Bernie Sanders
Related: About this forumWash Post: Bernie Sanders is the realist we should elect
By Katrina vanden Heuvel
As the Iowa caucuses near, Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) have released TV ads that together echo a popular theme in the mainstream media. Clintons ad depicts the job of the presidency as tough and change as hard. You need someone experienced who can face down foreign adversaries and stand up to reactionary Republicans. Sanderss ad with Simon and Garfunkels America stirring memories offers the romance of the United States coming together. Many of the pundits agree this is a choice between head and heart. If Democrats think with their heads, they will go with Hillary; with their hearts, with Bernie.
But this conventional wisdom clashes with the reality that this country has suffered serial devastations from choices supported by the establishments responsible candidates. On fundamental issue after issue, it is the candidate of the heart who is in fact grounded in common sense. It wasnt Sanderss emotional appeal, but his clearsightedness that led the Nation magazine, which I edit, to make only its third presidential endorsement in a primary in its 150-year history.
For example, foreign policy is considered Clintons strength. When terrorism hits the headlines, she gains in the polls. Yet the worst calamity in U.S. foreign policy since Vietnam surely was George W. Bushs invasion of Iraq. Clinton voted for that war; Sanders got it right and voted against. Clinton has since admitted her vote was a mistake but seems to have learned little from that grievous misjudgment. As secretary of state, she championed regime change in Libya that left behind another failed state rapidly becoming a backup base for the Islamic State. She pushed for toppling Bashar al-Assad in the Syrian civil war and lobbied for arming the Syrian opposition, a program that ended up supplying more weapons to the Islamic State than to anyone else. Now she touts a no fly zone in Syria, an idea that has been dismissed by the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff as requiring some 70,000 troops to enforce, and by President Obama as well. People thinking with their heads rather than their hearts might well prefer Sanderss skepticism about regime change to Clintons hawkishness.
The worst economic calamity since the Great Depression came when the excesses of Wall Street created the housing bubble and financial crisis that blew up the economy. Clinton touts her husband economic record, but he championed the deregulation that helped unleash the Wall Street wilding. The banks, bailed out by taxpayers, are bigger and more concentrated than they were before the crash. Someone using their head not their heart would want to make certain that the next president is independent of Wall Street and committed to breaking up the big banks and shutting down the casino. But Clinton opposes key elements of Sen. Elizabeth Warrens (D-Mass.) rational reform agenda for the banks, and her money ties to Wall Street lead any rational observer to conclude shes an uncertain trumpet for reform.
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/bernie-sanders-is-the-realist-we-should-elect/2016/01/26/6af4d268-c392-11e5-a4aa-f25866ba0dc6_story.html
Erich Bloodaxe BSN
(14,733 posts)jillan
(39,451 posts)He was eloquent at that moment!
mucifer
(23,542 posts)Magazine. Good to see her getting the word out in the Washington Post
n2doc
(47,953 posts)merrily
(45,251 posts)My first thought on seeing the headlines was WAPO seems to be suffering from personality split this week. Then, when I saw the name of the author, I understood.
leftcoastmountains
(2,968 posts)retrowire
(10,345 posts)Duval
(4,280 posts)Her article gives a clear insight into "why" she is for Sanders. And why I am, also. This post has brightened my day. Thanks n2doc!
Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts)Americans like the idea of bombing brown people.