Bernie Sanders issues a stern warning: Europe’s populist revolt could happen here

[portlander23]

Bernie Sanders issues a stern warning: Europe’s populist revolt could happen here
SEAN ILLING
Salon

The populist revolt in Britain and much of Western Europe isn’t reducible to a single variable, but it’s partly a reaction against a globalized economy that has failed the masses. It’s a frenzied, myopic reaction to be sure, but the underlying grievances are real. Mark Blyth, a political economist at Brown University, summed up the Brexit fiasco about as well as anyone could in a recent interview with AthensLive:

“This is Trumpism. Everybody’s got a version of it. Here’s what I mean by Trumpism. For the past 25 years, particularly the center-left has told the bottom 60% of the income distribution in their countries the following story: Globalization’s good for you…We’re going to sign these trade agreements. Don’t worry there will be compensation…And by the way we don’t really care because we’re all going to move to the middle because that’s where the voters are…And you make that move and you basically take the bottom 30% of the income distribution and you say, we don’t care what happens to you. You’re now something to be policed…It’s a very patronizing relationship…This revolt is not just against Brexit. It’s not about the EU. It’s about the elites. It’s about the 1%. It’s about the fact that your parties that were meant to serve your interests have sold you down the river.”

Hence Sanders makes his final appeal to the Democratic Party:

“The notion that Donald Trump could benefit from the same forces that gave the Leave proponents a majority in Britain should sound an alarm for the Democratic Party in the United States. Millions of American voters, like the Leave supporters, are understandably angry and frustrated by the economic forces that are destroying the middle class. In this pivotal moment, the Democratic Party and a new Democratic president need to make clear that we stand with those who are struggling and who have been left behind.”

The message to fellow Democrats is clear: Wake up! Part of the reason Sanders is remaining in the race is he wants to apply as much leverage as possible. He won’t be the nominee, but the staggering success of his campaign proves how hungry people are for change – real change. We’re in an increasingly unstable environment. The system has to respond or risk collapsing under the weight of popular resentment. Another four or eight years of do-nothing centrism won’t work.

[JaneyVee]

1. This is just getting sad now.

If he really cared about stopping Trump he would already be campaigning for Hillary. The election is 5 months away and he has created a movement that believes Hillary only won because of superdelegates and voter fraud. Bernie has a lot of wounds to heal.

[hobbit709]

2. Not half as sad as some other things.

[JaneyVee]

4. Sad!

[NurseJackie]

19. It's short-sighted and self-serving. A better politician would be more willing to ...

... accept defeat, ignore their own vanity, and rally around the party's nominee to fight for the greater good.

[JRLeft]

22. No it's not he's trying to get the democratic party to move away from the market based solutions

ideology. 62 people have more wealth than 3.6 billion people. That is insane, uprisings and anger due to globalization is hurting people.

[uponit7771]

30. The stagnation of wages and wage inequality in America is mostly automation and tax ...

... code built for the rich that dems have fixed to a degree (needs to go further) under Obama.

Sanders sophistry is upfront factually, 52% of leave votes were due to anti immigrant sentiments

[Scootaloo]

31. It's cute that you think anything you say about Bernie has a modicum of validity

[DemonGoddess]

3. So, now we get "stern warnings"

because ...why?

I've opted not to post the rest of what I'm thinking, because I'm so fed up by this crap from Sanders against my party, and our presumptive nominee, that I already KNOW it would devolve into some very nasty things that I would say, out of FRUSTRATION.

[Alfresco]

5. Bernie is always giving advice but hardly ever seems to take it. Why is that?

[WhiteTara]

34. White men are the rule makers and

everyone else is supposed to listen and do what they are told to do.

[politicaljunkie41910]

37. Exactly. Bernie's actions are so condescending. He would have never done this to a man.

He thinks he can bully Clinton into submission because she is a women and men think that only they have all the answers. I assure you if HRC had been a man who had won by even 100 votes, not 3 million like Clinton did, and Bernie was telling him his list of demands, that man would tell him what to kiss and it wouldn't be his ring. Trust me. But because she's a woman, he thinks he can badger her into submission. I hope she stands firm.

[SidDithers]

6. Is anyone really listening to Bernie anymore?...

He's been entirely eclipsed by Warren, hasn't he?



Sid

[NurseJackie]

20. I wouldn't have known about what he's doing except for reading this thread.

And even then, I just stumbled in. I've long been done with actively keeping up with his daily activities.

[LexVegas]

7. Heh. nt

[BainsBane]

8. This kind of "populism"?

After Brexit Vote, U.K. Sees A Wave Of Hate Crimes And Racist Abuse
http://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2016/06/29/484038396/after-brexit-vote-u-k-sees-a-wave-of-hate-crimes-and-racist-abuse

The kind that has led to the election of national front parties and rise of racism and anti-immigrant sentiment?

