What Is Sanders’s Endgame?

By Charles M. Blow

April 20, 2016

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/21/opinion/campaign-stops/what-is-sanderss-endgame.html?comments#permid=18276762

As a long time Social Democrat, I have a lot of sympathy for Bernie Sanders' critiques of the current US social, economic and political realities.

However, to implement real change it takes more that spouting slogans and making grandiose promises, which he, Sanders must know he cannot accomplish. Senator Sanders has a quarter century of experience in the US Congress, and thus must know the difficulties of effecting radical change, or any change at all, in a representative democracy.

Senator Sanders claimed for himself the title of King of Amendments. His record is OK, as far as it goes, but it gives absolutely no indication that he has the ability to enact "revolutionary change". His record as Chairman of the Veteran's Affairs Committee during a time when much of the scandalous situations within the VA where coming to light, is anything but revolutionary - in fact, he often acted as an apologist for the dismal state of the VA.

Sanders' latest health care proposal, although admirable in its objectives, is blatantly misleading in terms of the costs to individuals. His $450 PER YEAR contribution is complete nonsense, and the attempt to allude to other tax revenue to cover the costs is purposely obscure, so that he can tout the $450 annual individual contribution vs. $5000 annual savings in insurance premiums - complete nonsense.

Yes, Sanders was initially important in shaping the discussion, but has become increasingly non-credible, and a liability to his stated objectives.

What to Look For in the Democratic Debate

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/15/us/politics/democratic-debate-preview.html?comments#permid=18204450:18211243

Bernie Sanders deserves a lot of credit for focusing on topics, which have always been tabu among "establishment" politicians, and for embracing his "social democratic" background - perhaps after this election Americans will have learned enough not to equate "socialism" with "communism", something I, as a life-long Social Democrat in the German tradition, have been hoping for for years.

However, Bernie Sanders should be extremely thankful, that he will NOT become the Democratic candidate, and even more, that he will NOT be elected President.

François Hollande, President of France and a socialist of long standing, won his election by making outrageous promises to the French people, which even to an interested outside observer were completely unachievable. Bernie Sanders is making the same kind of unattainable promises ("We WILL break up the big banks", "We WILL implement Medicate for all", "We WILL have tuition free higher education for all", "We WILL reverse Citizens United"). None of his 25 years in Congress have shown ANY ability to implement such sweeping changes in America.

France, and Hollande, have a long history with Socialism, while most Americans still subliminally equate it with Communism. But even in France, Hollande could not achieve his policy proposals and he has now become pretty much of a joke in France.

If Sanders were to win, that would set back Americans' acceptance of social democratic ideals and goals, because he would end up a complete failure.

In Brussels, Europe Is Struck at Its Heart

By Roger Cohen

March 22, 2016

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/23/opinion/international/in-brussels-europe-is-struck-at-its-heart.html?comments#permid=17973588

 

I generally agree with Mr. Cohen when he writes about European affairs - he has lived there and knows and understands the "European Dream".

But whenever he opines about terrorism, he is, in my view, way off base. It is easy, cheap, to criticize the "inadequacy" of Obama's policies against ISIS, but what alternative can Mr. Cohen, and indeed all the current batch of GOP candidates offer?

The implication is that the US (talk about a coalition is, for the most part, wishful thinking) can mount a military campaign (boots on the ground), and "quickly" defeat ISIS. But there is not a smidgeon of evidence that military action can solve the problem - Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya should be ample evidence of that.

In my view ISIS will burn itself out and any lasting solution will involve a very slow process of bringing a semblance of stability back to the Middle East, and the Islamic world itself dealing with the religious schism and the fanaticism of its religious leaders.

We need to remember that the bloodshed brought about by the Christian Reformation took several centuries to burn itself out.

In the meantime we, the West, need to protect ourselves the best we can, but not throw all our democratic, liberal traditions overboard in the process.

The immediate source of the terrorist scourge are not the newly arrived refugees, but the offsprings of legal immigrants, more often than not with a petty criminal record. Surely we can learn a lesson from that.

Obama's Flawed Realism

by Roger Cohen

March 18, 2016

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/19/opinion/obamas-flawed-realism.html?comments#permid=17937399

"It is possible to believe that the situation in Syria would be worse if Obama had followed through with punitive strikes?"

Conversely, Mr. Cohen, what evidence can you present, after Afghanistan and Iraq, that US intervention in Syria would have made ANY difference. It is now generally accepted that air power alone cannot make a decisive, lasting difference. The Russians are pulling out, not because they have "won", but because, they too, recognize the limitations of air power.

Unfortunately, since the end of the cold war, American "projection of power" has served to destabilize rather than stabilize.

The last time American intervention served to stabilize was in the Balkan war, but here the situation was dramatically different - a forcefully held-together multi-state nation was disintegrating along well established cultural and religious lines, and US/NATO airpower served to shorten the inevitable outcome and thus reduce the number of casualties.

We, the US and "the West", finally need to recognized that the artificial boundaries established in the dying days of the British and French empires, through ignorance and arrogance, cannot be sustained, because the people themselves do not "live" these boundaries in any cultural and/or religious sense. 

