NYT: Bernie Sanders Falls Behind in a Race Centered on Security

[brooklynite]

New York Times:

In his opening remarks at the Democratic presidential debate on Saturday, Senator Bernie Sanders railed against “establishment politics and establishment economics” and then the nation’s “rigged economy.” He moved on to the “corrupt” campaign finance system, then the “planetary crisis of climate change.” Only after that did he say he wanted to destroy the Islamic State.

It was a litany of priorities that made good sense when Mr. Sanders announced his presidential bid in April. But after the terrorist attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, Calif., he made fighting terrorism sound like an afterthought.

These are challenging times for Mr. Sanders as the chief opponent to Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination. His progressive political message, so popular with liberals for much of 2015, now seems lost in a fog of fear. Americans are more anxious about terrorism than income inequality. They want the government to target the Islamic State more than Wall Street executives and health insurers. All of this plays to Mrs. Clinton’s strengths — not only as a hawkish former secretary of state but also as a savvy politician who follows the public mood. After months of pivoting to the left on domestic issues to compete with Mr. Sanders for her party’s base, she is now talking about security and safety far more than Mr. Sanders — and solidifying her lead in opinion polls.

[cantbeserious]

1. The NYT Time Is The Establishment Paper Of Record - What Else Would One Expect Them To Say

eom

[redstateblues]

5. so many straw men

so little time

[cantbeserious]

8. So Many Truths - So Much Too Loose

eom

[OilemFirchen]

13. "So Much Too Loose"

Still the age-old question: Does size really matter?

[cantbeserious]

16. Ridicule - The First Sign Of Nothing Better To Say

eom

[JaneyVee]

25. Yes, the establishment paper that signed a deal with rightwing nut job author of...

"Clinton Cash" and spent months smearing her about emails then retracting articles.

[madfloridian]

2. He's not in enough of a "terror and fear" mode.

Right?

[redstateblues]

7. Pretending that people aren't concerned about terrorism

is not a good campaign strategy

[mhatrw]

26. People are also afraid of getting hit by lightning.

And that's much more of a threat. Why isn't it a huge campaign issue?

Because it's not quite scary enough to make you forget that the economy is rigged against you, while Muslims with automatic weapons dressed up in masks are?

[brooklynite]

9. If the electorate is worried about terrorism...

...whether deservedly or not, showing that you recognize that worry is a good first step.

[pangaia]

15. He DID show it.

But he has the brain to realize that people's fear is driven by propaganda and lies. (As does Clinton.) BUT, and here is the difference, he has the integrity to not join that crowd.

[mhatrw]

27. It's the difference between rational leadership and opportunistic pandering. nt

[LexVegas]

3. He's overmatched. A one trick pony. nt

[mhatrw]

29. Yes, the trick is not just being more of the same that made this mess. nt

[SunSeeker]

4. Hillary knows how to read the electorate.

It is one of the many reasons she is the strongest candidate.

[pangaia]

17. Bernie is a teacher. Hillary is a follower.. of anything to become president.

[MADem]

21. Bernie is a lecturer, Hillary is a student--of history, of world affairs, of people and how they

think, work, and process information. And she's at the head of the class, too!

Give me the perpetual student as POTUS--she'll never stop learning, she's a quick study, and her command of the material is nothing short of superb.

She gets full marks from me!

[mhatrw]

31. Hillary is a student of how to please the powerful and use their power to get more power.

Last edited Sun Dec 20, 2015, 01:36 PM - Edit history (1)

Bernie doesn't play that game. He points out that the rules of that game need to be changed.

[pangaia]

32. Command of the material also brought the world disaster capitalism.

I do NOT want any more of that.

[riversedge]

50. Capitalism in and of itself is not the problem--it is the extreme greed that

has grown with it that is the problem

[pangaia]

61. I said "disaster capitalism."

[SunSeeker]

24. No, Hillary knows people's concerns and how to address them.

That is leadership.

[mhatrw]

33. Pandering to people's false fears of scary Muslim boogeymen is not leadership.

If it were, the entire Clown Car would be greatest leaders on Earth.

[SunSeeker]

39. Hillary is not pandering to false fears -- she is calling for allowing more Syrian refugees.

She is not Muslim bashing like the clown car is. Rather, she is intelligently addressing security issues, which is what people want.

[mhatrw]

45. Focus on the "security state" is what the top 0.1% want. The people want the

right to healthcare, living wages, and debt-free education.

