Not You. Him.

Bernie Sanders in 2020?

Of all the twenty-odd people running for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination in 2020, Bernie Sanders - who, last time I checked is an independent, not a Democrat - is the only one who stood for the Presidency in the 2016 campaign.  Of course, I had always assumed that Martin O'Malley would be the lone "repeat offender" from last time around to try again for the Presidency this time, but he decided that Democrats want something fresher than he could offer.  Hillary Clinton ultimately decided not to run again because Democrats can't be bothered with renominating failed nominees.  And, of course, Lincoln Chafee decided not to run again because Americans can't be bothered with learning the metric system.  (I won't do more than mention Jim Webb and Lawrence Lessig, because no one did more than mention them in 2016.)  So why does Sanders think he has a good shot the second time around, especially when there are so many more "progressive" candidates like Elizabeth Warren, who have more detailed policies?

The answer?  His ego.

Bernie Sanders says his campaign is about us, not him.  Trust me, it's about him.  He did so well in the 2016 Democratic presidential primaries and caucuses and built up such a large following that the adulation he got encouraged him to run again.  He enjoys the attention.  So what if newer, fresher presidential candidates have similar platforms?  So what if there are other Democratic candidates who are more electable?  Bernie has . . . a following!  He has a fan base! Also, his supporters are still plenty mad at the Democratic National Committee for rigging the 2016 primaries and caucuses against him that they're standing by him . . . and they will tolerate no opposition to him.  Sanders supporters are the Islamic State of Democratic politics.  It's either him . . . or no one.

And that's exactly who will defeat Trump if Bernie bros (and Bernie sisses) exact revenge on the party establishment on behalf of their guy.  No one.

This isn't the time for a new American "revolution," as Sanders himself puts it.  This is the time for a coup.  First we gotta depose Trump, even if it means having a moderate Democrat oppose him in 2020; we can worry about fundamental change later.  But Sanders supporters can't be bothered with reality, so they can't be bothered with accepting a centrist as the Democratic presidential nominee, even if the nation at large is centrist.  They can't even accept a Democratic presidential nominee who's a pragmatic progressive, as O'Malley was and as some of the other 2020 candidates are.  They're so detached from reality that they think their guy can turn America into a social democratic paradise like Denmark.

President Lincoln Chafee would have had better luck making the metric system official.

Look, in the unlikely event that Sanders gets elected to the White House, there is no way that he can do in four or eight years what it took decades for European countries to do - create a fair, equitable, just democratic-socialist society.  All of the programs and amenities in European countries that give left-leaning Americans a serious case of Euro envy - universal health care, quality education, sensible gun laws, intercity passenger trains that don't look like they belong in a railway museum - were developed over time and in the tradition of a paternal approach to governing that is commonplace in Europe (because of all of those kings and queens European countries used to have and in some cases, like Denmark, still do) but is anathema to Americans.  Yeah, we were once better off than European countries.  But part of the reason the United States had better living standards and higher wages than European countries in the fifties and sixties, a time that Sanders ironically alludes to as much as Trump does, is because those same countries we envy now were still rebuilding themselves after the Second World War.  That's when they began building their current economic systems.  And even if we can develop a system that allows us to have nice things but doesn't necessarily lead to an Old World-style nanny state, how could President Sanders develop all of that when he'd still have to deal with the Republicans, who are favored to hold the Senate for years to come?   

Also, quite frankly, it is not the time to try to build the sort of social democratic system Sanders envisions.  We are running up massive deficits and debts.  To graduate to an economic system like the ones in France or Germany, we have to be where we were in 2016 when Barack Obama was ready to step down from the Presidency.  But Donald Trump has taken us backwards since then with his tax cuts and his deregulation, and he's shredded the national social fabric in the process . . . and so we need a moderate or a pragmatic liberal to at least get us back to where we were before Trump before we can start aspiring to something better.  And even if a Joe Biden or a Cory Booker gets us back to where we were in 2016, it may be too late to build the sort of society that European nations enjoy.  Because Europe itself is going through convulsions.  Britain is trying to leave the European Union.  Both Britain and Germany are seeing strains on their health care systems.   In France, working-class people are protesting every Saturday against the government's economic policies that they say benefit the more well-off and make the average person bear the brunt of fuel taxes and other fees.  Italy is a goddamned mess.  Spain is broke.  Sanders has a lot of gall to propose for America a system that's buckling in other countries.  Unless European countries can reform their own social democratic systems - maybe they can, maybe they can't - there's no way Sanders can sell such a system for America. 

I was never a big Sanders fan.  When Martin O'Malley dropped out of the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination contest and Sanders was the only one opposing Hillary Clinton for the nomination, I unenthusiastically backed him at first, but I ultimately decided not to participate in the 2016 New Jersey primary and surrender my independent status to vote as a Democrat for . . . an independent.  Sanders' temperament and his lack of pragmatism had always been a problem for me anyway, despite the fact that he didn't differ all that much from O'Malley on policy, and his continued abrasiveness has soured me on him even more.  He's only going to split the Democrats and help Trump if he continues to dominate the debate as he does now.  And for all of you who are still enamored with the idea of a "revolution" . . . it took the French more than eighty years after the Bastille was stormed to establish a working democracy, and they've always been willing to go to the mat more than we'll ever be.  How does that Ten Years After song go?  I'd love to change the world, but I'll leave it up to you.  That's how Americans are in general, and I imagine that's how a lot of Sanders supporters - many of whom lead quite comfortable lives, even if they still live with their folks - are as well.