Yes I will vote for Bernie. In fact I will even vote for anyone who is deaf, dumb, and blind against Putin's Donald Trump.
But please, don't cite me any national polls as I well remember those national polls of 2016.
Cite me some state polls please.
187
@Notmypresident i believe the state polls show Bernie doing just as well if not better, especially in midwest swing states.
13
@Notmypresident
Maybe we should all do our own research on a matter this important. If you do take advice from someone else, check to see if they foresaw Bernie's and Trump's successes in 2016, Bernie's success right now, Brexit, Boris Johnson, Mueller's findings, fallout from Ukraine thing, Stormy Daniels/Avenatti, Cohen, etc. - so many Red Herrings from our Establishment out there. Seeing these and correctly interpreting the various data seems to be difficult for many in the NYT echo chamber.
1
@Notmypresident
AGREED!
How is he doing in Michigan, Florida, Pennsylvania and Wyoming?
I keep going back to Sander’s campaign website with the goal of making a list of his more “unelectable” positions. But every time I do, I get overwhelmed by the number of really kookie ideas that range from the not practical to the bad. That doesn’t even include the ideas that are just corny, like “End Global Inequality” by convening a summit of third world countries. Really! In his everything for “free” pitch, Sanders will provide FREE healthcare, FREE college, FREE year round meals (breakfast lunch and dinner) and pretty much FREE housing. Sanders will institute federal rent controls and federal standards for eviction – overriding traditional local control of housing. Don’t have a job, under Sanders the federal government will guarantee you a job. And, the Sanders policy that most makes him vulnerable to the “communist” charge, Sanders will take away 20 percent ownership in large companies and give that ownership to employees. I am aware of the irony that many reading this comment may react in the opposite way that I intend and say to themselves, “Wow, that all sounds good!” And, sure, some of this does sound good. Easy to be mesmerized by the good stuff if the tough stuff, like taxes and growth of government and regulation, is ignored. I sometimes feel as though Sanders accuses all those who have worked so hard to make progress on these perennial, complex issues of not caring as much as he does. Not right.
145
@R.
If the GULF we now have between "haves" and have nots" represents progress I would hate to see what it would be like without all that 'hard work' of the democratic establishment. I don't buy it - the numbers don't lie. Just ask Bernie.
30
@R.
Which of those goals do you not support, and why? I 100% agree they will not be easy to obtain, and I can't in my most optimistic moment imagine that all will be accomplished in the next decade, but what value is there in not trying to accomplish what we believe in.
We need change in this country. Change can be hard, and scary, and sometimes, we'll fail.
None of those are reasons not to try.
52
@R.
He thinks that by just condemning a problem is solving a problem. He's a dreamer, not a doer.
22
"clearly"? wishful thinking from an writer who still doesn't seem to understand why Hillary lost, nor ever for a moment thought that Trump could possibly win.
The human minds avoids cognitive dissonance, grasps at hope, and thrives on confirmation bias.
Thus, the echo chamber is so cozy and comfortable
4
I’m willing to bet most young people think that socialism has something to do with social media, which they support.
16
I have no time for Trotskyites, and neither do the voters who matter. There's no way an old commie like Sanders will ever win the electoral college. Trump's team will annihilate him.
7
Are Bernie's ideas really that radical? Medicare for All ? This is far less radical than Trump's objective to let persons with pre-existing medical conditions fend for themselves. Medical coverage for undocumented aliens? Without undocumented aliens millions of tons of fruits and vegetables will rot in fields, causing exorbitant inflation of produce prices. Free tuition at public colleges? By taxing mega corporations what they should actually pay, free tuition for all becomes perfectly affordable. Bernie is far more profound than his "political revolution" exhortations. And his ideas are no more radical than the socialist programs initiated by FDR in the 1930s such as the Social Security Act and the Works Progress Administration. Trump may be licking his chops at the prospect of facing Bernie but when voters go to the polls and ask themselves the question Have I been better off since Trump's inauguration the answer is decidedly NO. And those with pre-existing medical conditions should shudder at the thought of Trump in office through January 2025.
6
Unless millennials and minorities show up in force at the polls, I fear Mr. Sanders will go down in flames based on the electoral college. While I agree with many of his platform positions, many in this country will have a negative limbic brain function reaction to anything labeled 'socialist'. Perhaps this is due to my living in Texas where I see visceral reactions toward him. At the same time there are pockets of support in the lone star state for him. The question is whether people will vote in numbers like they did for Obama.
I am an optimist and if he is the candidate, I will vote for him. Heck I'd vote for the chimpanzee that starred with Ronald Reagan, if he were alive. I am voting straight ticket democrat, in the attempt to rid this country of what we have experienced the last 12 years with the republican party.
4
Bernie: Mom, I want cake for breakfast every day.
Mom: No honey, I'll make you a waffle, but no butter and only a few drops of maple syrup. But only if you eat the berries with it.
Bernie: But Mom!
Mom: We can't afford it. On any of our birthdays, you can have whatever you want. And if dad gets his bonus this year, I'll bake you a chocolate cake.
Bernie: But Mom, you can afford it!
Mom: Sweetie, one day you will understand. We have huge mortgage payments to make to China, we need a new roof, buy a new clean Tesla and we haven't even thought about how to pay for Grandma and grandpa's retirement home costs. We have too much debt, sweetie.
Bernie, stamping his hoof: I want cake! I want everyone to have cake, all the time! And we want it now!
Mom: Sweetie, get real, even in Scandinavia they don't eat cake every day. Once you grow up, you can do whatever you want as long as you can afford your dad's and my retirement home and pay the taxes to finance healthcare for everyone.
1
I think many of Bernie's programs sound interesting. They aim to deal with real problems. How is he going to pay for them though? How do we implement them without killing the goose that laid the golden egg: the US economy. Telling me you don't know is not good enough. We have too much at stake.
There are two populists in the US- Bernie and the con man pathological liar in the White House. Both thrive on exploiting anger of the people to manipulate them. Con man sold pipe dreams and got elected. The other one is doing the same selling pipe dreams to,people. Bernie knows very well that his pipe dreams have zero chance of passing in the Congress and Senate.
Alas, people don’t learn. Bernie the con man is playing the same game as the con man. Like a genius con man, he did steer most of the primary candidates to take extreme position on issues knowing that he will be the winner at the end. He is 78 and never had a real job in his life. As a professional politician, his income came from us the tax payers. He has a pathetic record in Congress and his accomplishments are almost none. Some people are falling for the manipulation game without looking into his skills or the past. Even if he gets elected, he will be a President with zero accomplishments.. People wake up- talk is cheap, walk the walk is hard.
3
I love my Medicare, I wish everyone had it.
I was in the hospital recently. A nurse came in to change my saline water IV. There was perhaps, 2 or 3 ounces left. She said, "I'll come back. I want you to get every drop. It costs you $900.00"
If you're not on Medicare it costs YOU $900, it didn't cost me anything. $0.00
2
I’m not a huge fan of Bernie’s because in Congress he has never done much of anything — too much of a purist.
But look what Trump has done single-handedly! Who needs Congress any more? Just imagine how many executive orders Bernie could sign on Day One!
Maybe we need to get Ginsburg’s personal trainer working out Bernie’s writing hand.
“Now three reps of 20 — sign! sign! sign! sign! You can do it!”
1
A Handy Guide
Capitalism: Anybody can be rich.
Communism: Nobody can be rich.
Socialism: Anybody can be rich, but no one should be poor.
4
Thank you for saying this! At least we should be trying with all our might to get our taxes to work for us so we personally get something in return instead of the Military industrial complex and gov't contractors buddy system which is currently at play. The sky is falling bunch at the NYT and Washington Post need to understand Bernie is most likly going to win. Failed centrist milk toast ideas and bumbling speeches won't work against a tyrant. Look what happend last time. Why would we repeat that.
2
Didn't anyone see Bernie's interview on 60 minutes? He still has no idea of how much everything being free is going to cost this country. He also thought Fidel Castro had a few good ideas.
If he is so gung ho on all this free stuff why has he done so little during his decades in the Senate?
I'm sure most folks want all US citizens to have good medical insurance yet we are not going to get there in one giant leap. If the Democrats don't get the presidency, nor the Senate and dont keep the House nothing will get done and if they lose all 3 no one will have anything.
3
Go to GovTrack. Bernie's legislative record is nil, right up there with Jim Inhofe from Oklahoma (Yes, the guy with the snow ball!). Don't think it will be any better as president.
3
It is astounding to me that Democratic elected politicians and current presidential candidates are tearing Bernie down by repeating these false charges. They should be ashamed. They should be explaining why these attempts to damage Bernie's candidacy are based on false notions of socialism vs. Communism. The blatant self-serving statements of the so-called 'moderate' candidates are especially despicable.
3
Bernie was not my first choice. But he's got momentum, and he has support from the young and diverse. Very few of the other candidates will inspire this vote. Bernie's honest (wouldn't that be refreshing?) and even though some of his policies seem idealistic and it is challenging to fathom how his programs will all be paid for, I'm willing to give him the chance to show us how. Bernie's got my vote. We have in Bernie the possibility of defeating that embarrassment in the White House!
4
The country already voted for a political revolution. No reason to think they won't do it again.
4
Bernie can start by saying loudly and proudly, what anyone in a democratic-socialist country should be able to say: that he is a “capitalist that believes in social justice”. That's what all the leaders in European democratic-socialist countries say. If Bernie can't say that, regardless of whether he actually believes it, then I don’t see how he beats all the lies and propaganda that ALSO delivers him a Dem-controlled Congress that he'll need to enact his policies.
Eking out a slim victory over Trump, with a split Congress, would make a Bernie victory seem almost pointless. And the pent-up frustration, of unrealized promises on both sides could break the country.
Bernie should stop worrying about his socialist bona fides, stop preaching to the choir, and start talking about ‘capitalism’ and it's compatibility with the socially-progressive policies he’s pushing. Explain how ‘Debt Fear’ is a mirage if we stop giving tax breaks to the wealthy.
He needs to stop romanticizing ‘revolution’ and speak to the American voters he needs, in terms they care about. Every successful candidate for president has learned how to soften the hard edges and do that for a national audience, to attract new voters. That's how Bernie wins, and wins big, with a Democratic congress.
5
This article asks what D.S.A. believes in. Is anyone asking what G.O.P. believes in? If you could manage to get honest answers and compare the two, I have no doubt that Bernie and the D.S.A. are standing on the sturdier platform for long term American prosperity.
7
My least favorite Democratic candidate: Bernie.
Not only because I think he has no chance of winning against Trump, but because I disagree with almost everything he says.
I like his universal health care (which will NEVER, EVER pass), but that's it.
Free college? I'm paying for my kids education, why do I have to pay for other kids too? $2.5T to build $10M homes (from his own website, so don't argue with me)?
That is $2.5M per home, does not sound like a good plan. Free child care? Again, I paid for my children's care, why do I have to pay for your kids now? And on and on goes the list of free stuff. No one ever took the time to add up the total for this laundry list of great stuff.
The kind of policies that work great when you are the opposition, but do not work at all when you are actually the one in charge.
If it comes to Trump vs Bernie, I will vote for Bernie, but I will not like it. All remaining D candidates are better than Trump, but that is a very low bar (I considering Trump to be anti-democratic, self serving ...).
5
Why wouldn't you want a better future for your own children, even if it doesn't benefit you currently? Extremely short sighted and selfish.
3
I agree with much that is said in this article, but, please, there was no landslide in Nevada.
Only 2% of the population voted, that is 54,000 out of 3,000,000.
Bernie garnered only 33% of the raw vote.
A win, yes, but a landslide, absolutely not.
I support Warren.
6
@Wsheridan Agreed that much is being made from these relatively small numbers. This is no avalanche of support. The moderate vote is fractured among many.
Early voted started in MA today.
“There can be nothing in common between the opulent egoist, who sighs for inequality and kings, and the sans-culotte, full of candor, who loves only the Republic and equality.” —Bertrand Barère addressing the Convention (at Robespierre’s behest)
This came after a Parisian fraternal banquet, where the rich and poor came together to celebrate July 14. Robespierre was upset that these fraternal meals might give the rich a chance to curry favor with the poor.
The impulse that drove Maximilien Robespierre to try and stop these goings-on is exactly the one on display amongst radical leftists today. And it’s much of the reason why revolutions for equality, rather than liberty, so often become so destructive. Creating a healthy business environment is more important for the well-being of the disadvantaged than any welfare program—which doesn’t mean we should end these programs, as libertarians seem to imagine.
But some of the reforms this country needs are exactly the opposite of what leftists imagine. Look at cities, even states, where the Left dominates. If promises of a workers’ paradise were enough, would not we have seen this paradise’s instantiation? Socialism has produced more misery over the past 100 years than any other ideology. Social democracies, too, engender problems—if not properly constrained. Centrists, unlike ideologues, know that in a diverse country like America, compromise is a necessity, not a luxury: Not everyone agrees with you, and you’re not always right.
2
I’ll vote blue no matter who, as everyone should, but right now Warren is my first choice.
Main thing: Vote out donald.
8
"Furthermore, there are jitters among the Democratic political class that Sanders is running against them, not with them, and will have a negative effect down ballot."
I think Mr. Blow has that argument upside down; everyone who reads the main media outlets, including the New York Times, knows very well that from the moment Sanders decided to run, it is the Democratic establishment that decided to run against him.
3
Bernie Sanders can’t win. Oh, wait...was I supposed to stop saying that? I’m sorry...let me re-phrase that. Bernie Sanders can’t win.
2
I feel like any article talking about electability that doesn't mention the swing states actually in play this election will crash into the rocks of our electoral college. We can't change the rules this far into the game so we need to ask ourselves: How does Bernie (or any of the other candidates) look to people in Florida, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Arizona, and North Carolina (if you trust https://www.270towin.com/) and the other states that are not firmly blue or red.
We are living in a Floridocracy and we need to learn how to accept that fact.
Will Sanders be able to attract independents and swing voters in the industrial Mid West? That's where the election will be won or lost. The Republicans will tar Bernie with the socialist/communist label, based on his past comments about left win authoritarians and his attacks on the wealthy. They will scare the bejesus out of those rock ribbed swing voters. He won't modify his rhetoric, and he will alienate many in the swing states the Democrats need to win. Bernie is the worst choice Democrats can make to pick up the 77,000 or so votes in the Mid West needed to swing the election and to rid the country of Trump and his sycophants.
4
Why is it that even the Op-Eds that are defending Bernie spend most of their time attacking him?
3
OMG, am I actually reading an article that doesn't attack Sanders based on some absurd points like "electability" or "his supporters are big meanies, being nice usually works so well in politics!". As Sanders is leading in the polls, even against Trump, obviously he can win. Did pundits think the winners would be those candidates that are losing? Is it not obvious he electable since he is being elected by the Dems? Is it not obvious that the person who can win against Trump can't be nice Republican lite? Trump is right about one thing: N.Y. Times and WaPo are, for the most part, fake news, based on corporate control. Seriously, who would support Bloomberg other than those who've been paid to do so?
1
Bernie can match up with Trump. The President a policy vacuum on every issue we face. From the environment to immigration Trump runs contrary to public sentiment. Bernie a decent human being provides a sharp contrast to Captain Queeg now frantically searching for strawberry thieves within his administration.
A decent man contrasted with an inveterate liar serial offender amoral and unprincipled. Not to worry voters will figure solve this puzzle.
2
I'm not a fan of Bernie, but I will absolutely vote for him if he's the Democratic nominee (I'd also vote for my cat if he ran against trump). I'd rather have democratic socialism than the monarchy we inch closer to day by day. #AnySaneAdult2020 #Fitz2020
3
As soon as older Black voters get over their romance with Biden and his lip service, and realize that Bernie was advocating for true equal rights under the law since college, and his platform now contains the very equalizing proposals that the civil rights movement has always advocated there just might be a surge in his favor. I hope so- a true rainbow coalition might be brewing that could capture the hearts of all Americans for equality and social justice. And, put the punk in the White House into juvenile detention.
2
Nobody knows what the definition of a "Democratic Socialist" is because even Bernie doesn't know the specifics, all Bernie knows is that it sounds good to the Dem/Left blind followers who buy in to the never-ending Dem/Left class warfare mantra. All rich people are evil and taxing those most evil of all, billionaires, OMG he says the term billionaire about every ten words, is what is going to save the world. It's just beyond ridiculous, the tax loopholes will remain, and the ultra-rich have the resources to move their money overseas etc. Bernie's free everything for everyone is a left fantasy, but the jealous goofballs on the left will vote for Bernie to stick it to those evil rich---beyond juvenile/jealousy. The other 75% of sane America will have no choice but to vote for Trump.
4
@Charles
+70% of American's aren't going to sit idly and watch 18 million undocumented immigrants bestowed with free healthcare and college tuition. Bernie will never win the Midwest or South..
4
Let's vet this man and his actions. He has voted against sanctioning Russia 4 times, for both human rights violations and for interfering in our elections. One of those times, in 2017, he was one of two people in the entire Congress who voted against sanctioning Russia. And now we know from both intelligence and Robert Mueller that Russia has been working in his favor. Could that be the reason for the vote?When did he know and how did he deal with it?
He has voted against gun violence so many times, it's notable when he doesn't. He has voted against the Amber Act. Voted in favor of dumping nuclear waste on the poor and predominantly Latinx community of Sierra Blanca, Texas, when asked if he would visit the site in Sierra Blanca, answered “Absolutely not.” So much for ecology. The man is long on half-baked ideas and exceptionally short on results. His hurdles are the kind of issues that keep people awake at night. Programs are not written on the back of cocktail napkins and presented to the public as fully formed programs, unless your name is Bernard Sanders. The man is the flip side of the trump coin. He has not been vetted and this is just the start of it. There's a good reason why Putin is aiding him - he's the perfect foil to the impeached president and soooo easy to defeat. Once he's been vetted.
3
Other advanced countries are full of democratic socialist parties, yet the Trumpian base and far too many consider democratic socialism akin to commie pure.
Those advanced nations have a social conscience, not only by providing universal health care, free higher education, a stable safety net for those without jobs, but in some nations there a union members sitting on the boards of directors, while on these shores unions are suffocated.
When it comes to the average Joe Schmo, I'll never forget the posts of several on-line commenters in the Washington Post during the Obama administration.
They insisted that fascism was an arch-left ideology, only because the German NSDAP had the little word "sozialistisch" in its party's name.
It's not the economy stupid. It's the lack of education, stupid..
2
Mr. Blow repeats as fact an unconfirmed report, namely that Trump prefers to run against Bernie. Trump is playing mind games! I have no doubt that Bernie is the last candidate Trump wants to face.
1
This op-ed isn't exactly a ringing endorsement.
1
Go Bernie Go #artistsforbernie
The platform that Bernie is running on is no different than the message any number of religious faiths tout as their core beliefs to paraphrase one such belief system:
Deuteronomy 15:7 and 11
7 ¶ If there be among you a poor man of one of thy brethren within any of thy agates in thy land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not bharden thine heart, nor shut thine hand from thy poor brother
For the poor shall never cease out of the land: therefore I command thee, saying, Thou shalt open thine hand wide unto thy brother, to thy poor, and to thy needy, in thy land.
1
Given Trump's corruption, lies, contempt for the law and truth, incompetence, terrible judgment, bigotry and hatefulness, negativity, and self-absorption; plus putting children in cages, seriously violating the Constitution, engaging in the political assassination of a foreign leader, and abandoning the Kurds on the battlefield when they were helping us against ISIS, I don't really understand why anyone with pulse, a functioning brain, and a compassionate heart could not beat Trump in 2020.
3
This op-ed is a sanity-life-preserver in a sea of establishment hyperbolic hysteria. Thank you Charles M. Blow.
2
Which of these does not belong? Sanders, Sarsour, Omar, Tlaib, Trump. That's all ye need to know.
1
Because polls are so accurate?? The NYT's published polls in 2016 predicting a Clintoni landslide were hugely responsible for Sanders voters staying home - and Trump's victory. The NYT and Sanders voters gave us TRUMP. You are doing it again. Blow.
1
Bernie will win with the people behind him if the same incompetent Democratic establishment that gave us Hillary Clinton and tried to cram antique and out of touch Joe Biden down our throats gets out of the way and doesn’t sabotage the overwhelming best candidate to defeat the most corrupt, immoral, ignorant and disgusting president in the nations history. Go Bernie.
3
Your headline had given me hope, Charles. After the endless and daily barrage of negative opinion pieces and articles about Bernie from your paper and others, I thought, maybe a halfway balanced piece on Bernie Sanders? Alas, after a paragraph or two telling us not to count him out, you repackage the litany of redbaiting that the mainstream media and the corporate Democrats have been throwing against Bernie in a panic for the last week or two.
I will tell you this is where I agree with you, Charles: if he can withstand all of the “friendly” fire from the corporate cocktail party Democrats and fellow-minded pundits like your colleagues in the Times, he could well win not just the nomination, but the presidency. Next stop for the anybody but Bernie crowd? A third-party candidate, because secretly, many of these self-styled center-left folks would prefer Donald Trump to Bernie Sanders.  coming to an op Ed page near you soon
3
Charles, Charles, Charles! Where have you gone my friend? I adore you. You’re the best antiTrumper! You’re a man after my own heart. But lately I no longer recognize you. :-( I fear your fervent, effervescent, antiBloombergism has warped your thinking. Let’s take a deep breath and think. Sanders has as great a big ego as I’ve seen, next to Trump of course whose ego outranks them all. Sanders is not a compromiser. He’s a divider, a polarizer. He is at times disingenuous. I don’t trust him. Charles please come back! I miss you!
2
To see Donald Trump frog-marched out of the White House Vindman-style on January 20, 2021? Yeah, there are lots of people who'll hold their nose and vote for Bernie to see that happen.
1
Donald Trump is a master liar and V. Putin is a master manipulator. Don't be so sure that they don't both fear Senator Sanders.
3
Trump is the POTUS who hugs Putin tightly and believes whatever Putin tells him. He spreads conspiracies and dirt on his political opponents. Trump brags that he gets along great with all the dictators like Kim Jong Un, is a defender of Mohammed bin Salman, doesn't think White Supremacists are a threat, many of his close circle are indicted or in jail, and we're supposed to be afraid of a Democratic Socialist who wants everyone to have healthcare and pay off college debt?!
1
Bernie Sanders can't win!
1
Great satire
1
Well said! Charles M. Blow, thanks.
A vote for Sanders, is actually a vote for Maduro, Lopez Obrador, Correa and every other dictator in Central and South America, a great push for leftist regimes in the Continent. Elsewhere, Xi Jinping, Vladimir Putin, and Raul Sanchez will also be excited and may even offer free honeymoon vacations in Madrid, Moscow, and Shanghai.
1
Tag Erlanger, the late Swedish prime minister and a social democrat, would have called Bernie a nut job and thrown him out of his office.
Let Sanders get the nomination. Every democratic House incumbent or candidate should be asked whether he or she supports Bernie. Either answer will result in a loss. Truth in packaging finally will be forced on the democrats.
1
You know how you ensure he doesn’t win? Allow him to say nice things about the thugs who run Cuba on national TV. That’s how you make sure he doesn’t win.
3
NO WAY!
Until today, I was willing to vote for Sanders if he were to become the Democratic nominee even though I disagree with many of his positions. I will, however, not support a candidate who resorts to demagoguery to woo a constituency, the facts be damned. Sanders says let’s look at Castro’s good qualities. That kind of reminds me of the guy who said that there were good people on both sides in the Charlottesville tragedy. Then he brands Netanyahu “racist” because he disagrees with his approach to the impossibly difficult to resolve conflict with the Palestinians. Why bother with thoughtful criticism and nuance if you can score a few points with the far left by trashing Israel? I, for one, will not be voting for an unprincipled, intellectually dishonest, angry demagogue whether on the right or the left. Not Trump. Not Bernie. We can do much better than this.
I'm doubting Bernie.
His stupid remarks about Castro?
HIs lack of interest in anyone who is not entirely onboard with him?
No, thank you, Mr. Blow.
Although if Bernie is the nominee, yes, I will vote with him with great reluctance.
I don't want another backlash president.
1
Bernie is espousing policy that has worked in all the Nordic states for over 50 years. These governments are all true democracy's (unlike ours) and they are all capitalist market economies. They are also the most educated,healthiest, and happiest people in the world. That could be us if you just don't buy in to the red baiting propaganda...most people don't anymore that's why Bernie's winning ....Bernie the real populist will beat the sham populist with the fake tan...
98
There's only one thing so far in Sanders' campaign that might possibly come to fruition if he wins office.
That's the heart attack.
The rest is fake promises and flimflam. Sure, he wants them, and says he wants them, but there is no plan. No plan. No plan. To get them enacted.
He knows that and promises anyway.
2
Democrats win when they nominate transformational candidates. Bernie Sanders is transformational if nothing else.
3
I had listened to Senator Sanders with interest and hope. Interest because he has touched on all the issues important to American citizens and hope because I am trying to find candidates who can challenge the current occupant of the White House successfully.
Unfortunately, after listening to his thinking about Fidel Castro’s contribution to Cuba’s life, I find myself in the unimaginable position of a never Sander willing to accept anyone else, this President included.
The Senator has no idea of the suffering imposed on a nation by a megalomaniac who didn’t care about anything else but his power dreams. That millions of us had to leave the country and start all over was no credit to compensate for that loss. It is evident that the Senator wants to write-off the Cuban American electorate so he does not have to talk or listen to them during his campaign because they have Republican historical credentials. Not all of us, Senator, not all of us, and that will be your loss.
1
It would be nice if Sanders explained to the American people just how Medicare For All would be implemented. How long would it take, what needs to happen besides him snapping his fingers, wiggling his nose or tapping together his ruby red shoes and giving us a big Presto! you're now on Medicare!
According to the 60 Minutes interview, he's got no idea how much his proposals will cost or how he will pay for them. Swell.
He needs to release his tax returns - more than the 1 year he has.
He needs to release his medical records, not just notes from his doctors akin to the flaky gastroenteritis who took Trump's dictation and signed his name to the claim that Trump would be the healthiest person ever to be president or some such.
Allow me 2 other doses of snark: can we take a ranting successor to the current ranting occupant?
If Sanders is the nominee, how I wish I and the rest of the Pantsuit Brigade could afford to stay home and sabotage his chances the way he sabotaged hers.
1
When Bernie speaks of Democratic Socialism, all he means is this: The public should own the air they breathe, the water they drink, the roads they drive on. Health care should be affordable or free. Public education should be affordable or free. That's it.
In the last decades, you can see that privatization of these things leads to largely unaffordable product, and it has not guaranteed an increase in quality. In the last decades, health care and education have become huge profit sectors.
If you're old enough, remember what health care and education costs where like, relative to AGI, in the 1970s. Thanks to unrestrained "capitalism" (brought to you by Ronald Reagan and Gordon Gecko), they are now outrageously expensive. Bernie is out to change that. Only those who are profiting from the gouging in those areas need be afraid of "democratic socialism".
8
Frankly, I just wish Bernie would focus on the term "Social Democrat", which is often the phrase used in European countries. And then align that with Social Security, which is the purist form of "Social Democracy" in the US.
Then I think the 65+ crowd will start to warm to him. Using the term Democratic Socialist leaves "Socialist" top-of-mind, which is a non-starter for many people.
4
There is a real desire for change in this country. But ah! Change doesn't necessarily mean good (AKA Trumpism). The biggest problem with Bernie is he is making HUGE promises about student loan forgiveness, free college tuition, Medicare-for-All, and has absolutely no idea where these trillions will come from. And they are not going to happen. But his followers are like lemmings, and he is leading them over a fiscal cliff. When they hit the cold waves and shoals below, it will be quite a rude awakening. Bernie is a lot of sizzle, but not much steak. Yes there is a need for change but that doesn't mean throwing the baby (or capitalism) out with the bath water. Conscious Capitalism might be a better approach.
2
@Allegra
Conscious Capitalism doesn't exist, but Social Democracy do!
1
Why would a candidate who's attracting huge crowds of poor people, young people, and people of color have a negative effect on the down ballot?
The media, including the NYTimes, rarely publishe photos of the crowds of 10,000, or more that Bernie attracts. The crowd at his NY rally with AOC last fall was estimated at 25,000.
He is clearly not the candidate of the establishment, but he is the candidate of people who rarely vote and whose votes the Dems need.
The Sanders campaign momentum is the only real hope we have of winning the Senate and keeping the House.
5
Bernie will lose because Bernie will be Bernie. He's too honest, or obtuse, to change how he views the world. We're seeing that when he talks about Castro or the Sandanistas or Russia or Chavez or Maduro and can't separate their socialist policies, that he likes, from the tyranny and repression of their administrations. Now he's angered Cubans in Florida, which may cost him that state in the primaries or general election. There's no nuance in him, and as he's become emboldened by his wins it's becoming more obvious.
5
As a recent Kaiser Family Foundation poll found, “More Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents would prefer voting for a candidate who wants to build on the A.C.A. in order to expand coverage and reduce costs rather than replace the A.C.A. with a national Medicare-for-all plan.”
Really, the KAISER family. As in, Kaiser Permanente ran a poll that found Medicare For All unfavorable. Shocking...
3
This may appear hyperbolic but the 2020 election will be a life-or-death game changer for millions of persons with pre-existing medical conditions. Should Trump win and the Republicans capture the House and Senate, there would be no stopping Trump from scrapping the ACA and implementing a replacement that has no provisions for pre-existing conditions. Forget about any other political issue, from immigration to infrastructure. The health care issue is THE critical issue in this election.
6
I remember how many democrats in 2016 were rooting for Trump to get the nomination because they thought he'd be so easy to beat. So much for the Russians and Trump organization hoping Bernie gets the nomination.
5
In 2016 Bernie won the Washington State caucuses and lost the Washington State primary. Caucus voters are not usually representative but a selected group.
