Bernie Sanders clings to socialism, ‘rivals laugh.’
By James Freeman
The Wall Street Journal
June 12, 2019
Having parted ways with some non-Marxists who managed to infiltrate his 2016 presidential campaign, Vermont’s Sen. Bernie Sanders will attempt to clarify this afternoon that he is not like other candidates seeking the Democratic nomination in 2020. Edward-Isaac Dovere notes in the Atlantic that Mr. Sanders will be speaking in Washington this afternoon on “How Democratic Socialism Is the Only Way to Defeat Oligarchy and Authoritarianism.” Mr. Dovere reports that the speech topic is sparking laughter among Democratic rivals as Mr. Sanders “leans into socialism.”
Adds Mr. Dovere:
Aides say the D.C. setting is an attempt to convey his seriousness on the subject. They want this to be a major signpost in his 2020 campaign, an opportunity for Sanders to lay out why he’s running with an argument no one else can or would make as forcefully, and to dare the rest of the field to oppose him. They believe this speech has the potential to re-center the dynamics of the race around him, and that the other candidates will regret any of their laughter and questioning...
Many readers may find it laughable that Mr. Sanders would attempt to position himself even further to the left than he did in 2016. But as a Journal editorial noted in April, there’s nothing funny about the extreme commentary from people who are now members of the Sanders 2020 operation. For example, current Sanders speechwriter David Sirota once wrote an op-ed titled “Hugo Chávez’s Economic Miracle”. And Mr. Sirota isn’t the only Sandernista who has lauded the Chavistas.
Assessing the current Sanders team, the Journal observed:
Voters need to understand that they don’t merely admire Venezuela. By their own words, they want America to emulate it.
Mr. Dovere writes today in the Atlantic:
Sanders’s inner circle is now committed to democratic socialism in a way that some senior members of his 2016 campaign team were not, though he did deliver a speech about the topic back then as well. This new speech, aides tell me, will go much deeper. Sanders and his aides see this as a moment to reach for the revolution that he’s been dreaming of since he was an angry, underemployed writer in the 1970s, paying his bills through essay writing while being an activist.
Given the long history of Mr. Sanders’ friendly relations with communist thugs, one must be optimistic to assume his brand of socialism would remain “democratic.” How many Americans want to live through a revolution dreamed up by an angry, underemployed writer anyway? Fortunately, as Mr. Dovere notes, the citizens of our democracy don’t necessarily want exposure to the full Bernie:
Not everyone believes the message will penetrate. “There is zero electoral evidence that voters support hard socialism or care about the fights the left relitigates every day on Twitter,” one frustrated former 2016 Sanders aide who spoke on the condition of anonymity to freely criticize the current campaign, told me.
Who knew we’d be looking back with admiration at the relative moderation of the Sanders 2016 staff?
As for the members of the current Sanders staff, one would hope they would look back in horror at their admiring commentary on the Venezuelan regime, but today’s speech suggests not. Attendees at today’s Sanders event can expect him once again to urge U.S. adoption of the same health care guarantee that’s been made for years by the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.
The results have been appalling. Last month Vivian Sequera of Reuters reported on the “Venezuela healthcare collapse” and focused on 11-year-old Erick Altuve, who died “from respiratory problems while being treated for stomach cancer at the Jose Manuel de los Rios public hospital.” According to the Reuters report:
For the past six months, Altuve had not received his medication, his mother, Jennifer Guerrero, said, because of widespread shortages of drugs and medical equipment that have devastated Venezuela’s health system...
Children have paid an especially heavy price from the collapse in Venezuela’s healthcare system as the economy has shrunk by over a half during six years of recession.
The most recent figures from Venezuela’s Health Ministry show that infant mortality, covering children age 1 and below, rose 30% to 11,466 cases in 2016 from the year before. There is no official data on children’s’ deaths from cancer.
More broadly, the mortality rate for children under 5 years has risen by 40% since 2000, the humanitarian group Save the Children said in its 2019 report.
Democratic voters have an opportunity to save U.S. patients of all ages from the plans of Mr. Sanders and his staff.