That kind of "populism" isn't new. It predates what is commonly identified as globalization. Nazi Germany institutionalized it, and LePen--France's National Front party--has its origins in Nazism.

The globalization that certain Europeans object to is in the form of immigrants, human beings. Is that the wakeup call the Democratic Party needs, to quit trying to represent the diversity of America?

[Tom Rinaldo]

11. When the Left drops the banner of populism, the Right seizes it. n/t

[BainsBane]

16. Are you hoping for a

"Leftist" version of racism and xenophobia?

Europe has socialist parties and communist parties. The "populists" celebrated on the OP have displaced them. Populism is not leftist. Rather it appropriates people's struggles for political purposes, either to strengthen a state or advance a particular politician.

[Tom Rinaldo]

21. Of course not

Left populism is based in economic justice and solidarity among workers of all races. But when economic justice is lacking and no path forward toward it seems open, scapegoating of others to explain misfortune becomes the tool of fascists.

[BainsBane]

26. Only there are other options in most of Europe

As I said, actual socialist and communist parties, but the right is gaining strength. Your claim that it is because there is no leftist option is not true in many places.

Much of Europe has a more robust social welfare system than does the UK. They are now, as in recent decades, more conservative than much of the rest of Europe.

Then there is the fact that certain political factions are defining leftism in ways that exclude the great (non-white) majority, and their values and priorities are increasingly converging with the right. Heralding Bexit as a triumph again neoliberalism is evidence of that.

[uponit7771]

28. Nothing wrong with populism just something wrong with the racist side of it that brexit was

... based off of, Sanders is on the wrong side of this issue looking at the fact that 52% voted due to anti immigrant sentiments and it was stoked by the assholes in the UK

[JRLeft]

23. The Brexit vote was wrong, but if you cannot understand that

a lot of people who voted against were tired of getting a raw deal than you aren't paying attention. Most Britts cannot afford to live in London is a city of elites. Globlization has caused an explosion of global economic inequality between the .01% and the rest of us.

[BainsBane]

25. Capitalism has caused that

And in fact those disparities have existed for a long time, yet some want to go back to a time when those at the bottom weren't white men. To claim poverty is worse now is factually false. It is worse for a certain demographic, certain that their experiences are all that matter.

How beneficial do you think the slave trade was for the enslaved? have you ever looked at poverty stats for the 1950s or 1970s? How is it that the Impovrishment of the great majority for the benefit of the white male bourgeoisie was acceptable, but their incomes failing to rise in excess of the rest they look down upon not?

That entire argument is class, gender, and race based. There is a reason large segments of the population don't respond favorable to this discourse of returning to the good old days. It's because those days weren't good at all for most. The reason that argument takes on racial connotations is because it seeks to return to a past when the white bourgeoisie benefited from capitalist exploitation. For anyone but a certain segment of the white middle class, those days were worse.

People have made that point over and over again yet it is continually ignored. Doing so has to involve some sort of determination that the experiences of the subaltern don't matter.

[uponit7771]

29. +1

[JRLeft]

33. Neoliberal policies have exploded the income inequality gap and has done a lot of damage globally.

Margaret Thatcher economics have taken a hold globally. The market determines everything, and one thing it always guarantees is the people with all of the wealth will always get more.

The market based solutions ideology creates crisis that benefit the people with the majority of the wealth.

[MohRokTah]

9. .

[stonecutter357]

10. who?

[ecstatic]

12. Concern noted. Nt

[Orsino]

13. It's going to happen here if we can't act to reduce inequality and its attendant misery.

I can't join the sneering in this thread. What the hell do we think Occupy was about, and what do we think the next stage will look like?

[840high]

36. .that^

[hobbit709]

14. Many responses here show little or no knowledge of history.

[LuvLoogie]

15. Thanks for the warning, Bernie!!

[bklyncowgirl]

17. Sanders is the Cassandra of American politics

Ignore him at your peril.

[randome]

18. Elizabeth Warren will save us...from Bernie Sanders!

[Sheepshank]

24. I've lived in Europe and the USA...the voter temprament is very very different

to try and make a parallel is disingenuous at best, and only serves to undermine the Democratic nominee by helping spread the Trump illusion of anti-estbalishmentism. Something I was told he would not do.

[uponit7771]

27. 52% voted for brexit because of anti immigrant sentiment, Sanders is on the wrong side of this

... issue

[Koinos]

35. Understanding what is really going on in other countries...

is different from and much harder than applying simple ideological filters to complex historical events.

Clinton and Obama seem to have an excellent grasp of the motives behind and the consequences following Brexit.

We are fortunate that our nominee, Hillary Clinton, has been well schooled in foreign policy.