[rad-green] Talking Points For News Anchors Against Sanders

https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/02/12/talking-points-for-news-anchors-against-sanders/

*COUNTERPUNCH          FEBRUARY 12, 2020*Talking Points For News Anchors
Against Sanders
<https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/02/12/talking-points-for-news-anchors-against-sanders/>*by
Gary Leupp*

*Drawing by Nathaniel St. Clair*

It appears the news directors of the cable channels have directed their
anchors to note the following about Bernie Sanders in their objective, fair
and balanced news coverage.

1. Bernie Sanders is a self-described socialist. A socialist cannot win in
America. Repeat. A socialist cannot win in America.

2. Black people don’t like him, and you need blacks to win. Black church
women are the backbone of the party, and they will not vote for an old
socialist atheist Jew. Period.

3. He has “Bernie bros” in his campaign, young white men who hate women.
There are emails showing this! And he told Warren (she says) a woman can’t
win. Next!

4. He hasn’t explained how he will finance universal health care, and he
wants to take your private insurance away. Americans love their insurance
companies.

5. He is an unlikable, angry old man. Nobody likes him. Repeat. Nobody
likes Bernie.

6. In 1985 on a trip to Nicaragua Sanders praised the achievements of the
Cuban revolution and that of the Sandinistas. He’s pro-communist. Full stop.

7. Polls show the voters want a moderate, not a progressive radical. Enough
said.

8. Trump would win in a Trump-Sanders match because it would be a choice
between capitalism and socialism and the masses—as Americans—prefer
capitalism.

Memorize these points and with them in mind report the news. Joy Reid, make
sure you furrow your brow in feigned puzzlement. Joe Scarborough, feel free
to roll your eyes. Mika, purse your lips. Fareed, frown away as you lament
the Sanders surge.

***

I can imagine the talking points changing as CNN and MSNBC are forced to
accept, post-New Hampshire, post-Super Tuesday, a de facto Sanders-Trump
contest.

1. Bernie Sanders’ “socialism” is like that of many U.S. European allies.
It’s actually not that big of an issue.

2. Young African-Americans are supportive of Bernie, and many
African-American celebrities have actually embraced his campaign.

3. He has strong support from women, especially young women.

4. He has a detailed proposal for universal health care, which Congress
will have to address. It’s not like a president has unlimited power. The
point is, he has a progressive vision of health care reform.

5. He is a cantankerous old guy, but so what? He’s obviously widely loved.
Surely more than Hillary.

6. He like many people in this country never bought into the Cold War
brainwashing. What he said about Cuba was true.

7. Polls show the voters are actually comfortable with a “democratic
socialist” candidate (due to the failure of that brainwashing).

8. It is not a choice between capitalism and socialism and the masses have
become less influenced by Cold War fear-mongering.

The ruling class might well be confronted with a Trump-Sanders choice this
year. It will remain divided over Trump. The question is how far factions
within it will move to embrace the Sanders campaign, if it becomes clear
that he can indeed defeat Trump. The strange deference that billionaire Tom
Steyer shows Bernie suggests that the senator can become more palatable
over time, not because he compromises ideologically but because he
continues in fact to pose little threat to the capitalist-imperialist
system as a whole. At least not in the short term.

The reason to support Sanders is not to support the immediate establishment
of socialism. It’s to topple Trump while opening the door to future
discussion of socialism. “Socialism” has been the He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named
of U.S. politics, but since Occupy Wall Street (2011) young people have
largely embraced the concept, or some version of it. A Sanders victory in
New Hampshire followed by one in Nevada could force the bourgeois media to
rethink their rejection of Bernie. If Joe Biden could hug him on stage,
refuting Hillary’s charge about his unlikeability, MSNBC can back off from
its Berniephobia if only to defeat Trump.

Then we can start reforming capitalism, seriously, discovering inevitably
that much more than reform is in order and Sanders, bless his soul, was
just a useful transitional figure on the road to real revolution.

*Gary Leupp* is Professor of History at Tufts University, and holds a
secondary appointment in the Department of Religion. He is the author
of Servants,
Shophands and Laborers in in the Cities of Tokugawa Japan
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/069102961X/counterpunchmaga>; Male
Colors: The Construction of Homosexuality in Tokugawa Japan
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0520209001/counterpunchmaga>;
and Interracial
Intimacy in Japan: Western Men and Japanese Women, 1543-1900
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0826460747/counterpunchmaga>. He is
a contributor to Hopeless: Barack Obama and the Politics of Illusion
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1849351104/counterpunchmaga>, (AK
Press). He can be reached at: [email protected]

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