Democrat misery is well deserved and completely earned. Democrats have championed too many “progressive” positions that are actually regressive. Look at Warren politicking against Title IX to appease Trans militants.
Nadler and Schiff are your chief arsonists.
Good work. Keep it up.
24
At this point, predicting who can beat Trump is as reliable as reading tea leaves. Perhaps even less so. If you feel like you absolutely must know, go pay the psychic in the strip mall. Whatever she tells you is as accurate as the drivel being offered up by pundits.
39
Democrats couldn't be in a better place! - If voters make a logical choice to between Trump and an democrat, any democrat will win. Despite the scare mongering of those who say Bernie's socialism will turn us into Valenzuela or Cuba, it will never happen. Obama had a veto proof majority and couldn't get what he wanted. President Bernie will be handcuffed as well.
Those who cry wolf of Bernie's version of socialism will be outed as scaremongers benefiting from the status quo. Trump is not a popular president despite the glowing economy. If it is between Bernie and Trump, you would be an idiot to vote Trump if you feel he is making a mockery of our democracy.
It is also obvious that the status quo is unacceptable to the majority of our population, right or left. The outrage of the right has their president. Perhaps it is time for the outrage of the left to have theirs in Bernie. However, most believe no one will have enough delegates before the convention to win the nomination. So negotiation between the survivors are needed.
Do you really think Biden, or Bloomberg, Mayor Pete's or others delegates will go to Bernie? Corporate democrats still control the purse strings, so Bernie will be the Queen maker by someone he can live with. Warren will be the only choice between the left and right. Moreover, she has proved that she can take down a very capable billionaire, a fake billionaire buffoon will be a peace of cake. We are in a good place Mr. Stephens!
22
These comments are spot on and the best scenario Trump ever could hope for. Mini Mike got trashed big time and Warren capitalized over the # metoo movement. She made Bloomberg look like Weinberg and put him to shame for time immemorial ! Putin will be pushing for Sanders because he knows that's the best way to get Trump re-elected. Everything the Dems have touched recently turned into a living nightmare as Trump walks away completely unscathed and vindictive from the impeachment procedure.
9
Moderates don't win wars. Bern it all down in November!
16
“Reality is a Fools Paradise!”
Before Trump’s victory in 2016, I had told several friends of mine that if he won, I’d move to either Australia or New Zealand. That was a pretty safe statement at the time.
Best NOT to make that kind of a statement today unless you actually have the money required to do this.
I, along with many of my friends, really felt that “Uncle Joe” was going to be a perfect match for beating Trump.
After that failed, Michael Bloomberg really looked like the “Shining Start” that would certainly beat Trump until again, Reality woke us up!
Remember the chant by Al Michaels’ on February 22, 1980 at Lake Placid, New York during the Olympic game between Russia and the American Hockey Team?
“Do you believe in Miracles?”
I do, and here is my scenario. Mike comes back very strong in the next debate and Bernie starts to fall from grace.
Now that would be a miracle!
12
As an octogenarian Cardiologist I know very well how absurd it is to nominate a person who has just had a recent heart attack for President. I have voted for every Democrat since JFK but I will not vote for Sanders. The man is too old, too sick and intemperate.
39
From https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/26/us/politics/trump-recording-parnas-ukraine.html :
“If Bernie were Hillary’s vice president, it would have been tougher,” Mr. Trump said, “because all those people that hated her so much who voted for me.”
Who Trump fears most is an anti-establishment candidate who does more than break stuff.
He would like nothing better than the next big city Democrat in a suit to pick off. Bloomberg, Buttigieg, Klobuchar, are no match for Trump.
Warren, maybe but might be too intellectual. Bernie, for sure.
6
How are you feeling, Bret? I detect some shame or guilt for holding up Bloomberg as a worthy opponent to our current Commander in Chief. I was ready to go all in with Mike and then harsh reality came a calling. Thank you for being clear that to "call this bad for the Dems is an understatement." No kidding.
3
That’s what people like the writer said about Trump last time!
6
Watch Fox News.
Who do they (Trump and Fox) want to face? Sanders.
Who do they fear? Bloomberg.
That says it all.
14
Finally, I'm optimistic! Bret Stephens thinks Democrats are in trouble. We (Libs) are gonna win for sure!
13
And Republicans aren't? Do you remember who is President?
5
Wow
Your top candidate has said things aginist woman which are worse than Trump. He can not defend his policy which are to terriorize young men of color because they cause crime. Yet It is his colleauges his friend which borough the economy to the brink of collapse in 2008. How many went to Jail. Obama care is a failure. Could it be changed maybe do you trust these bozo's to do the Job. I don't. Climate change is the largest chanllenge we have
and yet It is not even a priority of the moderates. It is time for change. When it comes to the charges of Russian plant in the Democratic Party Tulsi Gabbard, Jill Stein, and Bernie. We have proof of the interferrece in 2016 and their support for Trump. I believe Bernie will beat Trump.
That is what you are afraid of my friend
Chuck From Ohio
4
Where are the serious adults? I know the democratic party has some.
6
We called this one a year ago. Bernie is a communist so Putin is giving him aide. How is it the Dems only seemed to care when they alleged Putin was helping Trump. We either have four more years of a good economy or hello communism.
4
"The Democrats Are in Trouble"
This is like saying "Your end of the boat is sinking."
15
Some loose thoughts:
1) If we go into a brokered convention and that looks very likely at this point. One faction or the other is going to come out of it feeling they got robbed. And more likely than not a proportion of their followers will stay home. Not good, But in a party with no real leadership....inevitable.
2) Could Sanders win the election? Possible not a strong bet but possible. Could he get a bill renaming an outhouse in the Bitterroot national Forest much less the policies he's advocating through Congress? Nope! Which makes him rather a bad choice.
3) Biden gives the impression he's half awake at the best of times. And combines that with giving the impression he thinks the voters are stupid or just doesn't care about the fact that a plurality of the voters believe his son is corrupt and he probably is. Not a good bet either.
4) Mr. Buttgieg it won't make me popular but I don't think the country is ready for an openly gay President. And even if our country is a big chunk of the countries a President MUST deal with are not. Another bad bet.
5) Bloomberg ? A rich Republican to defeat a rich Republican! Man there is a choice that will inspire the voters...to stay home!
6) Warren? No Charisma but at least studies things. Unlike so many of her fellows doesn't come off has needing a hunting dog to find her ????. Good but not inspirational choice.
Hopefully these views from outside the echo chamber help.
5
<>
Stop right there. When you say something “considerably better” you mean better for you. You don’t need drastic action on climate, because you’re a climate change denier. You don’t need real health insurance: you probably have a nice benefits package through the Times. You’re perfectly happy to have plutocrats running the country: you regard them as the most competent deserving rulers. What you want is a return to the old days, when this country could be pick-pocketed year after year by wealthy corporates and nobody cared, because we were so rich and thought we were still #1.
Obviously, most folks in this country, including Trump supporters, don’t agree with you. You keep calling Bernie the riskiest candidate despite the fact that polls show he has the best chance of beating Trump. He’s only risky because pundits like you insist he’s far-left, or a Trump equivalent, or only supported by fanatic “Bernie Bros.” Or America’s Hugo Chavez. All lies.
The bottom 90% of this country has been systematically disempowered and impoverished by the people you have so much regard for. Your guys have been winning for 40 years. What people like Biden and Hillary promise is not to let them take more away, at least for four years. Do you wonder why people don’t get excited by the “moderates?”
15
You guys. Chill. Let the voters express their collective choice.
11
Bloomberg is an Electrical Engineer, tech nerd. Not a professional politician or TV show scam artist. He earned his money and should be proud of the fact. He served as mayor of the most diverse city in America and would made a great Prez. He put the right people in the right jobs to build a computer hardware and software biz worth $60 billion. Compare these facts to any D’ on that tragic comedy stage or Trump. If the D’s pick Bernie they deserve their fate, I feel sorry for the rest of us suffering more destruction of democracy by the baboon in the WH.
6
Oh, Brett, ye of little Bloomberg faith. You would think that Mr. Bloomberg went out of his way to disappoint you. I would like you to review the video of Barack Obama's initial debate with Mitt Romney in 2012 characterizes as "lackluster".
4
The world is totally mad...Trump, a lifelong Democrat is the Republican president. Out to defeat him, Bloomberg, a lifelong Republican, is running as a Democrat
7
Mr. Stephens you might have made a good carpenter as you hit the nail right on the head.
4
This stuff sells the news. The bread and butter of the ages. Stephens has got to make a living too, you know.
Trust me fellow citizens, from Sanders to Bloomberg, and everyone in between, none of them are going to have an unhinged ego. None of them. Things will get done and things wont, but at least we can count on less theatrics.
Capitalism will survive. Guaranteed we'll be able to dump our money on some new piece of techno garbage.
4
It is amazing how many Americans are evidently cool with being yelled at and/or lectured.
7
Bernie Sanders + his bros = Jeremy Corbyn + Momentum = President Trump + 4 more years.
QED
6
And we are supposed to accept at face value the assessment of a Republican columnist that the "Democrats are in trouble"? I swear, reading Bret Stephens is a bit like reading that Hewitt character in the Washington Post. I can tell from the headline who the author is without even bothering to look at the text.
4
Brett , you've omitted a comparison of the disaster that Trumpus wreckus has brought upon the nation , and the promise of washing away all the anxiety,hypocrisy , and poor governance we witness daily, along with inappropriate and outrageous tweets.
3
"relative peace and prosperity" You can count the wars the US in currently involved with only 2 hands As someone who is Unamerican (from Australia) I can tell you Sanders is nowhere near far Left. You guys have cut out one side of political that when someone says people should be treated decently you scream out, "Run for your Lives! Its Karl Marx!" A Democrat moderate is a wishy washy person who will not govern well (especially with GOP interference). Sanders, if he were to win, will probably fail but that's because your political system is broken. You are currently living in a quasi fascist state. I'll be fascinated to see what Trump does if he goes 2 terms (I suspect he will). Will he walk away ? or, will he stay with the Senate's help? Interesting times. Sanders is the least of your problems.
8
Bernie Sanders will prevail over all the naysayers.
This disappointed Trump voter (in 2016) will be voting for him in 2020.
What is there to be lost?
The swamp needs to be drained, Trump turned out to be a mirage and we might as well give the old socialist from Vermont a crack at a it.
Burn the whole thing down, I say.
7
Liz Warren showed she is not presidential material. She’s a prosecutor.
6
"the willingness of the American public to embrace drastic economic and social change in an era of relative peace and prosperity.”
Economic inequality, gun violence, racism, and hate crimes all increasing or at all time highs - what universe are you living in?
6
A vote for Sanders is a vote for Trump. The Russians are licking their chops seeing Bernie’s rise. They know he will never win against Trump. Buckle up, we are in for another 4 years of Trump.
3
If you think that many Democrats secretly want Trump to be reelected because they take "pleasure in hating" him, then you're the one who's out of touch with reality.
6
“the prospect of a Sanders candidacy is doubly depressing. He is the candidate Trump most wants to run against. And he would be the president least likely to govern well.”
So Bernie is is pretty much a terrible looser as president? Please Mr Stephans’ the facts behind your soothsaying.
Unequivocally the most disastrous outcome is by far Trump’s extension in the Oval Office for 4 more years.
The next question is whether Bloomberg singed will fad or play harder with his bottomless war chest. And to what end other than blind interference for its own sake.
Finally, your premise, which stands unscathed — indeed the Democrats (and American writ large) are indeed in Big Trouble!
1
The Democratic Party’s moderate wing is basically conservative light and what led to the very qualified Clinton losing to the idiot savant Trump because so many "average Americans" were tired of moderate politics, the election of Trump is proof of this.
I'll enthusiastically vote for any nominee the Dems put up but would prefer Warren, she is the smarter, more flexible of the two, or Bernie. Trump got his Roy Cohen, we need to get our FDR.
4
Any Democrat will beat Trump, worry not. You think most Republicans don't know what Trump is? Every day the sky is falling.
6
Barring a serious return to reason on Super Tuesday, Sanders is a fiasco-in-the-making for the world, too, because whether or not he is the nominee, he will likely manage to re-elect Trump.
The South Carolinian Republicans who are organizing to vote for Bernie to help Trump know their country better than any Sanders supporter.
There are tremendous numbers of people in America with private insurance who want nothing to do with Medicare until it's absolutely necessary. There are even more people who hear the word "socialism" and feel certain that we'll sooner become Venezuela than Finland. Couple all those with the many pathetic people who would not vote for either Sanders or Bloomberg because of the idiotic notion instilled in them that, "the Jews killed Jesus."
And if he's not nominated, apparently lots of Bernie's supporters will just stay home on election day, piously fiddling while the world burns.
So speaking of messiahs, Bernie is astronomically unlikely to be one, no matter what he or his supporters believe.
1
Oh please just stop it! We will vote for the nominee, no matter who it is and we WILL win the election.
6
@Joe you said "full employment and a growing economy", Stephens said "an era of relative peace and prosperity", it sounds clear to me that you both have drank the MAGA kool aid. Neither statement is true. You are both sitting in a section of the stadium with obstructed view seats. You can't see what is really happening on the field. That's what Sanders and progressives are showing you. If you want to have a human perspective (and shouldn't we all?) listen more closely.
2
I'm torn between Liz Warren and a write in (is that even allowed in a Primary?)....Sherrod Brown.
2
Why all the chicken little the sky is falling from the media. We've only really had one and a half primaries so far.
1
We are just going to rally around Bernie and push him to the middle a little bit. He has been a fairly pragmatic senator and it shouldn't be a totally unnatural position for him.
Trump has his own problems. One he is a moron. While that worked against Hillary it was because he was an outsider. Railing against the system is a little bit harder when you are the system. He also does not do good when questioned about his behavior, or policies. Two the economy is not going to fall off a cliff but its not really doing that good. Probably going to see a lot of companies miss earnings or just barely making them. Either way no doubt cutting projections will follow. Three he cannot stop doing illegal stuff. What will flair up? Who knows? We might see his taxes come June, we could have some more intelligence leaks, hes like a slow moving train wreck.
Bernie just needs to move a little to the right or at least show that he is flexible. Say Medicare for all could turn into a phase in type system using it as a public option. Maybe he just demands a vote. He could back off going after natural gas instead regulating emissions it produces harder. A lot of things he could soften for unity sake without loosing his genuine charisma.
2
Is Stephens kidding about Dems wanting to go on with this brutal president because it’s fun to point out the tsunami of gaffes, missteps, cruelty and downright thrashing of our Constitution?
It’s not fun or funny. It’s devastating and disgusting at the same time.
I do not worry for myself; I worry for people of color, LGBTQ folks, immigrants ( legal or not), disabled people and, of course, this country that we love that is being slashed and burned by that loathsome person in the White House.
To suggest there is anything “fun” or useful in this situation is beyond the pale.
4
You are right Mr. Stephens, the Democratic party is about to go over the cliff with Bernie. Bernie has now become America's judge of who is moral and who is not. Billionaires are immoral and, by extension, poor people are the moral ones. Makes sense to me.
Bernie is also the self-proclaimed decider of markets. He will determine what the price of a good or service will be and then, if he so chooses, give it to you for free! Honestly, what could be better than that?
But here's what I'm really worried about: Bernie won't disclose his medical records. Perhaps that's because he knows they will exposes his major medical liability: He's Nuts!!
So my choice will be between Crazy and Nuts. Will someone please change the channel? This movie is just awful.
3
As Trump voters have become untethered to his ruinous nature, lies, and constant victim-anger, and how his fury destroys America's ability to move forward as one, now Democrats too are untethered to their own reality in believing a socialist atheist will ever be elected president in America.
Each side is like a tantrum-throwing child now, stomping his feet demanding his own way. Americans deserve all that will happen to them in this debacle, all of us, me included. The once great country of America does not, and we do not deserve America.
Stephens writes, "There’s a certain self-righteous pleasure in hating Trump.…"
Wrong. There's no pleasure even thinking about trump. Hating him is just an involuntary reaction to a repulsive thing.
It's rich that Stephens, whose party stuck us with trump, informs us that democrats are in trouble. Even though it's still early, and even though Pete has more delegates, the specter of Sanders style Stalinism hangs over the democrats.
Republicans are not in trouble, I guess. No hand wringing there. It's okay that they sold out to trump. Maybe nobody will notice.
I thought ANYbody could beat trump. But, no, everybody but trashy trump has to worry about what they might have said or done in the past, be politically correct when he isn't, be experienced when he isn't/wasn't, be in top form and sharp, when he has never been. They must support their claims when he doesn't. Must not be extreme but trump can be a misogynist, racist, white supremacist, and fiercely anti-intellectual.
Poor democrats. They should find some rich-ish, white, old, fat guy who knows little or nothing, can't speak in whole coherent sentences, with no heart or empathy, no curiosity, and uncontrollably impulsive, and needy as an infant.
That's the ticket.
4
This is spot on: Sanders would be crushed in the election, despite the nearly religious belief to the contrary among his cult-like supporters.
But you also said something so naively insulting and truly ignorant: "maybe Democrats aren’t being entirely honest with themselves when they claim their first priority is to end Trump’s presidency as soon as possible..."
The pure idiocy of that statement is mind boggling. Do you really believe the thinking people who despise everything Trump and his cruel criminal enterprise stands for get some sick pleasure out of the helpless outrage we wake to every day? Unlike Trump supporters, we don't cheer on the degradation and imminent demise of our republic in favor of an autocracy, which in four years will become a full-fledged dictatorship.
3
Sigh.
How about if the Times runs a front page banner headline every day that says: “The Democrats Will Lose!” And yes, even though it’s unconventional include the exclamation point.
It’s like the media is being held hostage to it’s own narrative. The themes are: “Trump Has A Grip On The Republican Party” and “Democrats Are A Mess And Will Lose Big.”
Try thinking out of the box. It’s early. A lot can still happen.
2
If the goal is to beat Trump then only Bloomberg, from among the Demdidates still running can do that.
3
Please, give me a break. We (Democrats) are Not in trouble. We will pick one out of this bunch and we will Win in November. Any reasonable, patriotic American will Vote for the Democratic Nominee. Vote Blue 2020!
2
"the camp of infighters known as moderates, and the camp of out-fighters known as progressives."
No. The camp of infighters known as moderates, and the camp of out-fighters known as radicals.
Democrats: It is time to go all in for Bernie and quit being such chickens. Our lack of clear messaging is why Trump won. Stop groveling and be proud of what you believe in. Most Trump supporters I know won’t vote for Bernie, but they at least respect his conviction. It’s a Yankees / Red Sox sorta situation. Get in the game!
If you supported the Iraq war, and pretty much still support all our wars in the Middle East; if you’re down with Wall Street because you really like your bloated retirement account so look the other way when no one goes to jail for financial crimes; if you don’t support universal health care but want to continue supporting the insurance industry to your own detriment, you are a DINO, a Democrat In Name Only: a rather numerous species, that has strayed so far from its roots as to be indistinguishable from the opposition, indifferent to inequality, content to drag on for decades more in attitudes of an outdated, hegemonic world “order”, dependent on an arsenal of obsolescing armaments to keep you safe. Good luck with that.
54
Apparently you need the acid tongue and the bloviating bravado of a reality star to make an impact on the political stage. Isn’t it enough to be an adult with ideas and plans for a better future for this country? Trump has dumbed down the process to the point where a backhoe could be nominated. What a sorry state we’re in. America is in deep peril.
287
If ANYONE ELSE is not the nominee maybe I will capitulate and vote Sanders. A Belligerent Socialist is probably better than a Dangerous Tyrant. He won’t get anything done but at least he means well. How sad. What a low bar.
21
"The president least likely to govern well..." Mr. Stephens, we now have a president who does not govern at all...he talks a lot, he tans, he eats a lot, he plays golf a lot, he does stand up comedy, but governing ???? Say what you want about Bernie--and he is not my favorite candidate..but, he would work the job.
34
"There’s a certain self-righteous pleasure in hating Trump, as well as an entire cottage industry devoted to indulging that hatred, which would mostly vanish the moment he left office."
Are you kidding? Having Trump in office is like being diagnosed with cancer and having to wait 4 years for treatment. Don't you want this to end? Aren't you desperate to finally put this behind you?
People are tired of Trump and tired of hating Trump. Trump has already had far more of the world's attention than he ever deserved.
46
I will not vote for Sanders.
He is even worse than Trump and his followers are just as bad as the Trumpsters.
Four more years of Trump.
15
"The Democrats Are in Trouble"
Said the man whose party is wholly owned by Donald Trump.
19
As long as the democrat party is only about "hating Trump" you will continue to lose. Your hatred of billionaires is no less discriminatory than hating the poor. When you can accept that a system like our respects the rights of people to win or lose you will understand our system. Our system produces less losers than the others so more people want to come here from around the world. So many that we need to build a wall to keep them out. Did you ever think about a move to a country that doesn't allow billionaires, except for 1 leader? Maybe Cuba or Venezuela?
15
Bloomberg showed himself to be completely arrogant and incapable of understanding struggles of most Americans.
17
We Bernie supporters will not stand for the DNC establishment once again stealing from us. We will have our Socialist Revolution in America.
10
Mitt Romney for President.
Amy Klobuchar for VP.
What a dream!
9
I'm hearing a voice. Can you hear it, too? Listen carefully, it says Bernie Sanders...George McGovern 1972.
28
He would have won in 2016.
17
Brett is very depressed, and rightfully so. I believe he gets it that there is not one Democrat that can defeat Trump including the current now Democrat but really Republican Mike Bloomberg. What he is not calling out is the Democrats embracement of the 5 Rs
Redistribution. Racist Is what they think America is.
Reparations. wRecking the economy Russia Russia Russia. All that keeps the Democrats together is their hatred of a successful president.
13
I'm one of the few moderates in Seattle. And I'm scared to death that my choice will be a socialist or a fascist. Bloomberg running for President made me care again. It gave me hope. Our problems are too complex and can't be solved by rash rhetoric by someone who can't roll up his sleeves and pass laws (Bernie) or an authoritarian who governs by random edicts and tweet. But don't listen to me. If you really want to know who someone is, don't look at how much money they earn, look at how they spend it. And that tells me everything I need to know about Bloomberg.
32
Based on the comments Bret has brought out all the Bernie supporters which are many NYT readers. Have the Democrats really moved that far left? If so most independents will vote for Trump or stay at home.
12
If you want to envision what will happen in November please consider this:
The vast American middle between the Hudson River and the Rocky Mountains will never vote for a Jewish person as POTUS.
It is sad but true that both Bloomberg and Sanders will suffer the consequences of that prejudice.
10
Bret is confused. Bloomberg is who the Republicans would vote for if they hadn't sould their souls to the Anti-Christ Trump.
The Democrats lost their way in the mid-1970's with the election, when they elected a center-right, Jummy Carter, a Dem who was politically a Rockefeller Republican, and then again with Bill Clinton and then with Barack Obama who was at least center. Hillary lost in 2016 because like Bill and Jimmy, Hillary was right of center, another Rockefeller Republican type, too conservative for many Dems and too center for the GOP which has become far-right fascist party thanks to the Don and his lemmings.
Bernie Sanders would have beat Trump in 2016, as Bernie is a popular FDR liberal candidate. If nominated, Bernie will be elected President.
If Bloomberg is nominated, he would lose, because, as a center-right Rockefeller Republican, Mike is too center-right for the currently fascist GOP and to conservatove for most Democratic voters.
Bernie, Elizabeth or Pete can be elected President in 2020, but Biden & Bloomberg are too conservative for most Democrats and for a majority of American voters.
19
Bernie is only risky in the eyes of corporate media and right wing Democrats and Trump cultists. The People want our government back from their corruption and we will take it!
24
This column is predicated on a lie: Trump is on record within recent weeks stating that He would rather run against Bloomberg than Sanders. Why? Trump, whose lizard brain functions at a high level regardless of his over all cerebral and linguistic functioning, said something very telling in explanation - Sanders has real supporters.
22
In 1933, when FDR rolled out his retirement insurance for all plan, would Klobuchar and Buttigieg have called it communism and FDR a communist?
I know Bloomberg would have, but what about Klobuchar and Buttigieg?
13
Brett, like Krugman, needs to learn that neoliberalism has been consigned to the dust bin of history. Bloomberg doesn't have a chance.
12
Dems had four years to re-tool. The resulting candidates are a joke. The 11th hour saviors are 77 years old and white. As of now Bernie is the front runner? Serious? Bloomberg imploded but has enough $ to create national amnesia of his debate debacle. But then he can't stand up to a faux Cherokee. So when did it finally dawn on anyone that the Dems are in trouble?
