It’s true that being able to admit when you’ve been wrong is an admirable trait. When you’ve been wrong. Otherwise it’s stupid. Bret hasn’t convinced me that Bernie has been, or is now, wrong.
Another admirable trait is actually being right all the time. It means you’re smart and righteous and that you have the courage of your convictions
8
This Democrat won’t vote for a socialist. I may be liberal but I’m not stupid. Bernie is no Democrat and I won’t vote for him. A cantankerous old man, way past his prime by many years. There has to be someone better.
10
At 16 I heard about “The Fountainhead” and thought that objectivism sounded like a bunch of drivel. At 12 I thought Bill Clinton's persecution for lying about a consensual dalliance was ridiculous and hypocritical. I still think those things.
If you're scared of Bernie Sanders because of things he said years ago that were clearly in no way endorsements of authoritarian regimes, then it's a you problem.
You know what I'm actually afraid of? Not being able to pay for healthcare if I get sick. Having my marriage rights taken away as a queer person. Our president doing everything in his power to erode our government institutions.
The idea that we should be afraid of Bernie Sanders is centrist fearmongering.
14
If it has to be a progressive, then Warren >>> Bernie. I've always thought her changing from card carrying GOP to Democrat based on the decay of GOP around her showed someone in touch with the real world. That she is not a scold or a demagogue is a bonus.
8
"The guy who was angry about the downfall of Salvador Allende’s Marxist regime in Chile in 1973 is still angry about it today"
Oh, you mean the CIA backed violent coup that overthrew a democratically elected government and installed a dictatorship that murdered thousands and cost the Chilean people their basic freedoms for 17 years? I'm still pretty angry about that too. Aren't you?
24
Yes, Bernie scares me, not because of his more outlandish ideas -- which will never pass muster in Congress -- but because of the ignorance of so many American voters who hear the word "socialist" and think we're headed for a communist takeover. But you know who scares me more; Donald Trump, an ignorant narcissist with delusions of grandeur who lies as he breathes and endangers not only our health and safety but the entire planet.
16
Vote blue no matter who! Bernie’s a million times better than trump. Any of the Democratic nominees are. How can Bret seriously fault Bernie for not admitting he was wrong on something when trump, the ultimate denier and spinner of false news sits in the White House. What ridiculous hypocrisy!
26
The guy who was angry about the downfall of Salvador Allende’s Marxist regime in Chile in 1973 is still angry about it today.
Yes, and why wouldn't he be angry by this??? A democratic government was thrown out by a coup organized by fascists (I'm not exaggerating (you can easily see on youtube the marches, hand-raised Hitler style) who murdered people and tortured them, and their US ally.
His point about bread lines is absolutely correct. Everyone , up in arms about bread lines and not about people starving.
A draconian article.
43
As his followers will no doubt (loudly) inform you: WHAT ERRORS IN JUDGEMENT!!!??!?
12
In the Democratic debate a few days ago in South Carolina, Senator Sanders said this:
“In Israel, through Bibi Netanyahu, you have a reactionary racist who is now running that country.”
Does Mr. Sanders really think this comment will help him get elected President of the United States?
15
Does the NYTimes have some sort of "Older White Person Is Afraid of Big Change" quota it tries to meet each week? Seems like it must be two per day.
No need to read this one as I've read a few of the others. We get it--you're averse to change. Safety and smallness drives your decision making. And you don't want to give up one more dollar out of your wallet. Hang in there.
39
Brett Stevens scares me.
39
The problem with you Bret is that you don't care about the US meddling in foreign country's affairs, like the US did in Iran when we overthrew Mossadegh and it resulted in the Iranian revolution. Nor do you care about the intervention in Nicaragua. You apparently don't have the principles of a man like Sanders.
You look at that and say it's OK. He looked at it and knew it was wrong. So I and more people than you can imagine sitting their pontificating in your ivory tower of thought like the ethics of this man running for president. Please stop wringing your hands, nothing and I mean NOTHING could be worse than your team's guy that is in the Oval office temporarily. Try to adopt this credo "How I learned to stop worrying and love the Bern."
30
Maybe Bernie scares Bret, but Donald should terrify him.
27
I just learned, from another, newer, article on this NYT page about "The Dirtbag Left". That Bernie associates with these people does scare me. They appear to be every bit as hateful as Trumpsters, but of the left - or so they say. America is falling apart - with some "help" from Russian propaganda, and home grown extremists of the right and left. America needs to be put back together - not thrown into increased chaos. We cannot deal with pandemic, global climate chaos, mass migrations, etc. while we are simultaneously in a state of virtual civil war.
12
Out of desperation and dread of a second term of Trump, I was slowly starting to think about Sanders. Then came his statement about Castro and the reminders of his radical past and his refusal to disavow any of that. I had the opportunity of visiting Cuba in 2002. Memories were still very fresh there of their “special period”. There’s more, but I saw first hand that anyone with anything positive to say about the Castro regime is at best an idiot. I also had the opportunity to work alongside a Russian mathematician who emigrated to the US in 1975. He told me what the Soviet Union was really like. I’ll stop there because I’m starting to feel a burn.
9
Your first three paragraphs should have brought you to Donald Trump. Much, much more dangerous.
13
Bernie is not for me....but Fountainhead was not rubbish. Just saying.
5
I wish Bret a faster ability to acknowledge wrongness.
9
if Bernie can just do one great thing---------- Pass Universal Healthcare for all. Bernie will have done a lot!
120
I voted for Clinton in 16 and straight D in 2018, but I will vote for Trump if Sanders is the nominee.
Socialism is terrifying. I regularly read The Nation and Jacobin so I can hear it out of the horse's mouth. Socialism comes with a religious fervor and a disregard for all that is human, individual, and messy in favor of a centralized structure that submits people to the dictats of intellectuals who supposedly know better, whose job it is to "deconstruct" everything from gender to social customs to economic structures so they can recreate them ex nihilo out of their abstract ideals.
It has profound disregard for the rights of parents and families, for human enterprise, for the natural differences between men and women, and for local cultures and customs that have developed organically over time in response to the needs and ingenuity of actual, living breathing people.
This is why "cancel culture" is a feature, not a bug of the left. They need to cancel the messiness of human variety in favor of ideological purity. There is a reason why phrases like "No Debate" and "By Any Means Necessary" are so common on the left.
Human beings do not thrive under rigid, impersonal systems that disregard our nature (yes, human nature exists). In Scandinavia, there is an epidemic of loneliness. In Canada there is health care rationing. Europe is stagnant.
Human freedom comes with risks; of failure, of inefficiency, of conflict. But I'm willing to take those risks to have it.
307
@A F
You lost me at the end where you speak of “an epidemic of loneliness” in Scandinavia and “health care rationing” in Canada. Not sure if you’ve been paying attention to the rise in deaths of despair here in the land of the free or the health care rationing that our current health insurance industry with it’s unaffordable premiums, co-pays, and deductibles imposes on us. Look, anyone who knows me knows that I’m not a Bernie fan, but I know that he’s not a socialist in the vain that you write so eloquently about. I’ll most certainly vote for him if he’s the nominee.
290
@A F I lived in Norway, also worked in the UK. There was no "culture of loneliness" and health care as well as other democratic socialism programs were great. How can you say such things? Have you ever been there?
No wants for health care, the economy is not stagnant. Get out and travel, it's really the best education
125
@SportsMedicine I have many friends who work in the healthcare industry and every single one of them acknowledges 1) the ACA improved health outcomes for Americans and 2) it's still a broken system, and a universal plan is the only feasible way to address it.
You say going to the hospital would be like going to the DMV? It already is like that, except it's even WORSE- I've never had my finances wiped out after a visit to the DMV, but thousands of Americans experience this after a single adverse health event, even with insurance. Healthcare is already rationed; M4A would at least put those decisions in the hands of people who are publicly accountable instead of faceless for-profit companies that the public has NO control over.
83
So, everywhere in the world people are taught to read so they may get an education. But, in Cuba, people are taught to read so they may be indoctrinated. Got it.
And, that pledge of allegiance I used to recite every day in public school in NYC?
I guess all that indoctrination is why the infant mortality rate is lower in Cuba than in the US....More socialists?
29
And that darned Constitution! It's so old! Can't we just grow up and change our views on it and get over it and let it go?
3
"The guy who was angry about the downfall of Salvador Allende’s Marxist regime in Chile in 1973 is still angry about it today."
Bret, you're a smart guy.
Pretty fair-minded too.
So, revisit that word "downfall."
From all I've read, Allende came to power in an undisputed election in Chile. So, "they the people" of Chile did what they wanted in their country.
Cool.
Allende, came to a decision to nationalize certain private companies doing business in Chile including Anaconda Copper, and Kennecott Copper. US copper firms on Chilean soil.
Here's a link-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chilean_nationalization_of_copper
Allende and others thought it an act of national security and sovereignty not to allow the outside copper companies to extract the wealth of the nation.
Just like we wouldn't want Russian energy companies on our soil.
So, get outta here you invaders!
On September 11, 1973 (a Tuesday, just like ours) our CIA along with right wing forces in Chile overthrew the duly elected Allende, killed him, and ushered in years of repressive rule under dictator Pinochet. The usual curtail of freedom, jailings, political murder, etc.
Nice.
So, back to the example.
Russians are extracting our oil, we don't like it and nationalize those Russian companies and then…
Russia overthrows our government and kills our elected president.
And, all of us Americans then have to live in repressive terror state for years.
Sound good?
Shoe on the other foot?
No fun right!
38
I'm bored by the insistence that Sen. Sanders answer for nuanced positions of yesteryear. So far as I have read, Sen. Sanders condemns authoritarianism, political corruption, political violence, and governemental oppression. A person can praise Thomas Jefferson for the Declaration of Independence while also condemning him for owning human beings and raping them. A person can praise Stalin's commitment to Hitler's defeat, while also condemning his totalitarianism. Stepehens is really insisting that Sen. Sanders change a conviction he never held (support for totalitarianism or authoritarianism). Stephens should not wait for 2040 to renounce his sloppy acceptance of a strawman.
33
You write, "The guy who was angry about the downfall of Salvador Allende’s Marxist regime in Chile in 1973 is still angry about it today."
And good for him! First, the Allende regime was overthrown through a conservative military coup...you like that? Oh, and Allende was killed...you think that's good, huh? I'M still angry about it, and how wonderful to find an American politician who is, too. I'd call this having a realistic sense of political history. He, like the other candidates, may not be perfect -- but being terrified of him? Yeesh! Get a grip. And he's better than what's leading this country now!
24
For Bret Stephans to accuse Sanders of “ Moral Idiocy” is just dumbfounding, in a world where the Republican party has been infected with a morality eating cancer.
27
The US has supported overthrowing democraticly elected governments throughout the world, often to our own detriment. Iran ring a bell?
That Sanders was angry about this- and still is- is a testament to his continuing belief in democracy and “we the people.”
The fact that you think this is a character flaw on the part of Sanders make me question your moral compass, Bret, not Sanders’.
27
'In 1985, as mayor of Burlington, Vt., he made the case for bread lines: “Sometimes American journalists talk about how bad a country is because people are lining up for food,” he said. “That is a good thing! In other countries, people don’t line up for food. The rich get the food and the poor starve to death.”'
OK. Now we have your opinion on record. You oppose public food charity and favor policies under which the poor starve to death. How will you feel about people lining up for free corona virus vaccines?
12
OMG. Heaven forbid the US would look a little more like Northern European states (who consistently rank at the top in terms of health, education and economic outcomes).
Or we could go with a guy who treats the truth like an abused dog, saves his biggest lies for his biggest supporters, and is hollowing out government and the middle class (an historical process that didn't really need his help, by the way).
Ah, but except for the billions in bailouts to farmers, the gifts to manufacturers to keep jobs in the US, lavishing tens of billions more on an economy already based on war preparation and war making (siphoning off whatever billions he needs as 'emergency' funds to build his precious wall that no doubt has smugglers snickering) . . . he's not a (insert gasp here) socialist.
11
Relax everyone. Bernie is not my first choice but I will certainly support him if he’s the nominee. I trust he’ll bring environmental issues front and center. Doubt he’ll be able to nationalize health care but face it...our for profit system is sucking the life blood out of our economy. Medicare works, and recipients can choose their physician’s, so what’s the problem? Let’s not be ruled by fear or overcome by visions of the apocalypse. Bernie has a moral core that is sadly lacking in many of today’s politicians. Time to take action and embrace possibility of change.
269
NPR reported yesterday that in South Carolina's open primary, thousands if not more Republicans are voting in the Democratic Primary for Sanders knowing he will be a disaster against Trump and for Democrats generally.
One is quoted as saying that a Trump v. Sanders match up is capitalism v socialism and in that context in 2020 America, capitalism wins.
Sanders already is a disaster for the Democratic Party by constantly accusing his rivals and the Party of being corrupt and pushing policies that are so generous and so obviously flawed in their funding and design that they will never be enacted, but upon which he is willing to cast the hopes of people who want our national nightmare over.
Sanders is willing to die an electoral death on the hill of socialism and bad policy, but not this Democrat.
312
@OrchardWriting Every cycle, there's some clamor about interference from the other party in an open primary. It never really pans out. The purpose of this "Operation Chaos" is to make you distrust the Democratic front-runner, not to materially affect the election results.
The GOP is manipulating you into standing against your allies in this fight to remove Trump. Don't fall for it.
94
@OrchardWriting
1. We are taxed to spend as much or more than the entire rest of the world for "defense". We have spent trillions in the killing of millions.
2. We have more people in jail than any other country.
3. We are the least equal of the advanced democracies and that index is getting worse by the day.
That's just a brief statement of the treasonous trajectory the U.S. is on. And you want to tell me over and over again, my friend, you don't think it's time for a revolution?
109
@OrchardWriting
"Republicans are voting in the Democratic Primary for Sanders knowing he will be a disaster against Trump and for Democrats generally."
Those are two separate things. Many, many people are voting for Sanders because they hate the DNC and the Democratic Establishment. Some of them are the same people who voted for Trump because they hated the RNC and the Republican Establishment. This is quite apart from the calculation that Sanders will inevitably lose to Trump. Republicans -- at least the smarter ones--are perfectly capable of reading the polls that tell them Sanders is the Democrat's strongest candidate in the General Election.
46
I am a yellow dog Democrat going back to JFK. Bernie Sanders hasn't revised his past opinions because he still believes they were correct. Sanders is a 1940's Marxist-Leninist preserved in amber, long after his co-believers have abandoned Marxist-Leninism. He is no democratic socialist, Scandinavian social democrat or ultra-liberal. Social democrats do not view the world through the lens of class struggle as Sanders does when he denounces billionaires and corporations as immoral. Social democrats are fine with and even encourage both as long as they pay their fair share and behave. Fidel Castro was not an "authoritarian." He was a totalitarian communist dictator who followed the Communist Manifesto and Das Kapital just as Sanders does. The press have given Sanders a free ride because journalists know nothing of history and are so fixated on the horse race that they don't do the homework that would allow them to see Sanders for what he still is. They should all take a couple of good survey courses on western history and political thought.
27
Your lucky that the thought of Bernie asking AOC to become his running mate isn’t playing a loop in your head. Bernie fans, AOC twitter base fans and new fans, climate change fans and the youth plus the mini revolution ought to keep you up at night.
8
Dear Mr. Stephens,
Respectfully, it's not clear to me as a voter that there is any sincerity w/ respect to acknowledgements from other candidates of past wrong-doing. I'm not convinced by Mr. Bloomberg's statements re stop-n-frisk. The same goes for Mr. Biden's comments re the invasion of Iraq. And Senator Warren just spent $12 million on TV ads. Are you sure she was ever committed to refusing super pac money? It's not clear someone can be, given her actions.
Respectfully, you describing Senator Sanders as having "shilled" for the Sandinistas, to me, indicates the possibility that you don't have an adequate understanding of the morally salient facts of the history of Nicaragua and it's relationship to the US.
Senator Sanders didn't "shill" for Ortega. He went down there to show solidarity with a group of people who had been unjustly dominated for generations (the morally salient facts warrant my asserting the last relative clause of that sentence). To describe him as having "shilled", I confess to you Mr. Stephens, forces a choke in my throat and tears to well in my eyes. I kindly ask you to reconsider your choice of language.
Lastly and respectfully: he *has* denounced the undemocratic aspects of those regimes. He may have to clear his throat b/c it's not clear that, were the US *not* to have went on the offensive, then they still would have operated as such. Hard to abide by democratic principles when under attack. Remember Japanese internment?
---Burt
17
Cuba, Cuba, Cuba...it's a tiny communist island whose people eat, get medical care and education. Under Obama's opening of the country we moved closer to knocking down Communism through business engagement. Then the USA turned their backs on the Cubans again. What about Haiti which the US has helped destroy? What about communist China with whom you all are so thrilled to do $$$billions of business? People in glass houses, Bret. Stop the scare-mongering about democratic candidates. A concrete post would be more trustworthy than Donald Trump.
23
At least someone is recycling. Too bad it is old and outdated, Cold War/McCarthyism talking points.
20
I'm sure that a lot of this mess is my fault, but I am not thrilled at the thought of having my nose rubbed in the carpet for four years by Bernie and his acolytes.
9
Donald Trump claimed yesterday that the corona virus may be a hoax from the Democrats and Bret Stephens chose to write an opinion about how much he dislikes Bernie Sanders. No wonder this country is in such bad shape.
29
Admit past mistakes??? Is that the best you can do, Bret?
Was they NYT mistaken when they Bernie Bashed endlessly in 2016? Gave us Clinton versus Trump and we know how that turned out. I don't here any mea culpas, Bret.
And here we are again four years later and the NYT (and the rest of the establishment media) is back to Bernie Bashing and it appears the NYT hasn't learned a thing.
Give it a rest.
19
Scare easily, do you, fellah? You now the old saying (I paraphrase): If you're not a Trotskyite in your youth, you have no heart. If you're not a Democratic Socialist in your dotage, you have no mind! Bernie has no need to apologize to your strawmen. Viva Bernie!
18
What is this? Another one of few articles in the NYT bashing Sanders in the same day? Please try to be more balanced.
22
Who let all the Russians in?
9
The number of NYT opinion writers shaking in their boots about a Bernie presidency is so funny to me. Oh no! Spooky health care man!
25
I thought for sure Stephens was going to get to Sanders' views of Israel at the end, but maybe he decided to leave that as the subtext ... Or maybe he thought it was too dangerous to even repeat Sanders' crazy idea that Palestinians are human beings deserving of equal rights, regardless of the racist views of the apartheid regime they live under.
16
Today there was a NYT op-ed telling us why Bernie is electable and why he's a good candidate. A first! Excellent! Awesome! You're doing great NYT. You have to crawl before you can walk, but it's start.
Now of course we have the zillionth NYT Bernie bashing article. This is getting tiresome. Of course Bret is afraid of Bernie. He threatens everything Bret stands for -- inequality, bloated military, world's worst social safety net. Not to mention that Bret's job is to be the Never Trump voice for the NYT. So, of course, Bret's looking for some rationale to vote Republican. It's just his comfort zone. What-a-ya-gonna-do.
16
The sky is falling!
The sky is falling!
10
Sanders failed to support Soviet Jewry in the days when they were struggling for their rights.
https://www.algemeiner.com/2020/02/27/bernie-sanders-and-soviet-jewry/
10
A professor of mine once said - “If you’re not a communist when you’re 20, you don’t have a heart. If you’re still a communist when you’re 30, you don’t have a brain”
I bet he would find this column interesting.
17
Amen.
4
Lost me when you wrote a sentence siding with Pinochet’s death squads. I guess we know how you read history. I think you need another one of those changes of heart you’re breaking your arm patting yourself on the back for.
9
ABT. Anybody but trump
9
The NYT is scaring me with all its scary articles on Sanders.
8
Another Bernie hit piece from NYT, a daily occurrence. Makes it appear you WANT another 4 years of trump. Come on editors, how about an occasional positive piece on the front runner?
16
If you are not a liberal when you are young, you have no heart.
It you are not a conservative when you are old, you have no brain.
6
This SNL sketch about Bernie said it all ...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nn4tP7ogWIA
"Yes, literacy in Cuba (largely for purposes of indoctrination) is high" would have to rank as the stupidest thing I've ever read in the Times.
13
So he digs Castro, big deal. Trump admires a Russian thug and NAZI skinheads. He gets a pass?
26
Bernie’s ideological rigidity faithfully reflects that of his followers who seem to fall into two groups: the ignorant and the mummified. Yesterday I had lunch with a group of Californian “liberals”, all twenty to twenty-five years older than me. They talked about the Vietnam war as if it was yesterday and had absolutely no idea of the actual politics of the Cold War. One of them said that when she visited the killing fields of Cambodia, she felt “relief” because “not everything was our fault”. Seriously? When I told them that the USSR was hell, they looked horrified. And of course, they asked no questions, afraid to shatter their ideological shell. These people are supposed to be highly educated but they have lost the ability to think critically long time ago. These are Bernie’s base.
19
Like Bernie, but will not vote for Bernie. We need someone pragmatic to pull the country together. I don't know what to do about the Trump cult. They may be lost or we may need to send them to camps .., lol. Seriously, these people have zero reason beecause they listen to an ignorant showman. They want to believe the unbelievable. I don't get it.
Mayor Pete, Bloomberg are my alternatives ... When I think my Boomers have screwed us up enough, I go for Pete. He will make mistakes but he corrects them. Bloomberg - not a personality but a manager - fiscally conservative and socially moderate - maybe that's what we need for 4 yrs - a smart Republican to manage and put Humpty Dumpty back together.
14
Bernie is willing to speak the truth about the past, even when the Washington “machine” won’t. We all know about the evil regimes the US supported and dictatorships the CIA helped set up. Bernie shouldn’t lie about it. And just like Jimmy Stewart in Mr. Smith Comes to Washington, the establishment attacks him, as the one thing that scares Washington more than anything, is the prospect of a truly honest man in office. He has my vote Mr. Stephens. Your arguments are weak.
19
Mr. Stephens, perhpas the answer to this perplexing question is simplest of all. He actually hasn't changed any of his positions so there is nothing to appologize for. Compare his squeamish and conditional criticism of Castro, Chavez/Maduro and other not so "democratic" socialist regimes with his from the heart denunciation of Israel's democratically elected prime minister as a "racist". There was not even a lip service to criticize terrorist groups like Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Hezobollah. I say it again: Trump is a man with many personal flaws, Sanders is a man with a dangerous and economically disasterous philosophy.
8
I opened your column and I read this: "Sanders seems mostly incapable of admitting past errors of judgment."
Talk about the pot calling the kettle black!
Then of course because Brett already know the weakness of his argument he dodges and thinks about himself in the future reflecting about the judiciousness of this column.
Brett, why don't you reflect about this column now? People like you and your college David Brooks seem to have the same gut reaction about the word "socialist" or "Fidel Castro". It is a bit like a pavlovian reaction. Can't you have a reflexion about historical events without drowning in passion? Do we have to remind you about Reagan financing the contras in Nicaragua, and the horrible things they did? In the last debate it sounded like Bernie was measured and reasonable.
Funny, pundits from the right did not spend so much time scrutinizing Donal Trump before the 2016 election. But maybe what you saw did not scare you that much.
11
biden may be the man for the moment with a lot of administrative experience. trump is extremely scary-he has called coronavirus a hoax, while it spreads rapidly to 180 countries, and 3.6 trillion was wiped out in the stock market in the last week. trump was ranting in south carolina instead of doing his job. he had deputed pence to combat coronavirus and nobody else but pence, other than trump is more anti-science, anti-medicine and anti-health.
5
So now the violent (and US govt.-supported) coup that overthrew Chile's democratically-elected govt., and led to the brutal execution of thousands, is something to be 'gotten over'? I'm not a Bernie supporter, but he - and every sentient American - has the right, and the duty, to remain angry about this ugly and long-festering episode.
19
Brett Stephens scares me.
20
Here we go again. If you look for it you will find it, and this columnist went out of his way to support his thesis that Sanders possess "political ignorance and moral idiocy." I would say, Mr. Stephens is true to his conservative convictions and though I commend his allegiance to that mind set, it is after all simply an entrenched ideology that is incapable of seeing the 'forest for the trees.'
3
I think anyone who has not deeply admitted their “ Error of Judgement “ on the Iraq War.......as one of the United States’ worst foreign policies in our history is dangerous to our future.
11
Look at George W Bushes young life, Draft dodger,drunk , cheat. Then the Donald, liar, cheat, bankrupt, Sexual abuser, Adultry, wrlong on almost all public utterences.
Bernie? Wrong ,in your judgement, about his poliktical beliefs,] Millions of us agree with him.Health care, regs on corrupt banks and corporations, infrastructure, education, less tax cuts and war and more help for citizens,
Democratic socialism is emphasis on citizens not business. Corporate capitalism promotes oigarchy and protection of business expense at of citizens.That is what e now have. Wages down, income inequality up, wealthy taxes down, health care down.
Socialism has no control over business except to make sure they do not cheat the public.
The fear should be the corporate capital state.
13
When you write about Salvador Allende and Chile, you have no idea what you're talking about. My husband and I lived there the first year that he was Allende was President. Many Chileans were overjoyed, and there was an incredible cultural renaissance in music, literature, art, and the rest. It was not marxist in nature- it was free and democratic. It was a privilege to live there for a year.
