They called Trump’s positions “radical.” Now, the Democrats’ most radical senator is busily adopting Trump’s positions. Yesterday, The Hill ran the story under the headline, “Sanders recognizes Trump’s efforts on border, fentanyl: ‘Nobody thinks illegal immigration is appropriate’.”
Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is having a moment. Corporate media is increasingly spotlighting the wispy-haired octogenarian socialist as some kind of emerging voice or even, dare they say, a new leader to unite the party. Another antique one.
You have to hand him credit. Fueled by some arcane wizardry, just like the 1980’s Energizer Bunny, he keeps banging and clapping and marching all over the United States. He seems to be everywhere. A garden party here, a public park there, and then suddenly he’s right behind you! The grizzled communitarian has been railing, fists to sky, against billionaires in a new rally series named, “Fighting Oligarchy.” Not all oligarchs, mind you. One in particular.
The dastardly Snidely P. Whiplash clone Elon Musk.
Oh, Bernie waves his wrinkly hands around and cites “the billionaire class” and “corporate elites,” and occasionally sprinkles a few Jeff Bezos into the fruit salad. But he carefully and meticulously avoids mentioning any left-leaning oligarchs like, cough, George Soros, or any other Democrat donor or progressive tycoon. It’s working. It’s the only message that seems to be attracting much interest on the left, and media is grabbing the geriatric cartoon character more desperately than a drowning border-crosser clutching at a National Guard life buoy.
A stellar example was prominently placed on this morning’s New York Times op-ed page.
The “guest essay” was penned by Times’ ‘regular correspondent’ Megan K. Stack. Megan seanced with attendees at Bernie’s recent Las Vegas rally. From that narrow sample, Megan has drawn some broad conclusions. “Many Americans,” she divined, without estimating exactly how many, “are reaching a breaking point.” They are afraid, Megan said, about all the apocalyptic things the media keeps telling them could happen.
“They fear that, before all is said and done, President Trump will come for Medicaid, public schools, veterans’ services and Social Security, too,” she spelled out, adding, “Maybe take our freedom of speech, while he’s at it.”
And so we begin to see early signs of good news. After spending four years squashing misinformation, Democrats have suddenly rediscovered the priceless nature of free speech. They’re also beginning to dread the dangers of elites and oligarchs, perils that conservatives have railed against for decades.
Not the same elites and oligarchs, of course, but hey, it’s a start.
Best of all, to mockingbird media, is that its fear-mongering is working. “I just got the worst of fears,” a recently retired sheet metal worker told Megan. “You get up in the morning, you don’t know what you’re gonna go to bed losing.” True, it’s happening astonishingly fast.
But most importantly, after a brief nod to Latin-X darling AOC, who warmed up the crowd by attacking the Democrat party, Megan gushed that Bernie is the only progressive to rise to the moment. “Only Mr. Sanders seems to understand how to tap into the dissatisfaction of the crowds,” she said. She heaped praise on the seasoned Senator. “Mr. Sanders looks, at once, prescient and thoroughly relevant,” she enthused.
Basking in the “roars” of the small crowd applauding Bernie’s entrance, she marveled at the Senator’s fiery rhetoric. “We will not accept an oligarchic form of society where a handful of billionaires run the government,” he groused in his lazy dialect to eventual wild applause. But nearly all the actual complaints offered by Megan’s various interviewees related to rising prices; prices of homes, prescription drugs, and credit card interest rates.
Many questions remained unanswered. Like, why weren’t these folks not incensed about the same rising prices under Biden? Or, what exactly in his first two months did they think President Trump should have done about them? While repeatedly returning to her favorite theme of billionaires enriching themselves at the work class’ expense, Megan somehow forget to mention Trump’s pledges to strip taxes from tips, Social Security, and anyone making less than $150,000 a year.
Back to the Hill’s article. Bernie’s rally message might be decorated with thinly veiled anti-Elon violence, but his greater vision seems to be, well, evolving. Over the weekend, in an interview on ABC, Bernie was asked whether he agreed with anything Trump is doing. Sanders immediately fingered two topics: illegal immigration and fentanyl traffic. “I think cracking down on fentanyl, making sure our borders are stronger,” Sanders said. “Look, nobody thinks illegal immigration is appropriate, and I happen to think we need comprehensive immigration reform, but I don’t think it’s appropriate for people to be coming across the border illegally.”
My goodness. Talk about a pivot. Where, one wonders, was Bernie storing all his anti-illegal-immigration sentiment two months ago? And when did he start calling it “illegal immigration” instead of the bevy of humane euphemisms listed in the AP’s style guide?
Of course, Bernie disagrees that illegals should be deported or anything. Why not? Because they are Democrat farm slaves. “I got news for you, Trump’s billionaire friends are not going to pick the crops in California that feed us. They’re not going to work in meatpacking houses,” the superannuated Senator explained. “That’s what undocumented people are doing.”
Nobody at ABC challenged Bernie’s false dichotomy. Nobody has argued that, if the illegals are deported, the only option is to employ billionaires in meatpacking plants. But logic, it seems, is not required for this fearful moment in progressive politics. Nor did Bernie offer a competing plan to stop inappropriate illegal immigration.
Here’s what I think. Triangulating Bernie and his Sazerac-mixing sidekick AOC are firewalls. Their job is to plug the Democrat’s dike and stop the base from bleeding out while the party tries to figure out some kind of message that will work. I’d wager my next birthday that they will soon be gone like the wind when progressives come up with anything better.
Sanders and his ilk we have been warned before about Socialism bottom Feeders like Sanders and should have nothing to do with him and the Demo-Rats