1
My strong suspicion is that Sanders is going to lose to Trump if indeed he is the nominee. In that case how many heartland moderates after going to vote R down the ballot? A real possibility.
Sanders is promising everyone cake and champagne no matter the cost. We can't even afford even 5% of his proposals. All pie in the sky.
Let's look at his tenure in the Senate. What actually has he ever done and accomplished?? (co)Sponsored only 7 (not particularly significant ones) bills since 2007. All talk, no action = disaster.
5
If I could give Bernie Sanders advice, I would say people just jump on labels, so start calling yourself a New Deal rejuvenator -- and talk about all the positive things FDR and the new did did for this country, back when unions had some horsepower, and they did help raise the standard of living in this country. He needs to show more flexibility in certain areas but much more he needs to not get buried under this label that is mostly a media creation. He's had some 40 years of public service with not a hint of impropriety. Can many others say that?
5
Sanders' too-broad and amorphous definition of socialism sounds a great deal like what's taken for granted in failed radical experiments like Canada and Denmark - universal health care, excellent cheap child care and education (including retrainingfor unemployed people). I know I should be terrified at the prospect - what am I missing?
5
Bernie Sanders can’t win Florida and he can’t win Pennsylvania. Therefor, Bernie loses to Do and Trump.
3
The severity of the campaign to come means a fight.
Bloomberg may not debate well, but he’s more of a fighter than the rest of the field.
Anyone who can build the empire he has knows how to fight.
I don’t dislike Bernie - but like is less important than who can win.
Bloomberg has the experience winning in business, the means from those wins that can be spent to win and the desire to fight at-all-costs to win.
No other candidate possesses Bloomberg’s winning combination.
7
the presidency is not a business (and it's not for sale, bloomberg). all you have to look at is the size and power of Sanders campaign to know that he can win. no other campaign comes even close to his in the breadth and depth...he's got the momentum and we'd be foolish to cast it aside because Bloomberg has successfully leveraged his wealth over the working class and been successful in business and we think that is the sign of a winner in this country.. Bernie has the votes, let him play
7
You mean his winning combination of misogyny and racism?
1
@kevin Greene More than ever in the world arena we need a politician, diplomats and businessman for the United States and that man is Mike Bloomberg. If you don’t know about him find out more. Remember 9 11? Mike was there, and Mike got it done.
Democrats will more than likely lose the House and certainly can't win the Senate w Sanders at the top. If we come to the end of October and Trump makes himself unelectable, the country will be asked to put a check on Sanders crazier policies. Free, free, free will not work.
Has the history of this country shown that change is done incrementally?
2
People thinking Bernie is going to be able to do much for the “common man/woman” are going to be sorely brought back to earth with his administration as it fights - because that’s what Bernie does; fights, usually winding up the loser, demonstrated by his decades in the Senate - to deliver on even a few of his promises. But at least we’ll have a basically decent human being in the position, basically smart, basically well-intentioned.
At this point, that would be a godsend.
8
The new generation of young people are going to have their voice loud and clear. So do the Latinos and African Americans, as do the disabled and the older and disabled folks dependent on Social Security. Trump has hung all those people put to dry. Trump did this while giving away the revenue stream to the upper crust, the bankers, the speculators, the CEO's. Our kids carry the loans of a super expensive education inflated by years of non government support while kids in other parts of the developed world got their's for free if they qualified. We made that bed as a country.
7
yes most of health care services are for free in Europe, as well as College.,Yes we pay higher taxes than US US citizens does but it's overwemingly cheaper for better services
Yeah, but what about swing states?
Trump will tell them Bernie will tank the economy, and they'll vote for the devil they know because they'll be afraid of what Bernie will do to the economy. Hello, two-term Trump.
6
After three years of Trump and eight years of Scott Walker before that, you can't scare me anymore. Just get rid of anything GOP and we'll figure out the rest. (This coming from a former Republican--Walker "you didn't give me money? Then I don't represent you" cured me of that forever.)
9
What part of "just vote Trump out" don't so many Democrats understand?
You think the country would be a mess with Bernie in the White House for 4 years? Take a breath and consider the alternative.
8
week:
“I’ve got news for the Republican establishment. I’ve got news for the Democratic establishment. They can’t stop us.”
But Trump supporters can stop you, Bernie.
1
@ Jean Green And so can centrist voters. We may be quiet, but our numbers are huge. The Democratic Party is idiotic to ignore the middle.
1
I would respect this op-ed more had Blow waited until at least until after Super Tuesday’s results were in. Is that too much to ask for all us voters who 1) want to make our choice known and 2) have never been polled? This rush to crown Sanders is odd.
4
If Sanders is the nominee, I'm staying home. If I voted for him it would be hypocritical. I can't live with that. Besides, if he is the nominee, Trump will win a 2nd term anyway.
2
So when the people make their voices heard and elect the person they want, suddenly this "Blue no matter who" thing just goes out the window? So much for defeating Trump no matter what..? I hope you and others like you, take a moment to think about what 4 more years of Trump vs 4 years of Bernie would be like. If you don't vote for Bernie in the general, you're undersigning 4 more years of Trump.
2
I don't know if Bernie can beat Trump. I DO know that whoever is the Democratic nominee will face the complete barrage of the Republican slander machine.
Remember the Swift boating by the dirty tricks machine of George W. Bush, a draft dodger, which totally destroyed the candidacy of John Kerry, a war hero? With the Trump re-election campaign, the Bush mud-slinging will seem like a genteel upper-class British tea party conversation.
6
He's talking about Social Democracy. He's not a socialist.
4
I will vote for Sanders if he is nominated, even though he is not my first choice. The question will be a running mate. He needs to pick someone strong and someone who will appeal to those who aren't necessarily on his band wagon, in order to broaden his appeal.
3
You’re going to have a really hard time finding a more established, moderate Democrat who will hitch him/herself to Bernie’s wagon.
In Seattle for the last 5 years we've had a healthcare free clinic that lasts for 4 days and serves around 4000 people. They don't have to have insurance, although many of them do. It offers dental and vision services which most healthcare insurance plans don't cover. It's an amazing event that includes thousands of volunteers many of them medical professionals working for free. Why in one of the richest cities in the one of the wealthiest countries in the world do people have to wait twelve hours on line to receive healthcare they can't afford otherwise. I remember watching documentaries on TV in my youth about Doctors Without Borders going to poor undeveloped countries and offering them free healthcare services, now it has to happen in America. Healthcare is unaffordable for most Americans even if they have insurance. Bernie really wants to do something about that unlike the current occupant in the White House. Why is it okay to pay for a trillion dollars in tax cust for people who are already obscenely rich but we can't make healthcare affordable for every American by eliminating a for profit system and utilizing the Government as the payment system instead of Insurance Companies?
7
He is not my first pick, but I will enthusiastically support and vote for him if he is the nominee.
7
Later, after the Sanders loss in November, when Trump has four more years to fill the Supreme Court with an unstoppable majority, cue the protests about voting rights and civil rights and equal rights.
5
Democrats have a choice: allow Bernie to play out and take a risk or steal it from him like in 2016 and it will be the same outcome since his troops won't support Bloomberg. The center never holds and the Democratic party must stand for something. Bloomberg is too green-eyeshades.
3
@samuelclemons
Just how was it stolen from him in 2016?
1
Given the debacle of polls leading right up to the 2016 election, why would a columnist cite any poll results for 2020, especially this far out?
3
"But clearly, [Bernie Sanders] could defeat Trump." That might be clear to you, Mr. Blow, but I must have come down with a case of political glaucoma. I don't see it.
The primaries are a relative walk on the beach for the Sanders campaign compared with the battle to follow in the general. Whatever you or I may feel about the Sanders agenda, he scares the living bejeezus out of too many moderate independents. Trump represents far more danger to the Republic, but many voters look only inches beyond their noses.
This might not be just, but it's real.
5
I doubt him .
He talks the talk . But I doubt that he can walk the walk .
3
If Sanders is the nominee, I will vote for him. But Sanders undeniably is a seriously flawed candidate whose weaknesses will also hinder his ability to govern. Mr. Leonhardt's column said it well, framing Sanders' weaknesses as an issue of respect. Sanders has long held beliefs that do not appear to be grounded in sound reasoning. He proposes massive programs that he has not bothered to cost-estimate nor has he taken the time to think through implementation. He is just so darn certain, all the time, that his ideas are THE RIGHT WAY.
In his zeal to defend socialism, he defended Castro in 60 Minutes. What he fails to consider, to respect, is that there are many people in this country who have a personal and very negative experience with Castro's Cuba. Why can't he connect with them, feel empathy for them? Were he open to learning new ideas and connecting with real people, he might adjust the way he talks about Castro. For now, he has handed Florida over to Trump.
He is dismissive of natural allies because they may consider a different pathway to achieving the same goal. He seems entirely unaware that many Medicare recipients are actually getting their care through private insurance companies. His campaign has a growing list of enemies who are demonized.
I am waiting for him to embrace frontrunner status with newfound graciousness, humility, and respect.
7
Why is anyone paying attention to head to head polls after the fiasco of 2016? Honestly if Bernie loses Florida, which now looks likely, and the wall street element costs him NY, where are we? Furthermore, I know people keep asking, and it's because there is no good answer: what has Bernie ever really gotten aaccomplished?
9
Thank you, Charles Blow. Go Bernie!
5
Thankyou Mr. Blow for being the only NYTimes opinionator who doesn't either discount Sanders' candidacy or fear it.
8
Amusing to skim your desperate progressive bubble-isms Mr. Blow. You're really grasping at straws here.
Bernie will soon join the Democratic pantheon of Presidential landslide losers.
3
Closing your eyes, clicking your heels together and reciting your most fervent of wishes over and over ain't gonna make it happen, Charles. And the Wicked Witch never really died, either.
1
Liberals believing in poles again?
1
@Jean Green
Did you mean polls or do just do not know the difference between polls & poles like most right wingers?
4
you must be joking.... right?
1
I will vote for who ever has the Democratic nomination. I do not think Bernie if elected will get much if any of his agenda enacted. From what I haveseen he is kvetch, he does not work well with others. He can excite people, get them energized but I don’t see follow thru. When asked how he intends to get funding for all these things he becomes evasive. What for instance does Medicare for all mean. As someone who is on Medicare, it is not free I pay for it every month. And yes just as the adds say it covers 80% of costs and I have supplemental insurance to cover the rest. What about free college. Does that mean everyone no matter what you financial circumstances or your scholastic ability.
3
Sounds like wishful thinking...and I’m onboard with that. But the fact is that trump has his immovable base and Bernie is as divisive now as Hillary was in 2016.
The majority of voters are convinced the economy is doing well even if they despise trump. Whereas Bernie is an unabashed socialist who wants to dismantle our capitalist economy in favor of huge tax increases to pay for national healthcare and tuition free college.
Trump is as loose a cannon if ever there was one but how many middle age and older adults are willing to turn their lives upside down?
I see the appeal to young people but the rest of us?...not so much. Bernie’s got the youth vote and the have nots but you need more than that to win in November, Charles. So, like you I can be hopeful, but my 65 years of experience tells me it’s going to be another 4 years of trump.
2
I'm trying to imagine Bernie modifying his positions somewhat, as all candidates (save Trump) do once the primaries are over, so as to broaden their appeal to a wider electorate.
I'm trying, but no I can't imagine it.
2
Mr Blow packs much firepower. My question is how does he best use it against Trump? All other issues diminish before this one. How can you help, Mr Blow?
For once I agree with Mr Blow, but it is worth putting some numbers on this to put meat on the bones of the argument.
To win the electoral college, Sanders needs to flip 39 Republican electors. There is now enough state level polling of general election scenarios to plot how this could happen.
All Democrats win Michigan from Trump, so that is 16 electors taken care of. They all win Pennsylvania, so add another 20 to get to 36.
Now it gets hard. Sanders is tied with Trump in Florida and Wisconsin, the next best pickup opportunities. He needs at least one of them. He has a 75% chance of doing that and winning the White House, while Trump has a 25% chance of another four years.
Biden does much better, winning Florida and Wisconsin and even tying in Arizona. If the polls are accurate and don't shift, Trump can't beat Biden.
In choosing Bernie, Democrats are gambling on reelecting Trump in order to have a candidate how will channel their outrage and advocate for a left-wing agenda. Note that Bernie has no chance of actually delivering on his agenda because he doesn't have the votes in the Senate. Any future Democratic president will deliver quite a lot less than what Biden is promising, let alone Bernie.
In choosing Bernie, Democrats are showing that beating Trump is not their #1 priority. Promoting left wing policies is more important.
1
I think that defeating Trump will be much easier than defeating the DNC and their super-rich donors in the primaries. How far are they willing to go? As your columns point out, as far as supporting Bloomberg. However, if he wins the nomination, and I think there is a good chance he will, Trump will face a historically engaged volunteer army that will only get stronger as November approaches.
As for Sanders' ideas not being realistic and practical, concerns I see in the other comments, people in this country have become so used to being told what they can't have that when someone shows them what they actually can, that really big dreams are possible, they just have a hard time seeing it. Our government is what we make of it, and I want the government Sanders envisions.
7
Finally, Bernie Sanders is becoming mainstream, and so are the real issues he fights for, like our housing, college, and healthcare struggles. It may be true that his agenda will probably be unfeasible if he gets elected president. Hel will have to deal with a hostile Mitch McConnell Senate. It doesn't matter, we will need to tackle it at some point. It is better sooner than later, especially without Trump in the way.
7
@JSoilet
"It may be true that his agenda will probably be unfeasible if he gets elected president."
That's exactly why we need a moderate to broker the middle. I'd rather compromise with Mitch and get a few base hit singles to keep the game moving- rather than bet on a political grand slam.. Bernie will be 4 years of inert policy and long, angry "get off my lawn" speeches. Mama Mia.. I'm not ready for that..
3
Ok, now you are done bashing Bloomberg, you embrace Bernie? How about giving Bernie the once over before you declare him electable. How about anyone giving him the once over, the way you personally have done to one candidate and the way Trump will. Ask a few questions beyond his rhetoric.
What was Bernie doing during Vietnam? What kind of commander in chief will he make. What has he been doing for the last 3 years? What has he done to try to turn the Senate? Without a willing Democratic Congress, all Bernie has is hot air! We desperately need more! When will our press start asking the right questions instead of ignoring how our government works?
6
"Stop saying that Bernie Sanders can’t win.
Stop saying that he can’t defeat President Trump."
Yup. If there'd be only one thing to learn from the Trump Presidency, it's that the American voter can always surprise you.
7
I admire you Charles and are thankful for each of your articles, but Bernie Sanders will guarantee that Trump will get a second term. Hands down. Why? Because he is solely responsible for putting Trump in the WH in the first place. He split the party and the vote last time and this time as the candidate he will embolden the Trump base, turn off the moderate Dems and lose we Independents who are waiting to vote for anyone OTHER THAN Bernie who can beat Trump and give this country a chance to heal from Trump's "American carnage."
12
For decades, I've listened to Sanders on CSpan, probably talking to an empty chamber, his words mostly falling on deaf ears. I am really glad that he has the pulpit, platform, audience, and amplification for his message.
Sanders wants to rid the Democratic party of the Clinton big money brand; his reforms would take the party back to its 'for the people' roots. More FDR, JFK, and LBJ than Karl Marx. Heck, even more Lincoln(racial justice), more Teddy Roosevelt (environmentalism), Eisenhower (equitable taxation), and Nixon (child welfare and education)! Good for him, good for us. But keep in mind, much of his message is about where we want to get -eventually.
Realistically there is so much GOP wreckage to clear out, that big reforms will have to wait. Let's get the car out of the ditch, assess the damage, and make the repairs. Together. And while we're at it we can decide on the best route to where we want to go.
11
I have a feeling all the pundits are old school,. This is 2020 and they need to get with it. It's not about Democrat or Republican, or who can game the system best, it's about who is stating policies that the public needs. And also that the one who is saying them has credibility so they're not just mouthing election propaganda. The party system seems to be outdated at this point.
7
I am with many many people who want to defeat the current President.
I don't believe Bernie can take it over the 40 yard line...
6
I am with many many people who want to defeat the current President.
I don't believe Bernie can take it over the 40 yard line...
3
@MS his own?
Always wanted to use, "damned by faint praise."
Thanks Mr. Blow.
3
The forecast of a down-ballot disaster for Democrats with Sanders as the nominee is absurd. Most people making this point don't even know who will be the candidates -- and I can tell you that AOC will be the benchmark for a lot of Democrats, much more than vanilla centrists that are politically defined by being afraid of taking a real stand against the system.
And please, don't get me started with this "The Powerful Cuban Community in Florida" crap, now rescued from the trash can of arguments after Bernie's comments on Fidel Castro.
The election in Florida will be decided by ex-felons that regained their voting rights (potentially in the hundreds of thousands, but even 80,000 of them would be enough to tilt the results to the left) and Puerto Ricans displaced by the hurricane, who also lean progressive and hate Trump. Both factors were not present in the 2018 state election (the restoring of voting rights was approved only then, and most PR exiles were still reeling and too busy to register to vote), and nevertheless a black progressive Democrat lost the governorship only by a fraction of a percentage point.
5
The fact is that progressives in the AOC mold mostly lost, while moderate candidates won, in 2018. I look at polling averages in swing states and see the same thing again and again: Were there only one moderate in the race, that moderate would be beating Bernie Sanders. Bernie does himself no favors in praising anything out of Cuba, whether it’s earned or not. I hope that after South Carolina some moderates (looking at you, Amy and Pete) Take one for the party and drop out.
8
Bernie: “When I talk about democratic socialism, what I talk about are human rights and economic rights.”
C Blow: That’s too broad and amorphous. This will be a tremendous hurdle. He will need to refine the term and defang it. But, being in the throes of a presidential campaign is not exactly the time to educate the American people on an exotic political label.
If Bernie does anything over the next few months it will be to require his opponents to EXPLAIN to the voting public why 40 million Americans, under capitalism, must live without any healthcare and why 200 million Americans live paycheck to paycheck in poverty and alongside free market politicians who lust after the dismantling of Social Security and Medicaid, Food Stamps, Unemployment Insurance. Stop looking for Bernie to explain his goals. Look in the opposite direction. Look to the destroyers of the middle class safety net for explanations about their goals.
7
He may win, but it will be without this life-long Democrat's help or vote.
5
Western Europe has had social democracy since the end of WW II. They are the countries with the best rating in terms of livability in the world. Bernie is simply saying that if we work together we get a better standard of living than as individuals standing alone. The greatest generation operated that way. United we stand, divided we fall.
3
This is a good article, but the way I read it, it supports my vote for Warren. The small amount of time between the Nomination and Nov is not enough to school the average American in the finer distinctions and version of Socialism out there. And then on top of that, an actual look at Sanders ideas reveals nice sounding Ideals in snappy short succinct slogans, but we live in a complex world with already existing very complex interconnected financial and material systems that would not be easily transformed without a literal Revolution, the way the average American sees it that would mean a revolutionary destruction of existing institutions and remaking of new ones in the image of what? snappy succinct phrases and ideals?! Seriously, with that as a goal it's hard to try to spin the fine-point distinctions of Northern European vs a long history of snappy sloganed real Socialist catastrophes. And I say this all knowing that if he were to actually win it would likely be the best direction for us. I just fear that what he's selling will not go over at all.
5
I have some genuine concerns that Bernie may turn out to not be a good president but I do think that he can beat Trump.
When a president is elected, he sets out a set of goals and he brings in a cabinet whose job it is to execute those goals.
Transitioning to M4A will be a huge challenge.
Implementing the Green New Deal will be an enormous challenge.
But here's the thing: Both of these things have broad public support. So if Bernie wins, I expect EVERY democrat to put his or her shoulder to the wheel and make it happen.
20% worker ownership of mega corporations isn't a terrible idea. Many companies today offer share purchase plans and profit Sharing. Maybe not 20% but something.
2
No! He is a self-described social democrat! That is very different than being a socialist anything. Get your definitions right before trying to defend him. Calling him a socialist loses the argument before it starts. It gives Rubs the ammunition to fire broadsides at him. He has a broad base of support because he champions social programs, such as, Medicare, Medicaid, social security, SNAP benefits and the like. And he doesn’t dehumanize whole groups of people based on the color of their skin or where in the world they came from. I have issue with him re: treatment of women and assessments of our capabilities, but that is an issue that he shares with a majority of men. I don’t think there is a snowballs chance in summer that his policies can be implemented even close to completely, but I do think he might restore some sanity to the government of these United States. He’s not anyone’s idea of the perfect candidate and he’s not the only one running that can make a positive change in the direction of a union that is meant to promote the general welfare and provide for the common defense. But, for heaven’s sake, don’t help to hamstring him before the gate is open.
1
But think about it: if Charles Blow gets it wrong, how many undecideds and moderates have it wrong? Not to mention the Trump supporters who only get their news from one or two Trump mouthpieces. Just wait until the Trump campaign, loaded for bear, puts out scary ads with old footage of Bernie extolling the virtues of the Soviet Union, or hanging out with Fidel in Cuba. I don’t want to think about it. Also Bernie’s performance on 60 minutes was less than stellar- if he can’t produce the hard numbers to pay for Medicare for All, free college etc, my vote in the upcoming primary will go to Warren, who at least has a concrete plan. Of course I’ll vote for whoever the nominee is, but sorry, try as I might, I can’t seem to feel the Bern.
6
@Brian Whistler
"But think about it: if Charles Blow gets it wrong, how many undecideds and moderates have it wrong?"
Charles Blow is obfuscating. The punditry class is behind the the times. The political wave that is pushing Bernie's candidacy is decades in the making. Blows ideas are lead footed in the past when the middle class had something to hold onto. Not today when the middle class is being pounded into dust by corporate greed and an indifferent, bought and paid for political class.
2
People who think Bernie can win are the same group that nominated McGovern.
14
who ?
Given that most of his support comes from millennials...
1
At age 85 I have seen a lot of changes. We have gone from a democracy to an autocratic dictatorship lead by a gang of criminals who care for nobody but themselves. The coming election is our last chance short of revolution to restore the government overthrown by cowards or traitors who have conspired with foreign powers continue and further empower the rising tyrant who now occupies the WH.
Assuming that we have an election with an giant voter turnout there is a possibility that Trump could be beaten. It also appears, that Bernie Sanders, not my 1st choice is likely to oppose Trump. Can Bernie beat Trump? Yes if he makes clear what he stands for. Medicare for all and health care is a human right and its my way or the highway is not going to do it.
What he should say on health care is this: I believe that Medicare for all, with expanded coverage is the right way to go; BUT the Congress makes the law and I want to get the best deal I can. I can’t order Congress to do what I want and some say for now expand the ACA and have a public option.
There can be no change with a GOP controlled Senate and Democrats don’t take orders from the president but we agree on that bundle of rights and policies we call the safety-net; SS, Medicare, Medicaid, unemployment insurance, food stamps. etc, all under attack by the GOP and the socialist part; living wage instead of minimum wage, the right to unionize and collective bargaining for non-union govt employees. Socialist=Liberal
1
The dialog you imagine is reasonable and therefore the last thing Bernie would say. He’s rather pick a fight. Can you imagine seeing his crabby red countenance and pompous New York accent on TV from now until he loses in November?
1
The problem with adding a public option, which Biden claims would become so great that Americans would all eventually switch over to it, is that the private insurance industry would never let that happen. Advocates for a public option are lying when they say this would lead to universal coverage.
The insurance industry would wield their influence to ensure that a public option couldn’t be a meaningful competitor to their plans. This means that premiums, copays, and deductibles wouldn’t be much better under the public option, and service would probably be worse. This is what is happening to the ACÁ now, and it is what would happen to an expanded public option. A private-public partnership of this scale is doomed to failure. It would not lead to any efficiency savings.
People who want a public option aren’t proposing something reasonable or workable, but they want you to believe that. This policy is premised on non-confrontation with the insurance industry—the insurance industry would accept a public option only on their terms.
The industry must be confronted, and if you want to really reform healthcare, some very wealthy people are going to lose a lot of money, and they will predictably freak out and go the mat about it. But the insurance industry, with its profit motive, is not compatible with health care as a human right. It must be confronted, and Americans must see that it is a worthless obstacle and a giant inefficiency.
6
@Andrew Although I never read any of the centrists' public option plans, I do know from 30+ years of experience in health care advocacy/policy in the USA, that they'd most likely offer these folks either a Medicare Advantage plan or a Medicaid managed care plan as the public option. Both are substandard in comparison to today's traditional Medicare with their narrow provider networks and in their denial of care (especially Advantage). What I fear most is that the poorest and those with chronic illness (read as expensive) will be cast first into traditional Medicare as a public option, skewing costs/person upward while the insurance industry keeps the lower cost patients and private hospital networks for themselves. What Sanders has been saying for years is that you need universal access and equal care. He is right in saying that we don't know what the costs will be if private insurers are still sitting at the table. But we do know that it would be a lot cheaper and more universal in delivery of equal care when using Medicare data as an analysis tool since it covers 63 million people at this time. We also know that Medicare admin costs give us additional cost savings. Big fight yet to be settled, what to do with Part D. It has the potential to be the most disruptive part in the change...Pharma and PBM's won't go quietly into the night.
4
" In fact, in head-to-head national polls, Sanders consistently outperforms Trump." And how about in the SWING states?
8
Every day, and I mean *every* day, multiple polls purporting to tell us something useful. Have we not learned anything about their methodological flaws and the multitude of ways they can be manipulated and misinterpreted, not to mention being just plain wrong? If I'm feeling generous, I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and let them say they represent something real about the present moment, provided that I know how they were conducted and who was paying for them. But when it comes to using polls to predict the future, I say "Stop right there!" Was it Yogi Berra who said, "it's hard to make predictions, especially about the future." Remember 2016.
2
Sanders is the ONLY Democrat that most Republican expatriates who hate Trump will never vote for. I despise Trump and have voted a straight Democrat ticket since he took office to send a message but if it's Sanders not only will I not vote for him but virtually all of the moderate Democrats and Republicans I've spoken to will be forced to accept Trump as the crazy they know vs the crazy they don't and put up with 4 more years of a nasty and disgraceful president whose policies they are actually far more aligned with than the alternative. None of these folks will support Sanders and he will lose to Trump and lose badly. It will not be close. Sander's only support is the far left 30-35 percent of his party while the other 65-70 percent is split between a handful of moderates all of whom would have a much better chance of defeating the orange monster in November. The view from the middle is a whole lot different than from where Mr. Blow is standing.
9
Sanders is not my candidate by a long shot, but I truly believe that the future of American democracy is at stake if Trump is re-elected. I beg you to reconsider.
6
@timesnlatte: Bernie May have the latte crowd, but I’ll spit out my coffee if he ever gets the Dunkin Donuts worker drones.
1
I was raised in the era of Richard Nixon, despising him and his criminal coterie. I have always had egalitarian sensibilities and tilt generally toward the greater good. Since childhood, I have felt nothing but revulsion and contempt for the vacuous excesses of Donald Trump, whose egomania I consider anathema to leadership. I have never in my life voted for a Republican in any election.
So DNC, please take note. I think it may mean something when someone like me says, "I cannot and will not vote for Bernie Sanders."
7
@Mas I also don't want Sanders to be the nominee, but if he is, please remember that not voting for Sanders isn't just not voting for Sanders: it is equivalent to actively asserting that you think the two candidates are equally good as one another and you don't care either way. This is true because you have the right to vote.
10
ok boomer ..
1
It's worth looking at the recent Ibram Kendi article in the Atlantic - When Will Moderates Learn Their Lesson?
If centrists can’t move past their doctrine and recognize when their candidates are unelectable, then how will Democrats ever beat Trump?
He notes that Bernie may bring into the fold far more voters that sat out the last election, than those moderate voters siting on the Democrat/Republican divide.
"Despite all the talk of the 6 million Obama-to-Trump voters winning the election for Trump, more Obama voters in 2012 swung to not voting (4.4 million) or voting third party (2.3 million) in 2016. These other swing voters were more likely to be younger and people of color—and especially young black people. Today, they are likely to favor progressive candidates. They are likely to be turned off by moderate candidates, turned off by the records of Biden, former Mayor Michael Bloomberg, former Mayor Pete Buttigieg, and Senator Amy Klobuchar on issues of race and gender."
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/02/moderates-cant-win-white-house/606985/
4
It’s so frustrating to see all these opinion pieces in NYTimes (and elsewhere) talking about Senator Sanders as the nominee. I guess my March 17 vote is worthless.
6
I don't find left-wing dogmatism any improvement over the right-wing version.
5
It's hard to overstate the importance of the recent poll indicating that Sanders would outperform moderates against Trump in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin.
Previously, many of us who support moderate candidates have argued that Bernie was a bad choice precisely because polls, until now, had shown the opposite. We had a pretty good point, too, but this poll begins to call that point into question. So although it's very fair to wonder whether future polls will show the same, as well as whether Sanders would maintain this swing-state advantage if a moderate were nominated and thus gained name recognition, or if Sanders were forced to face extended front-runner scrutiny, this poll should seriously give pause to those of us who have been supporting the moderates because we think they're more electable.
3
There is no doubt that Sanders will win if he manages to bring out the multitudes of young and multi-racial voters. This demographic shift had already taken place and it is simply a question of motivating them sufficiently to come and flex their political muscle. This is what Sanders is accomplishing. Not only will he win, his revolution will sweep through the House and the Senate and shape American politics for decades to come.
4
The best parallel for the Sanders’ campaign was Jeremy Corbyn’s just completed campaign in the U.K. Corbyn is a committed socialist who had almost the exact same base as Sanders. (Incredibly vocal and determined base of about 30% of the electorate. Particularly popular among the young.)
His manifesto was strikingly similar to Sanders’.
Corbyn’s labor party failed to expand his base, had its worse loss in 50 years, and still deludes itself into thinking it won on the issues but lost on Brexit.
