After looking at what a Joe Biden presidency (and then a Kamala Harris presidency) would actually look like–it’s time to look at the rest of the Democratic “Top 5.” Do I think Bernie will actually be the nominee? No, but crazier things have happened…
–His fans would be extremely disappointed. “There are only two tragedies in life: one is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it.”–Oscar Wilde
Wilde was talking about how disappointing things we really, really want often are–and no fan base in American politics is more ferociously, consistently passionate than Bernie’s.
It doesn’t seem to matter that the majority of things Bernie’s focused on (domestic issues that require congressional approval to pass major structural change) aren’t things the President actually controls, and he’d need super-majorities in both houses to pass any of the bigger things he wants the most. BUT he’s also not really focused on getting those majorities, since he has an almost pathological resentment of that mythical game-rigger “the DNC” and 90% of Democrats who are members of it. A President who needs super-majorities in both houses of congress to pass what he wants, but isn’t even popular within in his own party–which he actually isn’t even a member of? This can’t end well for his fans…”Bernie Disillusionment Syndrome” may surpass the largely-fictional “Trump Derangement Syndrome.”
–Not much would get done. In 2016, Bernie was running on a senate record that was 400 bills authored but only 3 passed.
For the Presidency, he wants to break up telecom companies and tech monopolies, end the military industrial complex as we know it, change the rules for campaign finance and lobbying, end subsidies to fossil fuel giants and agro-chemical behemoths, increase the minimum wage, break up the big banks, end off-shoring and the trade deals that favor it, change America’s relationship with Israel and Saudi Arabia and probably pull out of the Middle East altogether, end private health insurance, change Big Pharma, strengthen labor unions, pass a wealth tax, give all current prisoners including death row murderers the right to vote, change the prison industrial complex, hurt the NRA in some unspecified way, change the immigration system, and hammer Wall Street. [I’m sure I’m forgetting at least 10 things.]
It’s a liberal’s dream, and I’ll admit that about two-thirds of those things sound great. The problem is that means that every huge, powerful industry in America (defense contractors, the military, private prisons, private insurance, Big Pharma, Big Agri, Big Chemical, Big Banks, Big guns, Big Tech, Big Telecom, Dark Money for campaigns, Super-PACs, lobbyists, Saudi-funded think tanks, the Israel Lobby, Wall Street, and the most odious of them all, Fossil Fuels) will lose a ton of money or become substantially less powerful if what he wants gets passed. Standing up to every powerful person in the United States is a tall order for an 80-year-old who could die of a heart attack at any minute, and I have to express skepticism that much of Sanders’s agenda or any of it would be enacted. There’s a reason Trump spends most of his days ranting on Twitter, and very little of what he really wants (like the Wall) is actually happening: the American Presidency isn’t as potent as it used to be or as people think. I know blowhards like George Will think otherwise, but if you see what Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Jackson were able to do during their presidencies, and how Obama was barely able to pass gas under McConnell’s obstructionist senate–the contrast is clear.
–Foreign policy would get complicated. Sanders would immediately re-enact some of the Obama-era agreements Trump reneged on (The Paris Climate Accords and the Iran Deal), and that’s good. But the foreign policy he brings up the most is fundamentally changing America’s relationship with Saudi Arabia and (perhaps less good) Israel.
Sanders has shown no interest whatsoever in going after Russia (he was the ONLY Democrat or Independent to not vote for sanctions against them in 2017), and there’s no question the Russians helped his campaign too in 2016. He probably won’t be an active participant in their sabotage (unlike Trump), but he definitely seems to want they want: an isolationist America that retreats from the world stage. It’s also not unfathomable that he would select Tulsi Gabbard as his VP, and then die early into his first term–thus giving Russians another puppet in the Oval Office, one that is even more witting than Trump.
Overall: You’d see a Presidency perhaps very similar to Jimmy Carter’s–very well-meaning but unlikely to accomplish much. I do believe Sanders is a good man trying his best to do what’s right, but that doesn’t mean I think he’ll be able to do it. And I’m concerned that he won’t differ much with Trump on foreign policy (the thing the American President actually controls), which is hugely important to me. Some good ideas, but I question the messenger more than the message. Excitement level for a Bernie Presidency: B-