8
This is no longer about "risky bets". This is about the future of the country, putting an end to rampant inequality and suffering and protecting our environment. Whether you support Bernie or not on this issue, is that clear to our enlightened and esteemed NYT commentators?
11
See other nyt article, about current Russian meddling helping Sanders. Which provably means helping Trump to win.
8
The next time Democrats require input on how to decide things from rejected, homeless Republicans, we'll ask for it. Oddly, you don't get to remake out party in the image of the one you wish you had.
15
On a daily basis the NYTs (aka DNC) representing the oligarch media that hates on Bernie Sanders publishes its denigrating fear mongering op-ed on Sanders. So here is today's version. In doing this, it is directly advocating for 4 more Trump years. Yet it keeps contradicting itself by publishing ... we must defeat Trump at all costs.
If it can't get behind the candidate wanted by the majority of voters than it is preaching to the minority and becoming more sidelined and irrelevant each day.
More importantly this Sanders fear mongering, only aiding Trump. Voting for Sanders does not mean in any way voters don't want to defeat Trump. That's idiotic. All polls indicate, even in 2016, that Bernie can beat Trump but the NYTs is working hard to dissuaded voters against him and the only alternative is Trump. It's so obvious that it is almost criminal. Maybe the NYTs fears it will not sell subscriptions without Trump's antics to print. Its obvious, its voters who don't want Trump out of office.
11
"Bloomberg was ill-advised to go onstage. He was ill-prepared to be on it." Yes, but he had no choice. Because of the vast gap between the man in the ads and the man on stage. And he can't hide it. And he can't just keep buying ads. He may just wind up showing how little anything but his money is needed to help the Dems win in November, to get rid of the traitor in the White House. And the traitors in the Cultpublican House and Senate.
13
The non-Bernie candidates need to wake up immediately and turn all their guns on Bernie at the next debate (just like they did to Bloomberg) and ask the party whether they really want to nominate Putin's preferred candidate who honeymooned in the USSR. He is a commie at heart. Meanwhile Mike has to submit to some tough love debate prep and be prepared to make a much better case for himself. The fact is he has accomplished more than everyone else on that stage put together X 10. He has to come up with a nice way of saying that.
20
Just one thing, Bret. I think you are too quick to write off Bloomberg. I don't think he did as badly as you seem to.
18
Spare us your predictions, Brett. You managed to write a pro-trump piece while ostensibly writing an anti-Bernie piece.
Remember your predictions that Hillary would romp home? Give us all a break, you talking heads!
21
Biden.
3
Ahhhhh more thoughts on Democrats written by a Republican?
27
The word "socialism" is a fnord.
Beware the fnords lest ye be emotionally manipulated by the linguistic anarchists pulling the strings of this puppet show.
8
Republicans aren't conspiring with the Russians to win 2020. They are conspiring with the Democrats!
8
How many anti-Sanders Op-Eds can be fit in one day jeeze.
27
Bret Stephens lived in Israel which has mandatory universal healthcare.
From Wikipedia (healthcare in Israel):
Healthcare in Israel is universal and participation in a medical insurance plan is compulsory. All Israeli residents are entitled to basic health care as a fundamental right.
The Israeli healthcare system is based on the National Health Insurance Law of 1995, which mandates all citizens resident in the country to join one of four official health insurance organizations, known as Kupat Holim ("Sick Funds") which are run as not-for-profit organizations and are prohibited by law from denying any Israeli resident membership. Israelis can increase their medical coverage and improve their options by purchasing private health insurance.
In 2015, Israel was ranked sixth-healthiest country in the world by Bloomberg rankings and ranked eighth in terms of life expectancy.
Also from Wikipedia (healthcare cost by country):
The US averaged $9,892 per person. Israel averaged $2,822 per person.
My own observation:
In the case of the US, the insurance companies have already proven they can't be trusted. That's why Bernie's solution is Medicare for All.
26
My question for Mr. Stephens is who he will vote for if Bloomberg isn’t nominated. Or even if he is? In 2016, so many people opposed to Trump didn’t vote for Hillary. They voted for a third party or a write-in candidate. Would Hillary have been worse than Trump? Will Bernie or any of the Democrats be worse than Trump? I think the answer to both of these questions is resoundingly NO. Any one of the Democrats has more respect for our institutions and norms than Trump has. Unless you vote for the candidate most likely to defeat Trump, Trump will win. This is not an election to vote for ideology or being afraid of picking a “bad” candidate. This is any election to purge an evil person from the presidency.
19
If Bloomberg is a patriot, here's what he will do:
- Withdraw that crazy candidacy.
- Loan his millions to construct an antidote to the Trump Lie Machine. Also, to fund an independent force, to monitor Russo-Trump subversion of the vote and to defend voters. There is a middle ground that's not yet fully infected by the Trumplican Cult. This must be reached, and it costs money, but it must be coordinated.
- Insist to the DNC that they cease the Primary circus, call an emergency caucus, and vote on both a common platform and a candidate-- in the next 3 weeks. Also, insist that ex-Republican never-Trumpers be involved in the campaign to save America from Trump.
It's time to declare the removal of Trumpism a non-partisan and all-American issue. Anything else is like boarding a ship to the moon.
12
The "debates" are a disaster for the Democrats and the candidates.
Who benefits from these shows? The television networks and the cable news channels benefit most of all. They get to highlight their anchors and reporters and the communities where they are hosted get a moment in the national spotlight. Otherwise, they lare a disastrous way to start the campaign to replace Trump in the White House.
Well, some of the candidates get to build their followings, right? Yeah, and the rest of the candidates shrink in importance, pushing up the idea in the minds of many that they will never vote for them or don't care all that much about the choices offered.
The smartest thing the candidates could do right now is to call this circus off. This is no way to "get to know" a candidate because the negative far outweighs the positive. The debates damage the Democrats, damage the candidates and make it more likely that Trump would get back in for another four years.
Just stop this madness. Right now. STOP, please.
12
The Left suffers from immaturity, snark and defiant self-destruction. From Nader, to Stein & Sanders- they refuse to face the dire threat that demands coordinated unity. The Right does this almost automatically.
A second Trump term is a genuine threat to economic, environmental and societal coherence. And yet, 53% of Sanders supporters claim they'll not vote if he isn't the nominee.
What part of rational priorities, realistic perspective, fighting for the public good do they misunderstand?
Or are the Russians so sneaky smart that they've fueled the lunatic fringe, much as they stoke white nationalism, BLM and ongoing demonization of the Clintons (Putin's nemesis).
Bloomberg could have become a voice of reason- with maturity & authority. He didn't. Biden could muscle up; he hasn't A stutter is a hard obstacle to transcend. Meanwhile, there are smug progressive voices, denouncing Biden for past mistakes.
Trump must be recognized as a malignancy on America- one that requires harsh chemo with unfortunate side effects. But if America is to survive-- it must be done.
19
During the debate, Warren lumped Bloomberg in with Trump in regard to respect for women. It was an attempt to wall him off from support from women who are outraged that someone of Trump's mondo agresso background around women could ever be elected as president. (Outrage rightly shared by many men, too.) The comparison is in itself a disaster for Democrats. Warren would have been far better off to reserve her virtuous fire for the man who deserves it most, Trump.
Whatever Bloomberg is being accused of in regard to a "hostile workplace" and crude remarks about and to women, he's minor league in the offense department compared to the Donald. There is, in short, no comparison whatsoever, but we have entered an age when anyone cannot pass a purity test is to be exiled, forthwith. "Have you ever known or associated with anyone who was not respectful toward women?"
This is not an effort aimed at improving society and admitting past mistakes. It is more like revenge, payback.
One other point: did everyone just assume that women entering the workplace over the last decades was going to be without conflict, fiction and disruption? Was the world supposed to be perfected in all respects because women had arrived at work? Or is all of this just being used to prove a point: "See there, we told you men were rotten to the core."
15
All the serious problems facing our county & candidates focused on Bloomberg's treatment of women decades ago (when such was the norm in our society & yes, we must not allow such today). Alas.
16
Bloomberg is best qualified to be the nation's chief executive because he is one, and has been successful. This is what we need to counter Trump's imperialism mixed with incompetence. Bloomberg may not pass a purity test. But does Trump?
20
Scariest of all? Trump has wreaked havoc on the nation in many ways that will last far beyond the lifetime of most of us, including the young. But worse is that as a result of Trump, while the Republicans have hardened into pathological cultists, the Democrats have been left in disarray with no one addressing the ISSUES of climate change, distorted income distribution, entrenched racism, failing infrastructure, immigration in an evermore crowded world.
A worldwide perfect storm with no one to captain the ship.
9
You fail to mention Warren, she has the least baggage of all the candidates, is somewhat more moderate than Bernie and would be a delight to watch on a debate stage with trump. She would eviscerate him faster than she did Bloomberg. Oh, and she is not supported by Putin.
15
For all the moderate Democrats and Brett Stephens’s of the country (or the punditry at least), vote for Bernie Sanders in the general election and prove to us that ousting Trump is the most important thing to you.
7
Nowhere in this article, or in the comments following, has Joe Biden been mentioned. Yet he is the one who has finished first in the polls opposing him to Trump. As far as I'm concerned, he's the adult in the room.
I don't think that the results of two little states that do not remotely reflect the diversity of the country, should be taken as gospel. I believe that when the primaries of the additional states are run, Joe will have many more delegates. I think he's the only one who can unite the country. Although I consider myself a "knee-jerk, bleeding heart Liberal," I am enthusiastically for Joe. Bernie can't win in the general election and will only divide the country further.
And for God's sake -- candidates -- stop attacking each other and use your rhetoric against Trump! He'll use what you say against his opponent in the general election!
4
The rationale for lengthy primaries is supposedly to "vet" the nominee well beforehand. How was it responsible for this paper, supposedly a voice for liberals, to wait until it was too late to trumpet the Sanders baggage?
6
". . . the prospect of a Sanders candidacy is doubly depressing. He is the candidate Trump most wants to run against."
Oh so now the yardstick is who trump wouldn't want to run against?
7
As the country continues to frey under trump’s extremism, the Democrats seem to be sprinting to the fringes of their extremists.
It now appears that the choice will be between the demagoguery of Trump and his legion of fanatics versus the demagoguery of Sanders and his legion of fanatics. Will it make any difference which intolerant extremist prevails?
4
electability is a word that the talking heads made up.
4
You are not going to defeat an incumbent president during a time of low unemployment and economic growth by promising a “revolution” or radical change. Trump isn’t broadly popular but people will stay with what they know before they’ll risk losing their insurance for Medicare for All, or losing more of their take home pay to higher taxes to pay for it all. The white suburban voters who delivered the House to the Democrats in 2018 will never vote for that, no matter how repulsive they find Trump.
14
There is absolutely NOT a "certain self-righteous pleasure in hating Trump." Pleasure is not a word associated with Trump in any way. And you present no evidence that Sanders would be "least likely to govern well." I'm no Bernie Bro and won't vote for him in the primary, but I respect that he has a depth of experience in government and a strong following. If he's the candidate we will have to put on our big girl pants and see it through with all we've got.
10
I am on the caboose of the Democratic train wreck. By the time the primary gets to my state, the nominee will have most likely been decided. I will vote blue, no matter who. And hang on tight as the nominee is battered, bruised, probably robbed (of votes) while the train itself gets de-railed by misinformation. And we will be headed into the tunnel of hate for another four years of an autocratic President’s rule and his court of sycophants.
8
It occurred to me that Putin sees what all of the Bernie progressives fail to see, that Sanders will unleash a devastating defeat for the Democratic Party in November, a McGovern 2.0. If Sanders is nominated, the Republicans will roll out the old Cold War Red Scare of the 1940' and 1950's and the Scarlet Letter "Socialist" or even worse, "Communist", will be branded on his forehead. That will be a most potent weapon to destroy Sanders. The Republicans are very good at this type of dirty slander and politiking, the Democrats are children lost in the woods. Wake up - we need a strong centrist, moderate candidate to win this, especially voters of color. Biden, Globuchar and Buttigieg are all we got - so lets pick one and unite, we can do this.
9
No Bret the Democrats are not in trouble. It's called a 'primary' to shake out the candidate the people want. Your opinion title is another example of the media creating anxiety about the election which leads to people to make irrational decisions like supporting Bloomberg who is the antithesis of what the Democratic electorate stands for. Thanks for nothing.
10
These hatchet jobs on Sanders, posing as thoughtful op eds, will be the reason enough for me to cancel the NY Times subscription I've had for years. So-called moderate centrists like Bret Stephens and David Brooks are under-studying the mad Cassandra, their hair on fire. Whereas the real threats are not Sanders or Warren but climate catastrophe and the disabling of democracy right now--not in 2021.
14
“The “Little Mike” moniker that Donald Trump has given him will stick.”
Trump doesn’t “give” monikers he uses those as ugly nasty pejoratives and they stick because his base loves trash talk.
“wishing the senator could have explained to Mayor Pete that she had merely experienced a senior moment”.
A senior moment at age 59? Geeze Louise that is digging deep. Klobuchar isn’t even a boomer. Everybody forgets names from time to time. That was a gotcha question that wasn’t worth the breath it took to ask the question. Shame on the panelist for wasting her time on a gotcha question and shame on all the panelists for not asking about Trump.
And shame on Bloomberg for buying his way into the election. Somebody needed to push him off the stage. Good for whoever did it.
Bernie proves only 1 thing: that the progressive left (which I am part of) can produce lying squirming teflon candidates just as easily as the right wing of the Republican party. If Bernie wins we loose that is for sure.
It was a debacle for sure. The perfect storm but some good came out it except that as usual the media is calling the game over in the first inning. The only momentum Bernie has is what the media has projected on him. Give me a break: he didn’t win Iowa and broke even on delegates in N.H. Two tiny white states. They must go to the back of the pack. Next cycle. Enough of this Iowa, N.H. talk.
5
Since when did Americans accept verbal abuse as a campaign platform? Does the entire country stoop that low, do we accept it? Where are the conversations in our workplaces and in our schools about decency? If we continue to let Trump set the tone, we will never recover.
The Democrats are driving me nuts at this point, running around in circles exactly because that's the way Trump played them. There is one job to do and not much time to get it done. Wake up. Rise up, for goodness sake.
5
"The Democrats are in Trouble." This sounds a lot like 2016 headlines regarding Republicans and Donald Trump. Much of what fires up folks about Trump is what's firing up Bernie's following–– i.e the system's broken––only difference is that Bernie, (who is not a sociopath!) intends to actually fix it. A vote for Mike Bloomberg is possibly the most cynical gesture the American voter can make in today's political climate. If the Republicans can win by running a maverick that promises radical change, so can we. Now is not the time to be timid. Let Russia back Bernie -- they'll be sorry!
5
Turn out the lights
The Party's over
They say that all
Good things must end
Call it a night
The Party's over
And tomorrow starts
The same old thing again
4
As to your darker thought, I would add that the news media is getting more of my attention than at anytime in my 74 years. News media has had to have made more money from constant Trump coverage.
1
The more lies, slander, misrepresentation, disinformation, sleight of hand, distraction and falsehood Stephens writes about Bernie the more Bernie's support grows. Working people love and trust Bernie, so when the Times lies about him, working people see that as an attack on them and defend Bernie.
Thanks for the press, Stephens. By all means, keep it up. We'll be voting for Bernie and in so doing voting against you and the Times and the oligarchs you both represent.
9
We are all in trouble, Mr. Stephens. Climate/science deniers and white supremacists, the trump cult and McConnell, education disinterest and hate-laughing - all contribute to the destruction of civility and democracy. With that comes exhaustion. The plan is to wear us out and force us to just cave in. Can't you feel it?
384
We go on yacking endlessly about all of this and yet NO ONE (maybe Bloomberg a bit) talks about the destruction of the environment, dirty air and water and getting worse, wildlife killed and driven to extinction, the beautiful American parks and wilderness trashed for oil, the last wild places like Anwar destroyed. When the Earth is a dead and lifeless trash pit thanks to the likes of Trump and his cronies, all this selfish bickering among ego driven candidates of both parties will look like so much fiddling while the Earth (and Australia) burned.
378
@PK This simply isn't true. Every one of the Democratic candidates intends to take immediate action on the environment, and they have clearly said so.
47
@PK Most of the candidates mention the environment. Sanders repeatedly, unlike the others, calls it a climate crisis and spells out what we must do right now.
The GOP is of course wilfully oblivious.
51
@Chikkipop So why do they never mention it in the debates? Trump has neutered over 100 regulations to support a healthy planet, where is the outrage from the candidates, where is it emphasized in the debates? I didn't hear it. I'll grant you part of the problem is the moderators never bring the subject up, but you can always find a way to bring your platform to the forefront in a debate, if you choose to.
29
Yes, it would be terribly risky to try to address the climate crisis, homelessness, inequality, the plight of the working poor, gun violence, and the financialisation of everything.
The likelihood of democracy is very scary.
15
The Democrats problem has been the same as it has been since 2016. Instead of embracing some of Senator Sanders ideas and molding them into a winnable proposition it's been all "Never Bernie" while Moderate Democratic Leadership still wonders where their party support has gone. Instead it's all Russia hysteria, Bernie's Commie" while the Debates look like an episode of Jersey Shore. No reasonable person should think Sanders can get most of what he wants to do done. GOP gains in the Senate at the mid-terms made Trump Impeachment proof and that same GOP majority is going to be a difficult mountain for any Democrat to climb no matter who might be lucky enough to win in November.
The Democrats should have turned to their "FDR" side and embraced Senator Sanders. They need his vast young and independent voter support to win. Instead Social media trolling and bitter feelings from 2016 still remain. Give Sanders credit. He's well organized, he stays on point always, and he's well prepared when he gets attacked.
There was a time when a "Populist Message" was good bit of the Democrats strategy. It's a shame they refuse to embrace even parts if it. That's a large part of Senator Sanders appeal. People believe he'll at least make an effort to represent them.
10
Totally agree, Bret. I'm wondering if Bloomberg will keep his promise to throw a bundle of money at the winning candidate if he loses. We shall see.
3
The pundits annoy me. How well did they do in 2016? At some point you have to present a platform that is people oriented. Does that really mean traditional corporatism? I don't think so.
10
Premature at best. Not all agree that Bloomberg had a bad night.
Actually, it was refreshing to have someone listen for a change rather than join the shouting frenzy like Warren. For me, Warren lost my vote.
What I know about Bloomberg is that he has the experience, resources, and competence to make a great president. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt regarding debating skills. We still have a long time to go.
18
If Sanders wins the nomination, it will be because he has the most delegates.
How do you stop someone from winning, fair and square?
10
People, such as Mr. Stephens, keep on stating that Bernie Sanders, a single man, would change an entrenched US economy in four years into a socialist one. That is not true.
(Please) Read Dr. Paul Krugman or listen to his recent interviews. He stated that the economically based ideas to change medical care systems of Bernie Sanders are not possible, even if he were to try.
And Dr. Krugman states the above on his economic analyses, not inflating what we seen on the screen.
The last Democratic Presidential debate demonstrated that the candidates were too constrained in prior debates due to the numbers of them.
It is certain that Mike Bloomberg is there to disrupt the Democrats. True - he is NOT helping, and it is clear that he has too many liabilities.
My knowledge of stop and frisk is completely a digital memory: dependent on my reading and viewing videos of interviews of those who suffered the police abuses in this online journal. I do not know of it otherwise.
In that regard, like other disruptors for and against the candidates in the last election, the digital memories will be distorted, disregarded, or enhanced and will take away the oxygen needed to win the election.
That's kind of what the Russians want. And taking that into account, I would assume the candidates will notice.
The (San Jose) Mercury News endorsed Amy Klobuchar for President. I'm now leaning toward Elizabeth Warren.
2
Suppose that Sanders wins the presidency and the democrats win the senate. The chances that Sanders' programs will be enacted are close to zero, but at least Trump may end up in jail or defect to Russia.
6
Suburban women in the battleground states will decide the outcome of the 2020 presidential election. If Bloomberg is the nominee for the Democrats, he will win their vote over Trump. If Sanders is the nominee, it will difficult for him to win their vote because he is a threat to their economic and financial security. The economy; nothing more and nothing less.
13
I think the main thing to know about Mr. Sanders is that the Russians purportedly are interfering on his behalf in the election--not with any encouragement from him.
Why? Most likely because they believe Sanders is the candidate who will most readily lose when running against Trump especially during a reasonably good economy, and Trump's victory is what the Russians want.
This is not to say that Sander's position are bad. It is to say that in this race, they are unlikely to inspire the majority of Americans to vote for him, particularly in the swing states that are critical to electoral college votes.I fear we are arguing about the wrong things when we focus on who called women what, non disclosure agreements, or who forgot the Mexican president's name.
5
The party managed to destroy anyone to the center of the party to force someone to the right that the Democratic voters don’t want.
If the Democratic Party hadn’t been so willing to take out everyone from Eliza the Warren to Cory Booker, it might be different now.
But if given a choice between a Republican who couldn’t endorse Obama, a mayor of a small city who has problems with race and integrity to any position, I will, as a Democrat, take Sanders.
It is the only candidate that will challenge tax cuts for the rich left. The only one who might actually help the hollowed out middle class that is now poorer. The only one who might make it so many Americans can actually go to a doctor. Who actually thinks that indentured servitude of college students to the wealthy is wrong. That we need the young to be able to afford to build families for the future than an eco yacht for Bill Gates.
8
@Edward Brennan
"maybe Democrats aren’t being entirely honest with themselves when they claim their first priority is to end Trump’s presidency as soon as possible"
I think you are proving the author's point quite nicely. You mention nothing of Trump's assaults on the rule of law or the constitution. He disgracing of the oval office and divisive nature. You want the most extreme polarizing candidate that will appeal ONLY to the democratic base, when we need as broad a coalition as possible to stop Trump and take the Senate. OUr party is now hostage to the same type of Tea Party stupidity that cost them a number of winnable seats in the 2010's - but we are doing it in the most important presidential election in the history of our nation. I hope you are ready for 4 more years of Trump.
3
Written while sputtering and shortly after almost spitting out my morning coffee all over my computer after reading this most offensive piece.
Relative peace and prosperity? Really?? Placing the word "relative" in front of this phrase does not make it true. America has an enormous military presence all over the globe. Low income people in America working two or more jobs (and there are millions of people doing it) just trying to keep their heads above water while many are actually below water breathing through a straw would beg to differ.
You offered absolutely no support of your statement that Senator Sanders "would be the president least likely to govern well". Once again, this is money talking. The powers that be, namely money and corporate interest, are diligently working to bring down any authentic change in America.
14
Mr. Stephens,
Like many Americans you can't see the forest for the trees. In short, the country has moved so far to the right--led by the economic oligarchy of the GOP--that the planet may be irreparably harmed and the Republic itself lost. Yes, Trump's "State of Exception" where he can shoot someone and go free has been validated by the followers of Mammon. This same crew has turned its back on our children's future by following EL JEFE's denial of science and condemning our progeny to live on a greatly diminished planet in a country that is no longer admirable, much less great. My friend we are less free as the Earth is diminished. No one on the progressive left advocating a Green New Deal is responsible for this. They are. The Green New Deal might be "the medicine our sickness needs."
13
That’s only one of a million reasons why Sanders is my president.
7
@Campion wrote: "Like many Americans you can't see the forest for the trees."
This patronizing attitude that people are too stupid to know what's best for them--an attitude, which seems to be particularly prevalent among Bernie Sanders and his supporters--is another major reason Sanders will be trouble if he is the nominee.
3
Sanders will unite the world to address our common international enemy, climate change and reassert our world leadership by strengthening alliances and moving the world away from war and into a climate future. And we won’t be living in tents while working full-time. You want to make America great again? That’s the definition of greatness.
13
@Lilly: Trump’s America was great when it was largely unscathed by WW II and the rest of the world was in ruins.
3
The Democrats must define the race between Trump and "fill in the blank", as being between dictatorship aligned with Putin and restoring the Justice and State Departments, the Intelligence agencies and the government, to the job of working for the American people instead of one man, and trust the American people to decide.
3
With Mr. Stephens incredible record for being wrong on just about everything having to do with political philosophy, I find this column just the right thing to assure me that Sanders and Warren are on the right path and will serve this nation brilliantly.