It lost on everything, including the fact that in the end, the public didn’t trust Corbyn to lead and to keep the country safe.
7
There are vastly different dynamics at play in the UK. For one, they already have a nationalized healthcare system that even conservatives there don’t want to touch. The wealth gap in this country coupled with deindustrialization has created an unviable situation for many. Sanders is speaking to them. It’s not 2004 anymore. Look at the polls. Bernie wins.
2
Please don’t miss the forest for the trees. The parallels are strikingly similar. If professional politicians in the Democratic Party thought Sanders was going to win, they would support him like Republicans support Trump notwithstanding how they feel about him. Instead, down ballot candidates are running away as fast as they can.
6
Mr. Blow's article assumes a much higher IQ for the US voters than exists. By the time the GOP disinformation gets done with him, Joe McCarthy will arise from his grave to jail him. We all know how reliable polls are especially 8 months before the election. As a moderate Dem, I disagree with many of his positions and I'm a liberal. Anyone remember how George McGovern did?
9
“Like most socialist organizations, D.S.A. believes in the abolition of capitalism in favor of an economy run either by ‘the workers’ or the state — though the exact specifics of ‘abolishing capitalism’ are fiercely debated by socialists.”
OK, so explain to me, a patent attorney who works for my own private firm representing private companies and individuals, where that is going to leave me.
There are patent attorneys who work for government agencies. By law, because they represent the US Government, they cannot represent private companies or individuals.
Where do I end up if there is only an economy run by the state, and no private interests? Am I going to be obliged to take a job working for the government if there are no private entities?
If you tell me that, I am DEFINITELY not voting for Bernie. And I have been a lifelong liberal Democrat.
I think Bernie is the worst thing that could happen to the Democrats.
My only hope would be to vote for Bernie to get Trump out of office, and then hope that Bernie would have too short "coat tails" to win control of Congress, so none of his plans ever get enacted.
How is that for a bleak outlook? Not my cup of tea.
I am sure many other professionals (other lawyers, doctors, accountants and similar professionals) who work for the private sector are MOST ASSUREDLY NOT going to be supporting Bernie if the above definition is the way he is going.
10
But this is Stein’s definition of democratic socialism, not Bernie’s. I think the point is that it will be difficult to convince voters to support someone who calls himself a democratic socialist when the term can be variously interpreted as either someone supporting strong regulations and universal healthcare or someone supporting an entirely state-controlled economy. The takeaway is that Bernie’s branding is potentially dangerous, not that his actual economic plans would leave you out as a private sector worker.
3
@Corey B
Well maybe Bernie needs to give his definition, so we will have a clue what he means.
To me, socialism is defined by those activities that we pay for as a community, such as public streets and highways, public schools, 911 and first responders, state and national parks, the military, and many more things that our taxes support. Whether we like it or not, we are all that kind of socialist already. IMHO, abolishing private business is a bridge too far. Regulating private business is not too extreme. You cannot practice law without being regulated by the court system.
I think Bernie is playing the same game that Trump was playing in 2016:
Speak in platitudes (for example "Make America Great Again") that has no actual meaning, but allows a group of 10,000 who hear him say that to interpret it to mean what each of them wants.
That way, you attract a lot of people who are dissatisfied, but who may understand very little of how government actually does (or should) work. As an attorney, I have studied the Constitution and how it determines our laws. Every attorney takes at least one class in Constitutional law. Many people have little or no understanding of Constitutional law, because we have dropped civics as a subject in our schools.
3
Which of Bernie’s policy positions exclude capitalism? Decent healthcare and public education should be outside the markets to begin with.
1
Want a real challenge? Try to discover how much America spends on health insurance now. Then try to discover how many Americans who suffered medical bankruptcy actually had health insurance. Why are those simple and important facts so hard to find? Because the for-profit health insurers - and their enablers - hide them. The Brit medical Journal Lancet found those facts and and calculated the powerful truth: Medicare for All will have a net national savings of $480 billion PER YEAR and save 68000 lives per year. No more medical bankruptcies! Much less fear for entrepreneurs who will stay insured as they brave the startup time. Much less amazement realizing America is the only advanced economy that doesn't have universal healthcare!
2
“ Furthermore, there are jitters among the Democratic political class that Sanders is running against them, not with them, and will have a negative effect down ballot. Sanders’s Twitter account tweeted last week:
“I’ve got news for the Republican establishment. I’ve got news for the Democratic establishment. They can’t stop us.””
I voted for Bernie in the primary four years ago precisely because it was obvious to anyone not in the DNC that most Americans knew (and still know) that our “democracy” is broken. (For the record, I voted for HRC in the general.)
Every Democratic candidate, except Biden, has a platform that addresses the need to fix our democracy. (Private money in public elections, gerrymandering, ad infinitum) Until we get that democratic reform, we won’t be able to address healthcare, climate change, homelessness, wealth inequality, or any other issue.
Sorry Mr. Blow, you live in la-la land. Not only will Sanders be defeated handily in November, but down-ballot Democrats will also be decimated as a result of Sanders' campaign, giving more Senate seats and House seats to the GOP.
19
How often do Sanders and his surrogattees remind us that the USA is the only modern economy that lacks health coverage for all its people. That’s true. But those countries are (or were when their systems were instituted) far more homogenous than the USA is today - or perhaps ever was. Some were even emerging from WW2 where destroyed systems were easily replaced, But they all are Capitalist economies. Some have many Billionaires (Yes they are allowed to exist!) A few even have Kings and Queens. They have conflicting political parties. Also note Bernie folks, all have very large and profitable Corportions. (Ikea? Seimen’s? etc??) They have stock markets (like Wall Street)
Yet somehow they ALL manage to provide benefits like Sanders yells for. How’d that happen?
They all have what is known as Social Contracts. It’s a cultural understanding, alien to us, enforced by education that every citizen is a valued stakeholder in an interdependent contract called the Nation.
WE are big and never were homogenous. WE have many more than a few distinct cultures.
Plus we’re quite young and primitive in our appreciation of social interdependence.
We’re Individuals above all. It’s a notion Trump plays to.
But Bernie does too in his promises to his base for what matters most to them. Tuition Foregiveness. Free College. No medical cost so I can work for Uber or Amazon w/o benefits.
But as ever, no voice for the unprotected. We are ruled by the LOUDEST voices.
6
@Walt Your commentary is not the first time that I have read that we Europeans has "homogeneous" societies post WW2 and therefore that enabled us to have universal healthcare. Would you consider that "homogeneous" is just another way of saying "white European"? I find it quite offensive. France has been a melting pot long before there was the 1st colony in North America. Read our history if you must. The truer analogy is that when you have a continent devastated first by a war to support crony capitalism (WW 1) and then by by a war to eliminate fascists who were the result of the "peace" of that first war ... well then you find your moral compass since there is much work to be done to reestablish solidarity in your society. America may have been only attacked on 9/11, but despite no actual war having been fought on your turf, the country looks like a war zone: decrepit or non existing infrastructure, homelessness, domestic terrorism with your gun culture, extreme poverty, non functioning/responsive government, everybody out for themselves at almost every level.....when will you decide that it is time for some social solidarity?
1
Bernie needs to say: "I'm not a Communist. I don't want the United States to become a Communist state. When I say I'm a democratic socialist, I don't mean that I oppose capitalism. If I'm President, all the rights guaranteed by the Constitution will remain the same. I don't want to take away anyone's private property. I do want to have very rich people and corporations pay their fair share of taxes. I want everyone to have good health care and access to education. I understand that the President, Congress, and the Supreme Court are supposed to function as a system of checks and balances. I want to make that a reality again." If he can make these statements sincerely and convincingly, he could win.
7
@Linda Somehow “I am not a Communist” doesn’t sound like a strong lead-in to a presidential campaign.
@Pedro
But it's necessary for Bernie to make it clear that he's not a Communist because many
people don't know the difference between communism and socialism, and Trump will say Sanders is a communist. Bloomberg implied it at the last debate.
Why should we have any confidence in the poll numbers that cite a Sanders win over Trump? Indeed, why cite them in this piece at all as their credibility is suspect at best; surely 2016 illustrated as much. I will vote for Sanders if he’s the nominee. But like many others, I won’t be able, or even try, to fake enthusiasm.
13
I really wish Sanders would just distance himself from the socialist moniker, and instead call himself a progressive capitalist. The underlying system in the US and in most developed nations is capitalism. That's not going to change, and you aren't going to win an election by declaring yourself to be against capitalism. The real question is how much do we tax successful Americans, who benefit from our system, to help pay for programs to level the playing field, e.g. universal health care, child care and affordable college? That's the progressive part of the equation, and it has nothing to do with giving "workers" or the state ownership over capital. That's a separate argument, though I do believe the nation would better off if workers did have more of a stake in capital ownership, if that ownership was more broadly diffused than it is now.
6
Bernie is THE litmus test. If you really believe in a more equitable country, you would support Bernie over Trump without batting an eye. If voting for Trump is still a viable course of action for you, you don't belong in the Democratic party anyways. Bernie defeats Trump because the people make it happen.
3
@Bill. Do you wanna be right or do you wanna win. Bernie CANNOT won. He could, and likely will, split the Democratic Party into two separate flaming campfires.
“Like most socialist organizations, D.S.A. believes in the abolition of capitalism in favor of an economy run either by ‘the workers’ or the state — though the exact specifics of ‘abolishing capitalism’ are fiercely debated by socialists."
Does it not occur to anybody that when Sanders says he is a "democratic socialist," the above is exactly what he's talking about? The reason he is so vague about the term is that he knows that his political philosophy, if stated openly, would put an immediate end to his political career.
That said, as a person of the left I will vote for him in the general if he is the nominee, although I am a "social democrat," not a "democratic socialist." I would do this with some repugnance, since his constant attacks on my party, business, and even now on the press (shades of Trump) I find disturbing and off-putting (along with his disingenuousness about his political philosophy and sudden tactical flip-flop on immigration). Congress and the American people would not allow him to "abolish capitalism," nor would he have the tools, as president, to do so. As for his stated social democratic proposals, I feel they are generally worthy of consideration.
5
No matter who's the Democratic nominee the only way Trump leaves the White House is with Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress. Even if Trump loses the election, would anybody expect the current GOP senate to take action forcing him to respect the results?
5
We do not doubt him, but if he wins, we loose to Trumpenstein..Klobuchar and Bloomberg would win as a ticket..the big question in will he step down fair and square, or pull a stunt to stay longer somehow? i do not think the country needs or wants a Socialist in office..Bloomberg could be great,
remember, he was re-elected 3 times as mayor of NYC, one of the largest and toughest cities in the world..Klobuchar has Senatorial experience, and can also get a lot done for the country..
10
Not sure why this column is titled "Don't Doubt Bernie" given what it says. Blow actually makes a persuasive case for why we should doubt him. Just try to imagine what the Trump campaign will do with the quote about the DSA's mission being the abolition of capitalism. Good grief. Battleground state independents will be repelled.
16
When I strike up any imaginary debate between President Donald Trump and Senator Bernie Sanders, it's the senator who always comes out the clear winner.
Why? Because without teleprompter scripting, Trump is a lost soul devoid of intelligence or any nuance. He sorely lacks the ability to put forth any credible ideas, facts, or statistics. He's nothing but bluster and accusatory finger-pointing that has no worth or meaning in a debate.
In contrast, Bernie has the strong personality and a limited tolerance for people who don't make sense of ideas he's familiar with and could therefore stand up to Trump's attempts to bully or intimidate. Bernie is well-informed, seasoned as a politician and knows this country and its people from his years as both a representative in the House and as a senator.
Among all of the Democratic candidates, Sanders would no doubt be so better qualified up against Mr. Trump in addressing any matter that could come before him in handling questions from a debate moderator.
Finally, Senator Sanders is far and away a better arbiter of a moral presence against an impeached president Trump.
2
@Cate I doubt there will be any debates in the run up to the general election. Trump has broken every other norm.
3
Mr. Blow once more displays his ignorance of the real world. Trump's failure to lead a national poll has nothing to do with his electoral strength, which will dominate Bernie's, despite the wise advice.
7
Open borders, nationalized no choice health care, free university education, ripping off high wealth individuals with taxes rivalling those of Norway or Sweden, raising taxes on corporations, taxing the profits of Wall Street, proudly calling himself a socialist, honeymooning in Russia, praising Castro on 60 minutes..
That's not me writing, that's what Republican attack dogs are putting together right now as we speak, licking their chops as they prepare for Sanders as an opponent. Into the Colosseum we go?
14
About Bernie’s comments about Fidel and his improved literacy of Cubans and medical standards. Tell Bernie, this is not a course in sociology or philosophy, it’s an election. People are very sensitive about what they or their relatives have experienced.
Bernie, this was just one toke over the line.
8
What if Obamacare (and employer-based care) is pretty much as good now as it can get? Maybe we can add more policy holders-- certainly an improvement, but maybe there are practical limits to this. Maybe we can slow down the rising costs, but they are likely to continue to rise. Everyone's premiums are getting more costly, often deductibles are also going up, as are co-pays and co-insurance. Out of network costs continue to creep into billing. Drug prices continue to rise. With a for-profit health care industry at work armed with big budgets for lobbying and advertising, why do we think we can do better with it than we have? Maybe only a knock out at the polls by voters will disengage the established way of health insurance and usher in some sort of Medicare for All or single-payer-- some system where a holistic approach is taken -- accounting for payments to providers and drug manufacturers, training of doctors, use of nurse practitioners and physician assistants, streamlined administration, non-profit, reasonably modest pay for those running the system, and more public health. Those who simply preach choice, public option, and praise for Obamacare should be required to spell out their ideas. For instance, will there be a one-time open enrollment for a public option (PO) the way there is one for Medicare? Would providers be paid Medicare payment levels? Would employers be able to shift their employees to the PO? Would it be subsidized -- how much?
1
Fair questions. I have one in return. Sanders says that Big Pharma and Big Business buy off the government every day. So how is going to prevent that from happening when government is setting the price for scripts, hospital stays, etc.? And how will his program guarantee that the new tax structure that pays for it all isn’t turned around when Republicans next take control?
1
There are a few things Sen Sanders needs to do to convince wary voters now that he is the Dem front-runner.
1. now is the time to clearly state what his brand of Democratic Socialism means, not during an election campaign or debate with Trump;
2. indicate how he will help down-ticket Dems during the election; he must indicate that all Dems do not have to agree with his economic or policy positions and that he understands that compromise will be needed, and acceptable, to reach consensus;
3. that he realizes that his more contentious positions such as M4A, open boarders (if that is what he espouses) and free college for all independent of ability to pay are aspirational and will likely require an incremental approach to accomplish;
4. he must also stop his class warfare rhetoric and recognize that money itself is not bad but how one uses it may be; the quote was not "money is the root of all evil" but rather "love of money is the root of all evil"; he can indicate that he believes that there should not be any billionaires w/o vilifying those who try to do good with their money.
While he as as the Dem nominee may win the popular vote, it is less likely that he will gain an electoral college win without giving non-progressive voters enough comfort to vote for him. My question: does Sanders and the progressive wing of the party want to win and govern or merely be another disruptive force? If he wants to win, he will need to recognize that it will take more than the Bernie Bros.
1
The conservative press on the one hand is alarmed that Sanders is going to turn the US into Cuba, but on the other hand is saying that he'd never get his agenda through congress. So what's the big deal? You wouldn't get a single-payer universal healthcare system, but you'd get a revival of the ACA with mandatory enrollment and a public option. You wouldn't get free college education, but you'd get greater tuition assistance. You wouldn't get a repeal of the second amendment but you'd get an assault rifle ban.
Every president comes with a grandiose plan, but none are ever able to implement their plan 100% with no compromise. (even Trump, despite what he claims).
At the end of the day, what a Sanders presidency would do is stop the movement to the laissez faire economy and turn it into a more democratic socialist one. Sort of like, I dunno, Canada? Would that be so bad?
4
I supported Sanders' campaign for the nomination in 2016 but the more I hear him talk about his policies, the further I want to run away from him. I'm all for Healthcare reform and always have been but Liz and other Dems offer that without what I consider to be the wacky over the top stuff that Bernie is touting. Latin-style Socialism is most definitely NOT for me. I'm finished with Bernie and I hope others are too.
8
I am less finished with Sanders than I am with Trump.
Too bad you aren’t.
1
The perfect storm that will bring Trump and the Republicans down is already brewing. The rise of a populist movement on the left, a global economic slowdown, a slump in the stock market if not worse, and a pandemic that will expose healthcare inequities in our country and lay bare the bankrupt government that is ill-prepared to deal with it.
5
The biggest doubt about Bernie is that he can deliver all that he promises -- and that he can pay for all of it if he does deliver without sending the US into default. This doubt swamped Elizabeth Warren's boat, and it will swamp Bernie too, sooner or later.
7
The difference is that he will try. Trump lied about just about everything and has not even tried to do most of the things he promised. The “best healthcare.” Nothing. Infrastructure (now a running joke policy). Nothing. Saving social security and Medicare (now plotting to slash them). Oh, right he DID give a massive tax cut to his useless rich cronies.
Of course Bernie can’t deliver on all his promises. If he wins he’ll be brought closer to the center. Which is a good reason for people who are afraid of socialism to vote for him. President Sanders will be a frustrated leftist who might be able to get a few good things done for human rights. President Trump term 2 will usher in a full-blown authoritarian state. Trump term 1 is already hard at work dismantling our democracy to enable his corruption.
Bernie as President will have very limited power if the senate remains Republican. Why do we pretend otherwise? The president needs to work with both houses to pass legislation and move the policy agenda forward? How does Charles foresee this happening with Mitch McConnell in his current seat?
8
@RE
If the Senate turns Democrat, that majority will depend on Senators from MT, WV and OH. There would be a massive check on President Bernie even without a filibuster.
3
The country really wanted change in 2016 and what we got is Clockwork Orange. Let's not repeat this mistake again. In the same way that we wouldn't trust brain surgery to an amateur, we should stop trusting our country to one.
Bernie is an honest guy that has been speaking the same ideology for years, no matter what the political weather is, and for that he deserves respect. He is also a populist that spews plans with not only no sound financial planning behind them: He actually has no clue how much they would cost. Can we really afford this kind of leadership?
9
Have we had sound economic planning with Republicans in power?????
“Can we really afford his kind of leadership.” Of course, you mean as opposed to the lying con man we have now who shows zero leadership on anything that does not result in a profit for himself, right?
Thank you! I’m tiring of all the Bernie-bashing and Bernie-doubting I’m reading in the opinion columns. I’m not even certain he’s my pick, but it’s exhausting reading all the negative press once a candidate (any candidate) gets any momentum. Give all the candidates a break. Please!
11
@Kyla
You will find the source of the Bernie bashing at the feet of those who hold most of this country’s money, who are also the architects of every financial disaster of the past 30 years.
For them, he is public enemy #1
The criticism should be for Trump, not Sanders.
2
After what the DNC did to Sanders in 2016, they should just give the nomination to Bernie
I take issue with your comment that Medicare for All is having trouble 'gaining traction even among Democrats.' A lot of people in the media--as we often see moderators do in the debates--keep repeating that without the statistics to back it up. You cite a Kaiser poll, but Kaiser has a dog in the fight given they are health care providers and could stand to lose money if M4A becomes law. A more neutral poll would be the Reuters/Ipsos poll released in August '19 that showed 70% of Americans like the idea of M4A. https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/403248-poll-seventy-percent-of-americans-support-medicare-for-all
I think the problem is that people in the media class like their own health insurance because they have good-paying jobs with great benefits. But they're a bit out of touch with average Americans (the ones lucky enough to afford insurance) but are sick and tired of fighting with these companies over every little bill.
4
No problem with Bernie’s goals for the U.S. However, his first hurdle is Trump. Trump is not interested in facts or in engaging in a debate. He will play the TV reality star to the hilt. It’s all about turning the opponent into his second banana. He will belittle, humiliate, and ridicule to his heart’s content. His base will love it! The fact that millions will be watching won’t faze him in the least—in fact, he will be energized.
I doubt Bernie has ever come up against Trump’s likes in his lifetime.
The more remote scenario in which he becomes President presents the formidable McConnell and his Republican cohorts in the Senate. Obama found it difficult. Doesn’t bode well for Bernie. A one-term President would be a serious blow to the Democrats.
2
I find it difficult that Charles Blow wants to have it both ways in his op-ed today. It seems to me that if one wants to take on the establishment, it has to be a bold 'campaign...not an apologetic on or even a middling centrist approach to convincing American voters that he will not overturn the status quo. Bernie has stated repeatedly what "democratic socialism" means to him and his campaign...and it boils down to fairness, fairness that includes the welfare of all the people, that promises to protect their rights as citizens of this nation. That is what is at stake now because the mass of people in this country are getting a raw deal..betrayed by their government, their elected politicians, the media in all its forms, and the Wall Street barons and their retinues . Socialism comes from the word "social."That roughly means a way of acting and an expectation that everyone, you and your neighbors, has the right to a fair and just way of life. Yes, Mr. Blow, there is nothing difficult about that simple explanation...it reaches out to all of us and we know the difference between oligarchy and democratic socialism. The first letters of the alphabet that denote this country are USA...the US stands for us...all of us!
1
By the time Trump gets done with Sanders he will be labeled as an elderly heart attack patient too sick to govern.
Sanders will be labeled a socialist, a communist, who will ruin our economy and take your savings away from you and open the borders of our country.
Trump will make mince meat of the Sanders' honeymoon in Russia and blow up the college land scandal Bernie's wife was involved in.
Forget that Trump won't disclose his taxes...Sanders won't disclose his health records and Trump will skewer Bernie for his millionaire status.
I'll vote blue no matter who, but Sanders is a disaster.
Even Liz Warren can put up a better fight than Bernie. We have no one else.
Klobuchar is unelectable on her personality alone and Buttigieg is nowhere near the top in the polls and he will never get the African American vote. Bloomberg has too much baggage despite his money. That's it. Dismal.
5
Another article by Mr. Blow misses the mark. You want to know what democratic socialism is? Ask people in Sweden, Denmark, and Norway and they have plenty of large, multinational corporations who are doing just fine.
4
Why on earth should he cozy up to a party establishment that has done nothing for him in five years, cheats, talks openly about defeating him and lies about all of it?
That's a big part of his appeal, cleaning house in the Democratic Party and sending the Clinton wing into permanent exile.
Many Democrats are just as sick of their party as Republicans were of theirs four years ago. Clean house and I'll come back. Until then, Independent who votes primarily for Dems. Like millions of others.
2
@Lou Good Gosh, maybe because that party, of which he is not a member and you claim has done nothing for him, has allowed him to run on their ticket. If Sanders hates the Democratic Party so much, maybe he should stand by his conviction, forgo their backing, and run as an Independent.
3
Bernie is not middle-of-the-road. He promises too many freebies offering those who stand squarely in the middle and who've worked their entire lives instead of expecting/taking handouts. We need Biden or Bloomberg, not Sanders. Who will vote for a socialist? Besides, all the freebies he plans on distributing -- they are not going to happen because Congress won't allow it. So, what's the deal?
5
Great that Mr. Blow is coming around to reality. But Bernie and his supporters are redefining the democratic party - first the platform and eventually the people (if the old guard doesn't change). We don't need benedictions now from those who did their best to PREVENT the situation we're now in from occurring. Bernie did not this time around see the light and suddenly embrace minority groups.... This VT senator did incredibly well in Nevada in 2016. (If you recall, he would have won NV without the malfeasance of the DNC, Harry Reid and casino operators - and probably actually won it with all this.) Bernie Sanders' improved organization in Nevada since then now PARALLELS organization improvements in ALL the states.
Bernie is NOT now embracing the democratic establishment's 'identity politics' gamesmanship. His, like Howard Dean's, is a 50-state approach, but Bernie focuses on the WORKING CLASS (which happens to consist of many minority groups). His success with Latinos now is because they do most of the hard work in this country. THEY are its bedrock. They're not supporting Sanders because they think he'll reduce prejudices they surely have to deal with. They want the economic opportunity for their kids that the staff of NYT has for theirs.
2
Keeping my comment as positive as possible: Charles, you've come a long way baby (since Hillary)!
Quick question though: is the Kaiser Family Foundation opinion/poll connected with or tangential to a small amount of health insurance wealth? I was thinking Kaiser Permanente but hey, that's just my guess.
1
@Hinckley51
No, the Kaiser Family Foundation is not connected in any way to Kaiser Permanente.
"KFF is an endowed, non-profit organization filling the need for trusted, independent information on national health issues. Legally we are a public charity — not a foundation — and as I hope you know, we are an independent national organization, headquartered in San Francisco, without any connection to Kaiser Permanente."
https://www.kff.org/presidents-message/
Charles, you're looking at things through Bernie-colored glasses. National polls are meaningless. They reflect giant blue states e.g CA and NY which get no more electoral votes if you win by 1 or a million. It's the midwest states that determine the winner. Second, Bernie is depending on young people and new voters. But young folks have the worst turnout record and new voters would be new because they haven't voted before. Habits are hard to change. And 100 years of equating socialism with communism will scare away those who do vote or buy into Trump protecting America from the Commie menace. Your making light of these pitfalls will help lead to a new dark age with Trump and the GOP running every branch of government and even arresting "traitors" who protest too much,. even if they write newspaper columns.
3
He might defeat Trump but, in the process, we might lose both the House and the Senate.
1
I have no doubt the intelligence agencies were not making it up that once again Bernie Sanders is accepting pro bono disinformation help from Vladimir Putin.
2
@VisaVixen That's not what they said; he isn't even close to the malfeasance of the Trump campaign. But no doubt the Russians view him to be as polarizing as Trump, and therefore a guarantee that the US will be basically gridlocked and nonfunctional another 4 years whether a Republican or Democrat is in office.
1
My problem with Sanders is that there is literally no point to electing him. He's running for president - not christ almighty. Just because he's in the big chair doesn't mean that any of his policies get passed into law, and the fact of the matter is that they won't. Sanders will be deep in the cold ground before the United States adopts a uniform single-payer healthcare system. I don't like that, but that's just the way it is. Moderate Democrats exist - he's not going to get stuff like that past them AND Republicans. A Sanders presidency will be functionally different from a Warren or a Biden or even a Bloomberg presidency in terms of foreign policy, which is the only thing he's going to have anything remotely resembling unilateral power to influence.
The man is selling lies. They're lies he believes, but they're still lies, and I can't think of a much better way to push Progressives out of the system than the sad realization that, despite the fact that their candidate got elected, they still don't get what they want.
3
WWJV -- Who Would Jesus Vote for? This (white) evangelical pastor believes it would be Bernie.
4
What we need is a closed borders candidate.
Trump’s real political rise started during the ‘14-16 Ebola outbreak, when he was able to paint Obama as elevating political correctness over the lives of American citizens.
Because Obama had already demonstrated sympathy towards minority criminals like Michael Brown and Trayvon Martin, many swing voters were already primed to think of Obama as someone who put political correctness over safety, and my guess is that this is why Trump was able to attract so many voters in the critical Midwest.
Fast forward to now. With Coronovirus bearing down on all of us, who better to respond than a closed borders germaphobe? It’s almost like Trump is the perfect candidate for this!
In order to preempt this, I would hope the Democrats can quickly adopt some closed borders policies too. If we don’t, we won’t just be seen as a open borders party who wants to throw American citizens into a low wage and entitlement race with migrants, we could be seen as the open borders virus embracers too!
The first criticism isn’t as bad. Lots of people in the suburbs LOVE their low wage immigrant nannies, cleaners, and landscapers. They’re fine with open borders as long as they get to live like kings and queens. Plus, they like the food.
But a little viral pandemic, and I’m convinced these fair weather progressives are going to run right to Trump if he promises to keep them safe.
Yes, it disgusts me too. We should have open borders no matter what.
1
Oh my goodness - thank you for this! I firmly believe that Bernie is the best candidate because he says what he means, means what he says, and has a real plan for real people like me. He doggedly continues to bring his message to the country despite the terrible rap he has gotten from the DNC and the terrible coverage he gets from the media. Tenacious, tough, persistent and smart. He’s got my vote, just as he had it in 2016.
2
Charles, I'm beginning to think you're a backdoor shill for Trump !
Have you ever lived in the Midwest ? The Plains states ? How about PA or OH ?
Enough.
Here's Bernie:
1. Larger scale management experience ? Non existent. Mayor of Burlington, VT, pop. 38,000 and 99% white independent/dem. in the 1980s.
2. Promulgates vast social economic programs -- YET has never described how he plans to pay for these multi trillion dollar costs. Of course, increased taxes for ALL. The rub is that he doesn't have the integrity or forthrightness to be upfront about this. I don't care for Warren -- but I do give her props for having the guts for trying to detail out the costs.
3. Waving one's hands, speaking in "We" the people/workers talk is insulting.
We need to find even keel to this rolling ship of state -- before it capsizes into Trump authoritarianism.
The American voters deserve better than a choice between fascism and socialism.
Don't you think ?
Bloomberg 2020.
3
Dear “centrists,”
You need progressives to beat Trump.
Dear “progressives,”
You need centrists to beat Trump.
Y’all better figure out how to work together come July. Because if you can’t present a united front, we are doomed.
I am a Warren and Bernie supporter. The vast majority of voters really listening to their policies and ideas with an open mind, including Republicans, would find policies that would make their lives better and would have sensible reasons for voting for them. Unfortunately, too many people go with knee jerk reactions and performance issues. This includes Democrats. I have several white middle-class liberal women friends who hate Bernie. Why? Because his face gets red when he talks.
3
It's irrelevant who Trump wants to run against. He's an idiot.
Trump shot down Biden because he thought he'd be the strongest candidate. But it turns out Biden has been running on name recognition and his base of support has been shrinking, not growing.
