Brilliant new op ed writer! So glad the Times hired Elizabeth Bruenig away from the Washinton Post!
10
Pete!
5
Oh really? As if he hasn't already circulated a doctored video about Joe Biden and called Warren a liar on national television?
18
As repulsive as it is to have a NYT Opinion writer encourage at Democratic presidential candidate to "fight dirty," this piece totally ignores the fact that, in the current partisan divide, with a Republican majority in the Senate (plus a couple of squishy Democrats from MAGA country), Bernie's "vision" has little to no chance of being legislated.
25
Sanders loves to kick his friend & exalt his adversaries. Not a winning strategy. I mean, who wants to be kicked for trying to aid the candidate you support?
9
Isolationists in the 1930s could not even dream of the atrocities, WWII, the Holocaust, that would result from their impassioned advocacy of their isolationists policies in the USA. Similarly Bernie Sanders has no idea of the atrocities that could result from his modern advocacy of American isolationists policies. Bernie's advocacy of the old failed isolationists policies could not be more dangerous and unknowing. Prospective voters for Bernie beware, study history.
13
Here's an idea, Bruenig: how about focusing your fire on getting rid of the most corrupy, dangerous President in American history, instead of trying to get Democrats to tear eachother apart? I hope you do realize that negative attacks can go both ways. Bernie may not be attacking Biden, but Biden consistently treats Bernie with respect. Unfortunately, this sort of angry scorched-earth, holier-than-thou thinking is all too common on the Left. Fortunately, Bernie has not adopted it
25
Don't you get it? Along with cleaning up DC of corruption and special interest, people also want to get off the "mean spirited, bully and in your face nasty" in exchange for a return to balance!
10
He already fights dirty. Please.
20
Great article!
3
Schiff for President!
12
As is very often the case, The New York Times puts its best propaganda in the titles to its opinions.
And this one is another doozy!
Yes, "Bernie Will Have to Fight Dirty" because dirt is the language and methods The New York Times promotes in the name of its corporate sponsors—who fight in (legal) language (and often illegal) methods so dirty that their ways give "dirt" a good name.
And brace yourself for even more of this shrill, strident, and nasty propaganda in titles and opinions at the top of the web page of The New York Times.
The flood of pro-corporate propaganda from The New York Times Corporation has really just begun, and we haven't seen nothin' yet!
7
THANK YOU!!!!!!
4
If you cannot stand up for yourself how are you going to stand up for your nation Bernie? You need some of Tulsi's mojo so you don't get taken to the cleaners again.
4
Since when did Bernie not fight "dirty?"
When he didn't endorse the democratic presidential candidate until four weeks after he lost the nomination and two weeks before the convention?
When he accused Elizabeth Warren of lying?
When his Our Revolution PAC organized protests against Pete Buttigieg?
Bernie has always fought dirty.
27
May I suggest one small correction to the headline? Change "have" to "continue."
The documented experiences of Sec. Clinton and Gov. Kunin justify that change.
The man does nothing. 7 bills into law in close on to 40 years in Congress, isn't the record of someone who works for the people. It is the record of one who has a nice cushy seat on the Congressional gravy train.
His attacks on Clinton, Kunin, and now, Warren are not exactly an anomaly. Encouraging such an action is equivalent of encouraging a starving person to eat.
21
Bernie Sanders is a decent human being who seeks peace, justice, equality and human rights throughout the world He is Jewish but is opposed to the treatment of Palestinians by Israeli forces in the occupied territories. For that reason amongst others every word he says- or his supporters say - will be scrutinised - and taken out of context by the billionaire-owned media in order to find some reason to condemn him.
10
Sanders is unappealing enough, withot getting mean. I voted for the man in 2016 in the primary in my state. After observing his followers, in behaviors that he condones, I will not vote for him again, even in the general. The tactics reminded me too much of tea partiers, or even brown shirts. We have had enough of that.
24
This is the primary. My guess would be that all the candidates have at some point or another compromised their principals and some have done so in a way that may be construed as much worse or possibly corrupt in some way. I think campaign dirty should be lying, taking things completely out of context, false smear and character attacks etc. I think Biden probably has a bit more baggage than Sanders and I also think some of the baggage has been around for a long time so some but not all "offenses" by today's standards should be seen reflectively and may not be 100% accurate seen years later. Unlike Trump who has been lying, cheating people and bending the law all his life etc.... this is simply reinforcement of his highly flawed character and we should remember that in Nov!
Also please don't hold back ANYTHING when the general election rolls around because you know McConnell and Trump will be bring knives and bats to the fight. If our position will be let's campaign nice and debate that you should have been removed from office - well then we might as well get used to 4 more years of corruption.
This is the primary and we do not need to knife each other. Save the knife fight for Nov 2020.
5
I hardly see how bringing up information that's in the public interest is "fighting dirty." Keeping it quiet is much dirtier.
4
The fact that some Democrats have legislative records so horrendous that merely mentioning the things they championed or voted for constitutes an "attack" on them tells us more about the ridiculousness of the establishment wing of the Democratic party than about Sanders.
The time to end the ridiculous corruption of American institutions by big money grubbing politicians is now.
The time to restore American democracy is now.
Sanders-Warren 2020.
7
Then we’ll all look like Trump. So why not take Trump who leads us as well as anyone can, to dirt? No! Let us not recommend the the way of Trump to be anyone's, especially those we may favor to lead us.
2
Does fighting 'dirty' include repeating Republican talking points ad nauseum and threatening local party officials with physical violence again, like what happened in Nevada in 2016?
If that's the case, then we're better off with Trump. At least we know where he stands.
6
This is kind of a silly essay. Throwing shade at Biden isn’t going to attract Warren voters to Sanders, nor is it likely to get Buttigieg supporters to switch to him when Buttigieg resigns from the race. He has to present a solid argument that he is more able to defeat trump than any of his democratic rivals. So far, he hasn’t done that, and setting up an argument that compares Biden’s support from corporations years ago with Sanders high NRA rating from the same period isn’t going to advance his cause.
12
A Washington Post column today "Sanders supporters have weaponized Facebook to spread angry memes about his Democratic rivals" shows that whether or not Sanders plays dirty, his supporters are going "full Putin" against his Democratic opponents already. If Bernie Sanders does not implore them to stop, openly and sincerely and immediately, then he is by default condoning their nefarious and destructive actions.
14
Bernie is a gentleman. It's a trait that has served him well and will continue to serve him well - all the way to the White House.
8
I hope that Bernie and the rest of the Democratic candidatures ignore Ms Bruenig. We already get a steady dose of attacks from trump and his enablers and quite frankly it sickens me. If I have a beef with Biden it is with the Clarence Thomas Anita Hill hearings, he behaved badly and did a disservice to our country.
9
Playing dirty politics is as American as Apple Pie (especially when you're dealing with what my namesake referred to as "Boobus Americanus") Spoon feeding ethics and morality to an audience akin to Romans waiting to see Christians thrown to the lions does nothing more than advance the notion -- well documented -- that good guys always end up last. Think George McGovern. Get down in the pit, Bernie. Don't loose the opportunity. Too much is at stake.
4
Playing dirty??
There is valid political criticism about ideas -- which is how the Democrats usually campaign and how the Republicans campaign against other Republicans in primaries -- and there is the way that Republicans campaign against Democrats by pretending that political behavior is "criminal'. And Bernie supporters play along.
What Trump did is make criminal behavior acceptable as simply "politics as usual" with the media playing along. The irony is that the Republicans have at the same time convinced the media (with help from some Bernie supporters) to call political behavior by Democrats "criminal".
Biden's kid got a job he didn't deserve but Biden did absolutely nothing to reward the people who gave his son a job. "Criminal!" yell the Republicans and Bernie supporters -- it's a crime because Biden "could have" been affected and even though it is clear that Biden did not change policy, merely the "appearance" of the possibility that he "could have" changed policy makes it a crime!"
Trump illegally holds up aid while demanding Zelensky publicly smear his political rival Biden. "It's fine!" say Republicans -- "you can't PROVE that Trump's illegal act to help himself politically was done in order to help himself politically without Trump confessing that's why he did it." So "appearance" by Democrats is worse than "illegal action" by Republicans.
3
Bernie needs to - and will - be Bernie. Period.
5
This is not a good plan.
11
no, No, NO! Bernie is right to not stoop to the scorched earth politics of the day. Answer accusations of others forcefully and factually but please no slander, half truths and lies. In these last three years of Trump, we've been subjected to enough to last a lifetime.
11
Sanders is not a saint and lies when need to be as evidenced by calling Elizabeth Warren a liar on national TV. He comfortably aiding and abetting the false and vicious attacks by his surrogates. Taking on its face value of what the author said that he is not willing to fight dirty, then I would say he is not capable of accomplishing anything as president, therefore he should not be nominated as a candidate of Democratic party.
3
What on earth is this opinion writer saying? In 2016 Sanders stayed in the race for three months after it became mathematically impossible for him to win during which time he vilified and demonized Clinton relentlessly with outright distortions of her record. When he finally lost he refused to endorse her for a month. This divided the party and contributed to Clinton's defeat. These are not the behaviors of a principled candidate. His organizers this year gave talking points to volunteers that disparaged Buttigieg, Biden, and Warren. This is not the behavior of a principled candidate. He lied about something Biden said about social security. This is not the behavior of a principled candidate. A top surrogate (Nina Turner) savaged Biden in a SC newspaper attacking him as essentially enemy of African-Americans. This is not the behavior of a principled candidate. AOC is involved with a super PAC (that's right, a super PAC) that is spending a half a million dollars on ads attacking Biden and Buttigieg. This is not the behavior of a principled candidate. He just declined to call on a political nonprofit organization he founded to disclose its donors despite a Federal Election Commission complaint alleging that the group violated campaign finance laws. Principled candidate? Did this writer mean someone else?
14
Why do NYT pundits keep telling Democratic voters that we need to elect a Republican Lite, like Biden, who at most inspires a yawn? Or that a decent man like Sanders needs to turn himself into an attack dog and lash out at other Democrats? Seems like these strategies can only help Trump.
4
He already fights dirty with his misleading comments about Biden and his behind the back comments about whether women are electable.
9
Have to? Future tense? Where ya been?
Bernie’s been fighting dirty since at least 2015, gleefully spreading lies and smears about Hillary, the dnc, Superdelegates, endorsements, planned parenthood, voters in the south, the process, his chances, his fundraising, now Biden and warren....
It continually amazes me, how deliciously fact-free Bernie supporters are. And how vicious they get when those pesky facts intrude.
11
This is literally absurd. What on earth does the writer think Bernie did in 2016? He attacked both Clinton and Obama as being leaders of the corrupt Democratic establishment. He gave Trump more than enough ammunition. Is wasn’t surprising. What is surprising is that an intelligent opinion writer would suggest that for Bernie to take off the gloves would be a departure.
10
It's been four years! Bernie's a Democrat again.
5
Hunter Biden has certainly had a lot of jobs, eh? And apparently he wasn't qualified for any of them.
2
Bernie didn't hold back when he painted Hillary Clinton as the Queen of Wall Street in 2016.
10
Bernie has been fighting dirty since he was born.
He uses his Bernie Bros to be his hatchet men.
And they are busy as bees trying to intimidate the rest of us to vote for their albatross.
No way is this Dem gonna vote for a warmed over red who is calling for a Revolution.
Ain't gonna happen, Bros.
Zephyr Teachout? Hardly someone I would listen to.
11
Biden's weaknesses (and corruption?) need to be exposed and dealt with now before he is obliterated by Trump
3
As the Iowa caucuses get closer, I see the New York Times is using more and more unattractive photos of Bernie with each story/op/ed they print.
In this one he looks almost crazed.
The pillars of the status quo must be getting scared that --despite their best efforts with negative hit pieces -- Sanders is going to win big.
3
Give me a break. In 2016, the Bernie Bros and "Bro-ettes" were ferocious in their attacks on Hillary. You're simply helping the Republicans with their opposition research. Joe Biden is not your enemy. Donald Trump is.
18
"Sanders hesitates to attack his opponents directly"; he usually has his staff do it.
I voted for Sanders in the 2016 primary, would have voted for him in the general election if he'd won the nomination, but Sanders was using post-factual rhetoric before his most recent attacks Democrats. Sanders made it clear that as a Socialist he doesn't care about party unity, or playing fair with Democrats. He forever wants to exploit the Democratic Party for electoral purposes, and then attack it.
Using a video you edit to blatantly misrepresent what someone has said, so you can repeatedly lie about what they said, so you can win based on your lies, is no different than using a doctored video to do the same thing.
Sanders and his staff edited a video to make it appear that another Democrat said the opposite of what they said, and when caught he doubled down on the lie, attacking the truth. Where have we heard this before?
Before technology permitted audio and video it to be easily doctored, Stalin's KGB black propaganda department created dezinformatsiya using this technique.
Further, it isn't isolated. Well before Sanders was accused of saying Warren couldn't win because she's a woman, he falsely claimed before the 2016 election that "all of the polls that have come out suggest that I am a much stronger candidate against the Republicans than is Hillary Clinton." It was lie worthy of Trump.
Sanders isn't gruff, he's an intolerant zealot. You needn't worry about him holding back.
12
Barbara Dayan: The former Chair of the Democratic National Committee Debbie Wasserman Schultz worked with Hillary Clinton to undermine Sanders. The hacked Emails, demonstrated that. It wasn't that he was a nice guy; Schultz and Clinton were removing the floor beneath his campaign using the caucuses.
I think speaking honestly and truthfully can be the only way forward when all around us the world is seething with the lies of politicians.
8
Ugh, no. Whatever happened to "when they go low, we go high?" I for one am glad the senator is not attacking other democratic candidates or decent people. He has no qualms about attacking Trump, as a danger to our society, which is correct.
11
I wonder whether Mike Bloomberg might not be a better candidate than either Sanders or Biden.
I admire the Sanders vision. In particular, I support universal health care for Americans. However, like all the other candidates, Sanders promised to extend this benefit to illegal immigrants.
This is a blind spot among Democrats. There seems to be the misconception that illegal immigration can continue forever with any costs to the US offset by the additional productivity that immigrants will eventually add to the US economy.
We should indeed offer citizenship to highly skilled workers from abroad who complete a graduate degree in the sciences and engineering. But illegal immigrants in general increase the population without increasing the power of its workforce. The US does not need more unskilled workers.
And most of all, it does not need continued population growth. A recent NY Times article pointed out that since 1970, the bird population has decreased by 29% in the US and Canada? Why? Increased urbanization and destruction of habitats due to population growth.
Not only that, but further population growth will contribute to global warming.
Thus Democrats appear mendacious when they argue that global warming is the most important issue facing the planet, and do not call the people of Guatemala to task for having large families.
The population of Guatemala has quadrupled since 1960.
It is immoral to have more than two children in an overpopulated world.
4
To me it's clear that Sanders counts on winning the nomination without having to demean his opponents -- if for no other reason, that's because he will need their support (or at least their non-sabotage) when it's time to take on Trump directly. It's politics, pure and simple (although I think Sanders is way more principled than most of his peers, and fundamentally a good person).
3
Bernie is going negative - through this writer and LOTS of other surrogates, including his own campaign staff. And then he takes the high ground says he's not doing it, yada, yada, yada. Give me a break. News flash - taking a donation doesn't equal corruption, and no politician has a perfect record on voting - not even Bernie who was against gun background checks before he was for them. His gun safety record is horrifying, historically. Fortunately, he's been allowed to evolve. Why no one else?
Frankly, I've had enough of the Bernie Bros and the "my way or I'm staying home on election day" mentality. This election is far too important. The last one was too. How well did taking the high ground work out that time?
13
It may be that a large part of Sanders' appeal is that he doesn't attack the other candidates, with a few mild exceptions (e.g. to Mayor Pete: "Biden has 43 billionaires supporting him, and you have only 39")
If so he risks losing that aspect of his appeal if he begins to substantively attack the others. However it may be useful to air out all the dirty linen in the primaries, such as Hunter Biden's work for MBNA and well-paid lobbying, because if Biden can't defend these charges from fellow Democrats, he won't be able to when they come from Trump, who will use anything he can get his hands on. Sanders can have his proxies raise these issues, or hope that the other candidates will, but any dirt on Biden or others will be less damaging if processed in the primaries. Keeping quiet about vulnerabilities in the hope that the Trump campaign won't discover and use them is a risky strategy.
7
Ms. Bruenig is 100% correct and I hope Bernie reads this op-ed and learns what he has to do to win.
He needs to fight for us, and not protect his senate pals. Not me, us. Come on Bernie, get tough!
7
finally some words of truth about the last "lies" that Sanders would have said about Biden.
The reality is that everything he said or his staff said at the regards was minimal and pertinent with words said by Biden, it does not matter if he said those words 30 years ago, they clearly show an attitude of mind and lack of character.
He said that Social security and all the other safety net are fair game when it comes to need of money for the federal government.
What Biden said through the years is easily checked on line.
4
I agree with Elizabeth Breunig, I don't for the life of me understand why Bernie had to apologize for Ms. Teachout's excellent opinion piece in the Guardian. She outlines the various details perfectly. Most of the moneys raised by Biden can also be independently verified.
Biden will always take the easy way out in keeping his base of financial supporters happy and if we imagine he'll do anything to bring about change in the Healthcare industry or the Financial industry we'll have to wait a long time.
I know middle class people, I am one and Biden is no "middle class Joe." Great, but false branding.
If he's the last candidate standing, I'll still vote for him but it will be only to keep the bigger loser out of the White House.
8
I would like to thank the author for writing this article and the Times for publishing it, the latter of which surprised me.
Not sure what fighting "dirty" means in this context. Isn't it in the eye of the beholder? What is opposition research then? You dig up stuff that demonstrates what disqualifies the other candidate. This seems like an adequate tactic in these times where politics has become a blood sport.
As far as the Bidens in particular - it's about time to shine a light on them. Biden would be a disaster against Trump because everything outlined in this article would be used against him. And Trump knows how to work an audience AND he already said he won't debate anyone. I'm sorry, Joe Biden is no match for Trump. Establishment candidate, totally enmeshed in corporate culture and its dollars.
But watch - Bernie pointing out the obvious will get him the label of fighting dirty. What a joke.
I keep saying this but it's the truth: what inspires voters is fear. They need feel the fear of what four more years of Trump would bring. All the candidates should spend more time pounding that fact. Terrible air quality like in Beijing, Flint water problems, planetary chaos, a world without moral leadership, wars at the horizon because of Trump. Read Rick Wilson, and, ironically, Kellyanne Conway. She just wrote an article that outlines the strategic errors the Democrats are about to commit.
In 2018 it was already revealed that a centrist candidate will lose against Trump.
10
Great piece. At the very least, he should have some sharper claws when he is on the defense.
4
I believe the author's entreaties to "go dirty" is a recipe for further polarization. The fact that Biden did not recuse himself from Ukraine issues when his son served on the board of a Ukrainian gas company is troubling. As compared to Trump, such conflict of interest cants toward the minor leagues. When Senator Warren went "dirty" and accused Bernie Sanders of calling her a liar on national tv for declaring her accusation not true, I believed Bernie. Warren lost what fluid support some of us held for her because of such tactics. Bernie remains strong for many of us because he has not resorted to the tactics the author sadly espouses. Some of us will be voting for a candidate who not only brings the country together politically, but culturally as well. Going "dirty" during the primary campaign will not pull us further from such division.
8
I have no idea what Bernie Sanders this author refers to, but it's definitely not the flip side of the Trump coin with which I'm familiar.
9
He does not have to play dirty... all the BernieBros have been at it with no interruption for the past four and a half years! I guess this is only a opinion of yours, so I won't take it too seriously; you are probably another Bros spreading the lies from our very ineffectual Senator. I am so sad that this country has reached the bottom of the educational aspirations it used to have: extremes are the same and Trump and Sanders might as well be brothers because they address themselves to exactly the same level of fear and ignorance we have been living with. I have never experienced the level of vitriol, hate and refusal to even consider debating issues as I have with Bernie Bros. Just for that - and putting aside all the skewed rhetoric Sanders enables on his followers like a good Guru - I will never even consider his candidacy to be the nominee of the Democratic Party that he openly hates but is happy to collect the money for campaigning. I guess I will vote for him if he becomes the nominee without any illusions of where this country is going. Death toll of America as it thought it was... a long time ago.
11
Bernie appeals to our better selves. Stay there and ride to victory.
9
@Maureen On a rainbow colored unicorn.
6
I have been waiting for your first column Liz. You didn't disappoint. Welcome to the NYT!
4
Bruenig is giving terrible campaign advice.
First, the assumption is that Sanders has no similar skeletons. But Sanders is vulnerable to the same charge because his wife obtained a position as president of a Burlington college while he was mayor. There was controversy about her tenure, and it would come out in a fight with Trump.
So we shouldn't assume that any candidate will not be attacked on charges of corruption. Trump has to do that because his own corruption is a campaign issue that he has to neutralize. If there's no issue that can be mischaracterized in the candidate's history, they'll make something up, and Fox will convince a major slice of the population. Birth certificate, anyone?
I disagree with Bruenig that representing the interests of your state is corrupt. I think there should be a law preventing relatives from trading on your name, so let's pass the law. I don't hold Biden responsible for the choices of his adult son, nor Sanders for his wife's choices, and I don't assume that either of them made decisions based on their relatives.
We need to have a united front going into November, and that means dirty politics are a sure way to lose.
6
Does this mean that wives of politicians should not apply for high level jobs in fields completely distinct from politics? Wow! Guess that means that smart, ambitious wives of politicians should just stay in the kitchen making cookies.
1
Fighting dirty will surely alienated many Americans. Yet, it will help most to at last see politics through clarity.
1
The most important take away is that Bernie is visionary and principled. I disagree that he will need to go negative to distinguish himself. Not going negative is in itself a distinguishing feature.
I am also not interested in hearing about Hunter Biden. The example where he was put onto a board for which he was unqualified is really not related to his father's ethics. It is distasteful, but it is also standard practice. Not worthy of distinguishing critique.
As Bernie gains steam I am continually surprised by the level of anger and even hatred that my fellow commenters level at this bold, yet gentle soul. We have a tendancy of turning political figures into institutions that are easier to hate. This is a mistake. Bernie is a person like all the rest of us, and a good one at that.
I also feel continually compelled to let other commenters and pundits know (via comments) that I support Bernie, but am happy to vote for any of the other wonderful democratic candidates (Biden is my last choice). I know that some Bernie fans may feel differently. I continue to believe they are a minority. Bern on.
4
I'd still like to know what Bernie has accomplished during his time in Congress -- more than 25 years? -- that would make him the best candidate for the Democratic nomination.
He's managed to tick off quite a few women, especially those who worked on his last campaign. He doesn't seem to connect with the black community very well.
Yes, he's a fighter, a pointer, and a yeller. He's quite rigid in his policy approach, and not a personality that adapts well to change. But beyond inspiring young people, promising to overthrough the system, and struggling with some unconscious misogyny, what has he actually done?
9
@Jan A quick google search will answer your question. Several substantive amendments authored by Sanders have been passed into law supporting expanded veterans benefits, giving Americans free annual access to credit reports, establishing the first ever audit of the Federal Reserve, creating jobs for young Americans, funding for community health centers, and the national cancer registry.
Sadly, many more amendments and laws authored by Sanders have not passed. His principled opposition to a litany of American mistakes is also to his credit, but is excluded by the framing of your question. He opposed the first gulf war, the war in Afghanistan and the recent Iraq war. He was right each and every time. No one listened.
The world would be a different place if others followed his lead. Sure, he yells when he has too, but the stampede of American recklessness drowns out a whisper. I urge you to take another look.
8
@Jan
Sure, here are just some highlights.
Wrote 'n passed an $11billion HC Clinics Bill, serving an estimated 30 million citizens in 11000 rural and urban locals, ea. yr.
Negotiated the $5 billion bipartisan Landmark Veterans Bill of '14.
Recently helped workers in the Fight for $15 win a doubling of wages. 350,000 Amazon workers, 60,000 Disney workers, 20,000 Wholefoods workers and more.
Restored $320 million in pension benefits to 130,000 IBM workers.
Passage of the first and only audit of the Federal Reserve in '10.
Passage of $3.2 billion Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy grants.
Stopping bailed-out banks from replacing US workers with low wage guest workers.
Stopping the Postal Service from closing up to 15000 post offices and over 100 mail processing plants, ending Saturday mail and slashing over 100,000 jobs. Passage of the National Affordable Housing Trust Fund Act.
Raising wages of Federal contractors to a min. of $10.10 hr. or more.
Created the Northeast Home Heating Oil Reserve.
Passed the bipartisan Yemen War Power Act; the first time in 45yrs. since it was enacted. (DT vetoed it)
To name but a few.
Research The Amendment King. He passed more amendments under heavily partisan Republican controlled gov. than any other congresswo/man.
Here is a good Republican story, and why you often don't hear or read about Bern and his bills...
https://youtu.be/C08mO4BxRBs?t=10m20s
71% of his staff are women. He leads in women donors. He leads amongst POC.
5
As an Independent voter disgusted with Mr. Trump, I have problems with both major parties. Mr. Bloomberg comes across as outside the normal party machinations. I agree with his policies, especially the main goal of removing Mr. Trump, whoever the Democratic nominee is.
2
Bernie supporters and the NYT will be the ones to hang when Trump is re-elected. Stop with the garbage hit jobs already. Sanders has no real chance in a national election, and he will make zero progress in office if hell happens to freeze over and he is somehow elected - his record of a distinct lack accomplishment as a senator is living proof.
21
He’s actually accomplished a great deal.
Ghoogle is your friend.
2
"There are too many Bernie supporters who are likely to think its Bernie or nothing. “
this is unfortunately true. i still don’t think that’s an excuse for bernie joining the attacks. the democrats need to get together, not attack each other.
bernie knows what he is doing...and not doing.
7
@cliff barney Bernie isn't a Democrat. That's his excuse. He disagrees with Republicans. He hates Democrats.
3
Yes, he's hijacking the Democratic Party. Again.
Shame on you, Bernie. Take the I and run.
5
Mister Sanders coziness with post offices in his home state has allowed him to name two over his storied career in the Senate.
Sanders has walked away from making any hard calls in the Senate for the party whose ticket he is running on. In politics he will need allies, and he has none. Bernie will need a lot of good will to win and at this point he has less voters with him this time around as last.
7
So Sen. Biden has supported the major commercial interestss of his home state and was in turn backed by those interests. I'm shocked, shocked! And I'm sure that Sen. Sanders did nothing of that sort and never, ever supported the major commercial interests of Vermont. Just as he never, ever supported Second Amendment rights during his time as a Vermont pol, excuse me, Vermont saint.
