I'm an independent now too embarrassed lately by the socialist Sanders and too disgusted by Trump Republicans. Just watch the Independents grow and flick of both parties like fleas after another four years of Trump or a new rage and chaos for four years by Sanders. The leadership of men in this country...weak, fat, slovenly, bombastic, old curmudgeons, couldn't fight a war, greedy, cowards, and undisciplined. Where are our young heroes of men and women who are educated, disciplined, brave, intelligent, humbly imperfect, with a vision and a work ethic for equality of all and the right to pursue happiness?
111
I’ve spent time in Denmark. Mr. Sanders does not seem like someone who could make this country more like Denmark. First, he doesn’t ride a bike, does he? Second, he talks too much and too loudly. More likely that Mr. Sanders will make the U.S. more like a big New York deli where everyone is yelling out their numbers and taking too long to select their cuts of meat. Of course, that will be an improvement over Mr. Trump. He has made this country like a thug-filled back room at a gaudy Atlantic City casino. Personally, if we must have a New Yorker, I’d prefer the Upper East Side with Mr. Bloomberg. His computers work, he has a good staff, and he has the good taste to serve up a little pate on crackers with champagne.
155
When I reached that point where the author of this article claims that the inequality he saw everywhere in the LA area is due to the fact that “these are changing times” and going through changes like this is “hard,” I just couldn’t go on. Please don’t insult our intelligence.
183
Trump v. Bernie. That's a heck of a choice.
I like the universal, government-funded Healthcare idea. So maybe we can elect Bernie, get the Healthcare concept in place, and then he can resign, because he does otherwise appear to be a nut.
48
Bloomberg is the only one who can beat Trump.
85
Bernie is now driving the bus, and we're headed off a cliff.
94
A pretty good op-ed! But why is the "gathering" myth true? Because you say so Brooks? I think the leave us alone and stop taking our money for stupid diversity is a more apt position of most people in society who have produced something.
6
Bernie will get nothing done, and Trump has already done too much. Bloomberg might be a lousy debater, but would make an effective president. That's what matters.
Having to choose between Bernie and Trump is too much to ask. I'll write in my dog Gus, then vote down ticket as needed. I suspect a measurable percentage of voters will feel left out, unrepresented, and just stay home out of disgust.
71
Another establishment attack on Sanders; equating him with Trump. How many times did Brooks say “myth”? He was calling both men liars in doing so. It’s up to you to decide who’s lying. Sanders “myth” isn’t concocted for this moment. He’s been saying the same thing for 40 years. Income inequality is not a “myth”. It’s not a “myth” that wealthy individuals and corporations have been able to pour enormous amounts of money into our political system in order to get the wheels of government to turn in their direction. When Brooks talks about lenses vis-a-vis Sanders, he’s talking about a world view based on social class. For a millionaire like him, it’s threatening to have a politician, who envisions a society, which functions for working-class people. So if you’re a millionaire and all you care about is your own wealth, don’t vote for Sanders. However, if you’re a working-class person or if you like the idea of living in a just and equitable society, don’t let Brooks’ “myths” fool you.
135
And what of the Brooks Myth? A better life and country through regression. Let’s all go back to the good old days when women knew their place and blacks and brown folks were not so demanding. When most folks were God fearing Christians and attended church with their families like the old TV show Father Knows Best. Oh it was so wonderful in those days. And Gay folks? They just never existed.
63
Here’s how to “carve up” Bernie-Socialism limits freedom, and most Americans won’t stand for that!
3
Just like when similar articles where written about Hillary Clinton in 2016, as a Republican, all I can say is Yes, Yes, Yes!
2
Who cares who wins the nomination. Look at the guy in the White House. He just made someone with no intelligence experience the new intelligence chief.
At this point, Bernie’s drunk cousin, Bob, would be a better choice and it’s not even clear that Bernie has a cousin named Bob or that he’s drunk.
88
So come November we will have an option of voting for two old white men, one Cruel and one Angry.
I can hardly wait .
45
David Brooks is just laying groundwork explaining his upcoming Trump vote.
51
Brooks writes that Bernie lacks warmth? Seriously? Reaching much? At least he isn't a traitor.
55
Dems need to wake up. Sanders is an old white guy trying to re-live his pie-in-the-sky nonsense--all he ever screams about. His view of this country is so unrealistic as to be offensive. He's no more concerned with the middle class needs than impotus. If he squeaks out the nomination, then get ready for four more years of impotus.
37
All Democrats in the primary have pledged to support the eventual nominee. But will the NYT if Sanders is the nominee? At least the Times has stopped identifying Sanders in almost every story by his "Brooklyn" accent.
24
You are, unfortunately, probably right about this.
14
This article has brought more comments here than the average. Bravol Mr Brooks!
I have followed David Brooks for decades, starting in Paris, when he often was invited to talk shows on French TV. When the most read newspaper around the expatriate community in the world was called The International Herald Tribune (now it is the International NY Times).
David Brooks is a fine and astute observer and I have always valued his opinions. When he says here that Sanders will probably win, it may happen indeed. The majority of the average people like myths. Hitler was also made possible from a myth: he had first promised prosperity and pride to the impoverished and beaten -up Germans (the loss of WWI, the loss of its colonies around the world, the enormous debt, the sanctions). Hitler was the charismatic leader!
The Tuesday Democratic debate was a gross caricature of US versus THEM. The disenfranchised people of America versus the shameful Billionaires. And on Tuesday it was four against one.
All the people who fit in the grey area will vote using a more sophisticated judgement. I hope.
11
Three members of the Walton family (who never worked a day in their lives) have more money than 150 million Americans.
Is that a myth, David?
81
Biden has "organized [his] worldview into a simple compelling myth." His whole campaign is a single story: Life was better under Obama & Biden.
Biden's problem, though, is he isn't half the politician that Obama was.
16
From where David sits the people look so small and their problems so insufficient.
You show just how out of touch you truly are David.
Making 200 million Americans economic hardship into a myth? So they are not real then right?
44
It’s not myth-telling. It’s salesmanship. Do you ever see advertisements for products that say in effect: our product is moderately better, in our opinion, than the alternatives? “It’s our humble opinion that this soap will just make things a little bit cleaner than that soap over there—perhaps.” If you want to make any progress when your boat is headed upstream against a swift current, you don’t encourage your fellow passengers to gently, casually paddle. You get out the bullhorn and shout out “STROKE! STROKE!! STROKE!!!” Yes, David, there won’t be much moderation in the statements made by a politician seeking to wake up the townsfolk and get a bucket line going to put out the fire that’s raging through the town. There may be a bit of hyperbole, for incentive. You know...TO STOP IT ALL FROM BURNING TO THE GROUND.
21
Stop being paranoid. Most of us Democrats cannot stand Bernie Sanders. And I don’t buy he is the darling of millennials. He is a crotchety old Trot standing on a milk crate outside of the Fulton St station berating everyone walking by while his acolytes harass you to buy their paper.
40
The problem is that the socialist myth—with all its baggage that Trump will relentlessly distort and exploit—will not play across the heartland, will not capture the former Obama voters who defected in 2016. For them, the socialist label will be a bridge too far.
http://andrewhidas.com/four-more-years-why-bernies-anti-capitalism-paves-the-way-for-trump/
19
"Don't tell me nothing 'bout nothing that I already know"
1
David Brooks, either your lens won’t let you see the people from Goldman Sachs working in the Trump Administration, with Bloomberg, with the Koch network, and even the establishment of the DNC, stealing our elections and blaming it on Russia... or you’re just an intelligent liar. Or both.
If we google the Palast Investigative Fund we can identify exactly how real, tangible evil Wall Street vulture capitalists such as John Paulson and the Koch network are preparing to steal the next election... and how we can get purged Democratic votes to reregister.
If your last name is Martinez or Jackson you probably vote Democratic and your vote was probably purged by the Republican Interstate Crosscheck Program and you need to reregister to elect Bernie Sanders to become our next President and save our Democratic Republic and possibly our planet.
25
Wrong. Bernie has been an activist his whole life. Why is MSM so anti Bernie? What are you so scared of?
29
I cannot vote for a man
- with coronary heart disease
- harbors trolls amongst his advisors
- promised to release FULL health records back in September, before his heart attack.
- whose demeanor is a constant angry rant
- who wants to abolish freedom to chose my healthcare
Guess I'll be writing in my vote for Tucker...our Black Lab.
26
Who is your favorite leader of the “gathering” movement, Mr. Brooks? And what myth will s/he be relying on?
6
problem is mr. Brooks it's not a myth that he's telling it's the truth of where we at and you are so terribly out of touch.
24
There is a reason David Brooks is not running for President. He thinks our problems can be solved by a person like him, a weaver-gatherer. He refuses to see the outright wickedness of the Republican Party. Ask an older German whether this weaver-gatherer myth would have dealt with Nazism. No, David, we do not need to try team building with the wicked. Obama already tried that.
33
This is a fight between the left and the right. The last one was in WWII when the left won and the Nazis and Tojo and lost. The electorate was on the left - we won. We fight again, and again they're is a choice, left or right. I'm on the left with Sanders. Realistically, there is only one other choice, Trump, a fascist, on the right. It's as simple as that.
20
A counter argument: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/21/opinion/sunday/billionaires-inequality-2020-election.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage
3
David I don't know what drug you are taking but stop. As Philip Zimbardo once said, it's not the apple that bad its the barrel. You write, "These problems aren’t caused by some group of intentionally evil people." You are wrong. The peopoe who have been in control are evil. They purposely created systems to oppress people. The KKK, redlining, union busting, these things did not happen on their own. Evil people did those things to maintain their power. Kumbaya won't solve the problem.
24
Way to go insulting the citizens of this country that have gathered- effectively calling them dumb or children. The real myth is your narrative- which, by the way, is quite polarizing. Hypocrite much?
16
David lives in his own mythical world - he has no feeling for the poor, the hungry and the homeless hungry - for him they don`t exist.
19
Saunders:'working class'
Warren:'middle class'
Trump: 'Us'(whites)
8
"In 2016 Donald Trump told a successful myth: The coastal elites are greedy, stupid people who have mismanaged the country, undermined our values and changed the face of our society."
Trump was correct.
The con is that Trump himself is one of those greedy, stupid coastal elites he railed against. He may even be the greediest, stupidest one.
Sociopath's Rule No. 1: Accuse others of the wrong you do.
27
Bernie is another Putin’s man !
Bernie are you American or really a Russian asset ?
1
A clear well written article. Which transmits a simplistic myth (“ a traditional story;” “a widely held, but false belief or idea”). With great certitude. As are many of his OP EDs.The built-in constraints of an either/ or constructed reality misinforms.Inadvertently. Or on purpose.The reader is not helped to adequately consider the complexities and multidimensionalities of what is being focused on. Nor is the reader, or listener at a meeting or rally, helped to remember the actual and potential dimensions of the ever-present, interacting,realities.
Consider: Uncertainties. Unpredictabilities. Randomness. Outliers. Lack of total control notwithstanding one’s efforts, timely or not.
By oneself, as well as with others.
You are presenting an idea. A thesis.A sharing. An invitation for a dialogue. A semantic questing which may stimulate necessary questions.
To conclude, in your semantic conceptual certitudinous way that
“...one that has the advantage of being true,” can serve to transmute valid opining into “truth-mongering.”
In an era in which generalizable FACTs and TRUTHs are ravished daily. And toxic “alt facts” infect the self-inflicted “vulnerable.” The “at-risk.“ Temporarily, or more permanently. By the effects of their chosen willful blindness about what IS, which should not BE. Willfully deaf to the experienced existential pains of all too many. All around US. Willfully indifferent to types, levels and qualities of ummenschlichkeit. Willfully ignorant about...
He's a time machine, a fast-forward gray-haired balding version of the annoying do-gooding folk-singing cannabis-smoking unshowered whiners who hung around every college campus in the early seventies, flipping their hair sideways and boring everybody with their bad poetry and depressing self-righteousness.
13
Spot on, David.
3
"Bernie Sanders is also telling a successful myth: The corporate and Wall Street elites are rapacious monsters who hoard the nation’s wealth and oppress working families."
Respectfully, disagree, sir. A short sampling:
> HealthSouth
> Tyco
> Enron (& Arthur Andersen)
> Bear Stearns
> AIG
> Lehman Brothers
> BP (Deepwater Horizon)
> Deutsche Bank
> Facebook
> WorldCom
> Barclays Bank (Libor)
> Uber
More here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_corporate_collapses_and_scandals
15
Democratic fratricide isn't "hellaciously entertaining."
3
then get ready for another 4 of the little dictator.
1
Bernie is a sure loser to Trump."Free" everything. As "excited" as many of his followers are, they all won't vote. Too busy coding and programing.
1. Do away with private insurance ...really? Does he think voters in the private insurance/health care industry are going to vote themselves out of a job?
2. Free education....really. So a working voter in Kansas or Florida who makes $12/hour is going to pay for someone else's education
3, Forgive student loans...really. Does he think those who are still in debt for a car, home and prior loans are going to vote to forgive someone else's loan?
Total pie in the sky. When you got nothing you got nothing to lose...as the BD song goes.
How do you spell Sanders = McGovern...who I voted for in 1972..but will not vote for Sanders in 2020 if he is the Democratic candidate. Another old white guy =yawn
Give me some realistic and practical inspiration =Amy
14
The only myth here is Brooks's effort to deconstruct Sanders. This from the pen that pondered and came up with the following back in 2003 whilst at the neoconservative Weekly Standard: "Any poor rube can come to a simple conclusion--that President Saddam Hussein is a menace who must be disarmed." Yup.
7
Forget what lens you look through and look at the facts.
You know it's possible to be a successful entrepreneur and someone who has called women horse faced lesbians and fat slobs.
It's possible to be successful and someone who grabs women's private parts and forces himself on them.
It's possible to be successful and claim to pay women and men the same salary for the same job when you actually pay women less.
I'm sure there have been and will continue to be very successful people who are deplorable human beings.
Remember "The Queen of Mean"...Leona Helmsley?
Very successful and very horrible.
6
Sanders...Not what we need.
Bellowing, yes! Angry, yes!! Inflexible, yes!!!
Destructive, absolutely!!!
Correct: Warren was a misguided missle.
5
Hey Brooks stick to writing about Republicans and you can be much more honest. (Honesty in journalism, remember that?)
So with 3 men in Seattle that have more wealth than the bottom 160 MILLION AMERICANS proves how disingenuous this piece is.
I'm going to take a wild guess and assume you are not wondering how you're going to pay your rent, cover you insurance premium, or buy your kid a pair of shoes. I can assure that's thought is on the 160 million s
You are probably at the least in the 2% and why on earth would you want a guy that may be you down to the 2.5%.
THE HOROR, THE HOROR.
10
What a joke this opinion is. Boiling the entire elections down to 'myth" selling? Why not use the expression "snake oil salesman".
I guess as a writer and publisher (NYTs) you have to write and print something but honestly how far off this rails is this article.
Bernie has been consistent in his political beliefs for decades. His message has been the same since his youth - all viewable on YouTube - so hay NYTs (aka DNC) - we can all see who he is and what he believes in. We don't need NYTs op-ed pieces to dictate its self righteous opinions in 2020. Voters simply agree with his message even if the NYTs thinks we need to see the world from its myth from its ivory tower. These type of articles can so easily be debunked by online research about Bernie's past. Factual articles by the thousands.
So twisting and labeling his message a "myth" may give the NYTs something to publish but what we voters are interested in are the facts about Bernie's platform and stance on the issues not trump style one word hype.
In denigrating Sanders, at this point, the NYTs (part of the oligarch media) might just as well support Trump because he is the opponent Bernie will have to defeat to end this rein of unaccountable criminal madness. This poorly written idea - is a joke that is not funny.
10
In the myth that Trump inhabits, really, the Nazis and KKK members marching on Charlottesville were fine people. Because they shared Trump’s myth. Some even carried Trump flags.
5
What if the millions of $$$$$ going to the Sanders campaign is being funneled from Putin's oligarchs?
A ridiculous notion? Or reality hiding in plain sight?
2
I think the interesting point to be gleaned here is that supporters of each man are willing to overlook their issues. Trump is a misogynistic liar and Sanders is a hypocrite.
Supporting either is just a recipe for disaster, we shall reap what we sow.
5
Trump is all narcissism and no joy. Sanders is all earnestness and no joy. Unhappiness is the common denominator in politics today.
7
Trump will just attack Sanders as the communist he really is. Social democrat is just his label to avoid being what he actually believes, which you can see/hear with your eyes/ears:
https://www.johnstossel.com/revolutionary-bernie-sanders/
3
Bernie Sanders is brilliant. Donald Trump is a dunce. What is the problem??
12
No, Donald Trump didn’t tell the myth you recount here, Brooks. You are as usual telling a myth that has no substance. Donald Trump didn’t go against the coastal elites. He went after the poorest of the poor: The Mexican and South and Central American refugees. He went after secularism and raised the worst spectrum of racism and Islamophobia. Why do you keep misrepresenting the facts, Brooks! We all know you admire Trump but want to create a myth that you don’t.
11
Why do you claim Warren is coopting Sanders’s myth? She started off a Republican, did her homework on the root causes of bankruptcy and poverty, saw the light, and came to her own conclusions. She’s earned her right to be here. Enough with the lazy, derisive thinking Mr Brooks!
17
then its 4 more
2
This kind of collusion between politicians, pundits and media has to be broken by someone who will not cooperate with the system, someone who is differentiated enough to no longer bend to the thirst for controversy and immaturity of exchange that cable TV puts to this season. I don’t know who that is - maybe Jesus. There is “another lens” but it lives somewhere beyond the DNC - in Friedman’s work and the work of the Presenting Institute: https://www.presencing.org/ and https://www.presencing.org/aboutus/theory-u.
1
Trump's myth was not that coastal elites have mismanaged the country. Trump's myth was that Mexican immigrants, illegal or illegal, are murdering drug dealing rapists invading the country and out to destroy white America. And that African Americans aren't really Americans, Nazis are also good people and he is the only one who can save 1950s America and put those uppity people of color in their place.
That's Trump's myth. Mr. Brooks you know that and you are denying it. There is a name for people who promote false information. Of course right now that name is President but I'm thinking of a different one.
12
Bernie is indeed selling a myth, that of a utopia.
Democratic Socialism in each manifestation (healthcare for everybody and we'll figure out how to pay for it later) is pie-in-the-sky.
Here, succinctly, is Bernie's utopian dream:
In Russian (where he went on his life-changing honeymoon: https://youtu.be/0AsoffNz9e4
In Chinese, by the little indoctrinated children: https://youtu.be/asO_QbyenUw
In English, with additional lyrics, by Billy Bragg: https://youtu.be/yAw0Ri4FSdM
If you are in any way a victim, the oppressed, Bernie is your savior.
Watch Bernie carefully, and test to see if anything he espouses does not conform to the The Internationale.
Yes, he is towing the Party Line.
4
both choices are nightmares....myths that will spell doom for the under classes
the lens of history tells us that the Bernie myth will end up with a huge defeat..his myth threatens powers gods
Bernie's world can never be realized....because it is a myth
trumps myth is real..his world prevails and his dragons are real
5
the David Brooks lens fails to see the real cause of the problems: wanna be politicians who allow the rich to run things because they pine to have the power of the rich. And Sanders is no different. He's not in it to fix anything: he's a destroyer. He IS the myth. The only thing he got right in this article is Warren: she is a soundbite machine, regurgitating what she sees as working for others. Next to Biden, she is the one with the least vision. Sanders isca fake and a fraud; just like his wife. Why is no one bringing her up?
3
You ate talking about Elizabeth Warren. I just voted for her. Read your own words.
2
The New York Times has long been and continues to be very biased against Bernie Sanders. It's that simple. It's also a huge disservice to many of your readers.
11
Here are some important myths:
1. If you are wealthy, you must be smart, the cream of the crop.
I would have hoped Donald Trump would have killed this illusion for people, but it persists in true believer.
2. If you are wealthy, you must have done something that benefited a huge number of people, that made the world better.
I'm sure anyone can find the counterexample here. Those on the left can point to hedge funds and collateralized debt obligations. Those on the right can point to Twitter and Facebook. Or heck, maybe we should all just point to the drug lords, the cartels; How about the Purdue family and Oxycontin?
3. Getting rich is about how hard you work.
Hard work is very often an important part of making money, especially if you don't start with money, like the Trumps and the Hiltons and the Kardashians do. Getting rich is far more about what you do. The hardest working teacher is never going to be rich. If you're a general practitioner or an ER doctor, the front lines of medicine, you're unlikely to be rich, though your job is an important one. If you're a plastic surgeon, you can work a good deal less and still get paid a lot more.
9
Bernie OR BUST.
5
Even two-third’s of the Democratic Party voters can’t stomach the traitor and ignoramus Bernie. So exactly why is the Great Panderer a shoo-in for the nomination?
6
Looking more like a brokered convention. The socialists are outnumbered and it will be a bloody battle.
4
Always entertaining when the comments prove the thesis of the column.
(And I remain curious about how the Times views the purpose and management of the comments sections: therapeutic venting? Click bait? Populist expression? Actual intelligent debate seems much diminished compared to even five years ago.)
1
"In 2016 Donald Trump told a successful myth: The coastal elites are greedy, stupid people who have mismanaged the country, undermined our values and changed the face of our society."
A myth? No, it was a true story about himself, a greedy, careless, coastal elite who is laser focused on his own well-being. But people fell for it as if it were a prized myth—apple upside down.
4
It doesn’t really matter. The election is over. The Manchurian candidate, Donald Trump, won.
This reads like satire parodying how absurdly biased the NYT has been against Sanders, as if written by The Onion to show how out of touch the editorial board truly is with the actual facts of our divergent economy.
Bernie’s “myth” (that hurt to even type), that the richest nation in the world can afford to join literally all other developed countries by implementing universal health care, was just backed by a Yale-published study. They found M4A would save $450b and 60k lives annually. What storytellers!
Plus, Trump’s myth was immigrants and “the swamp”.
13
What complete claptrap. Sanders is not selling a “myth”. He is describing the lived reality of the vanishing middle class. How dare you equate him to Donald Trump. And did you actually say he has no human warmth? Really? Sanders has been fighting for regular people his entire career. What have you ever done for working people? The only genuine myth in this column is the notion that David Brooks has anything of value to say.
16
What a joke. You fail to grasp the differences here.
Trump actively lies.
Bernie tells the truth. His story isn’t a myth, it’s backed by numbers and millions of Americans.
And let’s not look at Bloomberg through two stories. It’s one. He’s a successful entrepreneur who is also a racist oligarch. One story, one bad man.
6
utter nonsense. bernie is a fighter for social justice who has been consistent---and consistently right---for 60 years.
trump is a mobster.
david brooks needs to get over this facile, completely wrong comparison. nobody in america---morally, spiritually, intellectually--- is more different from trump than bernie sanders.
13
To compare Sanders to Trump is like comparing FDR to Hitler, correct on relatively superficial matters (both masters of communication) but grossly off-the-mark in substance. And, by the way, David, America and Americans thrived under FDR's socialism.
15
David, I know you’re the liberals favorite conservative, and that you worship wealth like the rest of your ilk, and that Bloomberg is your guy.
I have one question I’d like you to answer: why should a billionaire like Bloomberg get to decide what he does with his tax dollars through his tax free foundation, while the rest of us don’t? His wonderful philanthropic giving comes at the cost of lost tax revenue and we the people all pay for it, and it’s time you acknowledge this simple truth
10
When and if we can get real, we get Amy.
4
You really show yourself as the mouthpiece for the 1% today David.
These are realities not myths. By calling them myths you make the people living these realities seem small or ignorant. With this platform you are stepping on the chest of the oppressed . Your kind have a major reckoning coming. When we the people wake up and see its been your kind keeping healthcare and better wages away from us you will never have a part in our decision making ever again.
