they can defeat Trump.
1
Grow up. I was a 2016 Sanders supporter who ended up voting for Hillary, as many other Sanders supporters I know did. I’m still a very enthusiastic Sanders supporter today, but will vote for whoever the Democratic nominee ends up being. We Democrats simply can’t afford to stay home pouting if our choice doesn’t turn out to be the nominee — our democracy and our planet are at stake.
3
@Martha I'm 74 and a political philosophy major in college. It's not a matter of "growing up" but of facing reality. The GOP is one step away from anointing Trump for life as president. Look at the court judges who lack qualifications who the GOP has given life-time appointments. The GOP is not about to let Sanders become president and have the funding to stop his campaign efforts. Twenty years ago they did it to Kerry and have remained weaponized ever since. I want Trump defeated and in prison. Warren/Booker is the ticket.
Bernie Sanders wants to decriminalize illegal entry to the U.S. and to offer a 5 year path to citizenship to those who are here illegally perhaps without realizing that this would encourage hundreds of millions more to come illegally. We already have the world's 3rd highest population. Our country is $20 trillion dollars in debt, and does not have enough affordable housing, hospital beds, classroom space, etc. for our own citizens.
Most illegal immigrants have little education. (A 2/17 Inter American Dialogue Report titled "Educational Challenges in Honduras and Consequences for Human Capital and Development” said the average Honduran, age 15 and above, has only a 4th grade education. Even those Hondurans who have attended school for more years do not do well on international tests for their grade levels. Guatemala and El Salvador have higher illiteracy rates than Honduras.) (The average adult in rural Mexico has no more than a grade school education.)
Many people who migrated to the U.S. in earlier centuries were able to sustain themselves and their families despite having little formal education, but would not be able to do so today. Automation and out-sourcing leaves many fewer unskilled and low skilled jobs. Allowing illegal immigrants to compete with citizens for the jobs keeps wages low.
Being in debt, our country is having a hard time supporting our own citizens. We cannot support illegal immigrants, too.
1
@ann The Trump tax cuts are causing our national debt to explode, adding $1 trillion to it every year.
To subsequently say there is no money for progressive economic policies is precisely the Republican strategy.
6
@ann we have record-low unemployment and employers are having a hard time finding people to fill low-skill jobs. Continuing to allow low-skilled immigrants into our country will actually help our economy continue its expansion. The ballooning debt is due to tax cuts, tax loopholes, and endless wars. Let's not take our fears out on those at the bottom of the totem pole.
2
@Anne
I do not understand the tax cuts, but I would like to point out that we hit $20 trillion before they went into effect.
In general, the children of parents with little education require far more resources to educate than those whose parents are better educated. Most illegal immigrants are poorly educated. Our schools are strapped with having to do far more than just teach English to illegal immigrant minors and to the children of illegal immigrants. To teach these children academics, schools have to expend more teacher time and resources. They take an inordinate amount of our education dollars which leaves less for everyone else.
It is interesting that many of those who hire illegal immigrants do not want the latter's children attending school with their own children.
The people who support illegal immigrants do not have to compete with them for affordable housing or a bed at the hospital. They do not have to worry about having their own children in overcrowded classrooms where many of the students' parents have only a few years of education, do not speak English, and do not place special importance on education.
Those who support illegal immigration seem unable to place themselves in the shoes of citizens whose own resources are being undercut by illegal immigration.
Yes, it is class based, not race based.
Both race and class could be called identity group politics, but one is inclusive and the other exclusive.
Winning requires including as many voters as possible. Driving any away is a self defeating act.
6
"Tax cuts for the elite and corporations" isn't the conventional wisdom of any Democrat that I know. Moreover, Sanders is at best a socialist lite, according to the standard definitions of socialism. The vast majority of all Democrats including Mr. Sanders agree on the same set of broad, general aims, including something that could be characterized as progressive, compassionate capitalism.
10
@Robert
Its what Clinton and Obama both did so apparently they thought it was a good idea...
@David
I'm talking now not 1993 when Clinton was elected. As for Obama, in 2010 he signed the bill that extended the Bush tax cuts. If he had done otherwise, it would have been catastrophic. We were in the thick of the 2008 Bush Republican crash--in case you have already (conveniently) forgotten.
1
When will Sanders release his medical records from his recent heart attack? Surely this is a bigger deal than Trump releasing his tax returns.
Yet democrats give him a free pass? Why?
4
@Sparky
And why not take a look at Bernie's tax returns?
He certainly didn't want to cough them up in 2016.
2
@N. Smith. We should, of course.
But the bigger issue is, if Sanders were to die after winning the democratic nomination, he would almost certainly cost democrats the election. We should know how likely that is. I suspect it is very possible.
1
I think he can win - that's not the problem I have with him. I love that he uses moral language to describe the need for a leftward policy shift in the US - the right-wing love of greed, willingness to lie constantly, and intolerance toward minority groups that don't conform to their every expectation are what repulse me the most about GOP and conservative movement, not just that trickle down economics doesn't work or whatever (although that's true too). But it would be nice if he and his supporters didn't constantly imply that only the most transformative of policy changes count for anything at all (see the ACA vs M4A).
There is a WORLD of difference between the center / center-left Democrat's view of social obligations to others and the typical Republican view on these matters. This is something Sanders acknowledges intermittently, but also seems to be at odds with his rhetoric, and certainly the rhetoric of many of his supporters.
2
Bernie will win if he’s nominated. This arricle is another thinly disguised “OMG Socialist, OMG Communism! No, pay attention. Social Democracy. Helping our fellow citizens rather than prosecuting endless and useless wars. I’ve yet to understand why having one’s tax dollars spent on helping is more horrifying than having them spent on war, death, walls and war profiteering. Perhaps because“they” may get helped? Try to understand that we are a social species, who does it’s best in concert, but will destroy itself with our rapid, blind individualism and consumerism. Not me Us! The only way we’ll right this ship of state.
7
@Samantha Kelly
"This article is another thinly disguised "OMG Socialist, OMG Communism!" ?
Say what? How did you possibly conclude that from an editorial that is, quite obviously, the opposite of what you're asserting?
1
"spectacular failure" of Hillary Clinton in 2016? Let's remember (as Trump doesn't want us to) that she won the popular vote by 3 million over our current president, who won because of the distribution of his votes among the states, not the amount of his support overall.
8
Only Bernie can defeat Trump because he has electoral leverage. A large enough portion of Bernie's supporters voted for Trump in 2016 and will do so again to make the possibility of any other candidate defeating Trump a mathematical impossibility next year.
You'll never hear that on MSNBC of course.
5
Sanders voted against the Brady Act. Nowadays, he pretends to be anti-gun. I don't believe him.
3
Bernie’s vote against Brady was his deal with the devil, so he could win statewide in Vermont. Though low in gun violence, gun ownership is very widespread and Vermont’s gun laws are among the loosest in the country. Deeply embedded in state culture despite struggling demographics. Hard to swallow, but no candidate is pure or perfect. Not sure how he’d nuance that history if he were the nominee.
2
To borrow from the article's headline, if you think Sanders can win, you don't understand the swing state voters.
155
@Butch
Replace "can" with "can't" and you hit the nail on the head.
When swing state voters begin to realize that his policies, unlike corporate tax cuts -- the only real policy of any Republican administration -- will put money in their pockets and might actually address the real issues faced by those states, unlike the fantasy proposals which Trump promised (many of which were liberal sounding), you'll see the pundits proved wrong once again.
35
@DSM this is assuming that people vote in their best interests, which is generally not true.
7
@Butch Is that why he beat Hillary in 2016 in Michigan, Wisconsin, and West Virginia with far less name recognition than he has today?
31
The writer thinks that most of us don't understand Bernie's campaign, but I think the writer doesn't understand the reality of America outside of New York City and Los Angeles.
7
@CScott Or the very rarefied world of the Ivy-covered Halls of Princeton.
1
@CScott
Or outside of Twitter.
@CScott
She doesn't get a lot about us here in NYC, either.
I would say my own political views are to the far, far left of the Democratic Party spectrum. IOW, I am a traditionally moderate Democrat in the FDR tradition, compared to the main streams of the Party these days, which have been pushed ever farther to the right, so that today’s Democrats most resemble moderate to conservative Republicans of 25 years ago or so. Perhaps even Nixon fit right in.
So perhaps it’s time we nominate a moderate like Bernie Sanders.
13
Bernie will actually save capitalism. Oligarchy does not fit the American model. It is a remnant of the British aristocracy. If we don't help Bernie rein in the Oligarchy, there is a king in our future.
13
A quote from Sanders' website. It says all you need to know about Socialists, which is that they would be more dangerous to the country than even Trump has been:
"These days, the American dream is more apt to be realized in South America, in places such as Ecuador, Venezuela and Argentina, where incomes are actually more equal today than they are in the land of Horatio Alger. Who's the banana republic now?"
Well, Bernie. How did socialism work in Venezuela? Want to try to convince any Trump supporters or centrist Democrats to vote for someone who calls our country a "banana republic?"
2
Not a chance. While the typical NYT reader, and the typical NYT “commenter”, might not mind (or might support) Bernie’s socialism, out here in “flyover country” (where the Dems lost the last election), his name is anathema. I know a lot of highly educated, thoughtful moderates from both parties, who have said they would vote for ANY Dem except Bernie, and if it came down to Donnie vs. Bernie, they’d stay home. This is what many of Bernie’s “bloc” did here in WI in 2016. One of the reasons the Dems lost the state by a narrow margin. I realize this is not a popular or accepted view among the “woke”, but it’s absolutely accurate.
141
@stevevelo You're acting as if the "highly educated thoughtful moderates" actually represent the majority of the midwest. There are far more votes to be gained from the working class who felt disenfranchised in 2016 and thus either stayed home or voted for Trump. Those votes are the only way to win in the midwest, and those are the votes that Bernie would get and a centrist would not.
71
@stevevelo if you’re so right then why did Bernie beat Hilary in Michigan and Wisconsin in the 2016 primary?
80
@stevevelo Do you know any working class people of color unexcited about more moderation and centrism? There are many Milwaukee, Detroit, and Philadelphia.
37
I like the idea of Sanders a lot, I can see most of his policies working in the short term. He's probally the best candidate of the bunch.
I see two gaping holes in his platform though, which could make his policies disastrous in 10 years or less:
1. The biggest issue is one of population control combined with the continued automatization of more and more low-skilled jobs. As the population continues to increase at its current rate, the number of available jobs won't be able to keep up. At some point (in the not so-distant-future) this problem would break the whole system. It needs to be recognized and begin to be addressed now, not tomorrow.
2. While Bernie is good at targeting the "Corporate Billionaires" he seems to forget about the "Barons". Those who control finite resource supplies like lumber, metal ores, oil, and rare-earth materials. Resource holders have unprecedented global political influence, and are among the most exploited.
I wish Bernie could combine some of Yang's platform into his own. While Yang doesn't have the personality or experience to be a political leader, some of his "futurism" views are so important they can't be put off till tomorrow.
