{"id":10685,"date":"2018-12-23T11:28:16","date_gmt":"2018-12-23T19:28:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=10685"},"modified":"2018-12-23T11:28:55","modified_gmt":"2018-12-23T19:28:55","slug":"critics-say-bernie-sanders-is-too-old-too-white-and-too-socialist-to-run-for-president-in-2020-theyre-wrong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2018\/12\/23\/critics-say-bernie-sanders-is-too-old-too-white-and-too-socialist-to-run-for-president-in-2020-theyre-wrong\/","title":{"rendered":"Critics Say Bernie Sanders Is Too Old, Too White, and Too Socialist to Run for President in 2020. They\u2019re Wrong."},"content":{"rendered":"

By Mehdi Hasan<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

December 19 2018 (theintercept.com)<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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\"BURLINGTON,<\/a><\/p>\n

Sen. Bernie Sanders gives a speech at a \u201cget out the vote\u201d campaign event with Democratic gubernatorial candidate Christine Hallquist on Nov. 4, 2018 in Burlington, Vt.\u00a0\u00a0<\/em>Photo: Stephanie Keith\/Getty Images<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

WHO WILL BE<\/u>\u00a0the Democratic nominee for president of the United States in 2020?<\/p>\n

Will it be Sen. Bernie Sanders, who came second in 2016? A growing number of voices, both\u00a0liberal<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0conservative<\/a>, loudly disagree. \u201cI think his moment is passing,\u201d\u00a0says<\/a>\u00a0Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas. \u201cBernie Sanders is Shrinking,\u201d\u00a0declared<\/a>\u00a0a headline in the Weekly Standard (only a few weeks before the neocon magazine, ironically,\u00a0closed down<\/a>). \u201cDemocrats will soon decide that Bernie Sanders is an indulgence they cannot afford,\u201d\u00a0opined<\/a>\u00a0The Economist.<\/p>\n

Yet the arguments that these diverse critics offer against another Sanders bid for the White House seem to be either overstated, irrelevant, or flat-out false. Consider\u00a0five of the most common criticisms of the independent senator from Vermont:<\/p>\n

He\u2019s Behind in the Polls<\/h3>\n

It is Joe Biden, and not Bernie Sanders, who has been ahead in almost all of the opinion polls so far.\u00a0A\u00a0new survey<\/a>\u00a0out of Iowa finds the former vice president leading the field with 30 percent support from Democratic voters, followed by Sanders far behind\u00a0at 13 percent, and rising star Beto O\u2019Rourke, snapping at his heels with 11 percent.<\/p>\n

Other<\/a>\u00a0polls<\/a>\u00a0have produced similar results. But not all of them. A\u00a0new straw poll<\/a>\u00a0of progressives by Democracy for America, released on Tuesday, gave Sanders a 21-point lead over Biden.<\/p>\n

But here\u2019s the bigger question: Are the polls really relevant at this stage? The election is 23 months away, and none of the main runners and riders have formally announced that they\u2019re even running yet.<\/p>\n

For comparison, guess who came top in a\u00a0CNN survey of potential Republican presidential candidates<\/a>\u00a0in December 2014, 23 months before the 2016 presidential election? It was Jeb Bush,\u00a0at 24 percent, with a double-digit lead over his nearest rival, Chris Christie. Ted Cruz, who would end up coming in second in the 2016 GOP primaries, was eighth place with 4 percent. Donald Trump\u2019s name didn\u2019t even make the list.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s Too White<\/h3>\n

\u201cMr. Sanders fought Mrs. Clinton to a draw among white voters,\u201d concluded an examination of the exit poll data by the\u00a0Wall Street Journal<\/a>\u00a0in 2016. \u201cThe decisive edge for Mrs. Clinton: She won African-Americans by more than 50 percentage points.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hence the\u00a0longstanding<\/a>\u00a0narrative<\/a>\u00a0that Sanders has a\u00a0problem<\/a>\u00a0with black folks.<\/p>\n

Except \u2026 that\u2019s not quite true. A whole host of prominent African-American figures \u2014 including\u00a0Keith Ellison<\/a>,\u00a0Cornel West<\/a>,\u00a0Ta-Nehisi Coates<\/a>, and\u00a0Spike Lee<\/a>, among others \u2014\u00a0 backed Sanders over Hillary Clinton in 2016. Former Ohio state Sen.\u00a0Nina Turner<\/a>\u00a0and then-press secretary\u00a0Symone Sanders<\/a>\u00a0were key surrogates of his.<\/p>\n

In 2016, the Vermont senator\u2019s problem was with older black voters \u2014 not black voters per se. In fact, according to\u00a0polling by YouGov<\/a>, Sanders \u201cfought Clinton to a near draw with people of color between the ages of 18 and 44,\u201d and according to\u00a0polling by GenForward<\/a>, \u201camong African American young adults who indicated they voted in the primaries, a majority, 54 percent, said they voted for Bernie Sanders.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since 2016, Sanders has\u00a0worked hard<\/a>\u00a0to make further inroads into African-American communities, helping to bolster the insurgent campaigns of up-and-coming black politicians, such as\u00a0Florida\u2019s Andrew Gillum<\/a>. Last week, a\u00a0CNN poll<\/a>\u00a0found that Sanders had a higher approval rating, at 58 percent, with nonwhite voters than any other major candidate. So, will this latest survey put an end to the black-voters-dislike-Bernie canard? I doubt it. As my colleague Briahna Gray has\u00a0observed<\/a>: \u201cBernie Sanders doesn\u2019t have a black problem \u2014 he has a pundit problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