5
The Democrats are in big trouble. All you need to do is to look at the numbers. Add up the votes for moderate candidates, then add up the votes for far left progressive candidates. There actually are many more voters who support a moderate candidate but there are just too many of them and they are splitting the vote. They all have big egos and none of them will drop out of the race until it is too late. The best thing that Warren can do is stay in until the end and peel off as many votes from Sanders as she can. Reason being, I chat with people at sites on both spectrums. Conservatives that hate Trump will vote for a Biden, a Klobuchar or a Bloomberg presidency but they will either stay home or suck it up and vote for Trump again rather than Sanders. Sanders WILL damage down ballot Democrats all over the country and there will be no chance to win the Senate. Trump will crucify him with fears of a socialist/communist takeover of our country. We will not be able to capture swing states. On the left sites, many Bernie supporters have said they will NOT show up for any Dem candidate other than him. They would rather have Trump (of course, proof they are insane). I believe we will have a divided convention with Sanders leading in the vote total. Either the super delegates choose a moderate and convince his supporters to deal with the fallout or accept inevitable loss across the board.
5
Sanders at least believes in his ideals. Trump is a comical, treasonous criminal con man WWF wrestler who simply wanted to further his brand at the sake of the nation. One should be a candidate. One should be in jail.
6
If this opinion is true get ready for 4 more years of Trump!
1
The myth of gathering will solve systemic racism! Said the moderate white man.
4
The greedy rapaciousness of corporate and Wall Street elites and their all out war on working families is a myth? Ummmm sounds like Mr. Brooks sees the world through some pretty mythical lenses himself.
3
It's kind of hilarious that there elitists are squirming around so much trying to get people to agree with the argument that we need a centrist and that Bernie is too divisive. Guess what Brooks? We know what your trying to do and nobody who is paying attention wants the status quo anymore. It's too late. You had your chance. If you want to be with togetherness, are you going to stick with the billionaires and all their sycophants or are you going to get with the non-rascist, non-sexist, anti-fascist, pro union, pro healthcare, pro government, pro child , pro education Bernie people?
4
“Warren.... reinforced [Bernie’s] worldview rather than establishing one of her own.”
This is a blatantly sexist and ridiculous statement.
1
Jeez, Brooks is off base, piling on that Mr. Sanders is a socialist. Nonsense.
1
This Michigan voter will likely vote Bernie. That said, I will vote for whomever the nominee is if it means removing this dangerous dirt-bag from the Oval Office.
3
Senator Warren was in full "battle-axe mode during the Democratic Presidential debate in Las Vegas last night. Poor Mayer Bloomberg looking like a browbeaten husband married to a Termagant.
Continually shocking how out of touch some of the NYT's columnists are. Bernie tells a story. Maybe it is not one that people in luxury high rise apartments in NYC can relate to but for us 'common' folk, that myth is the reality.
7
David Brooks has the wisdom to know everyone's failings: except his own myopic view of status quo.
4
Right. Except Sanders' story is not a myth. It is an absolute truth. That is why people support him. And they will keep supporting him regardless of what david brookses of this world make up in their NYT columns. Because truth will beat propaganda every day of the week.
6
Myth makers go by another name...dictators.
We’ve seen a lot of them over the past hundred years and all of them have brought their countries to ruin while destroying untold numbers of lives.
They have ranged from Stalin, Hitler and Tojo to Mao Tse Tung with lesser examples on the order of Franco, Mussolini, Pol Pot and Castro. All of the same cloth and all presiding over monstrous authoritarian states supported by myth believers.
The measure of where our society is today is the extent to which myth makers such as Trump and Sanders have gained purchase among an electorate increasingly made up of myth believers.
We are seemingly caught up in a social maelstrom the outlines of which are becoming disturbingly clear and familiar. It will not end well.
2
Why so morbid Mr. Brooks? Something good for everyone doesn't sit right with most educated white men, why is that?
2
So with just two states finished with there process...well one anyway your telling me your predicting the winner. I bet you thought Hillary Clinton was going to be the president in 2016 too!
1
You're on the right track Bret, but you've got it bass-ackwards. Bernie's followers don't see the world through some “myth” that Bernie has created. Since the very beginning of his 2016 campaign Bernie has been asking people to share their stories. One by one Bernie was gifted threads spun from the life experience of millions of people like me.
Stories from my working class family about how we endured generations of suffering and death without truly affordable health care contributed a thread to Bernie's vision of establishing “Medicare-for-All”.
Stories from our neighbors who lost farms first tilled by their great-great-grandparents contributed threads to Bernie's plan to reform agribusiness.
Stories from our children with lives stunted by the lack of a living wage, student loan debt, the “gig” economy, and lack of affordable housing have contributed threads to Bernie's vision of revitalizing unions, reigning-in corporate greed, killing tax breaks for the wealthy, and ending income inequality and homelessness.
Stories from my small, rural home town that sacrificed its future, and more than 80% of its adult males, fighting fascism during World War II contributed threads to Bernie's vision of ending our endless wars and stopping Trump and his cronies cold.
The tapestry we've begun in this time of transition is our vision – not Bernie's myth – and we're gathering behind him because – unlike Trump the Ripper – Bernie is the most capable of weaving us a bright future.
7
You are so, so wrong here. If you can't see the steadfast empathy and passion for Americans that Sanders and Warren have and their persistent fight for basic human rights, then your lens is dirty!
7
The end of the essay kind of falls apart quite honestly. Maybe myth should not have been your thesis?
1
The gathering myth deserves more than 55 words.
Do the country a solid and expand upon it or you’re just one more pundit casting stones.
1
Myths are the cornerstone of all human progress - read the book “Sapien” by Noah Harari.
2
The junkyard dog named Trump will eviscerate Sanders for lunch and then use his bones as a toothpick.
Game over.
3
Men have a blind spot where Elizabeth Warren is concerned.
She’s the one.
3
I guess the next time I have a medical bill I can't pay because the hospital is price-gouging me and my insurer is a willing accomplice, I'll just tell them that they are a myth and that I don't really owe anything.
Likewise, the next time Trump breaks a treaty or imprisons a migrant child in a steel cage or funnels taxpayer money into one of his hotels or pardons one of his criminal friends, I'll just think about how it is all a myth after all.
Easily one of your worst columns, Brooks.
5
It sounds like David Brookes hasn’t spent any time with Bernie. He’s a great listener and is not lacking for basic human warmth.
3
The wealthy had better wake up along with their minions in Washington. It is better to keep most of the wealth you have extracted from the middle class than try to take it all and have your genes stricken from the genome when the anger ignites.
2
Didn't the local Vermont paper suggest that Sanders shouldn't run for president?
NY Times: Why aren't you calling for *45's resignation?
There couldn’t be a better gift to Trump $ the GOP having Bernie the socialistic-communist running against Trump. Trump may win re-election in a landslide. the only one’s who will be voting for Bernie will be leftist dreamers and out of touch flower children. Trump 2020
3
Unattractive Bernie will probably lose the general.
What I saw at the debate was an angry, bitter, shrill, shrieking, and at times beet-red, unattractive Bernie. He was so riled up at times he seemed to be on the verge of having a heart attack at the lectern. For an electorate tuning in for the first time, the only thing they could see Bernie gathering is an angry, revolutionary mob.
At the conclusion of what I believe was the second Reagan Mondale debate, Barbara Jordan, the first Black Texas senator described Reagan in his debate performance as 'a babbling idiot'. I concurred. Reagan didn't answer the questions asked, instead rigorously and righteously pivoting to subjects he wanted to address. (Mayor Bloomberg, please study this footage). Pundits and a majority of viewers found Reagan forceful and the clear winner! I watched the debate at a NYC upper west side bar where the two guys seated next to me voiced their debate takeaway: "Did you see the bags under Mondale's eyes?!"... and his friend, "I would never vote for someone with a whiny voice like that!"
Kennedy, Reagan, and Obama were attractive myth makers. Carter's warmth and the gathering myth he presented made him an attractive nominee. What are the majority of Americans going to see when/if they view Bernie up close as the Democratic nominee?
3
...a smart man, but as usual, Mr. Brooks myths the point.
2
Sanders has been in Government for 40 YEARS , and has done Very little, he has not Ever Fixed ONE PROBLEM this Nation has....he has all these Socialist Idealisms that are Pure Rhetoric / they do NOT Work in the Real World . The Trillions he wants to spend on Climate Change would be like throwing Good money into a fire pit....He said he would release his medical records? He is 78 and JUST Had a Heart Attack...He is not fit in many ways to be Commander in Chief!
7
...and lose the election.
1
The power of a Myth (Joseph Campbell's usage, and also Mr. Brooks') is a story that, despite its inaccuracy, connects deeply to human nature. As a lifelong liberal, I find in this column a parallel positioning of 'my' myth ( ". . . elites are rapacious monsters who hoard the nation’s wealth and oppress working families") set next to the 'other' myth ( ". . . elites are greedy, stupid people who have mismanaged the country, undermined our values and changed the face of our society"). Most readers' comments claiming that Sanders is better because he's accurate just mimics what Trumpers would say: Trump might be extreme but they see him as correct.
2
You are not seeing that Bernie Sanders is building a movement that can include everyone except the wealthy class that have made it harder and harder to survive, starved our government, supported putting children in cages and weaponized our borders. That movement brings everyone together to fight for a better world. The myth that it is exclusive rather than inclusive in one perpetrated by the media for their own benefit. I'm very sorry that you just don't get it because you are wrong. Equating Bernie with Trump is ridiculous.
5
"In 2016 Donald Trump told a successful myth: The coastal elites are greedy, stupid people who have mismanaged the country, undermined our values and changed the face of our society. "
Of the difference, which Mr Books disingenuously leaves out, is that Trump himself WAS (and IS) the poster boy for this corrupt "coastal" elite! As are most of his cronies.
But why bother with basic facts like that when you're busy trying to murky the waters with grotesquely sweeping (and insulting to boot) assertions about
"Democrats already see reality through the Bernie lens," eh, Mr Brooks?
How about the Bizarro lenses of distortion, smoke-and-mirrors, and outright lies that cloud "reality" as presented by Trump and his supporters -- and apparently, Mr Books too?
3
The Sanders campaign is about solidarity. It’s about unity, bringing people together, and valuing all human life.
“Are you willing to fight for someone who doesn’t look like you?” is a question asked at rally after rally. The campaign slogan is “Not Me. Us.”
It’s a campaign of unprecedented compassion. Not through “myth” but through plans that advocate for a country where all Americans can live with more dignity.
Here’s a radical idea: the New York Times should bring back fact checkers.
4
Hmmm... Trump a " one trick pony...standing on the podium bellowing " ??? What about closing the border, getting better trade agreements, rebuilding the military, killing extreme terrorists, revising criminal justice, continuing to build the economy???
1
Yeah, yeah. And you, my dear Mr. Brooks, see everything through a pre Trump Republican lens.
1
did you see the Watts towers?
to me bernie is the progressive's trump. and his bernie bros are the tea party of the left. he's an egocentric person, unable to expand his understanding beyond the time when he was 30 y.o.
4
The only thing Trump sells is racism. He knows his customers.
1
“You can tell because every candidate on that stage has the categories and mental equipment to carve up a billionaire like Bloomberg. None have the categories or mental equipment to take down a socialist like Sanders.”
That is because you were watching the Democratic debate not a Republican debate. Republicans (which Bloomberg resembles), uniformly see society’s safety nets as the problem and diligently work to cut of eliminate them at every turn. The ACA, minimum wage laws, Medicare/Medicaid, public schools, Social Security, food assistance programs and women’s reproductive healthcare assistance, to name a few, are all the target of elected Republicans’ trimming shears, all the time. Democrats, uniformly, want to preserve and hopefully enhance the existing socialistic programs that help so many millions of vulnerable Americans and softens some of the granite-hard reality of zero-sum capitalism.
David Brooks wields “socialist” as a pejorative in reference to Sanders, but the “myth” Brooks perpetuates is that America as currently formulated, results in better outcomes for the vast majority of its citizens, than a reconstituted version spiked with generous doses of European social democratic solutions.
4
“The Democrats have talked a lot about wage stagnation and income inequality but they have offered nothing compelling to address these problems.”
- David Brooks, New York Times, November 5, 2014
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/11/05/the-republican-party-in-triumph/?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=c-column-top-span-region®ion=c-column-top-span-region&WT.nav=c-column-top-span-region&_r=0
1
This sounds like a conservative or best in neocon who is afraid of losing the narrative. And it’s about time!
2
A broken man disheartened by Republican politics claiming he has the real crystal ball.
1
Okay, self indulgent millennials. Vote for Sanders. He’s Trump’s candidate of choice. Also Putin’s. Why? Because running against Sanders is like shooting fish in a barrel. This group of candidates is pretty pathetic anyway. That’s why Bloomberg could walk into second place so easily. If Sanders is actually the Dem nominee, I won’t waste my time going to the polls. And neither will millions of others.
2
The greatest myth is that the DNC is any less cravenly corporate and corrupt than the RNC.
The Clinton-Obama machine better get out of the way of the Bernie Express, or the infra-Party feuding will give us four more years of Trumpism.
Oh and Bernie, just to make the point about the voters rejecting the DNC’s capos: Tulsi for Veep.
3
There's a thread in this Comments Section devoted to criticism of Elizabeth Warren and her claim to have a Cherokee Grandmother. Pocahontas, as Trump likes to call her.
Here's what the NE elite crowd fails to grasp. Once you travel beyond the Ellis Island Immigrant Grandparents Crowd.....you encounter the old time descendant of colonists....and slaves.....crowd.....especially in the Deep South.
Down South.....I would estimate almost 50% of people....both Black and White ..... suspect they have an Indian ancestor.......usually expressed specifically as a Cherokee Grandmother.
Now, I need you to grasp that bit of folk legend, that is embraced by a lot of people in the South, Oklahoma, Texas(Willie Nelson claims to have, yes, a "cherokee grandmother"), and then New Mexico where almost 110% of the locals claim to have Indian Ancestry....and THEN recognize everyone from south of the Border most definately has Indian Ancestry..........
I dont think I'd be mocking blue-eyed, blonde haired Elizabeth Warren for making a somewhat outrageous claim.....
This situation could quickly become Trump's worst nightmare.
3
I see Brooks problem. He confuses myth and truth. Why are you a Republican Mr. Brooks? What is the truth of the Republicans?
2
Why not let the process proceed? We don't need your bad takes....
1
As one side moves to the far fringes of reality the other side is going to do something similar in reaction. For the last 40 years the repubs have moved further and further rightward until at this point what was once universally understood as being the fringe wackos (Birchers, ant-UNers, white supreme it’s) are now considered by “conservatives” as their mainstream dogma. Is it any wonder the Dems have moved a little bit left from their usual center-right position in reaction? If you want to understand the reality, look at Europe, where everything that people like Brooks consider left wing looney, like universal healthcare and strong social safety nets, are just business as usual with the good results to match ( better health care outcomes, lower infant and maternal mortality rates, longer life expectancy, etc). You can bet a repub controlled senate will never let any of that come to pass.
3
You would have to be an idiot if you think you can "gather" people who exploit power for personal gain at the expense of republican principles and the well being of others for the goal of making changes for the good of the whole. Those people will fight you to the death if you try to change what is working for them.
Timid leaders don't effect change. Was Teddy Roosevelt timid? Was FDR timid? We've been in a slide backward for several decades. The architects of that slide are firmly entrenched. They're not going to go along with you because you politely invite them to join your team. Barack Obama made that fatal mistake.
Bernie has gathering skills.We saw that in 2016, we see it in polls today. As the Democratic candidate he will pick off a surprising (to pundits like Mr. Brooks) amount of Trump voters. Bernie has listening skills. Watch him in his town hall which starts in about 20 minutes. He's probably better than anyone else in that setting.
It's not going to be easy for any one of these candidates who would go on to defeat Donald Trump. It's going to take the Democrats winning both the House and Senate. Otherwise, forget it. Do you seriously think that a "centrist" Democrat would have any more luck advancing their agenda than Bernie Sanders? Again, let me remind you about Barack Obama...
That being stipulated, we might as well elect the person with the boldest vision. Someone guaranteed to put up a fight.
3
Don't you wish. In the meantime, maybe we should all take a deep breath and stop hanging on every pollster's word. The media, such as the New York Times, are doing a disservice to voters by reporting polls as if they're news.
THIS woman is not voting for Sanders.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/election-2020/ct-illinois-presidential-race-poll-2020-20200221-zizt3h7sebc6dfept7bbrseoou-story.html
1
The biggest myth is David Brooks' perspective as acquired on the streets of Compton and Watts. Mainstream media's anthropological Indiana Jones sleuthing through South Central LA taking notes as if on safari then, repackaging his observations to speciously equate the White House monster with Bernie Sanders.
Nice try David. Just doing your part to deflect us from a needed about face from the moribund status quo.
Too late. We're onto that tired old game and come November, we will turn the page to a much better future for America and the whole world by electing Bernie Sanders!
2
Problems exist because of economics. technology, demographics and culture? You betray your own lens when you don't mention racism and fear.
3
Oh my goodness, another column or article by a leading light in the Times critiquing or bemoaning Bernie Sanders. How unusual, especially from David Brooks!
6
OMG!
If Bernie sells his myth, let's all get together form the "Adult Supervision" party, name Bloomberg as our candidate and make the party platform inviting to republicans, democrats, and right wing socialists.
Bernie is like the Pied Piper - he didn't get paid for pulling all the rats out of politics 4 years ago, so now he's back pulling the children out on a socialist limb that assures a Trump victory.
1
Many doubts about Sanders policies and how ideas will be paid for are on his "issues" website page. It's not all pie in the sky and it's not all about 1 person.
2 examples frequently cited, medicar and college tuition:
https://berniesanders.com/issues/free-college-cancel-debt/ - Tax Wall Street Gambling:
$2.2 trillion: To pay for this, impose a tax <1%on Wall Street speculators-- raise $2.4 trillion over 10 yrs.
... Some 40 countries throughout the world have imposed a similar tax, including Britain, South Korea, Hong Kong, Brazil, Germany, France, Switzerland and China.
MEDICARE: https://www.sanders.senate.gov/download/medicare-for-all-2019-financing
...options include--
• 4% income-based premium paid by employees, exempting the first $29,000...
• 7.5% income-based premium paid by employers, exempting the first $2 million in payroll...
• Eliminating health tax
• Making federal income tax more progressive, including ... tax rate of up to 70 % on those...>$10 million, taxing earned/ unearned income at the same rates, limiting tax deductions for the top tax bracket;
• Making the estate tax more progressive
• Establishing a tax on extreme wealth;
• Closing the “Gingrich-Edwards Loophole”
• Imposing a fee on large financial institutions
• Repealing corporate accounting gimmicks
3
Hoping Bernie won't drive a tank.
1
Do you ever grow weary of generalizing people and inserting them into slots? Here I am, watching the debate, reading all I can about the candidates -- all of them -- and if I gravitate toward Bernie, I become part of the "Bernie Myth." When you are required to write as many columns each year as you do, you must have LOTS of opinions. Crank out another one...
I'm sorry David, I generally like reading your columns. But you have been losing me lately, regularly.
The best candidate to be President of the United States is Elizabeth Warren, in my view. I realize you don't like her and you will therefore pigeon-hole me somewhere.
Give her a fresh look David. Keep an open mind and stop lumping people together like they are eneagrams.
Bernie’s appeal to the white working class: “Those greedy billionaires and corporations are out to get you!”
Trump’s appeal to the white working class: “Those black and brown people are out to get you!”
Who will they listen to? Be honest. Bernie doesn’t have a chance.
1
Not all of us.
David Brooks is only half right--the part about Trump.
1
Perhaps it's time to put away the myths and all the other big ideas and focus on little things like being kind to to the earth and anyone your action or inaction impacts. See "Think Little" by Wendell Berry @ https://berrycenter.org/2017/03/26/think-little-wendell-berry/
1
Yes Mr. Brooks, we all view the world through the lens we wear. May I ask what lens do you wear? To equate Sanders’ “myths” with Trump’s myths is misleading and reveals the color of your lens.
2
Trump and Sanders compared and equated?
Sanders, after representing his constituency in Vermont
and being elected and re-elected over and over again, for like 25 years now, by a majority of what?
Crazy people?
Vermonters don't know what they are doing?
They elect this man Sanders who you say has "never worked within a party or subordinated themselves to a team- men who are one trick ponies?"
Brother, it is completely incredible that somehow, this far along, you have completely missed it.
You think, "all they do is stand on a podium and bellow?"
No, it is Trump and his base, corporate wealth, their owners and these shameless Republicans that are trying every trick they know to wall-off Bernie Sanders.
Trump is a sick, one-trick pony.
But Sanders is still a strong horse.
O.K. yeah, un caballo viejo, but still pulling our load.
6
look...heres the thing...all this mythologizing about enacting pie in the sky solutions to all of these divisive issues fails to acknowledge the reality of an obstinate recalcitrant & deadlocked congress...every one of these proposals will die in the senate...which gives enormous significance to all the down ticket races to tip the balance toward reasonable compromise...no amount of "reaching across the aisle" is going to work no matter who is in the white house...
2
Stop calling Bernie a socialist when you know it’s not true.
5
spoken like a republican who wants D's to lose. Sanders is not even a D. Time for biden, and Amy or Kamala to dump trump.
Pete Buttigieg begs to differ with you on your assessment of Sanders:
https://www.jfklibrary.org/learn/education/profile-in-courage-essay-contest/past-winning-essays/2000-winning-essay-by-peter-buttigieg
2
God help us. We now have to choose between a fascist and a communist.
One is being used by Russia and the other wants to.
Whatever happened to real American statesmen?
2
Speaking of myths what about “all men are created equal” or in France “liberty, fraternity, egality?” You know the bedrock principles of liberal democracy or classical liberalism or whatever. Oh, I forgot in 2020 we have a choice between Socialism and National Socialism. So much for myths.
Steve Rattner, as reported in today's The Intercept, a money manager for Michael Bloomberg with quite a background, especially with wealthy democrats and Wall St., NYTimes, MSNBC ect ect ...
David, is this the new way to help hamper the Sanders Campaign by now stating/suggesting publicly that he will probably win the nomination? You are not the only news outlet in MSM stating this today.
But then to go on and make this statement, which is the basis of this whole opinion piece and is the only thing you really wanted to say: "Bernie Sanders is also telling a successful myth: The corporate and Wall Street elites are rapacious monsters who hoard the nation’s wealth and oppress working families."
And what president has ever cured any of the myths they spoke and speak of? Why are all these systems struggling? Because it's hard? or because of policies made by those not of Compton or Watts, but of Wall St. like Steve Mnuchin as an example.Tim Gietner, Alan Greenspan Bill Clinton and the many other players who continue the same programs year after year.
Read this story David it's like all the rest. Yours is a myth!
Angry, old man? We had 8 years of cool, calm and collected. It was way better than it is now, and we did get the ACA, but in the meantime, the plutocrats and bigots consolidated, and have now become emboldened.
3
Sugary, sugary lie.
"Donald Trump told a successful myth: The coastal elites are greedy, stupid people who have mismanaged the country, undermined our values and changed the face of our society."
He's right!
He IS! (..or, rather, HE is!)
The question is, how did a putative "Billionaire" (in reality a "Thousandaire", per Maureen Dowd), demonstrably moronic/idiotic (in the scientific classification senses), multiple bankrupt, multi-married to immigrants misogynist cast these first stones from his glass tower townhouse without ending up shattered?
?
"In the gathering myth, the heroes have open-mindedness, flexibility, listening skills, team-building skills and basic human warmth. In this saga, leaders are measured by their ability to expand relationships, not wall them off."
Certainly not Warren (whose path is, like Bernie, "my way or the highway"), nor Klobuchar (famously lacking basic human warmth with her closest circle, and now broadcasting that Minnesota freeze on national television), nor Biden (punc-drunk shadow-boxing the shibboleths of a happily bygone era) possess these five skills.
Curiously, Bloomberg may have 4 out 5, but he'll need to doctor that basic human warmth.
Throughout the debate, though, Buttigieg, when not dodging flak from the unprepared and flappable Klobuchar, spoke repeatedly to these elements: gathering, local level activity, solidarity, coming together for practical change.
Is America ready for the reality beyond the myth?
1
Bernie is a good old fashion hippie and the GOP are the old white parents were ashamed of.
