To Rebound and Win, Bernie Sanders Needs to Leave His Comfort Zone
By Matt Taibbi, Rolling Stone
07 March 20
Current and former staffers say Sanders has run a great campaign except
when it comes to taking on Democrats like Joe Biden by name. Can he fix
that?
A former aide to Bernie Sanders tells a story about the old days, when the
little-known House Independent used to crisscross Vermont holding town hall
meetings.
It was morning to night, and wed hit every corner of the state, the aide
recalls. They would go on and on. Id say to him, Bernie, its okay if we
leave a little bit on the table in some of these places. But he wouldnt
hear of it.
Popular democracy to Sanders is a relationship where everyone gets a chance
to be heard. Even though the aide worried that Bernie wasnt optimizing his
use of time, he admired his dedication. At the end of the day, hes a good
man, the aide says. He cares about poor people. How many people really
care about the poor?
But as Bernies popularity and influence grew, it seemed all he wanted to do
was scale up the regime of town meetings.
Its like the Steve Martin movie, The Jerk, the aide says. Hes born in a
shack. Then, when he hits it big, he builds a shack-mansion.
In the 2020 presidential campaign, Sanders has done fantastically well. Even
after a disappointing Super Tuesday, when Joe Biden surged past him in
Texas, Massachusetts and Minnesota to re-seize frontrunner status, Bernie
remains very much in the hunt. Heading into contests in states he won in
2016, such as Washington and Michigan, the self-described Democratic
Socialist at this writing trails Biden in estimated delegates, 670-589.
Hes behind, but no one with his politics has ever been this close to the
presidency.
But Rolling Stone spoke to multiple current and former Sanders aides who
worry the Senators personality hes phobic about personal confrontation
and retains traces of an inferiority complex from his days as an Independent
straggler might lead him to miss a chance at history. They say the
campaign, which declined to comment for this story, has, among other things,
declined to aggressively confront Joe Biden on issues like Social Security,
trade, and the bankruptcy bill.
Bernie is conflict-averse, says Matt Stoller, who worked for Sanders for
two years. His staff has always had real trouble getting him to criticize
any Democrat by name.
Bernie is always better on the counterpunch, on the rope-a-dope, says Mark
Longabaugh, who was chief strategist for Bernies 2016 campaign. When he
lands, its usually a counterpunch, like I wrote the damn bill. Its hard
for him to go on the attack.
I always said, if he learned anything from 2016, its that in order to win
the nomination, to beat the political establishment, you have to take it
from their cold, dead hands. You have to go to war with these people, the
longtime former aide says. But Bernie is acting like hes running for State
Senator in Burlington.
As a result, even as a staggered Democratic Party political establishment
scrambled all year to undercut him, openly signaling a willingness to
overturn voter will at this summers convention in Milwaukee, Sanders seemed
content to keep giving the same speech hes been giving for thirty years,
what some current and former aides affectionately call the Berniefesto.
The 2020 primary race is not over. The delegate gap is not that big, Sanders
has favorable states upcoming (Michigan will be a key test), and a March
15th debate in Arizona will test Biden, whos struggled to use all his time
in earlier contests. Elizabeth Warren blew up Mike Bloombergs candidacy in
thirty seconds of a January debate. Bernie should be able to do the same to
Biden, a man who leads with his face in verbal combat. But hell need to
step out of his comfort zone, and soon.
Springfield, Virginia, a chilly February 28. Three hours before Sanders is
set to speak, a crowd of seven or eight thousand huddles in an entrance
line. There is nowhere to park for a half-mile out. The World Bernie Tour is
here.
Baby Yoda! a salesman of Bernie merch cracks with a smile, when asked what
his top-selling product is. A t-shirt showing a small green alien Bernie,
telling all THIS IS THE WAY, has been a popular meme on the 2020 campaign.
For years now, mere conferral of Bernies presence creates a box office
event. Bill Clinton reached this rare air, as did Sarah Palin of all people,
and Barack Obama. Donald Trump is the standard-bearer: If Led Zeppelin sold
time-share, it might approximate what Trump rallies look like today. But
Bernie is a political star in his own right.
Sanders is an anti-showman. Obama sold looks and verbal brilliance, Palin
was Roseanne, and Clinton tried to mate with his crowds. Bernie is an old
man talking about Medicare. In an era when America is tired of the bullshit,
the absence of a come-on is a smash hit.