5
The Third Way that started in the nineties seemed like a good idea at the time, and was popular in much of the West including Britain (Tony Blair), Germany (Gerhard Schröder) and of course the US (Bill Clinton). It probably worked best in Germany, where the Hartz reforms created the foundation of an unprecedented era of prosperity.
In the US, moving more towards the moderate Republican position has had negative consequences. In our bipartisan system the Republican party moved right too and its moderate candidates struggled to be sufficiently different from Democrats. Moreover, as most Republican voters will not vote for a Democrat ever in their lifetime, they moved right along with the party and adopted more radical views.
After three decades, much of the Democratic base now believes where the party has taken them: moderate Republican views on the economy in combination with liberal social views.
The pendulum started swinging back in 2016 with Bernie doing much better than anyone expected and is now in full force with radical Republican ideas going to policy, excesses of raw capitalism on full display.
Our country will never be as socialist as Europe, but to return to its natural position a bit right of most EU countries the Democratic leadership needs to follow, not overrule, the building undercurrent and re-embrace the European lifestyle. On balance with Republican views, that will take us back to our healthy and natural position.
5
Nope, not sold on Bernie or his movement.
However, should he win the nomination I will become a fervent Bernie supporter.
3
Good read, Dr. Taylor; thank you.
Senator Sanders is the first national-level political figure to truly speak for me in my lifetime. His clear, unequivocal, lifelong vision has always been nothing less than government by the people with liberty and justice for ALL. I would submit that that's as American a vision as exists anywhere this side of Lincoln.
For those who persist in the puzzling notion that the road to victory lies in courting Republicans disenchanted with Individual-1—and that only a Clinton-type corporate Dem can pull that iffy demographic—I'll just point out the 2016 debacle. Anecdotally, of our many GOP-captiive neighbors, friends, and family members, I don't know one who doesn't have some level of grudging respect for Bernie Sanders. They've heard enough of his message to know he says what he means and acts from conviction--and they know exactly whose side he's on every time. By contrast, our red-leaning acquaintanceship hates the corporate Clinton-style "liberal elites" with every waking breath. It doesn't take a pile of political scientists to know where a disaffected Trump voter's ballot is most likely to land.
On a personal level, Bernie has earned my loyal ongoing support by always standing up for the working class, the underdog, and the veteran: in return, this underdog working class veteran backs Bernie 100%.
Sanders 2020.
25
@Patrick Sigel : The emphasis on "courting Republicans" is a losing proposition, because anyone who is still a Republican in this day and age is pretty much glued to the Trump cult.
The real prize is the 50% of the population that doesn't vote because their lives are miserable no matter which corporate-funded president is in office.
2
@Pdxtran
Amen, Pdx.
If enough of us register and vote in the primaries, we can force the Democratic party back to its New Deal roots.
Ultimately, my hope is that ranked-choice voting will make party politics irrelevant.
2
Agreed.
But it seems to me a fool’s errand for Democrats to hang their hats on the notion of converting Trump voters to vote for ANY Democrat. A few outliers might possibly switch, nothing statistically significant, but politics American Style is lately a religious war and we have our Shia and our Sunni, the Church of Rome v the breakaway Protestants squabbling among themselves; conversions through magic or through the sword are possible but not likely. For one thing, Trump voters who switch teams would have to admit they were snookered in 16 and that’s a rare thing indeed. More likely, they will double down. So, the path to Democratic victory lies in gathering together traditional Democratic and progressive voting blocks who have not already defected and also bringing in those who skipped the whole thing last time around, especially younger voters. The election will be carried by women, black Americans, urban and suburban voters, and the young, together with other groups whose strength is in the aggregate because they are individually small in number.
Trump carried the key states last time by only about 80,000 votes. How many voters have since died, and how many have become newly enfranchised since then? There’s where the margin is.
At some point, I still believe, people will wake up and realize that their are only two kinds of Republican: Rich ones and dumb ones.
At some point, one would think, the Christians could actually look at themselves and see the chasm of inequity they have dug for themselves by endorsing the GOP like it was tattooed on their bottoms at baptism.
It is the youth that see more clearly than their parents. We said that when we were 27 years old and marching in the streets over the Christian Vietnam carnage. Now I am an old man and still saying it. My contemporaries suck.
6
If a candidate is courting money from corporations, then they're beholding to those corporations, not you, or the other voters. The centrist democrats want the same bribery and legal corruption to continue filling their pockets, by taking your vote, your power, to make political change in America. We need to get corporations' power and money out of politics, otherwise we'll be heading for George Orwell's world; we're almost there already.
14
Bernie supporters: your candidate is a good man. If the nomination goes to him, I’m all in. Right now though I think only a woman can throw Trump off his game. Especially an intelligent women.
Trump, attacking a woman like Elizabeth, is simply showing how misogynistic he is. He can’t resist the cheap shot. In turn, I hope half the population turns away from him.
If Bernie is it, great. But if Elizabeth gets the nod, please join us. Either way, maybe this country can straighten itself out.
Most importantly though, make sure everyone you know...votes!
6
@PC
Agreed.
I'm Sanders all the way.
Should Elizabeth take the convention, I have no doubt that Bernie will be her biggest backer--and I'll be her second-biggest.
1
Everything else aside, in the general, Warren’s gender is likely to work in her favor while Bernie’s religious heritage will surely work against him.
Capitalism has visited countless harms on American society and our most vulnerable people, but even more monstrous has been its effects on the environment and our habitat. Our species is facing possible extinction because of capitalism’s demands for short-term profits.
We have for-profit news that does not inform, for-profit schools that do not enlighten, and a corrupt culture that prioritizes personal wealth and advancement at society’s expense.
Boeing is put in charge of regulating themselves, and hundreds of dead people later we’re learning about the role of the Clinton administration in enabling that decision. The private defense sector’s spokespeople go on MSNBC and promote the war in Afghanistan, for the benefit of military contractor shareholders.
The list of wrongs committed in the name of amassing incomprehensible fortunes is becoming clearer every day. Capitalism is a proven failure, I just hope we’ve discovered this truth in time to avert even more severe environmental catastrophe.
8
When the corporate media bother to notice Bernie, they always ask why young people are supporting a 78-year-old who's had a heart attack. Corporate media want us to focus on likability and electability. But we don't need to like Bernie; we need to trust him. The corporate media are never going to say the 3 most important words: Follow the money. Bernie is being funded by $17 donations. Most other candidates are being funded by the super-rich. This is the main reason I support Bernie. Our country has barely survived 40 years of allowing Wall St. and the health insurance industry to make policy. Most young people are terrified of climate change. They know that we cannot survive another 4 years of making nice with the fossil fuel industry. They love the candidate who is not beholden to the military industrial complex. They can trust that Bernie will work with other countries to reverse climate change, not start useless wars.
23
Black people voting for Sanders is just idiotic.
4
I don’t think that the writer is genuinely reflecting the appeal of Sanders to black women in this or the last election. For whatever reason Sanders simply doesn’t resonate with Black women, and without this demographic he will not take any of the southern states. I believe that it is quite telling that Warren with a nearly identical platform polls better amongst black women than Sanders. Sanders doesn’t strike me as the type of personality that will adjust himself or his message to be more appealing and as a result I don’t see him expanding his base much beyond where it currently sits. I’m concerned though that when it becomes apparent that Sanders has no path to win the nomination he and is supporters will take their balls and go home.
2
@Cassandra B : And how any Southern states did Hillary Clinton take in the general election?
1
@Cassandra B yes, he's leading with young black women, but your anecdotal insistence that he "simply doesn't resonate" sounds like some kind of Khive fantasy tale.
1
I don’t know a single person younger than me who supports anyone else, and among the 20 somethings there’s serious talk as to whether in the face of the impending climate crises Sanders is in fact much too moderate. He’s not just going to win, he’s going to win big, and it’s about damn time.
24
He will not win. I like him. But this won't happen. No billionaires please. I like Warren but don't know about her ability to surmount all the crap to come.
2
BS promises pie in the sky and a chicken in every pot.
4
@AK Wild how many other countries have figured out how to produce those aerial pies. Maybe we can ask them for the recipe?
3
In terms of the ecosphere, and of our world-wide descent into fascistic inequity, and the computer-assisted control of human behavior (see China), Sanders is likely our last chance to stand up to Money and the inexorable dominance of the wealth hoarders. The younger cohort of voters who must inherit the results of the next election are turning to Sanders. Their elders should follow their lead.
4
Read your history. Look at 1972. Nominating Bernie Sanders in 2020 is at least an echo, if not a repeat of the George McGovern disaster. Yes, there are some who see radical change as a necessity. Still, there are many more voters who would otherwise abandon the incumbent but could not vote for Sanders in 2020 just as many could not vote for Clinton in 2016. It is not a cop out to seek a candidate to oppose the incumbent with a strong progressive agenda who can also gain the support of independents and others ready to end the nightmare we have endured since January 2017.
5
The oligarchs in the Democratic Party, big business and corporate media fear Bernie Sanders and an informed electorate more than another four years of Trump and GOP majority. 2020 will be a turning point in history. The battle lines are drawn. Now is the time for all good men and women ...
7
...to vote for Joe Biden, who can actually get elected and get stuff done.
1
This certainly describes the Democrats' dilemma. If they nominate "more of the same" they might unseat Trump but not deal with the reason why he was elected to begin with. If they vote for "radical change" they might get stuck with Trump for 4 more years. Or not.
It's a bivariate decision set and dilemma: who best to unseat Trump, and which direction to send the Democratic party. If the corporate wing wins, that will set the agenda for the Democrats' future, and pave the way for the next Trump, who will be more clever, less obviously disruptive, and therefore more dangerous.
If I thought the Sanders wing could pull the corporate wing far enough to the left, I'd say go with them. But I don't believe they can break free of their sponsors, and their candidate (Biden) has serious problems. But then, I believe Sanders would hit the ground running, hit a wall, and get nothing done.
So here's the Cliff Notes version: I don't know what the Democrats should do, but I'll vote for whoever they nominate and pray that that person beats Trump.
2
@mlbex
"If the corporate wing wins, ..."
Pretty much all Democrats are "corporate." Pretty much all Democrats agree on living wages, affordable education, health care, etc. And pretty much all of the Democrats who support somebody other than Sanders are not "corporate." Can we all finally stop pushing that untruth?
2
@mlbex As a moderate, I find this attitude that “nothing will change” under a moderate candidate so frustrating. A public option is a big change! Drug pricing reform is change! Gun safety is change! Green jobs are change! Not to mention, saving the Supreme Court. We will make things better, rather than burning everything down and blithely assuming that we can start from scratch.
3
@Mercury S : I never meant to say nothing will change. By "more of the same", I meant compared to Clinton and Obama, either of which would be a great improvement over Trump, but would be "more of the same" compared to Sanders or Warren.
1
Please print my prediction. Bernie won't get enough delegates at the convention and he will throw his support to Biden as he did with Clinton in 2016. This time it will be the right move.
