If this is true about Bernie Sanders, it disqualifies him from being the nominee
I’ve been consistently clear in my position that if Bernie Sanders ends up being the democratic nominee, I’ll loudly support him over Donald Trump – but I don’t want Bernie to be the nominee, because it’s pretty clear he’d find a way to lose to Trump. Bernie has been the “frontrunner” for about five minutes, and he’s already caused himself huge trouble in Florida by partially praising Fidel Castro, while also needlessly alienating a prominent bipartisan Jewish group. Now it’s apparently gotten even worse.
It’s not clear how Bernie Sanders thinks he can defeat Donald Trump in the key swing state of Florida, if he’s going to keep alienating Jewish voters (a democratic stronghold) and Cuban voters (who lean Republican but only supported Trump over Hillary by a 50-41 margin in 2016, and are thus in play in 2020). Now Bernie has apparently decided he can magically beat Trump without anyone’s help, either.
Mike Bloomberg has publicly stated that if he loses the Democratic Party nomination, he’ll keep spending big on anti-Trump television ads, in the name of supporting the Democratic nominee. You’d have to be some kind of fool to turn down that kind of free support, right? Well, Bernie Sanders is now saying that he’s precisely that kind of fool.
According to New York Magazine, Sanders now says he doesn’t want Mike Bloomberg’s help in the general election. To be clear, there are two possibilities here. The first is that Bernie is simply saying this right now as a way of taking a stand against Bloomberg’s attempt at buying the nomination, but Bernie is quietly planning to accept Bloomberg’s help in the general election if it comes to that. If this is what Bernie is really up to, then it’s just fine. He has every right to call out Bloomberg’s attempt at buying the nomination.
But Bernie’s fans keep telling me that he’s so honest, I’m supposed to take everything he says at face value. So if Bernie really does mean this, and he really is planning to refuse Mike Bloomberg’s help in the general election, then it’s disqualifying. This isn’t some normal election. We’re up against Donald Trump, who is trying to declare himself emperor. The Democratic nominee has a moral imperative to accept whatever help might be offered from the other Democratic primary candidates. We can’t afford to have a nominee who would rather lose to Trump than accept Bloomberg’s help.