12
I think the reality is a bit more nuanced. Perhaps Sanders sees the danger in branding Biden 'corrupt', which would then erase the differentiation between Trump and everyone else. Additionally, Sanders likes to refer to facts and truth - and not descend into pejoratives and ad-hominem attacks. If Teachout had written her piece without using the word 'corruption' or other judgemental labelling, there's a good chance Sanders may have let the issue pass unaddressed.
So why the labelling of Trump? There's not enough space here, but I will say there have been legal judgements against Trump entities, cronies, supporters, administrators, etc showing lying and ill intent, whereas Biden has no such record.
That all said, Sanders isn't afraid of airing facts against his Democrat opponents, citing their records quite specifically, but he does it in a clean way. This involves some of his greatest 'unique selling points'; truth, honesty... and integrity. There have been bumps with campaign staff, standing in contrast to Sanders' somewhat peerless moral compass. It's also why he has such a loyal and growing following, people are absolutely desperate for these qualities, seemingly quite lacking in US politics and perhaps much else in American and global society these days.
Sanders doesn't need to, and shouldn't go dirty, he just needs to keep speaking truth to power, exhibiting his much beloved USPs and driving establishment types crazy.
8
Why is it that whenever anyone writes a comment critical of Clinton there is an immediate program error and it won't post?
4
@Curry because the press is controlled by a few. Because everyone is protecting their own interest. Because it's easier to endorse 2 instead of one and do the homework and seek real changes. Corruption is widely spread on all sides and when someone like Sanders comes up, the press moves to kill and maim. Shame y'all
1
If Sanders wins the nomination, running attack ads against Trump will be fine, and I think necessary. That will be the time to wage "total war." Throwing corruption charges against Biden, and implicating his son, is not the right thing to do at this time, because even if everything Ms. Teachout wrote is true, that plays right into Trump's hands. Trump is trying to portray the Bidens as corrupt, and Bernie's campaign should not hand FOX news and Trump more ammunition. There are plenty of other points of distiction between him and Biden -- he doesn't have to go nasty there, nor should he.
6
With what some may call a gruff demeanor, Sanders seems to be an old school gentleman; easy to forget now that we live in Trump world.
Bernie has put the working person front and center and will be remembered for looking out for the masses.
12
I'm glad we have some politicians who don't throw mud. Even truthful mud. They let themselves be judged by the merit of their positions.
10
He can't possibly! Or, if he does a gazillion attacks will be aimed at him in vicious terms. They already have been. But it will be a flood.
Spare me. The Bernie Bros don't hesitate to attack other contenders, untrammeled by good sense or even facts. The fact that Sanders exerts no effort to control these activities, especially when they come from his owns staff, means he is fighting "dirty" already.
19
Bernie Sanders doesn't need to make nasty, negative attacks against his Democratic opponents when people like Elizabeth Bruenig and David Sirota are more than happy to do it for him 24/7.
16
He's a nasty man. He seeks the Democratic nomination but won't call himself a Democrat.
What a wuss.
4
If Zephyr Teachout's book, "Corruption in America: From Benjamin Franklin’s Snuff Box to Citizens United," is safe enough for Harvard University Press to publish, then the subject might also be safe enough for Bernie to talk about, and for Americans to listen.
9
Bernie Sanders should exemplify the sort of society he wants to create. He won't be doing that if he starts fighting dirty.
8
Hunter Biden may well have gotten rich on his father's name but that doesn't say anything untoward about Joe Biden.
What do critics expect the father to do? Forbid his nearly 50 year old son from taking jobs that will make Joe look bad? Do you think the son would say "OK, Dad, whatever you say"?
Criticize Biden for what he says and does, not for what his son does.
9
This journalist, like others, has a conflict of interest. They want something to fight about. They want to see candidates at each others throats. It gets clicks and sells subscriptions. They built up Trump all through the 2016 Republican primary because of this. The rest of us want to overthrow this vicious system.
2
He could have destroyed Hillary and didn't - so a severely tainted candidate went through the primary process.
Then Trump opened up to her and people are shocked - The Foundation, Bill's harassment, vote for Iraq, NAFTA, email.
Biden was a weak candidate 30 years ago - now it is just plain sad. That no one is calling this out will lead to heart break in November.
9
Sanders hasn't had to openly play dirty because his staff, surrogates and supporters have been more than happy to play dirty for him. Let him start attacking his opponents openly and let's see if he can take it. I don't think he, his record, or his policy positions will hold up well at all under attack.
245
@Jolton Exactly, Bernie has been more than happy to allow the Bernie Bros. to do the mud slinging for him. Let's not play holier than thou.
And, yes, the oppo reearch on Bernie would be a treasure trove for Trump.
32
@Jolton
I don't think he should treat his Democratic rivals for the nomination, many of whom are current officeholders, as opponents. They are on the same team. The enemies are Trump and McConnell, and I think Bernie grasps that. Let's not give FOX talking points by aggressively smearing each other. Throw as much mud at Trump as possible.
39
@Nikki
"I don't think he should treat his Democratic rivals for the nomination, many of whom are current officeholders, as opponents."
But they are opponents. There can only be one presidential nominee.
I agree with the Op-Ed. The person who gets the nomination and the presidency is going to have to show a killer instinct. Politics aint' beanbag.
5
Dear Michelle: You really, really need to read Ezra Klein's op ed next to yours today.
It will explain to you why a Bernie Sanders as the Democratic general candidate is a guarantee of Trump's re-election.
Had Bernie run as an Independent in 2016--as he is now in Vermont for re-election because That's. What. He. Is., he would've lost. But he might have taken the 4 years to set up the Independents to become the first 3rd party to win the Presidency since Lincoln, in a nation in the same polarized condition as 1850. Lost opportunity for us all.
9
Bernie is trying to drive home his message that our political system is corrupt without giving particular examples that involve his rivals. Almost all politicians who survive have been corrupt in some areas, and many are corrupt in most areas. Protecting the actually unnecessary or wasteful jobs and businesses of constituents is a central reason why politicians are elected. As long as no alternative way of protecting their interests exists, it is their job to protect these interests as they are.
An alternative way of protecting their interests would be programs that bring other jobs and businesses and prepare them for these different opportunities. But that is socialistic government planning that entails higher taxes, so in this country it is rarely on the table. As long as it is not on the table, politicians are left with the choice of defending their constituents or betraying them.
Bernie is against our bloated defense budget, but as long as it exists he strives to get Vermont its fair share, as he should. He also tries to cut it, as he should.
Biden is operating within a corrupt system. He should not be condemned for this, but rather for accepting the system and not publicly seeing its corruption.
4
I believe Bernie Sanders is a good man, but anybody who believes he can unite our country is crazy. To vote for Bernie is to vote directly to keep the culture war alive.
There is only one candidate on the Democratic field who can unite our country, and his name is Andrew Yang. Only Yang has universal appeal. He appeals to liberals, progressives, libertarians and conservatives alike. He runs the most all-inclusive campaign I have even witnessed in my lifetime, perhaps in American history. He doesn't care if you're black, brown, yellow, red or white. He doesn't care what party you are registered in. He doesn't care if you're a woman, man or trans. He doesn't care if you were born here or elsewhere. Everybody has a home in Yang's campaign.
Yang is a new type of Democrat, a 21st century Democrat. He embraces a new ideology, which both includes the best of all previous ideologies and transcends them. This is a new Democrat who doesn't get bogged down in identity politics, but neither avoids or minimalizes the harsh realities of discrimination. He is the only candidate among both parties with the intellect, character, maturity, ideas, seriousness, empathy, and emotional intelligence to lead our country our out of this quagmire of division.
Please my fellow Democrats, it's not too late...please seriously consider Andrew Yang as your candidate.
1
The issues are more important than the personalities.
Unfortunately, too many Americans are too stupid to realize that.
Sanders has the most inclusive policies of any candidate.
1
"The financial capture of Washington that he rightfully detests is real, and it is manifest in his opponents. He will have to own that, or risk campaigning hobbled."
Not necessarily -- wasn't there a Billionaire running, recently, who said he'd spend TWO BILLION DOLLARS, just to ensure a trump defeat?
I think, if the timing works out right, Mr. Bloomburg just might be able to help release Senator Sanders from those overtly-ubiquitous, gold-plated Nation-stealing Corporate shackles.
A Once-in-a-Lifetime Opportunity, folks -- if, like the guy on our hundred-dollar-bill, Ben Franklin always likes to say, "IF we don't blow it."
3
One of the most recurrent bases I read among op-ed-ers and commenters for disliking or dismissing Bernie is a caricaturing of him as an "angry old man."
Each time it reminds me of a bumper sticker I bought decades ago, when we thought we'd reached the bottom in politics' corruption by money - oh how naive we were - and that perception had already led to this saying: "If you're not outraged, you're not paying attention."
These days outrage has competed with despair in many of us, the outrage being a foil from depression, but it has also become manufactured, a phony variety increasingly on display among Republicans in Congress (poster child Lindsay Graham) sycophanting themselves and co-opting outrage into "the best defense is an offense."
Bernie lights up our sky with such an authentic outrage, full of urgency and passionate indignation, about real and serious matters oppressing human beings and our planet and our survival. Not petty politics but survival. When you are put off by his anger, I'd suggest that you might not be paying adequate attention or feeling the real do-or-dieness of this most consequential moment (impeachment) and election of our lifetimes.
Anger at the injustices abounding is the healthiest of reactions, and Bernie channels his to a vision that echoes what Bobby Kennedy used to quote from George B Shaw: "You see things; and you say, "Why?" But I dream things that never were; and I say, "Why not?"
We need an outrage directed toward such vision.
15
Perhaps it is because he has so much that can discredit himself that other candidates have not used against him? And I will not now. But the Republicans will if he is the nominee
That is one reason they are promoting him
8
@Christine 2016 because she ran an inept campaign. Get over it. I voted for her, holding my nose.
1
@Christine
Perhaps not.
1
I used to listen to Bernie Sanders, who, for ten years was a gracious guest on Thom Hartmann's daily (progressive!) radio talk show every Friday, for an hour -- they had lots and lots of callers, all types, and when some of them were rude, to Bernie, he never once got upset, never raised his voice, for that matter, while attemping to answer the caller's complaints, always respectfully, and always Honestly.
I don't think Bernie has an Attack mode for his (our) fellow Citizens; but, then again, I only listened to him for the last two or so years he was on. His Attitude was, surprisingly, to me, infectious on the callers, and Thom.
Think what a person like that might do, at this time for this rapidly-dividing, nevertheless Awesome Nation...
We need a Uniter, not a Divider.
The latter -- it's just Not working.
E pluribus unum, baby.
Or bust.
20
This disingenuous article provides "cover" for Sander's groupees as they do "dirty work" while their idol appears clean. Indeed, Sanders has developed a cadre of groupees, nearly half of whom say that they will not vote for any Democratic candidate other than Sanders in the 2020 election.
As we get closer to the primaries the effect of such "agents" is to continually character assassinate political opponents. Here there is an attack on VP Biden's association with the nation's banks--eerily similar to the Sanders' attacks on Secy Clinton's association with Wall Street. What do the banks and Wall Street have in common? They're located in the respective states that Clinton and Biden represented as Senators. Are Senators not supposed to represent their State interests?
Ms. Bruenig moves on to Hunter Biden. She omits in her denigration of him, as does Trump, that Hunter Biden is a graduate of Yale Law, worked for the David Boes law firm, was appointed to the Board of Amtrak by a Republican President, became Vice Chair of Amtrak’s board, performed corporate legal work for Burisma before being put on its board, just as so many other corporate lawyers are on the boards of companies worldwide.
I don't know if Ms. Bruenig considers herself to be a "Sanders groupee," but she is practicing unfair character assassination to his benefit just as the primaries get closer.
18
@GED
Fantastic!
A defense of Wall Street, of Delaware being a domestic corporate tax haven, and of Hunter Biden being on the board at Amtrak!
This is how we win in November!
4
If what you say about Hunter Biden is true then the argument that he was totally unqualified to be on Burisma’s board is completely unjustified. Why isn’t this being made more public? It’s pretty important.
4
@Winston, it's not a defense of Wall Street, anymore than Sanders' votes against the Brady Bill (background checks) and vote for legal immunity for gun manufacturers was a vote for the NRA. I would like to see state interests play no part in politics, but that's the system we have.
I have no doubt that Biden would sign Wall Street reform (he was instrumental in getting Dodd-Frank passed) and Sanders would sign gun safety legislation. That's also the system we have--once you represent the nation, you're no longer bound by parochial interest.
5
Liz gets it exactly right. Bernie Sanders is a principled visionary and a true friend of the working class.
He focuses on the issues and doesn't make it personal. That's because he knows this election isn't about him; it's about the future of the country, the planet, and the people.
Not me, US
11
I too am grateful for Bernies reputation and history of not going for the cheap shots and maintaining the admirable qualities of respect, honesty and most of all consistency over his 40 years of politics. My only concern if any is whether he could continue to stay above the fray if and when elected, Jimmy Carter also had many of these attributes and we all know what happened to him. Times have changed or at least I hope they have and the country (at least the working class) is now ready to speak truth to power. Time will tell.
5
He doesn’t need to fight dirty. He has his surrogates and supporters do it for him. When it goes too far, like calling another candidate “corrupt,” (seriously?), he sorta kinda walks it back, and then says that other campaigns do it too. They don’t. Other (Democratic) campaigns don’t engage in online bullying or show up to other candidates’ rallies to cause trouble. Then they shrug and say that they can’t control a few million bad apples, but then maybe he doesn’t have the kind of control to lead a country.
13
@M
Other Democratic campaigns don't engage in bullying? Please. Hillary's strategy against Bernie was a carbon copy of how she tried to fight Obama.
1. doesn't hold American values, and is therefore not a real American
2. ___-boys are sexist and mean to her supporters.
3. idealistic fool who nobody likes or wants to work with
Biden, Buttgieg and Pete are pulling the socialism and anti-business line. And let's not even get into Biden's "you're fat" smears against voters, or challenging everyone to pushups/fights. If that isn't low blow mental midget thinking, nothing is.
Calling Biden corrupt is not a smear: it's the truth that's been out there for decades and has been touched upon by journalists even before he was VP. It was only with the ascent of Obama that the the campaign, the media and celebrities started to cultivate the memes of jolly Uncle Joe, when everyone in Delaware knows he's an opportunistic lech.
1
Bernie played dirty the day he announced his 2016 candidacy as a Democrat and attacked actual front-running Democrats for any expectation they would be strongly supported. He labeled that assumption to be a sense of “entitlement” which sounds high-handed instead of a natural expectation. In 2020, he’s at it again.
When corporate employees are groomed for leadership roles, they are treated as likely selections, especially if they represent the prevailing philosophy and actual brand.
Democrats have progressive ideas for the future that do not involve revolution in the streets or dismantling of a capitalist society. Democrats don’t think they are good plans. Throwing a wrench into a political party to get his way will not work, and Bernie will go down in history as a misguided spoiler.
17
Oh come on. Just sorry you do have ralph Nader to blame for the corporate wing of the party losing yet another election?
The realism surrounding Bernie is he is a one-way ticket for re-election of the tweeter-in-chief. This thought makes me sick. Bernie is unrealistic, period. His Medicare for all is a boondoggle. Medicare Bernie-speak is not anything like the real Medicare that is now successfully running for us old folks. Medicare is not free.
I agree college educations are out of sight moneywise. But free for all college is also unrealistic. I'm not just speaking about scholarship help. There used to be different programs like reduced tuition for state colleges and universities for residents. Also, who said everyone needs to go to college. I hired a plumber the other day and I should have been a plumber instead of a teacher.
Also, nasty campaigns with attack ads can get very disgusting. Therefore, making the candidate disgusting too.
2
Let me get this straight.
You don’t think everyone deserves affordable healthcare.
You don’t think anyone who wants to go to college deserves the opportunity to do so.
You think such programs that work quite well in other countries are “unrealistic.”
Then by all means don’t vote for Bernie. After all, things are so wonderful just as they are now.
6
What about the allegations of the "Bernie Bros" trolling and harassing folks online?
11
@The Buddy
They're about as real as Obama boys, an invention of the Hillary Clinton campaign.
1
We Democrats can no longer indulge in our circular firing squad. Whomever is chosen as our candidate, we must aim in one direction, and that is at the Trumpistas. You have seen the results of the Republican configuration -- political death to anyone who crosses the madman at their lead. We cannot give this one away in a fit of pique at not getting our way. Vote for your lives, or at least for the life of your country.
2
I'm with the first NYT Picks commenter. Are we talking about the same BERNIE?!
And using proxies - in his case, mad dog 20-somethings - is obviously a time-honored way to stick the knife in without getting your fingerprints on the haft.
We can all agree that whoever goes up against Trump is going to have to give Michelle O's "GO HIGH!" imperative a very long hard look.
But the notion that he can capture all or most of EW's 15% by talk of her "electability" or "Wasn't she a Republican not decades ago?" strikes me as terribly dicey.
NOT ONLY will there be no small number of current EW supporters who truly will never forgive him - there ARE already, of course - but there are still an awful lot of "soccer moms" (not a put-down, just shorthand for "politics is NOT what floats their boat!") who may be open to an alternative to Trump ... but I have to believe that when EW or JB calls into question Bernie's character (NOT!! his "long suit," believe you me!), there goes a lot of potential "Rep16-to-Dem20-switcheroos!"
Sports analogies come to mind. The Patriots are currently the team most of America loves to hate. Let's face it, Donald has a lock on that in politics, and Bernie would incur truly "existential" risk if he gets into a knife fight.
As it is, I continue to feel that I'm in a kind of "Groundhog Day," where McGovern (getting smushed) is about to happen again. Like George, BS has many of the assets that Greta Thunberg has, but they are all wrong in 2020's Pres. race.
5
"No one likes Bernie" says Hillary. Of course she liked him just fine when he said "I don't give a damn about your emails". And that was what sprung Bernie from a fringe candidate to an overnight sensation. It sets Bernie apart and he should keep it that way. If Hunter Biden is fair game then Jane Sanders also becomes fair game. And once that can of worms is opened it becomes a race to the bottom. Bernie should remain visionary and principled but rest assured Bernie will show no mercy when it comes to Donald Trump
11
@IGUANA
Last time we checked, Jane Sanders wasn't an unapologetic drug addict who used her family connections to stay out of jail. She didn't have a cushy do-nothing job leveraging her husband's position, either.
4
@Viv, why so much venom toward Hunter Biden? He's not running. And why the disinformation? He's a recovering addict, as are so many Americans, and he never used his family connections to "stay out of jail." I hope we all believe in giving people a second chance.
Both Hunter and Jane are vulnerable to being smeared unfairly. Let's not help the far right achieve that goal.
5
I guess Ms Bruening missed Bernie's forced apologies for attacks on rivals in the last week or so, along with his behavior at the last Dem convention, his failure to endorse HRC until, well he had to. Pls NYT hire people who know what they're talking about.
11
I'm not seeing my comments published.
Using "civility" as a way to protect a hit job by your Bernie Sanders supporter opinion desk writer is political censorship.
Elizabeth Bruenig is helping a political hit job, originally launched by Putin at the Kremlin*, to succeed. She should be accountable for that, as should Bernie Sanders, in whose name she is doing it.
*cf. House Managers presentations. Impeachment Trial of Donald John Trump, 1/23/2020, ff.
4
Frankly, ms bruenig, you sound like a fifth column operative, or a troll in today's parlance. Your sanders advice is a surefire recipe for trump's reelection.
18
A man approaching eighty has a heart attack during the campaign and a cluster of know-nothings still supports him. We cardiologists have not been quite as successful at healing heart disease as you seem to think
13
As a doctor, you might be a little more contextual about Sanders’ ailment.
His heart itself got a clean bill of health. His arterial blockage was relieved by stent.
1
While I share concern that Biden (like any moderate/establishment Democrat who has been around for a while) is tainted by association with corporate/financial interests, I feel that taking Biden down in this way would help Trump in the long run, if Biden does (likely) win the nomination.
5
If Sanders is the Democratic nominee in 2020, Trump will win in a Reagan style landslide.
206
@Reno Domenico
Maybe it will be more like a "Nixon" landslide.
9
@Reno Domenico Pure speculation.
Could you please explain how, exactly how you know the future?
61
A landslide is a landslide. And always remember that if Trump leaves early, Pence takes over. That's Trump's ace in the hole.
6
I was undecided and leaning toward Bernie, but now I'm for Warren. The way he dismissed her after the debate, when she confronted him, was revealing. He's just another career politician--what exactly has he accomplished in his 30 years in the Senate? Is there any bill with his name on it? Let's give a smart woman a chance-- like Warren. Bernie's had his day.
155
@Beachi Undecided but now for Warren because [insert Hillary quote here] Bernie's ideas haven't had their day and when a woman campaigns on the same issues she'll have my vote.
32
@Beachi
So based on no evidence you believe a rumor. Sentor Warren who I will definitely vote for should she win the nomimation did not come out and say he made that statement. Her response is planned and layed out to not really say he did or did not make the statement. There is no recording we do not know what was said, I believe that Bernie Sanders would not have made that Statement. I believe it based on a life time of supporting Women. I believe it goes aginst his character and think this is a DNCNational media attack to stop his candidacy.
Chuck From Ohio
58
@Beachi
Dismissed Warren? You and I were not watching/hearing the same recording.
75
Bernie's supporters keep talking about what Bernie will do.
Here is Bernie's proven record of success:
"Summary. It is incorrect to state that Bernie Sanders never sponsored a bill that became law. He penned a total of three bills which were enacted as law, although two of those simply renamed post offices. Sanders is listed as a co-sponsor on over 200 pieces of legislation."
If Bernie's ideas and policies are so great, how come he couldn't turn his policies into law? It is very easy to be a co-sponsors of legislation.
I believe if the Democrats make the mistaken of making Bernie the nominee. The judges that Bernie's supporters help Trump/Mitch put on the Supreme and Federal courts will block most laws Bernie will want to in act.
What do I mean by this? Google how many Bernie Sanders supporters voted for Donald J. Trump in 2016.
Why any Democrat would want to reward a candidate whom supporters help elect Donald Trump is beyond logic!
13
Legislating is not a matter of quantity, but quality.
The fact that he has avoided introducing innocuous, easy-win bills is to his credit.
Sanders has made innumerable bills more progressive with his amendments.
3
“Nice guys finish last.” The person who made that observation must be American. I reckon Bernie could win a fair political fight. The question is whether he will get the chance.
4
@Bob He defeated Hillary Clinton. I'm just surprised he isn't happier with his success.
1
Attack ads are inimical to reasonable, considered political discourse and are so by design. That's why Bernie Sanders opposes them and I commend him for that.
Note that I am not a Bernie Sanders supporter. I will probably vote for Warren or Biden.
5
Bernie spent the 2016 primary implying, very clearly, that HRC was corrupt (Wall Street speeches, etc.). No surprise then that the Bernie-ites in numbers enough to throw the election to Trump went 3rd party or stayed home. Check Jill Stein's numbers in 2016 compared to 2012 in key states. Bernie's primary campaign was a significant reason why Trump won. We probably will see that again.
13
@CR
For every Jill Stein voter who didn't vote HRC there were 5 Gary Johnson voters who didn't vote for Trump.
Try harder!
8
@CR,
Sorry CR, 10 - 12% of Bernie's supporters or up to 6 million of Trump's votes were Bernie supporters. Bernie's supporters alone put Trump over the top in MI, WI and PA.
Google: How many Bernie Sanders supporters voted for Donald Trump in 2016.
I bet that if Bernie doesn't win the nomination this time, a large portion of his supporters will vote for Trump again in 2020!
Bernie appears to be Trump's favorite because Trump is already tweeting "Bernie is a victim" in Bernie's supporters head like the Trump campaign did in 2016.
4
The fact that they did not vote for Clinton is on her, not on Sanders.
2
Fighting dirty is what people do who have nothing of value to say. Candidly, it's the only thing Trump has done well. Sanders or the eventual nominee will win the VERY small number of voters in a VERY small number of states by making they case that Democrats have better ideas that have practical implications. EVERYONE knows what Trump is and it wastes valuable time focusing on him. Ask Hillary Clinton.
8
Hilliary cheated him out of the chance for the nomination in 2016.
Warren scolded him and accused him of lying.
And the presidential campaign has yet to begin.
12
It’s time to put that canard to rest. Hillary won the primary. Bernie and his bro’s need to get over it and get on board with defeating Trump rather than sabotaging Other Democrats. Oh, wait, Bernie is not a Democrat.
7
@RP Can you explain exactly how Hillary cheated him out of the nomination? It's repeated a lot, but nobody has ever said exactly how.
3
Couldn’t agree more. Bernie is a visionary and principled.
Leading candidates who aren't Sanders (Biden, Warren, Buttigieg, Bloomberg, among those remaining) are the easiest for Trump to weaponize, just as Clinton was in '16. Sanders is the only 'Democrat' who can cut into Trump's base (particularly the blue collar vote in PA, OH, IN, MI, WI, IA, WV, NC, MT, NE (among others) which puts the GOP on the defensive having to shift resources to retain them, and without having to compromise a single policy or platform position.
People who claim we can’t win with a candidate that promises real change are getting in their own way. The public is not clamoring for a status quo candidate. That seems to be painfully obvious.
Biden is an abject corporate stooge whose career has been assiduously devoted to making life worse for vast numbers of working and poor people in the United States -- and outside the United States Biden has the blood of several hundred thousand Iraqis (and Libyans, Syrians, Yemenis,...) on his paws.
Biden is a deeply vile and despicable individual.
Only spinless democratic voters want to "play it safe" and vote for Joe Biden, a milk-toast, middle of the road, Wall Street connected, corporate-pandering centrist.
We now need bold changes and a bold leader who will push to get the corporate and special interest money OUT of politics, NOT a Democrat of yesteryear, glad to shake your hand while taking money from sepcial interest groups with the other hand.
10
@Chris - I think we can forget about Uncle Joe and his family - so much more will come out about his past that it will seem he becomes a side show.
3
Well then, get ready for four more years of Trump.
Whether it is for the Democratic nomination or ultimately the Presidency, Bernie Sanders needs more than anything to fight smart. It is fine to be aggressive, including using uncomfortable facts about an opponent. But fighting dirty in politics often implies using untrue statements.
Call me naive, but fighting dirty is sign of desperation, and even though a hallmark trait of our current President is dishonesty, do Democrats really want to elevate a candidate who prevails by dishonesty?
More than anything, I hope for an office that displays character. Lying to get there removes that from the resume.
6
What absolutely terrible advice! Bernie would lose a lot of supporters if he took the path proposed by the author. Bernie should keep doing exactly what he has done his whole career: focus on the issues and policies. This author's inexperience and youth is apparent. Bernie has been doing this successfully for decades and has principles he has always adhered to--that's exactly what his supporters love about him!