3
Exactly. But is anyone in the DNC listening? I fear we are in a "Groundhog Day" loop of deja vu, where the way out is regularly offered to us, but we repeat our electoral mistakes over and over, as we spiral down to being a third world country. If we are not there already.
4
Sanders is the best presidential candidate in the race sympathetic to the working-class. Given his opposition to so much of the Establishment's selfish interests--which are extremely harmful to both the planet and the world--I'm not surprised at the extent of their opposition to him.
I suspect that DNC handlers and their Establishment Media surrogates are wary of alienating too much of the public by attacking Sanders directly, thereby driving more voters to Trump (or worse, to activism and protest). This is a credible concern from their POV because Sanders is arguably the most popular candidate in the race. To avoid this, much of the EM ignores him whenever possible.
The very fact that national news outlets try to hide Sanders' growing popularity is all the more reason to support his campaign.
This strategy will change, of course, if Sanders pulls into the lead, threatens to leave all others behind. Then their criticism of him will intensify, coming from the big guns such as Obama.
Right-wing Democrats like Pelosi, Obama and Clinton would rather see Trump win in 2020 than see Bernie win in 2020.
These self-obsessed greedy fools don't realize there's a groundswell of discontent and rage fermenting among the working-class and that's why Bernie is surging. He received four million in individual donations and has more than a million volunteers. Young and old are fed up with the political corruption and it's only a matter of time before the working-class takes to the streets.
8
Even BS's most opposite tax revenue projections will not pay for MDCR4All, student debt forgiveness, free tuition, Green New Deal, and so on (and it really never ends does it?). Moreover, he will never have the majority in Congress necessary to get any of this passed. So what does his campaign accomplish? This campaign and the support for it has nothing to do with these legislative goals, just like Trump's campaign never really intended to build a wall. This is an exercise in sentiment. A Sanders presidency will make a lot of noise but we'll simply become more entrenched.
2
I supported Mr. Sanders in 2016, as generously as I legally could. I believe in the man's vision. When entities like the New York Times were (and still are) consumed by identity politics (Has Charles Blow ever considered any other causes for our cultural challenges, other than race?) and endorsed the candidacy of a deeply flawed corporate puppet, Mr. Sanders was relentless in his message: economic class and wealth disparity is poisoning our society.
That's a message that brings people together, unlike identity politics. It has the capacity to unite poor rural whites and struggling urban blacks. It recognizes that my kids have a huge advantage in life because they chose the right parents, and that's retrograde to humanity's aspirations. If moving in the direction of fairness is too bold, then we're doomed.
10
I don't think Sanders can win. I'm a liberal Dem and would never vote for him, even against Trump.
Sanders isn't a Dem. He doesn't work with Dems. He tried to sabotage the last election after losing the nomination. He's a data-averse populist and is essentially the Left version of Trump (minus the lying, racism and contempt for rule of law).
7
@Osito
I would hate to vote for Sanders, but I am operating under "vote blue no matter who."
One thing I know - it would be good for the Dems to settle on a candidate soon. I see Trump's camp already has big RVs with campaign materials making a show for him, and Dems need someone we can look to and say "That's our candidate!"
We all know the political process will cause compromises in positions, so it's time to stop diddlying about and back someone.
1
Many think Sanders cannot win because they believe what they hear n CNN. MSDNC and other major media outlets even when it runs contrary to polls which show his front-runner status and his unique ability to beat Trump by large numbers..
5
I respectfully disagree. If the Democrats don't nominate a moderate, Trump will be reelected, much to our collective horror. You heard it here first. Bernie is too old.
3
@Mark
I think the fact that he doesn't appeal to moderate voters is more significant than the fact that he's too old, considering how many candidates are in their 70s.
But his health condition must most certainly be in question.
You are entitled to your opinion but not to categorical imperatives. Unless you are Kant of course :-)
3
Not voting for Sanders and don't get the "love affair" for this hectoring old man who has been in Congress forever and achieved nothing.
I like some of the ideas he supports but I don't like him and I don't like that he's old and don't like that he's a pretend Democrat each time an election comes around and otherwise labels himself a socialist but is too cowardly to run as either a Socialist or an Independent.
4
As a usually center-left voter, the subservient behavior of the GOP as it rallies around the mob boss in the White House has pushed me further left; Republicans have shown no willingness to compromise or even to play by the rules, and their previous obsessions (debt reduction) and advocating for democracy abroad (remember Fox News cheering the Iraq "liberation"?) have been tossed aside like last week's fish.
But it's not just a tit-for-tat reaction to the gross contortions of the right wing in the past few years: the fact is, many of the most massive and dire problems on earth (environmental destruction and nuclear proliferation) can only be solved through civic-minded cooperation (or "democratic socialism", if you prefer) and international alliances with other well-intentioned nations.
I don't agree with (or see as feasible) every Sanders proposal, but I do believe he will always act with benevolence and compassion, and his more pie-in-the-sky ideas will be filtered out by the realities of governing.
One of the most profound ironies of this bizarre political era is how a phony philandering narcissist like Trump receives slavish loyalty from "evangelicals" while Bernie Sanders, a secular jew, is advocating for actual Christian policies--feeding the poor, caring for the sick, and welcoming the desperate.
10
Re
" Neither the Democratic Party establishment nor the mainstream media really understand his campaign"
This became shockingly clear in 2016 in a series of articles in the NY Times by Paul Krugman attacking Sanders
Culminating in "Sanders over the Edge"
"From the beginning, many and probably most liberal policy wonks were skeptical about Bernie Sanders. On many major issues — including the signature issues of his campaign, especially financial reform — he seemed to go for easy slogans over hard thinking. "
NYT April 8, 2016
And to this day, the main stream media, continue to not understand what the Sanders campaign is about.
A recent study gives a clue. Journalism, as a profession, is chosen to a very large degree of the children of the well-off. The offspring of working class parents, when able to go to University at all, rarely pick it.
And thus, most journalists have no emotional experience on what it is to grow up in a lower working class family
17
Krugman was right. Amd you might look up his early background before sneering quite so loudly
And I know all about what growing up in a working class family is like.
2
Not all journalists are reporters at the NY Times. Your average reporter makes as little as $20k. I went to J-school for a while. They were all middle-class kids. I decided to go into corporate writing because journalism didn't pay enough. And Krugman WAS right.
Dr. Taylor, you say that "Although Mr. Sanders grows in popularity, neither the Democratic Party establishment nor the mainstream media really understand his campaign.” Given this fact, what makes you believe that he can actually win the election? You say that it's remarkable that this strategy still has legs and that his standing in the democratic field is in many respects shocking. Why are you still just focusing on yourselves and not looking out of your myopic world to the majority of people who are not ever going to vote for Sanders for a number of reasons, including his age and his health? What is really surprising is your naivete by expecting that Bernie Sanders can really win, and by refusing to put your energy and support behind another candidate (like Elizabeth Warren), you are helping to hand over yet another victory to Trump.
@Martha The Democratic Party establishment and the mainstream media completely understand his campaign, and they fear where it’s gonna hurt ... $$$
1
For me, it's not about him being a Democratic Socialist. It's about him being a 78-yr old who would be 79 on Inauguration Day AND 82 at the end of a first term. He's already the oldest candidate for POTUS in history. Does anyone seriously think he's going to be able to run AND win again as an 82-yr old (who would be 83 on Inaug Day #2?). Because, and maybe this is just me (but I know it isn't), I don't want a POTUS who's a lame duck from the moment they take the Oath of Office in 2025. Whether it's Sanders or Biden, the reality of a 2nd term is a HUGE question mark, and if you're not going to go for 2 terms, why are you even in the race? Yes, it's important to remove Trump. It's just as important to do it with someone who can be in office long enough to undo the damage and who won't give the Republicans (and God forbid, Trump Jr) a shot because we put up the wrong person. So, it's not about his identification as a Dem Socialist. It's about his age. Yeah, I get that we're not supposed to talk about age because supposedly that's ageism. Yet it seems that only applies if you're Biden or Sanders, because talking about Buttigieg's age seems to somehow be fine. I will vote for whoever gets the nomination, so let me be clear about that. But I think it would be a huge mistake to nominate someone for whom a 2nd term is a huge risk. Just my 2cents....
1
Just guessing, but I bet this writer is too young to have Medicare, otherwise he wouldn’t use “government healthcare” in such a dismissive manner. Those of us who have Medicare know that it works and works well.
“Government Healthcare” after all is the norm in many countries around the world, and often is much more successful than the private insurance Americans haphazardly possess. The issue isn’t whether Medicare for All is a good idea or not. It is manifestly the only solution that prevents the diversion of so many health care dollars into private coffers. The real issue is whether we adopt a slow and prudent transition that will gently convert private plans to public ones, or foolishly rush into an intemperate implementation that will prove disastrous.
2
Here, however, is what I understand about Sanders. Not a single credible economist endorsed his economics in 2016. And most climate experts now aren't endorsing his 2020 climate plan. Why in the world couldn't he have adopted Inslee's plan which the vast majority of the experts have endorsed? That tells me something big. Sanders isn't willing to consult the experts now and won't be willing to consult the experts later once he is elected. It's worth noting yet again that pretty much all Democrats agree on the broad aims and objectives behind his promises. Public education should be affordable for the average family, whether free or otherwise. Etc. Based on the polls I've seen, Sanders ISN'T growing in popularity. Taylor claims sans evidence that the polls aren't getting at his working class base. Here's what the polls are telling us. Warren's numbers have grown. Buttigieg's continue to go up. And Biden's are holding steady in the lead. Given that, Sanders could easily be a spoiler once again. I'm still waiting for an honest Sanders mea culpa vis-a-vis the election of Trump, particularly in light of what Mueller told us, namely, that Putin also interfered in order to aid Sanders. I for one have not forgotten the crazy misogyny among the 2016 Sanders supporters and campaign staff. And I'm not sure it is something we should forget. Nice that Sanders has small donors. Sadly that number is a remarkably tiny percentage of the number of eligible voters.
3
Without millennials and minorities, Democrats can't win. And both groups value Bernie's consistency and integrity. No uncertainties there.
That is welcome and refreshing to many of us concerned about the fate of our country, our nation's reputation, and the future of our planet. 45's erratic conduct has destabilized foreign and domestic relationships, and endangered vast tracts of previously pristine national monuments.
Unlike other candidates, Bernie has never zigged in order to zag. He has never sought war as a prelude to peace. Bernie promotes the common good, not elitist incrementalism.
Bernie Sanders is a true patriot and he always was. Given the opportunity to serve as president, I think Bernie would do his best to serve as the peoples' president.
10
@zekwean
Sorry. But that's an over-reach if you mean African-Americans by "minorities", simply because the majority of Black voters tend to be more centrist than Sanders is.
No doubt he may get some millennials, but not necessarily those in the deep south or other states with Black large populations who aren't on board with his agenda -- and that's more than you may think.
It doesn't happen that much here in Vermont, but major-party politics in the USA are rife with corruption. And we know Bernie Sanders very well. He is a genius politician who should never be underestimated. And his criticisms of 2-party politics, and of laissez-faire capitalism, are spot-on.
