Donald Trump, political opportunist extraordinaire, has decided to try to take advantage of the same political forces that just caused the UK to leave the European Union. This should be ridiculous on its face, as Donald Trump is a pathological narcissist who has no interest in improving anyone’s life except his own. Yet, as usual, certain politicians and members of the media have been far too credulous.
Bernie Sanders just wrote a new op-ed in the New York Times, which rather than demolishing the frame of Trump as champion of the people, feeds that frame. This does not seem to be intentional — Sanders has repeatedly railed against Trump, even doing so in the op-ed itself — but it does so nonetheless. As such it is a serious error in judgment.
The op-ed itself is mostly a rehash of Sanders’ stump speech, with a few throwaway lines about Brexit and a bit of mild concern-trolling directed at the Democratic Party. Sanders does seem to be aware that Trump could benefit from the message he is putting forth, and as such makes clear that he does not support Trump:
Let’s be clear. The global economy is not working for the majority of people in our country and the world. This is an economic model developed by the economic elite to benefit the economic elite. We need real change.
But we do not need change based on the demagogy, bigotry and anti-immigrant sentiment that punctuated so much of the Leave campaign’s rhetoric — and is central to Donald J. Trump’s message.
Sanders, here, correctly identifies one of the two major problems with Donald Trump’s campaign: its appeal to hatred and ultra-nationalism. This is good. But he misses the other problem: Trump is not sincere. Based on everything he has ever done, he won’t actually help people who are struggling in the global economy. He will instead help himself.
And Sanders fails to challenge Trump on that key point. In the op-ed, Sanders instead repeatedly challenges the Democratic Party, implying that it has not yet chosen to work for the common people. He does not train any such fire on Trump, and does nothing to challenge Trump’s self-appointed status as populist tribune. Failing to point out Trump’s opportunism and insincerity is political malpractice on Sanders’ part. It allows people who are receptive to his message to believe that Trump is a real populist, and as such falls far short of his promise to do anything to defeat Donald Trump.
The Brexit referendum did provide one instructive example: Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, who made precisely the same kind of half-hearted case against the Leave campaign that Sanders’ op-ed makes against Trump. Corbyn was happy to attack Leave’s racism and xenophobia, but de-emphasized criticism of their economic message despite it being an obvious bill of goods. Sanders should not make the same mistake. If he follows Corbyn’s example and Hillary Clinton loses this fall’s election, history will not be kind to him. That is not an outcome any of us should want.