Meanwhile his enemies were plotting to overthrow him aided by people like Kissenger- and awful man.
Look what happened after Allende was murdered- one of the worst dictators in the world came in and dropped his adversaries out of airplanes.
21
The signature piece of legislation tha Senator Sanders passed in all his years in office, where he built a coalition on both sides of the isle was........? A big transfat gmo modified pesticide filled nothing burger.
He will be cursed for losing an election and leaving a 7-2 conservative majority on the court, hundreds of federal judges of the same stripe. First up Justice Barr.
If he wins Mitch will still block the senate. Which will be in worse shape. He will let the democratic justices die off.
The loss of the senate and house will accelerate the end of the world climate wise.
7
I read as far as "wants to nationalize the health insurance industry" before I quit. That kind of scare-mongering lie is something you might expect from the Trump campaign, not a NYT column.
11
Bernie scares me because I do not believe a self-described Democratic Socialist can beat Donald Trump. Just too easy a target.
9
well not too sure that the comments from a a person like me who stands pretty firmly in the superstructure of what Bret thinks is "political ignorance and moral idiocy" will have an impact on anything, but then everyone "deserves to be judged chiefly on the merits of his proposals and the strength of his character.'
So Like Bret, we will deal with the strength of his character first.
Cant call his morality idiotic or anything since he is amoral. He is a super one point focused sophist. He has been for years and years a shill for retrogression, for superior beings such as himself and persons like Trump who, as anybody can see, are the rightful owners of ..well everything. Bret's primary driver you would think was money or some sort of ego praise, but it is actually fear. Bret is seriously frightened by the moral strength of individuals who see reality and truth in a much clearer light than he can even imagine. And Bernie Sanders seriously scares him. This is as it should be because Bret, his totally demented world view along with the current Kings or billionaires as they are now known are sliding into the deep pit of obscurity as Human Beings such as Mr. Sanders and Ms Warren and the billions of other actual human beings squiggle to move ever closer to Life, Liberty, Justice for ALL.
6
i'm detecting a bit of hypocrisy in calling out Sanders for praising the act of a dictator, given the countless acts of praise Trump regularly showers on dictators.
14
Fear of Sanders is way overblown. For the life of me I cannot understand other than knee-jerk reaction to the word socialism why anyone should be more afraid of Sanders than Trump. He is not going to convert the Democratic party into sycophants for Sanders, the way Trump did the GOP. Nor will he appoint corrupt incompetent boot lickers to head Federal agencies. Extreme, poorly thought out policies will not see the light of day with Schumer and Pelosi heading their respective chambers. So why the panic?
9
What scares me is the elites can't just allow the process to play out without trying to influence the outcome. Whatever happened to anyone but Trump? TRUMP should scare you!!!
13
I'm a moderate, maybe a tiny bit left, but you sum up my own fears Bret. Sanders is an ideologue and I have never trusted any of them. True Believers are dangerous to democracy in the same way religious fanatics are. You can sense the iron fist of intolerance every time Sanders shakes his bony finger in your face. Sanders is a Calvinist if I ever saw one.
Still, if there is no other choice but Trump I will have to vote for Sanders. A Catch-22.
8
"Sanders seems mostly incapable of admitting past errors of judgment."
I'm still waiting for the US to apologize for overthrowing the governments of or supporting dictatorships in the countries of Guatamala, Chile, Iran, Brazil, Indonesia, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Peru, The Philippines, Honduras, Greece, Panama,... that's a dozen already and I'm just getting started.
In addition, a friend tried to get info on her dad's death while he was on a mission for the CIA in 1949. she got back 1,000 pages, 95% of it redacted. Talk about "not changing".
"The guy who was angry about the downfall of Salvador Allende’s Marxist regime in Chile in 1973 is still angry about it today."
Bret Stephens, you know what? I AM still angry about the US overthrow of the democratically elected marxist government there. It seems as far as the US is concerned, and as far as Bret is concerned also, the US promotes democracy until "The People" foolishly support a candidate that the CIA does not.
"He shilled for the Ortega regime in Nicaragua in the 1980s"
I have been in Nicaragua three times: two in order to gather materials for public art installations, once as an official election observer when the Sandinistas lost to Chamorro, the first peaceful transfer of power from a socialist to a liberal government. I am proud of my work there (one project changed 6 votes in congress on contra aid in 1987), and I do not consider myself a shill.
With Brett, I sometimes wonder why I even bother.
9
It is totally obvious by now that Stephens wants Trump to be re-elected. I believe he will vote for Trump. He is just too cowardly to come out and say it.
7
With respect, I think this is the most idiotic column I have read today, with the possible exception of David Brooks's. When I listen to the debates and also to historical recordings of Sanders in the 80's, I find him speaking clearly and directly to underlying issues of inequality -- he is, in my opinion, the clearest and least evasive of all the candidates. I want to hear him reaching out more to a wider base, but because of the moral and intellectual clarity and honesty I hear from him, right now he has my support.
9
My god, isn't anyone listening to all the people supporting Bernie?
Why aren't those millions of people scared?
Every day, there's another anti-Bernie rant in the New York Times, CNN, MSNBC, etc. But Bernie keeps gaining voters.
Right now, Trump is more concerned with the stock market than the coronavirus.
That should scare you.
12
Since Mr Stephens was born in November 1973 and has relied on reading about the things he is commenting on we should all make allowances for his lack of perspective.
5
Mr Stephens, you are a George W Bush, Dick Cheney and Sarah Palin Republican. If Bernie Sanders scares you, then I'll start looking at him as a positive candidate.
8
Thanks for giving us Sandeers' history in more detail than I had seen elsewhere. I consider him a blowhard with just a few favorite topics and no way for us to afford them. It is sad that the young take him at face value, wooed by his charisma. Maybe they think his thanking is great because of his age. I fear that if he wins the presidency he will present some of the same problems we have with Trump but without all the lying (I hope). I used to think anyone but Trump; now I want the best which means absolutely not Trump!
2
Ok, I get it...Mr. Stephens and for that matter Mr. Brooks are looking for every conceivable angle to not vote for Bernie--today it is Bernie's inability to admit past mistakes. Let's stop nibbling around the edges of a existential threat to our democracy ---the real scary person is now sitting in the Oval Office---Trump is now a textbook fascists--maybe fascists lite---but his daily balcony like behavior becomes dangerous each day he sits in that office. So, lightened up on the Bernie this and the Bernie that---start each op ed piece with what could happen to this country with four more years of our Dear Leader in charge.
8
Mr. Stephens is afraid of Bernie for ONE REASON ONLY: His employers, the Sulzberger family, pay him to be. With the NYT racked by falling readership and revenues, it believes its future lies in pleasing the billionaires and tycoons and multi-nationals who buy ad space, whose CEOs sit on various charity and civic boards, who hobnob at the same Hamptons soirees and glittering galas at Carnegie. The language and environment of billionaires is one of studied exclusion. When you speak only with fellow plutocrats and demigods, you lose track of the needs and aspirations of the majority of working class America. The people who build this country are tired of waiting for the simple things a government can do to make life EASIER for them. Clean environment, good roads and infrastructure, help with education and healthcare, access to capital and markets, fair treatment and wages at work. These are NOT radical. We only have to look at Scandanavia and 35 other industrialized nations to know that countries which provide single payer healthcare to their citizens do it cheaper, with better outcomes, than we do in our for-profit system. Us Bernie Bros don't want the US to behave like Moscow........we want it to look more like Oslo or Copenhagen, homes to some of the happiest citizenry in the world.
7
Still fighting the Cold War? Come on Bret. It’s 2020.
6
You saying they were mistakes doesn't make them mistakes. Aren't you the guy who doesn't believe in climate change? When do you admit that is a mistake?
6
Another day, and NYT editorial bashing Bernie. Why is trying to make a fairer, just society such a terrible thing? Why is runaway capitalism run amok a better solution thank giving people health care and education? How are you all missing this?
9
Why Bernie scares Bret Stephens:
If Bernie gets in, the policies and actions of Israel will be in danger, as Bernie advances the concepts of human rights and international law.
6
Bret, my dear, are you really serious that Bernie scares you and Trump does not?
8
Yes, America, Wall Street red-baiting is back with a vengeance. Too bad for Stephens that an enormous––one dares say, winning––cohort of voters laugh at the pathetic 1950's-vintage McCarthy and Cohn attack.
All they hear when they listen to Bernie Sanders is a candidate who they believe will fight for them, not for their wealthy bosses who are living embodiments of Ayn Rand's rapacious, Darwinian, enough-is-never-enough capitalism.
7
None of what Bret says matters.
Vote Blue No Matter Who.
8
He scares me. I don’t want a socialist/communist anything. I don’t want his kind of education. I want a president who hears the people but doesn’t tread on my civil rights and tax my hard earned savings for his self interest
3
So what? You are a conservative, Mr. Stephens. Any other real Democrat would scare you as well.
8
I mean- his past is still better than Trump’s!
7
Mr. Stephens, did you ( or any columnist for the NYT) write as many articles as to why you were scared of Trump being the presidential nominee?
Methinks, the Times and MSM (and thus many of the affluent in this country) are scared about their pocketbooks.
Give it a rest, already.
7
“..incapable of admitting past errors of judgement.” Pot, meet Kettle.
4
It's not just that Bernie has never changed his mind on any of this. The problem is that he ever strongly held these views in the first place. He's a full blown Bolshevik, brimming with praise for Marxists and their regimes. He talks a good line... he wants the socialist programs sans the dictatorial misery. But that's never been possible in the history of Marxism. It's a national disgrace that he's a front runner.
4
Bernie is the most dangerous politician in US history. An open supporter of Marxist Communist Regimes. He sees the USA as the true evil of the world.
Trump will win in a landslide and the Republicans will control the House and Senate.
6
But not scared of Biden as president, a man without an idea in his head. Maybe not even a notion. He's a liar, too. Not enough yet of lying presidents (a requirement for office, by now) or those who make huge promises and deliver on hardly any of them? Sanders--basically a New Dealer somewhat to the left.
He will not introduce the guillotine (or the gulag) to America or seize the portfolios of the residents in those $24 million condos on the Upper East Side. Doesn't stop the corporate media from ganging up on him. Life, were it not for Trump in the White House, is good in the new Times Tower.
2
You write, Bret, that "Sanders’s main contribution was loudly to find fault with America while remaining remarkably mum about the sins of the other side". That's because, Bret, it's a tribal truism that WE, as members of the American tribe, can be remarkably mum about the sins of OUR side while loudly finding fault with the other side. Sanders, in contrast, is remarkably honest.
Wake up, Bret, to the fact that OUR tribe can be as blind and selfish and self-aggrandizingly smug as all those other tribes.
I mean, really, where has all our self-righteous superiority led us to? Donald Trump? A plutocracy that can never get enough? A pundit and political class that can't conceive of those who've been trampled on by ... well, the plutocrats, the pundits and the politicos?
Your inability to identify with anyone other than your self-important class has led you, and (sadly) this country, to the state we are in.
Give a pat to yourself on the back.
3
This is another embarrassing tirade type of article to scare the public about the dangers of Sanders. It demeans the NYT to publish it because it is filled with unsubstantiated doom and gloom rather than a balanced, analytic approach to journalism. Reminds me of the tabloids. Although I will not be voting for Sanders in the primaries (I reside abroad) I will enthusiastically vote for him against Trump if nominated. I don’t think any Democrat will defeat the nightmare of Trump but none of the candidates are deserving of cheap, scaremongering journalism. Apologies in American politics have sadly been equated with weakness, which is something this journalist seems to overlook.
3
And our very stable genius president* CAN admit past errors in judgment?
5
You are living in the past way too much here, and ignoring the ugent issues upon us NOW. Of course, Bernie has a checkered past, what intelligent person doesn't in this topsy turvey past? no one's life is cut from the same piece of cloth nor should we expect it to be. but ask yourself why you are so suspicious of someone offering medical and education to all citizens is more suspicious to you than an outright Fascist Dictator. I'm much more afraid of Trump than Bernie who has always played by the rules. The march to Fascisim must be resisted, Fascism is what created Bernie, We need him NOW. The past is past, please move on for the good of us all.
1
Really? that’s the scariest thing about Bernie to you Bret? not all the new taxes to double the size of government? not the demonization of a whole class of Americans (those evil rich folks)? not legalizing weed for kids? not his army of self affirmed victims (“if only the world was fair i’d be a winner”)? not his refusal to work within the system / his desire to “bern it down”?
2
So, just checking to make sure you know we backed Pinochet who, after overthrowing Allende, ran death squads that killed thousands. I’m not surprised when writers like you pretend history in Iran or Nicaragua or Cuba began the day the despots we supported there were overthrown. It’s a new twist to ignore our role in installing them over the wishes of citizens in those countries.
7
Or is your fear perhaps at least partly based on Senator Sanders' disinclination (and willingness to come out and say it, in spite of the possible political consequences) to just roll with Netanyahu's agenda? You can't really write him off as an anti-Semite.
Bret Stephen’s reference to the “downfall” of the Allende “regime” in Chile in 1973 says it all. Allende was the freely and duly elected president of that country (not a “regime” despot) when he was toppled by a US instigated and sponsored coup. Many thousands were subsequently killed by the fascist Pinochet regime, which was well-staffed by American advisors of all sorts. It is to Bernie’s credit that he reminds us that the Manichaeans image of the Cold War Stephens here reproduces is both historically inaccurate and morally indefensible. Maybe it’s time for Stephens to admit this and acknowledge his errors.
3
I am sorry but to be "angry about the downfall of Salvador Allende’s Marxist regime in Chile" is a now problem? Everybody should still be angry about the U.S.A. violent overthrow of the democratically elected government in Chile that resulted in the murder of Allende and thousands of Chileans, and two decades of military dictatorship. I stopped reading after that sentence.
5
If Bernie scares you, what does Trump and the virus-fighter Pence do for you?
7
What scares me is Americans missing an opportunity to save capitalism (the Anglo-Saxon type) from itself by refusing to vote for Bernie. What is critical is Bernie's consistency in fighting for social justice and advocating this country adopt the Nordic capitalist model. Mr. Stephens would probably prefer calling this enlightened form of capitalism; socialism because it sounds more threatening to the less well informed readers. And shame on Bernie for being angry that Henry Kissinger, the CIA et al. were behind the coup that brought the only democratically elected Marxist government ever to fall. Shame on me, no fan of Marxism, for being angry at the Pinochet military dictatorship regime that followed; a product of the CIA's Operation Condor resulting in the torturing, disappearing and executing of thousands throughout Latin America! Oh, and of course, Fidel Castro encouraged literacy so that people could read Marxist propaganda! (sorry, no access to the laughing emoji!). Not mentioned was Castro making healthcare accessible to all. Was that another Communist conspiracy? Talking about political ignorance and moral idiocy! This article is full of innuendos clearly designed to position Bernie Sanders as something like Vladimir Lenin. I take it from Mr. Stephens that fighting for social justice is one of Bernie's "worst convictions of his youth" and that he should admit he was "wrong". What is next, an article about character similarities between Bernie and Joseph Stalin?
1
Opened this article specifically to read the comments. I knew what the article content would be after reading the headline. What matters to me, and to Bernie obviously, is what the people have to say against the establishment government and media.
Good job my fellow Americans!
#Bernie2020 * fist in the air
2
From St. Paul 1 Corinthians 13:11: “When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.” Sanders refuses to grow up and exhibits the same childishness as our current President.
3
I am not a Sanders supporter but the only reason Mr. Stephens really hates Sanders is because Sanders stands up to AIPAC and its exploitation of our country.
3
The thing that scares me about the members of “The Stop Bernie Movement,” including some of the Times opinion writers, is their refusal to admit that America is not a democracy, as promised by our Founders, but a plutocracy supported by a shareholder capitalist system that is fueled by a supply-side economic philosophy that they know has not worked to create economic prosperity for the majority of Americans. These members of “The Establishment” also refuse to concede the fact that this unfair economic status quo is maintained by many forms of government-sanctioned cheating, ranging from the financial capture of our three branches of government and “the fourth estate,” the press, by “Big Money” via wealthy individuals, the big banks, and the large corporations to programs that are used to discourage liberal dissent under the guise of protecting our national security. See the ACLU - New Jersey information page under “National Security.”
252
Every scary anti-socialism, anti-Bernie screed should start with the disclaimer, "Bernie Sanders will never get anything he is promising through Congress." Isn't that what establishment opponents and pundits have been saying all along? It may well be true, to the disappointment of the thousands of our fellow citizens who have worked tirelessly to bring more young, multi-racial, working-class people to the polls and give them a voice and hope of a better life. Maybe that's what's really scaring the Bret Stephens and corporatist capitalist class. Ya think?
If it is true that Sanders couldn't enact his social benefits agenda, then why get so paranoid about a Sanders victory? Why not consider what good might come, not what bad? What if Medicare for All fails to materialize as Sanders has written the darn bill, but instead some compromise plan that covers every man, woman and child from birth to grave, no matter where they work or live? Wouldn't that be great? Wouldn't it?
4
Thank you Bret, for this wonderful and well written piece.
3
Like his colleague David Brooks, Mr. Stephens needs to lose the angst over Bernie. The focus should be on down ballot races, particularly those for the Senate. If the democrats can gain a majority in the Senate it will serve as a buffer against Trump if he is re-elected. And, in any case, if Bernie is elected, none of his grandiose programs are going to pass if for no other reason than the cost. Having Bernie in the White House is far less dangerous that Trump. It is appalling to me that neither Mr. Brooks nor Mr. Brooks seem to understand this. Both are the product of the University of Chicago. I find it ironic than in an opinion piece in December Mr. Stephens remarked that, at their best, American universities can be a place of intellectual challenge rather than ideological conformity and social groupthink. Yet both he and Mr. Brooks are examples of just such conformity, faithfully regurgitating the bilge dredged up by the hucksters of the Chicago School.
9
The problem with our political culture, since at least the 1990s, is that it's "lose-lose."
Stephens and the media elites label Sanders' ideological consistency as inflexibility or stubbornness.
However, if Sanders ever changed any of his positions, his political opponents would pounce and brand him as a "flip-flopper."
5
There is no evidence that Bernie Sanders is looking to turn the US into a Soviet style regime and it's disingenuous of Mr. Stephens to put so much emphasis on comments made decades ago and without context. What Mr. Stephens leaves out of the conversation is the brutality of a long list of Latin dictators and US companies like the United Fruit Company, who had the full support of successive US administrations to spread their misery and reap their rewards at the expense of the people.
5
Okay, so Stephens is an “okay boomer” i.e. he’s afraid of socialism.
We’re already living in a distopia of enormous proportions. Stephens is paid too much & is far to comfortable to feel it or be aware of it.
See graph #2 at bit.ly/EPI-study to see what dystopia looks like.
Then visit Western Europe or Japan to see what America could look like if Bret Stephens and his ilk weren’t so wet-their-pants afraid of the word “socialism”
Please note the only people afraid of the word socialism are over 50 & under 65.
My mother turned 65 in 1994 and has been living it a socialist paradise ever since.
4
You're exactly the type of person the Bernie movement is opposed to. You're supposed to be terrified. It's a feature, not a bug.
6
Good to hear how your thinking has matured throughout your life from age 16 to 46. But you are missing an essential point: each of the judgments you made about "The Fountainhead" and Bill Clinton were just opinions. You say you "realized" that Ayn Rand's writing was "rubbish"...and it was and is...to you.
I have been through the same journey, and I'm 33 years older than you. Some time ago I realized that anything judgments, good or bad, were true to me and false to some other humans.
We are all tempted to choose between two alternatives, and once we make a choice we tend to defend it, and our defense is stronger the closer the choice was to begin with. That is the original meaning of the term "cognitive dissonance". It's the reason that the people who held their nose and voted for Trump because they thought, as awful as he seemed, he was slightly better than Clinton are LESS LIKELY to switch their allegiance away from him. They have to believe that the narrow choice they made in 2016 was the RIGHT CHOICE.
That said, as I near my 80th birthday, I am more and more convinced that there is only one party, the money party. Politicians define success on practical grounds: re-election. And so I expect that President Bloomberg will be sworn in next January. The Golden Rule is...the man with more gold makes the rules.
82
Bertrand Russell quote"Advocates of capitalism are very apt to appeal to the sacred principles of liberty , which are embodied in one maxim: The fortunate must not be restrained in the exercise of tyranny over the unfoutunate."
5
What scares most people is that Bernie does not believe his errors are errors, so why apologize?
6
I wish that Bernie would describe himself as a Social Democrat
rather than a Democratic Socialist. He could then compare himself to the Social Democratic parties of Europe.
Countries where good and likable social programs work.
He may have been a devout socialist in the past
but now he relates more to the Scandinavian variety.
And I cannot imagine anyone saying that if he becomes the
nominee that they will vote for Trump. Trump is just a con man
who takes orders from his boss, Putin.
4
Reading Stephens' attack on Sanders reminds me of a quote from C. S. Lewis: 'Who wants to hear a particular claret abused by a fanatical teetotaler?' Fear is the tool of choice for those seeking to manipulate rather than educate.
8
"literacy in Cuba (largely for purposes of indoctrination) is high".
Really? I guess it also helped them create a pretty darn good public health system as well.
4
"To have our convictions knocked sideways by stronger arguments, fresh experiences, contrary evidence, maturing judgment, or simply the honesty of a second-guessing mind, is how we become educated. The alternative is intellectual stagnation, puerility, and arrogance. It takes a fanatic, or a fool, to believe that the person who’s most right is the one who almost never admits to being wrong". The opposite to what you describe above is ZEALOTRY, by Trump, Pence, Mulvaney, Cotton etal. Men who eschew science, and now declare the Corona virus to be a hoax. You continue to assail Sanders for cleaving to an ideology, but what about his courageous opposition to inept US foreign policy that contributed to right wing murders of innocents, including nuns, an Archbishop in Nicaragua, thousands of disappearances in Chile, and even more across the world? As far as we know, Sanders has no personal association with that sordid record. Trump embraces that ilk in the Phillipines, Saudi Arabia and Egypt now. Greedy billionaires have earned a trip to the woodshed, Brett. It is time to reform a system that coddles those who enjoy the security and stability of this great country, but cannot be convinced that they shouldn't monetarily prop up a morally bankrupt party that wishes to repeal Obamacare, reject sick people with pre-existing conditions, and scuttle infrastructure bills. It is time for the compassion of Sanders or Warren. Do not choose to be timid. The system can be reformed.
5
I don’t really care why Bernie scares you and David Brooks so much.
Like most fears, it’s almost certainly not a rational reason, although you write columns and columns trying to make it sound like it is.
Get hold of yourself and welcome a world with less fear and anxiety than the one you’re used to, and apparently can’t abide giving up or leaving behind.
7
Young healthy vibrant people from well-to-do families might have liked the terribly ugly Ayn Rand and her world absent the poor, the sick and the frail. Some of these people grew up and changed their minds. Bernie Sanders grew up caring about the poor, the sick, the frail. Would the author have him change his mind to accommodate the easy-living set?
8
I have heard too many times people say the aspirations of the 60s are dead, bought off by conformity and consumerism. I don't buy that......I think what happened in Chile is as horrible today as I thought decades ago it was horrible. Bret, you are happy to condemn a man for not changing his mind, while everyone else sees the flip/flop of most everyone else and condemns that. I would appear you'd prefer someone who sells out like Bill and Hillary. They admit making mistakes, but that isn't enough. Bernie was not wrong about Chile, about the good that Castro did ( compare him to who was there before him- the mob and a cruel dictator), or about the useless war(s), or racial equality and he doesn't compromise about what's moral. It would appear you are so cynical about the political process you'd look for someone without a moral compass.
7
The media and the right seem obsessed with the "socialist" policies that Bernie offers.
But nobody mentions the fascist he's running against.
Donald reminds me of Benito Mussolini -- attitude, hand gestures, facial characteristics and, especially, clapping when he comes out on stage, as if to mesmerize the audience.
What Donald wants is reactionary, corporatist, autocratic control over every facet of government and American life.
What's a little socialism compared with all that?
9
Interesting to see that while a growing number of voices have arisen in the media, shifting towards rational discussion of a Bernie Sanders presidency — yes, even in the NYTimes and Bezo's Post — there still remains the establishment old guard churning out these boogey-man fear piece on "socialism" (never bringing up "plutocracy" or "oligarchy") and the dangers of a man who would try to get health care and extend free tuition to college and other very FDR types of proposals. How deeply neoliberalism has been injected into the veins of this country. And sadly, reading some comments, there are still plenty to be uniformed enough to fall for it.
And oh yeah . . .
"The guy who was angry about the downfall of Salvador Allende’s Marxist regime in Chile in 1973 is still angry about it today."
Bernies' anger upsets Mr Stevens because he would like to forget that other 9/11 ('73) - when the USA was doing a little "meddling" of their own.
5
Stephens has never said Trump “scares” him. And there is something very scary about that.
7
Wait, doesn't this--- Sanders seems mostly incapable of admitting past errors of judgment--- describe our current president? In fact he lies about everything and claims to be "perfect", like the "perfect" phone call. Every critique of his behavior is simply a Democratic hoax. I thought you supported Trump, but, here, you don't like people who won't admit their mistakes? I guess the lack of integrity is rampant in America.