This is why I, while serving as Windham County (VT) Democratic Chair, ex-officio on the State Democratic Committee, resigned in order to ethically endorse Bernie shortly after he announced for the presidency in May 2015.
I'd be sure to support AO-C in a later contest. We need her badly in this Country. But we have got to find a way to put down the wink-wink, nudge-nudge modus operandi of the major parties, reflective and indicative of white supremacy in this Country and around the world.
Bernard Sanders is an effective voice against all forms of elitist oppression. I think Bernie can do it for all of us. And in effect, the alternative is taking to the streets and killing one another even more than we are now. Bernie is the candidate of peace, justice, and constructive transformation.
23
I still don't think Sanders can win. I wish he would do the right thing and step down, but he thinks he is the new messiah and will never do that. He proved that last election when he helped Hillary lose by staying in too long and not endorsing her when he finally stepped down. We all remember that. We, who didn't vote for him last time, won't vote for him this time either.
2
@Janice T. Sunseri
I along with many others I know will not be voting for a centrist Democratic candidate. Neoliberalism is the reason we have Trump in office. Radical change is coming be it positive or negative. The center will not hold. Bernie or bust!
6
@Janice T. Sunseri I see it quite differently. Hillary had no idea how to harness all the energy of Bernie supporters. In fact, she locked him out of participating. If you're so stubborn that you won't vote for Bernie if he gets the nomination, then you're part of the problem and you have, in effect, given Trump a second term, which is something this country won't survive. Incredibly selfish.
2
Unfortunately, as a lifelong registered Democrat, I can't see myself voting for a socialist who decided to associate himself with the Democratic Party because it is his only path to the presidency and will personally target me for higher taxes, the same thing that Trump and the Republicans did. If the Democrats want to win, they need the upper middle class suburbanites (independents and Republicans) that want an alternative to Trump. What the Democrats have come up with is a) duds and b) the geriatric ward....
4
@martinsamuels
Would you have voted for FDR?
1
I threw in the towel on this piece the moment I read about Sanders' receiving "the coveted endorsement of Representative Ilhan Omar of Minnesota," followed in lockstep by two of her Squad members. That is pretty all I need to know about Dr. Taylor and her view of what America needs.
10
No kidding. The “endorsed by people with limited clout who already agreed with you,” trumpetting is genuinely insufferable.
Sanders has diluted his message. He used to rail against millionaires and billionaires but since becoming a millionaire, he now only goes after billionaires.
3
"Vote Blue no matter who" will rally the committed Democrats.
It will do nothing for the independents, who tend not to vote unless they can see some advantage in it.
3
I think his heart's in the right place and his passion is compelling. But when you tell over 150 million Americans that they'll have to have government healthcare whether they want it or not, you're probably not going to win.
5
Thank you. The most startling transformation of the electorate from 2016 to 2020 is among Latinos. Then, Bernie was just another Anglo; now he is Tio Bernie. I hope the author is correct about Bernie's appeal to another core constituency, black voters.
An establishment democrat may be able to beat our American Mussolini but I'm doubtful. Many ordinary Americans in need of honest, caring government have made a God out of Trump. Look how the President has managed to dirty up Biden. Trump isn't trying to say "I'm not dirty"; he's content if he can make voters believe they are both dirty. Sanders solid integrity is his greatest asset, just when when we need an honest President.
I'm a child of the Depression, member of a cohort that oddly doesn't much support Sanders, who along with Warren is the only heir of FDR in the mix. Where I disagree with the author's commentary, is her refusal to put the word "democratic" in front of socialist.
Freddy Diamant, an academic mentor, escaped the Holocaust to parachute into Normandy on the way to becoming an authority on 20th Century isms. Socialism was a catch all. Stalin claimed it but so did British Labor (Fabians back then) and other Europeans, among them German Social Democrats, qauthors of Germany's economic miracle.
The distinction is vital when kleptocrats like Maduro and Ortega, with whom Bernie has nothing in common, claim to be socialists while Republicans parrot Kremlin propaganda.
9
@Frank McNeil, well put.
People are naturally lazy. Capitalism gets them working. Socialism is a noble ideal but it does not get lazy people to work. I believe you understand a social safety net is desperately needed. Warren and Sanders are excellent choices for that. Whatever your service has been, thank you for your service to this country. And yes, aside from Lincoln, FDR was the greatest President we’ve ever had. As long as the Electoral College doesn’t taint the results, the Monarch will get dethroned.
1
The squad's endorsement is not a positive for any candidate. Bernie's own state of Vermont with a Dem guv and Dem legislature enthusiastically went for gov't run healthcare until they ran the numbers and realized the huge tax increase req'd .... so it never happened. In all his years in Congress, what is Bernie's record. re. significant legislation? I can't name anything, but perhaps I missed it.
7
Bernie represents the fundamental change that our country needs -- an end to capitulation to the consolidation of wealth and power that is threatening both our democracy and our economy (and that has resulted in historic economic inequality as well as Trump's election, among other disasters).
However, I think Warren represents this fundamental shift just as well as Bernie, and perhaps more effectively. Bernie relies on massive tax-and-spend redistributive programs to correct the economic inequality sowed by neoliberalism. To be sure, these redistributive programs are sorely needed at this point. But Warren has gone beyond this traditional liberal position and is proposing something more innovative, and indeed more radical: that we curtail inequality before production, rather than after. Her proposal to require labor representation on corporate boards introduces a degree of democracy into our economic system, a change that can eventually make large-scale redistribution unnecessary by preventing the unjust accumulation of wealth and power in the fist place.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/06/opinion/warren-workers-boards.html
5
I love Bernie but I'm sorry, the votes of "the oppressed and marginalized" will not win the US presidency. The myth of our attachment to the so-called American dream, of starting from nothing and making it big, permeates all classes in this country, including the poor. That's why even the watered-down version of socialism called "democratic socialism" is demonized in America. Most people in the heartland don't buy it EVEN THOUGH IT WOULD HELP THEM. The tragedy is Bernie's the only candidate with real charisma. Because Obama is right: only the center will win in this country.
4
Yes, the Senator is a wonderful marketer and ignited a movement. But there is little analysis regarding his ability to lead, execute, and gain consensus. Following that, an even larger omission is a discussion of his legislative achievements - you know, bills he sponsored that actually became law - during his long sojourn in the Senate. Clearly liberals love him - the rest of us are hardly convinced by his bona fides.
6
"There was a time in America when being called a socialist could end a political career. Not anymore"
That may be but, the Democratic Party and the Democratic National Committee is not a Socialist Party.
While the Democratic Party may embrace socialist ideas and ideals - at times - it remains a political Party dedicated and defending of capitalist structures. Bernie Saunders is not representative, institutionally, of capitalist structures or the Democratic Party. He is a important voice and influence - like it or not: that is it and that is the best he will be able to achieve; he is before his time and the Democratic Party.
Folks may believe Biden or voices like his are not radical enough but the country is not radical; right now people are just afraid because their country is not working - it is broken.
2
Obama may think that we don’t need to turn the system upside down but something has to change drastically. The anxiety people feel about healthcare, especially caring for the elderly is everywhere. Service jobs are the only real job growth in our economy and families cannot be supported with wages from being a nurse’s aide or a waiter. We look at the trillions spent on wars for what? That war machine money should be for healthcare and education.
10
@penney albany
What happened is that the U.S. DOUBLED its population since the 1960s, mostly via 3rd world immigration. That is what lowered wages and then kept wages low, created deep divisions in the middle and lower classes who were beginning to win the struggle for education and good jobs, blocked the rung for blacks and women who were beginning to win the struggle for their own definition of quality of life. LBJ and Ted Kennedy cavalierly broke the U.S. immigration system in 1965 and neither party wants to fix it. Neither will Saint Bernie and Saint Elizabeth.
Well said.
Cannot stand Bernie. I supported him in 2015, but his luke-warm endorsement of Hillary can never be forgiven. His wasn't the only reason for her loss, but definitely a contributing factor. Compare his with Hillary's endorsement of Barrack and all will see what a class-less guy Sanders really is.
9
@KB This is completely upside-down. Bernie did far more for Hilary than Hilary did for Obama. Bernie supporters were far more loyal than Hilary's were as well. In fact, Bernie even agreed to appear in a Clinton campaign ad, but they never ran it because of Clinton's vindictive narcissism.
2
@KM You have dead wrong on this. Bernie delayed a substantial amount of time and only begrudgingly supported Hillary. Get your facts, not talking points.
The corporate media doesn’t want him to win which is why Mayor Pete is getting so much play. They are also bowing to Bloomberg and crowding out the real news. BERNIE should have win the nomination last time. If he had run, we wouldn’t be in the mess now. GO BERNIE!
9
@Justice Holmes
Dream on. Sanders didn't get the nomination in 2016 because he's not a Democrat -- and he still isn't.
On "Morning Joe" today, former GOP strategist Steve Schmidt took an axe to Elizabeth Warren, warning the Democrats that Warren is a dishonest candidate on a par with Donald Trump, spending 5 minutes listing various issues Warren has "lied" about. He said if Warren is the nominee, the GOP and Trump will succeed in bringing up all her lies and will successfully paint her as an inauthentic candidate and a dishonest person.
Warren spent years as a corporate lawyer making millions of dollars defending corrupt corporations like DuPont.
Her conversion to "progressivism" is recent, and borrows many positions from Bernie Sanders.
Bernie Sanders had been for the same policies all his life, before he ever ran for office. He's the real thing and can be trusted.
11
@fast/furious
And Bernie Sanders has accomplished NOTHING in his 40 years on the taxpayer dole.
America's problem is that, unlike most other western democracies, it doesn't have a viable party on the left. Canada has the left-leaning New Democratic Party. It will never form government, but it styled "the conscience of Canada." It has influenced the creation of many of our universal social programs. Maybe Sanders is the start of something new in the USA.
7
Bernie Sanders is sticking to his guns and it seems like all the other candidates are moving toward his policies to some degree, not that's already showing his great leadership.
I get lots of e-mails from all the candidates. The only ones that are routed by the account provider to my junk mail folder are those from Bernie Sanders campaign. Each day I label those e-mails as not junk but they keep being designated as such by the provider. Other e-mails I have designated as not junk after a while stop being designated junk but not those from Sanders campaign. I am waiting to see at what point they are no longer designated junk. It will be interesting.
4
As a liberal white guy with a Ph.D. I prefer Warren, but will Enthusiastically vote for Sanders if he is the selected democrat candidate.
I do believe he would have done better than HRC in 2016 and not lost the rust belt electoral college votes. No four years latter, I have to admit his age is a problem for me. I can pick a younger VP, but it is going to be hard for him to pick somewhat of a moderate to reassure some "centrist" that he can be pragmatic.
Now, one question that need to be asked: can the democrats work with the GOP elected representative ever again ?
Base on a "criminal entreprise" behavior willing to defend its leader at all cost even trampling the constitution, they lost all pretence of operating under any kind of good faith.