Does Trump think Sanders is the weakest candidate? Or is he poking at the Democratic Party and its follies, the hypocrisy of establishment democrats coming out against their own front runner. I'd say it's the later. Listen to his rhetoric. When Clinton speaks up to demonize Sanders, Trump is right there on the sidelines saying-- can you believe how they treat this guy? For Trump its win win-- he doesn't expect Sanders to win and he gets to use this as an example of disfunction in the Democratic Party.
As for Russia-- seriously? The report on Russia is already being walked back in today's news. It's not clear at this point what Russia will do in this election. Although I think it's a good bet they will be supporting Trump. It's a leap based on zero evidence to say they have decided Sanders is the weak candidate.
Whoever wins in 2020 will be bringing out their voting base in support of their candidacy. No democrat is going to win without a record turn out of democratic voters. This will in turn lift downticket democrats of every stripe.
2
If you (or Charles Blow) think Sanders can sell socialism to middle America or adequately explain why he's a big Fidel Castro fan to middle America I would like to invite you to tea with Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny.
6
So when Bernie loses big will Charles Blow and all the left-wing fanatics admit that their mistake and stop championing socialism? No, of course not. Fanatics never admit their wrong. They just invent a new conspiracy theory. Charles isn’t one of the fanatics, but he is obsessed with stopping Bloomberg, which is foolish if you really believe stopping Trump is the highest priority.
6
I am a “Never-Sanders” and after his comments about the 60 year old Cuban dictatorship, more so. Saying this murderous authoritarian regime did some good because of a literacy program is tantamount to saying the Third Reich did some good because they built some roads or Mussolini’s trains ran on time.
6
“....First, he is a self-described democratic socialist.....” and then you try to explain what that means through complex wording and analysis. That’s precisely the point !!!
Many Americans don’t have the time or the initiative to try to understand it.
For me, with a strong family background on what socialism did abroad, even when they called it “democratic”, just listening to the word scares me. I don’t want people to do things for me anymore or even try. I will work hard to pay for my health insurance, pick the college I want for my kids and live wherever I want. I don’t hear to promises anymore from the so called “ socialists”.
1
The NYT and all the polls but one, Nate Silver's 538, had HRC winning in 2016.
Seriously, a 78 year old yelling, and arm waving socialist won't get a thing done in a GOP senate, and that's assuming he flips the swing state vote. Don't bet on it, there is too much at stake.
5
Thank you, Mr. Blow, for diverging from the "Sky is Falling!!!" commentary expressed by most of your colleagues. Bernie's trouble is that the American people are basically timid, and inherently selfish. They prefer to cling to something (health care) which is not working, rather than risk change. And those fortunate individuals couldn't give a damn about the have-nots. The millions who voted for our corrupt (and they knew it!) president announced their desires- entertainment politics and more privileges for the top end.
2
The socialist in "social democrat", protects all of us from Vulture Capitalists.
Is a cardboard box your next home till the police beat you and force you to move on?
Or, as they drag you away, You can see the gold plated benz ride by. The fat belly with the big cigar sneering as you carry your cross.
Doubt Blow. Sanders is a Sandinista who went to on a trip to Nicaragua and met personally with the dictator Daniel Ortega and had a "profoundly emotional experience"; he went to Moscow (of all places) for his honey moon where he was filmed as a shirtless bon vivant heavy drinker; he is a current favorite in Russia's efforts to manipulate American elections; he is of doubtful health after to a recent heart attack; he is a thoughtless promoter of pie-in-the-sky propositions, including medicare for all; he is a querulous, cranky man of mean disposition; he is a moral absolutist who sees the good in his own ideas but in virtually no one else's. Like all that? It is just foreplay compared to what Trump will do to him. I write this as a committed Democrat who has so voted for some 50 years. But this one is a loser. Do you like Trump? Do him a favor and vote for Sanders. Doubt Blow.
7
The ideal candidate to beat Trump has always voted blue and always will. His name is Vanity Smurf and he carries a mirror. He can point it at Trump and say "look at this crap, I won't do any of it but I will work to make your life more beautiful." He would win forty states.
In contrast, Sanders would become almost as much of a story as Trump and create more angst than reassurance. This might work to win the election, but it is a wildly risky approach.
People seem to forget (or continue to deny) just how terrible a candidate Clinton was, and she essentially tied Trump. Now Trump has to run on a bad track record instead of campaign promises. It will not take the next Abraham Lincoln to beat Trump, just some humility and a credible ability to convey a sense of shared purpose.
Although, I must confess I don't know what sort of socialism Sanders embraces, it would not appear to be an outright abolition of capitalism. I think it is more likely that he is aiming for a version of Eurosocialism which is just capitalism with a kinder face. This would mean major modifications (depending on who you are) to the current system but not its endgame. I can't see how he could wrest control of the wealth making process from the super capitalists. I'm not sure that would serve anyone's interests. But he could curtail absurd wealth accumulation and ensure a better distribution through a massive restructuring of the tax system. He could direct a lot more money into education, health care, environmental protection and greatly reduce spending on an unnecessarily burdensome military. He could improve relations between nations and create a more compassionate approach to the members of the world community. The US could take climate change seriously and work alongside other nations to fight it. If these things happen, it won't matter what label we apply to them. America and the world will be a much better and much safer place.
If Bernie is the nominee I fear moderates will stay home.
3
NY Times readers like to psychoanalyze everything, but most voters keep it simple. What this election is about is how should we spend our nation’s wealth. Should we allow the rich to get richer or should we invest more in our people, infrastructure, and the environment? If this is the argument, Bernie Sanders will easily win the White House.
3
Mr. Blow, you have successfully rebutted some of the most common "Bernie can't win" arguments, but you have chosen to ignore the most compelling one.
I speak of the fact that all polling reflects public opinion of a man who over decades of political life has remained virtually untouched by the tentacles of the GOP smear machine.
Give them six weeks to work on him after he becomes the nominee, and the coronavirus will have higher favorability ratings.
2
You can't possibly be serious.
He's remained "untouched by the Republican smear machine" only because they never went after him. Nor did Hillary Clinton..No politician has gotten the free ride that Sanders has enjoyed. It's about to get very bumpy.
1
@Adele
Yes, exactly what I am saying.
You must be responding to someone else's post.
Of course, I will vote for Bernie over Trump as will a (slight) majority of American voters.
But don't expect a Senate majority. And the dozens of House Dems who flipped districts in 2018 will likely have to hand back the keys. You can't change 17.8% of GDP by clicking your heels and chanting Medicare for All. Or by Executive Orders. Ditto the college plan, the child care plan, taxes... name it. Any of which would would substantially improve the lives of millions and make us a fairer, better nation. But without the House and Senate, obstruction for Bernie's electoral mandate will be hard and ugly. Do voters remember how this works?
I truly believe that the change envisioned by Bernie voters is not possible in an America where voter participation hovers in the mid-50% range since 1972. That "massive" 2008 turnout? 58.2%.
Our democracy seems barely important enough to bother for just about half if us. I will be happy to be wrong.
4
I just saw a new poll showing 65% believe Trump will be re-elected, including 35% of discouraged Democrats. This terrifies me. But it underscores the absolute necessity that we keep the House and take the Senate. At least that would be some (our only) protection against Trump's lawlessness to save the Republic and our democratic institutions and norms. Don't forget the Supreme Court and the entire Judiciary
We MUST VOTE FOR EVERY DEMOCRAT on the ballot - all down the ticket - regardless of who becomes our presidential nominee. Just Do It! We can't afford to elect one more Republican Trump enabler.
4
This article would be better titled: Good reasons to doubt Bernie. Blow simply provides a list of the many (but not all) reasons we should doubt Sander's ability to beat Trump in a national election. Admittedly, there isn't an Obama-like character in the field this election cycle, but I'm still astounded that we are about to hand Trump a second term by nominating a candidate who can't win a national election.
6
The more I heard the heavy weights of the Democratic Party (whose names are well known and whose confort and wealth is a reality) worrying about the future of the country due to Sander’s plans, the more I think of what FDR accomplished. Politics is the art of the possible.
It is time to lick old wounds in private and instead count one’s own generous and many blessings.
President Obama came to DC with big dreams. Hopefully Sanders will get some of those done. More likely, though Congress will also become a heavy boulder on his way.
We all looked to the polls in 2016, but things didn’t turn out they way we thought they would.
1
Probably because most people don’t have a basic understanding of polls.
If the DNC had listened to the people in 2016, and not undermined Bernie Sanders then, just think - he could have been President already, and this four years of national stress, decisiveness, pain, could have been avoided.
I recommend everyone take a pause, try and remember what 2016 was like, and what could have been.
Then vote towards a sane, representative government in which basic human rights are maintained, justice is equally applied, the support for an educated public (through public schooling) is visible, and the population is allowed to dream, seek and create a future without wondering if one serious illness/accident might render them insolvent. Can you imagine it? Then vote for it.
4
@elizabeth
What could have been was President Hillary Clinton, if it were not for the fact that the votes cast by Sanders' supporters for Trump in the states of WI, MI, and PA far exceeded Trump's margin of victory in those key states. Their votes for third-party candidates also exceeded Trump's margin of victory.
4
Yes!! So tired of all the anti-Sanders columns in the NYT - such patent Establishment, corporate bias. Yes He Can
3
I hope this nomination is not the sequel to "Eugene McCarthy-1968" and "George McGovern-1972". Critics loved those those movies, but they flopped at the box office.
Both Eugene and George were fine men who would have made good presidents, but nobody ever lost money betting the majority of voters in America can be conned - for a while at least - by a 'personality' weak in morals and strong in story-telling, and backed by a compliant party organization. And so the Republican won those contests.
Donald J. Trump is not the president of the United States, he the presider over a coalition of angry, selfish people determined to have their own way no matter who gets hurt in the process. As they become increasingly numb to the dangers of lawless , self-serving behavior, their willingness to accede to their master's demands will increase, and the damages will mount up against the rest of the people.
But in the meantime, those who are not subjects of 'king donald' had better be planning the quickest way to depose him. And that means attracting the maximum number of votes in the upcoming election - up and down the ballot.
Remember those old movies, Bernie!
2
Bernie Sanders is a climate champion, and that is why I’m thrilled that he will likely be the Democratic nominee.
Sen. Bernie Sanders accepts zero dollars from the fossil fuel industry. He also rightly names the fossil fuel industry as the culprit in the climate emergency.
While our weather becomes more extreme and erratic, and with only a handful of years left to prevent the worst effects of climate change, fossil fuel campaign contributions paralyze our government. In the 2016 presidential election, the Koch network’s campaign contributions were almost as large as that of each major party. As the “party of oil,” they bought us a government that denies the climate emergency.
Fossil fuel donors are counting on hamstringing climate action, while Sanders would do everything possible to prevent the worst impacts of climate change through leadership, legislation and diplomacy. Bernie Sanders, the only A candidate on the Greenpeace scorecard, emerges from the crowd of nominees as the untainted, unbought, true climate champion.
3
All of which means nothing with a candidate with no Congressional support behind him. It's too bad Sanders didn't care about polluting the air with his selfishness and burning bridges with hard-working Democrats who wouldn't acquiesce to his every tantrum.
3
Political positions aside, Bernie lacks charisma. He doesn’t bring joy to the campaign trail. He sense of humor is thin at best. We know nothing of his personal likes, friendships, and family because they are not a part of his campaign. Americans elect presidents that they could imagine as friends. The personality component of his campaign is too hidden behind the policy component. We are a country where over 50% of the population eagerly wants new leadership yet I fear that the imbalance in his campaign profile will prevent him from attracting enough of those dissatisfied voters to win.
5
If Bernie wins but Democrats fail to take back the Senate, little changes. The big questions is whether Sanders has the coat tails to help numerous candidates down ballot. In the 2018 mid-term election, it was primarily moderate Democrats that flipped many of those 44 seats, not fire-breathing progressives calling for a revolution.
Meanwhile, you have a bunch of contenders in the "moderate" lane, fighting for that spot, splitting the vote, and vowing to march on despite poor odds. This allows a loyal core of Bernie supporters to portray Bernie as having overwhelming support. which he does not. Add us the percentages of his competitors and it far exceeds Bernie's.
Gabbard is a unqualified joke, and should have dropped out long ago. Same with Steyer, despite his sincerity and big bucks. Bloomberg has demonstrated he does not have the political chops in his comatose debate performance. Uncle Joe is loveable, but has lost a step or two. SC may give him a reprieve. Buttigieg speaks into soaring rhetoric but has a thin resume. Too green, and can't garner the black vote.
1
Bernie has no coattails; he's never had any coattails, nor has he tried to have any within the Democratic Party. It's quite the conundrum to expect someone who has turned off his colleagues for decades..and is still doing it..will win the Presidency and suddenly expect a coalition...? What a hypocrite.
Charles Blow completely skimmed over the impact on down ballot races. Sure Bernie Sanders can win, he even might. But it’s almost certain that he will have a negative influence on us holding onto the House and flipping the Senate, which is a very real possibility without him. Electoral history shows that as we swing strong in one direction at the top we swing in the other direction for Congress. Then nothing gets done at all. None of the other candidates have that negative an impact down ballot
3
This over-the-hill supporter of Bernie Sanders lost a freelance reporting gig in 2018 because of a hearing loss which caused me to misquote some people. I can't afford a hearing aid. WIth Bernie in the saddle, I probably could. In addition, I strongly believe he would foster better employment practices as president. His brand of socialism won't totally destroy capitalism---or, as he put it (approximately): "The government isn't going to take over the grocery store down the block." I think I read him right on tv which flashed his words across a screen in my neighborhood cafe.
2
If the A.C.A. has actually reduced costs, I haven't read about it.
It may have, but that issue hasn't gained any traction that I've noticed--only Republican legislative and court efforts to eliminate or restrict it.
My best guess is that there may be some people who changed their coverage under A.C.A. and received lower premiums: ??
3
America’s present health insurance/health care industry is about profit, from medical device makers to the pharmaceutical industry to health care "providers", medical administrators to insurance companies.
Republicans (conservatives) have no interest in any form of health insurance/health care that 1) involves the federal government and 2) does not promise profit for private industry. That America has seen that the free market over the last 70 years has not been a success in terms of either health insurance or health care cost control is immaterial.
Vote Blue, no matter who...
4
Recently, I have been reading and studying the Spanish Civil War by such authors as Hugh Thomas and Paul Preston and the tragic ending of this effort to bring a democratic government to Spain in the 1930s. Unfortunately, the infighting among the left (Republicans) prevented the party from ever uniting and enabled the Francoists to prevail. What happened under the vicious and vindictive dictator Franco is something we must never allow to happen here. We must come together as a party and vote Blue No Matter Who rather than face what Trump could do in a unbridled second term. Bernie was quite successful in his efforts for the people of Vermont and I think he would do his best for us as a Nation too.
6
The same thing happened in Germany in the early 1930s. Stalin ordered the German communist party not to cooperate with other liberal parties to create a coalition to block the Nazis. That was a catastrophic act of ideological purity that today’s Democrats seem poised to repeat.
Charles! Listen carefully to what Trump says. Every chance he gets he tries to inflame Sanders supporters by saying that the Democratic establishment is against him. That may be true and there may be good reason for it. But Trump is not saying things out of sympathy for Bernie but to help Bernie win. And that alone may be a good reason for Democrats - establishment and all - to not choose Bernie as the nominee. Trump wants to run against Bernie - that is clear as daylight. The negative ads and FBI investigation reports have not even started against Bernie. His wife's mess at the Vermont college has not even been mentioned. And do the electoral math, please. Can a former Fidel Castro fan win the 29 electoral votes in Florida? Can a self-proclaimed socialist win the swing states of Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan once Trump starts the negative ads against Bernie? The answer from demographer after demographer is a resounding NO. Don't rethink your ideology, but open yourself to on-the-ground electoral politics. Knights in shiny white armor who are so convinced of the righteousness of their cause that they don't listen to ordinary folks will take us all down in defeat. The biggest casualty will not be the Democratic party but democracy itself.
1
"Democratic socialists" does not support totalitarian socialist regimes
as Sanders clearly did and does in the old Soviet Union and even today in totalitarian Cuba. Sanders called himself a democratic socialist, but clearly that is a whitewash for his support of totalitarian socialist regimes. We should very much doubt Bernie.
5
I’m encouraged to see comments here. I think we are finally getting it. Bernie is the way forward. Get on board and pets christen a new, fairer America.
4
I believe that Sanders is a logical continuation of President Obama's promise of hope and change--change that matters to everyday Americans and also to The Dreamers, and those hoping for a rational and legal path to citizenship in this country.
Obama gave us the promise; Sanders is determined to make it happen, which is a country that works for not just the rich, the powerful, and the politically well connected, but for the rest of us who need affordable health care, housing, a living wage, child care and education, and most of all, human decency and clean air, water, and soil to sustain and continue life on this planet.
But Trump, the Republicans, and the false consciousness opinion maker Fox News seem to think that these are bad ideas and that the political leaders who actually work for them are "socialists," and "very bad people."
Really? If it is Trump and the GOP or Bernie (or any of the other Democratic presidential candidates), there really is no choice on election day if our democratic country is to survive as a democracy and a lawful nation of decent human beings.
5
This is not directed to Mr. Blows column directly, but I feel it must be addressed. Apparently on the 60 minutes interview with Anderson Cooper, Mr. Sanders replied to a question about Fidel Castro. His reply was , in my mind , not only a game changer but an eye opening comment on his true beliefs. Of course he replied that not everything Castro did was bad, he brought literacy to the island and that was a good thing. Really? So all they could read was his propaganda? As a former Democratic pundit said,he just lost Florida. I understand (I think) his reasoning, and yes,Castro gave free healthcare to Cuba also, but at what cost? Those Cuban refugees , Democrats and mainly republicans, will have a hard time reconciling that ridiculous remark to their experiences and also to Sanders version of “democratic socialism “. To me, that reply alone sums up the senator’s warped vision , not about socialism, but about his convoluted ideas on how he, an angry, irritable old man with a documented heart condition, can somehow win the presidency. I like Warren, Amy and Pete, but they had better align themselves with Biden fast, have Bloomberg and Steyer help to finance Bidens race,or we will be facing the apocalypse of Trump.
7
This is your opinion.
He also condemned Castro and authoritarianism in the same interview. In any case he’s not only one to praise Cuba’s education system, so did Obama who also at the same time praised the Cuban healthcare system. Will you call out Bloomberg who praised Xi Jinping refusing to call him a dictator in the same way?
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/02/bernie-sanders-fidel-castro-60-minutes-interview-cooper.html
Sorry Dave, but I live in a neighborhood with lots of “Bernies”, don’t need another one castigating me for 4 years: plus, I really don’t understand how his heart attack isn’t a game changer? Please don’t site his schedule, he can be as active as he wants, until he drops dead at a rally.
"In fact, in head-to-head national polls, Sanders consistently outperforms Trump."
For heaven's sake, in head-to-head polls, EVERYONE outperforms Trump. But that's not how the general election works, is it? If you want to make the case for Sanders' ability to win the WH without losing the House, I'm sure a lot of us would like to see that. But do so without using a specious argument.
8
Charles is right when he says don't discount Bernie. All such pundits who talk like they know the future or the will of so many voters obviously don't engage brain before speaking out of an oracle other than their mouths. We can, however, speak in probabilities based upon common sense, and it doesn't sound like Charles speaks with the same sense I have.
Bernie's is an undoubtedly superficial platform, based upon too much that's not based in reality. Yet if Trump can do it, maybe Bernie can too--so goes the thinking on any number of fronts where our national disgrace of a president has been given opportunity to show us what he's (mostly in-)capable of. Charles should read David Leonhardt's column today and ask himself whether Bernie has the capacity to be a politician other than what he's been in Vermont for so many years--winningly considerate of diverse viewpoints other than those compatible with his "revolution".
1
I fear some of the supporters of the other candidates are so concerned that Bernie might win the nomination and then lose to Trump that they are engaging in some dirty tactics worthy of the staunchest Trump supporters.
Instead of debating his policies, his ability to lead, or a number of other differences from their own candidates, I'm dismayed to see some of our own Democrats calling Sanders a Communist, a defender of Castro, a Revolutionary aiming to overthrow our government, all because they're panicking that he can't beat Trump, though as Charles says, polls indicate he could.
These tactics are not worthy of us and will, in fact, give Trump an advantage should Sanders win the nomination. These people's words will be used against them, so I implore them to stop whenever I see it and encourage them to promote their own candidate in honest ways. Under no circumstances ought we to be doing the Republicans work for them or descending to their level by lying about Sen. Sanders. He is none of the things they say.
9
Any battle between Trump and Sanders would be a battle between two snake-oil charletons. Both of them are peddling pie-in-the-sky strategies that have precious little to do with reality as it is actually lived.
Just how your country has descended into such a mess will surely be the primary focus of generations of American historians, assuming there remains an America in which to practice history after this caustic era closes. If not, well, it won't be surprising. To borrow an expression from a great TV show, Six Feet Under: "Everything, everyone, everywhere ends."
8
@Charles Sager You want to know what happened? We turned into a country where people have nothing in common with each other and don't trust each other. Watch out or the same thing will happen to you.
Well you’ve convinced me. Sanders can’t win. I came into this column thinking that the odds were just strongly against him. After reading your defense of him I am utterly convinced Trump will win at least 350 electoral votes if Sanders is the nominee. Wise up Democrats. Charles Blow doesn’t like him, but Bloomberg is your only real chance of winning.
7
@ Charles. If Bloomberg is our only shot I’ll take Trump
What causes me the most discomfort about a Sanders candidacy is that he and Trump are two very different types of populist. In truth, Trump is not a populist, but a nativist of the early 19th century mold. His strength comes from the nativist xenophobia of his base. That they are no better off than they were four years ago economically is not important so long as Trump browbeats and excludes people of color.
Sanders is a true populist in that he genuinely has the interest of the people, regardless of race, creed, etc., at heart. His type of populism will not woo any of the so-called "everyday Americans" that form Trump's base. If nominated, and it is still if, Sanders' success in the general election will depend on bringing out a true populist base. The 2020 election could be the true battle of two versions of the American common man, one united by racial purity, the second united by a need for social justice and an elimination of the inequality that is grown in this country for 40 years.
5
I have voted Democratic in the last three presidential elections, but if Sanders is the nominee I’m voting for Trump.
2
I think you voted for Putin.
1
Prefer fascism over regulations on extreme greed?
@John That really too bad to hear because voting for Trump is an awful thing to do to our country.
2
Can Sanders win in Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Florida? If he wins 3 out of 5, he's in. We already know about the West and East coasts (Bernie), and most of the South (Trump).
Bernie's "socialism" doesn't scare me so much as the turnoff by so many voters. All Bernie has to say is "forget about socialism, Americans want serious reform." Use words wisely, and rephrase Medicare for all (universal coverage), free college (2 yrs only), and forgiveness of student loans (through public service). He needs to expand the tent through the hope of reasonable reform.
6
No one seem to be asking Bernie how he would help the thousands of people who work for the private health care insurance companies. Who is going to hire them? His plan to provide free college education would close hundreds of private colleges and universities. How is he going to help the people who work at these institution of higher ed find employment? It's a nice pitch to hear that everything would be free, but what about the ramifications of such actions?
5
Bernie addresses the millions in America who struggle to have a house they can afford to rent or buy, decent affordable health insurance and even enough money to have a good food budget, and a job that pays a livable wage. And if you think Bernie is "extreme," just consider our current President.
5
I'm afraid Bernie is our Corbyn. None of the congressional candidates he backed won in the great Democratic romp of 2018. His endorsement didn't help. And that's just at a state level. His support in the primaries seems to be about 25%, with 75% split among the other candidates. We need to narrow the field and find out who can win a majority of Democratic votes. If you can't do that, you can't win the national election.
5
Pared down to their respective essences, here's the difference between Bernie and Bloomberg and their platforms:
Bernie: failed pretty much at everything until he got into politics. He wants to raise the minimum wage for dead end jobs and give free education to everyone, which will make college what free high school is: a place where people with ambition, intelligence and dedication excel and others coast or fail. None of this will create jobs for graduates, so they'll just enter an overcrowded labor market with dwindling opportunities and degrees that mean little to nothing.
Bloomberg: got fired and responded by becoming one of the richest men in the world who employs tens of thousands in good-paying jobs. Also will raise the minimum wage to $15. Instead of touting free college for everybody, he wants to make it free to those who can't pay -- paying also for food, books and transportation -- and invest in technical education that will qualify graduates for jobs that will actually exist, like the millions of jobs the green energy industry will create for skilled workers like carpenters, electricians, boilermakers, masons, etc.
In sum, Bernie is offering free degrees of declining value for entry into a labor utopia that doesn't exist. Bloomberg, who, unlike Bernie, has actually succeeded in the world outside of government and created jobs and managed employees, proposes programs that won't bankrupt the country and will prepare people for jobs that will actually exist.
6
But today's polls are BEFORE Republicans start their attack ads. When they pull out the stops -- which no one has ever done against Bernie -- it will be shocking. Brace yourself.
8
@Carolyn Indeed, I am not anxious to experience Trump's full weaponization of America's latent antisemitism.
@Carolyn
This is what his fans consistently overlook.
A single incessant attack line -- "Hillary's emails!" -- was enough to sink Clinton's campaign. The Trumpists have far more ammo to fire at Bernie, and they're just lying in the weeds with it, locked and loaded. If he's the nominee, it's going to get really ugly, really fast.
1
@DD Ramone
And he won't utter a word of it himself. He's too cagey for that. Just like with the gay slurs against Buttigieg, he'll leave it to his and Putin's army of trolls.
Bernie can’t win.
In fact any democrat is going to have a hard time kicking Trump out of office.
What Bernie will do is lose the house and the senate will never get close to becoming a majority for the democrats.
I despise Trump but I am no fan of Sanders. I have always voted and this is the first time it would be difficult for me to pull the lever for Bernie. I voted for Hillary and held my nose doing it but I knew how awful Trump would be.
If anyone thinks Bernie Sanders a 78 year old heart attack victim who is an avowed socialist is going to win I have a bridge in New York to sell you.
Bernie Sanders who is not a democrat will take this party down. He even tried to primary Obama in 2012 but thank goodness was talked out of it.
Someone has to talk some sense into all the moderates. One should be chosen and I don’t care if they flip a coin. I’d be fine with any of them.
Then the moderate and Bernie should duke it out fairly. The winner should be our nominee. If Bernie wins then so be it. I would still not vote for him but at least I’d feel it was a fair fight for the nomination.
8
Bernie means well. But he is angry. He has to control his anger. There are some very good people I know who worked hard within our current legal system and got rich by innovative enterprise. Consider, for example, a person who just won a lottery! If it was invested properly that could grow to a Billion. There are many guys who simply moved money around to become Billionaires, but we can always easily convince them that they neither can it with them when they go nor do they have control how those who inherit will use the ill-gotten wealth. So we have to do what Bernie wants leaving the rich alone without letting them get any richer. This way we can avoid hatred. Since we are already used to getting along with them we can remain united.
Sanders has to win electoral votes in Wisconsin Pennsylvania Arizona Florida or North Carolina
The other states don't matter, they're a given , red or blue, regardless of candidate nominated.
3
They can't stop us ? No perhaps not , only the destabilization of government and chaos ; we already have Trump doing that . All those free things Bernie promises will take years to implement ; people get carried along with the dream , but then comes the rude awakening . Whoever defeats Trump has a big big job to do , cleaning up . It's a nice idea ; the people have bought the mansion but it's so decrepit and damaged it needs to be torn down and rebuilt however; it's easier to rebuild a mansion than a country . Bernie doesn't have the years and the house will remain divided ; his supporters aren't into tearing down that division but into the idea of winning and being in charge . We are rapidly devolving into what happens in third world countries.
6
Need I remind anyone what the polls said about Clinton about this time four years ago. If Bernie wins, and republicans win the senate, it’s four years of investigation, harassment, and nothing getting done.
3
It's pretty early in the primary season to a call a winner.
That said, Bernie may well be the nominee. If so, I guess I'll rally behind him. But he is an angry old man with a bad heart--literally and figuratively. His policy ideas are fine, but his political skills needed to implement them are weak. He is all about me, me, me.
He's far from the worst candidate we could get and he is leaps and bounds better than Trump. But neither of those qualities is much of an endorsement.
3
Bernie's Medicare for All is never going to become a real program like the ACA. The reason is because it's not a real plan but a vision with a lot of rhetorical arguments trying to address the problems which must be addressed to make such a program practical.
We are not going to close down private insurance coverage of health care until we can pay for health care in some other way. If we did, people will not get the case that they need when they need it, and that means people dying and becoming dreadfully ill. In someone's calculations, making the whole works simple and cost effective only requires eliminating the current system because then it will be able to work far better without the corrupted system in use. But the system cannot be our of service, even for a day, without very bad results.
Furthermore, the high costs of our system is due to a lot more than the private and for profits factors. The way we deliver care is more expensive than it is in other countries. We will have to work hard to address this. It will include practical ways of optimizing care while minimizing costs which we have no idea how to accomplish.
6
The average student loan owed is less than $10,000, and only 10% of college students have significant student loans. As a former professor in a 4 year college and have taught also in 2 year campuses, most of my students work and they pay their tuition from work or have parents that pay a portion of the expenses. Many also qualify for the $2500 per year tax credit, which also help offset the expense of college tuition. Those who are voting for Bernie for a chance of loan forgiveness are unlikely to get what they wish for because most of us who pay our own tuition bill don't want to responsible for yours.
Instead of debt forgiveness, Democratic candidates should focus on the practices of for profit colleges that relies on offering high interest private student loans to attract students. Student not only get loan to cover tuition but also living expenses, and the interest accumulate while they are attending schools. Many of these schools offer degree that have limited employment opportunities.
7
@Elizabeth One simple solution is to eliminate interest on student loans. I agree that I don't want to pay for other people's school loans when I'm already helping my own son with his education.
1
@MD
A lot of the student loans are financialized and sold in the market. Who would buy the debt if there is no interest payment?
