OPINION:
WHERE WE GO FROM HERE: TWO YEARS IN THE RESISTANCE
Thomas Dunne Books, $27.99, 270 pages
Judging by the contents of Sen. Bernie Sanders’ latest book, where we go from here is pretty much back to the future, back to when this aging but energetic socialist true-believer took on the corrupt Clinton political cartel and very nearly beat out Hillary for the Democratic presidential nomination. Many believe his refusal to drop out of the race was one element, in addition to her extraordinarily tone-deaf campaign, that led to her defeat.
That campaign earned him a generation-worth of idealistic young supporters who heard a call to action based on a set of idealistic leftist principles that Mr. Sanders had ensured would be written into the Democratic platform, which he celebrates here.
It was, he writes, “the most progressive platform in the history of the Democratic Party: a platform that would live beyond the campaign, and, more importantly, a platform that would serve as a beacon for Democratic candidates at the federal, state and local levels. This would be a document that stated loudly and proudly what the Democratic Party was supposed to stand for.”
Some may find it peculiar that the senator, who is committed to celebrating the achievements of the resistance over the past two years, would devote so much space to a campaign document that few probably remember a word of. But as Mr. Sanders puts it, “I am confident that the ideas expressed in that document will not be forgotten. They will, in fact, become the heart and soul of a growing progressive movement.”
Perhaps. And Mr. Sanders can be allowed to credit some of the recent midterm results to candidates embracing those articulated principles. But it could also be that it’s just easier to write about something amorphous like platform promises rather than something concrete, like legislative victories scored by the resistance. And that may be because there are few to speak of.
To be fair, Mr. Sanders most recently scored an important legislative success when, along with Republican Sen. Mike Lee and Democratic Sen. Charles Murphy, he brought a resolution to the floor to end our involvement in the Saudi-led war in Yemen.
Nor do many of his goals and concerns lack merit. For instance, he’s spoken strongly and consistently about bringing the student-debt crisis under control. His solution is to make public colleges and universities tuition free, a controversial proposal, but one advanced for the right reasons. As he puts it, “Young people should not have to go deeply into debt to get the education they need for a middle-class career.”
However, for the most part, the book is short on accomplishments and long on nostalgia, with lengthy excerpts from speeches — in one case the whole speech itself, fleshing out an entire chapter — a ploy to which political book ghostwriters frequently resort when the principal doesn’t give them a clue about what he wants to say next. The prose is often lazy, marked by mixed metaphors, punctuation errors, and what at times seems to be a lack of the author’s minimal oversight over the book bearing his name.
These might be interpreted as symptoms of weariness in a veteran politician of conviction who must plow the same old fields once again for yet another rising generation, a politician who intends to give it a last hurrah, but knows it’s going to take a supreme effort, and a politician who could be feeling some of the new breed he inspired beginning to nip at his heels.
He makes sure to lavish praise on the most feisty of the young leftist newcomers like media favorite Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. He also singles out a group of candidates, many of whom lost, for praise. But interestingly, among the losers, the name Robert Francis O’Rourke (aka Beto) never appears.
In a recent Democratic presidential preference poll, the top three candidates, in order: Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders and Beto O’Rourke, a heretofore undistinguished Texas congressman who ran a strong race against Sen. Ted Cruz.
What are Beto’s political strengths? He’s slim as a rail, with Kennedy hair and a Kennedy profile to match, can speak inspirationally on any topic whether he knows anything about it or not, and above all, is 46. To his supporters, he personifies the youth and energy that might contrast favorably with the attributes of a man not far from his 80th birthday.
At any rate, if Mr. Sanders does intend to run again, he might consider writing a sequel that better captures some of that socialist true-believer energy that so animated his first campaign.
• John R. Coyne Jr., a former White House speechwriter, is co-author of “Strictly Right: William F. Buckley Jr. and the American Conservative Movement” (Wiley).
Please read our comment policy before commenting.