What astounds me about this article is that Warren is not mentioned ONE SINGLE TIME in the entire piece. Not once. As far as I can tell, from the returns, she is ahead of Biden, at this time. How ridiculous and insulting. Will there EVER be a time when women don't have to fight harder to even be mentioned? Shame on the NYT for this oversight.
146
Elizabeth,
Not just for Americans sake, but for the entire world, important you let go of your delusion a "radical" (your word) lefty can win the US presidency.
Fact:
Iowa: moderates Pete, Joe, and Amy together got more Dems votes than the total of Bernie and Elizabeth together .
Fact:
The US is simply NOT a majority left-wing population (far different than your bubble in Brooklyn, or wherever), and will simply not elect a "radical" lefty like Bernie president.
Fact:
2018, Dems crucially regained control of the house (phew!) - NOT due to the lefty candidates, but the large number of moderate Dems who beat Repubs.
Fact:
In UK, Trump-lite Boris crushed Bernie-style Corbin.
As Obama and similar Dems (WHO realistically know how to win in US) know, If Bernie is Dems candidate it will guarantee a Trump victory.
No matter how sad that makes you feel, its simply true.
Democracy has always been about moderation and compromise: The alternative you hope for is actually delusion and bravado. Middle way is the braver (ie. more realistic, less-deluded) way.
20
Um, where,exactly,is the center in the author's mind?
10
The day that the Clintons - all of them - leave the public sphere and no longer remind us of their mediocrity at best is the day American liberalism can move forward.
18
Bernie did good in Iowa ........ what about electoral votos? he is not the one to beat Trump. Either Biden or Bloomberg
7
Sanders will Coebynize thw Democratic Party and destroy it just as surely as Jeremy turned the UK Labour Party into an embarassment and disgrace.
12
Dont vote for a radical or someone with outdated views.
They will destroy Democrats for years to come.
Look at Corbyn and learn.
You need a tough loud candidate.
Hard hitting. Brave. Strong. Youthful.
Otherwise America will remain the land of the corrupt gop and a dictator with god like powers.
Beat the vicious dictator or remain a pariah nation.
7
Great hire with Elizabeth Bruenig.
15
The stench of 100 million dead corpses will make Bernie’s embrace of democratic socialism more than an item of anxiety for voters.
4
Can you put that more plainly, please?
8
We need Centrists and we need Progressives. Don’t worry about your beard when your head is being cut off.
9
I'm getting tired of the continual drone from everyone - including Bernie - that he is a Socialist. He's not even close. He a Social Democrat. If the media would just do their homework and quit trying to label everything and everyone, we'd be much better off. Not to mention firing off the OMG! SOCIALIST! dog whistle.
26
The NY Times is published to keep rich white educated liberals feel safe. Warren is for the slightly more generous rich white liberals who also cling onto identity politics, although her "plans" will be easily whittled down to nothing. The reason you NY Times readers don't understand Bernie is because your lives aren't in economic turmoil. You pay for your meals with your iphones, take leisurely vacations on the Vineyard, and virtue signal by taking white privilege/ gender theory workshops.
I'm from the same sort of background. What you folks don't understand is that most Americans can't afford anymore neoliberalism. Neoliberalism has failed. It's a zombie ideology and every candidate, except for Bernie, adheres to it. People's backs are broken. They turn to opiates to ease their pain. Others turn to tribalism and demagogues. 50% of Americans can't afford a $500 emergency. Their. Backs. Are. Broken. Ask yourself why the Democrats wasted their time and political capital on the impeachments instead of opposing Trump's military budget which added a whopping $100 billion? That could pay for a national school meal program for food insecure children, as well as Bernie's public state college plan with billions more to spare.
Call me a class traitor, but anyone who doesn't understand why a social Democrat, not a socialist, won Iowa and is headed for victory in NH is a fool or lost in their safe bubbles.
42
Not familiar with this writer, but going by the selective application of logic and veiled threats of “my friends and I won’t vote for anyone but Sanders in the general”, I’m surprised the Times is giving her a platform. Is this what passes for opinion and political argument now?
Would love to see an honest pro-Bernie view in these pages, but this ain’t that.
6
I'm a Canadian, so I find all this agonizing over Sanders rather bemusing. In Canada, he would be a middle-of-the road politician, maybe a little left of center.
In what sensible country is single-payer, universal-coverage, national health care plan a radical proposition?
Students in Denmark, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Norway and Sweden pay no college tuition fees. Are they ground down by communist tyranny?
Parental leave? Reasonable drug prices? These are benefits other democratic societies take for granted.
I wonder how many Americans know how strange their peculiar system seems to the developed world?
1466
Thank you for adding some sense to this conversation. I lived in the UK for fifteen years (my late husband was English), and the points you make seem like common sense to pretty much everyone who lives in western democracies other than the US.
211
@Matthew Hughes
I think this might explain why younger people are more supportive of Sanders ... we talk to our peers in Canada, Australia, Europe, etc. online every day. We are very much aware of how peculiar our system seems to them, and we are eager to join the developed world in respect to the policies you mentioned.
251
Well said, and I don't disagree. Except to say: this isn't Denmark, nor Sweden, nor Germany, nor Canada. It's the USA, and for better or worse (mostly the latter) it is a very different place from those countries in a myriad of ways. His policies just won't fly here, even if by some quirk he gets elected, which I think is nearly impossible.
32
If a moderate wins the Democratic nomination for president, so be it. But Democrats don’t get my vote without Sanders or Warren on the ticket. Simple as that.
I’m done with the bipartisan neo-liberal status quo. A lot of us are. Democrats, ignore us at your peril.
259
@ Phil
With all due respect, I would urge you and others of a similar view to support the Democratic nominee whomever that may be. Four more years of the current occupant will bring about certain irreversible changes. We’re taking about packing courts with enough judges who believe that government regulation is null and void (see Lochner, 1905 US Supreme Court case effectively invalidating all federal labor laws). This is not far fetched and is already being discussed in conservative circles including the Federalist Society. I fear that liberals are really not considering the kind of country we may become in 4 more years.
78
@Philip Cafaro
And this kind of talk is exactly why people don't like Bernie or his supporters.
80
@dlb 90% of Bernie supporters voted for Clinton. Bernie did many more rallies for Hillary after he lost than she ever did for Obama.
46
Bernie Sanders President of the United States of America..!
Bernie Sanders will WIN Iowa as Predicted.....
Bernie Sanders is the Democratic Nominee.....
Bernie Sanders will BEAT Trump...
It is Incredible what the Democratic Party has done to
Sanders..
They will do Anything to "Sabotage and Victimize" Sanders
And they won't Stop....
Only WE the PEOPLE choose our Next President.....
Not the Political Corrupted Democratic Party.....
as for Hilary Clinton....can someone Please give this Woman
a Job as she is Still Obsessed & Jealous of Bernie ......
Hilary should scrub hospital floors with the Sisters of Mercy
in Calcutta to learn Real Humility....!!!!
Bernie Sanders President of the United States of America.!!!
God Bless America....
11
The top three finishers are not the establishment favorite - what does that say about where the real center is?
And is the Times continuing its policy of misogyny by failing to applaud Warren for a strong third?
13
The most encouraging news from Iowa is that Joe Biden is sinking like a stone! He is a terrible candidate who is unable to connect. He is a poor speaker who has demonstrated the inability to inspire and captivate young people. This will be the key to winning. Young voter turnout. Bernie Sanders resonates with young people because of his authenticity. Go Bernie, go!
108
The short version is that Bernie always was the center.
10
With "The Center Cannot Hold," the headline writers did Ms. Bruenig no favors.
Guess they haven't read Yeats. "The Second Coming" is not an optimistic work and "the center cannot hold" is not a good thing.
50
There was an article elsewhere in this issue that attributed the debacle in Iowa with the vote-tabulating app that you could not comment to. Here is the first paragraph: The faulty smartphone app behind the chaotic aftermath of Iowa’s Democratic caucuses was the work of a little-known company called Shadow Inc. that was founded by veterans of Hillary Clinton’s unsuccessful presidential campaign, and whose previous work was marked by a string of failures, including a near bankruptcy. Need we say more? The Clintons have had the 15-minutes of fame and it is long past time for them to go away. Bill and Hill JUST GO AWAY. What is it about those three words that you don't get?
JUST. GO. AWAY.
8
"t is fair to conclude that the Democratic Party’s center is panicking,"
WRONG!
What is panicking is not the Democratic Center. It is the rightest halfway individuals who are do not want evolution in the Peoples government. They prefer to continue the sham democracy that has presently put 90% of our wealth into the hands of the very few billionaires and their sycophant Wannabe millionaires.
11
It's becoming increasingly obvious that the Iowa fiasco has to do with attempts to stop Bernie. They are trying to cook the numbers in favor of Buttigieg, the darling of the DNC elite, the Democratic Majority for Israel and their PAC Third Way.
10
We do not have capitalism - we have crony capitalism. This choice should have been in the poll.
9
My thoughts on Sanders can be summed up by two names: George McGovern, Jeremy Corbyn.
6
Ironically, Mr. Sanders is the politician most likely to bring the two parties together in "bipartisan" consensus. Yes, our two parties of the oligarchs, Democrats and Republicans, can unite against his candidacy. However, although I disagree at times with the extent of his proposals, free college for the children of the prosperous I think is unjustified, we'll be more likely to get free college for the poor and working class, if the Republican Senate has to deal with a President Sanders rather than President Biden. It seems unwise to target private health insurance at this time, but sadly I don't see President Biden or President Buttegeig doing much of anything to curtail the ill-gotten riches of the healthcare industry which is a very real problem for all Americans. We'll also more likely begin to roll back some of the obscene inequality in our country with a President Sanders. That said, I think this is a tempest in a teapot. Mr. Sanders has almost no chance of being the candidate of the Democratic Party. I just hope he and his followers can help it become the party it was for a short while, when it was the party that fought for the poor and downtrodden and not the neo-liberal wind of Wall Street and the Chamber of Commerce.
8
The mainstream media writes constantly about Senator Sanders as a Democratic Socialist, emphasizing socialism while we have a president determined to destroy democracy. Please discuss the implications of reelecting an anti-democracy oligarch versus a "Democratic" socialist.
Preserving our democracy is more important than defending oligarchic capitalism.
HOWEVER; I put forth a third option: DEMOCRATIC CAPITALISM. What would a country and government, and a society, act like if we first create a representative democracy that defends the rights, and promotes the responsibility of all citizens who have achieved the age of 18 to self-govern themselves. Then imbue commerce with our founding democratic principles of equal rights, protection of those rights by the government, and accountability to the citizens?
Who will begin a public discussion of this American way of government and commerce?
8
As people age they become more realistic and grounded. Hopefully for the Democratic Party will come back to reality. However, the Democrats are about to loose the center and will likely lose people like me along with it. Putting Cenk Uygur extremists like Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib and Linda Sarsour in the forefront of the parties new agenda will hopefully come back to bite it in the behind before it's too late. Otherwise count on middle of the road people like me to vote Republican no matter who the candidate is.
4
It was a tough choice to choose between Sanders & Clinton back in 2016.....it won't be now!
Let's ride Bernie straight through the republican embrace of corruption that has got this country by its neck.
The rich? Richer.
The rest of us? No change in 3 years.
Times up.
14
If the strident, opinionated, angry Bernie wins the primary, his gaggle of giggling girls will be ecstatic and the rest of the country will pay for his anachronistic left wing plans. He would probably lose the election anyway, since trump does much better on tv.
5
I still don't understand why the DNC cooperated with and allowed him to run as a Democrat. He's an independent! Jeez.
4
It feels as though the Democrats will have to lose another election in order to get its act together.
8
This reads like a press release for a Sanders' campaign.
5
Sanders would be a disaster as president. Trump is a disaster. I don't know what is happening to this country.
4
Nancy tearing up that speech is the poster-ready symbol of a night to come in November. The foolish Dems have handed Trump the election, with Bernie and Biden chief givers of the gift. When will Dems learn.
2
When will you recognize that Sanders has long passed his sell by date. He failed to ignite a mass following in Iowa and will fail again in the best few primaries. Stick a knife into him; he is done.
6
If this is the game the party wants to play for the 2nd time in a Presidential election, then fine. many dems will vote for Trump. Hillary Clinton is the curse of the party.
4
Iowa is an overwhelmingly white state with no major cities. Caucus results in Iowa, in February mean just about nothing, outside of caucus result in Iowa, in February.
Why does the media DO this?
7
People said the same thing about Trump in 2016.
6
Don’t kid yourself. Buttigieg has been underestimated from the start. He actually accomplishes what he sets out to do. What, exactly, has Bernie accomplished as a senator?
Right.
6
Sanders is the Democrats' Trump. A cranky, narcissistic, elderly man with health problems and few real accomplishments in life who joined the party just so he could run for president and who promises things he can't deliver to desperate people.
12
One dinky state that doesn't elect many Democrats is indicative of some large national point? Draw big conclusions on little data often? This is xlickbait.
4
Bernie would be our President right now if Hillary and her cronies (including this newspaper) hadn’t done all they could to get rid of him. I will vote for my senator, Elizabeth, though in the primary, but will be honored to vote for Bernie if she does not win the nomination. Please stop giving the two time loser, Hillary, any voice. There is no merit in anything she has to say.
13
Then I'll vote for Bloomberg when the primaries get to NJ.
Bernie Sanders will NEVER win the presidency of the United States. Voting for him in a primary is utter political suicide.
7
Bernie Sanders is not the most famous democratic socialist, Martin Luther King is. If MLK were alive today, the no-nothing centrist democrats would say his ideas are impractical and his speeches are starry-eyed drivel.
https://youtu.be/sjmT-zx4nyI
11
Sanders will be a spoiler again.
4
Bernie should be running under a third-party socialist badge. He has no business in the Democratic party.
I am a liberal democrat, and I will absolutely not vote for him and his ragtag hypocritical crew. It's Bernie's fault the Iowa caucus was a mess, as well as the fact that a caucus is not democratic and should be done away with. Bernie is not even a democrat. He has tons more baggage than Biden, with crazy sexist rants, love of socialist leaders, and wife who stole money from her college and brought it to ruins.
I will vote straight D ticket except for the top. If Bernie is the candidate, I will write in or vote third party which is exactly what the Bernie haters did in 2016 against Hillary. Had to love that sullen Bernie face at the convention. What a jerk.
7
Iowa is all white. Let’s see Bernie do inclusion.
2
There is no way Middle America is going to elect an elderly Socialist Jewish Senator as the 46th president. Sanders also rubs people the wrong way. He comes across as having serious anger management issues. Sanders's face is always beet red with rage as he waggles his finger at the voters who he treats in a rude patronizing manner. Sorry but "my way or the highway " just doesn't work on the presidential campaign trail.
7
The reality is that we're going to have to unite behind *whoever* becomes His Royal Malignancy's opponent.
Whether you're a Berner or a centrist, to stamp your lil foot and cross your lil armies and stick out your lower lip and refuse to vote for anybody but your preferred candidate is to refuse to stand up against evil unless it's your particular knight leading the charge.
You'd prefer to stand along Pennsylvania Avenue in January 2021 and watch the gleeful, triumphant procession of utter corruption to the White House, led in pompous glory to indeterminate reign by The Lyin King in a golf cart.
Is that what you want?
7
Ms. Bruenig's diagnosis is premature and may reflect a bit of wishful thinking. Right now, the two most important results out of Iowa are: Buttigieg wins and Biden comes in 4th.
Sanders was expected to do well in Iowa. In 2016 he gained 49.59% of the delegate equivalents. As of this morning, he stands at 25.2% -- not a particularly compelling victory. He and Warren together still get only 43.6% (this assumes that all Warren voters would switch to Sanders).
Declaring Sanders the probable ultimate victor and the Democratic Party on the verge of civil war seems a bit hyperbolic. I'm not and have never been a Sanders fan, but I will support him if he becomes the nominee and do everything I can to help him beat Trump.
3
Sorry, but you are wrong on at least one thing -- no matter what I will never support a bernie ticket. I will support everything I can below the top line on the ballot, but bernie will never get my money or my vote.
2
The centrist DNC donors are the huge financial industries, massive corporations, the people that got what they wanted. They got millions of hard working Americans working for $10 an hour making the corporations and their shareholders wealthier and wealthier. While those very people on whose backs those massive profits were made continue to live with the deepest financial agonies that makes getting ahead impossible.
Keep the minimum wage down, cut health care benefits, refuse to hire full time to not have to offer benefits, and the list goes on.
So those people have gotten what they wanted since the 80's, and it shows in their corporate profits and shareholder profits.
Is it such a shock then, that after decades of taking away the basic rights of workers, and any glimpse of getting ahead and moving up financially, that those who's voices have been muted by corporate rapaciousness are finally saying enough?
I may not be a Bernie guy, but I TOTALLY get why his base is so angry. And why they're so loyal. For decades they have been gagged by corporate interests, threatened with losing what little rights or benefits they have, kicked to the gutter in a manner that makes them feel unrepresented, unheard, as if they are in some way lesser Americans.
To be surprised by these fellow Americans vociferous support of Bernie, is to have been egregiously asleep, uncaring, unaware, of whats happening in this country's trenches.
10
The shift to the party's extremes in the last two cycles - Trump and now Sanders/Warren - should be cause for concern no matter who you support. I happen to like Sanders and his bold ideas, but our system of government does not cope well with radical change and the far-left v. far-right showdown will only increase the already intractable political partisanship our country face.
The silver lining I see, however, is that it may finally lead to some real reforms in our severely antiquated voting and election systems. First past the post voting is a relic of the past that should have no place in a 21st century democracy. Once the center-left and center-right voters in this country--who, despite trends in both parties, comprise the majority of voters--feel like they have noone squarely representing them, maybe then we will see some change. This should have been done decades ago, but when the two parties put forth candidates that are 90% the same and there was still a level of bipartisanship, the need did not seem so great. Maybe (hopefully) that is about to change.
5
No matter what the Democratic Party does, the Sanders people will claim they did it to rig the elections.
So just go ahead and give the nomination to Sanders, because he will attempt to destroy anyone who stands in his way.
3
The so-called "center" in America, no longer exists. It is a mythical place in American politics that has been created by the corporate/establishment, MSM and those within the "Washington Bubble' that "playing it safe" and the "status quo" is what Americans want. It is not and poll after poll confirms that the majority of Americans of BOTH parties demand the progressive policies, of universal healthcare, minimum wage, getting money out of politics, seriously dealing with the environment, dealing with guns and a fairer tax system, yet, because of legalized bribery in the system, politicians continue to answer to their "status quo" donors while ignoring their constituents.
There has to be alternatives, playing it safe got John Kerry, Al Gore and Hillary Clinton. It is time that the idea of the "lesser of two evils" is no longer acceptable.
6
The Republic is not going to hold my dear.
You Bernie supporters blew it last time by sitting it out and allowing Trump in.
He is not going to step down and honor the results if you get your great hope in.
You didn't realize Democracy was at stake last time.
9
The Republic is not going to hold my dear.
You Bernie supporters blew it last time by sitting it out and allowing Trump in.
He is not going to step down and honor the results if you get your great hope in.
You didn't realize Democracy was at stake last time.
1
The Republic is not going to hold my dear.
You Bernie supporters blew it last time by sitting it out and allowing Trump in.
He is not going to step down and honor the results if you get your great hope in.
You didn't realize Democracy was at stake last time.
1
Yes, Bernie's message doesn't change. But that is not necessarily virtuous. GWB was "resolute" in pursuing his war of choice in Iraq. Warren responded to the uproar over losing health plans people knew (however inadequate they might be) and being forced into a government health plan they don't know. So Warren changed her plan to a three year trial to allow her to make Medicare better than private health plans, and she has the courage to let voters decide for themselves after three years which plan they prefer.
I do find Sanders' message appealing, but the messenger a bit stubborn and caustic. I'm hoping the nation sees a more thoughtful leader for progressive values in Warren, who is comfortable and familiar with how government works, understands the legislative carrots and sticks she's described in her plans, controlling the influence of wealth and corporations at choke points which she identifies in her plans and using executive actions when necessary. You can only get so far with shouting.
4
After losing the presidency in 2016 by infighting and the inability capitalize on the changes in the American political scene, the Democratic party appears to be doing a repeat performance in 2019-2020. It is painful to watch the debates, the stupid personal attacks, and big money centrist democrats trying to hang on the little political power they still have.
It is almost passed the time to get their act together and support one candidate who recognizes that the average voter is no longer a wealthy old man or woman but a younger and smarter middle class, non-urban worker who will be here decades after this election.
After ignoring days of damning testimony and refusing to call witnesses in the senate trial , this senate, obviously, will do anything to hang onto power. Multiple division in the Democratic party is a disaster and simply a pure gift to the current White House occupant for the November presidential election and to Vladimir is laughing.
6
Yeah, about 170,000 Democrats - 15% of the population of tiny white Iowa - might participate in the Iowa caucus. Boy, that number is really statistically significant against America's 200 MILLION registered voters. From this, Bruenig says the "establishment" (aka, moderates) are finished. Done. Defeated. It's all over.
Just more tripe from "opinion writers" that get paid per word and need to write something - anything - to make money.
4
Pete had a strong showing in Iowa and once again he is ignored by the Times. It's always Bernie, Bernie, Bernie.
The Times even picked Klobuchar and Warren as their endorsed choices and wrote off Pete in a sentence.
Why are we still talking about this guy?
How about getting behind Pete?
2
Non-white Iowa caucus vote percentages:
Sanders 43%
Buttigieg 15%
Biden 13%
Yang 12%
11
Sorry, Hillary. "Few friends on Capitol Hill" is about the highest honor in life I can think of.
12
Sanders and his supporters exhibit the same pathology as the left likes to claim for the other side. Pick a comment from a Sanders acolyte on this site at random, and what you see is a complete disregard for any counterfactual evidence. Any criticism of them is obviously from a member of the "establishment" and de facto without merit --"fake news." That's fascism. There, the word is out.
NeverSanders 2020
7
I'm willing to bet that a large portion of voters haven't paid attention enough to know that:
1. Buttigieg is gay
2. Sanders is a socialist.
3
To paraphrase Bill Clinton: It’s the Senate, stupid! And you seem to conveniently forget the uneasy truth that Sanders has never been a member of the Democratic party. I cannot think of any group that likes an outsider barging in to tell them what to do. If the DNC is biased against Sanders, well, duh! What do you expect? That being said, vote Blue, no matter who, and that includes voting for Sanders if he wins the nomination. But would you vote for a moderate if Sanders doesn’t win?
4
BTW, Sanders has done A Lot Of fundraising for the Democratic Party and supported many Democrats running in other races.
4
Before you declare Mr. Sanders the winner I remind you all the votes are not in Iowa plus we've got 49 states and Nov to elect a president and then Trump is still in the mix.
1
It's a little early to make such pronouncements. If the center can't hold why did Buttigieg win? It will be Super Tuesday before we really know where this is headed. I doubt New Hampshire will offer much clarity.
5
Throwing around terms like "establishment hegemony" should not obscure the fact that Bernie Sanders got a quarter of the votes in a weird process in which 10-15% of the eligible Democratic voters participated. That's hardly a revolutionary juggernaut rolling over a hide-bound "establishment." Frankly, the trouble with Bernie and his supporters is that they have a bad case of being holier than thou and playing the victim card whenever someone opposes Bernie or his "big ideas." He -- and they -- did much the same thing in 2016, contributing to the relentless smearing of Hillary Clinton, turning off marginal Democratic voters, and helping to give us the disaster of Trump. What do you say you lay off that in 2020.
7
Getting from the mid 20's to taking a majority, let alone a super-majority of supporters is a big stretch. Unless Sanders softens he approach to healthcare and "us vs them" he is just another version of Trump. Sanders does not consider himself a Democrat. He may caucus with them, but that is not the same. I do not see anything in Sanders that unifies the country any more than Trump does.
2
If Bernie's base sits out the election because he is not the candidate, as some of them did in 2016, they are no different than the tRump base - just as guilty, just as myopic, just extreme, just as deplorable. As much as I like Bernie and his platform, if he does not lead his base to vote for whoever is running against tRump (and that includes Bloomberg if that happens), then all my respect for him flies out the window.
3
Hillary is the quintessential poor loser and Sanders would have squashed Trump in 2016...
...and for Hillary, of ALL people to say to say he is unlikeable?!?! Sheeesh!
Between the corruption of both parties will emerge a viable 3rd party someday.
10
No mention of Mike Bloomberg?Wake up.
3
@JJ
Wake up to what, he hasn't hit 10% in any major polls so far, despite spending tens of millions of dollars in television ads.
Michael Bloomberg is about to prove you can't win an election by just spending money on television ads. If he can't get out among the people and actually connect with them, he's going to lose.
5
When they start promoting an oligarch to save them, then you know the thumb is back on the scale.
Oh...they changed debate rules...? Um...well gee...not rigged.?!
8
We love you, Bernie!
Only a Virgo can save us now.
He’s like a Jewish Mary Poppins from Brooklyn, firm and stern but kind, practically perfect in every way, to confront Trumpian bombast and fantasy- trust a Virgo to punch holes in duplicitous GeminiTrump. It will be simple and easy to understand. Trust.
4
Dear party insiders,
"Joe is Hillary, Hillary is Al, Al is Kerry, and Kerry is Mondale. When we try and play it safe, we lose." ~Michael Moore
I'd like to win.
Thanks,
Rank-and-file voters
3
If you are a 'moderate' in this day in age, you are nothing but privileged enough to survive the horrid policies set forth by the current administration. Democracy erodes into fascism with each passing day, but sure, let's just hold the center. Stand up for something.
5
Finally, the New York Times finally publishes an op-ed about the Democratic party that makes sense and is up with the times of actually what's happening in this country
3
FINALLY you guys hire a columnist who doesn't have a blatant bias against Sanders. And after I'd just ended my subscription in protest!
6
I don't know how you write this whole article and never, ever mention Elizabeth Warren. Bit of tunnel vision there, Ms. Bruenig.
1
@Grace
Elizabeth Warren was the third place finisher in Iowa. She is currently polling for a fourth place finish in New Hampshire, and South Carolina.
Unless she changes that narrative, there is really no need to focus on her.
Bernie did well in Iowa, and he's polling well in New Hampshire, Nevada, and California. The reality is he's candidate with most momentum right now. If Elizabeth Warren somehow captures some momentum she'll be worth of similar consideration.
4
Folks, I gotta say that at this point I'd vote for a potted plant over Trump. We know what kind of corruption he brings to the table and if he wins again it only gets worse by unimaginable margins. He wants to be able to fire an independent judiciary on a whim so the judiciary becomes a bunch of judges in name only, just rubber stamping his whims. We're basically looking at another Nazi party for all intents and purposes with absolute power. Voting will be in name only and if your life is on a downward trajectory for any reason you'll have zero chances of ever recovering.
Indeed, I'll vote for any eventual Democratic nominee regardless of whatever policies they might propose and regardless of their chances of getting elected. Trump is an absolutely unacceptable alternative and I can see the Democratic party or any other party becoming banned from participation in politics if he wins again. It's THAT important.
1
@Martino , Californian here with zero input into the general election, and I agree with you 100%. I too will vote for the corner plant, in my case that includes Bernie, who I think is wrong for the democratic party in so many ways I cannot itemize. And yet...the Bernie Bros will NOT vote for anyone but Bernie. They are not interested in saving our country from fascism-- they are interested in being their version of correct. They are as devoted to Bernie as the most ardent trump lovers are to their guy.
2
Watching the Democratic Party imitate the Republicans in 2016, falling under the spell of the extreme, antiestablishment, I’m mad as hell and going to blow up the government mirror image of Trump is beyond absurd. It is also the perfect argument for a 3rd party, one for the middle, the moderates who are vilified by the right wing Republicans and left wing Democrats.
2
@etchory
You saw how it worked for Trump in 2016. Yet you absurd and it worked. None of the moderate, centrist candidates have anywhere the enthusiasm that Bernie has.
Trump won by turning out his base, and people who actually saw some tangible economic benefit from his policies. Bernie can do the same.
The status quo is no longer sustainable. The problem is there are too many people comfortable with their own personal situation and too many people afraid to change. The end result if these people either will not vote for Sanders or they will vote for Trump.
Either way America will get the government and leadership it deserves.
1
What needs to be avoided is another Putin plant like Jill Stein; she easily changed the winner last time after lunching with Putin and Flynn.
3
@Howard Clark , so why has Jill not been investigated by a deomcratic controlled congress? (I agree with you, just wondering if our hatred for Jill is just an excuse or is provable)
"Mr. Sanders emerges from Iowa as a formidable candidate — without establishment imprimatur." Music to my ears.
2
If we nominate Bernie Sanders, Donald Trump will win 4 more years. The party may be wanting to move more left but the country is not ready. Young people may want a more left government in the future but it is too early to go there now.
We need a moderate who will do their best to unite us. We need less ego in the office and more compassion. Personally, I like Joe Biden but I do believe DJT may have accomplished his intended goal and tainted him. If so, then I would love to see Amy Klobuchar and Cory Booker on a ticket.
2
@Suzylaine
Stop being scared of the future. In early polling Bernie is ahead of Trump on places like Pennsylvania and Michigan. Places the democrats have to win if they want to beat Trump.
Amy Klobuchar is a dead candidate walking. She is going to get destroyed in the primaries in Southern states and she has absolutely no outreach and no compelling message for black or Latino voters. She'll be done as a serious contender after Super Tuesday.
2
All the reports of Democratic in-fighting and incompetence (see Iowa caucus) are music to the ears of Republicans happy to see Democratic self-destruction. Don't let it happen! I want to see every Democratic candidate and ex-candidate make a strong and unequivocal public declaration that they will wholeheartedly support and assist in any way their party's eventual nominee. That's step one for establishing the kind of unified front that it will take to defeat Republicans in November.
1
@John
The Democratic Party is too corrupt, too inept and too fractured to beat the Republican Party. You may hate their policies and their rhetoric by they are galvanized, they are committed, and Trump is delivering the results they want. That's what you need to win a re-election campaign.
2
I'm sorry but the prediction "the center cannot hold" is being forecast way too early in the process. With only two candidates running in 2016 HRC won Iowa with slim margins. Now we have multiple candidates running - add up all the votes for the centrists in Iowa (52% so far) and I'll bet we see that centralism won the day. In any case, why do we let one "raucous caucus" be the bar which which to measure momentum. After all a young gay Mayor with centrist positions at this point in the county has more delegates than Sanders according to the most recent data. The prediction could easily be that momentum is leaning towards younger candidates with less political baggage and/or more energy.
2
If the centrists don't get on board, they're going to cause the re-election of djt.
1. A progressive agenda will do very little to change life for the wealthy elite. By contrast, the continuation of these destructive neoliberal economic policies will keep tens of millions of Americans trapped in the downward spiral that leads -- and for many of us has already led -- to poverty.
2. 40% of Americans can't cover a $400 emergency expense. There's a clear path between the corrosive fear of constant poverty and the rise of demagogues. Why are the centrists ignoring not only history (1930s Germany) but current events in Hungary and Brazil? Are they as morally bankrupt as the GOP, hoping for chaos so they can profit from it?
3. No progressive will be able to get more than a percentage of his/her agenda passed, given the current composition of Congress; Paul Krugman wrote about this not long ago.
4. What's the worst that will happen to the centrists under a progressive president? Their tax cuts will be reversed. Boo hoo. But another four years of djt will result in an unrecognizable and rights-stripping judiciary, few environmental protections, continued inaction on the climate crisis, and a continued increase of the American underclass. Bedlam, in short.
Centrists, just stop. Stop. Stop selling out 300,000,000 other Americans, and stop jeopardizing democracy itself, because you're afraid that a fair tax rate will make your take-home a little less obscenely massive.
4
@JJ
Bad news is the centrist will not get on board. They are too scared of the type of changes needed to move the country forward. Here's another thing, quite of few of them are economically, and socially comfortable with the status quo. They are satisfied with their employer based health plan and they are ambivalent about other social problems that don't directly affect them.
They are the single biggest reason Trump will win the 2020 presidential election.
Though it is certainly worth considering the loss of Bernie's base should another candidate get the nomination after bashing him, it is also worth measuring that loss against the impact of a candidate Bernie on the turnout and votes of Independents, "conservative Democrats" (yes, they still exist), and even traditional liberal (non-/anti-Woke) Democrats.
So the Dem Committee will do the same thing they did to Bernie in '16 ensuring the election of don the con. The "race to the middle" is what has gotten us here.
2
It's almost humorous that Bernie says his campaign is not taking anything for granted: they're taking on the GOP, they're taking on the Democratic establishment. Bernie's a coattail party man who uses the Dems for his own purposes as evidenced by his choice to be a member of no party while in the Senate and choosing to run in the Democratic party at other times. Does it help the Dems? Not so much. If I were Hillary, you bet I'd still be angry about this. And today, too, he stirs the pot and poisons all liberal ideas from others. Does not play well w/others. A spoiler, in other words. It matters now perhaps more than ever that Dems can beat Trump.
3
When Frances Perkins wrote the first Child Labor Laws, many children from disadvantaged families were working 5 or more days a week in factories. They were not learning to read and write but earning less than adults at the same job. Frances was maligned as a socialist, a Bolshevik, and a dirty red.
6
I would not tell anyone that the Republicans and the Democrats are the same. They are quite different and rule differently. I would say that the Clintons Kerrys Bushs and McConnells all bank their money is more or less the same place. That is why we will be getting showered with opinions like this. If we elected Bernie Sanders it will bring on the end of the world. Threaten their huge stalks of cash and they get very conservative very quickly.
1
Question for the Boomers who keep talking about McGovern: Do you realize that not all Boomers were eligible to vote yet in 1972? Do you realize that if your large generation had continued to vote for progressive candidates, you would have eventually won?
The Silent Generation is conservative, but they are only 9% of the electorate today. The liberal Gen X, Millennial and Gen Z cavalry is here. We represent over 60% of the electorate. Will you join us?
4
@Zep Will you vote? Your numbers so far have not been impressive in the way that counts-- turnout-- in EVERY election. I for one do not care what you THINK, I care what you DO.
1
It’s really refreshing and gratifying to have a voice at The NY Times that treats the Left with a measure of respect and presents our viewpoint with clarity sans condescension.
It’s long overdue and I look forward to more .
Welcome Ms Bruenig
4
Not sure one can say the center can't hold, given that Mayor Pete won Iowa and Bloomberg is on the rise.
1
So odd. You justify why the winner can't go all the way but argue why the second place Bernie can. I would argue altogether too much is being made of Iowa. Iowa is first so it gets an unnatural amount of money, time and attention. That pattern cannot hold. Look, if Bernie is the nominee I would be behind him. But unlike the author, I would be asking why his policy twin didn't show better if in fact the center can't hold? Why not Elizabeth, a true Democrat with a stronger, younger heart, who doesn't sound like someone's demented grandpa when he yells our revo-looo-tion!? I think Iowa, even if they didn't implode, should be discounted. Given the app issues, the chaos even now, three days later, I say forget about it. The road is long and we've barely begun.