I know what side of the myths I’m on.
2
The movement Sanders represents is not a myth. It is obvious this is an attack on Sanders without any facts to back it. I think you are the one living in a bubble.
5
Both Sanders and Trump terrify me.
3
Would you say the same thing about FDR or LBJ? What nonsense.....pure status quo corporate mentality.
3
As a former speech professor I give Mr Brooks an A for knowing how to put his thoughts into "frames." But as a citizen I give him an F for distorting his representation of Bernie Sanders. Senator Sanders is not a “one-trick pony” who stands on a podium and bellows. Nor has he been calling the elite rich “intentionally evil people.” Mr. Brooks, I invite you to listen to Senator Sanders outside of your own distorting lens. Hear him address the concerns of those of us who are “struggling [over inadequate] school systems, housing systems, family structures, neighborhoods trying to bridge diversity.” Sanders is talking about solutions, not “stok[ing] rage and fear.” To falsely accuse him of such a negative message is to have a tin ear.
6
Why do you use the words “myths” and “lens?” They are just stories and narratives and opinions used to express and frame ideas.
I wonder if Mr. Brooks (or Mr. Stevens for that matter) will ever write an article on their thoughts and feelings about Mr. Sanders' views on the Palestinian people.
1
Bernie Sanders is not going to get the nomination. His numbers started leveling off Wednesday morning. So did Bloomberg's. Pete and Amy are dead-in-the-water nationally.
After Super Tuesday, it will be a 4 person race- Bernie, Mike, Liz and Joe.
Warren's going for Bernie on Tuesday, after having emasculated Mike the other night.
If the black voters sticks with Joe Biden, then at a minimumBernie will not have a first ballot majority. He will never get the nomination on any other ballot.
3
David, you've made a career of "gathering myths" and in so doing, poisoned the well from which from which we all drink, and Donald Trump us the resultant poison. Maybe it's time for you to retire and take up a hobby. I understand G.W. Bush enjoys painting.
1
Socialism, democratic socialism, is indeed a myth. A utopian myth.
"Democratic socialism is defined as having a socialist economy in which the means of production are socially and collectively owned or controlled, alongside a democratic political system of government." -https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_socialism
Promising things that can never be: A universal healthcare system that has no way to be paid for is utopianism in action.
The young, the disaffected, the poor, those who have been and are still on the wrong side of the law...all those who can embrace the gospel of victimology and find a savior from oppression in Bernie.
The Internationale: In Russian (Bernie found his "honeymoon" in Russia life-changing): https://youtu.be/t8EMx7Y16Vo
The Internationale: In English, updated by Billy Bragg: https://youtu.be/yAw0Ri4FSdM
Remember, Bernie will say nothing-ever-that is not in total agreement with this propaganda.
3
Excellent analysis and it points out the importance of reading Joseph Campbell. Nevertheless, the fundamental flaw in your missive is the bias of thinking that Trump's successful 2016 pitch was...myth; rather than based in fundamental realities.
Talk to everyday people betwixt Pittsburgh and Bakersfield
and you'll hear common knowledge based on common sense that if HRC had been elected, this country would have been through; with all its wealth outsourced and its jobs
off shored but with Hillary's kid living in a gazillion dollar NYC loft and O's kids matriculating through Harvard lol
Remember, myths are the conduit for reality and both DJT and Sanders knows this.
Cheers..
I am so tired of the media driving the discussion and public opinion. Since Iowa (actually before), “pundits” have provided us a steady stream of conclusory pieces. IT IS TOO EARLY TO DRAW CONCLUSIONS. just report the news as it happens and let us decide. As for Mr Ignatius: You are sometimes an investigative reporter sometimes a pundit. I think you should pick one and stuck to it. Doing both undermines your credibility and lacks integrity. And please, a little humility and deference to the process please. Try patience— even if just until Super Tuesday.
2
"Over the past five years Sanders and his fellow progressives have induced large parts of the Democratic Party to see through the Bernie lens"
WAIT!!! WHAT??? Look at the results in the NH primary and tell me how they support this myth that the mainstream media has created. Sanders and Warren combined got fewer votes in 2020 than Sanders got in 2016! In retrospect Sanders vote-getting may have been a backlash against the DNC's decision to anoint a candidate without asking the electorate why THEY wanted... but based on 2020s vote totals, it appears that this who voted in the NH primary do not have an appetite for progressives: they want a moderate who can beat Trump...
2
Yeah, he's right and people agree. Deal with it.
Seriously?
Sanders is a raving socialist that doesn’t stand a chance of beating Trumpie.
3
Such over the top "what about ism" and false equivalence that my usual ability to simply ignore the bland Brooks platitudes was exhausted:
"the heroes have traits Trump and Sanders lack..." Trump and Sanders are in different universes when it comes to basic morality and civility. Trump is pure and simple evil. Please, David, stop your nonsense.
1
How can you criticize Sanders for over and over laying out his myth when you do the same thing in laying out your myth over and over again in every column. As for Warren intellectually she puts you to shame. Instead of all these real people you say you talk to as an amateur sociologist spend some time reading the columns of Paul Krugman and the work of some real sociologists.
2
The "gathering myth" is what Pete Buttigeg is all about. Democrats will see this in time.
Pretty sure that all the young black men who were victims of the illegal stop & frisk policies do not see politics through a ‘Bernie’ lens.
1
Come on, Mr. Brooks! You say "Democrats already see reality through the Bernie lens." Are you a Democrat? Do you see reality through that foggy lens? Speaking for myself, I'M A DEMOCRAT and I most certainly do NOT see reality through Bernie's lenses, so I don't know what you're talking about. Just more pundit spin to keep making vacuous and inflammatory assertions that are not grounded in fact but rather bizarre assumptions meant to confuse readers who keep coming back for another weekly dose of storytelling.
2
The writer of this article himself is pretty well-off to be spearheading this subject, and calling severe inequality that faces this country a “myth”.
2
Bernie Sanders knows he's a fraud. He has been deploying the same "campus radical" tactics all of his life. It's a great way to make noise and in his case he has been aging into his crazy old man act for the last last 60 years. It's perfect now.
2
Why don't we have some sort of cursus honorum to qualify candidates for the Presidency? That process provided Rome with better-qualified consuls for longer than we have existed. Each candidate was qualified by successful experience in a succession of increasingly difficult leadership positions, both civilian and military. Mere enthusiasm and a pulse are not sufficient criteria for Presidential candidacy.
3
"Bernie Sanders is also telling a successful myth: The corporate and Wall Street elites are rapacious monsters who hoard the nation’s wealth and oppress working families."
Not a myth at all for those aware of the facts.
16
I hope Mr. Brooks is wrong. If Sanders is the nominee, the Trump campaign will convince the majority of voters, by Election Day, that he is the second coming of Joesph Stalin. It is unfortunate, that the other cadidates for the Democratic nomination are not taking Bernie seriously. His positions are so ridiculous they can't believe anyone believes him. Wake up, millions of Americans believed Mexico would pay for the wall and a wall will stop illegal immigration.
40
It's not all about peddling a myth. Republicans have spent years developing news networks, including print, television and radio, with the goal of convincing conservatives and fundamentalists that the sun isn't the sun but the moon. Examples: that climate change doesn't exist; that voter registration requirements need to be more rigorous because untold numbers are voting illegally, that welfare recipients are lazy and worthless and always black or brown. Their list of lies goes on and on.
52
No, it's not like Sanders has built a movement, or anything...
Were the fix not already in, he would be the sole candidate capable of winning over this gang of thieves and grifters, as he was in 2016. The presidential election is a foregone conclusion, the present cabal of crooks having been given carte blanche to lie, cheat and steal their way to victory and prosperity by no less than the senate and chief justice of the SCOTUS. The handwringing over which of these candidates could beat Trump avoids the fact that the Dems cannot overcome the Republican dirty tricks machine, and couldn't even before it was officially untethered from any concerns about constitutionality or legality, let alone morality. They own the senate, the courts, and the electoral college! How does that conceivably add up to a Dem victory? Any suggestion to the contrary is delusional or disingenuous.
The only question of importance this election season is: will the Dems choose to retain, or rather regain, a soul? Or will they choose fascism, and a permanent and devastating fracturing of the party, out of sheer bloody minded spite?
Another skull shattering eyeroller from David Brooks!
21
David, I think you were basically on the right track, but the word “myth” was not the correct word to use. The word you should have used is “prism”. Perception is everything.
13
Maybe Sanders will get the nomination, but not if he keeps his foot in the dirty tricks bag. And if he does take the nomination, we'll get another 4 years of Trump. Bernie's too trumpian for me.
17
Here's a "myth" that I can believe in: that I won't have to hold bake sales to pay my bills if I get cancer.
39
"When you’re inside the Sanders myth, you see the world through the Bernie lens."
Kinda like a few years ago when a lot of folks were inside the "Hilary Myth". What a shock there is going to be approx 9 months from now. On that terrible morning when all the Bernie
faithful wake up and look ahead to FOUR more years of the same terrible reality that is Amer -Ka under Trump. One of THE worst things to ever happen to this nation. Only this time he is going to really have control and destruction in his hot sweaty hand ! And it will all be laid at the feet of those folks who just HAD to have their way instead of getting rid of the Monster destroying this nation.
Bernie CAN NOT and WILL not win. It is as simple as that. He is a divider. and his massive ego just won't allow him to face the fact, it just wasn't meant to be. But he would rather destroy us all than say - I'm Too old/Too tired / and it's just NOT gonna happen for me. All at our expense
23
"For example, if you look at Mike Bloomberg through a certain lens you see a successful entrepreneur who took his management skills into public service and then started giving his wealth away to reduce gun violence and climate change. If, on the other hand, you look at Bloomberg through the Bernie lens you see a rapacious billionaire who amassed a gross amount of wealth, who became an authoritarian mayor and targeted young black men and then tried to buy his way to power.
Same person through different lenses.
My takeaway from Wednesday’s hellaciously entertaining Democratic debate is that Sanders is the only candidate telling a successful myth."
We are dealing with two camps of intellectually lazy, radicalized core "supporters": Trumpers and Bernie Bros. Both believing in myths.,
I'll take Bernie for 4 years. He is not an ignorant, venal pathological liar. Unfortunately, that's the level we have reached. And may the Congress finally execute their responsibility to provide checks and balances this time.
11
"... why they are the perfect person to meet it." Right, which is why his campaign slogan is Me. Not us.
2
Just saw that Sanders was briefed that the Russians are trying to help his campaign. Any guesses why?
21
Bernie Rallies is what AMERICA UNITING looks like.
9
Sorry Bernie Sanders did NOT endorse Obama, our first black president and was working on “primarying” Obama in 2012. Why is this not discussed?
How does this socialist end up the Democratic candidate? It is a disaster! When will Democrats discuss the Electoral College and its favorability for a Republican President. Great that we get people out but let’s be serious, Hillary had more votes, milllions more than Trump, and lost!
The level of egotism of Sanders is not much different than Trump. He is NOT a team player and frankly he is a very big reason Trump is in the White House! This is the most consequential election of our lifetime and looks like we will lose both the White House and Senate.
24
Once again David has dragged the skin and head of Joesph Stalin out of the grave and tries to scare us with it. Dances it around like a Chinese New Years Dragon. Again he pretends that we have only two choices either we continue down the path of compassionate conservatism of H W Bush, with its trickle-down plan that will make us all prosperous. ( some less than others) Or we risk the Pit of no Return of the Gulongs that Bernie Sanders has waiting for us. It is amazing to me how successful Joesph McCarthy has been. Even though he went down in shame as did Barry Goldwater, Richard Nixon, George W Bush, and if we survived Donald Trump. Back to the Golden years of the Sunny Communicator Ronald Reagon, who really got the ball rolling with tax cuts, cuts in spending for schools, mental and plain healthcare, cut to high ways and other infrastructure, Iran/Contra, Star Wars, and then brought us all together by showing us all the Black Welfare Queens driving around in their Cadillacs. Yea those were the good old days? Or should we try something a little more Scandinavian?
24
A lazy article. As if you need two different lenses, both mythical, to understand that Bloomberg was a successful businessman and generous philanthropist, and an authoritarian mayor of New York City who bought his way to power and savaged the minority populations of the city. And he was a silly pompous boy-man who enjoyed salacious denigration of the women around him.
Are all billionaires bad people? No. Is a society supporting a billionaire class built on inequitable distribution of wealth, resulting in the suffering of many and the overabundance of few, an obscene setup? Yes.
Myth or reality - David Brooks does not see clearly.
24
"These problems aren’t caused by some group of intentionally evil people. They exist because living through a time of economic, technological, demographic and cultural transition is hard. Creating social trust across diversity is hard."
This is your brilliant conclusion?
18
David, if you want to label me, a liberal Democrat a socialist, fine!
Call me a socialist, because I want e dry American to have access to healthcare and never have to worry about their child’s asthma medicine, insulin costs, or he cost of fighting cancer!
Call me a socialist, because I want everyone to PAY their fair share of taxes, so we can re-build our infrastructure, our schools that are crumbling, fund rural hospitals which are closing from lack of funding.
Call me a socialist, because I believe that the current college loan system is corrupt and punitive! And I believe, EVERY American should have access to a college education or an education in some sort of skill, so they can achieve the American Dream.
Call me a socialist, because I believe that we are ALL created equal, and deserve equal pay for equal work.
Call me a socialist, because I believe that our elections shoulda be protected, that we should invest in the best technology Silicon Valley has to offer to ensure that Putin doesn’t hack us and re-elects the tyrant named Trump!
David, go ahead and label Democrats socialist, commies whatever you want, it’s nothing knew. YOU, Conservatives have been calling us socialists and communists since FDR!
37
Good. For once, I hope that David Brooks is right.
Brooks, once again proving himself to be the NYT’s king of oversimplification, conflation and ignorance. Straight away he sets up a false dichotomy of “lenses” that we, the people, get to look through in order to evaluate people like Bloomberg. None of us regular folk have the capacity for holding a nuanced, realistic, dialectical view of a presidential hopeful.
Then Brooks goes on to revel in the false equivalency that Trump and Sanders are somehow equally divisive. This couldn’t be further from the truth. While Sanders squarely targets the 1%, Trump aims to turn rural vs urban and white vs POC. Trump’s “myth” is far more delusional, paranoid, toxic and divisive.
Brooks does Sanders and his reader’s intelligence levels a disservice far to often to warrant top billing in the NYT. Then again the NYT is backing two candidates who have next to zero chance of winning the democratic nomination, so...
10
More sabotage please, liberal-conservatives! You've lost control, get over it. Brooks may be voting Trump this year. Maybe by sitting out the POTUS vote. That's a vote for Trump. If you do that, be prepared for a mighty progressive backlash against you. We've been putting up with Lesser Evilism now for 7 decades, so now perhaps it's your turn.
8
Life is a myth , it has been built on mythology, including all existing religions , it is a way to endurance .
That said , we have to try to make life fair for everyone, at least in its most basic needs such as housing, education and healthcare .
This is not the case in the United States of America where such basic needs are still considered “ privileges “ by the privileged klepto-plutocratic oligarchs in charge of our politics and military industrial complex .
Last , but not least , the environment , we must respect it .
My old brain has been ruminating this mantra “ vote blue , no matter who “ , but you will not publish me .. just mythology .
4
"This week, for example, I was in Compton and Watts in and around Los Angeles"
We know where Compton and Watts are, David. Stop.
What is it about Bernie that makes so many "progressive" 40-80 folks apoplectic? Maybe he's testing their liberalism and they don't like how it feels.
12
A la David Brooks, keep murmuring after me -
there IS no oligarchy
there IS no oligarchy
there IS... (etc)
7
Wondering when someone will bring up the actions of Mrs. Sanders?
3
Well reasoned as usual. But it is not accurate to call Sanders a socialist. I hope you will not use that term; I think it diminishes your otherwise excellent argument.
3
We've gone from alternative facts to alternative myths
5
Y'all I don't have time to parse the arguments on their merits because I've been "keeping it real" in Compton and Watts. Brooks OUT, Peace!
2
I will never vote for Sanders.
5
Mr. Brooks, maybe you SHOULD attend a Bernie rally where you'll hear more than an annoyed, minute-long response to "debate" moderator's inane question and you'll witness loving people responding to a lovely man who is calling on Americans to organize (aka "Gather") to provide solutions to the impasse of two powerful parties who are doing the bidding of the very few to the detriment of almost all of us. The solidarity, the eagerness to come together - that's OUR REVOLUTION. How can you miss it?
14
This election is about defeating Trump, breaking the hold radical conservatisim has on this country. This is a bare knuckles brawl for survival of progressive ideas. When that is done the discusions over the variety of ideas can go forward. No win... no progress, only demise.
278
Myth is a good word to try and associate two extremes. A serious, well respected senator who has a long record of following the path he now advocates. A small minded, unsuccessful real estate comman who got name recognition on reality tv. Reality when seen through republican commentator Brooks' eyes is not what large segments of the country see. I see a hardworking population struggling to eke out a life on low pay and no or poor health coverage. High deductibles and out of pocket costs in addition to the premium. And their kids do not get jobs that allow them to to repay their student loans in a reasonable period of time. People have identified with Bernie because he gets it. Solutions are not easy but the others don't even get it. Forget the conman.
14
Brooks' myth is that there is no class war. He thinks that billionaire capitalists really have the same interests as working people despite the fact that that their own ideology of free-market capitalism says that they must do everything in their power to reduce wages and benefits in order to increase their own profits. He thinks that if they have been much more successful at this over the last 50 years or so, it is the fault of "technology" and other impersonal forces, and not their own efforts to buy political influence or the way that Republican politicians have cynically exploited racism to buy votes from white working people. Until Trump made racism so blatant it couldn't be ignored, Brooks and other affluent Republicans tried to maintain that there is no race war either.
Trump and the Republicans who have always supported the deliberate strategy of division of the working-class side in the class war as a means to promote their own side's objectives have never supported "gathering". This includes Brooks. The idea that he supports "gathering" is not a myth, it is a lie.
10
Brooks like Sanders because he believes that his savior Trump will soundly beat Bernie in the general election.
Thanks, David.
Rational voters wonder if Biden is too old and too goofy, if Buttigieg is too young and really doesn't relate to African Americans, if Klobuchar is too nasty to her staff, and if Bloomberg is really a stop and frisk kind of guy. They can't make up their mind.
And in the meantime, Bernie keeps spinning tales that are highly appealing to both the naive and the highly cynical far left. What they don't realize is that Trump would destroy him in the general election and create right wing majorities across the nation that would, in fact, endure. Roe v Wade dies, money pours into elections even faster than pollution into streams.
It may well be the case that we simply are not whom we think we are.
7
If this isn't an "OK Boomer" moment, I don't know what is.
7
What is not a myth is that Bernie Sanders is a thoroughly unaccomplished man who has produced nothing in his years in Washington.
11
Yes. I see. From the editorial office of a multi-billion coastal elite newspaper, it likely looks easy to see the ‘gathering’ world you’ve managed to create in your 2019 civility tour; with nothing to lose and all to mediate.
However every year, more and more Americans are acknowledging the unmistakable truth - that this country has been gradually hijacked, over a number of decades, by a greedy and rapacious corporate elite who think of nothing but their own nests and a litany of empty platitudes; ones that might have once been a national zeitgeist but now ring like a pathetic hollow toy. Enjoy your myth, Mr. Brooks. May it serve you well.
10
Spot on about myth-making, overly simplistic about comparing the two substantively. It's possible for a myth to square with reality and Bernie is in track for that. See most of Western Europe as the example.
13
PLEASE NO!!!
3
Yup.
In your travels, have you met anyone dealing with medical debt? That is Bernie Sanders's number one issue. He says taxes should pay for Medicare for All, eliminating co-pays and deductibles, guaranteeing healthcare for all. That is the number one Bernie Sanders "myth", if you will, but it is based in a sobering reality.
The share of bankruptcies caused by medical bills is just the tip of the iceberg. Not as visible as bankruptcy is the huge number of Americans being sued for ever-higher deductibles and medical bills. The reality is hospitals are price-gouging patients while they are naked on gurneys, and then suing them as if it were any other kind of consumer debt. They treat bills for emergency appendectomies as if patients bought a car. In my county of 20,000 people, almost half have been sued for medical debt, which diminishes their prospects in every area of life -- getting transportation, housing, and even employment. People who don't declare bankruptcy are at the mercy of court garnishment of wages, and in some states like Kansas, patients are imprisoned for failing to appear at court.
The people who run hospitals are nice professional people, but they are putting patients through hell. Someone, and it may as well be Bernie, or Elizabeth Warren, needs to say over and over, punishing patients with unaffordable debt is unconscionable. There is no way to reweave a community that is driven further into poverty and poor health by hospitals who sue patients.
630
I kind of like Bernie. He comes on as a grumpy old man who has seen a lot in life and at least is a distinct contrast with Donald Trump. As this is a democracy, the voters will decide how they want to go forward in 2020. The one thing we can't do, as was pointed out in the Nevada debate, is replace one billionaire with another. Trump vs. Sanders will determine the direction of our nation going forward.
8
Oh, David, poor you.
It's either a democratic socialist or fascist. Whatever will you do?
14
Gee David, seems like a lot of the commenters don't understand that "myth" comes to us from ancient Greece and here it means "story." Politicians no longer need the media or a government platform to get the word out, they need memes - stories - that people can connect with. Trump won - squeaked by - because folks in the bottom half can't wait any longer for the "hurry up and wait" policy narrative to lift them up. Sanders and Warren speak stories to them, to the dismay of pundits who prefer a boxing match.
12
Just noting that around 60 delegates have been awarded of the 1991 you need to win. Please stop with the predictions.
(But yeah, medicare for all? We do need something like that to improve quality and consistency of treatment and coverage, and to reduce costs. It works everywhere else in the industrialized world.)
11
Mr. Brooks opines of his proposed replacement philosophy, "In the gathering myth, the heroes have traits Trump and Sanders lack: open-mindedness, flexibility, listening skills, team-building skills, and basic human warmth. In this saga, leaders are measured by their ability to expand relationships, not wall them off."
I beg to differ with this elitist view of both Sanders and Trump. Both men have exhibited the listening skills and the human warmth they need to reach out to and capture the support of significant numbers of people.
Trump, especially, has been able to build an effective team around him to run the country and fulfill the promises he made during his campaign for President.
Trump has shown a willingness to work with others. But the #Resistance, in place since November 2017, has only shown Trump its backhand, and Trump has decided to work with those who will work with him.
Trump has expanded his relationships with blacks and Latinos, with those in economically disadvantaged areas, and with those willing to engage with him. He will continue to do that.
I wonder, Mr. Brooks, if you can be open-minded enough to understand Sander's and Trump's worldviews as well as your own, and to understand as well the views of those who support both Sanders and Trump.
2
Thanks, David, for once again thoughtfully articulating the sinking feeling we boring moderates have on watching TV/twitter politics become a spectator sport for people to rally around their team. As you suggest, the real work, the hard work, gets done at the food banks, community centers, schools, homes, hospitals across blue and red states equally. Could it be that we no longer need a President at all?
4
Readers seem to be confused about the use of the word “myth.” Myth does not mean something is untrue, just that it tells a truth in a specific way that relies on a central narrative, often leveraging a story about good and evil. That Bernie’s source of power rests in a “myth” does not mean that what he says is untrue. But rather what he says is told in a way that is hugely powerful, if biased and not reflective of every person’s experience. No other presidential candidate comes close to tapping into this power (besides Trump), but that could still change.
5
Sure - you can argue that Sanders is crafting and selling the clearest story and it’s a familiar one. But, maybe most importantly for all of us, he listens to what every legitimate scientist, meteorologist, naturalist, etc, says about global warming and the future of our planet, and he’s willing to act and do all he can to slow it’s effects. That alone should be enough for all of us to choose him over Trump. Maybe what we need right now is the best story teller to help bring us all along on transforming our society so our world survives.
10
It's the right time for Ms Warren, the self-described "capitalist to her bones", to differentiate her pitch, her "myth" if you like, from Mr Sanders's. To do so would win the convention.
