Once Again, Bernie Sanders is Taken out of Context
From the Democratic primary to now, the centrist wing of the party has constantly decried purity tests, the idea that Democrats should maintain a largely uniform leftist platform that the whole party should adhere to. This is in response to any criticism when a Democrat holds a position or supports a policy that is centrist or just right wing. The center never says what the bare minimum actually should be, it’s just a knee jerk response meant to deflect from the completely valid criticism. Lately this has largely been in response to Bernie Sanders trying to pull the Democratic Party away from Wall Street and the donor class.
Bernie Sanders was being interviewed on Morning Joe and talked about a variety of issues, including how the Democratic Party needs to move further to the left and engage with the grassroots to reverse the disastrous electoral losses. The following quote was tweeted out and Twitter went wild.
Scarborough: “Can the democratic party be more open to candidates who are not rigidly pro-choice, who are not rigidly pro-gun control?”
Sanders: “The answer, I think, is yes.”
Bernie was accused of selling out women and abortion rights, that all he cares about are economic issues and Wall Street. When I saw it, I was initially dismayed as well. A leftist movement will not succeed and will not be sufficient unless it also makes abortion rights a key plank of its platform. However, several of the people mad at Bernie Sanders were supporters of Hillary Clinton, who herself said that she would be willing to compromise on abortion, and picked Tim Kaine who only recently has taken a more pro choice stance.
Regardless, this tweet did not show the full context of Bernie’s answer. The full context doesn’t make his answer perfect, but it certainly dispels any notion that Bernie believes the party should be moving to the right on cultural or social issues. Here’s the full video, the relevant section taking place at 8:20.
Joe Scarborough talks about how maybe the Democratic Party should recruit candidates that connect to working class red state voters on “cultural issues” like abortion or gun control, but be economically to the left. Bernie Sanders responded by talking about how the Northeast of Vermont is fairly conservative but that Bernie Sanders does well in that area even though he is incredibly pro-choice and pro-gay rights. He then talks about how he has been to West Viriginia and seen the people working longer hours and less wages, and that those are the issues the Democratic Party needs to organize around.
Joe Scarborough responds that Democrats should win West Virginia, but the “cultural divide” is what allows Donald Trump to win the state. As Joe is saying this Bernie begins to do is patented finger wag and shaking his head in disagreement. Joe then asks the question seen in the tweet and when Bernie answers, he says “I think, yes” but he quickly moves on from that, almost ignoring the question and says that Democrats cannot go into southern states and be “Republican lite”, they have to stand up to Wall Street and the donor class and that “the rest will fall into place.” Bernie Sanders should not have said “I think, yes”, but his overall point directly contradicted and went against what Scarborough is saying.
Bernie Sanders, who had an equivalent or even stronger pro-choice view than the Democratic candidates for President or Vice President, is arguing that the point isn’t that you have to align with every single issue of a red state voter in order to win them over, seen in the example of him in Vermont. Bernie Sanders effectively sold himself as on their side because of his stances on Wall Street and the insurance companies, so that even though he is pro-choice, pro-life people are willing to vote for him because they think he has their backs. Winning red states doesn’t require candidates that love God and guns, it requires candidates that are willing to meet the material needs of people, which is Bernie’s overall point.
The irony in all of this is that Bernie Sanders and other leftists have not even come close to making the point that Democrats should move to the right or compromise on abortion rights or gay rights, it’s centrists that have done so. Major op eds in the New York Times by center or center left writers have blamed “social justice” issues for Trump winning the election. Joe Scarborough is a former Republican who is making this point and Bill Clinton himself is the one that took this approach in winning his elections. He executed a black man to prove to people he was tough on crime while taking on the persona of being a man of the working class, although he had strictly neoliberal fiscal policies.
It’s absurd to say that the establishment of the Democratic Party is even remotely to the left on social issues. They came extremely late on gay marriage and only when public opinion came around. It was centrist Bart Stupak who held up the ACA by demanding more abortion restrictions. John Bel Edwards of Louisiana signed the Blue Lives Matter law, and Joe Manchin voted for Jeff Sessions to become Attorney General. It’s centrist democrats who are going to vote for Gorsuch, an exceptionally pro-life judge,not leftists.
Purity tests are simply used over and over, but we never hear what issues are necessary to be a part of the Democratic party. The primary made it seem like economic issues were secondary to social issues, but that didn’t make sense considering Clinton’s recent past on gay marriage, comments on compromising on abortion, and her stance of being in favor of the death penalty. What calling for a purity test really means is that the party should be some type of Frankenstein in which it’s only goal is to appeal to short term electoral trends and maintain incredibly fragile governing coalitions that shatter after two years.
Bernie Sanders had another clumsy statement, but it was also taken out of context. I’d like him to just be better at making his point, but his overall point is different from what was portrayed: That you can still win over people who disagree with you on key issues by demonstrating you represent them and not the powerful. When looking at the entirety of this discussion, Bernie Sanders rejects the notion that one must abandon abortion rights in order to win working class voters in red states. For liberals to decry Bernie Sanders for this statement as they repeatedly defend the very people who have compromised on abortion and gay rights, it’s obvious this is more about their grudge towards Sanders than any concern about a uniform left wing party.