14
Trump promises his supporters billions of dollars to farmers, "the best medical care" reform (with zero idea as to what that will be), a trillion dollars in infrastructure spending (with absolutely no ideas as to how it will be funded, another tax cut, and unfettered Second Amendment rights.
Sanders promises immediate forgiveness of approximately $1.5 trillion of student loan debt and a mandatory immediate shift to universal socialized medicine. He has only vague ideas as to where the trillions of dollars will come from to pay for these unrealistic promises.
Putin is a brilliant puppet-master. He installed Trump in the White House and appears to be installing Sanders as the Democratic presidential nominee. Our nation is at war with Russia. Our Intelligence agencies know it. The president knows it, but denies it. The masses neither know nor care.
We stand along the bank of the Rubicon - and are about to cross it. The upcoming election may well be the end of the Great American Experiment.
6
Inaccurate on all counts. Stunning inaccuracy, but regurgitated false narrative perfection.
Sanders will unite the world to address our common international enemy, climate change and reassert our world leadership by strengthening alliances and moving the world away from war and into a climate future. And we won’t be living in tents while working full-time. You want to make America great again? That’s the definition of greatness.
3
If Bloomberg's only attributes are his experience in dealing with government, knowing there is a government, and respecting government, his last attribute it that he can remain calm. He seems to be able to keep an even keel despite what is thrown at him. Yes am concerned about women's treatment, but since I grew up when he was making such comments, i get it. Yes I bow to Warren's jab that his money was made on the back of his workers and are they getting a living wage. At least he is not cheating his contractors; compared to Trump he is a fairy godfather billionaire. Is he buying the election? anymore than the RNC war chest? or the DNC making their choice of candidate? If Bernie is the front runner up to the convention there will definitely be sparks. In the end still believe that only Bloomberg can possibly squeeze and deflate the sheep's bladder that sounds each time Trump 'orates'. And that he can go toe to toe. When you have a president like trump, the opposing candidate begins at great disadvantage. One caveat, i am not in the now, no twitters, no social media, no facebook, nothing, so the currents that are truly influencing [what is an instagram influencer and do we need this schtick?] the populists are now within my ken. i just read newspapers from all over the globe. Summation, am glad am in my 7th decade and hope that those half my age or less are able to deal with the deal they are dealt.
9
@miriamgreen: Nobody knows financial markets better than Bloomberg.
1
Anyone who believes Bernie Sanders can beat Donald Trump is dreaming. Period. NATIONAL polling matchups of Bernie vs. Trump in which Bernie leads are misleading for the same reason 2016 polls were misleading. Bernie pulls "extra" votes in Democratic strongholds like California, NY and New England but loses in the battleground states such as Pennsylvania, Michigan and Florida. This election will be very close. Trump's 46% are coming out for their man no matter what. Eking out a popular vote lead as Hillary did will not do it. The Democrat MUST WIN the half dozen key states Hillary lost or just barely won.
13
Nominating Bernie will give us a slow-motion coup d'etat. Not only will Trump defeat Bernie, the races for senators, congress people, and governors will push toward Republicans. Bernie has no coat-tail effect.
The result will not only give us four more years of Trump, it will place at least two more conservatives on the Supreme Court, open up a fast track to any legislative whim of congressional Republicans. In this environment, we could lose the Environmental Protection Agency, lose control of climate-change issues, eliminate all options for abortions. And more.
These effects, especially the Supreme Court, will be with us for decades.
12
Let us of sound mind not count out that as Bloomberg finds his footing, he will loose his "deer in the headlights" response in Las Vegas. He is not a perfect spokesman for much more than his business acumen, however he has a moral center and respects intelligence and logic.
5
Mr.Stephens you want Trump defeated for something better?
What? A better economy? Better trade agreements?
Better Border enforcement? You don't believe he's doing
a good job on these matters? Well I do.
4
@jbrennan
you and 37 percent of the rest of the nation's voters.
2
The outcome of the election to be held Nov. 3 2020 will be determined by the voters
The candidate who can turn out the most voters in enough states to capture those states' electoral college votes will win when that tally reaches 270.
Primary debate stage performances will have no effect on that outcome.
Putin providing the GOP with kompromat on Sanders from his 10 day excursion through the USSR in 1988 and the GOP dropping that information on the media in October 2020 will have an effect on the outcome.
Putin was a KGB officer when the USSR collapsed. Revenge on the US for that event is what motivates him now that he has attained the status of a Russian Tsar.
6
@Mary Elizabeth Lease: Many Americans don’t even know that the US broke up the USSR by arming the rebels opposing its occupation of Afghanistan. The loss of Ukraine stung so badly because Russia had striven for centuries to control Crimea, which it has retaken.
2
Watching the last debate, I thought Biden looked pretty good. He will not scare people and he will responsibly reorient the country for the next four years while the major parties figure out what they really stand for. Then he can graciously retire with the thanks from a grateful nation.
5
My first presidential vote was for a liberal Democrat, George McGovern, and he lost in a massive landslide to Richard Nixon. I believe the same thing will happen to Bernie Sanders. The American electorate, for the most part, falls into the moderate category. I guess the far-left in the Democratic Party has to re-learn that lesson through a crushing defeat every so often. The trouble is, another Trump term will destroy our democracy.
14
Bret L. Stephens, you say Sanders would be a disaster, but how would he be a disaster? Would it be for wanting a better deal for people and for taking on corrupt politicians and corporations; for helping students with onerous debt, for getting medications to people who need them to live but who now must make decisions about buying meds or missing meals. Perhaps it is because he understands the need to urgently address the climate crisis. He seems to have worked effectively with many people to get good things accomplished. By the way, he is not a socialist, i.e., the likes of communist countries. He is a Social Democrat, like people in Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland, countries that enjoy an enormous amount of freedom and community action. Look at France and Canada and you will see Social Democrats having a high impact on the programs that governments provide in areas like health and education while still having a very robust commercial segment. So if Bernie wants to help Americans enjoy life that is less encumbered by a government that caters to the 1%, then perhaps many people will say ‘bring on the fiasco’.
9
@Kwip
I have been a social Democrat since the late 60's. I have my bonafides. Every good thing you say about Bernie is true. I'll skip on the teflon Bernie part.
What is important is middle America is terrified of "Socialist" period. Bernie will go down in flames and take the country with him. His ego (I lied and said I would skip on the bad parts) will keep him on stage long past after the "fat lady sings". Fear the Burn.
5
I can't wait to see Trump vs Sanders. So we once and for all end this debate. Either way, the US is waning and will lose its edge over the next decade.
3
Sanders will unite the world to address our common international enemy, climate change and reassert our world leadership by strengthening alliances and moving the world away from war and into a climate future. And we won’t be living in tents while working full-time.
2
@Andrew yes, we’re screwed either way, just in a different way.
Mr. Stephens, you are a moderate Republican who wants to vote for a moderate Republican in a Democratic primary. This colors your outlook, and your calculation of "safe" assumes there would be less of a backlash among progressive voters if we fail to nominate a progressive than there would be among centrists if we do nominate one. At what point is a safe punt less safe than a "risky" home run with bases loaded?
4
Neither Bernie nor Bloomberg is acceptable to the entire Democratic party. No one will have a majority of delegates. So Democrats will need to settle on a unity candidate.
I'm betting on Warren, if she can tone down some of her positions, or at least make them lower priorities. It's important to keep the progressive wing of the party engaged, and Warren is the best and most energetic campaigner. And she also can cite real accomplishments in Washington (the CFPB).
Warren would need a more moderate VP from the heartland. Personally, I'd pick Amy Klobuchar. Two women on the ticket is a bold statement that would energize Democrats.
And Democrats need to have a strong message and a program as a party. They need to win the Senate as well, obviously. And everybody needs to be out campaigning for the party. Everybody!
7
@DALE1102
“I'm betting on Warren, if she can tone down some of her positions”
Too late. You can bet the ads are already written.
1
Mike Bloomberg should have known the question of NDAs would have come up and if he was willing to nullify some of them days later, he should have been willing to nullify them during the debate. That would have defanged that argument against him.
If he said the misogynistic things Elizabeth Warren said he said, he should have accepted it, apologized and moved on saying he is not that person now. People are willing to give people second chances.
He was right to defend capitalism but he should have accepted the fact that he did not make the laws but was willing to change the laws to make them much more equitable. Society should not have to rely on the noblesse oblige of Mr. Bloomberg.
4
The problem Mr. Bloomberg has is that he is not willing to defend his past positions. For example, when David Dinkins was mayor, about 1500 people were murdered in New York (and I was mugged). After Rudolph Giuliani left office, the numbers are less than a tenth of what they were. That's about 15000 + people who are alive today who would not be alive today in the old New York.
One could say that I supported these policies because. One can argue about whether they are necessary now or not, but at least admit the reason for and possibly the truth behind them.
6
As someone who has supported EW, received, by now, at least 100 e-mails urging me to pitch in, pitch in again and again while I celebrate the roots of grass, I am deeply distraught at her disastrous performance in LV. She stood on the stage with only one real opponent, her good buddy Bernie, the one who leads her by double digits in the polls, the one who is chasing the same minority wing of the Democratic party, the AOC crowd, and she did not lay a cashmere glove on his slumped shoulders. Instead, she excoriated Bloomberg whose supporters can turn to any of the rest of the crowd on stage and support a less spicy candidate. She may be running for Treasury Secretary or some other cabinet position in an unlikely Sanders Presidency. Although the media gave her kudos for her performance she's, at least temporarily, lost my support.
5
Hopefully the Democratic trouble will continue through the election. This should assist the re-election of President Trump. This is what the supporters of our president pray for.
2
I'm as 'progressively liberal' as a "white," reasonably well-off, retired attorney can be -- and as much that as Mr. Stephens is 'decidedly conservative'; but … regardless his policy prescriptions ... I can't stand Bernie.
So only is it that my heart is not broken by the full-fledged agreement I share with this one of Ol' Bret's columns.
It does 'break my heart' that I, too, 'see looming' the national disgrace of a second-term of trump.
7
The Times has got to know that publishing multiple columnists every day bleating about Bernie being an extremist is not good for our democracy. Could it be they realize their subscriptions (and audience for advertisers) would drop dramatically if we had a sane president again? Could they really be that cynical? I would like to say no, but how else would you explain why Stephens keeps getting a platform?
4
@Eric Yes, indeed. Column after column blistering Bernie. And when that doesn't seem to be working, drag in the Russians.
Trump Job Approval 2/20/20
Appr Dis ?
Overall 37% 59% 4%
Economy 39% 56% 5%
2
Shrill. Hey, aren't you the same guy that said Trump couldn't be elected?
4
"the prospect of a Sanders candidacy is doubly depressing. He is the candidate Trump most wants to run against. And he would be the president least likely to govern well"
How about helping the cause then NYT? You endorse both women and then largely ignore them while writing endless columns on the guys you really don't want, and opining endlessly about whether a woman can get elected, How about we examine the misogyny in the media right now, work through it and grow. At light speed please because there's an important election to win.
Reminder: Hillary Clinton for all of her supposed foibles won the popular vote. Surely we can push a Warren or Klobuchar over the top to win.
9
Too many people with outsized egos think that they are not just qualified to become President but that they have a right to become President. Anyone who stands in their way should be not only attacked but destroyed. Recipe for disaster.
Then too there is the axiom that one should never advance their own interest by stepping on the backs of others. A lesson not learned by the Democrats who are seeking the presidency.
1
So sad Bret that the Democrats won't pick a Republican to run. Republicans are terrible at governing they like to rule. I will say again we want FDR policies. The people you like just will not try to deliver that. What I can not tell is are you so scared of say a public option that you will vote for Trump.
8
You can't touch him ( get him )," Sanders " cause there is nothing to get him on. There is no corruption. There are no agreements. There are no super pac donors selling us out. There's just what he says ... Medicare For All ... affordable colleges ... fair tax system ... decent living wages ... and protect our resources & this planet ..
12
the ny times had an opinion article a few days ago written by the woman judge that presiding against and ruled against bloomberg in the stop and frisk case. what the article did was to list bloombergs many many public policy accomplishments for blacks, women and others using his money as a private citizen. the woman judge had only good words for bloombergs intentions and many accomplishments. as far as leader to help people maybe bloombergs apologies for his failings and not trumpeting his accomplishments in the debate is to his credit. if bloomberg has done all these public policy accomplishments as a private citizen he probably can do a lot more if he's president. unfortunately it seems a very important qualification for public office is to slash and burn ur opponent verbally no matter how many good things ur opponent has done.
7
With half a billion dollars — Bloomberg probably bought the nomination for Bernie Sanders.
3
@Victor
how so?
I would love to hear your reasoning.
1
I honestly think all opinion pieces on the election should be suspended. You can dissect every candidate any way you want to and at the end of the day none of you know how this is going to turn out. You are all just stirring the pot, turning an already too long and too expensive election cycle into a writing contest involving who can spin the biggest negatives, generate the most catchy yet often misleading headlines and basically turning it into a reality show on paper. Remember when Hilary was supposed to win without a doubt? You don’t have any idea what people are thinking so just let the voting occur and, while I pray we don’t have 4 more years of Trump, all of your pot stirring will have been part of the reason we do if you don’t stop your “analyses”.
7
Come on, Bernie will win. He has Vlad on his side. It worked fir Trump
@Mal Stone
you misconstrue Putin's intentions towards Sanders.
1
Mr. Stephens,
If you think that anyone who despises Me. Trump and everything he stands for gets some secret, vicarious thrill from living in the Kafkaesque nightmare in which we find ourselves, you are wildly off base. If we could wake up in a country that was not sliding into an autocracy led by a fool with the emotional development of a toddler, we would take it in a New York minute.
5
Just another condescending elite. Amazed at how hard the “leftist” media is working to maintain the status quo by attacking Sanders at every turn. Watching Bernie again get shafted by the DNC and the “liberal” media is exactly the thing that will get Trump re-elected. We will see a reduced turnout of progressive Democratic voters and disenfranchised Trump voters who are still looking for change in Washington.
6
"The Democratic contest is essentially one between two camps — the camp of infighters known as moderates, and the camp of out-fighters known as progressives."
I approve the reference to fighting. Whoever emerges top dog in the Dem primary will have been vetted in the ring and a proven scrapper. This is good. We are in the era of combat politics.
1
If Bernie is the candidate and loses to Trump in November, one of the reasons will be 9 months of negative articles like this one. I’m not a big fan of Bernie but he can only be a better President than the clown that we have, even if he doesn’t get much accomplished other than shifting the debate. To call him “far left” is silly - nothing he is proposing is unreasonable..,,,
8
Mr. Stephens has brushed up against a suspicion I have long had....that at the top levels, Democrats aren't sure they want to win and lead, as it is so natural and fulfilling to criticize and to sue for a portion of the booty.
The Republican tycoons grab things that were once part of the Public Domain, then fiercely defend their asset until critics fatigue. The Democrat lawyers, paid NGO advocates, academics and journalists then "fiercely" attack these unjust seizures, and obtain a portion of the yield for their victimized client/citizens and quite a nice living for themselves.
I give up son....what were you smuggling?
Bicycles.
2
I do not respect advice given by a Republican about the Democratic Party.
4
I disagree. Bloomberg was the most "Presidential" of the lot. He and Mayor Pete were the only debaters who remained calm. For me, Bloomberg's responses were acceptable. Times readers need to ask themselves why Op-Ed columnists have been so unrelenting in their criticism of Bloomberg. Are they being swayed by delivery instead of content? Listen to Bloomberg's responses. They are rational. They make sense. It's unfair to criticize this potential national savior because he's not screaming.
7
@Outsider in Utah
There is a significant difference between being calm, and being evasive and disingenuous. I found Bloomberg to be evasive and disingenuous on most questions that were addressed to him. Why does he even WANT to be president? The only answer I can come up with is that he only wants to cement the power of money into place.
1
@Outsider in Utah
Guess many of us just didn't like his jokes enough.
2
There has been exactly ONE primary where people voted directly. The panic that people are displaying is not what it takes to win the presidency back.
Dump the panic. Dial up the determination to win.
The greatest piece of political advice ever given:
"It ain't over 'till it's over."
3
Stephens calls this an era of peace and prosperity. I don't think many Americans are experiencing it that way—or either way. I was born in 1946, and remember vividly the civil rights struggles, the Vietnam War, Nixon, the counter culture. None of those gave me the feeling of anxiety for this nation that I feel now. If this is peace and prosperity, I don't want it.
9
If Bernie gets the nomination and loses the election It's pretty certain that his followers will not continue to benefit from their grip on academia,....etc, and the media. For most Trump supporters that's what this election is about.
1
@John
For me, this election is about accomplishments.
Like it or not, President Trump is accumulating an impressive list of successes (immigration control, NATO funding, fair trade deals...).
I don't worry that much about how a President acts. I want results, and Trump produces them.
Obama was a nice guy, well behaved, and a wet noodle when it came to displaying a little backbone...a flop.
1
@John
Very insightful. You, my friend, are too smart for the room.
In a two party, winner take all system in which the "checks and balances" depend on 3 independent branches of government, the only way for a party to really win is to control all 3. When they do, independent branches of government no longer exist in practice and the party can pursue its goals at will with no effective constraints. The Republicans apparently understand this, and have the party discipline to pursue it pretty effectively. The Democrats, not so much.
1
Bret Stephens has summed it up and it's depressing. Sanders has done the impossible, making people think that Trump isn't so bad after all. It will be another election where the best option is None of the Above.
2
"The party's riskiest bet is now its likliest....He is the candidate Trump most wants to run against."
Not only does Stephens not support his byline "electability" claim - he barely addresses it:
1) On the one hand, Stephens' single reference to Sanders' electability is that Trump would most like to run against him. But this is manifestly false: In 2016 Trump was recorded saying Sanders was the one candidate he would not want Clinton to run as a VP; and, as reported in this paper, Trump recently disagreed with some of his advisors' view that Sanders would be easy to beat.
To which we can add, Stephens himself puts Sanders' electoral chances on a par w/Trump's.
2) And then, on the other hand, Stephens' realistic view of Bloomberg's disillusioningly bad performance - and the view that his campaign is mortally wounded - points to the former mayor's inelectability - leaving Sanders as the only electorally viable candidate.
Yes, Stephens expands "risky" to include questions of what Sanders will accomplish if elected - but the upshot is that, against his own right wing instincts, Stephens has acknowledged Sanders not only as the most likely nominee, but as - by default if nothing else - the candidate with the best chance at beating Trump.
5
I am a Warren supporter, but my most fundamental fear about 2020 is that we get a Democrat in office who does nothing to solve, or at least try to solve, the problems that led to Trumpism: namely, corruption and income inequality. Were that to happen, I fear the backlash would bring another Trump, but this one less baffoonish, more savvy, and therefore far more dangerous. Sanders is not my first choice, but Bloomberg and Buttigieg are most certainly my last.
3
@Ashleigh Adams
I’d take my chances on a future Trump rather than a present Trump.
1
For a long time Fox News has been telling people that Socialism is trying to take over the country, to take away guns, to ruin the economy and turn the US into Venezuela where people have to line up for toilet paper (and this is just a short list of potential horrors to come). This will surely be the #1 argument if Bernie is nominated.
There are over 300 bills on things such as lowering prescription drugs, voting protection, addressing gun violence, 90% bi-partisan from the Congress sitting on McConnell's desk. Why? So that Trump can call the Democratically controlled Congress "do-nothing Democrats" The Congress is full of highly intelligent, moderate Democrats, many of them women, recently elected and these are the very people, with an interest in incremental positive changes in many areas, that Trump and the Senate Republicans don't want to run against, people who can make good compelling arguments and can work in a bi-partisan manner.
Polarization on the extreme right and left is clearly what they prefer, a 'good vs. evil situation' That happens by gutting and demonizing different or moderate points of view. Anyone not agreeing with the president is by Trump's definition a Democrat, a traitor, disloyal or 'deep state'. Sanders paints moderates or people who disagree with him as 'establishment'. Both present themselves as angry 'outsiders'. Sanders with his AOC support is exactly whom Trump has always wanted to run against. Russia is listening.
3
This Democratic primary needs to be as bruising as absolutely possible so the eventual Democratic candidate can be prepared for the full "Cobra Kai" treatment the GOP will be throwing at them come November ... The Democratic nominee has to prepared for "every" attack that will be oncoming, because the Republicans are masters at picking on one weak spot and hammering on it relentlessly ... Swift Boating is their term of art ...
And on a separate note, what everyone overlooks about Sanders is that he is the one candidate who has crossover appeal to some portion of the Trump base ... Sanders can easily peel off a minimum of a million Trump voters, especially in the Upper Midwest ... That would be a two million vote swing from 2016, and those are voters Trump can ill-afford to lose ...
3
Bret Any functioning adult including Sanders would be better than who we have now as president. The erosion of our democracy is just the tip of the iceberg if we re-elect Trump. Speaking of icebergs, Trump’s environmental policy is a complete joke and nod to oil producers.
5
What a depressing article. I agree with every word, but, I wonder if trump isn’t the result of our country having its first black president. It’s pretty apparent the deplorable masses worshipping him are aligned with the strengthening white nationalists. I am hoping that there are many people like me who will vote against trump then deal with the policies of our newly elected Democratic president.
3
"To call this bad for the Democrats is an understatement. It’s a fiasco-in-the-making for the country, too."
Hmmm...
In November we will see how many Americans, on both sides, disagree with this assessment.
The Times is a newspaper out of touch with most of the country.
4
@Peter Rasmussen
It does not matter how many disagree, it matters in what states they reside.
2
Mr. Stepehens,
As far as I am concerned, some of your statements couldn't be more wrong. I have no self-righteous hatred of Mr. Trump, and derive no pleasure from it.
I have contempt for, and fear of, his relentless efforts to dismantle our democracy. He has surrounded himself with like-minded aides and abettors who seem to have no moral center whatsoever, while preaching their gas-lighting Gospel to the rest of us, and it is stunning and horrific at the same time. I am exhausted, emotionally and physically, as I believe many others are, and losing hope there is a light at the end of this tunnel.
Please don't use your biggest brush to paint us this way.
5
All this psychobabble from conservative pundits gives me pause. It’s straight-line thinking and it rarely plays out the way the pundits predict. Why? People and events that pile on and cascade into Election Day. What’s missing is any respect for the process or humility about what’s we really know or don’t know. Amy Klobuchar’s (sp?) NH performance is proof. News flash: We’re in a single elimination tournament and it will be touch and go for everyone until it’s over no matter what the pundits say and no matter how we use statistics to make false predictions. If you want to know the outcome talk to neighbors and friends and vote.
2
Bernie is the Ghost of George McGovern coming back to haunt the Democratic party. Trump has to be very, very happy.
6
There’s no darkness in my heart about wanting Trump around to despise. I’ll vote for a ham sandwich before I’d vote for him. So enough of that nonsense. Let’s stop looking for the perfect candidate let’s defeat Trump.
6
Bernie's socialism hasn't a chance against DT. ALL the Trumpettes I know are unfazed by his lunacy thus far and will vote for him again. It will take a DEM moderate to swing enough conservatives to DEMs.
2
@Bob Bernie's policies are the best against Donald Trump, and he's the Democratic candidate by far the most likely to beat Trump.
Said with every bit as much documentary support as any and all of the comments claiming the opposite.
1
As the Trump-Putin carnage continues in America, Bret and his fellow fake never-Trumpers focus on attacking Democrats relentlessly. No lie or crazed conspiracy theory fresh from Moscow is too ridiculous to be embraced by Bret and his comrades. Bret, Douthat and all the rest of the Professional Republican Commentariat have done a great service to their Kremlin Affiliate Party, formerly known as the Republican Party. Not one of them cares about how their Party and its leader, Trump, are destroying America from within because their stated values of patriotism, morality and family values have always been lies. They care about their Party gaining and maintaining power, period. If America dies, well that’s the price that must be paid. Shame on Bret and all members of the Kremlin Affiliate Party.
4
Democrat candidates waste their time trying to outdo each other to see which will promise more free stuff and which will more severely punish the rich by taking their money to supposedly pay for the free stuff. In the end, that is a losing strategy because the economics is horribly flawed as will be made obvious to all but the economically ignorant far left loonies.
Meanwhile, the one issue which could defeat Trump is out there for the picking but Democrats avoid it...the coming corona virus contagion. Perhaps the explanation is left wing philosophical dogma of open borders and absolute adherence to political correctness that accounts for the Democrats' silence.
