{"id":430,"date":"2016-03-10T17:37:32","date_gmt":"2016-03-10T17:37:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/marcschulman.com\/?p=430"},"modified":"2016-03-10T17:46:50","modified_gmt":"2016-03-10T17:46:50","slug":"430","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marcschulman.com\/index.php\/2016\/03\/10\/430\/","title":{"rendered":"Why “President Bernie Sanders” Troubles Me"},"content":{"rendered":"

A twitter friend asked me why I was not a fan of Bernie Sanders and I promised her an answer.\u00a0 First let me say that I am sympathetic to Sanders basic message that one of the main problems that the US faces is the rising inequality of income.\u00a0 He is right about that, however, \u00a0I have always believed that the problem does not have any easy solutions, and Sanders explanation for the cause of the problem is simply wrong.\u00a0 While American bankers especially the nontraditional one like Hedge Fund Managers and their ilk have been piggish in their approach to their compensation, they are not the prime causes of the misbalance- rather technology and to a lesser extent globalization that technology enables.\u00a0 I have written elsewhere about this problem but suffice it to say Sanders does not seem to have a grasp of the technology factors and his solution to globalization is a new version of protectionism.\u00a0 When questioned on how he would get his domestic agenda approved he states that the US needs a revolution.\u00a0 The only problem with that approach, is the US has never since the original revolution been a revolutionary society.\u00a0 It has historically been evolutionary, and its very system of government was established in such a way to limit revolutionary impulses. The greatest revolutions to occur in modern American history was the Roosevelt’s New Deal and it took the Great Depression to get it implemented.\u00a0 Today while there is underlying economic malaise, by all indicators the US economy is doing well<\/p>\n

However, it\u2019s not all these areas that would bother me about a Sanders Presidency, for ultimately as \u201cPresident Sanders\u201d would quickly find out his ability to impact economic matters is limited, it’s really the role of commander and chief and chief diplomat that counts.\u00a0 I have alway been what was once called a \u201cHenry Jackson\u201d democrat.\u00a0 While I think that the invasion of Iraq the second time was one of the greatest mistakes in US history, and Sanders gets points for his opposition, his opposition to the first Iraq war was mistaken. Iraq could not be allowed to have capture and sovereign neighboring state that was an ally of the US.\u00a0 Furthermore, his view that America can achieve its goal almost solely through diplomacy is mistaken.\u00a0 I believe he underestimates the vital role the US plays in the world system, and whether Americans like it or not, the US is the worlds\u2019 policeman, with the only navy and air force to capable of\u00a0 carrying out that role.<\/p>\n

When it comes to the Arab-Israeli conflict, I am somewhat troubled by some of his wording.\u00a0 As someone who believes that the occupation is a terrible thing that has gone on for two long, but see no easy solutions, on the other hand, I find some of his equivalency troubling.\u00a0 His website states the following position \u201cHowever, while recognizing that Israel has the right to defend itself, he also strongly condemned Israeli attacks on Gaza as disproportionate and the widespread killing of civilians as completely unacceptable.\u201d\u00a0 As someone who lived under two months of missile fire my answer was simple all they had to do was stop firing missiles.\u00a0 If Israel cannot respond with force to attacks, it can never pull out of more territory.\u00a0 His call for ending the blockade of Gaza without mentioning Hamas rejection of Oslo and any peace with a Jewish state is also problematic<\/p>\n

In short I think Bernie Sander as Commander in Chief would make all but his most ardent supporters miss the days of the Obama Presidency.<\/p>\n

\"WASHINGTON<\/a>

WASHINGTON \u2013 During July 16, 2014 testimony before the Senate Committee on Veterans\u2019 Affairs<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A twitter friend asked me why I was not a fan of Bernie Sanders and I promised her an answer.\u00a0 First let me say that I am sympathetic to Sanders basic message that one of the main problems that the US faces is the rising inequality of income.\u00a0 He is right about that, however, \u00a0I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"saved_in_kubio":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-430","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcschulman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcschulman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcschulman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcschulman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcschulman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=430"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/marcschulman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":436,"href":"https:\/\/marcschulman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430\/revisions\/436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcschulman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcschulman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcschulman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}