7
@L. Hoberman I won't vote for Sanders in November if he runs this kind of campaign, and also if he doesn't clamp down on surrogates who try. He will behave like a civilized person, or he will lose.
He did in 2016.
9
He IS fighting dirty, urging his supporters to attack, harass, malign, slander, disrupt, & attack other candidates & their supporters. He will not release his most recent complete health report (of concern because of his heart attack and his age) or recent financial report. His dark money PACs (reported by AP and in this paper: "Watchdog Files FEC Complaint Against Pro-Sanders Nonprofit," Jan. 22, 2020) are funding attack ads and may be funding the travel of his attack squads to hound and disrupt other candidates on the campaign trail. And he won't tell his followers to vote for whoever is on the general ticket opposite Trmp. (That same action was a significant element leading to the election of the current disastrous prez.) It's despicable. If this is Sanders now, what will he be like as president?
16
I just saw this poll online. The Bernie faithful don't accept compromise, despite protests that he is "lovely" and above conflict and loyal to the Democratic Party. Vote for Bernie or else?
National Emerson College Poll On ______ Supporters Will Support Any Democratic Nominee In The General Election:
Warren 90
Biden 87
Buttigieg 86
Bloomberg 78
Sanders 54
Yang 50
4
@NYer
Bernie and Yang receive the majority of their support from REGISTERED INDEPENDENTS.
These REGISTERED INDEPENDENTS (much like all other Americans) do not owe their vote to any person or any party.
These REGISTERED INDEPENDENTS will decide the election.
Yes, coalitions are messy! But if you want to win you need to at least try to listen to voters.
8
At last, an article in the Opinion section that acknowledges the loveliness of Bernie Sanders. Thank you, Elizabeth Bruenig!
4
I find the reasoning to be on the attack as wrong. It gives Trump and Republicans ammunition they do not need to dream up themselves. Let Republicans do their own dirt. They are experts.
1
This is such a weak argument that even you have managed to debunk it.
With a simple google search you can find hundreds of articles and videos that expose Joe Biden as a corrupt liar.
You don't need to be an expert to figure this out--but if the Republicans are indeed experts in digging up dirt then they must already have this information.
It is important that we do not lose to Republicans in the general because Iowans were just a little too lazy to google "Joe Biden MBNA" before February 3rd.
This is what primaries are for.
We can get out ahead of this thing but only if we vote for Bernie NOW.
1
an excellent article. thank you.
3
Any time you highlight Sanders he comes out well. He is a principled person. You can’t go to the big doners! The NYT should evolve away from their fear of a bold candidate. Sander’s long held positions are no longer some left wing dream scape. They are the burning issues of our time. We all talk about sustainability like it’s some easy thing. Implementing sustainability, something that has to happen for our species to survive itself, means taking down the corporate aggrandizement machine. They are the big doners.
3
@Brian The only burning issue in this election is defeating Trump, and Bernie won't. Other priorities will have to wait.
7
@Carl Yaffe
Interesting argument--I haven't heard it before!
Sources, please.
4
@Winston The source is common sense.
2
Ms. Bruening, Donald Trump thanks you from the bottom of his heart.
13
Okay, now let's talk about Bernie's little visit with the Sandinistas when he denounced the US in a foreign public square. Or we can talk about his ideological honeymoon in the USSR.
If that doesn't sound pleasant, brace yourself if he ends up with the nomination because you'll hear it again and again.
10
@Tracy Not to mention his being Jewish, which most attacks have stayed away from, so far.
2
@Tracy No one really cares about Bernie's honeymoon in the USSR 30 years ago.
Do you care that the sitting US president has a history of business dealings going back decades with Russia? Because I do care about that.
https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-russia-business-financial-ties-2018-11
2
I feel like I’m taking crazy pills. Bernie doesn’t need to play dirty because his surrogates and his fanatical supporters do it for him.
11
He is too old. No amount of "fighting dirty" will change that. And he just had a heart attack. And when you exhort his campaign to "fight dirty", you're telling the Russians it's open season to mess with our election in the guise of Bernie's bros, who frankly already fight dirty.
11
First civil debates and people are crying for bloodied noses. Insane. Bernie is doing everything right. He should save the bloody noses for Trump.
4
Please stop! We cannot afford this kind of simplemindedness in the Trump era. The only thing that matters in the next election is for the Democrat---WHOEVER IT IS---to win. So providing possible talking points to a possible nominee of our party is insanity. If Bernie's the nominee, I will support him. If Biden is the nominee, I will support him. If it's one of the female candidates, I'll support them. With all my energy. The Titanic is sinking, Elizabeth, stop fiddling.
9
@Adam
Republicans don't need our talking points they can do a quick google search just as well as anyone else.
We simply want to expose the candidates' weaknesses so we voters can decide who will be the strongest in a general election.
This is a primary, remember?
2
Decency is the sword that will snicker snack he who shall not be named. The Democrats don't need to lie, either about one another or about he who shall not be named. By all means, Mr. Sanders, continue to fight dirty. No need to start. You're already doing it. Warren tells us your campaign talking points are now calling her an elitist. That's the same sort of slur you dishonestly tarred Clinton with. Warren has been acting on behalf of poor, working class and middle class Americans for ages. Krugman a day or so ago on these pages described the fake video clip you just distributed which made it seem like Biden was saying the opposite of what he actually said--and implying he plans to cut Social Security. None of the Democrats are planning any such thing. You have just started calling Biden corrupt. That, too, is a lie. If St. Bernie and his followers do not restrain themselves, it will be 2016 all over again. Either St. Bernie wins or he takes everybody down with him, irreparable damaging the candidacy of the nominee? Is that what you want? By all means, repeat Trump's baseless lies about Biden, as this editorialist has. You should know better. You should all know better.
7
If you took the trouble to watch the video, you’d see that Biden said the Social Security would need “adjustment.”
I take that as an implication that he might favor raising the retirement age and cutting benefits.
Krugman was wrong. Sanders was right.
1
Yeah he should fight dirty and lose us another election.
6
Sanders hired Sirota, who was trashing other candidates on twitter while failing to disclose his relation to the Sanders campaign. Sanders never said a word.
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2019/03/sanders-promised-civility-hired-twitter-attack-dog/585259/
His campaign attacks other candidates but Sanders "didn't now" about those attacks.
His extreme fans called Clinton a "corporate wh***" in 2016 and he made a single "Oh, stop it" remark.
Now his fans and staff are lauding Joe Rogan's support.
Sanders pretends he's above the fray while hiring and praising people who do the attacking in his name.
8
A NY Times staff editor thinks more attacks, more nastiness is the way to go?
Wow.
Not OK.
I am losing faith in the NY Times.
4
I hope Bernie reads this piece and wakes up. Liz Bruenig is a master and a hugely valuable addition to the NYT as their first leftist.
5
'Tis better to die honorably, than live in disgrace. Bernie, stick to the high road otherwise you become what you hate.
3
I couldn't disagree more. I'm going to vote Blue not matter what this November, with one exception. If Bernie goes scorched earth and hurts the real Democrats who are running, and wins the nomination as a result, I will stay home. So will many other progressives who see the truth: Bernie is the Trump of the left - empty promises and a win-at-all costs attitude.
9
You just vowed to not vote for the best platform in the election.
You accuse Bernie of being responsible for Trump. But it’s you who are threatening to vote for Trump.
1
Reading some of the passionate Sanders supporters (MSM! Corporatists!) depresses me. The passion is great. I think it will lead to a big fat loss at the polls, whether or not Sanders gets real mean (I don't think fighting dirty against other Democratic candidates is wise.) There are plenty of Democrats who are moderates (myself included) and a significant number of independents who could lean Democratic - and may have voted for Trump in '16. Why do you believe that because Trump is a right-wing autocrat (and apparently a decent chunk of former Democrats is ok with that) the Democratic candidate needs to be a socialist? And why do you think such a candidate would be effective once elected? Note that the '18 victories came from more conservative candidates. While not wild about Biden, he will do no harm, and will bring good people with him. Remember that the first task is to repair all of the damage. You will need a broad base of good will to get that going.
3
I disagree. Whenever I've seen negative ads, they have turned me off more to the candidates running the ads, than the people the ads are supposedly about.
3
Bernie is treating his primary opponents with grace and firm commitment to his principles. We have not yet seen him in a race where he can unleash. I like this tack. Attacking other Democrats should be done gently since when this phase is over we'll need to coalesce. As well, the differences are not as stark as what is coming against the criminally degenerate Republicans. There is not going to be a fist fight over health care, all Democrats want a lot more, they just don't agree on how. There will be no fist fight over Social Security, they all want to protect and expand. There is no fist fight over climate change, they all agree that science is real. I like Bernies firm relatively gentle touch at this point. I applaud it as I do pretty much all of the very civilized candidates on the Democratic side. Save your knuckles for the battle to come.
3
Joe Biden and others have already misrepresented Sanders' Medicare for All plan and will no doubt continue to do so. Hillary has jumped in with personal attacks. Elizabeth Warren has smeared him with a "he said, she said" accusation that was totally below the belt. That's the "dirty" part of politics. It will get worse for Sanders the more primaries he wins. I don't know what I expect him to do in response but I know this much: He should not apologize again. He will need the red-blooded American male vote and, like it or not, "real men" don't apologize.
3
If it ain't broke don't fix it.
Bernie should not change what he's doing; it is successful after all - and this is now becoming clear. Joe Biden is probably no more corrupt than any other establishment Democrat 'power player'. The corruption exposed by the DNC and Podesta emails, alone, reveal deeply entrenched corruption that Bernie knows better than probably anyone.
And there is probably relatively little to gain from Biden since the mainstream press focused on him in lieu of Trump's primary interest in Ukraine - their involvement in the 2016 election. (The decision for NYT's non-endorsement of Biden seemed to have occurred well before Trump's Ukrainian games.)
3
There is an important difference between being brutally honest and honestly brutal.
Sounds like the author advocates the latter. What's needed is the former.
6
Ms Bruenig is Exhibit A of the doctoral student that David Brooks referenced in his article today - " Bernie Sanders is .... a doctoral student’s idea of a working-class candidate, not an actual working person’s idea of one". Fighting dirty will give a the Pyrrhic victory that will weaken any eventual democratic candidate who needs to beat a republican (advantaged by the electoral college) in 2020. That is a too risky chance to take.
Vote Blue No Matter Who.
11
@Ali Bernie sanders has widespread working class support. You might want to look at polls or donor statistics before making claims like that. One doesn't raise the most individual donations at this point in the history of presidential elections by relying on 'doctoral students.'
6
@Ali PLEASE tell me you didn't just quote GOP Operative David Brock, the same Trumpster behind Hillary's campaign and their illegal troll factory called "Correct The Record". (Look it up.)
No one can find us a single russian troll, but even Brock admitted all the trolls were his, and that not one of them obeyed the law and disclosed their financial conflicts of interest working for the Hillary / GOP campaign. (Did you all forget the GOP backed Hillary in 2016, as Trump was destroying their entire team like Jeb!)
2
@Shauna
Ali quoted right wing NYT Op-Ed contributor David Brooks' ritual Sanders smear in his column today. A distinction without much difference.
2
I totally disagree. As an independent voter who has voted for both Democratic and Republican candidates in the past, and supported Bernie in 2016 prior to him losing the nomination, I am COMPLETELY turned off by candidates going on the attack. In point of fact, I was pretty turned off by Bernie's half-hearted "support" of the HRC leading up to, during and after the convention. His attacks on her prior to the convention were, I guess, par for the course, but his followers amped up the level of rhetoric (the DNC "rigged" the primaries/caucuses yadayada) to the detriment of the actual Dem nominee. Yes, those voters are partially responsible for the current state of affairs. If Bernie really cares about the country as a whole, he needs to fight for the nomination, concede if he can't win, and wholeheartedly support the nominee if he doesn't get the nomination. And his supporters need to do the same, if they want to save our democracy. But attacking anyone, is really not the answer, for any of the Democrats. NONE of them are perfect. But ANY ONE of them is better than our current WH occupant.
7
If Bernie did this kind of thing, which is par for the course for most politicians, he'd be more like politicians. The fact that he's a politician who ISN'T like politicians is what makes him appealing to his fans. Bernie is the most sincere person in the race, but then again, forthrightness doesn't mean correctness. Candidate Trump was also seen as genuine.
The idea that lobbying means you get what you want is belied by multiple studies, including a pretty comprehensive one published in the Journal of Corporate Finance in the spring of 2018 (Cao, Fernando, et. al). To the extent lobbyists influence Congress, it's more because of well-intentioned liberals, it seems, than in spite of them. The massive increase in transparency and openness has meant that the well-organized and deep-pocketed are now able to look over congresspeople's shoulder like Big Brother.
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/united-states/2019-04-16/dark-side-sunlight
Workers have often influenced the Democratic Party (as if there's a terribly deep distinction between "workers" and businessmen) in ways that prevent other people from getting a foothold; industries from reforming; entrepreneurs, newcomers, from innovating. Rather than praising the feats of U.S. ingenuity, Democrats too often denounce them. Business should be able to voice its opinion. We need to find ways to help workers access the conveyors of success in the modern economy, not engage in all-out assaults on businesses that employ them.
1
There are certainly things about Sanders that are admirable. Indeed, I find myself drawn to his blunt style and idealism.
But I sense that the Republicans are absolutely desperate to run against him in 2020 (example: Hugh Hewitt recently said he's voting for Sanders in the Dem primary). There are likely a number of reasons for this (not room here to discuss), but I suspect that at the top of their list is Sanders' health care proposals.
Nothing is more personal -- or has greater fear-mongering potential -- than health care. And talk of moving everyone, regardless of their current situation or preference, over to a government-only plan seems to me like extraordinarily risky politics that could greatly harm Democratic chances at all levels in 2020.
Building on the positive elements of Obamacare and railing against a GOP that would sink it along with just about the rest of the social safety net? A winning strategy, in my opinion. Telling 150 million (or however many) folks who have private insurance that this option is going away -- that they'll have to trust a government-only plan, that they'll have to get over it if their beloved doctor moans and groans about "socialized medicine" and promises early retirement? Terrible strategy -- a huge gift to the GOP, both to Trump and candidates for House and Senate. At least that's what I fear. If I'm wrong, then great. Seriously.
But I hope Democrats who want to win in 2020 will think very, very hard about these concerns.
@Maultsby Please tell me you did not just call the GOP's Romneycare (created by the right wing Heritage Foundation) "Obamacare".
Why do all you dems help the GOP cover up their scams?
4
The problem is that Ms. Bruenig is gifted. Her brilliant academic achievements and accomplishments as a journalist disqualify her for understanding how the world appears to most who have lost the birth lottery which she won. Although it certainly logical that the angry working class voters who chose Trump would chose Sanders - but they wouldn't. Nor would the suburban voters who helped elect the Democratic Congress in 2018. It is true that Biden is a deeply flawed candidate, but he is much less worse than Trump, and if those like Ms. Bruenig don't and show up to vote for the lesser of two evils they will contribute to the election the greater
2
Some of Bernie's positions are pretty good. But that's entirely beside the point.
What Bernie SHOULD do is get out and use his influence to support a viable candidate to beat Trump. If Bernie becomes the nominee moderates and independents will stay home. Trump will annihilate him as a "socialist."
But Bernie, having helped to defeat Hillary, will stay true to form and continue feeding his own overweening ego in 2020.
13
Bernie is popular with independent voters and most moderates will vote “blue no matter who” (it’s their favorite catchphrase).
6
@A Boston
Nothing you say makes any sense.
ex: if Trump attacks Bernie as a Socialist, HOW will that be effective since Bernie will just point out that Trump is a total socialist. (Oh really? You haven't heard of Trump's SPACE FORCE, one of the largest expansions of taxpayer funded Big Govt in American history?) (Oh really? You didn't hear that Trump increased big govt spending for our FREE military which is 100% socialism?)
The ENTIRE press called Bernie a socialist for 4 years. THe result? He set the most election records in USA history in 2016, and has set even more records in 2020, with the most donors and donations in all USA history.
He's more popular than ever.
Guess you might have to retire THAT talking point, eh?
7
What Bernie does and what he implicitly permits (or encourages) his campaign staff and supporters to do, must receive equal weight. And by that standard, this column is a lot of hogwash. The Sanders campaign fights dirty and engages in much the same sort of bullying that we've come to expect from Donald Trump (directly and through surrogates). The fact is, Bernie is a divider. This is not what Democrats need in 2020, and if Bernie loses the nomination to one of the unifying campaigns (as I hope he does), it will be because Democrats choose a different path, not because of some dark cabal as incessantly claimed by his somewhat deluded base.
9
Why is it somehow I find Ms. Baird's 9th Grade Speech and Debate Class I attended late 1950's, was more elevated than much of the current political discourse.
2
@tennvol30736
our govt has NEVER had an adult or an honest person in it (and i say that as a gasp, socialist commie!), because smart people do not enter that corrupt arena.
people are only realizing this now, because social media helps us see how the sausages are made. Finally.
2
Absolutely correct! Sanders is punching-up in the polls and all the pundits can repeat is "Well, he's familiar to voters." or "His plans will double the deficit."
This is not the news treatment laggards at the bottom of the polls got when they gained 1 or 2% percent.
Moderation is a curse in this campaign.
Ask yourself:
Will cutting the defense budget double the deficit?
Will health coverage that costs other countries half of what we pay double the deficit?
And most of all, ask yourself: Is Trump a moderate?
Fight, Bernie! Fight!
7
Then again, if Bernie fights dirty enough, he may alienate enough voters that we end up with Trump. Someone should really ask Susan Sarandon how the revolution is going.
9
If Bernie is the nominee, Trump will win 500+ electoral college delegates. Trump & his backers will love to run against 77 year old, socialist, Jew with a heart issue. They will label any nominee as left wing socialist leaning, imagine how much fun they will have running against a geniune socialist. The younger Bernie backers can't grasp the impact of that term with older moderates or independents. The Bernie Bros encountered on social media are some of the most arrogant attackers and their response to anyone who disagrees are disproportionate to say the least. I think there is the potential they will not turn out for anyone else. that scares me!
5
@Howard
Cool script, bro.
I can prove you don't believe a word you wrote, and I can do it in one sentence:
I will wager $3,000 cash against you that Bernie beats Trump, handily (as Bernie did in every open primary where it was him vs Trump to all the state voters, like NH, in 2016).
You will decline to make a legallly-binding contract with me, proving you are insincere.
I've not once found a con-servative who would back up their scripts with a wager or any accountability.
Curious pattern.
2
Jamie Dimon: "[socialism] leads to an eroding society."
Bernie: "That's funny. Jamie Dimon seemed fine with corporate socialism when his bank got a $416 billion bailout from American taxpayers"
Me: Why can't the media point this out? Why is every debate a focus on how much healthcare and social security cost, and ALMOST NEVER about our defense spending or the fact that the pentagon racked up $35 trillion in accounting changes in ONE YEAR?
Why are THOSE stories largely ignored by the media whereas the cost of Bernie's plan is hammered home over and over again by Fox and CNN alike?
6
There is a deep irony in the advice being given Bernie Sanders. Bernie started out as a YPSL (Young Persons Socialist League) They were the Trotskyists, whose primary anger was directed against the Communists (Stalinists) on the grounds that Stalin had perverted noble, internationalist ideals by placing them entirely in the service of Soviet expansionist self-interest.
In the Mueller Report it is confirmed that Russian operatives were directed to attack and undermine all but 2 of the major party candidates in 2016 with particular focus on injuring Hilary Clinton--the two exceptions were Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders. The irony here is that Bernie is being asked to play into the political stragems of Vladimir Putin, the lineal descendant of the justly despised Stalin
5
Articles that encourages candidates to play "dirty" is what turned off many voters over the years. Why does it have to be dirty? That has never been part of democracy. What's next? Shootings like they do in banana republics? Because if members of the media write articles encouraging a less than dirty one may also compel you to look the other way when foreign interference creeps up again this year as most expect. Bernie Sanders, the youth now supports you because of your "clean" persona unlike the media known to write less than truthful "praise" releases not truthful press releases.
2
I'm sorry but noble campaigns about ideas are over. Over. If you don't fight on the level of your enemy, your enemy wins. No questions asked. That is one of the reasons the current buffoon in the WH is so dangerous. Any Dem who wins the nomination better get ready for the dirtiest of campaigns or just stay home.
@Peter C
Normally i would totally agree with you... but haven't you noticed that Bernie in 2016 Changed Everything?
With the entire MSM and establishment against him, BERNIE TIED Shillary in the primary.
(The MSM doesn't like this stat: he "lost" to Hillary - after her umpteen illegal tricks which DNC head Donna Brzile admitted in her book - by 3/tenths of ONE %!! 49.6 vs 49.9!!.....now THINK what that number actually means. It means Hillary clearly cheated, b/c, when you cheat an election, you just need enough votes to get AHEAD of your more popular opponent.)
With every dirty trick they can think of, the 1% have only made Bernie even more unstoppable. What good will more dirty tricks do? Even the Warren scam failed to dent THE BERN.
2
Women candidates would loose out because of societal biases such as labeling them as "angry" and "defensive" and the good old "snake"... Women will be held to other standards - and loose.
I also agree with those who don't like to see candidates fighting dirty.
1
Like many Americans, I am looking to be inspired by a candidate that will deftly take on Trump and express plans for the country that are not pipe dreams. Bernie is uninspiring and his anger act is wearing thin on the moderate dems. I propose we draft Adam Schiff! His closing comments at the impeachment trial were eloquent and on point. He would make mince meat of Trump and is the transformational leader we are seeking.
Adam Schiff 2020!!!!!
7
So former Vermont governor Peter Shumlin thinks Bernie and his team is "holier than thou"? Given Shumlin's record in office, anyone other than perhaps the devil himself is holier than Shumlin.
3
We need Bernie's vision and Bloomberg's cash. These Brooklyn Boys are going to save America.
1
@Crafty Pilbow interesting. They are last and second-to-last on my list of candidates who may get my primary vote.
1
It's one thing to forcefully attack your rivals if you are seen as generally cool-headed. It's another if you are perceived as angry, which is how Sanders is perceived, fairly or not. Also, his base is seen as angry and attacking, fairly or not (probably not fairly).
If Sanders does something like this, it should be seen as challenging them, not attacking, and certainly not dirty. His base is relatively small and I suspect he won't enlarge it if it seems attacking, dirty or angry toward others. Being angry about the issues and being angry toward another person are two different things.
2
Sen. Sanders will never fight dirty, and good for him. Trump is the master of dirty, and Bernie will just ignore his name calling, except to explain his "socialism."
Bernie is going to win!
3
Wrong, wrong, wrong! All the Democratic candidates must be left standing. A very big factor in rejecting Harris was her attack on Biden in the very first debate. We have had enough of ugliness, nastiness and much worse since trump entered the arena. Show respect for all the candidates so that any one of them is electable once the final candidate is chosen.
3
As someone that has supported Bernie in the past election, it was very crushing to watch the DNC offer him so little support yet expect him to take the high road in 2016. There is no high road in Trump world, it's all asphalt riddled with pot holes on a cracked foundation. It's time to take the gloves and show voters you can get down to brass tacks and hang with the heavy weights. While your distinguished honor is noble, please recognize that you're in a pit of vipers.
2
Some selective memory in this reporting. Bernie was nasty at times with comments on Hillary. However he has never been subjected to the powerful negative ads of the republican party and especially the bully and liar in chief we currently have as president. Going high when they go low doesn't work anymore. Just stick to the truth.
5
I will not vote for Senator Sanders in my Democratic party and feel he – like the Reality Show Con Artist he is running against – has been accorded the luxury of irresponsibility by the media because while his ideas may be interesting none of them have any chance of coming to fruition.
If he wins the nomination, he has my vote because I understand US Elections are binary choices and if I don’t vote for the Democrat, I voted for the Vichy GOP, even if I didn’t vote.
I won’t “hold my nose” or “sit it out” or register a “protest vote” because that would be a vote for the Vichy GOP’s corruption.
I also understand that unless the Democrats win the Senate, none of our candidates has a chance of getting a vote on anything past the craven Vichy GOP.
I will vote for every Democrat in 2020.
My true hope is that Senator Sanders make it clear to his supporters they should do the same thing.
9
"Visionary"? Please. As a Vermont resident I have seen Bernie and his career up close. What he is above all is an ideologue whose views have not changed in fifty years. Some see this as a strength. But as Emerson said "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds." He is plainly an ideologue with few accomplishments in his Senate career despite Ms. Bruenig's cheerleading and over-estimation of his character and capabilities. He's poison for the Democratic Party, an angry socialist commanding a young army of credulous zealots.
7
Perhaps Bernie should also start calling people names like Trump does. This opinion strikes me as even more monumentally silly and ethically compromised than the NYTimes' editorial board endorsing 2 Democratic candidates in the presidential race. Bernie stands out among rivals for his high minded character and refusal to stoop to conquer. Hard to understand why this writer would suggest he perform the equivalent of a pre-frontal lobotomy and start fighting "dirty."
3
Joe Biden may not be a criminal but he represents the well connected white liberal group that the MSM keeps supporting and promoting. Bernie has been right in organizing his movement of people, and his vision is so glaringly right that Joe has been forced to wear those god awful sunglasses when he steps out into the real world. i say Bernie can win by being nice, but if mere truths about his past and present makes him cry, he's not fit to lead a nation of people who have already moved forward.
What a time we live in. Condemning Republicans (rightfully) for their lack of principle, and now a NYT editor urging Sanders to give his up. To beat the Republicans at their now-historically foul game, we must become as foul as they are. I don't doubt the truth in it, but to what end? If the Democrats take over and we cheer the poo they flung to do it, we will definitely have to get off our high horses and be honest about it. The game will only get dirtier and we'll be forced to make that choice again and again until we all wallow in the muck of the swamp.
This op-ed is interesting also, in that the Times has not endorsed Sanders, but Warren and Klobuchar? They won't endorse him but now that he's rising, at least one editor is telling him - less than a week after their endorsements - how to win.
The endorsement of two candidates already shows the editorial board couldn't reach consensus, but ol' Bernie didn't even make that cut. Is Ms. Bruenig the only Bernie supporter on the staff? Apparently the editorial staff is no more or less conflicted about 2020's choices than the public is. Reassuring, yet not at all.
The risk of disenfranchising voters is great. Consider the voters who are leaning towards Biden, but would vote for any Democrat who wins the nomination. If those voters really admire Joe, they may be put off voting for the nominee if that contender had disparaged Joe.
Let Donald Trump's attack machine do the dirty work. As we've seen with the recent (ridiculous) Sanders/Warren spat, these kerfuffles only serve to weaken the participants.
