Democratic Primaries
Related: About this forumStarTribunr editorial: Sanders tries to rewrite his past on authoritarianism
For the last three years, the U.S. president has accommodated autocrats.
Novembers election threatens to make it eight years even if President Donald Trump isnt re-elected.
Based on favorable comments hes made in the past on Cuba, Nicaragua and even the Soviet Union, Democratic front-runner Sen. Bernie Sanders may lack the legitimacy required to confront autocratic nations and leaders.
Not familiar with this history? You will be, if Sanders is the nominee. In fact, some rivals are already alarmed over potential Trump campaign commercials featuring footage of Sanders comments on his travels. The Democratic Party should be concerned about the potential impact on the election. More profoundly, Americans should consider how Sanders would govern. The Vermont senator showed naiveté, at best, about the nature of repressive regimes. Sure, he offered some muted criticism. But it was couched in compliments that overlooked the oppression that was the defining dynamic in each country.
After his Soviet visit in 1988, for example, Sanders didnt focus on the Orwellian Soviet system that led to deaths or dead-end lives of millions in multiple countries. Instead, he noted the countrys chandelier-laden subway stations. They put a lot of money into culture, they want people to enjoy it, and they deserve credit for that, Sanders said. (Never mind that Aleksander Solzhenitsyn and others were put in gulags for cultural expression.)
Cubas revolutionary spirit was far deeper and more profound than I understood it to be, Sanders said after a 1989 visit to that nation. This wasnt youthful naiveté Cubas revolution, like Sanders himself, was middle-aged when he made such comments. And just last Sunday on 60 Minutes Sanders praised Fidel Castros massive literacy program without voicing concern about the regimes monitoring of what Cubans read and wrote.
Sanders also said in 1985 that Sandinista leaders impressed him with their intelligence and their sincerity. The insincere leader of that thuggish government, Daniel Ortega, leads Nicaragua once again in what the State Departments 2018 Human Rights Report called a highly centralized, authoritarian political system thats engaged in egregious human rights abuses, including a policy of exile, jail or death for anyone perceived as opposition.
(snip)
Sanders has recanted some of his previous equivocation on repressive regimes, including the heinous failures of Venezuelas socialist leader, Nicolas Maduro. But his history is deeply troubling and could compromise his ability as president to press for free elections, and free people, everywhere.
http://www.startribune.com/sanders-tries-to-rewrite-his-past-on-authoritarianism/568260422/
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
Cha
(297,283 posts)primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
oasis
(49,389 posts)primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
Cha
(297,283 posts)primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden