Photos courtesy of: Bernie Sanders-VA, 7.30.2013. Michael Bloomberg-DOD, 11.11.2012. Elizabeth Warren-CFPB, 4.13.2011. Joe Biden-LBJ Library, 10.3.2017.
Does Bernie Sanders’ ascent signify that the Democratic Party, older even than he is, has simply run out of gas?
Flirting with Socialism in the U.S.
Bernie, an unabashed socialist who was once an obscure senator from Vermont, is officially the frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination. Isn’t it time to confront what that means, asks Daniel Henninger in the WSJ.
What the Democratic Party Resembles
- Britain’s Labour
- France’s Socialists
- Germany’s Social Democrats and Christian Democrats
All of which have a declining voter base.
Low Turnout in Iowa
Besides incompetence, low turnout was the other big story out of Iowa
No Decisiveness in NH
Once past Bernie’s 25% cement-block base, many voters were flipping a coin in the voting booth to pick from the other candidates.
What does it mean that Elizabeth Warren, by now a household name, got dropped to fourth place?
Biden’s humiliating fifth is a personal disaster, but what does that say about the party itself?
Bloomberg the Savior?
Mike Bloomberg’s experience as a Democratic presidential candidate is a case study in the party’s flight from basic competence.
The former Republican New York City mayor is running on his record of proven ability, first building his company from nothing into greatness, then running a complex city.
But party dogma has forced Mr. Bloomberg to disavow stop-and-frisk, one of the policies that restored order to New York amid a crime crisis.
How interesting that Mr. Trump’s approval rating has risen while the Democrats debated, campaigned and impeached, continues Henninger.
Maybe amid the fog of Washington’s nonstop wars, voters are making choices about government competence, and concluding that Mr. Trump is by and large what he claimed to be—a can-do businessman. Imagine voting for that.
The Waffling of Democrats
It’s not just Joe Biden who waffles, writes Conrad Black in NRO before the NH primary results were in.
Is it not toe-curlingly embarrassing to see Michael Bloomberg apologize for the police policy of “stop and frisk,” the random search of people by police to determine if they are carrying unlicensed firearms. It was good policy and it reduced crime, but Bloomberg bugged out.
In today’s Democratic Party, all pressure is from and toward the left …
Amy Klobuchar deserves credit for dissenting and expressing reservations about a presidential nominee who is a declared socialist. She is the only candidate in the Democratic fray who has raised a peep of concern about scrambling leftward like a frightened spider. She preserves, to some extent, the fine conscientious tradition of Hubert Humphrey’s Minnesota Farmer-Labor Democrats.
Apart from (Klobuchar), this is a uniquely contemptible turn of events.
Read more here.
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