4
I don't know why I even read this column today. I am tired of Republicans telling me who to elect, or not. They aren't voting Democratic, and their comments are at best irrelevant. At worst they are intended to sow more discord.
5
Amazing how the Democrats and posters here do not recognize how a Sanders nomination will hurt their party. The Dems leaders know this and are very upset.
Think McGovern in 1972,
8
Conservative pundits who villify Sanders need to ask themselves why he is the front runner. His blunt talk about economic inequality, political corruption, and the existential threat of global warming gives voice to the anger and anxiety that many of us feel. What Stephens and Brooks think about Sanders is irrelevant, given their too late defection from the Republican party they each supported so strongly before it was hijacked by Trump.
2
Brett
I agree with your point that we all should learn and evolve as we move through life. Like you, some of the books I thought were brilliant when I was a kid, I now believe are complete garbage.
That said, Bernie Sanders has, for the most part, been on the right side of history for a very long time. Why? Because he's always taken a principled approach to things, and he refuses to compromise on his principles. I like to think of him as a 'field of dreams' kind of guy. We need that in our leaders, and applaud that, especially when compared to the total hollowing out of all principle that has occurred in the GOP over the last few decades. And the current White House incumbent ......what can one say except that one hardly ever hears the words "Trump" and "principle" in the same breath.
3
"Sanders seems mostly incapable of admitting past errors of judgment."
And our current president doesn't? In spades?
2
"To have our convictions knocked sideways by stronger arguments, fresh experiences, contrary evidence, maturing judgment, or simply the honesty of a second-guessing mind, is how we become educated. The alternative is intellectual stagnation, puerility, and arrogance."
I don't always agree with Bret Stephens, but this observation is one of his best.
1
Trump and the Republicans are salivating at the prospect of facing Sanders as the Democrats' nominee. I think the hard reality is that Sanders can't win --either in the anachronism that is the Electoral College or the popular vote -- because I don't see the political center of this country casting its lot behind Sanders. And then we will be stuck with the Malignancy in the White House and the sewer of corruption that is his administration, for another 4 years. I also fear that a Sanders nomination potentially costs the Democrats the House majority and ensures that the Senate remains in Republican hands. Consider the prospect of Mitch McConnell remaining the Senate majority leader and all that entails -- not the least of which is the likelihood that the Republicans can jam through another Supreme Court nominee. If Sanders is the nominee I will of course vote for him, but I think it will be a disaster for the Democrats.
6
Maybe you're scared because you don't want change, Mr. Stephens. I'm reading a recurrent theme from people who constantly condemn Bernie Sanders. They say they want change, but they really don't. Our never ending idolization of unregulated capitalism has gotten us where we are today. The only people who win in our system are the wealthy. The rich get richer and the rest of us aid and abet them in that quest. So let's keep doing what we're doing, criticize people who want to make the system more fair for everyone, and we'll keep getting the same results we've gotten.
6
Bret Stephens - so nice to have a Trump voter's perspective on Bernie Sander's history.
Those of us that see his convictions and platform as honorable are working hard to see him become President and defeat Trump. We know where we stand with Bernie. He is clear and he doesn't wavier. That's admirable in a politician and as a voter - you know what you are voting for.
There are many systems in America that are already a socialist: public schools, roads, bridges, immigration, social security, medicare and so on. The wealthy benefit from all of these and never acknowledge that they are a necessity for their success - yet we all pay for them. However many wealthy companies in America don't pay taxes at all. We are the reason for their success and then we get to hear from people like you. Maybe its time to grow up now.
5
Bernie is refreshing because we don't need to question how he feels on a range of issues regardless of how the media or other political leanings feel about it. Too many politicians tamper their truly-held beliefs to appease the majority or their respective base. People want honesty, and Sanders delivers that. Unfortunately, any of the other democrat candidates, I can't say the same with 100% certainty.
4
I’m seeing Senator Sanders this afternoon at his rally in Northern Va. I predict he will win big on Super Tuesday!
Go Bernie!
6
It's telling that some commentators have found it incumbent to insist that Sanders is not the Trump of the left.
1
Sanders deserves to be judged chiefly on the merits of his proposals and the strength of his character.
Proposals: Some of them are an overreach some are absolutely worthy.
vs Trump: almost all of them are over reaching and harmful to the well being of this country for years to come (stacking the Federal Judiciary for example) and a couple are not insidious (more restrictive focused immigration policies)
Character: Married to the same woman for a very long time, never involved in a scandal of any kind.
vs. Trump: Need I say anything here?
When Trump was elected or just running the many of the pundents promised us the Republican Party would cross check his worst impulses. That has not happened. If Bernie is the nominee (I would prefer any of the moderates) I will vote for him because I believe the Democratic Party will serve to moderate his most extreme positions and because he has character where his presumed opponent has none.
2
As my brother was just reading to me from some article in the Guardian, what we're seeing - again - is the elite establishment, through the likes of Stephens, making every effort to bring down a truly paradigm shift in American politics.
I think Bernie has some crazy ideas and I think he is a belligerent, screed who has shown little flexibility in his politics and legislating. And, as a result, Sanders has little to show for his 30+ years in government. But, Bernie is really the only Democrat giving a stark, real alternative to Trump AND the status quo.
The Donald has equally as much baggage (or should I say garbage?) as Bernie, though of uniquely different sort. Trump has been and will continue to be an oozing volcano of discord that sporadically spews mayhem and destruction that is destroying any semblance of good governance in the US.
The reality is that our federal system is near the cracking point as it tries to continue to centralize governing in a country that has little to no tolerance for statism. We need to be moving in a different direction - a direction neither party is taking us in.
4
"The guy who was angry about the downfall of Salvador Allende’s Marxist regime in Chile in 1973 is still angry about it today." So do you approve the Pinochet coup, and the subsequent authoritarian rule? I'm definitely not a socialist, but it's hypocrisy to (rightly) demand Bernie stop praising one authoritarian regime (Castro) but take positions in support of another.
8
Sanders is perfectly capable of changing his mind. For instance, he used to give speeches about "Millionaires and Billionaires ....''. Now after he's been forced to disclose his tax returns, his speech is all about ''Billionaires''.
16
If Bernie scares you, Bret, that's good enough for me. I'll give him my vote. "The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself." I've made many mistakes in my youth too, but fighting for change was not one of them.
6
Commenters jumping on Stephens for his take on Bernie need to really understand his main point. Yes, Stephens is conservative (a never-Trumper, though) but his argument against Bernie is not ideological. He admits he doesn’t agree with Bernie politically, but the point is that Bernie’s self-righteous rigidity turns off a lot of voters who would be more than ready to consider, for example, Medicare for All. The concept of M4A is not radical or scary, but the idea of another my-way-or-the-highway president trying to completely overhaul 20% of the US economy in 4 short years is radical and scary. My problem is not with Bernie’s ideas, but with Bernie the rigid (and often nasty) ideologue.
7
Yes and the Republicans have accepted their errors of judgement. Invading Iraq with made up evidence of WMD? Concerns about deficits when dems are in power and forgetting about them when Republicans are in power?
2
Bernie Sanders has been consistent through the years. So has Bret Stephens.
Bret has nothing to say and he says it over and over.
8
Are Bernie’s past opinion really errors of judgment?
Our irrational hatred of anything that isn’t capitalism has been pushed by the rich to keep themselves rich.
We’ve fought devastating wars to keep communism from infiltrating the world, threatening the rich.
Americans are finally waking up to the fact that American capitalism has never been about supporting the middle class, but letting the rich harness government and laws to push money toward them.
Sanders realized this long ago.
7
One must distinguish between socialism and communism. The former taxes private property to fund public services. The latter is the government owns everything and assigns who does what.
With regard to the concern about Sander’s reluctance or refusal to disavow his past positions, how does that differ from today’s typical GOP operative? On the question of character, Sanders beats Trump easily. While I would prefer a different candidate, I will vote for him any day over Trump. Don’t join the right wing fear mongers in their chants against socialism. We have much more to fear in a Trump re-election as he more firmly establishes a government of his loyalists. Remember Trump openly courts and praises strongmen today!
7
There were many of us who opposed US foreign policy in Central America in the 80's including Regan's illegal Contra war. In that sense I was a supporter of Daniel Ortega too back then. That doesn't mean we support the dictator he turned out to be. The real issue is the US interference when a "friendly" (puppet) government is overthrown which was Sander's objection.
4
My favorite album in the 1980s was the Clash’s Sandinista. It was (and remains) a masterpiece and a strong statement against U.S. foreign policy under Reagan at the time.
Bernie has always been a tireless advocate for working/oppressed people worldwide. That’s why I will vote for him in the Democratic primary and the general election.
Not Me. Us.
6
The best way to understand this article's weaknesses is to admit that United States refuses to acknowledge and respect the Revolutions in other countries. Whether we are talking about Cuba, Nicaragua, Iran, or Venezuela, the United States automatically falls in line with the right wing autocrats or royalty (the Shah) and denounces the changes have been made. The pattern continues to this day. Adding Trumpian sanctions on these countries occurs because the American people refuse to look at the history of these countries. Sanctions accomplish what with the Cuban people? with the Iranians? What have the Iranians done to the US people? So anyone who defends these countries or the literacy programs of these countries must be suspect, because that is not the official US position of oppose and control and isolate.
As for the Socialist Worker's Party, look no further than to Scoop Jackson, Senator from Washington state who worked with and hired former Socialists. Most of those persons went on to other things. Some became the Neo-Cons. That's right. Jeanne Kirkpatrick of Reagan Administration fame; she was a democratic socialist and there were others.
When Bernie praises the Cuban Literacy Brigades operating in 1961, he is not advocating Marxist-Leninist thought, as the columnist Bret Stephens would have you believe.
4
Nancy met Ronald when she went to the Screen Actor’s Guild to rescue her acting career from the charge that she had communist leanings because she had subscribed to a suspect publication some years back. He was president of the guild.
Sanders is all the more dangerous because his campaign message is built around the idea of "free." Free healthcare, free college, free childcare, free climate initiatives, etc. It's easy to dismiss these as ridiculous and unaffordable (which they are), and thus believe that Sanders can't get elected.
But the message of "free" is extremely powerful and clearly resonates with too many voters, particularly the gullible young. He has a real chance of winning, which could make his deeply misguided policies a reality.
Sanders is the worst possible choice for president.
13
For a long time the slack adage was “Everyone with a good heart is a socialist in their twenties, but no one with a good head remains one in their thirties.”
Maybe such a lame idea should be given some serious reconsideration? Isn’t it based on the bad faith “sense” that nothing can be done about poverty or oppression, or that the mad pursuit of the profit motive will eventually lead to decency and justice for all?
Why can’t people have good hearts and sound heads?
What is wrong with populism, or democracy, or SOCIALISM as long as it upholds and advances the rule of law and the checks & balances of constitutional democracy? Isn’t socialism just economic democracy seeking to institutionalize certain limits and obligations on “private” concentrated wealth?
Bernie is a millionaire with three houses. But the concentrated wealth owned by billionaires dwarfs that. Remember ONE billion is a THOUSAND times a million. And the concentrated wealth controlled by the billionaire class through their interest in financial institutions and corporations makes the wealth of any single billionaire look like a child’s sandcastle compared to the Himalayas of concentrated corporate wealth.
Given the ongoing attack on constitutional democracy by politicians in the pockets of billionaires and the existential threat to human civilization by climate change (also producing more pandemics), isn’t it time we ALL “matured” in our thinkings?
2
...what needs saying is that a man who refuses to make an honest break with the worst convictions of his youth should never be entrusted with the presidency.
That about sums it up with Bernie...Basta Bernie, once a dictator wannabe, always one.
6
Yes, he is both arrogant and very angry. This is exactly the person we hope not to elect in 2020 as our new President . Sanders in a peculiar way is doing further harm to national unity with his crusade. Let’s not substitute Trump’s Wall with Bernie’s Freebies for All, particularly for the naive youth. His proposals are really propaganda without a prayer of being passed by Congress. (Also, Trump has already hit an unsustainable National debt that suggests more improbability for Sanders proposals.)
5
Bret: This is America. If Bernie, by some unforeseen catastrophe, makes it to the White House, will accomplish absolutely nothing.
Repeat nothing. A complete waste of time. Yes, money will be lost and the economy will slow.
No corporations are going to leave the US.
No wealthy people are going to pack up for brighter shores.
Bernie will be hog-tied by congress in the Oval Office.
There is nothing to fear. If by some chance he does overstretch and upset the wrong people, a heart attack will be forthcoming.
This is America. We are a business. This isn't Scandanavia. It's not even Canada.
9
I did not vote for Bernie in the California primary (mail-in ballot).
Why? I don’t really understand what Bernie’s done in 50 years—3 bills, a bunch of co-sponsors, and a mayor of a small town 40 years ago. Even worse, his “plans” don’t even have the support of most of the Democrats in Congress, so how will he ever get them passed? I’m worried he alienates Democrats rather than unites them, and so far he hasn’t proven to anyone that he can unite anything.
That said, if he becomes the nominee, I will vote for him realizing that all of his plans will never progress forward. Why? Because as president, Bernie will reverse all of Trump’s despicable executive orders.
5
Speaking of puerile, anyone who has to resort to resurrecting the cold war to attack Sanders, to redbaiting, to the Reaganesque ideal that capital belongs only to capitalists, is leading a failing charge. Socialist is no longer an epithet, as even the woman who cried, "Keep the govt away from my Medicare" by now gets that it's Socialism.
2
Thank you for this stellar piece! I couldn’t agree with you more. My favorite line: “It takes a fanatic, or a fool, to believe that the person who’s most right is the one who almost never admits to being wrong.”
6
I think this is the first time I have ever agreed with this column. However, I'd still choose him over Trump, who has no moral view and has bullied and cowed his party. He also would be restrained from achieving his socialist goals and perhaps be persuaded that half a loaf is enough.
3
Of course, you are scared of Sanders, Brett and you should be. Sanders is revered for exactly the same reasons you don't like him! He is Honest, Genuine, has Convictions for which he will not compromise, and totally devoted for the future generations and not for himself. All these reasons are anathema for folks like you which is the entire Corporate Media, Columnists, Politicians, and the point one percent.
Pity is that none of your denunciations will sway Sander's supporters.
4
"The guy who was angry about the downfall of Salvador Allende’s Marxist regime in Chile in 1973 is still angry about it today." Mr. Stephens, how can you not comprehend the basic point of Bernie's anger here which is about the habit of the United States staging coups in foreign countries while we pretend our hands are clean. Going back a hundred years, America could at least acknowledge that Banana Republics and the current (always leftist) regimes defiled by the US are the result of 19th century capitalist decimations of South American countries (and 20th century coups) and not only 1990 era places to shop for cute outfits. Or have we completely forgotten, Iran, Nicaragua and Reagan's illegal activities, Nixon and Cambodia, the Bush father/son tag team of Iraq, etc. Perhaps we should be speaking more about the activities of the Republican party in illegal and immoral invasions of other nations.
3
What scares me is the fear mongering of some of the MSM by opinion writers like Stephens. Of course he is scared, I'm sure he and others who are doing well financially are concerned that we will end up in a Stalinist like regime where the government will control production and imprison and/or execute former detractors. Complete rubbish. Sanders wants only to ensure that all of our citizens have a certain safety net that most other civilized counties have, he is not advocating overthrow of the government. Of course, this will require raising taxes on billionaires and corporations, and maybe people who are "well off," as I presume Stephens is. Is that such a horrible price to pay to ensure other that are not doing so well can survive?
And don't get me started on Stephen's vilification of Allende and seeming glorification of the coup that overthrew him. Does he really not recognize the war crime committed in that U.S effort (and many others)?
5
Who replaced Allende, Bret? I’ll hang up and wait.
5
Your column is red-baiting but more subtly done than is usual. Perhaps the difference between many of us on the left and pundits like Bret Stephens is that we NEVER thought that Ayn Rand's novel The Fountainhead was worth a moment's thought no matter how young we were. Or, if we did, we thought her and her ilk dangerous, evil. And we've watched the USA install dictators to prop up corporate agendas as well as to wage wars, with untold human misery as their result, also to benefit the masters of capital. Meanwhile our black brothers and sisters not only have fared poorly in the arena of capital accumulation now for decades, they have also been stopped, frisked, sometimes killed for being black. The for-profit motive has taken over education and health care and poverty is growing. While people are marginally employed so that the unemployment rate looks fine, too many work 40 hours a week for slave wages and remain in poverty. Meanwhile, huge benefits are accorded the corporations who either pay no taxes or park their earnings off-shore. Shall I go on? Capitalism has never built that shining "city on a hill" yet Stephens continues to spread the illusion. At the same time, Bernie Sanders has been pointing out the vile charade of capitalism all his life. And that's a problem????
7
I also read “The Fountainhead” at 16 thought what a fantastic book, then I found out about the Author.
Then when Bret Stephens started in NYT oh boy , a Republican in here ?
More and more I am comfortable with you saw in Bill Maher and liked what you had to say.
BUT, I was never was comfortable with Bernie Sanders , not in 2016 not now. A man with unparallel ego, and when Hillary won the Democratic nomination Sanders took for ever to concede.
When Bernie Sanders is going to release his health records, Bloomberg did or how about releasing his last year`s tax returns ?
Now trumsters are voting for Bernie in open Primaries and there is nothing we could do with that.
I am rooting for Biden or Bloomberg.
6
Stephens does realize who is at the head of his own party correct?
2
I am afraid that the ecological system and balance are being irreversibly disrupted and the planet we will leave to our children or next generations will be terribly damaged and undeniably worst from what we received.
I am afraid that the my children and 99,99 percents of the next generations instead enjoying the freedom the progress should bring will be vetoed from receiving the benefits of human genius as an infime percentage will be ripping it all.
I am afraid that the human decency and consistance as represented by Sanders has been maligned by self serving media and the powers behind who teach and preach that caring for all is a economical impossibility , moral nativity and election marker of failure.
I am tired of being told that black is white, that
someone who has fought a lifetime for minorities, women, LGBT rights is a dangerous extremist.
I am puzzled by the fact that despite Europe and Canada has been paying half of what US does for a better health care and it is the 21 century where information and travel are accessible to all, people still believe such misinformations at their own loss.
And at last, I am sad. It is rare to see an entire cross generational, multiracial, motivated, humanistic movements such as the current US progressive Dems one and see how many of the dispossessed opting out
because of fearmongering. Or simply fear of the better.
2
Bernie doesn’t add up for me either. But one thing he does have going for him is his unwavering earnestness. That was part of my youthful thought experiments too. Like Brett, except it took longer for me, I shed some of my youthful ideals and formed something that is more middle-left minded. With that said, it is clear to me that our middle-left politicians have failed us too. Things have not gotten better for too many people and democrats have not been able to deliver all the benefits that they have sold us on using the current capitalist model. Democratic models are not working. Joe is not inspirational any. Longer. That leaves us with characters like Trump and Bernie. We are going to need to choose between these two imperfect populists. In this case I choose Bernie.
4
@Robert Allen Please take a minute before you vote to go to MIKEBLOOMBERG.COM and just take a look at his positions.
Look at the detail how to accomplish the goals and see where they match up with what you want. He actually has a chance of getting elected AND getting the organization to get it done.
Everyone loves Bernie’s passion but PASSION AND ACTION ARE TWO DIFFERENT THINGS!
2
There is nothing wrong with maintaining a decades-long commitment (like Bernie and Liz) to challenge a system of capital allocation that operates in favor of insiders based upon advantageous information asymmetries in which “the rich get richer” and, correlatively, everyone else stays where they are or become poorer. Where Bret gets it wrong, along with many citizens too busy trying to cope with the inequities of our now “broken” system due to its clear lack of balance, is to assume (wrongly) that we are dealing with a binary choice in the capitalism vs socialism debate. All social systems are hybrid systems based upon varying degrees of self-interest and shared interests. Where Bernie gets it wrong, and Liz (mostly) gets it right, is on the details in finding the right balance unique to the American ethos without alienating the mass of our electorate.
3
What scares me is the increasing number of homeless people sleeping on the streets, the number of individuals who have trouble meeting a $500 expense and the aging population of which we have NO plan to care for as their is no "money" in it.
1
Rejecting the the prevailing ideology of the time requires a great deal of self reflection, Bret, and Bernie's protests against segregation and US intervention are perfect examples of that. You cite people changing their minds about horrible decisions as if that makes them self-critical and non-ideological, but realistically they are calculated political moves.
2
If this was a movie about Bernie Sander's second run at running for president, right about now the ghost of Student-Loan-Debt-Past would be jangling in chains and all and accosting Sanders as he preps before going out on stage and yammering away about absolving Student Loan Debt and promising free college at the state level.
1
I supported McGovern in 1972. I volunteered at his campaign office in Holyoke, Massachusetts. I answered phones and waved the flag. I cringed when he promised every one $1,000.00. I fielded calls from people who were depressed about the election and figured that Nixon would win in a rout. "But he doesn't have to win Massachusetts," I said. And he didn't.
3
I remember the enthusiasm for Mr. McGovern on display at the star-studded fundraiser at Madison Square Garden, followed by the biggest rout in presidential electoral history. Go ahead. Tilt at that windmill. Again.
1
Two things:
1. In the polarized days of the Cold War, there were no shortages of people pointing out the sins of the Soviet dictatorship. What was and is still needed is a voice to pull the log out of our own eye and see how the United States abused its power and influence in the World, often making situations worse for many people and even needlessly escalating potentially catastrophic situations (Star Wars and the threat of nuclear annihilation comes to mind).
2. The author uses “Marxist” here as a way to invoke a natural repulsion in his readers. The real issue wasn’t that Nicaragua was Marxist but that its government was democratically chosen by its own people. The United States actively worked against democracy in Latin America, as it has worked against democracy in the Middle East. It is important for people (like Sanders) to call out the double standard of Cold War thinking so that we understand the ways the U.S. continues endangering peace and democracy today. We shouldn’t want to live in a country free from serious scrutiny, that sounds more like a dictatorship.
10
People like Bret Stephens scare me. Darwinists are scary people, they are economic predators.
5
Bernie not only scares me, he makes me sick, really sick. He is mean, arrogant, condescending, irritable, angry, self-righteous, and divides the country. He lies. He can never deliver on anything he is promising. He deep down knows this, or he would be talking about all his accomplishments. Ever notice that. His ONLY real accomplishment is screaming the same thing over and over and over.
6
Don't worry Bret, nobody's going to throw you into a commune or anything. You have a much better chance of losing your freedom if you stick with the maniac now in charge. He will give us all up to the Russians.
5
I'm a Muslim and proud of that. And, I love this Jew, Bernie Sanders. He is the Messiah, America needs now!
4
Why does the NYT feel so obligated to publish so many opinions trashing Sanders? For many years I have trusted the Times to offer thoughtful, clear (albeit left of center) views on world and national events and politics. Their obvious anti-Bernie editorial stance and thus their seemingly unwillingness to listen to what a majority of Democrats are feeling and thinking is making me lose that trust.
10
This is all pretty silly and petty.
5
I share your concerns, but really you are still a Pinochet guy? :)
7
Spot on.
2
He scares you because he doesn't change his positions on representing those in our society who are least represented by the political class? Why should he change his position on civil rights, medicare for all, reducing the military budget. I support Bernie Sanders for the exact reasons that scare you.
6
Bret Stephens, your articles are what scare me. You are rather clueless about the lives of Americans 18-30.
10
I am sorry to say but many of these comments though passionate, seem be clueless about how the system works.
If Sanders doesn’t get elected, none of those ideas, no matter how wonderful, happens. If Sanders DOES get elected but the Senate stays in Rep hands with McConnell, none of this happens. If the the Dems looses seats in the House as they are ALL up for election again, every 2 years on an even year, then none of it happens.
The chances of ANY OF SANDERS IDEAS ACTUALLY HAPPENING are SLIM TO NONE. Please get behind a Progressive candidate who has a broader appeal and can cross party lines like Trump did. Take a look at Bloomberg’s positions. They are much more developed in detail on everything from health care to climate change. And then decide.
It takes a LOT of Votes to get a President in office. It need to be more than just one demographic. Sanders is not the candidate for many reasons including health.
2
It’s pretty obvious from this column that Brett leads a nice pseudo-intellectual urban life that allows him to be terrified of someone like Sanders. The rest of America, outside the old Grey Lady’s home turf, lives a precarious existence where that odd pain in our chest may just mean we’re facing death or homelessness if the diagnosis is serious. We have way more deserving things to be fearful of than whether someone actually wants to address the grotesque wealth inequality in this country and wants us to get healthcare and education.
9
Bernie is as arrogant, self righteous, and intolerant as Trump.
Different ideology, but similar personality
6
Mr. Stephens: You reference "the downfall of Salvador Allende's" regime" as if it's utterly irrelevant that the United States CIA made the coup possible. Bernie Sanders may scare you, but *you* scare a lot of us because you use information without context to try to make your points. You present yourself as reasonable, but you are dedicated to your causes about as much as those you go after.
There are plenty of uncomfortable historical facts that precede 1973's coup in Chile. Many of us choose not to change our views on the way colonists treated native Americans, for example. The passage of years does obviate the applicability of moral lessons.
9
Thank you
2
After 3 years of this nonsense, Sanders scares you?