1
@Elizabeth I'd suggest it's a better alternative than complete loan forgiveness or free college. Perhaps all school loans would have to be held by the government, with people having the option to borrow with interest from private banks. I'm sure there are many options that could be implemented to ease student debt burdens that don't include total loan forgiveness or free college payed for by tax dollars.
The people saying Sanders can't win are the exact same people who told us that Trump couldn't possibly win four years ago.
6
@FSM OK. The pundits were wrong last time. That doesn't make them wrong this time. Trump drew a win on an inside straight with Hillary running a poor campaign and Comey making a bad judgment call. The odds were against him then. The odds are against Bernie today. I want better odds when there's so much at stake.
2
Good point, Mad Moderate. We're betting the farm on this one and taking a ridiculous risk with a Socialist who prides himself on his many enemies.
Incorrect. They are the people who said Bernie wouldn’t beat Clinton.
We don’t call it “socialism” when we reduce taxes on the wealthy or use funds from the Federal Reserve to prop up financial markets or when we pack the court with judges who rule money is free speech and that corporations have rights or when we subsidize farmers or make transfer payments to military contractors or build airports or schools or roads or bridges or staff police and fire departments etc.
7
This socialism controversy is and always was ridiculous. The term has come to mean Marx-Leninist totalitarian government which rejects liberal democracy because it distracts from the ultimate goal of the perfect workers' paradise in which any government is unnecessary. That is not what Bernie is proposing, which is liberal democracy with social guarantees of the basics assured for everyone. People taking care of people with government of, by, and for the people. The fundamental social contract which every human community is based upon assuring that if one is part of a community, the community looks out for one. The only difference between liberals/progressives and conservatives is about who should be included.
6
@Casual Observer Then maybe Bernie should stop calling himself a socialist and call himself a liberal Democrat. Oh, that's right he can't, because he's not a Democrat, just using the party to get elected.
I am a lifelong democrat. If Sanders is the nominee I will vote for Trump. Socialism fails every time.
6
PLEASE reconsider that decision. This is about the erosion of democracy - voting rights, free press, rule of law.
6
Just a quick note on Democratic Socialism... The meaning of democracy has had some fluctuations over time, but it is becoming more inclusive and more refined methods of representing the will of the people have been tested if not fully implemented.
The meaning of socialism has changed greatly and been split off into terms like communism. But when we are talking about European style socialism we are talking about a state that taxes the economy to provide it's citizens with everything they need, not want, but need to be viable members of the society. In modern society that means basics like clean food, water, sleep, shelter, air, but also the expanded needs like childcare, physical and mental healthcare, transportation, education, news, work, political voice and communications. There may be private versions of these industries functioning within the society but the base levels must be available, which in turn strengthens the society.
The type of Democratic Socialism we are currently talking about marries these two concepts, and still uses capitalism as the primary economic mode of exchange.
5
I give no credence to all the talking and writing heads who spread the fear of Sanders nosediving in the general. I think he has a good a chance as any candidate, perhaps greater. He has the very strong support of the youth across the racial and even political spectrum. His call to shake things up can shake some supporters of Trump free. Plus, his sheer integrity solves the issue many have with lying politicians. He has an inspirational quality that will help in the general. Centrists have been scared ever since McGovern's loss in 1972.
As the great progressive, FDR, once said: The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.
6
You lost me Charles. You spend your whole column citing reasons Sanders will lose, then in the last sentence, say he can win
6
Blow should read his NYT colleague Leonhardt today which makes the obvious point that Sanders is neither interested in nor capable of giving due respect to voters outside his base that he needs to win. He is too much a tone deaf, self indulgent egoist to make the needed adjustments. That Blow doesn’t see this is not a surprise,m. But we had all be aware of this liability of we would have a conservation and deplorable Supreme Court for another 40 years, which means NO progress on key liberal programs (and maybe regression) no matter who follows Trump in 2024.
8
Dems should really start moving away from the noise of the presidential election and focus on flipping the Senate.
12
Yes, he could possibly defeat Trump, and that's what scares me. Bernie is not a bridge-builder or problem-solver. It's the Bern's way or the highway.
I also think Sanders is the weakest candidate of the top five. As a member of the Democratic party, I want to draw a cross-section of Democrats to the primaries. And I want to draw some Republicans who are very willing to vote for a centrist Democrat to beat Trump. Bern fails both tests.
9
Since the Reagan era the GOP, Corporatists and our controlling Plutocracy (DNC & RNC) have been sowing the seeds of distrust in any and all government institutions and now we have Putin and other external and internal Oligarchs trying to capitalize on this carefully cultivated distrust.
We are on a precipice so monumental that the future of our democracy may well be decided with the November vote. Unfortunately many Trump supporters as well as moderate Democrats don’t see this looming choice and haven’t taken notice of the water in the pot being slowly raised to a full boil. We need to come together as a country (Democrats Independents, Republicans) in order to save the future of this country.
Socialist/FDR ideals such as Social Security, Medicare for all, affordable college, a healthy planet are not a threat to anyone other than those very same monied and intrenched interests that have been keeping us divided so we don’t notice we are about to be boiled to death. United we rise divided we fall has never been more true.
Politics may have devolved into a zero sum game but our basic human rights do not need to be politicized into a winner take all contest. It’s time to take back our country it’s time to vote as if our lives depended on it.
4
Sanders promises easy and simple solutions which he knows to be misleading. He compares the costs of our system with the costs of other country's systems and rests his argue on that without bothering to compare the systems themselves.
He asserts that cutting out the insurance companies would resolve all the problems by eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse just like the advocates of tax cutting assert that government services would not have to be cut. It's rhetorical dismissal of real problems with the proposals.
The U.S. system really is more expensive even if it was completely universal and fully paid by taxes, it would still be more expensive because of the way health care is provided. Just eliminating for profit providers and insurers would not change this. Reducing the costs means redoing how we provide care. The administrative system for Medicare is not designed for managing health care for the entire population so it would have to be reorganized and the costs would change.
Bernie is arguing to win a debate not describing the challenges properly.
7
With the possibility that the corona virus situation will worsen, II wonder how many Americans are going to be willing to risk a major overhaul our health care system in the middle of a health care emergency.
5
Remember all those 'electable' moderates? Kerry, Dukakis, Gore? Hillary Clinton? Moderate democrats will not tax the rich. Moderate democrats will not break up obvious monopolies. Moderate democrats will not fight for decent health care. Moderate democrats wont even go after Russian hackers trying to rig our elections. Better to take some risk on a 'radical' than to give our democracy to the oligarchs without a fight.
5
Try this exercise on for size.
Watch last Wednesday's debate with the mute button on, and fast forward to every time Bernie has the floor.
What an angry, angry guy he depicts.
That's what we want for our democratic candidate? That's who we want to go up against Trump in debates?
Talk about an absolute turn off. Talk about a guarantee for turning off undecideds and handing another 4 years to Trump.
10
We should be angry about what has happened to this country and maybe your are mistaking anger for passion. It’s time everyday Americans take their heads out of the sand and become angry/passionate for basic human rights (affordable healthcare & education, fair pay, a healthy planet...) before it’s too late. IMHO
Is it me or is there a distinct change in the conversation on these comment threads? It reminds me of before the 2016 election.
Absolutely true, the trolls and haters are rising to the top and unfortunately it will only increase between now and November. They are a vocal minority that in the end will disappear with the light of day. IMHO
Socialism has historically required state ownership of the key means of production, and state ownership of the key sources of information--run by a dictator or ruling party.
Nothing Bernie has offered or done suggests this is what he is working to do. Every other nation on the planet with a standard of living close to ours offers a far better social safety-net starting with affordable medical care for all, child care, and education through college for those who demonstrate they earned it by meeting education goals. This seems to be what Bernie is working to achieve.
We currently have oligarch owned means of production, with one party (Republicans) in total thrall to the oligarchs. Our sources of information for much of the country are run by two oligarchs: Murdoch (Fox) and Sinclair. Trump is doing all he can to model our government on that of the Soviet Union as guided by his great and good friend Vladimir Putin.
Pay attention! This election should not be a close call.
3
@Mark Johnson do you realize that the USSR collapsed 30 years ago? Do you know that Russia today is only part of what used to be the USSR? Do you understand that Russia is a capitalist country (not very successful, I grant you)? If your knowledge of economics is on a par of your knowledge of history, no surprise you support a socialist demagogue like Bernie.
If he could present himself as a humble, grateful for this opportunity “mensch”, he might generate an outpouring of support beyond his current base.
If......
3
I'm gonna get skewered, but I'm going to write this anyway.
Yes, I want to see wages go up, but there is no evidence that a rising tide raises all boats.
I have a Ph.D. and can only find part-time work at $22.00. Raising the minimum wage to $15 doesn't separate a McDonalds employee that much from 10+ years of higher education.
Bernie supporters all have their hand out. They only ask what their country can do for them, and not the other way around. So....that said, I don't see that I would gain much from a Bernie victory.
12
I’ve finally left my 2016 mad behind and suddenly can support Bernie completely. His speech in Nevada touched on every principle of the Democratic Party that I grew up with. His machine is broad and diverse. He wasn’t my first choice, but all of a sudden...
Listen up, Democratic leaders. It’s time to roll out!
8
If Bernie gets the nomination, then deplorable Trump wins a second term, it's really just that simple.
Bernie is unelectable outside of the hard core base. His Democratic Socialist platform which he tries to disguise by calling it Progressive Democracy is nothing more than code for a state planed economy along with higher taxes for everyone to pay for all the stuff he's giving away for "free". The fact that the democratic base appears to endorse this model is painful for this democrat to witness.
Are there problems with capitalism...absolutely yes, but show me a better system that gives more people at every level the chance to realize their dreams, to prosper economically, to own a business, to achieve financially regardless of your starting point. Hint, there is none which is why more people come to American in search of their dreams than any other country on the planet.
What Sanders and the other Democratic candidates should be talking about is how the government can help create a better platform than what exists today for fueling individual achievement and success. Instead, he berates and mocks Bloomberg for starting and growing a business from nothing and becoming a self-made billionaire. As if being successful were something to be ashamed of.
Americans do not want socialism, they want a more level playing field that will allow more people to realize their economic dreams so long as they're willing to work hard, take some risks and dream big.
9
@Mark I think Super Tuesday will help to firmly establish the person we need to rally behind to defeat Trump. Question--if a candidate can't beat Bernie and get people hopping to the voting booths on their behalf now, how in the world are they going to take on Trump?
1
Bernie as democratic nominee = 4 more years of Trump. I don't like Trump. But I'll take bets on my hypothesis.
10
I voted for Bernie the last time around, will again if he is the nominee. But I really don’t think he should be. He is a much more dignified and civilized mirror image of the current incumbent in unfortunate ways. He is a polarizer, not a United, despite Nevada, which is not Wisconsin, Michigan or Pennsylvania, all critical to an Electoral College win.
His nomination will guarantee the Democrats fail to win the Senate, and May well lose their majority in the House, guaranteeing four years of legislative deadlock and executive orders stymied by a GOP-stacked federal court system.
That’s why I voted for Amy Klobuchar in the California primary. We need a person who wants to unite us again, who hews to the most reliable American virtues, realism and pragmatism. We could have a ticket with her and Deval Patrick or Corey Booker. Or one with Mayor Pete and Stacy Abrams.
If we stick to ideological purity, we will lose. This time we are fighting for our country’s existence, more than at any time I can think of since the Civil War. A moral victory this time would be, frankly, an immoral defeat. Just what Russia and those who hate what America once was and could be again most desire. Because a real-election of the Abomination or Bernie will give them four more years of the chaos they and folks like the troll Chief Steve Bannon so dearly enjoy.
As we were told when I was a child living with my career Navy Dad in Hawai’i, “Be akamai—be smart.”
8
“He will need to refine the term [democratic socialism] and defang it. But, being in the throes of a presidential campaign is not exactly the time to educate the American people on an exotic political label.” I disagree. If not now, when?? If he would only define and deconstruct the term—surely he can find a succinct and catchy way to do that—he would further his own, the Democrats’, and the country’s cause. Right now, it’s just a bludgeon being wielded against him and all dems.
1
Head-to-head match-ups are all but meaningless now. Talk to me after Bernie’s the nominee for a month and Trump and the right wing lie/hate machine are in high gear.
Things look dire for Susan Collins here in Maine. She’ll do a jig with Bernie at the the top of the ticket. Maine has an older population. They won’t be sorting through definitions of democratic socialism—just voting against it. Our newly elected DINO Congressional seat will flip for sure.
3
I am not worried entirely about Bernie beating Trump - who knows. But I am extremely worried if he is the presidential nominee we will not have control of either chamber of Congress.
4
Any of the candidates COULD beat Trump. The question is who is most likely to, and if they win, who would be the best president.
Heading into this election, we want a candidate who doesn’t have to change the entire political culture of entire regions in order to win. Also, we need someone who doesn’t have a lot of fodder for negative attacks. Sanders is an opposition research goldmine.
3
Nonsense Charles.
And you know it.
7
Check with columnist and Nobel Prize winner Paul Krugman: The closest you can get to accurately describe Bernie Saunders is what in European countries is called a Social Democrat (ie a Democrat with social awareness). Not a bad thing, I would think. Most of the European countries we admire most for their care of their people are "Social Democrats." Compared to them, the US must look like we are living inthe "Dark Ages."
Note to Bernie: How about amending this record and stop giving your opposition ammunition to use against you. Even though they know they are firing blanks, they'll keep doing it as long as they get away with it!
2
Just be careful. Nationalized healthcare means your healthcare will be run by whoever the next GOP president is going to be. Do you want President Hannity or President Papa John deciding what’s covered and what your copay is? And how much money do you think the drug oligarchs will make under their stewardship? It’s easy to point out flaws in the current system, but please be equally critical about what could/will go wrong with the solution you propose.
If Bernie is the nominee, I vote Bernie. But let’s be more realistic and humble than the mindless people chanting at a Trump rally.
3
Sanders Dems a bit fuzzy about his view of a socialism and democracy combo. And a wee bit fuzzy on what’s needed, what to do, how to do it, what results to expect - aside from perfection, of course.
If we really want to Improve the lives of all , through democratic processes (which seems to be what Democrats seeking election are seeking - or actually promising), why are we not all rushing to Warner, who offers not only ideas and promises but plans to make them work. If we give her a chance ...
I do so hope that the candidate who Has a Plan for That (“that” being whatever needs attention!) will be our next president!
1
A politician who campaigns in the manner and anti-establishment style of Bernie Sanders, even when elected, stands alone. Set aside his Congressional voting record and any bills he may have written and think of Jimmy Carter.
Senator Sanders won't make it in DC telling everybody in the Legislative branch they've been doing it wrong for their entire careers.
2
You have your 'Social Democrats' and you have your 'Social Parasites'. Vote out the Social Parasites.
4
I would much prefer a Warren-Buttigieg ticket.
It's not just about the White House: what happens on down-ballot races when a "commie" is running as the nominee? Do we lose our shot at the Senate?
Also, if Sanders wins, what then? What coalitions can he or will he build to enact legislation? If you believe he can get elected, then it's a question worth asking.
2
"Russians [] seem to want him to win the nomination"
No evidence. The only thing we know is that the intelligence community wants him to lose and fields allegations with that purpose.
2
@Wim Roffel And you, of course, have evidence to back up that claim.
His effect down the ticket in local elections is more important.
3
Bernie just had a heart attack. If he is the Democratic nominee, the only issue that matters is: who will be his running mate.
4
What did the election of Donald Trump taught us? That no one really knows which way elections will turn out. No one thought Donald would be elected president. Not even Trump. So, yeah, Bernie could win. Trump showed us you can be seriously under qualified and still win. Why, not Bernie?
Just look at President Trump....
Why not President Sanders
2
@Felix
Sanders is an ideologue. An ideologue with the power of executive orders is a dangerous thing for those who don't agree with his platform.
Trump is no an ideologue and can be swayed relatively easily. Practically all of his executive orders wound up overturned or rendered impotent in the court system. Therefore, he is far less dangerous than Sanders. His greatest achievement is to infuriate the Democrats by pointing out how fragile Obama's compromised policies really were.
Mr. Blow you have convinced me. Bernie has no business
being President and no chance of winning the election. I don't think he has the will or ability to address his flaws or bias. When he says that he is attacking the Democratic establishment, he is attacking the same people whose votes he must have to win the election.
I remember clearly the 1968 election cycle. Elation when Johnson withdrew, the piety of Eugene McCarthy and his supporters, the lost hope of Bobby Kennedy the chaotic convention and finally the Joe Biden of his time, Hubert Humphrey. And for all of that we got our worst nightmare, Dick Nixon.
If any part of the Democratic coalition fails to show we will
have another four years of Trump.
2
Sanders wins and the Democrats lose the House and Senate in the midterms. Then he's just a cranky old man with no power.
7
Sorry, Mr. Blow, but I have to disagree that Sanders can defeat Trump. National polls are meaningless; state-by-state polls tell you the direction the election is heading.
How does Sanders carry Florida, with his faint praise of Castro? Or PA, with his ban fracking position? Or Arizona, Wisconsin, Ohio, Michigan? The electoral college with Trump v. Sanders tilts overwhelmingly Trump's way.
With Sanders at the top of the ticket, the House is in danger too. We can't afford a Sanders candidacy.
7
Is there some one somewhere who puts off going on Medicare once they are eligible ?
3
I support Medicare for All because, one, the "choice" in healthcare the pundits are trying to scare you into believing you will lose is a myth - how many companies offer a significant choice in coverage options? None that I know of or ever worked for.
Two, in a society as rich as ours, it is moral to ensure everyone in society have access to the same quality healthcare regardless of their income, background, or social status. It is also sound policy from a public health standpoint.
Three, having insurance we don't choose, with a network we didn't choose, with administrators who overrule our doctors on and deny coverage for the care they prescribe, and with big deductibles, unpredictable co-pays, and maximum payouts is pretty much the same thing as not having access to healthcare to many of us.
Medicare has historically been more efficient and cost-effective than private insurance companies. I don't believe expanding it to all and re-routing all the money currently lining the pockets of the insurance company execs and administrators, who treat our illnesses as a profit-making opportunity, will make our failing healthcare system more expensive. I believe it would be more cost-effective and would help lead to a successful healthcare system.
5
We are up against a hypnotized mass of Incapables, who cannot begin to understand "socialism" if their cult leader tells them it's bad. -- even after he promised more of it himself (to "save social Security and Medicare")and then bailed out the farmers he damaged with his trade war with taxpayer money; they must think Trump paid them himself out of his personal fraudulently-grifted 'billions". What a con job he has snowed them with --like a political WWE wrestler playing the hero.That is his "stable genius" skill: to con stupid people out of their money and their votes for hisown pesonal gain.
7
@Fairwitness
Sounds like you're a buyer
Democrats need to wake up and understand that the GOP is going to continue to call everyone running against them a socialist. Bernie is exactly right to reclaim the language.
5
To Richard—How will that convince Trump’s base?
This is a very perplexing column. After enumerating every reason why Mr. Sanders is problematic, the column ends with essentially "believe me - he's going to win". It's a case of putting personal beliefs ahead of facts or commonsense. We might as well visit the fortune teller at the next state fair.
4
"In fact, in head-to-head national polls, Sanders consistently outperforms Trump."
So did Hillary.
The election will be one in a few states, not nationally.
6
@David
And almost every possible pivotal state is strongly pro-gun, but Democrats seem to ignore all evidence in this area.
I’m a a Philadelphia suburban independent after being a Republican for 40 years. I grew up in central PA. So I see purple politics.
Those folks in PA’s first district and especially in the rest of PA aka “Alabama” will not vote for Bernie.
Period.
He’ll screw up this election just like in 2016 and we end up w dt for four more years. And if you want to know how that will be, just look at the last two weeks.
Go away Bernie. And save the country.
5
The voters with help from the media screwed up. Bernie is who he’s been for half a century. Let us stop bashing each other and vote. That is the only way we can defeat this plague upon us.
VOTE them out!
Right now too many voters will hold their noses and vote for Trump or sit it out if Bernie is the nominee. If the economy tanks or Trump gets sucked into a war with Iran then even Bernie wins 2020 election. I’d like to see Klobuchar face Trump
2
His opponents would use every instrument at their disposal during a general election to tar and feather him.
I find this funny that is only Sanders would be tarred and feathered.
DJT will try to do this to whom ever runs as the Democratic candidate. He did it to Hillary and all the GOP candidates in 2016 and the country let him get away with it.
Hopefully we are awake more in 2020 than in 2016
2
If Sanders can maintain the coalition of young whites, latinos, union members and some blacks that he had in Nevada he is likely to win the nomination. Whether he can beat Trump is a guessing game I'm not playing.
@Chris ...The coalition who supported Sanders in the Nevada caucus represents less than 3% of all registered Nevada voters.
4
Congratulations. You've helped to destroy every moderate and reasonably liberal Democratic candidate. You've perpetrated the myth that a near 80-year old, self-proclaimed Socialist can actually get elected POTUS.
America, a country that is inherently capitalist and conservative.
America which in the past, in numerous elections, when it had a far greater left-wing urban electorate, rejected Socialists like Eugene Debs.
America, which overwhelming defeated a prairie-based liberal, George McGovern; he failing to carry even his home state.
This country you actually think is going to elect a firebrand Socialist over a firebrand right-wing, incumbent?
C'mon. Enjoy your wandering into the far left for a brief moment of packed caucuses and low-turnout primaries. But come November I have no doubt we'll be reading apologia of "what might have been" as we buckle-down to endure four more years of blatant racism, environmental desecration and the assurance of at least twenty or more years of far right wing judicial domination.
Sanders and his minions are tools for the far right-wing. And opinion makers like you, Charles, have enabled this.
4
If I was granted one wish from a Genie, I would ask for a million dollars. I would offer it to Steyer and Bloomberg in exchange for them quitting the race.
Then maybe... oops..nevermind.
@tom
Do you really think you could "buy" Steyer and/or Bloomberg for a measly million dollars?
Perhaps a few billion would at least create a blip on their radar.
To,Tom. USA—That amount is chump change to a billionaire. And not all wealthy people are corrupt.
It was a joke. I won't quit my day job.
Charles is correct that the nation craves real change. Is Bernie the one who will bring the change that Americans want? That's the question and I have to say that he seems rigid and inflexible in his thinking. Unless he declares himself dictator I don't see how he gets people in Congress who disagree with him to go along with the program.
3
@Mikem ..."Charles is correct that the nation craves real change."...So how come only one Republican Senator voted to remove Trump when he was clearly guilty?
2
@W.A. Spitzer
What has your statement got to do with mine? The nation is composed of a lot more people than the Republicans in the Senate. Ditto for Congress as a whole.
One Putin-backed jerk against another Putin-backed jerk. Good luck getting Americans who don't live in your bubble excited about that. Bernie will get his clock cleaned, there can be no doubt about it.
6
I won't doubt Bernie's nomination by the DCCC now that opinion writers -- like Blow and others -- from the Times have written so many critical pieces on centrist Bloomberg. It's as if all his accomplishments as mayor for NYC, philantropist, elite businessman and centrist come down to one thing and one thing only: stop and frisk.
Bloomberg has been stopped, frisked and laid by the wayside as a racist by those who -- ultimately -- might elect someone who has no chance of beating Trump.
3
I've been saying consistently that Bernie hasn't a prayer of winning a general election. Winning the Democratic nomination is a far cry from winning the presidency
But this morning there occurred to me a reason that Bernie could possibly win:
The American people were stupid enough to elect Donald Trump.
4
One thing the democratic candidates can do is address the elephant in the room, white supremacy. I will be voting for the Democratic party because it doesn't give support and credence to Neo-Nazis and white supremacists. It is that simple.
3
Bernie unelectable? How many times did we hear/read that Trump was unelectable? Just proves the pundits, polls, talking heads blah, blah, blah, are so out of touch with the real world. Thank you Mr. Blow for great insights and a reality check.
5
You need to spend more time in flyover country. Who the heck cares about what the "professors" conclude. Does anyone actually know who Stein is. Or what the heck 'Vox" is?
Stick to your esoteric career. You do not understand leadership.
1
Bless you Charles Blow. All prophets, from Amos to Zephaniah to The Baptist, pray for us.
1
You're overthinking this, Charles. Few Americans knew what a communist was either but they knew it must be bad. Besides he is an angry and old -- and sick-- man.
4
Trump and his Republicans support socialism for the rich, real estate swindlers like himself and socialism for America's farmers.
So what's the big deal about a little socialism for the rest of us Americans ?
Oh right.....I forgot....Republican hypocrisy, cognitive dissonance and Christian cruelty to non-members of their all-white-country-club.
Nice GOPeople.
Feel The Bern
November 3 2020
6
As Aunt Emma says:
Only a transformational candidate can beat Trump (a major still unlearned lesson of 2016). There are two such candidates in this election: Sanders and Warren.
https://twitter.com/yourauntemma/status/1228793843350482944
Aunt Emma describes herself as, "Psychotherapist, co-author of the NYT bestseller "The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump," #DutyToWarn #Pathocracy #PositiveDisintegration http://medium.com/@Elamika."
2
I can only hope that Democrats love their children and grandchildren as much a Republicans do and decisively defeat this aged Communist lunatic.
1
Sanders policies for open borders, war reparations, free healthcare for all and free college for all aren't gonna sell in the purple states and several blue states. Omg wake up. Say goodbye to WI, PA and MI and kiss off AZ.
6
Nice to see you finally coming around Charles
1
Bernie can beat Trump? That is a laugh, much like Hillary the "lazy" candidate, the Republicans will roll over the disheveled Socialist. I agree with your choice of idiot to run against Trump and Sanders will help the Republicans to take back control of the House. No more Nancy fits of failure! 2020 will be a great Republican choice and Thanks for picking your worst possible candidate. 4 More Years!
1
Yeah, the polls, LOL.
The idea of saddling your campaign with the term socialism in whatever form is enormously idiotic and counter productive. All of the energy of defending this largely misunderstood term and rationalizing the principle will suck huge amounts of energy from a Sanders /Trump campaign. That decision alone, just from a marketing standpoint questions Sander's judgement and is disqualifying. I don't want to spend the next 8 months listening to political seminars on socialism, I want to hear real issues discussed, I want to see Trump defeated. Instead Sanders has weaponized his own campaign against himself.
When it comes right down to the crunch the majority of Americans will choose a amoral, crooked, corrupt, accused sexual abuser, fake Christian, Russian enabler, racist...over a socialist.
1
Oh really, Charlie?
Wait, is Charles Blow "Bernie-splaining"?
I don't think he stands a chance, I don't care what the polls say. Clinton polled tons higher than Trump, and lost, despite a 3 million vote advantage. The primaries in some ways don't reflect reality because most primaries are closed affairs, independents cannot remain independent and vote in one or the other. As a result, they reflect a more radical view of things these days.
The real problem is Socialism is an emotionally charged word, Bernie to be honest or anyone else using it is an idiot. They could have used refined capitalism and be fine, that label is a disaster area, and not just to the rich. The old people who benefit from socialist programs see Socialism as the USSR and the like; the blue collar people here that and they think of dealing with government bureaucracies, and also an economy where no matter how hard they work, it doesn't matter, the lazy guy who barely does anything gets paid as well as he does. The big defeat is the suburban burgers, who can just as easily tip a state to Trump, the people who otherwise might vote Democratic in the philly suburbs, or the suburbs of detroit, or the burbs around Atlants or Phoenix or whatnot, or even northern Virginia. They hear socialism and see their bonuses and 401ks going to hell and their taxes going even higher.
One thing you are forgetting is that perceptions matter more than facts a lot of the time. My wife, who is one of the most apolitical, liberal people.
I hope you are correct Mr. Blow. I'm with Bernie or any other person that runs against the despicable,cruel,stupid,ignorant Trump. For now,it's Bernie.
1
Weak column after a series of bad ones.
4
I’m not sure that it’s wise for Sanders to throw around the term “socialist” as there are far too many who misunderstand what it means.
The right has demonized the word by purposely conflating socialism with authoritarian, dictatorial governments- governments that label themselves as socialist while turning into dictatorships and totally squelching socialist principles.
This is not different than what Trump is doing to our Republic.
Trump claims that we are a Republic, a democracy, while attempting to neutralize the constitution and impose a dictatorship that he will lead.
Trump has far more in common with North Korea, Russia, or other dictatorships than with American values.
His values are completely unAmerican and thoroughly anti-American.
If people want to understand what Sanders means by socialism, it can probably be best explained in these words:
“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity . . . “.
3
The arguments you detail concerning Sanders' hurdles only convince me further that he would be no challenge for Trump.
2
How is it that we're still talking about the end of capitalism or the worker/state control of private industry?
I understand he has a thick accent, but it has to be easier to just listen to the guy and accept it at face value, instead of trying to define him on your own terms.
Sanders' socialism is healthcare for all, free college, and pretty much that's it for what he'll attempt in 4 years... so can we quit talking about abolishing capitalism?
1
My crystal ball is broken. I don’t know if Bernie can beat Trump, but I believe it’s time to start voting with our consciences and not based on guesswork on who might be more electable. I also suspect that electability is a pretext for “I don’t really like him” for people who can’t articulate a real reason for not liking him.
4
Trump WILL be hard to beat. The failed demonization efforts by the democratic establishment and mainstream media have seen to this. The economy is helping him out, as well. Bernie is clearly the Democrats' best hope though - a bitter pill for the liberal elite. Only Biden has polling numbers anywhere close to Bernie's, in this regard.
2
Excellent: thank you.
Bernie MUST START EDUCATING people on the meaning of the word socialism.
America now, has a combination of capitalist and socialistic policies. The definition of socialism is varied but capitalism tends to be highly erratic and the wealth always, aways, tends to collect in one sector. Capitalism has some severe disadvantages for these reasons. Corruption results and democracy declines. We see that now in America.
