Three Keys to Victory for Bernie Sanders
Welcome to 20 for 20, a series on the presidential candidates.
With Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders announcing his candidacy for president today, let’s look at the 2 or 3 advantages he’s picked up in the past few years that could potentially lift him to the White House.
Medicare-for-all
A total of 17 Democratic Senators signed onto Sanders’ Medicare-for-all bill, including presidential nominees Kirsten Gillibrand, Kamala Harris, Cory Booker, and Elizabeth Warren. Healthcare is the one issue in which Bernie Sanders is not just vaguely considered more liberal than the rest, but is the unequivocal progressive leader.
And here’s the thing, there’s a case to be made that if Medicare-for-all wasn’t embraced by Democrats the way that it has been, Bernie would not be considered a frontrunner this time around. The acceptance of Medicare-for-all among notable Democratic leaders, I think, might have eliminated any cap to Bernie’s support that may have existed in the past.
It wouldn’t be difficult to imagine an alternate world, for example, where Sanders fails to convince Democrats of his signature proposal’s feasibility. This could have left Sanders as the Rand Paul of the left, a politician with a base of support that is unique and stable, yet too small to win the nomination. Instead, Sanders has moved from outsider to standard bearer in just a handful of years.
Prior Candidacy
Sanders is one of many former candidates to take another crack at the presidency. However, one of the reasons former candidates often win their primaries the next time around is that they’ve gained institutional standing from one election to the next. This sort of next person up dynamic is something Mitt Romney, John McCain, and Hillary Clinton all experienced. Sanders has not.
But also keep in mind that each of the three candidates I just mentioned ended up losing in the general election. The last time a former candidate won their parties nomination on attempt #2 and then went on to win the presidency was actually Ronald Reagan in 1980. Reagan’s path to presidency, by the way, looks a lot like a would-be Bernie path. Reagan nearly won the nomination in 1976 against incumbent Gerald Ford by establishing himself as solidly further right than his opponent, and then in 1980 he faced a very unpopular president in Jimmy Carter.
It’s possible to over-read the tea leaves here, but the relationship between Bernie’s 2016 run and this one is something worth paying attention to.
Open Borders
In an interview with Ezra Klein, Sanders responded with the following on a question about global poverty and open borders.
Sanders: “Open borders? No, that’s a Koch brothers proposal.”
Klein: “Really?”
Sanders: “Of course, I mean that’s a right wing proposal which says essentially there is no United States…What right wing people in this country would like is an open border policy. Bring in all kinds of people, work for $2 or $3 an hours, that would be great for [right wing people]. I don’t believe in that. I think we have to raise wages in this country. I think we have to do everything we can to create millions of jobs.”
The idea that open borders are a tool for wealthy corporations, however true or not true, is a stance not shared by the typical Democrat. What I most take away from this quote is that President Trump, a right wing business owner who has employed undocumented workers, would have quite a bit of trouble convincing voters that Sanders wants immigrants to flood into the country to take away our jobs.
On the other hand, a perceived lack of sympathy for disenfranchised people such as the Dreamers might be a death blow for Sanders in the primary, making any potential strengths against Trump obsolete.