So electing a "moderate" democrat would not enable any forward collaboration until the GOP denounces there own "dereliction of duty" in defending the constitution from a dangerous grifter abuses. I don't see that happening unless they loose the senate badly.
The democrats need a progressive message that inspires. May be retaking the country away from corrupted politician is a good message. "Make the Senate great again". The candidate for POTUS on top of the ticket will set the tone.
It cannot be a Bloomberg doing that.
To me that leaves Warren or Sanders as the most desirable candidate because they have an inspiring message and a proper diagnostic of what wrong with our politics, crony capitalism and our country.
3
There's a giant pink elephant in the room here.
Mrs. Clinton did not lose to Trump. She lost to Mrs. Clinton. In 2008 a total of 69.5 million voters came out to vote for Obama, myself among them. In 2012 he garnered 3.5 million fewer votes, myself one of the votes he lost. In 2016 Mrs. Clinton brought that down even more (though not by much).
However, the population has not been static. In 2008 the voting age population was 230 million. In 2012 it increased by about 5 million. In 2016 it skyrocketed by more than 15 million. And since numbers are coming primarily from young minorities.
While this has been happening, the republican party has been making comparably large gains with Trump gaining more votes in 2016 than any republican candidate, ever.
The DNC seems to have, since 2008, started to lose contact with its base. Is Sanders that figure that's going to reunite the base? Is what we have been longing for somebody openly seeks a socialist society? Well, maybe - but I don't think so. Problem is, I also don't think Warren and obviously not Biden are the cure either.
We need another JFK - somebody that can unite and make the people of this country proud to be part of this country instead of trying to divide them. Somebody that can help us remember that we can do great things and work together as a people for a greater good instead of pettily bickering among ourselves and playing pointless, and self destructive, political games.
2
@Jaymes
Get a grip and do bona fide research as to the thumb on the scale in 2008.
The party elite anointed Obama in the 2004 keynote, signaling a desire to lock up the conservative religious eternally sexist black and latino vote in 2008, which is precisely what the party did. That was the sole purpose of the unqualified but charming and well-educated black MALE who was never the front runner in the primaries.Eight years of that led to Trump 2015/2016. Both parties tip their hat but take for granted the female vote, even after the 2018 midterms.
Icing on the cake, the rancid misogynist incel 2008 Obama Bros morphed into the 2016 Bernie Bros. He's laughing all the way to the bank, as is Obama.
The thing that upsets me most about Trump, and there are many, is the fact that he’s the first president in my lifetime that knowingly and intentionally divides Americans. He says to his base that their position and place in society is not their fault. Rather, it’s the fault of immigrants, minorities, snowflake liberals, and bad trade deals with foreign countries.
Bernie Sanders does the same thing, except his villains are people who are successful and who have accumulated a level of financial comfort in our capitalist system. The enemy to Bernie Sanders are millionaires and billionaires; but his dog whistle is that people have a right to be angry at anyone who has attained any reasonable level of financial success. Yes, life is unfair; and some people have had many more advantages than others. But many people who have those advantages “pay it forward”. Presidents Roosevelt and Kennedy are two examples of this. But the better examples exist in day-to-day life. They are the people who build businesses and employee people and treat their workers honestly and fairly. There are people who by hard work created for themselves a respectable and self-sufficient life. We need those people. And the Democratic party will lose in November if it continues to treat those people (many of whom are Democrats) as the enemy – pandering to who are dissatisfied with their position and place in society.
Bernie is a flame-thrower. Rally behind him at your, and your country’s, peril.
3
@Fred some problems. It’s not a meritocracy. Not my opinion. There is ample data. Those working hardest are struggling most, and the wealthy are not wealthy, with rare exceptions, because they work harder. Those with wealth are not providing jobs with fair wages, they are exploiting desperate workers. Again not my opinion, much data on this,
8
@Fred : Anybody who actually works for one of those self-made millionaires who treats his employees with respect is very fortunate in today's America.
Most people work for anonymous groups of non-local investors who are determined to squeeze as much as possible out of their employees while compensating them as little as possible.
As a college student, I worked one summer in a company founded by one of those self-made millionaires who treated his workers with respect. However, after he died, his company was bought by (a phrase that should strike terror in the heart of any employee) a group of outside investors, who soon moved all except the executive jobs to Mexico.
3
@Fred
That is a bit oversimplifying Sanders message.
Being angry at a "crony capitalism" system is the message. And yes it is mostly supported and to the benefit of really rich guys and ladies.
That is not the same thing as attaching all rich guys and ladies, only the ones buying our representatives writing loopholes in our laws and/or suppressing our choices by creating monopolies.
4
We Vermonters know the broad appeal of Bernie. He has thrived on a rare coalition of ex-hippies, farmers, trust fund progressives, young voters, people of color, LGBTQ folks and middle class liberals. Beware of underestimating the breadth of his support.
And it is endlessly frustrating that even a supportive column falls for the "socialist" nonsense. Socialists intend to control the means of production and press for self-management by workers.
Those are not necessarily bad things, but Bernie proposes no such thing. If socialism is on one end of a continuum, our current oligarchy is on the other. Bernie is, in this context, a centrist, who wishes to shift control of our democratic republic back to the people, rather than leave it in the greedy hands of billionaires and their handmaidens in government.
10
@Barking Doggerel
The problem with what you're saying is that Bernie knows what socialism is and has chosen to label himself as such. I think a big part of the reason he's not going 'full socialist' is simply because while the term may be more acceptable in contemporary American politics, going 'full socialist' is something that would probably have single digit support.
I almost entirely agree with Bernie's stated platform, and I would have voted for him in an instant in 2016. However, now a days I will not vote for him if he wins the nomination. The reason is because I think he's more likely to divide society than unite it.
So frustrating we can't get a good democrat to run who doesn't resort to stoking race/gender/sexuality/class divisions for political gain. This stuff is getting old, fast.
Give us a Bernie who advocates for the same positions and is willing to speak truth to the misbehavior and corruption of the banking, corporate, and economic industries. But do it without blaming all the ails of society on anybody who happens to have done well, or imply that the primary (if not only) reason that there are people who do not do well in life is because of the existence of the former.
Wow! Bernie may just be the right candidate at the right time. He can beat Trump if Democrats can see their way clear to backing off divisive purity issues regarding social and cultural identity issues. Letting go of ones personal hubris is good for the soul and good for the party thence the country.
8
The most grudging of acknowledgements, shot through with prejudice, but it’s a start.
Bernie for the win!
3
I beg of my fellow Times readers, please read this. In 2016, many readers were quick to bash Bernie and dismiss his supporters as brainwashed "bro's" who were just anti-Hillary and in it for the "free" things he was promoting. Not true.
I am a huge Warren fan, but Bernie may be the only candidate in the race currently who has a consistently bold vision for this country. Yes he speaks the same grand platitudes, but it's because his vision for America is simple: a fair and level playing field for everyone, due to crippling economic inequality driven by a ruling class that has destroyed the bedrock of capitalism and is tainting the founding principles of this country. We are in this together. It is not about Bernie, it's about the people banding together and saying enough is enough to endless greed and oligarchy.
16
@Adam, simply put, that was not true. Bernie Sanders does not display the depth of thought for that to be true. A person who says things like identity politics does not understand that issues that are derisively labeled as such have profound effects on marginalized communities, especially economically. Without that understanding, you cannot enact the bold reforms you claim you want.
@scm18 I do not understand your comment. Please explain what is not true
2
Anyone who thinks a moderate, calculating democrat can win back the working class voters democrats lost to trump should avoid running that failed experiment again.
14
Voters were promised, and chose, change in 2008. They didn’t get it.
In 2016, primary voters in both parties had a choice, change for the good of us all or change to burn it all down.
Unfortunately, we didn’t get a chance to make that choice in the general election, in part due to the DNC’s big fat thumb on the scale. So the choice came down to burn it down or status quo. Burn it down won.
Given the voters’ thirst for change, the Democrats can either get on board and offer real change in 2020, and NOT another status quo centrist, or they can watch as Donald Trump finishes torching America.
Go Bernie!
17
And yet the corporations are out in full force trying to sink Sanders and Warren. Buttigieg is doing a complete rerun of the Clinton campaign, in that he is going to be totally beholden to his big money donors, and predictably, he is refusing to tell us who they are just like Clinton refused to release her speeches to the Goldman Sacks banksters.
Democrats cannot win except by a full throated rejection of the kleptocrats and vulture capitalists. Otherwise why should anyone vote for Republican lite candidate?
10
Note that it is ‘democratic socialism’ which is exactly what our Constitution lays out. Nobody wants the government to produce and distribute cars or toaster ovens.
It’s we the people, by the people, for the people. Read the Preamble - that’s the mission statement got the Constitution. It’s what built the USA.
7
I am not so sure about that; even though the ‘Socialist’ label here has little in common with the former Soviet Union, and most Americans don’t consider Socialist Democratic countries in Western Europe with anathema, in the US the knee-jerk reaction remains for a large majority of current voters. Just listen to a popular NY sports radio, or a so-called Independent I ran into from Seattle, and imagine what the red states think.
I believe this will change (and already has) with the younger generation, but we aren’t there yet.
I won $100 from my wife on a bet that Trump would obviously win the Republican nomination the day he announced. So obviously I’m a political genius. This year I’m feeling good about Sanders. The Dem establishment owned by Wall St. keeps telling us that Sanders-Warren voters will eventually have no choice but to support a moderate against Trump. But the same goes for big blocks of moderate voters—especially blacks and women! You mean to tell me they would rather lose their abortion and voting rights than vote for a “socialist”? Fine. They will get what they deserve then.
5
i miss that time. Now we have people like Bernie and Warren trying to destroy the country and people are cheering them on. This is sad, it's not compassion. There is not one policy prescription of theirs that will grow the economy. Growth of the economy helps everyone obviously. I can't believe that's debatable now. But what do they care about growth and prosperity, they never produced anything of worth in their lives. Why are they popular? The young US population want's to grow up to be just as lazy as them. Why get a job when we can start a revolution?
2
Sanders has a more fundamental problem - his inability to connect with the majority of black democrats, whose support is decisive. He’s had two campaigns to prove that he can do this. He failed miserably in one and is doing no better in the other. It might grate on him and his supporters but the Democratic Party never has been, is not, and never will be a “socialist party” while remaining viable. It is the “out” party - a coalition of groups who feel locked out of power. Only one of those group - white voters (like white voters in the GOP) have any affinity for socialism of any kind. The other groups - black Americans, Hispanic Americans, Americans of recent immigrant origin, Jewish Americans, Muslim Americans - are either avowedly capitalist or lukewarm to socialism. This is why a “socialist” Democratic Party / candidate will never win an election. Socialism is incompatible with diversity, which is the defining characteristic of the Democratic Party.
I will vote for mr sanders in the primary. and whichever democrat nominated for president
3
Sadly, America isn't great, it hasn't been for some time, maybe since we walked on the moon?
