Let’s talk about Bernie
As Super Tuesday nears, Democrats should look closely at the party’s front-runner.
To state the obvious, this newspaper Editorial Board has never been on Team Bernie. His approach to policy is too rigid, his demeanor often too shrill and on the verge of shouting, and his prescriptions for the many ailments of the body politic too extreme.
But ahead of Tuesday’s primary elections in Texas, 13 other states and one territory, we find ourselves in the surprising position of showing sympathy for a candidate against whom unreasonable attacks have now become commonplace. Sanders, some say, is the Donald Trump of the left. Republican pundit David Brooks of the New York Times recently wrote that while he’d happily vote for Sen. Elizabeth Warren, if it came to that, over Trump, he couldn’t stomach a vote for Sanders. “Not Bernie. Not ever,” he wrote last week.
Concern that swing voters and so-called Never-Trump Republicans will stay home rather than vote for Sanders is one of the reasons we have urged Democrats to choose someone else on Tuesday. And yet, it’s equally true that unlike the president, Sanders has not demonized his opponents, vilified immigrants or sought to use the presidency to enhance his own business fortunes.
Nor has Sanders attacked American institutions such as the judiciary, the free press and the intelligence community. He has not sought to weaken international alliances. He appears to be capable of genuine empathy as well.
In short, Sanders is no Trump.
And Democrats eager to defeat Trump should be careful not to tarnish Sanders in a way that will make him harder to accept in the fall. Democratic candidates and voters alike should commit, as Hillary Clinton has of late, to voting for their party’s nominee whether it’s Sanders or anyone else. The stakes are simply too high.
We don’t oppose his candidacy because of who he is and how he operates. Instead, we believe the changes he is seeking would harm a system that is better off reformed than blown up and rebuilt. We see an urgent need to check capitalism and reverse the enormous inequality loose in the land. But we don’t believe Sanders’ “democratic socialism” is the answer. More constrained policies are more likely to succeed.
That’s largely why we have recommended Democrats choose Sen.
Amy Klobuchar, whose approach would make change at a pace that will cast a wider net for voters. Many candidates share Sanders’ goal of ensuring that all Americans have health insurance. But while he touts a “Medicare for All” plan, Klobuchar, Joe Biden, Mike Bloomberg, Pete Buttigieg and others argue we should first shore up the Affordable Care Act, expand Medicaid and phase in a public option. That is far more likely to succeed than Sanders’ plan.
In moral terms, we also see it as akin to our appeal over many years for the Republican Party to build a bigger tent.
A candid conversation about Sanders and his campaign is needed as pundits busy themselves asking if he has the nomination wrapped up. They should get a grip. Sanders leads by 20 delegates — in a contest that involves more than 4,750 delegates. Patience, anyone?
Should Sanders win large shares of delegates from Texas, California and other states Tuesday, his path to the nomination will be clear. If he does not, other candidates will rise. Democrats should be prepared for either outcome — and Texas Democrats should prepare to affect the outcome as well.
Sanders has long built his appeal as an outsider forced to climb over the walls of the establishment to be noticed. His campaign is an insurgency forever on the brink of becoming merely a grievance.
Efforts to defeat him — and in this way, he actually is similar to Trump — are cast as mere hatchet work by establishment goons hoarding their power. No matter how often he wins, Team Bernie interprets opposition, including increased scrutiny due any front-runner, as unfair attacks and marginalization.
This kind of whining makes no sense but also imperils Democrats’ ability to coalesce around whomever they choose as their standard bearer come fall. If the drumbeat narrative is that establishment Democrats are conspiring to deny Sanders his due, what will his supporters think if someone else wins the nomination? Will hurt feelings and pessimism lead Sanders voters to stay home in November?
Sanders critics should stop likening him to Trump. There’s no comparison, outside a rather seductive populist approach. As for his supporters, the victimhood and conspiracy theories mask important truths: Liberals and moderates who oppose Sanders aren’t out to get him. They’re out to both beat Trump and change America but worry Sanders can’t do either.
In fact, we would argue it takes real courage to climb off the Sanders bandwagon and soberly assess the candidate’s chances of being the change he’s come to symbolize.
They are not good. And the stakes are too great to take the risk.