Ice, Ice baby! says Wilson Johnson, a third-grade teacher from Woodbridge,
Virginia. Hes nailing Vanilla Ice in Bernie voice. I think the one percent
doesnt deserve all the oyce!
Sanders supporters often tell stories about frustrations with the system
that led to epiphanies. In Virginia, one described a lifetime of seeing
corruption working for the Inspector General of the Department of
Agriculture. Another tells told a story about the devastation that $40,000
in student debt wrought in his life. Everyone has a story. I had a major
surgery last year, said Fabio Moreiera, of Fairfax. My insurance company
told me for about six months, yeah, well cover it, well cover it. Three
days before I got the surgery, they said, oh, its not going to be
covered.
The stories cut across demographics. Bernie crowds, in contrast to reporting
clichés, are full of ex-conservatives (and also former non-voters). Youd
never guess that a campaign with this reach would be capable of losing
anywhere by thirty points or more. But it happened, both that same night in
South Carolina, and days later in this same state.
While Sanders barnstormed across the country in what one staffer describes
as the rock concert, the tectonic plates of the 2020 primary shifted.
Tongue-tied, Iraq-war-supporting Joe Biden crushed Bernie in South Carolina,
blowing past poll expectations with a 48.4-19.9% primary victory. Two nights
later, Biden proved South Carolina was no fluke, winning nine states in
devastating fashion, including an amazing 53%-21% rout in Virginia.
Overnight, Sanders went from clear frontrunner to a candidate with a major
problem. With rival Democrats no longer doing him the favor of fracturing
the field Pete Buttigieg and Amy Snow Woman Klobuchar both threw in with
Biden after South Carolina the Sanders trajectory looked like it might end
at the Democratic National Convention in Milwaukee, unless he found a way to
expand beyond his base.
The Sanders campaign earlier this year suggested Bernie was about to go
after Biden on Social Security and other issues in an Iowa debate, but
Sanders ended up in a dispute with Elizabeth Warren instead. As
understandable as this was Bernie had to respond to Warrens charges that
hed told her a woman couldnt win it mirrored a year-long pattern of
reluctance by Sanders to engage Scranton Joe.
Ask people in and around Bernies orbit why this is the case, and youll get
some depressing answers.
I think Bernie likes Joe Biden, says Longabaugh.
I think Bernie has a really hard time going negative, says Stoller.
So much of what informs his relationship with people like Biden, says the
longtime former staffer, is that experience of being the lone independent
and outsider. Back then, if any one of those people treated him with
respect, as a colleague, that was enough to ingratiate them with Bernie.
The former aide sighs. He doesnt like Rahm Emmanuel, he doesnt like
Hillary Clinton, he says. But hes okay with Biden, because Biden is nice
to him.
Whats troubling about this is that Biden has long been a central figure in
building the modern, corporate-dominated model of the Democratic Party
Sanders spends so much time deconstructing.
Biden led cheers for the Iraq War and repeatedly lied about that record
(Yes, I did oppose the war before it began, he said just last year). On
many occasions hes expressed willingness to cut Social Security and voted
for the insidious bankruptcy bill. He championed NAFTA and the Trans-Pacific
Partnership, helped write the atrocious 1994 crime bill, and even bragged
that George Bushs infamous Attorney General John Ashcroft got the idea for
the PATRIOT Act from him.
Bernie has gone after some of this, but even on issues like the Iraq
invasion, where Biden has an extensive record of damning statements, hes
let his rival off the hook, propping up Bidens weak excuse of being
deceived by Republicans.
Joe and I listened to what George Bush, Dick Cheney and Rumsfeld had to
say. I thought they were lying. Joe saw things differently, was the
strongest statement Sanders could muster, in a recent debate.
Bernie is now using more confrontational language like Which side are you
on? with regard to Social Security, but it may be too late. (Why did he
wait until after Super Tuesday to feature an ad about Bidens Social
Security record?) For most of the campaign, on key issues like this, Bernie
seemed anxious to pick a line of attack that will bring the least amount of
blowback from within the Democratic Party, as Stoller puts it.
