How Republicans Could Defeat Bernie Sanders
April 9, 2016
by William P. Meyers

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Women problems and Communism

Most of the Bernie Sanders (BS) campaign has been conducted in a bubble. Hillary Clinton has been very careful when criticizing him since she wants his partisans to turn to her if she wins the Democratic Party nomination.

The Republicans have spent hundreds of million of dollars already attacking Hillary, and have been attacking her since 1991. They like the idea of Bernie as the nominee Democrat.

BS simply has not been vetted by the general public. He is known for his promises: a $15 federal minimum wage, free college tuition, free medical care for all, all new taxes to pay for this to be on the rich. It's a fun and exciting program.

But unlike Hillary, the Republicans won't be reluctant to go after Bernie. They've seen him in action, or rather inaction, in Congress since 1991. And Republicans in Vermont know where the bodies are buried, and are quite willing to tell.

They will go after BS in three specific areas, aside from the usual debating points: his contempt for women, his communism, and his corporate ties.

Bernie Sanders' Female Problems

The Rape Fantasy essay written by BS in 1972 (the year McGovern ran for President and lost to Richard Nixon; BS was 31 that year) is just the tip of the iceberg.

BS has a long record of being dismissive of women, including his female aides (which is why his wife became his head of staff). You can bet the Republicans are saving some juicy revelations for the general election.

But first there is the original Bernie Baby, fathered out of wedlock with a Ms. Susan Mott, in 1969. Who is Levi Sanders, and why has he not campaigned for his father? Does he compare poorly Chelsea with and other candidates' children? Why don't we hear anything about him or Ms. Mott?

And why did the first BS marriage, with Deborah Shiling, end after just three years in 1966? BS had a reputation among the hippy/leftist women in his social circles of lacking a work ethic and being dismissive of both feminism and any individual woman who disagreed with him. It was a common problem of older male leftists, before feminism started getting through to younger, more flexible minds.

Neither did marrying Jane O'Meara make his problems entirely disappear. Jane spent much of her life as a government bureaucrat and contractor. She had three children before marrying BS. In 2004 she became President of Burlington College, a private college best known for helping its students run up large debts without preparing them for the real world. She was fired, or resigned, for incompetence in 2011, although all parties are pretty tight-lipped about the affair, except that she got a $200,000 severance package.

And it isn't a female issue, but where did all the Sanders family money go? They claim to have little or no money despite being a two-salary, 1% of the best paid families type of family. BS supporters have not asked the question, but someone is bound to ask.

Expect the Republicans and their PACs to make sure that every American voter gets that Bernie rape fantasy article delivered to them at in their mailbox at least 3 times before the election.

Bernie the Communist

Young people may not remember that Bill and Hillary Clinton were accused of being Communists by the Republican Right back during their Administration. Young people who have bought the "Hillary and Bill were practically Republicans" BS meme are going to be shocked when most American voters are told BS is a communist, which is pretty close to the truth.

Bernie certainly hung out with genuine CPUSA communists during his time at a fancy private Chicago college in the late 50s and early 60s. They were the main organizers in groups like CORE. But everybody and their uncle had started their own communist parties under various labels (Stalinist, neo-Leninist, neo-Marxist, Trotskyist, Maoist, and lots of totally bizarre hard-to-classify trends). In college BS claims to have been in the more mainstream Socialist Party of America.

But in Vermont he worked in a group called the Liberty Union Party, which sounds more like a right-wing group. As a state party it usually endorsed communist or socialist candidates for President. For instance, in 2004 it supported a Trotskyist (a kind of Communist), John Parker. Who did BS vote for in 2004? It was a secret ballot, and BS is a good liar, so I'll bet he does not admit he voted for John Parker. Did he vote for Nader in 2000? Gore? David McReynolds, a fellow commie? People would like to know.

Most American voters can't be expected to know the difference between the Socialist Party USA and the Communist Party USA. The only practical difference was that one was allied with Russian communists and the other was not.

Throw in Bernie's proposal for the government to run all healthcare, and the Republicans will be believable when they say BS is a Communist.

[Disclaimer: I have been to various meetings attended by communists, socialists, and anarchists of all stripes. I have even been in meetings with Democrats, Republicans, Libertarians, Greens, and independents. I think BS is a self-promoting politician who never had a decent job until he finally won an election. If he wants to call himself a Democratic Socialist, that is fine with me, but I think he is more of a Bureaucratic Democrat than a genuine socialist.]

BS likes to point to post-imperialist capitalist nations like Denmark and France and say that they are Socialist, and so American's can be socialist. Republican PAC money is going to say take a look at what BS wants to make America: a Socialist nation like Zimbabwe, Cuba or Vietnam. $500 million worth of advertising can't be wrong.

And here's one that would make a good ad: Why did Bernie vote against invading Iraq? Because Saddam Hussein was a fellow socialist. And it has the added feature of being true.

BS as Crony Capitalist

Since Bernie supporters live in a social media Bernie Bubble, they never learn anything about his actual record in Congress, just what he says about himself in speeches.

It will be tricky, because in many cases BS voted with Republicans, and in particular with the Tea Party, on important bills. But with targeted advertising Bernie will be exposed as a crony of capitalists among lefty voters and a supporter of destroying the free enterprise system among righty voters.

My own limited research has found:

BS was elected in an anti-development campaign for Mayor of Burlington in 1980. He proceeded to work with developers. His own supporters had to get on his case. In the end there was quite a bit of development in Burlington during his time in office.

He got paid far better to be Mayor than in any job he had before, but the really big bump up was when he was elected to the House of Representatives in 1990. One of Vermont's main industries is Defense manufacturing. That is why BS has a long history of voting for defense spending bills.

Not much else goes on in Vermont besides growing marijuana for the Boston market, but there is a big corporate dairy farming industry. BS has been a steadfast defender of federal tax breaks and other aids to dairy corporations.

Bernie also got a bit of reputation among environmental groups for ducking forest protection legislation because he wanted donations from Vermont's timber companies and the votes of timber workers.

And of course, since Vermont banks are quite small, he has worked to protect his own. You can guess that if Vermont were the nations' banking center, the BS attitude towards big banks would be different. Because above all, with no other skills to speak of, what BS has always focused on is saying, and even doing, whatever it takes to get elected.