Think of socialism as capitalism with a friendly, humane face. Private businesses still exist with competition but certain financial values exist to give everyone enough food and income and health care, etc It protects people.
It's an institution for those who are rich, and keeps them that way. So why Bernie is so popular is due to the millions and millions of people who are not sharing at all in the US economy. capitalism but do some guarantees to peoples access to food, clothing, housing and health care. Democracy is guaranteed. You of course hear of how many countries have gone the last way, such as Finland, Denmark, etc. Some have the happiest people in the world. Most of these countries simply want a democratic situation where there is a mixture of capitalism and some socialistic guarantees. Some socialism systems even try to even bring democracy to the workplace. There are many possibilities for socialism ideas to work fine with capitalism.
See this video for an explanation of socialism.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7x7oVwhHok
2
"There is a very real desire for real change in this country. It would be a mistake to discount it." But the money-soaked craven corporate Democrats are happy to make that mistake over and over. That is, as in 2016, they would prefer to lose to a criminal like Trump rather than nominate a mildly social democrat New Dealer. As the fawning on Little Mike and Alfred E demonstrates.
1
@Andrzej Warminski
American voter made a mistake falling for Trump/Putin propaganda and not voting for Hillary. We would have change we badly need, and more importantly, we wouldn't face catastrophe we are facing today with Trump.
Now, whether we elect Biden or Sanders, bills coming out of Congress would be very similar. All negotiations will happen in Congress and Biden or Sanders will just need to sign them. Because of about 10 moderate Democrats in Senate, M4A won't be even on the table.
Sanders won the Nevada caucus with about 35K votes. Hillary carried Nevada in 2016 with about 540K votes. Anyone who thinks Sanders would match that total is delusional. Anyone who thinks Sanders would win this November is equally delusional. The Democrats retook the House in 2018 with moderates - not with free-stuff-for-everybody ACO wannabes. Nader voters gave us Bush II and the Iraq War. Stein/Johnson voters gave us Trump. Sanders voters will give us a second Trump term and probably a Republican House and Senate. And the damage may just be irreparable.
3
We have plenty of socialism in the United States, and it goes back a long way. The problem is in where, when, and how it is used. We need to use it more wisely, just like we need to use capitalism more wisely.
It may be more important to retake the Senate and keep the House than replacing Trump. The House and the Senate in democrat control could rein in Trump and get him to sign off on the populist issues he claims to champion. Getting rid of McCONNELL and his death grip on congress could help set the stage for progress on health care and climate change while reining in unfettered capitalism and Trump's authoritarian tendencies as his acting officials run out of time he will need to put up more competent professionals and not toadies as he and his fragile ego insist on. Control the $ and Trump will bend knowing a 2nd impeachment could occur.
2
I don't need names on my ballot. I'll just be checking all the D's, top to bottom.
3
Sanders can be his own worst enemy. The comments about his perceived positives of the Castro regime in Cuba will kill any chance he had of taking Florida. To be sure, health care and education have moved forward since the Mafia stooge Batista was ousted. What looms lareger in my mind are the missteps the GOP has taken in the 61 years since Castro took power. We had a chance, at the beginning, to have Castro with us rather than against us. Eisenhower's ambassador, the late Earl E.T. Smith gets the blame for that fiasco.
Now lets fast forward. Barack Obama was correct in his approach to the Cuban government and moving away from a total ban. Now the Trump GOP continues to set the clock back. For what? Cuba's influence in this hemisphere is way down except for Maduro and a few deposed leaders like Boliva's Morales.
Bernie, if you want my vote in the Florida primary, shut up and don't make any more Cuban remarks.
1
Sanders says he is a democratic socialist, for the "good" kind of socialism, like Denmark. Sanders doesn't say that his goodies would require a higher tax rate like Denmark's. The average Dane pays 45% of his income on taxes to pay for all those govt services.
Say 45% tax rate to American voters, and their brains would freeze over. Sanders is the worst candidate to go against Trump once voters take a good look at him.
We have several good friends in Denmark. Their earnings are pretty much comparable to people with similar occupations in the US (but with more job stability and security). Their income taxes are higher, but their overall expenses are lower. The quality of life is pretty much higher there but the cost of living is lower than in expensive regions of the US but more than in cheap places. Nobody goes without healthcare (dental is a different and contentious issue, though). We pay separately for just about everything; in Denmark there are expenses and mechanisms nobody spends a moment even thinking about, such as household utilities like heat and hot water because they just come in on a pipe from the local heat plant utility w/o separate billing. People are well dressed, get jobs, take vacations, eat well, enjoy a lot of cultural activities, and the many marinas are overflowing with yachts. It is not a culture of privation and there is little poverty. So they pay taxes, so what? Danes do not become homeless if bad health strikes or go uninsured if they lose their jobs. Some are even millionaires, but I do not know of any billionaires and nobody seems to suffer that loss.
2
I'm impressed by how the anti-Sanders people are getting all panicky now and coming out of the woodwork. Who knows how many are Republicans working to scare Democrats and Independents off of voting for Sanders. The real hurdle for Sanders is historic DNC corruption and the movement of the party far to the right.
1
This purports to be a pro-Bernie opinion piece, but I don't see it helping Bernie.
1
Ironic. The Democratic Party, once a party well to the left in focusing on workers, organized labor and the poor, is being dragged back, kicking and screaming to its roots, by its own supporters. I say. Yeah!
1
If Bernie does get the nomination hopefully he will somewhat decommission the term "Democratic Socialist" which for the American public like the Blind Men and the Elephant story can be a multitude of things - all incorrect. A term that he should use is "Constitutionalist" reminding that unlike Trump he respects and will abide the rule of law and stop our transformation into a Banana Republic. People can be admonished that while you might not like his labels or positions, you know that he will carry his constitutional duties in a legal way, something that Trump has shown himself incapable of.
1
I am retired Army and have no party affiliation. Bernie can't win against the wishing to be a Dictator in the White House, our best hope is that the Democrats can keep the house and take the cowardly Senate. Mr. Trump is a pathological liar and extreme Narcissist who will destroy our country as we knew it; yes, I mean as we knew it, already having changed the USA so much. It is amazing to see him now pander to minorities that he so clearly disdains, really believing they are beneath his wonderfulness. This will end when his second term begins. At which time he will start working on a third term and/or the increase the political duties of one of his offspring to prepare the country for their accession. The changes he has made to the EPA, the justice department, tax benefits and the presidency should frighten any right thinking American. I am not criticizing his core followers, it is easy to see how people who think as he does or are of the I only vote for my party group, believe him.
Joe is not the answer, nor is Elizabeth, nor is Bernie, I can't say who is. We don't need a wealth tax, we don't us to pay off your school loans, make schools tuition free, allow churches who are politically motivated access to public funding or any of the ideas of the "progressives". We need a fair, equitable and sensible tax code. It seems to me that Mr. Perez and the DNC are determined to put this very dangerous man back into the White House.
Bloomberg: "I worked hard and was very lucky":
Sanders: "Maybe your workers had something to do with that".
My mother worked hard all of her life. Hard. All. Her. Life. Never made it into the solid middle class.
Bernie Sanders knows that the workers in America ---who work hard for hourly wage making 'fabulous wealth' for others, and are working very hard and never get ahead --- see these tremendous disparities.
I am not jealous of Bloomberg. Yes, he was lucky; but the deck is stacked in his favor and everyone knows it. Already wealthy? stacked. Not a minority? stacked. Couldn't afford college? stacked and on and on....
This country sees what is going on and is righty abhorred by the flagrant injustice.
4
So if the Democrats are going with Bernie as their nominee, there had better be an immediate and intense crash course administered to the voting public as to the real meaning of ‘socialism’; otherwise, the Republicans will use it as a pejorative on every occasion. It’s like being called a fascist: everyone resents being called one, but hardly anyone knows what it means.
1
Your colleague Krugman writes "he is NOT a left-leaning version of Trump". I beg to differ.
Bernie wants the nomination with a plurality of the delegates! Excuse me? The rules are set and this year (AGAIN!) Bernie wants to claim the DNC is fixing the race? What?
Bernie wants to take away your health care....especially from union members. What's more authoritarian than that??
Sorry, my vote is no.
(Corrected:) Charles, please address your next column more directly and emphatically to the black community in South Carolina. Remind them that modern progressivism was born in the great civil rights struggles of the South and that tradition continues with Bernie Sanders. Any time one group (or person or entity) wields oppressive power (even economic power) over another to stifle the latter's full humanity, achieving justice there affirms and continues the tradition MLK, Rosa Parks, Thurgood Marshall will always personify in our national consciousness -- and conscience.
Your opinion leadership is very important. In 2016 you strongly encouraged black voters to choose Hillary Clinton over Bernie Sanders, apparently based on the Clintons' brand of liberalism (despite Clinton era so-called "criminal justice reform" arguably being much more devastating to black lives than anything Bloomberg did) in your view connecting more with mainstream black culture and political values. I could understand and appreciate that, but in 2020 it's time to emphasize Sanders' commonality with, connection to, that tradition.
This is how Cornel West, Spike Lee, Danny Glover, and many other black cultural figures saw things in 2016, vociferously embracing the candidate they called "Brother Bernie."
We need a full-throated endorsement of the candidate who has made social justice for **all** Americans his life's work.
3
Seriously did you read what you wrote. Those broad terms for an explanation of democratic socialism translate into government control of everything, energy, medicine, food production, as well as " redistribution of wealth"
I hate Trump, but I will note vote for someone who demeans my success. I will not vote for someone who does not recognize the inability of government to run anything. I will not vote for someone who will not, in real terms, define the cost of all of his free stuff.
He is an imaginary fairy God father, sprinkling magic dust on the Generation xers who do not want to work.
I paid my college loans and med school loans. You pay yours!
And get off my grass, you kids!
1
"... the Democratic political class ..."? I'm afraid I don't know what that means. But he's not exactly a Democratic Socialist, nor part of Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), a national 'fringe' political party. Bernie does things in his own, original ways. Many years ago, before he began winning elections, he helped found an even tinier 'fringe' party in Vermont, the Liberty Union Party. They still run candidates every election, and those candidates are usually self-professed socialists -- poets, teachers, and the like. Bernie's never belonged to DSA that I know of -- I could be wrong.
Nobody throws Molotov cocktails in Vermont, and not many people talk about say, Marxist/Leninism, or Maoism. We like to talk about what makes sense in our state and in our communities. Benie's good at that. Having resigned as Democratic Party County Chair to endorse him in May 2015, I showed up at our little town's big parade -- biggest in the state -- and asked him if I could march with him and his son Levi. He said "sure", and proceeded to give me his half-eaten kielbasa-and-egg breakfast sandwich he had been given by a street vendor. Bernie's no-nonsense, unpretentious folks, and he's telling the truth, ALL the time. That's why he's going to win in November!
BTW I believe in the class that Eugene Debs spoke of when he said, "... while there is a lower class, I am in it, and while there is a criminal element I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free." THAT class.
3
He might be able to beat Trump, but he floundered big time last night on 60 Minutes.
He has no idea how much his Medicare for All will cost, nor does he know how it will be paid for. Same with his free college tuition. He gave a lame "modest tax on Wall Street" answer.
Some experts figured for his 3 big plans (the third being the New Green Deal), that it would cost up to $67 Trillion!!! His tax plans only covers $40 trillion of that which does include a nice tax hike for the middle class
How is this any better than the garbage that Trump spews? Trump wanted a wall for no other reason than it sated his base. Sanders is doing the same. Trying to sate his base with promises that will never be held. My guess, is much like Trump's wall, it will get caught up in Congress for years.
Much like I fail to see why people like Trump, I see the same with people that like Sanders. They are mirror images of one another (well, except for the whole pathological lying, adulterating, and thievery thing)
2
Here's the sad history on which Sanders stands:
George McGovern - won 1 state, lost even in S. Dakota
Walter Mondale - won 1 state, Minnesota by 0.18%
Michael Dukakis - won 10 states
So in three presidential elections the Democrats won a total of 12 states!! How many do you think Bernie will add ??
2
After spewing poison against Trump for years, now Blow wants us to support Sanders, a sure loser when pitted against Trump. Haven't we seen this kind of docudrama before where hordes of noisy, passionate supporters have won nomination of their cult leaders before? Think of the nomination of George McGovern on the left and Barry Goldwater's on the right.
One of the common threads that run through these cultist movements is that they completely lack respect for others' opinions and ideas. This self-cultivated habit of arrogant dismissal of others taken to its extreme almost always leads the cults to fall into chaos and confusion. Anyone remember, Jonestown?
Mr. Blow, while you are on this subject, start working on another op-ed piece for the second week of coming November tying to explain your support of Bernie Sanders. Here are some pointers to use in your defense: lukewarm support of Sanders by the Clintonites, and no support by the centrists unhappy conservatives. For a coup de gras and as a mother of all Dem defenses, you can cite trickery by the treacherous Republican leadership.
1
Oh my God, Brooklyn vs. Queens!!!
Why are you sharing the paragraph about abolishing capitalism? And then saying there are no clear answers to what a social democrat is?
I've been waiting for someone to say this, so thank you, Mr. Blow.... and as for all the Dems who prefer other candidates - and I am one - it's about time to realize that our first choices are not making the cut, so it's nearing time to get on board with the one who is. That said, I hope that he chooses a hard-working moderate to round out the ticket: Amy K for Veep!
2
The essence of democratic denate is doubt. So stop tellng me to get in line and get on board, or I’m gonna be run over by true believers. If I wanted that, I’d poke my brain out with a stick and go vote Trump.
In 2004, Democrats ran the safe moderate John Kerry instead of Howard Dean and lost.
In 2008, they ran the transformative candidate, Barack Obama, instead of the safe moderate Hillary Clinton. They won.
In 2016, they went back to the safe moderate and lost.
It's a very small sample size but at the same time I'm just not seeing the slam-dunk case for safe DNC-type moderates. The best I can think to say for them is that they do not lose by very large margins--be it in the popular vote or the electoral college.
Is that what we're going for here? Losing with dignity? Wielding no power but being able to grumble that we came out ahead in metrics that have no actual import?
1
Mr Blow is absolutely correct. Sanders can beat Trump and bring us an intelligent 21st Century Soviet-style nation where those with wealth will support those without. A nation where the collective intelligence of government employees will provide housing, education and health care free of charge to both ourcitizens and non-citizens. This is an exciting time for America - where we can finally become the Land of the Free. God bless you, Dems.
i think bernie can win (and have donated to him, among several candidates). but it would be easier if he and his followers dropped the purity tests and more extreme goals.
for example, eliminating college debt for everyone sounds good, but what about those who have worked hard to pay off their own debt? medicare for all sounds good, but what about those who have paid medicare taxes for 40 years before receiving medicare coverage? or those who want their own health insurance?
also, the assumption that a medicare bureaucracy monopolizing health care insurance is a good thing will be resisted by those who challenge bureaucracies, generally, public or private.
bernie is not our first choice. we prefer klobuchar and warren. and we think having a woman at the top of the ticket would be a good thing.
yes, bernie can win--especially as voters are exposed increasingly to trump's incredible indecency and dishonesty (we wouldn't have such a person in our home). but, please tone down the purity tests, and leave open the recognition that you may have to compromise your more extreme views to get any laws passed.
1
Did you see him on 60 minutes? He has no idea how he is going to pay for everything he has promised.
All of these years to prepare, and yet he has no figures?
The only way to pay for it all is to tax the middle class HARD.
He cannot defeat Trump. He will lose, and lose the momentum Democrats got in the midterms. He will appoint another Supreme Court Justice in his next term, and it will be decades before we can recover from Trump.
Sanders got us Trump the first time, and he will the second time.......the Bernie Bros will have a fit but it will be the vulnerable who will suffer, not them.
3
I think the fears of Sanders "socialism" are grossly overblown. First of all, he would like to "change the system to make it more like Denmark" which is obviously waaay too heavy lift to be practical. As they say, it is more inspirational than anything else. Second, all bills will be written in Congress and they will look like those proposed by more moderate Democrats in the race. In essence, whether there is Bernie or Biden in the White House, congressional legislation will be similar because of the bottleneck of 10 moderate Democrats in Senate. They won't even discuss Medicare for All, you can take it to bank.
So for those who would like to just get rid Trump, and vote for any Democrat, but fear Sanders would go too far, and would not want to vote full Democratic ticket, I have one advise - don't worry, "too far" will never happen. In fact, with moderate Democratic Senators in ME, NC, AZ, CO, etc. you will ensure moderate reforms that all Americans want. Giving Senate to GOP will give you NOTHING.
4
Do you honestly think that average Americans or even most Americans are dissecting the definition of democratic socialist in the manner that you address it? Most will just go with how it lands on them in their gut as scary Trump will build on this. I agree with David Leonhardt's column in that Bernie and many of his supports lack the kind of respect that is needed for those with whom they disagree if they are going to be able to shape the future. He is a great community activist and should be given credit for his advocacy but let's not confuse advocacy with strategy and he just does not have an effective strategy.
2
As Charles Blow points out Bernie Sanders has a strong path to beating Trump. That should be good news to democrats because it looks like he has massive support to win the primary.
Of course, some have a different preference for the nominee. So why don't people just learn as much as they can about the candidates and not only from the debates which offer 45 seconds of rebuttal time and seem to be more about the network pundits than the candidates. After you have decided on which candidate you like best, cast your vote and when the candidate wins the nomination in a rightful manner, rally behind that person as if your life depended on it and pressure the democratic party do the same.
1
I hope that the Democratic nominee clearly points out that the GOP plans to cut social security, medicare and medicaid after the upcoming election.
1
One word is missing fromSanders and that is unity. True he has broad support but like Trump, he has not been able to appeal to the undecided. He constantly frames this as a class issue with the middle class shouldering all the burden. Trumps GOP elite vs Sanders poor n wrking class. If we know anything about Gov, it doesnt handle bureaucracy well esp when burdened with more red tape.
Blow writes, "But, being in the throes of a presidential campaign is not exactly the time to educate the American people on an exotic political label."
I don't see why not. Many people, myself included, are on the fence about supporting Bernie in the Primary. One major reason is his persistent claim that he is a democratic socialist. People, by and large, are sceptical of democratic socialism. And they have every right to be. There isn't a single country in the world today, or at any other time in history, that successfully implemented democratic socialism, or any other form of socialism for that matter.
Yes, what Bernie - seems - to have in mind are Western European countries like Germany, France, Denmark and Norway. But these are social democracies, not democratic socialist. Why can't Bernie just come out and state on the record that what he means by democratic socialist is actually social democratic?
This could only help him in the Primary, it seems. I doubt that a significant number of his supporters would jump ship if they heard that, no, Bernie will actually not steer the US on a course toward Venezuela, but rather Scandinavia. Whatever that number is, it would seem to outweighed by the number of non-radicals who would like to support Bernie, but can't get themselves to vote for a socialist.
Bernie surely must have gone through the same calculation. If so, why does he continue to shroud himself in mystery as far as his particular brand of socialism?
1
Trump will explain -- the majority of Americans -- Democrat, Independent,and Republicans -- think the economy is doing okay, so enough of these will say - - Bernie Sanders will kill off the goose laying the golden egg. Even many Democratic leaning voters and even pure Dems will vote against him. There is only way to stop Trump is to stop Bernie.
It time the youth, who usually don't bother to vote, woke up to the fact that there is really no such thing as a free lunch.
Trump is running the largest peacetime deficit, if you truly didn't like deficits, you'd nake sure Trump wasn't president.
Sanders would do well to understand not all countries have a single payer health insurance system, but most have a single collection system like Medicare and Social Security. The German social security system includes medical care, worker’s compensation, retirement, and nursing care, a system may resonate in America. Germany collects social security through 15% payroll taxes equally split between employer and employee. They indemnify their residents in a public self-insurance fund that that allows residents to see any doctor accepting new patients and be admitted to any medical facility their doctors recommend with no copays, deductibles, or GoFundMe campaigns. They contract with third-party insurance funds to process and pay medical claims, but with stringent regulations. 1. Insurance funds shall operate as nonprofits, owned by the members like credit unions. 2. They shall place everyone in a single risk pool in contrast to U.S. insurance companies that segregate people into small purchasing pools to enhance profit. 3. The medical community shall accept all insurance plans as a condition to practice medicine. It's not complicated, and we still have time to get it right.
@Keith
Germany also has an entirely different tort system. You cannot sue somebody successfully and get millions in compensation to split with your lawyers. Germany does not have punitive damages.
You said, “Yes, I know all the issues with a Sanders candidacy,” and then didn’t mention the electoral college. National head to head polls are irrelevant. Hillary won an official national head to head poll by millions.
1
@Peter Yes, the electoral college. Bernie won some states in 2016 primary/caucus season that I think are indicative of his future success in the general. I think Michigan and Wisconsin were pretty significant wins and we needed those states in the general. Also, he's been campaigning and preparing to run again for years now. He has the organization, support and more single donations from individuals than any candidate has ever received in history. He brings in new voters. Just my thoughts!
"In fact, in head-to-head national polls, Sanders consistently outperforms Trump."....But he has never run in a national election. His primary opponents have pretty much given Sanders a pass on some seriously damaging Sanders' baggage because they are afraid of alienating Sanders' passionate supporters. But in a general election his socialist history, the kind things he said about Cuba's Castro and etc. will be front and center. He will be destroyed in fly over country.
@W.A. Spitzer
Bernie and Trump are the only two presidential candidates with popular appeal in this part of flyover country. Bernie did very well all across flyover country in 2016 - and Hillary sure didn't give him any passes. Take a look at map of US dem. primary results in 2016 - by precinct - this pretty much says it all.
1
@carl bumba ..Oh please. Hilliary treated him with kid gloves. Where were the clips of Bernie praising Castro and other socialist dictators. And she hardly even mentioned that in 30 years in the House and Senate he has never accomplished anything, not to mention that among his Congressional colleagues after 30 years he has no supporters.
@W.A. Spitzer
Yes, 30 years as an INDEPENDENT. Do you not know how congressional bills are (co)sponsored and passed? The people of VT (where I lived many years) elected him by wide margins over and over again for his many accomplishments beyond his seven bills (paltry for sure... but not for an Independent - just name one that had more.) Committee participation, Amendments, fillibusters, etc. is why he has near hero status among VTers. And Bernie has been vetted more than ANY of the candidates running.
The stock market is down 1,000 points today, the first trading day since Bernie Sanders won Nevada.
"[W]hat all definitions (of the Democratic Socialists of America) have in common is either the elimination of the market or its strict containment," says a scholar/former board member.
"In the throes of a presidential campaign is not exactly the time to educate the American people on an exotic political label"?!
Sanders has been calling himself a Democratic Socialist for half a century, and running for president for five years—though, like Donald Trump, never stringently vetted, because we were too busy magnifying Hillary Clinton's every pore. But now he's won only his first caucus and primary—and before Super Tuesday—it's suddenly *too late* to explain his relationship to the one common definition of the ideology he's chosen?
We should just let 1/3 of the nation vote first and, eh, maybe ask questions later? You don't think everybody else will then define Sanders for him?
I'm nowhere near the 1%, nor the 40%. I support reversing all Trump's tax cuts and Bush's as well, if it can expand health care and education for the jobs of tomorrow and save the planet.
But you're fine if we continue in the Trump vein of post-truth, words-don't-mean-anything-anymore, not-going-to-explain-myself lack of transparency or intellectual honesty?
After Trump I don't want vague platitudes, I demand answers.
Is the choice between Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump "your money or your life"?
2
@J T relax, the USA will remain capitalist under President Sanders. Let's hope our nation can become the sort of modern capitalist dynamo that the Scandinavian nations have become.
1
Sanders looks to me like an FDR progressive. I wish he'd call himself that rather than a democratic socialist. He wants a social safety net similar to that in Norway. He never talks about taking over industries, except for major medical insurance. Yes, Mr. Blow is correct. Bernie Sanders needs to clarify his beliefs, now rather than later.
3
@Jeff sounds like a great idea, more truthful and will resonate with older Americans
1
I'm sorry America, but you simply do not have the luxury of idealism in the upcoming election. The only goal is to defeat Trump. To do so, Bernie Sanders must state unequivocally that he is not anti-capitalist. He must disavow anti-capitalism before the Republicans run with it and label him anti-business, which will not only terrify fence sitters in the swing states, but will also alienate many Democrats. He risks not only losing the Electoral College, but the popular vote as well. He would do well to distance himself from the term "socialism" which is taboo in your country, and replace it with the concept of "fairness". It would resonate with more voters.
3
Did you watch the "60 Minutes" interview last night? Bernie wants trillions of dollars in social programs. Free everything for everybody--healthcare, college tuition, canceling current college tuition debt, and now free childcare. And he couldn't answer clearly or definitively how this would all be paid for. Shameful, in my opinion, that as a Presidential candidate, he promises the sky but can't articulate how to pay for it. His model is the welfare-state Scandinavian countries. He'll never get his "plans" through Congress. We will be trading one snake oil salesman for another. No thanks.
7
We're running the largest peacetime deficit in a booming economy. Republicans can't deny that either.
1
@Jane have you visited any of the Scandinavian countries? This 'welfare state' tag is pure right-wing garbage. Scandinavians are kind, generous, hard-working people who have self-respect and wish to be treated properly in exchange for their hard work. Scandinavian economies are powerhouses and have been so for decades. Read up, get a passport.
1
@Jane
I guess you are really happy living in a country where Amazon and numerous other companies pay no federal income taxes, while Jeff Bezos buys a $165 million dollar mansion, and Amazon warehouse workers have to urinate in trashcans because they are pushed so hard to keep their productivity up.
Trump isn't destroying America half as much as so many Americans to selfish to do more to address that problems facing this country.
If Bernie Sanders wins the nomination and Trump defeats him, it's because America truly deserves Trump. He is merely a reflection of your own craven selfish greed.
2
Bernie is an Independent who advocates egalitarian principles similar to those enshrined in our Declaration of Independence. He is proposing we pay our fair share. Some ultra wealthy individuals and our richest corporations currently pay little to no taxes. As I recall the mantra of 1776 was No Taxation without Representation. Today we have Representation which owes its status to big money donors. An Independent candidate who envisions a more equitable America is a sharp contrast to billionaires who change the rules to suit themselves. I will vote for Bernie as I did in 2016 and this election my 19, 21 and 23 year old will be the ones leading the way to a better tomorrow.
6
@Maureen Get ready for Sweeden style taxes and lots more giveaways.
Bernie recently had a heart attack. A real heart attack. Not a phony heart attack, like the one Bernie’s spokesperson attempted to pin on Bloomberg. If Bernie wins the White House, how long will it be before he has another heart attack that totally disables him, if it doesn’t kill him. If you want to to know what the United States would become under a disabled President who refused to resign? Then read a bio of the last year of Woodrow Wilson, when Wilson’s incompetent wife took over the presidency de facto and the US became like a rudderless ship. Just like then, our enemies would swoop down upon us.
An octogenarian president with a previous heart attack. The Bernie Bros must be mad!
1
When opponents of any Democratic candidate (but especially Sanders and Warren) say, “Well, I’m certainly not going to condone Socialism in this country!,” ask them in a straightforward way, “Where do you stand on farm subsidies?”
If they say they’re against farm subsidies, let’s hear their candidates say that loudly in farm country! If they say farm subsidies aren’t socialism, get them to explain the difference, because there is none.
Also, come armed with the specific numbers of Trump’s handouts to farmers, the last of which is something like $28 Billion. Now that’s some real socialism!
6
One can hardly wait for the Republican attack ads. For example: Bolshevik Bernie's picture alongside Castro which is sure to inspire those in Florida who fled Cuba to vote against him. And, that will only begin the descent into the swamp for the Republicans. What plausible response can Bernie make which would be credible to those other than his base?
3
Exactly right. Sanders has a lot of work to do to broaden his base of support and to allay the fears of undecideds. My guess is that he has a plan for that. I expect that he will pivot once he is locked in for the nomination. Now that it is clear that his candidacy is so strong, the others are starting to look really weak.They all have said that they will throw all of their might behind whomever is chosen to run against Trump. They better!
1
Looking at the US presidential campaign just starting from the perspective of three “impossible” winners, Trump and Brexit in 1916 and Bolsonoraro here in Brazil in 2018, I’d say that, possobly, Bernie is the candidate most likely to defeat Trump in November. The logic is simple: he has a veryclear message, young people are fed up both with the Democratic mainstream that they feel have abandoned them and with the misoginistic Trump, and many around the center feel that, well, these aren’t exactly normal political times in which “normal” (and one may use the strict sense that statistics attributes to the term) politicians can win elections. Time will tell.
1
I am a democrat. America is fed up with a lot more than Trump.
Bernie might not be able to fix it but I sure like hearing him talk about it over and over.
I will vote for Bernie.
7
One of a long line a opinion pieces written by left wing extremists trying to convince the electorate that Sanders is electable. There will be 10’s of thousands more in the coming months. They will do nothing to change the fact that Sanders is wholly out of step with the majority of Americans. A Sanders candidacy in the general election will be just like Mondale and Humphrey and Dukakis. All three where appealing to a small group of voters, won their party’s nomination and went down to resounding defeats in the general election.
8
@William
These were different times, and Sanders and Trump are different people. So I completely disagree.
2
@William
None of the candidates you mentioned ran against a degenerate like Trump. Past performance does not guarantee future results. The Republicans are on the brink of disaster, fully deserved.
1
Thank you for a well-reasoned column addressing both the strengths and weaknesses of Sen. Sanders' campaign. It is a refreshing change from the usual anti-Sanders hysteria we see on this page and elsewhere in the mainstream media.
12
Obviously you prefer the pro-Sanders hysteria, of which there is plenty.
