In the past week, there’s been a lot written about Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and his unconstitutional religious test imposed on President Trump’s nominee for deputy director at the Office of Management and Budget, Russell Vought.
While Sanders, democratic socialist gadfly, was widely panned for his ignorance regarding constitutional prohibitions on religious tests for civil servants (as well as his own double standard about religious liberty, depending upon which religion is in question), what seemed more noteworthy about last week’s hearing and the op-ed penned by the senator Tuesday is that anyone still takes his preening seriously.
Sanders is a self-serious, self-styled socialist who owns three homes. He ran for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination in 2016, losing to the most unpopular nominee in the party’s history and fathering a “revolution” which was powerless to stop the opposing Republican Party from reaching its strongest level of representation at state and federal levels since 1928. It also likely contributed to a Republican underdog winning back the White House.
In terms of legislation authored, the longest-serving independent in congressional history has neither quantity nor quality. The 2016 presidential campaign represents the apex of the senator’s career, regardless of his wife’s prognostications that he’ll play a major role in 2020. In 2016, Sanders got to rattle off shopworn tropes about soaking the rich and making college free to throngs of young Americans which were tailor-made to become viral, shareable content.
The fact that his message connects is unsurprising, given the onerous demands of millennials in today’s job market and Sanders’ blunt way of communicating. But that he can identify the problems of income inequality and stagnant wages does not in and of itself mean he can propose any sort of practical solutions.
Just take his proposals from the past week in a vacuum. Sanders suggested that Christians who take seriously the point of their religious affiliation (that Jesus Christ offers the only path to eternal salvation) are unfit for public office, and that Democrats “… cling to an overly cautious, centrist ideology.” His working examples? Jeremy Corbyn’s loss in an ill-advised snap election and the fact that Great Britain happened to have a large voter turnout, particularly of voters aged 18–34.
Sanders often sends up arguments that appear to have been plucked from a sophomore sociology class. He picks off all the inequities in plain sight and opines that massive increases in taxation for the wealthy (who somehow, in that scenario, will manage to remain wealthy) and broad, New Deal-type public infrastructure projects will create millions of jobs and an economy that works for everyone. What’s missing is an answer for what happens after he depletes the rich of their money, all the roads are paved, and every home has solar panels.
The most damning figure, however, is the scant number of legislative accomplishments. Sanders has seldom authored or sponsored bills of consequence in his Congressional tenure. His sincere devotion to a socialist tide he believes will lift all boats has amounted to him lifting virtually none.
Before Democrats listen to one more self-righteous piece of advice from Sanders, they should take 2016 at face value: After racking up millions of meaningless primary votes, Sanders and his followers played armchair quarterback all the way to Election Day and beyond. They sandbagged a Democrat who could have won had they shown up for her, and then lamented the state of things once she lost.
Tamer Abouras (@iamtamerabouras) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. He is a writer and editor from Williamstown, N.J., and the Volunteer Coordinator for the Atlantic City Rescue Mission.
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