When people see their neighbors and their own families stricken by this disease, they will be very angry at Trump for not taking substantial enough measures to keep the foreign virus out of the US. Yet, no Democrat has declared for stronger measures. The most any Democrat will do is promise more money given to foreigners to fight the disease for their people. Meanwhile, Americans will face shortages of medical personnel, medical facilities, and shortage of medicines when the disease rages here.
There will be shortage of medicines. Not only shortage of medicines to fight this virus but also to treat many other medical conditions. That is because for the past 25 years, politicians of both parties have allowed greedy pharmaceutical companies to rely on China production of so many of our medicines.
2
I’m so tired of Bret Stephens telling Democrats what they should do. Here’s an alternative suggestion. Use each column to call out a Republican member of the House and Senate for their moral cowardice in enabling Trump and Trumpism. Start with the two Collins, Susan and Doug. Then move to Murkowski. Next up he could address Zeldin. Then back over to the Senate with Portman. Back and forth, back and forth. Since he writes two columns a week, that’s about 36 columns until the general election. He’ll barely scratch the surface of culpable Republicans by then.
7
If you want Trump stopped, start writing about how corrupt he is.
Any democratic candidate is better.
Trump is dangerous. When a tyrant speaks (even via Twitter), listen to him. Trump tweets are not exaggerated, they are his views and are scary.
7
Anyone with half a brain should have known Sanders would be the next Democratic nominee for President on November 5th, 2016. The political winds in America, in the world, are blowing populist right now and the worst thing you can be is an establishment politician. The elites have failed everyone, and everyone knows it, they just don’t like the alternatives very much. Twenty, twenty will be a battle of the populist pugilists, a radical right racist versus a radical left dreamer. This country is insane and when it will return to sanity and whether there will be anything left of it is anyone’s guess.
I have voted in every election since 1976 and have always had to choose the lesser of two evils. I think I will sit this one out.
2
I would never decide who I will vote for based on these so called debates. Presidents don't debate, at least not on stage with silly questions from tv performers. It's not a necessary skill to actually be president. I don't care about their ancestory, trivia skills, sexual practices etc. What can the candidate do for me and how will it get done.
1
Where does the fault lie? It lies squarely at the feet of the DNC. We all know Trump is ignorant and incompetent and the Republican party enables him. But hardly as incompetent and ignorant as to allow a self-professed socialist and registered Independent to run in the party primaries. Bernie Sanders has never been more than a 3rd party candidate. He was a spoiler in 2016 and as this article correctly points out he will assure another 4 years of Trump and McConnell. And another generation of conservative judges not to mention all of the incompetent Trump loyalists Trump will pack his next administration with. It took two disastrous wars and a worldwide financial collapse to get Obama elected. The Sanders campaign is the disaster that will create another Trump disaster.
3
We should just ask Zuckerberg and Gates to tell us who the next president will be. Their data miners probably already know.
1
.... Still have not seen why trump (sic) won. Amazing crowd-think. Maybe if the blue team throws even more $$ at hoped for swing voters they will get 51 %...
The conspiracy theory that Democrats actually want Trump’s presidency to continue because it gives them something to hate is truly, utterly ridiculous. Only a conservative media columnist, whose party has turned authoritarian and whose industry depends on the traffic continual conflict generates, could come up with that one.
Donald Trump and the modern GOP are literally out to destroy everything Democrats value in life, through a toxic mix of open racism, open sexism, naked favoritism toward the wealthy and denial of our planet’s existential crisis, climate change. No one, repeat no one, on the left wants his disastrous presidency to continue.
Much of the rest isn’t wrong, but Stephens leaves out one massive factor: like 2016, this election won’t be on a level playing field. Thanks to the electoral college, Trump can lose by 5-10 million votes and still win. Thanks to Russia, he has a foreign adversary skilled in disinformation helping him. Thanks to the far-right Supreme Court, Republican voter suppression and extreme gerrymandering continue apace. Thanks the corrupt GOP Senate, Trump has been greenlighted to cheat in any additional way he can imagine, with no consequences.
This election is heavily weighted toward the GOP candidate by all those factors, and any Democratic nominee will have to do far better than even just to have a chance. That’s an awfully high bar for any party or candidate, whatever the other issues around their campaign.
2
“I’ve been enthusiastic about Mike Bloomberg’s race for president from its inception, partly on the theory that he was best positioned to rescue and represent the Democratic Party’s moderate wing.”
Based on what? His advertising? No, you just don’t like the left side of the Democratic Party, and you calculated, cynically, that Bloomberg was the blessed Center.
1
I disagree that trump wants to run against Sanders the most.
Sanders will make mincemeat out of lying trump in any debate.
3
“Alternatively — a darker thought — maybe Democrats aren’t being entirely honest with themselves when they claim their first priority is to end Trump’s presidency as soon as possible. There’s a certain self-righteous pleasure in hating Trump, as well as an entire cottage industry devoted to indulging that hatred, which would mostly vanish the moment he left office.”
You can’t be serious. There is no pleasure in hating Trump. Hate is toxic.
While the New York Times profits heavily from (and stokes) our hatred of Trump, it’s hard to imagine any of us vigilant readers secretly wish to prolong the nightmare. That’s an utterly ridiculous suggestion.
2
The problem with the Democratic Party is that they have Bernie Sanders who not even registered as a Democrat and is in reality a communist.
1
Sanders is the only true Democrat. Everyone else is Republican Lite.
2
When the dust settles after Super Tuesday the Democratic party will be left with an Independent socialist and filthy rich ex NYC mayor who was a Republican most of his life. If you eliminate the northeast and the west coast who will always vote for DEM's you are left with an Electoral College landslide in favor of Trump.
1
Bret nails it.
1
It’s difficult to assign much value to this author’s opinion of Bernie Sanders when he opens his article with the confession that he has “been enthusiastic about Mike Bloomberg’s race for president from its inception”.
Neither am I much swayed when my K-Pop loving niece insists that my musical tastes are boring and dated.
1
Haven’t NYT readers read Anand’s book? An American oligarch isn’t the solution to the problems created by American oligarchs.
3
Although I like the overall quality of the NYT content, I'm starting to find it tiresome of the constant bashing of Bernie Sanders that happened recently. Just about every article talking politics has at least a paragraph to remind us how bad Sanders is.
I'm reading NYT to get thoughtful, balanced, reasoned analysis of news from an US point of view; if I want to read propaganda, there are plenty other, better choices available.
3
All well and good to throw whatever sticks, but for whatever fault he carries, Mike Bloomberg is head and shoulders taller than our President.
It appears easy to forget but every candidate with their every gaffe on stage at the debate as well as those who "didn't qualify" is better and more worthy of the Presidency than the charlatan now in office.
The Times forgot who the enemy of the good was in 2016 and may be making the same mistake again and this time it may be fatal.
2
the titanic battle of political posturing vs actual wielding of power is consuming "DemocraticParty / DefeatTrump2020" - who needs the Russians?
1
What an easy job to some Americans this heavily prejudiced writing seems —precisely what the populist leaders can take advantage of.
2
Obama's campaign message was simple: Yes we can.
The basic premise behind Sanders's campaign is simple: Why can't we?
Why can't we have socialized healthcare? Why can't we have public education? Why can't we have daycare and family leave? Why can't we stop climate change?
Other countries are doing it. Why can't we?
That's why moderates keep failing. They have the Dianne Feinstein complex. The message is always: No you can't.
Somehow a country whose leadership has under-performed almost every industrialized nation in the world for nearly 50 years knows better than the people who actually live and experience the country.
Talk about clueless.
The generational divide is happening. One way or the other, the old rules are broken. People under 35 aren't going to tolerate incrementalism. People under 35 represent the majority demographic in the electorate right now. Placating senior citizens is a losing strategy for Democrats. They need to get used to it. Embrace the now.
3
@Andy
Thanks for this one! It's the potent irony of Sanders' whole campaign. He's the oldest looking guy with most youthful optimism (while Buttigieg is the inverse). Ageist arguments against him work only for the aged, who reflexively search for answers to 'why we can't'. (It's not just age-related reflexes actually - they're the ones wanting to protect their things.)
3
The Democrats were in trouble LONG before this last debate, This article is just empty news product. Over the years, there have been so many self-serving choices the party establishment has made that included vast amounts of patronage at all government levels, various corrupt nomination methods, explicitly corrupt tactics (usually for relatively good purposes, like Kennedy) embracing Dixiecrats and later southern strategies that pay-off black power structure and the votes they bring (at near 100%), working more with corrupt union leadership than with the working poor or entry-level union workers, becoming ONE with corporate America, ONE with Hollywood, ONE with the professional class, ONE with the Pentagon, the State Department and many other government agencies that have expanded way beyond our population's growth (but also vote true). It ain't pretty. To suggest that NOW the Democrats are in trouble mistakes one micro-consequence for its many deep-seated causes. Bloomberg is no messiah. Democrats have become America's bourgeoisie. And the fact that most Americans don't know what this means doesn't bother them for a second.
2
Las Vegas was a Klown Kar experience, I agree, but Bloomberg remained significantly outside the juvenile insults, and was less tarnished by it.
The greatest whack in Bloomberg's stature may be coming from Putin's campaign assistance to Bernie Sanders, whom many people assume is unelectable. The political spin on this revelation may well be "If Putin is so afraid of Bloomberg, it means America really needs him."
83
@Sequel - Putin is not afraid of Bloomberg, but rather Russia's goal in interfering in American elections is to sow discord and distrust among the people. Bloomberg has already stated that he seeks a brokered convention so he can stop Bernie Sanders from winning the popular vote by using his money & power to influence delegates. Putin is well aware of the 2016 DNC debacle and efforts to stymie Sander's chances of winning the Democratic nomination. Between Russia's crafty hacking and subsequent dumping by Guccifer 2 and Wikileaks of private and embarassing DNC e-mails which exposed the chairwoman, Debbie Wasserman Schultz's, efforts to favor Hillary Clinton in the election. Hillary Clinton and her money controlled the entire DNC machine during the 2016 election which Putin was well aware of. Many Bernie Sanders supporters were so frustrated that they stayed home and refused to vote. Putin hopes for more of the same by backing Sanders leading into a brokered convention in which a similar scenario plays out by the establishment Democratic National Committee. Bloomberg is using his money, even more so than Hillary Clinton, to buy influence within the power channels of the party. Putin is an expert at spreading chaos and exposing the flaws in the current American electoral system. By also microtargeting advertisments further splitting the diverse electorate, Putin can sit back smugly and claim mission accomplished when his puppet Trump wins again in Nov. 2020.
1
@Sequel Personally for me, any politician that uses Russia as a reason to not vote for the other guy, is out in my book.
2
@Sequel
What's the deal with "Russian Interference" and our brains? If fishermen could only design a lure that worked like this! In both case, the population-level consequences could be very bad.
1
I totally agree with this that Sanders would be a disaster and would likely lose to Trump. We now find out that Russia is trying to help Sanders get the nomination so that they can achieve their end goal of having Trump get another four years. Shouldn’t this be enough for the American people to look elsewhere? I’m still putting my money on Bloomberg. His performance was a disaster, but honestly, I don’t think that many people care about the debates. And I agree that he is the one to take on Trump.
1261
@MBKB
You are of course entitled to your opinions on the Democratic field and on Sanders' electability in particular, but to suggest that Russia has some uniquely evidential insight here is disingenuous and counterproductive. We know that Putin has an interest in sowing discord in our political system; we know that he has taken steps to interfere in our elections to "aid" Sanders. It does not necessarily follow from this that Putin's "end goal" is another four years of Trump. Perhaps he simply wants to get inside our heads. Perhaps we shouldn't let him.
73
@Em This is not the first time. In 2016 Putin wanted Trump. Bernie was helped then as well. It was quite counterproductive.
58
@Another2cents
It is counterproductive to choose a course of action based on what (we assume!) Putin wants us to think.
69
The Democrats have become too liberal. There are no longer moderates in the party. Their policies are too progressive for most Americans. Many of their ideas appeal to those who want to get things without having to pay. They favor free college tuition, and free health care. They are all for open borders without any restrictions. Who pays for this? The middle class.
President Trump was elected because people felt disenfranchised and forgotten. The moderates found a home in the Republican Party and promises were made and kept. What a novelty. America was made great again and they want to keep it that way. They will vote once again for President Trump and he will continue accomplishing great things.
13
@KMW
Every statement in his response is false. Republicans and Trump are extremists. Trillion dollar deficits and tax cuts for the rich. The middle class pays and pays dearly.
Promises made and kept? A silly wall that blows over in the wind. Paid for by Mexico (read: our own defense budget). The coal jobs (horrible idea) re really coming back.
Republicans want stuff for free. Corporate welfare. The benefits of government without paying for it. As a New Yorker, I subsidize Republican states.
The list goes on.
9
@KMW Give me a break!!! Trump has "accomplished" NOTHING! He gave away billions to the wealthy and corporations thus ballooning our deficit...What about a little something for the rest of us? Zilch!
He's a vindictive, thin-skinned conman who has no sense or feel for the plight of the average American because he inherited $400 million and promptly blew it all to the tune of 6 bankruptcies and counting. Only one thing matters to this faux-patriot: the almighty dollar.
And if by great you mean plans to cut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, then you don't understand the plight of millions of Americans who need that money just to survive. But corporate welfare? By all means!
Too progressive? Every other major democracy in the Western world provides some form of medical/dental/eyewear protection for its citizens understanding that taxes pay for such things at a cost less than what the average American pays now. There's nothing free about what I just wrote. Just a dash of common sense.
And finally, open borders is a myth perpetrated by Fox News. That said, immigration reform is long overdue, but that vindictive, amoral senator (lower case s) from Kentucky won't even bring such sensible legislation up for a vote in The Senate. What a convenient wedge issue is my thinking.
An impeached President has given new meaning to the word chaos in this veteran's view. Carnage, indeed. America needs new leadership now.
OUR--All Americans--future demands and depends on it.
4
@KMW
Trump a moderate?
2
Saw Senator Warren interviewed on MSNBC yesterday and she suggested Mayor Bloomberg withdraw from the race, but applauded his continued financial support for Democrat races and Trump's defeat - notwithstanding her vitriolic allegations that he is sexist women abuser comparable to Donald Trump. I guess she can cast a blind eye as long as she herself is not threatened by his wealth. Senator, people in glass teepees should not throw stones.
2
When I was young, my heart was taken by McGovern, so I know how the Sanders people feel. When he lost, badly, to the heretofore worst President Nixon, I felt shattered. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_McGovern
I live in California. After Nevada and South Carolina pick their favorite moderate, that is the person I will go with. I would like the rest of the nation to only have 2 or 3 Dems to choose from after Super Tuesday.
2
Bernie Sanders is no FDR. He is a preacher/prophet (think Old Testament) who harangues his followers about the evils of the billionaire class and the current state of affairs and calls his people to radical reform to be implemented seemingly overnight
FDR was a member of the billionaire class of his day, a dilettante in is early years. His compassion was subtle and honed in the crucible of polio. He was a cagey, savvy politician who had infectious charm and a captivating sense of humor. He talked to and connected with ordinary people. His picture hung in the homes of millions of people to whom he brought hope of a better day and a New Deal.
He was a wise and effective international leader who surrounded himself with competent, intelligent people on his staff and in his cabinet. He was a team player.
Also he had Eleanor! A constant source of morality in his ear and as stalwart a public servant as you will ever meet.
5
People say how are we going to pay for Medicare for All.
We spent $3.5 Trillion on healthcare last year.
$11,000 per person and 18% of GDP, twice as much as the other first world industrial countries.
Where did that money come from?
We already are paying for Medicare for All. We just aren't getting it.
Those countries get some form of universal healthcare. We have parts of the US with infant mortality rates of a third world country. We have to fight with our insurance companies to pay claims. We get surprise medical bills of tens of thousands of dollars. We have medical bankruptcies.
Take all that money we are paying insurance companies and redirect it to Medicare for All.
A family of 4 paying $24,000 for health insurance will instead pay $18,000 in taxes and save money.
For people who get their insurance through their employers, the employer will pay the tax instead of paying an insurance premium.
And those employers will save money. They could even pass some of that savings on to the employee but I'm not holding my breath.
4
Bret,
Your hatred of Bernie is unconscionable. "If Sanders were to win the nomination and lose the election, many of his supporters might call the result a wash, even a modest victory." This is all just a game to you, isn't it? You really have no idea why people are supporting Bernie. A woman in Nevada is working for him this week because she's lost count of the number of people she knows who've committed suicide because they don't want to burden their families with medical debt. Do you know anyone without health insurance? Do you know anyone who doesn't have $400 for an emergency? My hatred of Donald Trump consumes far too many hours of my day. Nothing matters more to me than getting him out of office. My daughter's life depends on his demise because (unlike you) I believe that our planet can't sustain human life after another 4 years of his environmental negligence. Like every Bernie supporter I know, I am terrified by what Trump is doing to our democracy. It's time to leave your office and actually attend a Bernie rally. Listen to the guy. Talk to his supporters. You might discover that you have no idea what you're talking about. And, by the way, a few months ago you were opining that Bernie should drop out of the race and make more room for Warren. So much for your prophetic powers. We get it. You're rich. You hang out with rich people. The rest of your country is suffering. Your indifference is appalling.
9
Vote blue no matter who.
Even someone like me, who prefers any of the moderate Dem candidates, I will vote for Bernie if he wins the nomination. We as a party simply have to admit that any of the Dem candidates would get us closer to our ideological goals, and farther away from the greed and corruption of the current White House. It's that black or white. Vote blue no matter who, and we will restore our Democracy.
3
Stop panicking. It is early and while more people watched than a couple of variety award shows, it was still only a couple hundred thousand over the second food fest with more people on the stage. Then what happened? People stopped watching because it was stupid.
All the debate Wednesday showed was Bloomberg was right to jump in. The field is weak without him. But I must admit I was shocked the candidates thought attacking each other was going to win over anyone other than their own camps. I’m also relieved it has finally leaked that Bernie has been accepting Putin’s assistance for more than a month. Hopefully that will relegate him to trivial pursuit.
2
DROP OUT, Bernie. Throw your support to Warren, and WORK to get HER Elected. Otherwise, this will not end well. Trump will Win, and the GOP will take BOTH the Senate and House.
Be a HERO. It’s not about you.
18
I'm not sure why you think Warren is more electable than Sanders. It's not clear any of the nominees are more electable than the others.
16
@Phyliss Dalmatian no, Warren is already just a surrogate for Bernie and his policies. I'll grant she's smarter and more articulate, but her message was always his first, and he, not she, has the biggest grassroots campaign--sans corporate donors--in American history. He has the overwhelming support of all voters under 45--who, by they way, are the future of the country and the Democratic Party. The election is about turnout. Bernie knows it. Trump knows it. If the youth don't turn out, Trump wins. If Bernie is not the nominee, the youth don't turn out. It's pretty simple. The party needs to unify around Bernie and get his demo to the polls if the party wants to take power in 2020 and save itself to boot.
9
@Perry Klees I hope Buttigieg-- that Kennedy-esque brilliant polyglot who can take several perspectives and arrive at the best decision--rises like cream to the top. Look up how he prepared himself over the years for public service. (JFK was 42 when elected.)
Bernie's socialism will most likely alienate the middle. We'll let the primaries tell us.
Take a good look at Pete.
2
Sanders is the most risky candidate for the Democrats not only with regard to winning the presidency but also when it comes to winning control of the Senate and maintaining control of the House. I am have begun to believe that their best candidate would be Amy Klobuchar. She is a from the Midwest which seems to be the central battleground and is one of the more progressive Democratic senators yet is able to do will in rural areas where Trump is popular. She also can appeal to those suburban women voters who don't like Trump. Her problem is there are so many other center-left candidates still in the race that there might not be enough votes left for her to stay viable. Sanders may have cost the Democrats the win in 2016 with his over the top attacks on Hillary Clinton and he seems poised to do it again. Unfortunately that may be his ultimate legacy which would be a shame because he is basically an earnest decent person who is fighting for what he believes.
19
"... though I found myself wishing the senator could have explained to Mayor Pete that she had merely experienced a senior moment — something that will happen to him, too, when he finally grows up)."
How truly condescending to Pete in an otherwise thoughtful and insightful piece.
However, I take issue with the "darker thought" that Democrats might secretly relish continuing with Trump so that they can take pleasure in hating him. Hating Trump and all he represents is wearing me out, making my present-day life disturbed and anxiety ridden, and has led to my questioning our ability as a nation to actually be the fair-minded, enlightened, and responsible country I have been hoping all my life that we would become. Continuing to hate Trump, his administration, his congressional and media enablers, and his highly disturbing and truly frightening base is not remotely something I crave.
Further, regarding Bret's assertion that the "far left" has always been interested in wielding ideological power within institutions, well gee, what a shock. Isn't that a given for any supporters of a political vision? I also have never seen the most important of the goals supported by Sanders and Warren as "far left". They are a common sense, fair-minded, and responsible approach to governance that prioritizes the common good.
Very little about those goals conflicts with free-market capitalism. They simply add useful programs that we agree to pay for through taxes and fair regulations.
2
I’m a Moderate Democrat but I could be a Moderate Republican if there was a Moderate Republican to vote for. Let's face it, the democrats are a six car pile-up and a lot of us have rubber-necked long enough. We’re walking away from the wreckage. And by walking away acceding the election to the incumbent. But wait, isnt the incumbent also a wreck? What if there could be a Moderate Republican insurgency in the Senate? My Senator King could broker this: start with Romney, add Collins, maybe one or two others. There’s enough time. Free a few Republicans from the thrall of Trump. Others might follow. Put up Romney for President. Is it just crazy enough to work?
What an unhelpful, ungenerous, cynical, paranoid projection to attribute such self-defeating darker motives to Bernie’s supporters. And stop referring to the “far left” of the Democratic Party. What Bernie’s admirers most love about him is that he tells the truth, and wants real solutions to real problems any honest person can see. That’s not “far” anything, and what’s “left” is just social, economic, and political justice and equality. That’s supposed to be what our democracy is about.
1
Why does it feel like the Never Trumpers are the most passionate/vocal, constantly offering up their Dem nomination doomsday scenarios? Perhaps they should focus on fixing your own party and leave the Dem nomination to actual Democrats.
3
The problem is conservatives have been on the far right fringes for so long everyone near the center looks like a liberal and anyone to the left of center looks like a radical Marxist. The old ‘red scare’ tactics are absurd when the threat to democracy Trump and his Republican buddies represent is real and immediate.
1
The analysis of this primary suffers from a failure to consider the personalities of the candidates. Warren's personality embodies much of the differences in social and cultural outlook between her home state/region and the rest of the country. For starters, she spent far too much time merely attacking the person of Donald Trump--much as others in Massachusetts did with George W. Bush. Then and now it was a cultural/social thing as much as a policy thing. The payback for this is endless in Massachusetts, where it is baked deep into the social fabric, but diminishes outside the bluest of cultural areas. Donald Trump is in fact the worst person and president most likely in the country's history, but Sanders' strategy of countering him is far more compatible with the cultural values of the country at large and does not depend upon social difference and resentment of red state cultural outlooks as its springboard to the nomination. There is in fact much to resent and repudiate but knee-jerk liberalism, especially in its social manifestations, more than policy differences, are a great part of what makes left-liberal candidates do poorly in the rest of the country. This is never quantified or talked about much and analyses and explanations suffer accordingly.
1
@J Morris it would be interesting, though highly unlikely, if sanders did win the primary, for him to talk obama into running as vp in order to mainstream his candidacy and defeat perhaps the worst president ever. he would likely win
I guess your hatred of President Trump obscures your vision of all the things that people who will vote for him like about him. He has ushered in the best unemployment figures EVER. The US is energy self-sufficient for the first time in 75 years. NAFTA has been replaced. The Paris agreement is gone. Trans-Pacific Partnership is gone.China is being dealt with. Europe is being dealt with. NATO is being strengthened. We are getting out of forever wars. He is protecting the 2d Amendment. The Wall is being built. I did not trust him in 2016, so I voted for Gary Johnson. I trust him now, as much as I trust any politician.
Other than health care and a wealth tax, there is very little “daylight”, if any at all, between the so-called “moderate” and “ progressive/socialist” candidate positions. In fact, I would love to have the moderators at the next Democratic debate ask all of the participants exactly how their policy positions substantively differ from those of their opponents. These meaningless terms are being largely manipulated by the Trumpists to divide Democrats into faux categories, to be be weaponized against each other. This tactic must be repeatedly exposed and firmly resisted. Bloomberg in the last debate took this right wing propaganda one step further by his shameful, disgusting slandering of Sanders as a “communist”, which calumny itself be a disqualifier for him in the primaries. The cynical, fear-provoking utterance by the multibillionaire did serve to reveal, however, how the Trump Party will attempt to brand Sanders should he eventually become the Democratic nominee.