Reluctance to cut the cord with Democrats who are trying to put a bazooka
to his head is part of what finally disillusioned the unnamed longtime
aide, who notes that Bernies unwillingness to engage people like Biden is
self-sabotaging, but also selfish. Its not comfortable for him to call out
people he likes, but its not about him anymore
He has millions of people
whove put their hopes in him.
There is a legend being circulated now in the press that the Sanders
campaign was somehow sunk by negativity, that online rancor and
divisiveness placed a ceiling on Bernies rise. That this is transparent
pundit gaslighting is made clear by the trajectory of Warren. Having built
her brand as a progressive years ago by attacking none other than Joe Biden
over the bankruptcy bill, Warren as a presidential candidate holstered those
attacks against her onetime chief intraparty rival, stressed unity, and
got crushed at the polls. If you want to see where a progressive platform
without aggressive distinctions goes, its proven to be nowhere.
However, as Longabaugh points out, attacking rivals in a multi-candidate
field can have unpredictable results.
People dont realize how hard this is, standing onstage with someone and
sticking a shiv in, says Longabaugh. I actually think Bernie has played
this pretty well, Longabaugh says. He may find it easier to draw contrasts
with Biden in a two-way race.
The reluctance to engage strongly with Biden speaks to the larger issue of
Bernies attitude toward the Democratic Party. Sanders clearly sees the
Partys flaws and rails against its susceptibility to corporate influence,
but has trouble understanding that the current leadership will never truly
accept him and his message, unless forced. Hes been reluctant to use his
mass appeal as a cudgel, preferring to focus on making a case to the public
a strategy that has served him extremely well, but still.
You gotta weaponize this shit, says the longtime aide. Youve got to go
to these people in the party and say, You can either accept it, or be
killed by it. The aide notes theres an obvious example of how to use a
populist pulpit. Trump is crazy, but there are things you can learn from
him.
Sanders staffers speak of the Senator with great admiration. Even those
whove parted on bad terms indicate that at one time or another, they would
have have taken a bullet for the man. All are amazed by the size of the
movement hes been able to build.
The issue is converting phenomenon into victory. There is a passionate
debate within Bernieworld over the best way to get there. Drawing stronger
contrasts with Biden is only part of the picture.
Some for instance wonder if the candidate has done enough on the inside. The
rock concert has been miraculously effective in building popular support
despite a near-total absence of institutional or media backing, but that
doesnt preclude walking and chewing gum at the same time, as one source
puts it.
Bernie could have been on the phone every day for the last four years,
back-channeling figures like Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, and even Barack
Obama even as he blowtorched traditional Democrats like Biden on the trail.
Would that have produced a different result?
Others wonder about the mechanics of a presidential run: Did Sanders do
enough? He raised a ton of money, hitting $50 million per month, a massive
sum for this kind of candidate. Did he spend it in the right places, in the
most delegate-rich regions and media markets? Was/is there enough focus on
who will serve as delegates? Was/is enough attention being paid to questions
like the bureaucratic structure of the Milwaukee Democratic convention?
Sanders himself clearly views his campaign as an effort to rescue and
restore the Democratic Party, at least as he understands it the party of
F.D.R., and the working-class voters it traditionally represented, dating
back to his youth. Hes been burning up air miles in an effort to replace
the corporate-funded political model with one backed by a movement of
millions of people. As he put it to Rolling Stone four years ago, Our
future is not raising money from wealthy people, but mobilizing millions of
working people and young people and people of color.
Some part of Sanders seems to hold out hope that something is left over in
the DNA of the Democratic Party from those F.D.R. days, something that can
be saved and restored. He seems to have a nostalgic fondness for it, as he
seems to for Biden himself.
But this version of the Democratic Party that now has Biden as its face
wants to bury him. Theyve smeared him as a racist, sexist dupe for Putin,
an amateur and back-bencher who doesnt understand power and cant get
things done.
By getting as far as he has, and raising as much money as he has, Sanders
has already demolished half of that argument. To finish the job, he has to
show he understands the difference between doing well and winning, against
an opponent who pathetically, insultingly beatable. For all of the
institutional obstacles before him, despite the wall of media sycophants and
the waterfall of fresh Wall Street money against him, Bernie should be
offended to be losing to the likes of Joe Biden. But hes running out of
time to get angry.
