JVLV: DONALD, BERNIE IS NOT "CRAZY!" By Jiri and Leni Friedman Valenta

                     “Unafraid, Bi-Partisan, Uphold U.S. and Freedom”

Donald, don’t call Bernie Sanders “crazy.”  Bernie is your tactical ally during the primaries. Moreover, he’s not crooked.  He’s so upright, idealistic and straight he must have been brought up on Superman comics. A genuine relic from the late ‘60’s, he reminds us of when the “good guy” was thought to be Eugene McCarthy and young people marched against the Vietnam war.   

True, Bernie supported the Sandinistas in the mid-1980’s before it was known they were Leninists, and in 1989, honeymooned in the USSR.   But he’s really no fan of Soviet-style communism.  Democratic Socialists in fact, hate communism.  No, the “good guy” demeanor is real.  Coin of the realm.   That’ why he’s is not the recipient of major speaker’s fees (actually donations) from Wall Street. Whereas you have funded your own campaign, he has raised money for his from small donations.  That’s exactly what good social democrats used to do.  That’ why the whole democratic party establishment is against him – even more than the GOP establishment was against you.

Meanwhile, don’t beat up on Bernie and make his followers angry.  Some have already indicated they might come to you.  After all, there are some striking similarities between you.

Both of you are children of America’s present peaceful revolutions, the phenomena that is changing the political map of our nation and already impacting upon our foreign policy-making.  True, the two wings of this revolution are going in different directions.    The one, led by you, seeks to revive genuine, non-crony, more democratic capitalism, the original source of our prosperity.  The one, with Bernie Sanders at the helm, seeks a systemic and radical change towards democratic socialism. 

It should be pretty easy for you to show that socialism is a non-starter for America.  Where has it worked?  Even the Scandinavian countries are not doing well.  Moreover, wherever socialism has been tried it has usually begun with a Utopian dream and wound up as a totalitarian nightmare.  Even Vladimir Putin now hates socialism. He knows why the USSR fell off a cliff.  The danger of big government is that it always believes it knows better than the governed.

Notwithstanding the different trajectories of your revolutions, let’s look at the similarities.  Like him you have repudiated America’s interventions in Iraq, Libya and Syria.  Like him you have rejected costly, unworkable nation-building.   Both of you are also seriously concerned about Islamic terrorism and its impact on our homeland and on our allies like Israel, Egypt and Jordan.  

You should be able to explain to Bernie’s following why your desire to build a wall at our southern borders has nothing to do with bigotry or xenophobia, but everything to do with national security.   Both of you also share the view that   poorly designed international trade agreements like the Pacific Zone and NAFTA, have unfortunately impacted negatively on the wages of American workers.

You and Bernie are both are concerned about the serious condition of the middle class and have suggested raising the minimum wage.  Bernie wants to do it on the national level, you on the states’ level.   Both of you have also suggested higher taxes on the wealthiest.  Of course you, like Ronald Reagan, also want to severely cut corporate taxes – the best way to finally get the economy working.   The problem with Bernie’s plan is that he over-does taxation.  He believes he can offer freebies for education and the health sectors.  Sounds good, but it can’t be done with a $19 trillion dollars and growing debt.   

Finally, each of you have had your own negative experience with our archaic political primaries.  In both parties, the primary elections are to a certain extent rigged and need to be transformed to more direct election by the voters.  The GOP primaries feature the acquisition, by some candidates, of delegates that were not elected by the voters.  The Democratic primaries featured appointed super delegates, something that looks like it came from Gorbachev’s playbook – the red barons in his People’s Congress.  They must be abolished!  

All in all, don’t call Bernie “crazy.” He’s an honest and passionate Brooklynite. Take him seriously!  You still might wind up competing with him in the general elections and voters will require a dialogue between two serious New Yorkers about the benefits and deficits of democratic capitalism and democratic socialism.

If you win the general election, we urge you to create a job for him as special advisor for social programs within reasonable limits that will help the millennials and the middle class. Let him help you make America great again!

Dr. Jiri Valenta, a long-standing member of the Council on Foreign Relations, is president of the Institute for Post-Communist Studies and Terrorism and the author of many books.  Leni Friedman Valenta, editor of their jvlv.net website, is a regular contributor with him to publications like The National Interest, Middle East Quarterly, World Affairs Journal and Aspen Review.  Their latest article about Donald was “Why Trump was Right About Bush’s 9/11 Record,” in The National Interest

@JIriLeniValenta  Twitter  jvlv.net