@John Grillo,
There are significant differences between the candidates on other issues too--take student loans for instance.
Bernie Sanders wants to get give everyone with student loans what amounts to get out of jail free card. Elizabeth Warren doesn't quite go that far though her plan extends forgiveness to people making up to $100,000 a year, which is more than than most people in this country make. Both plans have serious financial and fairness issues.
Most of the other candidates plans for student loans try to balance the need to address the problem with the need for personal responsibility.
Frankly I'm tired of Republicans telling Democrats they are a mess. Have you taken a look at yourselves lately? Why is it contingent on the Dems saving our republic? What are you doing to sway your own party to wake up? Trust me every single person I know wants Him out of the white house and would vote for a rock. The process is a mess but its what we got. The entire GOP is fiddling while our republic burns and you complain because the dems fire bucket is leaky? Enough already.
3
So, the shameless and unfounded attacks against Sanders continue with Stephens donning the most eye-catching cheerleading outfit for whom, exactly? A "moderate," whatever that is to him, but to progressives it means a return to accommodations to the oligarchs, Wall Street and corporate power brokers. America is SCREAMING for change--the middle class is drowning, infrastructure is decaying, and our health care is abysmal and unaffordable. Yet, the attacks on Sanders in the Times are relentless and nonsensical, based on some revived McCarthyite panic over "socialism." Get a grip and stop poisoning Sander's chances with "conservative" speculation about the "worst candidate" to run against Trump. Mr. Stephens, you don't actually KNOW that, so please cease and desist promoting your watered-down right-wing prejudices.
3
Nixon had McGovern.
Trump has Sanders.
Larry O'Brien is spinning in his grave.
2
I believe, above all of the futile Speculation going on, we, the People, are saddled
with the chronic and continued Control of a diagnosable Sociopathic Personality
Disorder in the body of our beloved “President”. Where are our National Leaders
and the previously vocal Psychiatric Community? “President” Trump is beyond Treatment;
we, the People, are in Need of it!
1
Like so many Hillary Clinton supporters, I thought a Trump presidency was going to be an absolute disaster. I thought it was going to be a hundred times worse than it has turned out to be,
Everyone has to relax.
1
I think that campaigns like football involve adjustments. Bloomberg's first outing was regrettable however he is not a quitter and will come back to next debate and develop a better performance. I am not sure why they call these things debates as it is more angry people shoveling bad things our of your closet. I didn't find Elizabeth Warren much more than an angry woman attacking Bloomberg for past transgressions. What 78 year old white male doesn't have some things he would like to change? None that I know!
Bloomberg is a person of middle class origin who struck it rich.
2
Endless anti Sanders and claims he can't win when he's winning and beats Trump in head to head polls, Bill Clinton was President when the money started moving upward and the jobs were lost and the Dems did nothing about it, Now they're changing the rules so "their" billionaire, a former Republican, can debate. Dems aren't doing anything to help ordinary Americans. Crazy!
2
The proof is in November not what you think will happen. Sorry but to complain about something that has not been ever tried is nonsense Mr. Stephens.
1
Bret said "on the willingness of the American public to embrace drastic economic and social change in an era of relative peace and prosperity." Relative being the key word. There are thousands of G.I.s around the world receiving combat pay because they can be killed at any moment. relative "peace" ?
My 401 is doing fine but what about my neighbors ,40% who aren't invested in the stock market because they don't make enough to afford the luxury of saving ? Relative "prosperity"?
Please
2
This column is fear mongering.
"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." FDR.
2
I talk to moderate Republicans all the time who say they don’t like Trump, want him defeated, and are looking to Dems to nominate a moderate candidate they can vote for. I’ll admit, I’ve been buying into this line of thinking! However, now I find myself wondering, why haven’t moderate, wealthy Repubs backed a viable Repub candidate to challenge Trump? People are begging for a Trump alternative. Why are Repubs looking to us Dems? Get some courage and some money together (Bloomberg would probably help you) and challenge the fool in the White House!!
5
Nice hit piece on the Dems, you writing these things will not succeed at molding the voters to your oligarch ways. It is now time for the other side to take control as neither side can ever truly get one up on the other for long, says so right in the Bible.
2
"there's a certain self-righteous pleasure in hating Trump" - Sorry, I get NO PLEASURE from anything Trump. I worry about his impact on our children and grandchildren and what his ignorance has done to America. Depression and anger, but never pleasure.
2
Its always welcome and refreshing to have convervative pundits repeatedly lecturing Democrats about what is wrong with their party and why the democratic process designed to elect a candidate will be bad for everyone concerned. Its a bit like stove calling the fire extinguisher black.
2
Mr. Stephens believes that we are in a relative era of peace and prosperity. Obviously he is not including the state of the climate, species, or the natural world. We absolutely do need drastic economic and social change and must give the American public at least a shot at choosing it. Mr. Sander is that chance.
5
It's truly sad. Hope Bloomberg will come back as himself, CEO and winner, for the next round of debate and crush his opponents, although I personally find debates just pointless and serving largely as promotional events for the news media to add fuel and create material for the news talk shows, just like the relationship between sports events and ESPN talk shows. This election is just too important, as you keenly understand and pointed out, Bret. If Trump wins again, America loses, not to mention that GOP loses, again.
4
On your three points: Right, right and right. So what are the Democrats to do? Though Bernie might scare Americans in love with the current healthcare system and all that has been wrought by government protected “free markets”, he seems the strongest opponent to Trump. Regardless of who Democrats pick, Trump will label them a radical communist. Bernie stands for something that doesn’t change with polling and he has his fanatic base (like Trump). Like with those who grudgingly voted for Trump in 2016, at some point Americans fearful of losing democracy to a second shot with Donald the Golden, might give Bernie a chance. Who else of the remaining candidates could take on Trump?
2
Bernie is gonna be the crazy bitter grandfather socialist that recently almost died from a heart attack. And he has bad hair. Trump will be invoking Weekend at Bernie’s. Probably carry a dead stuffed Bernie at his rallies. His fans will love it.
And it’s not good that the Russians are promoting Bernie but are wanting trump to win
1
Donald Trump was an atrocious debater.
And look where it got him.
1
Sorry. There is no pleasure, self-righteous or otherwise, in hating Trump. It is heart-sickening.
4
How can Bret Stephens possibly believe that Democrats secretly want Trump to win so they can enjoy hating him for four more years? Of all the stupid ideas....We are TERRIFIED of that happening, nothing could be worse, we think our republic cannot survive it. Bret, was it that important to take a cheap swipe at the other party?
3
Oh for god's sake, Bret! It's your party - the Republican Party -that has destroyed America. Trump, McConnell, Graham, Nunes, Barr, and now that crazy rightwinger at the head of the Intelligence department! Complete destruction - and not in a good way, Bret.
Bernie's not my first choice but no matter how he governs if Prez, he will be WORLDS better than that horrible narcissist in the White House now. I want my country back, with a leader who posseses a conscience, some empathy and caring toward the American People. Trump isn't any of that.
Get real, Bret, hold your nose if you must and vote for whoever runs against Trump!
3
When the “fringe” candidate wins the nomination:
1964 - Goldwater won 4 states
1972 - McGovern won one state
2020 - Sanders...?
4
I say this as one who voted for Bernie in the primaries and then switched to Clinton when he was not the party nominee (the only logical way to stop DJT, a point lost on too many fellow liberals).
While I have never bought into the paranoid assertions by some of his followers that the DNC had a fixed game, I have grown increasingly alarmed at the other forces clearly gaming the system against him. I wish he had been much more direct about the online attacks against unions *attributed* to his base. It occurred to me immediately that these so-called attackers were almost assuredly Russian or DJT bots.
Have we learned nothing from 2016 or even "Wag the Dog"? With no way to prove online identity, it's almost insane that virtually everyone just assumed these were Bernie supporters. I agree completely with Bernie on this. The chances that those who espouse his politics of economic justice, rule of law and fair play would have the inclination to verbally assault others doesn't pass the sniff test. Never did.
I don't pretend to know its full extent, all of the players or the reasons, but it has become glaringly obvious that there is a very deep game being played here. Even the revelation that Russia is involved in Bernie's campaign is almost assuredly a plant. I don't doubt for a minute that they are monkeying, but this leak was designed to discredit Bernie.
As an electorate, we need to become a lot smarter faster. If the source is online, it pays to be dubious and fact check.
3
Until the nation addresses its deeply flawed, anti-democratic system, nothing will change. It is bizarre and preposterous that the best way the nation can come up with to select a nominee for the presidency is for a dozen or two candidates to spend a year or more beating up and diminishing each other in public. This is a way to select a leader that seems drawn from Lord of the Flies, not from any principles of democracy. That candidates don't even need to be party members further undermines any pretense of democracy or order.
As Eleanor Roosevelt declared at the Democratic National Convention of 1940: "We cannot tell from day to day what may come. This is no ordinary time. No time for weighing anything except what we can do for our country and the responsibility rests on each and every one of us." At that point in history we were on the cusp of war and still suffering from the effects of the Great Depression. But, today our Democracy is being dismantled at an alarming rate; laws no longer matter. The 2020 election will be no ordinary campaign. It will be fought with staggering amounts of money as well as being waged down and dirty; the candidates eviscerating each other will signal a Trumpian win. The point is what candidate do we need to ensure that we will not have more of the same in the next four years. I don't believe the country could survive!
2
This just in.
Lifelong Republicans perplexed that people running scared of their bills every day with no hope of relief from constant financial anxiety for themselves and less for their children are not enthusiastic supporters of capitalism or even princes of capitalism spouting a good line.
4
@John B
Capitalism as it's currently practiced in America is a bloodsport. The examples are everywhere to the current issue of pharmaceutical companies pushing addictive opioids on consumers, to the willful negligence that has killed people flying in Boeing 737 Max airplanes. Companies lie to the government, consumers, and their employees to gain advantage. They actively seek to rollback regulations so they can harm the environment.
It doesn't have to be this way, but they've chosen to pursue profits with a craven focus without any regards to any social, or environment implications. They are spiritually empty and morally bankrupt.
What America needs more than anything else right now is a new way to define what is effective leadership in both business and government. Unfortunately that isn't on the immediate horizon.
Capitalism as it's currently practiced has enriched man people but it's failed humanity due to its lack of compassion. More than any group, young people know this and feel this.
If capitalism is going to continue, then it has to change, and soon.
3
what Democrats?
Are you finally beginning to understand, that you are looking at a comprehensive collapse of America?
Nothing will be the same, ever again. Not in our lifetimes.
4
@mf
Maybe America needs to collapse. We are selfish, greedy, and racist nation. All of these things play a role in our present state of affairs.
If we can’t win the Presidency (what a disgusting awful thought), then we need to win the Senate. By we, I mean Democrats.
I wonder what Nancy P’s take on all this is....
3
You and Trump believe Bernie will be easy to defeat, meanwhile all you never Trumpers are more fearful of socialism than having another oligarch take Trump’s place. What are you saving us from and whom are you trying to protect ?
Fact: Bloomberg is self funded = he is beholden to nobody
- What will prevent Mike from going trump on us ?
Fact: Bloomberg switched parties to be able to run for president. - - What prevents him from switching back to Republican once elected - surrounded by those infamous Republican enablers ?
If Bernie were to win, you pundits claim Republicans will win control of House and maintain their senate majority. We know how that plays out from watching Obama’s - McConnel wars.
I’ll take my chances with Bernie or Elizabeth, at least compassion and dignity then have a chance.
3
“The Democrats Are in Trouble“
Do ya think? Our best hope lies in extreme unification. Easier said than done with Russia in the background, singing like a Greek choir. The siren calls of disinformation and chaos has us marching to this evil pied pipers tune. Unite! No fighting! No purity tests of any type! That’s a tall order but one we must fulfill. Amazon won’t do it for us.
3
Sanders' candidacy represents the prospect of meaningful change for the socially and economically marginalized, as well as the working class people of this country. This prospect is dismissed by both the right and the mainstream of the Democratic party alike with roughly the same question: "what world do they think they're living in?" That the right asks this question derisively and mainstream Democrats are asking it with hand-wringing and incredulity is less important than the fact that both groups are asking the exact same question.
4
@Jeremiah Crotser
The Democrats I know are not so much disturbed by Sanders’ policy proposals as by his terrifically slim chances of beating Trump in the general election.
2
@Jeremiah Crotser
Excellent points!
The real issue is that moderates, either in the Republican Party of the Democratic Party see social and economic benefits in the status quo. But it's blatantly obvious that the status quo is not sustainable.
Moderates, and centrists have no vision, their only aspiration is to hold on to what they have and gain more. The are driven by their self-interests. The campaigns of Buttigieg, Biden, Bloomberg and Klobuchar have shown that's not enough.
America needs to change. There are two visions put forth; one buy Trump and his followers that America is a white Christian country that should be under the dominion of white Christian men and that being rich is the epitome of human achievement.
The other is that America should be an inclusive society, where everybody has access to quality healthcare and a decent education and human beings have an opportunity to fulfill their potential.
In 2020 America is going to have to make a choice, sorry, being in the middle won't cut it.
2
@T. Monk You know that in almost every general election head to head poll Sanders is doing better than any other Democratic candidate against Trump. What is your empirical evidence, or is this all supposition?
No democratic candidate running today has the potential to attract enough voters to turn the Senate. And, without the Senate, nothing will be accomplished regarding health care, tax reform, climate and so on….nothing. Perhaps a candidate like William McRaven could unite the country and develop the strategies needed to bring about the changes we need.
1
Not “Little Mike” - "Mini Mike"
1
Funny how until recently the prospect of electing an "old white man" drew catcalls here. Now many demand just that. And a non-Democratic one to boot.
You can't make this stuff up.
1
Bloomberg is a "moderate?" How have we decided that the avariscious lack of scruples required to become a Billionaire are qualities of moderation? Bloomberg is moderate only to a tiny portion of our electorate. We (the people) need candidates like Sanders and Warren to moderate our desperation. Words have meanings ....and so do numbers.
1
@Pete Petrella
Your point is a good one, however let’s not forget that Bloomberg has given a lot of money to Planned Parenthood, and has supported many Democrats seeking office—while Sanders has spent much effort attacking the very party he hopes to lead.
1
Everything that's happening in the democratic party just screams for a third party to arise from the ashes. The dems will spit, split and foil any chance of a trump defeat. 4 more years of a despotic, racist, science denying fraud is looming like the sunrise on the horizon.
@Armo
I totally agree!
What the 2016 elections foretold, and the 2020 elections have revealed is that at this point moderates and progressives can no longer exists in the same party.
In Biblical terms, if Trump were Pharaoh and Bernie Moses, could Liz be our Joshua?
1
Bernie, our new Jill Stein. He doesn’t have a chance. Take one for us moderate Democrats Bernie and go away
6
@PRB absolutely correct. Trump has 4 more years in the WH and the house goes republican if Bernie is the nominee
3
@PRB
Correct
@JHM:I too believe,Mr.Bloomberg will state his case well in South Carolina.Our country deserves nothing less.
1
Oh, ye of little faith – in the average average American – and even less historical attention span, Bret:
https://www.nytimes.com/1980/10/30/archives/area-panels-scorecard-on-the-debate-reagan-won-it-by-a-wide-margin.html
“…an undecided voter…found President Carter “offensive and belligerent” in his debate Tuesday night with Ronald Reagan…
“’…Although…will vote for Carter, she complained of “his self-righteousness, his hyperbole: “We were great. We accomplished this and we did that…
Said differently – there you go again…
2
The quickest way to Medicare for All in the United States would be a Trump victory in November, after we hit rock bottom and recover from the shock of his deranged ignorant leadership.
3
We are in new territory. I don't think Sanders will be the nominee. A plurality is not a majority. We may have the first open convention in over half a century. If so, one of the moderates may come through; if not, Warren is the logical compromise with policies the Sandernistas can support but without the baggage of socialism and intransigence.
A quiet pre-convention 'summit' between Warren and Bloomberg could yield the magic formula to take down Trump.
Dan Kravitz
4
Bret it's very simple. Trump is the devil we know. Racist, adulterer, failed husband, failed businessman and a cheat. His followers believe in his redemption even tho he's unapologetic about any crime he's had. His crowd, over 70, has been brainwashed for years against Socialism or Communism. They see Fascism and call it Capitalism. So, yes, the Gone with the Wind crowd, will take back THEIR country. Carpetbaggers from another time rejoice in Trump accomplishments. The greatest generation of all time are all dead now. YOU CAN SEE THIS EVERYDAY!
1
Sanders is rescuing the Democratic Party from becoming irrelevant and forgotten and be thankful for that.
Now that you have admitted that you are enthusiastic about Bloomberg's candidacy, you proved that you are part of the problem this nation is facing. You prefer Oligarchy to Democracy as defined by Lincoln, "for the people, by the people, of the people".
Defeating Trump as the sole objective is a hollow objective. Status quo is not the Nation's objective. You and others are terrified that you will not be the ones to call the shots anymore. Of course, you have the right to bemoan your loss of importance. That's OK.
3
@Subhash Reddy
“Defeating Trump as the sole objective is a hollow objective.”
Not at all. It’s job 1. Nothing you hold dear will ever come to fruition until we get rid of Trump.
“There’s a certain self-righteous pleasure in hating Trump, as well as an entire cottage industry devoted to indulging that hatred, which would mostly vanish the moment he left office.”
What a load of bologna. The hate is visceral. There is no pleasure in it. We would rather be rid of him and the hate.
5
Luckily for me, if trump wins a second term. I'll be retired and living in Canada. Please unite us Sherrod Brown.
Bloomburg / Brown
5
Elizabeth Warren is the obvious choice!
2
Please count me among the many who Hate Trump. I hate his greed and selfishness. I detest his petty vengeance and his bloated ego. I hate him because, after tens of thousands of years of evolution, the human being “in charge” of the Free World and democracy itself, is the worst - hands down the absolute worst - example of humanity that has ever been produced. Politics aside, forgive me, but Mr Trump is repulsive on every level. Crushing the human spirit with his gross narcissism. He doesn’t ‘love’ anyone or anything except himself. Politics not-aside, he is single-handedly destroying everything beautiful and great we had here.
7
Sad but true.
Amy should have looked at Pete and said, "I may have forgotten the Mexican President's name, but I know the name of the next U.S. President and it isn't YOU!"
1
Speak for yourself. We want Trump.
“... an era of relative peace and prosperity”?!
Who are you kidding?! For who?
2
The dog barks and the caravan moves on.
Middle Eastern saying at least 1000 years old.
Bernie and Michelle 2020. Imagine that?
While all the Democratic candidates seemed to play an arcade game of Shoot 'em Down, nobody made a dent against the elephant in the room.
Welcome to Trumpia!
After forgetting the name of the President of Mexico, Amy went on to volunteer that she was up on stuff she said "I know there are 60 members of the Knesset in Israel."
I'm sure Bret can tell us she didn't have that right either.
Bret rated Amy a 10 out of 10 in terms of her debate performance. Strange.
And Bret gave Elizabeth a 5 out of 10 which tells us Bret thinks Elizabeth would be another Obama which in his world is the pits.
In my world its a 10.
3
The best part of the debate was to see Hillary Clintonesque redux when Senator Amy Klobuchar, representing one of the so-called moderates in the debate, attempt to “forgive herself,” in the manner of Clinton over her emails. One could almost hear the explanation as an excuse, “So I forgot the Mexican President’s name...in a senior moment. Get over it. I forgave myself. What’s your problem...?”
Mike indeed appeared little... among giant debaters.
All that Bloomberg can wish is "what happens in Vegas...stays in Vegas."
Russia wins again!
Unfortunately, the mainstream media has merged with the Democratic Party. As such, there is little diligence and scrutiny of the individual candidates. The Sanders nonsense has gone on so long that it has poisoned the blood stream of the party. Why are the news outlets not asking Sanders any tough questions? His ideas are unworkable, mathematically impossible and in some cases idiotic. What gives?
4
"But that shouldn’t obscure the reality that Trump’s victory was an electoral fluke against an overconfident opponent who didn’t have the many advantages of presidential incumbency. "
I don't think it was a fluke. I didn't stay up to watch the election results, but I was pretty sure Trump would win. Clinton's "overconfidence" was one reason, but I had two other reasons. First, too many moderates talked about Trump's excesses as mere personal quirks and/or grand-standing to gain political points. They voted for his policies, taking them at face value. I didn't. His language was too much like another demagogue's, who began his career 100 years ago. When I pointed this out, I was roundy crticised as being "impolite". And worse.
Second was the ugliness of the mass rallies in which his supporters chanted hate. Trump appeals to the darkest impulses of the human heart. He validates them. That's his appeal, and the reason he will likely win again. Then watch out. If there's still a Republican majority in the Senate, there wil be "legal" support for whatever damage he inflicts on America.
4
Even after watching the Bloomberg "performance" in the debate I cast my vote this past week for the former NYC mayor in the Texas early voting segment of our primary because I still think Little Mike is our best chance to beat Fat Donnie in November.
Wow how big is this Super Tuesday coming up in a mere 10 days or so ? I've got a really bad feeling about Bloomberg or any of the other moderates accumulating enough votes to stop comrade Bernie.
3
How much is it to buy a presidency this time?
This Swede has modest suggestion .
Since the sane majority can’t agree on suitable candidate of suitable age and the alternative is Putin’s candidate maybe , just maybe, a couple of nations still honoring democracy and freedom could cash up and run a candidate of their own as the Democratic alternative.
The actual candidate is not of that much importance, a handsome American male in his fifties, maybe with military background and the ability to read , in a trustworthy way, from a teleprompter.
....but we could find a team of advisors to go along !!!
Preferably some conservatives since you are a little conservative over there.
Angela Merkel will be available soon, Erna Solheim the conservative PM of Norway will be voted out next election and she is a bright one . We could offer Carl Bildt from Sweden, very experienced way to conservative for me but maybe a little to much leftish for you.
Jens Stoltenberg the present Secretary General of NATO as national security adviser is a perfect choice.
How about it ?
This planet just cannot take it if you will mess up also your next election.
2
You don’t know what you’re talking about. How do you know Bernie is the riskiest bet?
@Ralph
He’s just stating an opinion, and I tend to agree with it. Sanders, by my lights, has virtually no chance in a general.
Stephens shouldn't entirely discount what little empirical evidence we have about Sanders' prospects. He does poll as good or better than anyone in the field against Trump in a hypothetical head to head matchup.
3
I am a moderate Democrat but am in complete agreement with Bret Stephens.
If you look at the number of people who couldn't come up with $400 for an emergency, the number of people making less than $15 an hour, looking at housing prices versus incomes, or a number of other metrics it is clear that things are not working well for a lot of people in this country.
While Bernie Sanders has legitimate grievances, his solutions are at best unrealistic and, at worst, would make the situation even worse if enacted. The economic disruption of his healthcare and climate change proposals alone, would likely result in hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of people losing their jobs.
Bernie Sanders also has a lot in common with Donld Trump. Like Trump, the facts don't matter and any media coverage that isn't favorable is similarly regarded as "fake news." Combine these attributes with a similar cult of personality--you're either onboard with Sanders 100% or you are the enemy--makes one wonder whether a Sanders presidency would end up being just as much of a disaster as Trump's has been.
Not everyone in the Democratic Party, let alone the broader electorate is onboard with what he is proposing. Sanders also has some major liabilities in calling himself a Socialist, especially while not formally repudiating his statements about past visits to communist countries.
These policy and identity liabilities make him very vulnerable and likely to lose should he become the nominee.
2
If you fear Sanders you fear work.
What Sanders offers is an opportunity to go to work to start building wealth in America again.
What everyone else offers is more or less of the same transfer of the wealth we had in 1980 up to the very few who control how our economy works. And no building of new wealth. It is not new wealth just because a new person owns the same money that used to belong to a lot of other people. That is wealth transfer.
Building wealth is not recycling of wealth that already exists so that it accumulates in different places.
4
@magicisnotreal There's a huge gap between what Sanders 'offers' and what some of us think he'll be able to accomplish (based on his record in Congress of no accomplishments). This 'gap' is what a lot of us don't like about him.
1
@magicisnotreal
Sanders has some good proposals. Should he become the nominee, the country will move in the opposite direction that he wants it to—because he will lose the general election to the biggest criminal ever to hold the office.
