It is the essence of American liberalism to trash radical dreams and then dance on them. And that’s just what the New York Times did the day after Bernie Sanders bowed out of the Democratic race for the nomination. On that day, in a special editorial (4/9/20), the editors of the very same paper that disparaged his every move opined that America is divided and our democracy corrupt, and launched a series promising to report on just the sort of transformative policies Sanders advocated.
The New York Times (4/9/20) found it safe to acknowledge that “those with wealth increasingly shape the course of policymaking” the day after the last candidate who spoke out against the power of the wealthy dropped out of the race for the Democratic presidential nomination.
“A great divide separates affluent Americans, who fully enjoy the benefits of life in the wealthiest nation on earth, from the growing portion of the population whose lives lack stability or any real prospect of betterment,” they wrote.
In the Times‘ world, it’s apparently OK to bemoan a society and an economy that privileges the rich over the poor, but it’s unacceptable to run for the presidency on a promise to reverse those priorities.
“The United States has a chance to emerge from this latest crisis as a stronger nation, more just, more free and more resilient. We must seize the opportunity,” wrote the editors.
The words look pretty on the page, snug in among the Tiffany ads. But when a campaign seeks to seize not just opportunity, but power—and spread it around—the same paper’s reporters and headline writers called that campaign and the candidate leading it “threatening,” “menacing” and “unelectable.”
“The wealthy are particularly successful in blocking changes they don’t like,” the Times writes now, as if their own paper has played no role in that. On the eve of the decisive March 10 Midwest primaries, the week before which Sanders was leading in the polls, columnist Thomas Friedman (3/10/20) redbaited Bernie for the umpteenth time, deliberately distorting democratic socialism as Stalinism, and accusing Sanders of “demonizing the engines of capitalism and job creation.”
The truth is, the New York Times, the paper of record of US liberalism, likes the progressive pose. With gravitas, they write that out of the coronavirus crisis, “there’s a chance to build a better America.”
But it didn’t take a pandemic to wake 13 million Americans to that chance and to vote for it in 2016, or 2.1 million of them to contribute to that effort in this race. Those millions didn’t need all this new, unnecessary death to hear the death knell sounding for status quo America. What they needed was a fairer chance against the establishment media.
This post originally appeared as a commentary on the Laura Flanders Show (4/10/20).
Flanders concludes: they write that out of the coronavirus crisis, “there’s a chance to build a better America.”
Possibly, and a near certainty, if by some permutation, Covid-19 causes the total and complete demise of the New York Times. Short of the eradication of the GOP and all its corrupt supporters, nothing else would more advance the cause of democracy in this country.
This is the same thing that happened at Daily Kos, a so-called liberal blog founded and published by Marcos Moulitsas, who took every opportunity to trash Sanders while pretending that liberal ideas are wonderful. This time around, Moulitsas proved that he is not a centrist, he’s a Republican. Daily Kos sent out a hundreds of petitions throughout Trumps term and has its own youtube news feed. Moulitsas insists that Pelosi is all but sacred and that Biden, a person who gets lost in mid sentence, who voted against a number of popular democratic initiatives, is our only hope of beating Trump even though Sanders was drawing enormous crowds. And maybe Biden will win. If he does, it won’t be on his own steam. It will be because the big money that runs this country has decided that Trump is a bull in a china shop.
In my view, it’s all over. The same virus that has rotted the GOP now completely controls the DNC. We are officially a fascist state. Greed is worse than covid-19. It spreads like wildfire and it’s just as deadly.
Una pena.una lastima que Bernie se haya retirado de la lucha electoral..Deja una bella escuela de conocimiento y amor por los que menos tienen. La derecha economica de EEUU sin dudas que festeja…con alivio. Bernie ha hecho buena escuela en los jovenes que despiertan y desean un nuevo pais.Un abrazo desde Neuquen.Argentina
And yet, who does Ari Melber have on The Beat just days ago touting a “National Unity Government”? Thomas Friedmann. The man is a jackal.
