How Sanders led to Trump

Re “Sanders joins a very different primary,” Feb. 20

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) wants to be the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee, and I count that as bad news.

Sanders is clearly partly responsible for turning many of his voters away from Hillary Clinton, facilitating a Trump presidency. We have lived for more than two years in utter chaos. Sanders’ call for a revolution ensures even more of that.

What we need is a return to normalcy with respect for our institutions, our allies and — most of all — the truth. Candidates like Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) can give us that, not a nominee who wishes for a far-left utopia and may give us four more years of Trump. Barbara H. Bergen Los Angeles

Sanders is a septuagenarian curmudgeon. So am I, and I speak curmudgeon fluently. I will analyze, as a selfless public service, just why the weathered and rumpled ranter of 2016 seeks another presidential run.

Sanders has done yeoman’s work at trench level for years. Most recently, he did the heavy lifting of an aging Beltway behemoth called the Democratic Party, turning it into a newly energized political organization.

His idea of a multitude of free services, having transmuted in congressional backbenches from wild schemes to a timely roster of up-to-date policies, is earning shouted hosannas, rhythmic applause and standing O’s everywhere he goes. And everywhere his acolytes in the Democratic presidential sweepstakes — political miniatures really, mini-Bernies — wander.

Why nominate a pale reflection rather than the real thing, the genuine article, a political diviner who discovered the fountain of freebies? Paul Bloustein Cincinnati