3
Sanders is Trump, in a liberal costume. He's angry, he vows to pull the establishment down, he and he alone can save us.
A battle between the far left and far right will leave this nation weak and a prey to Russia, China, Korea and Iran.
3
We need some talented comedian to knock the socialist label out of the park, over the fence so we cannot even find the ball. Germany had a terrible leader who called his party - guess what, National Socialist. Lots of countries have socialist parties and better cheaper health care than our country. Does the fact that nearly half our health care is already paid for by the federal gummint make us demi-socialist? Bernie's appeal is that he hasn't changed - which makes him a) authentic or b) old and inflexible, c) incapable of adapting to new conditions and d) he is admirably willing to lose. Even a broken clock is right, etc. Every family business has a revered old crotchety uncle, but they keep him out of the corner office.
Bernie is a left wing Trump. Both run campaigns built on hate: Trump hates brown people, Bernie hates successful people. Putin knows they're both fundamentally destructive, which is why he was helping them both in 2016. Bernie's signature policy, single payer healthcare, failed in his home state when people learned that it was not "free" but was tremendously expensive. Yet he's learned nothing from that and wants to upscale that failure to the national level, which will not be good for the democrats or the country. Democrats are right to be worried about a Bernie nomination.
4
"Centrist" Democrats are nothing more than Republicans in sheeps clothing. The Rightward, neoliberal, Wall Street tilt of the DNC during my lifetime is nothing short of remarkable, and painfully disheartening.
4
She makes some good points. I am a centrist that loathes Trump, but probably wouldn't vote for Bernie. I'd go 3rd party. Many millions would do the same. A vote for Bernie is a vote for Trump. Get ready for 4 more years of Trump. Unleashed, unhinged. Bernie can't win!
2
The center better hold or we will have four more years!
1
Mayor Pete in front in Iowa. A centrist. God speed.
1
If Sanders wins the nomination, we are cooked.
2
If the Democrats choose the wrong person, it will mean the end of Social Security, Medicare, Supreme Court, and environment.
Trump and GOP collaborators will trash the country. Pottersville, USA.
1
The Republic is not going to hold sweetheart.
You Bernie people don't get it. In a "normal" world where the mechanism still works (Democracy) you would vote your guy in and he would be President.
But this time around Trump is not gonna step down and will declare any loss a sham and toss out the resulfs. You already blew it.
Your fellow Bernie Bros. sat it out and let Trump in. All bets are off. Their evil Hillary at least would have followed the norms of a Democratic government. You blew it last time Bernie supporters.
2
The Republic is not going to hold sweetheart.
You Bernie people don't get it. In a "normal" world where the mechanism still works (Democracy) you would vote your guy in and he would be President.
But this time around Trump is not gonna step down and will declare any loss a sham and toss out the resulfs. You already blew it.
Your fellow Bernie Bros. sat it out and let Trump in. All bets are off. Their evil Hillary at least would have followed the norms of a Democratic government. You blew it last time Bernie supporters.
1
Let's face it: that old political warhorse, Biden, is on his way to the retirement barn. So who will take over for Joe and oppose Bernie? The untested Pete? Amy who? The billionaire who's buying his way into, and through, the race. Losers all. Listen to Trump's speech tonight (and don't tear it up like Nancy did): he's talking to America and America is listening.
4
A centrist, Mayor Pete, comes out of nowhere and beats Sanders and this is the story? Maybe wait for the facts before you opine.
2
The anti-socialists protest too much. Bernie Sanders is left-leaning but he is not a pure socialist. Capitalism will still grease the halls of finance if he is president.
What Sanders is really selling is a fairer and more humane form of capitalism; you know....as Republicans like to say: "...the way the good Lord intended".
3
The thing is that Sanders is an independent that couldn't win as an independent so he turned into a fake democrat. This is why he is having such a hard time. None of Sanders ideas will get through congress and he himself said he will "talk" with our enemies instead of looking strong. I want to know how he will "talk" his way through if we have another 9/11. How will he work with congress and spend his whole administration being a lame duck. I'm voting for Amy Klobuchar, she has the experience, toughness, and can work across the isles.
It would be nice if Bernie joined the Democratic Party. Just sayin'.
1
@mjan, it would be nice if you realized he caucuses with the Dems, votes with the Dems, and reminds them of their better nature from time to time ... although quite a few get really upset when they're confronted with the fact that they've left their D legacy behind.
If Faiz Shakir thinks that Bernie Sanders as president will effectively force the system to swing into line he is an abject fool. The current polarization is so deep that few are going to be coerced. Sanders after three decades has absolutely no record of ability to either convince or coerce. He is rigid, non-negotiable and next to Trump and the Trumpistas he is a piker, an amateur. The likely result of a Sanders presidency would be four years of paralysis, four years lost and a fully Republican congress in January 2022. A majority of Bernies staunchest support comes from a group with little to no benefit of hindsight. And, with an unbridled Trump in the wings that is dangerous.
2
If you want to see what would happen with a Sander's candidacy, just look at England. The Labor Party (leftish) went down in flames in December against a populist who had co-opted the Tory (rightish) party on the Brexit issue. Many English Remainers who hated the ideas about leaving the EU Boris was pushing, could just not stomach a left-wing Socialist, Jeremy Corbin, running (and in their mind, ruining) their country. Result: Boris won by a landslide.
3
There may be some valid points in this article... I would not know, because I was unable to finish reading it. I'm sorry, I can't take any arguments in this article seriously - this is not an analysis, the whole thing reads like a partisan infomercial! It starts with declaring Bernie Sanders an unambiguous winner (the author uses the actual word "winner"), without even waiting for the full results to be announced. These are very partial results! There's nothing so far to indicate that the 62% of precincts results published so far are necessarily representative of the complete results! Not to mention that it's Pete Buttigieg who so far appears to be as much of, or more of a winner than Bernie.
OK, you just like Bernie Sanders, you want him to win, and you want everybody to accept that he should win. It's just hypocritical and silly to phrase this as some kind of a logical conclusion that follows from the results of this messed-up process that's utterly non-representative and convoluted to start with.
2
Matt Bennett, vice president of Third Way, is quoted as saying: “We simply can’t stand by while there’s a threat that Democrats could nominate a guy who would hand such nuclear-level ammunition to the Trump campaign."
This purported 'received wisdom' presupposes that Bernie's populism--the genuine article--can't prevail over Trump's snake oil. As a staunch Conservative colleague of mine from Arkansas is fond of saying: "Fool me once..."
Yes, there are red-capped automatons who will swallow and reguritate any nihilistic tripe that Fox News broadcasts, Ivanka hocks, or Kellyanne secretes. But there are also Republican and centrist-Democrat wage-earners who know full well that they will never afford to move out of their apartments, and that Trump has given staggering tax-cuts to the same Deutsche Bank cronies he bellowed he would crush in his campaign rallies.
This time around, it will be pure and unadulterated Mussolini-speak. Emboldened by Barr the Crusader, Giuliani the Terrible, and his Zombie-Republican henchpersons in Congress, Trump is free to pursue the absolute power and oxymoronic title he so dearly covets: Supreme Leader of the Free World.
But wouldn't it be ironic if the once-and-future proletariat that surged into Trump's Mar a Lago lair to unceremoniously skewer him with a discarded piece of his daughter's garish, costume jewelry comprised a veritable Red Sea of baseball caps?
Wouldn't it be rich?
1
Democrats, who have long traded promises of increased welfare in exchange for votes, are panicked that Bernie (not to mention Warren) is carrying their venerable and often-winning tactic to its logical conclusion: free stuff for everyone (except people who actually work hard for their own betterment, of course).
Abolish student debt! A few trillions down the drain to attract the votes of the stupidest among the youth -- why not?
Government takeover of healthcare? A few tens of trillions down the drain to attract the votes of people who want someone else to pay for their healthcare -- why not?
The problem is not Bernie's objectives, which most modern-day Democrats support, but that he is moving too fast, showing workers who tend to vote Democrat that ultimately the fruits of their work will be taken from them to give to more deserving folks. A slow drip-drip of seizing the fruits of workers' labor, while promising more free stuff, is a better design to hide the ultimate intention.
Just vote Blue 11-3-2020 regardless of the shade.
Vote Blue holding the majority of Congress. Vote Blue taking back the Senate majority.Vote Blue taking back the seat of the Peoples House. It's 4 years of clean up work.
End this. Vote Blue.
This piece came out before the Shadow app debacle cast further shade (pun intended) on the already shaky DNC electoral operation. DNC seems like the gang that continues to shoot itself in the foot with great accuracy.
2
Hillary Clinton’s blindness, arrogance, and poor campaigning skills led to her loss to the most unqualified candidate in US history. And she sees fit to lecture the country about who the right candidate is?
John Kerry couldn’t defeat a dim-witted, dizzy W, and we should listen to Kerry?
I sincerely wish these two losers - both of whom I voted for - would step aside and let the process work. When they had their moments they failed miserably - to the country’s detriment.
Thanks for nothing. Now get out of the way.
4
Two words for Bernie supporters - George McGovern
2
@Nana2roaw -
Two words for Biden/Buttigieg supporters:
Hillary Clinton
3
Someone beat the drum already and point out that ‘radical’ is what the US already has: trashing public institutions, mass murdering the poor, elevating sociopaths to high office, etc. THAT is radical, and also horrible, if TL we’re paying attention. Socialism - the great boogeyman - is SIMPLE: a rich country committing its powers to taking care of each another, and keeping some sensible brakes on capitalism as it generates wealth.
1
This "battle" must be ultimately moot in terms of the electability of the candidate, because every decent person must vote, and must vote against every Republican and for every Democrat in every election from Dogcatcher on up, regardless of who the better candidate is, to punish the GOP for allowing this malignant imbecile anywhere near the Presidency. They declared a culture war and then brought an uncultured boor to the fight. We need to crush them, and only laziness and indifference can stop us. After Nov, please don't tell me you didn't vote unless you want to hear a very unflattering portrait of yourself. As for Republicans, best you don't admit it to me. There is no excuse for being in a party represented by a proven fraud and liar.
Fifty-three percent of Sanders supporters will not support the nominee if it isn’t him? That is as whiny and pathetic and self-centered as Hamlet who couldn’t handle the shades of grey in an imperfect world.
1
Than that is a vote for Trump. Luckily, Melanie, you are from CA, where Sanders will win over Trump.
What is infuriating are columns like this by — eek a mouse Democrats and a sold out press that no matter reality can't resist using every meaningless alarming adjective they can think of.
Times! Just stop it with the Drama you have cooked up. Sanders platform is what the rest of the developed world has enjoyed for decades!
The press should be ashamed of itself, there's no radicle left in the US, but there is a radicle right that should be focused on.
By my lights the American press is well on the way to pulling the rug out from under the Democrats feet.
All of this cowardice is very dangerous, but the dishonesty is worse!
2
I think that it is high time for the Democratic Party to do some major soul searching. I longs for another Robert F. Kennedy; as does much of the world. Problem is they forget that Bobby was a very polarizing figure in 1968; as he scared the G.O.P. and so called conservative Democrats; while he was setting his army of supporters on fire with his take no prisoners approach to the very real ills that still consume America today. The Democrats are never going to smash the Trump/ G.O.P. Frankenstein that the world abhors; unless you have the guts to take it on tooth and nail the way Bernie Sanders does. He may not be perfect; but he has more guts and vision than any of the other so called contenders out there; with the possible exception of Warren. There is a reason Sanders voters are rightfully viewed as by far the most loyal. Because they know Sanders says what he means/ and means what he says. Maybe Americans are too brainwashed to see the vision Sanders has; while the nervous Nellie`s inside corporate Democratic headquarters try to once again sabotage and derail the "Socialist threat" that keeps piling up the numbers. I for one have had it listening to the "moderate voices" who sound more like Trump than Bobby Kennedy. GO BERNIE GO!
157
@Greg Hodges
Bernie Sanders is NO RFK! Not even close. He has made zero contribution in his Senate career - name a single bill he has passed. He is a cranky, muddled headed, unfocused has been. If he is the nominee - he will guarantee Trump is re-elected. And all of his deluded followers can bear that responsibility forever.
4
"Michael Kazin, a professor of history at Georgetown University and co-editor of the left-leaning journal Dissent, told me that a Sanders nomination would be very significant. “He’d be the most radical candidate, in many ways, in American history, not just for Democrats, but for any party,” Professor Kazin said."
Huh? Wallace, Debs, CPUSA, Socialist Workers etc, etc, dont count?
68
"If they attack Mr. Sanders, 'they’re going to get a massive backlash, but if they don’t, then they’re going to lose the center of the party,'"
Where exactly is the center of the party going to go? Into Trump's GOP? I think not.
2
Can the truth win out? I'd love to see Bernie become president. But, I don't wish him to win the primary - because I seriously doubt he can win the general.
For reasons of personality and wit I endorsed Warren. But, now I'm beginning to think the young man, Buttegieg, may be the answer to Trump.
It was his victory speech in Iowa that sent me over. How smart to declare victory before the count was final - and what a speech! I've heard him speak before but assume these were well prepared and well memorized speeches.
But how did he throw a speech like that together so quickly?
Perhaps this kid really does have what it takes to speak truth to the lies Republicans have for decades been telling us.
2
As a Dem who only wants to see Potus removed, I don't know which candidate is best positioned to beat him. I'm content to let the primaries determine the winner, and hopefully that person will be formidable.
Whichever Dem candidate emerges, the consideration of Kamala Harris as VP seems important for balancing the ticket and strengthening the African-American vote. And yes, this is both a political and ethical choice.
2
Meanwhile, the most logical alternative to Joe Biden, Amy Klobuchar, cannot gain traction with those whose only reason for supporting him is that "he can beat Trump". Well, what if the sequelae of the impeachment trial include a poison pill for that reasoning?? Buttigieg will not survive the anti-identity politics orientation of voters willing to leave Trump. So, moderates who have ignored Klobuchar have only one other alternative; Bloomberg. How about an opinion piece that addresses the moderate choice between these two?
1
The Democrats need a ticket with one progressive - Bernie or Warren - and one centrist - pick one. The challenge for the Democratic leadership and candidates is whether they are willing to work together across that progressive/centrist divide, putting aside their egos, and willing to compromise a bit on policy. I would prefer the progressive as the presidential candidate but will vote for whom ever is the eventually nominee. But I would be much happier and more hopeful if Bernie or Warren were on the ticket at least as vice-presidential candidates then if they rejected out of hand. As others have pointed out, the policies of Bernie and Warren are ordinary democratic policies in many European countries and would be mainstream in the US any time between the 1930s and the 1980s. The "center" for many Democrats now would be Republican-lite in the 1950s. A war between so-called centrists and progressives in the Democratic party now is a win for Trump but it should not be taken for granted that it is only the progressives who should compromise, because that is also a win for Trump.
5
The Democratic Party has a good reason to be panicking: Bernie will damage the Democratic Party no matter what. If he wins the primary, he'll take the moderate Democratic congressional candidates down with him as he crashes and burns in the general election, and if he loses the primaries the Bernie Zealots will put up a big spoiler show at the Democratic convention and will not support the Democratic candidate no matter who that person is, simply because it's not Bernie (watch for their personal attacks in replies to people criticizing Bernie, which kind of makes the point about their factionalism: all other Democratic candidates are stooges, and everyone who criticizes Bernie must be crucified online). They're already either believing the conspiracy theories that there's a grand plot of the "elites" to kneecap Bernie (although they think they're smarter than their Tea Party equivalents in the Republican Party, who similarly believe their share of similar right-wing conspiracy theories as to their own extremists), or are simply peddling those theories without actually believing them (which fatally undermines their claim of moral superiority).
3
First off, there is a limit to the Sanders movement. He splits his base with Warren and if you add the together, you hit a ceiling of about 45%. The rest of the base is much more centrist and yes, that vote, at least in Iowa is mostly split between Buttigieg, Biden and Klobuchar. If Warren further dips, Sanders will likely rise. The same is true for the centrists who will face a formidable challenge from Bloomberg. But the numbers do not in fact bode well enough for Sanders.
Second, the Iowa Caucuses are not an ideal barometer of how most registered Democrats lean. It is a voting system in which you must show up to participate and I imagine that the low turnout favors the evangelized supporter's choice. I doubt that Sanders or Buttigieg are more favored than Biden. Further primaries will most likely prove me right.
I think the most troubling issue for Sanders is the strong showing from Buttigieg. Who would have thought of that?
What struck me most was that Buttigieg and his team knew the numbers so clearly all the while the Iowa DNC couldn't post caucus results. Mayor Pete has a ground game that betters Sanders. They were monitoring 70% of the state's caucuses (some 1100 precincts) while Sander's team was basing their best guess on monitoring results in just about 25% of the precincts.
This leads me to believe that Sanders is being outwitted by the young rabble-rouser and has yet to come up against a more formidable challenge from the likes of Bloomberg.
3
Bernie's "strong showing"?
25% of caucus participants
170,000 participants, about 25% of registered Democrats
640,000 registered D, about 31% of all Iowa registered voters (compared to 33% R, and 35% Independent)
3 million people in Iowa, about 0.9% of the US population.
So Bernie supporters at the Iowa caucuses represent 0.01% of Americans.
Why do we care?
4
Even Bernie, far left as he is, will have to follow certain conventions if he is the nominee. He will have to pick a VP candidate. He will have to start thinking and talking about coattails if he wants a Congress that can pass legislation to put his policies into place -- as we have seen from Trump's delight in undoing Obama's executive orders, it is not sustainable to rule by decree. To adhere to these conventions he, his staff and his followers will have to inspire and work with others. If he is sincere in wanting to make the transition from oration to effective governing, he should start showing signs that he recognizes he is not running to be king. I know it's primary season, but it's not too early. Trump ran for president as a vanity project and seemed as surprised as anyone when so many people mistook him for an actual candidate. If Bernie's persistence is not a similar vanity project; if he truly believes he can govern this country as president, he needs to start showing us, now, what that would look like.
2
Irregardless of who wins President, the Progressives are going to continue to take over the government over the next decade or more, and eventually will hold the Presidency. Assuming that Trump and Barr and their wealthy friends fail in turning us into a true autocracy, which they will not be able to do, this will happen. Why? Because the economic policy of the Republicans and Centrists is a vast, vast failure. Eventually, all the Progressive ideas are going to have their day, Medicare for all, publicly funded college, Green New Deal, etc. they will all get tried, because things will only get worse for the middle class as long as Centrist policy prevails. Everybody will get "woke" to this.
Let us not omit the Times among the institutions that has been trembling at the prospect of the Sanders phenomenon. And it is not just what he represents as a candidate for president. Sanders' appeal to socialist ideals was greeted with open arms by a vast sector of the U.S. electorate. He thus repudiated, in one fell swoop, decades of this country's elites having devoted endless energy and money to eradicating the threat of socialism, an event that honest appraisal dictates we admit surprised, even shocked, everyone. It makes one proud to be a citizen of this country. The righteous may at times be silent, but when conditions warrant, they emerge into the light of day, strong-willed enough to survive even decades of the attempts to disarm them. Bernie may not win the presidency, but he has already won a historic victory and the respect and affection of millions of his fellow citizens.
2
This is a battle between the fat cat centrists and the rest of us. It is time the rest of us ran things for a while.
4
We are very concerned that it seems the DNC is once again trying to squash Bernie Sanders. We are not young, but just over 60. We saw up close what happened in 2016, at the state convention in MN. Even though Bernie won here by 62%, all except 3 democratic politicians in our state spoke at the state convention and said they were endorsing Hillary. We were beyond disgusted that they did not care who the majority of our state delegates wanted. It was eye opening and infuriating. We saw the process unfold that assured the HRC nomination. And we both voted for HRC in the presidential election, but it was difficult. Now, it is looking very suspicious that the Iowa caucus results are not being release after 2 days. If the DNC does the same thing to Bernie Sanders that they did in 2016, we are likely assured another trump victory. The country cannot survive another 4 years of trump. Bernie Sanders key contributors are American citizens. Mayor Pete, Biden and the rest are supported by corporate America. Who do you think has your best interests at heart?
1
@Sue M. All due respect, Minnesota people are my favs. But I am disturbed by Bernie's open "bribe" to young, college students who incurred debt going to school. The average student bachelor debt is $26K, not insignificant but not the $100K we hear about in the "stories" (American Federal Education Project Budget Report). In fact, when we hear "100K" in debt, it is usually from Med/Law school students. I don't understand how giving money to people MOST in position to make money and pay back the debt in the future supports his combating the 1%. It also seems arbitrary. Why not pay off households with medical debt, small business debt, the debt incurred by kids in the trades who don't reach those higher salaries or the debt from 2nd mortgages used to support kids going to school.
Help me, I am really trying to understand.
@CL I truly feel sorry for the young people who have incurred such high student debt and also unable to buy homes and make a living wage. I support Sanders because when I was a factory worker, attending college at night to earn my degree, my company paid for my tuition and books, including an MS degree. I also was earning $12 per hour in the 1980's as a union factory worker and am appalled that $12/hour is still a common wage 40 years later. I worked hard, but had breaks like full tuition reimbursement and a good living wage that young people don't seem to have anymore. Bernie Sanders wants to make the American dream possible for the younger generation and it seems only fair that they have the same opportunities that we did back then. BTW, all those high paying factory jobs we had back then, have been moved overseas. This is just one of many reasons why I support Bernie. The Climate crisis and lack of M4A is the other, and we are fortunate to have health insurance. What about everybody else?
4
The center has moved so far right that Bernie looks like a leftist, rather than the New Dealer he is.
What's so radical? That the wealthiest pay their fair share of taxes?
That students need not go into debt to obtain and education?
That all Americans deserve health care, regardless of who they work for or how much money they make?
Even from a standpoint of public health, in an age of pandemics (hello Coronavirus!!) that is sensibly mainstream herd protection for society's sake, not a radical move - most of the world's developed countries provide health care - the US is the outlier here.
6
Now let me see. When centrist Clinton lost in 2016 the Democratic establishment griped that it was Bernie's fault. If Sanders gains the nomination and loses I suppose it will again be his fault. Why not Clinton's fault who is trying hard to torpedo his chances. When the oligarchy perpetually is against the people, and by that I mean both the Republican and Democratic establishments, it will be hard for a progressive to ever win. Clinton's sour grapes campaign is unhelpful, but as we have learned it is unfortunately not beneath her.
5
Bernie’s policies, while a dramatic shift, do not scare me nearly as much as Bernie himself does. He seems as rigid, angry and self righteous as Trump
Hopefully the other Dems (and the press) will do a deep dive into his work, positions, speeches and those he associated with as a Socialist Senator over the past generation.
1
Bernie Sanders is the assumed nominee, but his "strong" showing in Iowa should be put into context. Buried in the Iowa caucus results debacle is the fact that the Iowa caucus turnout was low. There are 3M people living in Iowa, yet only 170K turned out to caucus. The expectation was that the Democrats & their base were supposed to have renewed energy & excitement. That turnout is anything but. And given the ridiculousness that is caucusing in itself, the real voter results will be in the primaries.
1
Thanks.
The country slides deeper and deeper into ruin with the corporations and wealthy running it. It is now an oligarchy -- tied tightly with the military industrial complex (MIC). Corruption galore. Trillions wasted on wars in the Middle East accomplishing nothing.
I will not do my usual list of how this has created a vast under-class of people who are very, very unstable, insecure, and fearful for themselves and their children; they worry constantly about their economics, health care, future opportunities of their children, etc.
We had Obama and his "hope and change" but as usual, nothing changes and hope is low.
Trump maintains the oligarchy which is partly the MIC. One sees the corruption of the congress, many supporting the MIC with great vigor allowing them to retire whenever they choose and go off to make millions by joining the MIC Boards and lobbying and starting their own foundations. Think Obama, and Clintons and Biden; mostly millionaires now. I could name senators and reps looking for the same retirement. Corruption everywhere.
We need a real, sincere authentic person like Bernie Sanders to bring some semblance of rational thinking and stability for the middle class and the poor and downtrodden and rid us of the horrid dominance of the MIC. They of course are scared stiff of him. Hence the attempts to stop him.
The state of the union was the most vulgar one I have every seen; the lies, the play to emotions, the fakery. I have watched about 70 of those.
6
Sen. Sanders is the most ideological presidential candidate since Ronald Reagan. That means were he to become the nominee, it will not be in his constitution to back down on any of his policy positions.
So the Democrats will sink or swim with his message as it is. Not "Bernie-lite." Sen. Sanders is already drawing up a list of executive actions, and wants Air Force One gassed up and ready to take him and his message directly to the people. The Executive Branch will continue to accrete to itself the power of the three branches. The pendulum will swing far, and swing fast.
I will vote for Sen. Sanders if he is the nominee, but I reserve the right to be wary that, in 2024, the Republicans will nominate someone who is like Trump--but who is actually competent and a true believer.
We need an FDR for the 21st century. Mr. Sanders is the only candidate with truly bold ideas. Even though he is 78, his ideas are in line with the voters under the age of 40. It is time for the boomers to let go and hand the future to those who will shape it. Being a boomer, I can't say we did a decent job with things considering the current state of the world.
8
Everything is going to come down to who voters think has the best chance to beat Trump. Bernie has the benefit of enthusiasm and a strong base. Biden/Buttigieg have the benefit of appealing to more rural areas, which we'll need to oust Trump in November. I think the "establishment's" hesitation is less about policy disagreements and more about their concern over electability. I can't say which is better, base enthusiasm or rural appeal come November, but the DNC definitely seems to have an opinion.
I guess the Democrats don't want to win the election. If they nominate Sanders, we'll get four more years of Trump.
3
The author's youth is as good a place to start this reply as any, since one would encourage her to revisit history. We already elected a Jimmy Carter; the follow-on result was Reagan.
We to the left of center like to say that truth doesn't care whether you believe in it; it remains true. The truth is that if a President Bernie Sanders gets his agenda enacted as he envisions it, you will see capitalism snap back to popularity just as it did last time out in the 1980s, with the attendant backlash and further social damage. This is because capitalism works well at producing wealth, on national and transnational scales. Few facts are by now better or more irrefutably established than this. What is currently derided as the "Democratic establishment," or "center-left" is nothing more than people who recognize this fact.
If your car lists to the right when you let go of the steering wheel, you get an alignment. You don't burn the car and start over. Concentration of wealth is a problem of capitalism run amuck, not its complete refutation. Sanders' ideas are morally beautiful, his ends are just and good ends. His means will not produce the expected results.
If you like the ideas of more equitable distribution of wealth and a government whose goals are at least consonant with social justice, you'd better hope like heck for a Buttigieg or a Klobuchar nomination.
Because what Sanders will deliver, in the final analysis and when he leaves office, will be repudiation of those ideas.
3
It’s about time the Dems pick up where the New Deal and Great Society left off. Polls are showing independents going for Bernie over Trump in key states. Time for the nervous Nellies to calm down.
7
This is proof that we need a Parliamentary system. Who can doubt a Moderatation party, composed of moderate Dems and Never Trump Republicans would be powerful. This would free the Democratic party to become a Social Democratic party. The Republicans could split into a Hard Right nativist party and a Small Government party maybe. Trump could have faced a vote of no confidence instead of impeachment. We did have the first modern democratic republic but that doesn't mean we have nothing to learn.
2
Given the success of Bullock (a Democrat who won statewide in a red state), Bennet, and Booker, I fear the Democrat's ability to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. And the only victory that matters - defeating Pres. Bone Spurs.
1
It would be suicidal for the DNC to do anything that could be interpreted as an attempt to deny the nomination to Sanders.
Trump's biggest advantage in 2016, aside from his racism, was his 'tear down the corrupt establishment' message. In fact, he was the embodiment of the corrupt establishment. Bernie offers the same message from the left, but he will actually try to do it and everyone knows it.
I'm a Warren supporter, Warren wants radical reform, but she's still a capitalist. She's the moderate candidate the party needs. Biden is the uninspiring nostalgia candidate, a souvenir of the Democratic past. If Warren fails, I'm with Bernie.
8
The Dem party establishment, is not even close to centrist but is more repub moderate...if there is such an animal in today’s repub party. Bernie’s policies have always been to help the people who need help...such as improving the lives of almost half the population who cannot afford an extra $400 bill, much less any form of healthcare, with the costs of housing also becoming unaffordable.
Disappointing in all this that some economists claim the economy is doing great while ignoring that almost all the gains are going to the wealthiest and despite low unemployment, most are being paid unlivable wages.
Come on people...pay attention...many are suffering today. The people need help.
5
Centrists always demand the loyalty of progressives in general elections.
However, as they did to George McGovern in 1972, Centrists always are quick to betray progressives.
In 2016, Clinton and her "Centrists" in almost so many words told progressives to "get lost." They heard her message, complied and stayed home on election day.
Hillary Clinton is not merely attacking Sanders, she is scapegoating all progressives and crippling the Democratic Party's chances this November.
If the current Democratic Centrists do not disavow Hillary Clinton's toxic bitterness towards "the Left," the Democratic Party will reprise Clinton's lowered turnout and defeat.
As far as I am concerned, the Democrats have until Super Tuesday to constructively reduce their candidates to no more than one centrist and one progressive.
If they have not, I will cast my own lifelong progressive Democratic vote for the center-right plutocrat Mike Bloomberg.
It will be much better to live in a benign Wall Street plutocracy than under a malevolent and racist Russian-Republican dictator.
Democratic leaders need to disavow and silence Hillary Clinton, or expel her from their party. NOW, before she inflicts even more damage.
6
Biden contributed a solid image and a calming presence to Obama’s inexperience, Black, low-visibility candidacy in ‘08. He is positioned to do the same for the 2020 version of Obama - yes, Mayor Pete. What Buttigieg lacks in national awareness, experience, Black and party support, he can and will pick up with even rumors at considering Biden as his V.P. Joe knows the role, and it genuinely suits him. He isn’t too proud to take it on this time with enthusiasm. If he really wants to secure a positive place for himself in history, I do some of his past gaffs, and help his country in its time of real need, Joe Biden will relish being the ultimate elected official that opened the door for the Democrats to finally set a course for a long term stay in the White House. He’ll see, as voters are seeing, his chance at President dwindling to nil. Before his failing place in the race takes himself and his party down with him, he will proactively do the next best thing by using his stature and sensibility to save America from itself. Biden for V.P. - just sayin’.
Handwringing over 'handing nuclear-level ammunition to the Trump campaign' is a joke.
There hasn't been a Democratic candidate in 40 years that the rightwing fearmongering nuclear machine hasn't excoriated as someone to the left of Trotsky.
Republicans will whip up the base, as they always have. What matters is who else will vote. And this article has it right - centrist Democrats will vote for Sanders as Trump is an existential threat to the republic. Progressive Democrats are unreliable dreamers who mistake the secret ballot for an act of speech, and have always stayed home in some numbers.
For the D to win, we need some unreliable voters to join the republic-saving base of reliables. If that means Sanders, the establishment is going to have to hold their noses.
6
Hillary was a terrible candidate in 2016 and she is doing all she can to destroy the Democratic party in 2020. She should have gracefully retired in 2016 after demonstrating that she was the only candidate in America that Trump could beat. Bernie supported her during her run against Trump, ceaselessly campaigning for her. No one is asking her to campaign for Bernie this year but she should at least have the grace not to stab him in the back. She never accepted loosing to Obama, she never accepting loosing to Trump and she is unwilling to see Bernie do what she could not - namely become president.
7
Bernie so far does indeed lack all of the mainstays of traditional electoral success. Succeeding being the primary one. But then, in the eyes of his supporters Precious Bernie never does actually lose anything, right? It's just the fault of those crooked centrists!
Ms. Bruenig confuses the political center of the nation with the center of the Democratic Party. Biden, the DNC, Hillary Clinton, and other corpratist Democrats are not the party's center, they are it's right wing. That is the full explanation for the phenomenon she is observing and writing about. The party's right wing has controlled its organization for decades, and that control is now being challenged by the left wing. That challenge is gaining support because the actual center of the party is far to the left of the party establishment. "65 percent of Democrats feel either somewhat or very positively about socialism." Re-read this article substituting right wing for every mention of center, and it makes a lot more sense. There is indeed a struggle between the left wing, backing Sanders, and the right wing, backing Biden and preparing to switch to Bloomberg. The actual center of the party is probably Elizabeth Warren.
4
The guys only a democrat when it’s convenient to run for president
Otherwise he’s a socialist.
1
And what a terrible thing that is! God forbid we had universal healthcare!
2
I'm one of those horrible moderates who believes there's no such thing as a free lunch and that we should all pay our own bills if we can. Those in need should get help but thinking you can tax the heck out of everyone and make everything free- including free college and healthcare for illegal immigrants - you need to take an economics class. Neither I nor anyone I know will vote for a radical, unrealistic Socialist. He's just plain awful and would ruin our work ethic and our economy not to mention hand Trump a landslide. Did you ever wonder why Trump isn't going after Bernie? He'd love to run against him.
This my friends is scary and Mitch and Trump are absolutely gleeful of a Sanders, Biden or Bloomberg drag out nomination fight. There is a reason they are very scared of Biden and have done everything they can to ensure he is not the nominee is they lose very very badly.
With Sanders the nominee they win another electoral college win possibly losing the popular vote by even more than in 2016. Their goal is to alienate Sanders supporters so they stay home if he is not the nominee and I’m afraid some of his sycophantic supporters would and will do that. Young people who blindly support him sometimes make rash stupid decisions without thinking of the consequences. I know I was young once too.
Forget the White House. Trump will probably get re elected.
The key is to win Congressional seats to take back The Senate and strengthen the House Democratic majority. Then Trump will be a 4 year lame duck.
Dems need to control Congress - When the GOP controlled both houses of Congress, they made Obama a lame Duck. The dems need to apply the same strategy towards Trumps GOP.
Focus on winning house seats - senate seats and forget who is President. Dems need to accept that Trump will probably get elected President because of the electoral college. Lets focus on flipping seats.
2
Remember George McGovern?
3
There are reasons to think a Socialist can’t win (he’s more like a moderate social democrat, but OK).
There are reasons to think a milquetoast establishmentarian “alternative to crazy” can’t win (see: H. Clinton, McCain, Romney, Kerry).
What matters to this voter: issues, namely the climate. The candidate with the most radical climate proposal, lest the human race extinguish itself from the earth, is who I support. But no: that person is a radical communist and therefore can’t win.
Wake me up when the nightmare ends.
