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| Bernie Sanders is a gestural candidate | |
| (about 3 hours later) | |
| An insightful observer said in 2016 that then-candidate Donald Trump’s supporters took him seriously but not literally. The more I try to understand Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), the harder it is to do either. | An insightful observer said in 2016 that then-candidate Donald Trump’s supporters took him seriously but not literally. The more I try to understand Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), the harder it is to do either. |
| How seriously can you take a man who styles himself a great champion of social justice yet makes his career not in his home city of New York, nor in his first adult home of Chicago, but in Vermont, one of the smallest and whitest states in America? How literally can take you a man who volunteers to reengineer the entire U.S. economy when his sole managerial experience is as mayor of a city too small to fill the seats at Yankee Stadium? | How seriously can you take a man who styles himself a great champion of social justice yet makes his career not in his home city of New York, nor in his first adult home of Chicago, but in Vermont, one of the smallest and whitest states in America? How literally can take you a man who volunteers to reengineer the entire U.S. economy when his sole managerial experience is as mayor of a city too small to fill the seats at Yankee Stadium? |
| Sanders is a gestural candidate. Supporting him is a way of pointing in the general direction of a certain kind of change. He’s not interested in the details. After a half-century of promoting single-payer health care, here’s how far he has come in figuring it out: | Sanders is a gestural candidate. Supporting him is a way of pointing in the general direction of a certain kind of change. He’s not interested in the details. After a half-century of promoting single-payer health care, here’s how far he has come in figuring it out: |
| “Well, I can’t — you know, I can’t rattle off to you every nickel and every dime. But we have accounted for — you — you talked about Medicare-for-all. We have options out there that will pay for it.” That was the senator’s reply to Anderson Cooper during a recent “60 Minutes” interview. | “Well, I can’t — you know, I can’t rattle off to you every nickel and every dime. But we have accounted for — you — you talked about Medicare-for-all. We have options out there that will pay for it.” That was the senator’s reply to Anderson Cooper during a recent “60 Minutes” interview. |
| What will happen in the primaries? Play the Post Opinions Simulator to build your own possible outcomes. | What will happen in the primaries? Play the Post Opinions Simulator to build your own possible outcomes. |
| What’s striking about that is not his failure to account for every nickel and dime. It’s that a good answer exists yet Sanders didn’t give it. The United States already pays for health care through private insurance, public insurance, state and local subsidies, hospital write-offs, out-of-pocket expenses, charitable donations and so on. All told, that adds up to more than $3.5 trillion per year. That’s a lot of nickels and dimes — and a good down payment on Medicare-for-all. | What’s striking about that is not his failure to account for every nickel and dime. It’s that a good answer exists yet Sanders didn’t give it. The United States already pays for health care through private insurance, public insurance, state and local subsidies, hospital write-offs, out-of-pocket expenses, charitable donations and so on. All told, that adds up to more than $3.5 trillion per year. That’s a lot of nickels and dimes — and a good down payment on Medicare-for-all. |
| I’m not saying that single-payer health care is a good idea — that’s for voters to decide. I’m saying that Sanders spends more time denouncing than explaining. It’s as though he wants the public to believe that his plan will be crushingly expensive; he’s gesturing to his voters that he’s ready to drain the bank vaults. | I’m not saying that single-payer health care is a good idea — that’s for voters to decide. I’m saying that Sanders spends more time denouncing than explaining. It’s as though he wants the public to believe that his plan will be crushingly expensive; he’s gesturing to his voters that he’s ready to drain the bank vaults. |
| In other areas, the spending is real but the reasons for it are missing. Take the Sanders plan for higher education, for example. The self-styled “democratic socialist” proposes to make all public universities and colleges tuition-free while wiping out most existing student loan debt. Unless your goal is to buy votes from young people — and judging from the crowds at Sanders’s rallies, that may be the goal — neither of these ideas advances the cause of fairness in American society. | In other areas, the spending is real but the reasons for it are missing. Take the Sanders plan for higher education, for example. The self-styled “democratic socialist” proposes to make all public universities and colleges tuition-free while wiping out most existing student loan debt. Unless your goal is to buy votes from young people — and judging from the crowds at Sanders’s rallies, that may be the goal — neither of these ideas advances the cause of fairness in American society. |
