The Bernie Sanders Problem

With his overwhelming victory in the Nevada caucuses, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont is on the road to being the Democratic nominee. He scored even better than expected and is leading all the other Democratic candidates vying to challenge President Trump in this year’s election. But because he is a devout socialist, many consider him to be a risky bet of winning in the general election. As of this moment, Senator Sanders seems to be leading in the polls with supporters, mostly millennials, who are very enthusiastic about the prospect of him winning. Why shouldn’t they support him? After all, he is espousing free medical care. Sanders wants to see a transition of the country to a universal Medicare system over four years, eventually sunsetting Medicare and Medicaid in their current forms. He normalized a $15 minimum wage, wants previous tuition debt to be absolved, offers free college, free Pre-K and a bunch of other freebies that the young people are drawn to.

After facing accusations of having a rigged election to favor of Hillary in 2016, the DNC instituted several changes this time to avoid the appearance of favoring any specific candidate in 2020. The hope among many Democrats was that Sanders would eventually fizzle out naturally, and the rules change would appease his supporters, who would then be willing to support the eventual Democratic nominee.  In 2018, the die-hard Sanders supporters stayed home in the election in which the decisive states went to Trump by razor thin margins. The Democrats want to avoid this.

Despite what the traditional Democrats hope and pray will happen in 2020,  Sanders feels that he is the strongest challenger to defeat  President Trump because “Our campaign is the campaign of energy, is the campaign of excitement, is the campaign that can bring millions of people into the political process who normally do not vote.” But despite what Sanders and his supporters claim, many still feel it would be a huge risk to bet that Americans are ready to put a socialist in the White House.

This is a major dilemma for the Democrats. Any steps the party elites take to undermine Sanders will only inflame his supporters. He represents a type of socialism that wealthy Democratic elites don’t want messing with our economy. It’s hard to overstate the influence the Sanders campaign has, since it rallies against corporate greed, economic inequality, and the influence money is having in politics, especially Democratic politics. Sanders is opposed to corporate donations in election campaigns. His average campaign donation in 2016 was $27, although it’s likely bigger by now.

His supporters, especially the young and Latinos, may not know what socialism is, but they are responding to his demands for social justice and fixing government inequalities.

But that’s not the only problem those in the know have with a Sanders candidacy. He hasn’t met a communist dictator he doesn’t like and admire. In a “60 Minutes” segment aired on February 23, Senator Bernie Sanders praised the supposed achievements of the Castro family’s communist rule over Cuba. He touted that Castro came into power in the 1950s and immediately put in place a massive literacy program in his country.  Sanders showed no real empathy for the victims of the Castro regime, brushing off the human violations of Fidel Castro, and reiterated his lifelong appreciation toward the Cuban leader whose revolution ended with the murder or imprisonment of tens of thousands of his countrymen and impoverishment and repression of those living there. Sanders tried to have it both ways by saying, “We’re opposed to the authoritarian nature of Cuba, but you know, it’s simply unfair to simply say everything is bad.”

But Cuba is not the only communist country he heaped praise on. Sanders went out of his way to laud China, explaining “It is an authoritarian country… But can anyone deny - I mean the facts are clear - that they have taken more people out of extreme poverty than any country in history?” Then there’s the Nicaraguan communist regime of Daniel Ortega, which murdered thousands. He celebrated the Sandinista revolution in the 1980s.

In Venezuela, Sanders also found positive things to say about socialist dictator Nicolas Maduro, who took a wealthy country and impoverished it with his policies.  Going against America’s policy, as late as last year he refused to call opposition Juan Guaido the legitimate leader of the country. 

Senator Bernie Sanders should be of concern to every Jew who values Israel and recognizes it as the Jewish homeland. His foreign policy ideas are alarming. While defending his support for Israel, Sanders called Bibi Netanyahu “a reactionary racist.” His comments were made during the same week he said that he would not attend the AIPAC conference.  He said, “The Israeli people have the right to live in peace and security, so do the Palestinian people. I remain concerned about the platform AIPAC provides for leaders who express bigotry and oppose basic Palestinian rights.” AIPAC shot back that Sanders “has never attended our conference and that is evident from his outrageous comment.”

Senator Bernie Sanders is a problem. People must understand that he represents ideas that are contrary to the status quo and could put into jeopardy all the values that we cherish.

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Cynthia Zalisky is the Executive Director of the Queens Jewish Community Council. She can be contacted at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.