in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal Best of the Web column Bloomberg vs. Bernie, the Rematch,” James Freeman salutes Michael Bloomberg — for his effective needling of Bernie Sanders during the 2020 Democratic primaries. He writes that “many news consumers may recall Mr. Bloomberg’s 2020 campaign for president as an expensive failure, but he did an an enormous public service at a moment when Vermont’s socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders was leading in some public opinion polls.” Now the Sandernistas are taking over the Democratic Party.
Freeman asserts that “there was a widespread and flawed perception that as destructive as the Sandernista agenda is, Mr. Sanders at least offered a sort of authenticity. Mr. Bloomberg exposed this fallacy.” He cites the Mediaite story “Mike Bloomberg Gets Bernie Sanders to Claim It’s Totally Normal to Own a ‘Summer Camp’” (video accompanies the Mediate story).
If Sanders an inauthentic socialist, he might be be an improvement over an authentic socialist. Unfortunately, Sanders is an effective advocate of authentic socialism. His destructive power remains undimmed if it is not in fact expanding every day.
Freeman draws attention to Bloomberg’s current column criticizing Sanders’s promotion of government ownership of artificial intelligence companies. Bloomberg’s condemsn it as a terrible idea.
I find it it to be a persuasive column. However, President Trump seems to be interested in practicing some form of what Sanders preaches. Freeman writes: “[L]et’s hope that Mr. Trump will abandon this awful idea.”
As for the 2020 campaign, Freeman finds another Bloomberg contribution. “[B]y flaming out quickly as a candidate Mr. Bloomberg inadvertently debunked the Sanders claim that billionaires can buy U.S. elections.” Linking to the video below, Freeman continues: “So the former New York City mayor definitely had his moments.” There was only so much of the Democratic debates I could take and I missed this at the time. Bloomberg inquired of his Democrat competitors, “I’m the only one here who’s ever started a business — is that fair?” The question generated a rare moment of silence.
Anyone? pic.twitter.com/xqhq5qFYVk
— Mike Bloomberg (@MikeBloomberg) February 20, 2020