12
It's funny you mention Allende, who was it that replaced him? Oh right, Pinoche, the guy who's motto was to "throw communists from helicopters"
11
We Times readers already know how you feel about Bernie. Why do you keep piling on?
7
I always enjoy Bret Stephens' editorials. Especially when he tries to hide the fervent Republican that he is. His opposition to Bernie Sanders is based on fear the Sander can beat Trump.
9
trump scares me more
7
Two things (even positive and negative) can be true at the same time and we can trust people with truth: Castro, the authoritarian did heinous things to the Cuban people. Castro, the authoritarian, started a literacy program that raised the literacy rate of the Cuban people. This is what Sanders said. He didn't equivocate, deny or avoid like most politicians would. This kind of honesty is refreshing in these days of alternative facts, daily "hoaxes", lies, spin, and conspiracy theories.
6
Where's the Trump scares me column?
8
You say literacy in Cuba is "largely for the purposes of indoctrination." Have you ever been to Cuba? I have, and know others who have spent extensive time there. The general population appears to me more literate and interested in exchanges about ideas -- including about the government's shortcomings -- than its counterpart in the US. So quit it with the stereotypes. Now, as for Bernie: I'm progressive but not in his camp, for many of the other reasons you state. I don't need him leading a revolution for me, thank you very much. I would like to hire a smart, left-leaning manager of this nonprofit we formed a couple hundred years ago and call government.
9
A group started a superPAC to raise for the Warren campaign. Many are now piling on Warren for "changed her mind on Super Pacs". It's a convenient if shallow point to criticize her for. Today, Stephens goes the rest of the critics one better and positions super PACs as somehow the equivalent of the war in Iraq and New York's failed stop-and-frisk policy.
Each time I start a Bret Stephens column, I wonder whether the bad faith will be on display. It tipped in early this time.
6
@Maggie Mae
It's not "whether" but when.
2
The problem with Mr.Sanders is that he had not lived under the communistic regime neither he had lived in Scandinavia. Many of us who are political refugees had experienced it and our knowledge tells us Sanders is wrong. Last year my family has visited Scandinavia. We realized how imperfect the “too much equality and too much government” could be. Like many we though that Scandinavia should be a model to follow and we do not think like that anymore. Except for Norway that has tons of money from selling oil, these countries have many hidden issues that are visible when you spent more time there. All countries are run by the armies of bureaucrats. The bureaucratic machine makes life very difficult for many citizens and many are afraid of them. The prices of goods are extremely high, and the Scandinavians did not spend their money, but their governments do. Yes, the infrastructure is very impressive, but people live very most lives in their small houses or tiny apartments. The system discourages initiative or hardworking attitude as 20 percent of young people do not have jobs and live with their parents. The biggest high-tech companies in Sweden belong in large extend to Chinese as Sweden is exhausted by their blown up social systems and the subsidies for the “clean energies” yearns for cash, and selling themselves to Chinese. The imperfect US system especially with the limited control on guns and too low taxes for the riches works better Scandinavian system.
3
The number of holier-than-thou comments, mixed with snark, that appear in this comments section just make Bret's point.
7
An extremely accurate/truthful opinion. A real surprise that the NYT published it. Majority of the comments reveal a true lack of historical knowledge or just plain ignorance.
6
If unwillingness to admit past mistakes scares you, you must be a wreck with Trump in the White House.
8
Ortega vs. Somoza. Allende vs. Pinochet. Do you really prefer the murderous, American-backed thugs?
7
If you are not a liberal when you are young, you have no heart.
It you are not a conservative when you are old, you have no brain.
1
I think takes like Stephen's and Brooks' are mostly taken too seriously. What they are really prefer is the authoritarian who gives them tax cuts over even a slightly fairer economy and society for working people.
7
As a card-carrying commie pinko, I am deeply scared by this column.
4
If you thought Pinochet was anything but a monster you really need to get your head examined. That was a US backed coup. Very bad business and I guess it was ok with you. You scare me Brett.
8
If viewed objectively, Bernie is for Bernie. There is no way to avoid that conclusion. He is an angry, bitter old man. Divisive rhetoric is his mainstay and his cult follows his lead without seeing through the curtain.
He is the last thing we need today and the GOP's Chaos program proves it. SC Republicans will help Trump by voting for Bernie. With Bernie as the candidate the GOP and the Russians will find and publicize any and everything re: Bernie, including his medical history. He has too many skeletons.
The real risk is that with Bernie as the candidate, the D's will lose the House and the Senate because of the irrational fear the GOP will generate presenting Bernie as a dreaded socialist, or worse, a communist. Bernie's history makes that an easy task.
Please SC, vote overwhelmingly for sanity and a future. Our Democracy is at stake.
7
Hyperbole much?
2
What appears to be missing in this column (and most other media discussions) is the acknowledgement of the dozens of the far-right dictators that the US has supported over the years. Admit mistakes? Never. And in many situations we've actively supported, and often actively participated in, violent overthrows of governments. Including assassination. Mr. Stephens should at least give equal focus to the mistakes our current and past government leaders are unwilling to admit to. George and Dick - Iraq. Obama - targeted drone asassination. Bill - NAFTA. John K. - overthrow of S. Vietnam government. Tricky Dick - Cambodia. The list is very long.
283
@JimmyD And the overthrow of Allende's government ended up with Pinochet and many, many missing Chileans...young people...intellectuals...those who questioned the dictator.
Which brings me to our current president who needs to be replaced in the interests of saving our democracy. Michael Bloomberg has offered to assist any candidate opposing Trump, but Bernie says he will not take his money. That kind of pride on the part of Bernie has convinced me that he too would not be the best leader.
23
@JimmyD I, for one, am still angry about Allende's overthrow, inasmuch as he was elected fairly, and whose overthrow was orchestrated by our own CIA, having been justified by the same James Buchanan who the Koch brothers supported at George Mason U. These folks wanted to justify their own selfishness, and have now succeeded in the U.S.A.
22
@JimmyD It is distressing when pundits ignore truth in order to smear a democratic socialist. Kind of like ignoring what were probably numerous attempts to kill Castro, including financing an invasion. But we are the "good guys", right?
13
The only thing about Sanders that worries upper middle class coast dwellers like Stephens are his tax policies and his plans to provide healthcare, housing, and a living wage to ALL citizens, including those in slums and rural hinterlands. Neither Stephens, nor anyone he knows in his ivory tower, will benefit from the latter, and he will sadly probably lose some money on the former. Fortunately, most Americans aren't like Stephens and will benefit from Sanders's policies, so they can safely ignore Stephens and vote for their best interests.
15
Stop trying to get into Bernie's head. He is a politician who believes in a society which at least considers the values of economic justice along with the other justices Americans generally take for granted. What's wrong with that?
He is running for President not Czar. From his years of experience in congress he is well aware of the challenges in getting anything passed. He knows that he will have to compromise, but that does not mean he abandons his idealism, when it comes to such policies as real universal health care, or a living wage for all, or accessible quality education from pre-school to college for all who qualify without the yoke of monumental personal debt.
And what's wrong with acknowledging the tragedy of helping to overthrow the elected President of Chile and subjecting its citizens to years of cruel military rule; or that in spite of America's hostile policy toward Cuba from day one of its revolution against the dictatorship of Batista, Castro did bring valuable reforms in education and health care to an otherwise subjugated population of poor Cubans; or that his affiliation with the YPSL's as a student along with many idealists is some how disqualifying as a candidate today.
Sanders is a septuagenarian now with years of loyal participation in Congress and his policy goals are sensible and in the long run achievable. He deserves to be treated treated with respect as a viable candidate for the office of the Presidency.
7
About Bernie, Bret states:
“ Otherwise, the presumptive Democratic front-runner communicates a sense of moral and ideological certitude — unrelentingly sustained for decades — that seems to thrill his followers but terrifies me.”
I can relate, but we have had the Republicans since Reagan who have decided that money is for rich people, corporations, and congresspeople, and that everyone else just exists to be exploited.
If Bret were only so concerned about that.
9
Woah, wait a second! I'm not a big Bernie fan, and some of what you say makes sense, but Bernie has changed on things other than guns (which was mostly motivated by the state he was representing anyway).
The biggest is immigration. From what I gather, he was rather against illegal immigration before say 2010, as a threat to lower class jobs and income. But now he appears 'all-in' on something like 'open borders'. Alas, I believe this is not wise, would hurt immensely in the general election, and would likely be a disaster if implemented, but it does show that he can change his mind.
What bothers me is that I can't think of a single policy in which he deviates from current standard liberal policy, and that he shows no tendency toward compromise at all. I understand that Republicans have misused that tendency at times, but it is essential to a working democracy. There are areas where probably no compromise is possible or warranted (e.g. access to voting), but overall I believe that if we have a Democratic government that just pushes the left's version of ramrodding policies that we've seen from Trump and company, we'll end up with damage to our democratic institutions that isn't worth the gain.
1
At 70, I'm laughing about Bret reading "Fountainhead" at 16 as much as I'd have been making fun of him for it if when I was 16 ... if I were 16 when he was 16 and we were classmates (especially if the shared class were in MY 16YO jurisdiction -- 'working class' Brooklyn).
6
Sickening to read about people fearful of everything liberals have fought for for decades and decades finally within sight being trampled on by people like you Brett Stephens falling for the trap. Do you are scared of everyone having Medicare?? Really???
Well without it my spouse of 20 years who made a great living and sadly got sick and died of cancer would have bankrupt his family had Medicare not kicked in to pay the truly obscene medical bills. You don’t want to save the earth?? Don’t want a living minimum wage?? Don’t want the government to be accountable to all the people? Do you really want 2 people in America to have more wealth than half of the rest of the country combined??? Do you want the wealthiest company in America to pay no taxes??????
Sounds like the lobbyists got to you. The American values I grew up with are Sanders values.
14
Bernie is still angry about the overthrow of Allende? How awful! It looks like the perversions of American Imperialism were news before Brett's time. Maybe he should read up on what happened down there.
5
Anyone who scares Stephens has to get my vote. Call it a gut instinct.....
14
Sanders is incapable of revising his beliefs because that is what they are "beliefs". Not assessments of a situation or analysis of a problem. New facts and information or any type of ongoing revision of the game plan are not even considered because there is no assessment component in his thought process. Capitalism is evil. End of story. The "rich" are evil. End of story.
Mainstream politicians such as Biden and Warren are just as bad in another way. They have no opinions just polls and advisors. Whatever keeps them in office works. That is not leadership either.
Democrats in general are much less interested in challenging their assumptions because they see opposing ideas as immoral. They are on the side of the righteous. How can they ever change their minds under those circumstances? Republicans and libertarians are more nuts and bolts. Take the personal out of it and make better fact based decisions. At least that is how it should work. Bloomberg and stop and frisk is a good example. The other candidates and liberal columnists here at the Times insist that Bloomberg put that program in place because he is a mean racist who hates black people. Really? Of course not. He did it because at the time it seemed like a practical plan that would work.
2
Bret, watch the Fox News Town Hall with Bernie.
It will take away most of your fears.
5
Add another one to the list: Sanders is silent on terrorism coming from Pakistan while criticizing India for wanting to do something about it!
1
If Bernie is a social Democrat why are the sister cities of his youth Managua and Yaroslavl, USSR? Why not Copenhagen or Oslo. why did he never praise Scandanavian social Democratic states in his life as opposed to Morales in Bolivia or Ortega or honeymoon in Russia. Your kidding yourself if you think he is a social Democrat. he is a communist plain and simple. ps his supporters don't own all progressive policies. pragmatic Democrats understand we need to win to see any improvements and when they happen they will be incremental vs the choice of getting nothing.
2
Is he going to impose a fascist state?
Will he call an international pandemic a fiction deemed up by his political opponents?
Then please, Bret, for God's sake, be quiet and vote for whoever's not Trump.
5
This column is ridiculous. The writer actually says that it is good that Joe Biden apologized for voting for the Iraq war, forgives Mike Bloomberg for Stop and Frisk and lets Warren off the hook for accepting Super PAC money now that her campaign is flailing. And yet the author has the gall to say that Bernie was somehow wrong for being right on all of these horrible positions from the get go? Bernie was right on Iraq, understands that racist policing is a huge problem and doesn't take Super PAC money. Those decisions all show he has values. He has a moral core. The best apology is the one you didn't have to make because you didn't support something disgusting and horrible. Bernie didn't support mass murder, racism or the buying of our democracy. If that is a flaw, I'll take it!
11
Or maybe he was right. Cuba prior to Castro was a cesspool of corruption and decadence. The wealthy white Cubans who came here after the revolution were the equivalent of Germans who were let in to the US after Ike became president: not technically guilty but morally suspect.
Salvador Alllende was democratically elected, as was Mohammad Mosaddegh, the prime minister of Iran. In both occasions, we overthrew a popular government and replaced it with a violent, repressive right wing gang of thugs. It was US marines, at the behest of the United Fruit Company. that put the Somoza family in charge of Nicaragua for 65 years. Their uniquely disgusting regime was finally ended by Daniel Ortega and the Sandinistas.
Are any of these socialist regimes perfect? No. Are they brutal and stupid on occasion? Yes. But do they exist for the stated purpose of the subjugation and exploitation of one group of people by another? No.
Bernie doesn’t have a problem. You do.
9
I guess it's overstating the obvious that these opinion pieces in the NYT have become more inflammatory than of interest. Really Mr. Stephens, Bernie scares you? People were hysterical before Medicaid was adopted in the 60's. The Boomers enjoy that peace of mind today. They're not giving it up ever. So Mr. Stephens why don't you consider taking up your cause against "Socialism" - an erroneous label you are trying to make stick - with the Boomers and lose the hubris.
5
Bret Stephens forgets the vicious, authoritarian regimes supported by the US in Latin America. Videla in Argentina; the 1964 coup d'état in Brazil; a number of successive regimes in El Salvador; Montt in Guatemala; Noriega in Panama; Fujimori and Montesinos in Peru; the 1973 coup d'état in Uruguay; and the latest outrage - Trump's support for Hernandez in Honduras. Defenders of freedom - my foot! Every attempt at a decent socialist government in Latin America has been thwarted by the US because of your foolish paranoia equating socialism with communism.
2
Is it because he’s a racist? Is it because he’s an admitted sexual predator? Is it because he is/wants to spend our tax dollars on a border wall in which people will dig under, climb over, tunnel under? Is it because he’s destroying NATO? Is it because his idea of working hard is playing golf for days almost the equivalent of one year? Is it because he uses the presidency as a marketing chip via his hotels to enrich himself? Is it because he’s vastly ill prepared to deal with any pandemic since he’s always denigrated scientists? Is it because he’s shattered the rule of law? Is it because he’s the epitome of the type of situation we left England to start this country in the first place?
I’m going to read the article now and see if these questions are answered. Let’s see what you might be scared of.
6
But this election comes down to Trump. And, here Trump is presently.....as we go into a global epidemic whose death rate may equal the 1918 flu.....calling it a democratic hoax, a man who is gutting intelligence agencies for being honest to him, a man who....even as this epidemic gained steam worldwide.....callled for massively cutting monies to the CDC, WHO, public health, worldwide watching on emerging diseases, Medicare, Medicaid, SS. This epidemic only got his notice when the stock market fell and who is blaming the Dem. primary debate for that.
If you can’t vote for someone who can’t admit past mistakes.....you have to vote against Trump......who actively attacks anyone who tries to correct them.
This election comes down to voting against Trump....or tacitly helping him be re-elected.......with massive deficits ahead, a gutted government, and a wanna be dictator who only cares about himself and how he can personally profit from office.
Nobody scares me more than trump and his cult, who more than anyone or anything, are incapable of admitting lack of judgement. And boy oh boy - do they lack good judgement! Why isn't your title geared toward the really scary thing on Pennsylvania Ave.?
Nobody is perfect, but the imperfections of this White House and followers are obscene. Bernie? Not perfect. But, like my dog Riley, better than anything we have now.
2
Fear is a good look for you, Brett. I am looking forward to your actual terror when Bernie is in the White House.
3
"For now, what needs saying is that a man who refuses to make an honest break with the worst convictions of his youth should never be entrusted with the presidency."
As opposed to Trump, whose self-confessed greatest contribution during the Vietnam War was avoiding catching a venereal disease:
https://people.com/politics/trump-boasted-of-avoiding-stds-while-dating-vaginas-are-landmines-it-was-my-personal-vietnam/
2
Democrats are united in their revulsion for Trump not their love for Bernie. Far from it.
2
Everyone who loves freedom must be still angry about Allende’s murder and the killing of thousands of Chileans by the USA-supported and heavily subsidized Pinochet military.
3
Ah the Seventies and Eighties! an era of such bad judgement! Start with he brown and tan polyester, the Gremlin, bad hairstyles, The Osmonds…and of course, Bernie Sanders with his terrible awful no good defences of literacy and medical care for all. He should be ashamed, and repudiate everything he said, especially when he said Betamax would prevail (and he still thinks so canyableevit!)
Mind you that was when America still – as it had done for a century or more, picking up right after they had to sort of partly give up slavery – supported out and out fascists throughout Latin America, trained and supplied death squads, financed the destruction and murder of popular movements, were complicit in an endless series of coups, including the murder of democratically elected rulers, engaged in spying on expatriate movements in the US, invaded small countries when their collaborators got stroppy about drug dealing that the CIA had no idea about AT ALL, failed to defend their own citizens, not a few of them nuns and priests and social workers who uncovered these pecadilloes of America’s good friends, (and were occasionally murdered for their trouble)…
Now, America has moved on, no examples of invading countries anywhere at all, no support of fascists and dictators, not even ones with LOTS of OIL, nothing! Except for the ones you’re thinking of, and a few others that we don’t talk about so much like in Subsaharan Africa. America has apologized for everything, why can’t Bernie?
2
Bernie would not be winning if the Republicans had shown some restraint. You should have taken your own ‘autopsy’ seriously and stopped this zombie brain eating President in the 2016 primaries, when you all knew what he was.
3
@Jeffery Davis "We are a divided country because the folks at the extreme ends of the political spectrum."
No. We are a divided country because of Impeached, Illegitimate 45 and the mob on the far right of the political spectrum. Whatever is happening on the far left is a direct response to the extremism on the far right.
I'm sick and tired of this bothsideism.
Americans have become comfortable with extreme racism, bigotry, hate and division. Americans widely embrace corrupt crony capitalism, more extreme than that of any nation in global history. And if you oppose it you must be a "Communist" which is exactly how Bloomberg (a billionaire product of extreme, Wall St. capitalism) described Bernie Sanders from the debate stage!
When Democrats want the same kind of universal health coverage that EVERY other industrialized nation provides as a matter of routine, in fascist America they are automatically considered extremists.
The US is so extremely far-right wing and so fascist that even otherwise-reasonable Americans seem to think that advocating for basic human rights is somehow radical. It is not.
Enough of the bothsideism.
7
This column is a ... stretch. But I applaud you for all but admitting you think it's a-okay for Ms. Warren to have evolved on dark money super PACs.
1
Bizarre opinion piece from Bret Stephens. If Bernie scares Stephens because: ". . . a man who refuses to make an honest break with the worst convictions of his youth should never be entrusted with the presidency," then having Trump in the Oval Office must be truly terrifying and causing you untold psychological trauma. Trump never admits to : (1) pathological lying, (2) multiple errors and failures (e.g., sexual assaults, bankruptcies, fraud with his Trump U and Trump Family Foundation, etc., etc.), (3) co-opting the Bernie Sanders 2016 populist and progressive campaign agenda to defraud the electorate, and (4) has never once admitted to having committed a sin for which he would seek forgiveness from his Creator. Trump's transgressions, lies, distortions, and misrepresentations relative to our Cold War Russian enemy are indeed terrifying. The first time he confronted Putin about his interference in the 2016 US election, Trump stated: “President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today.” That says all you need to know about who you need to be "scared" of Mr. Stephens.
2
Let's keep this real simple for Bret. I'll presume that there are lots of things not to like about Bernie. Give him a grade: D+.
Not good, but a lot better than the stone-cold F for Trump.
Now let's take a closer look as the risks associated with Sanders. The chances of him passing his grand plans are very low.
The risks associated with Trump are extremely high. He has already created a cult-like following in Congress. Who knows what additional powers he'll grab thanks to an ultra-conservative Supreme Court.
I think it's time for folks like Bret Stephens and David Brooks to due some real thinking. Stop complaining about Bernie and start coming down hard on Trump and his complicit Republicans.
3
Judging by the number of BOTS and Republicans posing as Democrats who are raging against Sanders, I'd say to all working and suffering people of America: VOTE SANDERS.
6
Hello
I am neither a bot or a Republican- but a concerned Scandinavian watching the US seemingly opt for divisive fringe candidates. Both trump and Sanders are bad news for the rest of the world. The rest of us needs progressive normalcy, not revolutions.
In the early 1970s, Willy Brandt, then Chancellor of West Germany, gave an interview on American TV and was criticized for being a Socialist. He aptly remarked that "socialism" is NOT a 4-letter word in Europe. A large number of Americans, unfortunately, still think so. Bernie's success with the young generation may help to alleviate this misconception.
4
No - you are right. I myself was onetime a member of the Norwegian social Democratic Party. But please bear in mind that the social democratic parties of the west were ardent supporters of the NATO alliance (Jens Stoltenberg comes from the Norwegian Social Democratic Party) and we’ve also seen the Soviet Union and the socialism of the east as a catastrophe to the world and freedom in the societies plagued by that form of socialism. Bernie Sanders supported the undemocratic and human rights violating form of socialism, which should make him unfit for office.
"Moral and ideological certitude unrelentingly sustained for decades" may terrify Bret Stephens, but they seem rare qualities in leadership in this age of corruption and opportunism.
All of this breathless hyperbole overlooks one important fact: Bernie Sanders is a decent man, who believes in people's ability to come together to make their lives, and their children's lives, better.
4
Sen. Sanders does not want to "nationalize the healthcare industry." He wants a single payer, but he has no intention to have a single provider. Hospitals, doctors, pharmacies, etc., will still be independent, competing entities, as they are now. The difference is that they will all be paid by one entity, namely the federal government. Think Canada, not NHS.
4
Bernie should come clean about his health. Bloomberg has. Doesn't this concern anyone? I would venture to guess that one number might bring him down.
4
"Yes, literacy in Cuba (largely for purposes of indoctrination) is high, and Sanders thinks he has a moral obligation to affirm this." I would contend that teaching the majority of people in the country to read to was not "largely for the purpose of indoctrination, but to bring the country into the 20th century, There is a "Literacy Museum" in Havana, which tells the story of the first major action by Fidel's revolutionary government. They sent volunteer college students into the mountains of the country to bring literacy to the peasants who were nothing more than serfs for the dictator Batista's government, and United States businesses interests
which ran Cuba at the time. As a journalist who has visited the island more than 25 times, I know that Senator Sander's "moral obligation to affirm this" could also be referred to as telling the truth about Cuban history, truth which is still in short supply here in the states.
1
@Jim
Agreed, a literate audience is certainly not a good target of indoctrination. The opposite is true: look at Trump's mob, about as literate as he is. They also require pictures to get their news.
1
It is a rare politician who, without calculation, publicly admits past errors. That's part of the game of politics. Any of Bernie's policy proposals that seem extreme will either not be inacted or moderated by the Congress. That's also how politics works. I am much more interested in deeds than words, especially in the past 15 years. Look at the actions of the candidates, not just their ads. Bernie is building a movement in the opposite direction from the Presidencies since Reagan and thats exactly what this country so deserately needs.
2
If there is something positive to say about Castro and Allende, surely there is just as much positive to say about Pinochet. And which nation better provides for its citizens today? Cuba or Chile?
1
A socialist (not communist) agenda should be nothing to fear in a strong democracy such as ours. Bernie is not calling for SCOTUS judges to recuse themselves from constitutional cases or calling the free media"enemies of the people".
3
Though I have long admired Sen. Sanders, he has already done something dangerous in this race. By this, I mean he has given Trump a gift.
By almost any standard, as president, Trump is a colossal and abysmal failure. But, if Bernie is the nominee, Trump can take the stage as the stalwart defender of capitalism and the American dream. And clip after clip after clip of Sen. Sanders will portray the senator (in Sanders' own words) as the candidate who wants to make American into a "Socialist" state. The "good" kind. Not the "bad" kind. This is where the mockery begins.
Sanders and his proxies will endlessly explain how his is the "good" kind of socialism. Rebuttals will come back that's always how government takeovers start. And we'll see Sanders praising Cuba, honeymooning in Russia. Then, we'll hear how his policy proposals are "dangerous." Even some Democrats will be quoted. No doubt the American electorate will gain an education about what is, and what is not, socialism.
And while the socialism conversation and the model for America's future is going on, what won't get much air time, is the truly dismal record of Trump, the incompetence, the cruelty, the dishonesty, the corruption and self-dealing of Trump and his entire administration.
This is how the Trump balloon, once again, gets inflated.
3
@SurlyBird
"Trump can take the stage as the stalwart defender of capitalism and the American dream."
Part of the problem of the DNC Democrats is that they have also bought into this religion which has become the American nightmare over the last decades for all but the 1 %.