Democrats should clarify their differences. Attacks should be reserved for Donald Trump.
4
The problem isn’t at all that ‘Saint Bernie’ doesn’t fight dirty. (Give me a break! He and his supporters shivved Hillary and helped ensure her defeat). The problem is that no one in the Dem field or mainstream media will fight dirty- or fight at all, with gloves off— against Bernie Sanders, because he is protected by his vicious army of online trolls. A reporter from NBC recently posted a piece about how in all their years of reporting, they had never experienced the level of sexist vitriol heaped on them by Sanders supporters. Those of us obscenely attacked in 2016 by ‘Bernie Bros’ know what that reporter means. And here we go again.
Sanders started the quarrel with Warren by sending out misleading negative talking points on her and her supporters. Many comments posted here today address the mountains of un-dug dirt on Sanders that the GOP will gleefully mine if we are so foolish as to have Bernie as our nominee. Given his decades-long record of extremist views (running as a candidate to abolish the CIA and military; supporting America-hating dictators, supporting Marxist candidates, praising the breadlines and the USSR, favoring voting rights for the Boston Bomber etc etc, not to mention his extreme version of Medicare for All), Trump and his own army of trolls won’t even NEED to ‘fight dirty,’ this time around, to win.
5
Keep it up Ms. Bruenig. The more negative the comments the more profound your impact. Well-written salvo.
1
Take a chill pill, Democrats. The rest of the world, particularly Canada who sits pincered between Putin and his Trump, needs you to thwart the 2020 re-election threat.
Corruption by Biden is the ultimate false equivalency as your Senate simultaneously holds your President’s trial. The word “corruption” has become for Democrats a reason not to vote – in times when all must vote or face objective perils.
Roll Biden together with the other Democratic candidates and they would be unable to collectively even imagine the sum of corruption inflicted on America and her elections by the Putin, Murdoch, McConnell axis and their minion Trump.
5
Four or five days of articles on Bernie. Is the NY Times aware there are other candidates running? I'd like to see more coverage of the other candidates. Why not run four pieces on Amy Klobuchar or Elizabeth Warren? What happened to fairness and accuracy in reporting. Time to switch to the Washington Post.
4
Doesn't play dirty? He mortally wounded Hillary Clinton in the last election with his attacks on her money for speeches and other distortions. While, in fact, she actually secured healthcare for 8 million children in the form of the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP). From my perspective, Bernie handed the election over to Donald Trump. He played, plays dirty. He's a cult like figure. With Bernie and his supporters it's my way or the highway. No thanks.
8
I don't need Bernie or any other candidate to sling dirt. I don't hold Joe Biden responsible for his adult son's work history, and I don't need to hear the Liz Warren was late on a house payment or whatever either.
What I need from candidates is to be clear about their vision and to demonstrate an ability to get things done, to act in accord with their stated principles, and to attract support for their ideas.
All day everyday we deal with the filth spewed from the White House. It's exhausting and dispiriting. Can we please have a Democratic campaign in which the candidates are happy to align with the party's platform, refrain from complaining about shadowy forces trying to bring them down (if you can't handle the DNC, I don't want you leading the country and facing more nefarious threats with a "poor me, look what they're doing, it's not fair!!!" routine), and show us what each has to offer without denigrating others?
2
Bernie's always been on the attack. It's one of the reason I don't like him. He's not a Democrat, and he attacks fellow Democrats to Trump's advantage. Go away.
6
Anything Peter Shumlin has to say should be discounted. One of the worst governors in Vermont history and why, after voting Democrat in every election from turning age 18 in 1992, through to and including 2012, I will never vote Democrat again.
1
The facts and analysis laid out in this article will do nothing to dissuade those who still blame Bernie for HRC's loss in 2016, those who still offer silly rejoinders like "he's not a Democrat" and who still hate him for incoherent reasons. They have no problem playing dirty, and attack him judo-style, by taking umbrage and offense at anything his supporters say, or that they want him to have said, whether he actually did or not (ie the Warrwn kerfuffle). The Bernie haters have a caricature of him in their heads and they will never let go of it however far from the truth it may be. They hate him because he speaks truth to power and won't "fall in line". I wonder, will they still "vote blue, no matter who" after Bernie wins this thing?
2
But of course Biden is a corrupt individual and his track record speaks for itself.
2
Hesitates to fight opponents directly?
Please.
He hired his long-time attack dog, David Sirota, to do his dirty work for him. Let's not write hall passes for poor behaviour orchestrated and fully condoned at arm's length.
6
Bernie absolutely does play dirty. He just has his campaign staff , surrogates, and PAC do it for him--and then claims that he has no control over them. Witness false the primary smear of Clinton cutting social security with the recent Biden social security lie. Same dirt, different day.
7
I was a fan of Bernie until I saw the Joe Rogan endorsement, the Sanders campaign recently publicized on Twitter. It stopped my support dead. Rogan has given a platform to neo-Nazis. He's a gleeful misogynist and transphobe. Surely Bernie didn't have to fight THAT dirty. I'm interested to see how other supporters react to this, but I'm done. (PS: Big fan/longtime reader of Liz B., glad to see her in a new place.)
4
Bernout is the nastiest non - Democrat in the race on the Democratic ticket. Are all Sander's supporters absolutely clueless? It's frightening!! He has lied and smeared just about all the the Democrats including his buddy Warren. He didn't hire Sirota the sleaze by accident. Who does Bruenig think she is kidding? Sanders supporters fall right into it. They could make imPotus #46 - again. He's all talk with nothing to show for all barely anything to show for his career in politcs and his supporters are so utterly unaware.
4
This is the role of the press not the candidates!
She’s totally controlled by Wall Street. The whole thing's fixed. Even her own party thinks she's crooked. The Clintons have turned the politics of personal enrichment into an art form for themselves...
Trump used a smear campaign to turn people against Hillary. If you can't win on policy, destroy your opponent.
Lie, cheat, defame, hack, steal voter lists, it doesn't matter so long as you win.
If that's what it takes to get Donald, go for it.
So. Ms. Bruenig wants Bernie to "fight dirty" in order to win the nomination from the Democratic Party, a Party he is not even a member of. "Fighting Dirty" means to lie, cheat, and personally attack an opponent. Bernie is no Democrat neither is he a Republican. Bernie has good reason not to attack o the Democrats. He is much more e vernerable. He talks pretty but he has no history of accomplishing anything of importance.
5
Is this the Times way of getting Sanders to lose? He's doing fine as he is.
2
Bernie and Trump are snake oil salesmen with different consumers. Give me a smart leader like Buttigieg or Portman or Klobuchar who doesn’t try to fake it with false promises that just can’t add up.
5
Bernie ALWAYS fights dirty. He just allows his surrogates to do it.
8
I strongly dIsagree. Bernie should be himself. And the opinion writer is giving advice to my candidate that fits the modus operandi of the NYT-stop Bernie. Go Bernie. President Sanders.
2
No way. I wish Bernie hadn't run. Warren is a better candidate and doesn't inspire Trumpian insanity.
5
I'm a big Bernie supporter, but I disagree with this "advice". Bernie is who is because he doesn't "take the low road". Much of his appeal and support is rooted in his integrity, and that he doesn't say things just to win elections. Many who didn't vote for Hilary were motivated by the fact that she is the ultimate politician, and was seen as untrustworthy. How many of these people then voted for the most dishonest person in America is a mystery, other than if these voters couldn't have someone they trusted, they'd take someone who promised to "drain the swamp".
In any case, while I do believe information about Biden's corruption needs to be aired, Sanders won't be the person to do it, nor, I think, will he condone or endorse anyone doing it on his behalf. Sanders is staking his campaign on enough people believing him, so if he begins engaging in the typical political mudslinging, it will dirty him as much as his target.
In the end, I believe Bernie would ask himself this question:
"If I win the Presidency, but lose myself, will it be worth it?"
I think his answer will be "No".
1
Judging by these comments, it looks like "Bernie Bros" are something like a myth, or at the least, a very small portion of Sander's supporters (probably right-leaning independents, my guess?). The popular line of thinking seems to be that Bernie's supporters don't actually want him to fight dirty. Isn't that interesting?
3
Perhaps the reason for Sanders' hesitancy is his own "corruption" problem. Very little is written or said about Sanders' vote to give gun manufacturers immunity from civil suits. Sanders himself has explained it as resulting from representing a state where a significant percentage of the population are gun owners. But how does giving rich, corporate gun manufacturers immunity--- something most other industries do not have--- protect the rights of gun owners?
7
Sanders has never been content to just debate the issues with an opponent. Sd Governer of Vermont Madeleine Kunin noted in an article she wrote about her race against Sanders, he resorts to character smears, self-serving purity tests and and insulting take -downs. "He urged voters not to vote for me just because I was a woman. That would be a 'sexist' position,' he declared." Sanders lost; but losing campaign against Kunin illuminates they way he confronts political rivals, arguing always that they are corrupt, are empty of vision of accomplishment and like Rove, attacks their strengths: Hillary Clinton was "unqualified." Though he voted to fund the Iraq war her vote, which she regretted, canceled a lifetime of accomplishment and transformational change. What has Sanders accomplished except a campaign of slogans and a cultlike following that goes full mob when anyone dare mention his record on guns, failure at the VA or his misogynist, obscene and sexist writings about women and girls.
6
'...“with an office near K Street, a blue-ribbon roster of clients,” and a firm grossing $1.76 million in lobbying revenue in the first half of 2006 alone were it not for his parentage. ...'
This is rich and self-indulgent, holier than thou and eventually a remarkably subversive observation that is characteristic of the center left. Eat your young, why don't you, while going on bent knees to republicans to build 'bipartisanship' with republicans who chortle as they kick you. Go ahead, spurn your supporters, drown your young lions, so we can all pay attention to your moral purity.
If republicans were not as evil as they are, I don't think I would go near a democrat or a liberal; I'd fear drowning in their schmaltz and treacle, their self-righteous, self-indulgent and ultimately internecine proclivities.
1
Biden is corrupt in the way that most of DC is corrupt. Legally. Only the terribly greedy need to stoop to illegal corrupt activities to make their fortunes in Washington.
5
I so want Bernie to be the Democrat nominee. Then it will be an election between the conservative populist outsider incumbent Trump, and the insane Marxist millionaire Sanders.
Trump will win 48 states.
3
As a number of astute comments on this thread correctly observe: What makes this cranky, Old Testament prophet compelling, especially to the young, is his consistent message that the systematic rape of the planet and the shameless economic disparity in a country as rich as ours are largely the result of fat-cat (corporate & political) manipulation of the rules of the game and must be addressed head-on --and that systemic change is possible only if we, the people, use our collective power to restructure the economic order and restore some credibility to the defunct "American Dream."
Bernie needs to keep pointing to that end --eyes on the prize -- negative attacks on his Democratic opponents would be a step in the wrong direction for him, and counter-productive to his campaign.
1
So, Biden is too corrupt, Kamala Harris is too black, Warren is too much of an academic, Bernie is too much to the left...
Trump, an all round decent and honest and lovable character (?!), will be reelected when the democrats eliminate each other one by one.
Do the democrats realize how close to the cliff edge we are?
1
Hahahahaha you can call Harris a lot of things, but too black is certainly not one of them.
2
Wow! What hit piece. This op-ed precisely, exactly what is wrong and divisive in American politics. You suggest that Sanders get down and dirty. Perhaps that's the very reason Dems lose elections: they get down in the mud when they are not great fighters. Sanders endorsed Hillary and said she was better on her worst day than Trump on his best. That makes me think well of him.
As for this smack at Biden (and family) it is disgusting!
I'd counsel Bernie to save his ammo
Essays like this one are effective in getting out the Biden story, allowing Bernie to take the high road.
1
Well, attacking people worked for Kavanaugh didn't it? But, I'm not sure that wallowing in a GOP style gutter is really the best way forward. Then again, most of this country seem to be in the gutter right now so why not.
1
Some Democrats are delusional. So disappointing you see a path forward with a man with old, unworkable ideas.
Given that the NYT has been dedicated to the defeat of Sanders at every turn, I will take this advice with the largest grain of salt I can lay my hands on.
1
He should hold back!!!!!!!
It is trump he must attack!!!!!!
Bernie is not ideal against a junta / coup.
We have that situation. The military have no respect for Bernie nor do most logical voters.
Your argument for him to attack his opponents on stage is madness in this dangerous time of loss of our democracy.
I've waited for years for Bernie unleashed. Not because I feel it will help his cause, but because, finally, he will reveal what a true nut job he is. Come on Bernie, you can do it.
1
Bernie Sanders doesn't have to attack his opponents. He let's his followers destroy them in front of all to see on social media. The misogyny that is displayed by his people is right out there for all to see. They spewed it on Hilary and they are not spewing it on Elizabeth Warren. Of course Bernie knows and he does nothing to stop them. That's how it goes with Bernie, it's passive aggressive and this lesbian progressive lefty who voted for him in 2016 won't vote for him ever again.
2
@georgia metz I meant to say they are now spewing it on elizabeth warren.
1
Roughly, 900 words…
First 750, the sort of prolix non sequitur exemplified by a Kerry speech, or – more recently – a House impeachment manager…
Last 150 – similar, but more in a NYT editorial style of self-inevitable non sequitur…
The tiny serving of red Brooklyn-deli meat between the two thick slices of bland low-content bread:
“…This will mean running attack ads, devoting stump time to his opponents’ unsavory histories and standing behind surrogates who do the same…
Hard to know where to begin – this is simply not how socialists work…
In their methodically adiabatic reach for power, plausibly-deniable surrogacy serves as the whole bedrock of their campaign…
The zeitgeist of any socialist candidacy is that it is uplifting – and credible…
While ministers have been promising millennials for millennia that nirvana – where all is forgiven, including student and credit-card debt – awaits them, if they’ll only fall into line…
Any socialist worth their salt says, effectively: “Heck with that – I’ll bring you that salvation on this earth right here and right now”
1500 coming into view – so just one quick example…
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2020/01/14/sanders_campaign_organizer_free_education_gulags_needed_to_re-educate_you_not_to_be_a_fcking_nazi.html
“…also said that people should "expect violent reaction" for speech, and warned that "Milwaukee will burn" if Sanders does not get the nomination…
And one quick question:
Should Bernie embrace this bro, Liz…
Vermont faux socialist Bernie uses surrogates and his devoted Bros to attack and smear opponents. To suggest that he hasn't played dirty yet is misleading.
3
I will always blame Bernie bro’s for the present disaster in the Oval. I could never vote for him.
1
This OpEd is so crazy that one can laugh at it. What on earth is this writer thinking. Does she not understand that this is how we ended up with Trump. There are are lot of Democrats who will only vote for Bernie to get rid of Trump. If he goes on the attack against other Democrats, it will only fuel, hatred for him and in the end many of us will only see two unworthy candidates in front of us and choose not to vote. And attacking Joe Biden will only help him. If we you ramp up the hate, it will only backfire on Bernie, as it did on Kamala and Kirsten. Learn from the past please.
2
The Neo-Progressive self-talk: "...Must attack fellow Democrats...must destroy chances of victory...must lose again..."
3
As a famous newspaper editorial about Christmas stated to maintain confidence among children, “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus”.
Thus this NY “Times” opinion piece by Elizabeth Bruenig should really be titled:
“No, Elizabeth, Bernie Will NOT Have to Fight Dirty”.
Actually, Elizabeth, CNBC TV just today announced that according to the derivative investment contract — ‘Sanders DEM NOM-Predict It’ (which provides betting/investing on political contests)— has shot-up in value, from July ‘19 to January ‘20, by an increase of 161.54% (which approximately matches the increase in Apple stock).
So, Elizabeth, there seems to really be a Christmas gift coming on strong in the 2020 election.
Perhaps in the Big Apple of NYC, where “the Times they are a changin”, it will be not only be a rebirth in November 2020, of Clean Gene McCarthy’s attempt to rescue our democracy in the ‘68 “Greening of America” and “Making of a Counter Culture” — but it may actually come to fruition that an actual progeny of FDR, in the form of Bernie, will reinvigorate the American Dream of a real, functional, and enthusiastic form of ‘social democracy’ will get ‘we the American people’ back on the path to where we were after the Second World War of Empires — and beyond the Democratic machine that deceitfully dumped FDR’s VP, (socialist) Henry Wallace, and aborted our progress toward a Second American people’s peaceful & complete “Political/economic & social Revolution Against Empire”.
2
I'm sorry, but is it "1984"? The entire thrust of Bernie' s campaign against Hillary was negative and dirty.
5
This is a joke. bernie's campaign has smeared every other he felt threatened him from day one and bernie plays the innocent.
To those who complain about Hunter Biden please check out bernie's family grift wherever he goes. The $100,000 his son was paid for the now defunct money pit Sanders Institute.
He's been part of the establishment, criticizing and shaking his finger with nothing to show for it for 40 years.
The GOP are salivating to run against the Castro loving, Communist party hobo who demonstrated against the Iranian hostages and cheered on Maduro.
2
Not interested in someone who plays dirty. We have enough of that in the current White House.
3
Ridiculous! People like and support Bernie because they see him as a decent man. If he starts to "play dirty" he will LOSE support, and so will the Democratic candidates he attacks. Trashing Democratic candidates now is a sure way for Trump to win again -- it worked in 2016!
1
Yep, that's what we need alright....more attacking.
1
Oh really. And I trust that it’ll then be fair game to go after St. Bernie’s long, steamy back-rub sessions withe the NRA? And his extra house. How about the wife’s oddish academic career? Or, I know, what about the Saint’s praise for some pretty gawdawful types in Latin America? The patronizing remarks to black voters?
All that okay by everybody?
Yeah, thought not.
Look. The prob with Joe Biden isn’t that he’s corrupt. He’s just not; it’s a stupid accusation, okay? But the prob with Joe Biden IS that he’s an old-fashioned, log-rolling pol. Okay, fair complaint. And when you scream about “corruption,” you collapse him together with Trump.
That’s dumb.
By the way: St. Bernie’s too nice? He can afford to be, because he has people who do the dirty work for him.
Like the Berniebros. He may be polite, or roughly so, but they’ve been mobbing people for years now.
5
This is bad strategy. Bringing up Biden corruption strengthens the Republican rant. Biden's son engages in the same sort of legal corruption that Trumps offspring do. Let the people figure that out on their own. Biden has a history of being willing to cut social security. Hit on that and hit on it hard. Elder voters prefer Biden to Sanders and once they figure out he's open to cutting social security they will abandon Biden like rats leaving a sinking ship. Really, this editorial suggests to me that now that Sanders is a real threat the NYTimes will do anything they can to undermine his campaign including providing intentionally bad advice. The NYTimes chose to print this editorial. Puhleeze.
2
Bernie is not a Democrat. Make him the candidate and I’ll stay home. Loathing Trump as I do is still not a reason to vote for Bernie whom I loathe equally. Enough with cranky old men. I won’t vote for any of them.
2
Long before she said she wouldn't vote for Bernie if he secured this year's nomination, Hillary Clinton derided Bernie's followers as "Bernie Bros" and Trump's followers as "deplorables." She also referred to Gennifer Flowers as a "failed cabaret singer," called Monica Lewinsky "a narcissistic loony toon," and attended Trump's wedding at his massive estate called Mar-a-Largo.
I won't miss the Clinton's.
Biden seems nicer by comparison, but his ties to MBNA were notorious long before MBNA hired his son Hunter to lobby on their behalf.
4
Democrats rejoiced--for a while-in Michele Obama's self-congratulatory summary: "when they go low, we go high". Guess that's done for.
I am not committed to any candidate. I am still very carefully considering three candidates for my NY primary. However, this piece is full of rubbish. Sanders did call Warren a liar on national television. It indicates a deep unreflective misogyny In the Sanders camp, that it does not see the assault on Warren as attacking anyone.
As for Teachout. This is the candidate who attacked our wonderful African American AG as not progressive enough. Give me a break..... no wonder she has been 7nable to be elected dog catcher here,
1
Journalists are the ones who are going to throw this election straight back to another hapless tragic Trump victory. It's too bad Jim Lehrer retired and so sad that he's gone. Now we have nothing left of responsible opinion and journalism. Just a wasteland of chattering click-bait voices pulling and tugging with nothing much very helpful and lots that's very destructive.
1
Sanders SHOULD go on the attack—a hard-hitting, fact-based, take-no-prisoners, I’m-even-nastier-than-you-could-ever-be attack....on Donald J Trump.
Because it is Trump who is public enemy number one of American democracy.
3
As a famous newspaper editorial about Christmas stated to maintain confidence among children, “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus”.
Thus this NY “Times” opinion piece by Elizabeth Bruenig should really be titled:
“No, Elizabeth, Bernie Will NOT Have to Fight Dirty”.
Actually, Elizabeth, CNBC TV just today announced that according to the derivative investment contract — ‘Sanders DEM NOM-Predict It’ (which provides betting/investing on political contests)— has shot-up in value, from July ‘19 to January ‘20, by an increase of 161.54% (which approximately matches the increase in Apple stock).
So, Elizabeth, there seems to really be a Christmas gift coming on strong in the 2020 election.
Perhaps in the Big Apple of NYC, where “the Times they are a changin”, it will be not only be a rebirth in November 2020, of Clean Gene McCarthy’s attempt to rescue our democracy in the ‘68 “Greening of America” and “Making of a Counter Culture” — but it may actually come to fruition that an actual progeny of FDR, in the form of Bernie, will reinvigorate the American Dream of a real, functional, and enthusiastic form of ‘social democracy’ will get ‘we the American people’ back on the path to where we were after the Second World War of Empires — and beyond the Democratic machine that deceitfully dumped FDR’s VP, (socialist) Henry Wallace, and aborted our progress toward a Second American people’s peaceful & complete “Political/economic & social(ist) Revolution Against Empire”.
2
It's a sad commentary about the American electorate that attack ads are effective. The state of the art of political science has given us the self-centered immoral politicians that we currently have in Washington who will sacrifice democracy itself if it means that their grip on power is maintained. Just as these giant corporations like Google and Facebook view customers only as sources of revenue to be sucked dry, so these politicians view voters as cretins to be manipulated. But what can I say? It works, doesn't it? And so our government does not serve us or our society, but instead it is destroying it.
Bernie won't hesitate to attack Donald Trump if he's the Democratic Party's nominee.
And Bernie would eviscerate him in a debate, because for all of Trump's inane blather and repugnant narcissism on full display at every public speaking event of his, our media and culture won't hold it against a cantankerous old, white "Socialist" male who yells back.
1
I'm not sure how you think he could go negative on Liz, Amy, or Pete (one of whom will probably be his VP if he wins), but, yes, let's ALL call out Biden for the old-school party hack (and tolerant father of a sleaze-bag son) he is.
We need to get Biden out of this NOW. We can't afford to have him on a debate stage reduced to stuttering tears by Carrot Top's rabid attack dog aggression.
1
That is refuses to fight dirty is the reason I like him
Yes, Biden has baggage—like his 1988 plagiarizing of Neil Kinnock, MP. His service to credit card corporations, his support of the bankruptcy bill, his willingness to cut Social Security, and —most of all—the Iraq War. He himself did not participate in the Vietnam folly—not as a CO, like Bernie, but owing to asthma as a teen. NYT ran an article saying he is "easily swayed" by DC groupthink:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/20/opinion/biden-sanders-social-security.html#commentsContainer&permid=104725557:104731939
I think we're all sick of juvenile name-calling and salacious tabloid attacks over anything but policy, lies, inanities, insults, defamation, childish mockeries, cursing, calls to violence, children in cages, catapults of propaganda.
Bernie should never go negative. He should never go personal. He would not be Bernie.
3
Really? I recall Bernie and his bots attacking Hillary last time around. Now it’s Warren.
2
"Bernie Will Have to Fight Dirty"
Great! The enemy is Trump. Go fight him.
Don't fight dirty against another candidate, like you did last time. Also don't stay in the race too long, like you did last time. And don't be a cry baby, like you were last time.
You can keep Mr. Sanders, thank you. I don't drink Kool-Aid.
3
I see this article as further endorsement of Sanders
2
Ms. Bruenig's opinion is a most welcome corrective to the destroy Sanders vitriol of her NYT Op-Ed colleagues. Paul Krugman's hysterical demand that Senator Sanders immediately offer an "an abject apology" to Joe Biden even though Sanders had already (unfortunately) apologized is but one example. Neither David Brooks (i.e., today) nor Bret Stephens can write a column without smearing Sanders. The remaining Op-Ed pundits either lie, marginalize or ignore him.
Joe Biden is a veritable cornucopia of perfidy, and the fact that Sanders doesn't attack him on his very long record in office is a measure of his decency. Biden's support for wars initiated by Bush pere et fils. His grotesque racist and sexist treatment of Anita Hill. As head of the judiciary committee confirmation hearings of Clarence Thomas, Biden refused to allow corroborative testimony of Ms. Hill's accusation of Thomas' sexual harassment. He allowed her to speak once, Thomas twice, and thus yet another arch reactionary was elevated to the Supreme Court. He never apologized to Anita Hill, but disingenuously stated that he was sorry that there wasn't more that he could do during her public ordeal, having forgotten that he was the head of the senate judiciary committee, and derelict in his responsibility to allow testimony in support of her charges against Thomas. It is Biden who owes apologies to Anita Hill, the people of Iraq, Afghanistan and America whose blood and treasure he believes is his to squander.
1
What an outrageous partisan attack. The Times stoops lower every day. As if Saint Bernie, who exaggerates and lies, isn't "corrupt?"
2
Don't worry. If Bernie isn't "fighting dirty," it's because he'd rather leave such unsavory tactics up to his rabid,obnoxious followers.
2
By the way, the other thing wrong with this article is that it’s the same old, “If you’re not screaming and abusive, you’re not FIGHTING FOR THE PEOPLE!!!” claptrap.
Wanna see fighting? Real political fighting, not posturing?
Keep a close eye on Adam Schiff.
2
Can't help but wonder if Ms. Bruenig isn't trying to start a rumble with this "fight dirty" article.
1
At last ... a full-throated defense of Bernie in the New York Times! Welcome Elizabeth Bruenig!
2
Bernie- go away! And take your Bros with you! We can’t survive another 4 years of trump!
1
Liz on Bernie in the Times! You love to see it.
Kind of pathetic that when your choice candidate is not leaping ahead in the poles your wish is for him to go dirty! Kind of pathetic NY Times runs a staff opinion under such an inflammatory headline. I don't know who will win the primaries, but certainly appreciate that Bernie and Biden resist the temptation to jump into the mud every time their staffs or supporters try to edge them in that direction.
This is not true - his campaign is the nastiest among all candidates with his cult-like militant followers.