1
Great article with an important reminder that DNC as a “committee” hasn’t evolved much since 2016. Think about where we are at this moment in time—we need someone a little radical to try to right-size this country. What saddens me most is that I think Biden really has been hurt by this whole Ukraine business. which is what Donnie John wanted all along. Even if JB wins the nomination, he’s going to have to get objective eyes in his son’s board membership to clear the air on this mess. Otherwise, it’s going to be HRC’s email server all over again. And we know how that turned out...
59
@Lillie "...And we know how that turned out..." Yes, more people voted for Hillary. Despite Russian election hacking. Is there anyone naive enough to think that Trump and Republicans will limit their attacks on the Democratic nominee to what is true? Whichever candidate Democrats nominate will be forced to deal with a withering disinformation campaign from Trump/Republicans and a blizzard of heinous lies. Joe Biden is not my favorite candidate (though I will vote for him or any Democrat who gets the nomination), but his Ukraine connection was an honorable one that succeeded in removing a corrupt prosecutor who exactly was NOT going after corruption. So Biden's crime was what? Raising a son who was willing to accept free money from oligarchs in return for the appearance of U.S. influence? But the truth was and is irrelevant to Trump and Republicans. So Democrats might as well nominate a candidate who wants to enact transformational policies that would be good for the country.
1
one big big reason to support Sanders: He has addressing climate change at the top of his priorities. Center, left, right....whatever....we will all suffer if this crisis is not addressed head on! listen.... you think of ANYone running against trump and there will be risks. Bernie will do great against trump toe to toe
3
When I think about how the Democrat party has become the home of the radical left since my young adulthood, I'm just amazed. What would have been liberal back then is now the Center? Yes, that's the power of the socialists and communists who have shaped the current party. I want no part of it.
So this Professor Kazin thinks that Senator Sanders is "more radical" (presumably meaning more to the left) than Eugene Debs? Than Earl Browder? Yes, the self-described center is panicking. The voters aren't upholding their right to permanent power. Because, when you get down to it, the self-described center hasn't been doing enough for ordinary Americans, a term that isn't limited to middle class white people, despite the fact that the self-described center uses it that way.
4
For the sake of the Nation, and the planet, the Center must not hold!
2
I hope Bernie champions the economic Left against the identity politics, illiberal, woke "Left", which is in charge of the academy, tech companies and Hollywood. Go Bernie!
4
The fact that Bernie surges even though the party and the media seem against him, is amazing. I am disgusted by the fact that Bernie is being ignored and overlooked by "the Establishment," including you, New York Times.
I have a friend that was so upset he cancelled a subscription to your paper.
The people are speaking, you all are not listening.
5
I was supportive of Bernie in 2016. I think he could have beaten trump in 2016.
I don't think he can now. Trump already solidly controls those angry white men from small states that may have actually voted for Bernie in 2016.
I am not sure any of the candidates can beat trump.
The two women and a gay man cannot beat trump.
A minority cannot beat trump.
That leaves white men who are straight.
Ms Hillary is a poor loser and should just stay out of this election as she should have in the last election.
2
When I see America I see a country where people are so blinded by the label they forget to think about what’s happening in their lives.
It is tragic. Universal health care, free public education, decent wages, a fight for climate change. If this is socialism why not embrace it? All of Europe has. Capitalism can still flourish when it comes to the economy. Under “socialism” the rest of us will just get what the over 65s already get today.
5
@Shyamela Anything you can “get” can be taken away. From the time people are little they should plan for a life and lifestyle that they are able to support and make that support bulletproof.
Replacing trump is important because eliminating corruption is important. The effort to block Bernie is corruption. We're all out here screaming behind the sound proof glass and it's starting to crack.
2
I kept waiting to hear Bloomberg mentioned. He campaigned in Michigan yesterday and got a good reception. Of course, he gave away free food! I suspect people who are toward the center may gravitate to him.
In any case, I hope that if Bernie does win the nomination, Bloomberg will do everything he can to help. And, of course, vice versa.
2
Bernie, Please withdraw!
You are too old, to set in your ways. You ‘refuse to compromise.
You have some great ideas, but the only place they gain traction is among Your core.
Yes Bernie, you’re almost as much a demagogue as Trump.
You’re honest.
You are a true patriot.
But giving you the nomination would lead to four more years of the crimes of Trump.
Endorse Warren and stay in the Senate as a great voice for the progressive movement.
Please?
We don’t need another Dies Committee, McCarthy Committee.
We need new younger leadership.
You have almost destroyed your heart on the campaign trail already.
Pass the torch!
1
Thanks for giving me the best reasons to vote for Sanders yet!
4
Great to see a pro-Bernie columnist, finally, on the pages of the NYT—though Bruenig may turn out to be too much of a true believer. Liz, it doesn’t make me an establishment sellout if I worry that a socialist candidate can’t win in the Midwest battleground states, right?
@sbrian2
In her view you are indeed a "sell-out". And Bernie is actually a moderate since he's a bit right of Trotsky.
Can someone say what socialism we're takling about here, please? Denmark or the USSR? The Dems are making a big mistake in not clarifying where they stand.
2
This was as positive an op-ed I've ever read on Sanders in this paper.
2
Sanders wants to overturn Citizens United, a noble ambition, but as president would he have the political skill to get this done? Would he likewise have the political skill to build a more permanent firewall around Roe v. Wade? It's one thing to call out powerful special interests on the stump, another altogether to build the coalitions and work the back channels to bend them to your interests, and to tactically position the SCOTUS to have your back. Bernie's appeal is that he doesn't give off this vibe and refuses to play the establishment game. But it also may be true that temperamentally Bernie CAN'T play this game, which makes him just a leftist version of Trump.
3
Welcome to my life from 2010-2016.
As an Establishment Republican and NeverTrumper..I worked my tail off to get Marco Rubio a W in MN primaries; the only one he got.
Most alarming of that election was that Trump finished 3rd but Bernie Sanders beat Hilllary by a whopping 22 points.
Populism had arrived...harshly on the D side and in a fury over the next couple of months on the R side.
Sure, the Clinton machine was able to kneecap Bernie, but Trump brought his Patriotic Populism to bear and as cited at the SOTU...the union is as strong as it's ever been.
You can give Obama all the credit you want, but he was the one who publically stated none of those jobs were coming back..and everyone should just learn how to code.
Obama was the one who put the clamps on energy exploration and Trump took that boot off this part of the economy.
The center for the D's has embraced the Patriotic Populism so the laborers and farmers who used to make up the DFL in Minnesota are now Republicans.
Other than college educated GenX'ers and hippies from the 60;s and public sector union employees...I'm not sure who's excited about Sanders.
Biden doesn't stand a chance and Bloomberg is just looking to offload a couple of billion to make the NYT ad department giddy.
And this Patriotic Populism?
It's not about Trump.
Next up will be Nikki Haley and Tom Cotton...which will be exciting to watch the final implosion of Establishment Democratic orthodoxy when a WOC is elected POTUS..as a GOP'er.
A party divided will not stand. I'm very done with opinion pieces like this. Gives me almost 0 hope for a victory.
Many Sanders people didn't vote for Hilary last time, she lost. NPR did a recap:
https://www.npr.org/2017/08/24/545812242/1-in-10-sanders-primary-voters-ended-up-supporting-trump-survey-finds
Now we have same logic emerging in this piece.
There are probably 3 possibilities. In order for winning chances:
1. Left/Center Factions come together for unified ticket...maybe a chance?
2. Moderate ticket (advantage of pulling reluctant Trump voters if the candidate is appealing)...slim chance as per this article
2. Left side ticket or Third Party run...no chance of winning this time around
Bruenig is, whether she knows it or not, a populist troll. And Bernie Sanders is not a Democrat! What's up with that? Why would Democrats, who are a significant majority of our electorate, vote for someone who has clearly decided not to align with them? By crying that Hillary "stole" the nomination from him in 2016, he helped destroy the world. He'll blow everything up this time, too, including all of Brunig's hopes and dreams. Never Bernie. Period.
1
So, you don't want to vote for Bernie, but expect Bernie's supporters to vote for the moderate of your choice? I say unrealistic expectation. if you want the unity, you don't deny other people voice, especially if you can not win without vote of these people.
4
"...while Republicans are overwhelmingly opposed to socialism..."
It's NOT "socialism." There is a HUGE difference between "socialism" and "democratic socialism."
And if Bernie doesn't win the nomination and those Bernie voters stay home again (or worse, actually vote for trump) what happens next will be all on them. They need to wake up to what is happening with our very democracy under trump and vote for democracy and non-corruption.
3
Nominating an elderly yet passionate socialist like Bernie is like the aged yet sincere Don Quixote tilting at windmills. It might seem noble (in some quarters of the Democratic Party), but it will unquestionably result in quite a hard fall.
1
Several analyses of the demographic of around 75,000 or so voters in midwestern states who apparently produced the electoral vote plurality in the last presidential election wouldn’t seem to me to be the types that are receptive to Sander’s message or for that matter to Russian disinformational material on digital media.A demographic existentially favoring redistributionistc initiatives could be motivated to enter the fray though.
Equating "establishment" with "center" is faulty logic and a recipe for defeat in the general election. One can be progressive and competent and be center-left (e.g., Buttigieg) without being establishment (e.g., Biden).
Obviously, Democrats are frustrated with the establishment, which is part of the reason for Biden's poor polling. The present exhibits the same frustration displayed in 2016; the split now between the sum of left candidates and the sum of center-left candidates is virtually the same now as it was then between Sanders and Clinton.
Sanders is probably too far left to win the EC, even against an unpopular abject nutjob like Trump. More critical however is the fact that he has no record of meaningful accomplishment and is likely to continue to be ineffective at actually governing, which will matter to people who will decide the outcome in the pivotal States .
The focus should be on defeating Trump to restore the republic, and the best way to do that is to nominate someone not establishment but also not too far to the left and who is inspiring and exudes leadership. Sadly, this is where the current Democratic field is lacking.
IMHO, Bloomberg, Klobuchar, and Buttigieg would be formidable general election candidates, and Warren could be too if she stops trying to 'out-left' Sanders. But that's for all of us to decide. I'd vote for a broken refrigerator before I'd vote for Trump, but that's just me.
3
What accomplishments Buttigieg, Klobuchar and Bloomberg have?
"...these 11th-hour D.N.C. machinations reek of desperation." The most accurate statement I have read in any analysis thus far. If Bernie gets the most votes and is denied the nomination, then the Democratic Party must change its name.
3
I like Bernie Sanders and have felt inspired by his rhetoric over the years. I'm also glad that he's one of my senators and will continue to support him in that role. And that's where it ends for me. I don't think that he will be able to beat Trump and I am dumbfounded that so many people do. The swing states simply won't swing enough to the left to elect him. His positions are too far outside the mainstream. You can spin an argument about how working people will will come around and see how he (not Trump) is going to act in their interest but it won't bear out on election day. And his ability to inspire the youth and the base won't be enough to make up for all those who stick with the status quo.
Those in his camp can wish it otherwise, but it won't be so. They can ride the Bernie buzz for another 10 months but then they'll have to watch as Trump is re-elected and we have another 4 years of hell. He'll lose and the US and world will lose.
You can rightly blame the Democratic Party for this moment but you can't undo decades of centrist failings by nominating a democratic socialist.
4
The fact that "only 53 percent of [Sanders loyalists] say they will certainly support the Democratic nominee if it isn’t him." is a big reason why I have a problem with Sander's loyalists.
4
You can not expect loyalty from the people if the establishment of your party is actively blocking nomination of their candidate. Why should they be loyal to the party that disregard their voice?
1
@yulia That's a fair point and I don't agree with the establishment trying to fight Bernie, but it's also the one that ends up electing Trump again. And that SHOULD be the #1 for everyone not GOP.
The Democratic establishment is terrified of Sanders because he exposes their corruption, the fact they are the handmaidens of global predatory capitalism. Many of them owe their careers to multinational corporations who may abandon them if they let Sanders succeed. Fight the real enemy, who is not Donald Trump but global predatory corporations, anger at whom is the reason Trump was elected.
4
go bernie go.
3
In an article on the left-wing of the Democratic Party, why has the author not even mentioned Elizabeth Warren? Wow.
3
Please read Thomas Edsall's piece this morning. Look at the data. They should be terrified because a Sanders nomination virtually assures a Trump win, and a reversal of the 2018 gains.
4
There is only data we need to know the Centrists lost the Presidency and the Congress in 2016.
1
My wife and I were major backers of Sanders in the 2016 election, and were extremely disappointed that the DNC and HRC conspired to quash his candidacy. Not that we didn’t like HRC—we of course voted for her in the general election—but we also knew very early on in the Spring 2016 primaries that Hillary was *not electable*! Hmm...imagine how that worked out.
We’re not nearly as keen on Sanders’ candidacy this time around, for a variety of reasons—Warren seems like a better bet, honestly—but if the DNC screws this up again like they did in 2016 then all is lost for both the party and the country. Is that clear enough?
7
I always swore I'd never play the naysaying fogy card, but here it is, in spades. As a newly minted voter, I worked in the McGovern campaign in 1972. We were young, idealistic, optimistic , and everyone WE knew was on our side. Our opponent represented the establishment. The Vietnam War had dragged on 4 more years under Nixon. The economy was fuzzy, legal and ethical questions about the administration abounded. And we were going to change the world. Instead, to our astonishment, McGovern lost to Nixon in one of history's greatest landslides.
I'm sure Bernie supporters feel they are part of a world changing wave. But a fracking ban would turn Pa Red overnight. Most Americans realize that accomplishing a Green New Deal would require the nation on a war footing. 143 million Americans with employer provided insurance are unconvinced that Medicare would be an improvement. And then there are the many definitions of the word, Socialism. In other words, we will lose, badly.
Since 47% of the Bernie Bros may not vote for another Democrat if it's not Bernie, the "establishment", not wanting to antagonize his supporters, is in a damned if we do, damned if we don't position. And the rest of us, I think we're just damned to 4 more years of Trump.
3
@David Stoeckl Your McGovern analogy is right on the money. I remember the fervor over him in my high school in ‘72. Also the inconvenient facts about fracking, the green new deal and healthcare that you pointed out. I think the only way around this is Bernie losing a few of the larger primaries. Everyone makes a big deal over Iowa but really, this is just starting to get started.
It will be interesting to see how much the country changed since 50 years ago. After all, Trump could not win in 70s, but won in 2016.
2
Anyone who watched last night’s State of the Union address with a discerning eye knows that Trump will be re-elected in November, no matter who the Democrat nominee is. He is the most accomplished game show/reality TV host in history. Last night’s performance was a tour de force that included good news, appeals to patriotism and the Almighty, a large measure of pathos and some Oprah-style give-aways. The American people will gorge themselves on his bread and circuses until the inevitable reckoning comes, as it always does.
2
we must not forget that the Voters voted for Trump because he represented change. He double crossed them but they still want change. Democratic Socialism has been a huge success in every industrial nation that embraced it. The people know this.
5
When we, democratic socialists in The Netherlands and the rest of the European union, saw that Barack Obama became your president, we thought we were part of a new world, with an American president who would change everything. Maybe he tried, but he failed.
Give yourself, and give us, a new chance, I think an even better chance! More than even Obama, Bernie Sanders seems to be emphatic towards the people that suffer in the richest country in the world. The people united will never be defeated, says the song, but you, and we, are close to it. Only people like Bernie Sanders, or, of course, Elizabeth Warren, can make the difference for the people, the mass of the neglected citizens of your country, and even for my fellow Europeans.
8
From the article...”It is difficult to see a centrist victory in the months ahead” I would point out that just 15 months ago, in an election that had the highest midterm turnout in over 100 years, so called centrist Democrats flipped 40 seats to take the House. Not a single candidate from the so called Social Democrats flipped a seat. They also did not flip any of the many state governorships that Democrats won as well. The real issue here is defining what the word progressive means. If you listen to the details of what, for example Amy Klobuchar, envisions as her policies as president I fail to see how they are not progressive. Unless you are looking for federal control of industries and punitive taxes. What Sanders envisions would push tax rates way up for everyone, not just the wealthy. And, speaking of what words mean, what will be considered wealthy? It’s easy to point out and vilify the multi billionaires and millionaires, but what about a retired couple who has a million dollar retirement fund providing them with 40 or 50k in income per year? Are they millionaires? Would they be taxed on their wealth more than a retired policeman who gets the same 40 or 50k from a pension? Definitions will be all important.
2
The centrist lost in 2016 the Presidency and the Congress. The progressive generated the excitement that helped to flip the House, without that excitement the Centrists were not able to do so, as McCready could not do it even against corruption scandal of Reps.
No one thought Trump could win either, and the Democrats were almost ecstatic that Hillary was going up against him. I’m not in love with Bernie, but maybe we should give the RNC what they think they want.
4
It is surprising to see all the concern trolling both in these comments and elsewhere on the Internet and the media from the centrists.
These folks keep braying about our democracy.
How democratic was the caucus? Bernie wins the popular vote, but it is the Mayor of a rinky-dink tiny city in the midwest that wins the SDEs. The contract to report the results made by a company whose contacts and the past will give any sane person pause, but not here in America. On and on we could go; the majority of the GOP senators being voted in by a minority of citizens, the electoral college, the voting on a weekday, caucusing at dinner time on a weekday.
Is there anything democratic about our elections? Is there anything democratic, then, about our country?
Ask this and the Neera Tandens of the world start getting agitated. Magically, they were all about popular vote when it suited HRC, but not this week. But their media friends are the most inexplicable in all of this. They can see the light of these questions, they just pretend "that's the way this country works" when what they really are saying is "that's the way this country should work otherwise I will be out of a job."
Which brings me to Sanders. He is anathema to the establishment precisely because most people in the media will be thrown out if the ethos that guarantees his election were to become the prevailing one. Pretty simple to see that!
4
No, it's a battle between Bernie and his supporters and everyone else. If you were being honest about it being about the establishment versus the left then somewhere in here you'd talk about Warren, but not even a mention. You're a Bernie supporter, we get it, but don't pretend it's something loftier.
4
There are seems to be plenty Bernie's supporters in the Dem party, considering the number of people voting for him. I got it- you don't like Sanders, but do not pretend he has no support in the Dem party, otherwise, we would not talk about him now.
1
It's a mistake for Bernie Sanders to tout his being a socialist. Though intelligent people know what he means and that his brand of democratic socialism does not mean a government takeover of the means of production, it's a risky buzzword that brings all the Archie Bunkers out of mothballs. Yes, there are still people that call progressive democrats "communists" or "socialists." I hear it all the time in the hot tub at the YMCA in Glenville, NY where I visit every day. Bernie is no different than many other progressives. Why he chooses to alienate moderate democrats makes no sense to me. We see how Trump is going to pounce, last night conflating Sanders and Warren with the corrupt leader of Venezuela. In this divided election every vote in swing states will be crucial. No sense waking up Archie Bunker.
2
Well, if they give us another moderate, while the grass roots wants big changes, many Dems will stay home...and, Trump will win again. Oops, they are doing it again....I guess they didn’t learn the Hillary lesson. How many more losses by moderates is the Dem Party brass going to need to stop their shenanigans against the new generations desires?
3
From your fingers to god's eyes. I hope you are right, for all our sakes. The moniker "center" is misleading. They are the right wing of the Corporate Democratic Party.
2
Without the Senate, a far-left candidate will get absolutely nothing done, so what's the point?
3
OK, you convinced me. I'll vote for him. Not crazy about some of his surrogates, nor policies, but he's the only one running. It's Sanders or nobody.
I’m a centrist Democrat and Sanders won’t do. I don’t want him and I won’t vote for him. I don’t want the socialists and I don’t want to pay the taxes required to fund their pipe dreams.
3
@dee. Why has no one ever held the republican mantra of “tax cuts will pay for themselves” to account.
4
Here's a reminder of why Democrats can't win without moderates (while Republicans can): https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/24/opinion/sunday/democrats-republicans-polarization.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage
Sanders would lose several million moderates, and thus the election. Warren and Klobuchar, for example, would win. The Democratic Party needs both its wings in order to fly.
3
As 2016 showed Dems could not win without Progressives either.
1
Sanders will lose a general election against Trump. Shouting and stamping of feet in NY and CA and MA and VT will not change that fact.
3
There's an old Eastern European joke about socialism: If you aren't socialist in your twenties you don't have a heart, if you are still socialist in your sixties, you don't have a brain. Socialism doesn't work as Margaret Thatcher quipped because eventually you run out of other people's money. Denmark is not socialist, nor are Norway, Sweden, Canada, etc., they are capitalist with big safety nets supported by much higher taxes for ALL (20-80%) than we pay now. If that's what we all want, fine. Count on compulsory military service too, cause we won't be able to afford huge social programs and career military personnel, or the latest high tech weaponry. No one is scared of Bernie Sanders, but they do dislike him. It's not just because of his US vs. Them politics. He's arrogant, angry and holier than thou. Basically, he's the Left Wing version of Trump. Who really wants that? He very likely won't get any of his big programs through Congress. But go ahead and nominate him. You may well push many monied Dems, and centrists to the Republican side, which will only further damage our democracy, economy and environment for 4 more years. Since we only have a two party system, like it or not, our choice is always our least worst evil. Correspondingly, I'll vote blue no matter what, but it's a very low bar when compared to Trumpelstilskin.
3
The left in the Democratic Party can be happy with Warren, and centrists can be mollified by her selection of Buttigieg as Vice President. Warren would be formidable against Trump, and her intelligent classiness would be a strong contrast to the unethical, greed loving and hatred filled Trump. With Buttigieg as her running mate Warren can truly groom a strong successor and possibly give us 16 years of Democratic rule. And Trump should be really concerned that he will be indicted for at least 10% of his transgressions: a fitting final story ameliorating his Republican exoneration for foreign bribery and extortion.
2
The reason so many Americans have positive opinions of socialism is that they don't know what it is, thanks to our foolish public school system. They think capitalism is "for the corporations" while socialism is "for the people." That this is nonsense on stilts by any analytical or historical standard is simply never presented.
1
Sanders is the one candidate who makes re-election for Trump inevitable. The energized young have historically NOT turned elections and certainly have not turned a national election, even in 1968-72 when Nixon won despite massive youth disaffection for Viet Nam. For every new young voter at the polls in a battleground state, there will disaffected suburbanites put off by the Socialist message and even more rural voters who will tilt toward Trump or 3rd Party alternatives. Prepare for another GOP uber-conservative Supreme Court justice and 4 more years of Trumpian craziness. Even worse, this divided nation will grow ever more so. Military criminals will be pardoned, and the swamp of grifters and power hungry thugs in the administration will grow even more murky and despicable. America will advance further on the path of becoming a large Banana Republic.
1
@HPower
In 2016, due to demographic change alone, Gens X, Y & Z outvoted Boomers & Silents for the first time. Then Trump got elected, and the under 50 voters showed up in droves in 2018, outvoting Boomers & Silents many years before the midterm trends indicated they would. Take a look at the 2018 turnout for a vision of what's to come in 2020: https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/05/29/gen-z-millennials-and-gen-x-outvoted-older-generations-in-2018-midterms/
Corporate Democrats ignore polls they don't like. Sanders would wipe Trump out and put Texas in play. Don't believe me: just look at the polls. He would pull 10-25% of the Republicans as he has always done in Vermont. He always over-preforms in the kinds of places the went from Obama in 2012 to Trump in 2016. Yes, Vermont is different than Ohio and all that but there are pockets of Vermont that are similar demographically and Vermont Republicans are real Republicans. You can predict that Bernie would over preform in Obama-Trump areas while all the others - especially Warren - would underperform in those same types of districts, as she consistently pulls fewer non-college white voters in Massachusetts than other candidates, including Hillary Clinton. The data is there is you want to see it - but of course a lot don't like data that conflicts with their prejudices. Bernie will increase turn out of the young and Latino voters in Texas and everywhere - primary numbers do not predict general election turn out. It's convoluted to vote in these idiotic closed primaries and time-consuming caucuses and people who don't vote for powerful psychological reasons (striking back at a failed system by boycotting the vote is satisfying and not illogical) are not going to cast their first vote in a primary for a party they hate - as well they should hate - that is the corporate DNC.
5
Talking about Sanders and the horse race of elections is fine but it would be much better to discuss the wisdom of the policies. Implicit in discussions of "can he get this through Congress" ?, is it "realistic"?, etc. is that it is worth doing. It is most decidedly not. I will vote for Sanders should he get the nomination but he will lose in a landslide for 2 reasons - he is a very unappealing candidate and his policies are those of a lunatic. A Hobson's choice if there ever was one.
1
The title of this article is a line from the Yeats’ poem The Second Coming, whose entire point is that it’s vitally important that the center holds. I’m pretty sure Yeats wasn’t a “DNC Establishment” type, and yet he was dead-on in his warning about the “passionate intensity” of our far-right and -left wings.
2
I am apparently just too narrow-minded. I cannot see how a soapbox, platform, political ideology and existential philosophy of smacking billionaires twelve times a day will win an election. It just seems cartoonish, the counterpart to Trump's cartoonishness.
2
So where were those armies of young people pushing him to a crushing victory in Iowa?
4
There's a reason Trump is going after Joe instead of Bernie.
1
In the wake of the Iowa caucuses, it certainly looks as if "Things fall apart" this year for Democrats (although I hope not), and Ms. Bruenig's cogent analysis shows how and why "the center cannot hold" in efforts to advance Biden's candidacy (although I for one never thought of Biden as the "heir apparent" or a "sure thing"), perhaps leading to (heaven help us) the nomination of that dangerous socialist Bernie Sanders! However, I worry about where Bruenig's appropriation of Yeats's "The Second Coming" leads us, given how the poem continues: "Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,/The blood dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere/The ceremony of innocence is drowned; . . ." To me, this doesn't evoke Bernie--it applies to that big, orange guy seen loitering about the premises at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
2
Joe Biden is this year's Jeb Bush. Remember 2016? Jeb was supposed to be the big favorite, and he cratered.
3
"If he won the nomination, I think obviously he would take over the party...”
in his book, AMUSING OURSELVES TO DEATH, neil postman foresaw all this way back in 1985. should sanders get the nomination, we can kiss all reason and the dialectic method goodbye, and force ourselves to try to enjoy a battle of two antipodal--but entertaining-- demagogues.
now, that's entertainment!
3
The front page of today’s NYT shows Mayor Pete as the winner, by a relatively slim margin, of the Iowa caucuses. Here, Ms. Bruenig cavalierly declares Sanders the winner and simply brushes Buttigieg aside as meaningless. And, apparently she sees any effort to promote or nominate ANY candidate other than Sanders as some sort of conspiracy among “those” people....you know, all the horrible people that make up the Democratic Party. Elizabeth, its a primary election, not a coronation. I know (how could I not, the sandernistas have told me a thousand times) that all of my opinions are wrong but, at least until Trump’s “re-election”, I am still entitled to hold them. I’d be more upset if the Democratic primaries were something more than a futile exercise, as the Republicans TODAY abdicate legislative authority and declare that Trump is King. We all persist, because we must, but, come on, who’s kidding who? This election has exactly as much suspense as Russia’s.
3
In the wake of the Iowa caucuses, it certainly looks as if "Things fall apart" this year for Democrats (although I hope not), and Ms. Bruenig's cogent analysis shows how and why "the center cannot hold" in efforts to advance Biden's candidacy (although I for one never thought of Biden as the "heir apparent" or a "sure thing"), perhaps leading to (heaven help us) the nomination of that dangerous socialist Bernie Sanders! However, I worry about where Breunig's appropriation of Yeats's "The Second Coming" leads us, given how the poem continues: "Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,/The blood dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere/The ceremony of innocence is drowned; . . ." To me, this doesn't evoke Bernie--it applies to that big, orange guy seen loitering about the premises at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
Ain't no way this socially liberal, fiscally conservative progressive's gonna vote to replace one populist with another.
The pendulum's swinging too far.
Rebuild America: Bloomberg 2020!
2
There was a massive data dump of redacted Epstein documents yesterday. If I were running a Democratic campaign, I’d be digging through them to find anything that leads to Trump or Trump Model Management. Because everyone knows that Trump and Epstein were big pals, and there’s only one reason men like that hang out together. Democrats need to stop fighting and unite against this existential threat named Donald John Trump.
2
It isn’t quite accurate to say the ‘center’ is freaking out here. It is the establishment. And the establishment are essentially wealthy billionaires. It’s this group of rich elites that is having a panic attack because they are about to have to pay their fair share of taxes.
If you made 5000 a day - every day - since the founding of the US, you would still not be a billionaire. They are robbing us blind and using their spoils to rig the system against us so they can beat us down further and further.
2
@Dave is that number correct?...can someone check that please?...if true, it is astounding (even if assumes no interest or gains on those 5000 a day)...
1
@Jim I think I get "only" half a billion...?
1
Hillary and others nasty implications that Bernie is not liked or likable makes me like him more.
"Likable" and "liked" are the qualities that have turned our government into a back-slapping, mutual back scratching, back room morass of corporate influence, corporate jets and all around corpulence.
Bernie is not running for homecoming king. He speaks unapologetic truth to power and isn't the least interested in going along to get along.
And, by the way, the references to Bernie as radical are absurd. He is just to the left of Eisenhower. It is Trump and the sycophants in Washington who are radical and they are destroying the democratic republic that Franklin warned us to defend.
2
Everything that Bernie is advocating.....dovetails with Donald J. Trump's rhetoric.
I strongly support Bernie in the primaries......and will vote for Donald J. Trump in the General Election. As Trump has proven he will follow through on the same agenda as Bernie.
........Bernie = Trump.
Have a good year, everybody!
1
Looks like the centrists collectively have more votes than the lefties in Iowa (so far). But maybe the party is ready for reducing the roll of private property and individual accountability significantly. Maybe that’s good for the country.
So that last two Democratic losers, Kerry & Clinton, want to stop Sanders, who in 2016 polled two points *higher* than Clinton in a matchup against Trump.
Some folks are so out of touch.
6
I enjoy watching the teeth gnashing and hand wringing of centrist Dems blaming Bernie and all those clueless Millennials for the Democratic Party’s woes, then nominating soulless androids with all the charm and sincerity of used car salesmen.
4
Whoever the Democratic Party’s nominee is, they need to remember that getting Trump out of office is the prime objective. So if their favorite isn’t chosen they need to swallow their prides and vote for whom ever the nominee will be. Otherwise our republic will be finished.
1
Why oh why can’t all the old white guys over 70 stand down and retire? They’ve done what they can and it’s past time for another generation to take charge. I’m in my early 60s and how anyone can support any candidates of that vintage is beyond me.
Bernie Sanders is a modern day Ralph Nader, supremely egotistical and convinced of the superiority of his own ideas. That may be fine for him and some of his followers, most Democrats are of the view that if Bernie gets the nomination, the Dems will lose. We will get creamed. Socialism is not a popular choice for most Americans. With his current platform, Bernie cannot and will not win the general.Bernie is an aging curmudgeon, basically humorless and seemingly angry all the time. He is a bridge too far.
For the... Oh, I don't know how many times! Stop conflating Democratic Socialism with the Socialism that us boomers feared in a pre-Soviet era. Democratic Socialist party was started a Sociology professor who served in Kennedy's cabinet, Michael Harrington. Besides, if the U.S. safety net got even close the size of that of most European countries and Canada you find swift bipartisan support on immigration.
1
I wrote in my vote for Bernie in 2016 and I'm prepared do it again if necessary in 2020. For the first time in my six decades on this planet I felt that I was finally voting for the candidate I truly wanted rather than merely choosing the lesser of two evils.
Although they disagree on a few key issues, centrist Democrats and centrist Republicans are really just slightly different shades of gray. Sure, Trump is despicable, but I'm no longer will to hold my nose and vote for whichever milquetoast candidate the Democratic Party's power brokers put forward.
À chacun son goût!
2
A man Sanders' age who has already had a heart attack shouldn't be running. He's going to have another one.
He's a spoiler.
He's selfish.
He's tiresome.
He's spent decades in Congress achieving nothing.
A socialist cannot win in this country. The word makes the population crazy.
And when are we going to discuss a Jewish socialist, in this rising climate of anti-Semitism?
And does anyone think Mayor Pete, a married gay man, is going to win?
It's still legal to fire gay men in 37 states.
Not only is Iowa a useless barometer of the eventual nominee in our present divided country - forget the statistics, they're not predictive anymore -- it's dangerously limited in outlook.
Stop talking about Iowa already. Move on and let's find a candidate with a straight, direct message about health care, climate change, infrastructure, foreign policy...a centrist, please.
Who has the rhetoric, too, to remind us of who we are and the beauty of our constitution.
Does no one ever learn?
Do any of the Bernie Bros even know who George McGovern was?
1
I don't get it. Sanders probably could have beaten DJT in 2016 in the Upper Midwest and was felt to be a solid candidate. In 2020, he scares people. If it is by age and health, I understand. But speaking as one who doesn't back him now, but who would vote for him as nominee, what has changed in the past 3 years that makes him worse? If anything, his message resonates more now.
Why do I not read about Sanders and Warren splitting the left vote? And why do I not read about Sanders' being a Democrat when it is convenient and an Independent otherwise? His followers are not wedded to the party but to him. Why is anybody so surprised at their behavior?
2
If the NYT's own resident 'moderate Republican' David Brooks is able to vote for Sanders in November as a bulwark against Trump (even though he disagrees with many of his proposals) then I think it's apparent that Sanders is the candidate with the most widespread appeal. 50%+ of the Democratic electorate would have strong misgivings about voting for a billionaire Republican as their ostensible nominee.
5
The Sanders campaign's theory of the case is that it can activate millions of eligible voters who haven't registered or voted recently, and that it doesn't need--and indeed shows near-contempt for--those suburbanites and moderates who find Trump repulsive and frightening, and voted for Democrats in 2018, but aren't looking for a "revolution."
In other words, pushing away reliable and reachable voters while hoping to attract low-information non-voters. All in the face of what will be the ugliest negative campaign imaginable.
How do you think that's likely to work out?
moderate Democrats look moderate because the Republicans are so far right. Those of us who are progressive are actually the democrats from the past, looking for a better life for all of us, not just the ruling, moneyed class.
BTW, I believe the reason we have had such calm and orderly transfers of governance from one party to the next every 4 or 8 years was because it made little difference which party held the executive branch. This year it does make a difference and I predict if Trump loses it will not be so calm and orderly.
1
As a liberal Democrats I sometimes feel like I’m being held hostage by the political system. Never have I felt it more acutely than this moment. Climate change, income inequality, and exploding medical costs are a deadly cocktail of issues threatening to bring our nation to ruin. Bernie Sanders wants to aggressively tackle these issues, but the DNC is again trying to hold him back. Time and again they’ve worked to suppress liberal voices, trusting that our empathy for the less fortunate will serve as an adequate leash to keep us from going Republican. And all the while they smile through their teeth and tell us to trust in democracy as they try to foist upon us an aging architect of the very problems we are now trying to sort out.
