Ah, Bernie Sanders. Unless you support a second term for Trump – and I don’t – his nomination by the Democrats would be a political disaster for them of the first magnitude.The supporters of Bernie may not care, but Sanders has a bizarre radical past that will set him back on his heels in a POTUS general election campaign.
Here is a prime-time example Trump will play over and over next Fall. When new Iranian dictator Ayatollah Khomeini and his thugs kidnapped dozens of Americans in our Embassy in 1979 and held 52 of them for 444 days. Sanders was then a backer of a tiny Marxist-Leninist political party that supported the Iranian thugocracy and defended the hostage taking. Sanders’ party said the captured diplomats and other U.S. Embassy workers were CIA spies.
Sanders was a Vermont POTUS elector for that party in 1980 and spoke at rallies for its candidates in 1982 and 1984. He has never had to answer for his association with this radical fringe group. Trump will take care of that next Fall.
If support for this group was an isolated instance from Sanders' past, he might explain it as a youthful indiscretion. However, he was in his late 30s at the time. Nor was it a one-time event. Sanders has made a lifelong career of aligning himself with radicals of various left-wing ilk.
The list of his support for left-wing dictators includes Cuba’s Fidel Castro and Nicaragua’s Daniel Ortega of Sandinista fame. Sanders visited Nicaragua. Back home he praised Ortega, said it made sense for the regime to suppress newspapers given the threat from its opposition – yes, the Contras were backed by the U.S.
To be fair, Sanders has lately tempered his enthusiasm for leftist tyrants. Does anyone expect Trump to be fair?
Consider Cuba. Trump will. So will the legions of Cuban expats in the key state of Florida. Cuba’s communist revolution has been one of Sanders' favorites. In 1989, he issued a public statement of effusive praise of the brutal Castro regime. His offhand support continues to this day.
Then there is the Sanders honeymoon in the Soviet Union in 1988. After his return, he praised a dying bankrupt system whose death rattles were obvious to the rest of the world.
Trump media ad makers are drooling at the prospect of Sanders as the opponent next Fall. Whatever the polls say now, Trump would likely crush “Crazy Bernie” next November.
Here is a prime-time example Trump will play over and over next Fall. When new Iranian dictator Ayatollah Khomeini and his thugs kidnapped dozens of Americans in our Embassy in 1979 and held 52 of them for 444 days. Sanders was then a backer of a tiny Marxist-Leninist political party that supported the Iranian thugocracy and defended the hostage taking. Sanders’ party said the captured diplomats and other U.S. Embassy workers were CIA spies.
Sanders was a Vermont POTUS elector for that party in 1980 and spoke at rallies for its candidates in 1982 and 1984. He has never had to answer for his association with this radical fringe group. Trump will take care of that next Fall.
If support for this group was an isolated instance from Sanders' past, he might explain it as a youthful indiscretion. However, he was in his late 30s at the time. Nor was it a one-time event. Sanders has made a lifelong career of aligning himself with radicals of various left-wing ilk.
The list of his support for left-wing dictators includes Cuba’s Fidel Castro and Nicaragua’s Daniel Ortega of Sandinista fame. Sanders visited Nicaragua. Back home he praised Ortega, said it made sense for the regime to suppress newspapers given the threat from its opposition – yes, the Contras were backed by the U.S.
To be fair, Sanders has lately tempered his enthusiasm for leftist tyrants. Does anyone expect Trump to be fair?
Consider Cuba. Trump will. So will the legions of Cuban expats in the key state of Florida. Cuba’s communist revolution has been one of Sanders' favorites. In 1989, he issued a public statement of effusive praise of the brutal Castro regime. His offhand support continues to this day.
Then there is the Sanders honeymoon in the Soviet Union in 1988. After his return, he praised a dying bankrupt system whose death rattles were obvious to the rest of the world.
Trump media ad makers are drooling at the prospect of Sanders as the opponent next Fall. Whatever the polls say now, Trump would likely crush “Crazy Bernie” next November.