And even then, as we must know and account for, America was far from great for far too many people struggling to survive, right here in our land of opportunity. Bernie gets it, he understands working men and women, people of color, are, and have been terribly abused and denied basic human dignities in the process of building this nation. All this, if they haven't been directly targeted for overt violence. Call it socialism if you will, I see it as realism. We are all in this together and we all deserve basic human dignities and freedom from discrimination. Trump, aside from his ignorance and self-serving pomp, only serves the very wealthy. The system is funneling all the money to the top. The system is broken. Bernie is the candidate that will work to bring the dignity back to working America. Bernie will fix the system.
6
Just visualize Trump and Bernie together on a debate stage.
Bernie will do what he always does; revert to his standard, rote, talking points, shouting hoarsely, wagging his finger.
Trump will do what he always does; personally attack his opponent with cutting insults that are perfect sound bites, with a kernel of truth. The other thing to remember about Trump is that he is never provoked to anger, while Bernie lives in anger. Trump plays the victim.
Bernie won't come out ahead. He's too easily disassembled into the component parts of his story, many of which are unflattering. He should stay in the Senate.
2
The reason Bernie can win is surprising to a lot of folks: he appeals to many trump voters. That became clear in 2016. This is due to his anti-establishment credentials. Which, unlike trump's, are real!
His victory would happen in spite of the media's bias against him. These are times of disruption and transformation ("revolution"), something the media has a hard time with: this planet is entering a black hole where reality will change completely on the other side. But our salvation is only possible by embracing true progressivism. All consumption must become less wasteful, and all human rights equal, requiring the destruction of conservative corruption!
5
What a joke of an article. As anyone who can read a poll trend line can tell you, Sanders is stuck between 15-20% of support among the Democratic primary electorate. He never moves from that narrow band because he appeals to a narrow, highly ideological base. It does not matter that they are multi-racial and young: the fact of the matter is that they are a small group.
2
Motivating angry people with candidates like Trump and Sanders whose main appeal is that they will inflict harm upon others to deliver righteous vengeance to those who feel disaffected is a strategy only for ruin.
The appeal of Sanders is that he promises simplistic direct action. Capitalism is unfair? No problem he'll destroy it. The environment is being destroyed? No problem he'll ban pollution. What's the trade-off? There is none! What are the complications to overcome? None! If it's so simple why hadn't it already been solved? Just evil corporatist fat-cats, once they are out of the way the problem solves itself no need to think it further!
Complex and intractable problems are persistent precisely because they have defied all straight-forward attempts. They continue to grow because of Charlatans like this author and Sanders deflect from actual attempts to solve them.
This is akin to quacks who prey upon desperate cancer patients with promises of magical side-effect free cure-alls "that Big Pharma and Western Medicine don't want you to know about." They do tremendous harm by diverting energy and time from real solutions. Sadly, like a cancer, the problems the author has identified are very real. And therein lies the danger posed by Sanders and his supporters.
2
What is the difference between Bernie and the rest of the Democratic Party candidates?
The passion of his supporters.
Bernie has literally millions of supporters who are already contributing in dollars and time to win the Democratic nomination. Those folks, and millions more will then be ready to go to work and win in November 2020. Phone banks, knocking on doors, registering voters, and getting people to their polling place.
They understand that Bernie is the only one who will actually fight for them. Under the Democratic Party “centrists/ moderates” and their “leaders” (Obama, Pelosi, Clinton, Schumer, etc.) the daily lives of them and their families did not really get better.
Why do you think that Bernie won 23 states against Clinton in the 2016 primary? Why do you think people like Ocasio-Cortez and others are winning against the Democratic Party establishment? Why do you think millions of people left the Democratic Party after 2016?
Voters finally realize that the old way of doing things isn’t working and if you try the same rhetoric and “moderates” in 2020 you are going to lose again.
Do you really think Biden or Buttigieg or Bloomberg is going to inspire people?
And if you lose this time you can wave goodbye to our country and to the planet.
This is it folks, our last chance.
Get behind someone who has the courage and conviction and passion to inspire people and get them to fight and win.
17
I admire the idealism and passion of many Bernie supporters, but am disturbed by their cult-like zeal and what seems to me like a disconnect from reality. He is unlikely to win the electoral college, and his appeal is too narrow. Also, at a time when the stock market is doing well, many voters will not choose someone who is too disruptive. And finally, like Biden and Bloomberg, he is too old. Turning 80 early in his first term - that's just crazy. I think these old guys are extremely arrogant, thinking they can take on the world's most high pressure job in their old age.
3
What distinguishes Sanders from others he does lie, brave enough to speak the truth.
2
@Roland Berger
What really distinguishes him is consistency, principle and most of all, integrity.
3
Bernie Sanders the socialist, who loved the labor movement, Cuba, the old Soviet Union and the Nicaraguan Sandinistas, we knew about.
Bernie the millionaire, who knew?
Actually, why is anyone surprised that Bernie is now part of the 1%? He owns three homes, including one on the "Vermont Riviera," the shore of Lake Champlain, that cost a bundle.
Clearly Bernie has become accustomed to the upscale lifestyle he has long made a career of eschewing and excoriating. Now that he is in a higher tax bracket he is surely getting schooled on tax avoidance and sheltering income, lessons that plutocrats learn at their fathers' knees. And I wonder how much of his considerable income he is willing to redistribute. And his wife does their taxes? Right.
I guess Bernie will have to stop ranting and raving against millionaires and spend more time explaining to voters 1) why he is not a hypocrite and 2) how socialism will benefit his "working class" supporters while he is feeding at the trough of good old capitalism.
As Margaret Thatcher so aptly put it, "The problem with socialism is that sooner or later you run out of other people's money." That's when everybody's taxes go up.
As for policies, Sanders' espousal of free everything for everyone, not to mention allowing felons to vote from prison, can only guarantee Trump's re-election if Bernie is the Democratic candidate in 2020.
2
It never ceases to amaze one how many people actually take Bernie seriously. At best he is irrelevant. At worst he is a spoiler. He certainly helped Trump in 2016 and he is a big talker who gets nothing accomplished. He is now a millionaire based on book deals from his campaign. He might carry New York and California in a general election.
2
Thank you for this well written article. I've stopped reading up on Bernie when the NYTimes assigned "she who won't be bamed" to cover him. I'm glad I haven't seen any recent articles from her on Bernie. She must've been reassigned.
3
Truly lamentable that Sanders has filled their heads with the health-care equivalent of “build a wall.”
There are many ways to improve health care, and completely eliminating economic incentives is only the worst way to try.
Obamacare works, where it does not it can be fixed. Our Republican-corrupted Congress has prevented any improvement at all, and in fact has sabotaged it almost daily. And Dandy Sanders wants to do the same thing they do, eliminate what works.
Could Obamacare evolve into single-payer? It is the only politically possible pathway. Once the Boomers are too dead or senile to vote, it will be virtually assured.
But go ahead, follow your heart straight into four more years of dysTrumpia. No one will care about the content of your character, they will measure you with the brown bag test.
1
Thank you kindly Professor Taylor. I am adding a link to an excellent piece by Nathan Robinson from The Guardian to add to your excellent essay.
Socialism is as American as apple pie. Yes, really
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/dec/10/socialism-america-history-politics-apple-pie?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
5
Sanders had a heart attack and unlike trump, would likely be fully engaged in the job. Look at how the job ages younger guys like Obama, Bush 2, and Clinton. Sanders isn’t in good health at the get go and will be dead before the end of the first term. It’s too late for him. His supporters need to wake up and smell the coffee.
1
Bernie is not a Socialist; Bernie is a Social Democrat.
5
Sanders is a democratic socialist. That's very different than socialism. And quite frankly, we're really talking about social democracy. No matter what Bernie's intentions, we're going to end up with a mixed economy. Bernie is simply pushing the needle away from capitalism. The working-class appreciates the effort. Workers would like a society that more closely resembles Scandinavia in terms of public-private balance.
I think we need to return to the conventional wisdom for a moment though.
"Tax cuts for the elite and corporations and public-private partnerships to finance health care, education, housing and other public services."
How is this conventional? Will the ghost of Reagan never die?
I'm really sick of wealthy retirees telling me how employer based insurance is better than Medicare. Yes, when you have a college degree, an MBA, and executive level position, I'm sure your employer based insurance is great. However, most people will welcome Medicare in their uninsured Walmart job in a second.
And these retirees are already receiving Medicare! Talk about biting the hand that feeds you. How about we just end Medicare entirely? You can go pay for your own insurance in retirement. We'll eliminate protections for pre-existing conditions too. Go fetch. You can guess what the reaction will be. All of a sudden Medicare ain't so bad. Pure hypocrisy. Figures.
2
Poor Bernie. People won't just fall over themselves to support a campaign that's been misogynistic, led by a guy who advocated for unilateral disarmament against the Soviet Union, and who had some rather odd things to say about raising kids, back in the day.
We all love to know that Bernie would just make everything free! But, some of us would end up paying for all of that, and we're not convinced he wouldn't going off the rails as President, given that he hasn't provided any functionally coherent ways to pay for all of his promises.
He's basically Jeremy Corbin without the anti-semitism. Big Whoop. Maybe the Democratic Party dislikes him because he'd last about five minutes against the GOP machine. I hate Trump, and I'd have a hard time voting for Sanders.
5
To anyone who lives in a great city like NYC- really lives, takes the subway, walks the streets, is not Uber-addicted- the world is full of unfortunate people. A recent NYT article told us that 114K children are homeless in our school system. Another showed us families trying to make it on two measly salaries. Teachers can't pay their rent. Seniors are not taking their meds so they can eat.
This is only the tip of the iceberg- oh, that's another thing.
Bernie gets it. We need to take care of our own in this country. And by that I mean natives AND immigrants!
Our country can be great if we squeeze the rich a little and take care of the poor.
A foolish noble quest?
Then what is a billion in tax cuts for a rich person's playland: Hudson Yards? Maybe a crime against humanity?
2
I love Bernie, but realistically can someone who is not a Democrat win the nomination?
1
Sadly, most people subconsciously vote for Presidents using the same criteria they did when they voted for class president back in high school, very little of which had to do with the candidate's actual policies. I happen to like Hillary Clinton, but a big reason she lost boiled down to her likability (or lack thereof). Nixon lost an election, in part, because he was sweaty and less attractive than his opponent. I know this is all a bit simplistic, but my underlying premise is essentially true. I'd like to think that whoever gets the nod gets it based on policy, but to think, for example, that a morbidly obese person could ever get the nomination is folly. Bernie Sanders, the crazed ranting grand dad, won't get the nomination. If he does, he'll lose in the general election.
Sanders? Democrats wasting time conflating expectations with expectations.
Hillary would be President if it weren’t for this guy. No. That came out wrong: Trump would not be President if it weren’t for this guy.
2
The writer conveniently ignores he has a ceiling. His polling # have barely moved in the last 6 months since he joined the race.
3
"The spirited endorsements of three-quarters of the so-called squad illustrates how Mr. Sanders’s campaign has grown from 2016..."
How will the Republicans hang that around his neck during the campaign? Let me count the ways...
