The American Prospect: Harold Meyerson: 'Bernie Sanders & The New Left'

Source:The American Prospect- U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (Democratic Socialist, Socialist Republic of Vermont) campaigning for President of the United States of America. Not Prime Minister of Scandinavia.

"What's with these kids?

In the wake of the Iowa caucuses, Hillary Clinton supporters are surely wondering how a previously obscure 74-year-old senator seems to have captured the imagination and support of millions of young people. Generations often have distinct political profiles, but seldom, if ever, has a presidential race polarized generations more than that between Clinton and Bernie Sanders. Since exit polls first popped up at the end of the 1960s, we've never seen one quite comparable to the one that emerged from Monday's Iowa Caucuses: Sanders's strength was at its greatest within the youngest age group (84 percent among caucusers under 30) and then declined in each successively older age band. Clinton's, of course, was the reverse: peaking among caucus attendees over 65 at 69 percent and then declining in each successively younger group. Sanders had a clear majority of voters under 45; Clinton, of those over.

A generation gap as wide as the Grand Canyon seems to be opening up in the Democratic Party and American liberalism more generally. To some in the opposing camps, the divisions appear rooted in incompatible ideologies and counterposed strategic conceptions of how to promote the progressive cause. Look more closely, however-as both sides must-and the divide appears less fundamental, less socialism-versus-liberalism, less idealism-versus-pragmatism. The Democratic Party as a whole is moving left, but at two different speeds. What makes these differences seem so intense is less a sharp clash of beliefs, and more that the divisions have emerged in the course of an almost unimaginably high-stakes presidential contest."

Source:The American Prospect 

Back in 2008, when then Senator Barack Obama was running for president, the New-Left in America which were predominantly Millennial’s in their twenties and Gen-Xer’s in their thirties and forties, overwhelmingly supported Senator Obama’s presidential campaign. Why? Because they saw him as one of them, a Socialist. Instead of supporting an actual McGovernite Socialist like Representative Dennis Kucinich, they supported Senator Obama for president.

An obvious case of high school students not doing their homework, or perhaps giving their homework to their dogs and then using that as an excuse for not doing their homework. Go to a bad enough high school and you might pull that off with one of your teachers. But Barack Obama is obviously not a Socialist. Even if the whacked out Tea Party believes otherwise. What President Obama has been, is a true Progressive. In someone who believes in using government to create progress across the board. But is very practical in how to accomplish that progress.

Now, go up eight years later to today and the New-Left has finally found their McGovernite Socialist. Someone who wants to almost completely transform the American economic system short of nationalizing it. Which might be somewhat disappointing for some on the New-Left. As well as Senator Bernie Sanders not being on board when it comes to political correctness, outlawing private ownership of guns and the broader nanny state in general.

If you want to call Bernie a Liberal, fine! But add Socialist to that and you got a Socialist Liberal, whose very liberal on social issues. Meaning someone who believes in limited, if not small government when it comes to personal freedom issues. But someone who is very socialist on economic and foreign policy. Big believer in big centralized national government. With high taxes across the board to finance it.

If somehow Minnesota were to go through an August heat wave next week and see temperatures of a hundred degrees in February and Seattle were to run out of both coffee and water as well during the same week and Uncle Sam were to outlaw all taxation, again in the same week and Bernie Sanders somehow managed to win the Democratic nomination for president in what is still a Center-Left progressive (not socialist) Democratic Party and not the Far-Left Green Party, some of his supporters might actually be disappointed in him.

We’re not talking about a Communist here who wants to outlaw all forms of individual freedom and individualism here. But a Socialist-Liberal or Democratic Socialist, who is down with the New-Left perhaps on 99% of the economic and foreign policy issues. But someone who is a big believer in personal freedom. Which is something for the New-Left to think about. We’re not talking about a Communist candidate for president, but a true Democratic Socialist. Like Norman Thomas, Henry Wallace, or George McGovern. 

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