Senator Bernie Sanders (D-VT), who has reportedly raised $10 million for his presidential bid, is now being portrayed as a mainstream candidate. And he may very well be, at least for the Democratic Presidential nomination. After all, most of his rivals have endorsed his demands for Free college for all, Medicare for all and a national $15 an hour minimum wage. Alexandria Ortega-Cortez has helpfully noted that financing for all this could come by way of the Fed. All they have to do is print the money.
Throughout his political career Sanders has seldom missed a chance to praise, or at least indirectly defend, left wing dictators. That group would include the Castro Brothers, the Kremlin, the Sandinistas and Maduro in Venezuela to name a few. When confronted directly he simply deflects by saying something to the effect that well, yes, the Cuban economy is a shambles, and Cuba is a dictatorship, but look at the swell healthcare they have. Which is equivalent to saying: Other than that Mrs. Lincoln, how did you like the play?
Bernie Sanders has become mainstream because the Democratic Party has moved so far to the left. On economic issues the party is deep into soak the rich territory. Fiscal policy is simply delusional. The impetus is to simply throw gargantuan sums of money around and then insist that the “rich” will be made to pay. Social policy proposals (e.g.–like reparations) now resemble the famous episode of Seinfeld which celebrated Festivus–the annual airing of grievances. And support for the legal right to abortion up to the moment of birth appears to be the position of the party. Now support for infanticide is supposedly mainstream. At least in the blue states that have, or are in the process of, codifying it–like New York, New Jersey, Rhode Island and Vermont.
At this point the obvious question must be asked. Why is the Democratic Party apparently working so hard to give Donald Trump a second term? Perhaps it is because the Party is moving toward where it always wanted to be. They just don’t feel the need to hide it anymore. Maybe they are right about the politics. But maybe they are about to self-immolate George McGovern style.
We shall see.
JFB
