This morning, the New York Times published a piece by Sydney Ember, Bernie Sanders: Lion Of The Left, But Not The Only One Roaring. Ember noted that "While the list of possible Democratic candidates seems to expand every day, political prognosticators have long assumed there would be a Bernie 2.0. He also notes that if Bernie "was a sensation in 2016, electrifying crowds and awakening fervor on the far left..." Alarm bells should go off at this point. Far left? Ember used to be a business reporter so it probably isn't that strange that she has a strange idea of what "far left" connotes. She asserts that Bernie "is no longer a singular figure among Democrats. Outflanked on the left by rising stars like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ayanna Pressley and Beto O’Rourke, his stronghold on the party’s progressive wing has weakened. Many of his key policy positions, including Medicare for All and tuition-free public college, have been embraced by others-- a victory for him, he would argue, but one that makes his agenda seem less novel."OK, let's unpack that a little. Beto is a charismatic moderate Democrat-- a New Dem in fact-- whose policy positions are far from Bernie's on most things. Ayanna Pressley... we'll have to see what she turns out to be, aside from someone who beat a more liberal incumbent by playing up identity politics and claiming she wouldn't take corporate PAC money (while Boston developers financed her political career). If she keeps hanging around Alexandria and Rashida, she might turn out to be excellent but, believe me, Sydney Ember really has no idea. And as for Alexandria Ocasio... she seems to be strengthening Bernie's "stronghold on the party’s progressive wing," not weakening it-- not at all.Ember added that "while his out-front political presence has kept his name in the mix of 2020 chatter, it has also weakened the anti-establishment appeal he rode to success two years ago." Maybe she was having a bad day, but my guess is that the NY Times just made a bad hire, a really bad hire. This plays right into Trump's narrative about "fake news" and the Times editors should be more careful about what they publish, especially when it is so obviously inspired by Weekly Standard trash-talking. Ember should have read the Washington Post OpEd by Bernie instead and noted the substantive issues he's building his 2020 platform on.
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