1
Brett Stephens will rue this position one day. It could go like this: "When I was 48-ish, I did not vote for Bernie Sanders because of comments he made about breadlines in the 1980s and American imperialist politics of the 1970s. Then we got four more years of Trump. I sat by, unable to vote for a decent and honorable man because I was stuck on grinding an ax about socialism. In the four years after taking this "moral" position, Trump completed his decimation of all the foundational governmental structures and systems of checks and balances which had previously held up our nation for 250 plus years. I was a fool. Certainly, our nation would have been better off with Sanders than four more years of a half-literate criminal con-man."
5
Wow, Bret, you’re really digging hard to find reasons to denigrate Bernie. If this is the best you can come up with, it strikes me that your real opposition to him is emotional rather than rational. I just hope that, unlike your colleague Frank BrunI who says he would vote for neither Bernie nor Trump because of their populist (albeit polar opposite) leanings, that you would choose to vote for Bernie if he is the Dem candidate since to do otherwise amounts to a vote for Trump. (Which we so tragically found out in 2016 when disgruntled Bernie supporters failed to vote after the DNC delivered the nomination to Hillary Clinton - and see where that got us?)
1
Brett, I’m pretty sure if you were writing about Ronald Reagan instead of Bernie Sanders, your article would be celebrating these same qualities rather than criticizing them.
And you would be right to celebrate them. No one brings about broad, enduring change by bending like a willow in the wind.
Just admit, it’s not the man or his practices you have trouble with. You just don’t like that he genuinely threatens the neoliberal/corporatist regime that has benefitted you and your 1% cadre while devastating the lives of hundreds of millions and pushing our democracy to the cliff.
3
In the 50s the Cuban revolution overthrew the Brutal Batista dictatorship which had strong ties to American business interests. That revolution installed Castro who was a Marxist and who became another brutal dictator. That revolution, being so close to the USA alarmed our government which then saw fit to try to control other nations from becoming Marxist through coups and by installing dictators friendly to American business interests. As a kid, I recall my sympathies were with the Sandinista revolution against the brutal Somoza dictatorship. The Iranian Iranian revolution was also against a brutal dictator. In each case, the USA orchestrated the overthrow of duly elected governments and installed brutal dictators. During the 60s many young Americans sided with the people who rose up against their totalitarian governments. With all the red-baiting and fear-mongering of Bernie from several NYT columnists and in the interests of a balanced presentation of the facts I believe its time for the NYT to present the history of what the real stories were that led to these and other revolutions and failed revolutions, and how much the USA intervened in other smaller nations to bring down their duly elected governments to install brutal dictators friendly to American business interests. There are at least 2 sides to every story and rather than indulging in red-baiting, the NYT should present the whole picture of what really happened.
2
The only thing about Bernie that actually scares me is that Trump wants him to be the candidate he will face in the general election. Trump must have his anti-Bernie propaganda machine already to crank up full blast. Maybe his anti-Biden stuff is on the back burner now. Bernie as president is not scary at all. But he should have a very competent VP for age and health reasons.
1
Let me just say, anyone who was or still is on this stage is very courageous person.
Considering the absurdity of electoral college, blatant cheating and gerrymandering, foreign interferences from all sides, the ignorance and disinformation unleashed on gullible rural population, the inability to to distinguish truth from constant barrage of lies, the dark money courtesy of Citizen Divided discharged by SCOTUS, etc...
Just imagine the thought of losing to the criminal in a WH would terrify anyone.
But they're fighting with all these barriers for our country to be restore.
They all deserve our admiration and deep esteem and praise!
Let's the best candidate win!!!
3
We have two immediate problems a Wall Street collapse and the Corona virus. I dont see Bernie as being able to deal with either of these. And then Bernie was a candidate will loose us the house. Democrats are not socialists. Generally Democrats believe in a hybrid approach to business health. Bernie who is doctrinaire would say they shouldn't be there in the first place.
1
Maybe we should consider the options. Biden who mysteriously claims to have been arrested in South Africa, and takes credit for legislation he had no part in, ridding Obama's coattails....or Warren who seems like a progressive one day and just another politician willing to change her views to garner a few more moderate votes....or Bloomberg who is a republican in everything he says and does. At least with Sanders you know what your getting. In my book that make him genuine not just another politician,
1
"The guy who was angry about the downfall of Salvador Allende’s Marxist regime in Chile in 1973 is still angry about it today."
I guess it follows that Mr. Stephens thinks that Americans would also do well to only trust candidates who have chosen to forget that in 1976 (three years after the coup that our government sponsored), Orlando Letelier, the former Chilean Ambassador to the U.S. and his American colleague were murdered by a bomb blast to their car right on the streets of our capital city, Washington D.C.? Rather, every decent American should follow Bernie's example of refusing to forget such disgraceful actions abetted and countenanced by their government.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Orlando_Letelier
5
The Fountainhead is, and was, a good book.
“The guy who was angry about the downfall of Salvador Allende’s Marxist regime in Chile in 1973 is still angry about it today.” This statement says it all about the writers dysfunctional moral compass. This was an overthrow of a democratically elected government by a brutal dictator, & supported by US interests. The resultant decades of repression, torture, & murder of Chilean citizens is heartbreaking. Why should we forget historical tragedies?
3
Why I can't vote for Bernie or Elizabeth....I can't vote for either one because I will have to pay the unpaid loans to all the students who borrowed money to study philosophy or art history or Literature. Its not that these majors are not worthy of study but rather there are not enough jobs or good paying jobs to absorb all these students and allow them to pay their loans back. Also it appears that many students don't want to repay their loans even though they will have careers in skills with good salaries because their expenses for rent, food etc. are high and if they add in their loan repayment they have little or no money left for other expenses like medical insurance.
But wait, Bernie or Elizabeth will arrange for the gov't to pay for healthcare , childcare, and perhaps even better the gov't will guarantee a minimum income to all. I object! There is not enough money in the world to pay for all of this.
I can't vote for Trump because he is a liar a cheat and has no understanding of foreign,domestic or monetary policy. He is a misogynist and a supporter of the ultra right.
Who's left to vote for? Bloomberg, Steyer, Biden, Buttijudge, Klobishar? All have been smeared by Bernie and his supporters so they each appear to be un-electable.
I will support Mayor Bloomberg. In his post elective office career he has created jobs , worked to improve the environment, and understands how a big gov't really works.
5
I have never been a Bernie fan. He is not a leader. He does not/will not compromise. As Mr. Stephens wrote, he does not seem to admit mistakes. And he does not seem to be able to take responsibility for certain actions. ( Passive agressive?) His positions do not seem to have evolved over the years. Or maybe it is he has not evolved.
Reading a recent Politico.com article gave me even more pause and cemented my thoughts that he does not have the skill set or critical thinking skills and experience to be president. And a few things are just disgusting! (Bernie, you wrote about rape fantasies?!?) https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/02/28/bernie-sanders-2020-what-you-need-to-know-about-117917
2
Bret Stephens' terrifies me in his narrow-mindedness and ethnocentricity. Moreover, his column is just another attack by the NYT "conservative" branch on Sanders. Many of your readers apparently seem to need a reminder that, during the 1980s, the US was, literally, supporting genocides and funding terrorist armies in Latin America. The 1980s was also when many people became conscious of how Israel was abusing the Palestinians and also acting as a proxy for the US by training terrorist in Latin America and providing them arms. Generations of people were raised and fought against grotesque American abuses in places like Vietnam. In short, it was impossible to be a "liberal" in the US without protesting American abuses around the world. Sanders was simply part of that wave of people who expressed the consciences over what was happening.
1
Maybe Bernie scares you, but aren't you frightened out of your wits by the wreckage that Trump will leave behind after a second term?
2
"Moral idiocy" is rampant in this article.
What is the point? Changing opinions and disowning old ones is somehow superior to reconsidering old ones and still finding some still worthy?
Guess what? Each to his own way. Either outcome in thinking has its merits
Guess what? I think it is reasonable to believe that Sanders is still no "Trotskyite." Has Mr. Stephens been drinking with Chris Matthews?
Sanders, God bless him, is the first front running candidate that I can remember, in recent memory, to reasonably point out in a televised debate that some good came from communism elsewhere and that America needs to admit its errors in propping up rightist dictators in the past. "Hoary" notion that workers have some seat at the table where capitalist decisions are made? Perish the thought!
He may not be as elastic in his thinking as Stephens may hope, but neither is it as calcified as is not so subtly implied here.
1
Remember: Allende was overthrown by the US, which replaced him with the brutal dictator Pinochet, an anti-communist who also locked up and killed dissidents and journalists. The reality of Sanders's past support is much more nuanced than you are portraying it.
3
"Other candidates have changed their views on one thing or another over the years, albeit with varying degrees of sincerity: Joe Biden on the war in Iraq; Mike Bloomberg on stop-and-frisk; Elizabeth Warren on super PACs."
Biden was wrong on the Iraq War, but voted for it anyway because he thought it would get him want he wanted. Now he's changed his tune, because he thinks it will get him what he wants.
Bloomberg's stop and frisk policy was blatantly racist. He's now pretending to be contrite, because he thinks it will get him what he wants.
Warren has given up another piece of her integrity, again, because she thinks it will get her what she wants.
So, you want someone with no principles. No wonder you hate Bernie.
1
Compared to your Republican demagogue Trump and his corrupt and incompetent administration, Bernie would be an inspiring and aspirational leader for social progress and the needs of the average American. I think you should fear 4 years more of Trump and the horrific policies of the Republican Party that you unfortunately support and their disregard for the law, the Constitution, and our fragile democracy.
1
Nice try, but all you could come up with is innuendo, hyperbole, and quotes that are over 30 years old. Imagine if any of us were judged so harshly and unfairly.
Why are the cruel, exploitative, and murderous US-backed dictators -- Batista in Cuba, Samoza in Nicaragua, the Shah in Iran -- always completely forgotten in these cold-war criticisms? And you talk of "moral idiocy" as if you have been at all fair. Sanders has always had a humanist impulse. I do not think your foreign policy would pass that test.
3
Unfortunately, "moral idiocy" is well-represented across the political spectrum. Think about the moral compromise of moderates and mainstream liberals and mainstream conservatives and the far right and the evangelists and the libertarians. I bet even you hold some views that get pretty thinly sliced when it comes to morality - let alone what you tolerate in your political leaders.
If the choice comes down to Bernie or Trump, your arguments about "what scares you about Bernie" must be taken in the context of what we know about Trump. Trump has the mechanics of totalitarianism in motion - he is purging government employees based on personal loyalty. Faced with the two possibilities, I would hope you could grow the intestinal fortitude to do what is right.
1
It's called moral consistency, and to many people it's an admirable trait in a world of flip-floppers.
The fact that Bret Stephens calls Salvador Allende's regime marxist and does not acknowledge that the man was murdered during a US backed military coup that sunk Chile into it's darkest period, tells me all I need to know about his ideology.
Yes, Bernie still laments the murder of a democratically chosen leader and the ascent of right wing dictator Augusto Pinochet.
4
Spot on!. Sanders way of always finding something good to say and *keep saying* of awful leftist regimes is appalling. I am utterly depressed because I was certain that I would vote for any democrat who wins the nomination. Now it is any democrat *BUT* Sanders.
4
People are hurting in USA.
Yes the new democrats Bernie Sanders voters are hurting
No health care, high student loans, low wages, no job security, no pensions and many are homeless.
How dare you are a high income worker with great healthcare and no student loans person tell us how to vote or think.
1
Bernie Sanders is a professional protester. That's all he is.
Not POTUS material at all.
3
Brett just praised Cuba’s literacy rate! He’s obviously unfit to be a Republican columnist for the Times, right? After all, honest acknowledgement or bad faith denial of Cuba’s literacy rate is THE pressing issue of our time and we shouldn’t vote based on minor issues like climate change or America’s Third World wealth distribution.
2
What scares me is a president that says the news media is giving too much attention to the virus and that the Democrats with their “ liberal immigration “ policies are a threat to this countries health. Bernie is about this country. Donald is about Donald.
2
Watch what they say not what they said
and then watch what they do.
Some people obviously see red
when the color is clearly blue.
Stay with the facts. Look for the truth.
Forgive exaggerations.
To trust a liar is uncouth.
Build on solid foundations.
Choose based on evidence. Do not
forget what’s common sense.
Seek out what’s healthy. Shun the rot.
Stop sitting on the fence.
The main thing: don’t lie to yourself.
You do? You’ll pay the price.
Things do get stale when on the shelf.
It’s prudent to look twice.
Caveat emptor. Do beware.
Don’t trust a politician.
But don’t spread rumors. It’s not fair.
Choose wisely. Have a vision.
1
Really? Trump should terrify you then. Warren sticking with her Native American heritage nonsense which she benefited greatly and has proved untrue. That should outrage you. Biden can’t keep his stories straight and let’s not even start on Bloombergs stop and frisk. Tulsi is still in the race by the way. Bernie2020!
1
Bernie doesn't scare me. It's his cadre of sycophants from the "gimme" generation that are a nightmare. One of the first rules in life I learned is that nothing is free; one must work for it. Work first, reward second. It's referred to as Protestant Ethic, a notion that seems to have lost its way with many of the younger generations. What caused that notion leave the tracks? Parents? Schools? Government? It's sickening.
1
Bret, I hear you and am pretty Bernie-averse and nervous, but you sure lost me on "The guy who was angry about the downfall of Salvador Allende’s Marxist regime in Chile in 1973 is still angry about it today."
Is it not super-well-documented what happened when the elected government, warts and all, was overthrown by the military and Pinochet.
2
“The guy who was angry about the downfall of Salvador Allende’s Marxist regime in Chile in 1973 is still angry about it today.”
Allende’s democratically-elected socialist regime was overthrown by a military coup that the CIA supported and helped to facilitate. This resulted in a 17 year right wing military dictatorship in Chile whose human rights abuses were worse than anything that Castro or Ortega inflicted on their people.
Your flippancy about this incredibly significant event in Latin America’s Cold War history says everything. Why is it that conservatives only care about human rights abuses when they’re committed by communists?
2
Bernie's greatest flaw is that he risks losing to Trump ... who is a creation of Brett's own amoral and incapable-of-admitting-errors GOP.
2
I don't care who gets the Democratic nomination. I would vote for a ham sandwich over Trump. If Bernie scares Stephens, Trump should paralyze him with fear.
3
Here is a very different take from Common Dreams on what a Sanders presidency has to offer:
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2020/02/28/bernie-sanders-unity-candidate
"Despite the desperate smears from center-right opponents claiming he is 'divisive,' the reality is that Bernie Sanders’ policies are all about unity: common needs, mutual care, and a shared future."
1
Bernie scares Bret? He must be doing something right.
3
Does he scare you more than trump does?
4
Why should we care what a Republican panics about? The system is broken and cowards like Stephens are a big part of the problem, while Sanders and Warren are part of the solution. Does he think he deserves a medal for disliking Trump?
3
He literally said "it was a bad vote" last debate. Come on, man.
1
And, Bret, we can only hope that at 60 you will wish that you had been born early enough for the chance to have voted for Norman Thomas.
Running a socialist guarantees that moderates will vote for Trump and gives him the simple us vs. them narrative the president and his followers thrive on. I’m beginning to think the Democrats are dumb and almost deserve the defeat that’s coming ( to the detriment of the country/ world/earth)
1
Right, humans are very scary, dogs not so much.
The truth about Bernie and his supporters is this: They truly hate America. The Democrats, on the other hand, don’t hate America; they just hate Trump. Their unhinged and utter hatred of Trump, coupled with the Republican’s equal, but opposite, hatred of Hillary in 2016, have created this one-time opening when a totally unaccomplished 78-year-old socialist who has been either at the public trough or the troughs of a long line of girlfriends he was mooching from his entire life (while claiming to be of the working class) could actually think he has what it takes to be president of this country. After 50 years of Marxist indoctrination on our college campuses, and 26-year-olds still living at home and on their parents’ health-care plan, a perfect storm of viable Bernie voters was created and that is what we’re seeing. Get into a conversation with any one of these Bernie supporters and you will not recognize anything of pro-traditional Americana coming out of their mouths. They hate America. They see nothing good about America. Please, just ask them to list one good thing about America and they will be unable to do so, just like their cult leader Bernie during the debates. This is a sickness we’re seeing, not a genuine political movement.
1
I am so sick of all these articles attacking Bernie Sanders. I voted for him yesterday. Why? Because he espouses exactly the same causes the Democratic candidates have advocated for for decades. And guess what? All these Democrat presidents have come and gone and we still don't have any of it. We still don't have a livable wage, subsidized childcare, affordable housing, family leave, decent healthcare, we still don't have any of these things we have been promised. Obama was amazing. He gave us Obamacare, which was flawed, but something at least, and the Republicans ripped it apart. For those who would vote for Trump over Bernie Sanders, really? The most corrupt, lawbreaking president in history, and you would vote for him over Bernie. So NYT, by all means tell the Bernie supporters who we should vote for since you know what we want better than we do.
3
I have been a family physician for 50 years. The average American male lives to 79. Bernie is 77. He had a recent heart attack which means that he had heart muscle damage. He had the widow maker lesion which means that a blockage of the primary coronary artery to a major part of the muscle and the electrical conduction system to the heart was the cause of his attack. The widow maker lesion means that the blockage was high enough or at the very beginning of the artery and was 85% or more occluded. Most people with this problem die instantly without any warning. This puts him at increase risk for a fatal arrhythmia as well a possible heart failure. His only chance of living a lot longer would be if he totally reduced his stress, drastically changed his diet, exercised regularly and got down to his ideal weight. This is very unlikely given that he is campaigning for President. There is nothing more strenuous than running for President, except being the President. Also we do not know his other risk factors. If he is diabetic, his risk doubles or quadruples. If he is hypertensive and not well controlled, he is also at increased risk. If his LDL is more than 70, there is also additional increased risk. If his ejection fraction is low, he may actually be in congestive heart failure but controlled with medication. We also do not know his family history.
2
@Edmund Shaheen s-o-o? Whoever is Bernie's VP will be a million percent step forward from Trump.
The question for people like Mr. Stephens has to be "Will you tell like minded friends in swing states to vote for Sanders over Trump?". It really doesn't matter to anyone but you and those close to you whether you vote Libertarian as a NY resident. NY will vote for Sanders over Trump, even if many of us hold our noses. But if you don't encourage votes for Sanders over Trump where it matters, then you're as complicit as the Green party, Libertarian and Non-voters who were among the many reasons Trump won. Will you look back one day and regret that decision, as you should regret sticking with the GOP as it became ever more Trumpist over the past 30 years?
5
Can we condemn violence, propaganda, brain-washing, repression, authoritarianism, lack of liberty of expression and jobs that provide a living wage in the US? Can we condemn lack of investment in the infra-structure, poor health care and the lack of freedom it causes? Can we condemn the fact that economic imbalance is caused by propaganda that justifies wresting all wealth from native Americans and asking blood labor from immigrants?
We have many more liberties than those living under totalitarian regimes and wealth is spread wider in the USA. But we can do much, much better for working poor and middle classes who feed the rich. Life is easier for citizens living in social democracies. Even Cuba had an infant mortality rate of 6.1 per 1000 in 2000–2005. It was 6.8 per 1000 in the US.
Why don't we condemn our own violence and repression? The answer: propaganda and education, media controlled by the rich proclaiming that wealth is available to all. Mr. Stephens thinks that Bernie has to change. Why? Because life for those who struggle has changed? No, no way, not enough. In NYC, average income is $57,700. Average rent is about $3500, or $42,000 a year. Too many New Yorkers are not free: less money = less freedom. Mr. Stephens is afraid of Bernie because he is blinded by ideology, unable to recognize how much richer we become by creating a truly equal playing field.
7
The bottom line is: Sanders will drag the party into losing Congress and the Oval Office. He's outdated, unaware of any other than his own irrelevant antiquated philosophy, not a team player, and a man with no creditable governmental achievement. I don't want my Future decided by his Past.
5
What scares me is that not only does he have no legislative achievements to his credit, his colleagues in the Senate dislike working with him because he isn't a team player. If his revolutionary vision of American has any chance of succeeding in Congress, he either needs to compromise or usher in a large number of new Congressional members. I see neither of those events occurring.
3
No one in their right mind should believe that the relative merits of a country with starvation (and no social safety net) versus a country with food lines (and an extensive safety net) applies to the situation of the United States of America. This is demogoguery. This thinking will keep us from moving an iota in the direction we need to move... and that's probably its point.
4
I don't read your columns, Mr Stephens, but if Bernie scares you, it means he is the one we should be voting for.
6
You and me both brother Brett! Sanders has a raging (word chosen on purpose) ego. Heaven help us if he’s the nominee; we cannot trade one pathological nutcase for another for God’s sake! The supposedly educated Bernie people don’t see this. They are as blind as are the Trumpers. Our nation has « quick-sanded » into one extreme to its absolute opposite. What does this say about the psychological state of mind afloat in the USofA, (though not everywhere, thank heavens)? Are we a nation of burgeoning psychopaths?
6
@Hortencia Sanders supporters are often painted as rude, insulting, aggressive.
But what I have seen so far is that
the demeaning lunguage, the lack of arguments delivered with insults are the privilege of the self proclaimed pragmatica or Moderates who believe that any chance for better is dangerous. “Don’t shake the boat” mantra is not working when the boat is going full Titanic on working class people since decades. And while Trump is a symptom , he is not the cause of the existential misery in US politics. He is just an uncouth, foul mouthed, egocentric and clownesque messenger. You and Bret? Singing Celine Dion oppressive wail while switching deck chairs on the iceberg.
Mr. Stephens,
I would have thought you would realize that Bernie is a tool of the bourgeoisie. He's meant to deflect righteous class anger. He's on your side. Then again, anyone who ever thought the Fountainhead was anything but garbage is pretty obviously not terribly smart.
1
Sanders should followTrumps example and readily admit his short comings and mistake.
1
"The guy who was angry about the downfall of Salvador Allende’s Marxist regime in Chile in 1973 is still angry about it today."
This is the tell, right here. You would be referring to the 1973 coup de etat against the elected Allende government, the same coup that was aided by the CIA and brought the Pinochet regime to power, correct? The same Pinochet who crushed dissent, murdered thousands of regime opponents, and waged a campaign of imprisonment, rape, and torture against its own people?
I suppose that learning to see the naunce in the USA's history of overthrowing democratic governments we dislike could be termed moral and intellectual growth, but this sounds more like the kind of moral relativism that you accuse Bernie of.
10
Oh just stop the cold war rhetoric. It's over. Bernie can not and will not change the extreme capitalistic economy in the US to socialist or communist. Really so many people are so ignorant about this and buying into the red scare propaganda. And people like you should know better than to put wood on the fire of the great socialist scare myth. In Europe Bernie would be a center left candidate, in the US he's perceived as radical left. People need to shake off that old cold war brain washing.
9
Sorry you’ve been wrong so many times throughout your life Brett! Bernie has been right the whole time.
5
"In 1985, as mayor of Burlington, Vt., he made the case for bread lines: “Sometimes American journalists talk about how bad a country is because people are lining up for food,” he said. “That is a good thing! In other countries, people don’t line up for food. The rich get the food and the poor starve to death.”
I do not get your point here, Mr. Stephens.Are you arguing that you would rather the poor starve to death? Berne is not advocating for bread lines per second but that they are an option over nothing. Talk about trying to distort what Sanders meant. What's your solution for addressing poverty or are you just a whiner with no solutions?
Also, why should Sanders change his beliefs if he has been proven right via statistics and time? Do you advocate change just for change's sake? Occasionally I feel you and Brooks write mostly to rile the NYT readers because it sells papers, which is fine as that is your job, because if you really believe what you write, you're no longer reality-based.
3
I would be interested to read an article written by someone living below the poverty line about how much Bernie scares them. Anyone?
1
I don't know whether Bernie stays with his positions out of sincere convictions or because his statements bring out the enthusiastic support of his adoring followers. But in either case, I am deeply concerned about anyone who deliberately develops a large following of emotionally charged crowds. To me, it is only a small step for such a crowd to become a mob, and whether they shout "Sieg Heil" or "Lock her up" or some equivalent in support of Bernie, the result is poisonous to reasoned discourse in a democratic society. I can't say that Bernie scares me, but he surely makes me very wary.
Bernie is a funny old duck who still worships Leon Trotsky and Eugene V. Debs. He has spent decades in the U S Senate without accomplishing anything and yet he has a dedicated base of followers who see him as a man of action who will change the way business is done in America. Funny old ducks , unite!
4
Who is running for president from your party, Bret? Why don't you tell us about him? It's a given that he must be a great guy or you wouldn't be focusing all of your attention on how scary Bernie Sanders is.
1
"the downfall of Salvador Allende"
"Downfall" is a rather gentle euphemism for "CIA-engineered military coup overthrowing a democratically-elected administration to install a violent dictator from the ranks of the military".
But as you said Bret, we're all wrong sometimes. You can admit your mistake in your next column.
7
this is so so off the mark! How can anyone expect a person who has devoted his entire life to public service be perfect? And more to the point...this ideological purity test smacks of McCarthism Lite. Let us talk about Bidens vote to support the war in Iraq. Or why it is thought to be so terrible to say one thing about something good that may have been done in Cuba? We deal with China and there are good things and bad things. What Bernie is talking about it a kind of middle of the road Eruopean style socialism where there is more social care for the less privileged. Acsess to all to education and health care. Less money for outdated and overpriced military items and more for the people who it should protect. It seems NY Times runs 3 anti Sanders op Eds for every one that really states who he is and what he is about. I hope this is not the second election where Ny times coverage helps trump into office.