[SunSeeker]

48. Hillary also supports improving healthcare, wages and college funding.

She can chew gum and walk at the same time.

[mhatrw]

49. Yeah. She supports watered down improvements because Sanders brought it up.

More pandering. But this time at least to Democrats.

Yeah, she can serve the top 0.1% and promise the rest of us some crumbs at the same time.

[SunSeeker]

51. She was pushing for healthcare long before Bernie chose to run.

And she has the scars to prove it. Same goes for wages and college funding. Her plans are not "crumbs." They would greatly improve our lives. And unlike Bernie, she can implement them.

[mhatrw]

52. If we don't get single payer, it will just be another bastardized band-aid like Obamacare.

A real leader would educate the American people about why we need to join the rest of first world nations, all of whom get more for less than we do, when it comes to healthcare.

[SunSeeker]

55. Obamacare saved my brother's life.

45,000 Americans a year were dying for lack of health coverage. Refusing to compromise and waiting for the single payer revolution was killing people.

We need to build on the ACA, not destroy it. Expanding Medicaid was a huge step to universal single payer. It is how my brother got free coverage here in CA. We need to expand it even further.

[pangaia]

62. "And she has the scars to prove it"

Please. please. if you are going to quote her speech-writer's line, at least put it in quotes.

[SunSeeker]

63. Where was Bernie when she was being ripped apart over "Hillarycare"?

The scars that fight left on her political career were daunting. But you find it funny. The GOP would be pleased. That is why they did it. To trash her and ridicule her so that no one would take her seriously.

[mhatrw]

23. May the force be with her!

Last edited Sun Dec 20, 2015, 01:39 PM - Edit history (1)

The word you were looking for word is "pander."

[SunSeeker]

30. Addressing the concerns of the public is not "pandering." It is a politician's job.

Failing to do so is political incompetence.

[mhatrw]

35. The public has been whipped up into concern by a normal workplace shooting,

the corporate media, and the Republicans.

The same thing happened when the crime was the big concern because of Willie Horton. Did Bill Clinton show leadership by passing that terrible crime bill in the wake of public fear from which our nation has never recovered?

[SunSeeker]

36. You mean the crime bill Bernie voted for? nt

[mhatrw]

46. Yes. Because he was afraid he would get drummed out of office for being "weak on crime."

That's one of Sanders' worst votes in all of his years of public service, but in the political climate of the time, stoked by mountains of corporate media bullshit, appearing "soft on crime" was political suicide.

And the pandering Clintons gave the public just what the media said we all wanted! And our jails are still brimming with the millions they needlessly sent there. Such leadership!

[stonecutter357]

6. you just don't know HIM!

[leftofcool]

54. We keep hearing that.

[Kentonio]

10. Sick of hearing the media try and tell us which issues we should be caring about

There has been an understandably jump in numbers of people worried about terrorism because there was just an attack. Those numbers will fall quickly like they do every time this happens as the long term issues affecting people come back to prominence in their minds.

[mhatrw]

37. The corporate media stokes the issue to a fever pitch, then tells us we are

so worried about that we need to forget about how the top 0.1%, huge corporations and all their media lackeys keep screwing us.

[pangaia]

11. The operational words here are...

"All of this plays to Mrs. Clinton’s strengths — not only as a hawkish former secretary of state but also as a savvy politician who follows the public mood.

MY BOLD-- these are not her strengths but her weaknesses.

And THAT is what I do not care for, among other things. Bernie spoke the reality of the world. Hillary wants to be president.

[mhatrw]

38. Her "strengths" are her love of war and her ability to pander. Wow. Same as Dubya's!

[upaloopa]

12. I have been saying the following for weeks now:

"Mr. Sanders, by contrast, was repeating old talking points on Saturday night — like breaking up big banks and increasing taxes on the rich — without convincingly saying how he would achieve those goals or presenting them in powerful new language."



And this is why he cannot increase his base:

"As the debate demonstrated, he has yet to grow from a movement messiah into a national candidate whom many people can imagine as president."


A president has to be more than talking points and a president has to appeal to more than 25% of the party.


His supporters keep saying that if more people hear him his popularity will grow. Well more people have heard him but his popularity isn't growing.

I still think he is not really running to be president but is trying to get his issues into the debate which he is doing a good job at.

