Tensions between Democratic Party loyalists and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders are reaching a boiling point as the democratic socialist cemented his front-runner status for the party’s 2020 presidential nomination.
Ahead of his decisive victory in the Nevada caucuses, Sanders tweeted out a message that has been a central theme in his campaign: “I’ve got news for the Republican establishment. I’ve got news for the Democratic establishment. They can’t stop us.”
Such a message, though pivotal to his campaign and adorned by his supporters, sparked anger among traditional Democrats across media and politics. With strong Sanders showings in the early voting state contests so far, multiple candidates in the Democratic field have begun ripping the Vermont senator for his ideology of socialism, which they claim is not representative of the public.
“I ain’t a socialist, I ain’t a plutocrat; I’m a Democrat and proud of it. And I promise you, I wasn’t talking about running in the Democratic primary against him in 2012,” Former Vice President Joe Biden said after taking distant second in the Nevada caucus, referring to the time Sanders nearly launched a primary campaign against the former President Barack Obama.
On the debate stage of the ninth Democratic presidential debate, Michael Bloomberg argued that should Sanders obtain the party’s nomination for president, President Trump would be propelled to reelection.
“I can’t think of a way that would make it easier for Donald Trump to get reelected than listening to this conversation. This is ridiculous,” said the former New York City mayor. “We’re not going to throw out capitalism. We tried that. Other countries tried that. It was called communism, and it just didn’t work.”
Former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg similarly slammed Sanders after the Vermont senator’s Nevada caucus win on Saturday night, trashing his campaign as “an inflexible, ideological revolution that leaves out most Democrats, not to mention most Americans” in a speech to supporters.
Buttigieg echoed that argument in a recent interview with MSNBC host Chris Matthews, saying, “Most Americans and, for that matter, most Democrats don’t identify with a socialist who thinks that capitalism is the root of all evil. Capitalism has all kinds of failures, which is why we need a strong Democrat ready to ensure that we hold corporations accountable, support labor unions, raise wages.”
Matthews himself has been an outspoken anti-Sanders Democrat and has been warning liberals that the Democratic socialist’s ideology makes him unelectable for months.
In early February, he said Sanders’s campaign is reminiscent of Fidel Castro’s communist regime in Cuba. Matthews added that the Vermont senator has failed to persuade him that his ideas reflect a European-style social safety net, while also claiming that the Democratic Party has yet to figure out its core ideology.
“You know, I have my own views of the word ‘socialist,'” he said. “They go back to the early 1950s. I have an attitude about them. I remember the Cold War. I have an attitude towards Castro. I believe if Castro and the Reds had won the Cold War, there would have been executions in Central Park, and I might’ve been one of the ones getting executed, and certain other people would be there cheering, OK? So, I have a problem with people who took the other side.”
Matthews also compared Sanders’s victory in Nevada to the Nazi regime’s takeover of France during World War II.
“I was reading last night, Brian — I know that you’re a history guy — I’m reading last night about the fall of France in the summer of 1940,” Matthews said. “And the general, Reynaud, calls up Churchill and says, ‘It’s over.’ And Churchill says, ‘How can it be? You’ve got the greatest army in Europe. How can it be over?’ He said, ‘It’s over,” he said.
Additionally, James Carville, a former adviser to President Bill Clinton, attacked Sanders as a “communist” after he called Carville a “political hack.”
“Last night on CNN, Bernie called me a political hack. That’s exactly who the f— I am! I am a political hack!” Carville said in mid-February. “I am not an ideologue. I am not a purist. [Sanders] thinks it’s a pejorative. I kinda like it! At least I’m not a communist.”
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has not yet embraced her 2016 rival’s campaign and thinks Sanders will repeat his “divisive” strategy in 2020.
“All the way up until the end, a lot of people highly identified with his campaign were urging people to vote third-party, urging people not to vote,” Clinton, 72, said in a January podcast interview. “It had an impact … That cannot happen again,” she said, alluding to the 2020 election.
Clinton has also slammed Sanders’s ideology, saying it prohibits him from engaging in compromise or making friendships in Congress.
“He was in Congress for years. He had one senator support him. Nobody likes him. Nobody wants to work with him. He got nothing done. He was a career politician. It’s all just baloney, and I feel so bad that people got sucked into it,” she said for an upcoming Hulu documentary debuting in March, which will likely open up old wounds from 2016.
But as the 2020 election rages on, the Democratic Party will be confronted with whether or not it will rally behind its nominee for president. While many centrist Democrats are still resistant to accepting the prospect of a Sanders nomination, warning that his “socialist” label may not fair well with general election voters, others are coming around to the idea.