2
The DNC really made a historically horrific blunder by allowing the super delegates of 2016 to back HRC. Will we see the same implosion in 2020. It is likely. I don't trust the DNC.
3
Seems like Bernie would have been the perfect foil to Trump in 2016.
4
Independents are 44% of the Electorate.
Bernie blew it when he became "woke" with the Squad.
Independents don't want free healthcare for illegal aliens, amnesty for 23 million illegal aliens, voting rights for all felons, and wiping out student debt. All non-starters.
Sorry, Bernie has no chance in a general election. The Squad is more unpopular in America than Congress, which only musters about a 9% approval rating.
3
This appears to be an article saying that among the 31% of the country who are registered Democrats, a Socialist has a chance. I assume that means he may garner 16% of the national vote.
But the title (probably chosen by someone other than the author, for clicks rather than for accuracy) implies that Sanders can win a national election.
The op-ed provides no evidence, at all, for the assertion that Sanders can win nationally. Someone's not doing a great job here. NYT, please inform us rather than confusing the issues.
1
Sanders has been an elected official in Vermont for 36 years. The state of Vermont is a fetid pool of economic stagnation. Young people are fleeing and the situation has become so bad that the state government has enacted harebrained schemes to entice people to move there. The illusion of a pastoral, bucolic Ben & Jerry's type rural paradise has crumbled. Devastated by drug addiction and zero opportunity, hopelessness and despair hang over cities like Brattleboro, Rutland and St. Johnsbury. Go to Northern Vermont and look at Newport with it's Sanders endorsed giant hole in the downtown for an abandoned project that is the result of an immigration visa investment scam.
Vermont is a dump and that's why Sanders can't win.
2
Giving the lie to the “Bernie Bros” trope! Glad to see the NYT finally acknowledging the breadth Bernie’s support.
(FWIW, I’m a 56-year old white woman who voted for Sanders in the last presidential primary.)
2
I will of course vote for Sanders if he is the nominee. But I can tell you, I am really sick of the whining from his supporters about how he would have won in 2016. So let's say he is the nominee and gets crushed by Trump. Then what are you going to say?
2
He seems like a finger wagging grandfather who would have trouble compromising. However, if he is the candidate I will vote for him. I think that he will have trouble getting the nomination, especially because EW has cut into his base.
1
Mr. Sanders captured the coveted endorsement of Representative Ilhan Omar of Minnesota. She was soon joined by Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan.
Irony noted.
1
Finally! The NY Times has run an op-ed exploring why the Sanders campaign is viable. This newspaper has continued to ignore the strength of Sanders' appeal up until now because most of its columnists treat "centrism" as their religion and the status quo as that religion's sacrament. Like Professor Keeanga-Yamahatta Taylor I believe it is time to realign the Democratic Party away from the center in order to serve the majority of the needs of the constituents who, one can hope, will turn out in the elections, starting with the primary. Otherwise, there will be a brokered convention with a broken--read centrist--replay of the Clinton debacle.
5
If Bernie is the nominee Trump winds in a 48 state landslide.
1
The problem is that the Republican party is a small tent, but a fundamentally united one, as xenophobic, racist, and selfish as that unity is.
The big-tent Democrats are a far from united party--they are actually probably at least three parties, and while that might work well in a parliamentary system in which they could put together a coalition, it doesn't work so well in our binary electoral system.
To beat Trump, all Democrats would have to take the pledge to Vote Blue, No Matter Who--even if that involves a lot of nose holding, and I don't see that spirit pervading the debatospehere right now. And if no one candidate gets to the convention with a majority of delegates, a very real possibility, it's even less like to pervade the electorate.
And, then, I suppose, it'll be time to look at real estate listings in Ontario again.
1
Sanders only potential is to lose the electoral college in a landslide, and even lose the popular vote. He could claim a symbolic victory by pointing out that in 1916 the socialist candidate won 5% of the vote, and this time he won 45% of the vote. So there is the progress. He is an absolute dead bang sure loser in the general election.
2
I don't care if Bernie Sanders wears the "socialist" label. I do care that he's a 78-year-old male who's had a heart attack.
2
Thank you, Professor Taylor, finally a fair and accurate account of Bernie Sanders presidential campaign, and in the New York Times, of all places. Yipee! Onwards & Upwards - Power to the people!
2
Kudos to the NY Times for publishing another positive story about Bernie. Please keep on keeping on.
5
Referring to Sanders' campaign as "socialist" begs one to refer to the Times op-ed article from this week on the Capitalist Paradise of Finland.
And I don't see anyone favoring low taxes for the financiers and industrialists and continued largess for the military referred to as 'nationalist socialists' or 'promulgators of the military-industrial complex'. How about a little bit of fair ad-hoc'ism, eh?
2
Right. The midwest wants higher taxes, lots more big gov interference in their lives and Socialism. I'm sure the Sanders campaign is hearing that from swing state voters.
There are not enough runaways, slackers, losers, druggies and basement dwellers to elect Sanders in the entire USA let alone the midwest.
Bernie and his minions are unaware of that metric and push valiantly on. Good luck.
1
How wonderful to be born a "likable" male - your bona fides are never questioned, your past sins or foibles never discussed and beaten to a pulp and your personally crafted narrative is wholeheartedly believed without question. Bernie Sanders actually voted for the 1994 Crime Bill yet his supporters NEVER mention this - though these same people were relentless in their criticism of Ms. Clinton for being the spouse of the President who supported it. Wow! Tell me again how Bernie Bros are just a figment of women's imaginations...
3
On top of everything else, Democrats have to worry about fair-weather friends, voters who threaten to stay home and withhold their vote if the nomination doesn't go to their favorite candidate. Whining and pouting helped bring us Donald Trump the first time around and it can saddle us with a second term. To those snowflake voters I say, please spare us the self-righteous lectures and just vote for the Democrat. Nobody gets every single thing they want, but we still all need to do our part.
We are in a fight for our lives. Let's not blow it.
1
As a 76 year old Independent voter who has voted for both Democrats and Republicans at all levels of government, I have to say if, God forbid, Crazy Ole Bernie were to win the nomination, I would for the first time write in a name on my ballot. As much as I loathe tRUMP, I think Bernie is just as extreme in his "burn it all down" attitude. I held my nose and voted for Hillary, but I won't do it again.
1
A little too much paralysis thru analysis and a liberal dose (pun intended) of intellectualization.
It's not rocket science Ms Taylor.
The way you beat Trump is by running a moderate progressive who can unite Americans and win over voters in swing states that elect presidents in the electoral college.
You do not nominate identity/social engineering obsessed zealots on social issues and neo cons on most other issues like Hillary or even Bernie.
It's not rocket science Ms. Taylor.
Learn from history or be condemned to repeat its fatal mistakes.
2
Thank you for this article.
Someday, the mainstream media and its enablers will have to account, publicly for the shameful lies they spread and give voice to about Bernie Sanders. A giant among statesmen.
Yes, I am a nonwhite Bernie bro, along with my other bro’s, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, and AOC.
2
If Sanders ever got the nomination, the GOP would immediately start running video of Sanders praising the Sandinistas and Fidel Castro, and saying that bread lines are a sign of "economic health." For starters.
As Steve Schmitt recently said, Americans would rather vote for a sociopath than a socialist.
This writer is totally and frighteningly out of touch with the majority of the American people.
2
History repeats. The "downwardly mobile working class" -- aka "the Paris mob" -- was equally invisible to the affluent, connected, sophisticated elites behind the gates of Versailles. The two groups do not inhabit the same universe.
The mainstream media -- including the New York Times -- may have a black-out on Bernie, reporting the minimum possible and in disparaging terms at that. But the "oppressed and marginalized" don't read the Times, or the Post, or the Atlantic either. They have their own sources of information on the net and in (mostly millenial run) vlogs.
Centrist corporate Democrats may attend fancy plate "Bundler Dinners"... the mob has Act Blue.
The astonishing thing is that centrist corporate Democrats actually think that their memes and themes connect with a demographic that is invisible to them.
2
There was a time in America when being called a serial adulterer could end a politcal career. Apparently not anymore.
1
For the umteenth time, Bernie is not "an open and proud socialist." He is a democratic socialist and the distinction is huge so stop with the misrepresenting lingoism already. He is pushing for the expansion of some government programs for the betterment of the populace. Not ALL government programs. NOT the means of production. To then bring up Soviet Communism as if there is a connection to the platform of Mr. Sanders...it would be laughable if it wasn't so infuriating and wrong. Please get your facts straight before so incorrectly throwing around isms.
Oh, and he has my vote. And I'm not black nor latino nor particularly working class. I'm a 51 year old white male from an upper middle-class family. Some times truth, justice, and compassion are more than enough.
2
Let me say this loud and clear:
I will vote for whoever the Democratic nominee is. If the 60% of voters who don't approve/strongly disapprove of Trump do the same, the Democratic nominee will win.
The mainstream media *severely* underestimates the level and breadth of anger in this country against the business as usual attitude of Democratic centrists - and their 'donor class'. The GOP and their cult of Trump? They're so far gone it's not even worth the mental energy.
2
free stuff and utopia are always popular until it turns out that they are neither free nor utopian.
1
@Matthew
The billionaires know this too. That's why they spend $10s of millions every election cycle in the form of bribes disguised as campaign contributions so they can get trillions back in tax cuts. Pretty sweet deal.
In the meantime, millions of Americans, war veterans included, are homeless and half of our children live below the poverty line. And the rest of us left in the middle are one accident or serious illness away from financial ruin.
1
I love Bernie for all he brings to the table. But do you honestly think an almost-80-year-old socialist who just had a heart attack is the strongest candidate to face the evil empire?
He is a Democratic Socialist. To just call him a socialist is misleading.
1
This piece just turned me and my occasional $5 donation into a monthly donor.
One more comment: I wish Bernie would call himself (and us) a “social democrat,” as another commenter (from Sweden) also mentioned, hence making the noun “democrat” rather than “socialist.”
1
If you actually think that Socialism will win in America, you do not have a clue about the electorate.
Maybe he had a chance after the Obama years when so many of us got roasted over the coals over the housing thing and the economic crash.
But not any more.
Don’t forget that life expectancy in the US is declining. This is the fault of Republican AND Democratic “leadership” since the late 70s.
While I like that Bernie doesn’t shrink from the label “socialist”, it requires only scant attention to see he actually calls himself a Democratic Socialist. He REALLY defines himself in the tradition of Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the “New Deal” government philosophy that coincided with an astounding surge in US domestic prosperity in the decades after World War II. That prosperity only sputtered when “neoliberal” counter attack gained ascendency in the late 1970s.
This same type of government philosophy (social democracy) still holds sway in Western Europe where standards of living have surpassed that of the US where life expectancy is actually DECLINING.
The last decade has been one of economic stagnation for everyone but the 1%. Despite some recent evidence of rising wages, there is no clear indication of sustained improvement. In fact there are many indications that the conditions that led to the 2008 collapse are in resurgence.
US life expectancy is actually declining due increasingly to deaths of despair. THIS should be KEY in trying to understand the political instability associated with trimp and a world wide network of oligarchs (who are not all Russian).
