Why Sanders Will Probably Win the Nomination

[Donkees]

Democrats already see reality through the Bernie lens.

By David Brooks
Opinion Columnist

Feb. 20, 2020

Excerpt:

Successful presidential candidates are mythmakers. They don’t just tell a story. They tell a story that helps people make meaning out of the current moment; that divides people into heroes and villains; that names a central challenge and explains why they are the perfect person to meet it.

My takeaway from Wednesday’s hellaciously entertaining Democratic debate is that Sanders is the only candidate telling a successful myth. Bloomberg, Joe Biden, Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar all make good arguments, but they haven’t organized their worldview into a simple compelling myth. You may look at them, but you don’t see the world through their eyes.

Elizabeth Warren inhabits a myth without expressing it clearly. It just happens to be Sanders’s myth. I thought her performance Wednesday evening was tactically brilliant and strategically catastrophic. Her attack on Bloomberg was totally through the Bernie lens. Her attacks on Buttigieg and Klobuchar were also through the Bernie lens. (Through that lens a bigger spending proposal is always better than a less big spending proposal.)

Warren was a devastatingly effective surrogate for Sanders, but she reinforced his worldview rather than establishing one of her own.

Over the past five years Sanders and his fellow progressives have induced large parts of the Democratic Party to see through the Bernie lens. You can tell because every candidate on that stage has the categories and mental equipment to carve up a billionaire like Bloomberg. None have the categories or mental equipment to take down a socialist like Sanders.

Sanders goes untouched in these debates because the other candidates don’t have a mythic platform from which to launch an attack. Saying his plans cost too much is a pathetic response to a successful myth.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/20/opinion/bernie-sanders-win-2020.html

[Gidney N Cloyd]

1. Brooks is an idiot. Always has been.

[Thomas Hurt]

4. He is a conservative, and he is right if he is talking about conservatives.

conservatives are magical thinkers who believe in myths before facts and well reasoned arguments.

Not sure where he gets the idea where magical thinking is as wide spread on the left as it is on the right.

[handmade34]

7. a cult is a cult...

he is correct in this essay... read it in its entirety...

Everywhere I go I see systems that are struggling — school systems, housing systems, family structures, neighborhoods trying to bridge diversity. These problems aren’t caused by some group of intentionally evil people. They exist because living through a time of economic, technological, demographic and cultural transition is hard. Creating social trust across diversity is hard.
Everywhere I go I see a process that is the opposite of group vs. group war. It is gathering. It is people becoming extra active on the local level to repair the systems in their lives. I see a great yearning for solidarity, an eagerness to come together and make practical change.
These gathering efforts are hampered by rippers at the national level who stoke rage and fear and tell friend/enemy stories. These efforts are hampered by men like Sanders and Trump who have never worked within a party or subordinated themselves to a team — men who are one trick ponies. All they do is stand on a podium and bellow.
In the gathering myth, the heroes have traits Trump and Sanders lack: open-mindedness, flexibility, listening skills, team-building skills and basic human warmth. In this saga, leaders are measured by their ability to expand relationships, not wall them off.
The gathering myth is an alternative myth — one that has the advantage of being true.

[Thomas Hurt]

11. I have already posted on here two or three times that Bernie is the populist anti Trump

[handmade34]

15. ok

all good

I was responding to your comment... "Not sure where he gets the idea where magical thinking is as wide spread on the left as it is on the right"

I believe, as well, that overall more liberal minded people have better critical thinking skills and can see things for what they are... but I honestly believe that many of us can get caught up in "magical thinking" when it is a remedy for our needs... and I think what Bernie is to his followers is "the one"

no matter what I think of Brooks... I think he is spot on with this essay

[DanTex]

2. Wow. Even Republican David Brooks is reaching acceptance.

[pnwmom]

9. No, he's trying to help the candidate he views as weaker against Trump

by portraying him as inevitable.

[handmade34]

16. don't think that's what Brooks is doing

he is dissing both trump and Sanders... I don't necessarily like Brooks but it is a good essay

[TheCowsCameHome]

3. ..and then

Trump gets re-elected.

What a horrible thought...

[SWBTATTReg]

13. It is a horrible thought. I don't want to listen to more screaming and yelling from anybody ...

period, for the next 4 years.

[onetexan]

19. +1 K&R

[bucolic_frolic]

5. Brooks is a third rank intellectual midget

He's pushing the weakest candidate to divide the Democratic party so his Trump can cheat again. Very dishonest.

I disagree with Brook's thesis too. Mike, Joe, Pete, and Liz all have world views of working people building a better future. Mike told you - he didn't inherit it. Joe told you - he's a working class guy from Scranton PA. Pete told you - he wants a future of ideas and social innovation to drive freedom and jobs. Liz tells you again and again - she wants a level playing field so working people have a chance to build their own families and finance their futures.

Bernie is some of that, but also angry about capitalism and pushes class struggle.

Brooks should open his eyes.

[handmade34]

8. but that is exactly what Brooks

is saying in this essay... see my response elsewhere

[bucolic_frolic]

12. I'll grant you I didn't read the whole essay

so it's a bit unfair to draw conclusions from a portion of it.

Myths didn't work for HRC too well either. She told of her dad's travails as a printer.

[handmade34]

6. you left out the most important part

of the essay...

"Everywhere I go I see a process that is the opposite of group vs. group war. It is gathering. It is people becoming extra active on the local level to repair the systems in their lives. I see a great yearning for solidarity, an eagerness to come together and make practical change.

These gathering efforts are hampered by rippers at the national level who stoke rage and fear and tell friend/enemy stories.

These efforts are hampered by men like Sanders and Trump who have never worked within a party or subordinated themselves to a team — men who are one trick ponies. All they do is stand on a podium and bellow.

In the gathering myth, the heroes have traits Trump and Sanders lack: open-mindedness, flexibility, listening skills, team-building skills and basic human warmth. In this saga, leaders are measured by their ability to expand relationships, not wall them off.

The gathering myth is an alternative myth — one that has the advantage of being true."

[betsuni]

10. And suddenly David Brooks is rehabilitated and not a bad Republican.

LOL.

[Cal Carpenter]

14. If you read the whole piece he isn't exactly sympathetic to Sanders

and I personally disagree with much of his logic.

But he's right that Bernie is standing alone among the field of candidates and will likely make it to the end, barring some major surprise.

[Butterflylady]

17. "Barring some major surprises"

Oh dear, you haven't seen nothing yet!

[Cal Carpenter]

18. Well, show me

Because I don't know what you are laughing about.