There is no doubt that Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., is now the leading Democratic presidential candidate. That’s not because his ideas are overwhelmingly popular — a majority of Americans approve of capitalism, while less than 1 in 5 like socialism; few Americans are on board with total nationalization of health care, even if many like the idea of universal health care; most Americans do not approve of Sanders’ anti-American ideology with regard to foreign policy.
But nobody in the Democratic Party can stop Bernie.
There’s a reason for this: The Democratic Party has fed off the energy of Sanders’ ideology hoping that, eventually, the voters would come to their senses. Leading candidates have echoed Sanders’ talking points. Sen. Elizabeth Warren adopted and then abandoned Medicare for All, and former Vice President Joe Biden mirrored Sanders’ Howard Zinn historical perspective. Those who have attempted to siphon off Sanders’ base and approximate his authenticity have failed dramatically.
Instead, Sanders continues to resonate with the base. After all, if you’re going to go with an anti-Constitution, anti-free market, intersectionality-based perspective, why water it down with insincerity? Sanders brags about the fact that his ideology has never changed. He’s right. Back in 1976, he suggested that he favored “the public ownership of utilities, banks and major industries.” He sounded off for decades on the glories of communist Cuba and the Soviet Union; he basked in the joys of bread lines, saying: “In other countries, people don’t line up for food. The rich get the food, and the poor starve to death.” Sanders trots out campaign surrogates who openly claim that the United States is rooted in genocide and racism, and that the American system must be fundamentally remade.
This is radical stuff. But radicals have passion. And politicians of the Democratic Party are unwilling to quell that passion -- not when they believe they can capture it and turn it against President Donald Trump. This is the mirror image of the Republican problem with Trump in 2016: Trump ran on a platform of bashing the Iraq War and America's intelligence agencies, blasting free trade, pledging to avoid entitlement program reforms and slamming the door on immigration. Instead of fighting those elements, Republicans decided to tinge their own campaigns with those attitudes and then assume Trump would collapse under the weight of his own personality flaws. That never happened.
Democrats seem to be waiting for another collapse that simply isn't coming. Sanders isn't going anywhere. His floor is high, and his ceiling remains low -- just like Trump. Electability problems aren't going to dissuade his supporters, who believe -- correctly -- that inauthenticity provides its own electoral issues.
There was another path. Some Democrat could have completely and utterly rejected Sanders' perspective on the world. Some Democrat could have rejected Sanders' view that America has been a nefarious force in the world; some Democrat could have argued that America isn't perfect but that it has always been great; some Democrat could have talked about the wonders of the free market while arguing for greater strictures on it. After all, the majority of Democrats count themselves as patriots who don't despise the free market.
But no Democrat was willing to stand up to the Sanders base. They were too greedy for its energy, and too optimistic that the energy was transferable. It wasn't. And so the Democratic Party has been captured by an ideology foreign to it -- the ideology of Noam Chomsky infused directly into the bloodstream of a party that once touted former President John F. Kennedy. Partisanship is a hell of a drug.
Ben Shapiro, 36, is a graduate of UCLA and Harvard Law School, host of "The Ben Shapiro Show" and editor-in-chief of DailyWire.com. He is the author of the No. 1 New York Times bestseller "The Right Side of History." He lives with his wife and two children in Los Angeles.
Like!! Great article post.Really thank you! Really Cool.
The Burn is shattering a fractured Democratic Party…hows that gut punch doing Joe?
With the Bernie presidency, everyone will have the same opportunity to live and survive on an equal basis. No economy, no rich, no poor, Medicare for all and Healthcare for none. Everyone will have a tent to live in on the street and a free supply of needles with narcotics at no cost.
Watch the short Bernie Sanders staff meeting video done without their knowledge
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmXYumSM_Es&feature=share
I think these comments are a perfect description of the Democratic gambit, that to achieve the power to control the country and impose radical ideas you follow the coat tails of the very most radical element. The Democrats hate Donald Trump so much they are blinded to the success that the Republican Party has created for all of us to enjoy. The Democratic Party clearly does not represent my morals, my views or my aspirations and I personally would not like any of their leaders as my neighbor. I hope Democrats reform around ideals that we can all share and grow with, right now forget about them as they are total losers.
If you look at the age range of the Bernie crowd, they are all very young. Some I don’t think are even old enough to vote.
By gosh, if dead people can vote, and ill eagles can vote, so should the young free stuff communist kiddies ?
To believe that Socialism works as fairly and equitably, unbiased and egalitarian, as today’s youth have been led to believe by an educational system that has failed them, or a government that has knowingly and willfully duped them in order to maintain its power, requires a very special naiveté derived from an active, persistent unwillingness to learn from history. Although facing the undeniable fact that Socialism has NEVER worked wherever it has been imposed upon a populace, the Youth reinforce their fantasies among themselves with the belief that this is the case because the right people have never been in charge. And, given their lack of real-world life experience and the wisdom and maturity attendant thereto, who can blame them?
but the real question remains can Bernie do more push ups than sleepy Joe.
Socialism is not a good idea. you will not get what you want. check out other countries who is under socialism. people are starving, no medical service except for the rich. you only get money from the government which isn”t much. you lose from you saved or earned. read your history if you dare.