Like 2016 Sanders ran a pathetic campaign. In ’16, he announced at the advent of his campaign, he would endorse everything he ran against when he was smooshed by the Dimocratic machine. When everybody was rubbing their eyes in confusion at Hillary’s email scandal it was left to Bernie to trot out the royal pardon. Did it matter the nature of the issue that bounced that warmonger out of the race? This year he couldn’t even defeat Hillary Redux. Except enfeebled. Sanders is betraying his voters by withdrawing. He’s nowhere near mathematically eliminated. It wouldn’t take much for Biden’s decrepitude to catch up with him and the country and the door open to someone who’s policy positions begin to address the massive problems we face. As Jimmy Dore often says, the Dims would rather lose to Trump than win with Bernie.
Potshot,
I do not blame Bernie’s campaign, although if it had gone tit for tat with the most incompetent campaign ever run, Bernie’s chances would have increased.I believe that if Bernie had played the game and floated a Black woman VP he would have gained another 10 points and MAYBE won South Carolina. HOWEVER… When I watched Clyburn give Bernie credit for helping him open medical clinics in his state for the 20% of South Carolina’s population who have no health insurance, since Obama Care was not adopted, and then endorse Biden, whose negotiating skills as top dog in the Senate during the Obama administration clearly did not benefit South Carolina, I knew what Lucy Parson said was true. “Never be deceived that the rich will allow you to vote away their wealth.”
No campaign was a match against all of the liberal media, with the exception of Joy Behar, Fox News and nearly all of the Democratic politicians. They piled it on at the very last minute and it was impossible to overcome. I regret getting my hopes up that the Democratic party had learned a lesson from 2016 and would provide a better candidate this time around. I think the DNC insiders decided that they were better off with Trump than with Bernie and they propped up a fool who has zero shot of winning the general election.
I gave up after South Carolina. It was not Bernie, it was low information voters who stood in a single file and voted as they were told to vote. I thought that maybe in the midst of a pandemic, people would think about their own best interest, but I believe that the masses simply do not want to think at all. They want to be told what to do and they do as they are told. This country is not ready for Bernie. But it was not a total loss.
The CARE Act would never have occurred but for Bernie. Our lawmakers provided universal income to most Americans, including gig workers and only two lawmakers protested. Trump gave up universal health care coverage on a short term basis and no one blinked. Student loan relief happened overnight. This country is in the midst of a 8 week trial of all that Bernie said was possible and anarchy did not set in.
Four years from now. if this country survives Trump or the Senile One who wants life to go back to the kinder days of segregation, some YOUNG leader will emerge who is not as gruff as Bernie or as bombastic as Warren. Maybe these next four years of recession and want will open the minds of the masses and they might choose something more for themselves than mere existence. We shall see.
I am somewhat conflicted-all credit due to Bernie Sanders for many years of advocating for the people’s best interests and an authentic record of representing those without a voice and a seat at the table, to give more urgency on the issues of importance. A congress that has evolved into a party of the wealthy and privileged over a span of 30+ years and an fully grateful for Bernie to lead the way for Congress to comport themselves by the very “oath” taken to defend and protect our constitution. It’s with a heavy heart, that Bernie was denied the opportunity to make his case of a better vision and by the willingness of, “the Good Americans” to set aside differences and not be misled away from our shared “core values” that has made our country truly great. Thx. Bernie and all of your followers that still believe in the spirit of “kindness” is never a weakness, rather a “virtue” with respecting and treating others that may have differences, but recognize the best in all of us. Instead of building walls, we should tear down barriers that keep us divided. This is the enlightenment of fellowship.
Excellent analysis by Ms Flanders as to the liberal intellectual posturing by the NYT and many other halfway-enlightened MSM, but only when it doesn’t mean anything. They can ‘talk-the-talk’ but can’t bring themselves to ‘walk-the-walk’. Like ‘Sunday morning Christians’ who often list Jesus as was their most admired person ever, the Bible as the most important book ever written, and that the 10 commandments as ‘holy law’, yet somehow find a way to vote for some of the most warmongering, greedy politicians around, the MSM media that does portray itself as ‘liberal’ somehow ‘fortuitously’ finds a way to endorse politicians who can be counted-on to NOT significantly back any progressive policies but will rather instead support the status quo.