6
Message to the Democratic establishment: Bernie is winning because of the HUGE VACUUM you created by abandoning America's workers in favor social issues and identity politics. Your love-affair with the Clintons is inexplicable as Bill's bargains with the Conservatives to make himself relevant after 1994 (and his sexual exploitation of a young female intern) is proof-positive that you stand for nothing. Personally, I am not a Democratic Socialist but I am angry that the the establishment that John Kerry wants to preserve has gotten us to where we are right now--including the election of Trump.
264
@Richard Winkler
You are right that the Ds abandoned working people. I just don't think that the plans Bernie has outlined will actually work for working people. Instead they are just giving away things to the middle and upper-middle class while preserving the underlying obstacles to true equal opportunity for all people.
Also, his plans are mostly just promises, no real thought or policy behind them. Just pure "someone else will pay for it" pandering. At least Warren has specific policies that outline how she will do the things. I am not for Warren either, but I could vote for her. Bernie and his bros are just the flip-side mirror image of Trumps entitled whiners. No thank you.
10
@Richard Winkler
I'm an independent but have voted for the Democratic candidate in 5 elections, though I did not in 2016. I did not vote for Trump and will not vote for Trump. I will vote for Bernie Sanders. I will not vote for any other Democratic candidate. If Bernie loses the nomination, I will once again not vote in the Presidential contest. I have no idea if I'm a total anomaly and represent anyone but myself. That easily could be the case, but there you have it.
9
@Richard Winkler
"Bernie is winning because ...."
It's unclear that Bernie is in fact winning. His support in Iowa is down almost 20% from 2016 and despite having the best prior history in the state, having spent the most money in the state and having had the momentum in the polls, he deadlocked with a guy who was a virtual unknown a year ago and who was declining weekly in the polls before now. Given a choice, over 70% of the voters want someone else. Bernie did absolutely fine but this showing is not impressive.
Also, Bernie's big claim, that he would draw new people is not apparent as turnout was not at all good.
Bernie has some momentum compared to Biden & Warren but there is as yet no sign that he is breaking through his traditional support, which is not enough to win. Next up is New Hampshire which is Bernie's backyard. If Buttigieg gets close to Bernie there, it's not a good sign. And then we get to the Biden strongholds and then Billionaire Bloomberg enters the race.
11
I recall a labor leader once confess in the aftermath of the Bush-Gore 2000 fight over the Florida vote that there is NO Democratic Party. He came to that conclusion after he and other officials volunteered to go to Florida to help in the vote re-count effort there. There was no one to pick up the phone. That this old rickety virtual structure may fall down with a good kick is no surprise. As for the urban professional cosmopolitan core of the "institutional" Democratic Party there is not a lot of passion there, and with good reason. What precisely do they believe in? What is there to animate a political party? Read Clinton and Obama's Twitter accounts. It it's possible to die from reading too many bromides it could happen there.
2
I agree with the writer that the 'center' cannot hold. However, this may be one of the last presidential elections where the center plays any significance.
In ten or fifteen years, as Babyboomers make their goodbyes and depart this mortal coil, the political center of gravity will become decidedly more liberal as young left-leaning voters grow older and carve out a larger proportion of the voting majority.
For now, though, Dems still have to answer to half the country that ISN'T left-wing, which means this risky game of going left is going to boil down to pure numbers, and a take no prisoners mentality.
Frankly, I think Democrats may be rushing things a bit. Heck, in 15-20 years Democrats can have it all---a majority of voters will gladly see to it. Right now, the Democratic Left would be exerting their will by caveat and fait a'ccompli.
It may not be fair to fully half the voters, but it will sure make for an interesting election come November 3.
40
@David Bartlett
Somebody said something to the effect that "he who hasn't been a socialist when he was 20 has no heart; he who is a still socialist at 40 has no brain." People change with age, generally becoming more conservative. So in 15-20 years we'll probably have the same ideological distribution as now.
14
@David Bartlett now is the time. things will not change as long as there are 2 senators to every state, no matter now many people they represent. additionally we need to get rid of the electoral college and expanded the house of representatives to reflect population growth. these will not happen soon.
14
@David Bartlett You presume that as millennials age, they will remain liberal. I hope you are right, but history tells us that yesterday's political radicalism is today's tech industry elite. I hope things will be different this time around but I don't have full faith in this.
5
If the same people that said Hillary had a 94% chance to beat trump are now saying Bernie cant win then Bernie has a 94% chance of winning.
3
I’m voting for Bernie just like my dad voted for McGovern! That’ll learn you!
1
Without the center, the Dems will not be able to pull any votes over from disenchanted Republicans.
Doing that will be key.
Forget the pouters on the far left. They are just a handful we can do without. Closet Republicans anyway. With intolerance of anyone not toeing their line being the unifying parameter.
1
Maybe, with the nation facing issues such as unaffordable health care and a tax system rigged for the very wealthy, while the world faces the disaster of climate change, that it's time for someone with revolutionary ideas.
I'm a moderate Democrat, but what did President Obama accomplish on climate change? A global agreement no one seems to be following? Also, did bailing out Wall Street during the Great Recession change Wall Street's behavior? I don't think so.
The moderates just haven't done enough, and another four years of Trump could/would be catastrophic. Maybe it's time to give Bernie a chance.
5
Things fall apart
The center cannot hold.
And yet, things often get a heck of lot worse after that. Something about a rough beast slouching to be born comes to mind.
Allow me to introduce you to the Electoral College.
I'll vote for him if he's the nominee, but it will be the biggest republican presidential landslide since McGovern.
The media need to do a better job distinguishing between liberals and leftists. "The establishment" aren't "centrists;" they're traditional liberals who are well in line with the Democratic party's liberal heritage of the past century or so. The Left, on the other hand, is openly disdainful of that liberalism and trying to take the country in a direction for which there is no electoral majority. Liberal presidents led this country through two world wars and out of the Great Depression and the Great Recession. Liberal congresses are responsible for Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act, Head Start, the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the Affordable Care Act. Liberal congresses paid for the interstate highway system and the moon mission. None of these things required the broad nationalization of vast swaths of the economy. None of these things would have been accomplished if the party had led with toxic identity politics front and center.
2
This writer is rushing to judgment, and there is another interpretation of the Iowa results that is perfectly plausible. Combine the votes for Buttigieg. Biden and Klobuchar and you have a indication of the strength of Democratic moderates. Combine the votes for Sanders and Warren, and you have an indication of the demand for aggressive policy change. The Democratic nomination is still up for grabs, and the only meaningful portent in Iowa was Biden's lackluster showing.
171
@Tom,
Agree with your analysis, but I'd add one more portent. Warren won 0 counties in Iowa. This doesn't entirely knock her out, but IMO it comes close.
Before the caucuses, 538 put her at under 3% if she didn't come in first or second in Iowa.
Warren has the resources to stay in well past super Tuesday, regardless of results, but if she also finishes well behind Bernie in NH and NV, that clears more room in the progressive lane for him, while the moderate lane is crowded with 3-4 candidates.
11
@Michael
I agree, which basically means that it'll be Bernie vs Bloomberg. I am not a super fan of Bloomberg, but I just do not think the moral and rational answer to Fascism is to pick Socialism.
America succeeds best when we all pay for what we get. That's how we beat Communism--not with pandering for free stuff, but by using markets to bring wealth and happiness to people.
The problem we have now is that we have markets where the rich are not paying for everything they get, and the poor are not being given equal opportunities because primary education is property-tax-wealth-based.
A VAT that funds truly equal education for all kids--rural kids and urban kids have been totally discriminated against in favor of suburban kids--and possibly a UBI of some kind would fix a lot of the problems Sanders complains about without market the market manipulations he's promising.
Keep it simple. Pay for what you get. If you do not pay for what you get, someone else is paying for you.
6
@Tom
Yes, Trump’s campaign against Biden no longer seems to need Ukraine’s interference.
4
George McGovern was right about Vietnam, but Nixon won 49 states.
2
Socialism is just taxation and spending to benefit those who control a nation's politics.
1
“Fiscally conservative” Democrats? That’s rich. Neither party can claim fiscal conservatism. The entire machinery of US politics is aimed at bankrupting the nation one way or another. Have you checked the National debt lately? And, oh yes, it actually matters.
Nixon v. McGovern all over again.
“If they attack Mr. Sanders, ‘they’re going to get a massive backlash, but if they don’t, then they’re going to lose the center of the party,’ Jefferson Cowie, a historian of American class politics at Vanderbilt University, told me recently. ‘It’s a very volatile moment, I think, in the party’s history.’”
Why is this statement not taken more seriously?
The center can hold. I think it is just becoming terrified of the left. Of losing their votes and gaining their ire. They threaten. They demand. They brand Warren a snake and before that, they branded her a crony capitalist (read that part again for its audacity).
I am progressive and sympathetic to the pain/outrage of a Sanders supporter. But I am also alarmed that we now have a possible candidate with supporters he can barely control, supporters who cannot abide criticism or contradiction. Supporters who feel validated by Trump tweets and post FoxNews articles on Reddit. Supporters who threaten to vote third party. Again.
This is like being strapped to a hand grenade.
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@N. Hamlisch
Thank you for this thoughtful comment. I don’t mind Sanders as a candidate and will support him if he is the nominee. We simply have no choice. But, his enchanted following is troublesome. Our responsibility as citizens in a democracy is to scrutinize the work of and hold accountable our elected officials. How can Bernie Sanders followers hold him accountable when they’ve placed him on a pedestal so high we can barely see the soles of his shoes. We’re not voting for a rock star here, we’re voting for a public servant. He’s supposed to work for us.
23
@Longfellow Lives The only logical conclusion from the feverish enthusiasm which drives his base is that he must be the nominee. Why would you risk alienating the main source of energy for the party?
14
@Longfellow Lives What makes you think he doesn't work for us? He has worked for us his entire life. His rejection of big-dollar donations frees him to pursue policy based on his judgment and his ethics. Perhaps a few of his supporters are overly zealous, but to tar the majority of us with that description is a fallacy. Neoliberalism and centrism have brought us to a place where a large majority of our citizens can barely make ends meet while the elite class wallows in wealth, and a planet that is burning to death while we do virtually nothing. This is not a time for incrementalism.
14
Yes, the left wing of the party is ascendant from a lower poll showing than it has now. However, the party has been split since 2016 when Bernie almost defeated Hillary. And now, with a slight defeat to a moderate in Iowa, and an expected victory in a state next door to his, we are concluding that Sanders is a favorite to win the nomination?
In Iowa, the moderates outpolled the left wing of the party. Unfortunately, there is no moderate candidate that has captured the party's imagination. Biden has only active support among black voters and older voters. Mayor Pete is young and has yet to capture any strong support among minorities. Amy also. Bloomberg is hoping for a brokered convention that turns to him instead of the weakening Biden. It is the weakness of the moderates, combined with the rabid enthusiasm of his own supporters, which is pushing Sanders to the front of the pack. But he is fighting an entrenched establishment and the concern over electability.
It seems like this campaign will be a long slog and will leave the democrats weakened, particularly if Sanders does not not get the nomination and his supporters resentfully stay away or rebel again.
I had no real preference for the Dem Pres nominee. Skipping the soap opera, I was just waiting for the candidate to shake out. But after the impeachment debacle and Iowa caucus, I have doubled down on Bernie. We can’t go back to who we thought we were. The Emperor, the Senate and the DNC have no clothes, and the majority of us can’t get no satisfaction under this NASCAR sponsor Citizens United political system.
3
The Dem establishment and media's hand wringing over Sanders' 'socialism' is simply a case of mass cognitive dissonance. For over a generation we have witnessed blatant 'Silver Spoon Socialism' directed to Wall Street and the wealthy elite. Silver Spoon Socialism marks the unholy marriage between Marx, Lenin and J.P. Morgan - a unique form of American Socialism. Since 2007, The Federal Reserve has literally funneled Trillions of dollars of free money directly to Wall Street Banks, Investment Funds and as (effectively) interest free loans to Corporate America. This largess has funded billions in CEO payoffs, stock buybacks and subsidized 'earnings'. Congress has provided 100's of Billions in special tax breaks and subsidies for the sole benefit of the same Wall Street and Corporate wealthy elite who are the primary funders of both political parties. The distribution of wealth among Americans has never been so distorted. The top one percent of income distribution holds over $25 trillion in wealth, which exceeds the wealth of the bottom 80 percent. That is more than all the goods and services produced in the U.S. economy in 2018. I suspect this wealthy minority who so dramatically benefit from 'Silver Spoon Socialism' are increasingly fearful their socialist largess might be shared with the majority of Americans.
7
Capitalism has ruled the world since the loudly trumpeted "End of History" when the Soviet empire fell. That has given capitalism more than 30 years to deliver on its promise of making the world a better place; instead we have endless wars, climate disasters, widening inequality, a shrunken middle class terrified of falling into the gig economy, hate groups ascendant and mounting addiction and mental illness problems everywhere. Except for the lucky few in the Davos set, of course more and more people are okay with giving Socialism a try. Most of us have absolutely nothing to lose.
4
I see two possible scenarios: 1) Nominate Sanders, definitely hand Trump the election; or 2) Don't nominate Sanders, probably hand Trump the election.
If you can't tell, I'm not too optimistic.
Ignoring long-established precedent, ignoring the rules ( particularly the rule of law), obstructing enforcement of the rules; and undermining or changing the rules at every opportunity to favor a personal agenda; is why Trump was impeached and brought to trial. If the DNC and democratic elites change the rules just to undermine Sanders, then they will prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that they, and their nominee, have no more integrity than Trump. And Trump will win. So I'd suggest that they get a grip, rethink who they fear most (Sanders or Trump), and do what they've persistently asked of the rest of us; hold their noses and support whoever wins the nomination.
4
Bernie Sanders will be the Democrat's answer to Trump, and it's very likely that it will pay off.
Biden does appear to have some of the mud slung at him by Trump sticking, but that could well end up as a pyrrhic victory for Trump.
2
The left wing cannot win general elections alone. The center, not of the country but of the party, should be the sweet spot.
Democrat Party fragmentation is underway. Bernie Sanders has provided the death knell to Democrats and has ushered in Communism. It is no surprise and mirrors the elite academic Caucasian community he represents and that ripples throughout the privileged media. The train has left the station after being restrained four years ago providing no strong candidates in opposition or moderation in the wake of the Clinton defeat. Instead, the Democrat Party, fearing Sanders rhetoric and targeting, has tumbled down the hill in lockstep and is unable to climb back to solid ground.
1
The centrists came to a conclusion early on that the only thing acceptable was a white man with classic work with Republicans at all costs worldview. One that has trashed any whiff of “socialism” for the last thirty years.
It is beyond time for the centrists to realize that those socialists are their option for a governing coalition not republicans who will do anything for Trump.
They trashed every woman in the race who is in the middle between them and Sanders, they wouldn’t even give the men of color a hearing. So what they have left is apparently a choice between Sanders and Buttigieg. Both of whom are fighting to split the party not pull it together.
Same with Joe Biden who will wrestle everyone on the left out of the party.
The middle of the Party is somewhere between Klobacher and Warren where even the NYT failed to choose, hurting both by division.
If the centrists don’t want Sanders they have to compromise for another a candidate. I don’t think Buttigieg is going to cut it with much of the party that isn’t Iowa white.
1
Bill Clinton was the best republican president of the 20th century. It’s time we had a real Democrat
3
For goodness sakes. I abhor Trump, but the latest Gallup poll just showed the 63 percent of Americans approve of his economy. That's the highest rating economic approval rating for any president in 20 years.
Are all you Bernie supporters really too ideologically blind to see that there might be something wrong with the messaging here? There's plenty about Trump that horrifies Americans. Is this really so hard? Can't we focus on something like, I don't know, how he's steering the economy back into coal and fossil fuels and destroying the planet in the process, when we could be creating millions of green jobs? Or how's creating a false sense of prosperity by plunging us into more trillions of dollars of debt?
Can you not understand that railing endlessly about evil corporations and the millionaires and billionaires might turn off many of the very people we need to win over to defeat this monster in the White House? That fighting for fairness and good jobs and good pay does not necessarily require Bernie's brand of militant, divisive rhetoric? That the Green New Deal holds plenty of promise, without us having to scream about the rich and promise heaps of free stuff, when all Americans really want is a chance to earn what they work for and deserve?
My God, please wake up and stop being part of the problem. I am begging you...
1
"When the student is ready to learn the teacher will appear" in the meantime, it's looking like four more years of the most corrupt administration in American history.
This reminds me of the 60's. One had to be pure in left-wing thinking to have credibility. Opposing opinions were belittled.
There was no tolerance for other ideas.
But it was all superficial as most of the participants ended up living sensible lives.
1
The Trump Biden-Ukraine maneuver was never a direct Biden ball in the side pocket, but a bank shot to a Biden ball to a Bernie ball in the side pocket. That is: the Democrats get nervous about the Ukraine smear campaign; they don't nominate Biden; they nominate Bernie; the Republicans joyfully smear Bernie as a radical socialist; the American voting populace takes the bait; Trump wins.
1
That Socialist candidates has a chance is a fluke. The two party system was designed to produce only pro capitalist candidates. Nobody anticipated that the Internet would become be a source of funding for Socialist candidates.
But the idea that the US ruling elite would allow a Socialist President to be elected is fantasy . . . .From the I.W.W. in 1919, to the C.P.U.S.A. in the 1950s, to Occupy Wall Street in 2012, the American capitalist state has always used extreme police violence to crush every significant anti capitalist movement.
2
Nowhere here is Bloomberg mentioned. Do I have to say it.
Don't ignore the elephant in the room.
3
Had the Democrats been smart enough in 2016 and not beholden to corporate money and a stale third-way philosophy, it might have won and protected the country from four years of Donald Trump. The DNC's obsession with hand-picking a candidate is driving it into a dark cave of extinction. This year, with independents having the plurality of registered voters, the hand-writing is on the wall. After wallowing in indecision re impeachment, the Democratic leadership again forfeited authority for an endless check of the polls.
It is mind-boggling that this group of elitists remains deaf to the will of the people. If the DNC had not been fixated with stopping Bernie Sanders (again), time might have been spent testing its new software and thereby avoiding the pig's ear of Iowa.
4
I wrote in my vote for Bernie in 2016 and I'll do it again in 2020 if necessary. For the first time in my six decades on this planet I felt that I was finally voting for the candidate I truly wanted rather than merely choosing the lesser of two evils.
Although they disagree on a few issues, centrist Democrats and Republicans are really just slightly different shades of gray. Of course Trump is despicable, but I'm no longer willing to hold my nose and vote for whichever milquetoast candidate the Democratic establishment puts forward. It was the Democrats election to lose in 2016 and by choosing Hillary they did just that.
2
One could argue that the Bill Clinton, neoliberal "New Democrats" who brought us NAFTA and the Crime Bill have helped to create many of the structural problems that Trump exploited in 2016. The center left Democratic establishment had their chance in the last election and failed miserably. That the same Democratic establishment wishes to nominate the same kind of candidate again is pure folly. Sanders would be a strong nominee precisely because he rejects the failed policies of the last 40 years, unlike Trump he is committed to a strong social safety net, and unlike Biden, he would be immune from Trump's claims of corruption that were so effective against Clinton in 2016.
6
I am hardly a member of the "Democrat elite" but the only reason I would vote for Bernie is that he is Not Trump. While the center may not be sexy, there are many who find it sensible. I'll take it.
2
What a frustrating conspiratorial read.
The repeated mantra that is embedded in this screed is mantra is that the Democratic Party officials want a moderate candidate. The reality may be that the majority of Democratic voters want a left-centrist candidate.
Refighting the last election between Sanders and Clinton is pointless, and seems to be a fascination of only Sanders supporters. The rest of the Democrats have moved on, and are preparing to battle with Trump with a temperate candidate that can unify the country, not just the party. That candidate is not Sanders.
Heart Attack, Schmart Attack. Bernie is full steam ahead!
The Democratic Party and Nancy want a centrist, but it increasingly appears that the voters are throwing in behind Bernie and Elizabeth.
3
I pray to God this isn't true.
"If party leaders openly assail him, they risk alienating Sanders loyalists, only 53 percent of whom say they will certainly support the Democratic nominee if it isn’t him. "
This is horrible, and it's what's wrong with attitudes about one's right to vote. Every time I hear someone say they're exercising their right to vote in order to "express their personal values," I cringe. Voting is not about "expressing your personal values," it's about electing someone to fill our offices of government whether it's the White House, Congress, state legislatures, or even dog catcher.
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@tom boyd Exactly. This is what happens when you axe civics classes from primary school curricula: people begin to forget that voting is always, always about least-worst options and is never, ever about "expressive" activity in the way that, e.g., making art or wearing a T-shirt is. You actually vote in private, for goodness' sake. You'd darn well better vote in a way that is conscious of the days that come after the election.
9
@tom boyd
Great point, Tom. Too many people are focusing on expressing their own values rather than on selecting someone who can best govern the country. While I will support any Democrat over Trump in the general election, I don't intend to vote in the primary for the person who best reflects my values, but rather someone who can bring this country together and serve all Americans, Democrats and Republicans.
You and I are exceptions to the rule. That is why we will likely not be successful. I'm afraid this article is true, and those of us who want a competent leader who will work to heal the division in America will fail.
8
@tom boyd One's values must necessarily be part of the decision. Describing this as "electing someone to fill our offices" is empty and meaningless. If it's about simply "filling" seats, then select at random or choose not to vote. Their must be a consideration of the candidate's likely performance. That includes some things that are quite independent of one's values - the candidate's core character (honesty, fair dealing - but those are "values", actually), the candidate's basic competence - the ability to be baseline functional, etc. But beyond that, once must consider how the office holder will use the office where s/he has latitude. This is less an issue for dog catcher, but much of an issue for higher offices.
4
Bernie has never managed a large organization, and his leadership style would be as polarizing as Trump. We need a person proven capable of steering important change in large organizations (public and private) while NOT being so polarizing. This candidate is Mike Bloomberg. Bloomberg is the right antidote to Trump. He will achieve far more positive change than Bernie, Bernie will be paralyzed by his long winded polemics if he gets elected.
4
A couple of thoughts:
When you promote socialist democracy, as Bernie has throughout his career, you're naturally going to rub against the grain of establishment Democrats, who have spent the last few decades running away from the label, not to mention Republicans, who use it as an epithet.
But, as the writer suggests, the label is losing its sting. Democratic socialism doesn't conjure images of Stalin anymore, especially since Trump has already assumed that identity. Consequently, the "nuclear-level ammunition" the centrists are worried about handing to Republicans has fallen below its fissile point, which makes it a dud.
Secondly, don't count out Buttigieg quite yet. To their credit, African-American voters are not bandwagon jumpers. They take awhile to get to know a candidate before lending support. After a strong showing in Iowa, Mayor Pete may deserve a stronger look, in their eyes.
2
I'm a Democrat who will not be voting for Bernie Sanders, the millionaire socialist. His economic policies would throw hundreds of thousands of Americans out of work, and eliminate many good paying middle class jobs. Sanders has promised a basket of freebies to people throughout the United States, amounting to nothing more than empty promises from a career politician. Many of his followers have taken a page from the Trump/Putin playbook, and are actively bullying anti-Sanders Democrats online and spreading misinformation. The fact that more than 25% of Sanders' supporters voted for Trump in 2016 is another unsavory aspect of his candidacy.
If the divide between centrists and leftists splits the Democratic party, so be it. America could use a third political party.
5
I truly believe that if Bernie gets the nomination, many of the justifiably-angry Trump supporters that didn’t particularly like Trump but voted for him anyway in order to “stick it” to “the elites” would vote blue this November. I found this excellent essay by Ms Bruenig so reminiscent of the descriptions of the Republican Party’s panic as Trump was clinching the nomination back in 2016 - in both cases, the establishment elites (both red and blue) don’t want to share power with an outsider. Trump turned out to be an outsider that was usefully bendable to their wills; Sanders terrifies because he likely won’t be.
And, I have to point out the hypocrisy of the concerns of “fiscal conservatives,” no matter which side of the aisle they’re on. Those on the Republican side have absolutely zero legs to stand on (a $1T deficit?!?), while those on the Democratic side seem to not have their priorities straight (favoring healthcare racketeers, defense industry stooges, and fossil fuel barons over their fellow Americans) and appear unwilling to consider the reality of what works (subsidized health and education) in other, more-successful nations. It’s butter, not guns, people.
I hope the “center” doesn’t hold. Feel the Bern!
6
As Sanders becomes the face of the Democratic party Trump's approval rating rises to 49%. Should Sanders get the nomination Trump's approval rating will exceed 54%. State and local Democrats would avoid taking a stage with Sanders. The house would be lost. Sanders would be the biggest electoral disaster for freedom in America. Oh, and by the way. The day after the election no need to start preparing for Medicare for All. It would be...Trumpcare!
5
The Party wrongfully steered the 2016 nomination to Hillary. Bernie deserves his chance. It's his turn.
7
It is profoundly dubious to assert that "Bernie Sanders’s strong showing in Iowa is a turning point in the battle between the party's establishment and left wing". However, even if it was somehow true, so what? All it would show is that the left convinced itself that running a losing Jeremy Corbyn style insurrectionist movement to take down the Democratic Party, and pull it hard to the left, is some sort of monumental victory, when it guarantees a record loss in the general election.
Even if everything asserted here was actually true, you'd be celebrating winning nothing.
Actually address how it was possible for your Socialist colossus, who already ran for president, is known by every American and everyone in the world, and was supposed to thrash the entire field by a substantial margin, lost to a neophyte most Americans never heard of. Sanders lost to a guy who is the mayor of a city ranked 306th, and who lost his single run for statewide office by 25 percentage points. If Sanders lost to a political nobody, how can he possibly beat Trump?
Then ask yourself if Sanders has such immense support, how was turnout for Sanders massively below the turnout for Obama when he ran?
Finally, does anyone honestly think Sanders can beat Trump once Trump starts saying things like "Crazy Bernie and his American hating Socialists rigged the Iowa Caucuses and he still lost anyway to guy from a nowhere tiny city with an unpronounceable name, which is why they call him Mayor Pete".
6
Who are these centrists you speak of?
I'm serious. Are there Americans who watch Trump brag, lie, and cast aspersions on the weak and say, "That's the guy for me unless the Dems nominate someone safe like Hillary who would win for sure!"?
Truly, I would like to meet those "moderates" who have considered the sweep of US tax history since Eisenhower, have read at least a precis of Piketty's findings, have compared our financial and gun laws to those of other countries where citizens at least appear to be a lot happier than the Know Nothings raging across our land, electing people like that fellow in Montana who believes we should shoot socialists.
Perhaps Geraldo Rivera can host a special in which he eventually opens a safe and reveals the rara avis termed the Democratic centrist. Perhaps he can convince that specimen, which so influences Dem decision-making, to explain how we need to address a shortfall in Social Security that wasn't there before the money was repurposed (no discussion of replacing that money?), to opine on how much better off this country is than, say, one where gun violence is 95% lower (most, look it up), to defend rewarding financiers who crash the economy rather than lock those bankers up a la Iceland.
Please. Produce one.
10
@Jack Mahoney
You need to get out more. Moderates look at Trump and say "I despite him and everything he stands for, and I really hope we (Democrats) emerge with a candidate strong enough to vanquish him and the GOP. We disagree on who that is.
2
@Ann
Thanks for your suggestion. So what you're saying is that Trump is OK vs. some Democratic candidates?
3
I am not sure what country Ms. Brueing is living in. There is absolutely no evidence that the country will gal o for a such a left wing candidate. Yes some of his proposals in general poll well. But the details are important in the long=run. The Medicare for All debacle is a good example. Even Paul Krugman says that it has no chance of passing. The Democratic country, especially in Congress is spit. In the New Times Editorial interview he practically claimed he would not negotiate with Congress, but go to the magical " people". His not a demarcate with a small d, he really is a Marxist. And the Republicans will shred him with his positions and statements earlier in his life. Can we afford to take such a chance? Besides if one wants to vote for a sane Progressive there is Warren.
13
@Harry Perkal
Agreed. I'm old enough to remember the McGovern debacle. This column sounds silly (I speak as someone who generally admires Bruenig). And 2020 is not a good year to go with silly. Sanders is a 78 year old politician whose career to date has been mostly just talk--and talk that will provide a rich harvest for Republicans looking for talking points capable of putting off a majority of Americans. Face it, that's the country we live in. Democrats! Reject the Bernie model and be pragmatic!
2
Ok I will take the bait - Bernie literally tied for first place - with a newcomer presidential candidate, despite having 4+ years of campaigning and messaging behind him, millions of $ in funding, a huge voter list, name recognition. Yet he couldn't win it all even then?
Who are we blaming now? Liz? DNC? Hillary?
Bernie will fizzle out once the big states start voting. I love his message and how he is moving the party to the left; but he has a ceiling. That ceiling is because of his stubborn refusal to negotiate, compromise and work with people. That ceiling is because he panders to an extreme wing of the party at the expense of the center - which the Democrats need to "pander" to (See Ezra Klein's excellent opinion piece on this last week). That ceiling is because his message is primarily focused on class and ignores the legacy of race. That ceiling is because he treated Clinton supporters as the "establishment" even though more poor folks and lower middle class folks voted for her over Trump. That ceiling is because he has some decidedly unpopular policies which most people are scared of. That ceiling exists because his supporters will destroy and tarnish anyone who speaks against him - including Warren.
Elizabeth Bruenig should have waited until Super Tuesday to write this. Or maybe she couldn't have waited until then.
7
Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump are two sides of the same coin. So are their zealous supporters. Bernie and his throng, out of spite, did far more than Putin to elect Trump in November, 2016. They'll probably do the same in November, 2020.
29
Both Trump and Sanders were supported by Putin in 2016, according to every intelligence agency and the Mueller Report. I can’t state that often enough. I detest Putin and his interference in our democracy. All true Americans should feel the same way.
@judgeroybean
You're absolutely right. Sanders' supporters handed over the White House to this miscreant.
Trump had a crude, loutish campaign. He is an objectively immoral man. Trump was elected by Trump voters.
My sister was a precinct captain last night in Iowa. She says the Sanders folks are unusually single-minded for their guy and many are utterly reluctant to cooperate with anybody. She is worried.
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@Mike Why, exactly, should the candidate who is winning feel compelled to "cooperate" with any other candidate right now? The Sanders campaign should have only one goal right now (like every other candidate out there): convincing the most voters, in the most states, that he is the single best option to not only defeat Trump, but to restore a genuine sense of decency and equality in this country.
Perhaps you should ask yourself why so many "moderates" seem frightened by these ideas. What is it it, exactly, about the prospect of greater equality that scares them so?
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@Mike Sanders voters are not for "business as usual", the rest of the Democratic Party is.
72
Close encounters with the world of self-righteous irrelevance is no fun.
16
Let’s dispense with the notion that the Democrat establishment is really concerned with whether Sanders can defeat Trump. They are concerned that Sanders will dethrone the gaggle of corporate and other sacred interests that control the party agenda.
Democrats are beholden to many interests that are not amenable to reform of foreign policy, healthcare policy, student loan and college costs, financial industry practices, etc. Sanders’ fundraising base is untethered to those interests, and it scares the daylights out of them. Expect the corporate Democrats to go to the mat to kneecap Bernie, even more so than Trump.
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@Jazz Paw Your last sentence "Expect the corporate Democrats to go to the mat to kneecap Bernie, even more so than Trump" I completely agree with and it is well said.
12
@Jazz Paw And you are exactly why people like me are wary of Bernie supporters. We see no evidence that you actually look at policy proposals of other candidates (nationwide $15 minimum wage, raise taxes on the rich, universal childcare and Pre-K, a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, student loan forgiveness) and recognize that the differences between other candidates and Bernie are minimal, especially when compared to the differences between Bernie and Trump.
We also look at the damage Trump is doing to our country and cannot fathom how you can contemplate another 4 years of Trump. Think about all Trumps appointments to the courts across the country. He's packed them with arch conservative sycophants who will be on the bench to 2050 and beyond. Think about him replacing Ruth Bader Ginsburg with another Brett Kavanaugh. Sanders supporters seem to see that damage not as a danger, but a feature on the misguided notion "it has to get worse before it gets better." That's not how the world works. Put a terrible leader like Trump in office and things just get worse.
16
I will vote for any Democratic nominee. Sanders is clearly the likeliest to beat Trump. Voters want an anti-establishment President.
Obama ran against the establishment--against the Iraq War and Wall Street promising "change"--though he governed for the establishment. Same with Trump. Few thought Barack Hussein Obama (Black, weird name, young) could win. Almost no one thought Trump could. They both won.
With the middle class nearly extinct, and almost half of adults making an average of just over $10 per hour (no path to the middle class), voters want change. Their desires are inchoate, contradictory, and ideologically all over the map, but ideology isn't the key anymore. Voters will elect a candidate who they trust to take on the elite---even if they disagree with them on many issues, or find their personal quirks to be less than perfect.
Pundits tell us that moving towards the "center" is what wins. The "center" is mostly in the imagination of these pundits. Ask former Presidents Mondale, Dukakis, Gore, or Hillary Clinton how well that worked for them.
Sanders is popular because he's trusted to take on the establishment. That's what it takes to win.
325
@Peck I agree. What is a moderate anyway? As many a pundit has pointed out, even with a radical president, like trump, he needs the full backing of congress which hopefully will be blue come November. They will pull policies more center where they haven't been for at least 20 yrs.
11
@Peck I agree with a lot of the statements, but "Sanders is clearly the likeliest to beat Trump" is way too big a leap. There's no "clearly" about the likelihood of any of the democrats beating Trump.
13
@RB fair, but if polling is any measure, he wins out by the highest percentage in swing states as of right now.
15
This is exactly what we saw with Trump. Regular, establishment candidates dropping away while an outsider rode through. Nobody wanted to acknowledge it was happening because it upset the establishment. But, as we saw with Trump, that excitement translated into the general election. I don't think Democrats should be afraid of the excitement!
192
@Jarrod He will lose in an electoral landslide. He will lose the popular vote. Where is the much touted "turnout" in Iowa that Sanders was going to "excite". 25% of 170,000 votes is not 66 million votes, now is it.
16
@Bananahead It takes a bit more than Iowa to get a feel for voter turnout this year. You're getting ahead of yourself.
13
@Jarrod : Yup, the Republican Establishment thought they'd be running Jeb Bush or Ted Cruz against Hillary Clinton, but when they saw Trump's enthusiastic supporters, they ran with him.
The Democratic Establishment saw Sanders' ability to attract huge crowds with little advance publicity and saw a threat. How DARE someone challenge their chosen candidate, and in a primary?
I hate everything the Republicans stand for, but they do have street smarts that the Democrats seem to lack.
22
I will say it again: He’s had a heart attack at age 78.
It has nothing to do with moderate or progressive (I’m a progressive). It has to do with who can do the job. We pick Bernie, we. will. lose.
