The Daily 202: Bernie Sanders has a Eugene V. Debs problem
By James Hohmann January 22
Bernie Sanders at the Best Western in Marshalltown, Iowa. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
THE BIG IDEA:
— Eugene V. Debs is Bernie Sanders’ political hero. A picture of the socialist union organizer hung in city hall when he was mayor of Burlington, Vermont. A plaque honoring Debs is now by the window in Sanders’ Senate office. In 1979, Sanders even directed a glowing half-hour tribute—released on vinyl record—to “a socialist, a revolutionary and probably the most effective and popular leader that the American working class has ever had.”
Debs ran for president five times between 1900 and 1920, earning 6 percent of the national popular vote in 1912. He spent six months in jail in 1895 for leading a railroad strike despite a court ruling that it was illegal. He went to prison in 1918 for violating the Espionage Act by urging resistance to the draft during World War I. Debs led his 1920 campaign from a federal penitentiary in Atlanta.
Eugene V. Debs (AP file photo)
— If you’re a political junkie, or an opposition researcher, the 1979 record is revelatory. Sanders read Debs’ quotes in his own distinct voice. In an accompanying booklet, he excitedly noted that Debs drew bigger crowds when he ran in 1908 than the Republican candidate who was soon to be president: “In New York City, Debs spoke before ten thousand people … In San Diego, 15,000 workers paid their way to a Socialist Party meeting to hear him speak, and in Cincinnati more people came to hear Debs than to hear William Howard Taft.” Sanders, of course, is known for drawing some of the biggest crowds of the 2016 campaign.
— Debs never believed he had a chance to be president, but he thought he could foment a political revolution by running.
In the 1979 audio tribute, Sanders said: “Throughout his life Debs was hailed by many as a prophet, a Moses—a man who would lead the American working class out of the desert of capitalism, and into the promised land of socialism. But Debs rejected that role. He said that if the workers were dependent upon some famous leader … then some other famous leader would come along a few years later and lead them right back into capitalist slavery.”
In his stump speech now, Sanders echoes this sentiment: “This campaign really is not about Bernie Sanders. It’s about transforming America.”
Listen to the full recording here. (@PeoplesWar)
— Sanders, though leading in polls by single digits in Iowa and double digits in New Hampshire, is still widely perceived as a Debs-like candidate, a vessel to express anger about the status quo more than a plausible Commander-in-Chief. For his campaign to have staying power beyond the early states, the self-described “democratic socialist” must combat the deeply-ingrained mindset—endemic in media coverage and ever-present during interviews with Democratic voters—that he does not actually want to win.
— The Debs Problem is less about Sanders’ ideas being radical – which many are – and more about the perception that he’s running to make a point, to pull the Democratic Party leftward and to force Hillary Clinton to make concessions to the base. Ron Paul had a similar challenge in the 2012 Republican primaries. Donald Trump has struggled to a lesser degree with the same perception, though that has subsided in recent weeks as Republican elites come to terms with his frontrunner status. (More on that below.)
— Don’t forget: Sanders is an independent who caucuses with Senate Democrats. It’s an obscure chapter in a life defined by radicalism, but he nearly cost Pat Leahy his Senate seat in 1974. Bernie, running on the Liberty Union ticket, received 4.1 percent of the vote. Leahy, the Democratic nominee, only defeated the Republican by 4,000 votes and prevailed with a plurality. Needless to say, the senior senator has never forgotten. He supports Clinton.
— Ahead of the 2012 reelection campaign, Sanders suggested several times that it would be healthy for someone to challenge Barack Obama in the primary. Again, it was not to topple him, but to force the president to pay attention to the base. “If a progressive Democrat wants to run, I think it would enliven the debate, raise some issues, and people have a right to do that,” he told WNYC in March 2011. “There are a lot of smart, honest progressive people who I think can be good presidents,” he added in October of that year. “And I think one of the reasons President Obama has moved as far to the right as he has, is he thinks he can go all the way and no one will stand up to him.” Clinton attacked Sanders for these statements during last weekend’s debate. (Matea Gold explores the comments in today’s paper.)
— Sanders has made some strides in reassuring skeptical Democrats that he wants to be more than a Don Quixote swinging at windmills.
- He aggressively touts his “ electability.” Bernie now talks almost as much as Trump about polling on the hustings, making the explicit case that he’d fare better than Clinton in a general election because he lacks her baggage and could galvanize otherwise unenthusiastic voters. The campaign constantly cites polls that show Sanders performing better in head-to-head matchups against the leading Republicans. While technically accurate, these results are misleading because Sanders has not faced millions in attack ads highlighting his views. Hillary has been on the national stage for a quarter-of-a-century and faced near-daily criticism. Bernie’s negatives would surely rise as voters are exposed to his more controversial stances.
- He has begun to talk about – and become more hawkish on – foreign policy. Initially, after the Paris and San Bernardino attacks, Bernie tried to avoid talking about ISIS. That’s not why he is running, after all. He memorably blew off questions about the issue during a visit to Baltimore, raising questions about his seriousness. Now he pledges to destroy the Islamic State, and this week he is running an ad in Iowa called “ Defend this Nation.”
- Bernie is also trying to position himself as inside the mainstream, backed up by a diverse array of folks from all walks of life. The campaign released this minute-long commercial, set to Simon and Garfunkel’s “America,” yesterday:
( Bernie 2016)
— The Clinton campaign argues that Sanders is doing well precisely because many of his supporters do not think he’s in it to win it. “They didn’t take him seriously enough because they thought they had a gadfly,” Florida attorney John Morgan, a Clinton donor, complained to the AP. “The gadfly wasn’t a gadfly — he was a lightning bug. And people have been following that lightning bug all over America.”
— Clinton now wants voters to take Sanders’ candidacy seriously. Her allies have begun describing him as a “socialist” with gusto over the past week. Reading from a Teleprompter in Iowa yesterday, the candidate tried to frame the election as a choice between theory and reality. “Theory isn’t enough. A president has to deliver in reality,” she said. “I am not interested in ideas that sound good on paper but will never make it in the real world. I care about making a real difference in your life.” Clinton then argued, dubiously, that Sanders is actually more of an establishment candidate than she is because he has served in Congress more years than she was a senator. A Clinton adviser told CNN that Hillary was trying to “shake some sense into Iowans.”
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