Posted on 02/25/2020 4:30:05 AM PST by Kaslin
Sen. Bernie Sanders may be on the cusp of both capturing the Democratic nomination and transforming his party as dramatically as President Donald Trump captured and remade the Republican Party.
After his sweep of the Nevada caucuses, following popular vote victories in Iowa and New Hampshire, Sanders has the enthusiasm and the momentum, as the crucial battles loom in South Carolina on Saturday and Super Tuesday on March 3.
The next eight days could decide it all.
And what is between now and next Tuesday that might interrupt Sanders' triumphal march to the nomination in Milwaukee?
One possible pitfall is tonight's debate in South Carolina.
Sanders will be taking constant fire as a socialist whose nomination could end in a rout in November, the loss of Speaker Nancy Pelosi's House and the forfeit of any chance of recapturing the Senate.
Yet Sanders has often been attacked along these lines, to little avail.
He's shown himself capable of defending his positions, and attacks on Sanders may simply expose his opponents' own political desperation.
"Buchanan," Richard Nixon once instructed me after I went to work for him in 1966, "Whenever you hear of a coalition forming up to 'Stop X,' be sure to put your money on X."
Nixon recalled the Cleveland governors conference after Barry Goldwater defeated Nelson Rockefeller in the California primary. There, on the Cuyahoga River, Govs. Rockefeller, George Romney and Bill Scranton colluded absurdly to derail the Goldwater express.
A second event is the anticipated endorsement of Biden by Rep. Jim Clyburn, the most influential black politician in South Carolina, who warns that nominating a socialist like Sanders invites electoral disaster.
Yet Clyburn's endorsement could be a mixed blessing.
With it, Biden becomes the favorite in the primary where 60% of the vote is African American. If Biden cannot beat Sanders there, in his firewall state, with Clyburn behind him, where does Biden win?
Biden faces another problem: Billionaire Tom Steyer has pumped millions into South Carolina, hired black leaders and pledged to support reparations for slavery. Polls show Steyer with rising support among black voters who might otherwise have stood by Biden.
For Biden, South Carolina is do-or-die.
If he wins here, he is revived. Yet, still, he lacks the broad and deep support Sanders has and the funds Michael Bloomberg has to be competitive in all 14 states holding primaries March 3, including the mega-states of Texas and California.
Sanders is predicting victories in both and has been gaining in the polls on Sen. Elizabeth Warren even in Massachusetts, her home state, which also holds its primary on Super Tuesday.
The basic question: With Biden, Buttigieg, Warren, Steyer and Klobuchar -- none of whom has beaten Sanders in the popular vote anywhere, and all competing in South Carolina and Super Tuesday three days later -- who beats a surging Sanders? When and where do they beat him?
Bloomberg can probably buy enough votes to win some states. But would the other Democratic candidates, who have fought for a year, stand aside to yield the field so this ex-Republican oligarch can save their party from Sanders? Why should they?
And where is the evidence that Bloomberg can beat Sanders? Or beat Trump?
Bloomberg's first debate raises questions of what, besides his $60 billion, qualifies him to be on the stage or in the race.
The Democratic establishment worries that if the "moderates" in the race do not start falling on their swords, dropping out, and joining behind a single candidate -- Biden, Buttigieg or Bloomberg -- to challenge Sanders, they will lose the nomination to Sanders and the election to Trump.
The establishment is right to worry.
While Sanders' chances of becoming president are slim, the odds he wins the nomination and reshapes the party are good and have been improving weekly.
What model does socialist Sanders have in mind for the Democratic Party? Something like the British Labour Party of Jeremy Corbyn.
"Medicare for All." Abolition of private health insurance. War on Wall Street. The Green New Deal. Free college tuition. Forgiveness of all student debt. Open borders. Supreme Court justices committed to Roe v. Wade. Welfare for undocumented migrants. A doubling of the minimum wage to $15 an hour.