Warren, in rally mode, is full of "We can do it!" optimism, far from Bernie's grimness. She only needs to say that more.
Calling Liz lefty is wrong. Warren's basic analysis, is center-left, not Left. Simply put, the very rich have too much clout. No dispute there; that' s bad for democracy. They buy influence that we reg'lar folks can't. So they ask Congress for subsidy and tax breaks, and get them.
But the big fault is that their tilted-playing-field capitalism is bad for capitalism itself. As the rich become rent-seekers rather than risk-takers, seeking advantage through politics rather than competition, they create near-monopolies.
The telecoms and media majors, the non-tax paying internet giants, subsidized big oil: all these segments have been reduced by Big Finance guys from many-player business to cosy cartels of 3 and 4 big companies. And don't get me started on Pharma.
Liz says this concentration of wealth and power screws up the free market. She doesn't want to ditch it, just to fix it. We need fair-play capitalism in our bones.
When the stuck convention realizes that the myth-less center can't carry the day, and that the choice becomes between a lefty anti-capitalist, and a center left candidate who says "We can fix capitalism; we can do it!", the country will be ok.
9
I concede that Brooks is correct once again. But why the susceptibility of the electorate to myths- either from Sanders or Trump? In my view, this vulnerability originates from a lack of schooling in our own history and traditions as a nation. Without a deeper understanding of our national story, we are easily beguiled by the manically inclined.
3
@Ijaz Jamall
The mythology goes back to Washington and the framers of the Constitution. It would've been a lot more pragmatic to just listen to the King of England.
Our country was born of revolution, and set upon a foundation of big ideas. Every major milestone since then has pushed forward the mythology of freedom and equality for all. Don't stop now because it seems like it's impractical.
6
What you call a Sanders' myth is complete reality, recognized by billions of humans across the education and wealth spectra. It was invented in the early 1600's by the English and Dutch, and called "capitalism", which is in no way interchangeable with nor the same as "Free Trade" or a "Free Market", both of which are wonderful human developments. Capitalism has depended on exploitation since its inception, according to all of its early proponents' writings.
At least you're helping to manifest the reality of a Sanders presidency. Thanks for that.
6
@Erik
Erik, 150 million Americans obtain their insurance through their employer and polls show that this group is overwhelmingly opposed to Sanders' health care plan.
He will not only lose, he will lose in a once in a generation landslide.
I will support him and give him money, but I don't like medicare for all if the choice is my family loses our very good employer plan.
5
With all due respect, do you have any idea what the difference would be between your current coverage and how much you're paying and what Sanders has proposed?
I for one would rather see my paycheck increase knowing that the huge part taken out and given over to private insurance companies would instead make it's way back to my checking account, either directly or through a tax refund.
9
The very inconvenient truth about Bernie is that he is not likely to beat Trump. The election depends on getting the votes of independents, moderate Republicans and conservative Democrats--they went for Trump last time, they don't want to vote for him this time, but Bernie's plans and rhetoric will not win them over. I think voters are more interested in a return to competence and decency than any kind of a "revolution." I fear Bernie will go the way of George McGovern, who inspired rabid support amoung young people in 1972 but lost in a landslide to Richard Nixon. But I will vote for Bernie in the general election if he gets nominated, and I hope I'm wrong about his chances.
7
Great read David. I agree with all of it. Especially the ironic but accurate idea that most of us crave solidarity while the people we’re electing divide us. I suppose that hypothetical division is what creates a sense of solidarity by being part of one group or the other.
5
Successful populists, not every politician, thrive on this negative energy. A fuel supplied by a primitive energy. Deep in the psyche of those who perceive themselves as victims. Easily and by any suggestion. Without question or analysis. People in a kind of mental survival mode eager to embrace the notion, however specious. That someone must be identified to play the role of the villain. A persecutor of innocent victims who have no responsibility for their unhappy circumstances. And anyone at all will fill this bill, however distorted the narrative becomes. And so. In this narrative. There is never a larger we to be perceived on earth. As in “we all played a role.” As in, “we are all by some percentage accountable for our present circumstances.” And certainly never as in, “we are all connected on this beautiful planet. No. Because the primitive energy of populism only is satisfied by identifying a different “victim.” Someone to be the “real” target of blame. That’s when the populist politician is ripe to make their move. When the savior arises to be a witness to this drama. To stand upon the stage and point their finger at the real villain. Perceived by any means necessary. So that of course, any half plausible narrative will do perfectly. As long as it points to a target of convenience. Which in very primitive terms is easy to blame. Hence walks in Bernie Sanders...
2
Say what you'd like, but Bernie is NOT wrong. When 1% owns 97% of the world's wealth, that IS a problem. Saying it's not is exactly what republicans did during the Trump impeachment--it's brushing off actual issues, and hoping that if they do it well enough, people won't see it as a problem.
I've had to work incredibly harder than most of my peers to get where I am today, and let me tell you this--if universal healthcare was a thing, I could have been treated all along for all four (or five, not sure yet) of my mental health issues since I was a kid. Instead, I found out at 27 .
If you happen to look at the GDP of this country, yes! We ARE the #1 in the world in that aspect. But look again, this time at the GDP per capita--we don't even make the top ten in the world. Somewhere like Europe, who already provides universal healthcare, free tuition for college (for the most part), free childcare (again, for the most part), and an incredibly better work/life balance, who treats inmates like humans and who has disarmed police (in many places), has a couple countries in the top ten, and have incredibly lower gun violence and greener lifestyles.
I'm a scientist. I can assure you: global warming IS a thing. And it's happening alarmingly fast. Brushing off the fact doesn't make it all of a sudden disappear. Bernie has THE MOST comprehensive climate change initiative out of ANY candidate, and simultaneously incorporated the fact that there just aren't enough jobs right now for all.
16
@Rebekah
And guess what, Rebekah, Bernie is part of the 1%. I don't see him giving anything away to the lower 99%. And he votes any way the NRA wants him to. And if you believe he can pass Medicare for All and the Green New Deal, I've got a bridge to sell with your name on it.
4
Mr. Brooks, isn't it at least possible, that these dynamics you're talking about are actually the same dynamics we've had for two thousand years? The myth that monarchical wealth is actually meritorious and not simply larcenous has once again created systems that benefit one class over all?
I make no claims about whether Bloomberg or Zuckerberg are nice guys. I imagine some are and others aren't. I likewise make no claim that corporations are morally evil.
I claim that corporations are, by their very structure, ethically neutral. That they're machines created for the purpose of wealth concentration. And that it's literally the purpose of civilization to manage that process.
There's simply no factual basis for continuing the myth that Jeff Bezos being wealthier than clusters of nation states actually produces a benefit for me. These decaying structures you see on your tourism through my neighborhood are directly, causally, linked to how wealth is accumulated and distributed. If Amazon pays zero taxes that's money sucked from institutions. No philanthropic effort can build a national highway system. No charity ball can pay for a navy.
Perhaps it's simply the case that the system we're using has run its course and no longer provides enough benefit to continue. Oligarchy, Monarchy, direct Democracry, Marxism, and your beloved liberalism have come, worked and eventually cracked. Maybe it's time to try something else.
5
The ones that speak their minds, that seem both unfiltered and uncensored, are Trump and Sanders.
Each appears, in his own way, to be more sincere, if not entirely truthful, which we don't expect from politicians anyway.
They both rant and rave well and they're often pretty entertaining (while most politicians are boring).
Although coming from opposing sides, both express and represent that famous phrase from Paddy Chayevsky in Network, which today seems to include most of us: "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore."
1
Blind Spot Alert:
"Everywhere I go I see systems that are struggling — school systems, housing systems, family structures, neighborhoods trying to bridge diversity. These problems ... exist because living through a time of economic, technological, demographic and cultural transition is hard."
Who is causing the economic, technological and cultural transformations, and why? Cui bono?
No, most of these people probably aren't "intentionally evil." So what? That doesn't mean they aren't causing grave harm to others, driven by ambition and hunger for personal success and wealth. You should read a book like Cathy O'Neill's "Weapons of Math Destruction."
Some may even have positively good intentions, or at least think they have positively good intentions in the conscious parts of their brains. So what? The way to hell is paved with good intentions, but self-serving unwillingness to think clearly but honestly about the true consequences of one's actions.
Do some people have blind spots about this? We should each think about our family members and friends - sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, best friends. What do they do for a living? Could the unwillingness to see the truth about their activities be affecting our willingness to see reality clearly?
5
David Brooks is living his own myth. He should look in the mirror.
To characterize Bernie as a myth-teller equivalent to Trump's myths, is to elevate Trump through equivalency.
As usual, Brooks looks to diminish anyone to the left of center by making them equivalent to the bad guys on the right. He supported Bush during his damned Iraq war - "because look, guys, it really isn't that bad," which I had to listen to endlessly on Sunday morning talk shows.
News flash to David Brooks - despite your professed negative views of Trump, your disparagement of political views of those on the left really mean you are a Trump supporter. Should I send you a Trump bumper sticker now? Because you really are a Trumpista at heart.
You think you're in the middle of the road - at least you try to portray yourself as such. But at this stage of the game, throwing rocks at both sides means you have sold out to Trump. The oligarchs OWN you.
You are the Vichy government, personified.
9
Brooks bases part of his article on the dire straits he encountered in the LA area which is quickly turning into a hellhole. Every hell hole in the country is run and managed by Democrat Socialists just like Sanders. Sorry I said that. There really is no such thing as a Democrat Socialist , but it makes the suicide pill go down easier.
4
If what David is saying is true, and I suspect it is, then it is a sad situation for American democracy. To be trapped in the fantasy of myths rather than a rational view of the challenges this nation faces does not bode well for our future.
Of course this has always been one of the flaws of democracy, one so feared by the founders that it led to the creation of the Electoral College - giving the vote to an irrational populace that is easily swayed by emotion and demagogues.
3
Has the selecting of a president been reduced to who is the best myth maker? Trump’s myths were based on fabrications, lies, and a populous feeling that they were being screwed by the system. Sanders, more honest and consistent, is preaching about taking from the wealthy to provide for the others. Reminds me of Huey Long in the early 1930s. Of course the dollars don’t add up.
Myths are powerful. Joseph Campbell spoke eloquently about the power of myth. HOWEVER, should/could our country effectively be run by myth makers? I think/hope not.
Unless the Dems want to hand reelection to King Donald, they should be realistic about what can to done to recover from Trumpism. My least worst real-world alternative in Bloomberg/Amy.
Democrats need to have a come to Jesus moment if they want to win back the White House. Whoever the nominee is needs to expand their base. Stop tearing each other down and start hashing out policy we can start with Climate Change the biggest challenge of our time and where there’s more agreement among the Democrats. If Bernie wins get behind him think of the Supreme Court and what’s on the line!
3
People in Compton struggle to make things work because Amazon and others pay zero federal income tax. The populist movement is what you get after screwing the majority for 40 years.
6
The myth is that 40+ years of deregulation, privatization and free market absolutism resulted in trickle down economics and shared prosperity.
Sanders is popular because people who have to pay $1000 to ride in an ambulance or have accepted wage slavery for 30+ years as the price of higher education or have seen their towns industrialized and overrun with meth and oxy zombies may finally have agency in the government.
The only thing Bernie has in common with Trump is that he is a usurper to the business-as-usual DC/Media cabal.
7
* de-industrialized
if you don't have 51% or more of the party, you shouldn't be the party candidate. Bernie is the Trump of the Democratic party. Both win with a majority of a minority while the other candidates split up the true majority. The true major would rather have any of the more moderate candidates over Bernie. As the true majority, they should get such a candidate and not a fringe candidate, which is what the GOP has. The GOP will vote GOP no matter what. Dems don't. So Dems can't win with a kook like Trump or Bernie. And, the USA is not good for anyone with a kook at the helm.
5
I hate Trump, what he has done to this country, and how he has done it. That does not automatically translate to a vote for Bernie, though. What I get from Bernie is he wants to stick it to billionaires to help the struggling masses. Since I'm not a billionaire who has benefited from Trump's tax gifts to the rich, that's fine with me, and I'm all for clawing it back. But nowhere do I see Bernie's math, and that's a problem for me and I imagine for other people who see themselves (correctly or incorrectly) as what used to be called "upper middle class." Bernie and his staff have had years to come up with the math, and I very seriously doubt they in fact have not done it. If they haven't done the math, his whole campaign is just blowing smoke. SO WHAT IS THE BIG SECRET?? Count me in the "Before I vote for Bernie, I need to know if I'm voting to screw myself" crowd.
4
@Carl
What 'math' are you waiting for? You can google or watch several youtube presentations on M4A and how it can be funded. The people screaming "How are you going to pay for it??" the loudest assume the status quo. They do not take into account that defense spending will need to be drastically cut, there will be an incredible amount of savings on administrative costs, everyone's taxes will go up (although most will save money after medical expenses) and we move from a pure profit motive to a more profit/preventative system. Somehow Canada, France, Italy, Spain etc. have all managed to make their national health care systems work for the majority of the people.
3
Interesting stories from SCal, but it will go Dem and all electoral votes as well. Not even a contest there. If Bernie gets the Dem nod, must get a 3rd party candidate, he can not beat Trump and we must get rid of his lying arrogance.
1
I've alway thought Bernie and Trump were both disingenuous. Bernie believes that somehow he can get the country to embrace democratic socialism not, realizing that the word socialism is an anathema to most Americans. Trump just out right lies all the time about everything so his base can't understand that he's destroying their safety nets, social secuity and medicare, while giving tax breaks to the rich and creating a trillion dollor deficit.
What a delusional box we are in.
3
What is your problem exactly, Brooks? Yes, we see things in this election through a lens. Just like every other election in the history of the world!
Are you upset that voters saw FDR through a lens? How did that work out for the country? And speaking of Roosevelts on the other side of the aisle, how about Teddy? Voters saw him through a lens as well. And each of them moved people to reach out and vote for reasons bigger than themselves. As for your poppycock about "myths": the road to the White House is littered with the bodies of policy wonks and dime a dozen bureaucrats.
8
Nowhere in Bernie Sander's myth does he enrich himself, his friend's or his family at the expense of the public good. To a degree that Bernie has created a myth, he at least believes in it. Trump is a con that believes in nothing.
13
This false equivalence narrative, so often peddled by tone deaf snake oil salesmen like David Brooks, could not be more hollow. David, you and your Reaganite cronies have presided over an era of deregulation that made paupers of the middle class. Now you preen about values, "gathering," and "repair." I'll tell you what will remake the kind of virtuous society you so fetishize: an expanded social welfare state that allows people to live decent lives, and gives them the free time (and freedom from gnawing, degrading, soul eating worry and fear) to associate with one another as citizens rather than dirt farmers. This is what Bernie promises - no more, no less.
9
The cults of Sanders and Trump - what does say about the American electorate? Cults never do well long term.
5
David, I wish you’d own up to your responsibility in helping make Trump inevitable.
Your conservative views helped legitimize decades of fear and hate preached by the GOP.
This in turn gave us Trump.
Just own it, David. It will cleanse your soul, as it did for Lee Atwater when, on his deathbed, he repented his part in dirty GOP politics.
9
I'm all in with Bernie. But, please Bernie supporters, if he is not the Democratic nominee don't sit this out. All of our votes are important to rid this country of this monstrous administration. One way or another all of our lives depend on their removal.
8
On the PBS NewsHour, Mr. Brooks sounds quite reasonable. Unfortunately, he has apparently decided that all of his writings must be capital-P Profound.
This is, again unfortunately, usually not the case.
5
I think it's more likely that the Democratic base will choose the one candidate who is the combined strength of all the others: Elizabeth Warren.
She's got Biden's attack dog strength. She's got Bernie's vision. She's got Klobucher's pragmatism. She's got Buttigieg's liberal version of Christianity (and the experience he clearly lacks). Top it off with a heap of persistence and it's a winning combo.
Seeing her take down the billionaire mini-Trump was glorious. I don't see how anyone else stands a chance.
4
She lies. That bar card with American Indian on it did it for me. Policies come and go. Integrity is all I really care about.
1
David, interesting, but irrelevant op-ed. America will not elect a self-proclaimed "socialist". Republicans will beat him to death with this label. It will turn out Trump supporters to the polls en masse.
5
What does "winning" a public debate have to do with the ability to, oh, let's say, manage a very large organization? Does being a virulent and "convincing" attacker make you more fit to run this country?
5
Another hit-piece to discredit Sanders and millions of people that are left out of the political process. Yes it is Sanders' myth that a huge swathes of the population live in destitute. It's a myth that in the wealthiest country in the world many die for the lack of medical insurance. It's a myth that millions of kids in the country never get a decent education and a pathway to building a gratifying life .....
Of course it's all a big fat myth to the likes of you.... the ones that could have never seen the Trump phenomenon coming.... The ones that keep their heads in the sand and refuse to come out!
10
Wow! I think you've hit the nail right on the head. it's funny how leaders create a myth and nonsense and then the followers buy it Hook line & sinker. Unfortunately most US voters are not very educated, so they're susceptible to this kind of manipulation. I hope you're wrong here at least in terms of Bernie becoming the nominee, because then we'll have to choose between two highly unqualified candidates. Bernie is almost as divisive as Trump and almost as repulsive.
People are trying to repair their communities and their lives that have been destroyed by exploitative and extractive
2
"I see a great yearning for solidarity, an eagerness to come together and make practical change."
So, what percentage of Americans have this "great yearning." I don't see it.
2
The myth angry Bernie is selling is that he can make any of what he has promised happen. Better than anyone he knows the Republicans control the Senate, and likely will for sometime. Trump is selling a scary myth that enables him to be the mad king. Neither is appealing.
3
I just don’t see how a self-proclaimed socialist can win an election when the economy is as strong as it is currently.
3
@Sue if it is so strong then why does David Brooks claim he sees struggle everywhere?
4
David Brooks gives readers a lot to think about here — if they can put aside their own chosen lenses for a moment and see the patterns he’s describing in non-partisan terms.
Looking at others’ comments attacking his premise, it seems to me that using the loaded word “myth” might have been a bad choice though. What he’s really talking about are competing narratives, each of which start with some black and white facts and then are embellished with vividly-colored imagery designed to trigger strong emotions like fear.
Brooks isn’t describing reality here — he’s describing politics. And guess which one of these things is driving current events? It ain’t reality.
2
I don't see how anyone in their right mind can say they will vote for ole Bernie when given his recent heart attack, his kick back in the Debate to releasing results of a full & current medical check up, AND not knowing who he would pick for a VP. Given his cozy relationship with the X bartender AOC and stating she would have a high position in his administration it reminds me of when McCain picked that knucklehead Palin for his VP and I believe that cost him the White House. So to sum it up, a vote for Bernie would be the equivalent of entering the booth with one's eyes closed and picking wherever the "dice" lands.
2
Then, there are the David Brooks myths, which generally conform to the status quo.
6
As is often the case, your categorizations reflect erroneous beliefs that support conservative beliefs. Bernie Sanders is not a "socialist." He is a democratic socialist, far different in practice from a "socialist." I only wish people stop making this disparaging error in classifying him.
3
I hope that David Brooks will soon interview Bernie Sanders. He seems too certain of his own judgments and could benefit by this reality check.
This was a wonderfully executed essay of intellectual cleverness but lacked facts to substantiate his declarations of character assessment. Very tricksy with the weaving of myth (def. 1) vs myth (def. 2) vs truth (abrupt).
But in the end he argued for and threw down his conclusions unsubstantiated and obfuscated by his artful intellectual essay construction. Was a puzzlement! Why not just write an essay series building to your conclusion? Sometimes less is inadequate!
3
I can’t imagine that anyone who voted for Hillary will not vote for Bernie, despite some of the anger towards him. There doesn’t seem to be a Jill Stein to siphon off votes from Bernie. There will be a lot more kids voting and Bernie excites the kids (but they have to show up). I voted for HIllary in the primary and I think I made a mistake. Might there be people voted for Trump think they made a mistake? Might the people who voted for Obama and then Trump come back? Hillary ignored the Midwest. I don’t think Bernie will make that mistake. And seriously, who would have thought Trump could win any of it? You just never know... I remain hopeful.
3
David, let's take Bernie's signature policy issue, Medicare for All. There is not a single serious health policy expert who doesn't believe that universal coverage (provided by one coordinating entity, like the federal government) isn't the answer to soaring costs and lack of coverage. So Bernie is right on the theme. The other candidates agree in principal, but take a more nuanced approach- and are getting killed for it. Why? Because to run for President, as you suggest, it's not the What or the How that you talk about- it's the Why. People buy the Why, not the What or the How (courtesy of Simon Sinek). Bernie addresses the Why without much concern for the What or the How, whereas the more technocratic candidates are focused on the What and How. It is that Why that is very clear with him- there is no question about Why do you want to be President? Just like Trump (Make America Great Again) he realizes it's the Why, not the What or How, that people buy. Given that he's the only candidate with a strong Why on the Democratic side, I believe he will get the nomination (and I say that as a Bloomberg/Biden supporter) and we will have an epic clash of Whys in November, with a completely unpredictable outcome. Buckle up!
275
@Hope springs eternal
being "right" on a policy is not the same as being able to make that policy into law.
Sanders in 40 years as a politician has not a single policy initiative that has become a programmatic reality.
33
Very very good write up. Thanks!
3
@Hope springs eternal
Except, the Republicans have proven that, through distortion, they can turn healthcare into a serious scare tactic.
Sanders' problem, and it is a serious problem, is that 150 million Americans obtain their healthcare through their employer.
The Republicans are going to effectively scare them into believing Sanders is going to take away their policies and replace them with "government run" socialist healthcare and then throw in some hyperbole about people who die in Canada waiting for a doctor to see them.
The Democrats can win if their candidate embraces and defends the ACA.
27
Please. We've had only two primaries. The race is totally open.
4
I had high hopes for Bloomberg but off social media and in person he squandered an amazing opportunity to arrogance. Mayor Pete has been my guy for a long time (separate from the fact that is from my home town) for his intelligence, charm and balanced approach. But I'm a realist. What excited me about President Obama was his intelligence, compassion and the inspiration young people felt for the first time since Kennedy. Although I am a baby boomer, through Millennial eyes, I understand Bernie speaks their language, understands their concerns for the present and the future and is seen as a very energetic mentor, a leader, and the coolest grandfather figure on the planet. Ultimately, I would ultimately campaign my heart out for this guy.
1
Quit acting like Bernie Sanders is the only "my way or the highway" candidate. Every single candidate earnestly running should think they are the best person for the job or quit. That isn't arrogance or an inability to work with others - it's the realization that if you aren't willing to work harder than the next person you don't deserve the job.
1
So Bernie will win the nomination, and unfortunately subsequently lose the election as many Americans are too simple-minded to understand diddly-squat about his policies, trump will blunder and bluster his way to a climate catastrophe or a war, unless the coronavirus gets us first.
Great expectations,
2
I'm sorry, but to argue that Americans are too stupid to dissect candidates in more than one lens is absurd. Although it is true that Mike Bloomberg is a successful entrepreneur who took his success into public service and then started giving his money away to reduce gun violence and climate change, it is ALSO true that he amassed a gross amount of wealth and implemented authoritarian policies that targeted young minorities. Plus, just because you donate a portion of your wealth to good causes doesn't make your policies attractive. Bloomberg runs on a climate platform, but joins forces with the weakest climate candidates on the stage, Klobuchar and Biden, by supporting the MYTH that natural gas is a transition fuel needed before we revitalize our energy supply with clean, renewables. More-so, not every Wall Street executive is a vindictive plutocrat, but Wall Street, collectively, has created massive problems for working class families across the country. It's about what matters more for voters. Point being, there are truths to these so-called "myths" you so carelessly point out. It's possible to think critically, blend the arguments, and discern myth from reality.
3
Brooks tells it in an interesting way. Ill break it down, Sanders provides false hope to working class and middle class voters. Trump does the same for the rich and those who are racist, jealous, not bright and feel because he speaks like a 4th grader and doesn't care about the mainstream he can enhance their lives.
The biggest bait and switch in history occurred in 2016. yet these people still support him because theyd rather not improve their lives and let this joker come out of the white house with his family richer and laught to the bank and eventual grave.
