This is – you’ll pardon my use of the word, Bernie – rich.
Bernie Sanders, a self-professed socialist from the Northeast who won 23 Democrat primaries largely because he was even further to the left than Hillary Clinton, is now lecturing Democrats – a party he did not even belong to until his quixotic presidential run – on how to win in small town USA…
…which, as everyone knows, just loves socialists from the Northeast.
From Meg Anderson’s article at NPR:
Bernie Sanders thinks he has a pretty good idea why Hillary Clinton and Democrats lost in the 2016 election.
“Look, you can’t simply go around to wealthy people’s homes raising money and expect to win elections,” the Vermont senator, who gave Clinton a surprisingly strong run for the Democratic nomination, told NPR’s David Greene in an interview airing on Morning Edition. “You’ve got to go out and mix it up and be with ordinary people.”
“The Democratic Party swallowed the bait,” he argued. “They became hooked on big money.”
The Vermont senator added that he believes Democrats have lost touch with the needs of everyday Americans.
“I happen to believe that the Democratic Party has been not doing a good job in terms of communicating with people in cities, in towns and in rural America, all over this country,” he said.
Mr. Sanders does make good points, such as a probable voter backlash against Hillary Clinton’s lean on big business/big-money contributors. onsin and Michigan.
But, other than how to be highly attractive to the left-most wing of the Democrat Party, does Mr. Sanders really think he is in any position to offer advice on a winning national candidacy? Does he really think if he were the Democrats’ nominee it would be him at the swearing-in ceremony on January 20th?
Personally, I’ve always sort of liked Mr. Sanders. Though I do not agree with his political philosophy, I did have great respect for the fact that he had sincere, long-held beliefs (until he sold them out to Hillary Clinton during the campaign, that is: is he doing any lectures on that?).
But Bernie Sanders advising Hillary Clinton, or anyone else, on how to win the national vote is about as logical as Ted Cruz heading to Cuba and advising raul castro on how to win his next election campaign.