[NurseJackie]

18. Great post ... thanks!

[mhatrw]

40. More people have not heard him. They hear only crap like this written about him.

DWS made sure nobody would actually hear Sanders with the rigged debate schedule.

If the corporate media every talks about him, it is only to tell us why we must not vote for him.

"Even though you agree with everything he says, he doesn't love war or pander to people's baser fears enough to actually be President! He just keeps saying all those things you agree with and know are the most important issues over and over!"

[MADem]

14. That "establishment" word just comes off as so...DATED.

It sounds like a petulant teenager in the late sixties, parroting their elders (but not those over thirty).

At least we're not hearing the word with "man" following it.

It's the fault of the establishment, man!

The establishment is keeping us down, man!

During the sixties/early seventies, I never heard one without the other!

Even "business as usual" or "insider" would come off better. It's a small, picky and uninportant thing, and it might appeal to some, certainly, but it just hit me in a "Oh fachrissake, take off the bell bottoms and tie-dye tee, wash your feet, put on shoes, and join the current century" kind of way!

[NurseJackie]

19. Another great post!

[mhatrw]

42. How about oligarchy? Is that also dated? Robber barons? So 19th century?

Whoresons of the top 0.1%? Too Shakespearean?

[fredamae]

20. lol-Who seriously believes

Wall Streets Corporate Media will sing praises for Bernie?

I'm neither surprised nor disheartened.

[mhatrw]

22. Such fucking bullshit. The race is "centered on security" only because

Republicans and the corporate media want to scare us with Muslim boogeymen 24/7.

[Broward]

28. Bernie is stronger on security. Iraq War led to ISIS.

[leftofcool]

56. Oh please. Twice he has shown he is out of his league.

[Broward]

57. No Iraq War, no ISIS. That alone puts Bernie head and shoulders above Hillary.

[cali]

34. That piece is silly. And the first paragraph encapsulizes why.

[Eric J in MN]

41. Bogus. I bet the author chose his angle BEFORE he watched the debate.

Bernie Sanders talked A LOT about national security last night.

Sanders' position that the US shouldn't be supporting both sides in Syria's civil war made more sense than Hillary Clinton's position that we should.

[ViseGrip]

43. Fear fear fear from Hillary the hawk. No more of our nations treasures.

Her granddaughter will have to sign up for the draft if this type of foreign policy keeps up.
No more blood. No more policing, and certainly on our own. She is responsible for much of this as SEC. These are facts, she supports this and said so last night. So no alerts for rudeness need to be sent to mods. If this is what you believe we need to do, then vote for her.

But I won't.

[Punkingal]

44. Screw the Iraq war-mongering NYT.

[Bjorn Against]

47. Since when was this race centered on security?

Sorry, but most people I know worry a lot more about economic struggles than they do about ISIS.

[Bread and Circus]

53. If people don't see that the ISIS Fear Factory thing isn't just a part of our slavish relationship

with the MIC then they are pretty naive and don't really understand modern American politics.

The chance of being killed by a foreign or domestic terrorist with or without a gun is miniscule.

Go look at the stats and try to arrive at any other conclusion.

If this race centers on "security", quotes intended because ISIS isn't a real threat to anyone's physical security by an measure compared to threats that hurt and kill more people in US by 10's of magnitudes, it is because the media makes it so.

And the reason it makes it so, is because of money.

Bernie, and the left, is right again as to what to focus on, just like we were back in 2003 and so many other times.

How many times do progressives have to be right and "bipartisan centrism" (read: center right by any reasonable standard) have to be wrong before people will learn?

I have no respect for anyone who doesn't see these things. I consider them either naive, incompetent, ignorant, or cynical.

[JaneyVee]

58. K AND R!

[Armstead]

59. fucking Shock Doctrine strikes again

Yep. Keep people afraid and all other issues disappear. Economic justice? No we too skeered to think about that anymore.


My faith in the intelligence of humans grows weaker every day.

[mwrguy]

60. Broken record is broken

Thanks for participating, Bernie.

Now sit down and watch Matlock.

[TheProgressive]

64. It's only 'centered on security'? Typical propaganda...

This is a 'newspaper' who wants to set the narrative...

[coyote]

65. Oh yes, terrorism and security are the deciding issues for most Americans today...

Who cares that my job is being outsourced overseas, that I cannot afford healthcare, and college in unaffordable. Oh and don't forget that pesky climate thing that may leave the world uninhabitable within the next century or two. Security is the word of the day for me, and I'm hiding under my blanket.