GOP just as responsible as Dems for letting this happen. This new trajectory of unstable politics, which was always nasty and corrupt, now on a new level.
There are a lot of parallels between Trump & Sander's campaigns, both are running campaigns based on grievance politics. Both say "here's who is the reason for your problems, and oh boy just watch me to stick it to them. Trump scapegoats foreigners and minorities, Sanders blames the very rich. While Trump's scapegoating is pure fear mongering, at least there's basis to Sander's claims about what the ultra rich are doing to everyone else. Either way, the level of devotion that they inspire in their supporters shows the power of this method.
214
@Scott I agree. The main difference between the two candidates is that Bernie really believes in what he stands for, and has been passionate about what he believes for decades. Trump believes in nothing, and will take whatever position will allow him to obtain money and power. Bernie is not my first choice, but I do respect him, and I think his heart is in the right place.
23
@Scott You nailed it. The question most of us seasoned Dem voters ask is why does anyone believe that Sanders can accomplish this revolution. His record reveals that he hasn't accomplished anything in all of his years in Congress. He did well in redevelopment when he was mayor of Burlington, VT and that was a long time ago. I closed my eyes during the debates and try to imagine 4 years (if he can live that long) of that old man yelling with his pointed finger. Very fearful that we will lose the House and more Senate seats with Bernie. A true disaster.
22
I loathe how pundits are so dismissive of Warren. She created and led the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Her message is not the same as Bernie's. He correctly critiques Wall Street, but what has he actually done while serving as a Senator? My impression is not all that much.
3
Arguing that gravity exists is not simply a 'worldview'. It is a fact. Arguing that a supposedly gang busters economy is only generating wealth for the top 1% is also not simply a worldview if that is in fact what is happening (which it is).
Apparently Mr. Brooks has never gone to a Trump rally and seen the masses of people their screaming in support of hate and bloodlust.
If anyone is pushing a mythic/fantasy Worldview it is Mr. Brooks.
2
Bernie's view is not a myth. There's too much inequality of wealth in America, and the people working the low paying jobs are struggling. That's not a myth, that's a reality.
I’m a former founder and CEO of a sizable investment company. In the American version of capitalism, wages for average workers are mistreated as an "expense" for the Top 1%, an evil expense pulling down share prices of their companies and by that their wealth. And when we at last see some really small rise in wages, we hear it to be only demonized as pulling down stock prices and bringing chaos to the financial markets. If so, then when are we going to raise the wages for average workers and be happy that everyone deserves a chance to succeed?
When the wealthy continue to inherit the money earned by their parents, whereby gaining advantage in opportunity, how are the working class supposed to catch up.
These are not myths, these are reality. As MLK said, the silence of the good people are the real tragedy here, preserving the inequities of our society.
8
Is it a myth? Was it not so that Bloomberg singled out people of color as those who commit crimes? Is it lie that we have corporate welfare for fossil fuel companies? Is it untrue that companies like Walmart make huge profits for their owners and shareholders while tax payers pay for their employees' food stamps and medical insurance?
Perhaps Mr Brooks should consider the realities which Sander's message is built upon and how that reality has allowed a man like Bloomberg to come late to the game solely because of the size of his bank account.
2
Who is the NYT opinion Writer that sees Sanders the way most voters see Sanders. Which is the most viable option to lead America into an age of listening and respect, and warmth between other humans.
You’re perception is so skewed. You’re out of touch with younger Americans. We care about each other. We care about providing for one another. I feel more akin to Trump voters than I feel to you. A news paper I’ve read since I was a boy, and you guys can’t get it through you’re head we are ready for a progressive liberal, and bring an end to corporate interests over taking care of each other.
2
There is another myth- more compelling than Trump's or Bernie's- it is called TRUTH! Those who seek it, will seek an alternate middle-ground between Trumpocracy and Bernie's BurnItDownocracy.
I don't believe in myths.
My political lens is my own prescription.
Just for me.
Democrats are learning the truth. It's not a myth. The lies of the right wing Democrats are just as obvious as those of Republicans. By the people, for the people.
1
"I don't know why you doubt that wealthy donors are trying to influence policy for their own ends, but you are right about one thing. We need a gathering. I appreciate Mr. Bloomberg's philanthropy, but he can't solve America's problems on his own. He's going to need my help. He's going to need your help, Warren's help, Biden help, help from the democrats, help from the republicans, help from the churches, the synagogues, the mosque, from business, non profits, black people, white people, brown people, local governments, state governments, and for all it's faults the federal government, Everyone needs to gather. That's why I'm voting for Bernie Sanders. That's why I am a socialist."
4
The well being of our country should NEVER be an "us vs them" football game. Name calling is totally inappropriate. Especially from someone of Mr. Brook's reputation. It is sad - no, it is horrendous- to read Senator Sanders compared to Donald Trump. It is even more frightening that national media fails to explore issues in depth and explain their likely consequences. One thing that Mr. Brooks did get right is speaking to the people and our longing to be brought together. Deval Patrick spoke to that and mentioned a few solutions, among them, a universal draft -not to train for war, but for public service. Living together in barracks and uniting in common work goals would help us understand each other. His message was very important. But Mr. Brooks should also have heard from middle class people who get socked with outrageous medical bills. Listen about the impossibility of raising a family with one income, so both parents have to work. Hear about thirty-five hour work weeks that not being "full time" don't have to offer health insurance nor sick leave nor paid vacation let alone parental leave. What Senator Sanders is espousing is not "socialism." It's human decency. It's bringing us up to the level of every other industrialized nation and some developing countries. Yes. We all of us need to change our stance from "us vs them" to "come let us reason together."
1
"These problems aren’t caused by some group of intentionally evil people."
No, they are caused by people who are accidentally evil. By remaining blind to the other side, they have become incapable of any form of empathy, the the Right's policies reflect that. Unlike Sanders, everything Trump stands for exacerbates this problem. I agree that Bernie is equally single-minded in his thinking, but at least his thinking would benefit the great majority of people.
3
"Would benefit the great majority of people " is something the people of Venezuela probably said before Chavez came to power. How did that work out?
1
"These problems aren’t caused by some group of intentionally evil people." These problems are caused not by people but by a prevailing philosophy that places money over everything else. And along the way there are some very evil people - not Mike Bloomberg necessarily - but for example the Sacklers, the Koch brothers, the Mercers - who hurt people by the thousands to make themselves fabulously wealthy or who use their wealth to suppress democracy. I don't accept the idea that these people are a "myth" and as long as they aren't I'm thinking Bernie or Warren are better than what we got right now.
1
Oh my God! To equate Bernie Sanders with Donald Trump takes the tired and damaging "I know you are but what am I" narrative of the moderate right to whole new levels. This writer, and others like, say, Mike Murphy, have to recognize that their party, the Republican party, has done untold harm to our country and that you have made your contribution to it. It may assuage your sense of responsibility for this havoc, but the simple fact is there is no equivalence between the role of the Democrats and the role of the Republicans in bringing us to this point in our history. Which is the party of Joseph McCarthy? Of Nixon and his dirty tricks? Of the racsist southern strategy? Willie Horton? Which party brought us the Iraq war? The financial crisis? Global warming denial? And now, probably worst of all, your party has brought us Donald Trump. It is your party that allows him carte blanche to put us at each others' throats, to undermine our alliances, to destroy our institutions and with them our prosperity. You should hang your head in shame. But you won't, so can you at least look in the mirror?
I don't support much of what Bernie Sanders proposes as policy. As a matter of fact, I believe in the empowered indivudal, and capitalism, generally speaking. I'm voting for him anyway, out of love for my country. Exactly because he IS NOT Donald Trump.
2
@Fremont
I doubt that Bernie Sanders will be the Democratic candidate. He’s not even a Democrat. He will lose to Trump, which is why the Republican Party and Putin would be thrilled with Bernie.
There’s a part of both their myths— Trump’s and Sanders’— that’s true: America is ruled by a minority of the elite who only care about themselves. That’s not a myth. And it’s a little rich to say that the myth you speak of is ‘true’. This sort of epistemic arrogance is half the problem.
While I look forward always to David Brooks's commentary, this annoyed me: "Warren was a devastatingly effective surrogate for Sanders, but she reinforced his worldview rather than establishing one of her own." Warren absolutely has a worldview that is every bit as compelling as Sanders' view, and she possesses the virtues of relative youth and intellectual nimbleness v. Bernie. Her chief disadvantage is that she is female. She is a fighter, and when you are female and a fighter, you pay.
BTW, when I go to work, most of the indispenable people are women (even thought they are not in charge); when I volunteer phone-bank for the Dems, my fellow phone-bankers are overwhelmingly women; with my kids, I take care of almost all of the responsibilities around parenting v. my ex-husband. I do not hate men or dislike men, but I am sick to death of carrying their water.
2
I'll vote Sanders, but Trump will win if the Democratic Socialist is the Democrat nominee. It's all about perception.
158
And if it isn't Sanders, Trump will be president, because the rest of the field is more of the status quo that brought us Trump. Kind of a pickle we find ourselves in.
29
@Rodney O "Status quo" didn't bring us Trump. Neither did Comey, Sanders, Putin, or Stein. Arrogance, self-righteousness, and condescension on the part of the Democratic nominee brought us Trump. And Sanders isn't a huge improvement.
27
@Rodney O Hillary brought us Trump. You could have put nearly any other lame-duck Democratic candidate against Trump in 2016 and won. It was the hatred of Hillary and all her baggage that lost in 2016.
28
We can agree on two things: Bernie is going to take nomination. And when he does, I’m going to throw as much money at him as I can. More than I ever have for any political candidate in the past 16 years I’ve been able to vote. We also agree on the fact that Warren is neoliberal, like your opinion makes you clearly appear to be, and she lacks originality because she isn’t original. Bernie has been shouting this message for the working class for the past 40 years, even when he often times, had to stand alone. Great job giving your personal political pick (Warren) a new angle though, it’s been pretty tough to see her as anything other than a Bernie supporter. Maybe we should all come together, her and you included, and support the man with the heart and vision to take down Trump.
1
A must-read piece for these times. I only wish Mr. Brooks had taken it once sentence further and pointed out that in addition to the myth-makers he describes, many in print media, tv media, radio media, and especially social media, have an active hand in perpetuating myths and sowing division. Somehow the gatherers have found the off-switch to that toxic noise.
Talk about myths....trying to picture Mr Brooks hanging around, talking with the people of Compton and Watts.....there is your myth.
Sanders speaks inconvenient truths, not myths. The question is can he move Congress to accomplish his vision for America in a form that moves in the right direction.
3
Let's get down to basics. In the times and angst described by DB and by Bruni today about balkanization of the electorate, more because of the internet than due to single-issue politics, the GOP escaped what the Dems are now going through because of a fluke. An outsider with no stake in the status quo has taken on "the establishment," the status quo and the detritus of both parties with unparalleled experience in and disdain for the old mass media (e.g. TV), innovative use of new media (Twitter), spoked plainly to the angst of the electorate and forged a solid movement of 63 million, and growing.
Now, Dems face a terrible choice and they need to hash it out somewhat in private in a brokered convention, get "centered," and reaffirm their core values. That is more important than beating Trump but even Trump supporters who love what Trump does on policy are worn out from his drama/antics and can be attracted away by a non-threatening Dem tcket. To oversimplify a little, this means neither Bernie nor Bloomberg nor Warren and Buttigieg is too green, slick and slippery.
The nominee must be an anti-Trump, i.e. character, steadfastness, toned-down rhetoric, etc., a progressive but not crazy, experienced, woman who can win the Midwest swing states. Obviously, Klobachar. The VP will have to be a liberal-firebrand and get Bernie's approval and be attractive to Blacks-probably Sherrod Brown and not Booker.
Suggestions from others?
1
Brooks shouldn't be making predictions. He was COMPLETELY wrong about Trump. How quickly we forget.
2
how is looking at Bloombergs record of harming young black men with his casual racism and lack of empathy the "Bernie" lens?
you don't have to buy into a myth to see what Bloomberg did was wrong.
what's worse, when confronted with the horrifying affects of his policy, he didn't address it. rather, he pushed back against those saying he was wrong, and ignored all readily available evidence that stop and frisk was terrible.
the only difference between those who see Bloomberg as he is, and those that hang on his policy achievements, is the belief that black lives matter more than a new harbor and a smoking ban.
chose a side David.
The grotesque issue here is that Sanders is buying/has bought the nomination. Not through donations from the usual large donors, but, much worse, through donations of a small -- about 2% of the electorate --band of rigid ideologues and Bernie cult followers. If you think there's incipient fascism now, just wait for the Sanders presidency.
1
"the populist revolts of the 1890s". The populists were on the left; the MAGA people are on the far right. The use of the word 'populist' here (and it's almost a cliche) is both undiscerning and vague.
2
You had it right for a bit, David. What you fail to surmise is how accurately Bernie's "myth" is reflected in our reality every day. I'm not surprised.
2
Actually, Bernie has worked with fellow senators to get things done, for example improving the VA healthcare system. His anti-war bills have Republican co-sponsors. And he listens to his constituents' concerns and provides meaningful help, which is why he wins re-election in a landslide.
As for Elizabeth Warren, I guess a woman can't forge her own pathway, she must merely follow that of a man. Some of what she says is similar to Bernie's rhetoric, but she comes to the campaign from a different angle, with her own knowledge and experience, which are quite different from Bernie's.
2
The inequality we see today is the result of an income tax code that is super lenient on those making gobs of money. During the 1950s we had many tax brackets. If you made more you paid more. Simple. Don’t blame the rich, fix the tax code.
1
"Bernie Sanders is also telling a successful myth: The corporate and Wall Street elites are rapacious monsters who hoard the nation’s wealth and oppress working families. This is not an original myth, either. It’s been around since the class-conflict agitators of 1848. It is also a very compelling us vs. them worldview that resonates with a lot of people."
Mith you say? 1% of people control 36.6% of the wealth of the country, and the inequality is getting bigger every day. Workers used to be able to live decently on their salaries, now that same worker needs to hold two jobs to make ends meet. Respectfully, I suggest that you are the myth maker, or in their employ.
5
First, Brooks is wrong to assert that Trump had a coherent myth. He had a collection of coarse insults, nothing more than that. Why is Brooks gilding the bilious liver that Trump put forward as an agenda?
Second, why would this country want to reduce itself to a stark myth? That might indeed be what Sanders is doing, but the majority of Democratic voters do not subscribe to it, because the majority of Democrats support less mythic and more rational candidates like Buttigieg, Klobuchar, and Biden.
3
“Everywhere I go I see systems that are struggling — school systems, housing systems, family structures, neighborhoods trying to bridge diversity. These problems aren’t caused by some group of intentionally evil people. They exist because living through a time of economic, technological, demographic and cultural transition is hard. Creating social trust across diversity is hard.”
This, right here, is where Mr. Brooks’ worldview fails every single time. These systems are struggling because of 40 years of austerity, of economic conservatism from both parties, and the intentional erosion of public goods for private gain. Realizing this would take a critical skill set that men like Mr. Brooks simply do not have, and so Trump and Bernie become one, a jumble of “myth makers.” What is true, however, is that one of these figures actually understands the drivers of society’s problems, and the other is simply taking advantage of them. Passion and the ability to synthesize grievances do not make people alike.
5
This is good news because I see Brooks as consistently incorrect in his predictions. I watch PBS Newshour and his Friday "takes" seem to often miss the mark.
I have nothing against Saunders except he is not who we need to lead the country out of the last awful four years. We need a uniter.
1
David, your preferred moderate, whoever that might be, doesn't get the nomination. Bernie does. What will you do during the campaign and come election day when you have to choose one, what are you going to do?
4
@Joel Schwartz
He's going to write an Endorsement for him. Despite all the pretentiousness he knows 4 more years of Trump is the worst possible outcome.
They all do. It's annoying to listen to, but they will keep repeating it until July/August and then they will panic to backpedal.
The "gathering myth" is pure fantasy. David Brooks's anecdotal evidence (of which he is a master) and one trip to the less wealthy sections of LA aside, there isn't any amount of extra activity on the local level that is going to substantively change the lives of the growing economic underclass.
The 0.1% may not perceive themselves as evil, but they have collectively declared economic war at an ever-increasing pace since the 1980s and successfully captured both major political parties in the US with their financial support and rhetoric.
Without economic opportunity, there will be no improvement. When 'wealth creators' are made by extracting rents, profiting from government-enforced monopolies, and socializing trillion-dollar losses, there is plenty of economic malaise to mine. And despite the efforts of the
Federal Reserve, there's no such thing as a free lunch.
Trump has offered demagoguery and distraction, but hewn to the orthodox GOP playbook in accelerating the wealth transfer via the standard methods of massive unfunded tax cuts that only benefit the ultra-wealthy.
Brooks has offered a classic example of a false equivalence by conflating Sanders with Trump. When was the last time any US president since 1980 took any action that reversed the cannibalization of the working classes? The Gini coefficient just goes up and up, at an ever-increasing rate. Until it doesn't. And that invariably does not end well.
3
I fear that if Sanders is the Democratic candidate, we will end up with four more years of Donald Trump. I just don't think Sanders can get the support for the ticket needed to defeat Trump in Nov. It's unfortunate the Democrats were unable to put forward a candidate that would have had the enthusiastic support of a large number of voters. Sanders clearly is not such a candidate.
6
Well I can't argue with the fact that a lot of people seem determined not to support without realizing that it's not really an option if they want Trump to lose.
I mean vote 3rd part, stay home, or worse... vote for Trump if Sanders is so bad. I just don't get it... you want Trump out or you want 4 more years of him. There's no "None of the above" option on the ballot that will keep either from wining.
This election is 100% a referendum on keeping or removing the president, as all incumbencies are.
"Everywhere I go I see systems that are struggling — school systems, housing systems, family structures, neighborhoods trying to bridge diversity. These problems aren’t caused by some group of intentionally evil people. They exist because living through a time of economic, technological, demographic and cultural transition is hard."
Brooks conveniently sees so many of the things plaguing our society, economy, and communities as inevitable acts of nature -- totally sui generis conditions that we have to accept as givens and unavoidable facts of life. The problems he mentions in the quote above exist for reasons, though. They're due to real decisions made by real people, who almost always are the same people benefiting from the conditions that create these problems for the vast majority of us. And a lot of these people either know these effects are likely, or simply don't care to think about them. Of course "living through a time of economic, technological, demographic and cultural transition is hard." But Sanders' point (and Warrens') is that it doesn't have to be *this* hard. It could be better. We can decide to make it better. These aren't forces of nature. They're problems we're dealing with that resulted from decisions made by other people, and we can make different decisions that have different outcomes. The idea that we might want to try doing so is neither unrealistic nor dangerous. It's the only thing that can save us.
4
There are two Sanders challenges. First, he has to win nomination and get elected. Then, if he can manage that, he has to govern. That's the part I'm concerned about, given his uninspiring political record and cantankerous disinterest in compromise and consensus building.
3
An eloquently written and tragically accurate observation. It is the season of the demagogue wherever you go in the world.
2
Bernie got 25.7% of the vote in New Hampshire. Assuming that the country is more or less split down the middle between R's and D's (including independents), seems to me that Bernie is commanding a whopping 12.5 % of the national electorate.
Pete and Amy drew just over 45% between them. The country is more moderate than progressive.
3
While I share your view of the dangerously us and them, friend or enemy, with me or against me politics, I take issue with your description of Michael Bloomberg's business because of the Nature of such enterprises as Bloomberg terminal> I believe Paul Krugman when he says that such enterprises are bad for our overall economy i.e. for the economic lives of the common person.
Thanks for your kind, goodhumored and generous philosophy regarding the interplay amongst Americans. It is rereshing and encouraging to hear you on the Friday PBS Newshour as well as on NPR. I hope we, those who want us to be "us" not "us and them" prevail.
By the way, I hope Elizbeth Warren or Amy Klobuchar is the vice-presidential nominee. EW is older yet seems in extremely good form and AK has worked on many bills passed in Congress and works across the aisle. I would love to see AK as president yet I think it's unlikely this time. I disagree with some of her ideas yet find her effectiveness and air of being one of the Common People.
4
David,
I know it's hard to accept but the chickens have come home to roost and they brought their tar, rope, and pitchforks. For decades, Clinton democrats, so-called moderates have played their kobuku theater with the working class, the poor and us --- the middle class that pays for it all. They lie to us for our vote, take money from the oligarchs and ignore us. Donald Trump tapped into this. Now, Sanders is doing the same.
The difference is that Sanders is a respected politician with integrity. That is something shared with Warren. They've watched the conservatives, of both parties, and had years to formulate tactics. That is why the oligarchs and their helpers on Wall Street live in fear of both.
We will see the rise of a new democratic party. The GOP will fade and return in a decade after the expected market crash that always occurs from republican excesses.
1
All Bernie Sanders wants to do is make America a more equal society, similar to Canada and Western/Northern European countries: public health care, public education, equal opportunity for all. That doesn't sound too extreme to me.
9
To be honest, a Bernie Sanders type of Presidency was coming for over 10 years.
Ever since the Financial Crisis, everyday people have grown so frustrated with the way American society has turned for the worse. People were losing their jobs and homes, but meanwhile the rich were profiting from their losses by buying up property at cheap prices and (now) selling those same properties for 200%+ more because of gentrification.
We have had moments leading to this from Occupy Wall Street, to the minimum wage increase demands, to the rising unaffordability of college.
It's not a myth if every millennial is living in this reality where we are unable to attain the quality of life that our parents and grand parents had and we work more than they did at this age. THAT is why Bernie has such a large base in people under 40.
The people who are scared of Socialism/ Democratic Socialism are those who grew up CONDITIONED. But, Baby Boomers and Gen X will never admit they were conditioned to believe that Capitalism is "the American way". You know what else is the American way, MASS INCARCERATION, PAYING FOR BASIC HEALTHCARE, CORPORATE WELLFARE, making 120k and being considered low income in major US Cities. LIKE REALLY?
You can't say that you want progress for America and then elect people who are down with the same routine
I am not happy with the way things are. So, Let's Go Bernie!
5
"These problems aren’t caused by some group of intentionally evil people. They exist because living through a time of economic, technological, demographic and cultural transition is hard. Creating social trust across diversity is hard."
Mr. Brooks who drives the economic, technological, and ultimately demographic, and cultural bus? The poor? The working class? No it's the very people you have always defended. As a highly perceptive and observant person, how can you make such a naïve statement. Or where you hoping no one would notice?
3
At the moment, Sanders' programs only work at the level of myth because there are no clear proposals on how they will be established or, especially, paid for. Medicare for all will be very difficult to cover. The Green New Deal is possibly more important given the climate crisis in which we now live and that, too requires very large increases in Federal spending. It is likely that the country has not faced such challenges since World War Two but I don't see anyone making them equally real.
I highly doubt that Bernie will get the nod. He is unelectable and I think he is a great person and politician. His age is the main problem for me, and for the rest - it's the label Socialist which Sanders rally is not. He's just someone with a Social conscience, which grows rarer and rarer as time goes by all over the world. Humans and apes have this cycle that is at least now a bit new and hard to understand. But humans act up aggressively - even the ones most privileged from some unknown cause. It is difficult to accept much of any other idea about the new aggressiveness from the non-minority who are not from very low incomes. People like our President don't help here because they have no sense or sensitivity. I know people on the moderate left who are planning to leave the country if Trump gets another term. It's not hard to understand - however, there is no place to go really unless you buy an island.
1
"gathering efforts are hampered by rippers at the national level who stoke rage and fear and tell friend/enemy stories. These efforts are hampered by men like Sanders and Trump who have never worked within a party or subordinated themselves to a team — men who are one trick ponies. "
It's really not fair to throw sanders in with Trump like this.
"I’ve spent much of this election season away from the campaign rallies and interviewing voters embedded in their normal lives. This week, for example, I was in Compton and Watts in and around Los Angeles. The reality I encounter every day has little to do with the us vs. them stories Trump and Sanders are telling."
Yes, I heard you on newshour saying Trump voters knew he was lying or guilty of actions he was denying but they just didn't care. That's sort of a problem when the "them" is Trump actually doing bad things and people just not caring.