4
Yes, he should lower himself to playing dirty politics. That's what this country needs, more sour grapes, more polarization, more NOTHING GETTING DONE. Partisan sniveling about everything. What has Schiff, Pelosi, Nadler, McConnell, and the rest of them done since November 2016? The Democrats have done nothing but look for something to bring him down with. The Republicans have done nothing but defend Trump. When they drop this impeachment thing, the Right Wing really need to sit Trump down and say, "Why don't you quit doing this stupid stuff, the Tweeting (142 times yesterday?), the 'Bull in a China Shop' stuff." If he doesn't, he's going to self destruct. He's been getting away with this dump stuff for the time being, but it will pile up and steamroll over him, you can't be an idiot forever, it will end up biting you.
File under self-defeating, unprincipled capitulation by the new architects of the Democratic circular firing squad. The solution to the problem that the world has lost its center and the United States has no guiding principles beyond money and power is for the one candidate who purports to be above that fray should descend and hypocritically surrender everything he stands for. This column is almost too idiotic to comment upon. Almost.
1
Why should Bernie go negative and attack his opponents when OpEd writers like Ms. Bruenig and Ms. Teachout can do it for him? He's a very crafty old bird.
2
For the love of all that is holy, he is not St. Bernard. First, let's put it simply: you don't win elections for four decades without doing some kneecapping, ok?
Second, he has no problem attacking his opponents, not just on policy, as he should, but personally, as he shouldn't. And he certainly appears to have no problem accusing them of lying, especially if they are women. Hm.
2
Bernie being himself is his only very thin hope for becoming the Democratic Party nominee to face Benjamin Netanyahu and Vladimir Putin's choice for returning to the Oval Office of the White House for 4 more years.
2
Bernie’s hesitancy to “fight dirty” may be a self-imposed re-spect. After all, he’s an Independent—a guest in the Demo-cratic Party.
Don't take advice form this paper Bernie. The only fighting "dirty" you need to do is to continue speaking clearly about your vision for America, like you've done your entire career. The NY time's weaselly dual-endorsement sunk any change of me taking their opinions on the democratic field seriously.
1
Apparently this lady has never heard of the Bernie Brothers.
2
I couldn't even get past the headline. You're advocating that another old, ranty, narcissistic white guy play the same game as the one currently in the WH.
We need better than people willing to cut down peers to get to the big chair. For shame.
2
That's ridiculous. Bernie always fights dirty. It's a choice. Just own it, this glossing over fools no one.
3
Next time Trump calls his names he might point out how many dumb spoiled brat children of millionaires there are in the current administration, e.g. Trump, DeVos, Kushner, et al. Did I mention Trump's daughter.
1
So Ms. Teachout, who has lost EVERY SINGLE ELECTION in which she has run, has words of wisdom. In a relatively liberal state, no less.
No, thanks.
3
I agree with Bernie about attack ads. I have never yet seen ANY ad that made me want to vote for that candidate unless I had already decided to do it based on other information. If I perceive an ad is an attack, rather than showing me the worthiness to hold office, or explaining polices of a candidate, I immediately hit the mute and walk out of the room.
Attacks do not draw me to a candidate, and Bernie is smart not to use them. Bernie, don't start now.
1
come on. bernie has plenty of street in him and has never shied from doing whatever is necessary to win. good on him. politics ain't a tea party. his cadre of surrogates in the press and army of online commentators are hardly known for holding back, and justifiably so from their perspective. the american left has never been this close to power. still, pretending that saint bernie is being forced to go low is a bit incredulous and reads as his camp softening expectations before their scorched earth campaign begins.
2
Do bring the light on his stance and proposals for the immigration issue. Rather than speak to congressional reform (cause he can't get support in Congress) he wants to bypass current laws to extreme solutions that average American voters/citizens do not want (they want rule of law and respect for our processes, even as cumbersome as they are). This was not spoken to in the last debate, suspiciously I'd add to not bring it up as the first debate made it clear how unfavorable the Dem stance on immigration is. Let's see how far he gets.
2
Whose rule of law: Joe Biden’s or ours?
1
A pox on all Dems fighting each other instead of focusing on the one overarching danger — the orange menace. As a result, give me the one sensible Dem with his eyes and billions fixed firmly on that menace — Mike Bloomberg.
3
Excuse me but don’t you think we’ve had enough “dirty”? The American people are sick and tired of “dirty”. Trump has given us enough dirty for all time. It’s time to get out of gutter politics. An evolved society gets beyond dirty.
2
Is The NY Times encouraging him to play dirty so you more effectively denigrate him?
4
Elizabeth, you are wrong, wrong, wrong.
The only person the Democrats, any Democrat, should be attacking is the illegitimate squatter in the White House. He is their opponent. Their only opponent.
By your reasoning, General Patton should have turned his tanks on General Bradley, or General Smith, instead of on Hitler.
The Democrats already have their nominee: Anyone But Trump. If it happens to be Bernie, great. If it's Biden, or Warren, or Klobuchar, fine. I don't care if it's Winnie the Pooh. Anyone is better than the criminal in the WH now.
And that should be the argument every Democrat is making.
Michael Bloomberg is arguing that. So is Tom Steyer. And they're putting their money behind that argument.
Winning is all that matters in 2020. Winning.
Democrats attacking other Democrats, that is losing.
As a life-long Democrat, I don't care who the nominee is. The house is on fire, it isn't time to complain about the wall paper.
I also don't care about policy differences between the Democrats. They all have the same suite of policies when compared with Trump's. Stop fighting over policy!
Finally, Steven Mnuchin said the other day that trillion dollar deficits will be with us for the next couple of years.
Democrats, talk about that!
Yesterday, at Davos, Trump said he will definitely look at cutting entitlements soon, since the deficits (which he has created) are so high.
Democrats, talk about that!
Wake up! We are failing the Test of Trump.
6
I don’t know which Bernie Sanders you’re watching but he has been hitting Joe Biden pretty hard, such as in this tweet https://twitter.com/berniesanders/status/1217115831987032065?s=21
4
Did Beuenig really just do a "coulda shoulda woulda"?
2
“Biden has a big corruption problem and it makes him a weak candidate.”
I'm sorry (and the NYT will probably not publish this comment), but Ms. Teachout seems to have an honesty problem. I read the op-ed in the Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jan/20/joe-biden-corruption-donald-trump
a number of times and I do not see corruption.
Ms. Teachout has been blowing this corruption horn on Mr. Biden for quite some time, and has gotten nowhere .
I don't support either Mr. Biden or Mr. Sanders, nor for that matter Mr. Trump. I don't vote in US elections. But to blatantly call Mr. Biden a corrupt politician with no proof (real proof) sounds just like Mr. Trump.
I never thought that I would write this, but Mr. Sanders is absolutely correct in apologizing to Mr. Biden.
Mr. Sanders I understand. I even understand Ms. Teachout; she is obsessed. I do not understand Ms. Bruenig.
7
Please stop contributing the narrative of a Democratic circular firing squad.
3
Let's start with Hillary Clinton who needs to shut her mouth and go play with her grandchildren. Go away, lady.
4
Peter Shumlin is well-schooled in “dirty.”
3
With the NYT and all corporate media ignoring Sanders or slandering , lying or smearing him it is funny to see everyone handing out advise now that he is leading in the polls.
1
Hi everybody: A lot of people are saying they don't know what Bernie has accomplished. I hope this helps:
https://www.businessinsider.com/bernie-sanders-amazon-fight-minimum-wage-raise-stop-bezos-act-win-2018-10
https://www.sanders.senate.gov/legislative-landmarks
2
New York Times finally hired a good op-ed writer and all the hogs that enjoy the opinion page's slop are mad.
2
A couple observations. In the last primary when Sanders faced Clinton, there were two obvious avenues where he could have attacked her: one was for her private email server and the other was her cozy relationship with the financial service industry. Trump successfully attacked her on both but Sanders chose to ignore the "damn emails" and focused entirely on her associations with the big banks. He probably did this because evil corporations fit better into his narrative and aligned more closely with his passions.
We might be seeing some of the same things here. Corruption on the part of Joe Biden may be an obvious avenue for attack but it doesn't fit so neatly into Sander's narrative. You could see how he could work it in but it's not as obvious as it was when the financial services companies were writing huge checks directly to Clinton.
I'll add one more thing about Biden. He has gotten a pass in most liberal media outlets because the whole Burisma thing is a Republican talking point and distraction from Trump's misdeeds in Ukraine. But he shouldn't. He's been in Washington a long time and if you look around his family (not just Hunter) there have been a lot of business and lobbying arrangements that have generated a lot of wealth. You have to wonder why a company would hire Bidens' son or brother, other than to have influence in Washington.
2
Dear Elizabeth,
Please have a chat with Paul Krugman, the fellow who writes OpEds for the Times. The fellow who is the “conscience of liberals.” He just wrote something here a few days ago that may be of interest to you and your editors.
Kind regards.
2
Ms. Bruenig, you are a thoughtful writer and I am a fan. You have given me much to ponder, and I agree wholehearted that the long-standing corruption that has plagued so many in Washington must be called out for what it is. I am also excited to see this generation get excited and fully behind a candidate who inspires them to get involved, invested and activated. But I am dismayed at my twitter feed, which every day is filled with aggression, misogyny and yes hatred, mostly from Bernie supporters at any and all Dems who are not Bernie. He has a massive attack machine and while I agree with so many of his positions, and I follow you in Twitter, I must honestly tell you I fear posting even the tiniest thoughtful but perhaps slightly critical of Bernie remark for fear of the deluge of nastiness that follows.
Sadly, I see this coming from people whose positions I admire and who I often agree with. What I cannot agree with, is that Warren is a lying snake who emerged from the caverns of hell, or that Joe Biden is the equal and opposite polar equal to Trump. Yet to speak that opinion on my feed will cause me to be mercilessly attacked by the group who have become known as the “Bro’s”, and whose existence Sanders needs to admit to and confront.
Until Bernie recons with that which is thriving within his camp, I cannot feel comfortable about him as a leader.
2
This country will not elect Bernie. This country needs desperately to run Trump and his crime organization out of DC. Please don't make me work my rear off for a candidate I am certain will lose. Please.
3
Sanders does play dirty. He just uses his surrogates to smear his opponents, so it looks like his hands are clean.
I still remember when good staffer called Hillary a "whore." Sanders never apologized.
4
once again the times prejudice against Biden rears its ugly head.
I don't know. His refusal to personally attack his opponents, but rather to stick to the issues, is one of the things I find most attractive about him.
When he told Hillary Clinton on national television that he agreed that we had heard enough about her damned emails, he won points with me.
And this week she thanks him by saying publicly that nobody likes him or wants to work with him.
Which of the two is more gracious, do you think?
I don't know if Sanders will win or not. But as a politician he sure is a breath of fresh air.
7
The idea that Sanders is somehow running a gentlemanly campaign and not attacking his rivals is hilarious. In the 2016 primaries, he had his own army of Bernie Bros bolstered by a cadre of Russian trolls, spreading misogynist hate and repeating Republican slurs against Hillary. 2020 is not much better. And he lied about his conversation with Elizabeth Warren, instead of manning up and dealing with it. But listen up, Bernie Bros....there's a lot of material out there...writings and video from when he was in his 40s and onward that will be Republican attack ads that write themselves. His support of nasty dictators. His weird views on children's sexuality and on female cancers and sexuality. His vote against the Amber Alert system. His wife's fraudulent past...
Sanders should not be President. He's a slogan without backup. He has no idea how to work with anyone who doesn't agree with him and who doesn't kowtow to him. He doesn't understand America's banking and financial systems. He did not 'write the damn bill' on Medicare and he doesn't really understand it, either. And, in a recent VPR interview, when asked why Vermont's universal healthcare system had failed, he sidestepped the question. He said that had he been governor, things would have been different, but when asked what he would have done differently, he had no answer.
4
Let Bernie be Bernie. It's working.
Focus on the polls, not on the moderate Republican opposition within the Democratic party against his candidacy.
They keep repeating the same tropes over and over: he's not a Democrat, he made Clinton lose, his supporters are fanatics, he's a socialist, he's too extreme to win, purity test, he can't compromise, etc. etc.
We will lose some of their support and that's okay. It's a trade-off for worker votes. Uniting the Democrats is an illusion. If it weren't true, a right-centrist candidate like Biden/Clinton/... would win every time with the progressives as useful idiot voters.
We need to keep reminding people that Bernie voted for Obamacare at every occasion, that he campaigned a lot more for Clinton than she ever did for Obama, that he introduced bipartisan legislation (e.g. Sanders-McCain veterans bill), that every single one of his his policies work in Europe, and that it's successful people's damn duty to take care of the weak and failed.
3
Thank you Ms Bruenig for the facts of Biden's actions as part of the swampiness 0f Washington.
Broadcast them far and wide.
That is for you and others to do in a straight forward, fact based way... not trashing or mean.
I value Sanders for focusing on his policies for making the lives of ordinary people better... policies that will revive the now dead American Dream... policies that will begin to create a more equal opportunity for ALL.
In 2016 I was impressed when Sanders so strongly refused to get drawn into Hillary's email mess.
“The American people are sick and tired of hearing about your damn emails,” Sanders said. The Democratic candidate then went on to list a series of issues including money in politics, trade policy and inequality that are more important than the former secretary of state’s emails.
Sanders did remind Hillary and all of us that her vote for the Iraq War indicated very poor judgment.
That was important and illustrated an important difference.
Sanders will not fight dirty.
His integrity, bold ideas, vision and courage are desperately needed to renew American society and idealism.
President Sanders 2020!
A Future To Believe In!
2
Bernie’s approach of “apologizing” for something he or his surrogates has said is akin to the judge who tells the jury to “ignore" those last statements.
4
Whatever Bernie decides to do, he will be a disaster as the Democratic standard bearer in the next election. He is 78, the victim of a recent heart attack, but more to the point, a left-wing radical whose embrace of the labels "revolutionary" and "socialist" and his call for Medicare for All paid for by significantly higher taxes will be red meat for Trump and the Republicans. Democrats need to appeal to a much wider audience than the Bernie bros. Bernie stands to lose centrists of both parties and Never-Trump Republicans. Young people who support him forget the importance of Midwestern swing states and the fiascoes of the past, e.g. McGovern. We can't afford naive revolutionary romanticism with Trump running for a second term!
5
Point of order: Did you just argue that to prove he does not practice politics without morality, Sanders must demonstrate it?
Really? To show his integrity, he has to abandon it? Huh.
I guess our discourse is more broken than even I thought.
1
Bernie needs to stop apologizing and calling his competitors his friends. This is a political race and this is when you are supposed to make the case of your candidacy and if the warts of your opponents aren't brought out and fought during the primaries for the voters to judge - then they certainly will be by Trump in the general election when it will be too late.
Absolutely agree with your assessment of the Teachout piece in the Guardian - I read it and thought the same thing - it's simply stating facts - it's Biden's record - what is the big deal.
He is a long time total pay to play politician - just look at his water carrying for the credit card companies.
When Sanders apologized I was mystified
This is not a good sign - he needs to Hit Hard
the DNC elite is going full guns on him -
Biden will be a walk in the park next to Trump -
1
The recent NYT endorsement of Warren and Klobuchar named three political choices in 2020: the Republicans and the left and moderate Democrats. Biden, to me, is a fourth division: the regressive Dems. The Teachout quoted Biden's pitch to his wealthy donors ("nothing will change"). I heard that Biden comment on a podcast and listened three times over to make sure my ears weren't deceiving me.
What I see, with the turn away from Hillary to Trump is a gigantic disappointment with the corporation, wealth friendly Democrats, starting at least with Bill Clinton and continuing through Obama's administration, both of them keeping Wall Street bankers close to them. I found that very distasteful then and intolerable now, with thirty years more of extreme wealth/poverty.
To play this up is not fighting "dirty"; it's the battle we are having, sub rosa as it may be in our print media. Today's Guardian had an artlcle on taxing the rich. It was the Guardian that wrote up the UN human rights citation of the USA for extremes of poverty and wealth.
The contest to come is between Warren and Sanders. Here I am with the NYT in their endorsement of Warren as the spokesperson for the progressives: she is the one with practical, legislative plans and the ability to bridge political divisions. It should not be "dirty" to point out the difference between Warren and Sanders. That's what the primary is about: who has the best vision and the best plans for the America we long for.
4
If Sanders is the nominee, I have no doubt that he will "take the gloves" off with Trump. In a primary, there's a different kind of balancing act. Unlike Obama, Sanders doesn't have the same kind of institutional party backing that gives his attacks more political cover both inside the party and with the media. Eventually, he's going to need not just Biden's supporters, but Biden's support. I think he's wise to keep the focus more on policy and de-personalize the conflict now. I don't think he needs to destroy Biden personally in order to win the nomination (doing so would probably make it harder for him to achieve the objective anyways). Sanders is an experienced politician too who has run many races at this point. I trust his judgment. I agree as well that Biden has baggage -- against a different general election opponent this might be more of an issue. The real problem that Biden's baggage presents is that it blunts a potentially valuable contrast with Trump. Instead of arguing whether it is wrong to have family benefiting from proximity to power, we just get into an argument about degrees of difference and where the line should be drawn. There's a similar problem with policy. e.g. more muted contrasts on trade and social security as well with Biden (compared to Sanders v Trump).
2
Sanders' high road appears to be working so far. Recent polls not only put Sanders ahead of the other Dems but also put him way, way ahead in terms of acceptability to voters. This is precisely where the pundits who keep trying to fob him off as a niche candidate are spectacularly, provably wrong.
However, I do think that there's a polite, factual and dignified way that Sanders could simply point out the most objectionable parts of other candidates' records, prominently including Biden. This needn't be a tirade, and it needn't entail subjective characterizations.
3
Its not fighting dirty to tell the truth. And there is an obligation to inform the voters of the facts regarding another candidate's decision making. With Biden there is a clear and consistent pattern of enriching family members through association with Biden's political office, or through favorable treatment to specific industries while family members are on their payroll. Telling the honest truth to voters is needed, as it allows us to ask a pivotal questions: is this the character and behavior we want to elevate to the office of President. Bernie would serve the public, and the cause of democracy, by communicating the facts as they stand and allowing voters to make a clear decision. The same is true for the New York Times.
2
Bernie needs to get the DNC's message, just has he grudgingly did in 2016, that he's a useful sparring partner, a magnet for an important demographic but little else.
Warren, Sec. Clinton and now Pres. Obama have suggested he move on. However, I suspect this is simply an orchestrated play, as Bernie's 2020 exit strategy was scripted long ago.
2
Biden's actions speak for themselves. And Sanders doesn't need to address them if they are exposed by others. Sanders seems to know that dividing the party is counter-productive to his vision for introducing a more progressive America.
2
Bernie doesn't have to go negative. He has plenty of followers to do that for him. It backfires. Costing the Dems. Alas.
9
Yhanks, I was about to make the same comment. it's not just ardent Berners, it's his own campaign staff. The latter (e.g. the call script about Warren and the damning accusation that she appeals to educated voters) leave me baffled. Is he completely unaware that his surrogates are playing dirty, or is him letting them do so to maintain his persona as an angel? I haven't seen any response from him yet, so it certainly feels like deja Vu.
I would hazard that when Elizabeth Warren attacked Bernie after the last debate with the accusation that he called her a lier, that was the beginning of the end of Warren's campaign. Her spitefulness and unrestrained impulse were deadly for her. Since then, her polling numbers have declined while Bernie's have climbed. It was a shame on her and shame for us; she had been an important voice in the primary.
6
We’re tired of personal attacks. If that’s what it takes to win, what really has been won?
It’s also destructive to encourage infighting in the party. Unity is our sharpest tool.
5
No, Bernie does not need to fight dirty. He needs to continue to do "the right thing"---which is ALWAYS what he has done. This is what sets Bernie apart from any other American politician.
6
Disagree. Sanders has mastered the art of deflection. He gets his henchmen (sometimes women, but usually men), to do all his smearing: Warren appeals to the monied class; Clinton was responsible for the Crime Bill (even though he was the one who voted for it); CEOs and their golden parachutes are ruining America (even though his wife got a tidy one after bankrupting the college over which she presided). He is the opposite of “the buck stops here.” He’ll never take the glove off because 1) it would undermine his image and 2) he doesn’t need to with his underlings.
20
Thank you, Ms. Bruenig, for giving me another reason to SUPPORT Senator Sanders.
Attack ads are part of the problem, not the solution. If we want a functioning, respectful democracy, we must act accordingly. To do otherwise is hypocrisy.
3
What's the point? Democrats need to focus their fire on Trump, not each other.
So your specific candidate doesn't get nominated? Is that worse than Trump getting four more years?
Less ego, more reason.
3
Bernie is and has always fought dirty. His own state's governor says that and has not endorsed him. He has surrounded himself with a lot of extremists. Just watch the Project Veritas exposes.
10
Cite a credible source and you might have a point!
Plus, history proves otherwise. Don't take the word of one corporate, pro-Biden politician over an entire record. Sanders did NOT fight dirty in 2016 at all. He started his campaign late, didn't go after Clinton on her email scandal (had Hillary never set up a private email server, she'd be president today), and let her off lightly on her corporate ties (3 Goldman Sachs speeches were the tip of the iceberg of millions earned telling corporate executives they'd be OK).
If anything, Sanders was the victim of a Clinton-DNC-media-pundit-class smear job, just as is happening in 2020!
3
I don't know what to think about Sanders.
I 've lived in the media market which reports on Sanders for decades. Have I heard about substantive legislation passed by Bernie? Not really.
Honestly, I think Bernie has taken good care of Bernie. From Mayor of Burlington, VT to US Senator, Bernie has always done well at the public trough.
If we pick Bernie or his ilk as our candidate, I'm afraid it will be Humphrey, McGovern, and Mondale all over again.
Trump must be licking his chops.
7
If we pick Biden, it will be Hillary Clinton, all over again! Another corporate centrist, Bog Donor candidate, with a mixed, even dismal, record on key issues of war, peace, civil rights, and women's rights, and someone riddled with the taint of corruption, both perceived and real.
Had Humphrey split from LBJ on Vietnam weeks earlier, he'd have become president and the country would have been spared Nixon, Watergate, etc. and we'd all have been much better off.
Do not lump Sanders and Mondale together, not at all. They are dramatically different politicians. Mondale didn't lose because he was a progressive; he lost because of his honesty about Reagan's tax cuts and budget deficits (Mondale was right — Reagan did end up supporting tax increases); because of the country's dislike of the prior Carter administration, inflation, and the Iran hostage situation; and because Reagan was a popular incumbent. The situation is nowhere near the same as now!
As to McGovern and Nixon, a centrist running against Nixon would not have won... McGovern would have done better had his incredible military experience been widely known; had the Democratic convention not gone until 3 am when they finally nominated him; and had he not had the Eagleton VP debacle.
1
Bernie’s supporters do fight dirty, and so does Bernie. Saint Bernie does Not exist except in the minds of Bernie Bros. Democrats had better hope he is not the nominee, as we will go down-to defeat. His radical policies scare people, including me.
11
@retiredteacher the immigration issue and his stance just needs to come up, that will scare off any teetering voters. It (the issue and questions aroudn it) was left out of the last debate. When it does come up again... it will be his achiless ankle.
The Democratic nominee will be entering the MMA of his political life. Right now is the time to prepare for the fight of their life. The opponent Donald Trump is mean, nasty and won't fight fair.
Just talking about issues, defending against his attacks won't be enough. They will need to hit back hard enough to knock him out. If they need to go below the belt or straight to the head to win then so be it.
1
This is a battle for the soul of America. No one is doing anyone any favors by playing. Trump/Putin will fight dirty. Who ever wins the nomination will face an assault of Fox News, Russian internet trolls and constant Trumpian twitter feeds.
Bernie needs to attack Biden like Trump or Liz would and vice versa if Bernie said he loved Stalin in 1972 we'd rather know about it now.
1
No. We don’t need any more internecine attacks. trump is licking his lips at every Democrat who attacks another. Bernie Bros are playing right into his hands with their vicious attacks on Biden—the only candidate who has actually accomplished something.
4
For those who conveniently forget Saint Bernie can be as ugly and hurtful as any other politician...
Politico April, 2016
"Michael Nutter, a Clinton backer and former mayor of Philadelphia, where Sanders was speaking, tweeted his disdain for the remarks.
"Tonight @BernieSanders said .@HillaryClinton wasn't qualified to be President. THIS is LOW and crosses the line. Take it back, Senator," Nutter wrote. Fallon retweeted the message with the hashtag #TakeItBackBernie. Another hashtag, #HillarySoQualified, became a top trend within hours of Sanders' remarks.
Appearing on CNN's "New Day" on Thursday, Clinton supporter Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) called Sanders' qualification remark a "pretty extraordinary claim."
"She’s probably among the very best qualified candidates to run for this office," said Schiff, the ranking member on the House Intelligence Committee. "She was just an extraordinary secretary of state. She has broad experience. I think she’ll make a tremendous commander in chief. I don’t think people will take that very seriously.”
"Frankly," he said, "I’m much more concerned this week with what I heard Sen. Sanders say on the gun issue." Sanders told a newspaper recently that shooting victims should not be able to sue gun manufacturers."
7
The Senator doesn’t have to play dirty with his opponents because his surrogates do a fine job of it. Disingenuous at best.
12
We should nominate a Democrat. Sanders is no Democrat.
Teachout's essay was so dishonest that Sanders had to apologize for it and on Tuesday Paul Krugman tore it to pieces. When you say a careful analysis, you are lying.
And when you say Sanders should fight dirty: That's all he has.
And when all you do is slime his main competitor as corrupt (and implicate the Democratic Party as being corrupt, too) that is all you have. It's lies and dishonest.
And I do not believe that nominating the one non-Democratic candidate who will cost us Florida immediately upon his nomination--Sanders' support for Maduro, Chavez, and Fidel Castro guarantees that--is smart.
And I do not believe we should nominate a non-Democratic candidate who is promising massive tax increases for ALL Americans and the loss to 200 million people of their employer provided health coverage.
Sanders--and Warren--is on an ideology driven electoral suicide mission I want no part of. He is the worst of Corbyn and Mondale.
8
Bernie goes soft on corrupt Democrats and even corrupt Republicans but he doesn't go soft on Trump. Trump is a threat to the establishment and Bernie is establishment at his roots. Investigate every member of Congress and you will find veiled bribes to family members. Look at Chuck Schumer's wife and daughters and their spouses. One person removed bribery is universal. That is why the Republicans are protecting Biden. Getting your friends, family and supporters jobs is the rule. To the victor, go the spoils. Corruption in civil service and private industry is rampant.
2
I don't know. Pretending to be a Democrat in your statewide elections so as to prevent any challengers, and then switching back to Independent to burnish your cred, seems pretty dirty to me.