I also seriously doubt his judgment since he refused to drop out after a very serious health event.
Not voting for him.
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@Melanie W
Melanie,
Thank you for adding a dose of reality to this comment section. As a long term democrat and union member I can only hope that Biden wins the nomination. Far from perfect but at least he can take on Trump and win the election.
Sincerely,
TD from da' bronx.
21
@Melanie W Bernie had a very common proceedure. His doctors say he's good to go. He has more energy and stamina than I do, and I'm ten years younger. JFK and Reagan both had health issues, it didn't stop them.
70
@Melanie W I agree. He even admitted that he hasn’t made the changes in lifestyle that his doctor’s recommend. If he doesn’t change his arteries will occlude.
17
Why do you think Iowans voted for Mayor Pete and Bernie? Because they know that if either one wins the Democratic nomination Trump will be re-elected president.
2
Quick word association:
"democratic socialism"
What's the first word that pops into your head?
For me, it was Denmark. Attitudes toward the Cold War have definitely changed in the last 30 years. May I remind you, people under 35 are now the largest voting constituency in the United States. They are also more politically active than any living generation at the same age.
Establishment Democrats are fighting for the preservation of the Post-Reagan neoliberal world order. Hint: Those days are over. That Democrats would even presume to advance Biden as a candidate is rather insulting. They are clearly self-interested and completely out of touch.
If you won't let me have a third-party, time to change the Democratic one.
8
No matter what the Democratic Party does, if Sanders does not get the nomination he and his supporters will accuse the party of rigging the primaries.
Despite this comment, if Bernie wins the nomination I will be voting for him in November. Unlike Bernie's supporters who if he lost the nomination would whine and stay home. And we wonder why Democrats cannot win elections...
5
If the center of politics dies, so does America as we know it. We in the center have grown used to footing the bill for the tax-escaping well off to countless social programs for the least of us. Both parties seem to have forgotten us, I believe to the detriment of political discourse. I still don't understand how being centrist is somehow dangerous for America. Anyone, please help me understand.
3
@Mark The countless social programs funded by taxpayers are for the many discarded by business with no particular interest in hiring them for any reason that suits them.
5
@Mark
The current center of American politics (it's more to the right than it used to be) had decades to address climate change, wealth inequality, etc. and didnt. Now the world is actually starting to burn.
Shifting that center back to the left would be a good thing.
5
The "centrist think tank" The Third Way is funded by Wall Street. Thus their fear of Sanders getting the nomination.
13
I am very torn. As a progressive, I admire Bernie and what he stands for. People are wary of the DNC choosing our nominee for us as they did Clinton. There is evidence that the centrist way will not prevail. It is quite possible that Bernie has the best chance of pulling over independents and disillusioned Republicans over to his side. I am alarmed at the sudden rise of anti-Bernie on the left.
5
@JaneM I'm a disillusioned Republican. The last person I would vote for is Sanders, no wait, he is the second to last person I would vote for. Warren is the last person.
The sort of no nothing vilification of free enterprise and the promise of everything free for everyone, is totally unrealistic. The man is a huckster.
With Republicans firmly supportive of the President, it will take a centrist to pick off enough Republicans and Independents to win. It is very elementary and Sanders is no centrist. You can write this on the wall!
3
@sigmundk Did that work in 2016?
The biggest issue in 2016 wasn't the Obama voters who switched sides - it was the much larger group of Obama voters who stayed home. The base needs to be inspired to come out and vote.
You're advocating for the same strategy as in 2016.
3
Yeah, just like President Kerry did.
Hillary Clinton got 10 million fewer votes than Obama. Winning elections doesn’t mean tickling the middle-headed undecideds. It means giving Democrats a reason to show at the polls.
2
Most human beings (including american's) like the idea of receiving advantages without paying any money.
Bernie Sanders has been promoting this idea for longer than any other current candidate.
Because of this, Bernie will prevail over Buttigieg and all of the democratic candidates.
Human nature likes the idea of "Free" and it will win, eventually.
3
@M.W. Endres I think its a fallacy to look at Bernie's success as simply people wanting a handout. Countries like Denmark or Finland operate well for citizens at every strata of society because their economic policies are humane and emphasise the creation of a safety net and significant potential for upward mobility for every citizen. Why can't America, the home of innovation, achieve that? It sounds a lot like the American Dream.
3
@M.W. Endres Yup, as much as republicans like to rail against "free stuff" you never quite seem to see any of them turn it down when offered. In fact, they're usually the first in line to get "free stuff".
1
When I was young I supported George McGovern, sure that his nomination was the beginning of something big and good. Clearly, I thought, he was right and that was what mattered. History has proven that he was...at least about Viet Nam.
I agree with much that Sanders says, but I do not think he would be a good president. "Right" is not enough. Lesson learned, but no one wants to listen to a Boomer now because we don't find using iPhones intuitive
5
@loiejane The Sanders appeal is because he is ethically and intellectually right on the major issues. But I agree with your assessment that his role would be better suited as a mentor of party ideals and their implementation as opposed to a leader.
5
@loiejane
If the Boomers had continued to vote for progressives after McGovern, they would have eventually won. The Silent Generation is conservative, but they are only 9% of the electorate today. Gens X, Y & Z now represent over 60% of the electorate. We have the numbers now, unlike 1972. Please join us.
1
The definition of irony: Kerry and Clinton ( candidates who lost) worrying about Sanders not being able to win.
18
Those who have benefited from multi-generations of inherited wealth, or two married professionals cannot comprehend the combined working class and youth dissatisfaction with capitalism. According to Brookings, 44% of workers earn a median income of less than $12/hr, working ages ranging from 18-64. About 25% of Walmart workers near me are over 60 and $11/hr labor is predominant as far as the eye can see. There are 6 sandwich shops within 2 blocks near me, private equity ($10-12/hr)control chain retail and one is lucky to get 30 hrs/week. Those numbers neither comport nor compute with family values of raising families, costs of housing and health care. Kind of explains the Democrats vote.
17
In addition to the charisma and sincerity of Sen. Sanders, it is the Republican party that has played the most important role in the resurgence of 'American Socialism'. After spending eight years of accusing the most popular American President since Reagan of being a "Socialist", the term has lost its negative connotation. Sen. Sanders is razor-focused on the specifics of his message. As more and more people start to understand what he is proposing and the depth of his integrity, and not just the buzzwords they hear on Fox (and CNN…) , they will come around. The contrast between him and "45" is too great.
12
@Eric Schultz What charisma? Sanders seems to always be angry and railing. He is punitive, and has an inability to control his temper. Sanders served an important role in the Democratic party, but he is not the unifying leader America needs now. His policies and humanity is superior to Trump, and he isn't corrupt to the degree of Trump, but his governing style will prove just as corrosive. And the economy will plunge. The best candidate is Bloomberg. Stop and Frisk was wrong in effect (undue focus on men of color), though not in intention (stopping gun violence). Bloomberg genuinely cares about the majority of issues Center, Center-Left, and even the Left wing (short of tear it all down) Democrats. Sanders is unrealistic and not terribly well. Enough.
7
You wouldn’t think Sanders is angry or grumpy if you watched any speech of his, front to back. Passionate, yes. But the idea that he can’t control his temper is ridiculous.
As for the stock market, please. If you know so well what will happen, I suggested you place your bets on the eve of the election and retire in comfort.
4
As a moderate and fairly well-off Democrat, I will stay home if Sanders is the nominee and leave the party for independent status. If a bunch of Bernie Bros and bomb throwers want to revisit the 1972 debacle, drag the Democratic Party down with them, and hand the GOP at least four more years in the White House, be my guest. The blame will lie entirely with them.
10
@Lucien Yes the well-off will often vote for Trump, including by the default of staying home and enjoying the status quo.
6
@Lucien Dhooge the blame will lie with you for choosing to give up your vote. Choosing independent status sounds like a reasonable response. Choosing not to vote and to support Donald J Trump is childish.
@Lucien Dhooge Now do Mondale, Gore, Kerry, and Clinton.
The best candidate for the Democrats is Elizabeth Warren, because she envisions a new direction, but she is not a "democratic socialist."
She is also an organized and flexible, but persistent, person.
Women must vote for a woman who can win, without being gaslighted by those who say women cannot win. She is probably more liked by voters than Bernie, but the false perception that because she is blonde and white and female, she cannot win, is the chief reason she is not at the top of the Iowa outcome.
8
@HLR Sen. Warren is far and above, superior to the rest.
Only 53% will support a Democrat other than Bernie. That says it all. Just like last time. If he gets the nomination, get ready for 4 more years of Trump.
AOC and her minions will be the new (and dying) Labor party.
6
@Almighty Dollar
Spot on. AOC and Sanders are a disaster waiting to happen.
Remember that of the candidates supported by Sanders and his political compatriots in the 2018 House elections all lost, while the more moderate and centrist candidates who ran in Trump districts won. Sanders did well in the Iowa caucuses (although not as well as he did in 2016 given the additional number of candidates) because it is a caucus state that favors those like students who can take off and make themselves available on a specific night and at a specific place. Caucus elections disfavors those who have jobs in the evenings or childcare responsibilities or who have illnesses etc. And of course, Sanders promises free tuition and free healthcare to a student population that is concerned about both. Further, Iowa is not representative of the population as a whole, nor especially of the Democratic Party. His doing well in Iowa or in New Hampshire are not necessarily foreshadows of how he would do in the general elections. The Democratic Party has a right to be cautious. He was not vetted in the 2016 primary and there has been fewer attacks on him from Republicans, because they would love to see him as the candidate to run against Trump. The efforts to get Ukraine to announce investigations of Biden and the current Republican threats to open such investigations in the U.S. are because Trump fears that Biden is the one who could most likely beat him. But only if the Sanders supporters agree to vote Democratic no matter what.
12
Even the most left-wing people that want actual implementable solutions are looking at Warren, not Sanders. People that want to flip the table out of anger (a-la Trump 2016) are attracted to Bernie and Bernie alone.
I think Bernie serves a purpose: to push liberals to do more for working people. But his proposed solutions are, basically, ridiculous. They mirror the other side in that they are basically giving away things to people, without any concern for how to pay for them. I don't think the solution to giving away unearned wealth to one set of people is to give away unearned wealth to another set of people. I think we need to stop giving away unearned wealth. Period.
Paying for what you get is a pretty decent way to live. There are a few very specific services that have inelastic pricing--healthcare and primary education in particular--where markets really cannot price them correctly or fairly, but otherwise we should just start making people pay for what they get. A UBI is arguably the best and most efficient safety net beyond those.
But instead, Bernie bros throw a fit and then threaten to vote for Trump if they don't get their way. Ok bros, vote for fascism. We came thisclose to winning last time without you, pretty sure normal folks can push Trump out without falling in with another bomb-throwing mob.
8
Democrats need to get over themselves and decide what they want: four more years of Trump or a Democrat president. Too much whining about the not-perfect candidates: too strident; too old; too young; not enough experience; no name recognition; too much name recognition; too leftist; too centrist; too boring — the list goes on. We need someone who can beat Trump. They don’t have to be perfect.
18
@Dianne Olsen
BLOOMBERG.
The article doesn't mention the main objection to Sanders (and Warren) from centrists: that their ideas are extreme and unworkable. Doesn't that count for something?
18
@BarrowK
Every other industrialized nation in the world has universal health care. Canada essentially has medicare for all. But somehow that's unworkable in the US?
Good riddance to the centrists who stand in the way of real progress.
16
@BarrowK Funny, their ideas work pretty well in lots of other countries, and the (nearly) free public college worked really well in the US about 50 years ago.
1
@todji You clearly don’t grasp the complexity of the various parties to the US healthcare system. The issue here and with Warren and Sanders is that neither gas a practical way to get from here to their vision. They lack Realpolitik.
As an independent who believes in freedom with personal & fiscal responsibility, I'm almost as adverse to an extreme left wing candidate as Trump. But I will vote for whoever the Democrats nominate, holding my nose if I need to. Even though many of my beliefs lean to the middle/right, as long as Trump and his spineless followers are in office, I will not vote for ANY Republican. I hope those on the left can see fit to vote Democrat in the general election if the successful nominee isn't their favorite.
40
@Dave Thank you for your vote.
As someone on the left, while I cannot speak for the rest of us, myself and my friends have all made a pact to vote blue no matter who, even if we dislike them. This year is so monumentally different from most elections, and it is integral that no matter how divided we all are in policy, we see that this diversity of thought is exactly what makes the democratic left wing so powerful and amazing to belong to. Our unity matters most in this election, and hopefully this will be understood by election night.
3
Sanders would get slaughtered in a general election and hardly dominated the caucus popular vote. Buttigieg's inexperience hurts him, but he may have more staying power than Ms Breunig thinks and if he gets the nomination, would appeal to a wider demographic in the general election.
If you add the votes for Biden, Buttigieg and Klobuchar, it shows a majority or 55% of Iowa Democrats are moderate - Sanders and Warren combined got about 45% of the vote. If the moderates coalesce behind one candidate - now looking like Buttigieg or Bloomberg - then the centrist wing can choose an electable candidate for the general election.
But this feels a bit like the 2016 GOP primary season where the so-called moderates fought each other rather than stepping aside to let one moderate beat Trump.
16
@CarpeDiem64 It is laughable how the center-right Democrats state that Bloomberg would be a 'uniting force' in the party. As if the Left-wing of the party that has faithfully supported the party's centrist nominees since Michael Dukakis will be there forever. For most of them, the nomination of former Republican Bloomberg would be the final slap in the face and it would hand the election to Trump in a basket. Strategically speaking, there is more possibility for either Sanders or Warren to motivate people that haven't voted in previous elections (because of the centrist bias) than to attract disaffected "Never Trumpers"(i.e. literate, thinking and moral Republicans: a nearly extinct breed) with a Bloomberg candidacy.
9
@Eric Schultz The idea that there are millions of disaffected progressives, especially in key Rust Belt states, waiting for a candidate to come forth is a fantasy. It did not work in the midterms in Georgia or Florida. What did work was centrist Democrats, some of whom gasp supported gun control or disliked Pelosi who won enough House seats to give the Democrats a majority. Elections are won in the middle, not on the fringes.
1
We are back to the money changers in the temple. The temple being the earth and the money changers…? Well, we all know who they are.
The fight is heating up against Bernie Sanders because he is about to upturn the tables. Yes things are getting messy. They - the DNC, Senators, Republicans, CEO’s, (add your own) are all afraid he will win because they are the ones who will pay those high tax rates.
Well, there is still hope. FDR won in spite of them and raised the tax rate to 90%. Bernie and the new Senate will be less demanding.
20
@Diane Marie Taylor FDR became president during the great depression which everyone agreed was a national emergency. For many people the economy is doing well now. I just don't think there's a national consensus for a revolution which is what Bernie is demanding.
1
@Neall
The economy is not doing well for people under 50. Many Millennials are worse off than their parents.
1
Just don't sit home if Bernie is not the candidate, this from a progressive who has issues with the Dems not listening to rank and file.
16
Bruenig's column about Bernie's electability is very deceptive, she writes: "Recent polling from the Pew Foundation shows that, while Republicans are overwhelmingly opposed to socialism, 65 percent of Democrats feel either somewhat or very positively about socialism"
NBC/WSJ poll on socialism last March: "nine percent of independents and 13 percent of moderates viewing the term favorably in the poll."
That is why Trump & GOP have been pushing Bernie over and over. That's why they went after Biden.
16
Still puzzled why people are scared of Bernie. Bernie endorsed Bill De Blasio, who is blatantly establishment and neo-liberal, who even has an anti-regulatory housing program that was written by a Republican economist. Bernie is not such an anti-establishment guy after all.
2
@Le
De Blasio has been a disaster for NYC. The city has dramatically slipped under his rule.
It isn’t fear! Many, many times I have seen people talk about how people are afraid of Bernie. I am not afraid of Bernie. I just think a nearly 80 year old who just had a heart attack and gave speeches to Sandinistas while people chanted “Die yankee” and honeymooned in the Soviet Union and has pictures of himself in front of a portrait of Lenin and didn’t have a job until age 40 and wrote an essay about women and rape fantasies and is a millionaire with multiple homes who hides his finances in his wife’s name and his wife was accused of financial corruption at her university job and was backed by Putin in 2016 absolutely should not be president. I guess that makes me an elitist.
The Gen Z children who prefer ideological purity to defeating Trump are going to be weeping again the day after the election.
The far Left has some good ideas, particularly on a national health service. But instead of supporting the unelectable they should pressure a Centerist to embrace some of their ideas.
I fear for the next four years. Trump is going to win, folks.
13
@Peak Oiler
Your assumption is that Warren and Sanders are unelectable while Biden is. Sorry, Biden will lose horribly. He can't speak two sentences without sticking his foot in his mouth and won't excite people to get out to vote.
3
@todji okay, I disagree. This makes the GOP delighted. But in the interest of civility, what do you think of Michael Bloomberg?
The leaders of the Democratic Party are opposed to Sanders because his candidacy will lead to a trump victory. The American people will never vote for such a far left candidate like McGovern.
Note what happened to Corbyn and the labor party in the UK.
A trump victory will give the right wing republicans complete control of out government. Then America will really be a complete right wing oligarchy.
14
It's hard to believe that after revelations of DNC bias against Sanders nearly blew up the 2016 Democratic convention, the Democratic establishment would risk trying to sabotage Sanders' campaign in 2020. But it's happening again. Grace and fairness are not much on display in the Democratic establishment's opposition to Sanders.
But perhaps, in politics, grace and fairness should not always be the first considerations. When democracy is in danger, the need is to win. In this respect the establishment argument against Sanders might be stronger if Kerry had managed to defeat a vulnerable Bush in 2004, or if Clinton had got it done against an appalling Trump in 2016. It's not clear the establishment is right to oppose Sanders, even from the standpoint of electability.
That said, I think Democrats would do better in 2020 with a moderate candidate. The establishment seems to favor Biden. But his fundraising, his crowds, and his results in Iowa suggest that he might not have the juice.
If you want to win, you need a candidate who excites people. But as they they were in 2004 and 2016, and arguably in 2008 against Obama, the party establishment is fixated on a "safe" candidate who doesn't excite. Their record is not very good. Maybe it's best, then, to keep the fingers off the scale and just let the process unfold.
18
There are two Democratic parties: the one you call "centrist" which occupies Washington DC, pursue Republican lite policies and runs roughshod over Democratic voters and the one you call "radical" which suffers in the hinterland with low incomes, bad environments and no safety net. It's past time when Democratic voters should prevail over the "centrists."
17
The longer the Iowa Democratic Committee delays turning over final results, the greater the likelihood that the Iowa Delegation will have a credentials fight, and possibly a competing delegation demanding to be seated at the national convention.
The trouble created by Iowa has only just begun.
6
Last night I heard Trump tell Americans how much other countries admire the United States. I have been living outside the USA for 52 years and I have never met anyone who thinks highly of America. In Yeats’s poem that says that the Centre cannot hold, there is also the line: Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world. That is what Trump presides over: mere anarchy.
28
@Robert Dole I can't speak for all Europeans of course, but many of us here do admire the United States... of 1945.
Or rather the idealistic version of 1945 America that was never entirely real.
The United States of today, not so much.
22
@Robert Dole ❤️ Absolutely true!
Number one. Bernie is NOT a Democrat. Why he’s being allowed t run as one is beyond me. Two, Bernie is in his late 70s. Is it possible to find someone with similar policies who is considerably younger and whose policy decisions will affect him or her directly long after they leave office? Finally, when are we going to take James Carville’s advice and focus on the kitchen table issues candidates aren’t focusing on? Yeah, it’s all well and good that we have a policy on immigration and voter rights. Those are important. But to the majority of Americans for whom are largely unaffected by those policies, they want to know when they can stop working three jobs to make ends meet and work one that pays well and has decent benefits. Their 501ks would do great if they had one.
18
@John Bernie is a Democrat when a majority of Democrats vote for him.
3
@John If you look at the platforms of Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, they are focusing on kitchen table issues. One an advocate of a fair and functioning democracy and a fair and functioning capitalism. The other a democratic socialist
5
@John
I understand you don't want to have quality health care, a pension plan, social security, affordable housing ,education and a American life that represents quality . Children in cages and Trump policies are destroying our communities.
Bernie is a democrat and has always been one. FDR created a safety net for Americans so that they would not be living on the streets .
So live your life in a bubble but Bernie is a concerned America is not a traitor as the people who are in charge now
1
Thanks for this fine article. (1) Hillary is apparently right that nobody she knows likes Bernie (2) The disarray of wealthy insiders in their financing of so many non-electable neo-Republican candidates is amazing. (3) The impeachment to cover for dysfunctional Bidens has done the opposite. (4) Warren undercuts Bernie, when together they could lead us to some international normality. With such split disarray at the Convention, delegates will be free to nominate poor Joe, who of course will lose.
7
When will it take people to understand that Bernie Sanders is NOT campaigning against a Republican or a Democrat but rather a SYSTEM embraced by BOTH parties that have left behind the very people they were meant to represent.
38
@Michael Sorensen
This is exactly how it is. There are some socially policy differences that separate traditional Republicans and Democrats but when it comes down to it both are controlled by and serve the powerful interests and could care less for the "little guy". This is finally becoming obvious to the masses. Trump campaigned on this and won. Sanders does as well. The establishment Democrats fear Sanders more than they do Trump for the reasons outlined on the column. Trump can be dismissed. Sanders could actually change the party.
11
Maybe now Bernie will finally be vetted.
The guy who refused to finalise his FEC filings from 2016; who was mentioned as benefitting from Russian interference in the Mueller report; who, after decrying PACs, immediately went out and started one after that election. I think all these things are connected. He didn’t want to respond to the FEC’s questions about hundreds of pages of suspect overseas donations, about 10 mil in dark money from a single DC zip code; and now that PAC also refuses to disclose donations.
NYT, please investigate.
9
I have commented before as an outside observer of American politics. I find the categorisation of Bernie Sanders as some sort of left-wing radical to be rather amusing. Mr Sanders is radical only by the standards of Germany circa 1930 or the US circa 1953.
There are people who fear his policies; because those policies threaten to reduce their wealth and power and hand some of the difference to ordinary Americans. Too many of the fearful ones hold sway at the top of the DNC.
Should Mr Sanders be selected to contest the presidency this year, it would show the world that America has not succumbed to the lure of tyranny. That it might still represent a shining light.
29
Thanks, I am becoming more of a Bernie/Warren supporter.
My first presidential vote was an enthusiastic anti-Reagan vote for Carter. Today, it is hard to tell the difference between Joes's/Pete's/Amy's/Mike's positions and those of the republicans in the late 70's. My gosh, Obama care is a watered-down republican proposal.
Time to course correct, and yes money has been and continues to be the problem in politics as moneyed interest abhors change.
22
@Sad Patriot
Are you relying on the results of the Iowan caucus results to help you make up your mind?
They can't even hold a valid election.
And they are NOT representative of the make up of the country.
Please wait until after a few more states that actually vote and actually represent the country as a whole vote.
However, those states that actually represent the country will never win an election because of the electoral college.
1
@esp the comment seemed more about policy direction.
If the centrist Democratic Party establishment wants to retain control of the party it needs to field a candidate that can BOTH beat Trump AND inspire younger voters and others who are struggling, even in a time of full employment, with low wages, high debt and excessive medical costs. It needs a candidate with a positive message offering hope for a better future — something that has been scarce in centrist candidates since 2008, and wholly absent in centrist candidates in 2020. This is the lesson complacent, clueless party insiders should take away from Iowa and the Sanders insurgency. Instead, they continue to push a recycled candidate mired in nostalgia who is good-natured but uninspiring, often baffled, gaffe-prone, and a habitually poor campaigner.
15
So glad to see an opinion piece looking at the reality of this election cycle. Bernie Sanders is the one. The distribution of wealth is the real issue in this election. A very few people own most of the wealth and have had too much control over the rest of us. The public has had enough of the oligarchy, whether Republican or Democrat. Bernie Sanders is not a Socialist. He is trying to move the party back to it's original FDR style policies. He is not a Communist. When people hear him speak, they recognize the truth in what he is saying, and has been saying his entire life. We need to retrieve our democratic republic from the control of a few obscenely wealthy oligarchs..that simple. People at the bottom have nothing. People in the middle have far far less and a few people at the top, are hoarding it all for themselves.
18
@Carolyn Egeli
I’m baffled by NYT reader’s repeated references to FDR ... how can 80-year old post-Depression politics be remotely relevant to the 21st century? Might as well reference the platform of the Whig party. (Not to mention, regrettably ... I’m afraid that 90% of Millenials could not identify FDR.)
If Sanders and his supporters feel slandered when he is called “a Socialist”, perhaps he shouldn’t identify himself as a Democratic Socialist. Just sayin’.
It is very interesting, and ironic in the extreme, to watch the establishment, and not just the Democratic establishment, quake at the idea of real change in Washington, rather than the obviously fake variety represented and championed by Trump. The establishment came to terms with Trump because he let them in on the joke on his base early on with his "greatest ever" tax cut for the wealthy. It is clear that the controlling moneyed interests recognize that Sanders isn't joking. Nor is Warren. This is about to get very interesting.
14
Ummmm.... Bernie has run before, too, and lost, and the votes arent all in. This column is a long way to go on awfully thin evidence. And, by the way, the Georgetown professor is certainly wrong. A throng of presidential candidates have been far more radical than Bernie, starting most recently with Trump but certainly also including FDR and Jackson
5
Sanders should publically define again and again what he means when he calls himself a democratic socialist . Then he should give specific policy examples so that others don't do it for him.
8
@macrol He does that now, and there is plenty of material out there explaining what he means by Democratic Socialism.
Having lived, worked, and owned a business in Europe for about a third of a century before returning home, I find it hard to believe that Americans would be willing to embrace European style socialism, particularly at a time when many Europeans themselves are starting to rethink its viability - just witness what is going on in France, for example. Yet, that is where people like Sanders and Warren want to lead us. Be careful what you wish for! Not all change is good. And change for change's sake is rarely ever good.
8
@jpduffy3 , European people are as likely to "rethink" their excellent "socialist" health care systems as Trump is likely to vote Democrat in November!
Don't be deceived by leaders like Victor Orban in Hungary. That country has had such a long long history of being ruled by autocrats that it's hard for them to get used to a democratic system. Give them a few more years.
11
@jpduffy3 Good point Jp, “just look at what is going on in France”. In France they have a faux populist of the first order not unlike Trump, a Rothschild banker, seemingly groomed from infancy to lead La Republique back to the good old days of kings and queens, this from a guy who pretended to be for the little guy, until he was I never office for about thirty minutes then went after, of course working class pensions! I’ve spent a great deal of time in Europe and their two biggest problems are us and globalization with the E.U. running a close third. Us because of the wars we start and they pay for as they are flooded with immigrants fleeing conflicts in the M.E. Globalization that has hurt their manufacturing just as it has ours and an E.U. that did much more harm than good save for Germany and Brussels. Maybe your idea of leadership is Orban and Erdogan then your eyes right Bernie’s probably not your guy but please don’t attempt to convince anyone that Socialism is not a good thing for society in general otherwise why would the happiest citizens in the world be in Socialist countries?
1
@jpduffy3 Find me one European that wants to change the economic or health care system of his/her country to the American system.
I bet you'll have a hard time to find one even among billionaires.
2
" . . . and an inflection point in the battle between the party’s center and left wing."
Ah-ha! Someone who actually knows what an inflection point is and how to use it properly as metaphor.
An inflection point is where the curve changes from convex to concave (or vice versa) and it changes sign (positive to negative or vice versa). This is the moment people like me have been waiting to see for over 40 years, ever since McGovern got thrashed by Nixon in 1972. The move to the center started with Carter and got waaaayyyyy worse under Bill Clinton. Thinktanks like Third Way are just anachronisms in an increasingly polarized political world. It really is authoritarianism versus some form of socialism. Or, to put it more simply, government for the rich or government for the rest of the people.
Now, let's be clear. I - and many others like me - will not hold my nose and vote. It is either Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren for the Democratic nomination. Otherwise I don't vote. I may vote for the Green Party candidate like I did in 2016. We'll see.
The DNC or as I call it, the Dinosaur National Committee, has been put on notice. Don't try and cheat Bernie out of the nomination this time!
18
Walter. Guess we all lose. I will not vote for Sanders in my primary. But i may hold my nose and vote for him if he is selected. Four more years.
6
@Walter "....repudiation of establishment hegemony"
is what keeps me in Bernie's corner. Right now I do not see me holding my nose and voting for any other Dem nominee except Elizabeth Warren. I didn't hate Hillary in 2016 but I voted Green Party. Hillary should tone down her criticism of Sanders.
1
Please, all Bernie supporters (I am one), vote for the Democrat no matter what. The environment cannot afford to suffer the regressive actions of Trump; at the very least we need someone who asserts the existential threat of climate change. If not for people, do it for any number of species thrown under the bus by Trump’s EPA regime. Or the animals that will be drowned when they can’t cross to higher ground because of the wall. Please!!!!!
I voted for Sanders over Clinton last time around. I've always respected him, even if not totally aligned with his proposed policies. (And I'm no Clinton fan.) In all frankness, it is Bernie's supporters who have turned me off from him with their arrogant, messianic zeal.
I'll likely vote for any Democrat against Trump. The message that I seem to get from the Sanderistas (who insult you for not being a true believer in their man), however, is that they will sabotage the Democrat's chances if their guy doesn't win the nomination.
I'm tired of all of these surveys that 18-30 year olds favour "socialism", blah, blah, blah. Yet they can't be bothered to vote because they are so busy doing what I don't know. (Brexit would have failed and Trump would not be president if 18-30 year olds could be bothered to vote.) So let's focus on the people who actually vote.
We just went through that whole "socialism" thing in the UK with the resounding defeat of Jeremy Corbyn. If the US election becomes a referendum on "socialism", the Democrats will lose by a wide margin.
16
@Expat London
Do you understand, though, that a vote fore Centrist is a vote for no change, just more of the same, namely, the rich get richer while the poor get poorer?
Hillary would have been a mere placeholder for the Establishment. Like Joe Biden and Mayor Pete will be.
No, some of us want real change: where the poor get somewhat richer, to wit, rich enough to live a decent life. I know that's radical in macho America, where only the strong deserve to survive and thrive.
23
@Expat London
How about a referendum on Russian, Saudi love affairs' that trump is engaging in . The referendum on Trump should be disturbing to every parent who is vested in their children's future This is an election about democracy and freedom.
Its up to democrats to carry the message to everyone who is not in love with Trump and his whiteness .
@Expat London Are you an American Expat living in London? If so, who are these Sanderistas? Maybe some small subset of those supporting Bernie on Social Media, maybe an exaggerated media myth.
If Bernie Sanders is so popular, why do we not have a viable, Socialist third party across the country? He’s had 40 years to build one. The answer is that in most states the population does not support his issues. He will not win the general election.
15
@Paul
You don’t understand how Anglo=Saxon civics work, especially the American version. In those systems, most issues were flushed out in the Judiciary (Common Law) centuries ago. The main issues left to politics is economics. Economics is dominated by supply & demand. That means the main issue is whether we have a policy bias towards supply or demand. From 1945 to 1972 we had demand side bias. Since we’ve had supply side bias.
The source of demand is wages. So demand bias is upword pressure on wages. Supply bias is wage suppression. See Graph 2 at Bit.ly/EPI-study also read the columns on the far right at ezcivics.com
Ideological based parties and multiparty parliamentary systems are things associated with Civil (Napoleonic) Code systems, particularly associated with continental Europe. We are not one of those. The most successful “socialist” party is the Labor party, not named for an ideology but for the interest group they serve.
6
That is the crux of it.
@Tim Kane Wow. Bernie bros being condescending. Shocking.
"But the one unsurmountable establishment fear surrounding a Sanders win is something more like naked self-interest, and its attachment to power."
Why isn't it just a fear that Bernie is less likely to beat Trump? That 65% of Democrats don't dislike socialism isn't the positive Bruenig thinks. Do we want to have a socialist nominee in a close election when the poll she cites showed that 33% of Democrats have a somewhat or negative attitude toward socialism? Is that a way to win back the 12% of white voters who voted for Obama in 2012 but for Trump in 2016? Is that a way to get back the 11% of black voters who voted for Obama in 2012 but didn't vote at all in 2016 to vote? No.
6
Hillary is right about productivity. You could hold in one hand everything passed through Congress by Bernie and Maxine Waters, both millionaires.
7
@L osservatore Bernie only recently became a millionaire vis his book sales. Americans are more socialist than they understand or realize. Socialism is not a bad word; it's just that we've been brainwashed against it for decades. Do some reading!
Imagine President Sanders proposing bills and working to drum up support from Mitch McConnell and the GOP majority senate. Imagine that senate approving his various cabinet nominees or judges. Hah! I can’t imagine anything less imaginable.
12
@ABaron But as we know, the President can trump the Senate. Congress is an idea whose time has gone.
1
@ABaron I can't imagine Mitch McConnell approving anything proposed by any Democratic President.
@Moses Cat Wow. Let's not have a "King Bernie", please. We have three branches for very good reason.
Apparently Americans no longer comprehend the differences between Communism, Socialism, and Capitalism. Recently, the US has emphasized free market capitalism which has lead to inequality similar to the Gilded Age. We ameliorated that then by tempering it with some socialist programs. We still have some of that, but today most of the very rich appear to have little interest in the welfare of those of us not like them and want every last dollar they can squeeze out of us and the commensurate power. If we could leaven Capitalism with more socialism we would be a much stronger, stable, happier, and cooperative country.
I also wish our younger people had been taught history in school because we are repeating the mistakes of the past. Way too much hubris; we know where that leads.
23
@WW The candidate who is proposing ways to reform capitalism to make it a fair and functioning system is Elizabeth Warren
As the great humorist, Will Rogers, once said, “I’m not a member of an organized political party. I’m a Democrat.” I live in fear that the Democrats will seize defeat from the jaws of victory in the 2020 Presidential Election. I agree that we’ve made a mess of Capitalism. In The Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith warned us against unregulated Capitalism. The corrupting influence of money in politics has twisted our whole financial system and created social and economic stresses that are tearing our nation apart. I agree that we must fix it.
But first, we must defeat Trump and save the Constitution. Neither progressives nor conservatives represent a majority of the electorate. The outcome of next election will depend how many of those in the middle can be motivated to come out and vote for our candidate. The middle will not be attracted by policies they consider radical. It is unlikely it is that an overly progressive platform will carry a majority of the electorate. Remember that the Electoral College went to Trump regardless of Hillary Clinton’s popular majority.
Trumpism represents a clear and present danger to our Constitution and form of government Such as we haven’t seen since the 1850s, when the total breakdown of political civility lead to civil war. Aided and abetted by the Senate, Trump’s self-centered ignorance of history and the Constitution has lead him ignore the law. If we allow the Constitution to be destroyed, the rule of law and our democracy will not survive.