In my affluent highly Democratic suburb I don’t know a single person planning on voting for Sanders. Maybe it’s personality. Maybe it’s his denigration of just about everything that makes the economy work.
6
Bernie Sander is the "riskiest" as you put it only because too many fat and happy columnists like you keep saying it. If getting a grip on the runaway corporate greed is "risky" I'll risk it. Ditto for having a fair tax structure and re-gaining a few things called compassion and fairness, not to mention valuing a living wage and honor in our government again. Oh those are just too risky. I read the New York Times apologist story -- or was it an op-ed? -- piece on Bloomberg and THAT was risky. Taking up the case of a misogynist who demanded a third term and kept insisting stop and frisk was right -- until he decided to swap to the Democratic party because, after all, ONLY Mike Bloomberg could save the nation. I guess you are going to be depressed on election day.
5
I'm so sick of moderates. Bernie wants for the US what every other developed nation on the planet has had for years yet they keep telling us its radical. Universal health care is not radical, you are just short sighted.
4
I can assure you that nothing would please me more than not waking up every morning wondering what Trump will force me to hate him for today.
1
I am amazed how clueless the US is to Putin’s desire to see the US crumble like the USSR after its humiliation in Afghanistan.
4
Sanders as "far left"?
1
The media has finally gone looney tunes. After 2 tiny, TINY states with the diversity of a pinhole have voted, the media is telling America it’s all over. BALONEY
All this hyperventilating only results in screaming headlines, a scared public, and....oh yes, more clicks.
Please let Americans vote before telling us who has won.
2
I’m sorry Bret, but ever since the “bedbug” episode, I just can’t read anything you write without bias on my part. And I’m no Bernie partisan; it’s either Biden or Bloomberg for me (but if Bernie’s the nominee this former Republican will vote Blue).
2
My God, such ugliness to suggest that Dems LIKE hating on Trump so much that we secretly want him to win. Self-righteous pleasure my a.s. Really revolting. What seems like a game to Stephens is real life for millions.
2
No, for me it’s not a self-righteous hatred. I do hate the man, and the rest of the Russian Republican Party. I want to get over this state of depression I’m in since day one of the unleashed monster’s administration.
I’m reading “A Very Stable Genius,” by Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker.
They tell of the time trump, was on a long flight to Asia. They decided to stop off in Hawaii to give everyone a rest. While in Hawaii a tour was set up to visit the USS Arizona. Gen. Kelly, trumps Chief of Staff tells of trump asking him. “What’s this tour all about.”
trump didn’t know of the USS Arizona, nor did he know of the attack on Pearl Harbor.
OMG!
3
" Why would Democrats take this chance ?" .. maybe they just want to go to the doctor
6
Why do we Democrats always snatch defeat from the jaws of victory? Give me the smoke filled back rooms which picked the strongest nominee to beat the repubs!
2
It was a $400 million dollar beat down by a fake Indian. Now that Shakedown Joe is on life support, we all pivot to Mini Mike.
Can you picture this guy in front of a screaming crowd of 20,000 who waited in line for hours? I can't. Bernie maybe, but not Bloomberg
It's like watching the Titanic movie, and thanks to Never Nancy your candidate will be bowing out in a few weeks
Michael Bloomberg is a billionaire at a time when income and wealth inequality are off the charts. But B. is not just a billionaire. He's worth $60 B. -- an amount that has grown almost uncontrollably under the GOP tax cut and Trump's manipulation of the feds and the resulting run up of the stock market.
Should Democrats call B. out on this? You bet they should, especially since B. has clearly expressed the ridiculous idea that he earned all that money. "I worked hard!" As if the working poor and the middle and working class don't! Sen. Sanders replied "maybe some of your workers deserved some of the credit and money, too!" B's wealth is an obscenity and it clearly illustrates the HUGE flaw in vicious US capitalism and every Democrat knows it!
America needs a revolution. Vote for Sen. Bernie Sanders. If that become impossible, vote for ABT. Anybody But Trump!
4
One name for you, Bret: Elizabeth Warren. Funny how you have completely dismissed the best candidate in the race. Hmmmmm, I wonder if it is because she is a woman?
2
Spot. On. Brilliant.
It is Bernie’s time, get used to it. Moderate Dems who try to derail him will do so at the party’s peril. He is the proper anti-Trump, while Bloomberg is not. Did you learn nothing from Hillary, Bret??
2
The answer is obvious. Run as a teem - with an eye toward's each person's strengthts and to the electoral college. Liz's strength is finance- Secty of Treasury. Pete's is Sect of State. He speaks 7 languages and has the energy to travel the world. Joe for President because he has foreign policy experience, appeals to blacks and can win PA because that's where he's from. Amy for VP becaus she has Midwestern and rural appeal. Have Mike camp out in FL where he can talk to every NY Jew and to everyone worried about climate change. Agree that Booker should be the new Senate Chair. If they're a team, they can tell Bernie, he's not going to be P but they'll try to push some of his ideas more. Keep everyone engaged. Work with each other - that's what Deoms are supposed to do. Work as a team.
2
Perhaps we are missing the secret message here. The real reason Stephens doesn't want Sanders is due to his lack of support for Israel. But most Americans actually agree with Sanders on that, so Stephens has to attack obliquely on the good old he's a commie charges.
4
Lock the four moderate candidates in a hotel suite and don’t let them out until we have them sort out one of them to run. My choice is Bloomberg. Forget the stupid yammering “debate’ . He has the smarts, management ability and money to save our nation from the impending disaster. Mayor Pete? Really? I’d laugh if this situation wasn’t so serious. God help our Nation.
1
Omg, Bloomberg, he’s not even a real Democrat and he’d just be a billionaire with no reality distortion field to compete with Trumps insanity. Trump would eat him for lunch and spit him out. On the other hand Bernie with a good VP pick like say Kamila Harris would destroy Trump by winning back the rust belt and holding onto Colorado.
2
You took the word right out of my brain. I agree with you assessment of the whole debacle called the Democratic Party, who I am a {proud?} member of.
The only hope now is the he Corona virus will reck the economy enough so the donald will have one less talking point.
Let me see Elizabeth Warren debate Brett Stephens. PLEASE!!
I’d double my subscription price for a 10 minute debate between those two. Don’t worry Brett, we’d have the ambulances ready.
Four more years, seems likely.
Clowns and Communists are the best we can present as candidates? So sad.
1
Of course you like Bloomberg Bret. You both share a common political bond, neither of you are Democrats. As for the Democrats being in trouble, Democracy is a messy business. Free expression and searching for common bonds is hard work. Conservatism has betrayed you and you still look to cast aspersions on Liberals like a squirrel gathering nuts. I wish you luck with that.
1
“…the willingness of the American public to embrace drastic economic and social change in an era of relative peace and prosperity…”
The key word here is “relative”
The S&P 500:
So far, this administration: 12.5% per year for less than 4 years
Obama administration: 13.5% per year for 8 years
Clinton administration: 15.2% per year for 8 years
Source:
https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/%5EGSPC/history?period1=1483246800&period2=1572494400&interval=1mo&filter=history&frequency=1mo
First post: 2/22/2020 4:53 a.m.
1
Democrats need to come together. Its Mike or Trump. And please Stacy be the VP ticket!
A 'teflon' candidate? 'Riskiest' bet? The NYT seems to have a problem with Bernie. Fortunately it isn't one that isn't shared by
the huge numbers of people who wish to elect him.
2
@Z
...should have been isn't one that is shared by the huge numbers of people who wish to elect him.
Important information has come out from The Committee for a responsible and fair budget office : “Buttigieg’s health plan has a gross cost of $2.85 trillion and, incorporating offsets, would save $450 billion over ten years under our central estimate. It would save $1.4 trillion in our low-cost estimate and add $350 billion to deficits in our high-cost estimate.” All of the other plans increase the deficit, with Bernie’s plan at the highest and in the trillions of dollars added to the deficit. This is important when considering what Democrats are offering.
When it comes to the presidency I am not looking to be entertained. I am not looking for a Saturday night date. I am not looking to be lectured to about the evils of America. I am looking for someone socially liberal, forward thinking, and fiscally responsible who has a record of major success and philanthropy. Mike could be mute for all I care. His $10 billion in charity and his resume are all I need to guarantee my vote.
5
Bret please google Sheila Bair on Elizabeth Warren. You will see that Elizabeth Warren is by far the best candidate in the race. Sheila Bair talks about how Warren is capitalist but is a person committed to making the system more fair within the existing system we have. How she got or allowed herself to be tagged another Bernie is inaccurate. She is our only hope, she unlike Bloomberg who cannot summon up the right things to say in a debate will eviscerate Trump.
Bret your conservatism would be elevated if an honest candidate like Warren brings the country back to honesty and the rule of law. She will also correct the gross injustices of our biggest companies evading taxes and lead the fight on climate change, guns, education and health care.
6
Bernie's my last choice, but if he's the nominee I'm all in. And if he's the pick and he was your last choice too, I hope you'll join me. I used to think it was hyperbolic to say our democracy is at stake in this election. I don't think that way anymore. It is. ABT, people, ABT.
5
Might the problem with the moderates be that most if not all of the remaining candidates are weak when compared to both Sanders and even Warren? Biden is on his third run for president; he was never a strong candidate in his previous attempts. Bloomberg clearly was not ready for prime time. Mayor Pete has never succeeded in his attempts to run for anything higher than South Bend Indiana, and his record there was not that strong. In my opinion, Klobucher is probably the moderate wing's best bet. If I were part of the moderate wing of the Democratic Party, I would be focusing my efforts on convincing the weaker candidates to exit the race and support Senator Klobucher.
1
The Republicans are in trouble. The party's riskiest bet is now their likeliest.
This is called being between a rock and a hard place. The GOP can moderate its sycophancy of Trump, and perhaps suffer a reverse in November. Result: one or two election cycles to get back into the game. Or they can continue as they are, and be destroyed in 2024. Result: 10 to 20 years of wandering in the wilderness. Sic transit gloria.
The deciding factor in the two scenarios is economy and multilateralism. The GOP can not hold stuff together for another 5 years. The economic slowdown - when, not if it comes - will be more severe, and the recovery longer. And world political disturbances will be faced by the US on its own - we have no longer any traditional allies. Conflict? I'm sure the Israelis and Saudis will jump right in on our behalf.
Granted, the GOP will own the liberals. And that's all that counts.
2
@Steve: I don’t see any end to the US Senate being the naysayer to the world.
The bottom line is rather simple. Biden invincibility was essentially the claim of big media up to the time he got in the race and then to the debate stage. That collapsed, and despite the claim from the punditry class this is the strongest collection of Democrats competing for the nomination, it's simply not. Sanders, like Trump, taps into the 40 year deterioration of wage stagnation, economic dislocation, uncontrolled price inflation in essential life services all plaguing the middle class & the working class, add to that endless war. The moderates nibble around the edges, just like Hilary or JEB and have been found out. So to the vast majority of Americans not living a upper middle class Sanders becomes their vehicle. Warren is like the Democratic version of Ted Cruz, too intellectual to relate to the plight of masses.
3
Every time a republican denounces a progressive, an angel gets its wings. Those of us who struggle every single day to pay for our healthcare, college debt, and grocery bill are reminded via opinion pieces like this that those who have do not want others to have the same. They worry if others get a bit more, it's going to come from their pockets. However, unless you're extremely wealthy or a corporation, you will do better under a Sanders' presidency than under any republican.
For any center left person even considering not supporting the eventual D nominee, you are crippling your children, grandchildren and future generations. Never forget that Donald Trump does not believe we are contributing to climate change. He refuses to recognize the threat climate change poses on humanity. For that reason alone, every thinking person will get on board the blue train. That includes Bret Stephens (I think).
7
Thank you for a lovely, truthful comment, Sue. Democrats must be cognizant of the fact that there is very little policy separation between the so-called “moderate” and “progressive/socialist” candidates, and not play into the Trumpist hands by stressing these false categories of separation.
So why were you for Bloomberg?
The United States of America is in trouble!
3
Bret, you're a former right-wing Wall Street Journal columnist who still pretends that global warming is a hoax.
We couldn't care less what you want us Democrats to do. You have no standing with us.
8
Was this article originally submitted in February 2019 in reference to the Republican Party?
Thought so.
Spot on.
1
"Klobuchar forgetting the name of Mexico’s president "
Sorry, nobody believes she "forgot." It's obvious she never knew it in the first place.
1
"The Russians are Coming! The Russians are Coming!" Its more than a title to a Mel Brooks comedy, its now the default chant of the White Super-rich Elite mau-mauing the electorate from engaging what some of us call "democracy". How tiresome, how tedious. How predictable.
2
@Neocynic
Not a Brooks film. Put.The.Analogy.Back.
No thanks Brett, not going to listen to pro-cruelty Republican's. You have no credibility in any discussion.
4
The only reason Fascism failed in America in the 1930's is that Germany beat us to it. This time around it has a real chance.
Putin installed trump (Hillary won) and thus broke our country. Can it ever be fixed? No idea, but I am not optimistic. We've now entered the "stupid and ignorant" phase of our history. Sadly, we deserve it.
2
As a progressive Democrat who would like to see progressive legislation on wages, the environment, taxes, healthcare and our beloved Dreamers to be actually signed and implemented, I am prepared to vote for Bloomberg because I think he has a fighting chance of beating Trump. We're not picking a saint to lead us to heaven! We're picking a tough, smart, flawed manager who might be able to rescue our institutions, Justice Dept. and Intelligence agencies before its too late. Just as voting for Churchill was the right vote when faced by Hitler, we left-wing Democrats must unite behind a pragmatic choice to meet an unprecedented challenge. Bernie, Liz: stay in the Senate where you can be effective!
6
Honestly, just take this headline and apply it to every single article Bret Stephens has ever written. What a broken record.
2
Sanders will be able to pass a M4A just as easily as Trump got Mexico to pay for that wall. But Sanders is ethical and I'll vote for him in general election if he's there nominee.
Anybody but the parasite that didn't like the movie parasite winning an Oscar.
2
We can bicker about whats best, but in the end what is best? Its getting rid of the worst president in the history of the US. Left,moderate, blah blah blah. If you're going to get hurt feelings because your party does not agree with you then we are truly as stupid as Trump's base is. Use your heart and vote your heart during primaries ,but when the dust setlles vote your head at the end for whatever comes from the democratic party.
2
@Daniel
Your heart will get Warren or Sanders nominated. Then it won’t matter if you vote with your head. Vote with your head now and forever.
Brett u want another Hillary or Joe B.? Dems miss the mood of the country go Bernie
1
The Republican party is in the process of going full blown facist but the Democrats are in trouble? Because the front runner has such radical policies that they work very well in much of the industrialized world?
...o...k...
1
The moderate establishment still has not learned the lesson of 2016. What the majority of Americans seem to want is change. That is what Trump said he would do. And that is what Sanders has been offering for decades. Change is messy. Change upsets the status quo. It scares those who depend on the current
system. But the more Democrats try to fight those within their own party who are on the vanguard of a new era, the more likely they are to lose. Buckle your seat belts
1
I don’t understand Bernie supporters/haters who say they won’t vote if he isn’t/is the nominee. All candidates have said they will support the eventual nominee. My fantasy is that they will all line up behind that person at the convention, pledge their delegates/money/voters, and fan out across the country to work for that campaign. In fact, I’ve written to them all to demand it. Heaven help us til then. I agree with one commenter that this is not the time for Medicare for All or free college tuition, but I will vote for/canvas for/donate to the nominee. The revolution has to be resounding defeat of Trump.
I consider myself a Democrat, and a left of center one at that. But I do not support Sanders and think a Sanders presidency (if it comes to that) would be absolutely disastrous for the country. Though I rarely agree wholeheartedly with Mr. Stephens' premises, logic, and conclusions, this is one such occasion. I think he's absolutely, and terrifyingly, correct in his analysis of the situation. Thank you, Mr. Stephens.
2
@James
You may be correct. However, the alternative would be Trump/Pence and in 2024 Pence/Haley. Wonder if Pence could meet with Haley alone in the Oval office.
The title of this article that the democrats are in trouble may be prophetic if Trump gets reelected and continues his destructive leadership. However, out of the wreckage may come a new era in 2024, similar to Roosevelt (51 when he became President) leading the country out of depression with the New Deal. Such leaders are in the Democratic Party. The best hope would Gavin Newsom, current Governor pf California, who would be 57 in 2024. Andre Cuomo, current Governor of New York would be sixties and there are others.
If the democrats, at least hold the House in this election all is not lost. If they take the Senate, they can hold Trump in some check, maybe even block all Supreme Court nominees.
If Trump gets reelected, the whole country will continue to be in trouble, However, if past is prologue, all hope for its future should not be lost as a new Democratic President should be elected in 2024.
Since 2016 I have ignored all the CNN prediction talking heads, most MSNBC christal ball ladies and gents and the leading op -adds in this and other printed press. I'll tell you: it's so much fun.
I can't vote, which is terrible, because your President is also our President, but I can try to make one reluctant voter to humor me in November.
Bernie and Elisabeth have it right, but your crazy country is too Socialisme adverse and not ready for a gay guy in the WH. It would be nice, but not yet. Be patient!
So, vote for Joe. I know, he's not as nimble as he used to be, but with Ami as running mate, he'll safe the world from a certain desaster.
2
@Sfreud
Correct
The Democratic debate was a yeasty, crunchy adventure into politcs as it's played now, and gave plenty of hope to forward-thinking lefties like me.
Leave it to Bret Stephens to turn that into "the Dems are in trouble."
Bret thinks we're always in trouble because we're not him.
I'd love to see Bernie vs. Elizabeth in a debate. LOVE to.
2
"...on the willingness of the American public to embrace drastic economic and social change in an era of relative peace and prosperity."
Define "relative."
Stephens must not have been listening, or might not have cared to listen, when Sanders, in the debate, pointed out that Bloomberg had more money than the bottom one hundred twenty-five million Americans.
Stephens's anti-Sanders bias is so strong, the ex-Wall Street Journal stalwart promulgates ideological fantasies of Mao-like institutional long marches within academia.
Stephens meets Steve. Bannon.
2
Embrace the inevitable. Sooner or later, if you want to win you must push all in. Bernie is the best hand we will see. The debates show that if the Dems can't tear him down Trump will have zero chance. Trump doesn't stand for anything except selfishness, fear, and of course hatreds. Those hideous things may well be enough to propel Trump into another 4 years, but if they do it means we as a nation are deeply ill and a Trump is simply a symptom.
3
Why are you erasing Warren? She’s smart, pragmatic, progressive and without the “socialist” baggage. She connects with voters on a more personal level than Sanders ever could. She’s not being assisted by Putin. She’s — her own woman — she’s shown she is more than capable to take on Trump and she has more delegates than Joe Biden. Some of her staffers are former Clinton aides and some are former Sanders organizers. She brings the party together in a unique way.
8
Wall Street shill Stephens continues in panic mode at the mere thought that the neoliberal gravy train which serves America’s elites is coming to an end.
Again he advances the false meme that a Dem centrist is the only hope against Trump, when in fact a centrist will surely lose. The American working class is mobilizing and supporting issues like a higher minimum wage and Medicare for all and a green new deal.
Senator Sanders will defeat Trump.
2
I cannot bear the thought that next November I might have to vote for Bernie Sanders. He is a socialist. He is not a Democrat. I do not agree with anything Bernie espouses. That leaves Trump, whom I abhor.
4
"Or maybe they feel that, when their hearts scream Yes, it’s best to ignore the brain’s screams of No."
Clearly one of the best lines of this primary season. Thank you.
But you fret way too much. These debates have just set the stage for the real show, and issues such as climate change, health care, student debt have been established as problems that the country must address. Trump will have to defend his denial and his inaction. He's going to crash and if he decides not to do a debate he'll be a coward. Donnie is done.
I also wish you and the rest of the media would be as concerned about Trump's "isms" (i.e. authoritarianism and fascism) as you are about Bernie's socialism. Trump's "ism" reflects his behavior even better than Bernie's.
3
Bernie is both Trump and Russias cadidate of choice. For Trump it gives him open season on socialists. For Russia, if Trump wins they win, if Bernie wins they can say the US is now communist too.
If Bernie were to win, he couldn't govern because he really doesn't want to. What he is good at and enjoys is standing on the outside screaming about how rotten everyone else is. Not the best way to bring Congress along with your programs.
1
"And he would be the president least likely to govern well."
An assertion, without any supporting argument or evidence, that a very large number of people clearly disagree with. Obviously. Duh.
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@Abraham The evidence is his minimal record of accomplishment after 3 decades in Congress
The opportunity to separate people on the basis of race becomes diminished by the expansion of the genetics of formally isolated races into a wider gene pool (we all came from Africa). The media now wants to separate us by wealth. What is it that seems to force the media to identify what separates people into separate silos?
The media makes money by capturing eyeballs, ears and readership of people. The more people they capture, the more money they make. If the media define a silo and you are told that you are part of that silo, you are interested in what the others in that silo are doing and thinking. People like people like them. The media that tells you who you are, becomes important to those “belonging needs” and gains eyeballs and printed thoughts and the money of success in a Market Economy.
Consider the huge increase in the income of New York media during the Spanish American war of 1898, which some have suggested was started by the media for that reason. Today you see it in the reporting of the Las Vegas debate that labeled Elizabeth Warren as “Winner”. Senator Klobuchar “Won” the previous debate. The media now says Bernie may win to challenge Trump (which would thrill Trump). His mostly young supporters know that he “walks on water” but has made few decisions of note and nothing new in the last decade. Which silo are you in?
That Russia would aid a Democratic Socialist like Bernie against a mobbed up Oligarch wannabe like Trump shouldn't surprise anyone. Playing both ends against the middle is as old as it gets in world affairs. Unfortunately for all concerned we are in an economic pandemic inspired skid and the guardrails (defunded) gone. Trump rarely shows his hand on the wheel so they'll be plenty of blame as we begin quarantines, shut downs and dare I say, VOTING? Love.
Bret, your article is overly biased. For example:
"...the far-left that Sanders represents..."
Left, right, center, far-left/right are subjective. E.g., What Sanders advocates would appear to be center for Canadians. Your stating Sanders as far-left shows your right-wing thinking.
Let's take real-life examples of Sanders is capable of doing --
"What Kind of Mayor was Bernie Sanders" The Nation (June 2, 2015):
As Mayor of Burlington, VA for 8 years, Sanders "...was actually a hardworking, pragmatic, effective mayor who helped transform Vermont’s largest city (population: 38,000) into a thriving town."
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@4world
If it’s subjective, then we can’t call it unequivocally biased, can we?
If Bret Stephens says the Democrats are in trouble, then the opposite must be true.
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The Russians want Sanders as well, because he has no chance against Trump.
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Sanders is a disaster for the Democratic Party, and as he will allow Trump four more years an existential disaster for the nation, its democracy and the world. IT is also true that as truly awful as Sanders is, he is better than Trump. The choice is which poison do we want to end the American dream.
Unfortunately the Democrats who support Bernie must get him out of their system and will bring down Democrats everywhere with them. B
Bernie is as likely to win as was McGovern. Meaning not likely to win. Democrats are dreamers and idealists and not very practical. So they support candidates like Bernie and McGovern over more electable people. Plus Bernie is so unlikable because he must be going deaf so he yells a lot. And then there are the mean spirited haters who also support him and trash anyone who disagrees with them. What's to like or support? Nothing.
1
@Nb
A week before the 1972 election, I attended a rally for McGovern here ins San Diego, I was a young enthusiastic McGovern supporter. I thought he was going to win! He only won one state and Nixon continued the Vietnam war with its death and destruction in his second term.
If Bernie is the nominee, a lot of democratic voters will be jubilant. especially the younger one, but come election day, they may come to feel as sick as I did
4
Two weeks ago Bret's advice to Democrats was to embrace "moderate" Bloomberg's candidacy to save the Democrats from the clutches of the progressives and eleciton day failure. Today - not so much.
Yet Bret will carry on proposing all sorts of Democrat remedies for all the profound problems in our country caused by profoundly amoral Republicans in the Senate and in the White House. Memo to Bret: Look homeward - look homeward - look hard at your party - look at what Republicans have wrought - take ownership of your mess. Then, and only then, come lecture Democrats.
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Worst case, but by no means unlikely, scenario. Sanders wins the White House, the Trump party controls Congress. And absolutely nothing will get done. Gridlock on steroids.