He\u2019s Too Old<\/h3>\n

Come Election Day, November 2020, Sanders will be 79 years old, which would make him the oldest person to ever run for the White House.<\/p>\n

Yet his likely Republican opponent, Trump, will be the previous record-holder.\u00a0He was 70 in 2016 and will be 74 in 2020. Yes, the\u00a0overweight<\/a>\u00a0sitting president, who\u00a0eats junk food<\/a>,\u00a0doesn\u2019t exercise<\/a>, and\u00a0refuses to release<\/a>his medical records.<\/p>\n

In terms of the Democratic primaries, Sanders will be 79 in 2020, but\u00a0Biden<\/a>\u00a0will be 77 and\u00a0Elizabeth Warren<\/a>\u00a0will be 71. Oh, and did you know that Speaker-designate\u00a0Nancy Pelosi<\/a>\u00a0and her top deputy\u00a0Steny Hoyer<\/a>\u00a0are both older than the Vermont senator?<\/p>\n

So why should his age be held against him?<\/p>\n

He Isn\u2019t a Democrat<\/h3>\n

So what? He may be an independent but he caucuses with Senate Democrats and is their\u00a0chair<\/a>\u00a0of \u201coutreach.\u201d He won\u00a013 million votes<\/a>\u00a0in the 2016 Democratic primaries.<\/p>\n

Despite\u00a0refusing to join the Democrats<\/a>\u00a0in the wake of the 2016 election, the party\u2019s base still adores him. As of October 2018, he had a whopping\u00a078 percent approval rating<\/a>\u00a0with Democratic voters.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s a Socialist<\/h3>\n

Again, so what? While it may indeed harm him in the presidential election, with a\u00a0clear majority<\/a>\u00a0of Americans claiming that they wouldn\u2019t vote for a \u201csocialist,\u201d it certainly won\u2019t hurt him in the Democratic primaries. According to\u00a0polling from Gallup<\/a>, a majority of Democrats have a positive view of socialism \u2014 in fact, Democrats have \u201ca more positive image of socialism than they do of capitalism.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even in the presidential election itself, I suspect Republicans would find it difficult to demonize Sanders with the\u00a0S-word<\/a>, having deployed it to try and smear the centrist Barack Obama for eight long years. Going beyond the label itself, Sanders\u2019s left-wing policy agenda is\u00a0hugely popular<\/a>\u00a0with the electorate \u2014 even with\u00a0hardcore Republicans<\/a>.<\/p>\n

LET ME REPEAT,<\/u>\u00a0however, something I said in a\u00a0recent column<\/a>\u00a0on Warren and 2020: I am not endorsing Bernie Sanders for president or saying that he is the perfect person to battle Trump. The Republicans will\u00a0throw the kitchen sink<\/a>\u00a0at him, and the \u201csocialist\u201d attack line might get some traction with independents. Some of the candidates he backed in the midterms won historic victories, but\u00a0plenty of others lost<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The junior senator from Vermont has also made his own series of\u00a0gaffes<\/a> and\u00a0misjudgments<\/a>, especially on race and identity issues, and\u00a0needs to do much more<\/a>\u00a0to woo older black voters in the South. He has been\u00a0far too reluctant<\/a>\u00a0to challenge the racism and bigotry of the Trump base and\u00a0far too eager<\/a>\u00a0to blame the president\u2019s 2016 victory on \u201ceconomic anxiety<\/a>.\u201d On foreign policy, Sanders has\u00a0moved further to the left<\/a>\u00a0since his clash with Clinton and is \u201cquietly remaking the Democrats\u2019 foreign policy in his own image<\/a>,\u201d but he still has\u00a0a long way to go<\/a>.<\/p>\n

There is also a strong case\u00a0for the Democratic candidate who takes on the racist and sexist Trump in two years to\u00a0be a woman, a person of color, or both.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, the case for Sanders in 2020 is as strong as it was in 2016 \u2014 if not stronger. He now has much better\u00a0name recognition<\/a>, a\u00a0standing army<\/a>\u00a0of loyal and experienced activists, an\u00a0unrivaled social media presence<\/a>, an\u00a0authenticity<\/a>\u00a0that cannot be bought or taught, and a string of substantive policy wins under his belt, from\u00a0big-name Democratic support<\/a>\u00a0for his \u201cMedicare for All\u201d bill to the\u00a0Stop BEZOS Act<\/a>\u00a0to the\u00a0historic Senate vote<\/a>\u00a0on Yemen last week.<\/p>\n

Will he emerge victorious? In an age of Trump, predictions are a fool\u2019s game. The Democratic primaries will feature\u00a0more than a dozen<\/a>\u00a0talented, ambitious, and experienced presidential wannabes, from a bevy of senators and governors to a popular former vice president.<\/p>\n

But ignore the opinion polls and the bogus arguments against him: whether you like him or not, Bernie Sanders is the frontrunner right now.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Mehdi Hasan December 19 2018 (theintercept.com) Sen. Bernie Sanders gives a speech at a \u201cget out the vote\u201d campaign event with Democratic gubernatorial candidate Christine Hallquist on Nov. 4, 2018 in Burlington, Vt.\u00a0\u00a0Photo: Stephanie Keith\/Getty Images WHO WILL BE\u00a0the Democratic nominee for president of the United States in 2020?… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10685"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10685"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10685\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10687,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10685\/revisions\/10687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}