13
Step one: Game the system and gain power.
Step two: Use that power to change the system to make it fair and democratic.
Too many people want to skip step one. Good luck getting to step two.
4
@Ben Gaming the system has diminishing returns. It's the category: Authenticity. Gaming is cynical. People can smell it a mile away
Indeed the Center cannot hold nor should it.
The ultimate inflection point and the one that is controlling our politics at the moment, in both parties is “The Great Inflection Point of 1972.”
From 1945 to 1972 the median (meaning everyone’s) wage grew in lockstep with GNP — Roughy 100% (doubling incomes in 27 years). Since 1972 GNP has gone up 150% but the median wage has been flat & roughly 90% of those gains have all gone to the <1%. See Graph#2 at bit.ly/EPI-study
It’s worse than it looks. Since some wages have gone up (health/tech) & some in unions (7%) have floated, it means the vast majority of Americas 160 million workforce (& their families) have had to endure 48+ years of declining expectations, ruining millions of lives, families and causing an opioid epidemic, protofascism and Trump - and all of these disasters roughly predictable result of wealth concentration, as is worse later on if the trend continues. (See French/Russian revolutions)
A 48+ year trend like that is not possible without complicity from elites in both parties. It is vastly unfair and immoral and unpatriotic. It is destroying our world, literally, by allowing climate change to go unchecked.
The Democratic “Center” is a grossly immoral and near criminal enterprise that needs to be taken down in order to allow civility and fairness to be restored.
The pre 1972 social contract was what FDR bequeathed us. All Bernie’s trying to do is restore it and with it stability & justice to our world.
36
@Tim Kane
I might add that 48+ years of declining expectations has been the experience of the vast majority of workers and their families in an economy that has grown 150%.
All that wealth flowing to the <1% - suggests that the entire system is operating like a syndicate for the <1%. Its a power & money oligopoly. It exists to do what it does: take and concentrate money & power.
Since that is its purpose we can’t expect the oligarchy to just allow its self to lose power & money to Sanders/progressives without a fight. This is going to get ugly. Iowa is not the end it is the beginning.
Buttigieg took money from the money&power syndicate. His campaign had the Des Moines Register poll squashed. His campaign manager’s wife owns Shadow the company that made the app that failed. Now he comes walking out of Iowa with a lead or partial lead (at 62%of vote count). Taken alone nothing is overwhelmingly suspect, but in context of what’s at stake, it is all suspect. It would be highly unusual for a syndicate that holds power and exist to hold power would just give up that power to democratic means. They’ll do any trick they can to perpetuate their power position. That’s simply Max Weber’s thesis on how bureaucracies work to perpetuate themselves.
18
The so-called "Center" of the Democratic Party is a party of the people only in name. Truth is they're a party for themselves, not for the people.
Establishment democrats' closeness to Wall Street banks is the same as that of republicans'. Establishment democrats do the folksy talk, but not the actual walk.
Hillary Clinton should be attacking Donald Trump, NOT Bernie Sanders.
After Sanders was sabotaged by the DNC in 2016, he was a strong supporter of Hillary Clinton. In 2016, he told his millions of followers again and again to please follow him in his support for Hillary Clinton.
Yet to this day, Hillary Clinton repays him with attacks, attacks in her books, attacks in her media appearances. She is relentless.
Bernie Sanders is NOT a "radical" at all. Look at other advanced developed countries in the world. What he is saying is mainstream in those states, none of which is a "Communist", or an old Cold-War-style "Socialist" tyranny.
Countries like Norway, New Zealand, Germany, France, Canada, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, to name a few are good societies that work well, where citizens lead decent lives.
Brutal American corporatism is not the way to go, and it is certainly not the only option.
Corporatism is the hard sell coming from the bipartisan Business Lobby staying rich and powerful on it. It does not come from the American People.
Establishment democrats are not for actual Democracy.
oz.
38
@oz. He was not a strong supporter after the HRC loss. I had not supported her, but I voted for her. I'm not anti socialist. I'm disappointed in the Democratic PARTY. I wouldn't have a problem with voting a Socialist ticket if I agreed with the Socialist running. I will vote for Sanders if I must, but I don't approve of his record and I don't like the way his followers act on social media. I don't like what there is of his foreign policy; he seems not to have given it much thought. I'm very unimpressed by him, but will vote for him if I must. Will YOU vote for the winner if not him?
9
@oz.
You summed it up beautifully. Thank you
1
Sanders would make a formidable general election candidate in 2040, when boomers are mostly gone. But we're still here and will keep him out of office if he is nominated. Warren or Klobuchar would be much more electable, the Democrats are making a big mistake.
5
@Grunt I'm a Boomer and all in for Sanders. The mistake was not going with him last time out,
22
@Grunt
I'm a boomer; I'll turn 60 this year. I've been all in on Sanders since before he ever decided to run for President. The day he announced he would run I did a happy dance. I was literally waiting at the door on the first day of early primary voting in Ohio because I was so excited at finally having someone to vote *for* and not have to be satisfied with simply voting against Republicans.
Does that make me "OK"?
18
@Grunt I'm a boomer, 72, and I'm in for Bernie, all the way to the White House.
13
It may well be that Mr. Sanders leads the popular vote in Iowa *precisely because* he is not favored by entrenched powers within the Democratic Party. Thus, if a reluctant party machine swings behind him, he'll gallop home.
13
Bernie and Warren seem to be dividing up the Left
while Biden and Mayor Pete are dividing up the Middle
and Amy K takes what is left along with Yang.
If Warren drops out - then Bernie surges.
If Biden drops out - then Mayor Peter surges.
If either Warren or Biden drop out before the other,
then either Bernie or Mayor Peter will become the clear
Front Runner.
However the Elite will never allow Bernie to be their Nominee
let alone President...
Enter Mayor Michael...
7
If Biden drops out, Warren surges. (And, for those of us who lived through the Anita Hill hearings, we might be able to forgive him.)
@John Brown let’s not forget about Mayor Mike folks!
@John Brown Ugh, hope you're wrong.
Right leaning Democrats brought us Trump. Voters do not want Republican-light candidates, they want real actual change that was promised, but never actually delivered.
The time for appeasement of has ended, the time for real societal change is now. We don't have time to dither our future away with half measures and platitudes towards imaginary "middle-ground repubs". We have wanna be dictators in power and a planet that's rapid becoming inhospitable to human life.
We need to make changes to the way we live NOW. Electing the same type of democrat that allowed us to fall this low in the first place is insanity. Establishment Democrats want us to repeat the mistakes of 2016 while hoping for different results.
Make no mistake, if we do not elect Bernie Sanders, we're getting 4 more years of Trump and we'll deserve it.
29
@Wellington Democrats angered by illegal immigration and annoyed by HRC's sense of entitlement gave us Trump. A healthy number of those same voters would be tempted by Sanders. They want to break things and blame immigrants because the system hasn't been working for them.
That said, I totally disagree with you. If Sanders is the nominee he will leave Trump in office and the country more divided than ever. I'll vote for him, but not happily.
I want a candidate who will unite the country. The best bet at the moment is Bloomberg.
6
@Wellington
Mayor Mike! If he comes on strong on super Tuesday.
Appeasement is an ugly word. You infer that anyone who doesn't hold to your ideology is unworthy of consideration. But that's what Trumpists do, and it doesn't work. Look at our country now: half the country is at the throats of the other half and all because we have a guy in office whose whole attitude is, 'the time for appeasement has ended.'
Democracy is never about having it all your own way. That's at the root of the dysfunction in both parties! How the heck are we supposed to be a country if we decide some citizens are unworthy of respect and consideration? That's a ticket to the gulch and an invitation to civil war. We don't have to believe as they do, but we do have to make room for their beliefs. That's what that word 'liberty' is about, you know.
I understand the concern regarding any attempts by party establishment to diminish the prospects of a Sanders nomination - it would be a terrible mistake. However it might be a graver mistake for a substantial cohort of Sanders supporters to use the threat of staying home, were the nominee someone other than Bernie, as a way of holding the nominating process itself hostage. I am deeply concerned this young, committed, enthusiastic group of voters would be willing to play roulette with the county's future. And I would appeal to them that the ideals inherent in democratic socialism are unlikely to die if Sanders is not the nominee. I fear the same is not the case were he to run and lose...the outcome of which millennials will have to live with a lot longer than old boomers like me.
9
@Jeff Meckling As far as i can tell, there seem to be as many so-called moderates and centrists claiming they will stay home if Bernie is nominated as there are Bernicrats who say the same thing. So it’s what we call a quid pro quo... 😘
Maybe some so-called outraged-by-Trump Republicans like Ross Douthat and Bret Stephens, and some outraged-by-Bernie capitalist Dems (like Robert Samuelson) are suggesting they might sit this one out if Sanders is the nominee. And I worry that swing voters in critical states may balk at Bernie. However while my exhortation this primary season is "vote to win", there is no question that every decent Dem of my generation better "vote the Dem" this November. Canada won't take us this time.
Sanders supporters see what Trump did to the Republican party and think, our man can do that too. But he can't. Sure, if Sanders were to win the nomination, the party machinery would be at his disposal, and the party's power brokers, even if they can't stand him, would end up supporting him into November, just as all the never-Trumpers fell into line. But that's where the parallel ends. Trump crafted a message that appealed to 90% of Republican voters right from the start (now it's 94%). Sanders's ideas resonate with about a third of Democrats, make another third nervous, and terrify the rest. So Sanders would get between 2/3 and 3/4 of the Democratic vote, and maybe half the independents. A minority of the rest would vote for Trump while many others, if there were no third choice, would stay home. What do you think the net result would be?
The idea of putting an elderly socialist who has just suffered a heart attack up against a sitting President with 49% approval in a strong economy is just bizarre. Even against this President (who gave a strong speech tonight). For folks on the left, my advice is to go for Warren. For anyone else, I'd say a Bloomberg/Klobuchar or a Bloomberg/Booker pairing might just do the trick. I think Biden is toast, while Buttigieg will prove to be a flash in the pan.
20
@William Benjamin
Booker/ Klobuchar are both centralist democrats that is why they are polling so badly
Nothing will move forward with them in a position at the helm. We wont have health care, we wont have affordable housing, we wont have progressive jobs. We wont have anything just another four years of Trump with different names.
Yang is an outstanding candidate who knows what he is talking about. Warren/Yang would be a terrific ticket
2
The central premise of this article is worth stressing. The Democratic establishment is frightened by and opposing Bernie not because of his ideas but because they see him as a threat to their power. Right or wrong in its actions, the Democratic establishment wants to keep its power.
If the Democratic establishment really didn't believe in Bernie's ideas and issues, they'd have to disown FDR's New Deal and LBJ's Great Society and his war on poverty, something they publicly won't do even if in practice they have.
The Democratic establishment believes it can retain power only by working for those who grant power in America today, the wealthy. But the wealthy see Bernie as a threat to their wealth and thus to their power. Consequently, they don't want Bernie. Obediently, then neither does the Democratic establishment.
27
@Steve C They did disown the New Deal and the War on Poverty. Ever heard of Bill and Hillary Clinton?
The DNC seems to have forgotten our own history. FDR created many of the socialist programs that we enjoy today, Social Security. LBJ created Medicare and Obama did the same with the Affordable care act.
Sanders and Warren are what you would expect to see as the next iteration of those very successful programs. Considering how much we are now paying for our healthcare and the savings we would reap by implementing a Medicare for all plan similar to the rest of the developed world.
Our economy would be able to expand even more without juicing it with tax cuts for corporations and top 1% like our current President and the Republican Party who prefers "socialism for the wealthy" by cutting our outlay for healthcare by half.
24
It’s not moderation that people want, it’s competence and fair dealing.
Mike Bloomberg could deliver this, but so could Bernie Sanders.
People accept moderation because it frequently comes as the hallmark of competence. We all know how it works: Consider the big picture. Listen to everyone’s point of view. Gather the facts. Hire professionals (not your friends). Set realistic goals. Don’t let ideology triumph over common sense. Be mindful of human relationships and human limitations. Eggs. Baskets. All that sensible stuff.
Except that last night in Iowa we saw the most appalling display of incompetence from the Democratic establishment. The “moderates”, as they like to style themselves.
Who do they think they’re fooling?
18
Based on polling and his track record, Sanders is the strongest candidate with young voters, independent voters, union households, and arguably as good as any candidate with rural voters. It's quite likely that he will bleed some support from wealthy moderates -- particularly in places like VA, NY, and CA. But in terms of the electoral math he has as good an argument as anyone. In terms of organization, he has the strongest argument of anyone. He has far and away the most energy of any campaign with over 10 million calls made in Jan. on behalf of his campaign and nearly 1 million doors knocked by a cadre of dedicated volunteers. Nothing is given in 2020, but Dems have a long history of electing "moderates" who lose. Biden looks OK in head to head match-ups, but the Iowa caucus results are a pretty searing indictment of his strength as anything other than a political brand. He has run for the presidency 3 times, and hasn't yet won a single caucus or primary. Just look at the NY Times donor maps too for the Dems, where Sanders underperforms the field in big media markets of DC and NYC, while dominating pretty much everywhere else, and it gives a pretty good indication of just how much of a bubble the elite media discourse tends to operate in (with a few welcome exceptions). The general election is going to be a slog for Dems in 2020, but Sanders looks like the candidate best suited to actually win. He's been underestimated his entire political career.
24
Too many people didn’t vote for Hillary because they didn’t like her and they were told that she was going to win. Election night was a shock for everyone.
But a moderate centrist candidate can win.
7
@David Martin To quote Leonard Cohen: Who’s Kidding Who?
As an addendum, whoever ends up as the nominee needs to make sure to maintain message discipline on the big stuff (healthcare, education, climate change, repairing our alliances, economic opportunity for Americans).
7
Centrism is not what this country needs. Liberalism is. We need a modern New Deal. Sanders and Warren understand that. That’s why, together, they draw more than half of Dems to their campaigns. The country’s 40-year experiment with ever-more right wing Republicans and moderate Democrats has failed to address our hollowed economy, war-addicted foreign policy, inaccessible health care system, complacent public schools, and unwillingness to address environmental problems. We could use some socialism.
46
@CastleMan
Thank you for the truth. Warren/Sanders/ Yang are the three top tiers we should be voting for,. The rest of the candidates are just blue dog democrats with no vision except enriching themselves
4
Literally minutes away from Bernie's home state we have a center right government, a booming economy a generation of worker shortages and one of the highest number of new business startups on the the planet.
Bernie would fit right into our conservative government which is green, and provides affordable daycare, inexpensive and totally subsidized education healthcare , security and Andrew Yang's income floor 1200 USD a month for every person. What Trump calls socialism we call human rights. It was what was once called inalienable rights that guaranteed life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
We aren't USA rich and powerful but we know we're all in this together and we are thriving .
35
I want to point out that the moderates have split the vote in Iowa’s Dem caucus thus far. If you tally Warren+Sanders va Biden+Buttigieg+Klobuchar, I think it’s pretty even, maybe even tilted to the moderates. So, no, I do not think this makes Bernie the front runner. I think this makes it obvious there are too many candidates still.
10
If centrist Democrats are worried about a Sanders candidacy, they have a perfectly reasonable way to proceed: campaign for Buttigieg or Klobuchar or Bloomberg or Biden or Warren. Personally I prefer Warren. But what is absolutely crucial is to support the Democratic nominee against our would-be monarch.
I would add that as an American living in Europe, the idea that Bernie might make the US a little bit more like our European friends and allies is... not terrifying at all, frankly. More public role in the economy, more egalitarian health care, less guns: sounds great.
25
A question of terminology.... Obama was arguably a moderate Democrat, tempted to move left but unable to do so against 6 years of GOP Congressional shut-down.
But to describe the Clintonian, third-way, GOP-lite "establishment" of the Democratic Party as moderate is simply inaccurate. This is the right wing of the party, roughly equivalent in its core beliefs to the Nixon-era GOP : interventionist in foreign affairs, uncritical of our voracious Earth-eating capitalism, and convinced that more college educated citizens and more jobs (of whatever, low-paying, insecure variety) are all we really need to be normal.
This is all uninspiring to say the least: incremental improvements to be achieved through negotiations with a few "sensible" Republicans? Hoping a few tens of thousands of former Trump voters are all we need to get our country rolling again?
Hey, folks, we are teetering on the edge of an illiberal and authoritarian abyss! We can't have our cake and eat it too.
So, moderate, schmoderate. I agree with most of what Ms. Bruenig has to say here, but this is no time for moderation. Even Barry Goldwater knew that. And the Democratic Party needs to get its act together NOW.
27
@David in Le Marche What happened to Barry Goldwater? Did he win?
1
@David in Le Marche Goldwater lost...
@David in Le Marche I agree. Trump is fire and you have to fight fire with fire. Vote the Bern!!!!
1
Maybe the reason that they are worried is because they believe that the guy is going to lose against Trump.
Bloomberg is the answer.
7
@David Martin Been there, done that, got the T-shirt. The country is currently ruled by an egotistical billionaire who bought the Presidency. Bloomberg's arrogance is boundless: not willing to schlep around Iowan towns, he'll buy Superbowl ads instead. I hope and trust the Party voters will show him what we think - standing on a box or not standing on a box - of people's buying the Presidency
2
@David Martin You mean the guy that bought his way into the primary instead of the guy who beats Trump in every poll?
1
The two main camps within the Democratic Party need the different strengths (and votes) of the other camp to mount a successful election campaign for all of the available seats up for grabs this year. However, bad blood and mutual mistrust have developed between them, and the internecine conflict is being exploited by the foes of reason and humanism. For the Democrats to have any hope of electoral success a reconciliation is necessary.
In my opinion, Bernie is the best campaigner among the current crop of Democratic candidates. He does however occasionally score an own goal in messaging (referring to himself as a socialist when he’s closer to a social democrat for example...though the word’s definition is likely to evolve soon). On the other hand, the most polished campaign messaging is worthless without voters having a clear answer to the question “What’s in it for me?” There is still plenty of time for the camps to convene, agree on carrots that’ll get out the vote, and remember that the stick should be reserved for non-voters and intransigent Republicans.
4
"The Center cannot hold" because Centrist Establishment Democrats want to improve the safety net for workers when the real answer is a living wage economy. But now that money is Free Speech corporations and their lobbyists donate heavily to politicians who serve the donors by deregulating and giving tax breaks and money moves steadily upward, damaging the Middle Class and causing major hardship for ordinary Americans. As for beating Trump Bernie is a good bet because he outpolled Trump every time in 2016 and was cheered at a FoxTownHall this year for his presentation of Medicare for All. People beileve Bernie wants to help them and they're right. If the GOP calls him a socialist Bernie can run ads with Trump and Putin bromancing at Helsinki.
10
@Saint999 : To get to a living wage economy, you have to close the gap between wages and housing. That is, wages need to go faster than rents and mortgages. Otherwise landlords will capture the increase.
Raise wages faster than housing supply and you get raging inflation. Increase housing without a fast enough increase in wages and you get a mortgage crash.
It's a delicate balance between the Devil and the deep blue sea.
2
@mlbex
Other than raising the minimum wage it's complicated. Housing would have to start as government projects for rental, with rent control,. We need a lot of infrastructure work plus taxes have to be much more progressive... Elizabeth Warren must have a plan.
1
@Saint999 : Agreed. The linkage between housing and wages will doom any plan that ignores it to failure.
"Establishment attacks on Sanders — especially if effective — could result in Mr. Sanders’ base simply staying home in the general election."
The myth of the one candidate who is more "electable" than any other has never been supported by the polling data and now has been blown out of the water by the Iowa caucuses. Any Democrat can win, and any Democrat can lose -- depending on how the campaign unfolds.
The Clintonites and their supporters need to decide if they are willing to destroy the Democratic Party in order to retain their control of it. The unique thing that Sanders has accomplished organizationally is bring a generation of heretofore alienated and apathetic youth into the political process. If Sanders is seen to have been cheated out of the nomination by the machinations and calumnies of the Clintonites and the DNC professionals, young people will abandon the party permanently. And it will die.
Think about that.
Even if one regards Sanders to be a slightly riskier candidate, that risk could well be worth taking if it will solidify the future commitment of an entire generation of younger voters. If Sanders loses honestly, fine. But it would be suicidal for the party organization not to treat his candidacy fairly.
40
Woofer. I am not part of the establishment. I do not want Sanders. This scenario you keep imagining that is against Sanders is not true. It will be your excuse for failing.
1
This reads like Sanders completing a Trumpian takeover of the Democratic Party. That's exactly what it would be. Sanders deploys some of the same disinformation tactics, radicalization and base-only politics as Trump. His base of "bros" is toxic similar to Trump's. A Sanders nomination would further exacerbate the divisions and polarization within our politics, potentially closing the road back to national unity forever.
7
@Justin G. If Bernie isn't your candidate, OK. But we tried Gore, Kerry, and Clinton and lost. We've ended up with Trump in the White House, a GOP Senate, a right wing SCOTUS, and less than half of the Governorships and state legislatures. Centrism has been a disaster.
14
@Justin G. Where do you get that his base is only, 'bros'? What is your factual information? With nearly $35 million in donations coming from individual donors giving on average $18, you have to be really ignorant to assume that it's a bunch of toxic 'bros who comprise his base. Sanders has support from a diverse range of people that more closely reflects the make-up of the United States: women, men, young people, immigrants, professionals, blue-collar workers, farmers, teachers People like you and me. I think he's done remarkable work in uniting people, human beings, to aim for a better future for our kids. So stop demonizing him and his base. He is nothing like Trump.
3
@global yokel
I'll remind you that Gore and Clinton both won the popular vote. The problem is not the Electoral College, not centrism. If the Electoral College was a problem for Gore and Clinton, imagine what's going to happen with Bernie as the candidate.
And, by the way, Bernie and his true believers cost Hillary Clinton the Electoral College vote too.
It's such a tempting headline but at the very least premature. So far, if you add up the votes for Biden, Klobuchar, and Buttigieg and compare that total to the sum of Sanders and Warren, the vote total for the moderates is significantly largely than the total for the progressives. I lean progressive, but the facts are the facts.
17
@Mary Wrasman Great points. Moreover, a caucus tends to advantage the more activated segment of the electorate--the progressives. The hypothesis that the progressives would expand the base relative past years did not seem to be the case in Iowa. I am looking forward to seeing how the primaries play out before settling on a candidate. If Sanders cannot markedly increase turn out in battleground states, then I don't think he can win, but my mind is open. That said, Biden is looking pretty weak. I am hoping for a balanced ticket that unites progressives and centrists in the end. If unity and energy is not achieved in the end, there will be 4 more years of Trump. Heaven help us.
5
@Mary Wrasman
Then the moderates better unite behind a candidate FAST.
The left is right !
The center has diluted all the passions, all reasons to hope for a political party that will listen and legislate for the people. Our current center has long suffered a shift towArds a robust conservative agenda. What keep trumps believers is their passion, and that makes all the difference, unfortunately for everyone. Moving to the hard left is the only way to galvanize the once powerful middle class.
22
Job One for our Democratic nominee must be defeating Donald Trump; whatever Job Two is comes in a distant second. There is an article in today's Politico about how Bernard is calling for the Federal takeover of the electrical companies, a $16 trillion dollar plan that, to put it mildly, could cost him support in a number of states and put many people out of work. How does this . . . ambitious . . . plan help Bernard accomplish Job One?
5
@BMc I get it: an expanded Federal bureaucracy with thousands upon thousands of new employees on the bloated payroll will put too many people out of work.
Uh-huh...
Well then! So if this holds we'll have an unrepentant Socialist running against Trump. And how did that work out in the U.K.? And the rout wasn't limited to the P.M. position. Far Left Socialist Labour Party also lost a vast number of MPs, and even the "neverBoris" Tory crowd was cast out. 2020 looking very bad for Democrats, and the Iowa caucus debacle and tonight's SOTU behaviors made them look much worse.
6
Didn't Boris have to promise to put more money in social medicine in order to win? Imagine GOP voting to put more money in M4A. I think it will be a Great win for Bernie.
By the way, what happened to all these moderate Brits? Did they all die out?
Bernie Sanders would be just as ineffectual a president as Jeremy Corbyn was as leader of the Labour Party. Hillary Clinton was right about Bernie Sanders. He's not a Democrat. Nobody likes him. He can't get things done.
"Things fall apart. The centre cannot hold. Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world."
Better hope the center CAN hold. I don't think Bernie Sanders will win the nomination. If he does, I don't think he will win the presidency. If he does, I don't think he will be a good president. Terrible, in fact.
Let's pick someone else.
8
Is Bernie the 21st Century version of William Jennings Bryan? True believers and those who brook no compromise typically fail. But then all the centrists have also failed a large part of what used to be the Democratic base. Only if Sanders chooses Kamala Harris as VP does he have a chance to win, because without a massive Black turnout can any Democrat win.
@terence no, Kamala represents interests such as the for-profit prison industry and payday loan co's too. She was a hardline prosecutor who enabled many racist and classist policies. She would not fight for #Medicare4All, and she is an apologist for runaway capitalism, so no, no and no.
1
I fail to see why Bernie isn't running as the nominee of his socialist party. There isn't one? Then he should create one. Who can blame traditional Democrats for not wanting to labelled as socialists? Bernie conveniently hops into the Democratic party every four years then reverts back to being a socialist when he fails in the hijacking effort. Is it any wonder the center of the party isn't infatuated with him? If Bernie has proven one thing it is that he won't still love you in the morning.
8
Only Reps want Bernie to run as a candidate from the third party because that will ensure Reps reign for years to come. I failed to see why people so upset that Bernie runs on Dem ticket. After all it just shows his pragmatism - everybody knows that only representatives of the two party have a realistic chance on Presidency. These party are monopoly that should be broken from inside.
7
I agree that Bernie running as a third party candidate would be a disaster, guaranteeing a Republican victory. The problem with Bernie running as a Democrat is that he does almost nothing to support the party, from fundraising to supporting other party candidates. Honestly, a nearly 80 year old who just had a heart attack should bow out of the race gracefully. I wish people had a sense of reality.
3
@Tom Q if Bernie ran on another ticket, he would take millions of voters with him, which would guarantee a Trump win. Have you thought that through?
Can we just stop the pundits ignorant use of Socialism to describe Sanders policies? He has not ever proposed government take over the means of production.
If taxing the highest incomes to provide a much needed safety net and infrastructure is socialism, which it is not, then most Americans would be all for it.
27
@Edward B. Blau Sanders has proposed that the government run the health insurance industry and large segments of electrical power production. That would introduce government control of a significant share of the US economy. I am not particularly troubled by these policies in the abstract, but I wonder if they are likely to win votes in battleground states from independents and centrist democrats. Americans overall tend to prefer Presidents who wear their patriotism on their sleeves (e.g. the obligatory American flag lapel pin). I worry that Republicans will skewer Sanders on his critiques of American foreign policy. I am much closer to Sanders than Biden on foreign policy, but Sanders may be put on the defensive in the general election on issues like Latin America, Israel and national defense. He has not been vetted on these issues in the Democratic primaries at all.
3
@MVonKorff I am writing from a battle ground state where Sanders thrashed Clinton in the primary in 2016, a state that one sees posters in gasoline stations and restaurants for fund raisers for unfortunate families who have suffered a medical crisis without health insurance. In this state we need a candidate who young people in academic cities are enthusiastic about, will bring out the minority vote in Milwaukee and woo the educated white women in the metro suburbs.That is how the Democrats won here in 2018. The state wide Republican candidates that clutched Trump to their bosom lost.
1
If only John Kerry and Hillary Clinton had been given a chance to run for president we know they would have won easily especially against weak Republican candidates.
Oh wait, they were and they didn't.
26
This is not the time to embark on a new venture.
This is the time to focus on getting more votes than King Donald.
1
Three thoughts:
Readers often point out that Sanders would not be considered a radical leftist anywhere else in the world. However, the election is not going to be held anywhere else in the world. The yardstick by which the nominees will be measured is the prevailing consciousness among American voters. One can spend the time till November trying to re-educate them, or one can spend it listening to them. They may well confirm that they like any number of progressive policies and yet find Sanders and his Bros too much in their faces.
If young voters who demand Sanders as the nominee don't get him, the upshot may be that traditionally unmotivated young voters turn out to be unmotivated after all. That's roughly a wash. The greater risk is putting off traditionally motivated older (Democratic and independent) voters.
Bernie Sanders speaks of "taking on the entire establishment." That's his mindset in a nutshell, and it goes beyond powerful interests. Bernie's worldview is "me against the rest". The more you learn about him, the more you realize what a porcupine he is. Where other people in public life try to build alliances and cultivate sympathies, Sanders says, in effect, "Don't try agreeing with me. You're part of the problem I'm out to solve." He's even that way with the mainstream news media, which any responsible politician today ought to value as a lifeline of democracy.
If the progressive message is ever to get through, the messenger mustn't be a poison pill.
12
If he is so unpopular, how does he manage to perform in Iowa? And if it was an abberation, what are the worries? He will lose in other primaries. if not, shouldn't we conclude that he has more appeal to Dems voters than the Centrists who was in power for years, and will what they can show is the polarized society?
7
@yulia
Bernie will definitely get the what, 5% of Iowa Democrats that, bucking the un-enthused tide, turned out to support him. I doubt that will be enough to put him over the top in November.
1
@Longestaffe Mainstream news media is the lifeline of democracy? Are you serious? You have GOT to be kidding.
I'm sick of seeing these hand-wringing articles about candidates like Sanders and Warren. The polices they support: paid maternity leave, a higher minimum wage, affordable healthcare that isn't tied to your job, affordable/free higher education, support for workers displaced by free trade agreements or changing technology/industry, reining in excessive income/wealth equality, having the wealthy pay higher taxes, not being in endless wars, enacting sensible (i.e. recognizing the value of) immigration reforms, enacting sensible gun control legislation ... these are popular and supported by a majority of Americans, including Republicans. How is that not "the center"?
44
Good analysis in this article. Hoping the DNC proceeds fairly this time and that superdelegates aren't already in a centrist backpocket. If the party cheats Sanders again - I really think the party will lose half of it's electorate and nearly all of it's young people. The time for change was 2016, the party was blind to that, hopefully they have at least a little vision now though I'm not optimistic.
21
@michael "The party" didn't cheat Sanders before. Hillary had enough delegates to win without Superdelegates. Sanders is an Independent and "the Party" has been very indulgent.
@Bananahead Why then did the DNC let Blumberg in by changing their rules? He ran twice as a Republican and once as an Independent.
Gosh darn it (read something MUCH stronger) Bernie Sanders is NOT A DEMOCRAT and I resent him running on my party’s ticket. Get your own party. Quit hijacking mine. You don’t like my club? Start your own. Just sayin, bruh.
Left unspoken is that Sanders will be nearing 80 by inauguration day - and is at an age where mental and physical declines can come rapidly (witness Reagan, for e.g.) - and Sanders is a man who had a recent heart attack. And he is almost guaranteed to be a one-term president, even if he wins. How willing are Sanders followers to put their faith in a man at his age and with his health situation? Do they think he will have the stamina to duke it out daily for months against the Trump/GOP slime machine?
At the very least, with his recent heart attack, if Sanders is the nominee, he needs to have an A-plus level running mate (under 70 for sure, and preferably under 60) who can appeal to the majority of Democrats and who can seamlessly slide into the oval office if Sanders wins but the inevitable end comes before his term is up. Cold and brutal, but realistic.
10
We don’t know anything until Super Tuesday.
With that said, how is Bernie Sanders polling against Trump in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin.
Are there other purple states that could go red?
5
@Practical Thoughts With Bernie on the ticket everything can go red.
1
@Practical Thoughts
Virginia. Arizona. Colorado. Minnesota.
"...but Mr. Sanders is picking up steam in South Carolina..."
Maybe, but not enough to win. And then there's Texas, Mass., etc. etc. And the GOP hasn't even begun attacking him, like bringing up his past comments praising Fidel Castro, supporting Social Workers' Party candidates, etc.
And will people who have a positive view of "democratic socialism" still feel that way once they realize how much the Sanders massive expansion of government will cost them in taxes? We'll find out.
8
As opposed to an 11billion wall that Mexico was going to pay for? Give me a break!
Here's the big problem folks:
Beginning in the 1980’s, the private sector began an effort that continues to this day to reduce the proportion of the cost of selling goods and services attributed to labor. This takes many forms, including driving down salaries and wages, outsourcing, union busting, sending jobs overseas, transferring jobs to right-to-work states, increasing the ratio of part-time to full-time employees, not translating workplace productivity gains into wage increases, shifting more health care costs to employees, ending defined benefit pensions, reducing employer contributions to defined contribution pensions and switching to once-a-year lump sum contributions, forcing employees to work unpaid overtime, classifying employees as independent contractors to avoid paying benefits and workingman’s compensation contributions, increasing the number of unpaid internships, hiring new workers through temp agencies, requiring employees to sign non-compete agreements, offering only one-off bonuses and other rewards instead of annual pay raises, ending employer-funded health care for retirees, and layoffs, not only during recessions, but also after mergers and acquisitions. Non-cyclical layoffs have become a permanent feature of the new economy.
Corporate Democrats (Clinton, Obama, Biden, etc.) have no answers.
Cheers
47
@pn global Excellent list, thanks! It should be framed and hang over every politician's bed.
7
@pn global "WORKERS' compensation," please, but otherwise well said. To your list of the "many forms" of the changes wrought in the past 40 years to the detriment of wage-earners, with little or no effective temporizing effect by corporate Dems, I would add a "race to the bottom" among the states, over the same period, in the benefits employers are required to pay to workers disabled by employment injuries, transferring those costs of their businesses partly to the workers and their families and partly to the Social Security disability system.
7
I don’t know who the best candidate is. But i think it’s upsetting to hear so many Democrats lean into right-wing talking points out of fear of Bernie.
I don’t think anyone — center or left — is a sure thing. Trump himself was hardly a sure thing. Something is happening here that we don’t understand, and there seems to be a real question mark around conventional Democratic Party wisdom.
35
The fact that we “fear” Bernie is its own sort of talking point. Bernie doesn’t scare me. He frustrates me.
1
@Ben He gives me some hope in the future of the United Snakes.
1
Russia wants Trump to win. Trump wishes to run against Bernie.
Democrats did well in 2018 because of turnout. Turnout elected moderate candidates in swing (moderate) states. Sanders' slate of candidates did not do well.
What possible fact based lesson from this suggests running a far left candidate instead of a moderate? 2018 demonstrates that swing states can be won by moderates.