3
Seeing this headline again today, I must say, my reaction is "Don't be such a scaredy-cat!" Bernie is a reasonable person, and will work with a broad coalition. He has some fusty (others would say, principled) views, but he is in no way scary.
1
Sanders does not tell lies. Mister Trump tells lies all the time, every time. That says it all.
David Brooks. Bret Stephens, et alia.
V
We, the People.
4
Cute, but just wrong and harmful. Brooks and Stephens are both reasonable conservative thinkers...and Never Trumpers. If all conservatives could be as reasonable as them the world would be a better place. Your snarky characterization just doesn’t help matters.
Can you first admit your mistakes about skepticism in climate change, Bret? you're unequivocally against a candidate who broadly favors policies that have been successful in promoting wellbeing in Northern Europe but fail to take seriously the scientific consensus about climate change. This column is dripping with hypocrisy and myopia.
3
And yet a hefty portion of Democrats would entrust him. He is not my first pick but I believe he would be forced to govern pragmatically. Sweeping change rarely happens. And let’s get out the current vile grifter that writes love letters to North Korea and stood next to Putin at Helsinki and denigrated our intelligence services.
1
Another donation to Sanders.
5
Ah a new day another attack on Bernie s past positions by the NYT. What you'all don't see is that Bernie was and is mostly right. Shoot Bret you likely still believe Atlas Shrugged is great book, grow up it's not.
2
Not changing is a wonderful and admirable when it concerns principles. And humanism. It is called being consistent.
Sanders is to be acclaimed about the fact that despite his political carrier, his convictions to where working class wellbeing is concerned has not transformed to an indifference or an a outright hostility which we saw with Hilary Clinton and the “deplorable” incident.
The Castro remark repeats Obama’s words and none except the Republicans at the time blinked at it. Has the Democratic Party and the media has went to right in the last 10 years that even words by their most beloved president are considered unutterable today?
As for being too “rigid”, another absolute misrepresentation of reality, Sanders capacity to work with political opponents is
well documented with his joint effort with Senator John McCain on behalf of US veterans.
Again, for Christ Sake, the world is very well aware of the fact that NYT truly dislike Sanders ever since he dared represent him self against Clinton, but will
it at list give a tribune to a better argumented “against” pieces then the current low level journalistic crop?
Without the winds of change brought in by people like Bernie in the past, the USA would still be having slave labor and segregated schools today.
And did it take Trump’s many extra marital affairs and lies to make you have an about turn on Clinton?
2
Mr. Stephen’s doesn’t seem to realize that supporting America’s enemies is a feature not a bug for many ‘progressives.’
1
Very weak!! Grasping for straws trying to make Bernie look bad.
1
Your republican president excels beyond Bernie at not admitting any mistake; and he's a diagnosed sociopath. I'll take Bernie any day.
I wish Bret Stephens would stop giving his advice to Democrats and start talking to Republicans about what they should do about the stinking mess that is on their hands.
2
So if Bernie admitted some past mistakes you’d support him? Come on man.
1
I have some questions for Sanders (which I wish he had been asked in the debates):
1. When you've been in office for 6 months and gotten none of your programs through Congress, what will you do? Will you resort to unconstitutional executive orders (like Obama, who lost in the Supreme Court 44 times by unanimous decisions)? Will you call for your supporters to take to the streets?
2. Russia rolls tanks into Ukraine and rapidly takes territory. What will you do?
3. Acting as an Iranian proxy, Hezbollah starts a war with Israel. What will you do?
4. Turkey mounts a major military operation in Syria. What will you do?
5. The Durham/Barr investigation finds criminal malfeasance. Will you allow the law to take its course?
6. The coronavirus causes a major recession. What will you do?
7. Justice Ginsberg dies. Who will you nominate for her seat?
8. Will you try to pack the Supreme Court?
9. Do you support ending the Senate filibuster?
10. You succeed in enacting your programs, only to find that they slow economic growth, increase unemployment, and lower federal tax revenues, increasing the deficit. Can you learn from this experience and modify your policies?
1
Sanders said that when Castro first came to power, he instituted a literacy program and built schools, these are good things. Sanders did not endorse authoritarianism nor did he endorse other aspects of Castro's rule. To be so ideologically rigid that anything short of a complete condemnation of all things Castro is simply idiotic.
Literacy and schools are a good thing. Facts are facts.
2
Does he scare you like trump?
I find it telling that Sanders would use the word “worms” to describe journalists he thought opposed his defense of the Sandinistas. That is exactly the word used by Castro and his people to refer to the people who opposed them and dared to emigrate from Cuba. Curious choice of words, to say the least.
BTW, by the time Castro took power, Cuba already had the highest literacy rate in Latin America. Castro’s literacy program was nothing more than one more way to indoctrinate people, most importantly, young children. They did not learn to read with harmless books about children playing. They learned to read by reading about how great the Castro regime was and all the wonders of Communism. I’d venture to say that’s not the way most people would like their little children to learn to read.
And no, Mr. Sanders, standing on line for hours on a daily basis in the hot Cuban sun to buy the most basic items for your family to eat is not “good thing.” It’s only a good thing when you’ve never had to do it yourself.
3
Bernie is not my first choice either, but this isn't a good argument for voting for Trump instead.
There are many things about Bernie that make me nervous--but the primary one is his age. I am his age, and believe me when I say that no one, not even Bernie Sanders, is sharp enough at 78 to be president. We all want to be. We eat right, exercise, do everything we're told to in order to stay vibrant and strong, but we just aren't. Our bodies and minds simply start to wear out at some point. So, I will vote for Bernie if he's the nominee, once I know who he picks for his running mate. I believe the next VP may be one of the most important we've ever had, because there's a very good chance that whoever that is will become president at some point in the next four years. So, in effect, I feel like I'm voting for two presidents this time. I just need to know who the other one will be before I make up my mind.(I will not vote for Trump, however, but I'm lucky to live in a state where my vote doesn't matter, so I can sit this one out if I choose.)
2
Please don’t say your “vote doesn’t matter”. Every vote matters, regardless of the election outcome. Your vote matters because it is a right guaranteed by the US constitution, a right many in other far less democratic countries crave to exercise. Your vote matters because it was only 100 years ago that women gained the right to vote. To vote is the best test of and for our country. Please vote, no matter what!
It's interesting to see the fear-mongering going on in much of the press these day, including The Times. David Brooks's unjust and erroneous piece in yesterday's paper shouting about the USSR and Cuba and making associations with Senator Sanders--appeared really desperate.
And now this article. Senator Sanders has obviously put fear into the hearts and minds of those who don't want their particular brand of socialism to be dismantled: the constant stream of government funding for corporate benefit in large-scale research and development, subsidies to ailing industries or bail-outs for troubled or failing corporations; cushy treatment by the government in areas of businesses benefiting from off-shore employment, production and manufacturing leading to a steady loss of good jobs in the U.S. for decades now. This is socialism but because it's earmarked to concern the elite class, the wealthy donors and corporate cronies of elected officials, somehow it's so easily described as "business as usual."
Let us also remember the incredible taxation gifts that have been available from the government to those in the wealth classes for the past fifty years. And that's not "socialism"?
The senator from Vermont at least sticks to his principles--and because the results of rampant corporate socialism for the past 45 years or so have finally created a sea change in American life, huge numbers of people affected by this find in Bernie Sanders a politician who talks about remedies.
Why Bret Stevens Scares Me
America is one of the world's richest countries, but the gap between rich and poor has grown obscene. As a result of the influence of money in politics, wealthy corporations and rich individuals pay little or no taxes. We are one of few developed societies not providing healthcare to its citizens. This is not a record to be proud of. I'm 73 years old, and I FINALLY see the possibility of having a president who is taking a stand on these issues.
Bret Stevens scares me because he is one of those people who has his slice of the American pie (or perhaps the whole pie) but thinks that the rest of America should eat cake. I'd like to see all Americans get a decent share of that pie. I'd like to see America fulfill it's promise... And Bret Stevens scares me because he stands against my hope for America.
I'm pleased to see that Americans are now voting for a more equitable society. Some of us believed the promise of America in the sixties, and continue to believe it. What do you believe in, Mr. Stevens? An America that serves the wealthy? An America where illness means bankruptcy?
523
@ShenBowen
If Mr. Stephens is willing to give up the health insurance plans he is provided through his employment at The Times, I'd be much more willing to listen to his views on the subject of Medicare for All.
48
@ShenBowen
Mr. Stephens believes in the America that brought us to this very moment. He just wants to keep coasting along, whistling by the graveyard.
20
@ShenBowen your take is brilliant and right-on, but I fear it may be entirely over poor Mr. Stephens' head. That's what comes from living behind a gated community and having the great fortune of never having to worry about his grocery bill.
19
Bret, get over it! As opposed to Trump who can't admit ANY of them, and who's literally incapable of telling the truth? Please!
1
I blame Republicans like Bret Stephens who worked so hard to elect the Republicans who allowed Trump to cut funding for fighting pandemics. That is directly because of Bret Stephens. The pandemic dangers we face have been multiplied 100 fold because Bret Stephens embraced the Republicans who hated all "government". Has Bret apologized for that?
When I hear Bret Stephens apologizing for his awful decision to embrace the Republican party led by Mitch McConnell, then I will listen to his outrageous hypocrisy about Bernie Sanders.
Not to mention Bret Stephens embrace of the Saudis and his love and adoration of the regime that gave us the 9/11 hijackers and the murder of a journalist.
For shame, Bret Stephens. You owe the American people an apology for your support for murderous regimes.
This is a joke, right? From a guy who's spent much time over the last two decades saying that climate change is an exaggeration and still saying as late as 2013 that Bush was correct about going into Iraq ( https://www.wsj.com/articles/stephens-the-bed-obama-and-kerry-made-1378772570?tesla=y ).
Yet Bret criticizes Sanders for criticizing our terrible foreign policy of overturning foreign govts and connecting this to a love of dictators? But of course, Bret then is against any president who works with Saudi Arabian authoritarians, oh wait ( https://www.wsj.com/articles/why-the-u-s-should-stand-by-the-saudis-against-iran-1453247516 ).
Talk about projection...
1
"Sanders seems mostly incapable of admitting past errors n judgment." One can replace Trump's name with Sanders in that sentence. The only difference is Trump NEVER admits he made errors about anything.
1) Let's see what happens when Sanders's proposals meet the legislative process. After all, the ACA is just a carbon copy of Obama's 2008 talking points on health care.
2) Mr. Stephens, I hope that your hypothetical 2040 column is written in 2022. Otherwise, you will have reached pathological levels of self-delusion.
Bret, Socialism is when the government controls the means of production. Since corporations control our government, we have socialism.
2
What scares me is the growing trend within the Democratic Party to criticize all the finer details of its candidates' lives, both past and present. I suppose with the growth of social media and 24/7 TV news it has only become easier, not just in politics but in society in general. Ultimately, this comes down to establishment paranoia -- Democratic party leaders have become obsessed with beating Trump ever since their golden champion was defeated in 2016. They are terrified at the "ammunition" a Sanders presidential bid will give to a professional smear (and con) artist like Trump. Conversely, look at Republicans and you will see that they are not worried in the slightest about Trump's numerous gaffes and insulting comments, which far outnumber any Democrat running. Bernie Sanders is the most consistent and most inspiring candidate, and he will bring out young voters who were disillusioned by Hillary or have now come of voting age since 2016. In South Florida, young people could care less about Castro or Cuba, they worry about minimum wage, college debt, and health care. Stop agonizing yourself about the past, elections simply aren't run that way anymore. The future of the party is watching...
Brett, look at Bernie's solid record as mayor of Burlington VT. He appointed quality people, he took city funds out of interest free accounts and put them in interest bearing accounts, saving the taxpayers thousands. he supported development of the waterfront that provided for community access and won support and friendship of the largest developer in town. he had the overwhelming support of the police union. he developed the housing trust to provide affordable housing. Despite his rhetoric, he governed as a pragmatic centrist who cared about workers and low income folks.
2
Pure propaganda.
8
You fear Bernie??? I'm scared to death of the Mad Man in the the White House. Donald Trump is the Hitler Wanna be we should all be scared of. If you watch ( The Triumph of the Will )you will see that the Trump Rallies are The Nazi rallies of the Thirties. He is their Furher. He should have been removed from the White House by the Fake impeachment Trial that was run by the Republican Senate. Makes me want to move to a democracy.
5
@mcfi1942 We fear Sanders because he is a guaranteed second term for Trump...AND likely a complete loss of Congress for Democrats....and then two more conservative seats on the Supreme Court. A complete takeover of the federal government by Trump Republicans! That doesn't scare you??? It scares me to pieces.
1
Incredible how so many of those who are sitting pretty (good jobs, wages, great health care, easy access to all that is good in our society etc. etc.) are so against a Sanders presidency.
5
Hopefully, he won't need until 2040 to correct himself....
Mr. Stephen's simply glosses over the REASONS most politicians change their views over the years. They tend to be less than noble.
2
thank you bret. that is the problem. a lifetime of sheer bull-headedness.
1
He scares me too, but sometimes you just have to suck it up and be brave.
You conclude with "For now, what needs saying is that a man who refuses to make an honest break with the worst convictions of his youth should never be entrusted with the presidency."
Are you saying that a man who:
- has no convictions,
- is guided by nothing other than self interest,
-lies habitually,
-has demonstrated a willingness to sell the country out to our enemies, and
- will never admit that he is wrong
is preferable to a man who:
- has strong convictions,
- is guided by a genuine desire to make things better for others,
- has the country's best interests at heart (even if you disagree with his way of achieving those interests), and
- only rarely admits that he is wrong.
I don't like Sanders either, but if the choice comes down to Trump vs. Sanders, we don't have the luxury of being scared and hiding under our beds. Your facile "should never be entrusted" platitude just doesn't cut it.
You need to suck it up and vote.
4
I am not a Bernie fan. However, if elected, he’ll have to get his policies through Congress and then the Senate. I believe that he will restore our checks and balances. He is no authoritarian. He respects our institutions and America’s promise. I won’t vote for him in the primary, but if he becomes the nominee, I’ll work hard as hell to defeat Trump. Then straight to work on the recovery.
5
Imagine: a politician who looks at America with a critical eye and honestly reports what he sees, rather than going along with the jingoistic crowd without questioning anything. In critiquing America — and America, I think we all know, is ripe for critique — Sanders perhaps resorts to some hyperbole and over-simple contrasts, but even kindish words for Castro doesn’t mean he wishes or plans to remake America after some absolutely socialist model. We can take good ideas from all sorts of philosophies — from each according to his ability, to each according to his need, for example — without accepting all the horrors the absolutists inflicted. Bernie may have said some surprising (but honest) things, but I have not heard anything to make me think he would be a dictator if elected.
4
The downfall of Salvador Allende’s Marxist regime and BS.
It wasn't a 'downfall.' It was a coup. A bloody American backed coup; the product of a criminal conspiracy hatched in Washington by practiced war-criminals. It led to tens of thousands of deaths, torture, and a police- state. Bernie was right then. He's right now. Nor was it a 'regime.' It was a government and had as much legitimacy as any you or I will ever vote for. Your mealy-mouthed language reveals something far more dubious than even the senator's, possibly, outdated commitment to Democratic Socialism, the vision he shared with the murdered Allende. You too, and not just Bernie need a crash course in Modern History.
7
Johnny is absolutely correct. The elected leader of Chile, Salvador Allende, was overthrown and murdered by a cabal of right-wing oligarchs and military criminals led by the murderous, reactionary General Augusto Pinochet. But what is perhaps the most disturbing fact of this entire sad chapter was that Pinochet enlisted the help of an American economic professor (James Buchanan) who believed that there was "too much" democracy in the United States. Majority rule, therefore, was "unfair" to the 1% (who already had everything). To make matters worse, this deviant philosophy was embraced by the Koch brothers and has driven their brand of phony "populism" ever since.
Buchanan actually helped Pinochet write a new constitution for Chile which limited human rights and put all political power in the hands of plutocrats whose legislation could not be overturned by ordinary voters.
With Trump as their enabler, this is what's next on the conservative agenda. I'll take the socialist, thank you.
Yeah, but, can you think of any POTUS whose had your 100% approval? I can't, and I've been voting two decades longer than you. Did you read in this newspaper the insanely long list of environment protections the current POTUS has ended?
I could go on, but, let's just end it at that. If BS is the Primary election winner, or wins July 13th at the convention in Milwaukee, America would be wise to rally around Bernie, and rally hard. Bernie has strong leadership built into his character - not a common trait - and will inch Americans back into a sane direction.
7
I think Sanders is honest. I do not think his proposals are the "radical" that some have stamped them. I believe our country is in need of a prime mover to decrease our as well as a need for political change. It is the former that troubles me about Sanders. The senator has had five plus years to rein in his Bernie Bros -- an abusive element in his campaign-- and his failure to do so tells me what kind of administration he would direct. It tells me the limits to ending polarization. On the other hand, when my wife attended a Sanders rally near our blue collar suburb, the audience had an abundance of union workers represented. Such representation offers the possibility of decreasing America's polarization. I disagree with Sanders on medicare-for-all, free college tuition. I do not fault him for it. The final bottom line, sadly, is that I believe a Sanders candidacy would force those independents whose votes put the Democrats in control of the House to hold their nose and vote Trump. The fact that a majority of Sanders supporters would once again not vote at all if their candidate is not nominated speaks to the tragedy of 2016 and points to another tragedy in 2020. Sanders-supporters failure to learn from 2016, their rigid dogmatism all reflect upon the character of their candidate. We need a unity candidate to end the current political nightmare. That means rising above partisanship and nominating another candidate beside Sanders.
1
Bernie will not admit past mistakes. The most egregious of which is putting his stubborn adherence to NOT being a Democrat or Republican in Congress. The machinery of Congress is based on party and seniority. Like that fact or dislike it, but it is a fact.
The reason Bernie has so few legislative accomplishments after 30 years in the House and Senate is because he refused to play by the rules. He wants to play the game, all right, but only on his terms.
Sound like any other old man, waving his arms and shouting to crowds of blindly adoring acolytes?
Bernie has been a failure as a legislator, plain and simple. His brand as an independent bomb-thrower is more important to him than anything else. (Again, sound familiar?)
I'll vote for him if I must, but I'll be giving my time, money, and knocking knuckles to down ballot candidates who will hopefully slow down the second Trump administration.
3
Mr. Stephens, perhaps you now know how scared I was in 1980 when Reagan was nominated and then elected. Forty years later , living with his legacy , my view has not changed.
6
The older I get the more skeptical I become of bubble-people, those with 100% certainty, un-humbled by life. Bernie is one of them.
3
Definitely not a Bernie. More of a ABBBNt (Anybody but Bernie but not trump). My wife says I might have to hold my nose but can't do that. Bernie is a Senate cypher. He did nothing while serving and suddenly became a registered Democrat to oppose Hillary's run for president. Bernie is an empty balloon and when he is popped there will be nothing there.
238
@RMB
Here’s my formula. Pick the person you least want to hold the office, and vote for the person with the best chance of defeating him.
10
@RMB Being a member of Congress is a popularity contest with tribal allegiance. Because one is not a player in the games that are played, does not negate an individuals intellect. You simply need to think outside the box, outside the political maneuverings. Most in politics are first and foremost political animals, Bernie is true to his own belief that government can do a far better job looking after it citizens.
10
@RMB
When the Sanders balloon is popped it will reveal a lot of gas. Not all pleasant.
15
I am absolutely terrified of a Sanders nomination. A lot of his votes tomorrow will come from Trump supporters who hope he's Trump's opponent because they also know that Sanders will have his clock cleaned in the Electoral College in November, will give Trump a second term, and likely even cost Democrats the House, never mind taking control of the Senate...which would then likely lead to two more conservative justices on the Supreme Court, making it 7 - 2. Sanders spells catastrophe for the Democrats but mostly for the country to me. On top of all that, he couldn't be able to get his agenda through Congress anyway. I have been all in for Buttigieg from the start, but tho it breaks my heart, I might have to abandon him on Tuesday and vote for Biden in an effort stop Sanders. Buttigieg has a good future and he will be president one day, just not now. We have got to stop Sanders and therefore Trump.
5
It's not surprising that the mainstream media is trying to take down Bernie. That's what happened in 2016. Many of Bernie's policies are working quite nicely just north of the border thank you very much. Folks there accept that paying a little more in taxes is a fair trade off for the benefit of the society as a whole. Shameful that the NYT is participating in this.
7
I don't care to take advice from Republicans about the Democratic candidates. P.S. has Trump ever admitted to doing or saying anything wrong?
6
Why can't you and David Brooks be less intransigent in your views on Latin America? The United States overthrew Allende and foisted Pinochet to power. Nixon played a huge role in the anger over Anaconda Copper Co. and the threat of nationalization.
5
The Trump-fatigued Republicans, who may have sat out the next election, will most likely vote in droves in order to keep Sanders out.
2
I'll tell you one thing, if you grew up at the time JFK was president, if you watched black people getting beat up on TV and Martin Luther King marching to stop it, if you were lied to about Vietnam and you lost people you knew either to the war or the drugs and alcohol use that came as a consequence, if you sat in the school library looking at pictures in Life Magazine showing the misery of the war and you just couldn't believe the world could be that cruel, if you thought joining the Peace Corps and making the world a better place was a good thing- maybe you'd understand a little. I was a true believer and I recognize Bernie as one as well. Most of us got sidetracked by the lures of capitalism, conformity, whatever- some sooner than later. Many had their hearts broken. Some survived, holding on for dear life to their convictions which sustained them. But like that Paul Simon line, "I would not be convicted by a jury of my peers, still crazy after all these years." A man's reach should exceed his grasp, Bret. Every one of us has contradictions in what we say and do, but I refuse to condemn a person who has lived a life dedicated in his own way to making the world better. Almost everyone has a much narrower goal than that. Why heap scorn?
527
@susan gioia To answer your very good question, one reason, I think, is that Stephens has an agenda based on his class interest and social status, which concerns apply as much to the NYT as a whole (its editors, that is), to see to it that Bernie doesn't win the nomination, much as Lloyd Blankfein outed himself as a class warrior, though a little more crudely than Stephens, by saying that he'd vote for Trump before Sanders.
52
Sing it, Suzy..... from the rooftops!
52
@susan gioia,
Oh Susan I do hope that you will post often! This is a wonderful comment in every way. Thank you for keeping the faith and expressing it so eloquently and honestly.
55
Bernie has yet to enlighten his followers on what his proposed programs will cost in taxes against you and me. It's wonderful to expound on the "free healthcare" or "free education" offered in countries with populations that cannot be compared to this country's 30 million. If I were a student and not responsible for supporting a family, I might also support him. Talk numbers Bernie!!
1
@Judith, tuition free public university will cost less than the most recent year on year increase in the pentagon’s budget. Less.
That and all the other numbers have been talked about quite often. If you aren’t paying attention, don’t blame Sanders.
I am no Bernie fan; I might even take Bloomberg over the Social Democrat, if I thought he was more electable. But Castro overthrew Batista before he became an autocrat, and he gave his people healthcare as well as education, something denied them under the Cuban oligarchy that fled to Florida. Allende was freely elected, and replaced, with CIA help, by Pinochet, a murderous tyrant. Ortega, before he too morphed into a ruthless tyrant (with a no longer discernible leftist bent), fought the the detestable Somoza, again backed up by the CIA and then Reagan and the "Contras", an impeachable Congress-defying act if there ever was one. Who is to say how these three places and even their leaders might have turned out without implacable opposition from our government and direct undermining by the CIA? Our country opposed these men because they were socialists, not because they became dictators. It is capitalism's fear of Communism that Bernie refuses to go along with, not our much spottier record of opposing murderous thugs like Stalin. Why didn't we work to undermine Batista? Pinochet? Somoza? The Shah in Iran?
Maybe because Bernie is right, and the Republicans and center-right Democrats are tools of the moneyed class?
3
The real reason Bret Stephens doesn’t like Bernie Sanders: Bernie’s position on Zionism, Israel and Palestine.
Bernie supports a strong, prosperous and secure Israel living in peace with its neighbors, along with human rights and self determination for Palestinians, international law, and a real two-state solution. Justice and peace for all.
It’s Bret who needs to change his rigid, ideological positions on Zionism, Israel and Palestine.
8
"Bernie scares me because he forces me to face that my success has little to do with talent and is mostly due to being rich, connected, and saying obviously untrue thing that really rich people want to hear.
"Please do not shatter my illusions of being successful in a meritocracy."
4
I'm pretty sure Brett is/was a Republican (not sure if he's a "never Trumper"). Nonetheless, if he is a former mainstream Republican, and he is scared of Bernie, that should scare the rest of us. Is this how the rest of his ilk feel? How will the disillusioned Republican/independent vote if Bernie is at the top of the ticket? I'm in the "Vote Blue No Matter Who" crowd, but I worry about the votes of those who don't belong to that group.
2
A man who is not a liberal when he is twenty has no heart a man who is not a conservative when he is fifty has no brain.
Actually this is one of the things that worries me about Sanders as well . To have this degree of moral certitude in your 20's and keep it your entire life shows a total lack of introspection.
Bernie famously honeymooned in the Soviet Union during the 1980's and had nothing but good things to say about it. Even after if collapsed. Cuba and Venezuela are another two countries that Bernie has said good things about and both of which are economic failures .