1
@Randy ...i usually vote Democrat....but Sanders is too heavy on SOCIALISM....I wonder who will pay for all of this Socialism....One more thing is that the DOW does not like Socialism. I want a very decent rate of return on my investments,
@Larry D Really? Please link to some pro-Sanders hysteria on the NY Times editorial page or in any other mainstream outlet. So far, all I've seen is MSNBC hosts comparing Sanders and his supporters to Nazis and claiming that Bernie will be cheering mass public executions (not kidding, they really said this!), and evidence-free claims that Sanders can't win despite consistent polling data showing him beating Trump by wider margins than any other Democratic candidate.
Nice article. A bit of a surprise. I'm a Sanders supporter, so I would have liked it to be more favorable, of course. But I think Mr Blow is at least being fair. Nothing to complain about!
I would point out that a recent study published in The Lancet says Medicare for all would save 68,000 lives (and 1.73 million life-years) and $450 billion every year compared to the status quo.
So give Bernie time to convince more people. Remember, he's up against hundred of millions of dollars in lobbying and advertising from the health insurance industry. He's making headway, but it isn't easy.
9
None of Sanders or Warrens big plans will happen without taking back both Houses and the Presidency. I don't even worry about Facebook lying ads because they only go to Trumpers anyways. I worry more for the talking heads of the Times and other major media deciding who they want and start with the comparison to Russia, Castro, etc. just like 2016 when media decided it was Hillary's "turn" and worked on her behalf to get it done. The DNC had better get their heads out and realize people want radical change and not incremental baby steps. We need an FDR style radical and Bernie is the right man in the right place at the right time.
3
@markd "people want radical change?" Painting with a broad brush, I see. Speak for yourself, please.
Excellent article. If Sanders is to have any hope of making the playing field more level the minimum he needs is a full understanding of his ideas not by the far left upper middle class coastal elites, but by the many voters who will strongly benefit from them. Trump can sway many of these voters against Sanders by crowing that he is a socialist, next thing to Fidel Castro and Stalin. A little reflection would be helpful, given that much of the almost universal opposition to a $15 minimum wage comes from those low paid workers who would most benefit.
1
Many Canadian provinces have had social democratic governments, some lasting many years. The sky did not fall. Don't be afraid.
11
@klr Thank you for your encouragement. We need it. But Canada is social democrat, not democratic socialist. That's the thrust of Blow's article. Americans aren't afraid of becoming like Canada, but of ending up like Venezula.
1
@klr
Thank you!
Here's the problem. Jeremy Corbin
4
@FrankPh
Here is the problem with your analogy. Bernie Sanders isn't Jeremy Corbin, you analysis assume the political environment in the United States as the same as it is in Great Britain. That's just way too simplistic.
The objection many swing voters have to Bernie Sanders is not detailed policy but in the inchoate feeling that Sanders would multiply the number bureaucrats who would meddle in their lives, already burdened by all sorts of rules that they understand correctly are about the power of the bureaucrats rather than the common good. Ask anyone trying to renew their drivers' license under Real I.D.!
This has been the trend since World War II, where a class of technocrats tell the rest of us how we must live, and tell us condescendingly that we do not understand our own interests if we come to a different conclusion about the role they should play in our lives.
For those who have thought about it a bit more, they see that the policies Sanders proposes, as a practical matter, would not make it through Congress leaving us stuck where we are, so the only benefit in voting for him would be to get rid of Donald Trump before he appoints himself President-for-Life.
For those who have looked into it deeply, they understand that socialism has a horrific history, an illustration of the proverb that "the road to hell is paved with good intentions" Skip who owns the means of production for a moment. The central issue is who has power, the individual over his own life, or the state over everyone. Capitalists cannot jail us. The state can.
The average person may not articulate this well, but feels it in his or her gut. Sanders stokes those fears and Trump plays to them. Democrats can do better.
1
@D I Shaw I guess the obvious conclusion is that you and Trump play to those fears. Probably the only problem Bernie has is trying to figure out how those who will benefit from his policies are so easily fooled by those who want all the resources to the very rich. It takes a complex management of social wars (xenophobia has been very good for the tax cuts for millionaires crowd), a bit of denying benefits to those welfare cheats, a little bit of homphobia, and a few comments about unelected bureacrats, and suddenly our largely impoverished Trump base is supporting capital gains. Pretty hard to figure.
1
@WHM
You make several assumptions about what I believe or want. They are not correct. I am no fan of Donald Trump, and my concern, reflected in this and many other comments in the New York Times is that progressives, a cohort of voters who total one quarter of the electorate at most, are ill-served by promoting a candidate who makes so much of the rest of the electorate so uncomfortable.
Some on the left seem to think that the discomfort of moderates is proper punishment for thinking the wrong thoughts. That is self-righteous, and itself a bit authoritarian. I tried to describe some of the reasons for the discomfort of the average swing voter in swing states. Freedom and responsibility are still important to many of us. In completely good faith, we do not see a "revolutionary" expansion of government as a good thing. As a group, we are unlikely to vote for Bernie Sanders in the general election, not because we are ignorant or evil, but because we do not see good outcomes from the policies Sanders proposes.
Personally, I think the most important issue in the 2020 election is good governance, at which the Trump administration has failed at almost every turn. Functional institutions and honest political norms are what will preserve our democracy, and allow the peaceful exchange of power as the body politic wishes, not as does Donald J. Trump.
For Democrats to present moderates with Bernie Sanders as their alternative makes that difficult choice harder than it has to be.
First Paul Krugman. Now Charles Blow.
It feels there is more space for differences to be discussed and fruitful conversations to take place.
3
I think you are wrong but I hope you are not.
AMEN Charles !!!
1
Forget the national polls and Bernie's 4% winning margin vs Trump. It's the electoral college that matters, stupid! I can't help myself, so here goes: Bernie Sanders can't win!
9
Don't Doubt Bernie? Says who?
After 2016 I am still not over my doubt of the New York Times.
5
If Americans are dumb enough to elect a con man like Trump, they're dumb enough to believe Sanders is a "communist." I'm very wary of a Sanders candidacy.
10
A couple questions: does Bernie believe he will be able to implement all or most of his ideas? And secondly, if he wins Super Tuesday will most other candidates then drop their own campaign and pledge their support? If he truly believes in his ideas, will he plow ahead Trump-like no matter what? And if the other candidates drop their campaigns and pledge their support to Bernie, how many of their followers will dutifully pledge as well?
Bernie will need to show some compromise (gasp!) if he expects to get anything done in his 4 years and he'd better start with health care and capitalism.
2
Charles, when you have to resort to elaborate semantic explanations of the word “socialist“, you’ve got to know that you are losing the argument. Trump is going to run on the economy, and the only thing that will defeat him is a plunging stock market. Or, possibly, a Democratic candidate who can be just as reassuring about the economy. Sanders is going to be seen as a negative, a risk, a shouter, and he will lose disastrously, which will plunge everything we care about into the deep dark pit of another Trump term.
5
Bernie just wants fairness.
We pay taxes but no longer get meaningful returns from them, like reduced college tuition. Instead we get subsidies for corporations getting defense contracts, etc.
Enough.
3
"Then there is the overall idea that Sanders is calling for nothing short of a political revolution that fundamentally reshapes the country."
Trump has had a political revolution that is destroying our country, the balance of power, our faith in government and our democracy. We desperately need a political and social revolution to restore America the beacon, the refuge, the place of opportunity, the hopes and dreams of a better, more fair and inclusive place. This is what Bernie represents.
When he speaks, he does not yell. When asked a question, he listens and answers. He is pragmatic and thoughtful. He knows DC and has built important relationships and has dealt with issues of national and global consequence.
I don't agree with all of his platform but I do agree with the goals. We need to restore humanity and human dignity and human and environmental rights in our government.
Bernie will bring back "of the people and for the people".
"And, in the end, both the Russians and Trump presumably believe that Sanders will be the easiest to defeat."
This time, let the people prove them wrong.
3
Oh, the mythical “the people”. Where do they live, exactly?
Oh come on. While it is true that the dems lack any appealing candidates and Bernie is the only one with any charisma, let's face some facts. First, he's free everything agenda sounds great to those who have no economic sense, but he's incapable of saying how it will all be paid for. He looked ridiculous on 60 minutes last night trying to dance around that issue. If he can't come up with a legitimate plan -- one that will work and be accepted by the voting population -- for funding all his freebies, he'll never win.
And saying that some small European countries that are reasonably homogenous and SMALL doesn't mean it will work here. And if you say medicare for all, green new deal, free college, guarantees of this and that -- it all combines to mean a takeover of the private sector by the government. That will only appeal to the progressive left. Moderates and independents -- even if they don't like Trump -- will either stay home or vote for Trump rather than risk such radical changes.
And he's also 78, has health issues, and not much of a record as being an effective senator. And no matter how he explains it, having three houses and flying on private jets isn't walking the talk when it comes to the green new deal.
No, Bernie can't beat Trump. But, I don't think any other dem candidates can either.
5
It's good that Mr. Blow reminds us of the head-to-head poll results.
1
Polls mean nothing. The electoral map is what matters. Look at the map, then tell ne how Bernie gets to 270.
On the basis of this column, I'd have to conclude that Charles Blow, whose outlook and opinions I have valued for longer than I can remember, has clearly lost his mind. Blow's enumeration of Sanders's liabilities as a candidate is nothing short of devastating. To then turn around at the end of the column and blithely discount them just strikes me as crazy.
8
Hillary Clinton polled quite well against Trump.
What young people don't understand is that the way a real majority of this country feels about anything "Socialistic" is even less generous than the way they feel about young Black males in hoodies.
Donald J. Trump... the Republican party... Fox News... and Vladimir Putin... just can't wait.
6
Bernie doesn't have a chance- he hasn't been vetted and he does a poor messaging job. He isn't radical but he comes across as radical cause he can't get the message out.
Bloomberg first Dem candidate to actually proudly run on controversial Dem value issues. Most Dems just tiptoe around climate change women's choice and gun safety.
Bloomberg commercials have been brilliant. They have been nonstop in Michigan and Florida. Bloomberg has a proven record of donating billions to these causes.
If I can get the traitor out of the white house, someone that can speak words that are more than two syllable has a record on climate change, women's choice gun safety and now says will raise taxes on the wealthy and push for universal healthcare that is good enough for me.
NDAs he apologized and it is the past. Lets not Al Franken him. Stop and frisk he needs to prove he is beyond that he has some proposals now I am waiting to see how the black community responds.-
6
It’s not just the black community Bloomberg has alienated. It’s women. It’s Muslims who he illegally surveilled. It’s anyone who recoils at his statement that the constitution should be changed to allow for a police surveillance state. (May contribute to why he doesn’t see Xi Jinping as a dictator) It’s those who hate the nanny state and want the right to their sodas. It’s second amendment supporters. Condescending remarks regarding farmers and manufacturing laborers do not help his cause.
He has the lowest favorability rating among Democrats 40 points lower than Sanders with more than a third of democratic voters viewing him unfavorably.
He is the most divisive of the candidates. And he just isn’t a compelling candidate against Trump.
And on top of all that, he’s a misogynist and a racist.
We don’t need to trade one misogynistic, racist, megalomaniac, narcissistic billionaire for another.
We have a perfectly good megalomaniac narcissistic choice with Bernie.
1
@M you know what if he can beat trump I am all in.
My main issues climate change, women's choice and gun safety and he has a record of giving billions to support these middle class programs.
I want to hear more about his proposals to right his stop and frisk before I write him off.
NDAs of the past not my issue I want to know what he will do going forward.
If you (or Charles Blow) think Sanders can sell socialism to middle America or adequately explain why he's a big Fidel Castro fan to middle America I would like to invite you to tea with Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny.
10
@Jordan
Well, Trump convinced them that he cares about them and our country and that he's tough on Russia and not corrupt, so why not.
Memo to Bernie: While your core supporters might find the term "Democratic Socialism" thrilling in the context of this election it will have more of a negative than positive connotations. If some people find the word "socialism" scary you and your staff have done a very poor job in changing this. Focus on programs not labels, and if you want to talk about an American progressive force that most Americans are positive about talk about Roosevelt's' unfinished legacy and continuing the New Deal - Green or otherwise.
3
I WILL DOUBT BERNIE ALL I WANT TO. And believe me, I have 100% doubt about this old clown defeating Trump. I have heard his plans, listened to his Bernie Bros and the rest of it, and it like a bad dream. Russia is helping him because he is who Trump wants to run against, the one he can defeat. I cannot stand Bernie most of all for claiming to be an Independent and then running for the Democratic nomination. GO HOME!
9
@Jim Sanders caucuses with the Democrats, votes with the Democrats, and has a leadership position (Outreach Chair) with the Senate Democrats. It is not Sen. Sanders's fault that "establishment" Democrats have a stranglehold on the party, and are desperate to preserve their power by squelching progressive candidates. I don't say Sanders will defeat Trump, but neither do I see any other Democratic candidate who seems likely to win in November. But I do want someone to shake up the sclerotic, middle-of-the-road Democratic Party.
@Jim Doubt all you want. More thoughtful people consider what positive things Bernie is saying. The fact that you do not like this old guy is telling us more about you than it is about Bernie.
I fail to understand why we have such difficulty articulating the advantages of Medicare for All. I’m a self-employed consultant who held on by my fingernails to make it to Medicare age, hoping that my health insurance (not health CARE) costs wouldn’t bankrupt me first. Since I turned 65, all of that stress has been removed. Ask your parents or your grandparents how they feel about their Medicare coverage. If they haven’t gotten suckered into a Medicare Advantage plan (another giant private health insurance industry rip-off), I’m guessing they love it. Why shouldn’t everyone have the same peace of mind at much lower cost? Why wouldn’t you want that? Why is the American public so stupid? I’m thankful every day that I will never have to care about the word “network” again.
4
@Andrea Wittchen It may be that the problem is that US voters are poorly educated and easily fooled. Medicare Advantage seems like a good idea to many people who do not understand that it is a rip off private profit plan.I think you should not sit back in retirement, but rather take the message about for profit health plans to those who do not understand.
@WHM you don’t understand that the debate is not about this or that program. The debate is about socialism. Bernie supporters may try to obfuscate it all they want but this is what it is about: state control of the economy versus free market. What do you think most Americans will choose if presented with this dilemma? Those “poorly educated” voters see it very clearly and resent the condescension of half-baked ideologues who try to sell them the system that failed everywhere it was tried. And before you ask me to “educate myself” about the wonders of “democratic socialism”: I have a PhD in history, have read and studied Marx and lived in Europe. I know more about socialism than the vast majority of Bernie bros.
Historically, how many Utopian plans like Bernie's have succeeded?
Zero.
And yet someone, even one, person thinks that Bernie can deliver all the happiness and joy that Utopia promises?
That person is so dumb that the entire population of Democrats will be forced to suffer with total GOP domination for the next 4 years.
8
As I've read elsewhere, he should be called a New Deal Democrat.
1
This column is more drivel from the establishment 'elites'. The US corporate stranglehold on this country must be broken, and the people should radically adjust the country off the neo-liberal policies espoused by the conservative Democrats, whose leaders (including Pelosi, Clinton, Schumer, and others) are out of touch because they are all rich, elevated above the people and unable to understand how life for the 99% has gotten worse and worse and worse under 'their' policies.
1
I voted for George McGovern and he won two states in the general election. I'm not going to make that mistake again. Some of you newbies need to brush up on your history. Wipe off your rose tinted glasses.
6
1) Bernie is too easy to attack for the Republicans. They will just label him a communist and most Americans don't know what communism really is, or socialism. They just know it (think) it is bad. Fox news is already working on this and the Donald has begun saying it already.
2) The median life expectancy for myocardial infarction patients over the age of 76 is 3.1 years https://www.cardiovascularbusiness.com/topics/acute-coronary-syndrome/study-65-older-mi-patients-die-within-8-years?fbclid=IwAR0Y16yEO6btC77lIqV3Z_oETgiWkhTNwhq0s1LgFD2Vg9fyj_QeUUQ6W80
3) Biden hasn't released his health records ... gotta wonder why.
4) Every other democratic candidate has a longer life expectancy .. so a vote for Bernie is really a vote for his running mate.
4
@gil In the course of a few years Trump has reversed the horror most US voters had for Putin. Maybe Bernie can do the same for socialist, perhaps pointing out that Putin could never be called a socialist.
1 step closer to 2nd term for DJT.
4
The result of any "revolution" would be an America that is more like Canada, no matter how much fear mongering about Democratic Socialism is spread about like natural fertilizer.
2
Whatever the actual, debated, fuzzy meanings of "democratic socialism" are, to many people -- and I am one of them -- the word "socialist" and the feeling it evokes are as terrible as the N-word. Yes -- that bad. And yet I will vote for the guy. At least he is a human being.
1
Delusional nonsense, Charles. A few good matchups against Trump in February mean next to nothing. Bernie Sanders has not yet been attacked about anything by any of his Democratic rivals much less by Trump and the billion-dollar GOP attack machine. At the moment, he's the crusty old grampa who wants to give everybody free health care. By the time Trump it through with him, he'll be an America-hating, Castro-loving, tax-increasing nutcase with a bad heart. Bernie is George McGovern on steroids.
5
Because Trump is so credible
I agree Charles to a point. When you cite “...Kaiser Family Foundation poll found “... building on the ACA... rather than replace with national Medicare...” Kaiser Permanente’ is in the healthcare industry and therefore their poll should not be considered unbiased.
I avoid people who brim with anger like Bernie.
4
Sanders has not yet been vetted. Sanders has not yet been ridiculed. I'm surprised at you Charles.
1
Electability? People if Trump was elected, ANYBODY can be elected.
2
What matters in November is obtaining 270 votes in the electoral college; the popular vote is totally irrelevant. I have not seen any detailed analysis of how Bernie can get to 270. Maybe he can, but until I see clear data that outlines Bernie's path to 270 I fear that we are well on our way to 'four more years' if Bernie gets the nomination.
2
"And, in the end, both the Russians and Trump presumably believe that Sanders will be the easiest to defeat."
The Russians and Trump could be wrong, of course. They've been wrong many times before.
1
Only an out-of-touch New Yorker could think a candidate who praises Castro is a winner in the general.
5
It's 2020, most voters don't care about Castro.
Mr. Blow lays out all of the compelling reasons why Bernie can't win in November, but then determines, perhaps as a matter of faith and hope, that he can. That's what the Bernie cult is about.
7
@Livonian
You aren't seriously counting Charles Blow as a strong supporter of Bernie Sanders (or in his "cult") are you? I'm a little confused by this....
1
The biggest hurdle Sanders has to overcome?
arrogance.
3
US fearmongering liars have been fooling uninformed, gullible Americans since communism started spreading 100 years ago. Socialism is NOT communism, Bernie will not rule as a 1930s socialist: nobody could, and he obviously is not about that. He's a SOCIAL DEMOCRAT (time-tested European appellation) and despite whatever typical outdated and irrelevant "beliefs" are proffered by people like "Democratic Socialists of America", eradicating capitalism has not been on the menu for at least 50 years, even for Bernie.
Switzerland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland are all social democracies, and they're also the top scorers in quality of life, equality, honesty, stability, education, health and all the other markers of success.
It's time to put greed, hypocrisy, and willful stupidity back to where they belonged before Reagan started twisting reality into his backward, unfair and unsustainable Hollywood fantasy of the American nirvana. Time to forget the American Dream, and start dealing with the American Reality, which by the way is so not the one on TV or Facebook...
3
Bernie will lose Michigan. He will also take down with him a number of decent Democrat candidates on the lower ballot here. Socialist Democrat, Democratic Socialist, split hairs all you want, it all adds up to the same train wreck and once again, thanks to him, we're stuck with Trump.
4
As per usual, Charles Blow is right on the money.
I've been a Warren supporter but you know what? Bernie is in the lead and if he wins Super Tuesday, he has my vote. And my support.
Cause the important thing is supporting whoever's gonna win the nomination and voting out Trump, right?
My Twitter feed over the past two days has been like one big frothing Joe McCarthy/Birtherism anti-Bernie ho-down. And that was from the Democrats! I thought it was disgraceful.
And if you think Bernie can't beat Trump let me say this: first of all, I think he can. And second of all, if he's the nominee, sitting around and dragging him is NOT gonna help him beat Trump.
People need to wake up.
4
We need to “wake up”? What an original slogan! Can I use it?
Democratic Socialism means: Of the people, for the people, and by the people. It's revolutionary.
1
I think the republicans are licking their chops hoping for Bernie to be nominated. You all know what he said in 1987 about being "physically nauseated" by Kennedy's hatred of Castro, right? They will blanket the media with that quote and his many other socialist remarks, and they will paint him redder than a boiled lobster. That ain't gonna fly in flyover country.
1
An old man who beats an old one note tin drum, does not embody change.
2
Did anyone see the 60 minutes interview last night? Anyone? When asked by Anderson Cooper if Sanders had a price tag for all of the proposals he has made, Sanders answered "No I don't". When asked how he planned to pay for his programs if he doesn't know what they will cost, Sanders answered "Well I can't".
Experts estimate that Sanders' major proposals will cost $60 trillion & double the size of government. Sanders' suggests taxes would be raised to pay for his programs, however even if all of the tax raises were to be implemented, it would only raise $23 trillion. This includes a tax increase for the middle class which Sanders admits will be necessary.
To be clear, Sanders does not know what his programs will cost; he isn't sure how they will be paid for; and a tax increase on the middle class will be necessary.
I will vote for him if he is the nominee because ultimately the issue is to remove Trump from office, but can't we find a more probable way?
6
@Peter
Well said....the 1st 3 paragraphs. My concern is the electoral college and the 6-7 states that could go either way (probably to the GOP). I just don't see a path to EC for Bernie.
2
Women, who would you prefer to go out on a date with? Donald Trump who will tell you how terrific he is or Bernie Sanders who will tell you how wonderful you are?
There's nothing in Bernie's platform that should scare people--it's basically what Donald Trump ran on. The difference being that Donald was lying and Bernie means business.
2
Thanks for taking mansplaining to a whole new, gawdawful level.
1
This manages to be incredibly condescending to women. “Let me put it in terms that you’ll understand, ladies...by which I mean DATING!”
1
Sanders may win the nomination and maybe even the Presidency, a BIG maybe. But NOTHING will happen including a centrist or Progressive Supreme Court judge WITHOUT the SENATE changing, too.
Sanders talk about putting workers on corporate boards by legislation is ridiculous. I almost feel that the stronger Sanders feels about his nomination, the more extreme left wing verbiage is going to come out of his mouth. His heart is with the EXTREME left but his agenda is pie in the sky without Congress to back him. And that is NOT going to happen.
Sanders will not pull the House candidates who won in 2018 with him on the Dem ticket, it will be a slaughter for the ones in Trump country, especially after the failed Impeachment trial. This is early days in the nomination process, keep your wits about you about reality, Democrats! STAY CENTERED!
3
Humphrey, McGovern, Carter (2nd term), Mondale, Dukakis, Gore, Kerry, H.Clinton, Sanders.
And the first eight were moderates. A self-declared Socialist winning in 2020? Much as I'd like it, sorry. I don't know who would be happier with Bernie Sanders as the nominee, Trump or Putin.
1
Mr. Blow is being far too optimistic. If nominated, Sanders' stated belief in socialism will be mercilessly exploited; indeed, that word is, fairly or not, already conflated with communism in the minds of many, and probably most, people in this country. Add to that Sanders' intense histrionics that make him look like a raving megalomaniacal lunatic on the debate stage. His candidacy will quickly become the disaster that it promises to be.
All that said, perhaps it is time that the Democratic party finally finds enough courage to support a candidacy that is not afraid to stand up to the Republicans' constant moving of the goal posts ever further to the right. That has been going on for more than a half century, thus the imbalance long overdue.
1
Bernie is electable. He was also electable in 2016, when many people who would have voted for him ended up voting for Trump, because they knew that big changes were needed, but they couldn't discern a conman. This time, we have a chance at a real populist instead of a fake one.
7
@Ellen
Bernie was VERY electable in 2018 IMO. This time, not so much.
Being in the middle of a presidential campaign is not the time to educate people about a label? Really? When that label is tattooed on your forehead it is precisely the time to define it, lest someone else will do it for you.
Personally, I am a Democrat, but the label “socialist” left undefined plus the word “revolution” in the same sentence do not give me a feeling of comfort.
And for all those young souls out there yearning for a revolution, beware what you wish for. I have lived through a real revolution. And I can promise you one thing. They never end in the middle. The extremists always prevail.
2
The extremists are prevailing right now. Which is precisely why we need a change in leadership. Trump has to go.
1
People: don’t make this more complicated than it is. There is nowhere to hide here. Either you want to get rid of Trump or you don't. There are no “ifs, ands, or buts,” no qualifications, no exemptions, no compromises. If you want to get rid of Trump, then you vote for whomever the Democrats offer up. If you don't vote for the Democrat, then you are saying that you want Trump. Period.
And that goes for progressives like myself who support Sanders or Warren - hold your nose and vote for Biden or Bloomberg if it comes to that. You have no choice. There is nowhere to hide, no excuse to wrap yourself in.
It is rationally impossible to say that there is a candidate who is worse than Trump, who will be worse for democracy, for justice, for the environment, for the world. So, vote against Trump even if your heart isn't for the Democrat.
There is no in-between, no crack to squeeze through that will be a refuge for your conscience or for your soul. You can't stay home and not vote, because that helps Trump. There is nowhere to hide.
If you don’t vote for the Democrat, you are making a declaration that you want Trump for president. Maybe no one else will know that, but you will - and you will have to live with that.
2
I would vote for Trump for president for life rather than see Bernie Sanders have one term. You think you're seeing chaos now? Be very careful what you wish and vote for. BTW, in case you haven't noticed, the United States is NOT, in any conceivable way, Northern Europe. To quote Joe Biden, "Get real".
2
NeoCom's in Democrat dress have stolen the voice of working people for decades and so of course the wall street leash holders of the democratic party are pushing "anyone but Bernie". Is Bernie really "Radical"? Is it radical to believe in healthcare over nuclear bombs? Is it radical to believe our children deserve a decent education? Is it radical to imagine Social justice? This is the opportunity to be part of the "moral arc of history" people, lets help Bernie and let the Neocoms wither.
1
Sanders would be worse than Trump.
Trump is an obnoxious bully, but hasn't actually done much harm (except to the civility of public discourse). You've still got your health insurance, even ACA health insurance. And almost everything else he rants about, because what he calls the "deep state" is remarkably effective at defending itself.
Sanders would do his best to destroy health care (if we reduce spending on it, someone is going to get less) and the economy in general.
There is a difference between socialism and communism. You can be a capitalist and socialist state at the same time. Like it or not, by definition the U.S. has been and continues to be a socialist state. We are already here, just elect the man.
@dude
Yes, it's a corporate socialist state here in the US unfortunately.
1
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 sad truth is that the label alone will do the trick, much as the "crooked" label, repeated again and again, helped to sink Hillary.
1
Be careful about your evidence-based enthusiasm for Sanders Mr. Blow, considering -- you know -- your employer.
1
Can Bernie beat Trump? Yah. Can Bernie beat Mitch? Nope. Was ObamaCare passed with just one House? Nope. Will Medicare for All pass with just one House?
2
Please check mortality rates in women giving birth and hunger/malmutrition rates among preschool children in the US.
Sanders and any of the other democratic candidates will address one of these issues, if not both.
The GOP doesn't care for either of them.
So, who are you going to vote for in November? Corporate taxes or healthcare? Charitable handouts or clean water and air?
The myth of being the greatest country in the world or the reality of taking care of its citizens?
4
A large portion of Americans are literally sick and tired. Sick of trying to obtain affordable health care that actually covers there needs which has become mission impossible. Tired of working more than 1 job and often 3 or 4 just to pay the rent and get food.
Of course a large portion of Americans are ready for some major changes.
3
Bernie has never competed in an election where billions will be spent to paint him as a communist bent on eliminating capitalism, raising taxes on everyone and ending union health care etc. etc. While all of these labels will be false or at least overstated they will be effective. The polls showing Bernie beating Trump by 4 or 5 points don't consider the negative ads to come and also ignore the electoral college.
Roughly 30% of the electorate are Democrats and slightly less than 30% are Republicans. The 40% plus majority of the country are middle of the road independents. They will have a hard time voting to turn the country upside down in light of a strong economy, very low unemployment and finally rising wages.
I fear many will choose to put up with 4 more years of narcissistic Trump.
2
The most important statement you made is this: "And, in the end, both the Russians and Trump presumably believe that Sanders will be the easiest to defeat." When will we wise up? Russia is doing more than meddling with our elections. It is orchestrating the demise of the US, and we are blind to it.
@Daphne
When are you going to realize that the "Russian" thing is just a way to throw doubt in the process if the powers that be do not like the way it goes. They did it with Trump and now with Bernie. A bunch of Russian internet posting are not enough to cause anything one way or the other (or why would the campaigns not do the same and instead spend billions and untold man hours going door to door, paying consultants, etc)? It makes no sense. Be a little more skeptical about what you hear and read.
I’m extremely skeptical about this comment.
It is uncommon to read an opinion piece that so effectively destroys the argument for a candidate and, in conclusion, without any buttressing argument, declares that "it would be a mistake to doubt his ability to win."
Such pie-in-the-sky hokum is what has our country on the verge of self-destruction. Trump's defeat is so critical, it's utter foolishness to throw caution to the wind, as Mr. Blow apparently is willing to do.
1
In 2016 the Democratic establishment put its foot on the scale to nominate a center-right candidate with deep connections to Wall Street. How did that work out? We need to get rid of Tom Perez and other establishment toadies.
2
@Penningtonia The problem was that the Democrats nominated a center-right candidate who had a Right-Wing-Radio / Fox News bullseye painted on her head. Almost any other center-right Democratic candidate would have beaten trump. If Sanders is the nominee, history will repeat itself in November.
It appears that Dem's are now in such a fugue that they cannot see the huge elephant in the room?
Trump won Nevada in a landslide.
It's clear from here, as an Independant, that Bernie will spark a Red Wave this November. Cleaning the house of Democrats.
