As Bernie Sanders reaches the do-or-die moment of his political career, I can't help think that he could've framed his candidacy better. In truth, he isn't a radical and he's built a career working with Democrats and even Republicans. That message was never stressed.
Bernie Sanders isn't a communist. He's a socialist in the vaguest of ways. He is certainly not a British socialist or someone advocating the nationalizing of industries, the seizing of the means of production.
He's a New Deal Democrat running on an FDR agenda. That's really it.
He's a New Deal Democrat running on an FDR agenda. That's really it.
He never registered as a Democrat but he's been a member of the Democratic conference his whole congressional career. He voted for Obamacare. He worked with John McCain. He's been a pretty normal progressive legislator!
But his campaign never stressed that and here we are.
But his campaign never stressed that and here we are.
Instead, Bernie Sanders and the people around him were glad to be painted into the corner of radical outsider. My father, who is 80 and a Bernie supporter, would say this a lot. "Why doesn't Bernie just keeping saying he wants to do what FDR and Lyndon Johnson did?"
In retrospect, his campaign should've stopped Bernie from talking so much about radicalism abroad and stressed that he belonged to a deep American tradition of democratic socialism. Lyndon Johnson and FDR, the ultimate insiders, built successful socialist programs.
Bernie Sanders has been wildly successful. He built 2 major national campaigns, raised crazy amounts of money, changed the paradigm. All true. He's a historical figure.
But he needed to capture the Democratic Party nomination and I'm not convinced his campaign served him well
But he needed to capture the Democratic Party nomination and I'm not convinced his campaign served him well
I would add: Bernie is now doing the pivoting that I am talking about in his thread. His campaign gets it. But it's getting late early.
Bernie's message of economic populism was great and super successful. He shouldn't have sacrificed his demands, particularly Medicare for All.
What he could have done was explained how all his social safety net expansions had historical American grounding and weren't fringe
What he could have done was explained how all his social safety net expansions had historical American grounding and weren't fringe
Of course, Bernie had great success campaigning as an anti-establishment, radical outsider. It's a brand. I get it. But as campaigns heat up, you can pivot in subtle ways and signal your agenda really is palatable and not strange or dangerous. It's popular and normal.