| Further subsidizing tuition means that the largest grants of public money will go to the best-prepared students — those graduating seniors able to win admission to highly selective public colleges and universities — while less money will go to students attending noncompetitive schools. That compounds and perpetuates the advantages already enjoyed by students in high-performing K-12 schools. Admittedly, free tuition might lure some disadvantaged students to aspire to a college education, but a more targeted program could reach them without exacerbating inequality. | Further subsidizing tuition means that the largest grants of public money will go to the best-prepared students — those graduating seniors able to win admission to highly selective public colleges and universities — while less money will go to students attending noncompetitive schools. That compounds and perpetuates the advantages already enjoyed by students in high-performing K-12 schools. Admittedly, free tuition might lure some disadvantaged students to aspire to a college education, but a more targeted program could reach them without exacerbating inequality. |
| Moreover, both programs add new privileges to what is already a great privilege — a college education. Picture two kids graduating from high school. Both like to work with their hands. One wants to be a dentist; the other, a plumber. Anyone who has suffered a toothache or a blocked sewer line knows how important both of these jobs are to a happy society. | Moreover, both programs add new privileges to what is already a great privilege — a college education. Picture two kids graduating from high school. Both like to work with their hands. One wants to be a dentist; the other, a plumber. Anyone who has suffered a toothache or a blocked sewer line knows how important both of these jobs are to a happy society. |
| Sanders would give the future dentist a free education (and wipe out the student loan debts of existing dentists), even though the dentist’s education opens the path to a career paying, on average, more than three times as much as the median U.S. income. Meanwhile, the future plumber, who will earn around the median income, won’t get free tools. Nor will the auto loan for the plumber’s work truck be wiped away. | Sanders would give the future dentist a free education (and wipe out the student loan debts of existing dentists), even though the dentist’s education opens the path to a career paying, on average, more than three times as much as the median U.S. income. Meanwhile, the future plumber, who will earn around the median income, won’t get free tools. Nor will the auto loan for the plumber’s work truck be wiped away. |
| A college degree doesn’t guarantee a high-paying job, but it certainly helps. And college can be a lot of fun, too. What’s fair about a plan to pile tens of thousands of additional dollars on top of that privilege? | A college degree doesn’t guarantee a high-paying job, but it certainly helps. And college can be a lot of fun, too. What’s fair about a plan to pile tens of thousands of additional dollars on top of that privilege? |
| In a perceptive essay last year, Matthew Zeitlin of Vox concluded that the disconnect between Sanders’s stated goals and the actual impact of his higher-education ideas is precisely the point. He wants to be criticized by number-crunching pragmatists because that shows what a genuine change-agent he is. “Alienating the wonk class isn’t a bug that comes from Sanders’s ambitions but a feature,” he wrote. | In a perceptive essay last year, Matthew Zeitlin of Vox concluded that the disconnect between Sanders’s stated goals and the actual impact of his higher-education ideas is precisely the point. He wants to be criticized by number-crunching pragmatists because that shows what a genuine change-agent he is. “Alienating the wonk class isn’t a bug that comes from Sanders’s ambitions but a feature,” he wrote. |
| In other words, it’s a gesture. | In other words, it’s a gesture. |
| Sanders voters are caught in a feedback loop. Their candidate speaks truth to power. When others disagree, it’s because power is threatened. If power is threatened, Sanders must be speaking truth. There’s no incentive to be serious or literal when your goal is not to persuade but to provoke. | Sanders voters are caught in a feedback loop. Their candidate speaks truth to power. When others disagree, it’s because power is threatened. If power is threatened, Sanders must be speaking truth. There’s no incentive to be serious or literal when your goal is not to persuade but to provoke. |
| Read more from David Von Drehle’s archive. | Read more from David Von Drehle’s archive. |
| Read more: | Read more: |
| Jennifer Rubin: Bernie Sanders has a unique gift: Angering Democrats | Jennifer Rubin: Bernie Sanders has a unique gift: Angering Democrats |
| Joe Walsh: I’m no fan of Bernie Sanders. But #NeverTrump means never Trump. | Joe Walsh: I’m no fan of Bernie Sanders. But #NeverTrump means never Trump. |
| Francisco Toro: Why Bernie Sanders’s repeating Cuban propaganda rankles so many Latinos | Francisco Toro: Why Bernie Sanders’s repeating Cuban propaganda rankles so many Latinos |
| Eugene Robinson: Sanders is leading something rare and unpredictable in U.S. politics | Eugene Robinson: Sanders is leading something rare and unpredictable in U.S. politics |
| Marc A. Thiessen: 40 years after the | Marc A. Thiessen: 40 years after the |
| ‘Miracle | ‘Miracle |
| on Ice,’ socialism makes a comeback | on Ice,’ socialism makes a comeback |
| The Post’s View: Bernie Sanders’s big-spending promises aren’t a sign of courage | The Post’s View: Bernie Sanders’s big-spending promises aren’t a sign of courage |