Bernie Sanders cleaned up at the Nevada caucus Saturday. Ironically, Sanders solidified his position as the Democratic party’s front-runner on the 40th anniversary of the U.S.  hockey team’s miraculous victory over the Soviet Union at the 1980 Winter Olympics. 

After all, in 1980, Bernie Sanders was rooting for the Soviets to win. At the height of the Cold War, with millions across the Evil Empire in bondage, with our freedoms in danger, Bernie Sanders had all his chips on the brutal communist Soviet Union. His bet was against the United States.

He’s still against the United States.

It wasn’t like Sanders had a schoolboy crush on communism. A naive utopian vision sold him by Marxist professors and repeated spins of John Lennon’s “Imagine.” He wasn’t some wide-eyed, gullible lipstick Leninite like AOC. He was an adult, deep in his thirties, with Soviet atrocities and oppression clear for all to see. Pick a spot on the globe and he was siding with violent communist revolutionaries. 

He still does. On Sunday, Sanders told 60 Minutes, Fidel Castro wasn’t all bad. After all, the dictator brought literacy to his enslaved island. (Sure, they knew how to read … what Castro wanted them to read.) Last night, on CNN, Sanders doubled down. Democratic Rep. Donna Shalala ripped Sanders for his praise of a “murderous tyrant.” She was hardly alone. Joe Biden called the comment “not only dangerous, it is deeply offensive.” 

Sanders praising Castro is just par for Team Bernie. 

Last month, Project Veritas exposed the violent revolutionary pulse of the Sanders campaign. Listen to Kyle Jurek, a paid staffer in Iowa. He’s promising cities burnt to the the ground. He’s celebrating Russia’s gulags. He’s warning of the “consequences” of people speaking out. 

Jurek was just one paid staffer exposed. Did Bernie Sanders reject the remarks? Did he condemn the remarks? Did he fire the staffers? No. His campaign clammed up, assuming the mainstream media would do the rest. As Project Veritas’ James O’Keefe said, “The reason nothing happened to all these paid staffers is because Bernie Sanders doesn’t take issue with anything they said.”

Gulags are good, say the Bernie Bros. Communism is great. The Soviet Union was great. The reason nothing happened to all these paid staffers is because @BernieSanders doesn’t take issue with anything they said. https://t.co/Al1tb2jI4P

— James O'Keefe (@JamesOKeefeIII) February 23, 2020

Media Getting Anxious

But now the mainstream media is starting to turn on The Bern. They see the grave danger of a Sanders candidacy. Oh, not that he’d win and shove us in re-education camps. Not that he would destroy the economy. Not that he would devastate health care. Not that he’d open the border to all comers.  Not even that he feels the love for Castro. No, they’re scared to death he gets nominated and Big Bad Orange easily wins re-election.

Boy, is the MSM in a pickle. Four more years of Trump versus decades of misery for millions. 

How worried are they getting? MSNBC’s Donnie Deutch is “absolutely panicked” because Sanders can’t beat Trump. MSNBC’s Chris Matthews compared Sanders’ victory to the Nazi invasion of France. 

Sanders Rivals Fearful to Attack? 

Sensible Democratic voters have a sense of the Bern danger. Why did Amy Klobochar skyrocket before the New Hampshire primary? Because she was the only one of Bernie’s rivals who said she’d have a problem having a “Democratic Socialist” at the top of the ticket. Yet, whether out of fear of what Chris Matthews called the “brown shirt”-like Sanders followers or their own sympathies for Marxism or sheer stupidity, Sanders’ rivals left him untouched in last week’s debate.

Instead, they focused their fire on the zillionaire with zero charisma, Mike Bloomberg. Even Klobuchar was more focused on her personal loathing of “Perfect” Pete Buttigieg than scoring points against Sanders. 

Oh, sure, now Pete Buttigieg is taking harder shots at Sanders. After the Nevada caucus, Buttigieg said Sanders “believes in an inflexible ideological revolution that leaves out most Democrats and most Americans.” (The glib son of a noted Marxist professor wants a more flexible ideological revolution.) But even Pete’s attack is less about protecting America from a revolutionary socialist and more about positioning himself as an alternative between the socialist and the zillionaire.

The DNC Dilema

Clearly, the DNC sees Bernie Sanders as a disaster for the party. They fixed the race against him in 2016, and they’re looking to do the same again. But they’re in a lose-lose. Deny Sanders a nomination he’s earned, and his followers burn the party … and perhaps our cities … down. Allow Sanders to be the nominee and this election goes up in smoke. As Matt Bennett, of the center-left Third Way, told Politico: “In 30-plus years of politics, I’ve never seen this level of doom.” 

They’ve got two options for stopping Bernie — well, three, if you include wishing for another heart attack:

Option One: Find a way for someone to beat him in the primaries.

Option Two: Make the primaries such a mess you end up with a brokered convention. 

What’s the problem with Option Two? If Bernie goes into the convention with the most delegates and the most votes, but leaves Milwaukee with nothing but some free six-packs, what do his supporters do? Remember field coordinator Jurek is already promising Milwaukee will burn. Even if that doesn’t happen, are his supporters, burned twice by the DNC, going to support the Democratic nominee? 

Further, whoever emerges — by definition — is a compromised, weakened candidate. And waiting for him or her is one Donald J. Trump itching to rumble. 

What’s the problem with Option One? You take a look lately at Bernie’s competition? 

It’s comical.

• Bloomberg is calling on all the other candidates to drop out so he can go mano-a-mano with Bernie.
• Buttigieg is calling on Bloomberg to drop out so a real Democrat could have a chance.
• Warren’s had to crawl back from the dead so often she should be in a Wes Craven movie.
• Klobuchar foolishly missed her moment, squandered it by accusing Mayor Pete of calling her dumb.
• And Joe Biden is still Joe Biden. 

Still, perhaps it can be done. As Obama strategist David Axelrod pointed out last week, Sanders hasn’t shown he can grow beyond his base. (Though his domination of Nevada and his rise in South Carolina polling indicates that could be happening.) Said Axelrod, “It’s hard to 25% your way to the nomination of the Democratic Party.”

Also, a poll taken over the weekend shows Joe Biden retaining a 15 point lead in South Carolina. The RealClearPolitics average has Joe clinging to a 5.1 lead going into Saturday’s make-or-break primary. 

“For the establishment Democrats,” Democratic strategist Simon Rosenberg told Politico, “it’s Joe or Bust.”

“Biden is the only one who has a path to defeat Bernie. It would involve him winning South Carolina and then performing well enough in the early March states to keep the race competitive,” Rosenberg said. “I don’t think Bloomberg can recover quickly enough from the hits he’s taken in recent days to remain competitive or win the nomination.”

So, South Carolina may be the last place to stop Sanders’ Red Wave. And the best hope is a man who predates the Cold War. 

Does Uncle Joe have it in him? Can he, too, pull out a miracle? 

 

Update: At an event in South Carolina, Joe Biden described himself as running for the “United States Senate” and “If you like what you see, help out. If not, vote for the other Biden.” 

“My name is Joe Biden, I'm a Democratic candidate for the United States Senate”

Good Luck in your race, Joe.
pic.twitter.com/E7xO5pBxEj

— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) February 25, 2020

If Democratic leaders think “It’s Joe or Bust,” then bust it is. Meanwhile, as we suggested months ago, it is downright cruel Biden’s family continues to let him disintegrate before our eyes.

 

Al Perrotta is the Managing Editor of The Stream and co-author, with @JZmirak, of The Politically Incorrect Guide to Immigration. You can follow him at @StreamingAl. And if you aren’t already, please follow The Stream at @Streamdotorg.