One of the most famous people who lived in Vermont was Alexander Solzhenitsyn. In all of his time there Bernie never once made an effort to meet him.
History tells us that we should be afraid of people who never change their minds or admit mistakes
3
Total agreement with your argument. I for one said I would vote for ANY one but Trump or Sanders
But But it is a binary choice: would it be better for the country to unleash an unhinged and vindictive Trump or would it be better to have Bernie struggling with state and federal official over every costly autocratic proposal. I doubt he could gain full support from his own party- a one termer he would be. The youthful adoration will fade in 4 years in face of new realities . They will change and I doubt he will.
1
Bret, the 2020 election will bring bad tidings, but the inauguration of President Sanders will not be among them.
To date, the Democratic candidates have done a commendable job of berating one other and easing the re-election challenges facing President Trump.
But if you think the Sanders record --- as it exists in the public consciousness --- is bad now, I can only suggest that "You ain't seen nothin' yet."
The POT (Party of Trump) will seize upon and hype every misstep during Bernie's long presence on the public scene and during his long trail to the nomination. Whether real, imagined, or contrived, his faults will be magnified and hammered relentlessly into the public awareness.
Much of this will be "new" news, at least to the great unwashed in the electorate, and, as such, will capture ears and eyeballs.
On the other hand, the faults of President Trump --- vulgar, misogynous, mendacious, ignorant, corrupt, cowardly, mentally ill, etc. --- are so well-known and so well-established as to merit little notice.
Perhaps the Democrats will fare better in 2024 ...
2
It is amazing how all the conservatives columnists in the NYT keep bringing failed, old communists governments or Marxists ideologies to trash Bernie, so we can be frighten about the prospect of having a democratic socialist in the White House.
Well, you had your turn, and what are you delivering to the American people? Debt, wars, an American dream that it slipping away for most people, people have to work two or three jobs and still can’t live with dignity, they are dying for not having health care coverage or going bankrupt with the one they have, students can’t not afford college, etc., etc., etc. Shouldn’t this scare you more than Bernie, Mr. Stephens? Why shouldn’t we be willing to try something different and more humane? It is good that the oligarchs feel a little threaten by Bernie. He is not afraid of them, and that is why we support him. I insist, Bernie it is not the Trump of the Left. To start with, he is a better human being, and he is not running to become a dictator in an authoritarian Marxists system. Unlike Trump, he knows very well the American Constitution, he will govern within the democratic system of division of powers, and he will respect the constitutional law. The revolution that you are afraid of, it is just about putting some breaks on the Wild West corporate greed, so we can have an economy that works for all of us, and not just the two percent.
5
@Dulcinea
THANK YOU for clearly stating the single most important quality of any President. "He knows very well the American Constitution, he will govern within the democratic system of division of powers, and he will respect the constitutional law."
If Bernie is the nominee--Vote for Bernie.
Case Closed.
3
There must be something more profound to regret than believing in Ayn Rand and supporting Clinton's impeachment that would give Bret Stephens the credibility to determine who should be trusted and who is stuck in their old ways.
4
Bernie Sanders doesn’t scare me in any way remotely as much as Trump does. But I’m bothered by his ego, his saltiness when Hillary won the nomination in 2016 by postponing his endorsement of her which in turn aided in demotivating voters, his refusal to be a lifelong learner, his arrogance in getting into the race when a highly qualified female progressive was already running, the delusional claim that he can energize huge voter turnout or his ability to unite the democratic party. Yet, Sanders is not the heads to Trump’s tail.
3
@Annabelle K. The highly qualified progressive which is Warren waited till almost the end before casting her nomination to Clinton despite supporting a progressive agenda very similar to a Sanders. For all who remember well that moment, it marked the end of Sanders chance at the nomination as many progressive waited to see where she will go. Once she went to Clinton, she won and the rest is history. A hard history.
I have my doubts despite personally liking Warren that she will repeat her 2016 act. Aka, wait till the end and bring her voters on the side of the candidate who will be more useful to her.
Too many changes of heart and strategy accompany her history, the last one does not inspire confidence either with her change of heart on Super Pacs when the money run short.
One convictions are supposed to be weathering
opposition and defeat, not change with the situation and Warren does swing with the wind, Health care included where she drops her plan in the middle of campaigning as it was not universally liked. That said, if she had the moral backbone of Sanders , she would have been unbeatable. She started well. And then she went swinging.
As for Sanders representing on a field where Warren does, that is mildly said unjust as he was the first on the field and he went against a massive opposition to get the door opened. Warren just walked on the road he did singlehandedly.
Get over your fear. Throw off your ideological shackles.
Past mistakes? I am 63 and I have NEVER had the privilege of voting for a candidate with the integrity and decency of Bernie Sanders. Have a little humility, open your eyes and dare I say, your heart. Us, not me.
5
You know Bret is really panicking and grasping for ways to buoy himself when he writes an entire column decrying Sanders' consistency.
One argument in particular was so weak that I almost felt insulted that he'd think the reader could accept it -- when he mentioned how other Dem candidates had evolved their positions on certain issues and used as examples: "Joe Biden on the war in Iraq; Mike Bloomberg on stop-and-frisk; Elizabeth Warren on super PACs."
Wow, Bret. Maybe Sanders never had to change his views on these things because he's been correct about them from the start. According to Bret's logic, what should Sanders do? Come out in favor of the Iraq War and apologize for his opposition to it from the get-go? Would it assuage Bret's concerns about his stubborness if he decided to take super PAC donations or announced now, against all logic, that we should bring back Bloomberg's failed and racist police tactics? Does Bret actually expect the reader to swallow that argument?
One more thing: Sanders wasn't angry about Allende's "downfall," he was (and still rightly is) angry about the use of American power to overthrow a democratically-elected leader to usher in an autocrat. If you love something you can criticize it's failures and contradictions, and that's how any clear-eyed observer can view Sanders' opposition to US foreign policy in the Cold War. Sanders scares you because he's been insisting, for near fifty years, that this country should live up to its values?
4
Can the author of "Why Bernie Scares Me" give us a list of his own past errors of judgment? This "Opinion" might be another error of judgement. One might be able to deduct a pattern in his own past errors of judgment.
2
the whole of the "woke" movement is people believing that moral and ideological certitude is a real workable life paln. So did the Puritans, so does the Taliban. This movement reminds me again and again of the historial effects of moral and ideological certitude. It hasn't been pretty. In fact, if has been downright horrifying.
2
I have to agree with Bret on people who never change their mind or admit they’re wrong, like Bernie. He’s too much like our current president; and frankly, they’re both too aged to be a good presidents. Both of them never admit errors, it’s always someone else’s fault—not their own! I also feel he will disappoint many of his young supporters because he cannot deliver what he is promising them! Who is going to risk their job by voting for $65T of benefits? Bernie seems to feel that they can pressure Representatives to vote for his agenda by having constant, huge protests. Just pressure them and the Reps. will fold for him & give them what he wants! That will not work! The majority in neither party approve of his Agenda! So today, I will vote my choice bc it’s Primary Day in SC! My vote will not be “I never change Bernie!”
Bernie scares me, too. He scares me as a candidate, he scares me as President. I'll vote for him, and work for him if he's the nominee, because I find Trump completely incompetent, corrupt, and dangerous, but Bernie, except for Bloomberg, is my very last choice for the nomination.
There's hope that even if Bernie "wins" every state, he won't sweep to the nomination. The 15% rule is why it's very important that multiple opponents stay in the race and it not settle to Bernie or X. Example was NH. Bernie got the most votes, but since Pete and Amy both broke 15%, and thus were cut in on getting delegates, Bernie ended up with 9
delegates with 15 for the the other two combined. In the 2016 primary in Missouri, Hillary Clinton got the most votes, but as the math worked out, she and Bernie got the same number of "show me state" delegates.
If Bernie doesn't win on the first ballot, when only the 3971 pledged delegates can vote, he won't win it on a 2nd or later ballot, when the 771 "super delegates"(long-time party activists) are added.
Trump and Bernie?
Arrogant. Know it all. Unaware of problems in their "solutions", or how to get from A to B without their own executive orders. or what the economics are of anything. I fear for the country, with either one.
At least Bernie has better values.
I am glad that Mr. Stephens is thoughtful enough to admits the mistaken opinions of his youth, but he then goes on to pillory Sanders for... the opinions of his youth. He doesn't find factual error with what Sanders said, but appears mostly put off by the fact that it did not hew closely enough to the conservative mantra of the infallibility of capitalism and the evils of "socialism." Meanwhile, while lamenting the certitude shown by Sanders in his opinions, Stephens goes on to refer to the "whole substructure of political ignorance and moral idiocy" on the left.
Stephens' last column was ridiculed for referring to a choice between Trump and Sanders as being akin to deciding which of two poisons to drink, and this seems to be a response to that. But while he (commendably) shows a willingness to reconsider his earlier remarks, he still seems bogged down by the socialism bogeyman. Recognizing that Castro did some good things for Cuba is not the same as endorsing the totality of his leadership, and no one should be afraid to do so.
I happen to also find Sanders to be a bit rigid and cranky, but never-Trumpers need to accept that, while a Sanders presidency might not be something they like, it is something they could endure, and it would mean a return to the political norms that we used to live by. The reelection of Trump, in contrast, represents an existential threat to Western democracy.
1
You list your changed opinions. We all have had them, but taking a closer look at even the ones you list and more recent maintained opinions go beyond mistaken opinion and are signs of gross misunderstanding, faulty logic and rigid political prejudice.
2
It is the moral duty of Americans and American politicians to hold the American government responsible for bad policy. Our support of nun-raping military dictatorships in central America was bad. When the Sandinistas overthrew the dictatorship in Nicaragua, the US tried to reinstate it. That too was wrong. The badness of Ortega didn’t make it right to any degree. I’m not aware of Bernie faulting the US for having done something good. The badness of others does not excuse our own.
1
There are some legitimate knocks against Bernie, but in a standoff against Trump, he'd still be the lesser of two evils, and I'd vote for him on that basis.
1
What really scares you Mr. Stephens is that you and the class of people you've defended over the years are going to have to pay your fair share of taxes should Bernie get elected President.
3
Bernie wants a federal law to to guarantee that ALL employees can only be fired for just cause. Imagine how inefficient our economy will become when every employer has to hire a lawyer to fire an incompetent employee.
2
Brett Stephens faults Bernie for not fully admitting to troubling aspects of some left wing governments or movements he supported, yet he doesn’t mention at all the horrifying governments and military regimes America supported all through the Cold War. We are still feeling the blowback from installing the Shah with his death squads and overthrowing one democratically elected government after another throughout Central and South America. We supported and trained brutal military regimes that tortured and disappeared hundreds of thousands of civilians. That is why you have the Mothers if the Disappeared in countries all over Central and South America. Rios Montt, (Guatemala) who Ronald Reagan called an “Honest man “ is responsible for 80,000 deaths in his three year reign of terror. He was trained at the School of the America’s.
If you want to find an example of someone who’s thinking “reveals a whole substructure of ignorance” look in the mirror Mr. Stephens.
2
It is Bret Stephens who scares me!
3
What transpired in Chile in 1973 should outrage all of us to this very day.
Is this column asking its readers to condone the catastrophic consequences of U.S./CIA meddling in Chilean politics and the murderous repression and crimes against humanity that occurred during Pinochet's 17-year dictatorship after the democratically elected president, Salvador Allende, was shoved aside in a violent coup d'état? May I recommend you watch celebrated documentarian Patricio Guzman's last installment of his trilogy about Chile, "The Cordillera of Dreams", a film Glenn Kenny, the New York Times film critic described this way in a Feb. 11 2020 review: ""The Cordillera of Dreams" is a beautiful film about nightmares that have yet to end."
Bernie Sanders moral stand should be admired and not condemned. Ditto for the rest of the deliberately disingenuous accusations against him here.
2
This is utter nonsense. It's preposterous. A disingenuous smear masquerading as a reasoned opinion. And it is amplified by the platform of the biggest, and what used to be the most important newspaper in the world. That's what scares me.
It's certain effect will be to help Trump get re-elected, which means that is what must be its underlying purpose. That's the other thing that scares me.
3
Having been one of the leading cheerleaders and apologists for the conservative movement Mr. Stephens and his fellow right wing propagandists bear a large measure of responsibility for the mess we are in today. Far from the anomaly they pretend Trump to be, Trump and Trumpism is the logical apotheosis of 40 years of Republican efforts to undermine our democracy, fix elections, demonize the opposition, degrade our political rhetoric, erode the rule of law, introduce rabid faux Christianity to politics, and enshrine racism and bigotry, xenophobia, homophobia and misogyny in our national discourse. Republicans are not a political party; they are a malignant criminal mafia impersonating a political party.
No wonder the likes of Stephans and David Brooks hate and fear Bernie Sanders. He is everything they are not; the antidote to 40 years of Republican criminality, abuse and misrule. The jig is up for Republican lies and corruption. There is going to be a national reckoning for the criminality of the Republican Party, and millions of us are hoping it will be as ugly as the mess these thrives and liars have made of our beautiful nation.
2
Brett Stephens scares me.
3
Stephens, I share your views. I think that Sanders seems to just care about himself and will never admit a fault, like Trump. It bothers me how ill he looks in comparison to all the other candidates in the last debate. He won't make it through one year of his presidency. He changes to dark red on occasion. He fails to mention his health and is full steam ahead no matter what. Sorry, but a bad choice between Sanders and Trump. Both are sick old men and I am in his generation. He is not healthy and cannot work with anyone. Nothing will get done in one year of his life. Not a fan of his character like Trump.
1
I was told recently Bolshevism is not on the ballot. Today I was treated to a science / ecology writers opinion that Mao and Castro would know how to handle Covid-19. No one would call him a Bolshevik. Certainly not me. Medieval he called it.
I used to love to read the Village Voice and the New Yorker with their dry long winded stories coming to terms with the far left (and Green movement). They don't print stories like that anymore. Not since truth became relative.
It's not like I could write a paper contrasting the differences between Bolshevism and Trotskyism. Suffice to say give them a little power they will take over. Like a slow cancer.
If Bernie became President many votes would he have in Congress? Besides The Squad not many. He will have executive orders to play with but we have a fairly conservative Supreme Court.
I'm not scared of a relic like Bernie and his '60s style Communism. What scares me is the young vindictive narcissist like the above Medievalist and their solutions.
Bernie and Warren, will not cut Social Security, Medicare and and try to control medical cost. I doubt the have the skills or the votes to do so.
2
Another hand-wringing column from Stephens over Sanders. This time's it's Chile, as he looks for another buzz-word country to mention.
Unfortunately, this song isn't aging well.
1
How did you feel about Trump four years ago, Mr. Stephens? We're you as sure of yourself back then? While I totally agree with your opinion of Bernie, I'm afraid those with less real life experience beg to differ with us both. Their idealism instead of pragmatism on Bernie's electability is the height of arrogance and ignorance and its only logical conclusion is another four years of guaranteed destruction of what's left of our democracy. This is a fool's errand gone horribly awry.
Sanders doesn't scare me, he disgusts me. He is an ideologue, and ideologues don't care about facts. They simply want to dominate all who don't fall in line. What Sanders most wants to be is a dictator. In that, he is very much like Trump.
2
The fact that both Russia and Trump think Bernie should be the Democratic nominee tells me all I need to know to be against him. Trump bet his presidency on getting dirt on Joe Biden. That tells me what I need to know to support him. To quote Don Corleone, "keep your friends close, and your enemies even closer."
2
This is pretty simple, folks. What should really scare Bret Stephens & the rest of us is another 4 years of Donald Trump. Think about future Supreme Court Justice appointments. Think about affordable health insurance for every American. Think about combatting climate change.
Do we really want the willfully ignorant & narcissistic Donald Trump in office until 2024?
Bernie Sanders is not my 1st choice, but if he is the Democratic nominee, I will vote for him in a heartbeat.
2
My problem is that Bernie seems like a Trump of the left in a lot of ways. Loves confrontation. Doesn't ever admit to being wrong. Seems to be a generally nasty man.
1
"At 25 I thought Bill Clinton should be thrown out of office for lying about a consensual dalliance. At 46 I don’t know what I was thinking."
You were correct about Bill Clinton when you were 25. He should have been impeached, or a least faced far stronger consequences than he faced.
Mr. Clinton's "consensual dalliances"were not innocuous as your comment implies. Clinton's gross, and highly visible, abuses of power in multiple sexual relationships, and the fact that he was allowed to get away with them, likely helped empower and inspire many of the horrible predators who's crimes have come to light today, including Jeffrey Epstein, Harvey Weinstein, and Bill Cosby.
Monica Lewinsky was less than half Clinton's age, and his employee, when he had his sordid affair. Paula Jones was a secretary and Clinton the governor of Arkansas when Clinton had state police officers escort her to his hotel room, so he could demand sexual favors. The list goes on.
Clinton deserved more punishment than he received, and the world would have become a better place had he received it.
This column is lazy and irrelevant to current events because you fail to even mention that Trump is the alternative. Any concerns you could possibly have about Bernie (including all those cited) utterly pale in comparison to the alternative. Anyone who would choose Trump (who doesn't acknowledge the rule of law or believe in the fundamental idea that the U.S. Constitution doesn't allow for a monarchy/dictatorship) over Bernie (who believes in the rule of law and elected leadership as well as reducing gross wealth inequality) then that speaks volumes about them and they are undeserving of the benefits they have enjoyed in this Republic...they should leave.
For the record...I'd prefer someone less strident as well, but it is really splitting hairs when put in the context of the monster currently claiming to be a 'Republican'.
Important parts of ourselves could be found in history. During Frederick Hegel’s time, a standard European way at looking at the past was to consider it as primitive & to feel proud how much progress has been made to get to the modern age. Hegel argued every era could be looked at as a depository of certain kinds of wisdom. For example, we might need to mine the history of ancient Greece to fully grasp the idea what community can be - today, we can learn from the successful application of Epicurean philosophy which enable & promote happiness in democratic societies despite communism being a corrupt unsuccessful attempt at Epicureanism. The middle ages can teach us about the role of honor, despite this period appalling attitudes towards children or the rights of women, progress is never linear. 2 - learn from ideas you dislike. We should listen carefully to our intellectual enemies since bits of the truth are always getting scattered to unappealing and peculiar places & we must put in the work to make sense of them. For example, nationalism has had many terrible manifestations. Why do you think that is? Could it be the need for people to feel proud from where they come from & anchor their identity beyond the ego? 3 - Progress is messy. We make progress by going from one extreme to another as we seek to compensate for previous mistakes. Hegel believed it takes three moves before the right balance of the issue could be found, a process Hegel named “The Dialectic” #Bloomberg2020
Please. People like you scare me. Sanders understands what’s wrong with the US. He knows what needs to be done to make life better for people. He has a consistent take on things-Government for the people and by the people.
Why is Mr. Stephen's frightened of Bernie? He talks around it, but I don't think he'd digging deep enough. Don't look at Bernie's absolutist beliefs, look at a personality that generates absolutists beliefs.
Bernie's a gadfly. Oddly gadflies feed off of the public in a perverse way, instead of needing adulation, they need the exact opposite. Active dislike of their grandstanding and disruption and their certitude. You know the type. You will not work with them, you will not hire them, you will not invite them to the family dinner table because you know they make you miserable.
Gadflies can't govern without bullying. And, we already have one bully-in-chief. While I'll certainly vote for the gadfly over the con man. The other Democratic candidates are not gadflies, can build coalitions, push progressive legislation, etc.
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Bret, Sanders scares you because you're a dyed-in-the-wool conservative who, like other Republicans, won't take responsibility for Donald Trump on your team (even though you opposed him). You have NOT EARNED the right to criticize Sanders. Do your job: go after Trump. And leave us Democrats to decide what the progressive movement needs. Sheez!
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Poor Bret is scared again. Scare of the scarey Sanders wanting people to have affordable healthcare. Listen little buddy you'll be ok. You have have to sell your third summer home but it will be ok.
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If there is a category totally incapable of admitting past errors of judgements is that of neoconmen (and many of their "conservative" enablers).
Intellectual stagnation, puerility, and arrogance. It takes a fanatic, or a fool, to believe that the person who’s most right is the one who almost never admits to being wrong.
Which brings me to Donald Trump and the entire Republican Party, with which Stephens is still aligned.
Sanders terrifies me... and Trump is even worse. Which brings me to praying to the gods above that Bernie does not get the nomination--because He. Will. Lose. to the abomination that is Trump. And then it's game over. Trump will not address global warming, and billions will die. The animals will be gone. The biosphere destroyed.
A Sanders nomination will be the linchpin that seals our fate. Vote accordingly, please.
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Um . . . does Mr. Stephens not understand that Donald Trump is our current basis for comparison? I really can't believe that this election cycle people are going to try and make the case that the Democratic candidates need to live up to certain standards of character and morality when Donald Trump--the most arrogant, petty, vindictive and stubborn president of all time--is the leader of the free world.
Bernie is hacking the Democratic Party, and is not a Democrat. Good Democrats should resist, and preserve the party’s proud history. Look what happened to the Republicans and Trump. How many years will it take - if ever - to bring a serious Republican opposition party back. Resist Bernie, stop the hacking!!!
Day after day, I continue to read editorial columns in the New York Times bashing Bernie Sanders. If I can offer a word of advice, you should instead spend your time and energy writing columns praising the candidate(s) you support - even if that candidate is Donald J. Trump.
Another 4 years of Donald Trump, Mike Pence, and the GOP in the majority in the Senate, and a possible return of that same majority in the House terrifies me. Bernie doesn't scare me. People who take what he said or did out of context scare me. Sound bites do not make a history.
Isn't Trump the one cozying up to dictators? Kim Jong-Un anyone? Trump said that they fell in love, the letters were beautiful. Trump likes Duterte, Putin, and I'll bet anything Trump is in love with Xi Jinping. Trump is the worst president of the modern era. He is, to be blunt, a spoiled toddler in an adult's body who is incapable of admitting to mistakes, a lack of knowledge, or changing for the better.
Bernie is light years better than Trump, Pence, McConnell, and yes, even Clinton.
2/28/2020 8:30pm first submit
9:48pm second submit
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Go ahead, just pile it on. That's what other hypocritical conservatives and other so-called "moderates" are doing when it comes to Sen. Sanders's unstoppable run for the White House this time. Bet Trump's candidacy didn't bother you as much back in 2016, or did it?
Come on Bret, the US has supported right wing regimes that have killed people and harmed the populace, yet we didn't say much because they were either against communism or they allowed Western corporations to make money there. Does anyone in this country rail against Saudi Arabia even though they are draconian with their own population and they're engaged in a stupid bombing and killing war with their poor neighbor? No one says anything because they are aligned with us. In fact we support them fully even though they are completely undemocratic. When W. said people desired freedom everywhere he did not mean Saudi Arabia.
So stop worrying about Bernie - it's way too much. You should be worried about the planet's future, and Bernie will at least try to solve that much bigger problem.
I'm also sick and tired of people talking about the "cost" to save this planet. If we don't save this planet, we won't have to talk about cost. If we save the planet, the cost will be less than zero.
Trump may be the only candidate worse than Sanders and it is a close call. Sanders would be laughable if he wasn't so dangerous. His economic policies are nonsense and his foreign policies are incomprehensible. He and Trump think they are incapable of error.
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We Japanese are seeing very worrying thing how PM Abe handle coronavirus.My GP,ususally far from skeptical from government,told me how he's angry for PM.
This GP is usually your type of person.
Many people who can afford NYC rent don't feel how your life is already in crisis,unless attacked by virus(I don't wish on US.this makes us too nervous!)or health problem poor people are having.
Don't you think you need big solution?
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Hey, Bret. When are you going to apologize for your mistakes- supporting US wars and interventions around the world. Bernie has very little to apologize for. His historical understanding is correct. Joshkua Fischer didn't apologize for his politics, by the way. Just for fig
That's not what should scre you.
What should scare you, is that there is - anyone - out there who would support him at all. The severity of the inculcation of our youth, via travesties like Zinn's history text, has dumbed down the voting public.
Sigh.
Trump scares me. So do Pence, McConnell, Kushner, and the rest of the clown car. Bernie intrigues me as do a few others. But 4 more years of Trump is something I don't want to contemplate because I think it will destroy the country beyond repair.
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Another "Slam Bernie Article" from the NYT columnist. Despite their efforts, Bernie is going to become the nominee, and will likely win this thing. And, he'll go on to be a pretty good president. (No Stalinist Revolution...) But maybe get our country back to being a democracy, and maybe even renewed support for all of its citizenry. What a concept..
Trump and the gop are crashing in public polls along with the stock market because trump’s party is the party for affordable care for billionaire gop donors only. They never had a plan for health care and are in denial about coronavirus after having been utterly incompetent in governing in the last three years. They are an ignorant lot of science deniers and do not have a plan to cope with the virus. Only trump is worse than pence as a leader in combating covid-19.
" For now, what needs saying is that a man who refuses to make an honest break with the worst convictions of his youth should never be entrusted with the presidency."
For now, what needs saying is that a man who refuses to make an honest break ,or any break with the worst convictions of his youth and all the way up till today, who lies continuously and can never admit he is wrong about anything and finds it impossible to apologise to anyone...should never be entrusted with the presidency.