As FAIR effectively states in its ‘purpose’ statement (paraphrased), the important thing to remember is that the MSM is a CORPORATION, and public corporations have a legal responsibility to maximize shareholders’ returns… they do NOT have a legal mandate to be a truthful, humanitarian publication. They are neck-deep in the for-profit system and they are never going to give strong, repeated critiques of capitalism a forum because they would lose some advertisers and some readers /viewers.
Bernie has suspended his campaign—-but he is still on the ballots. I will be voting for Bernie, and Bernie still has his votes. However., Bloomberg is trying to get involved now—-but what if Biden doesn’t get enough votes? Won’t that be interesting? A brokered convention? I still do not believe that Joe suddenly won all those votes, when he is still the brainless , sexist that he was when he was losing as this race began.
Is this site funded by trump to divide the only people who stamd between trump and fascism?
No this site talks about media and their terrible practices.
Are you kidding? Trump is just as despicable as Biden.
Independent?
In 2016 I considered my choice between the devil and the deep blue sea to be a fluke. I was told to hold my nose and vote. I decided for myself in 2016 which of the two horrible candidates was the lesser of the two evils, believing that this time around, with 20 candidates running for office, we would have better choices for 2020.
The Democratic party has decided upon the absolute worse of the 20 candidates running. Out of the 20 candidates running, there were only three that I could not consider, because they represented everything I have fought against my entire life. Biden is the worse of the three. Biden’s record of corporate support and war on drugs and brown people is a deal breaker, but compounding the problem, Biden is clearly experiencing senility, he can not tell his wife from his sister or remember that his first wife has been dead for 50 years. Biden is a “former”, talking more about the glorious segregation 60’s than his plans for the future.
My choice in 2020 is a candidate who is clearly mentally ill or a candidate who is clearly experiencing dementia. I REFUSE to choose between the lesser of the two mental illnesses. I am not GOD. I am not doing it.
2016 might have been a fluke but 2020 is a deliberate plan to cheapen my vote. The choice between these two candidates lowers my standards lower than I am willing to go. I am not going to participate in this farce. You can justify your participation in any way that you choose, but my ancestors did not fight and die for the right for me to make these kinds of non-choices. This is not what they fought for and I refuse to allow my vote to be demeaned in this way. Heads they win, tails I lose. The only way to win is not to play. Trump is not the worse thing that could happen to this country. These horrible choices every four years is the worst thing that can happen to Democracy. I deserve better than this.
Putin? Putin … is that you? Should we vote for Jill Stein agian? Or is this Steve Bannon/Cambridge Analytica trying to get us to “drop out.” ???
Thank you so much, Laura Flanders. The newspapers beholden to their corporate overlords by turns ignored Bernie completely or wrote as if he were going to turn the country communist. Simply listening to his platform and understanding his call for dignity, fairness and justice for all was too much to ask. We have twice lost a chance to have a decent, honest and intelligent person as President. So glad that many agree with Bernie and his platform will carry on, despite the powers fighting it.
Brilliant!
The NYT’s is not only a trashy state/corporate mouth piece, but it’s a waste of time to read. I have subscribed for some time but even free, it’s not worth my time, thanks and to your health, Mike Liston
You know, as much as I supported Bernie and his ideas back in 2016 and even earlier this year, I was surprised by the absence at the polls of all that loud support that everyone talked about. Where were all those dedicated followers? Like the Occupy Wall Street movement, which I supported, a movement stands still if it doesn’t mobilize and work toward real political change.
The NYT disingenuous actions aside, Bernie allowed very little flexibility of ideas under his tent. That’s why the tent never grew much. I want to get to Medicare for All, but we’ve got to prove that it can work as an option before we get significant buy-in. Like the ACA, many people were suspicious of it until they saw its benefits. Now, it’s entrenched for the most part.
Thanks, Laura. As usual, your comments are spot on.