Maybe the reason people are behind progressive candidates like Sanders isn't because it's a Myth they've bought into. Maybe it's because people know the government doesn't represent them. Google "congress doesn't care what you think" for a disturbing Princeton study. Maybe Sanders will win because polling shows that the majority of voters actually want Medicare for all, higher taxes for the rich, a higher minimum wage, more regulation for big corporations, gun control, and campaign finance reform. Ya know, things you can't seem to get moderate Dems excited about.
5
The cultural phenomenon of dominance creeps into a main argument of Brooks:
If Elizabeth Warren happens to agree with a policy of Bernie Sanders, then her policy actually belongs to Bernie Sanders.
Besides the self-evident injustice and absurdity of that theme of argument, it is also insidious in that it demands that every political position must be some greater or lessor form of us-versus-them.
Agreement and cooperation between individuals is no possible. We must become either competitors--if not enemies--or clones.
It also remains to be seen whether collectivist political culture-functioning democracy--is possible under Brooks's argument.
David Brooks is living in a mythical world of economic security that is true for him and his social circle of fellow one-percenters. Bernie Sanders understands the daily economic uncertainty that is the reality for about 50 percent of this country.
5
A lot of commenters think that David Brooks is insulting Bernie Sanders. I don't see it that way! He is saying Sanders is winning, because he is astute enough to turn his ideas into a story or a 'myth' as he calls it.
Warren has the same good ideas, but she isn't astute enough to to turn her good ideas into a 'myth.'
So not only does Sanders have the ideas, he know how to sell them, and that is why he will get the nomination!!
Doesn't sound like something Sanders supporters need to be upset about. (And by the way, Trump is astute enough to do the same thing, like his ideas or not.)
1
"The gathering myth is an alternative myth — one that has the advantage of being true."
Let's hope the advantage of truth prevails.
2
Bernie is the only "authentic" Democratic candidate. And he wouldn't have the appeal that he has IF the country was really working. It works for the top 5%. But those in the middle? Soaring health care costs, stagnant wages, overburdened student loans--Is ANYONE in Congress of this Administration doing ANYTHING about that? Like when Bloomberg asked, "Anyone here start a business?" Crickets.
As the debates showed, only Bernie could beat Trump. Voters see through the fake facades. Trump exaggerates, and his hopefully optimistic, but he always says what he feels. He said Bernie is the toughest candidate to face. A whole lot of Democrats think Bernie would get crushed therefore Biden or Bloomberg to the rescue. Really? Are you really going to push that after these debates?
Trump blew up the Republican party, but now he owns it. Bernie is blowing up the Democratic party and then he will own it.
But what did the Establishment Democrats accomplish besides complaining about Trump? What did the Establishment Republicans accomplish besides complaining about Obama?
The Trump voters know that only Bernie could win, just like the Democrats think that anyone but Bernie could win. AOC will be front and center, Bloomberg will bankroll the DNC, and get Treasury Secretary, allowing him to sell his company tax free.
The one thing we know for sure is that the Establishment has been wrong on the last election; so why would they get it right this time?
They won't.
And that's no myth.
5
I believe in the direction Sanders is pointing at. It is not a myth. It is grounded on reality and the country will be a better place. But we can not and must not forget the urgent mission of the year - kick Trump out and save the nation. We have to have a centrist candidate acceptable to voters of all stripes. We can argue and debate till we're blue in the face but we have to persuade voters that he or she is a better alternative than Trump. We can not be too philosophical. We just need centrists to move their votes away from Trump.
3
@RomRed A centrist will lose. That's letting fear and the opposition choose our candidates. Don't you remember Hillary, the "safe bet." A center candidate such as Biden will generate about as much enthusiasm as a bake sale at the old folks home.
It seem like almost all of the Democrats who are adamantly opposed to Sanders are from blue coastal states. I have news for them: They can stay home, because their states aren't at risk of flipping red. Sanders is targeting working-class people in the private sector from the Midwest and he's doing it very effectively. There's no question in my mind the candidate who will pose the greatest threat to Trump in November. It's Sanders.
9
While I agree with Mr. Brooks about the value of myth-making in electoral politics, it is clear to me that he is engaging with another myth that has just as forcefully been put forward by the anti-Bernie crowd.
I can only speak to my own peek behind the curtain. Prior to volunteering for Bernie, I was "all in" for Warren. Much of my distaste for Bernie came from my perception of the "Bernie Bro," and the representation of Bernie supporters that I saw in the microcosm of my Twitter feed.
Then, when I actually engaged with supporters, I saw something entirely different. I experienced a much more inclusive, encouraging, and respectful tenor among Bernie supporters both in the official campaign spaces and at in-person meetings than I ever saw in Warren spaces. I was shouted down for suggesting we needed to diversify our outreach—at a Warren event. Meanwhile, the first Bernie event I went to was the most racially- and generationally- diverse campaign space I've attended. I was confronted with my own biases which I had culled from pundits and experts like Mr. Brooks.
This is not to say there isn't a contingent of vile supporters online. But my experience showed me that this was true among several candidate's supporters.
I don't mean to convince anyone to vote for Bernie here, or to discard the vitriol and pain that is caused by those who attack others in his name. My only point here is to say both the pro-Bernie and anti-Bernie crowd are engaged in similar myth making.
7
The myth is the myth. Sanders will win as the Democratic Party has been taken over by the radical left. The Blue Dogs and centrists left the party in 2016 and have not returned. Independents are generally nauseated by the socialist leanings. That doesn't mean they like Trump, just that they can't vote for Sanders. Should Sanders get the nomination, Trump wins easily.
1
@Mike Not according to about every single poll out there which places Sanders as the most popular politician in the country. And independents are overwhelmingly for the Democrat candidate. There's nothing "radical" about universal healthcare that's enjoyed by most of thr modern world. And should billionaires actually pay taxes? Shock! How radical!
1
@Mike
Not “taken over by the radical left.” (Hmmm, where have I heard that before? Oh yeah, the constant refrain on “radical” far right social media and cable fake news.) Have you been listening to Democratic debates? Discussion about progressive versus moderate Democratic policies is not a bad thing. It’s called civil discourse and is necessary for a healthy democracy. One view informs the other. BTW Democrats are “all in” to defeat Trump and Senator Sanders has support of many independents.
Do you think Bernie Sanders will “strong arm” Congress in the manner that our current president bullies Congress? No, he is a democracy nerd.
The current administration has neither the intellectual prowess to debate nor the political know-how to implement policy so they resort to mocking and discrediting all that challenges their agenda. Democratic Socialism is not the threat, radical Trumpian autocracy is.
@Mike $0.02 has been deposited into your PayPal account
Both Sanders and Trump are Populist candidates. And populist politicians pander to the problems people have by offering simplistic, black and white solutions. A populist "myth" or "story" or "message" is why a politician takes the populist road. Unfortunately, populist myths feed the masses with cotton candy. No substance, but it sure tastes sweet going down. A steady diet of cotton candy, however, kills. Saying I'm going to help you fix your problems and actually doing so is what is normally delivered. Negotiation, compromise, hammering out nitty-gritty details, that's the work that is not being done in Washington.
3
The implicit message I take from this: Sanders is "creating a myth" but Brooks see the "real true narrative" in it's nuance and complexity. The reality is, inevitably and unavoidably we are all organizing reality in narratives. A successful politician has to boil down a lot of complexity into a simpler, translatable narrative. And Sanders is doing a good job at that. Brooks just disagrees with his perspective.
From my perspective Sanders is speaking the right message for the time. For the great amount of wealth and resources we have, our country is not working well enough for a lot of people. We are living in the aftermath of the Reagan / Clinton deregulation eras.
Several endless wars. We haven't had a true liberal president since maybe Carter. And not a liberal president who had major influence since JFK/LBJ, or FDR.
Sure the rich and powerful are not boogey men who are trying to destroy people lives but power and money are very real things. There is an abundance of recent examples of democracy being limited, and the rich and powerful controlling the narratives. I think the simple fact is our country is more out of whack. And it seems there is more power in a smaller number of hands. But sure, rich and powerful people are people too.
Sanders positive message is the government can work for more people. It should do more, and help more people. And if we are together we have more power than the rich and the powerful.
You have a different narrative
10
What the Bernie and his Bros won't acknowledge is that Bernie is Trump's and Moscow's choice for the Democratic nomination. There are good reasons why this is, and it should worry Democrats.
It's not that moderate Democrats won't vote for Bernie if he is the nominee. Moderate Dems are good Dems, and will vote accordingly-- unlike Bernie supporters, who took their ball and went home after he lost the nomination in 2016.
The problem is that this election will be won or lost with moderate independents, and Bernie has very little support there-- not enough to win, and possibly so little that he will lose in a landslide and take the House majority with him.
This has all the makings of an electoral disaster that will ensure four more years of the most corrupt and self-serving President in living memory. Please, Dems, don't let it happen.
4
So, is social messaging from Russia and the Trump campaign driving the sudden, inexplicable burst in Bernie’s popularity? This seems a crucial question deserving of the full force of Times reporting.
Bernie resembles Trump in a most important way. Remember, Trump not only defeated the Democratic Party. He defeated the Republican party, such as it was. That is a point worth dwelling on.
In 2012 the GOP mounted a lackluster campaign, with a lackluster candidate. In 2016 the Party was weak and fractious, like the 2020 Democratic Party. Democrats can't quite figure out who can defeat D Trump. Enter a candidate--Bernie--who must defeat the establishment wing of the Democratic Party to secure the nomination. This really is a replay of what Trump accomplished in 2016. And, if Bernie is the nominee, he will bring more fervor and passion and force to the November campaign than the "democrats" have witnessed in a long time. Is that enough?
To me, it is interesting--and defining--that Democrats are more interested in whether or not Bernie can defeat Trump, than what Bernie's message is. Again, Trump redux. The Republican Party was willing to put up Trump's foibles as long as he won.
What is Bernie's message? Bernie would alter capitalism in America, if allowed to do so. He promises even bigger change than Trump has brought to Washington. Only a minority of democrats want that, but will elect him if they believe he can win in November.
Can he? The talking heads say no. (Please reference how accurate they were in 2016) Bernie can win if he is more Trump than Trump and creates a bigger movement than Trump did in 2016. Then he will have defeated both Parties, just like Trump.
4
i've grown tired of reading mainstream media pieces that attempt to ordain candidates long before there is any compelling proof that the candidate-of-choice has real staying power.
please stop trying to make fetch happen here. say no to bernie. say no to bernie-will-win "think pieces." the republic depends on it.
2
Bernie and Tulsi are the ONLY candidates speaking truth to power. America is not a benevolent nation like we told to believe. We are not an exceptional people in the world. We are a nation constantly at war in other soverign nations. We are the most greedy people on the planet. THIS MUST CHANGE.
The only change that can be brought about is to get rid of the neoliberals who have sold us down the river like conservatives always have. Enough with war, enough with income inequality, enough with health care and education for profit. We should be better than that!
8
Well said, Mr. Brooks. What America longs for and needs is comity, stability and fairness. The battle temporarily feels good but all humans seek and want order. The chaos is ennervating for me and I struggle to combat the anxiety generated by Trump's America and Sander's America would continued the angst. Be well, America. Common grounds awaits one day.
So we take these truths to be self evident. Mass media through the continued improvements of technology to spread narratives has been used in positive and negative ways. The agenda of some people...be it political or financial can often be used to intentionally subvert public opinion with false narratives in order to gain the fruits of power.
Our present day political polarity appears to minimize and fractionalize an electorate in an effort to maintain control over the masses and more easily mold public opinion to a narrow self serving few.
In this country’s history, the spread of ideas have become more efficient over its history beginning with pamphlets, and later newspapers, radio, television, and most recently social media. Being spoon fed with ever more efficient and easily manipulated mass media of what one should think, it is not the same as healthy debate and independent thinking of an informed decision-making, learned people.
There will once again be an opportunity for us as a nation to hopefully educate ourselves on being able to see we are a part of a greater whole. In conclusion, Thomas Jefferson said it succinctly: "An educated citizenry is a vital requisite for our survival as a free people."
1
With all due respect, I do not follow this reasoning. Our president does not have the imagination to propagate mythology. He is actually quite realistic. If one believes that people are fundamentally self serving and life is one long battle for personal gain. Myths require a higher level of cultural expression and faith in abstract ideals. (A world apart from Donald Trump) Is his support a product of a myth? Perhaps. If there is a myth about following a leader who brings out the worst of human nature.
I believe that Mr. Brooks is using the word “myth” to mean unrealistic or fantasy. Yes, Trump propagates fantasy. He lies and manipulates and his supporters don’t care for a myriad of narrow-minded and baffling reasons. Bernie Sanders does not lie. He tells the truth as far as I am concerned. The question is how realistic his proposals are, given the fact that most of his proposals have little support in Congress. I suppose one could call this the myth of the idealist. No, doesn’t make sense. It is not a myth, it is a policy proposal, open to debate.
There is a better word for how President Trump and Senator Sanders are similar. They are
very successful brands. They appeal to cultural identities and offer simple, comforting solutions in a complex, uncertain time.
2
Oh, please! Why is he going to win? He will have the most delegates, David. By winning primaries and caucuses. How? By having the best organization and campaigning tirelessly for years.
And then everything you Rockefeller Republicans fear is going to happen, he's going to empower working people and make you pay taxes. Then you, Trump and the rest of the least democratic party in American history can stand and bellow together. No-one will be listening.
5
I don’t agree.
While Bernie Sanders has masterfully and accurately described the insecurity afflicting all too many American families, he has also stirred great unease with his call for a political revolution.
Other Democratic candidates have told a story of increasing prosperity without the language of political revolution, and I believe that a majority of Democrats prefer this.
The probable result is a brokered convention.
1
Considering the last successful political revolution was the ‘Reagan Revolution’ which substantially changed political paradigms for everyone who came after, we do indeed need another political revolution to change tracks and get back to basics.
5
When Trump is taking over the DOJ and national intelligence functions for political purposes, we have to start calling a coup a coup. The only question former centrists like me have to be asking ourselves is whether the public Bernie lens goes far enough in describing the true state of things.
4
Sanders is the only candidate speaking like GOD. Yes. GOD. And I hope he has the opportunity to act on the mission to right our nation’s and the world’s wrongs.
1
More like an Old Testament prophet I would say.
Yes they are both myth makers but there's a huge difference, Trump is a self-serving criminal, Bernie is a true public servant. But Bernie never actually accomplished anything legislatively. I disagree re. Warren's performance she actually does communicate what she has done, what she intends to do with credibility, energy & conviction. She's the one who will need go after Bernie, with the credibility of a true fighter/progressive and a track record of getting things done. With all of Bloomberg and Biden accomplishments its amazing how flat they perform. The knock on Bernie isn't that he's a socialist, but that with far left positions he will not be able to unite us and get things done. They're all Progressives, they should remember that the root word is Progress, while ultimately i.e. Medicare for All might make sense better to make Progress in steps than make no progress (Sanders) or blow up Democracy (Trump). The Republicans are regressive and obstructionists (aka NO PROGRESS) Every great president like Lincoln and Obama understood this. Bernie's contribution has already been felt pushing the party further left, he will hurt the party if he is the nominee and even if he's elected. But if he is nominated I will still enthusiastically pull the Bernie lever.
4
The best thing about Bernie Sanders getting the nomination: After he loses 40 states, he will finally go away.
The worst thing about Bernie Sanders getting the nomination: The United States of America over the next decade or more before the Democratic party can regroup.
4
I will fully support him should he win the nomination, but I think Warren is the smarter choice. That unbridled Capitalism is a cancer is proven through the election of Trump who goes so far to sell our military and brag about the money. The first time Capitalism failed Social Security saved it, propped it up. That 60% of the country struggle with healthcare and income inequality should be a wake up call to a sleeping GOP and establishment Democrats, yet without Bernie Sanders, they probably would never get it.
4
this op-ed piece is generally good, but not entirely.
if by "myth" you're suggesting "cult formation", you're right. but i don't find warren's attacks on bloomberg, for example, to be part of that cult (her question whether bloomberg would release his employees from non-disclosure agreements was rational and highly relevant). bloomberg's negative response was telling.
many of us were heartened by the display of warren's perception and aggressiveness, which she had toned down previously. we trust her more than bernie to be sensitive to the occasional need for compromise to accomplish good things, rather than tied down by an artificial "purity test".
bernie's "medicare for all" slogan really does need significant re-examination: it would be regarded as undesirable by many segments of our population, who would not want any government agency (including medicare) to have that much power.
we think klobuchar and warren are rational progressives who are willing to fight to help a majority of our people with, as you say,
open-mindedness, flexibility, listening skills, etc. we support them, and hope the press, including you, will give them an accurate, fair hearing.
3
Surprise NYT would rather support a different, probably more corporatist Democratic candidate
3
Bernie Sanders is no more radical than was FDR, or Teddy. His ideas are big and scary to the entrenched lobbyists, most politicians, advertising-based media outlets, and many calcified columnists.
Bernie as a POTUS is far less a gamble than the game of craps we have stumbled through these past 3 years.
9
Yes....so right. It’s local issues. The mass media show,the myths,the hype,suck people in. How can we just explain to people how to get things done thoughtfully. What real issue are. Education,health issues,infrastructure, employment. Your article suggests a Bloomberg candidate or someone like him. All these candidates have made mistakes but none have the experience to hit the road running like Bloomberg has.
1
Mike Bloomberg is 78. If he could live another 78 years, he has enough money (without allowing for interest or investing) to spend more than 2 million dollars every single day of those remaining 78 years. And he doesn't believe in increasing the minimum wage. There is no lens through which he's a good person.
6
@KFB
"There is no lens through which he's a good person."
Oh yes there is- the lens of opportunity. Within three years all minimum wage workers are up above minimum wage. And, there is a strong correlation between Black unemployment and the minimum wage.
That means, all that minimum wage does is take away opportunity- opportunity for those who need opportunity the most.
@John Huppenthal
I think that paternalism is racism.
@John Huppenthal
Ah yes, The Lens of Opportunitay!
I know I live in a dystopian world when I agree with David Brooks. This is a beautifully analyzed and articulated description of a pack of lemmings headed for the cliff.
3
Agreed. It is a very worrisome moment when Brooks makes sense-
LOL.
Bernie is perhaps my last choice... he has zero charisma which makes him less likely to win over undecided voters. He's blubbering, inarticulate, always sounds like he is yelling, avoids eye contact, and yes, too old and perhaps in failing health. But, there is no question Bernie Sanders is a good man, and genuinely cares about helping Americans. Of course, I'll vote for him if he is the Democratic candidate. Our country can not bear the nastiness of Trump any longer. But, it will be up to Democrats to effectively remind voters of all the nastiness Trump has spoken and put forth in his four years. Americans have short memories. It needs to be spelled out.
4
Every election cycle since he ran in 2008, I wish Democrats could use John Edwards “Two America” theme and vision. It fits well today on a number of levels: Income inequality, costal elites/working people, Republicans versus Democrats and so on.
Could a politician use it today without evoking the Edwards moral failure? I don’t know, but it would be the vision and myth that could form the lens through which to see a Klobuchar, a Buttigieg or a Biden campaign for America.
So David, are you going to get behind Bernie or will we read articles from you about how he can't beat Trump for blah, blah, blah, whatever reasons. Maybe the Democrats of America really do feel we need a revolutionary in the White House and Sanders is the one. If the election manages to make both Houses and the Presidency Democrat will your first article be about Sanders "destroying" things and "going too far". Maybe you need to get out of the office a little more and see that most Americans know what Trump is and what he represents and don't want anything more to do with him or the GOP.
2
Brooks panders another myth: that of equivalence of two opposing sides, one based on a nostalgia of white working America of the 50s that never existed and the other being a country torn apart by inequality and winner takes all mentality that we live in. Brooks’ myth of equivalence has one big disadvantage: it’s not true.
3
@Oliver Herfort
"Country torn apart by inequality."
Not so much under Trump. In 2018, the bottom quintile received both largest pay increase of any quintile and their largest increase since 2005.
1
I enjoy reading David Brooks' column because even though I'm left of center, I often agree with much of his opinion, and this gives me some hope for our country. I'm grateful Warren is still in the race. I'm in accord with Bernie's vision, but I loathe his style. And (like Trump!) I look at presidential elections like a Hollywood casting director. In that regard, Bernie FAILS. He's "Crazy Bernie," the angry old Commie, trashing the American Dream (yes, now almost completely an actual dream), making it a cakewalk for Trump to be the aspirational candidate-- What??? At least Warren has the sense to say she is a capitalist to her bones. She appears organized, thoughtful, and managerial. Bernie is all fire and heart-- god bless him for that, but we will take a huge risk with him as the Democratic nominee.
2
@Milo
"...the American dream, now almost completely an actual dream..."
Nope. Very much alive and well under Trump.
In 1980, the top 1% of taxpayers had an AGI of $80,000 and paid $47 billion in taxes.
Adjusted for inflation, that's $240,000 and $150 billion.
In 1980, that was 867,000 taxpayers in the top 1%.
Today? There are over 8 million taxpayers, a full 6% in that top 1%, making over $240,000 per year, so much so that it is now the top 5%. And, they paid over $1 trillion in taxes in 2019, not $150 billion.
The American dream is very much alive and well in 2020.
Thank you President Reagan.
@John Huppenthal
Hey, I made some money selling anti-Reagan T-shirts back in the day!
Ronnie made it cool to hate the poor, and spoke in code against minorities. His trickle-on policy helped create the wealth gap we have today. My friend, if your economic picture was complete, true, and accurate, Bernie and Warren would not be anywhere near as popular as they are!
Now I will allow you the last word because we both know neither of us will change the other's mind.
"None have the categories or mental equipment to take down a socialist like Sanders."
David, you're letting your conservative blinders interfere with your analysis of Bernie's campaign. Bernie is not a "socialist." He is a social democrat as are most people in the other westernized countries in the world.
Americans would like to enjoy the basic amenites that they do such as universal health care, drug prescription coverage, free college education, Does this sound "socialist" to you? It's only what the rest of the civilized world enjoys.
11
Did no one learn their lesson in 2016 when everything was falsely equivocated between Hillary and Trump? Please, please don't do this again. I don't see Bernie as someone who will lock up children, ban Muslims, cut access to food stamps and healthcare, ban transgender individuals from serving their country in the military. C'mon, David.
9
Bernie is peddling fantasy, just as Trump does. His supporter core are just as fanatic as Trump's is. Isn't the real issue, that no pundits are addressing, how a large number of Americans now want a strong (old white) man bellowing their frustrations and threatening their opponents, rather than intelligent discourse and proposed plans? Or god forbid, a woman? Brooks here is peddling his own mythical version of the election, making grand sweeping statements that are part of the information problem we have nowadays: "Everywhere I go I see systems that are struggling." "...Sanders goes untouched because the other candidates don't have a mythic platform." "Elizabeth Warren inhabits a myth without expressing it clearly." (Huh?) One thing we can say with certainty: This election is unsettled, our country is unsettled, and we don't seem to be moving toward a happy conclusion.
2
Once again David Brooks pretends wisdom by reducing a complex situation tiny bite-sized morsels, and he pretends that his deconstructions are useful insights rather than deceptively-packaged opinions. Myths, indeed.
When it comes to Bernie Sanders, Brooks cannot help but trying to cast him as some kind of cartoon character and all of his supporters as simply a new breed of wild-eyed cultists. This bias is most blatant when Brooks labels Sanders a "socialist", instead of the correct term is "democratic socialist".
Brooks knows there are major, important differences between socialism and democratic socialism and when he intentionally blurs that distinction he does a gross disservice to his readers. Instead of genuinely educating his readers with political nuance, he becomes becomes just another a liar with a platform.
Brooks' is pedaling the MYTH that sheer capitalism is the only true American value. Is he afraid that voters might realize that democratic socialism is ALREADY the de facto value system of the vast majority of American families, whether or not they know how to use the term?