The "Kurdish state" is an example of what needs to be encouraged throughout the region to finally come to some semblance of peace. This involves carving up Iraq and Syria. It would also, admittedly, open a huge problem Turkey.

Two interesting links regarding Kurdish "states":

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/17/world/middleeast/syria-kurds.html?ref=middleeast

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/22/opinion/the-kurds-push-for-self-rule-in-syria.html?ref=international

Profiles in Paralysis

by Ross Douthat

March 19, 2016

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/20/opinion/sunday/profiles-in-paralysis.html?comments&_r=0#permid=17949695:17949753

The huge mistake which the whole Republican "establishment" is making, is to pretend that the "sudden rise of Trumpism" is the cause of the current "existential" problems within the GOP and the "Conservative movement".

The truth is that for decades, indeed several generations now, the Conservatives and the Republican establishment have been knowingly and maliciously mining the worst instincts in all of us in their dogmatically crazed efforts to turn America into a fever induced vision of something that may have existed and worked 200 years ago, in the frontier days and the "wild west" era.

The Republicans have systematically undermined any belief in the need for civility, compromise, mutual trust and social cohesiveness. Their mantra, since "Saint Reagan" has been that the government is the problem, and they have now reaped what they have sown: a significant minority of Americans have come to believe this nonsense. 

First the Tea Party reared its ugly head, taking to heart the GOP mantra that government is the (only) problem, and this nihilistic fanaticism of the Tea Party, as most clearly personified by Ted Cruz, took over control of the GOP like a cancer - forcing John Boehner from office.

The lack of civility too, has been long in coming, exemplified by the Boehner/McConnell doctrine, that the highest priority was to make Obama fail, together with their tacit complicity in the hideous attacks on Obama as a "Nigerian-born Muslim".

Douthat helped create this monster.

Waiter, Where’s Our (Political) Spinach?

by Margaret Sullivan

THE PUBLIC EDITOR MARCH 5, 2016

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/06/public-editor/new-york-times-public-editor-presidential-campaign.html?comments#permid=17804540:17804569

The "print media", of which the NYT claims to be the preeminent member, was the last bastion of both substantive reporting and in-depth investigative reporting. That is now history. In their battles to survive, the print media are cutting budgets for actual reporting and trying to emulate the mindless drivel of the internet.

Here again we have a prime example of how competitive, profit motivated forces is some areas can lead to disastrous effects. In trying to stay economically competitive, the media are engages in "a race to the bottom". The TV news has long since reached the level of bottom-feeders, and now the print-media is fast sinking to the same level.

There are many areas in the social/political/economic sphere where the "free market" does not work, but indeed can lead to terrible conditions. The Flint water disaster is an extreme example, where "bean counters" were put in place to take control from elected officials, with catastrophic results. Heath Insurance, and health care in general is another example where free-market, profit driven structures do not work.

Journalism, in my view, is another area where, (like in health care, where a basic level is guaranteed by all other modern societies), a minimum guaranteed access to, in this case, reliable, factual information is necessary for democracy to function.

Americans tend to discount state supported media as un-free and un-democratic - they are stuck in the model of Soviet-style media. However, in most European countries state media is an integral part of ensuring a well informed electorate.

In Germany, for example, the success of the state media (ARD and ZDF) in terms of their news and information programming, has resulted in the commercial media emulating the state media in news and information broadcasting, resulting in a much higher quality overall.

US media, in their weird interpretation of the "fair and balanced" guidelines, and their fear of being seen as biased or non-PC, will allow public figures to spout non-sense, slogans and blatantly non-factual garbage, by and large without challenge. Having witnessed first-hand a number of political campaigns and political interviews in Germany, such "passivity" on the part of journalism would be unthinkable.

The Strong Man and the Weak Party

by Ross Douthat

Feb. 4, 2016

http://douthat.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/03/04/the-strong-man-and-the-weak-party/?comments#permid=17788014

For some (perhaps obvious - they are part of the "establishment") reason, the Conservative pundits cannot face the reality, that the current splintering of the GOP is of their (the GOP's) own making, going back to Reagan and before. The GOP has used any and all measures to sow and reenforce discontent in their irresponsible grasp, by all and any means, for power, starting with the Southern Strategy, via Reagan's "the government is the problem", all the way to allowing the Tea Party to hijack and paralyze them. They have played to the most mean, greedy and uninformed tendencies to mobilize the most uninformed and ignorant to their cause. The outcome of this decades long effort to appeal to the lowest emotions, meanness and ignorance has now come to full bloom, as graphically and disgustingly demonstrated in last night's "debate".

It is ridiculous to try and blame the implosion of the Conservative Movement and some fictitious lack of leadership - their leadership is who encouraged and engineered this disaster, unwittingly, of course.

The GOP "base" has finally realized that "the government", which is supposedly the cause of all evil, according the the GOP deity (Reagan), are, at least half the time, the GOP establishment itself, as evidenced by the dismal antics of the GOP in both houses of Congress. And now this awakened GOP base is ready the "throw the bastards out".