Bernie Sanders is a crusty curmudgeon from the frozen state of Vermont. Naysayers say this 74-year-old codger might be too old to be president. But Obama seems not to see the wrinkles and the white hair. He thinks voters are flocking to Sanders because he is a novelty object – a mere flavor of the month that they will soon tire of.
In an interview with Politico published on Monday, Obama complimented former secretary of state Hillary Clinton as a smart and tough person “who has been in the public eye for a long time”. He suggested this might be a weakness. “In a culture in which new is always better you know, you’re always looking at the bright, shiny object that people don’t, haven’t seen before.” Like Bernie Sanders.
But Bernie Sanders is not exactly a spring chicken. Sanders has been harping on economic inequality since he first mounted his quixotic campaigns for office in Vermont during his hippie days in the 1970s. As mayor of Burlington, Vermont, he took time away from hassling the city council to expound about the 3% of Americans who had all the wealth. By 1996, running for re-election to Congress, Sanders had started fingering the 1% of super-rich Americans, decades before the Occupy Wall Street activists popularized the term.
Beyond Bernie Sanders, the rhetoric he repeats over and again in Iowa and New Hampshire is as bright and shiny as an old copper penny. It’s the same language used by American populists like 19th century presidential candidate Williams Jennings Bryant, storied Louisiana governor Huey Long and former New York City mayor Fiorello LaGuardia. Teddy Roosevelt used his presidential “bully pulpit” to rail against the inordinate power of big banks and corporations.
Why do most of Sanders’ Senate colleagues duck out of meetings when he starts to speak? Because he’s known for uttering the same old lines about income inequality every time he opens his mouth. It is not “novelty” that draws voters to Bernie and, if you read Obama’s interview closely, he admits as much.
“Bernie is somebody who – although I don’t know as well because he wasn’t, obviously, in my administration – has the virtue of saying exactly what he believes, and great authenticity, great passion, and is fearless. His attitude is: ‘I got nothing to lose.’”
Perhaps that’s what the president was referring to as new in American politics: “great authenticity”, “great passion”, “fearless”.
It’s ridiculous if these powerful qualities – in short supply in Washington, by any account – are written off with a wave of a hand. It’s patronizing to suggest that voters are like children in a toy store, looking for a blinking, attention-grabbing, plaything.
If Bernie Sanders’ campaign has proven anything, it is that there are millions of citizens who are engaged, invested and closely scrutinizing the policy positions of all of the candidates in the electoral field. If Sanders can bring new voters to the polls with his message of authenticity and empowerment – as he seems to be doing – that’s a testament to the power of his words rather than their shiny quality.
If Obama wants to understand why droves of young, impassioned voters are flocking to Bernie Sanders, he need only look to the senator’s firm position on inequality. Or his refusal to court big money donors. Or his positions on single-payer healthcare and college tuition. All of these things resonate with many of the 99%. That is why the scowling old senator is able to draw crowds and threaten Hillary Clinton.
Sanders is authentic. And bright and shiny or not, that in itself is seductive.