Do Sanders' supporters believe his agenda will pass in a congress that includes Republicans? "We need a revolution?" Indeed. Anyone think Trump would be president had Sanders bowed out of the 2016 race sooner and let the party coalesce? Any doubts some of his supporters were absolutists who did not vote for Hillary in the swing states that delivered the election to Trump? Do they really believe there is no difference between an "establishment" Democrat and Trump? The Black vote & women are the heart of the party. Think Sanders will inspire their turnout?
Sanders' slogans & some of his policies revolt me. I will vote for him if he is the nominee. We will lose- Imagine a billion dollars attacking him for welcoming Russian agents when mayor, a honeymoon in Moscow, claiming correctly that he is a socialist who believes big gov't knows best, wants to take away your health insurance and replace it with something better to be crafted with Republicans. Who believes this is possible in Walmart America? It is a gift that thrills Republicans.
17
Yeah, accusation of Trump is cooperation with Russians to rig election didn't hurt election of Trump, but honeymoon in Moscow 50 years ago will hurt Bernie? Really?
@JT - John Tucker Republicans don't have a problem with Russia anymore. Trump cured them of that.
Lets look at the results we know so far in NH. Elizabeth and Bernie got 45%. Pete, Amy and Biden got 53%. There is the political spilt. Democrats are a left-center party. Not a left party.
This tells me the center could hold firm.
14
When the Presidency will be collective endeavor, your argument may have the value. Right now we nominate just one person with most votes.
2
Bernie Sanders is the left-wing counterpart to Pat Buchanan, the Far Right activist who ran for the Republican presidential nomination in the 1990s. If Pat Buchanan had become the Republican nominee, it would have terribly excited the Far Right for a few months, but would have resulted in a landslide victory for the Democrat candidate. If Bernie Sanders becomes the Democrat nominee, Elizabeth Bruenig will celebrate, I imagine, but then the hard reality of a landslide for Trump will follow. I am baffled that some people can't foresee this--or do they foresee it but want this outcome anyway? Bernie calls himself a Socialist, and has a long history of expressions of approval and support for Communist regimes (Nicaragua, Cuba, USSR). I don't think that someone like that can win an Electoral College victory in 2020. It doesn't matter that Bernie isn't proposing Communism or Socialism for the USA, since very few voters will ever look deeply enough into all this to make these distinctions. The word will go out, from thousands of TV ads, that Bernie Sanders is a new Lenin, Castro or Che Gueverra, and that will sink Bernie, I'm afraid.
16
@Better World Believer I just don't get this viewpoint. Sanders is running on policies that for the most part have the support of an outright majority of voters, how does that make him "radical" instead of "centrist"? People want a higher minimum wage, they think the wealthy should pay more in taxes, they believe immigrants are a net benefit, they want healthcare that is affordable and doesn't tie them to their job, they want affordable higher education. That's not socialism, it's just living in a more caring, functional society.
16
@Better World Believer And with the socialist Bernie at the top of the ticket, Democrats will lose the House, miss a chance to take the Senate and give the newly re-elected Trump at least 2 more chances to appoint far right wing Justices to the Supreme Court.
4
Other than the populism and anti-elitism, it is insulting to compare Bernie to Buchanan. Bernie has spent his entire adult life opposing everything Buchanan stands for. They both have hair, and faces, and they both claim to oppose elites. That’s about where the similarity ends.
You badly misrepresent Bernie’s positions. You make him out to be some kind of extremist. He just isn’t. His main agenda points - healthcare and free public college - were part of the official Democratic platform for decades.
Trump will call any Democrat a socialist. We can’t make all of our decisions out of fear of what Trump will say about us.
7
I remember when I met my freshman year roommate first day of college in Minnesota, September of 1975. He was from Iowa, I was from Connecticut, and he was shocked I'd never heard of the Iowa caucuses. To be fair, primaries in general, and Iowa's in particular, were not a big deal up until the McGovern Reforms of the early 70s. But this was probably the biggest fact about the Midwest I'd learned since arriving the day before.
1
The historical analogy made by some with William Jennings Bryan is off base. Bryan represented a declining demographic, a precariat of rural working America, between the 1890's and 1920. Sanders and (more importantly) his supporters already represent a precariat of postindustrial, multicultural wage labor, an expanding social category in the US. Bryan was deeply religious, a Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. ruling elder who prosecuted the case for the state of Tennessee against Scopes for "teaching evolution" in the Monkey Trial.
A very considerable difference then, between the two cases. It means the conservative "Gold" Democrats of our own time won't have it as easy regaining control as they did by the end of the first decade of the 20th century.
9
Bernie Sanders' policies do not even have the support of the majority of Democrats in Congress. And we know Bernie doesn't compromise. He prides himself on that fact. A Bernie presidency would be a divisive, one term one, and would lead to a rebirth and resurgence of the post-Trump Republican party. I just hope he brings in enough new Democrats to make up for the ones who stay home.
14
@AnonymousPlease
Presidents always compromise, they do not pass legislation on their own, even that Stable Genius.
Worst: he would be blocked from enacting any of his policies, as happened to Obama. Better, might he actually gets support from his own party, as expressed by the vote count. We will see...
2
I remember the 2016 election. Early on there were lots of car stickers here in Santa Fe for Bernie for President. The DNC did a number on him and Hillary won the nomination. Hardly any car stickers then with Hillary for President. The mood was for something different The Democratic party had presided with the Republicans over a great increase in inequality, because the "klept" (a term from a William Gibson novel that seems so apt) now control politics. People had had enough. This was why Trump appeared attractive because he promised to change things . Ironically, he is solidly of the "klept" as we have found out. Looks as though the DNC is bent on stopping Bernie again. Inequality is at least as bad as it was in 2016. I wish Hillary would just stay out of it - she had her chance. I (at 71) have no problem with democratic socialism. It worked very well in England in my youth there until the "klept" messed things up there also.
40
@Tony Begg Please oh Please can Hilary just stay out of it? The first thing I thought in 2016 (once I accepted the results as true was, “We shoulda run Bernie.”
1
The man is not a Dem and never has been. He should run as what he is
Personally, I feel Bernie would be a good president and has some good policy objectives. However, he and Warren have been branded so unfairly over the past number of years that I really doubt that either could be elected at this time in our country. There are not enough people truly hurting to give a predominantly left leaning candidate an electoral college win.
The goal needs to be to elect a centrist candidate without a lot of big business obligations and begin to recreate the safety net.
7
Sanders will not do well against Trump.
Still, I am voting blue all the way.
There is no other choice.
16
@Jay Tan -- Because Sanders will, indeed, not do well
against Trump, vote for a sure winner: Pete Buttigieg.
1
There is, indeed, a "battle" between the Democratic party’s
establishment and left wing; however, it's less a battle about
differences (the party's platform is Intact) than a "drive" to
preserve the soul of America -- to recapture bipartisan unity.
The Democrats are united in an effort to reunite Americans.
There is no enmity among the Democratic presidential candidates.
That is reserved exclusively for Trump, his Republican minions,
and their state of disunion.
Thus, the center WILL hold -- just as soon as (if not before)
the
Democrats have their nominee.
Reaching that center will begin the end of Trump and Trumpism.
10
It's a caucus -- inherently flawed. The people who come have the time to be there all day. That is incredibly unrepresentative. And it's in Iowa. An unrepresentative group in an unrepresentative state isn't going to tell me how to vote or what to think. It shouldn't affect any of us. We shouldn't be drawing conclusions from it. Let's see what happens in the big primaries. Like in California and Texas. Then we can talk.
17
I would like Michael Kazin to discuss how he considers Sanders more radical than William Jennings Bryan who had an even more progressive legislative agenda for his day than Sanders has now.
In fact, one could argue that when LBJ ran in 1964 calling for civil rights legislation and Medicare he was more radical than Sanders. Let us remember that many southerners considered the form to lead to the destruction of American society and the AMA and its mouthpiece Ronald Reagan campaigned on how Medicare would make the American healthcare system socialistic and result in its destruction.
Funny how things that were once considered radical are no longer considered to be so.
20
"With 62 percent of Iowa caucus results in, Mr. Sanders leads the popular vote, with 26.3 percent. He trails former Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Ind., in state delegates by a slim margin."
With our electoral college and these archaic caucuses, the supposed "beacon of democracy" has one of the most ridiculous democratic processes in the world.
12
If Bernie won the nomination it would be a replay of what should have happened in 2016: a Sanders vs Trump matchup. Back then, several polls indicated Bernie would have beaten Trump. This is a center-left country, not a right-wing extremist country. Both Bernie and Warren excite the Democrats, not because they’re “socialists” — an outmoded word — but because they want fairness in our tax system, a restoration of family safety nets lost since the Reagan era, and an end to the punitive policies that govern many of our cultural norms. I don’t think it a disaster if Bernie gets in. I think of it more as a restoration to sanity.
36
@Elizabeth Those polls you guys keep using assume that every Clinton voter including the almost 4 million more she received than Sanders would be willing to support a nominee that wasn't the choice of a majority of Democratic primary voters. They would not.
2
@Elizabeth I've never heard the US described as a center-left country. It has often been described as center-right, and I think that shoe fits.
Sanders is too progressive, and too old for the DP to nominate him.
6
According to Michael Kazin, a professor of history, a Sanders nomination would be very significant. “He’d be the most radical candidate, in many ways, in American history, not just for Democrats, but for any party,”
What a misstatement! Bernie simply states the obvious problems needing fixing, and what has to be done about them. That requires some eye opening among the so-called “centrists”, but it is obvious to everyone else.
24
@John♻️Brews Centrists believe everyone should have medical care, be paid a decent wage, get child care, build infrastructure, mitigate income inequality, etc. They just don't believe shouting "we need a revolution" is the way to accomplish that in a legislature that includes Republicans or that running a candidate who brought Russian spies to his mayoral office, honeymooned in Russia, turned a blind eye toward Nicaraguan human rights transgressions is the best way to gain power to implement the obvious needs of the country. I think it is a gift to the republicans with a billion dollars waiting to exploit Bernie's history.
I am centrist, but at this juncture I wish there was a way for blue states to secede from a population that reveres a racist who is bankrupting the country and makes war on refugee children. We need to win the senate. Bernie's candidacy won't help moderates in swing states.
6
In 2016 the centrist Republicans were equally worried about DJT. They feared he was unelectable and would destroy the party. Didn't happen. I think Sanders has a very decent chance against Trump. And maybe the Democratic party needs a makeover.
23
It seems that people on both sides of the aisle ignore science and facts in favor of emotional populism. That does not speak well to our future.
4
Pretty much everyone I know who isn’t religious says that they believe in science, not religion. One of my best friends who is a strict atheist used to take that tact towards me during debates until he realized that I understood science at a level he could never hope to aspire to. That is not a brag. It is my way of saying that virtually everyone I know who claims to believe in science, not religion, doesn’t understand the fundamentals of science and the physical universe in the least. The reason I discuss this is that I think that it is a major reason why the secular left is just as susceptible to anti-scientific ideas as the religious right.
1
Ooh. I made a major mistake in that last post. Can you spot it? Thats right! I said that people on the secular left were “just as susceptible” to unscientific ideologies as the religious right. That is clear and demonstrably untrue. In an effort to be fair, I went to far in the wrong direction and ended up in “Bothsiderism Town.” I hope my snark is welcomed and not resented, because I basically mean it.
Equality in Iowa was having and holding onto a family farm – about the size of your neighbors’ – and passing it down from one generation to the next…
Enter capitalism – in the form of railroads…
Suddenly, transport mattered more than production…
If railroads could now access supply sources that – in aggregate – far exceed average demand…
They can arbitrage that supply and demand, as the suppliers race themselves to the bottom…
Suddenly, like the peasantry in Europe their ancestors sought to escape, they are more indentured than invested, looking to the future…
So, granges came into being…
Sort of like rent-control – except you also live in the one unit you rent out…
Enter more capitalism – in the form of bankers…
If railroads now owned the farms – bankers now owned the railroads…
They could both drive the crop price into the dirt – and then the farmer, through over-borrowing…
Sort of like sub-prime car leasing – except they don’t tow away the farm, they tow away you…
Interesting – that some migrated further west and prospered, though many perished on the voyage…
So, how Iowans vote depends…
On whether they see the inequality and excess and deprivation of 19th century Europe as their past…
Or whether they see the inequality and excess and deprivation of 21st century California as their future…
Brutally cold and cruel – out there in the middle…
Especially since 21st century Europe coming apart at the seams…
Need a new Gold Rush – and stat…
7
21st Century Europe is not coming apart at its seams. Your information is flawed. UK left. The rest is intact.
@CitizenTM
Coal seams...
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/16/climate/germany-coal-climate-change.html
@W in the Middle War is always the rush that come to the rescue. Pitty, those out there in the world, colored and poor.
So even after kneecapping Sanders in the leadup to 2016 and seeing how much good that did for the Democratic Party and for America, the DNC is still trying to sabotage the best chance for a progressive presidency in 2020 and beyond?
Maybe forget about Clinton, fix your Caucus, and listen to the people. Whoever gets the nomination, it shouldn't be decided by backroom manipulation of regulations, deception, and a coin toss.
21
@Roger The DNC is much more concerned about their continued cash flow than about democracy. If they have to fight democracy all the way, the DNC leadership will fight democracy all the way.
10
Twitter Democrats are not the Democratic Party. Bernie zealots need to get out of their carefully curated feeds and realize the majority of people who want to vote for a democrat to get rid of trump aren’t willing to go as far as Bernie. I see no difference in the insanity around Bernie and the insanity of Trump’s base. The loudest on both sides are the minority.
12
@Jaylee Ummm Sanders may have just won Iowa and he definitely finished strong there no matter what. He will go on to win big elsewhere soon. Soooo maybe we are NOT the minority?
19
@Jaylee exactly right. there’s this similar trumpian blind loyalty to Bernie as if he could actually win. the majority of Dems don’t want him.
1
One tiny white state. One. Tiny. White. State. Others of us live here too.
I don't get it? With all that hoo ha . . .all the talk about grass roots and volunteers and enthusiasm blah blah it's rather disappointing . . . Bernie spent more money in Iowa than everyone else and doesn't seem to have done as well as 2016 against Hillary . . . the establishment is not the problem... rather it's his supporters defensive antagonism, righteousness and constant indignant posturing that seems to be the biggest obstacle in his way . . .
13
here's the problem with the major political parties and it is identical for both. Neither one wants to listen or maybe its refuses to listen to the will of the majority in their respective party. Party leaders each try their own brand of mind-control each using party loyalty as leverage.
The actual voters who make up the membership are largely ignored by party hierarchy perhaps because they think they - the leaders-know best.
These leaders have grown arrogant in their consolidation of power and unresponsive as well.
Hillary Clinton tries not once but twice to stop Sanders while failing to realize her agenda is not everyone's agenda. I defend her right to speak out but abhor her abuse of that right.
This is a different type of elitism but just as poisonous.
I think this may be a fairly new phenomenon where an individual climbs to the top spot and ignores the rank and file once there.
There is wisdom in crowds and its not there to be ignored.
14
It’s either laziness or ignorance but can the people who use the word socialism either be quiet or finally learn the meaning of Social Democracy! Nobody, I mean nobody, is proposing to transform the US to a socialist society. If we are collectively too knuckle headed to make these simple distinctions our democracy is in real danger.
24
Lazy, ignorant or deliberately misleading.
Sanders is the new George McGovern -- a popular left-wing disaster.
14
@Russell
You think the vast majority of Democrats will go by a landslide for trump? Yes, perhaps Bernie will lose- as might any Democrat, things being as they are- but not by a McGovern landslide.
2
We have a false center in the US. The majority of Americans are liberal. We are forced to the right because of the electoral college and senate. That is the issue and it will only grow.
Imagine if liberal policy didn't face massive attacks 24/7 and were actually legitimately considered of how we can accomplish it. Instead all we ever hear is we can't afford it as they give massive tax cuts and increase military spending.
Get real America. We are a militaristic right wing country.
22
@Mathias You said it, Mathias. And we are forced even farther to the right by the corporations who have bought the senate.
3
Uh, no mention of the #1 problem Bernie has being the Democratic candidate— the Electoral College.
It doesn’t matter what polls show about Democrats across the nation—what do the polls show in the critical states?
218
@Citizen60
Bernie's campaign strategy explicitly revolves around increasing turnout amongst the types of voters who would not normally be contacted by polling agencies.
However, for what it's worth, the RCP averages of Trump vs. Bernie head-to-head polling taken in Midwestern swing states have Bernie beating Trump by:
2% in Wisconsin
3.7% in Pennsylvania
6.7% in Michigan
There seem to be only two polls on RCP out of Ohio and they go in different directions.
It's a tie in Florida.
But still, Bernie wins without Ohio and Florida if he can hold the 2016 "blue states" while winning back Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania.
61
That’s a good question, but many polls show that Sanders performs very well against trump. And like I’ve written in other portions of these comments, it’s really a matter of framing at this point; Sanders, situated in a lot of industrialized nations, is basically like a new deal liberal. He doesn’t have to push the “socialist”message, or if he does, he can frame it in a way that would convince enough swing-state swing-voters with messaging about working class gumption, anti-establishment rhetoric, and the like. Cold War era paranoia doesn’t dominate Ohio, Pennsylvania, Florida, NC, and so forth. There are other factors at play.
35
@Citizen60
Bernie is the candidate who appeals most to the working class. That was clear in his defeating Hillary in the 2016 Michigan primary. Bernie appeals to the working class as an economic class -- not white working class, not minority working class, not liberal or conservative working class, but to the totality of the working class.
Trump focused on working class Americans in order to win Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania. The working class had and has legitimate grievances, and Trump exploited those grievances with scapegoats and lies as solutions. Hillary essentially ignored or belittled ("deplorables") or carved up the working class into identity groups, which led to resentment between those groups.
Bernie stresses the unifying plight of the working class by focusing on the unifying element of the working class, their economic disadvantage over the past 4 decades. Bernie will win Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania because he is honestly concerned about and working for all in the working class.
57
"He trails former Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Ind., in state delegates by a slim margin."
It's true that Sanders is currently, with 62% of precincts reported, slightly behind in State Delegate Equivalents (SDEs), but they each have been allocated 10 pledged delegates to the convention so far, and according to the New York Times tracker, they are both on track to probably earn 13 pledged delegates each, which is what counts.
In other words, the most likely outcome is that Sanders and Buttigieg will tie in number of delegates earned, at 13 each, and Sanders will win the popular vote.
14
@Patrick That will only happen if the party plays it straight. I hope the DNC doesn't interfere and cheat again.
It's not "the establishment" vs. "the far left."
It's the minority of Bernie Sanders fans who truly are in a cult of personality vs. everyone else. People who are in a post-truth world as much as any Trumper, who cite rambling podcasts as political sources, who see conspiracies against Sanders looming every time he suffers a setback, because it's legitimately impossible for them to see him as imperfect or to believe anyone not tainted by 'corruption' could prefer another candidate to him... vs. the world.
Let me just put it this way: in the aftermath of Buttigieg's surprising victory in Iowa, it wasn't Joe Biden supporters spreading unhinged declarations of cheating and fraud. I'm not particularly worried about these people voting for Sanders or Warren when the chips are down, because they don't see their candidate as the lone messiah.
15
Well, if Bernie's fans are the minority, what is the problem? He will not get the nomination, and lost of small minority will not affect the outcome of the general election, right?
Look, each poster gets up to three responses usually. There is only one response here now and there has been for hours. Can I now ask if “karp” is named after my favorite rock band of all time? You might not know the band, but those of us who did certainly remember them.
1
Great post. I’ve noticed you before because of your name. Are you named after my favorite hard rock group of all time, the Oregonian power trio Karp? Genuinely want to know!
Looks to me like Pete Buttigieg had a strong showing. A moderate. A very decent human being. Smart. A good learner-- like President Obama. Looks like a Pete Buttigieg boom to me. I am sure he will do great in the upcoming primaries.
15
Kazin says: "And every congressional candidate would either have to get on board with his politics, more or less, or at least make peace with him.”
Now that is a scary scenario. The idea that every congressional candidate would have to bend the knee if Bernie wins conjures of an image of today's Republican Senate.
7
I'm paralyzed with indecision this primary season. I cannot figure out which candidate is a sure bet to beat Trump. I'm guessing that's why turnout wasn't as high as expected in Iowa yesterday.
4
@Murad I think low turnout was due to 1. people are sick at heart about their democracy and have given it up as a lost cause until after this November and 2. they are happy to vote for anyone as long as it isn't Trump. I was trying to think of people who are worse human beings than Trump that would make me pull the lever for him in a hypothetical matchup, but I really couldn't think of anybody. I think felons on death row have more sympathetic back stories than Trump. He really is one of the worst human beings I've ever seen in any walk of life.
2
@Murad If people really cared about beating Trump they would vote for Yang despite his lack of experience and outsider status.
@Murad then vote with your heart. You’re one human and can’t possibly be expected to take on the analysis necessary to determine electability. And besides, those who claim to have mastered that analysis are deluded, in my opinion. Go with your personal choice, based on policy and your confidence in the candidate.
1
Ms. Bruenig is well-sourced but too close to the issue to see it clearly.
It's quite simple. The Democratic party has LURCHED leftwards since the Blue Dog Wipe-Out following passage of the ACA. The center-left think tanks and other Beltway apparatus are in no danger whatsoever if Sanders runs and gets crushed by Trump... they're only in danger if he runs and WINS, thereby gaining 4-8 years to consolidate the party as fully leftist.
5
Bernie's political ideology - call it whatever you want - is best represented by FDR, who brought us Social Security and tried to bring us Universal Healthcare about eighty years ago and failed. Fast forward to today, where while the rest of the world's first world countries enjoy healthcare as a human right untethered to employment plus a tiered ability to pay (Obamacare) backup system. Imagine if our country would have had followed FDR's vision back then and the albatross of for-profit healthcare wasn't consuming 20% of our paychecks as it is now for most Americans.
51
The New Deal was only able to be passed due to the Great Depression. We are not currently in a major economic depression. And still not much happened until the war economy began.
5
@John It took FDR 6 years to pass the New Deal which is legitimately beyond Bernie's life expectancy. And we don't have 6 years to act on Climate Change.
12
@John I want Mom & Apple Pie for all. There were 322 House Democrats vs. 103 Republicans in the 1935 House. 70 Democratic senators out of 96 seats.
Many Dems are enchanted by a 78 year old good guy who has consistently shouted slogans with no possible way to enact them. Shout the ideas, but a serious candidate must have a way to enact them. He has no idea– other than "We need a revolution!" Romantic, but won't happen in Red states and with red state senators.
For fun- What would the pundits be writing had South Carolina led off the 2020 campaign?
9
Honestly, the really sad thing about these comments and this piece is the assumption that people are acting in bad faith. The piece calls the Caucus dubious, clearly suggested the results may not be legitimate. The Iowa democratic party made some mistakes that doesn't mean it's rigged and there is a paper trail to prove it isn't. If the DNC was really rigging the results against Sanders, why would Sanders have the most total votes? People in the comments are also referring to the more moderate candidates as corporate democrats implying that because those candidates beliefs aren't as liberal it must be because of money. Maybe those people just genuinely believe in a more pragmatic approach. It's absolutely fine to be a hard core liberal or a Sanders supporter but it is not okay to assume that anyone more moderate than you must be acting in bad faith. It's wrong and it's troubling for the Democratic party and democracy.
21
@Riley Very well stated. We do not need more division. That's what's being bred here with this grievance-driven nonsense.
What is the value in giving credence to Ernst or a discredited conspiracy theory? What is the value in winning if it's done without honor?
Sanders is done no good service by too many of his surrogates and supporters. We need more talk of unity and less griping about everyone else being out to get the candidate and the campaign. Haven't we had enough of that by now?
8
@Riley The DNC has time and again proven itself to be a bad faith actor, subverting the will of the people in favor of corporate interests. This was proven by leaked DNC emails in 2016 and is on display today in the sale of influence to Mike Bloomberg designing new debate rules so that he may appear without any actual people support. Those in favor of corporate sponsored centrist candidates are not acting in bad faith but most of their MSM, DNC approved candidates are. Sanders, Yang and Gabbard are the only candidates not compromised by corporate donors and can be trusted to fight for the interests of the people that support them directly.
9
The problem with "big plans" candidates is they are easy to beat once those plans face reality and get past a honeymoon period. The other party just says "yeah, we are done with that" and it is often game over.
Bernie might (or might not) beat Trump, but the political payback in four or eight years could be devastating.
4
@Alan
Why does anyone fear Bernie would be able to get his entire agenda passed in congress, and will entirely blow up the system anymore than any other president? Even Trump hasn't gotten most of his policies passed. (Though admittedly what he has is pretty horrible).
Even in our wildest dreams if congress goes Democratic, many will be moderates, and he, or any president, will have to compromise and work with them. That's where the checks will be for people who don't want "socialism". Maybe in that case we could advance a moderately progressive American agenda. I will vote for ANY Democratic nominee over the horror show we currently have.
But the small ideas do not perform much better. In 2016 in absence of big ideas Dems lost the Presidency and the Congress.
1
Are you serious? A centrist newcomer who no one even heard of two years ago is currently running AHEAD (in delegates) of veteran candidate Sanders, who has a huge apparatus behind him and who gained massive exposure in the 2016 campaign. And to this opinion writer tells us it means "The Center Cannot Hold?"
17
@CT Reader Bernie is ahead in actual votes. And Bernie doesn't have billionaire donors.
18
@CT Reader The opinion writer knows her audience. And presents an analysis which selects facts and distorts logic in order to give that audience a story that it likes. Which is too bad. Journalism should not be entertainment. It should be a search for the truth. In this case, some idea of who might be the Democratic presidential candidate. The truth is that 3 or 4 candidates did well in Iowa. And there are a lot of primaries coming up. And it will be good when those primaries are held so we have some more facts rather than speculation.
5
And Hillary won the popular vote. Trump is still president. What’s your point?
Looking at the same chart in the NYT that I assume Ms. Bruenig was looking at, I would conclude that Mr. Buttigieg represents a turning point.
Mr. Buttigieg has already shifted to the center.
I would conclude that the center still holds, just a different center.
15
The GOP is urging Republicans to cross over and vote for Sanders in the Democratic primary in South Carolina. That's all you really need to know.
17
You mean the GOP is afraid of Bernie, so they decided to sabotage his campaign by openly urging Reps to vote for him?
The existential problem for Bernie, whom I fervently support, is that the oligarchs who've run the Democratic Party for decades have no serious problem with their fellow oligarch Trump's winning. They are much more concerned about defeating Bernie than they are about beating Trump. Obviously, Trump is no threat to their wealth at all. They've done great under him. So these oligarchs will do anything necessary, including deliberately stealing the nomination from Bernie by any means necessary, up to and including at the convention. It will be just fine with the oligarchs if the Bernie fans then sit out the election and guarantee Trump's, and all the American oligarchs' victory and continued control of our politics in both parties. Progressives either take over the Democratic Party, or they are absolutely helpless going forward, no matter how much progressive Millennials in, say, 2028 outnumber the largely dead conservative Boomers then. Because if the progressives can't take over the Democratic Party, they'd have to create a new party which would split the former Democrats in two and guarantee one-party oligarchical rule for the rich by the Republicans virtually forever. So let's hope Bernie finds a way to so dominate the primary season that he's somehow unstoppable. Otherwise, the Democratic Evil Empire is poised to win again, exactly like Trump, by any sleazy, shameless, crooked means necessary.
17
Sanders refuses to call himself a Democrat, and he will lose to Trump.
Can most of us live with a Bloomberg/Warren ticket?
13
I could live with almost any ticket, especially after that performance tonight.
6
@Daddy Frank Why do you think Bernie would lose to Trump? Polls asking voters whom they would prefer between Bernie and Trump almost universally favor Bernie. In fact, Bernie scores better in this particular metric than any other Democrat.
8
Bloomberg/Warren is an impossible ticket. They are fundamentally opposed on significant economic matters. He’d never ask and she’d never accept. To her credit.
3
Add up Klobuchar, Buttigieg & Biden percentage of vote. Compare to Warren plus Sanders. Moderates have a more than 10 percentage point edge. But the Democratic coastal party can’t stoop to nominating rubes from the Midwest like Pete or Amy. Victory, Trump. That’s the story playing our in front of our eyes.
9
@Dale Hendricks All is not lost. Plenty of votes left to be counted. In the meantime, recall that Obama, Mondale, McGovern and Humphrey were all midwesterners, and Clinton and Gore were not coastal candidates.
4
The GOP is urging Republicans to cross over and vote for Sanders in the Democratic primary in South Carolina. That's all you really need to know.
4
@W.A. Spitzer And in 2016, I was giddy when Trump won the NH primary, as I thought we'd crush him in November if he got the nomination. Be careful what you wish for!
5
@W.A. Spitzer
Feel free to show us the proof. If it's true it should be in the news on the front page.
Clearly the party establishment is as clueless about
opposing Sanders as it is in opposing trump. They've
had three whole years to devote to the latter and they've
failed utterly in policy, public outreach, media messaging, etc. etc.
The 2018 elections obscured this central fact since the
voters' blue wave came from the bottom up not from the top down, and had little to do with anything the establishment
did.
So, were Sanders to become the leader after many primary
wins through super Tuesday, they will likely shoot themselves
(and all the rest of us) in the foot by various guerrilla type
sabotaging that will only infuriate and completely alienate
Sanders supporters. Only genuine fools would adopt such
an obviously counterproductive strategy. Unfortunately
we are dealing with genuinely clueless people who
have decided Sanders is today's McGovern.
The focus has to be on uniting the party with strong messaging and effective organizational outreach to new
voters, not splitting it apart with under the radar
opposition tactics.
I'm not convinced the establishment actually understands the urgency of this despite the evident truth that divided they stand no chance in November.
7
@bl sanders is the party equivalent to trump. He is self absorbed and ill informed.
@bl Yes, of course. Everything would be fine if everyone just went along with you. Where have I heard that before?
Probably best to not whine about someone else's divisiveness and counterproductivity while insisting that everyone else is wrong.
I did volunteer for Sanders in 2016. I did may be 150+ hours phone calling and spoke hundreds and hundreds of young people--may be 2 or 3 said they were for Hillary Clinton. They all were Sanders devotees.
This country is my view 30 yrs from now when the boomers have passed away will not be what it is now--unbriddled capitalism we "all" now is not for the Main street any more.
the millennials travel they go to Europe and they see how people live (in social democracies) --This land of "unlimited possibilities is getting small--Europe is no longer devastated by war--they have seen was peace brings; the Far East has seen that peace and trade is what lifts people from poverty.
The president should not be the favorite of think tanks or the establishment- The President should the favorite of the majority of Americans--and the truth is the majority is hardly getting by or struggling to pay for their existential needs--who will they favor? Will they favor someone they know has grown up struggling just like them?
I personally think that Warren would be a better transition president; Sanders is too uncompromising
--but young people may be they cannot compromise any more seeing the prospects open to a lot of them!!!
17
@a rational European Thank you for pointing out the obvious benefits of peace; this boomer thought that the end of the Vietnam War was going to bring forth the "peace dividend," but there was "star wars," to waste our money on, invading the defenseless, like Granada, enforcing the "Monroe Doctrine," (remember Chile); surely when "the wall" came down, peace was at hand; but onto the former Yugoslavia, Iraq, Afghanistan and our world of wars without end; we've created a society that glorifies the military: the system itself and the men and women that are encouraged to be cannon fodder - stand up and be cheered, military men and women at every sporting event, television commercials and even on the news broadcasts;
I hope that this is the time for millennials and that they will take back our country from the oligarchs of both parties - generation millennial, as you point out, has seen the world and they look at their home and know what went wrong and how to fix it - social democracy isn't socialism, communism has morphed in fascism (they understand what the "People's Republic" is) and the rich don't let go of their power easily.
By European standards our left - Sander, et. al.- is the center; our center - Biden, Hillary, et. al.- is the right.
I believe that Mayor Pete is more left than we think.
But all the millennials carrying torches for Trump and cheering him on at his rallies will still be a formidable force to beat - now and in the future.
6
Compared to the rest of the OECD countries we are the extremists. The only countries with similar health coverage rates and payment structures to us are Mexico and Turkey.
If aspiring for something better is extreme, then we truly are doomed
14
This can be fixed without killing our economy....we should recognize this and make it our goal.
I wonder if there's anyone within the center wing of the party who would acknowledge that HRC's loss is not due to Sanders, but to her own hubristic lack of a decent ground game in key states like Michigan and Wisconsin. I wonder if there's anyone from the center wing of the party who will concede that the DNC's documented sabotage of the Sanders campaign did more to keep his voters home than the candidate himself, who campaigned exhaustively for HRC. I wonder if there's anyone from the center wing of the party who will acknowledge that the party itself has been built on appealing to conservative values, all while conservatives just got more emboldened. If the center wing wants to battle it out with the left over another election and get themselves another four years of Trump, they can have at it. It's their fault, not ours. It was Bill Clinton's immigration policy that led to where we are now with babies in cages. Bill and Hillary both opposed gay marriage. They both expanded our racist carceral system using the rhetoric of hate and racism. They both fueled the rise of global capitalism, "improving" the lives of the poor by putting them in factories and paying them ten cents over "extreme poverty" rates. I don't care whether it was because they cynically lied about all this stuff or because they were really that awful, it's time to go a new way. For the sake of the marginalized, for the sake of the young, for the sake of the country, for the sake of human dignity: Bernie!
14
@Jeremiah Crotser wait to November and experience the bitter taste of trump not only beating bernie but taking the house majority too. I cannot bear the thought. Real change takes large majorities in Congress. LBJ got Medicare, civil rights, Medicaid etc, by a southern party insider no less.Bernie has never gotten Anything through of progressive significance. Anyone can rant and promise the moon.
5
This sounds like way too much navel gazing, strategizing, and soothsaying. This should be simple, just use as the election criteria nominating the most honest and competent individual in the field, and we are already 100% better off than four more years of the incumbent.
8
@Kevin easier said than done.people hear what they want to hear and make decisions unconsciously. The media conducts idiotic debate formats tailored to 20 second attention spans.
Would Tip O’Neil have signed NAFTA? Given up union support to have a balanced budget law? Let the rust belt die? Those voters that the Clinton’s threw away put Trump in office. Bernie has been trashing NAFTA since Bill Clinton signed it. He’s also talked about leveling the economic playing field internationally by using tariffs. Sound like someone you know? The press however has not pointed out the similarities between Trump and Sanders for some reason. The similarities end there, but it probably gets Bernie enough votes to pull MI, WI and maybe PA and OH. Bernie will take states with heavy Hispanic populations. He may well surprise you in Texas. So no Hillary, I’m not surprised that Bernie’s not chummy with the Repubocrats that joined the party well the GOP went tea party. The question is will they follow liberty, or raise their arms in a Bellamy salute?
5
@Powderchords Bernie delusions are going to take us all down. I weep at the tragedy that awaits us all.
