Q: Would Bernie Sanders becoming the Democratic nominee be a disaster for the Democratic Party in November?
As much as I disdain Donald Trump with his bullying bluster, tiny little hands, and timely bone spurs– I would have to answer….. yes.
Like Smerconish, I’m a former Republican who has been voting as an independent since 2000. I don’t consider myself a crazy driving in either of the extreme lanes of ideology which have paralyzed our country.
But it wasn’t just Donald Trump who drove me away from the GOP. It was the Tea Party which preceded him.
I try to be fair and think things through.
Let’s start with what is the technical definition of what Sanders believes as per the definition of being a Socialist Democrat.
“Democratic Socialism describes a socialist economy where production and wealth are collectively owned, but the country has a democratic style of government. The goal of democratic socialism is to achieve socialist goals of equality, while opposing authoritarian socialists ideology.
As a term democratic socialism was popularized by social democrats who were opposed to the authoritarian socialist development in Russia and elsewhere during the 20th century.”
In the recent primary in New Hampshire in a state with little diversity the combined vote of Sanders and Elizabeth Warren collected 38% of voters and that doesn’t take into account independent Trump supporters who intentionally voted this way to make Trump’s path to becoming a two term president much easier with Sanders atop the Democratic ticket.
Having Sanders at the top of the ticket would also hurt the Dems in the House and the Senate as reasonable moderates like myself in no way in hell would ever want either body of government controlled by the same party as Bernie Sanders.
This is why you’ve seen James Carville losing it on cable news the past ten days or so.
Interestingly…Sanders’ own individual net worth has increased from $1 million to around $3 million since 2016 in the wake of making $1.7 million in book royalties from three books he’s written. Sanders and his wife now have three homes and recently acquired their first dacha near Lake Champlain. Google dacha if you don’t have any democratic socialists in your inner circle. Just to be clear… Socialist Bernie has approximately the same net worth as Lindsey Graham. Oh, really.
Bernie and his wife will not be in the upper 1 per cent he rails about until their net worth gets to the $10 million net worth plateau. But of course that won’t occur until two more books are written after the loss to Trump in the general election.
Long story short, not even taking Michael Bloomberg’s fate into account, there’s no way I would vote for Bernie Sanders…and, yes, I do think his candidacy would be horrific for the Democratic Party.
Americans don’t want open borders. They don’t want overtly punitive tax rates. They don’t want non-citizens or people in prison voting for them. They do however want to keep their own doctor of choice. Americans want even handed pragmatic governance for all those who have the spirit to walk through the door to be a part of the American Dream.
Like James Carville with his rants…I would suggest the Democratic Party get it’s act together…in a hurry.
The power of incumbency with the Bully Pulpit and a one billion dollar war chest are on the side of Donald Trump. I would ignore every poll. Polls mean nothing related to Trump. The presidency will not be up for grabs if Bernie Sanders is the nominee.