Pissing Off 97% of the Left Wing Internet

No one is going to read this anyway, so here goes. Stuart Rothenberg saying something I've come to think lately. The Republicans are licking their chops at any prospect of facing Bernie Sanders in the same way Democrats are at facing Trump or Cruz.

Though the Vermont senator’s supporters won’t like to hear it, Sanders has plenty in common with both Donald Trump and Ted Cruz.

Like Cruz, Sanders is an ideologue who resists compromise. And like Trump, Sanders has simple answers to complex problems and sounds as if he doesn’t appreciate the dramatic, and often deeply unsettling, consequences that his policies would produce.

Despite that Sanders sticker on the back of the pick-up, I'll be filling in the circles for Hillary and her delegates come Tuesday. I have the same problem with his thinking that I do with the pie in the sky that Funiciello was selling in 2014. Rothenberg links to this piece in the WashPo as well. 

“The danger for the United States is that it would wind up looking more like Italy and Greece than Denmark and Sweden,” Zingales said.

Attitudes toward globalization make up another difference. Free trade is so widely accepted in Scandinavia that it even has strong support from organized labor.

“Their unions recognize that for their workers to have a job, companies need to export to grow and be successful,” Kirkegaard said. By contrast, Sanders has made common cause with American unions in proposing to roll back every trade treaty signed since the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in the 1990s.

Bernie is a nice guy and we had fun on the date, but I'm afraid I'm tying the knot with Hillary. 

The fact that Sanders, who continues to embrace the socialist label, is doing as well as he is ought to worry party strategists.

Shortly after the Democratic Party’s 2006 midterm election victory, New York Sen. Chuck Schumer and then-Illinois Rep. Rahm Emanuel warned their colleagues that Democrats needed to prove that they could govern, that they could be pragmatic and work to improve things for the middle class.

My concern is winning the election. Sanders is untested. Hillary has been tested repeatedly for the last 28 years. I believe she may be what Obama promised to be. She will likely move to the left as a result of the battle with Bernie. That's to the good. 

One thing remains clear. Swing voters remain in the middle, so the further left the Democratic Party moves, the more ammunition it gives to the GOP, whether in 2016, 2018 or beyond. 

Let's not go so far left we step off the cliff. There is a chance the Republicans moderate their message enough to become electable at some point. Maybe it won't be this year, but it could come in 2020. There are good points to be found in conservatism, despite the radicalism the current Republican party has adopted.

Here's the PS pissing off fantasists.