9
Is Trump so bad that we are willing to overlook Bidens voting on the wrong side of history over and over and over?It only takes five minutes on google to read enough material on Bidens corruption to charge your mind. Biden would be torn apart in the general by Trump. Mark my words Trump will make Biden out to be just as crooked as him to the point no progressives will even show up at the poles.
2
yes. Biden is not my choice but any one of the Democrats would be better than Trump.
1
This election is beginning to resemble the 1972 presidential election Where the high minded McGovern fought the dirty Nixon who cheated without compunction to win. The question is how can democrats keep their principles taking the high road and still be tough enough to counter the unending lies and dirty tricks of Trump? The fact that we do not have an answer to this problem is our greatest conundrum. Our most effective strategy would be to keep cool heads and pound away at powerful positions and the corruption of Trump without malice but ceaselessly. Any of our candidates can win including Bernie but it must be done without over reaction and a cool head.
1
Bernie already has. From his slow dismissal of the use of Russian propaganda to how his team had a slow announcement and outright denial of his heart attack. He's playing dirty as much as his staff pushes him down everyone's throats.
5
Why is it a prerequisite to fight dirty? Biden isn’t. Perhaps it’s an understanding that tearing down your opponent in the primary only serves the larger threat of your opponent in the general. Or perhaps it’s that the lead candidates are just decent, a quality the current occupant of the Oval Office lacks. Whatever the reason, echoing some of your rabid supporters isn’t the way to get to the general for the one party with integrity.
2
That's a good point. Biden is not my first choice, but he does run the cleanest campaign.
Stating the facts, and the evidence, is not playing dirty, although it doesn't surprise me that the NYT thinks it is. Bernie has been doing this for 40 years. He knows the facts, and all he has to do is respond to every attack, as he did to lying Joe Biden. He will make mincemeat of donald tRump, who is so ignorant, and ill-educated, he doesn't know how to debate, all he can do is insult and call names. We're not worried, but also not complacent. To suggest that Bernie has to play "dirty" is an insult to him and all of us who support him. A little self-reflection would do NYT some real good.
3
If you want Bernie to stop being Bernie, you will destroy him as a candidate. His basic honesty and authenticity are why he's so popular. We really don't need any more Trumpian fools in this nation and especially not in its government.
3
"Perhaps because his vision is grander than the venality and misbehavior of individual politicians ...."
Perhaps. Or perhaps Bernie does not wish to alienate the Black voters who like Biden and who Bernie needs needs to figure out how to peel off in order to win. Likely, calling Biden "corrupt," is likely going to help Bernie there.
1
Don't kid yourself, Bernie fights dirty through surrogates. Also, ask some of the young women who worked for Clinton how dirty it got with the Bernie Bros' (also surrogates) attacks. What Clinton should have done was to make a distinction between being liked and being adored! The young people adore him for his Utopian vision, but those in the Senate who had to try to work with him, DON'T, as Clinton said, LIKE him. Everyone who comes into close "working" contact with him, says that Bernie can't give enough to work with others, across the aisle or with the Democratic Senators. How would he ever get anything passed through the senate if he were to become president? Especially if he reverts back to being an Independent once he doesn't need the Democrats to run for office!
Those of us who came up through 60s activism recognize this guy and his holier than thou and egocentric rigidity. There were a lot of them in the movement.
5
Sanders' avoidance of dirty, attack politics is part of what people admire about him -- he is bigger than that and sticks to the facts, even about his opponents and their records. At the same time, he is viciously attacked and misrepresented by corporate media and the neoliberal DNC.
1
I disagree.
What goes around, comes around. Politics is already filthy enough, thank you very much.
My president is high-minded, not a barroom brawler, like Trump. We need a leader we can be proud of, to model after, to show the world that we are civilized, social, and well-mannered. Any pig can grovel in its sty.
This writer's advice is equivalent to a boxing manager telling his fighter to hit below the belt as hard and as often as you can.
No one is responsible for what his children do. Period.
But they are responsible what their kids do with their name. Biden should openly declare that he is not behind Hunter and having him on board will not carry any water with him.
1
He is not stupid.If he came down hard on Biden now he validates Trump's attacks.He can likely get the nomination if Warren quits as those two progressives together are stronger among Democrats than any other single candidate. I think Klobuchar or Bloomberg are a better choice then Biden if one wants to go the moderate route. Trump seems to see Biden as his toughest opponent but I'd agree with Gingrich that Klobuchar would be difficult to beat as moderate Republicans will support her. Bernie as the nominee would be exciting and he could win but I think he is one of the weaker candidates against Trump.
1
If Sanders does not attack Biden,Trump will.Is first question will be:Why was your son on the board of a very corrupt and polluting company with no previous experience in the gaz industry? And that will be one of many unanswered questions.Attack now,Bernie before it´s too late and the Dems will have a very weak candidate eaten alive by cruel Donald Trump...
2
Fighting dirty would prove that Bernie is just like the Republicans, which he's not. Fighting dirty is the mantra of Republicans who've lost the public mandate and lack the integrity to admit they've lost. The whole point of the 2020 election is to restore integrity and democracy to America, and not lower ourselves to the reptilian sadism of old white men who should have been put out to pasture decades ago.
1
He will be a politician who could win. It is not dirty to bring up the voting history of opponents.
1
Here's an ad I thought of, done in Bernie's Brooklyn accented voiceover as Biden is being showered in cash and all the bills and legislation that he supported for the banks scroll by:
"Joe is a friend of mine. I like Joe. But he's corrupt as the day is long. Don't get me wrong, Joe's a friend of mine, but come on, get real, he can't help himself. He's been doing the bidding of the big banks his whole life. His family too. Don't get me wrong. I like them too. Also, you many want to keep a close eye on him when he's around your wife."
"I'm Bernie Sanders and I endorse this message."
Paid for by Bernie2020
2
Funny. He may have to fight dirty to compensate for losing trust of democratic voters after he and his early supporters fought dirty on 2015. One dimensional editorials like this one will only hurt him and others. But for a cult, this might be fine
4
In that campaign that was Hillary who played dirty.
2
Whatever corruption Joe Biden has in his closet, it pales in comparison to Trump.
Will Bernie running attack adds help him? Hard to say- he has done OK without them and it is refreshing to not see them from him. To me most attack ads insult the intelligence of the voter.
Considering he is from a small Northeast state, relatively old, an independent, self proclaimed socialist and Jewish, he has done very well making a name for himself out of nowhere. He gave Hillary a big run for her money in 2016.
1
I was a college class-mate of Bernie--he was a grumpy young man.
5
Two can play that game. Bernie’s socialist policies would add 60 TRILLION dollars to our deficit. Bernie would be a DISASTER as the Dem nominee. Besides he wanted to primary a President Obama in 2012. Once African-Americans learn this fact, Bernie would have NO chance.
4
He does not have to. He has a hude posse, Bernie Bros doint it for them. Any time there is any article or news of Sanders being even slightly criticized, they are out posting comments defending him. Sanders has a rabid arrogant entitled following just like Trump does. Please give me a break praising Sanders for not being aggressive! He gets away with a high rating from the NRA as well as just grabbi9ng the Dem label every time he runs for office that involves votes from outside Vermont, though he has never been a Dem. Anyone else doing that and then feel so entitled to be anointed as the candidate of the Dem party, in the absence of which would sabotage and sully the party, would be so attacked and injured that they would never even think of running ever again as a Dem. Enough of Bernie!
4
I am not sure what you are doing NYT. Why is there a hero-worshiping piece about Bernie daily, and nothing about the two candidates you just endorsed - Warren and Klobuchar. At least in passing some of your articles mention Warren (in some cases, very negatively I must add), but the silence on Klobuchar is deafening. What is the deal here? I am so confused. Is the editorial board actually endorsing Bernie? It sure seems like it.
2
I completely disagree. One of the things I really respected about Bernie in the last election was during their first debate and the hosts kept trying to get his take on Hillary's emails. He refused to take the easy, cheap shot but finally got frustrated with them and said, "I didn't come here to talk about emails. I came here to talk about policies".
Its old school Reagan behavior and I wish all of our candidates would get back to it. Pick apart each other's policies all you want but trash talking your candidates the whole primary, then turning around and putting them all on your cabinet makes you and your party look beyond hypocritical.
The Dems this cycle have been rough on each other but no one has started with things like, "your dad killed Kennedy" or "your wife...".
Now, I have nothing wrong with a good zinger like if Trump and Bernie were in a debate and Trump says, "You have a defective heart". Bernie: "Well, at least I have a heart".
But no, Bernie and each candidate should focus on what they will do if they are president and let us know what they are going to do on day one. They don't even need to talk about each other. Let me hear what YOU are going to do.
I can get all the gossip I need from major newspapers posing as journalism:)
1
Well, all I can say is Bernie Sanders uses his followers, the nasty #BERNIEBROS to do his dirty work. I have blocked too many to count on Twitter. They go after all his competition. What do you think happened to Senator Kamala Harris? He is pretty bad and too many of us recall his statement in 2016 when he said he and his supporters may not endorse HRC is she wins the nomination. No doubts about what followed. What Hillary Clinton said about him in the soon to be aired film on HULU is who he is and worse.
4
I am not a supporter of Bernie. He's a high tax socialist, whose pie in the sky, vague plans for incredibly huge government will bankrupt the country and tax middle and upper income families to death. His policies on Israel, border on antisemitic. However, the thrust if this article is correct: You get hit, then got back harder. Mover, you never denounce your supporters, especially when they are defending you. The absurd lie that the media fed the American electorate for decades, was that candidates who go negative are bad and will lose, has been categorically disproved by Trump's winning 2016 campaign. If you want to play nice, then go home and have lunch with Corey Booker.
1
Bernie, just stick with the math and keep telling the truth.
1
When he had a chance to attack Hillary in the 2016 Democratic debate about emails he let her off easy.When Warren started the silly argument about a probably never occurred conversation or one out of context about a women's chance to be president He is focused on issues he let her off easy.Warren is a lier he is a mensch
2
This is the most insidious piece of whitewashing that I have seen, short of Trump’s constant rewriting of history. I’m pretty sure that Hillary Clinton and many of her supporters would NOT agree that Bernie eschews negative campaigning. The key phrase in this piece is the author’s advice that Bernie will have to "stand behind surrogates who do the same". That is, attack opponents. Please! That is exactly what he does. Look at the people he hires to run his campaign and messaging. Shafir and Sirota think nothing of attacking actual Dems. Bernie and his campaign were incredibly effective at convincing his young supporters and countless others that Hillary and the entire Dem party were corrupt in 2016. Meanwhile Bernie’s Bros and other supporters posted the most hideous, misogynistic attacks against Hillary that I have ever seen. The result? Many stayed home or voted for the worse-than-Nader Stein, or even the truly corrupt Trump himself! So please spare us this nonsense about the gruff but saintly Bernie.
5
I completely disagree with this premise!!
If you want dirty politics, then advocate for your candidate to employ dirty tactics. If you want clean politics, then advocate for your candidate to employ clean tactics. Take the high road and focus on what you have to offer... Tomorrow is not the time to stop employing tactics you will regret, the time is right now!!
1
Huh? Bernie has fought dirty enough already. Don't encourage him further.
2
Ms. Bruenig, not sure your age, but you are now "woke" as they say today. Oh for shame, for shame, Biden is evry politician since the beginning of the republic. Welcome to the REAL world.
And you think that Sander's is any different? Sander's will lose, because he like AOC, are at minimum a decade ahead of their time. This is not only just because of Republicans, it's for life long Democrats like myself, who will never vote for someone who is espousing "socialism" in a day. I'm not ready to support that, and nearly everyone I know in the "baby boomer" age range is not either.
Fortunately for you, and your ilk, time is on our side. All us "old white men" will soon die off, (can't happen fast enough in my opinion), the Republicans will have 30 people left to vote for them, and they will just wither away.
But what will be remain, is a bunch of "Progressive" politicians who will act exactly like the Right & Left wing ones of today and 250 years ago, feeding from the same trough as those before.
Until money and corporations are removed from the political process, this sad fact will never change.
Fortunately, the generation of thirty something and below, from my experience, are more aligned with the "Progressive view.
When us dinosaurs die off, then there will be a possibility of the changes the Progressives desire.
Then we'll see if the Nirvana you desire exists. Forgive my pessimism, good luck!
He doesn't have to get his own hands dirty. His legions of Bernie or bust supporters are happy to do that for him. How to make me like him less? Make his as combative as they are.
3
No Democratic candidate should attack his or her competitors in ways that injure their ability to beat Donald Trump. Anyone who does, loses my support immediately.
5
I completely disagree..Bernie is the type of person who focuses on the issues, not the personalities..Please let him keep his focus - we need people who thingk about issues, and not image, long-term approval rating, etc..
2
Bernie is already fighting dirty. It’s why I’ve changed my support to Warren. She can build a coalition and win with her progressive agenda. Bernie and his supporters have chosen to burn bridges instead of building them. I don’t trust him. I fear he will, once again, help put Trump in office.
5
If only Sanders would just go away. Go away. Learn to knit.
3
No, it does not matter whether he plays clean or dirty. He is a professional politician and too old to offer anything new.
Seriously, after 40 years in politics he now wants to become president and he now wants to do it? Nah, just an old man trying to secure a White House legacy.
His appeal to young Americans is a silly grandfatherly trick, but it won't work with anyone over 25. Sorry, Bernie. Your time is up.
1
Why the future tense, "will have to?" Sanders *does* play dirty. Senator Warren pulled the covers off him a bit when she went to him with an open mic after the last debate and Sanders dismissed her with a wave of his hand and then accused her of calling *him* a liar. Sanders is a fraud, far less transparent than the current fraud in our White House, but a self-serving fraud nonetheless. From his opportunististic use of the Democratic Party to run a national campaign to his "solution" for all that ails this irreparably divided country--"I'll hold a rally!"--he is a fraud.
3
I can't stand the negativity and am being swayed towards Bernie Sanders because of his lack of negativity. I'm angry about the stupid Warren/Sanders thing and felt she should have put an end to it. When she didn't, that changed my opinion. I really wish voters would look at the candidates themselves, instead of listening to attacks like they're facts. Biden is not a good candidate because if he does become the nominee, the republicans will go to town with the corruption. I hear what you're saying about attack ads but it's really time that people start pressing voters to do their own research. It's a responsibility and privilege to vote.
2
Truly one of the most disheartening editorial pieces I have ever read in the Times. With this type of commentary, we can look forward to four more years of the incumbent in the White House.
1
Bernie dog whistled that women were unelectable in a general election to put a knife in Warren's back. It largely worked.
He refuses to release his health records post heart attack. Instead, he pulls a Trumpian sleight of hand, and releases vague doctor's letters.
Bernie refuses to estimate how much medicare for all will cost over a decade, $30 trillion, $ 50 trillion, who knows?
How are we gonna pay for it, again, who knows?
So before we make him St. Bernard, perhaps we should consider his record in full.
6
If Bernie fights dirty as you are advising him to do what happens when his opponents fight back? Bernie would have to answer the 64000 dollar question..Why is a non Democrat running for The Democratic nomination? A wise person would not open up that can of worms.
Do you mean his personal demeanor could actually get worse??
2
Bernie is not the best candidate to beat Trump. When most of the voters are at the center right, a self declared socialist Jewish
candidate is not the choice. The left has surge in some pockets in the northeast and Midwest. New York city is not the barometer. A big fraction of the Democrats blame him for Trump's win, knowing well that Hillary was a flawed candidate with stupid campaign strategy . Bernie is attacking his opponents very ineffectively like saying women can not be president or Biden is corrupt. This attacks are repulsive even to his core supporter. Bernie did not express that ' I feel your pain' like Biden did. I pray and hope that Bernie will not be a spoiler. Trump has to go.
1
Hilarious.
So Bernie and his babies and bullies need to fight dirty?
It’s like his entire platform is designed to get trump re-elected.
4
Bernie doesn't need to play dirty. He's got his gang of internet trolls to do that for him. Ask Elizabeth Warren.
5
Bernie already fights dirty. But he does it via surrogates. Just review the comments section in this newspaper under any article with "Sanders" in the headline. It does not get any more condescending and "my way or the highway" than that.
4
He shouldn’t have abandoned Teachout.
Dirty would be: Give me the nomination or I'll run on the Green ticket or the Socialist Workers Party candidate.
4
Have you checked out his campaign ads lately? I think he agrees with you.
1
Bernie supporters to a lot of us look like Trump supporters: fanatical, impervious to facts, blind to their venerated leader’s all too obvious faults, and all to happy to shove their views down others throats without any regard for consensus or compromise.
3
The PRESS should be exposing Biden's corporate ties and the other financial forces that have guided some of his votes and policies. Why should Bernie need to expose Biden's corporate ties, and his son's taking advantage of them? This is the responsibility of the media!!
2
Cloaked beneath the headline that "Bernie Will Have to Fight Dirty", the real purpose of this op-ed is to make its own dirty attack on Joe Biden and to tar him as "corrupt" in the minds of its readers.
Thus, no need for Bernie to do the dirty work, his fanbase will do it for him. And I'm not certain that Bernie even has the power restrain them. They behave sometimes like an angry mob.
Negative attacks against any Democratic candidates, coming from within the left (whether registered Dems or not), simply feed the stock of ammunition that the Republican party will deploy against whomever the Democrats eventually nominate.
That behavior is so painfully stupid. Please, stop it.
If you are a Bernie supporter, talk up his positive points and leave the other candidates out of it. If he's as good as you say, he'll sail to the nomination.
We can do this in a civilized way. Really.
1
I literally laughed out loud when I saw the title of this article...seriously? He ran one of the dirtiest campaigns against Hillary Clinton in 2016 and gave Trump and his disciples the blue print for “lock her up” chants and non stop attacks about her corrupt ways. I remember getting a Sanders flier in the mail and the words “rigged” and “corrupt” must have appeared ten times on it. Sanders has done serious damage and undermined voters confidence in our system by calling the primaries rigged, not so unlike Putin’s agenda which is to make voters question the fairness of our democracy by directly implying our voting is compromised. I really have nothing kind to say about Bernie Sanders as I still maintain he and his bros are the reason we are in this horrible state with a “President Trump”. And I see his followers saying the same things as 2016...Bernie or bust. So let’s all welcome four more years of Trump while this author and Bernie’s maniacal Trump-like followers keep repeating this nonsense about him being “pure”. Never did see those tax returns, did we, Bernie?
1
Fighting dirty will gain nothing for Mr. Sanders except the exposure of his support of the gun lobby year after year. Why. oh why is it good advice for Democrats to attack each other? It is my personal feeling that Bernie Sanders cannot win a general election and that the focus should be on defeating Trump with the candidate that has the broadest appeal. Biden presents a sensible, calm, return to a democratic order in the nation - and that may be the winning formula for defeating the exhausting DJT. A match between Bernie and Trump seems a losing proposition for the Democrats. Bernie would tell the truth as he sees it, and Trump would defame him in many ways - using the anti-Semitism card if necessary. He has already used it on Schiff and nothing would keep him from doing it with Bernie.
2
Bernie does attack the policies if his opponents. He tries to steer clear of ad hominem attacks. If you are advocating that he names those wedded to the policies he is attacking , I agree. If you are suggesting attacks on their person, I don't.
1
A welcome and much needed voice in the Times Opinion section! My wife introduced me to Ms. Bruenig's podcast and columns in the WaPo, and we're big fans. She is wise beyond her years, funny, insightful and brave. The Times has shown some remarkably good judgement here responding to the criticism - warranted - that the deck in opinion has been too long stacked with conservatives and moderate voices. Finally a real, genuine one for and from the Left. And I'm happy to see she's come out swinging.
3
@iverson28 Hopefully you'll be equally happy when the nomination of Sanders or some similar extremist leads to Trump's almost inevitable re-election.
@Carl Yaffe you'll be happy to know that Bernie is the only dem that consistently beats Trump in head-to-head polling.
2
@Carl Yaffe "Extremist"...hilarious. Only extremism I see regards to wealth inequality, corporate venality, student debt, infrastructure collapse, and climate devastation. Also, all the polls have it correct, Bernie beats Trump.
1
Bernie's appeal is in his integrity. Every time I try to convince my husband to vote for Warren, he shrugs and says, "I just trust Bernie."
Throwing away his reputation for being focused on the issues and fighting for justice would do Bernie more harm than good.
2
I was not happy when I saw that David Sirota had joined Bernie's team.
Sirota hosted a radio talk show in Denver in 2010. He and other "pure" progressives were not happy with the pace of change from the Obama White House.
He began to berate the President on air and sort of hinted that "pure" progressives vote third party or stay home.
We all remember what happened in 2010. Which gave rise to t rump, which is leading US to become one of the less progressive nations on Earth.
This year we must elect someone who is not t rump, and if that someone is not as progressive or is too progressive for your delicate tastes, too bad. Vote. If t rump is re elected it will probably be your last one.
3
The only thing gained by any of the dems fighting dirty is better odds for Trump in the end. Whoever the nominee is--even if it is Biden, who I personally won't be voting for--we can't afford to have ANY democratic voters turned off from them due to the primary campaign. As a millennial, I saw firsthand how other people my age lost interest in Clinton and even ended up not voting at all just because of the stark contrast between her and Bernie. Some of that is unavoidable, but we certainly shouldn't encourage candidates to exacerbate that pattern, and we can't afford to have 50% of millennials sit out the election again
2
Can Senator Sanders realistically fight the forces of Wall Street and that top one-tenth of 1 percent who own almost as much wealth as the bottom 90 percent? Their power cannot be underestimated in financing the fight to keep it their wealth bolstered by Trump's generous tax cuts. Additionally, others in that 90 percent do not care about Bernie's fixation on the wealthy as long as the economy is working for them. Even if they are are not stockholders, in their minds the socialist senator is out to take away that extra few dollars in their pay checks. In the final analysis money rules in both groups. The senator will have a hard time fighting for his lifetime ideologies of wealth distribution and will never get the votes of the wealthy nor assuage the fears of Trump's diehard middle class supporters. His fight will be in vain.
2
On every other subject but Sanders, Bruenig has impressed me as being smart and perceptive. But on him she seems naïve.
First, doesn't she know this is how negative politics is done? The candidate gets a confederate to do it (later their running mate) and distances himself to retain a positive image.
Second, Ms. Bruenig endorses Trump's accusations of the Biden family’s corruption. Does she now feel Trump's impeachment is not justified? After all, he was only investigating this family's corruption. Yes, it advanced his own campaign, but so what, Bernie should do the same. Anything to win. And Trump will say, See, even Democrats think the Bidens are corrupt.
Third, Sanders supporters often sound romantic beyond reality: "his vision is grander than the venality and misbehavior of individual politicians"; "what is most lovely in Mr. Sanders." Even if one supports Sanders, he is by his own admission angry, intolerant of disagreement and unwilling to compromise. How will he manage the opposition which will not go away even if Democrats win the Senate? Even Obama learned he had to deal with them—he would not have gotten the ACA through otherwise.
I’m no Trump supporter, but too many Bernie followers romanticize like they are another cult. That is the last thing this country needs now. Like in 2016, their absolutism may break the general because if anyone other than their “lovely visionary” doesn’t win, they won’t go along, either.
10
Thank you, Ms Bruenig, for shedding some light on Mr. Sanders' character. As a voter, I had no idea that he was such a principled and respectful human being. You've helped me in deciding to support him in the next election.
6
The single most important thing that needs to come out of the 2020 election is the defeat of Donald Trump. The person who benefits the most by Democratic candidates attacking each other is Donald Trump.
3
Sanders has apparently learned something from his scorched-earth campaign against Hillary Clinton. He poisoned the well so much that during the general election, many of his supporters stayed home, voted third party, or voted for Trump. And we all know the result.
The leading Democratic candidates need to point out their policy and style differences in order to win votes, but attacking each other now will only lead to a repeat of 2016.
However, it appears Ms. Bruenig isn't shy about fighting dirty. One wonders if she learned anything from 2016.
6
She did learn perfectly. Hillary fought dirty, and yet won the nomination.
2
Did you learn anything? Because that old trope about Bernie not supporting Hillary in 2016 was never true, and if you actually read this piece the author explains that. "Scorched earth"? Are you kidding? Meanwhile Sec. Clinton continues to poison the well with her own sour grapes. If HRC had conducted her campaign with half the dignity and integrity with which Sen. Sanders has conducted himself his entire public life, she would have won in a walk.
2
There is a disingenuous determination, on the part of the media, to pretend that Bernie is a grumpier version of the other candidates. There's a reason why so many high profile individuals of every political persuasion are terrified at the thought of a Sanders presidency. The things that concern centrists and the elite about Bernie are the same things that give so many Americans hope.
We have had too many presidents, from both parties, who like to make grand speeches but are all too eager to reassure Wall Street with some backroom backslapping when the cameras are off.
If we are being honest, there is more of a difference between a Sanders and a Biden administration, than there is between a Biden and a Trump administration.
Our politicians have always been bought and paid for by corporations, it's only a matter of degrees.
Bernie is the revolution so many of us have been waiting for.
263
But where oh where are Bernie’s tax returns? Lol, pure, sure.
1
@Cathy He has released his tax returns. Perhaps you want him to release even more, and perhaps he will, but something tells me it won't be much of an issue when he's facing off with the likes of Trump.
21
@faust "If we are being honest, there is more of a difference between a Sanders and a Biden administration, than there is between a Biden and a Trump administration."
You'd think people would learn. I had similar thoughts when it was Bush v. Gore and voted Nader. You know who was wrong then? Me. And everyone who thought the same when it was Trump v. Clinton realizes the lie in it now. Don't go on perpetuating these untruths. A Biden presidency, even if not ideal, would be radically different from a Trump one, and would be better for most Americans (not to mention the rest of the world).
6
While I agree with the author that Bernie rarely goes on the attack in a significant way during the primary, it is clear that the media coverage of the race frames it differently, and that for whatever reason folks are quick to accuse him of undermine the party on the occasions when he does more forcefully highlight differences with his opponents. I sense that he knows he will be doubly penalized for any gestures at "going negative" during the primary, and he may be right; I'm not sure it will always pay off the way Ms. Breunig imagines it will. For those who fear that he would keep kid gloves on during the general, if he becomes the nominee, I would point to his 2006 campaign against Richard Tarrant in which he waged a factual but blistering campaign against his self-funded billionaire opponent, calling him "Richie Rich" and hammering his ties to big business and lack of connection to regular people...resulting in a resounding victory for Sanders. I think we will see a very different Bernie coming against Trump, who is pretty much his ideological antithesis. The working class kid from Brooklyn vs. the spoiled kid from Queens; it will be a delight to see...
