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The Bernie Insurgency

  

Category:  News & Politics

Via:  xxjefferson51  •  8 years ago  •  10 comments

The Bernie Insurgency
You listen to Bernie Sanders and hear something familiar. The party establishment has been corrupted by big money. It hasn’t achieved the promises it has made to voters. International trade has been a corrupt bargain for American workers. America has been too assertive and quick to take military action overseas and should work within international coalitions above all else. The mainstream of the party is much closer to the center than it is to the beliefs of its base.

Bernie Sanders is a force I have not observed before in Democratic politics. From my point of view, Democrats largely agree about what they want to achieve and even the means to achieve it. They differ on the margins, whether a specific regulation should be adopted or not, whether a person represents the correct interest group or not. But in the main Democrats and their affiliates operate as a team. And a very effective one.

Bernie Sanders says that team is a failure, even a fraud. It’s not truly “progressive.” It’s a bunch of sellouts. It hasn’t taken us to the promised land of Denmark. A large part of it supported the war in Iraq. It’s not willing to support the “political revolution” necessary to effect real change in American politics and society. The Netroots rebellion of a decade ago challenged the party to live up to its principles. Sanders and his voters are calling for a new set of principles.

Bernie Sanders’s radical critique of the Democratic Party is not unlike the radical critique of the Republican Party made by Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, and (in 2008 and 2012) Ron Paul. Bernie is different than President Obama. When Obama challenged Clinton in 2008, their policy differences did not extend beyond the war in Iraq and whether it was a wise idea to meet with the leaders of rogue nations without precondition. Sanders is a critic not just of the Democratic Party but of the thrust of 30 years of American politics. He’s hostile to the tradition of friendliness to markets at home and abroad, openness to foreign trade, and support for America’s role as guarantor of international security. The Democratic Party has been open to an alliance with portions of Wall Street for decades. Sanders vehemently rejects that alliance. He doesn’t want to regulate the banks. He wants to break them up. As a conservative, I am much more sympathetic to Hillary Clinton’s case for gradual change than I am to Bernie Sanders’s calls for radical upheaval. But I must admit a feeling of pleasure in the way Sanders has exposed the liberal Democratic establishment for what it is. These people are so self-absorbed and self-congratulatory that they do not even conceive of themselves as an establishment. When Sanders raised the issue during the Democratic debate, Clinton responded by saying she can’t be establishment because she’s a woman. Does she really believe that? Can she not see that feminists and the abortion lobby run large swathes of the Democratic Party? Probably not. Delusion is a powerful thing.

I admire the fact that Sanders has basically called out every Democratic hack, wonk, and journalist in the city as part of the status quo. But I also think his solutions are totally at odds with political reality, especially in the sphere of foreign policy. And I also know that the Democratic establishment against which Sanders is fighting includes almost all of the mainstream media, which wants nothing more than Clinton to have an easy path to the Democratic nomination. Sanders is very likely to win New Hampshire next week. But I admit I subscribe to the conventional wisdom. Bernie as the Democratic nominee is just something I cannot see right now. http://freebeacon.com/columns/the-bernie-insurgency/

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luther28
Sophomore Silent
link   luther28    8 years ago

 

I also admire Bernie for speaking out and taking all to task. I also agree that his campaign will ultimately founder and fail, as you say a victim of political reality (which in truth is not real at all, just the way it is which makes it so).

Nothing wrong with tilting your lance at a windmill from time to time.

 
 
 
Hal A. Lujah
Professor Guide
link   Hal A. Lujah    8 years ago

Compare Sanders's position now with what was projected of him when he declared his candidacy.  Add to that the unconventional source of his funding, and the size of his crowds.  It's very impressive.

Unfortunately, the same thing can be said for Trump.  These are strange times indeed.  Americans are clearly pissed about the status quo of politics in America.

 
 
 
PJ
Masters Quiet
link   PJ    8 years ago

I do admire both Bernie and Donald for bringing issues to the forefront that need to be discussed.  These issues are messy and complicated and bring out the best and worst in people.  Without implying that both parties are equally guilty of these things, I think both men whether conscious or not have highlighted the hypocrisy and the corruption that exist in both parties. 

I also believe that it's naive to think as the writer suggests there can be any substantive change like Bernie and Donald are calling for because of the political atmosphere that exists and because of the way our political system is set up.  Neither parties are going to get any radical changes passed and so we are forced to support the candidate we feel will do the least amount of harm while still representing our positions on the issues.

 
 
 
Dean Moriarty
Professor Quiet
link   Dean Moriarty    8 years ago

I too think Bernie will fade. As soon as people realize what he is calling free education is really a gigantic tax and spend program and your taxes will go up to pay for it. When people realize single payer costs more than what we currently have and that is why Vermont scrapped the idea. When people realize Bernie would expand social programs and that means stealing from one to give to another. 

 
 
 
Sean Treacy
Professor Principal
link   Sean Treacy    8 years ago

Bernie has no interest in actually wining the nomination. He's probably as surprised as anyone to be in the position h's in. 

As Jonah Goldberg wrote:

"My problem with Sanders is that he’s ultimately a coward. He talks a great game about being dedicated to a “political revolution,” but he is utterly unwilling to employ the means required to achieve the ends desired. For instance, Sanders is happy to denounce the political system as corrupt, but refuses — save by innuendo — to connect the corruption of the political system to the corruption of House Clinton....

At least by the standard of Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton is incredibly corrupt. The Clinton Foundation alone is a violation of everything Sanders stands for. It’s one giant access-selling enterprise masquerading as a charity. Then there’s the whole sordid mess of her husband’s presidency — and I’m not even talking about his playing Baron-and-the-Milkmaid with the intern. The Clintons rented out the Lincoln bedroom, sold pardons — including to a shadowy fugitive billionaire! Talk about catering to the “billionaire class” — and drained so much money from foreign donors (some of it laundered through a Buddhist temple) that 94 people either fled the country, refused to testify, or pled the Fifth

Bernie Sanders has to believe Hillary Clinton is part of the problem. But he won’t say so, save to prattle on about Clinton’s super PACs and speaking fees. That’s amateur-hour stuff. It’s academic-seminar-level griping, not revolution-fomenting. He wants to talk about the system, but he won’t do what is minimally required to change it. And right now, the first step on that long road is steamrolling Hillary Clinton. It’s like saying you want to do whatever it takes to fight malaria, but refusing to say much about the huge, sprawling, and fetid marshlands in the middle of downtown. The Clintons are swamp creatures, taking what they need and leaving in their retromingent wake the stench of corruption.

If Bernie Sanders had the conviction of a real Communist, or even one of America’s great socialists, he would make this personal, he would recognize the opportunity he has and seize upon it. But his vanity is too important, his reputation too precious. If he honestly believes the stakes are what he says they are, then surely it’s worth getting a little dirty. It’s not like the Clintons aren’t willing to get dirty. If anything, they’ve never been remotely interested in getting clean.


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