Not seeing the Forest for the Trees is an old problem. The Dems can't see the Limb from the Leaf at this point, and are thus doomed this November.
3
Bernie has no coattails to flip the Senate. His orthodoxy makes him more rigid than Obama. If he wins, your victory will be hollowed out by four years of Bernie v. Mitch. But you will have your trophy to comfort you.
1
I'll care about national polls when we get rid of the electoral college.
5
I hope "the panel" tomorrow night will ask 2 questions.
First: given that a crash from time to time seems baked into the economy's DNA (add a bit abut Mississippi & So Seas Bubbles), what will you do if another 2008 happens on your watch?
Second: what will you do if SC invalidates, constitutionally, ACA?
These are vey important Qs. But I suspect we will get less important asked...
1
I want to see Trump defeated but I would never vote for somebody that calls for a socialist revolution, period.
3
@bruno
I guess you are seeing enough of it in Caracas to last you a lifetime.
@bruno So then, you want 4 more years of Trump. Bless your soul...........so how is it working out for you now? Honestly.......................Just hold your nose and vote for him, If he wins the nomination, and the down ballot Democrats, and be done with it. Enough. Unity and turnout will win the day.......................Stop reacting to the word "socialism" as though it really means communism...........because it doesn't. We are a capitalist society and we need regulations to balance things out. Bernie will have to play ball or get nothing done.
@Pam
Dear Pam,
I hear you but I would not call myself a socialist revolutionary if I didn't want to be confused with one. In the case of Bernie he does fit the profile of a socialist revolutionary. He is convinced that the only way to solve all problems is a radical change (a revolution) and indeed he plans to make a radical changes of the whole US economy. He of course also has all the answers too.
I already experience the blessings of a democratic socialist revolution and believe me I had enough.
What would really be a mistake is to elect him. In an era where denials of established science are the ultimate sin, how can we support a candidate who does not believe in market based economies? This is madness.
All he wants to talk about is how to cut up the pie so that everyone’s rights are fully realized. He makes no mention of the responsibility to ensure that the pie is created.
Our Declaration of Independence enshrines the right to freely pursue happiness, it does not guarantee happiness through a government program.
Fascists stomp you with a boot, socialists crush you with a hug (then the boots come later when the economy is ruined and there is not enough to go around).
The miracle of the last three decades has been the rising up of billions out of poverty due to market based economies powered by capitalism. In this regard, Bernie is a science-denier and a threat to the future of our country.
4
Bernie can't win. how many Dems will be take down with him?
5
What if electing Bernie is what the Russians really DO want?
Disruption is their goal. Is Bernie the great uniter?
Is this even possible? Tell me it's not, someone.
1
Everyone seems to be forgetting that following Hillary's nomination, Trump co-opted a lot of Bernie's messages about better health care, expanding SSI and so on. Trump lied, of course, but it was enough to get many of Sanders' voters to choose him over Hillary. Now we know who Trump really is -- a con man -- but Bernie has been the same guy lo these many years. Whether you like Bernie or not, you aren't getting someone who is a lying criminal.
4
Sanders may win the nomination, or even the Presidency, a BIG maybe. But NOTHING will happen, including a Centrist or Progressive Supreme Court Judge WITHOUT the Senate changing, too.
Sanders talk about putting workers on corporate boards by legislation is ridiculous. I suggest that the stronger that Sanders feels about his nomination, the more extreme left wing verbiage is going to come out of his mouth. He is not going to become more centrist if nominated. His heart is with the extreme left and his agenda is pie in the sky without Congress to back him. And that is NOT going to happen.
Every Democratic candidate wants to improve health care and increase taxes on the wealthy, and many can bring the ticket with them.
Sanders will NOT pull the House candidates on the Dem ticket with him who won in 2018. They are all elected every 2 years on even years, 2020. It will be a slaughter for the ones who won in Trump country, especially after the failed Impeachment Trial, which solidified Trump’s base in those areas.
This is early days in the nomination process, keep your wits about you regarding reality, Dems! Stay centered!
219
@Sandra
Stop projecting your own insecurities please. All politics are local. You don't need to worry about down ballot Democrats. Sanders isn't going to require a pledge of fealty. You can't say the same thing about Trump. Fluidity in politics is a Democratic strength right now, not a weakness. Ours is a politics of hope. Trump represents the politics of fear. If you can't win on hope, Democrats can't win.
43
@Sandra I agree that Sanders may/is-likely-to win the Presidency in spite of his strong leftward tilt. As to the Senate and House his impact is questionable but it may actually help down ballot candidates. Are the people who elect Sanders likely to cross over and vote Republican on local candidates--that makes no sense. In 2018 there was no presidential candidate who pulled the local democratic candidate to victory, they did it on there own and they will win or lose this time based on their service to the people who elected them. Their outcome, like Sanders, will be based on voter turnout, the higher the better for democrats.
20
@Sandra
Stay focused: What do we want in America?
10
I worry that Sanders won't beat Trump, but I'm not against what he's asking for. To anyone who worries about socialism, and who is not a member of the 1 percent, I ask: How's that capitalism working for you so far?
2
@K Yates
Socialism is not about helping the poor. Socialism is about creating a supper huge federal and state bureaucracy that's self perpetuating. Think DMV for everything. Attitude, laziness, endless paperwork, the end of innovation, dirty antiquated offices, higher taxes for pay for all those lazy people with permanent positions. And if you don't like the service, tough. And they all vote as a block to keep the good times rolling (think teacher's union). That's socialism. Very different from how you think of it, I'm sure.
@Pat, I think about Norway and Finland.
Why doesn't Sanders just come out and say what he thinks of capitalism? Does he like it but just want to regulate it to prevent abuses -- like most Americans? Or does he want to abolish it -- unlike most Americans? If the former, he might be able to win. If the latter, not a chance ... The scary thing is he won't clarify. I wonder why that is?
1
Mr. Blow says Sanders “needs to refine the term [socialism, or democratic socialism] and defang it.” Good luck with that. Republicans will remind voters that Sanders honeymooned in Moscow and praised Fidel Castro (and he recently defended – er, explained – that praise). Defenses that those were long-ago events won’t wash with large numbers of voters (I’m trying to be practical, here); they aren’t susceptible to 2020-values-based explanations, and undercut charges of authoritarianism that otherwise could be leveled against Trump. In any event, they legitimately call into question the soundness of Sanders’ political and social judgments.
Sanders has hurdles to clear with the general electorate, all right. They’re about 10 feet high.
I have been listening to various msnbc pundits, supposedly journalists berate, belittle, undermine, label, and discount Sanders all week. I have heard a few of them give forthright clear commentary on Sander's that reveal his strengths, his humanity, and his unquestionable elect-ability.
90% of the downer stuff is coming from individuals well into their forties and up. Most of it is carrying a heavy frequency of fear. The fear is two sourced. He might lose to the trump. Even worse, he might win.
The second is by far the biggest driver of the fear. Its coming from the amoral, power focused, billionaire corporate owners. These have persons in the game whom they, in various ways, own; and who wold assure that there wold be no danger to their comfort and power or the system as usual. That is ,01% owns 90% of the wealth of the Planet, poverty, disease and malnourished children the destruction of the educational system the destruction of the environment will continue.
Sanders is one of the voices of the People who want this system to evolve so that it is a can return to the democracy that hundreds of millions of us have died to create so that We the People can have decent full lives.
Why should a King own a nation? What is the point of owning 160 billion dollars? Does that make a Human Being?
It was pointed out long ago that comfort is the cemetery of the spirit. Please, Vote for Life Liberty and Justice!
I don't understand the gnashing of teeth and rending of clothes about Sanders. I do not support him but if he is the nominee I will vote for him. Anyone is better than trump who is succeeding right before our eyes in slowly becoming an authoritarian, i.e. a fully compliant and corrupt Justice Dept. and the muzzling of our intelligence community.
To people who are stressing about Sanders' radical proposals like Medicare for All (which I am not in favor of), let's all take a deep breath because it won't happen. Why? Because other than the fact that it won't have the support of Republican legislators, more importantly Medicare for All doesn't have the support of a majority of Senate and House Democrats.
In case we've forgotten in this age of trump, you need the legislative branch to pass it.
And that is probably what will happen as well with Sanders' other radical proposals.
2
Once again, Democrats are caught looking the wrong way.
We’re having debates about issues like Medicare for all, free college, and taxing wealth itself.
Meanwhile Trump, aided by an obsequious Senate, is brazenly consolidating authoritarian power by corrupting DOJ, USIC, DOD, and the State Department.
Just like 2016, we Democrats keep ignoring the reality of running against Trump and conservative media, just like we did in 2016.
This isn’t the year to remake American government. It’s the year to restore government and the rule of law. Why aren’t we talking about that?
5
It’s all about the Electoral College, period. If Bernie wins the nomination, Trump will get four more years as sure gravity pulls a dropped object to the ground. 35 states are already a lock one-way or the other. 15 swing states are all that matter, chief among them, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Florida, Texas and Arizona. The 15-20% of swing voters in those states are “old” and the word “socialist” for them, no matter how wrongly it is perceived, is a non-starter for them period. AND THEY VOTE. If it’s Bernie or Trump, they’re going to go for Trump, period. Game, set, match, we lose. Young voters don’t vote in big enough numbers nationally to make a difference and they certainly won’t be a deciding factor in those critical swing states with their electoral votes. So again, we lose. If you want four more years of Trump, vote for him or Bernie. The result will be the same.
5
Alright, I'll stop saying that Sanders can't win. Here's a list of other things that people should stop doing:
1) Stop saying Warren stabbed Sanders in the back by criticizing his remarks to her. As 50% of that conversation, she has the right to say what her understanding of it was.
2) Stop saying that Buttigieg is a corporate shill because he's accepting legal donations from whoever supports his campaign. Campaigning against a broken campaign finance system is fine, but until it is changed, Democratic candidates need to use that system to their best advantage if they want to win in the general election.
3) Stop saying that Michael Bloomberg is a racist for pursuing a policing policy that he (incorrectly) thought was the best way to save African American lives. Yes, he was wrong to stubbornly cling to it, but he's not the first politician to find it hard to admit a mistake.
4) Stop saying that Biden "lacks energy" when he doesn't do well on a debate stage - debates are not everyone's strong suit, and Biden has always performed well in interactions that are more 1 on 1. (cue Biden "handsiness" joke)
5) Stop saying that Buttigieg doesn't have (and can't get) any support from the African American community. He already has the support of many African Americans in South Bend (including many of their leaders). Just because he doesn't have street cred doesn't meant that he doesn't (or can't) listen to or understand the concerns of minorities.
Just stop.
6
Sanders focuses on class warfare and health care coverage. Yet unemployment is at record lows. Median household income for the nation has been increasing every year since 2013. 80 percent of Americans rate the quality of health care as “good” or “excellent”. 70 percent of Americans with private health insurance rate the quality of their insurance as “good” or “excellent”. Yet you think that these Americans are in the mood to vote for some elderly socialist and fork over more tax dollars for expensive government programs. You are in for a rude awakening in November. Democrats are in for a blowout loss and I want no part of it.
There's also the matter of what a Trump Sanders matchup says about where this country is right now. This is a terrible moment for pragmatism and a great day for extremism and delusional populism. Imagine the choice voters face in November: "Let's see, the self-described elderly socialist who wants to raise my taxes, fold up the private health care insurance plan that I like and have been paying into for years and herd me into a government run plan versus the elderly reality tv star. Is neither an option?" I am a Democrat and I will not be voting for either Trump or Sanders.
3
Yes, I will vote for Bernie if he is the nominee, but certainly reluctantly. The prospect of replacing one angry old man with another is depressing
I am so tired of being yelled at. I get the origin of the anger, and anger sells, but anger does NOT solve problems, personally, professionally, or nationally. I am desperate for a builder, not a divider.
I call upon courage from center candidates to STOP allowing divide and conquer; PICK a champion and unite for the greater good of the country.
4
Mr. Blow. As always, thank you.
Watching and following the Sanders campaign, all what Sanders is saying is that, we, the people, are entitled, and must have the basic needs of life. When you analyze his argument, the question is how can all that be labelled "Socialist" or "Socialism".
The USA is a capitalist country. That is not the problem. The problem is in the manner in which the System is structured. Why is it that we see the huge gap in income inequality? That itself leads to other issues which people continue to face.
We pride ourselves in being the world's richest and super power.
Yet, we have a problem in properly addressing people's healthcare. Proper education for the people. Poverty. Unequal employment opportunities. The list goes on. If the current system in our country does not address all the issues people face, then, there should be an improvement to the current system, or seek an alternative system. No one talks about it.
Interestingly, not one of those other candidates standing alongside Bernie Sanders on the stage is saying anything. For that matter, not even Donald Trump during the tenure of his presidency, has ever touched upon on any of the Sanders agenda items.
We do not have to change our country, and what we stand for. The USA will always be the USA. What we need to change is how the people's needs can be met. This has nothing to do with Socialism. We need change, and one can see that change may be around the corner.
I am not sure we need to figure out the precise definition of an academic term to ensure people live decent lives in America. Figuring out what socialism truly is would be nice, but seems unnecessary to me, especially for the typical voter. The truth is many words, democracy, feminism to name a few have varying meanings and degrees. It is usually how they are framed that determines how effective they are. For our purposes here any progressive candidate should simplify the term and maybe make clear what it is not. Democratic socialism, or even socialism itself, to me at least, is not absolutism, it is not violent and it is not negative. It is not really Maduro's Venezuela or Kim Jong-un's Korea or Stalin's Soviet Union. It is more like contemporary Sweden. Broadly, it is a recognition that absolute capitalism (to use a charged word, unfettered capitalism) should be reigned in or smartly controlled for the benefit of all. The truth is democratic socialism as it would function in the US would not turn into the kind of absolutism we saw in other parts of the world under the same banner. I think a mix of what we have know, the basic freedoms entitled to us, and elements of things we can improve would make our country better than it is now. It is really that simple.
1
It's refreshing to start seeing more columnist break from the Stop Bernie Club. It's time for the establishment to accept that Sanders is the best hope that the Democratic Party and the country have of beating Trump in November.
All the calculations and predictions of doom with a Sanders nomination are projected through a lens of 1990s politics and ignore the realities of today. The outsider, Obama won because voters were excited about his message and he brought out the black vote. The insider, Hilary Clinton, lost against the weakest Republican candidate in an age, because the surging youth vote behind Bernie stayed home, too many people believed that Trump couldn't win and too many wouldn't hold their nose and vote for Hillary just to make sure he didn't.
The attacks from the Trumpist will come no matter who gets the Democratic nomination. The people scared of a Socialist aren't likely to vote for the Democrat anyhow.
The Millennials who have been fired up by Sanders will come out of the woodwork in swing districts to vote for Bernie and stay home for anyone else. Since they haven't been part of the Likely Voters, they aren't counted in mainstream calculations. Now that we've gotten past two tiny unrepresentative, lily white states, we see Sanders has broad support in Nevada with a major win.
Democrats in Red districts will be able to distance themselves from Sanders while riding the coattails of the votes of his supporters, which are the most likely in red states.
2
Bernie may be a Barry Goldwater of the left. Apparently Democrats, unconsciously, have decided that Trump, like LBJ, is unbeatable, and so they might as well go down with someone who trumpets what they truly believe in. Losing is losing, so you might as well stand on principle.
Of course in the short run, LBJ was the right's biggest nightmare as a series of liberal initiatives rapidly became law, and the Supreme Court followed suit. But eventually their right-wing revolution triumphed in 1980 with Ronald Reagan (it might have happened sooner if Nixon had not Watergated, but that's alternate history). Trump is even more the left's worst nightmare, and the damage his second term could do is incalculable. But if he can't be beaten at the ballot box, perhaps the best that can be done is to work for the long run comeback, maybe decades away.
So perhaps the urge to nominate Sanders is laying the groundwork for a left revolution 20 years or more from now. I hope that I am still alive to see it, and that our country can survive in the mean time.
As a lifelong democrat I will vote for whomever the party nominates.
Of all the candidates, however, it seems to me the surest path to a Trump reelection is a Bernie candidacy. Apparently the Russians feel the same way.
Even if he doesn't get nominated it could be detrimental. His bruised ego prevented him from supporting Hillary until the very end and contributed to her loss.
He's a risk either way.
3
The change Sanders pitches is needed. It's not rocket science. It's basic math. When his opponents call him leftie or Socialist, I call him conservative and smart. His ideas will be great for America, save money, create stability. The capitalism status quo he derides will prove destructive, more boom bust inequality. So, Vote conservative. Vote smart. Vote Bernie.
3
When will we stop citing national poll results, when what matters are state-by-state results for purposes of predicting electoral college wins?
5
I agree. I think that it is insane that 170,000 voters in 3 states overrode the 3 million voters in 50 states as being representative of the national will.
2
Four years ago, everyone thought Trump was unelectable, but here we are.
The fact is that if we all get behind the Democratic candidate, whoever it is, we have a very strong chance of winning. The last election was decided by such a narrow margin that if all the Bernie Bros had gotten behind Hilary instead of sitting out, in protest, we'd be in a very different place right now. No matter what else you may think about conservatives, they stand behind their candidate, even if they have to hold their noses to do so. That's a lesson Democrats need to learn.
Here are some things to keep in mind when Bernie talks about universal health care. We do need healthcare for everyone, but we must be prepared for what that means. There are companies making so called "orphan drugs" at great expense of development and great cost to the patient because of the limited numbers to be treated. This will stop. There are instances of premature infant treatment that cost millions of dollars. Decisions will be made about whether it's worth trying to keep a 5 pound newborn alive for months in the hospital. Elderly people who have terminal cancer will receive palliative care, not the expensive drugs that actually provide remission. These are realistic concerns, and simply collecting more taxes for healthcare for all will bring some unexpected outcomes. Our government will manage drug development like every other bureaucratic offices it manages currently. Hello, Socialism.
3
Can Bernie win? Win what?
Sure, Bernie can win the Dem nomination. True, some polls put Bernie over Trump (when every Dem is bashing Trump while Trump is holding rallies). Such polls are unreliable until it's down to a binary choice.
Wait until Trump dishes it out to Sanders as the Dem nominee.
Could Bernie win? Sure -- but only if Trump beats himself. The betting markets now have Trump at about a 65 percent chance to win. And this is not some quant know-it-all making predictions based on a bunch of metrics.
3
I think betting against Bernie is not smart. I believe that in the next few weeks we’ll see the work that he’s been doing for the last few years come to fruition, and those Republicans who are salivating now thinking that he will be easy prey will rue the day.
With triple the money of the Democrats, the Republicans will spend about half of their’s on public character assassination of them.
Funny, now that Bernie looks like he has a better than average chance of being the Democrat nominee, Democrats are starting to rationalize their thinking about Bernie's electability.
At this point and time, none of the Democrats candidates seem likely to beat Trump.
Half of this country does not want the radical change that Bernie supports. And that half has the electoral votes to get Trump reelected.
The only bright spot is that the Constitution prevents Trump from serving a 3rd term ---- So far.
2
"In fact, in head-to-head national polls, Sanders consistently outperforms Trump."
Given the electoral college that broad statement is irrelevant, if you don't factor out large blue states like California and New York.
How does he run against the President in Michigan, Penn., Wisconsin, Fla?
3
@Greg
The chances of Bernie Sanders winning in swing states is slim to none. Swing states have too much common sense to vote for Sander's agenda. Many people in the middle would love to vote for someone other than Trump but they will not vote for Bernie.
Charles Blow has a documented history of getting it wrong. His ideology gets in the way of reality. I am not sure if he gets it more wrong or Krugman. Best advise is to not put down a wager in Vegas based on either of their thoughts.
1
In fact, polls show that Sanders leads the field in those three states, and if my memory serves me well, Sanders won those states in 2016 and the fact that 12,000 of his supporters didn’t show or voted for Trump cost Hillary and the Democrats the White House.
On Nov.10, 2016, the Washington Post published a story entitled “Hillary lost. Bernie could have won.” That should answer your questions about Bernie’s electability.
1
@Greg Or Texas or Mississippi or Florida or Alabama or Georgia or North Carolina or....
Sanders is doing fine against Trump because Trump and the Republicans are leaving him alone. It is no secret Trump is dying to run against Sanders.
Once they start describing Sanders as a communist with one foot in the grave who is going to throw 150 million people off their health insurance, and triple middle class taxes, his numbers will plummet.
No one has a crystal ball. But I suspect we will be slaughtered in a general election with Sanders as the nominee and will lose seats in both the House and Senate as well.
7
Time for Sanders to start showing some deftness as a politician. For example, if he gets the nomination, who will he choose as his VP candidate? Hopefully someone who can help bridge the gap between the two wings of the party, as Clinton emphatically failed to do in 2016.
2
Almost everyone commenting here wants the national disgrace in the oval office to come to an end this fall. Some feel that the best way to bring about this end is to run a "centrist" (I'm honestly not sure what that term means any more with our country swung so far to the right). In any case, I would ask those in the centrist camp to pose the following question to yourself: If (when) Bernie is the candidate in the general election, are you not going to vote for him? Be honest! You know you will. You will vote blue no matter who just like the rest of us. Sanders beats Trump in the current polls. These numbers will only rise in Bernie's favor as we get closer to November. Trumps numbers will be stagnant. Trump may declare martial law on November 4th, but I think common sense shows a decisive victory for Bernie Sanders.
3
I think of Bernie as a modern Franklin Delano Roosevelt. He wants to make the fixes that will make our society work for everyone. First, he sees the challenge of climate change and has an ambitious program to make it better. Really, that is the most important of all our many important problems. Second, he sees the dis-function and inequality in our health system and is fighting for a real fix. Boy do we need it, and thank goodness that someone is standing up for real change. Third, he sees the grotesque concentration of wealth and power and wants to restore some semblance of equality and fairness to our grossly unjust society. That is so important. Fourth, he sees that no great leader can do it on his or her own. We need a movement, and every time I hear him say that I think "Thank you Bernie. That's exactly what this society needs -- ordinary citizens taking responsibility for solving our problems collectively and making things better for all."
3
Sanders needs to define Democratic Socialism as something other than a stage halfway to communism. Otherwise, Trump will do it for him.
He needs to cite the Nordic example. They have more billionaires per capita than the US. By many measures, they have fewer restrictions on business than the US. But in exchange for higher taxes, they have essentially free health care, very inexpensive higher education, pre-K, maternity and paternity leave, better unemployment and retirement benefits, and less income inequality. They also have a much different historical and demographic base on which to have built their society, so the transferability of their system is certainly up for debate.
In order to win, Sanders will need the overwhelming support of the African-American community, especially Black men; in addition, he will need groups that don’t normally vote, poor people and young people, to show up in disproportionate numbers. Is that at all likely?
I believe that Bernie will accrue more votes than the incumbent but that after the melee that follows, SCOTUS will patch together a rationale that backs the Electors to favor Trump. Watch the maneuvering including personal harassment and even intimidation of the Electoral College to nullify the election. Then democracy dies with whimpers amounting to nothing.
2
If Trump was elected by the 'silent majority,' and Sanders and his followers push away those who are now considered centrists Dems, expect the silent majority to grow substantially. Defections to third parties, like the 7.5M in '16 will also likely increase. Populism is inherently authoritarian, regardless of whether it comes from the right, or the left. United you win, divided you fall.
1
“I’ve got news for the Republican establishment. I’ve got news for the Democratic establishment. They can’t stop us.”
I will vote for the Democratic candidate. But when I saw this my reaction was that Bernie is running a third party campaign on the Democratic ticket.
3
@Patrick
It's just change from within, but not on their terms (since this of course leads to no real change).
I don't doubt his ability to win, either. I don't think I have once since his surge following his heart attack. I doubt his ability to govern. I doubt his ability to build coalitions and to compromise, both essential for passing meaningful legislation. I doubt his ability to lift up down-ballot candidates and facilitate the election of a Democratic-majority Senate. And I seriously doubt his apparent strategy to deal with not having a Senate majority, that being (as described in the debates) convincing lawmakers who disagree with him to vote his way by instilling a massive groundswell of support from his base to, what, call their congresspeople? Give me a break.
I think there's a good chance he'll be elected president. I also think there's a good chance he ruins progressivism for at least the next decade because he doesn't get anything done. I really hope I'm wrong.
The absence of any consideration of the Electoral College is a serious deficiency in this article. Sanders could well win the popular vote and lose the election as Clinton did in 2016. What happens in the blue and red states is of little significance. Their electoral outcomes are predetermined. The election is decided in the indeterminate states.
2
Unfortunately, yet realistically, Bernie is no match for Trump. And he's no Obama. He's spent his entire political life defining himself
and now has to spend the next few precious months trying to redefine himself. Good luck for him with that but better luck for the lockstep Republicans and Russians. The slow motion train wreck that was McGovern is picking up speed hurtling us all into the oblivion of a Trump dynasty. The kool-aid has been consumed, let's hope we find the right antidote before it's too late. Doubtful.
2
Whatever vision Bernie Sanders has for America, he'll have to work with Congress.
There is nothing doing in a congress still dependent on corporate donations that will shatter our democratic ideals.
Pundits develop opinions in cable news studios. Voters decide at home.
1
"In fact, in head-to-head national polls, Sanders consistently outperforms Trump."
This is the same mistake most everyone made in 2016. The national polls are meaningless. Only 7 states will decide if that, the rest are a given. Sure, Sanders could win the popular vote but that doesn't help.
And even the national polls are being done before the right-wing noise machine has revved up it's shouts of "Socialism!".
3
The problem is what happens when Sanders is President? He seems to be likely to fail in achieving any of the things he campaigns for. So in 4 years we get a back lash, maybe not Trump himself but someone similar. We need leadership out of this spiral of politicians who work for their reelection and nothing else.
For all of the people who look at Sanders and see "Medicare for all" and all of the other promised wonderful middle class improvements when he is elected, think about what you are risking to achieve these goals. The current "president" is destroying the Rule of Law in this country, conspiring with foreign governments, and suborning the members of his party to routinely violate their Oath of Office to achieve his personal goals. Unless trump is removed from office in this election, we may lose the ability to return to the constitutional form of government this country was built on. Please think of the long game. To a large segment of voters on both sides of the aisle, Sanders is inherently more toxic than even HRC. There will be 4 more years of the national nightmare if Sanders is the nominee.
1
Thank you, Mr. Blow. I've never been a Bernie supporter, but I am anti-anti-Bernie, and I represent a lot of Democrats. We anti-anti-Bernie folks are edging closer and closer to pro-Bernie, in good part because of your colleagues.
1
Those not checking for Bernie, were NEVER checking for Bernie....I'm just saying.
2
I was disappointed by your op-ed piece today. Normally, I look froward to your work more than that of any other of the op-ed page columnists. However, in this piece, you ultimately echo the mainstream press concerns about Bernie rather than his strengths. We know that no corporate media editorial board will endorse him in the primary. We know about the various arguments you repeat in your column. It seems to me that it would have been a good (and now missed) opportunity to discuss in detail why he appears to be the most attractive candidate to working people in America, rather than reiterating why the corporate media thinks he should not be.
1
Thank you Charles. I will vote for any Democrat, but Bernie definitely has my soul. As another poster mentioned he is the candidate I've been waiting for all my voting life, which is quite a few years.
4
Since Reagan we’ve been fed a very radical version of capitalism by the republicans. It’s resulted in where we are now, on the precipice of dogmatic regressive policy not supported by the great majority of people. It’s time for the pendulum to swing back. There are real things our country needs. The austerity for the masses but socialism for the rich and the corporations is holding back needed programs that are in effect in most other countries and ones that are proven to work, and can be enacted here. From infrastructure to climate change, to health care, it’s time. If people get behind Bernie, and can see through their scare tactics, we can get on the right track. We can join the world.
3
Since Reagan we’ve been fed a very radical version of capitalism by the republicans. It’s resulted in where we are now, on the precipice of dogmatic regressive policy not supported by the great majority of people. It’s time for the pendulum to swing back. There are real things our country needs. The austerity for the masses but socialism for the rich and the corporations is holding back needed programs that are in effect in most other countries and ones that are proven to work, and can be enacted here. From infrastructure to climate change, to health care, it’s time. If people get behind Bernie, and can see through their scare tactics, we can get on the right track. We can join the world.
Lets evaluate get the idea of "radical"
#1- Trump gives corps and wealthy a 1.5 trillion dollars tax gift that the American people will have to pay. 1 Trillion already this year. Bernie wants 1.5 trillion for health care and child care.
Whats radical?
#2-Bernie wants taxes to be fair, like they are in1980. Trump wants the rich and corpsmtompsy even less then ever, below what middle class workers pay. Who's radical?
#3-Bernie wants infrastructure rebuilding and trump wants to do tariffs and spend billions on welfare to farmers who suffer.Whos radical?
Lets get this term"radical" in context.
2
To a foreigner, the debate among Democratic Party leading figures & activists whether Sanders can beat Trump & whether having Sanders leading the ticket dooms the prospects of many Democrat candidates for the House & Senate appears more an internal powers struggle than a search for how best to gain power & govern the US.
The US is very diverse & the Democratic Party needs to reflect & harmonize a wide swath of that diversity if it's to win & govern well. The challenge for Sanders is to show that he can both retain the enthusiastic support he's mobilized to date & show he's open to working in harmony with divergent Democratic Party interests.
The history of Canadian federal politics may be relevant. Two of our 3 major Federal Parties cover the same political space in Canada as does the Democratic Party in the US. When our domestic economy (i.e. the US picture now) does well but many Canadians feel left behind, the centre-left Liberal Party habitually gains at the expense of the Conservative Party & the smaller, social-democratic NDP experiences strong growth in support as well.
Further, these 2 Parties often find ways to govern together in concert to the benefit of Canadians generally.
The Canadian experience suggests that the Democrats can beat the GOP because of, & not despite, the uptick of the US economy. Becoming mired in internal conflict can spoil this opportunity, however.
2