4
Sorry....I still contend that we, the People, are being Led and Controlled by a life-long
Sociopathic Personality Disorder, who, in his Success and continuation, has maintained
(Including his symptomatic Chronic Lying) to build a following of willing and wishing
Believers. Truth is no longer believable or socially important. Where, oh Where is the
Active Presence of our Leadership? Can Mr. Brooks Answer in ant way?
1
Donald represents exclusivity, keeping out the browns and owning the libs. Bernie represents inclusiveness, the basis of socialism. Unfortunately socialism is a toxic word in America.
Most American socialists, he wrote, “actually want is what the rest of the world calls social democracy: A market economy, but with extreme hardship limited by a strong social safety net and extreme inequality limited by progressive taxation. They want us to look like Denmark or Norway, not Venezuela.” (source unknown)
What we get with Donald is creeping fascism, an authoritarian demagogue, autocracy, plutocracy, oligarchy back by strident white "Christian" nationalists who believe they are better off now because there's a white man in the White House. Data shows that half the country are doing well, yet much of Donald's support comes from the bottom half see only a little improvement in their lives if any. And I have to ask, isn't the huge deficit spending artificially boosting the economy at the cost to future working/taxpaying Americans? It seems like cheating, but ~40% of Americans just don't care.
I like Mike, but I'd vote Bernie. Bernie would be the biggest political gamble I can imagine, the potential to severely damage the Democratic party for decades.
1
I hope that all of the remaining democratic candidates call out trump as a communist, an anarchist, and a dictator. Democratic socialism vs. communism - what should we serve for breakfast the morning after the November election?
2
I hope you're wrong that Bernie will be the Democratic nominee because he will surely lose to Trump. This is mainly because Trump and other Republicans have successfully conflated Democratic Socialism with Communism in the minds of the public and the label "socialism" will turn off a majority of voters. His proposals are also unrealistic and will be impossible to pass in any conceivable composition of the House or Senate in the foreseeable future. However, I must say that Bernie's "myth" that Wall Street bankers are greedy and rapacious plunderers of the system is demonstrably true. Every presidential administration in recent memory has drawn heavily from Wall Street masters-of-the-universe and they and their lobbyists have ensured that regulations and the tax code will always allow them to extract money from the population at-large without providing anything useful to society. Most of the top leadership of Goldman Sachs should have gone to prison after the mortgage-backed securities fraud that destroyed the US economy in 2008, but instead, they manipulated the government to actually suck more money out of the system at the expense of the little people. They even wrote sarcastic emails ridiculing the poor saps whose pension funds were buying their fraudulent securities. Elizabeth Warren has the same view, but has more constructive policies for dealing with it. Alas, her health care plan is just as unacceptable as Bernie's, so neither of them will ever be president.
1
Mr. Brooks — you inhabit a myth of your own making: bookish, theoretical and detached from reality.
Although you travel and visit places that may appear real to most people, your findings are predestined by what is already in your head — the anthropologist's dilemma: her/his findings and perceptions are filtered by what fits their prejudice.
2
"These problems aren’t caused by some group of intentionally evil people"
Yes they are, David. It's called capitalism.
5
Spiro Agnew said, “A spirit of national masochism prevails, encouraged by an effete corps of impudent snobs who characterize themselves as intellectuals.”
As a supporter of Bernie, I agree with his assessment that in the nation and world great human suffering increases due to growing income inequality, divisive and shortsighted leaders, incompetent management, and rampant and roiling irrationality disguised as values-driven problem solving.
Bernie subscribes to the Great American Gathering Myth of All Men Are Created Equal With Liberty And Justice For All ( and all that other stuff in between). Basically Kumbaya melded with the Rugged Pioneers, etc.
So, the 1% are people, too; and that includes billionaires, too. This is not the French Revolution, but an organic transition of Late-Stage Capitalism into a more equitable and rational gathering of caring individuals forming the Great Society. Incremental but efficiently quick and effective. Justice deferred is justice denied. So house the homeless now! End human suffering now!
Who were those extremely patient peoples you conferred with in Compton and Watts? Did you all gather in a hands holding circle and sing Kumbaya? That must have felt good!
Why not now just exchange places with some of those suffering people and take on their burdens for a few years until you moderates and incrementalists can finally make everything right?
4
In 2016 HRC was probably the only candidate the democrats could have run that DJT could have beaten. This time around that person may be Bernie sanders. The democrats can’t do better than 78 yo socialists and former republican billionaires and open borders and advocating for illegals and forcing people off of healthcare they want and giving away other people’s money? It wasn’t always this way. Why are they determined to again snatch defeat from the jaws of victory?
1
@AT
How much of your definition of electability involves you donating substantial time, work, and money to campaign for the Democratic nominee, regardless of who it is, in order to defeat Trump?
1
Unfortunately the moral of your story is that being good at campaigning for president has very little to do with being good at being president.
What lens do we need to put on to see Bloomberg as a racist or a sexist? I understand moderates not liking Bernie but Bloomberg is going to be the answer, seriously? Bloomberg is more republican than democrat Back Klobachar or Mayor Pete or stick with Biden. Give Tom Steyer a look, but do not put bloomberg up against trump in 2020.
1
What "myth" - Bernie is telling the truth.
4
I am 100% for Bernie, but not all billionaires are the same. Bloomberg has probably already done more good with his philanthropy than all the other candidates combined. His money goes to work immediately, no negotiating, no studies, no opposition, no vetoes, no back door deals.
Bernie can get very black and white.
Despite the fairly negative sounding headline, it's all there: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/02/15/us/politics/michael-bloomberg-spending.html?searchResultPosition=3
Sometime after you wrote this the story boke that Trump fired McGuire because he disclosed that the Russians are tampering with our election. Rachel said that they are messing with the Democratic primary too. I am hopng for a brokered convention.
As Joe would say what a bunch of malarky. You're against Sanders because you against having to pay the taxes you really should be paying rich folks.
3
@Elizabeth
Our taxes are still too high. 37% federal plus 3.4% medicare + 8% state + 8% sales tax on what's left = 52%.
52% takes billions of capital away from the successful businesses that best know how to create jobs. It takes $200,000 to create a good job. We have 12 million people still in poverty. They need rescuing, and those successful businesses know how to rescue them.
@John In the ‘good old days’ of peace and prosperity the ultra rich paid 90 percent income tax and that money was used to build the country we value so much today. People used to care about infrastructure and education and they knew it was worth the cost.
1
Whoever chose the headline and photo for this piece is either unable to understand what Brooks is saying here, which has almost nothing to do with Bernie, or felt a need to sugar-coat a brilliant piece of applied philosophy, as if only a clickbait red herring headline would lure people in. I can see why Siri bardarson feels that David "hasn't;t made his point." Very true - he did not make the so-called point of the headline. Not at all. David's point is far, far more insightful, broadly and deeply, and than that. And far more useful, if people can discern what's being said here. We have the strong warp and woof of a kind and democratic and listening society, but that will be beneath the gaze of pulpit bulldogs.
Irrespective of whatever lens you are looking through David i'm sorry to report you are still blind! Dude if your analysis was even close to correct we'd all have gotten A's in our classic literature classes. And Cliff's Notes would never have existed.
I looked up the phrase "cult of personality," and the Wikipedia article has a photo featuring Joseph Stalin. Scroll further down, and you'll see a statue of Augustus of Prima Porta and there's the Kim's, Il-sung and Jong-il, standing on top of their grand monument in North Korea.
Where's the picture of Donald Trump? Undoubtedly, the Wikipedia article should be updated with Trump's photo. And it should be updated with a photo of Bernie Sanders.
Two sides of the same coin, only one is less evil
1
They always appear less evil before gaining power.
1
The majority of Democrats who elected Secretary Clinton as the 2016 Presidential Nominee still remember how Bernie Sanders complained about every time he lost, according to the rules of a party he never joined before.
He reneged on his claim to do everything in his power to stop Donald Trump from occupying the White House, despite a decisive 3 million popular vote loss to Clinton.
His ego would not allow him to fight for the country, the larger good. He was Russia's useful idiot that allowed Trump to fracture the majority opposition.
Now, the millionaire socialist all of a sudden believes in the rules he criticized before. He knows at best he will win a minority of Democrats, and lose the general election to Trump.
Sanders supporters are as bad as Trump Potemkin village support on Twitter. Any constructive candidate would stop the Bernie Bros in their tracts. Bernie won't.
The majority of the Democratic Party, as well as Independents and frustrated Republicans, do not support Sanders' inflexible commandments as policies.
He is fine being a millionaire, but thinks being a billionaire is immoral.
Right, how do you support that?
He believes Medicare for All is the only solution for universal health care, even though the public wants choice.
He thinks the minimum wage is the answer to raising income, completely missing the impact on job loss from automation.
He is against trade agreements, despite the fact 7 billion customers sit outside our borders.
Yikes!
4
Mr. Brook’s standard for what counts as evidence is appalling.
3
Bernie is a myth. The other myth is that most democrats will vote for him. A a liberal voter, to me he is just about as scary as Trump. Oh his tale of the distribution of wealth is spot on. His vitriolic and verbose take on how to rectify it leaves me much chilled. How is he going to be different from Trump? I do not want another President who can only see his views. Bernie may be leading in the polls. Maybe 30% of democratic voters placed their names alongside him. Maybe he can outshout all other candidates. But what of the other 70% of voters? I say most will sit it out. Hence Bernie will mean sadly another four years of Trump. Because Trump or Bernie, will be polarized chaos.
I am sad. As a woman I wanted Bloomberg to appear bold and honest. To be brutal with himself and his past attitudes. I wanted him to say about S&F, that his policy was not racist, sadly the execution of it did not take into account racism. I wanted him to say he walked into a cauldron of misogyny when young, but his eyes were now open. He knows he was wrong and never again would walk that road. Instead he came across as a pompous old man, who thought he was above it all and he could manage America corp. better than anyone else. And he though we were buying stocks in his company. Disgusting.
I don't like Warrens take on a lot of things, but she is brave, outspoken, has a backbone, makes her own decisions. Why should newspapers dismiss her? I sure hope folks vote for her. I'll be watching the polls.
3
You've confused the word myth with the word consistency. Trump traffics in myth, using hate, division and racism. Bernie traffics in consistency and has identified our true enemies - corporate polluters, money in politics, the handful of ultra rich hoarding power and buying elections with decisions taken out of the public majority's hands. This is not a myth and trump and Sanders framed as two sides of the same coin is a major false equivalency and an insult to people who value truth. Myth is made by telling 12,000 lies and counting, by a chronic liar.
and these 'Systems' you see failing have absolutely nothing to do with the Capitalist GREED 'system' put in place by the Oligarch's since at least the late 1970's???
2
A lifelong socialist and a Republican billionaire are top contenders in the Democratic primaries: the establishment needs to wake up and recognize that no one likes the fish being sold by Buttigieg, Biden, and Klobuchar.
1
Great. Get ready for four more years of living The Godfather Part 4.
“All they do is stand on a podium and bellow.” Well put.
My wife was injured in France. Without getting into details, the bill was reasonable. I also lived in Thailand for a number of years. My dental work was excellent and inexpensive. Last year, here in the States, I had a nodule removed, They gave me one price, but that was for the Hospital: Not the Anesthesia, not the doctor and not the ride home. I enjoy your writing David. You are one of the last so-called conservatives I respect, but at nearly 60 I don't know if I will have to flee the country again for proper health care. Its not like we are living in a Democracy anymore... So any banana Republic will be the same as ours under TRUMP. So, I understand that the Times provides you withe good health care, but I don't have you job,,, Im not begrudging you, you earn your keep. However, I do like Bernies plan and isn't socialism better than fascism ? If its a choice between Republican Fascism... Clearly where we are heading or the Democrats Socialism, wouldn't you want the latter for your country?
2
This column has helped my understanding of one thing—the mind of Mr. Brooks. He appears to live in the land of myths, where nothing is factual and all stories can be equated and balanced based not on truth, but on things like popularity and feeling.
I like to select my presidents from the real of fact instead. In that realm, climate change is clear and those who deny it are akin to holocaust denying anti vaxxers. Voodoo economics is clearly false. Sanders clearly represents the ideas of modern day Western Europe and is not a communist, while Trump is clearly a fascist channeling history’s worst.
Facts are harder. You might need to take a science or economics class. But it makes for a better understanding of the world than Brooks’s fantastical universe.
3
..and probably go on to win the Presidency, like it or not!
1
Mr. Brooks, Trying to find equivalence everywhere and then structuring your column around that perennial theme doesn't just make you sound tired and repetitive, it forces you write asinine stuff. Of course one can write or debate any proposition, but it's a lot easier to make sense by describing the *differences* between Mr. sanders and Mr. Trump than by describing their similarities. Why not build your column around something other than equivalencies? Stretch out and try reflecting the larger more powerful realities in your work.
1
"Gatherers"?
As opposed to, say, "hunters"?
Somehow his point eluded me.
Its not just Democrats David, its the vast majority of the industrialized world.
2
This article's framing of Sanders's rhetoric as being a "the rich people are rapacious monsters" type narrative / myth is terribly reductive. I think the NYT spends too much time engaged in a kind of echo chamber; it reminds me of Said's Orientalism, which writes about how white imperialists were not really writing or speaking about Arabs, but only about a prejudiced caricature of them that was self-serving.
Sanders's campaign is about helping people who are having a very difficult time getting by, or who are perhaps going bankrupt because of medical bills, or who are perhaps dying because they cannot get the care they need. His whole campaign is built on a message of solidarity and caring for other people.
I think an interesting idea for a New York Times article would be for a Times reporter to actually cover a Bernie Sanders rally. To see first-hand what his campaign is about, instead of perpetuating these out-of-touch, dare I say, myths.
2
Poor Brooks in his bubble of arrogance and endless condescension.
If any NYTimes readers doubt or do not yet realize that Brooks is engaging in yellow journalism against Sanders, read this quotation:
"In the gathering myth, the heroes have traits Trump and Sanders lack: open-mindedness, flexibility, listening skills, team-building skills and basic human warmth. In this saga, leaders are measured by their ability to expand relationships, not wall them off."
Bernie is already loved and trusted and building far more relationships and improving society than Brooks with his bizarro technocratic nonsense. It's almost as if Brooks and Bloomberg inhabit the same bubble and endlessly talk to their reflections in the wading pool.
4
In todays NY Times. Yet Again:
"... in the 2019 report of the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, there is a reference to Russian desires to help Mr. Sanders in his presidential primary campaign against Hillary Clinton in 2016. The report quoted internal documents from the Internet Research Agency, a troll factory sponsored by Russian intelligence, in an order to its operatives: 'Use any opportunity to criticize Hillary and the rest except for Sanders and Trump — we support them.'"
I say we focus on eliminating the candidate with real liabilities.
1
Great. Just what the US needs after Donald Trump, defacto-republican with fascist inclinations, somehow secures the republican nomination and remakes the party in his own image. Now, here comes Bernie Sanders, defacto-democrat with socialist inclinations, about to take the democratic nomination and proceed to remake the party in HIS own image.
No more republican party; no more democratic party. If you folks have a country left after all this, I sure hope this madly swinging pendulum is able to find its way back to the center, an always-more-sustainable-because-it's-always-more-sane refuge.
2
Sanity, balance and level headedness is now considered reactionary and serving the elites (that goes for both ends of the political spectrum). The audience, or at least the outspoken part of it, wants extremism.
The fact that people are good at telling a story, doesn't mean that they don't speak the truth. Warren especially bases her story on facts, in stark contrast to the hateful lies that Mexico is sending rapists to overtake our country or that liberals are trying to destroy it.
1
We all like to think our own myths are true. Brooks is no exception.
1
My heart is with Bernie and I see much of the world through his eyes. However, I looked up his record on sponsoring bills in Congress, and it gives me great pause. He's been in Congress since 1991, and he's been the primary sponsor of only 7 bills (2 of which were to rename post offices and 1 a declaration of a Vermont “bicentennial day"). In contrast, Warren has been in the Senate since 2013 and has been the primary sponsor of 9 bills, 7 of which were substantive (not honoring someone or renaming post offices). Klobuchar has been the primary sponsor of 34 bills since she entered the Senate in 2007, six of which appear to be non-substantive. (go to govtrack.us to see all Congressional members' track records)
Granted, the number of enacted bills in Congress is only one indicator of effectiveness among many, and there are many factors to consider other than effectiveness (after all, Hitler was effective by his standards [or lack thereof] for many years). But while I really like Sanders' vision, I also want someone who will be effective in enacting at least part of that vision. His own track record tells me he's not that person.
1
Which is why Brooks and other Conservatives were such big Obama supporters /s.
This is one of those David Brooks pieces that reads beautifully, but is far too facile in its thinking. Really? You’re comparing Sanders to Trump? Nice metaphor, but in the end you’re comparing a guy who has a bold, if perhaps unrealistic, vision for America with the most corrupt, criminal, treasonous president in history, who’s only vision is to enrich himself (and stay out of jail.)
Brooks likes to talk about all the traveling he's done in recent months, supposedly listening to "ordinary folks". He should read his own column because whatever he's seeing is through his own dogmatic lens, a lens where everyone has a shot at being a Michael Bloomberg.
1
"Why Brooks Says 'Sanders Will Probably Win the Nomination.'"
Because...
"... intelligence officials have previously told lawmakers that Russia’s interference campaign was continuing, last week’s briefing did contain what appeared to be new information, including that Russia intended to interfere with the 2020 Democratic primaries as well as the general election."
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/20/us/politics/russian-interference-trump-democrats.html
and you can be certain the KGB is sitting on files from Bernie's trip to the USSR and they will make sure Trump has them and that whether they really have any dirt when they get to Trump they will have.
Brooks is laying the ground work for Trump's 2020 "Democrats Are Commies" campaign.
David, you seem resigned.
Are you paying attention?
See other NYT articles (from just today!):
Google employees let go because they lay bare the monopoly that one hegemonic conglomerate has on an entire way of thinking about what it means to organize, to be human!;
a justice department that has become proxy for executive whim;
a president worried that intelligence the Russians are subverting our republic gives the democrats a leg up?
Face the music, buddy:
Bernie has a shot because we are fraying at the edges. The republic is imperiled.
People are suffering.
4
Bernie wouldn't be my first choice, but what you may call his "myths" are realities. Trump isn't just a myth-maker; he's a racist.
Bernie is already being fitted for his crowning as the DEM nominee. Totally sickening as this is what we did in 2016 with Hillary. This time around good candidates didn't run as Biden was supposedly the heir apparent, therefore other good 'did not throw their hat into the ring. I am one who will vote for anyone the DEMs nominate EXCEPT Bernie. I held my nose and voted for Hillary. I don't like Bernie's stand on issues, so no vote from me. This may elect King Donald for another four years, but this is what the country deserves if it nominates a crabby, ranting old man for its candidate. Hopefully, we are better than this!
Thank you Mr. Brooks, a privileged, elite, straight white male, for kindly informing us that inequality is a myth.
2
David, your myth has the plutocrats and the plebes walking hand in hand to a more just future.
Respectfully, that has zero relationship to reality.
1
To equate Sanders and Trump as both mouth-pieces who do nothing but run their mouth is absolute nonsense.
Sanders has been in the trenches of public service his entire life. He marched with Dr. King. He’s stood on line in strikes. He uses his podium to champion good causes, not himself.
This is what the antithesis of Trump looks like.
1
Sanders is not expressing a myth. He is expressing reality. Are big pharma not getting filthy rich at our expense? If you say no, you are blind and and worse. My mother’s cancer drugs cost $2000 out of pocket every month until she died. She was fully insured, on Medicare and supplemental insurance. Yes, it’s time for a revolution, not insufficient half measures. Wake up.
1
@Miso Hungary,
Many of us in the Democratic Party opposed to Bernie are also expressing reality.
No healthcare system, including the single-payer systems you hold up as a model, can cover everything for everyone 100% of the time--even single payer systems have to say "no" some times. Who (or what) makes these hard decisions in Bernie's plan?
Forgiving all student loan debt is horribly unfair from both the personal responsibility standpoint as well as well as a financial one.
Phasing out both nuclear and fossil fuels is a fantasy if you want to have a reliable power grid that works 24/7 in almost any kind conditions.
Bernie Sanders' proposals, if enacted, would cause major economic disruption--his healthcare and climate change proposals alone would result in hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of people losing their livelihoods.
This analysis has merit only if you completely ignore Bernie’s record at the local level in VT. I’m sorry but it’s just lazy reporting to continue to lump Trump and Bernie together.
2
Hard to believe that a columnist for the New York Times would reduce candidates for the presidency of the United States to how well they sell marketing myths, advertisements for themselves. His simplistic view casts both Trump and Sanders as one trick ponies and implies that Americans are too stupid to recognize their lack of listening skills and even human warmth. Amazing. People generally don't respond to cold candidates. Sanders has conviction and projects what other more insightful columnists have called "authenticity." Brooks doesn't.
2
I disagree with David’s myth categories. I look at Bloomberg and see a clever person who made a lot of money and then gets to decide how to give it away. Lucky him. But it’s terrible public policy. We should not be at the mercy of what a random few billionaires feel like they want to fund. As a policy, it leaves a lot of holes. And not all billionaires are generous.
1
It doesn’t much matter whether Sanders has great ideas. He is so nasty, self righteous and generally obnoxious that he never could get anything done in the senate.. Hillary is right about that. If he’s the candidate, I’ll stay home. And guess what? So will millions of other voters.
As a life long Democrat (something that distinguishes me from Bernie Sanders) watching this election, I am remind of the Samuel Adams’ (Mark Twain) quote “when I was 18 I could not believe how stupid my father was, when I was 28 I could not believe how much he had grown in just 10 short years!”
This slow motion and avoidable train wreak of watching Bernie Sanders get the nomination or at a minimum claim that the “corrupt” system stole it from him (remember he is not a Democrat) and the inevitable Trump landslide that will result is just the history of the Democratic Party repeating itself over again.
It is unfortunate that this time the evil in the White House makes the stakes so high, and that the Democratic Party has so poorly prepared to meet that challenge. When history is written, Bernie’s “political revolution” will end up nowhere, but Donald Trump will bring lasting damage to our constitutional republic and the United States standing here and in the world. What a shame.
1
Shocking to see how many commenters won’t vote at all if Bernie gets the nomination.
How could they possibly want another 4 years of Trump?
Inconceivable (Princess Bride fans)!
1
Bernie Sanders is a good and passionate speaker able to convey a sense of urgency and outrage. He convincingly tells a tale of his struggles to bring human rights and civil liberties and economic equality to the public, while successfully concealing his votes that favored the gun lobby to whom he owed his Vermont political victories, his vote to dump nuclear waste ceased in Vermont in s Texas town inhabited mostly by Latinos, and his vote to bomb Kosovo. His way with words and convincing rhetoric also fails to bring to the forefront his opinions that women want to be gang raped and that cancer is caused by women not having enough sex. His populist lingo fails to mention the fact that he owns three houses and that Jane was accused of fraud. He is indeed eloquent - and a liar.
2
You say myth, I say Kool-Aid. Fanatics of both Bernie and Trump demonstrate a lack of critical thinking and objective reasoning. They're like sheep, except that they're just angry mobs at the fringe, willing to trample anything and anyone who does not copy and paste their worldview.
If there was any justice in this world (there isn't), Warren would be the Democratic nominee. She would carve Trump to shreds on the debate stage during the general. He would complain about the microphones or lights or TV cameras making him look stupid. She would become the United States' first woman president in a landslide. She would usher in a much-needed era of market reform and societal progress.
(I'll take Bernie if I have to).
2
Hear that? That’s fear. From people like Brooks, who want the system to stay the same or mostly the same. Boo! It’s social change come a-knockin, and we aren’t going anywhere!
Sanders wins the Nomination so come November our choice is between two old men both Populists .
1. Cruel and Crude
&
2. Angry and Arrogant.
Simply can not wait.
Perhaps its time for Democrats like me who can not stomach 4 years of either to pull a Bernie Bro and stay home.
You know what they say about Karma.
Hmmm. And there was that Jesus myth. You know, the extreme myth that we are all children of a loving God and that we should love and care for our brothers and sisters.
Sinister.
1
David like all the corporate media and DC talking heads knows for a fact if the masses get healthcare and a administration that looks out for them they will never go back to the thieves and liars in both parties.