You had my interest in this opinion piece, until I read this:
". . . the prospect of a Sanders candidacy is doubly depressing. He is the candidate Trump most wants to run against. And he would be the president least likely to govern well."
You lost my respect for your arm chair analysis when you smugly made the preceding pronouncement. It is one thing to analyze facts and observed behavior, but another to assert a prognosis for which you have no basis in fact. I don't think we know how Bernie Sanders would govern as President, but there are more than just chances that he would be vastly better than the inexperienced, corrupt, lawless Donald Trump.
Bloomberg, for all the good work he does, for all the money he puts to good causes, for all the organization for the environment, anti-smoking and others...
Did not deserve to be attacked like that.
Shame on Elizabeth (I used to like her)
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Stop arguing about the candidate. Support the democratic nominee whoever it is and vote blue. Anyone’s dog is better than trump !
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Thanks Bret. Now excuse me while I go and open a vein.
Another hit job against one of the candidates from the know-it-all specialists who know how voters will vote before they’ve voted and know best what’s best for the country, more than those ignorant voters.
Question is if these “specialists” like this writer know so much, then, how come they can’t solve the country’s problems?! They seem to know so much, they write daily about what should be done, criticize daily, in fact, they seem to know it all, yet, they can’t fix anything!
They spill oceans of ink about it all, but can’t seem to help anybody! Yet they go in spilling more and more and more ink! Nobody has more solutions that refuse to help anybody than writers like the current one!
Spot on. Sadly, the Nov election will include people who support Trump and reject socialism...who will be mutually exclusive. This would guarantee a loss for the Dems.
Your assessment has had me thinking the last two days of how I will feel on Nov 3 when Trump gets re-elected. I've concluded it will be a truly sad, sad day....maybe the darkest day in America's history. Why?
Because it means that our fantastic dreams about America will be snuffed out by an anti-American agenda and a President incapable and incompetent in leading....a con man for another four years, destroying America.
It brings tears to your eyes today....get ready.
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How are your Republicans doing, Bret?
What do you mean by 'electability'? Is that code for 'someone Bret finds palatable'?
Does the constitution provide a way to quickly remove impeached Republican President Donald Trump? These gosh-darned Democrats need to start taking responsibility.
Shame on those devious Sanders Supporters for believing America can do better.
I would argue that Bernie Sanders has a better chance than a tepid billionaire.
To quote little-known NYT opinion columnist Bret Stephens:
"[Sanders] has just as serious a shot at winning the presidency as [current Republican President] Donald Trump did four years earlier."
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Stephens the way you as a republican can beat Trump is campaign against him, not choose the ideology of the Dems
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We see lots of amateur fortune tellers and soothsayers here, reading the bones, looking into the entrails, telling us this and that about how bad Bernie Lenin is. On the other hand, I have my crystal ball: it might be fun to see Trump totally destroy the GOP with another term--sure would be interesting and the comedians would have us rolling on the floor for four more years, if they don't get arrested. After Trump's disaster, we could expect to see a Fidel or Pol Pot come to power, mass trials on the DC Mall, Trump, Ivakua, his boys, Junior and Eric, Low Barr, GOP gangsters and anybody close to them, defended by Doug Collins and Matt Gaetz, cross examined by Kamala and AOC. It's gonna be interesting times...
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"Or maybe they feel that, when their hearts scream Yes, it’s best to ignore the brain’s screams of No."
Bret is not the brain.
He's nobody's heart either.
He's just a Republican, who thinks this is peace and prosperity because his friends don't go to war and his friends are making all the money.
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Wow, it must hard for the Bret’s of the world. Neither the Democratic or Republican Parties want anything to do with him. The world is asking you politely to fade away into obscurity. Fighting it only makes it worse.
3
That the Russians are working to nominate Bernie should be reason enough not to vote for him.
Those same Dems who were so appalled that Repubs allowed themselves to be so easily hoodwinked by Russian misinformation in 2016... look in the mirror in 2020.
Can’t you see that the Russians want to divide us into extremist political tribes with unbridgeable differenences? Bernie on one side, and Trump on the other?
Can’t you see that you’re taking the bait?
Oh, the irony would be hilarious if it weren’t just so miserably tragic!
Sanders is a professional politician who is a multimillionaire due to his "public service".
He promises free stuff for everyone at no cost.
He is the Emperor without Clothes.
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The reality of the situation is simple: Trump will repeat the word "socialist" 10,000 times, scaring voters away from Bernie. That these voters may not understand the meaning or significance of the word doesn't matter. The label alone will do the trick, much as the "crooked" label, repeated again and again, helped to sink Hillary.
Trump is a master at the destructive and demeaning label. Combine that skill with his relentless lying and distortions, and the future looks grim indeed.
Another vague attack on “the far left” who only wants affordable healthcare and education. Better than the center left who can only shave millimeters off Republican positions.
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@Byron
That silly millimeter will get you a seat at the presidential table which the other posture won’t. As President Obama counseled the BLM activists, ‘if you are offered a seat at the table, take the seat at the table, even if you don’t agree with everything’.
What about a 100% female ticket?
Warren/Klobuchar with Gabbard in there somewhere, may be as Defense Secretary?
Or some other combination of the three?
American women will go for that.
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Why must only the Democrats worry about being moderate? Trump appeals to the basest beliefs of white America—race, religion, sexual orientation, nativism, etc.
Democrats are outlaws because they oppose endless wars (Gabbard), socialist universal health care (Sanders), government oversight of banks (Warren), and the effrontery of being a progressive (Ocasio-Cortez). The last isn’t running for presidency, but Stephens’ horror of a liberal agenda is best illustrated by this.
What is today moderate was not 20 years ago nor what it will be 20 years from now. The confines that some demand of the Democrats has failed. The unsuccessful coronation of Clinton in 2016 shows just what “moderation” produced.
Trump does not concern himself with such petty thoughts. From being a comical candidate, he bested the GOP “moderates.” The hidden resentment dissipated with his largess to the wealthy. His faults were excused—by Christian right and GOP leadership. His tactics are so successful that now other GOP candidates are taking up his approach, and there are predictions that they will win the House as well as the Presidency this November.
What is the Democratic Party? GOP “light?” What is its vision for the future—don’t rock the boat? What gave the us the domestic programs of FDR and LBJ no longer works—one betrayed his class and the other lost the South.
Trump’s stratagem works. Is it because he is unprincipled? Or has he tapped into an unpleasant truth about us?
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Be prepared of a McGovern like defeat in November.
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In 2016, the energy on the right was sparked by Donald Trump, and the energy on the left was sparked by Bernie Sanders. The same is true in 2020. In 2016 the cautious Democrats, every bit as cowardly as the Republican senators of today, said yes to the lackluster, baggage-laden Hillary Clinton and no to the future. If Bernie wins the presidency, do all liberals and progressives suddenly turn into socialists? No. Sanders/Warren vs. Trump/Putin. Democratic Socialism vs. Authoritarian Fascism. Stop whining and vote for the Commonwealth, a future of fairness, decency and sanity!
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I don't understand why Bernie is running as a Democrat. He is an Independent member of the Senate and labels himself a Democratic Socialist. It is odd that Democrats don't question his loyalty, yet trash Bloomberg who is a registered Democrat.
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"lending an assist to Elizabeth Warren’s surgical act of political evisceration"
Bret, I'm glad that you remembered she was there. I was worried you were having a senior moment.
Bernie and Biden are the reasons this primary is such a disaster, and then Bloomberg decided to make everything a whole lot worse. Call these three old white men “The Killer B’s.” If these guys could have put their egos aside we’d have Warren as a far more sensible champion of the wing progressive and Mayor Pete (still an absurd candidate) and Klobuchar holding the banner for moderates. The Killer B’s have just clogged up the main lanes of this primary and taken away oxygen from the more sensitively candidates.
P.S. I have yet to meet a fellow Democrat who so enjoys hating Trump that they wouldn’t rather have Mike Pence in office. So spare me your “darker thoughts.” This isn’t a joke or some psychological phenomenon for us. We genuinely love our country too much for that.
"...it mustn’t diminish the fact that Sanders’s candidacy would represent a large bet — titanic, one might say — on the willingness of the American public to embrace drastic economic and social change in an era of relative peace and prosperity."
Bret, have you not noticed that half the country DOES NOT SHARE this 'relative peace and prosperity" which you obviously experience. Bernie and others noticed this many years ago. It's time you all catch up--unless you want another (arrogant?) 'moderate' to lose again.
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Mr. Stephens,
"There’s a certain self-righteous pleasure in hating Trump, as well as an entire cottage industry devoted to indulging that hatred, which would mostly vanish the moment he left office."
I cannot understand where a statement like this comes from?
Only a sick person would have pleasure in hating anyone. Speaking for myself and those I know, we despise DJT for what he is and we are terribly worried and dismayed by the abuse of power and lawlessness of this man who is acting like a wrecking ball in all our institutions with the willing aid of the Senate GOP.
So ...we are very worried and exhausted and rightly so! We want to do something but feel helpless and don't know how to go about resisting. What kind of cottage industry, devoted to hating Trump, are you referring to?
I have no clue what you mean but I can certainly say that any opprobrium directed at Trump is well deserved but it would be entirely wasted because the man has no shame.
Instead of criticizing people who you think "hate" Trump, why not use the space to criticize Trump for being an incompetent and very possibly a treasonous President?
As for hate, I would just say that if I awoke tomorrow and heard that DJT had vanished from the face of the Earth, I would go outside and look up at the sky and say, "let it be so!".
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the possibilities of populism
the probabilities of pragmatism
your choice
If we #VoteBlueNoMatterWho—a commitment many Americans are making—even the candidate Trump most wants to run against will become his (and Putin's) worst nightmare.
Thank you for your concern Mr. Stephens. We all know how much you care for the Democratic Party.
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Hogwash. Again. Pundits don't elect presidents, voters do. Let the people decide.
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I don't agree. Sanders, who I support 100% needs to talk about democrat socialism and not get himself railroaded into this communism thing with the media or the voters...Pete took a swipe at Sanders said he was trying to destroy the party, Bloomberg outright called him a communist. Its' time for Bernie to dispel the myths and calm the fears.. for god sake he's in Vermont and it's not socialist, Bernie votes with the Democrats, the lines are so finite and the Democrats aren't in trouble, people need to stop listening to this fear mongering.
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Bernie has been ahead of his time for about 50 years and it's time the US caught up. I can't understand why medicare for all is such a hard sell in the USA but an article of faith in Canada, the UK, and other modern Western democracies. Bernie is a unity candidate for democrats- he is a champion of the working class and the failing middle class- and that includes men and women, Latinos and non-Latinos, people of all pigments, Muslims, Jews, Christians, and agnostics. The daily onslaught of panic and sniping from the NYT has been extremely disappointing.
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Not just the Dems. ALL OF US. We share this house.
Good article, but Democrats are in trouble not because of the candidates, but because of their core beliefs.
The Russians are helping Sanders and he’s known about it for a month, yet has told no one. How’s that for transparency?
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Bret,
You welcomed Mike Bloomberg into the Democratic primary race because he’s a laissez faire Republican, then you complain about the character he did not display in a TV debate.
I wonder what kind of President is bread of American money worship and fascination with superficial media coverage? Have you been by the White House lately?
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I'm really tired of the "so & so can't be elected" nonsense. 4 years ago Hillary was a shoo-in... until she wasn't. Yes, Bernie isn't my first choice, yes he is polarizing, but he's also someone who inspires people and might, just might, get people who otherwise wouldn't vote to come out and vote.
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Calm down!
Yes, some of the candidates--Biden, Sanders, Bloomberg-=-do not appear to be up to the job. You are a hard-headed guy, not a sentimentalist, and it is surprising that you didn't see the Bloomberg fiasco coming, at least to some extent. He's 78 years old! Did you forget that?
Does espousing supposedly moderate positions, and great success in business, matter more than his age? Your prejudice towards "moderate" candidates has clouded your judgment in this case.
Now for the good news: Senators Warren and Klobuchar and even Buttigieg, green about the gills though he may be, could be good presidential material. And yes--each of them (unlike Sanders) could win, at least against such an utterly loathsome opponent as Trump, if the Democrats concentrate on getting out the vote, and making sure it's counted fairly.
Don't give up the ship!
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Either the stars are aligning or brooms are standing on their own because Bret, you're actually making sense to me. Bernie (one name will suffice for someone who will bring down the Democratic Party as another candidate named Clinton did) is the worst candidate the Democrats could ever endorse. Why? Because he's NOT A DEMOCRAT. Democrats are not Socialists their Capitalists with a heart, a conscience and knowledge of what Fascism does when run amok.
How did we ever get to the point where looking after one another has become such a divisive element ?
America and the whole world is in trouble and you’re lecturing us about Democrats? Is there anyone sane left in the Republican Party who realizes what we are up against with the climate disaster and the ongoing apocalyptic destruction of the living world?
Bret, I agree with you on most of what you wrote. But you are being overly pessimistic about Bloomberg's chance to recover. He might be rusty and foolhardy, but he isn't stupid nor is he poor. He will have learned from his mistakes.
I hope, anyway. We all better hope. Even Sanders fans don't realize it, but they better hope Bloomberg recovers too. It's America's last chance.
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Sanders and his Bernie Boys are Trump’s mirror image. Sanders is an equally divisive demagogue. Bernie Sanders is his initials.
in '16 trump got to run against nepotism and with misogyny. trump thinks NV is a swing state; the lastest poll at 538 has biden +4 and bernie +11 against trump in NV with bernie at 52%. Just look at the rallies, bernie is better at campaigning than HRC and then look at the fundraising; he is a beast. I do think Biden would win; sometimes I like the goldilocks (not moderate) platform mayor pete has; and I wonder if HRC is still the only one that could beat bernie but bernie is a beat with a highly functioning campaign machine, talk to some young people, tons of them hate nepotism far more than you hate socialism.
Bloomberg is not better than Trump. He’s an elitist with a track record of racism and sexism. He's been attacking the civil liberties of Americans since he entered politics. It’s disgusting that he’s trying to buy this election. Today, I've seen 6 television ads from Democrats running for president. 3 for Mike Bloomberg, 2 for Tom Steyer, and 1 for Bernie Sanders. Democrats who like Bloomberg are mostly upper-class people who value their money more than anything else. I will never vote for him, because I won't be bought.
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Gee. The right of center old school Democrats fed into the same plutocracy that Trump does. So yeah. We are done. Don't care anymore if you don't like it.
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Pete Buttigieg is the obvious choice, IMO, and the clear successor of Obama. I am stumped as to why Dems can't see that.
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Is it too late to beg Romney to run as a Democrat?
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@NotGivingUpOnOhio
He’s certainly no Democrat, but much better idea—beg him to run as an independent and splinter the Republican vote.
Sorry. Trump won, despite the polling, because of his position against illegal “immigration”. All the Democrats and especially Bernie are on the wrong side of this issue. Don’t look for a surprise, not expected from the polling, Bernie win.
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"I’ve been enthusiastic about Mike Bloomberg’s race for president from its inception"?
Hi Bret:
Why are you so enthusiastic about Bloomberg? You failed to mention that? That is a real puzzle. Might you be looking for a job?
When Elizabeth Warren suggested that workers be placed on Corporate Boards, Bloomberg's immediate response to the question "would you support that?" was "absolutely not"?
Do you think Kodak and Xerox would be out of business, as they are, if workers had been on the Corporate oversight boards?
Is there some reason why you are in favor of incompetent men in charge of the Corporate Boards of America?? Why not augment those failed boards with workers?
Bloomberg offers one thing: He got rich. Yes, he worked hard but so does my housekeeper. Mostly Bloomberg got lucky. On the debate stage Bloomberg did not appear, in any way, to be competent the other night.
Elizabeth Warren, on the other hand, appeared prepared, well read, well spoken, and, specific in proposals.
Bloomberg offered nothing specific, looked puzzled and confused, and clearly did not prepare.
That is precisely what I have come to expect from the rich , abusive, bad boys from NY.
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Brett,
You have always made the most sense and speak for me in every column you write.
Unless for some miracle Bloomberg on the next debate comes back strongly and puts the Warrens's in their place we can look to another 4 years of Trump, or a disaster of a Sanders Predency.Eother way the people lost.
Oh please!! This thinking is what had the press (yes including the Times) go along with the insane super delegate plan that gave us Hillary despite no one actually liking her. That’s what gave us Trump.
Why doesn’t the media stop making absurd proclamations and just let the process play out. Someone is most popular for a reason.
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Bernie will be eaten alive by Donald and Putin.
No sane person thinks that Bernie is going to upend the healthcare and financial systems. The best he can do is add a public option to the ACA and reverse the Republican financial/business deregulations. Just what Biden is talking about.
People like Bernie because he exudes sincerity and decency. Comparisons to Trump? Be real. Bernie might speak some fiery talk, but you have to go one step further and ask, Fiery talk about what?
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I am actually grateful to Bernie for being the avatar of ideas that I have always been of great importance to me, and I supported him in his first round against Clinton, despite his terrible speaking style of yelling and pointing his fingers. But his endorsement of that real-estate driven creep, Mayor De Blasio, made me seriously question his judgement and that of his team of uncomprisin, mean, and largely Bernie Bro style advisors. That, and his heart attack, has made me turn to Warren. She is is younger, less likely to die of a heart attack in office, and has the brains and skills to put meat on the bones of Bernie's ideas. And, she is a woman, which foro me a plus, and not a ho-hum, biz-as-usual dull-as-dishwater moderate. She could eat Trump alive and then fix what ails this country. Too bad my fellow left-wingers don't see this (yet).
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If the Dems really want to defeat Trump, Joe, Pete and Amy would band together and choose just 1 among them to run in the super Tuesday primaries, representing the party's moderate middle. Wouldn't that be a glorious proof of seriousness, unity and sanity? If only it could be.
it's only "bad" if you want a weak and greedy billionaire as the democratic nominee. It's great if you want a strong and authentic visionary with a clear message, i.e., Bernie Sanders, who wants to address the discontent in this country that Trump himself also addressed -- in rhetoric, if not in deed. People are discontented and suffering. They are done with coastal elitism, and the entire neoliberal economic program and its historic levels of inequality. Trump promised new jobs and dignity for Americans. Bernie will bring it. His Medicare for All and Green New Deal and wealth tax are part of a legacy begun by FDR, equally perceived as radical, initially, but as history has judged, a president who saved America from the ravages of the great depression. And by America I mean regular americans and are the infrastructure of our society.
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I don't get it. Bernie is not ahead in delegates has a small edge in a small popular vote. Yet the media has not merely proclaimed him the absolute front runner but declared him the likely winner. Maybe facts don't matter, just how much you bend them.
@David -- Exactly. Only two states have even had a primary. The majority of the country hasn't even cast a vote, yet all of a sudden, the media has Sanders moving into the White House. It's astonishing. I don't know where the media's information comes from, but I wish they'd give the voters a chance to have a say before they declare a winner.
@David Never underestimate the panic of the ruling classes when there's even a small chance they may face being exposed for what they are.
Do you support a progressive social democracy or a retro, hate driven, fascist de-facto dictatorship?
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All of the Democratic candidates currently participating in the primaries express support for progressive solutions to:
Health care
Climate change
Reproductive rights
Reducing the influence of wealth in our political process
A more equitable distribution of the wealth created by ordinary citizens currently flowing into the pockets of our plutocratic overlords. (Notice I said candidates currently participating in the primaries.)
Despite the predominance of national polls showing every Democratic contender (yes, including Bernie) beating Trump in a head to head match up, we have all this talk of "electability" seeming to reflect some irrational fear that our country isn't ready for progressive solutions to the above issues.
Well folks, if that's the case, we will lose in 2020 no matter who we nominate. Suck it up. Maybe in 2024 we WILL be ready.
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I believe Sanders’ game plan is to inspire new voters join in the election. I believe that’s what’s needed. A wave of new voters will help in the senate and house races. Expanding the base is critical. I think Trump’s base is stagnant. Bernie is a definite risk but it is a risk that needs to be taken. I’m voting Bernie because he is the only hope for the future. Just as I voted for Trump because he would be audacious and be disruptive. Seminal change is always painful and full of pitfalls.
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Brett just wrote an article 10 days ago saying “of course Bernie could win.” And now this. I didn’t even read the article because I know it’s filled with fear-mongering and debunked statistics. The man only has a job here due to NYT’s insistence on having a couple token conservatives. I beg of the mostly bourgeoise liberal class that reads the NYT: please do not stay home if it comes down to Sanders v Trump. One is a racist, one is not. One acknowledges climate change, one does not. One welcomes non-white immigrants, one does not. One cares for the poor, one does not. I know Sanders is a punching bag for the NYT readership, but please don’t lose sight of the fact that he does not want to lock kids in cages.
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"I’ve been enthusiastic about Mike Bloomberg’s race for president from its inception, partly on the theory that he was best positioned to rescue and represent the Democratic Party’s moderate wing."
Yes, what America needs is another billionaire who endorsed "W" for RE-ELECTION.
RE-ELECTION...you have to be kidding.
1
For a Democrat to get elected they have to be perfect, a republican can be an immature bigot.
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Going on about how depressing the prospective candidate is will not help defeat Trump, it encourages people to give up and stay home when it comes time to vote. Stop that! And I object to the idea that Democrats are voting for Sanders because they hate the other side. I will vote for whoever gets the nomination, and it appears that the majority might choose Sanders. Let the majority decide. In the primaries, I'm going to vote for the candidate whose values are closest to my own, because I happen to think that those values are shared by most kind, rational, and practical people - no out of gleeful spite. Maybe I'm wrong. We'll see who gets the most votes. But I'm for Bernie.
I haven't written off Pete Buttigieg yet. The more I see of him, the more I like him. He's not one of the millionaire class and he's so calm and poised. He's also one of the smartest candidates in the Democratic lineup and I think he'd take on Trump with grace and wit. Trump can't stand up to someone he can't rattle, and that's Mayor Pete. Sanders just doesn't do it for me. I know everyone says he's not at all like Trump, but he sure acts like Trump sometimes. Plus, I'm very concerned about Bernie's age and health. The fact that he won't release his medical records (like Trump) bothers me. And, I'm sorry folks, but 78 is just not an age to take on a challenge like the presidency. I'm afraid we could end up with another Woodrow Wilson presidency. On the other hand, Buttigieg is young, sharp, full of good ideas and ready to face the challenge. I like him more and more.
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@Ms. Pea Did you know that President Johnson had three heart attacks before he was elected? Also, FDR was very ill when he was elected and led from a wheelchair. Bloomberg has had several stents put in. Reagan had Alzheimers, for heaven's sake.
Pete is very smooth and I understand why some may find him appealing as a "cool newcomer," the name Amy Klobuchar gave him in the New Hampshire debate. Not me.
Our political system being ruled by corporate America and the Billionaire class is nothing new. What is new is the Internet! That is giving All Americans a voice(which is many instances can be Troll Rule) Everyone is now informed of the Ills of our system, which in earlier days only the more aged and moneyed populations read. Our problem as a society now is getting the Money out of our system and having our Political Representatives enact laws/policy for All people instead of the few who donated $$$ and to whom they are 1st and foremost indebted to. We need to replace all elected representatives elected by Money, enact term limits, and consider public financed elections. As a society of decency we need to Stop the Trolling of our Leaders. Started with President Obama, and I worry it won’t stop. I can’t see anything changing until we revamp our entire system. Trump seems to be the TOP TROLL. Ironic what our system has become!
Are we really going to elect another billionaire to be our savior from the Top Troll? Real change needs to start with our new leader and trickle down to all elected representatives or things will just keep feedback looping from one end of the spectrum to the next.
1
Sanders is the riskiest bet against Trump, according to Bret Stephens. I agree. With Russia assisting, if it's true, Sanders will be the nominee of the Democrats, setting up the pairing speculated as preferred by Putin: Trump vs. Sanders. Trump already stated that he won't enter debates for the general election. a wise strategic move, often chosen by those believing they will win without debating. Thus, Sanders, bellowing at Trump's face, won't be the theatre that many Democrats hoped for.
4
“Sanders’s candidacy would represent a large bet…on the willingness of the American public to embrace drastic economic and social change in an era of relative peace and prosperity.”
By prosperity Stephens apparently means for the oligarchs. Is working two or three jobs prosperity? Skyrocketing healthcare costs = prosperity? Crumbling infrastructure? An underfunded education system (unless you are wealthy)? The vast homeless problem? The financialization of the economy at the expense of middle-class manufacturing jobs? CLIMATE CHANGE? A governmental and electoral system that needs vast structural change?
