David Harsanyi of the Federalist offers a cold dose of reality to Bernie Sanders’ supporters.
Let’s concede that the media’s distress about Donald Trump’s nomination is well founded. I certainly believe so.
If so, surely it’s also fair to point out that Bernie Sanders is by any measure an authoritarian as well. In many ways, Sanders’ proposed state intrusions into the lives of citizens are more significant, enduring, intrusive, and revolutionary than Trump’s. These positions, by the way, were not so long ago considered completely outside the norms of mainstream political discourse.
Somehow it seems to escape the attention of most of those covering the race that Bernie is a champion of an economic system that has caused more suffering and destitution than any other in modern history. It is almost impossible for nations to kick. Yet Sanders has, at various times, proposed state control over whole — or large parts of — the energy, health care, transportation, and education sectors because, well, he’s a socialist. (Yes, democratic socialists tend to attain power through “democratic” means in countries where democratic systems are in place.)
I’m old enough (and I say this seriously) to recall a time when it was considered contemptible to suggest that liberals were in any way sympathetic to the cause of collectivism. Even now, Twitter has a RedScareBot that will mock you as some kind of paranoid McCarthyite for bringing up “socialism.” Yet on Monday, Americans were subjected to the economic illiteracy of three of the most extreme anti-capitalist politicians — Keith Ellison, Elizabeth Warren, and Sanders — ever to appear on stage at a major party’s convention.