Winston Churchill once observed: "Some regard private enterprise as if it were a predatory tiger to be shot. Others look upon it as a cow that they can milk. Only a handful see it for what it really is -- the strong horse that pulls the whole cart."
Sanders sees free market capitalism as a fat goose that lays golden eggs and can be hectored, squeezed and beaten into producing lots more.
And those most widely receptive to his message -- are the young.
Welcome to the Party of JFK as re-conceived by Bernie Sanders.
It already is, they are just repacking the product.
I agree. Sanders can’t win the election, but I believe his long term plan is to take over the RAT party. Since we only have a 2 party system, he can’t (proven over and over) run as a 3rd party, so he’s is part of the cabal that is thinking long term to commandeer the RAT party. M2C.
Tell me which policy initiative proposal put forth so far by any of the 2020 Presidential JackAss Candidates is NOT socialist in nature?
I have a vision that democrats are so pissed off at their party they are actually voting for Bernie to set the party up for the greatest loss of all times. Not very realistic I know but I can hope!
Pay attention Pat
JFK’s party lasted only a few months before it was replaced with the LBJ party
JFK was so bad they killed him
NEWS FLASH: It already is and it has been for some time. There are no Trumans or JFKs in the party today. They’ve been replaced by worshippers of Stalin, Ortega, Chavez, Castro, Guevara and others.
You gotta love Bernie’s comment about Castro: “When Castro came to power, he instituted a massive literacy campaign.” Or words to that effect. He just failed to add, “...among the Cubans who were left.”
Bobby Kennedy, if still with us, would certainly have been as far left as Bernie and MORE so
The interesting thing that occurs to me is everyone assumes Bloomberg is spending a billion dollars because he “hates Trump”. He may say he does but he’s spending a billion bucks to just about guarantee Trump’s re-election.
Tell me about it I can’t take the “RFK” bridge
anymore all I can take are left exits and I
end up where I started
The Democrat party of JFK died years ago, with the ascent of LBJ. The “Sanderinista party” into which it has finally morphed, has been building since the time of Jimmy Carter, and it was carefully modified and evolved during the Clinton regime. The Obama regime put the better part of the superstructure in place, awaiting only Burnie and Bumbleberg to raise it to its current glory.
Is anybody familiar with the “Burning Man” celebration held in northern Nevada? The ritual of erecting this frame edifice, covering it with highly flammable materials and setting it on fire is supposed to be some kind of “New Age” rite, though the significance was never clear to me.
The current version of the Democrat party is a lot like that “Burning Man” festival.
I see that as well.
So much in the world lately seems counter-intuitive.
1) I really have no idea why Bloomberg hates Trump. People say he does. People say it goes way back. It just seems odd.
2) Bloomberg has virtually no platform. His campaign is “I’m spending a lot of money”.
3) Other Dem candidates have to drop out if money gets tight. Bloomberg is guaranteed to stay in until he gets bored.
What if Bloomberg and Trump are working to destroy the Democrats? This seems unlikely. But so much that is going on seems unlikely. The Dems don’t want Sanders as their nominee. But I think they are going to get Sanders as their nominee. It’s too funny.
In before the JFK worship, “he would be a Republican, etc, etc”.
Drug addict, whoremaster, zero accomplishments, sold out our allies in favor of Castro’s government.
Yet another example of why direct ascent to the White House from the Senate should never be allowed, along with the other two who did it.
And that’s the way it is.
The corrupt Dims led by the corrupt jfk set in motion the policies and attitudes that further contaminate today’s party
The greatest generation is turning over in its collective grave at the disaster its voting and progeny have made of their country
Another issue with JFK is he facilitated the increased influence from the entertainment industries in the White House and American politics.
That change happened years ago, before anyone ever heard of Sanders. The Dems were just more discreet then.
For one election perhaps. When Sanders loses massively in November then the Democrats will drop him as fast as they dropped McGovern in 1972.
Stepped up Vietnam, Bay of Pigs, Cuban missile crises. He really. Wasn’t up to the job. JFKs health was pretty bad and it was kept under wraps.
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