Bernie Sanders in Iowa
Based on the cold hard math of the Democratic Party primaries, the pundits are saying that Bernie Sanders‘ chances of winning the Democratic presidential nomination are “nearly impossible.” Last Friday, we published Reasons 1-5 why Bernie Sanders is losing the Democratic presidential nomination to Hillary Clinton. Here, in no particular order, are reasons 6-10 on our Top Ten list:
6. Unprepared on Foreign Policy — During the Democratic primary debates and in other forums, Sanders has displayed a shocking lack of foreign policy chops. This includes incomplete, pat answers to debate questions on Afghanistan, ISIS and other important issues, as well as a major blunder on Iran.
7. Defined by what he Opposes — Bernie Sanders is a relentlessly negative candidate. He constantly rails against “Wall Street,” “bankers,” “millionaires and billionaires” and other targets. While such targets are unpopular among Democrats, voters want something to vote for, and Americans like optimistic candidates. Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama all exemplify this optimism. For example, both Clinton and Obama used the word “Hope” extensively in their campaigns. Reagan talked about America as “a city upon a hill” and “morning again in America.” Sanders, in contrast, often comes across as a grumpy old man. And while we’re on the subject of age, Sanders is 74 (he’ll be 75 well before Election Day), which is really too old to begin a presidency in the modern era of fast-moving events and 24-7 communications.
8. Unrealistic Purity Tests — Sanders has set himself up as the self-righteous candidate of purity tests. The problem is, such tests are unrealistic, and even Sanders can’t meet them. He says he “has no Super PAC,” yet at least three Super PACs are assisting his campaign. He explains troubling votes by saying that a particular bill which had very good provisions also had one bad provision. This kind of purity test makes the perfect the enemy of the good and ignores the political realities of legislating. For a self-described progressive, Sanders has numerous such distressing votes on guns, the Amber Alert system and other matters.
9. No “Political Revolution” — The “political revolution” that Sanders called for, and which is necessary to achieve any of his promised agenda, hasn’t happened. In two of the most basic measurements, Democratic primary voter turnout is down from 2008, and people of color, who make up a huge portion of Democratic Party voters, are not with Sanders. It appears that Americans don’t like “revolution.” The last time we had one was well over 200 years ago, against a foreign power that was occupying our country.
10. Bernie Went Dirty — Sanders began his campaign promising not to campaign negatively against Hillary Clinton. He has broken this promise numerous times. Moreover, many of his attacks on Clinton are riddled with innuendo and omitted names and phrases, like an episode of “Seinfeld” trying to get past the censors. For example, at a debate in February, Sanders said: “One of us ran against Barack Obama. I was not that candidate.” Then there were the incidents of improperly accessing Clinton’s proprietary voter information, false endorsement claims, and false use of organizations’ logos to imply endorsements. Now, in an epic flip-flop as the Sanders campaign gets more desperate, they’re saying they plan to make mischief regarding delegates and superdelegates.
If Bernie Sanders loses the presidential primary contest, as the cold hard math predicts, he will presumably return to the U.S. Senate. If he wants to be an influential and respected voice in the Senate, Sanders would be wise to examine the reasons for losing the primaries, and to end his campaign on the same promised high note on which he began it.
Photo by Evan Guest, used under Creative Commons license. http://is.gd/iB20CK