6
This is a very bad column by a very good columnist. What Ms. Breunig fails to address is that there is always a relationship between form and content—between the way that you campaign and the things that you’re trying to address in your campaign. Corruption in Washington starts with fighting dirty, which is why Sanders avoids it. It’s also true that you don’t always start a revolution by winning the battle. If Sanders’ mantra of “not me, us” is to mean anything, his movement will have to go on beyond the length of the campaign whether or not he wins. This is about more than electoral politics, it’s about what is politically possible. I’m a strong supporter of Sanders and I hope he wins, but I’d rather he lose the race than lose his integrity.
5
That's the problem - many people want Sanders to lose. Going after the opponents flaws doesn't mean lose integrity, it helps the voters to see the difference.
1
Odd, but predictable headline. Warren surrogates attack Bernie, which has now seen Bernie get the bump, and Warren fall further out of it. Then Biden. Pointing out facts of prior policy positions is not an attack, it's factual analysis. Biden was the champion of Obama's grand bargain, which cut SS and medicare benefits, those are facts. The msm and dnc are scared of Bernie. In fact the Emerson poll out today has Bernie ahead of Trump, only Bernie, not Biden. DNC has to come to grips that my generation the BB are not going to be running things for much longer, they need to adjust, or like the traditional GOP will go the way of the edsel.
6
Bernie's a mensch.
10
@Pat A mensch who should stay home and be a zayde. He will never be elected president.
This article is correct, but the distinction between personal attacks (also known as ad hominem attacks), which are invalid, and legitimate criticism of another candidate's public record that is relevant to an informed voter's decision of whom to elect, which is valid, requires more emphasis, explanation, and repetition. I think the latter is what this writer is arguing for, and is what Bernie cannot afford to allow his detractors in the media and Clinton wing of the Democratic Party to obscure (and they're obscuring it constantly by falsely conflating the distinction). Bernie needs to start making this point fast or he risks getting swamped by the attacks of his intellectually dishonest opponents.
3
Bad strategy. Ride the media's distaste for Bernie. As Matt Taibbi writes, the media's steamrolling of Trump actually increased his popularity because the media's reputation as neutral arbiters is low. And people like to go against the grain.
1
I think Bernie understands that the most important outcome in November is the ouster of Trump. Attacking opponents might increase one's personal chances, but all attacks on the eventual nominee -- whoever it turns out to be -- will become soundbites repeated ad nauseam for the Trump campaign. This is not ultimately helpful.
6
If Bernie Sanders is the nominee, Trump won’t even bother with debates and he will win at least 45 states and cruise to reelection.
4
Yep, George McGovern 2.0.
My wife and I voted for Mr. Sanders in 2016 primary in Tennessee. We still were leaning to vote for him in the primary this year. We soured on him when his surrogates went negative and vilified Mr. Biden for corruption by offering flimsy evidences. Although he apologized, now another op-ed appears and instructs Mr. Sanders to fight by impugning Mr. Biden's honesty. We hate it. We find Mr. Sanders' supporters tribal and not interested in any other candidate but Mr. Sanders. They helped elect Trump by not voting or voting for a fringe candidate. Our advise to the candidate: Stop attacking each other and show us why we should vote for you to represent us in general election.
11
@Ahmad HRC didn’t lose because of Bernie. And not by being centrist.
She lost because she ignored the rust belt and insulted working people. She threw away the center with both hands. And lots of people who weren’t Bernie fans—like me—didn’t like it that HRC and DWS rigged the primary so Bernie didn’t have a fair shot. I voted for HRC, but with little enthusiasm.
9
@Ahmad "Flimsy evidence?"
Both the Guardian article and this one cite specific instances of Biden doing the bidding of his donors despite a negative impact on his constituents.
How much more evidence do you need, exactly?
10
"He shouldn't hold back"? He should "wage total war"? Are you happy with electoral politics as it is currently practiced on a morally burned-out battlefield?
Bernie Sanders' work is not about winning elections (though that would be a good thing); he represents politics as a means to a better society. Attack ads and divisive campaign rhetoric take us in the opposite direction.
Continue on the high constructive road, Senator; on the national level, you've already accomplished some of what you stand for.
12
Attacking other is not a good productive thought process. Such an approach indicates that decision making and leading would be off the wall - we cannot have that. DJM
5
It does win elections. Trump is an example
Forget about Comey. Forget about Russian hacking. Even with those, Hillary would have won quite resoundingly if Bernie had given something other than slow and grudging support, that caused many of his supporters not to vote or to vote third party. He understood exactly what he was doing.
18
@tfrodent
Bernie did 40 rallies for HRC.
In 2008, HRC did 12 rallies for Obama.
3
If Hillary would play more honestly and not insult Sanders in primaries, she could count on support of his fan.
2
Bernie and his supporters helped defeat Clinton in the 2016 election with their 'my way or the highway' zeal. Do they want another 4 years of disaster? I don't think so. Rather than going low in the democratic intramural contests, I advise us all to keep our eyes on the prize.
20
@Murrow
Bernie did 40 rallies for HRC, while HRC did 12 for Obama.
In 2008, HRC also hinted support for birtherism and for the notion that Obama was a Muslim.
4
It was the responsibility of the winning candidate to unite the party after win. She was not able to do so. The lost is her fault only.
3
Sanders has been scrupulous about preserving deniability, while allowing his staff and supporters, including Bruenig, to wallow in the muck, with only an occasional apology or restraint to burnish his image. It seems to work for him, at least with his supporters.
6
Bernie is about ego: it's better to be "pure" about one's beliefs, than to win. It's all principle. The Dems cannot afford -this country cannot afford - to risk this election.
It's Biden, with a female VP candidate.
5
@Dr. M "it's better to be 'pure' about one's beliefs, than to win." Exactly. Bernie is the ultimate Henry Clay Democrat - he'd rather be right than be president.
@Dr. M Perhaps Sen. Harris for VP? Could they get along now?
Every politician is about ego. Biden as much about ego if not more than Sanders.
1
No matter what Sanders does, he will not suddenly become a good candidate for POTUS in the minds of many, including me. The last thing we need is someone encouraging any candidate to start attacking others.
3
And yet all candidates attack others. Biden, Buttigieg, Klobauchar attack Bernie and Warren, Warren attacks Bernie and Buttigieg, Klobauchar attacks Buttigieg. In this background, Bernie looks quite restrained. I don't understand why it is OK to bring up whom Sanders admired in 70s, but it is not OK to bring up the voting record of Biden.
1
Like a lot of voters, I get turned off by the nastiness of politics. But Elizabeth Bruenig is right: in order to beat Joe Biden and upend the Democratic Party's ossified "establishment," Sanders will have to play hardball. In 2016, he gave Hillary Clinton a pass when he said, "People are sick and tired of hearing about your damn emails!" At that moment, I thought, "Wow, he is apparently not trying to win this nomination." I hope Sanders plays to win in 2020. Whether he wins the nomination and the presidency or not someone has got to shake up and wake up the Democratic Party!
7
@Chris Rasmussen
I strongly disagree. That was the best and most impressive thing he ever said. That put him on the map.
6
Is he OK just to be on the map, or he wants to win?
There are the facts and then there is the innuendo. Sen. Sanders did his best to insist that the debate during the 2016 stayed on the issues. His quote: "I don't care about the damn emails." was indicative of this. Yet, Clinton and the DNC apparatus continued to insist that Bernie "fought dirty" when he obviously didn't. After her outrageous statements from the beginning of this week, HRC no longer has the slightest moral high ground (if she ever did) to even comment on the problem of "fighting dirty". Fortunately in 2020, Sen. Sanders still insists on keeping the debate on the issues and not descending in the gutter with the other candidates. Hopefully it will stay that way as that is a large part of appeal.
15
Bernie, just continue to do what you do. Tell the truth about what is happening in our country. The massive inequality and lack of care for our planet.
Continue saying "I wrote the damn bill" or "I don't care about her damn emails" here and there and you will be fine. No need to go further than that. No need to play dirty politics.
We love you Bernie. You are a once in a lifetime candidate, we need you to turn our country around.
Sanders/Warren 2020.
11
@PM We have one more chance in a lifetime to defeat Trump. Either Bernie or Liz on the ticket, let alone both of them, will practically insure that we fail.
If Bernie becomes the nominee, which I truly hope he does, he can be fully expected to say directly to the president that he, trump, is a pathological liar, and that trump is the most corrupt president in our history. Bernie will not shrink from this. Bernie's decency and humanity are bright sunshine compared to the dark venality and arrogance of trump. These distinctions will be unmistakable. Can Bernie land a few punches when needed? Well, he wrote the damn bill on that! Just watch.
12
I will not vote for a politician that cares not one wit of getting anything actually done. That happens when you declare yourself a socialist in a country where more than half the population never took Econ 101 to understand what that means. every politician has a choice - they can call themselves a liberal, a progressive, but a socialist? That allows the opposing party of corruption to effectively label every idea coming out of your mouth as basically being communist and that taints the Democratic party, period. It was and has been his choice to call himself what he wants. In my opinion it is just the left wing version of a narcissist looking for fame but not working to improve the lot of humanity that calls itself progressive or liberal or Democrat. I don't know about you but I want progress, I want to win, I want to reinstall a Justice Department that works for the people and I want the facts about Trump to be released. A vote for Bernie is anyone's right, but I don't believe him to be the right man for the job although he has many good ideas. Just not the wisdom to getting them achieved.
6
@Mark
Spot on. It never seems to dawn on Sanders supporters that there are vast numbers of liberals who believe he'd make a terrible president. He's popular, but he also leads in most dislikable polls amongst Democrats.
2
Good for Bernie. This is not a typical election. Democrats attacking Democrats help Trump. Bernie has been clear about what another four years of that maniac means. if ever there was a time for refraining from attacks it's now. Nobody wants to win the battle but lose the war.
8
Sorry, Bernie's unrelenting attacks on the Democratic Party in 2016 put Trump in the White House. He couldn't quit attacking even after he lost the nomination. He held the Party and the Convention hostage to his attacks.
Even now, he refuses to join the Party he wants to lead!!!!
I may have to vote for him to try to stop Trump. But the man's personality, ego and policies will drag the Democrats down-even if he wins.
5
@Maureen Steffek Agree completely!
Bernie's goodness is his strength and it will guide him through. The nation wants an alternative to the evil of the president. When Buttigieg decided to go nasty, I believed him, and will never vote for him.
9
He's already fighting dirty. Sanders supporters have, in the past several weeks, taken to crashing Pete Buttigieg events, seizing the mic, chanting, singing and otherwise disrupting the proceedings. It doesn't get much dirtier than that. As was the case in 2016, this hard-core element within the Sanders camp is an obnoxious turnoff, and if he wins the nomination, they will make Sanders unelectable.
5
@Luke We had very negative encounters with Sanders supporters in Queens NYC in 2016. It was a complete turnoff and the opposite of what he says he’s about. But it’s happening again!!
3
Bernie is still doing his college-liberal-socialist crusade from 2016, but hasn't everything changed since then?
He should find something the regular folks are concerned about. Not enough red banners downtown doesn't qualify as one.
And since about 1968, Trump’s been pushing the same ugly hatreds, selling the same get-rich-quick schemes, gambling with other people’s money, whining like a little girl at the mall when he gets busted, and fleecing the suckers.
I haven’t, ah, observed that it’s slowed Trumpists down much.
1
You don't have to fight fire with fire. You can fight fire with water. Bernie will win because the nickel & dime campaign will avalanche & overwhelm the tide of the bankers & the billionaires and the 1% - for a livable wage, affordable housing & health-care & education, and a vision as honorable of that of the framers. Michelle Obama set the standard with her "we go high" assertion - she talked the talk. Bernie is walking the walk.
9
Bernie won’t fight, because this isn’t what modern progressives do. They merely whine some, and then roll over like good doggies to whomever has the power, so they can continue to line their pockets and accumulate wealth.
How many homes does Bernie of the People have by now? Two? Three?
How much money did Hunter Biden make from Burisma? $50,000 a month?
Both Biden and Bernie are good lap dogs, like all modern progressives. Bernie will roll over for Biden just like he did for Queen Clinton. And Biden will roll over for Burisma and other “donors” to family just like Bernie rolls over for him. Obama talked a big game about being a fighter, but at the end of the day he too was a good lap dog, rolling over for his benefactors. Not a single banker went to jail under his watch, and he rolled over just as much for the Generals. Did he go back to his “roots” in South Chicago after serving? Nope. He went to mansion on Martha’s Vinyard - where all good progressives would like to be.
Most American people are fighters though, and they want someone who’s going to fight for them and go after those who are trying to hurt them. Who’s the fighter here? Trump.
It’s pretty simple really. He fights against the border jumpers, the Islamists, the businesses who outsource jobs, and the foreign governments who don’t pay their fair share. He fights against Iranian terrorists like he fought against the GOP field in 2016 - dirty, to win.
We need a fighter. Trump wins easily.
Good to know that the fat creep who shoved me off my bike that time when I was a kid was actually a “fighter.”
Wait...you don’t actually know that Trump’s a coward?
3
I have been a member of the Democratic party since 1978. I always vote, and I always vote Democratic. I hate Bernie with a passion. The only thing he has going for him is that I hate Trump more.
Zephyr Teachout, if I recall, lost her race for the House of Representatives, then went on to lose to Andrew Cuomo in the gubernatorial primary. It is not clear to me that she is in fact a member of the Democratic Party.
It is certainly clear that Bernie is not a member of the Democratic Party. He is a Socialist.
Your advice that a non-Democrat should actively work to tear down a long-time Democrat, based partly on the advice of someone who may or may not be a Democrat but who did lose all of the races she competed in, strikes me as insipid and disloyal.
When I say disloyal, I am presuming that Ms. Bruening is a member of the Democratic Party, which may not be the case. It seems to me that in fact Ms. Bruening, along with her husband, are a couple of nasty socialist flamethrowers whose opinions are worse than useless.
1
Bernie’s campaign has always played dirty. And Putin would like nothing more than for him to become the nominee—followed by Pete Buttigieg - two unelectable candidates in today’s America, which is still neither ready for a socialist nor a homosexual. This doesn’t make me happy at all, but make me worried when I see them climb in the polls. No matter what people say, that they will vote for whichever candidate becomes the nominee, I think too many will stay home rather than vote for either of them, for reasons they may not want to admit. Conversations with democrats in common spaces like grocery store and laundromat have been telling. I only have confidence that Biden, Warren or Klobuchar can win against Trump.
5
Fighting dirty is not in Bernie's DNA. Bernie is a different political animal, he's a just, fair, honest, compassionate man, that will use truth as his weapon.
6
You may have noticed that he's doing quite well without the personal attacks you seem to be asking of him. People like him because he is focused on the big picture. Sorry that is not enough drama for your paper and its desired headlines. I guess the NYT didn't get enough mileage out of its desired Sanders-Warren war. Don't worry, when Biden wins because this paper and other outlets keeps treating Sanders' and Warren's ideas as "radical," despite the fact they are ideas well placed within a capitalist system, this paper will get all the ridiculous personal drama it wants in a general election that is devoid of any real plans to fix the underlying problems that got us Trump. Don't blame Sanders' focus on the issues when it is decades of politicians and media outlets like this one treating his ideas as far left and impractical that make Biden look more attractive to nervous Democratic primary voters.
4
Bernie doesn't have to fight dirty. His supporters do an excellent job for him and may very well have contributed to Trump winning in 2016. His supporters can be vindictive and need to wake up to the fact that any Democratic nominee is better than Trump. Bernie needs to pay more attention to what his followers are saying and doing and rein THEM in.
5
"The fact that the Bidens are entangled in Trump's impeachment odyssey -- uncomfortably, and with no clear exit strategy aside from keeping mum -- should also raise serious questions about Mr. Biden's fortitiude in the general election."
Not sure what news sources Ms. Breunig relies on (apparently not the NYTimes?), but last I checked, there is no evidence that Joe Biden did anything inappropriate in his dealings with Ukraine. Of course, there are plenty of distortions and innuendo propagated by the Republican smear machine (and now Ms. Bruenig) implying otherwise. Ms. Bruenig wants Bernie Sanders to "fight dirty" in his campaign. Perhaps if Mr. Sanders decides to go that route, he should hire Ms. Bruenig as his communications director.
In the arena of dirty fighting and accusing others of corruption, especially Biden, no one can match Trump. This is why we are having a presidential impeachment .
1
What is more anti-Trump than refusal to go on the attack? The airwaves (cables? internet?) are full of people, left and right, who know how to do nothing else. This negativity is nasty pollution for our hearts and minds.
Bernie’s failure to attack is a bit of blue sky, a whiff of fresh air, a spot of “cool, clear water” whatever metaphor works for you. Thanks, Bernie. Keep your focus!
6
Bernie can see his path to the Democrat nomination, with a 2nd place in Iowa and a win in N.H. Now is the time to get down and dirty because he's not getting any younger or healthier. There is no next time and he knows it, so now is the time, the prize is close at hand.
1
Fighting dirty is the only option if you are attempting to gain the leadership of a party you have not supported in any significant way for your entire career. The reality is that Sanders is a party of one attempting to become President. He has more in common with Ross Perot than Elizabeth Warren.
5
OK, but he and his supporters shouldn’t get upset when other candidates fight dirty with him. Plenty of material.
2
Where have you been? He has his surrogates do it. His dark money organization pays protestors to go to other candidates' rallies and disrupt them. The disinformation (lie) campaign is on fire coming out of his organization.
He wants to keep his hands clean and be funny grandpa.
4
The fact that institutions are so terrified of Bernie speaks a lot about his message. The people are sick and tired of corporations telling us how to think, spend our money and behave. Bernie 2020!
6
Bernie ruined Hillary Clinton’s candidacy by tagging her as the candidate of Wall Street, leading to Donald Trump’s election. Now he’s tagging Joe Biden as an opponent of Social Security, raising the absurd possibility that Trump wins re-election by posing as the savior of Social Security.
The problem isn’t that Sanders has been too hesitant to attack his rivals, it’s that he’s been too eager. Sanders, and all of the Democrats, need to keep their eye on the ball, which is beating Trump.
3
An interesting op-ed given the previous op-ed from a Sanders supporter lambasting Clinton for not remembering that Trump is the opponent now.
And also, Sanders doesn't attack others? Lol wut?
1
What we all love about Bernie is being Bernie. Please don’t advice him.
4
I'm being won over by Bernie BECAUSE he doesn't fight dirty. I'm tired of dirty; the country is tired of the drama and the dirty and the hyperbole. His cheeky response to Hillary's comments ("On a good day, my wife likes me") doesn't stoop to the level of desperation displayed by so many others. The man knows to keep the focus on the issues, and I don't understand why that's such a hard concept for other candidates. And he's stayed on-message for decades. If you get drawn into the scuffle, mostly you end up being played. More power to you, Bernie.
6
Sanders attacks on Hillary Clinton cost her the election because his supporters would not vote for "the lesser of two evils". Instead we got the worst president in our entire history, who is truly evil. Sanders had virtually no legislation passed as a senator. I doubt he would get anything done as president. If he is the Democratic candidate I will hold my nose and vote for him, but it will not make me happy.
3
I pray that this old yelling narcissist will not get MY party's nomination, a party he is not even a member of. Clinton is dead on accurate about him and he will lose to the biggest threat to this country since the Civil War. I abhor this man and yet I will vote for him if he manages to highjack MY party because I see the danger and am more patriotic than Sanders and his supporters who refused to vote in 2016.
2
Are Republicans working so hard to smear Biden because they think Sanders can beat Trump?
Bernie Sanders smears other Democratic candidates constantly like he did to one of the most qualified women in the world (HRC) and he's not even a Democrat. He's never played well with others and has very few accomplishments to show that he'd be a competent POTUS. I wonder whose side he's really on???? I don't trust this guy at all at and that's from watching and researching him and who he has hired to work for him. He plays real dirty. He doesn't need any more encouragement to do more of THAT!
3
Bernie doesn’t have to. Let us the people do it.
1
Bernie needs to distinguish "going on the attack" and "self-defense." The cheap, nasty and underhanded attacks made by Warren, Hillary Clinton and Biden, tell me at least that there are no friends in politics... only allies.
Millenial vloggers like Kyle Kulinski and Krystall Ball have pointed out that by not responding, Bernie lets down his own movement. He doesn't have to counterattack with personal name calling. He can simply and forcefully point to Biden and Clinton's terrible anti-worker, anti-progressive track record.
2
So, during a time when most party leaders are stressing party unity against Trump, this open-ed is calling for nasty infights? Who benefits? Obviously, the media can sell more news papers. that's for sure.
1
Giving the Republicans the presidency once was not enough! Sanders should attack all Democrats everywhere! He should convince his zombies that no one besides him can reform our broken system, and that everyone else is the same!
Bernie’s attacks on Hillary were a factor in losing to Trump. He can save his energy for Trump. Joe Biden - Trump will beat him with Hunter. Bloomberg will mop the floor with Trump. The NYT endorsed Amy and Elizabeth - sadly an endorsement seems to have been the kiss of death to candidates - Gore, Kerry, Clinton!
1
I've noticed on social media there seems to be fake Bernie agitators. Example; They claim the impeachment is boring and the real news is the protests in France. That is the QAnon angle.Their agenda seems to be distraction and disunity.
So you like Trump enough to have Sanders throw another election his way?
2
Okay, I get it. The Times is widely seen as "corporatist", "neoliberal" or whatever the current slur on moderate, common-sense Democrats is. So you trot out Bruenig, who offers a totally false hypothesis. Bernie is highly skilled at fighting dirty. After all, look what he did to Hillary in 2016. He spent the whole campaign denying that he was fighting dirty when that was exactly what he was doing. He set Hillary up like a bowling pin to be knocked down by Trump, with his shouted "Wall Street" slurs. He has never apologized for his role in electing Trump, and I will never forgive him for helping elect Trump while defiling a courageous public servant.
1
This is the worst advice ever. For one thing, it goes against one of the biggest reasons Sanders is so popular. He is perceived as being honest and a different kind of politician. Every time he slams someone, he strikes me as sanctimonious and hypocritical and I like him less and less.Democrats need to go after Trump, not each other. This is not a normal primary.The Democrat who goes after Trump and talks about what's at stake will get my vote. So far,the only person to do that is Biden,who, to his credit,stays above the bickering. The writer's trashing of him plays into the Republican impeachment narrative and helps Trump. Is she on the left or the right? Sometimes it's hard to tell. Bottom line--let Bernie be Bernie. He hasn't played dirty so far, and it's working. He's now in the top two.
2
This is the worst advice ever. For one thing, it goes against one of the biggest reasons Sanders is so popular. He is perceived as being honest and a different kind of politician. Every time he slams someone, he strikes me as sanctimonious and hypocritical and I like him less and less.Democrats need to go after Trump, not each other. This is not a normal primary.The Democrat who goes after Trump and talks about what's at stake will get my vote. So far,the only person to do that is Biden,who, to his credit,stays above the bickering. The writer's trashing of him plays into the Republican impeachment narrative and helps Trump. Is she on the left or the right? Sometimes it's hard to tell. Bottom line--let Bernie be Bernie. He hasn't played dirty so far, and it's working. He's now in the top two.
I thoroughly disagree with this article. Bernie does not have to nor should he fight dirty. That has become an all to familiar US campaign strategy and proves only to turn off voters. Warren's poor shot at him, backfired on her. I would rather not vote for her because of this and I know many voters had the same reaction. If you follow Bernie's social media feed, as I have for years, you know ... he does not back down when it comes to going after Trump. He is not weak. He does not have to go low because Trump is low hanging fruit to target but Sanders does not hold back. He hits Trump hard on a daily basis. I have no fear Bernie will and already does have the right mix to hit hard when needed while not practicing dirty politics. He doesn't have to and shouldn't. It would work against him as some of his staff. Dems should not get dirty or go after each other but when it comes to Trump, the nominee will have to get in there and fight. Again it is evident from Sander's social media feed, he will stand his ground and beat Trump with the presidents own record. I do not see that in Biden, Warren, Buttigieg or Klobuchar. Trump will bully and defeat them all. Bernie can go toe to toe with Trump and that is the only race that is relevant. Trump will go low - Bernie will go direct not dirty. It will be something to watch!
4
I love the throwback photo of Bernie.......looking like Lenin.
finger pointed towards the future....exhorting the masses, the toiling industrial worker Forward! Forward into the future of 1930!!
And therein lies the true problem. Bernie isnt even remotely "progressive". He's stuck in an earlier collegiate age, perhaps about 1968, with all the classic ideology that has since warped and perverted into exactly the Status Quo that Bernie claims to fight against.
The Wacky Professor.
2
Progressives (and I count myself among them) owe Bernie Sanders a debt that will never be fully repaid, for transforming the Democratic Party and redefining what's possible. However, his temperament and convictions mean that he will always be an outsider, and severely limit his capacity to lead the Party, accepting its diversity and internal contradictions. This op-ed highlights one aspect of his singular status and his limitations as a candidate. It's an appealing flaw in his sterling character.
1
Negative campaigning riles up “your” base, but doesn’t change minds. I like Bernie and will certainly vote for him, should he become the Democratic nominee, however if he goes negative my support for him would diminish.
Negative campaigning encourages conflict and plays into Trump’s repress the vote scheme. Demonizing didn’t work for Clinton and We ended up with a Demon in the White House.
We Americans are so much better than that and now it’s time to prove it !
3
What Sanders does IS "total war".
Regardless of what he's saying here, the bottom line of his campaigns is rejecting ALL career politicians as "corrupt", and suggesting that he can organize the American people in such a way that as soon as he becomes president, he will sign radical (and indeed urgently needed - it's not the urgency of those policies that I'm questioning here), lasting, democratic change into law overnight.
"Democratic change" and "change overnight" are mutually exclusive. They're just not compatible. And as a career politician with one of the longest careers, compared to the other candidates, until now he couldn't even mobilize enough people to win the Democratic primaries, or to be the clear front runner.
With his message of "I know how to obtain radical change overnight", he basically contributes to the widespread cynicism that the GOP's massive fake news is cultivating 24/7 too. It's just the other half of the coin.
Fox News claims that all politicians/governments cannot be but utterly corrupt, so no change that benefits Main Street can be expected, and as a consequence, we should vote for those who want a "small government", just to limit the potential damage.
Sanders claims that no radical change overnight has been achiever ever before, because most Democratic politicians are corporate shills.
None of this increases the "political literacy" of ordinary citizens. To do so, you have to explain that ALL democratic change is step by step change...
2
Bernie does not have to play "dirty". Bernie plays himself. He is authentic, has all good intentions, will work for general wellbeing. And the young know that. He is their hope and leader, leader of a movement that he, he alone set in motion.
I vacillated between Warren and Bernie, but I now wholeheartedly support Bernie. Even dead and stuffed Bernie surpasses all. America must embrace progress and honesty. Bernie is the one to deliver!