1
Those struggling school systems, housing systems, family structures (hah nice try "family values"), and "neighborhoods trying to bridge diversity" (do you mean poor, underserved black and brown neighborhoods contending with increasing gentrification actually?)... ALL these struggles can be traced to terrible, greed-based and racist policies from our recent past that are continuing to have monumental, cascading effects on generations of people.
And if you spent any honest effort in Compton and Watts you'd get this. It's really too bad that you don't.
Because when you get this, you would see why, when a billionaire comes along and defends those greed-based and racist policies, we say NO.
2
As Harare said: People like myths, they need stories...
Brooks in essence says: there are two kinds of storytellers. Dividers and Unifiers. And which one is he?
Ironically, it'll be a repeat of 1972...when Democrats were slaughtered by another paranoid, to-be-impeached, crooked, lawbreaking president..only Trump is far worse. One word: McGovern, and he was also on the side of the angels.
2
Yeah, deeply impoverished school and housing systems aren’t struggling due to unjust capitalist priorities, they’re struggling because “cultural transition is hard,” lol.
1
I know this is the opinion section, but David Brooks claiming that Bernie Sanders lack the personality characteristics of "open-mindedness, listening skills, team-building skills and BASIC HUMAN WARMTH," is such hyperbole that I'm surprised that the New York Times opinion section allows for such character attacks. It's one thing to have an opinion columnist critique Sanders for strict political credentials and style, but Brooks slanders his character and deficit of "hero" status. I hope the New York Times considers the opinion section to be above character attacks without evidence, otherwise, "opinion," can be claimed by anyone touting falsehoods and bad faith reasoning.
3
Talk's cheap. Let's cut to the chase, David Brooks. Will you be voting for Sanders or Trump?
2
Translation:
Bernie's gotta stop complaining about economic inequality so much.
Dave: I think your Party's showing...
2
Why do you stereotype Democrats ... I, and many of my blue friends don’t share the Bernie myth ... combined, Democratic moderates still outvote the far left in primaries and polls ...
1
Brilliant. Truthful. Beautiful.
It all comes down to there running mate
DNC leaders stole the nomination from Bernie in 2016, and rammed Hillary down our throats as their favourite. That is much to blame for the fact Trump is in the White House today.
1
Perhaps when growing up, Bernie Sanders paid more attention to "bildung," eh David?
1
David,
This is a breathtakingly low blow and a deeply disturbing article.
Equating the Sanders myth with the Trump myth is irresponsible. It is a disservice to citizens and readers. It denies reality and betrays a bias. Their myths do not equate.
Sanders and Trump may both be presenting myths. But one myth is based on fact. The other is based on bigotry, hate, greed, and power. One candidate is offering serious ideas for worsening problems. The other subverts the rule of law and democracy. Their myths do not equate.
To understand the basis of truth for the Sanders’ myth, it is best to read (or re-read) Thomas Piketty’s Capitalism in the 21st Century. It explains the essence of a key problem underlying the many problems we, in this hyper-capitalist nation, are not facing.
Sanders has ideas (as does Warren) that take aim at those problems. Trump has none. Their myths do not equate.
Finally, saying Sanders is the only Democrat purveying a successful “myth” reduces voters to gullible idiots who respond only to brain-washing myth-making. If you’re talking about American advertising, you may have a point. But voters in America are astute enough not to fall for mere “myth-making” when it comes to national issues that remain unaddressed.
Voters are now trying to decide what kind of country they want. Your “analysis” did not help elucidate any of the issues for them. It merely called Sanders a myth-making scoundrel like Trump. But their myths do not equate.
2
Again, David Brooks is a Trump supporter. He pretends he isn't but he is. He is the mirror Trump support to Hugh Hewitt at the Post. Hewitt will defend any policy that Trump puts forward no matter what. Brooks will attempt to discredit every single Democrat or Democratic plan no matter what. Both are Trump supporters.
1
Mr. Brooks, I cannot fathom how you (or your editor) came up with the title for this piece. Your point is about how American voters are driven by emotional fantasies rather than rational needs, and that none of the Democratic candidates is offering voters a constructive picture for the future. The candidates you say have just about all adopted Bernie's angry dystpoian outlook. Stick to your day job: writing; leave bungling clairvoyance to the charlatans, and do a better job next time deriving a title from your composition. I am not impressed with Sanders, and for that reason, your title warned me off. Just sayin'...
I recall that tens of millions of Americans voted for the "gathering myth" when Barack Obama promised to bridge the chasm between red America and blue America back in 2008. Guess what? It proved to be a myth.
1
What about the "trickle down" myth? Brooks forgot to mention that one.
1
Sanders has yet to top 30% of the popular vote .. anywhere outside of Vermont.
I think Mr. Brooks loses track of that dismal performance stat.
Even in 2016, when the California DNC had to use every election fraud trick in the book to defeat Sanders......Sanders recieved o 30% of the overall primary votes (Dem+Repub+Independent)= 7.4 million total votes...... Bernie's share.....2.4million(33%).
If Sanders wins the Dem Nomination..... guess what?
Trump wins California.
Sleep well tonight dear reader.
open-mindedness, flexibility, listening skills, team-building skills and basic human warmth - sounds Buttigieg
One more article to seamer Sanders by telling that Sanders is as divisive as Trump.
Mr. Brooks: The one thing that IS certain is that NOTHING is certain. You have no better idea who will be the nominee than anyone else.
1
Why is it that when the rich organize society to exploit workers no one refers to it as class warfare but any worker who complains is a class agitator?
2
takes a repub to pick a socialist not even registered as a D
for the D Potus. stick to your own team, david. leave D's to
D's.
The team will, likely, be Joe Biden and Amy or Kamala.
Joe for only one term- likely only a year or two. Still a
guy world, but just barely. One of the top gals will serve 6 to 10 years, leading us into the gal world, which is surely coming. joe has 2 goals: beat trump and , finally, get elected POTUS. no need to serve. been there and done that for 8 years under Obama.
The only "myth" I see is Brooks' "lens". Having second thoughts about not supporting Trump, David? Why write this essay? It's far from over and Sanders does not have a majority. You suffer from weak knees, David. Your vision has seriously eroded with the Trump regimes rise.
1
There's always the Brooks Flaw when you read him: he doesn't go all the way to the end. He doesn't come out and take a stand. What's up with that?
And if you’re a part of the class that controls wealth and knowledge in this country, you’re going to see the truth as a “myth,” like Brooks does.
1
I will simply say that you cannot compare 45 with Sanders. One doesn't lie. One doesn't hate. Shall I go on?
1
I know that this has been said before, but it bears repeating. Can we please stop declaring a winner with 98% of voters still unrepresented? My state votes late and I really resent journalists pushing their own narrative in order to influence the election before I even get a chance to pick a candidate. The NYT and all of the major media outlets are as bad as the Russians in this respect.
1
Bernie's myth has you too, David Brooks! The "true" myth you describe at the end of your article is exactly Bernie's myth: social solidarity!!!!
Look at the headline of this article on the front page. It does not include the word "Why" and this is bothersome. As soon as the NYT starts having headlines that Sanders Will Win the Nomination instead of Why in the headline the message has been sent to Sanders and emboldens him more than this article. I would like the NYT to be more careful about headlines because - like with Clinton - if folks think this is a fait accompli - they will not vote in the primaries.
Generally, those who wish to dispute myths do so by presenting facts, of which you have presented none.
Imagine in 2021, if you went to ER or went to a doctor, you would not receive any bills ! Just imagine !! That’s not a myth but an existential change that Mr. Sanders is talking about.
I can't decide what's more infuriating about this piece. is it comparing the most benevolent political leader in decades to the most viscious on the basis of nothing more than they're powerful storytellers? is it the air of discovery or revelation, as if we are just now learning that a successful politician needs to tell a powerful emotional story to reach voters? or is it the completely unjustified assertion that based on a few interviews this completely out of touch nyt journalist has cracked the code on ALL of society's ills? oh and of course there's no such thing as a bad actor. I'm sorry, but this is utter nonsense. as a public defender in NYC, I actually work with the people most affected by Bloomberg's monstrous policies and let me tell you, what he did to them, what cy vance and even de blasio still do to them, it's no accident. there are bad actors in the world, David Brooks. you know this is true. it just scares you that the people are finally waking up to the realization of their own power. and they're coming for you and the people you schmooze with
1
"Where there is no (shared) vision, the people perish."
Proverbs 29:18 KJV
“...get used to it.” Really gets everyone on board.
People have become so overtaken by the mesmerizing myth of individual wealth that it is hard to imagine that their was a time when people believed in, supported, and voted for ideals and principles that would benefit everyone. In the aftermath of WWll we were fed a continuous, lying narrative that equated democratic socialism with totalitarian communism. The lie continues, and so does the stupidity that accepts that lie.
Bernie Sanders has spent his long career confronting that lie and advocating for fairness, decency, and social justice. He has never wavered. This is not a myth. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have someone in the White House that actually was an tireless advocate for the values we claim to believe in? Please don’t degrade a lifetime of working for people by claiming it is merely promoting an alternative mythology to the lies, racism, bigotry, greed, and power lust represented by trump and accepted by his complicit supporters.
1
1) If you look at the world through the Brooks lens, you see your myth as the only true narrative - the only true religion.
2) If you look at the world through the Brooks lens, your greatest fear is change.
3) If you look at the world through the Brooks lens, it numbs your conscience and prevents you from admitting that the policies you have supported, like the unfettered free-market, have created the vast inequality that produced the resentment that in turn gave us Donald Trump.
4) If you look at the world through the Brooks lens, you have no problem with oligarchs siphoning off the country’s wealth from “school systems, housing systems, family structures, neighborhoods” because their wealth is the legitimate product of self-reliance and meritocracy. Failure is a personal fault.
5) If you look at the world through a Brooks lens, the financialization of the economy – nurtured by people like Bloomberg – at the expense of middle-class manufacturing jobs is perfectly fine.
6) If you look at the world through the Brooks lens, the word “socialist” (common in other developed countries) is a swear word because the common good is only valid if achieved through individual effort.
7) If you look at the world through the Brooks lens, and individual effort (self-reliance and meritocracy) don’t produce collective well-being then simply repeat #'s 4 - 6 ad infinitum.
If you look at the world through the Brooks lens, fantasy is your greatest friend – kind of like a “blankey."
2
A Hegelian myth: Trump (thesis), Sanders (antithesis) = Brooks (synthesis). Now we only have to try out best to live into it.
Nope. Brooks part is wrong. He can’t synthesize even his life depends on it.
He flunked the Hegel question in his intro to philosophy course at Chicago:-)
(Bernie aced it I am told).
Sanders and Warren are not myth. They are reality.
www.InquiryAbraham.com
1
I wish Brooks would write about stuff he knows about.
Instead, he writes about stuff as if everyone was a Right Winger.
Brooks basic mistake is that he thinks everyone thinks like him, which, after reading him for years, or even 5 minutes, I know is not accurate.
Can he win the presidency- that is the real question:
Bernie,
Please, take care of your health. Politics is definitely bad for your health, I am sure your doctor already told you this warning. If you are a listening type, please first listen to your doctor. Or listen to your rowdy trump supporters if you really want to deny all Americans a reprieve from your buddy trump ! Maybe you haven’t yet realized that trump’s Hooligans are flocking to your rallies and primaries ?
Hi Mr Brooks, were you talking about the relationships with Lobbyists and big money at the end of the article?
The problems in Compton and Watts, places I have actually been to, are based largely on racism. Is racism a myth too? Listen to Public Enemy again and you might learn something.
1
Classic Brooks. Make a superficially cogent argument and come to an unhinged conclusion. He always ends with a call for unity, which in and of itself is not problematic. This is his default position. Equating Sanders and Trump demonstrates Brooks’ need to see the world through his “gathering “ myth, Does Sanders abuse his power several times a day, now with even more impunity? You may not agree with Sanders positions, but he does not exonerate war criminals and pardon corrupt convicted felons.
Let’s get back to the myth where all Americans share more equally in the nation’s wealth, which is a nation where people do not go bankrupt due to medical debt, You may visit local communities to observe how real people live, but be truthful, in so doing you are seeing and inhabiting your own lense.
2
Brooks is a bit lazy in his sum-up of Elizabeth Warren. "Elizabeth Warren inhabits a myth without expressing it clearly." Hmm. Maybe. Brooks resorts to the crutch of using conclusory language. Make the case.
I read many of the op-Ed columns as well as the news content. I find it misleading for the NYT to continuously refer to Bernie as a Socialist. He is a self described Democratic Socialist, a very different system all together and one that is happily and successfully embraced in many parts of the developed world. If words and truth matter, and I believe they do, this paper needs to avoid this red-baiting jingoistic program of disinformation that feeds into the trumpian game plan. I have read and trusted this paper for all of my life. To the extent that 45 will play on your “Socialist” label, the Gray Lady is a contributor to FAKE NEWS
2
First you divide that other party (The Democratic Party) into a hapless binary, then you deny agency to all the candidates who aren’t those two. Presto Changeo: you eliminate Democrats. To paraphrase Elizabeth Warren, are you saying you’ve been good to Some Democrats? This only fools fools.
1
Fairness and Equity for All - A New Democratic Party Platform:
- Wage stagnation and the collapse of the American middle class
https://www.epi.org/publication/charting-wage-stagnation/
Here are three practical and achievable solutions:
1. Re-authorize and strengthen the National Labor Relations Act of 1935, fully restoring to workers the right to organize, bargain collectively and strike.
"Families Go Deep in Debt to Stay in the Middle Class." Wall Street Journal, August 1, 2019
https://www.wsj.com/articles/families-go-deep-in-debt-to-stay-in-the-middle-class-11564673734?mod=hp_lead_pos4
2. Establish a progressive income tax code, shift the tax burden to the wealthy and eliminate the preferential tax treatment of unearned income.
“Fair, comprehensive tax reform is the right path forward,” by Natasha Sarin & Lawrence H. Summers, Boston Globe, March 28, 2019
https://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2019/03/28/fair-comprehensive-tax-reform-right-path-forward/DwzX8IbqbRY5zxaCy2DoBI/story.html
3. Strengthen Social Security and Medicare. Fund both programs with a progressive payroll tax levied on all sources of income and remove payroll tax income caps.
H.R. 860, Social Security 2100 Act, introduced by John Larson (D-Ct.), restores the long-term economic stability to what has become America's default retirement system.
https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/860/text
Cheers
1
A smart New York Lawyer
A peanut farmer
A cowboy with a nice pet dog
A wildcatter
A man from hope
The son of a wildcatter
A man with hope
A real estate billionaire
A media billionaire
A socialist uncle
... and the myth goes on..
2
The supposed 'myth' Mr. Brooks here dismisses isn't as fantastical as he assumes. The 'Bernie lens' isn't as simple as a group of disgruntled working people condemning the successes of well meaning entrepreneurs; it is looking at the reality of class relations, where the class of capitalist owners, not necessarily through voracious greed, but through the necessity to accumulate and expand inherent in capitalist production, must exploit the mass of the population responsible for the production of the value that constitutes the fortunes of those like Bloomberg. Sanders was right to point out that those working for Bloomberg were owed some credit for his wealth; they are, in fact, more responsible for it than Mr. Bloomberg.
The real myth here is the lame exposition of Brooks on the struggles of communities through the country (he doesn't seem to think of the communities in the Third World experiencing trauma remarkably more acute) that seem to experience discrimination, isolation, poverty, social illness, without any cause common to them all. Discrimination comes from nowhere, not from the systemic concentration of wealth into the hands of an apparent ruling class.
His myth is the myth of the neoliberal American dream. This myth is no longer relevant. What is resounding is the story of the working people of the country, who have long been denied the wealth that they have selflessly earned in favor of the entitled class who claim the value of their labor. Yes, we will win.
3
Brooks makes it clear that he is not using the word "myth" in a negative way, but rather a a "powerful, motivating story." The lack of such a powerful, motivating story is impeding the other candidates.
I find his argument interesting and somewhat persuasive. Where he is irritatingly wrong-headed is his equivocation between Trump and Sanders. That is PURE David Brooks.
1
"Everywhere I go I see systems that are struggling — school systems, housing systems, family structures, neighborhoods trying to bridge diversity. These problems aren’t caused by some group of intentionally evil people. They exist because living through a time of economic, technological, demographic and cultural transition is hard. Creating social trust across diversity is hard."
Made a whole lot harder by Republican policies ever since Reagan. This country needs to tax those obscenely rich Americans in order to get the money to help those most in need of help.
3
Every politician is fundamentally dogmatic in their views of social institutions, and mythologies are not unique to politics.
Sanders' dogmatism is propelled by an ethos of building and preserving social institutions, whereas Trump's is driven by an absolutism bent on destroying them.
The vocabularies that are created by the respective mythologies of Sanders and Trump are the source of their supporters' devotion. What those vocabularies share in common are the tools to describe pain and purpose with clarity, authenticity, and esprit de corps.
On the other hand, the moderate/establishment mythology of the 20th century has finally failed under its own terms. And I, for one, will not tire of reading its obituary.
1
The majority of Democrats do not support Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren. The Iowa caucuses and NH primary proved that: 60% of voters voted for moderate Democrats and 39% for progressives.
A brokered convention designed to reflect the preference of the majority of Democrats would never anoint Sanders.
3
The Dems are very wrong to assume that independent moderates like me will vote for a far left candidate like Bernie or Liz just because we don't like Trump. Bad reasoning. Bernie will lose to Trump.
If Bernie should win, we've already discussed at my house, that we'll likely quit our jobs and retire early so we can get in on all that "free" stuff.
1
I see a bunch of comments here by folks who are angered by the notion that Mr. Brooks is trying to establish a mora equivalence between Mr. Trump and Mr. Sanders. I don’t really think that’s what this piece is trying to do. I think it’s merely trying to say that their effectiveness with their bases comes from similar strategies. I think there is a good case for that, irrespective of their other qualities.
4
Frankly, I do not know how to vote for a president anymore because I do not know what a president's job description is. I was pretty comfortable with my understanding of what the job entailed, but all of that has changed.
If I ever regain a clear understanding of what the responsibilities of the Commander in Chief entail, perhaps I will feel qualified to vote again for a qualified job applicant.
2
Everyone defends the message of their preference. They ignore the quintessential question for Democrats—who is most likely to beat Trump. Bernie seems to repeat a memorized stump speech, full of stats and truisms. Trump does not care for fact. He will not engage in debate. He plays to the disaffected. They don’t care either. Bernie had better realize that he will not be going up against the likes of fellow presidential hopefuls. If he doesn’t, Trump will have him for lunch. It’s a whole different ballgame.
3
Elizabeth Warren shares the same assessment (not myth) that Bernie Sanders has reached: corporations and Wall Street institutions have rigged the game to their benefit and are hoarding wealth, dominating the political sphere to pass laws that further rig the system and blocking any financial responsibility. This is not the demonizing or reductive viciousness of Trump, it'a a valid analysis of the current capitalist system in America.
6
I find it strange that so many think that Bernie is taking us "too far left" when the GOP is accelerating our slide into totalitarianism. We need a complete systemic overhaul, and that's Bernie's point. Where will be, and more to the point, where will the planet be in 20 years if we don't stop doodling around ?
The Democrats understand the problems, but like the old saying goes : "when you're up to your behind in alligators, it's hard to drain the swamp."
2
@Sharon Carson
Not strange at all, Sharon. This country IS broken, and Trump has proven that the self-correcting character of our democracy is a fantasy. We DO need a "systemic overhaul". So far we have no disagreement.
But this is not an academic argument, it is an existential one. What makes you think putting Sanders in the White House is going to fix that?
Even if we manage to hold the House, unless we flip 13 senate seats, Sanders will be staring at McConnell guarding the gates of the Senate, where all good Dem proposals go to die. Why 13 seats? Because it takes 60 votes to stop filibusters. Even if we flip the Senate, so long as Reps have 41 seats, nothing changes.
Do you remember what it took to get the Affordable Care Act passed? Dems had a 59-41 majority in the senate then, and it took Republican Arlen Specter (PA) switching parties to pass it in a squeaker. That's why the ACA doesn't include a public option, Specter would only vote for the ACA if there was no public option.
This stuff is not easy!
But wait, even if all that came to pass this coming November, we would STILL be up against a right-wing Trump judiciary from the appellate level to the Supreme Court, which will be with us for a generation. Expect even moderate, common sense Dem legislation to be tied up in the courts for YEARS.
That's why a majority of us is not smitten by Sanders, not because we don't like him or his proposals, but because they cannot possibly be enacted. Period, full-stop.
1
The real myth in America is that we are not ideological but rugged individualists that think for ourselves.
We are one of the most ideological nations on earth. This is why we have grown so wealthy and powerful. Our ideology has been promoted and spread globally.
But having said that I prefer our ideology to others out there. But there has to be a caveat. That caveat needs to acknowledge that the wealth gap has created inequality within the very democratic election system that we ideologically promote.
Money needs to be removed from our political system ASAP.
We should only finance elections through public funds. This way the most qualified people would win rather than the most wealthy.
We need a president and a congress to pass campaign finance laws within the next administration in order to return to the philosophy and practice of a government filled with public servants rather than a government filled with oligarchs, as it is today.
Our nation’s survival depends upon this.
4
The Washington Post's Jennifer Ruben today mentioned that Senator Sanders has no legislation with his name on it and this includes 35 years serving Congress. Quite an accomplishment, eh? Bernie is all yell, all bluster, but no hard work to actually help his fellow Americans. I'm voting for Bloomberg. I'm going to look beyond his faults because I believe he's the only Democrat who can beat Trump and get our country back on track. That's numero uno in my book.
5
David Brook's op-ed are an example of myth making in process. Any person working as a pundit or political operative can state that an opponent supposedly lacks warmth, encourages internet bullying, stoke fear and rage and is a dangerous pariah to society. This substitute of perspective for reality is how public perception is shaped rather than described by the media influences in the press or on the internet. It is unimaginable how the press can attempt to place Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump in the same square box containing them and then demonizing the contents. First of all, Trump's entire life has been centered on acquiring wealth and power while Senator Sanders has spent his political capital focusing on helping his constituents live better life. Trump denies science while Bernie Sanders embraces statistics and develops policies to combat environmental degradation, loss of worker's rights, working people's right to be paid a fair wage for a hard day's labor. Finally, systems are created by individuals. Growing up in California, I'm aware of how quickly healthy systems can stagnate & shrivel due to lack of funding, political dysfunction & the influence of money on politics. California had the nation's top public schools at one point until Proposition 13 was passed which choked off funding. Reagan also cut funding for mental health leading to the homeless epidemic. He also said "you seen one redwood tree, you've seen them all.
3
Much the same as both Trump and Sanders are embroiled in their respective myths, so too is Mr. Brooks invested in his recent explorations of new age notions of community filtered through a conservative lens. The problem of course is that like both candidates, he has painted himself into an intellectual corner and we know that if the only thing you’ve got is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. Nice try though.
2
"Everywhere I go I see systems that are struggling — school systems, housing systems, family structures, neighborhoods trying to bridge diversity. These problems aren’t caused by some group of intentionally evil people. " Wrong. They are caused precisely by a group of intentionally evil people. These are the greedy capitalists often portrayed correctly as evil. The notion that millionairesses come to control such a large amount of wealth while the majority are surviving an ever more hostile landscape isn't intentionally evil is just wrong.
3
Deal with the fact of class and race David, Sanders gets this as basic to figuring out how to get us to a better place. Your kumbaya civility argument de constextuizes the fact that captilism doesn't require evil individuals, just normal people doing normal things.
3
I miss this: For it to catch, a myth needs an element of truth. There is something that makes Trump supporters feel left behind, ignored, and condescended upon (a different story is that that something is what Trump tells them it is). Similarly, Sanders would have a pickle of a time having people buying his myth if all companies paid their share of taxes and we didn't see their owners make billions upon billions while they receive tax cuts and get away with putting their money away in tax shelters. For the most part, this is yet another piece that tries to establish a false equivalency between Trump and its republican enablers and, yes, the other side. I am no big fan of Sanders, but they do not play in the same league.