I think most Democrats will vote for Bernie if he's the nominee, but I'm not seeing that among my independent and Republican friends. Most suggest they would sit it out or hold their noses and vote for Trump. Tonight's SOTU showed how Trump intends to run against the Dems -- "they're coming for your health care." It might be ok if Bernie was truly expanding the electorate, but that did not happen in Iowa. Turnout was low.
14
@DCMomofFour I've always voted Democrat, my brother has, two friends I just had dinner with also. None of us can bring ourselves to vote for sanders and we're fairly liberal Dems.
5
@DCMomofFour I think there are many historically staunch republicans (my boomer parents included) who feel disgusted and used by the trump presidency and the Cover up machine standing behind him. My parents have declared for Bernie already. I don’t believe they are alone.
2
@kephart Then you are Trump voters living under the illusion of being fairly liberal Dems.
If you want Trump for four more years, then vote for Sanders. Swing voters will never vote for a socialist with a heart condition. Sanders is the Ralph Nader of our generation. Ralph Nader gave us Bush and Sanders will give us Trump. Now is not the time for idealism. It’s time for pragmatism. Obamacare caused the Democrats to lose the House. Do you really think the “Medicare for all” candidate can sway enough middle of the road voters to defeat Trump?
17
I’m basically for Bernie at this point because I want what he proposes, especially how much he would dedicate to climate change. I live in the D.C. area, though. A lot of people I know including my parents have served as “neutral” bureaucrats or top officials across a variety of agencies, most for at least three decades. These are people who want progress, fighters toward the ideals almost all democrats in fact share, but mostly they’re centrists when it comes to the actuality of getting anything accomplished. Not compromising, as well as throwing existing structures out and starting from scratch—I’m rather doubtful that this is an effective strategy. And I very much want SOMETHING to happen progressively across the board. We especially can’t afford not to act when it comes to climate change. Should we really think seriously about these pragmatic matters when (negatively) assessing the virtues of “establishment” candidates. Maybe they actually know what they’re doing! Nothing is that easy?
13
It seems to me that all these years of "centrists" has resulted in government atrophy. And by that I mean serious actions to make all Americans prosperous and healthy. The level of dishonesty in government over the years has been astounding. The non-existence of Iraqi "weapons of mass destruction" and the thousands of Americans fighting unnecessary wars. We still have children who go to bed at night hungry and a legion of homeless people who have nowhere to go. We're still fighting the so-called war on drugs a ridiculous effort that more enlightened nations have realized increase death tolls , mass incarnation and misery because of self-centered moralizing. I could go on. This nation has vast wealth that the majority never see in their lives. Pulling up the boot straps has not worked for decades. More people are frustrated, angry and miserable--a fact that we should not be proud of.
19
Two left and two left of center. 42 percent both with 15 percent for neither. The thesis of this piece is unsupported.
However, the left will stay home if Bernie or Warren are not on the ballot. They would rather that the country suffers for the voters rejection of the left.
6
@Casual Observer
Like Hillary's center voted around 25% for McCain instead of Obama during her PUMAS days.
One of the silver linings of a potential Sanders nomination is that it would likely bring down the network of consultants and operatives that have turned the Democratic party into little more than an incompetent self-dealing organization primarily concerned with the welfare of its donors and consultants.
The Iowa app debacle is a case in point: As everyone knows by now, the companies behind the app are heavily linked to Democratic party and Clinton campaign operatives. There was no testing of the app, no questioning of whether an app was even the best idea - all there was was the opportunity to funnel a bunch of Democratic party money into the coffers of Democratic party operatives, all in the name of "technology" or some such nonsense. A grift, basically.
No recent anecdote better typifies the current Democratic party - a party so incompetent that, outside of Barack Obama's once-in-a-generation political talent, has amassed a record of defeats, humiliations and decreasing power. But hey, at least the party operatives are rich!
Though I support Sanders as my first choice, I am realistic about what a Sanders presidency can accomplish in terms of policy (a substantially more robust Obamacare, essentially). But if he manages to tear down the corrupt Dem hierarchy, he will have done the country a great, great service.
20
The problem with Sanders and his supporters is that they’d rather cling to their purist ideology than win an election. Sanders will lose to Trump in a general election by a landslide, but apparently Bernie supporters won’t care because it will further their ideology. In an election with so much at stake, taking a chance on a self-described socialist when only a handful of moderate swing states matter is reckless and selfish.
22
Just wondering how this piece made it start to finish with hardly a mention of Elizabeth Warren? It’s like completely ignoring 25% of this four horse puzzle (and the only female in the lead four).
It’s Sanders AND Warren absorbing massive numbers on the progressive side, and Biden/Pete taking most of what’s left.
Very odd blind spot to the very clear full picture here.
18
@AD Big Bernie fan here, but I think you make a great point. Sanders and Warren need to work together during this stretch of the race to make sure that while Pete/Joe/Michael kneecap each-other, the progressive wing of the party remains united.
14
@AD
Warren needs to drop out. There is no way for progressives to unite if one of the two progressives is spoiling the chances of the other. Warren really has no plausible path to the nomination. Unity at this stage mean unity around the candidate with the best shot at the nomination. That is pretty clearly Bernie.
10
Some Warren supporters won’t vote for Bernie after all the bullying and shenanigans. She doesn’t owe him her voters.
When talking about the Dems, why is it appropriate to talk about a disagreement between the 'centrists' and the 'left wing' of the party? Are not Biden and the corporate Dems, the right wing of the Democratic party if the Warren and Sanders are the left?
The only folks more right of the Biden Dems and the DNC is the GOP. Even the Eisenhower administration would be to the left of Biden and the DNC.
16
You should avail yourself of some history books. You’d be surprised the kinds of facts that people wrote down. Thing is, facts don’t care about your feelings.
Trump is egregious but has done nothing to fundamentally alter the levers of power that DNC democrats hope to re-inherit. Sanders threatens to change the way (and for whom) power works in the US, and hence is more threatening to the DNC than Trump. They will behave accordingly.
14
Elizabeth, I'm relieved to see that you're not as brazen in promoting the idea that Sanders is a radical as your fellow NYT columnists. But then, you're younger than the rest of them. And thus you must know that the Democratic center to which you refer is nothing more than a set of positions, or more accurately non-positions, that is dead both ideologically and practically. And yet in your column you fail to mention what the Democratic center actually stands for. This is the deal the Democratic Party wants to offer Sanders supporters (meaning the young): help us beat Trump, and we'll throw you the bone of supporting progressive issues (sort of), while continuing to support a political/economic/military system that is exploiting you along with the rest of the planet. The real inflection point here is that young people are no longer willing to make deals that give away their chance at a decent future.
25
The center-left wing of the Democratic Party and the Progressive wing seem to share the same values. The main difference between the wings is the center-left is pragmatic and the progressive wing is idealistic. Center-left candidates call themselves pragmatic progressives which creates confusion for voters. Almost all Democrats say they support progressive policies. That also makes for confusion. Another source of confusion is Bernie Sanders is not technically a Democrat, he is an independent. This allows him to sometimes portray himself as being inside the party and sometimes as being outside of the party. Since the early 1990s pragmatism has largely won out in the Democratic Party but it is possible that idealism will take over.
2
Sanders and Warren *together* got a smaller fraction of the vote than Sanders *alone* in 2016. So in what sense is Sanders' showing "strong" or an indication of anything.
12
@WZ It's a different race. In 2016, it was basically a two person race, so of course he'd get a bigger portion of the overall vote than in a six person race. He performed better by still winning the popular vote even against six candidates.
8
Seems to me it’s long past time to stop stereotyping Sanders as a radical candidate. The things he wants are things most Americans want, and, on top of that, he has charisma and credibility for many voters. The old corporatist Dems need to get over their panic and support him.
32
@Ralph
The problem is the corporate dems support all the economics of republicans to get the donor money. They support superficially past that point. This is why people say they are paid to lose.
Would a center left party increase military spending like ours did while we have a neo-fascist in power?
1
A youth movement gave those of us old enough to remember 1972 George McGovern against a president and a war hated by Democrats and many Republicans. Nixon won in a landslide, and the war went on for another year.
A youth movement wants to give us Bernie Sanders against a president president hated by many Democrats and popular with almost all Republicans in a good economy. Trump wins in a landslide, at least of Electoral College votes, and AOL and the Squad blame people not of color over 40, American capitalism, the DNC, the Constitution, and the Founding Fathers.
17
@Michael L Hays it’s no longer 1972
I was interested in reading your take on this situation until I realized that your premise is based on a deliberate misrepresentation. You say that Bernie Sanders is "leading the popular vote" even though all news sites I've checked (WaPo, NYT, CNN, AP) show Buttigieg clearly ahead and have done so for hours. And even though Buttigieg is leading and Sanders is ahead of Warren, you know that these are partial results, and the final outcome may be completely different. Referring to anyone's result from the Iowa caucus as "leading the popular vote" is grossly inaccurate. This is a caucus, with historically low turnout, and cannot be used as a measure of the popular vote.
8
@JH Depends if you look at actual votes or 'pledged delegates'. With actual votes, as of now with 62% reported, Bernie leads Pete in both the first and second counts. Due to other factors delegates don't equate proportionally to delegates, so Pete is ahead with delegates.
2
@Tom The relevant outcome from the Iowa caucus is SDEs; Buttigieg leads by 1.2% with 62% of precincts reporting. Vote totals will change, and sometimes dramatically, so the vote totals are meaningless.(I think it's irresponsible for the news sites to even publish these numbers, because final tallies will almost certainly be different.) And even if the vote count mattered, it wouldn't give Sanders the popular vote. The number of people who vote in a single primary or caucus doesn't constitute the popular vote.
@JH The popular vote is just that, the total number of raw votes counted before applying the formula used to count the number State Delegate Equivalents awarded. So yes, Bernie leads in the popular vote, but Buttigieg leads in the SDE's awarded.
This is the first mention in the Times which I'm aware of that Sanders is winning the popular vote - a bit unusual for the Times, and liberals generally, who were so incensed at the idea that HRC won the popular vote but lost the election.
If Warren is a bonafide progressive, as her campaign fades she will throw her support to Sanders - and then it is all over for the establishment's long run of winning elections with status quo candidates who toe their corporate line.
13
@Ed Watters if only it were that easy! 2nd choice polling shows Sanders getting only 1/3 of Warren supporters with other major candidates still in. I know it makes sense policy-wise that they'd go to Sanders, but never underestimate the power of identity politics.
5
@Tom I'd add that we should never overestimate the veracity or accuracy of "polling".
1
@Tom I knew that was a big "if". She endorsed HRC in 2016.
1
In my view, Bill and Hillary Clinton, the DLC, Barack Obama, and Third Way have just about destroyed the Democratic Party that FDR, Harry Truman, and LBJ built. A pox on all of them!
The Democratic Party's glory days were when it stood firmly behind working men and women and labor unions. I am extremely grateful that at least some of today's leading candidates are paying attention to those forgotten people once more.
And for the record, my union, the United Teachers of Los Angeles, has proudly endorsed Bernie Sanders who stood with us in our successful strike of January, 2019.
23
@Vesuviano As a boy in the 60's, I remember my grandparents (who called FDR "Frankie Rooselvelt") explaining to me that no candidate would be nominated for POTUS in the democratic party without the blessing of the AFLCIO. The vilification of labor unions by Reagan and his ilk and by Mr. Triangulation Clinton's signature for NAFTA (which he opposed in his campaign) damaged the democratic party significantly. Obama cemented the damage by not prosecuting those who brought us the '08 crash and not paying attention to the people on the ground (state party affiliates). He also stuffed his government with Clinton hangers-on. The DNC still hasn't learned. Why would they when their funding is from the interests of capitalists and not workers (centrists - show me where workers donate to the DNC). Here in France (and you can look at many other Western democracies), both the left and right historical parties have vanished. The result was the election of Mr. Macron as for at least at that moment we didn't want have Marine Le Pen as president. In case you haven't noticed, the French are not about to cave in to his "triangulation" politics. The failure of both the left and right in the USA and France to regulate the excesses of capitalism opens the door to fascism. How soon people forget recent history. My view on this side of the Atlantic is that supporting a "centrist" at this time in your history will result in the country being sucked permanently into the Trumpist black hole.
2
I've been following polls in the battleground states that are showing Bernie beats Trump. It's obvious Democrats are luke warm about Biden and Bloomberg will likely end up dominating the center lane.
NYT endorsed Elizabeth Warren, but those same polls show she loses to Trump. Sanders shares some of the same populist views as Trump, which is why he can attract some of those voters who took a chance on Trump and now regret it.
Could a socialist be elected President? Trump's achilles heel is his complete failure on healthcare and Bernie could ride that issue, along with income inequality, all the way to Pennsylvania Ave.
14
Articles that reduce Centrism to a pure political strategem are the missing the point, and the entire political history of the US along the way. Bernie is not some virtuous outlier because he has beliefs. His beliefs are not worth more because they haven't evolved since he christened the Ortegas pinnacles of good governance. He's... an old man who has clung to his beliefs. It's a common occurrence.
Centrists -- yes, even Biden, although he's not my cup of tea -- hold their beliefs based on their analysis of the situation and the remedies they think will work best. This whole strain of journalism that posits Sanders as Luke Skywalker is missing the point. What matters is the character and policies of the candidates. He has extreme exemplars of both, we can respect that. But incremental change and a drive to unify is also a totally valid strategy; it is not a sign that the candidates are "afraid of losing power." My God, Pete is a former Mayor of a small City, up against a troll-fortified multi-term Senator! Who is the actual insurgent?
19
"Incremental change and a drive to unify" is a patently losing strategy. Not judged only from electiom results but from the slow clawing away of social benefits in the US. Even if it were a respectable idea, how does that incremental change happen? By convincing rightwing Republican and Democrat politicians through logic and moral appeals? Now, if you combined incremental change and capitulation with thoughts and prayers, you might really have something.
6
Remember Obama?
I can't understand on what basis supporters of Sanders believe that in spite of 200 years of American history where no leftist has ever been elected, now is the time when one will be. With Americans expressing confidence in the economy (and I'm not saying they're right, but that's what they believe), where's the evidence for support of a socialist revolution?
And how is this year different from 1972 when McGovern went down in a landslide? There's more desire for change now than there was in 1972 with the Vietnam War waging?
I have no idea if Sanders can win but anyone who says so is ignoring American history and all the current polling. Sorry, but I don't get it.
26
@Lawrence Goodman All you need to know is there have been many polls on what Sanders offers and large majorities of voters including republican voters WANT what he is selling. You must be an elite otherwise you would want it too, its they who dont as they will be the ones to pay for it all.
11
@Lawrence Goodman What counts as a "leftist?". Seems that FDR 1936 did. Perhaps Jefferson 1800. They were perceived that way. There may be significantly more leftism than realized, in part due to the marginalization of "leftist" voices - eg unions - over the past 40 yrs
12
@DG Actually, only 1 in 10 Americans supports Medicare for All, his signature issue, if it means also abolishing private insurance. Be more specific when you say large majorities want what Sanders is selling.
9
I have a big problem with people who think that the post Reagan Democrat presidents Clinton and Obama are "real" Democrats. In fact, George HW Bush and George Romney were better Democrats than these two - one of whom cut welfare, signed NAFTA, deregulated Wall Street, and thought long prison terms a great thing; the other one, Mr. Hope, established Romneycare as a national system, protected banksters, didn't close Guantanamo -- cost 13million per prisoner to keep it open. Welfare for whom? The prison system often acts this way as do parts of the Medicare/Medicaid system. Biden would be more of the same. and some of us realize that socialism is NOT communism... It seems to work in Europe -- a system of single payer universal healthcare.. (there are always some private payers) and free education for those who qualify. (Frankly, out secondary education is dreadful as is elementary -- and it is not as if there aren't models galore for a better system.
Personally, I prefer Warren (lots of misogyny there) but Bernie in a heartbeat over Biden.. What The Times did during the last priary cycle in terms of exalting Hillary (practically a coronation) was reprehensible as is all of this junque about how we can't afford universal single payer healthcare but we can afford all sorts of redundant in fact military equipment.
Heads on straight; values please.
75
@Auntie Mame - this is great - I won't write my own comment because the one above is better by far.
13
@Auntie Mame , Bernie Sanders is NOT offering what works in Europe. If he were, for example, trying to follow the Nordic countries lead, he would be proposing:
* mixed public/private healthcare and insurance,
* tuition-free public college and vocational education but with individual responsibility for expenses,
* limited government ownership/regulation of business,
* robust international trade,
* strong defense,
* no wealth tax,
* basically flat income taxes from middle class up, and
* high (20%ish) sales taxes.
Bernie Sanders is opposed to all of that. Instead, he thought the Soviet Union was "doing things right" and embraced the Sandinista movement in Nicaragua. Those are not "real" Democratic positions and it is hard to see how he can win in November.
15
@Auntie Mame
Bernie could win NYC from where you are from but please explain how Bernie Sanders is going to win the electoral vote nationwide.
7
The incredible fear that the DNC/establishment felt when Warren was ascendant turned into action--Bloomberg entered the race, and doubts about Warren/women came to the fore. The DNC will reap what it has sown.
Warren is by the far the better candidate to reach all kinds of voters, and her withering critiques are convincing and would melt DJT in a debate. But the DNC's (as usual) short-term reaction/strategy has back-fired. Those who value a better society, and an end to the many injustices that exist in our nation are the majority in the party right now. Biden, and Mayor Pete can't speak to them. they have their ears closed to Klobuchar (who is great). And now that the DNC has kneecapped Warren, they will turn to Sanders.
Nice going DNC. Way to throw the election.
14
@rick Trump would skewer Warren in a debate.She talks like a college professor and he acts like a regular guy. Don't forget, he's a master TV showman.
Yours seems to be the prevailing narrative at this point, and it was fun to read. I hope you will add Mike to the mix. I think he may have figured out that with enough screen time, he can make his case to us publicly in town halls aired as commercials to get our attention. Bernie may scare centrists into Mike’s tent, and he looks to me like the strongest candidate in the hunt but would be making political history to win the nomination and it's sad to think that — at this crucial juncture — the Bros would stay home. I’m pointing out to people that Bernie is no threat economically. Our “system" seems most properly described as "social capitalism.” Bernie and Mike and I just want a higher social score for a land we love. I hope you and others will explore this with the audience.
2
If it's really true that the "center cannot hold," then we're in deep trouble. After Yeats penned those prophetic words, the world saw world war, massive turbulence, and vast carnage. Some Bernie fans (who want a "revolution") might think that the "center cannot hold" is a cause for celebration, but I do not. Historically, revolutions are chaotic, violent, and often co-opted. The Buddha said: "Hold on to the center." I'm with him.
31
@Ben Jacobs
Two misapplied quotes in one short post. Well Done!
Yeats' "center" were the English-oriented aristocracy in Ireland, not the average Irishman or Irishwoman.
The Budda's "center" was personal enlightenment, not political triangulation.
Next time, would you please find biblical quotes supporting inaction on climate change and rejection of the "Green New Deal.
1
@Ben Jacobs
I'm on your side and the Buddha's, but I'd like to point out an error in your comment. Yeats began working on "The Second Coming" in January 1919, a few months after WWI ended--not, as you say, before it began.
That said, two cheers for the center!
Huh? Your takeaway from Iowa is a victory for Sanders, who underperformed relative to the recent polls (25 instead of 30-35%) and finished in second place? To someone unknown a year ago? His goal was to inspire Iowans to improve turnout, and to motivate young, new voters to come out in record high numbers, neither of which came to pass. There are only big two stories tonight: Pete soared, Joe bombed.
20
@Michael Cameron
The bigger story than Pete soaring is the $40K he paid the Shadow Inc app developer.
A bank roller of both Buttigieg's campaign and Shadow Inc is Seth Klarman - a major corporate Dem fundraiser aligned with Hilary Clinton.
I am pleased by Joe Biden's collapse, but I think I've become a never-Buttigieg voter.
Sounds like 2016 primary DNC thumb on the scale redo.
It is sad to have a democratic party not trusting in the democratic process to determine their nominee.
Personally I would much rathe have a Warren president.
8
@Joel
Sanders supporter here. Warren is my strong number 2 though despite their unhelpful spat a few weeks ago.
I think both Bernie and Warren lost 2-3 points because of that unnecessary split.
They're the only ones I would enthusiastically vote for. Volunteering for any of the others apart from maybe Yang is unthinkable to me.
11
Nature always seeks equilibrium. It's just as true in politics. Given the radical move to the right the Republicans have made, there must be an equal move to the left for the Democrats.
The Republican party has been waging war against the working class and against Democracy in general for the past half century. They can't be appeased by moving to the center anymore than Rupert Murdoch can be convinced that climate change is destroying his native country.
17
Because of the antiquated electoral college, the presidential race will come down to the battleground states, and like it or not, we need the centrist vote to tip the scales. That means we need to be open to compromising on issues and be strategic about messaging. There is much talk of the youthful voter wave, but the most reliable voter turnout is consistently among those aged 45+, and especially those 65+. In the 2018 with the huge increase in voter turnout 64.6% of those 29 and under still sat it out. Contrast that with only 37% of 65+. [US Census data]
There is so much more at stake here than pushing the progressive agenda. I say this as a left of center Dem. There are longer-term implications on the independence of Congress and the Judiciary from the Executive branch, the SCOTUS and lower court appointments, and ensuring that our elections are free and fair. It is essential that we defeat Trump and I have yet to see data that shows an uncompromising, self-described "socialist" candidate can pull the moderate battleground votes needed.
24
@norma clyde
The evidence has been out there since 2016. Of the 23 contests Sanders won, most were in Rust Belt states that flipped to Trump in the GE. He won every county in WV!
In every head-to head poll against Trump from the past year Bernie has done best or second best.
No more evidence is needed!
8
@DJ You missed the point. Norma was talking about the general election, not Democratic primaries. If you seriously think Bernie can win every county in West Virginia in a general election, or any county for that matter, then you haven't been to West Virginia. More worrisome is PA, Wisconsin, and Michigan.
6
Nominate Sanders as the Democratic candidate for president and it will be a rerun of the UK situation. Just as Corybn was crushed, so too will Sanders be crushed.
The American public will not elect a Socialist as POTUS. It ain't going to happen.
If your goal is to return Trump to the White House, vote Bernie in the primaries. Come to think of it, that is exactly what a lot of Trump supporters will be doing in open primaries.
29
@Chris
That's not a good comparison sir.
The non-urban English wanted OUT and Corbyn waffled on Brexit - a disastrous move.
Of the 23 contests Sanders won, most were in Rust Belt states that flipped to Trump in the GE. He won every county in WV!
In every head-to head poll against Trump from the past year Bernie has done best or second best.
4
@DJ Winning every county in WV sounds great but it was only democrats voting. Trump won the state with 65% of the vote.
1
Before Iowa, Sanders was the issue for the DNC, the man they wanted to stop.
After Iowa, Mayor Pete Buttigieg is the issue for the DNC, the man to whom they must reconcile in order to stop Sanders.
The one thing that is consistent is the sold out part of the Democratic Party's right wing, dominated by donor money and the wealthy, fears Sanders. So does the media.
12
@Mark Thomason The "one thing that is consistent" with a large number of Bernie supporters is conspiracy theories.
4
I don’t fear Sanders. I think he’s an inept bumbler of a politician who would be a joke if elected. Maybe that’s what America deserves. A chance to see how left wing populism is just as much of a failure as right wing populism.
Socialism is not extreme left. Sanders merely wants to give US citizens the same services enjoyed by citizens of every other country in the developed world. Universal health care. Free or nearly free higher education. It's not radical at all and long overdue.
If Sanders doesn't get the nomination, I'm fine with a Republican winning; there isn't much difference between establishment Democrats and Republicans anyway.
16
@H There isn't much of a difference, that is, if you don't care about the environmental crisis or treating healthcare as a right. Otherwise, sure, they're all the same--ugh.
6
This is really too much. Climate change is an existential threat and the Republican Party officially denies it. Ideological purists in the Democratic Party brought us GWB and DJT - first a bloody, expensive and unnecessary war and a now a frontal assault on democracy itself.
I personally don’t care for candidates who scream and demonize their opposition but if necessary I’ll set aside my personal taste in the interest of our nation and the planet. I hope you will too, and vote for whomever is ultimately nominated by the Democratic Party.
@H
Have you paid attention to court choices or environmental regulation? LGBT or womens rights?
The United States being fine with Russian encroachment on Canada's territorial waters?
1
Yes, Sanders is by far the most radical candidate. If he gets the nomination, Trump will be reelected. God help us. If by some miracle that does't happen, a Sanders government will not achieve anything except to further divide the nation and assure a landslide Republican victory in 2024. Please, no. This is very dangerous.
29
My personal hope is that another conservative democrat gets elected so that life gets worse here just as it would under Trump but I don't have to worry about it. Much more comfortable not having healthcare or a plan for climate change with a dem in office. Just me tho.
2
@James
Of the 23 contests Sanders won in 2016, most were in Rust Belt states that flipped to Trump in the GE. He won every county in WV!
In every head-to head poll against Trump from the past year Bernie has done best or second best.
Are you really that pessimistic in the face of these facts?
5
@DJ The Rust Belt begins in Central New York and includes Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, the Lower Peninsula of Michigan, northern Illinois, eastern Iowa, and southeastern Wisconsin. Sanders won three of those states in the primaries. West Virginia is not considered the Rust Belt. And winning a Democratic primary in 2016 says exactly what about a general election in 2020?
3
I will vote for any Democratic hopeful...except for Sanders. I know a couple other erstwhile Democrats that feel the same way.
14
@Jim No one, absolutely no one, will cause as much damage as another four years of Trump, which you and others who decide to sit it out will guarantee.
7
@Jim
I have become a never-Buttigieger. I know quite a few dems that feel the same way.
What moved you to your decision?
Unfortunately for Bernie, solutions to any country's long-term problems based on distributing other people's money had never been a long-term success - no matter how many people passionately believe in it. So after voting for every Blue candidate since 1992, if he is the candidate my vote goes to the lesser evil of DJT.
6
The thing the establishment political class, both wings see and the establishment media sees is the end of the slush fund that feeds all the political corruption CAMPAIGN CASH. All that cash the politicians spend half their days dialing for dollars does is cede power in a democracy from the people to the people with money. That slush fund buys access and in the end buys policy, especially the tax policy that swells the yearly deficits and national debt. Will Sanders be able to implement what he wants America to be? Maybe, maybe not but at least he will fight mightily for the everyday American and it will hardly affect the already comfortable. An America that works for everybody raises all boats, including the yachts. Imagine an America where prosperity trickles down instead of forever up.
12
Trump will destroy Bernie by emphasizing his being a socialist.
If Bernie does not get the nomination, and his supporters do not support whoever does, the Dems also lose, as they did during the 2016 election.
Bad situation.
Vote Blue,
No matter who.
14
Trump will call anyone that the dems put up a socialist. So it doesn’t matter. Trump will insult anyone and everyone. But yes, Bernie pulls a lot of non-party, independent, or disaffected voters who will not vote for anyone but him. I can’t help with that crowd accept point out that they need to be won over.
10
On Bernie, I'm imagining a position that I haven't seen written about before. Anybody but Trump, yes. But, if Bernie were to oust Trump (which I'd think extremely unlikely), he simply could not accomplish any of his stated goals, and due to that failure and his age he'd be sure to be replaced by a Republican in 2024 through 2032. Don jr., anybody? We've survived almost four years under Trump. Maybe better to allow him four more to alienate even his most ardent supporters and ensure a return to sanity in 2024. Sometimes the only way to survive an illness is to wait it out and let the fever break on its own.
8
@Pragmatist that was Obama’s strategy after 2012–Republican fever never broke.
6
@Pragmatist that may be politically pragmatic but we have a planet that’s on fire. We don’t have four more years
8
@Pragmatist I hear you, and I'm not a Bernie supporter, but it's imperative that we vote blue no matter who in the general election, if for nothing else then to save the federal courts and the Supreme Court.
2
I will caucus in the HI primary for Sanders. If he wins in the primaries I hope he gets off his lecture tour speechifying and tells people he will work patiently in their interests and not be on a moral crusade for his big ideas.
5
I think Bernie should take a realistic look at the map of Iowa. He won in the metropolitan areas. That's a reflection of his weakness on the national stage, where it's going to be hard to convince centrists and reasonable Republicans to vote for a left of leftie. His prospects will be even worse once the GOP and Russians set their sites on tearing him down.
15
@Barbara
I think you may need to give Sanders more credit.
Of the 23 contests Sanders won, most were in Rust Belt states that flipped to Trump in the GE. He won every county in WV!
In every head-to head poll against Trump from the past year Bernie has done best or second best.
5
@DJ Think you are really looking at this the wrong way. Promising to ban fracking, oil and gas leases, and coal, Bernie would never win WV, or Pennsylvania, Ohio, maybe not even Colorado. Democrat primaries don't mean anything in the general.
1
Where your argument fails is you think there are reasonable Republicans. Where are these unicorns who will publicly go against Trump?
A lot of Democrats don’t like Sanders, so I have a hard time seeing a bunch of swing state trump voters flipping over. Sanders would be a good nominee in 2008. In 2020 with things generally trending up? Not so much. There’s a reason Democrats don’t want him to be the nominee and republicans are dying for him to be it. Just because sanders supporters are loud doesn’t mean they’re right about him.
31
May I remind everyone that what is called the radical left in the US would be considered centrist or even center right in many other countries. For 40 years, republicans and their disinformation machine have moved our policies further and further right. Don't worry about going too far left; there are a lot of good policies there.
63
@Paul R S
I think most of us are quite aware of that. However, we live in a country where those republicans have a say, have a vote and have big influence. Sanders is weak because he never changes and points fingers at "them" - evil corporations, etc. His supporters speak in us/them terms. You don't convince those on the right to go left with those kinds of tactics. Sanders will make an abysmal president if elected, and that could set back the progressive by years we cannot afford.
19
May I remind you that those countries have far fewer people than we do, and have worked many more years than we have been in order to achieve social democracy. The idea that the US can achieve the same thing overnight is ludicrous, which makes me think that the people who espouse such a plan haven’t thought it through.
8
@Barbara Sanders is weak because he never changes? It is actually one of his strengths- he isn't pandering for the vote. We know who he is.
5
The author forgets that their are hundreds of shows on cable and Netflix and Amazon and lots more people are watching all of those shows combined than the inauguration. There are a relatively small number of true believers and if the Dems nominate the Socialist, bank breaking Bernie, it’s 4 more years for Trump. Even liberal tech CEOs will run for the hills.
13
@ehillesum
Bank breaking is done by Republicans, and they’re still winning elections . Maybe you should look beyond the Republican talking points at his actual policies. You’re just reinforcing the idea that most Americans don’t deserve a proportionate share of the wealth.
7
@ehillesum Business leaders don't want Elizabeth Warren, either. In fact, they figure Warren may be more dangerous that Sanders: because she's 20% less radical than Sanders, she may be able to push some Socialist legislation through. Sanders, on the other hand, is seen as far, far, left Socialist, whose efforts Dems and Republicans would oppose. Also, notice Bill Gates criticized Warren's tax-the-uber rich plan. Don't kid yourself: Trump is in a very strong position if he opposes Warren or Sanders.
3
With 62% of Iowa’s odd caucus count in, the center seems to be holding 56% of the the vote to date. The unknown question is whether the center can successfully come together behind a single (ideally younger) candidate before it is too late; and, if so, whether the far left will then stay home, ushering in another 4 years of Trump and a continued Republican stranglehold on the Senate. Here’s hoping that no matter who ends up as Trump’s opponent (center or left), we all have the common sense to unite to oust him and the Republican majority rather than carping about ideology. Let’s iron out our differences once actually in a position to effect any remediation whatsoever of the Trumpian dystopia.
11
@AMB
God willing, Biden will quit soon and the center will coalesce. I thought it would have been good for Pete to get real about his experience and become Amy's running mate before the primaries. There's a good chance they would have hit it out of the park had they done that.
9
Bruening's been playing these same themes all along. She is obviously one of those excited about a "socialist" revolution, without providing any distinct idea about what that is (except it's apparently not "socialism") and deeply distrustful of the "corporate" Democrats (presumably Democrats who don't consider private business enterprises, by their very nature, to be the enemy of all that is good, right, and just). She belittles the Democratic Party, of which she hopes her hero will be the standard bearer, by characterizing any concern over the chances of Sanders as "panic" and "desperation." No one knows, really, how Bernie or anyone else might fair against Trump in November. We'll see who wins the nomination, and then we'll see how they do. Meanwhile, all this palaver about how great Sanders is going to be is nothing but braggadocio and swagger.
22
@Bill Smith
It's the typical Bernie Bros thing... absolutely oblivious to how offensive the language they use is to half the people they speak to. The us/them-ing of everything is antithetical to being a good president.
13
@Barbara Agreed. Great example last night when Nina Turner called Bloomberg an oligarch and then, when it was pointed out the Bernie is also a 1 percenter, she said oh, well, he didn't make that much money until he was older. I find Sanders and his supporters to be very divisive and intolerant and dismissive of any opposing views.
4
@Barbara
Are you also oblivious to how offensive the language you use?
Be better Kettle.
1
If Sanders is the nominee, I will unhesitatingly vote for him against Trump. I just do not share Ms. Bruenig's confidence that Sanders is the best placed to defeat Trump. Nor do I think that her calculus of opposition should be centered around Joe Biden. I think Biden is fading and either Buttegieg or Bloomberg will be the main centrist opposition to Sanders (or Warren) in the primaries. And can Warren be so easily ignored as she is in this piece? I don't think so. There is a long way to go, and many surprises to come yet.
And also consider what is going to happen with Warren
35
One of the oft repeated arguments for how--purportedly--leftwing candidates like Senators Sanders and Warren will lead the Democrats to victory in Nov. is by motivating new voters to come to the polls. DIDN'T HAPPEN in Iowa where cumulative turnout was approximately the same as in 2016 (even though Bernie and Hillary were the only serious candidates then) and significantly less than in 2008.
23
Great to know that if Bernie doesn't get the nod ,his supporters are going to help re-elect trump just like they helped get him elected in 2016.
42
@RJM
Sorry. I just don’t know how much enthusiasm I can muster to see Mitch McConnell put another nice, reasonable, center-left president through a wood chipper while we all sit around wondering why real-life Republicans don’t act like West Wing Republicans.
3
@RJM
Saying things a thousands times does not make them true even if some people believe the statement. Ever heard of the electoral college? Hillary won in fact. Should my vote not count as much as those cast in say S. Dakota? (Should Wyoming even be a state/) We are a republic NOT a democracy... and one man, one vote-- just ain't so.
Bernie supporter. Definitely sitting out if Buttigieg or Bloomberg get the nomination. Trump is awful but ineffective. They would be similarly pro-war, pro-police, anti-social spending but multiple times more effective than Trump.
3