Yet Donald Trump is the 45th President of the United States and despite many acts , actions and evidence of gross dishonesty, corruption, criminality, divisiveness, racism and treachery (and just during his presidency!)...
...Bernie Sanders is the target of your fears and concerns?
Please...give me a break.
Mr Stevens, don't you read the papers? Aren't you aware of what trump and his Republican party minions are doing to circumvent our democracy and trash our Constitution? And you are concerned about Sanders? I'm afraid Mr. Stephens you are not a friend of democracy....we the people are struggling and you aren't listening.
Trump "scares" me. He also disgusts me. And he makes me ashamed of what my country -- "We're better than this" -- is becoming as Trump lowers the bar.
I prefer Elizabeth Warren or Michael Bennet or . . ., but Bernie does not disgust me; he would not make us ashamed to be fellow citizens.
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Scary Bernie! He’s still mad that the US government financed a coup against a Latin American democracy, killing and disappearing thousands and holding dictatorial power for 17 years. That government also paid for a political assassination on US soil. Can’t he just change his mind on that?
It is also a dubious assertion that a dictatorial regime needs to have a literacy program to indoctrinate its people. Plenty of dictators accomplish this without literacy.
I should make a plot of the Bernie is Scary articles in the Times as we approach Super Tuesday. If it were a stock, I’d be getting rich.
Bernie’s policies today are a million times more important than anything in his past one might call dumb or wrong.
The primaries are about the future and not the past.
Mr. Stephens here would have Bernie apologizing forever.
In truth, even eternal apologies would never be good enough.
Bernie’s complete submission to the current order of things what they really want. They want Bernie to stop calling them out for their corruption, hypocrisy, and elitism.
Bernie is exposing Mr. Stephens and his like in the biggest way ever. Sad day for them.
Just sayin....how many of today's liberals also shared the same Bernie convictions, then and now, which many seem to suddenly disavow now that they might actually be tried? Rhetoric is fun, until it isn't. How do you suppose these heartfelt brainless ideas get their shelf life? Because they are taught. To the young who have no clue as to why they don't have whatever they want at age 20 or so, or why after years of hard work, they might want to protect it. Bottom line, they've nothing to lose by raiding other people's success.
Mr. Stephens,
Please already, enough from you about Bernie.
By this point we know where you stand.
Please find another thing on which to opine.
Let's re-title this headline to : Why Bret Stephens Scares Me.
He's an intelligent man who can't seem to pull himself free from his Republican bias...to the point where he's said outright that he'd vote for Trump instead of Bernie. Please step out of your bubble, Bret!
Another 4 years of Donald Trump, Mike Pence, and the GOP in the majority in the Senate, and a possible return of that same majority in the House terrifies me. Bernie doesn't scare me. People who take what he said or did out of context scare me. Sound bites do not make a history.
Isn't Trump the one cozying up to dictators? Kim Jong-Un anyone? Trump said that they fell in love, the letters were beautiful. Trump likes Duterte, Putin, and I'll bet anything Trump is in love with Xi Jinping. Trump is the worst president of the modern era. He is, to be blunt, a spoiled toddler in an adult's body who is incapable of admitting to mistakes, a lack of knowledge, or changing for the better.
Bernie is light years better than Trump, Pence, McConnell, and yes, even Clinton.
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This McCarthyistic litany of Sanders' past affiliations coming from a man who very recently used his influence to try to get fired a professor for exercising his free speech rights. The professor's crime? He mocked Stephens on Twitter to a tiny crowd of followers. Yes, to have the social order that sustains you be threatened is scary. I'll take Bernie Sanders vision of democracy any day.
the irony here from bret and his various goofy mishaps is palpable.
Right now I am watching Trump follow the fascist roadmap. Bernie, for all his faults, has more respect for the rule of law on his worst day than Trump on his best. The Democrats have the will to moderate a Bernie. The GOP has shown it has no will to moderate Trump. The Democrats are not organized enough to be a cult.
The capitalists have had their way for 40 years. I can live with four or eight years of Bernie. The wealthy will be just fine in spite of all their whining.
We have just seen Trump’s knee jerk reaction to the Corona virus. It was to publicly show that his re-election was the first order of business. Just like every other decision he makes. For some reason I think that Bernie might actually care about the effects on the population first.
So, yes, the answer is pretty easy for me. I take Ernie every day of the week and twice on Sunday.
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Bernie may not be a Democrat but his is a democrat, can Bret say the same about the current occupant of the White House. Enough said.
4 years ago the Republicans nominated someone who had never been a rebublican. Now the Democrats are on the verge of nominating someone who has never been a democrat.
What have our two great American political parties learned...
...nothin’!
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Bernie should scare everyone! It’s really hard to fathom how he continues to stay in the socialist far far left lane. He doesn’t tell you that in Cuba the majority of their “doctors“ could not pass a physicians assistant test here in America. But I am very confident that regardless of what happens in the next several months,The American voters in their infinite wisdom will reject a diehard socialist/communist.
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Thank you Bret Stephens!.
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Allende’s “regime” did not “fall.” It was overthrown in a US sponsored coup which installed a junta that would terrorize Chile for a generation. Will Bret gallantly admit error?
Mr. Stephens, it must be hard to think of negative things to say about Sanders without saying what is really motivating you. You believe in unregulated capitalism, and admire those who succeed at it. Sanders does not, in either case. That is the core of your opposition to him, but you never write about that. Instead you carp about his "intransigence", such as continuing to recognize that even our enemies have some virtues. Stop being disingenuous. You would never vote for Sanders even if he changed his mind. You are just looking for some wedge between him and potential moderate voters. It is unbecoming of a columnist for the Times.
By the way, no one could be more intransigent than Trump. He still believes the Central Park Five are guilty. He still believes Obama was born overseas. He still believes that the Russians did not meddle in the 2016 election, but the Ukranians did. If you can't get yourself to vote for Sanders because of his "intransigence," would you really prefer four more years of what we have now? Of course you would, because Trump helps get government off the backs of rich people. Again, unworthy of a Times columnist.
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Bernie scares you? Well read your colleagues column with the headline, who will care for society's forgotten? Then talk about who scares who.
I find your comment disingenuous about Sanders being angry about the "downfall of Salvador Allende’s Marxist regime in Chile in 1973" because now we know that Nixon and Kissinger gave the CIA orders to engineer the violent overthrow of a democratically elected president.
I too am still angry about that coup d'etat because I was in Santiago, Chile in 1973 as a foreign exchange student and literally saw blood in the streets because of Nixon and Kissinger. The State Department gave orders to pull us out of Chile a week before the coup. So, you too should be angry about the "downfall of Allende" because of what our government did.
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Like when Hillary Clinton said that opposing gay marriage earlier in her career was a mistake? Or when Joe Biden says his vote for the Iraq war was a mistake?
‘Admitting a mistake’ is neoliberal code for being a political hack and altering your political positions opportunistically.
You were right the first time about throwing Bill Clinton out of office.
Al Gore would have become president and our standards would never have been lowered to the point of tolerating Donald Trump.
And Trump admits his errors? please.
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Fancy that someone who in 1973 opposed American coups installing rightwing torture regimes wouldn’t have changed his mind by now.
Blah blah blah
hate hate hate
panic panic panic
None of this will get anyone to stop voting for Bernie Sanders, who has a positive, uplifting message aimed at the future. And he was right about much of the past, too.
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If you are scared of Bernie because his admission of casting some bad gun legislation votes to save his career wasn't good enough for you then you must be deathly terrified of all of the past republican presidents and politicians because they NEVER admit when they're wrong or regret their actions. I'm surprised you're still alive, Bret! Was Bret afraid when GW bush didn't even admit he made a mistake by ignoring the CIA presidential briefing entitled "Bin Ladin Determined To Strike in US"? I seriously doubt it. This is really just an example of a conservative columnist feigning fear and outrage at the opposition to try to influence readers and frankly I'm appalled. Sanders compared to the train wreck imbicile we currently have in office and you're scared of Sanders?! Come on, Times, you can do better than this.
Gotta love how Bret just casually brings up the CIA-backed violent overthrow of the democratically-elected Allende administration in Chile to install the murderous fascist Pinochet (resulting in the “disappearances” of tens of thousands of Chilean citizens) as the leading instance of Bernie Sanders being wrong on the facts. So while on the one hand we’re supposed to castigate Bernie for noting that post-revolutionary Cuba has good education programs because Castro was a murderous dictator we’re now supposed also to denigrate his antipathy towards the murderous dictator Pinochet because Allende (again, duly elected by the Chilean people) was a socialist?
The intellectual dishonesty of the Stephens-Brooks Op Ed axis is absolutely staggering. But what else can you expect from two exceptionally privileged white men whose self regard rests on preserving their impression of having worked for it?
Ok, fine, he's stubborn. But your conclusion is too harsh. If he's running against Trump, the most corrupt, inept and dangerous president in US history, you have to vote for Bernie. At least he's honest and will work on behalf of Americans and not himself.
I feared that this would be the same article that David Brooks wrote yesterday, but actually I like it much better. Especially that bit in the first paragraph about realizing that Ayn Rand was rubbish at 18
True. Possibly my last choice. But better than Trump.
I'm very inclined to offer for publication an essay called "why Bret Stephens scares me".
Mr Stevens - you have been persistent and consistent in your writing against Bernie Sanders. Yet your column speaks of the need to revise and review old prejudice and ideas. Perhaps you should read your own column.
Back when I was in grad school, I heard two then-famous marxist social scientists answer a seminar question by saying that if there was a concern with getting the working class to go along with the agenda because they happened not to know what was in their best interests, why then, you would just have to lie to them.
I happen to be a no-kidding marxist as far as basic theory goes, and I assure doubters that I can quote chapter and verse better than you, and I ABSOLUTELY assure you that I personally took classes from a more famous marxist than you’ve so much as read, and my contempt for that disgusting answer has only grown.
Stephens is right, and not just politically: St. Bernie’s greatest flaw is inflexibility born of dogma, and the current disdain among the wannabe POUM for Elizabeth Warren because she came to her political sense about M4A is not one whit better.
If that don’t tick you off enough, lemme go further: Bernie’s worst flaw is that intellectually speaking, he’s an old-line “vulgar marxist,” who reduces everything “in the last instance,” to the economic base.
That is why whatever he says about race, gender, language, culture, whatever, sounds like a decal that’s been pasted on. Because it has.
If he’s the nominee, I will vote for him. But only because I’D be preferable to Trump.
Or if you prefer, here’s Julie Mason: don’t fall in love with politicians, they’re horrible people.
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Bret Stephens scares me since he and a few other NYT opinion writers are taking my valuable time with arguments that does not help anyone but probably trump. I early voted for Bernie Sanders today. Bret can vote whoever he thinks can ensure keeping his confort zone.
Why the Republic Party, the political organization of conservatives like the author and the strident Mr. Brooks, scares me more than Sanders starts with the safe refuge it has provided the vile ideologies of racial privilege and its glorification of reactionary religious beliefs and accumulation of material wealth above all else. Trump is the penultimate result of this transmogrification of the Republic Party into a modern proto fascist organization. May all the gods have mercy from what comes next thanks to the mafia clan of Trumps whose latest antics is to blame their opponents for the Coronavirus pandemic.
Between the Boomers and the Millineals, can I have one Gen Xer as President please?
Bret,
Another week, another column i feel the need to remind you of our shared priorities. That would be first and foremost, ridding the white house of the criminal wanna be dictator and his cultish pack of vandals.
By all accounts Bernie is a decent human being who emphasizes with the everyday people. Your disagreements with him are over policy where we can afford to have differences. Where we can not afford differences is where our laws, norms and basic values are under daily threat by the self centered, bloviating ignoramus disaster whos been trusted with the highest office in the land. Please stay focused.
Another point, speaking about evolving, aren't you tired of "red scare" baiting in our social and political discourse? This only serves to kill off important debates on legitimate issues. American people do love a boogeyman and the right wingnuts have been making hay on this one at least since 1945. Maybe before that. PLEASE STOP. We're talking Denmark, Norway and Canada here, not Karl Marx, Bolsheviks and the 1917 revolution. Let this canard wedge die the death it deserves.
Oh another Never Sanders with the same hollow talking points. I will just focus on your Chile comments. You use the fearful Marxist word to apparently justify US actions in overthrowing a Latin American president who was elected by his people. Was Allende acused of hunan rights violations like Pinochet? Did the common folk of Chile suffer because of Allende's taking of private property, or just those who had more than their share? What about the Chilean situation do you think he got wrong?
Really? I’m no fan of Sanders, but this is all you have on Bernie? I suggest you turn your attention to the dictator wannabe who is undoubtedly destroying what used to be your Republican Party, while simultaneously doing the same to the norms of our society.
This is the second column this week from The NY Times republicans expressing their “fear and loathing” of Bernie Sanders. To both you and David Brooks I say, 1)Donald Trump is president and you’re worrying about ANYONE who might take that job away from him? and 2) I am dismayed to think that you haven’t noticed that. Even if the democrats take control of the White House and both houses of Congress, unlike the republicans they won’t immediately discard everything they ever claimed to believe in and spinelessly any snivelingly do everything Sanders tells them to do. I don’t know why the Republicans lost their moral compass but it’s been a long time gone now. But there’s no evidence that the democrats are following suit. So don’t worry about Bernie, worry about the dumpster fire now engulfing Washington DC. Get that put out and you’ll be fine.
Sanders as you spit forth your sophists arguments is a much better man than you. He finds merit in accomplishments of other regimes that finally introduced healthcare to a place like Cuba. Should we continue to credit Mussolini with getting the trains to run on time? What will Trumps accomplishments be?
-Record stock market, thanks to tax cuts, lack of environmental protections, elimination of workers rights, companys demanding tax brakes from states they reside in, no healthcare costs? Great for the CEO, BAD FOR EBVBERYONE ELSE.
Stephens I HOPE SOMEONE IS IN A POSITION TO TREAT YOU THE WAY YOU FEEL IT IS ACCEPTABLE TO TREAT OTHERS.
Salvador Allende was elected by popular vote in 1970. In 1973, the Chilean military, backed by the CIA ousted him. Communist, socialist, whater, who wouldn't be outraged by that? It's incredible that some can view a U.S. backed coup in a foreign country to not be a cause for outrage.
Is Sanders a Marxist? No.
Is he a communist? No.
Did he support the overthrow of corrupt Latin American regimes like Baptista’s in Cuba? Yes.
Did he oppose the CIA installed leader the Shah of Iran? Yes.
Was he opposed to the CIA backed assassination of the democratically elected Allende? Yes.
Is he a threat to civil liberties? No.
Will he nationalize our banks? No.
Our basic industries? No.
Is he a threat to our constitutional government? No.
Does Mr. Brett Stephens support Trump despite all he has written against him? Maybe.
You can publish three Bernie hit pieces a day. It won't change my mind one iota. I'm still voting blue no matter who the Democrat candidate is - that includes Bernie Sanders.
Sincerely,
Michigan voter
Why does the NYT support this continuous stream of fearmongering? Of course I am in favor of fostering a healthy public debate where diverse opinions are admitted, but, between David Brooks's hit piece yesterday and Stephens's rant today, I feel like I should stop reading and just listen to Rush Limbaugh instead.
The bottom line is that we are in need of a new president. We are fortunate to have several competent and intelligent candidates, including Mr. Sanders, at the top of the Democratic field. I will gladly vote for any of them in September.
I don't think the NYT itself is guilty of fearmongering, but I think it needs to take more responsibility for reining in its boomer bros.
"The guy who was angry about the downfall of Salvador Allende's Marxist regime in Chile in 1973..."
You mean: the guy who was angry about the CIA's overthrow of Chile's democratically elected leader Allende in 1973, installing a dictator (Pinochet) who committed unspeakable crimes against his people for many years. See the difference?
I wonder what you think is morally more important: denouncing the (greater) crimes of your own country, such as (among scores of possible cases) criticizing the CIA's crucial role in the overthrow of Allende; or criticizing the (lesser) crimes of some other non-US-aligned leader or government, such as Castro in Cuba or Ortega in Nicaragua?
A lot of people who support Sanders's views on these matters do so because his views seem to reflect the commonsense principle that one should take a good look in the mirror before loudly criticizing the actions of others.
So the right never praised or rejected that praise for dictatorships they created or supported around the world?
Maybe Bret Stephens and David Brooks can form a Never Bernie Sanders therapy group and share their collective grief over the horrible prospects of:
Affordable healthcare for 330 million Americans who may have to say farewell to the Great American Healthcare Rip-Off that costs a $1 trillion dollars in excess greed, fat, swindling, CEO pay and shareholder profits each and every year
Affordable college for America's youth - the future of the country - who may have to go through life without soul-crushing educational debt.
Campaign finance corruption reform that has destroyed good government and public policy, made a mockery of democracy and made America a comprehensively corrupt dollarocracy.
Progressive income tax reform that would make Warren Buffet's income tax rate higher than his secretary's (...oh the horror !) and would make corporations pay something more than a practical joke.
A one-person-one-vote democracy that might arise if we had a few honest judges to call out Republican voter suppression laws, illegal voter file purges, unConstitutional gerrymanders, black-box-vote-counts and other right-wing electoral thefts that fundamentally rejects the will of the American people.
In other words, all the things that civilized progressive countries have and still happily go about their market-based lives without much complaint.
Bernie Sanders would simply be another FDR who welcomes the hatred of the rich along with the rest of us.
Relax, Bret...it's gonna' be okay.
4
It is no secret that the Stephens-Brooks-Friedman NYT team want to see a Bloomberg presidency. Bloomberg is an avid supporter of the immoral and illegal policies and actions of Israel. Sanders is critical of those policies and actions.
1
So Bernie is still angry about the downfall of Allende in Chile. Why shouldn't he be, Mr.Stephens? Following your line of thinking, i guess the world shouldn't still remember the Holocaust. And right thinking Indians should no longer be upset over the massacres in the Partition of India in 1947. Those who forget history tend to repeat it. Or haven't you heard? A deep seated sense of justice will not lightly pass over the fate of the many 'Disappeared' in Argentina and world over. Nor the suffering of Iran after the 1952 CIA sponsored coup there. This trait is what many admire in Bernie. Changing juvenile views about the Fountainhead are not quite in the same category!
The big question for me is how can I reach someone who would write thoughts such as these: "The young man who joined the Young People’s Socialist League as a student at the University of Chicago in the early 1960s on the hoary notion that “capital” should be in the hands of workers, not capitalists, is now the old man who rails compulsively against “the billionaire class” and wants to nationalize the health insurance industry. "
Why would the author put "capital" in quotes, as if it were a so-called "concept"? What is done with capital is what determines the course of everyone's lives. I don't know how to reach you, dear author, but I hope you change your mind on this subject, sooner than later, and assist others who think like you to do the same.
Brett: Can you name a politician who readily admits his mistakes?
Your premise is that Bernie's past positions were wrong headed then and remain so today.
Ugh. Perhaps Bernie was right all along.
The columnist has had, in a shorter period of time, more changes of opinion than Sanders. He is scaring me more than Bernie.
3
As Bret is "scared", my support for Bernie increases. I'm so tired of wealthy GOPers telling Democrats "what's best for us". Like they know so well! Snark intended.
An entire column devoted to how "scary" Bernie is, throwing in old-timey boogiemen like Castro & Trotsky. And yet not one mention about Bret's party's choice: A guy who's had hundreds of secret contacts with today's very scary Russia (directly or through his many cohorts -- many of whom have been convicted of felonies due to their shenanigans with Russia). Bret's party favors a guy with 15,000+ verifiable lies since taking office. A guy who believes Putin over all of our & our allies' intelligence agencies.
I'll take a pass on considering staunch-Republican Bret's nightmares and happily vote for Sanders.
5
Not defending the comments or actions that you mentioned, but part of Bernie’s whole appeal lies in his consistency and unshakability. People see him as less of a tricky politician who changes his stance based on popularity and more of a steadfast, principled everyman. His immovability might scare you but it’s part of the reason why he’s winning.
255
Yes, but he is a politician, a public servant, whose job is to compromise. There is no winning. There is not supposed to be. I applaud ideological consistency, on a personal level. But if that’s his he wins, Sanders will be president for just his supporters and not all Americans, just like Trump.
10
@Rufus And why my daughter who is 30 favors him. She says he's the only one she thinks says what he means. And yes, one can admire a country for having literacy and health care at the same time one is abhorred by something else it does, just as one can be proud of being an American while at the same time recognizing that we have too often failed to live up to our ideals.
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@NYC His job is to compromise with other lawmakers, which he does. He wasn't called the "Amendment King" when he was in the House for nothing. It does not require him to compromise his principles, an idea which seems to escape most other politicians, and apparently some of the electorate as well.
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Isn't it possible that Sanders has been right most of the time, even if some of his comments from the period of youthful idealism can be misconstrued and taken out of context?
Among the reasons I admire him is that he has been consistent and idealistic during years when so many become jaded and conformist. The idea that he is a closet communist who celebrates bread lines is political nonsense. Even that quote, from that period of time, is not a reason for criticism.
We don't have bread lines, but we have 500,000 homeless people. We have children who sleep on the streets and beg for scraps. Anyone who isn't furious at the inequity in our society is a privileged and calloused person.
Bret was and is fine with the many privileged, pampered, self-protective men who have inhabited the White House and halls of Congress, like the Bush family, with their genial, patrician, condescending charity. When W was carousing with his frat pals and making money because of family power and privilege, Bernie was marching in the streets and exhibiting the same values he has now.
I would entrust the presidency with Bernie Sanders.
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Mr. Stephens, if you're scared of Bernie, you should be terrified of Trump because he wants to put you and everyone in your field out of work -- unless, of course, you agree with everything he says and praise him daily. Honestly, I am so sick of the false equivalances being made. The Democrats are not just as bad as the Republicans. Which party gave the masses Social Security, Medicare, and healthcare? And which party wants to take away those benefits? Hillary was a much better choice than Trump. Do you really think we'd be going through all of these changes if she were in charge? And Bernie, although cantankerous, is no Trump. As someone already noted, yeah, what he said or even believed 40 or 50 years ago is what's most relevant today. That's funny because for good or bad, most folks don't know history, especially his band of young followers. Unlike Trump, Bernie really wants to help the average American. His plans may not be enacted, but I think what really scares you and others like you who should know better is that Bernie is forcing more and more Americans to ask themselves why they are getting only scraps of the economic pie instead of the more generous slice that they have worked for.
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Thank you for saying with illustrations that the king has no clothes. Sanders wants the government to control all medical care yet he wants to break up big banks so there will be more competition. Bernie believes that the government, rather than the individual, is the only repository of wisdom and competition in the market place is a satanic capitalist idea.
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Obviously, not. He thinks the Government should has the bigger role in economy to insure that it benefits to all members of society. He want the competition to work for better society -that why he want to break the big companies to prevent monopolies. In the other hand, the competition failed to produce efficient and affordable healthcare. Therefore, it is task of the Government to provide such necessary service. We don't have competition among fire departments
Politicians change opinions like they change lanes in traffic. I just heard Trump blasting Lindsey Graham and Graham railing against Trump when Trump was running for office and today they are best friends. Political convenience? You better believe it. 80 to 90 percent of Americans want background checks but what do our representatives do? Nothing.
It seems to me when you are standing on the right side of what is best for all Americans and not just standing for something because your big money supporters want it or you might not be re-elected if you go against the grain, then Bernie Sanders is the right person. Many people and politicians who saw the growth of Communism and the various forms of Socialism in the 1960s thought it had a lot of positives to offer. Communism failed miserably and gas died on the vine. Various forms of Socialism have flourished and brought better ways of life to many countries around the world. All one needs to do is compare our standing in numerous areas to Social Democracies and you will see we are falling further and further behind these "EVIL" societies!
They aren't evil at all. They are societies that believe in fairness to ALL of their citizens and work to make sure the wealth is more evenly distributed so everyone has a decent existence.
When you stand on the side of right most of the time there really isn't any need to change your opinions very much.
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Sanders hasn't changed his core principles in 30 years. I don't have a problem with that. But if he had, Republicans would have called him a "flip-flopper." And speaking of people who will never admit they're wrong, have you met the guy in the White House?
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Please remond me of just when it was that Stephens supported Trump in any way, shape or form.
I am 72, and have held the same positions as Bernie on 95% of issues (guns being an exception.) That is because these positions come from deep values, like compassion and a belief that poverty and excessive inequality are wrong.
We want a planet for our grandchildren, good medical care for all, housing for everybody, etc. These are basic human rights which Europe and the UN have long recognized.
Your opinions on things like Ayn Rand's writing are not grounded in humanitarian values, and therefore must be dropped.
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So, why did Bloomburg and Biden change their views? Maybe, just maybe, because these old views became political liabilities? Do we really understand their views, their values? I know where Bernie is coming from. I like it. He has watched the unwinding of the New Deal and it's values, the unwinding of what led to this country's greatest eras. He wants this to return, and return in a just way, as he knows that New Deal did not apply to all citizens, was not done in a socially just way. I agree that corporations have been given too much power. I agree that we should aspire to be better for all of our citizens. That the needs of the many be addressed as a priority rather than the desire of the wealthy for more.
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@Ramjet
Biden and Bloomberg. like most politicians, pander to the polls. Sanders has shaped those polls by supporting long overdue sensible and popular priorities.
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