“driven by fear that Sanders could all but wrap up the nomination early in the campaign without having faced much pushback”

Bernie Sanders is having his moment. With a week to go until the Iowa caucuses, Sanders is leading the Democrat field, according to a Siena/New York Times poll. The Real Clear Politics average of polls shows Sanders way out in front in New Hampshire.

Some Democrats are starting to get nervous.

This Daily Beast report by Sam Stein, Hanna Trudo, and Lachlan Markay suggests that Democratic insiders never thought Sanders would get this far:

Worried Democratic Operatives Scramble to Fund a Network to Take Down Bernie Sanders A group of loosely affiliated Democratic operatives have been in discussions about putting together an effort to attack Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) should he end up winning next week’s Iowa caucus and, potentially, the New Hampshire primary a week later. The talks, which two sources described to The Daily Beast, are in their nascent stages, and have already hit a snag. Big money Democrats have shown reluctance at funding such an effort, which could consist of ads attacking Sanders, and institutions associated with Democratic politics have largely shied away from being part of any campaign that goes after the senator, either out of fear over the backlash or growing acceptance at the prospect of him becoming the party’s nominee… The conversations have been driven by fear that Sanders could all but wrap up the nomination early in the campaign without having faced much pushback. Whereas in 2016, Sanders came under a barrage of attacks from Hillary Clinton over his voting record on guns and—more opaquely—the lack of diversity in his political coalition, the senator, who has significantly broadened that coalition since his last bid, has been relatively unchallenged this go around.

Democrats have valid reasons to be concerned. Bernie Sanders may play well to the Ocasio-Cortez wing of their party. Still, it’s hard to picture voters abandoning the booming Trump economy for the radical changes Bernie is proposing in a general election.

Natasha Korecki of Politico is also reporting on the Democrats’ late-stage call to action:

‘They let him get away with murder’: Dems tormented over how to stop Bernie With Bernie Sanders gaining steam a week before the Iowa caucuses, tormented Democrats are second-guessing what they say was a hands-off strategy against the Vermont senator in the 2020 primary. They fear a repeat of 2016 is in the making — when mainstream Republicans scoffed at the idea that Donald Trump could ever win the nomination, until he became unstoppable — only this time from the left… Many Democrats say they respect the support behind Sanders but fear a self-described Democratic socialist would cede must-win battlegrounds to Trump. “Swing states have a higher concentration of swing voters. We need a nominee who draws them to the Democratic column,” said Rahm Emanuel, the former Chicago mayor and chief of staff to Obama. “Sanders’ theory, like Trump’s for the right, is based on the notion of a higher turnout of infrequent voters.”

As Trump’s campaign theme song goes, you can’t always get what you want, but sometimes you get what you need. In that same spirit, Professor Jacobson recently wrote that a Bernie Vs. Trump election is just what we need:

Bernie v. Trump is the battle we need, just as Britain needed Corbyn v. Johnson It’s a long way from here to Bernie being the Democrat nominee, but who else will it be? Biden? Maybe, but there’s no energy there. If Warren continues to fall, will her supporters go to a crony corporatist like Biden? Combined, the far-left wing of the party as reflected in combined Bernie and Warren supporters far outpaces Biden. If the far left coalesces around Bernie, there’s no reason he can’t win the nomination. A Bernie v. Trump battle is the battle we need, just as Britain needed far-leftist anti-Western anti-Israel Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn versus conservative capitalist pro-Western pro-Israel Conservative Party leader Boris Johnson.

Bernie’s momentum puts Democrats in a real bind. What are they going to do if he takes Iowa and New Hampshire?



