I am depressed about the possibility that we may need to choose Bernie.
As much as I like him as a person, I am afraid that the only way Bernie Sanders would be able to govern is by mimicking Trump .. ruling by fiat and relying on a plurality caucus of his own party that can never form a majority of its own.
Bernie’s strategy, while very well-meaning, reminds me all too much of the Freedom Caucus and of the sad history of the catastrophic failed effort to create Democracy in Russia in 1917.
If I leave Lenin’s coup aside for the moment, the lesson of Trump and the Freedom Caucus is close enough. The Freedom Caucus preceded Trump and grew out of a coalition of Republicans built around the civil war, abortion, balanced budgets and .. during Obama ..racism, Even though the Freedom Caucus was and is a minority of the Congress, these radicals control the Republican delegation using the Hastert Rule. Under the Hastert rule, a minority can control the entire congress as long as that minority can determine the majority of in its party. In other words, 26 Senators or even fewer are able to control how the GOP votes! If the GOP is in the majority those 26 Senators control the Senate.
To make matters worse under Trump, any Senator or Representative who does not fall in line with Freedom Caucus, gets primaried by a PAC . The Freedom Caucus PAC has huge money and support from the Trump Cadres. The result is exactly how Lenin took over the nascent Russian Democracy, a majority rule of his political party Trumped the majority rule of a Duma divided among other factions. The Soviet version fo the Hastert rule was called Bolshevism.
I do not believe that Bernies, has the political skills to ever form a majority even in his own party. At most, the Sanders allies in the Congress would try to become his version of the Freedom Caucus. That frightens me.
Sanders’s political abilities do not reassure me. He has been very unsuccessful in getting more than a handful of followers elected to Congress .. none in the Senate. This handful faced with a the much larger far-right Caucuses within the GOP would be dysfunctional and I see no chance of a Sanders version of the Freedom Caucus emerging in the foreseeable future. Sanders’ only option would be a Trump like rule by fiat.
Rule by fiat has two big problems. First, Sander’s actions will likely be found unconstitutional,. Second he will not have popular support beyond his cadres. Support depends on rhetoric and despite efforts to wash off Bernie’s red paint, rather than sounding like a German socialist, Bernie sounds like Jeremy Corbyn. Vitriol about bankers, businessmen, or entrepreneurs does not work in countries like the UK, Ireland, Scandinavia, or even South Korea . We can not reform our system by staging class warfare.
My fears run even deeper when it comes to foreign policy and defense. Jimmy Carter .. a more rational man than Sanders and a Captain of a nuclear sub in the Navy, chose well when he selected a nuclear physicist as Secretary of Defence but worse when he chose a Secty of State and much worse when he chose an AG. Bernie Sanders is not Jimmy Carter I actually can not think of anyone I respect taking the position of Secretary of Defence, State, or Treasury under Sanders.
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Once upon a time there were Dixiecrats. They had real power, probably more than the Freedom Caucus. There are still one or two Dixiecrats in Congress, but their reign came to an end.
Unless the Democratic party splits it appears Bernie will be the parties candidate, if Bernie does well on Super Tuesday then he is the candidate or should be.
One can argue Bernie is a return to Democratic roots of the Wilson, Roosevelt and Truman eras. His major goals were proposed then by all three of these former President’s.
You are describing an inherent problem of our two big tent parties. Both parties have factions some that are very active, and have outsized voices, and neither seem ready to return to the middle.
It is about power, and state and federal forces make some very strange bedfellows. We do have states that are so Republican or Democrat that whoever that party puts up for any office is who will win. Which eventually means in Washington state that individuals who would be Republicans run as Democrats here. I know whoever the Democrats nominate will win the electoral votes in Washington state. While there are still some Republican districts any statewide office or statewide federal office the Democrat is going to win. This is not healthy, and eventually some day maybe in a generation the Republicans will win a Senator or Governor.
In spite of Bernie’s ideology he is a politician with a lot of experience and has the stuff to be a more successful President than Jimmy Carter. And unlike Jimmy we will still be independent on energy, and OPEC does not wield the kind of power it had in 1977 to 1979. If Bernie is a real Leninist we will be at war with Iran 6 months after he is elected, should we agree this is the test. I do not think Bernie is a Leninist, assuming the Mullahs manage to keep in charge.
If Bernie comes to the convention shy of an absolute majority and is denied the nomination by a coalition of left/center moderates and the infamous “super delegates” who will get to play beginning with the 2nd ballot, will progressives support the nominee of the party despite their disappointment? I hope not. They should be prepared to work with moderates who will actually work with them if given the chance.