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A conservative explains what he likes about Bernie Sanders
Rather an interesting OP from the LA Times and takes a look at Bernie's cross over appeal.
OpEd: A conservative explains what he likes about Bernie Sanders
http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-swaim-sanders-rhetoric-20151113-story.html
Bernie Sanders' success on the campaign trail does not defy explanation in quite the way that Donald Trump's does — Sanders has not dominated the polls, for one thing — but it's improbable all the same. He is a 74-year-old grandfather with thick glasses and frequently disheveled white hair. And as an avowed socialist, or “social democrat,” he routinely enunciates positions that almost no successful high-level politician in the U.S. has ever held: for instance, that higher education ought to be free for everyone.
There are no doubt convincing political/demographic reasons for Sanders' competitiveness at this stage, the most obvious being that the longtime Democratic front-runner, Hillary Rodham Clinton, is widely regarded as unprincipled and insufficiently liberal. But none of these reasons explain why I like Sanders. I'm not a Democrat, a socialist or a social democrat. I'm a conservative.
Let me stress: I would not vote for Sanders under any circumstance. I find some of his statements reprehensible, as when he says that the U.S. is not a just society “or anything resembling a just society today.” That's a preposterous slur.
Yet I enjoy listening to him speak and rather envy those who can in good conscience support his candidacy. My reluctant admiration began when I heard him in a radio interview. “In my view,” he told the interviewer, “healthcare is a right, not a privilege.”
http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-swaim-sanders-rhetoric-20151113-story.html
Bernie Sanders' success on the campaign trail does not defy explanation in quite the way that Donald Trump's does — Sanders has not dominated the polls, for one thing — but it's improbable all the same. He is a 74-year-old grandfather with thick glasses and frequently disheveled white hair. And as an avowed socialist, or “social democrat,” he routinely enunciates positions that almost no successful high-level politician in the U.S. has ever held: for instance, that higher education ought to be free for everyone.
There are no doubt convincing political/demographic reasons for Sanders' competitiveness at this stage, the most obvious being that the longtime Democratic front-runner, Hillary Rodham Clinton, is widely regarded as unprincipled and insufficiently liberal. But none of these reasons explain why I like Sanders. I'm not a Democrat, a socialist or a social democrat. I'm a conservative.
Let me stress: I would not vote for Sanders under any circumstance. I find some of his statements reprehensible, as when he says that the U.S. is not a just society “or anything resembling a just society today.” That's a preposterous slur.
Yet I enjoy listening to him speak and rather envy those who can in good conscience support his candidacy. My reluctant admiration began when I heard him in a radio interview. “In my view,” he told the interviewer, “healthcare is a right, not a privilege.”