3
Hillary Clinton's bombastic non sense against Gabbard and Sanders shows where the Democratic establishment is. Adam Schiff's belligerent anti Russia hysteria puts him down as one the great demagogues in US history. McCarthy has nothing on that martinet. Sanders' grass roots campaign is the only platform to overthrow the Schiff-Pelosi-Schumer squalor. He's is positioned to run an effective campaign against Trump. As the article states the corporate news media certainly is ready to go after Bernie. The Democratic establishment seems determined to have a full scale confrontation with the Russians.
6
That is because he does not want them going after his record. Or lack there of.
1
Bernie might select to not play dirty out in the open, but he willfully allows his surrogates to assert unsubstantiated claims and allows manipulation of video footage. This is adjacent and really not far from what state and non-state actors that use information campaigns and deep fakes do.
2
The Democrat’s tactics of character assassination, personal attacks and mutual assured destruction seems to be working very well...for Trump.
2
Bernie will have no trouble repeating what he said multiple times during the Democratic primary debates, “Donald Trump is the most corrupt person in the history of our nation to ever occupy the office of President.” If they give Bernie enough time he could continue for hours publicly outlining the examples of Trump’s corruption.
3
It's laughable that he doesn't "attack his opponents directly." That's because he sends out toxic surrogates to do his dirty work and then pretends he's shocked(!) that his own staff is smearing his colleagues/opponents. We've seen it all for years now. He lied about Warren and got caught. Then he lied about Biden and apologized. I hope he does attack them directly because Clinton and now the current candidates are not vetting him like the GOP would. His background is replete with baggage that they will use to terrify critical swing voters. (btw: it would probably be more professional if you revealed that you're married to one of the most ardent Bernie Bros, Matt Bruenig.)
4
Bernie has his own corruption problems, if anyone cares to expose them. He did not support George McGovern in the 1972 election. He was always uncritical of the timber industry clear-cutting policy, while he sought after rural votes. Same on the gun industry. Same on the F-35. He recasts his own corruption as virtue, going back his original race for Mayor, when he ran against redevelopment, then turned around and redeveloped with a different set of donors. If the gloves are coming off, let all the gloves come off. Mr. Sanders will be found to be just another dirty career politician.
1
I think the difference with Obama is that for the most part the press and many mainstream liberals liked him, except for the hardcore Clinton supporters. It is interesting how people seem to have forgotten the bitterness of that campaign and how many Clinton supporters refused to vote for Obama in the general election. From what I have read, there were far more Clinton supporters who refused to vote for Obama than there were Sanders supporters who refused to vote for Clinton. And when you see Clinton’s own behavior that isn’t surprising.
Bernie doesn’t have a solid base of support with the professional managerial classes. If he goes negative they will go even more negative against him, whereas his critics in the party get attention and sympathy from reporters and pundits. Even the smallest of criticisms aimed at a fellow Democrat from a Sanders supporter will elicit cries of outrage.
I don’t think he can overcome that double standard and so if he goes negative he just lessens his chances both of winning the nomination and of winning the election and of getting anything done if he wins. It is good to see a Sanders supporter on the pages of the NYT and I agree with Bruenig’s analysis, but you can’t always win elections by telling the unvarnished truth about your opponents. He needs support from at least some of the people who don’t like him.
1
The guy knows what he's doing. He wouldn't have survived this long if he didn't. He sticks to the issues and in the end that's what counts. He's really blue collar, much as I am, despite the education and experience. He understands the fears and problems of the working class, he listens. And he responds in kind. It's Burlington all the time with him. He knows we're in real trouble. l'll vote for Saunders and, if he fails badly, for Warren. But in the end, in the general, I'll vote the Democratic Party ticket. Just like Saunders will. Because we're in serious trouble and it gets worse every day.
7
excellent. Thank you.
Bernie needs to face the realities you outline for him. It is that simple. Biden is such a part of the system, that he is basically a moderate Republican and all of his weaknesses need to be brought forward.
I want Sanders to win but that is not doable on his current trajectory.
The weaknesses of capitalism are now obvious. I have been listing those weaknesses over and over again in this newspaper, but will do it no more. They are obvious flaws and huge numbers of people are in debt, pain and insecurity. Sanders can see this and guide us out to some sanity. I know how he operates and after he wins the presidency, he will go to the people and make his excellent case for policies that will improve their lives and tell them how to communicate with their representatives to demand the changes.
He can do it and will do it.
2
A vision beyond any individual politician. Exactly. Our electoral system, campaign finance system, requires, demands this. Just as ‘they were all in on it’ may define the Ukrainian ‘drug deal’, it defines our election system, our legislative compromises, time spent raising money for the next election, and the next....
The NYTimes, media, have done a really good job these past months, reviewing each Democrat candidate, especially the warts. If the media doesn’t discuss this stuff, the Republicans surely will. It’s job one. But for the candidates, job one is to talk about what they most want to do, change, highlight, fight for/against. If there is hypocrisy, the media steps in.
I disagree that Sen. Sanders, or any candidate needs to go negative (though I confess, I still chuckle at the wine cave), but neither should he have apologized for - truth. Nor should Sen Warren have apologized for seeking the truth of her heritage. Unlike this administration, and now some Senators, at least they are actually dealing with, facts.
If fighting dirty means telling the truth about Joe Biden's record and the words coming out of Joe Biden's mouth, then Bernie Sanders should have at it.
If fighting dirty means stooping to the level of Elizabeth Warren, though, Senator Sanders should take a pass.
Sanders's operatives used a phone script accurately highlighting how Warren's support came from more elite Democrats who weren't going to expand the electorate. This was a perfectly fair attack, but Warren interpreted it as some personal hit job. And what did she do to retaliate? Distract us from the issues by trying to make hay of a PRIVATE conversation she and Sanders had in 2018 and creating a "he said, she said" dynamic where we were asked to decide who was or wasn't telling the truth. As if that has anything to do with the problems Americans are facing today! If Warren wasn't misrepresenting the conversation herself and Sanders's alleged comment was so offensive, then why was she so cordial to him up until the time she needed some ammunition against him?
I disagree with Bernie Sanders on a lot of things, but I appreciate his sincerity, his decency, and his relentless focus on the real world and not "The Real Politicians of Washington" world.
6
One interesting thing to note is how differently Bernie speaks about Trump than he does about Democrats. He calls Trump a pathological liar (an accurate statement) which is a negative personal attack. Bernie is saving his attacks for the general election campaign rather than using them against his Democratic opponents. I think this is a good strategy, because he will need all Democrats to join him if he is to beat the cult-like following of Trump. He's in the lead pack this far into the game, so his strategy, so far, hasn't cost him. No, Bernie, don't go negative.
2
Enough already! What would be truly radical would be to see a race among democratic candidates that kept its eye’s on the ultimate prize and rose above the kind of dirty, personal methods that Ms. Bruenig advocates. I have been a liberal democrat for 64 years and, like I suspect many in the electorate, I am exhausted and sickened by “politics as usual,” on BOTH sides. Please, Democrats, show us something truly novel and inspiring: don’t tear each other to pieces!
384
@JKG Democrats have moved too far right to be coherent.
The tension within the party is normal, consider you have a candidate so close to Republicanism he would consider a Republican running mate (Biden), and at the same time a social Democrat who want to win back the workers in the heartland (Bernie).
The Democratic Party has always been a big tent party, but you have to wonder if they're not ideologically overstretched. In most other countries, between Bernie and Biden there would be at least one other party.
15
@JKG
A year ago, I fantacized about a Democratic Party "monsters of politics" stadium tour, where all the candidates campaigned and raised money together and focussed their fire of Trump and the Republicans, while getting the voters all fired up with their positive, future-oriented platform.
If only.
Instead, we got a liberal mirror image of the 2016 Republican primary, with too many also-ran contenders on stage, too many debates, and a myopic emphasis on how much money each candidate raised, rather than the positions they took.
12
@JKG Having differing opinions is the key to a functioning democracy. Sanders attacks opposing candidates on policy, since when is this a bad thing?
14
Whether you love Bernie or not, one must face the reality. He will always be pounded upon by Trump and friends as a socialist (read Communist) who will be 88 years old at the end of his second term and this will resonate with the president's supporters when exploited upon over and over by Trump. One should also not underestimate a far dirtier campaign which will be fought in the subterranean battleground of the internet with subtle and not so subtle implications of anti Semitism and damaging conspiracy theories. Nothing is sacred nor immune from attack in Trump's world. He is in it to win at any cost. Can a good and decent man like Bernie go up against such a callous and cold competitor like Trump given the latter's penchant for a good fight no matter how hard he has to hit to stay in the ring? It would be an enormous challenge.
1
But why should Bernie fight dirty when he has his digital army that can do it for him?
Let Bernie remain above the fray in the primaries - it's looking like an effective strategy this time around. If he manages to win, against Trump, you should implore him not to hold his fire.
1
Biden’s life is a treasure trove for Republican attacks. Trump would like nothing better than to run against “sleepy corrupt Joe”.
Republicans in recent decades have only had to deal with centrists, but not with an aggressive pitch to get the workers back to Democrats.
If moderate Republican Democrats and rural Republican workers switch parties, politics can return back to normal in America.
Definitely worth a shot, especially since Bernie is our best chance at it.
3
But first he'll have to mensch up and call himself a Democrat.
Why is that so so hard for Bernie the Pure?
1
Bernie doesn't need to fight dirty. His followers do it for him. Just check out ANY article in any publication or ANY Facebook post that mentions him. There will always be a slew of them using such terms as SHilary, Biden - Bush Light, you name it. They've been tearing down democratic candidates for years now. Why should Bernie have to get into the fray when his followers do it for him?
5
The good news for Bernie in a general election is that Donald Trump seems the most proud of his own worst qualities. Bernie wouldn't need to go negative, just compliment Trump on the things the rest of us find awful.
75
@Thad Yes, the correct outcome of the impeachment trial should be acquittal, so that Trump is left adrift to crash and burn. God forbid that the Republicans be forced to hold an honest nomination convention and come up with a golden boy or favorite son like Reagan, launching another Bush era behind a blizzard of donors, media moguls and lobbyists.
3
Personal note for you Sanders' fans who are not Marxists?
There is a disruptive force willing to recalibrate the power dynamic between THE WASHINGTON DC ESTABLISHMENT and We The People.
His name is Donald J Trump and it's perfectly ok to hate him personally and use him as a vessel for getting done what you want to get done..particularly if your "guy" is either unable or unwilling to truly take on The ESTABLISHMENT which is bent on destroying Bernie (he may not want to admit it, but he will in his memoirs).
Van Jones figured this out along with Kim Kardashian...working closely with Mr Trump and Jared Kushner to get prison and sentencing reform done.
Obama never did that. Never even tried.
Think about that.
Do you want your hate to run your life, or are you seriously interested in challenging the status quo and seeking to rebalance the power dynamic between what the bureaucracy is seeking (self preservation and status quo) or some fundamental change that puts our voices collectively into the process with the same weight and influence as Goldman Sachs, Citibank and Perkins Coie?
3
So in the same breath that editors back this essay they also claim that Trump asking Ukraine to look into Hunter Biden's activities and corruption is improper? This essay foreshadows all of the future talking points on Biden should he get the nomination -- if there is any doubt about how flawed he is as a candidate and how much hay Trump will make over the impeachment being a hoax perpetuated to cover up for Biden please re-read this essay. It is the single most important thing published by the paper so far this year on the election.
3
@michaelf: amen
1
@michaelf Sanders is a self avowed socialist who has supported Chavez, Maduro, and Fidel Castro (goodbye Florida and pretty much everywhere else) and honeymooned--HONEYMOONED--in the Soviet Union.
These are deep, deep, deep flaws. He cannot win. Period.
Negative campaigning and scorched earth tactics were mastered by Lee Atwater and Karl Rove. They are the stuff of Fox News and Rush Limbaugh. The ends justify the means is the guiding principle of Mitch McConnell and his ilk.
I do not agree with Bernie Sanders on everything, but one of the things I love about him is his refusal to engage in dirty political warfare. What kind of country do you want to have?
9
Some of his supporters are already well known as being vitriolic, especially online. If he turns negative, that will surely make them even worse. Bernie almost certainly cost Dems the election in 2016 thanks to the negative attacks on Hillary. If he does this, it will almost certainly re-elect Trump in 2020. It would be an amazing legacy for a non-Democrat to cost his supposed allies yet another election. This column is a terrible idea and he should stick to what he does best: the issues.
10
All he needs to do is to tell the truth, clearly.
In the case of the other candidates, that can be brutal, but I don't think it is "dirty".
141
@Tim Kane Or as President Truman said, "I tell them (the Republicans) the truth and they think its hell."
3
@Tim Kane
And I'm guessing Russia is still at its old mischief in this election cycle:
From Business Insider, Byline John Haltiwanger, April 12, 2019
"Russia's effort to convince Bernie Sanders voters to support Trump was 'central' to their strategy to beat Hillary Clinton, according to a new study"
"Sen. Bernie Sanders was "central" to Russia's efforts to interfere in the 2016 election, according to a new study.
The study suggests the Russians looked as Sanders as a tool to drive a wedge in the Democratic party more than was previously known.
Of the Russian tweets the researchers analyzed, roughly 9,000 used the word "Bernie," which were "liked" 59,281 times and retweeted 61,804 times. "
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@Tim Kane He's already been caught lying about Joe Biden's record on Social Security and he really went after Hillary in a very ugly and destructive way that led directly to Trump's presidency.
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It’s really sad that this primary may be coming down to a choice between Sanders and Biden when there are several much better candidates in the race.
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Highlighting the unsavory truths about your opponent's record isn't 'fighting dirty'. Making up lies about your opponent is (it's what Trump does). Sanders hasn't needed to do the first, and he has too much character to do the second. If Sanders does decide to do the first, more power to him - he won't be 'fighting dirty', just fighting.
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@J-Dog Because Saint Bernard has nothing in his background -- no standing shoulder-to-shoulder with dictator Daniel Ortega, praising Fidel Castro, no rape essay, no voting against Amber Alerts and CHIP, no kowtowing to the N.R.A. -- to be ashamed of. He's as pure as first Vermont snow.
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@J-Dog
Sanders has clearly done the latter, using a truncated out-of-context clip of Biden talking about Social Security. Claiming Biden was calling for Social Security in that video, which he explicitly was not, is a lie by any test. And speaking of unsavory truths, let's talk about Mrs. Sanders, Bernie's advisor, and her staggering mismanagement of Burlington College. Is that who you want running this country? Yes, it might be better than Trump, but that's not saying a lot.
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I desperately hope that Bernie takes the author's advice. Voters don't entire separate the leader from his followers, and the Bros. have a well-deserved reputation for conspiracy-mongering (which they've learned in part from the leader himself) and nastiness (which seems more their particular style). The nomination will then go to someone more electable, and if the Bros. can stop pouting in their drinks long enough to vote, without a Jill Stein roadblock, we may have a chance to win after all.
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Today's conviction that unless you 'fight dirty' you cannot win, is more of the same stuff that's degraded political life, turning it into a race to the bottom. Some of us are old enough to remember when George Bush I, that 'gentleman', campaigned viciously to become President. It wasn't an improved version of American politics.
We've now seen the outcome of years of 'fighting dirty': President Trump's no-holds-barred, degraded version of a presidency.
How many more years of this do we want ?
The big problem is how to fight effectively, both for the nomination and the Presidency, without turning into Trump II.
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I utterly reject the premise of this piece. Fighting "dirty" to the vast majority of people means to not tell the truth, to twist facts to fit a frame, to behave like Trump and the GOP.
Among the many reasons I support Bernie is his unwavering focus on the issues and the 99% of people who need help. If you want petty theater, watch a re-run of The Apprentice. For me, I want empathy and uplifting rhetoric that brings us together. The politics of mudslinging are part of what creates non-voters disgusted by the process. Perhaps that's the point of this op-ed.
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He may as well fight dirty: if America’s path to ruin shifts from Trump to Sanders this fall he will be the president with the fewest allies in Congress in US history.
Mr. Sanders is a better politician than you are, Ms. Bruenig. He knows that his real rivals aren’t other candidates but the limits of the American political imagination. He has to spend all his political capital overcoming the resistance many have to his ideas, and that strategy has paid off for him. If he goes negative against other candidates that will backfire.
That being said, I do share your frustration that Biden is getting off easy. It’s actually bad for him that he is, because you know that the Trump team will use all that dirt against him in the general election, and his Democratic rivals would actually be doing him a favor by giving him the opportunity to answer those charges now; it would make him a stronger candidate. But they won’t do that, and as a result this fall could turn into a whataboutism marathon, with Trump and Biden each answering the charges against them by framing the other as even more corrupt. This is not the way to increase voter turnout, and Trump will win that contest because his supporters don’t actually care about corruption anyway.
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Bernie doing just fine. He and his surrogates speak factually about issues facing us all. The DNC and our mainstream media should follow suit.
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This author is a political hawk.
One of the most charming aspects of Sanders is also the thing that makes him formidable — he’s very consistent.
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Ms. Bruenig’s “logic” overlooks the fact that political campaigns are conducted within emotional systems, not rational ones. Politics, at their core, like human relationships and institutions, are charged fundamentally with emotion, not logic. David Brooks implicitly understands this. Read his column in today’s New York Times, which makes the case for Joe Biden’s consistent strength and resilience. The emotional difference between Sanders and Biden is that Sanders, with inflexible outrage, despite his refusal to utilize personal attack, makes music with a jackhammer. Biden, on the other hand, plays his song with the warmth of a soft hand on the piano. To which would you rather listen for the next four years, in contrast to Trump’s course and crude throwing of tin cymbals at glass windows? None of these images follow the rules of logic. Neither do the unconscious “reasons” that bring people to the polls.
Bernie always fights dirty. He just claims he didn’t do it as it was his surrogates, of whom he has no control.
I remember the sting of the insults and accusations hurled at all of us Clinton supporters, by his followers, the likes of which in my long life I’ve never experienced from any other political candidate on the democratic side. Even I, a senior living on social security and one who always considered herself a liberal, and being progressive, was accused of being the “establishment”, of supporting the “elites”.
I must give him credit, though, for changing the conversation to allow to begin to accepting more progressive views.
He and Biden are my least favorite candidates, but if he is nominated, I will work tirelessly to get him elected, anyways. Anyone of the candidates, even Bloomberg, would be a million times better than trump.
Vote blue, no matter who.
Sanders is 77 and is recovering from a heart attack.
A "scorched earth" campaign is not in his nature, would not be good for his heart and most importantly of all is not necessary.
Sanders has all the correct issues to win the primary and the general election. But so does Warren who is younger, a female and has programs to solve the issues.
I was all in for Bernie in 2016 but am voting for Warren in the WI primary.
Biden has made a lot of money during the time he was out of office but that in itself does not make him corrupt. He is just greedy like HRC was and pandering to Wall Street was one of the reasons she lost.
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In a strange way Trump has done us a favor. Biden and his son are a part of the problem of corruption the same as Trump and his children are. We need real change. Sanders 2020.
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While I admire Elizabeth Bruenig's writing and hope she appears more often I cannot agree with this argument.
Dirty politics and the frenzy it throws the press into is a major problem in American politics. And our free press is the villain as it seeks and works to egg on those running for office.
What this tells us is that the press has very low regard for the intelligence of the average reader. Better the press pulls readers up than the readers pull the press down.
One person NOT afraid of going negative is Hillary Clinton, who criticized Bernie just this week ("nobody likes him" etc.). I was disappointed and disgusted by her attack on a fellow Dem, when she isn't even in the race.
Bernie, don't listen to these Op-Ed types. They also said you would have to accept major donations from corporations or billionaires to be competitive, but you have held your ground and raised more money than even Biden with his banking industry backers (and wealthy son Hunter).
Don't go negative against other Dems. Let Elizabeth Bruenig and her colleagues do it for you. Yes, Biden is wrong for the nation, not only because of his corrupt nepotism and bankster connections, but even more because he belongs to the Clinton era of mainstream elite Dems.
Bernie was against the disastrous Iraq War, Biden and Hillary voted for it (to appear "tough on national security"). Bernie works for workers and the middle class, Biden and Hillary work for Goldman Sachs and hedge fund masters. Biden and Hillary engage in nepotism, Bernie doesn't.
Just because Biden and Hillary go negative, doesn't mean Bernie has to. I hope he doesn't.
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Fighting dirty means being dishonest and unfair. Think Donald Trump. Telling the truth, even if it is unflattering is not fighting dirty.
Sanders should continue with his consistent message about the corrupting influence of money on our politics and who government is really working for. He doesn't need to point fingers or attack his opponents directly however. That approach will be unproductive.
One other thing, lets stop holding Sanders supporters to a higher standard than the supporters of other candidates. Seriously, you could pick any candidate and I guarantee it won't be difficult to find a supporter who has said or done cringe worthy or inconvenient things. That doesn't make them representative of a majority of the candidate's supporters. The "Bernie Bros" trope is an example of dirty politics, it is fighting dirty. In other words, it is dishonest and unfair and it is a tactic I cannot respect.
In full disclosure, I am what Hillary would call a nobody, I like Bernie. While he is not my top choice, I will happily vote for him if he wins the nomination. Hillary wasn't my top choice in 2016 and yet I voted for her.
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Sorry, but Bernie supporters seem to think this race must be Bernie or no one. The Democrats don't need a cult, we need a candidate. We need the candidate who can beat Trump, not the candidate with the sharpest elbows or the most disgruntled and narrow minded supporters. If you aren't careful, the bitterness and acrimony, which will be the natural result of Bernie "fighting dirty," may divide the Democrats to the extent that we lose in 2020. Whoops. Jill Stein all over again. DOH! Four more years of Donald Trump and bye bye to our democratic republic. Careful what you wish for. If your approach is "Bernie or no one," we may end up with no one, a.k.a. Donald J. Trump.
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Ms. Bruenig, After reading your opinion I can only surmise your life time has yet to imbue you with wisdom. To solicit Sanders to play dirty is to ensure the filthy tide Trump has brought to new lows in this country deserves permanency. Sanders , and for that matter Obama, Kerry, McCain and other candidates have run reasonably honest campaigns( notwithstanding the bad money players operating outside of the campaigns-thanks to the hidden money approved by SCOTUS.)
Honor and integrity are whats missing. Your column could have solicited those behaviors. Your comments miss this point entirely.
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Other NYT editorials explain why Bernie is not the Trump of the left. This one wants him to be more like Trump. No thanks. Let’s stick to the policies that we need.
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Bernie Sanders is under attack now that he appears to be genuinely surging in polls nationwide. Hillary Clinton made a very ugly, public attempt to smear him that was dutifully dragged into the limelight by every major media outlet in the country. It had no more success than last year's public relations campaign to gauge enthusiasm for a Chelsea Clinton seat in Congress. Flop. Followed by BOOM as it blew up in her face.
The editors at The Daily Beast tasked one Scott Bixby to throw something into the wind yesterday. He hilariously came up with a clunker that teased "leading member of a self-described “radical political party” in the 1970s, Bernie Sanders repeatedly compared Vermont workers to enslaved black people."
By the end of the article, poor Bixby was offering flattering quotations showing Bernie Sanders' flawlessly consistent identification of oligarchy as the real enemy of Democracy and the American people, two decades before Bixby was born.
I don't think it's necessary for Sanders to ever take the low road. Watching mean-spirited criticism of Bernie Sanders blow up in his accusers faces is being watched intently by the guy that forged his political career with them, and he's got to be flummoxed.
Let's just leave him that way. Bernie Sanders 2020.
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This essay is about Bernie, but it also hints at Biden's major problem: a history of going along with the tide too easily, without due reflection, and in doing so often benefitting himself while hurting many ordinary people.
Yes, Biden seems to be a nice man with a kind heart. But quite bluntly, he doesn't seem very thoughtful, and much of what he's done in his political career has, while going along with the tide, done damage to many. That includes supporting the Iraq War, protecting the interests of credit card companies, opposing busing, supporting the crime bill, and adopting the conventional wisdom that Medicare and Social Security need to be cut because of the deficit. I'm not sure Biden had a strong commitment to any of these policies—but his lack of reflectiveness has led him to be a guy who goes along with the crowd rather than standing against it. His appeals to bipartisanship scare me for exactly this reason. How many bad Republican policies will he adopt simply to get along with others?
And then there is the matter of corruption. No, I don't think Biden is corrupt. But let's face it: his son has made a lot of money trading on Biden's name. And Biden has been very cozy with wealthy donors whose interests he's later supported in legislation. It's not a good look—and Trump, once "exonerated" by those Republicans Biden wants to make nice with—will not be shy about dredging up whatever dirt on Biden he can find or invent. Biden, I'm afraid, is a sitting duck.
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Oh please. Sanders has been given a free ride. Everybody is afraid of alienating his cult concerned that if they are upset they will sit out the election like they did 2018. Here is a candidate who has been in the Senate for year, has no record of accomplishment and has never had the support of his Senate colleagues. Add to that he is not a Democrat, enjoys waving the Socialist banner, and the comments he has made in the past about Cuba etc.; given that his plans are so pie in the sky they have no realistic chance of being passed in the present environment, and you have a candidate that is extremely vulnerable to attack, and none of his opponents have gone after him. He would be destroyed by the Republicans in a National election.
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I'm confused. I thought it was Donald Trump who is accused of promoting political dirt on Joe Biden. Now you want Bernie to pile on? I dread the outcome of the November election.
Is not the point of a political campaign for office to highlight the differences between oneself and the others. If those differences relate to problematic past positions of your opponents how is that "dirty politics" to highlight those issues?
Dirty politics takes two forms. One is more like the recent actions of Hiliary Clinton who announced that "nobody likes Bernie". That statement is clearly her personal bias and devoid of real governance content. The other aspect of "dirty politics" is when allegations are made that are without any factual basis. Both of those aspects of dirty politics are damaging to the candidacies of other Democrats.
As a voter I want to know two things: exactly what our politicians have stood for in the past as that is one of the few objective metrics by which we can judge their future behavior. The other is what their plans are for the future. Far from being "dirty politics" those differences are exactly what should be brought forth in a political campaign.
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Democrats as an ethical group are extremely sensitive to corruption so we tare each other a part to prove how just we are.
And because Republicans do not care about such niceties, they like vultures are always there to swoop in and pick over our dead carcass.
Will we do it again and repeat 2016? Sanders may win the nomination this way, but will we lose the war we face against Trump, the greatest threat and corrupter of them all?
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Look, it's great not to run negative ads, I agree. But the democrats have a real problem that they need to face up to. Biden is corrupt to the core and has used his office over the years to enrich his children. This will make him vulnerable as an establishment candidate, as it did Hillary. We can see it already happening in the impeachment trial; it will only get worse in the general election. Please, please, let's dump Biden so that we can have a real contest among capable candidates.
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