This is me with Bernie Sanders during a book-signing event in New York City back in late 2016! It is also my profile picture for "The Charbor Chronicles," and I post this again proudly today, after Sanders announced his candidacy for the White House race in 2020.
Bernie's Back, Baby!
Can you feel the Bern?
Well, according to several early posts by supposed progressives who still have the hang-ups that Hillary's campaign planted back in 2016, a lot of people actually are not feeling the Bern. It is the same old same old, with some claiming to be truly progressive, or officially holding progressive stances (like Hillary in 2016) having too many question marks and clear conflicts of interest when you do even a little bit of digging into their past.
Still, there are some concerns for fans of Bernie Sanders, like me, as he now has officially entered the 2020 race to repeal and replace Donald Trump in the White House.
One article by Cameron Joseph made some valid points, citing three big reasons why Sanders likely cannot expect this to be necessarily as good or easy for him as 2016 was. Let's take a look at these three big reasons (I provide the counterarguments):
Reason Number One - He is not the only true progressive. Maybe not, but the only other true progressive that I see is Elizabeth Warren. She has been an outspoken advocate for a long time herself. But for the most part, the others are far more mainstream, and are basically impostors to the title of "true progressive," in much the same fashion as Hillary Clinton claimed to be the "true progressive" back in 2016. More on that with Reason Number Three.
Reason Number Two - Social issues are on the rise. Well, let's hope so. But the reason that they are on the rise is because (a) people are feeling the pressure of being small potatoes on a gigantic farm, and are feeling expendable and underappreciated. Which brings us to (b) Bernie Sanders himself, who has always been a champion of the average people, and who fought for causes to make things a lot fairer all of his life. This focus, and the truth of his words and his approach, won him enormous support during the 2016 campaign, and started to bring him enough success that he became a serious thorn on Hillary's side. In fact, I would suggest that he should have won the Democratic nomination, if not for Hillary asking illegally for help from the Democratic Party leadership, and also illegally receiving that help. Her team went out of their way to cast Sanders as the candidate for angry whites, clearly making him seem like the Donald Trump of the Democrats. Ridiculous, but that is how he was cast. And some people still believe it. But the social issues being such a huge thing is due in no small part to how Bernie Sanders stood up and shouted about them unashamedly and without fear of being labeled by FOX News and other conservative voices, which is something that most mainstream Democrats were, and in many cases still are, deathly afraid of. When it proved successful, suddenly there were a lot more mainstream Democrats willing to dip their toes in these waters. But Sanders is not merely dipping his toes and testing the waters. He has believed for a very long time, and made it his life's cause. In many respects, you can say that right now, he is the most prominent, and honest, face of major political and social activism in this country.
Reason Number Three - Hillary Clinton is not running. Well, hopefully not, anyway. Frankly, I thought it was pathetic unofficial collusion on the part of the Democrats to make her the de facto candidate long before the primary season had even really begun. They bought into the whole "she's next in line" thing, and in fact, I suspect that the lack of competition made her overconfident and weakened her. That is how previously largely unknown Bernie Sanders came to get a much bigger profile in the first place. This time, Sanders enters the race as one of the favorites, and with a very high public profile. Also, he remains one of the most trusted figures in politics. Kamala Harris, for example, entered the White House race championing universe healthcare for all. She got a little static for that from Republicans, and she recanted this position the very next day! Another candidate, Cory Booker from my own home state of New Jersey, took funds from healthcare industry players, and then turned around and made it more difficult for Americans to get cheaper drugs from Canada. Those are the kinds of liabilities and conflicts of interest that could, and frankly should, do these kinds of poser candidates in. Sanders is the real deal. When it comes to the genuine article of someone advocating for real positive change in this country, there is simply no one who can compete with Sanders in terms of legitimacy and consistency. Remember, his activist days go back to his youth, when he went down to the South to protest against Jim Crow segregation! So, yeah, he is the real deal, in a way that the others simply are not, other than Elizabeth Warren.
So, there you go. There are the three reasons.
But there is one that was not mentioned, and which I suspect might actually be enough to do Sanders in, and I merely touched upon it in the reasons above. That is the unfortunate light that Hillary Clinton, and to some degree FOX News and Breitbart and others, cast Bernie Sanders in, which is to say that he is a "fringe" candidate that cannot be taken seriously. Some members of the Hillary campaign admitted that they tried to cast him as the angry white vote, to portray him as exclusionary, and not all encompassing. That is wrong, a mistaken impression, but many mainstream Democrats still are committed to viewing him in this light, no matter how unfair or wrong it is. It seems that some people simply do not like Bernie for the sake of disliking Bernie, to the point that you have to wonder if they would even support him if he does pull this off enough to receive the Democratic nomination. That would be my personal main concern, and it is a real one!
Ultimately, however, time will tell. Let's see what happens in the ensuing months. But just like we saw in 2016, I not only would not be surprised, but outright expect some dirty play from some of the other major Democratic contenders.
Three Reasons Bernie Sanders Faces A Tougher Path In 2020 Than In 2016 by Cameron Joseph February 19, 2019:
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