“It’s not an issue I hear a whole lot." Thanks for asking the tough questions. Sanders is clearly ignorant, blind, or both. He knows his base is the wealthy radicals pillaging college campuses.
"He is also someone who is going to believe what he wants to believe about young leftists."
But is this something *you* believe he believes? For me (someone who volunteered for both his campaigns) one of the stranger aspects of Bernie's public persona has been his refusal to offer any substantive meta-commentary on the Left post-1960s. He's an on-message politician, fine, but he was on the ground for the Civil Rights movement, was in SNCC (at least I think?) and was affiliated with various permutations of US socialist parties (at least early on) in Vermont. It beggars belief that he doesn't have thoughts (either way) on the Third Worldist, anti-Zionist tendencies that arose on the New Left and since then. If his legacy is that you keep your hands clean and run on popularist policies and try not to divide the left (and hope New New Dealism papers over the other stuff) that's one kind of legacy, I guess.
Bernie is someone who has done almost zero self-reflection and mediation on his place in the history of the American left or the left in general. It’s a bit disappointing. Publicly, he sometimes come off as anti-intellectual.
Great piece, Ross! Love your up-close, in-depth coverage.
thank you!
“It’s not an issue I hear a whole lot." Thanks for asking the tough questions. Sanders is clearly ignorant, blind, or both. He knows his base is the wealthy radicals pillaging college campuses.
"He is also someone who is going to believe what he wants to believe about young leftists."
But is this something *you* believe he believes? For me (someone who volunteered for both his campaigns) one of the stranger aspects of Bernie's public persona has been his refusal to offer any substantive meta-commentary on the Left post-1960s. He's an on-message politician, fine, but he was on the ground for the Civil Rights movement, was in SNCC (at least I think?) and was affiliated with various permutations of US socialist parties (at least early on) in Vermont. It beggars belief that he doesn't have thoughts (either way) on the Third Worldist, anti-Zionist tendencies that arose on the New Left and since then. If his legacy is that you keep your hands clean and run on popularist policies and try not to divide the left (and hope New New Dealism papers over the other stuff) that's one kind of legacy, I guess.
Bernie is someone who has done almost zero self-reflection and mediation on his place in the history of the American left or the left in general. It’s a bit disappointing. Publicly, he sometimes come off as anti-intellectual.