I’m disappointed that Bernie Sanders did not get the Democratic nomination. I suspect the only way he will ever get into the race proper is if he runs as an independent. The structural opposition within the Democratic party is just too strong to overcome currently. I hope that Chomsky’s observations are correct and the political movements that have started now, remain active and continue to grow, allowing them to influence public policy in the future.
“AMY GOODMAN: Before we go to break, on Wednesday, just before Bernie Sanders announced, but it did look like he was about to pull out of the presidential race, I asked political dissident, linguist and author Noam Chomsky about his assessment of the Bernie Sanders campaign in this time of the coronavirus pandemic.
NOAM CHOMSKY: If Trump is reelected, it’s a indescribable disaster. It means that the policies of the past four years, which have been extremely destructive to the American population, to the world, will be continued and probably accelerated. What this is going to mean for health is bad enough. I just mentioned the Lancet figures. It will get worse. What this means for the environment or the threat of nuclear war, which no one is talking about but is extremely serious, is indescribable.
Suppose Biden is elected. I would anticipate it would be essentially a continuation of Obama — nothing very great, but at least not totally destructive, and opportunities for an organized public to change what is being done, to impose pressures.
It’s common to say now that the Sanders campaign failed. I think that’s a mistake. I think it was an extraordinary success, completely shifted the arena of debate and discussion. Issues that were unthinkable a couple years ago are now right in the middle of attention.
The worst crime he committed, in the eyes of the establishment, is not the policy he’s proposing; it’s the fact that he was able to inspire popular movements, which had already been developing — Occupy, Black Lives Matter, many others — and turn them into an activist movement, which doesn’t just show up every couple years to push a leader and then go home, but applies constant pressure, constant activism and so on. That could affect a Biden administration.”
bleatmop
Mystro
The Arbourist
Dead Wild Roses 
7 comments
April 13, 2020 at 6:24 am
Bob Browning
Yes Bernie introduced “new” words, socialism for one, and areas of possible change but a another (nicer) face on the neoliberal status quo promises nothing but decades of incremental change which means one step forward two steps back, rinse and repeat. Massive strikes and refusing to vote for any of these evil capitalist servants is the way to get the attention of those in power.
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April 13, 2020 at 7:29 am
john zande
a[n] indescribable disaster.
Just the thought fills me with dread.
If it happens, I’m afraid it falls to Canada and Germany to lead the western world.
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April 13, 2020 at 7:33 am
The Arbourist
@ JZ
The prospect of 4 more years is unappealing at best.
The thought of the US with captain bullshit at the helm is almost unthinkable.
That may be the problem, I think many people in the US also thought the DT phenomena was impossible, but then it happened.
Will they have learned their lesson?
I certainly hope so.
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April 13, 2020 at 7:34 am
tildeb
Why didn’t Bernie get the democratic nomination? Because has no base in reality beyond the ideologically driven. He is only a divisive force. He has done… nothing beyond talk. He’s a talking head. He successfully sews distrust and anger and points it somewhere. That’s all he has ever done. He has made no coalitions. He has implemented no sweeping policies successfully. He has never learned how to wield power. He has never learned how to play nicely, how to achieve what’s possible through politics into changing reality. And his popularity is strictly negative in that those who support him are purely partisan, politically naive, and ignorant about how to get stuff done by building support.
If the concern within the ranks of the woke (like Chomsky) were truly about the health and welfare of the country’s population (which they are not; they are concerned only with tearing down), they would not be so actively helping prop up Trump by promoting and maintaining the divide within the Democratic party and deriding anyone they nominate who isn’t named Bernie.
The reason why Biden is such a threat to Trump is that he actually has deep contacts over a great deal of time with many, many grass root organizations across the country. He has worked with these folk and done all kinds of stuff over many decades helping where possible. People who work with Biden like Biden and he was absolutely essential in bringing in Obamacare because he understands how things actually work. If people like Chomsky were honestly concerned with anyone other than their ideological twins, they would put aside their childish demands and work with those closer to them than continue to undermine them. Chomsky’s a piece of work.
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April 13, 2020 at 7:34 am
The Arbourist
@ Bob Browning
I fear for the US because the forces of the status quo are so adept at stirring up the fear in the populace.
It felt like a red scare at times watching the coverage and non-coverage of the Sanders campaign.
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April 13, 2020 at 7:45 am
The Arbourist
@ tildeb
It seems like your advocating for a coming together of sorts on the US democratic side.
Nothing wrong with closing ranks after the primaries are done, but suggesting, as Chomsky does, that legitimate progressive concerns have a better chance of being enacted under a Biden administration seems to be a fair observation.
Biden does have the establishment credentials, and knows how things work.
The problem is that the current status quo doesn’t actually work very well for many Americans and neoliberal policies that are not in the best interests of the public have been pushed through the American political system by both parties.
Americans are not stupid, and the see the disconnect between public opinion, and what comes down the pipe as governance.
Like it or not, Biden is more of the same, he’s not female, so he has a better chance to win the election, but will the general course of the American polity change much – past undoing Trump’s damage to the American political superstructure – probably not.
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April 13, 2020 at 8:33 am
tildeb
Many Republicans believe the worst Republican is better than the best Democratic. Sanders and his supporters fed this belief non stop during HRC’s run to the delight and glee of the Republicans; everything Clinton was bad, bad, bad. And when they lost the nomination for Bernie – a candidate guaranteed to lose the federal election – they vilified her even more in spite of all the fake nods of approval about supporting equality and feminism and caring about they typical wage earner. Empty words; what mattered most was to undermine and vilify Clinton regardless of harm done to betraying their ideological positions, vilifying and harming the reputation and character of a very accomplished candidate with immense experience working to implement real progressive change on the ground for every citizen. The level of stupidity by those who thought well of themselves doing this is dwarfed only by the narcissism of Trump and I lay blame for Trump’s assent to the Bernie camp of ideologues who worked tirelessly – especially inside media – to make it seem entirely reasonable that the worst Republican candidate in a Trump was better than the best Democratic candidate is a HRC. Had the Bernie gang of ideologues supported their party candidate, we wouldn’t be dealing with all the fallout of a Trump presidency busy dismantling the US government and attacking the foundation of every progressive institution. I hope Noam and all his ilk are so very proud of themselves. This is their great accomplishment, destroying and dismantling liberalism, giving rise to fascism through populism, all excused in the name of socialism.
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