Where Bernie Went Wrong

From Preface

Bernie Sanders won 13,618,214 votes in the Democratic primaries of 2016. Some of these votes may have reflected anti-Hillary sentiment. But many voters, even those not voting for him, seemed genuinely moved and inspired by what he had to say.

It is unlikely that Bernie ran hoping to win. It is more likely that he ran because it gave him a platform, and he wanted to use that platform to explain and propagate his views, especially among young people.

If Bernie’s campaign was primarily an exercise in moving public opinion, it was wildly successful. He carried young people by wide margins. He shifted the Democratic Party and eventually its platform in his direction. It also resulted in Hillary Clinton eventually adopting virtually all of his major proposals. It had a tremendous impact on the election of 2016 and beyond.

Looking back on his campaign and its influence on American voters, especially young voters, we need to ask: how sound are Bernie’s views? To what degree are they sound? To what degree are they backed by evidence, logic, and above all common sense? Trying to sort out these questions is the task of this short book.

Like any such effort, it will reflect the biases of the author. But with luck the factual evidence and at least some of the logic will speak for itself.

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From Chapter 1: Where Is Bernie Coming From?

Bernie is easy to like, even admire. Dressed in rumpled clothes, with wisps of tussled white hair, the septuagenarian appears to be the grandfather we all wish we had. He is not an eloquent or powerful speaker, but exudes sincerity.

Very few politicians are willing to tell us what they really believe or what they will actually do in office, but this man does. No one need fear being deceived. By contrast, Hillary Clinton, his primary opponent, gets her lowest ratings from voters for “honesty” and “trustworthiness.”

At various times, he has referred to himself as a “socialist,” a “democratic socialist,” and a “progressive.” He seems to use these terms more or less interchangeably. Both his accent and his ideas reveal a working class origin in Brooklyn long ago, further shaped by long residence in Burlington, Vermont.

Bernie lives in a modest home. He does not vacation on Martha’s Vineyard or the Hamptons with the rich and famous. It is clear that he has not enriched himself by public service.

This is not only in sharp contrast to Hillary Clinton, but also to other leading Democratic leaders such as former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, and Vice President Joe Biden, all of whom have become very wealthy through real estate and other deals supplied by political friends and backers. Biden refers to himself as “middle class Joe,” but would seem to be anything but. Sanders truly is middle class in outlook, income, and assets, and has never sought to be anything else.

When Sanders describes himself as a “socialist,” he clarifies that government should not abolish private property, but should take the principal role in leading and governing the economy. For most of his political life, he has run as an “independent,” but in the US Senate has “caucused” with the Democrats and in effect acted as one of them. He eventually chose to run for President as a Democrat.

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From Chapter 4: Bernie against Special Interests

As noted in the prior chapter, there are two sides of the crony capitalist coin: predatory special interests and pliant government officials who are willing to be bought or at least rented. More often than not, rented is the correct word, because as Ugandan dictator Idi Amin once explained in a television interview, “in politics there are no permanent friends and no permanent enemies.” Bernie conveniently ignores all this, but agrees that special interest political power must be curbed:

Democratic socialism . . . means that we create a government that works for all of us, not just powerful special interests.

On Democratic Socialism in the United States, November 19, 2015

Sanders further says that the way to beat special interests is to mobilize the “grassroots”:

The powers that be, that is corporate America, Wall Street, the insurance companies, the drug companies, the military industrial complex, these guys are enormously powerful. And the only way that we can defeat them, the only way we can transform America, the only way we can have a government which begins to work for working people rather than the wealthiest people in this country is by putting together an unprecedentedly strong grassroots movement, and what I call a political revolution.

July 29 Organizing Kickoff Event, July 29, 2015

This sounds reasonable, but again something is missing. Bernie only names special interests that have either contributed to the other party, the Republicans, or, more commonly, have contributed to both parties. He omits any mention of special interests that traditionally provide massive funding for, or mostly for, the Democratic Party, notably trade unions and trial lawyers.

This is not an inadvertent slip. In Bernie’s world view, the special interests that support him cannot be called special interests, no matter how much they seek to influence or win favors from government. This position is more or less taken for granted by Bernie. He neither acknowledges nor tries to defend it.

Despite his taking it for granted, Bernie’s position does not seem to pass any kind of logical test. If one opposes crony capitalism, and if, as part of that, one opposes special interests getting access to and favors from government, then it seems that one should oppose all special interests operating this way, not just some, not just those that do not contribute to your campaign, and exempt those which do.

Bernie says:

I am a proud progressive, prepared to stand with the working families of this country; prepared to take on powerful special interests which wield enormous power over the economic and political life of this country.

New Hampshire Democratic Party Convention, September 19, 2015

Based on his remarks and record, however, Bernie will not stand with working Americans against corrupt unions, even when they are stealing from their members or trying to get control of government. Nor will he stand against parasitical trial lawyers intent on threatening and demanding protection money from every industry and thereby raising prices on almost everything for everyone.