A Trump–Bernie Brawl Would Benefit the Nation
And it might even save the Democratic Party.
by David Catron
February 14, 2020, 12:00 AM
Bernie Sanders is making a lot of Democrats nervous. Every day brings fresh warnings about the perils of pitting a soft socialist palooka like Sanders against a battle-scarred capitalist brawler like the president. Veteran pugilists like James Carville know Sanders has never been in the ring with anyone who fights like Trump. They know he has never taken any real punches during any of his previous political campaigns or from his current competitors for the Democratic presidential nomination. Consequently, these professionals justifiably fear that the Vermont senator won’t be ready for the haymakers that Trump is preparing for him pursuant to his proud devotion to “democratic socialism.â€
This is, of course, the Vermont senator’s glass jaw. He has a very long record of praising communist regimes, he campaigned for the Socialist Workers Party, there is that inconvenient video of Bernie heaping praise on the Soviet Union, ad infinitum. Yet, from the perspective of sane Democrats, a knock-down-drag-out between Trump and Sanders could end a threat to their party far more dangerous than the loss of any single election — its steady slide to the left. A presidential campaign between the president and the Vermont senator would also be about the systems of government that Trump and Sanders represent. As Mark Penn, another seasoned Democratic fighter, writes:
It is odd — in a time of such great prosperity, low unemployment and rising wages — that his message would resonate.… The exit polls, for example, put the voters in the New Hampshire primary at 60 percent liberal while the electorate as a whole is no more than about 25 percent liberal.… It is too easy for candidates who are out of step with America to gain traction in the Democratic Party.
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https://spectator.org/a-trump-bernie-brawl-would-benefit-the-nation/