Socialism represents certain promises and threats. But as in Weimar Germany, there are much clearer and more present dangers. Hitler needed only 40%.
Interesting to read this after the Gail Collins/Bret Stephens piece in which they talk about Bloomberg and Klobuchar as legitimate contenders and opted not to mention Sanders once
3
Sanders/Warren
That way we can have them both.
3
Oh god, finally a piece I can read and smile.
3
"The coveted endorsement of Ilhan Omar"? Really? This election is going to be decided in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Ohio and Florida (and maybe Arizona) where Trump will use the squad's endorsement as a bludgeon. After lecturing us on how we don't understand Bernie's campaign, the author closes by demonstrating that she, quite literally, doesn't know the first thing about it--that he's a democratic socialist--by calling Bernie an "open and proud socialist". If I was in charge of the Trump campaign, I'd be thrilled to have an Ivy League professor telling us what ignorant low lifes we are for not joining Ilhan Omar in supporting Bernie while directly equating him to "Soviet Communism". Come to think of it, has the Times verified that this person does actually teach at Princeton?
A Bernie puff peace from the Times?
You know the Left is really worried about the election when we see this.
Sorry but Bernie is too old and his recent heart scare is not comforting to voters who’s recognize the stress that comes with this job. Add in his support from the off-putting squad and more then half the country is really turned off.
The country knows or at least feels that either a Sanders or Warren nomination will destroy the economic outlook and negatively impact both the financial and job markets.
As time ticks down, so do the Democrat’s chances.
1
Great article. I just donated to Bernie's campaign. I'm white, I have an easy retirement and I worked at a white collar job my whole life, but I can't tolerate the inequalities of this country anymore. It's going to kill us if we don't do something about it.
632
@Joanna Stelling It's good to hear from supporters like yourself. In 2016, two of the most avid Bernie supporters I know did not fit the typical profile: one is a successful architect from Indiana, and the other is in-house counsel for a bank in Louisiana.
What many cynics don't take into account is that many people vote beyond their own selfish interests. Yep, that's still a thing.
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@Joanna Stelling
The billionaires who control much of the mainstream media have tried to convince voters that the most popular person in politics Bernie Sanders can't win.
As Biden fades, the corporate billionaires are now pumping tons of cash to fund conservative Pete Buttgireg.
Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio Cortez(AOC) have been drawing Trump-like crowds but we would not know it from the mainstream media.
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@Joanna Stelling In fact anyone worried about the evils of communism should be far more worried about Trump, who in declaring himself "the chosen one", above the law, and claiming the divine right of kings, is driving the country to the edge of despair, and an intolerable dictatorial inequality that resulted in, for example, the Russian revolution.
Bernie is a tried and true progressive Democrat, the key term there being Democrat, while Trump, who idolizes Russian thuggery, is constitutionally very much like Stalin.
19
I think there is finally a sign that the DNC may no longer be able to attack and undermine Bernie with the same kinds of smear campaign as they deployed in 2016.
That said, please note the "impeachment" timing. The may well be the DNC establishment demonstrating yet again its loyalty to wealth above all. How? The impeachment cannot be successful, but it WILL hurt the standing of the party, as it has been placed right before primary season in a presidential election year. The DNC would rather reelect Trump and lose both House and Senate to Republicans than disappoint the ultra wealthy.
The impeachment is what I'd call "intentional grounding," a la the NFL.
1
If I could vote in your election it would be for Bernie. However, if by some chance he is not the Democrat's nominee then it would have to be anyone else who receives the nomination.
Having been raised in a country where we have universal health care, I can tell you it may not be perfect but it is great never having to worry about how I or my family are going to deal with medical costs. No co-pays, nothing. All we do is pay our fair share of taxes. Mind you there is a lot of debate going on here that the very top don't pay their fair share.
1
I plan to vote for the Democratic candidate whomever that is but I doubt Bernie will get the nod and I fear if he doesn't, he will help Trump win again. I also think he is needed in the Senate.
2
@getGar
Democrats have taken your vote for granted for decades foisting corporate candidates on us. Thank you for assuring them that they can take your vote for granted. That is no true for myself and many, many others, as 2016 demonstrated.
1
Even though I fancied myself a Warren/Pete guy, I took that Washington Post policy test and realized I am basically in alignment with all his views. I think I'm a lot of Gen X commenters here; there is just something admirable about his convictions and he probably gets more credibility for not playing ball with the Democratic establishment. And more importantly than anything; I'm starting to think he can win
490
Simply put, I'm not voting for a 78 yo that recently had a myocardial infarction.
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@V. Sharma, MD
Next step is to believe he can
Final step is to help him win
12
@V. Sharma, MD "Not playing ball with the Democratic establishment." Well of course not, he's a Marxist, not a Democrat.
Why were the policies of trickle down and a massive realignment of the tax structure which overwhelmingly favored the wealthy never described as a 're-distributive agenda'?!
Those policies initiated by Reagan and doubled down on by George Bush are still entrenched today and they have been an unequivocal failure leading to both huge increases in wealth inequality and federal debt. They've decimated the middle class. Contrary to what their proponents STILL maintain these tax cuts have not paid for themselves as is evidenced by the growing debt.
Why does the press not call this out the way that they harp on any attempts to ameliorate the nasty tendency of capitalism to concentrate wealth and therefore power at the top?
3
Bernie Sanders is top presidential material. His amazing intelligence and refreshing integrity, in addition to his vision for restoring the middle class to its central place in our democracy, reminds me of FDR. The rich didn't like FDR, either, but he helped create a strong middle class after the Republicans gave us the Great Depression. This is the time to be smart, folks.
5
Please stop calling Sanders a socialist. Social welfare measures or redistribution of income to lower income groups through taxation is not socialism.
Socialism is control of the means of production, period! Not Sanders nor any of the Democratic leaders want this beyond what already exists in the US economy which many experts have pointed out is already widespread.
4
Too many on the far left seem to think that the only reason moderates won't support Sanders or Warren is that we think they can't win. Actually, the reason I don't support them is that I disagree with many of their plans. Free college for all? Nationalizing the healthcare system? Sorry, I disagree with those on policy grounds. The fact that I and many moderates, not to mention those anywhere to the right of center, disagree with those major and fundamental policies does in fact make it very unlikely that Sanders can win.
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@Roy
Nobody is talking about nationalizing the healthcare system -- only access to it. Here are the facts
https://www.berniesandersfacts.com/
1
Sander's problem isn't that he's a socialist, it's that his math doesn't add up and his formula is for more, not less, division. Sad, but true.
2
Let's not assume that socialism's appeal is always to be praised. Many support socialism for selfish reasons as others support capitalism for selfish reasons. The choice should be based on which system will deliver the most to the most for the least cost and upset. Both systems work best with controls by countervailing power. Socialism can be good for the socialist elite and bad for everyone else, as capitalism can be good for capitalists. Bernie Sanders and his one hundred year old Trotskyism is not what we need.
2
Sanders’ aspirations are laudable.
Given his record in Congress, there’s not a lot of evidence suggesting he can get the consensus to make any of it happen.
If he’s the candidate, he has my support.
3
"It is remarkable that this strategy [of the Dem establishment backing centrist candidates] still has legs after its spectacular failure for Hillary Clinton in 2016."
This centrist, Republican-lite strategy also failed with Kerry in 2004, and with Gore in 2000 (with some assist by FL political shenanigans, purging tens of thousands of Dem-leaning African-American voters, and by intervention by right wing Sup Ct justices).
So why keep trying a failing strategy? Trump won by turning out more voters of his base, not by trying to appeal to white undecided voters. Dems should do the same by fielding a Progressive champion who electrifies younger voters, poorer voters, first time voters, and POC voters who don't usually vote because they have perceived the system as offering them little no matter who wins. The proof is in the pudding: Bernie won the 2016 primaries in many of those battleground states with large working class white populations (Michigan, Wisconsin, NH, Maine, Minnesota, Colorado, etc.). Independent voters (in states where registered independents were allowed to vote) chose Bernie 3:1 or 4:1 over his centrist Dem rival in 2016.
4
It is not a failing strategy because it became two presidencies of eight years long the problem was the candidate in 2016. appealing to the center is important to keep the reins of government. We lost them when we put too much emphasis on healthcare systems over stimulating the economy even when Clinton was successful in the latter the hilarycare led to the Tea Party. You can’t lead if you think you’re always right(or left)
@Wayne You seem to be referring to Pres. Obama. Obama is a centrist who bucked the trend of centrist Dem pres. candidates losing general elections because he is a very charismatic man who, as the first major party nominee who is African American, turned out a lot of voters. He ran as an agent of change (he wasn't really) and as a racial healer (he was).
Your example of heath care access is a good one. An overwhelming majority of Americans consider making health care access more affordable to be a top issue in the pres. election. A majority support single payer (a.k.a. Medicare for All). However listening to TV pundits and the general tone of much of media coverage, one would think single payer is a radical idea and not a winning issue. Inside the Beltway it is not. With mainstream USA it is.
The 2020 election isn’t about right or left or Democrat vs Republican. In 2020 we choose between Democracy and the Oligarchy we’ve become. Bernie Sanders is the only candidate who openly recognizes and has committed to fight the Oligarchy consuming our democracy & decimating the middle class.
It’s fascinating to watch people, pundits and the press to disingenuously shriek “ socialism” when what’s being proposed is a more just economy with social programs espoused by both parties 70 years ago and currently delivering a better standard of living in Europe. Even the article refers to Sanders as a socialist vs a Democratic Socialist proposing a more Social Democracy. The Nordic Social Democracies are outperforming the US in virtually every metric. Google Workds Best Quality If Life, Worlds Best Healthcare, Worlds Happiest Citizens, WorldsBest Democracies, highest GDP per Capita or World’s Healthiest economies. The list is dominated by the Nordic countries. Only the ignorant, or corrupt would deliberately ignore these results.
While the disingenuous foam at the mouth over the “threat” of social programs that mirror the best practices of other countries, Oligarchy continues to strangle our democracy yet only Sanders is willing to discuss it. Oligarchy/Plutocracy are not democratic and a far greater threat than better social programs. 2020 may be our last chance to reinstate democracy without violence. Sanders is the only candidate fighting for Democracy.
22
People who say they are socialists should say what they mean by it. Socialism shares with communism the idea that the means of production should be owned by the workers ( i.e. the state). It differs from communism on the methods used to achieve it ( democratically and not violently) . This is the traditional definition of socialism, but recently the term socialism has been used to define a system of public welfare that includes free education and health care, but based on a capitalist economy ( in fact, these " socialists" propose to pay for the welfare by taxing the capitalists. Sweden has a very comprehensive welfare system, but Volvo and IKEA are very capitalistic entities , and Swedes do not think of themselves as socialists. The same is true for the other Western European countries . What kind of a socialist is Mr. Sanders? Or his followers?
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@MS
Why ask? The truth is out there --
https://www.berniesandersfacts.com/
1
@Al I checked the site. It does not answer my questions