You have to wonder if conservatives like Stephens really want to get rid of Trump or if they just want a Trump-like status quo – with all of the above realities - under a more palatable president.
3
@Michael
You are correct, and many of Sanders proposed policies are sorely needed. However, Sanders has practically no chance of winning a general election. We need to be realistic. Four more years of Trump is the worst possible outcome
1
Mr. Stephens is wrong when he says "the moderate aren't winning". In the two contests so far, a majority of votes have gone to a combination of Klobuchar, Biden, & Buttigieg. (Plus, some of Warren's support includes moderate liberals who are not fans of Sanders.) What needs to happen is a rapid shakeout among these candidates, to consolidate moderate liberals behind one candidate.
I've long suspected it was delusional to believe Bloomberg could be the Democratic nominee, and the recent debate illustrated why.
It would be good to retire two arguments frequently advanced by Sanders partisans:
(1) That "Medicare for All" is the only route to universal coverage, and that every other advanced nation has single-payer. That is false. Germany, Switzerland, and Holland have some variety of "the ACA with a public option" and they have great health care outcomes.
(2) That Hillary Clinton's loss (in the Electoral College, not the popular vote) somehow proves that "Bernie woulda won it". Baloney. If you talk to people outside the progressive bubble, you learn that Sanders would have lost the moderate independents who voted for Clinton.
Also, Sanders would cause losses down the ballot, starting with the two Georgia Senate seats up for election this fall. Talk to the 40 new House Democrats who in 2018 flipped competitive seats previously held by Republicans - ask them what Sanders at the top of the ticket would do to their prospects.
3
First, Democrats attacking other Democrats on-stage is not going to do much to help the Democratic party. This article was written following unfortunate behavior by a few unfortunate people. Elizabeth Warren's partial take-down of Bloomberg was great . . . as long as you are 100% confident she will win both the primary and the election. For her to essentially paint Bloomberg as worse than Trump was simply disgusting. Pete Buttigieg, who really has no chance against Trump, going after Amy Klobuchar for voting to make English the national language -- seriously?! -- was absurd. Thank you helping make Donald Trump's job a lot easier, guys!
333
@blondiegoodlooks
You are soooo right!
I just wanted to scream at the TV “Shut Up!”
Actually I think I did!
28
@blondiegoodlooks
I would suggest not getting that worked up about their performances. People, voters like you and me will see the forest for the trees - the bigger truths are not going away that easily.
9
@blondiegoodlooks
"Warren's partial take-down of Bloomberg was great . . . as long as you are 100% confident she will win both the primary and the election."
Sure, other candidates shouldn't have said boo about the emperor having no clothes - just waited for Trump to come along to do that.
If Bloomberg couldn't see and prepare to respond to those predictable questions in a Democratic debate, he was not just unprepared - he is unfit to compete.
"Unfortunate behavior"? ""Disgusting"? Talk about shooting the messenger and setting up a weak candidate guaranteed to go down to defeat.
24
I think it is time Bret learnt to surprise. "Democrats in Trouble By Bret Stephens" is just so predictable, and so last decade ...
2
Bret, you are the one who said he was grateful when Trump was the loud bully who bellowed that Chrisine Ford was wrong when she accused Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault in 1982.
I believe she was telling the truth. Trump may win election to a second term, but as I've stated before in my N.Y. Times comments the fall of Republicans will be that much harder in 2024 and later if you don't stop voting for him just because you think Democrat candidates are too far left, and this means you're willing to put up with him no matter what.
1
Why do nytimes pundits continually carry Trump's water for him? Why do they and some readers here continually misrepresent Bernie's values? He wants to bring more people into the middle class and stem the redistribution of wealth upward to the smallest population. Bernie wants everyone to have access to health care which will create an economic boom for that middle class. You fear those values more than the rank corruption, moral laxity, and incompetence of the last four years?
2
My question as always for the Never-trump Republicans is that if you were all so smart and knowledgeable, why didn't you stop Trump from taking over your own party when you had the chance in 3016, when you had more power and influence than you do now, sitting on the sidelines and taking potshots at a party you don't even belong to?
If Trump is as bad as you say, didn't you and your Never-trump colleagues have a moral obligation to put forward your own Republican candidate and try to win back your own party?
Or failing that, shouldn't you at least have had the courage to start your own right-center third party to espouse your beliefs instead of demanding that Democrats give up their beliefs and become moderate Republicans?
It's easy to sit on the sidelines and be a scold. You will not be impacted if Trump is reelected. You will still be able to write your columns telling Democrats what a bunch of effete, out-of-touch elitists we are.
It does not seem to me like a very constructive solution to our current problems.
2
Within Stephens subset, the outcome of any election has little more than a peripheral effect. It’s quite obvious that his facile rumination about struggle, self-righteous pleasure and hatred are ideological positions not thought out convictions based on lived experience. This skimpy piece, offering no valid conclusions based on fact, can be dismissed as one of many rocks, wrapped in yellow paper, tossed through the window to sow doubt in a house he passes by on his way to the other side of town.
There couldn’t be a better gift to Trump than 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.
2
Maybe Bret Stephens likes Mike Bloomberg so much because Bloomberg isn't really a Democrat. His history is that he affiliates with the party that suits his convenience at a particular time. Someone who thinks sending police out to throw children against walls is a great idea is not someone who should be given control over the Department of Justice, election year apologies notwithstanding.
1
If Bernie is the party's nominee, we've lost. He comes across as an angry old white man, a caricature. The Republicans will run ad after ad showing him calling for revolution. I hope Bloomberg learned his lesson. I suspect he's the one who can go toe to toe with the current occupant of the Oval Office and out-chutzpah him.
2
Shame on the Democrats. In this entire United States, all 50 of the, they couldn’t come up with better candidates?
And to think Sarah Palin once made it all the way to almost Vice President!
1
You the media put too much stock in what these Iowa and NH voters think and that is what has brought us here to this place.
They represent a small sector of the older white upper middle class and younger white upper middle class.
You the media create this news cycle - interviewing a few white old voters in Iowa or a few young Bernie supporters in NH.
Joe Biden is still the best candidate to take on Trump and lead this country back to a sane place.
Just what we need, another neoconservative intellectual deep thinker to tell the Democrats that they need to run a fellow Republican neoconservative against Trump in 2020. Namely, Mike Bloomberg, the Republican multi billionaire from New York. He supported George W. Bush for president in 2000 and endorsed Bush’s reelection in 2004. Bloomberg has consistently heaped praise on the criminal invasion of Iraq, a crowning achievement of he and his ilk. Mike's a big funder of many hard right republican candidates, Including Susan Collins, Lindsey Graham and Scott Brown against Warren. It's only since Since 2018, that Bloomberg has been doing business as a Democrat, having switched party affiliation to accommodate his new political ambitions. He pursued school-charter privatization plans, constantly attacked teachers and their unions, and advocated larger school class sizes. Bloomberg’s massive six-fold expansion of the “Stop and Frisk” program he “inherited” from Giuliani, which was, thank only to the ACLU, eventually ruled unconstitutional. He is in lock step with the efforts to cut or privatize Social Security and Medicare. And he did not support the ACA. Mike thinks federal spending to address the climate crisis would be “unaffordable.” Does Mike promise any change in the aggressive foreign policy, interventionism, escalated bombing campaigns, or primacy of the military budget under the Trump- GOP? Nope. C'mon Bret, if you prefer Trump, just admit it already.
1
I’m an ‘anyone but Trump’ Republican. I’m going to vote for the Democratic nominee no matter who it may be but if it’s Sanders my vote will be in vain. Lot’s of people on these comment sections know the difference between a Democratic Socialist and a Totalitarian. Most of the people I know do not. Most think Sanders’ brand of socialism is equivalent to totalitarianism but fail to see that Trump is a dictator. They unknowingly prefer a dictatorship to anyone/anything that bears ‘socialism’ as a descriptor. Bernie has done a very poor job of educating the electorate about these simple distinctions and he will fail miserably. It’s very sad.
2
The GOP, with Trump at their head, are in far worse trouble. Profoundly so.
1
A lot of words here about definitions. Americans don’t care.
What I see, Sanders = McGovern
It will take a generation to repair the government, if then.
And I will die a very disappointed Progressive.
4
Bloomberg is a terrible candidate, as Biden is, or Hillary Clinton was. And this is not because they are moderate. I think Klombuchar is a quite good candidate and Buttigieg is ok as well (but lacks experience definitely). But I am not sure they can win the primary at this point.
1
The democrats are in trouble. They have been infiltrated by republicans called "moderate" democrats. These interlopers have driven the DFL so far right they are hardly indistinguishable from their more successful opponents, the openly republican republicans, who are actually their allies. The democrats will permanently lose many real liberals if they continue to include right wing politicians in their midst. They will absolutely lose me.
Trump simply shows how deeply corrupt the system is. This system cannot stop the corrupt criminal Trump because it was never about justice, protecting the people from threats or following the constitution. It was and is about squeezing every last drop of profit possible out of the sheepish and ignorant people of the US and the world.
1
With respect to your comment about senior moments, the NYT reported about five weeks ago that there’s no such thing, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/10/opinion/sunday/age-memory.html?referringSource=articleShare Did you not read that article, or did you forget? In any event, I thought that unfair and unfortunate attack on Amy Klobuchar led to the night’s high point (a low bar, I know), when Elizabeth Warren exhibited integrity by calling out the attack for what it was and defending Klobuchar. If only there were more moments like that, instead of the circular firing squad we witnessed during too much of the “debate.”
1
Trump didn’t drain the swamp. Hillary wouldn’t have either. Bernie might actually do that. And, he wouldn’t do so many of the crazy things that Trumps advisors have him doing. Get on board NY Times - you’re either part of the solution or part of the problem - and right now you’re part of the problem.
Listen Brett if you were the dems candidate then we would be in trouble. More to the point the trouble we are in is named Don Trump.
Even more to the point is the fact that the convention is where the cake will be baked. Bernie will not have the needed 1991 going in.It will get sorted out the way it should, by rounds of voting until someone comes out with 1991.
That candidate is in a great position because that person is not don trump.
That candidate is going to win because the American people maybe naive, but are not stupid.
If Bernie wins he must pass his legislation through the house and senate, he is not a King like Trump as we all know.
There will be plenty of compromise and watering down of whatever the proposals are.
Relax Bret. You are not scaring anyone, just yourself.
1
"There’s a certain self-righteous pleasure in hating Trump, as well as an entire cottage industry devoted to indulging that hatred, which would mostly vanish the moment he left office."
There is also an entire cottage industry devoted to worshiping Trump, which would simply move on to indulging the self-righteous pleasure of hating whichever Democrat might win the presidency.
Maybe the “Trump” card is held by intelligence officers with the ability to dig deep enough to provide proof that president Trump is under Putin’s control, and sharing that proof publicly.
I know that sounds crazy. But I feel deep in my gut that the hypothesis is true beyond doubt.
I am disgusted with the lot of them and still haven’t filled out my mail-in primary ballot, but I don’t know why anyone thought Bloomberg would be a good choice. He isn’t that well known outside of New York and being an arrogant billionaire ex mayor with a low opinion of the intelligence of Midwestern farmers does not qualify him to be president.
"willingness of the American public to embrace drastic economic and social change in an era of relative peace and prosperity" is irrelevant because Sanders as president would almost certainly not be able to appreciably achieve what he wishes. The ONLY issue is to remove Trump. Bernie could be an unalloyed communist at heart but he won't do the damage that the deranged narcissist has done. A president gets too much credit and too much blame.
Bret, you hit the nail right on the head. I'm not clairvoyant, but as an independent, if Bernie gets the nomination, I'll hold my nose and vote for him knowing deep down that we're looking at another four years of that lowlife that currently occupies the cesspool of corruption that is the white house. I would like nothing better than to be proven wrong in my assessment of the upcoming race.
I was with you, to a point, until you claimed, “maybe Democrats aren’t being entirely honest with themselves when they claim their first priority is to end Trump’s presidency as soon as possible. There’s a certain self-righteous pleasure in hating Trump, as well as an entire cottage industry devoted to indulging that hatred, which would mostly vanish the moment he left office.”
This is insulting to the millions of Americans who see the President denigrate our nation’s institutions on a daily basis. I mean, forget how he interferes with criminal investigations, puts kids in cages, slashes environmental regulations, puts incompetent people in charge of federal agencies, attempts to exert pressure on the federal judiciary, or any of the other reasons why he’s a bad President. No, according to you, Democrats love the feeling of hate more than all the bad things he’s done in office. What a horrible mindset to have.
The very least you can say about Bernie is that he wouldn’t do any of those things, which is better than what will happen with a Trump re-elect.
3
The Democrats are in trouble? No no - the country is in trouble, Bret. The status quo is dead; accept it.
1
This is laughable. For the first time in almost 4 years we have an actual "democratic" debate and the hoipoloi are lamenting the lack of discipline and chaos of democracy.
1
Bernie Sanders is a failed Senator who would be a worse President. After decades in the Senate with no legislative success to his credit he wants to head a party of which he is not even a member. He will lose 40 states to the worst President in American history bringing on the end of the American Republic.
2
I wasn't Bernie fan at the beginning, but without Bernie the democratic party chances without millennials are doomed to loose to the loser already in the whitehouse. I am either voting for Bernie or Warren. The media should stop demonizing Bernie.Gee.
1
bloomberg is an opportunist ... sees fear of trump as an opportunity to return to power in the political arena ... using his money for a last shot ... not noblesse oblige ... he is not a model for acting with generosity and nobility toward those less privileged ... much of his philantropy while NYC mayor and present is coordinated with his political ambitions ... he openly bought power and a third term as mayor and now he is trying to buy the democratic nomination and then the presidency ...
1
How many acting positions does it take for Putin to take control of our military actions, sanctions against countries or aid to other countries. Humanitarian or military. Yeah, it's all about party not country. Wrong!!
Your implication that Democrats WANT Trump to win again is despicable, Bret, especially since you have publicly written that you won't vote for Sanders if he gets the nomination. You think we're the ones contributing to a second Trump term? I recommend you take a long, hard look in the mirror.
1
Bret, Bret, Bret....
What are you doing giving us advice?
You’re a conservative. Fine. Nothing wrong with that.
You supported the GOP for years as it preached fear and hate. Not so fine.
You thus helped make Trump inevitable. Really, really not fine.
Forgive us if we are a tad dismissive of your advice. I am a moderate, and will not vote for Bernie in the primary. But if he’s the nominee, he gets my vote.
You? Go give your party—and it’s your party even if you now disavow it—some advice about how to look in the mirror to see who has begun to destroy our country.
1
Of course the Democrats are in trouble: they're American, and all Americans are in trouble. Witness this article by Stephens. Even as the clock ticks down on democracy, he can't but take a partisan position. In the era of the thug-as-president, the GOP and its hangers-on ring-fence the bullying, blustering liar against the forces of law and order and the constitution. And the bitter dividing forces of arrogant ignorance have indeed fractured the Democratic Party. Sanders was the only one on the Vegas stage to refuse to abide by the decisions of the DNC selection conference. We're accustomed to his snarls of rejection, but this was a declaration of rebellion against the party of which he is not even a member. Wake up America.
1
My other half turned from the TV midway through Wednesday’s debate and said: “look, it’s the committee to re-elect Donald Trump.”
These debates - the networks that stage them and the anchors who pose nothing but the same divisive questions every outing - are a disservice to the voters. The candidates should boycott them.
1
It doesn’t matter.
I don’t care.
Get over it.
Bloomberg can beat trump.
End of nightmare.
1
Brett get on board the Progressive socialist train. Dems pandered to the centrist last time and got burned by Hillary. Lets see if the message can stick this time. Medicare for all. Free college tuition. Tax the rich. Seems pretty good to this conservative independent voter in Arizona
Mike Bloomberg entered the race late, by design. As my late father coached me about competitions. It is not how you start, it is how you finish. Trump did not come out of the gate leading the race in 2016.
I agree, the Democrats are in trouble, however that isn’t something I attribute to Mike Bloomberg.
The Democrats haven’t any united message. They span a range from insanely socialist, some Marxist, some a blend, some moderate & there’s no message of cohesion.
Here’s where Republicans are brilliant: they present a united front and they know how to turn people in to their cheerleaders. The Democrats have plans & all of this, but they cannot connect with greater America on a large scale. They polarize moderates & that’s easily half the country.
Yes, I understand the stats of education, etc. but if you need moderates to win, learn to tailor that message. The thing is, the left is going to vote for a democrat (in general). The right (typically) will not. They need to be courted.
Look at how many have abandoned either party to become independents. To me that says much of the American people are fed up.
Why can a debate foe just ask how Sanders will:
• Throw trillions at :
Healthcare, Climate change and Education
And not balloon, if not double the deficit?
• Who are the economists he has attracted to explain the math
• Debate wise : Ask if he can stop interrupting, if listening is not a better skill how can he pass legislation?
• How can anyone listen if he shouts and points into their chests?
• Ask him how he garnered support to pass legislation and what was it?
Get into the technicality of governing – that Bloomberg has had experience if not success in !
I'm afraid he's right, and because of that I'm afraid
So let's review the Democrats presidential candidates so far. Their strategy has been to debate the fine points of healthcare, while Trump dismantles democracy. Then attack each other giving him election talking points while having no unifying message. What could go wrong?
1
It seems to me that Mr. Stephens is accusing the Democrats of Munchausen by Proxy. This is a pretty egregious charge, considering the Never Trump movement has no solutions, only criticism. Assuming they are as horrified as the rest of us at the prospect of another 4 years (and possibly more) of Trump, then why is there no constructive advice? Obviously, Bill Weld is not an option, and Bloomberg, while attractive for many reasons, just might split an already difficult field. Instead of talking about all the negatives of the remaining candidates, can't we just talk about positives? Let's get Trump out of office and then work on policy and issues from a sane and rational perspective. The circular firing squad is weakening the fervor needed by all of us to protect our very fragile democracy.
1
2016 was a debacle. No need to reiterate that failure again. Right now, 2020 doesn't look so great either. The Dems need to professionalize as the GOP and Trump have already done, as that is the way the game is now played in the 21st century.
Notwithstanding the polls, Sanders will be unable to defeat Trump with his Medicare for all costs, vs Trumps billion dollars, which he already has in his bank, and growing daily.
Based upon the foregoing, I think the strongest candidate would be Warren with her multiplicity of proposed programs, with proposed financing promised by Bloomberg, would have the best chance of taking on Trump and Russia.
The American people are low information voters, if they vote at all. Most are too busy to pay close attention, and frankly many are too lazy to become informed. And, yes, they WILL vote against their own interests to keep something away from ‘others.’ Remember, the Tea party primarily was against taxes going for things/people/programs they didn’t like, not against taxes per se.
Having said that, Sanders and Warren have a near zero chance of carrying the electoral college once the ads saying ‘your tax dollars are paying for his/her FREE college’, ‘he’s a socialist’, ‘she wants to take your insurance away’ run. The first and third of these will alienate swing voters, and all three will will alienate voters in places like McComb Michigan, Erie Pennsylvania, most of NY except Buffalo and NYC, and Florida.
Nominate either and set your calendars to see the second Trump inauguration.
If you are a resident of one of the blue large cities or college towns, I understand your desires and perspectives and agree with your wishes. But, you are in the electoral college (not absolute) minority, and need to vote practically not emotionally.
3
Sure Mr Stephens makes perfect sense. Be afraid, be very afraid. Fear equality, fear unity, fear health, fear education, fear peace, fear love, fear justice, fear truth, fear clean air and clean water, certainly fear your neighbors poodle, it’s definitely a socialist. People make the best decisions when they’re afraid. How does that famous saying go? “We the people”—who are scared out of our minds of a more perfect union? Now look at the fabulous fear wall we built on the border.
Let’s wake up from Stephens chilling world view and get back to the reality we live in and work together to beat Trump with courage, compassion and respect for one another.
3
Look, Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada represent less than 3 percent of our nations population and that gives us cause to jump around like our hair's on fire that Bernie's going to win the nomination and be led into the Trump slaughter machine? Hardly, the best coasts haven't had their say yet and the media needs the revenue, so step back from the edge and relax.
@Kurt Pickard
Well, with Sanders in the lead, the Dem's hair IS on fire. He is not even a member of the party.
1
Younger males do not like, will not vote for old guys, like Sanders and Bloomy. Platform and policy will not prevail. Trump will rule for four more
@Slack Isn't Trump an old guy too?
Purity party or defeat the most dangerous threat to American democracy. That is the choice facing Democrats. Their wise decision will affect the country for ever. Bloomberg has a good chance of attracting a Diverse group of Democrats, independents,and disaffected Republicans. Bernie has a solid 35 percent of the Democratic party. Bloomberg with Klobashar as vice president can topple the worst president in American history.
They can capture the electoral votes that are essential to victory in November. If you think the skeleton's in Bloomberg's closet are bad,wait until the Republican opposition floods unlimited airtime with Bernie's previous statements. Those ads will play relentlessly in crucial swing districts. If Democrats nominate Bernie, we face 4 more years of an incompetent, immoral and criminal president. Pick Bernie and there will be alot of grief next January. The pain will not only be for Democrats.
2
There are no "moderate" Dem candidates. The most outspoken and relentless "liberal" or "progressive" (read regressive) wing of the party will dictate the direction it will go if they regain power. Where this will lead can be seen in Virginia and New York where Democrats now control the entire government. California is another example. Once in complete control Democrats waste no time in imposing the most radical policies possible, cheered on by their followers. In NY this means a ban on fracking, a ban on foie gras, an attack on landlords and real estate brokers, an attack on charter schools, a $6b deficit related to Medicaid spending, moving toward giving criminals more rights than victims, giving out state IDs to illegal immigrants and calling for providing them free health care, etc., etc. On a national level free everything is on the agenda, with free housing, food and who knows what else to follow likely once all the other free things, health care, preschool, guaranteed income, etc. are provided, along with slave reparations of course. The Dem agenda is to destroy America as we know it and to use the 1619 Project as a model for spreading propaganda Democrats are eager to accept regardless of having any basis in truth or reality. Most NY Times readers will find this assessment paranoid, but as we've seen for the last 2 plus years in which virtually all Democrats believed in the fairytale of Russian COLLUSION, which many still believe, sometimes being paranoid is justified
2
@Peter. You may, arguably, be right in some of the examples you’ve selected, but I’d much rather live in a society struggling over the parameters of its care for its citizenry, than one dedicated to hoarding it’s resources by and for those in power. The issues at stake truly are civilization vs. the jungle!
1
Spread the word: Dem rules are that all primary candidates with “under 15%” votes in a district get ZERO delegates. Their delegates are reapportioned to the “over 15% candidates.” For those of us who do not want Bernie, we MUST vote in the primaries only for candidates who are very likely to reach that critical 15% threshold. Be aware in your state/district who those few are!
ONE less lied into war and it's "free" college for EVERY American for the next half century it was estimated. Can every naysayer JUST STOP with the "free" label and deal with how we spend our tax money, and the billions we waste starting wars to protect corporate interests and oil?
2
No one cared about Trump’s gasping, and sniffling, and weaseling about the debate stage. His supporters projected his poor performances as having out performed HRC. There’s hope for Little Mike yet.
Dems should definitely go with a strong moderate. Who here doesn't remember John Kerry's landslide win in 2004?
3
@Jeremy
And who doesn't remember Bloomberg endorsing Kerry's republican opponent in 2004?
@Jeremy: Picking Lieberman for VP was suicide.
The problem isn't that Democrats on the left have overlearned the lessons of 2016 but rather that they've underlearned the lessons of 2018- the year that the House garnered a Democratic majority because public fears that the Affordable Care Act would be flushed down the drain by Trump and his lickspittles pushed voters into electing the most moderate Democrats in sight. Now it's Bernie who wants to trash the ACA, leaving the majority of Americans in the untenable position of wondering which major party nominee will end up doing the least amount of harm to a program they now deem unexpendable. Mr. Biden, Ms. Klobucher, Mr. Buttigieg: start flipping coins. Two of you have to go.
6
If, somehow, Bernie pulls it off, despite Fox News, voter suppression, Russian tampering, Facebook, Trump's constant lying, it will be the biggest miricle of my long life.
In just days, we have gone from the rottenness of Trump almost guaranteeing a loss, to Trump being a shoe-in if he and Putin get to run against Bernie.
It doesn't matter how far Bernie is to the left. What matters is that he can be demonized as such. Will it stick? You bet it will. And Putin is betting on it too.
1