6 NEWS Controversy of the week
The Democrats: A choice between Biden and Sanders?
Anything can still happen, said Michael Brendan
Dougherty in NationalReview.com, but as
Iowans prepare to kick off the 2020 elec-
tion with their caucuses on Monday, the
once crowded Democratic field may soon
collapse into “the Biden and Bernie show.”
Former Vice President Joe Biden still leads all
candidates in national polls, but Sen. Bernie
Sanders’ numbers have surged in recent
weeks, and averages of state polls show
Sanders leading in both Iowa and the second
state to vote, New Hampshire. If Sanders—the
favorite of young progressive activists—wins both of those, only
Biden—backed by older moderates and African-Americans—will
stand between him and the nomination, and Democrats will have
to decide whether to “move to the left or to the center” for the
general election. That debate should have been settled by the 2018
midterms, said Jonathan Chait in NYMag.com. Moderate can-
didates “accounted for 100 percent of the party’s House gains”
of 40 seats, while candidates backed by the Sanders–progressive
activist wing lost all 44 of their races in Trump-leaning districts.
For the Democrats to run a candidate as “ideologically extreme” as
Sanders against President Trump would be “an act of insanity.”
“Moderate fears of a progressive losing to Trump are valid,” said
Ibram Kendi in TheAtlantic.com, but so are “progressive fears of
a moderate losing to Trump.” After all, that’s what happened in
- This year, polls show that most of the white, working-class
voters in the Rust Belt who abandoned Democrats for Trump
approve of the president’s job performance. Can Biden really win
many of them back? Meanwhile, there’s a real danger that very
liberal Democrats, who make up about a third of the party’s vot-
ers, may be so disappointed by the nomination of the unexciting,
77-year-old Biden that they won’t vote, or will cast
ballots for a third-party candidate.Sorry, but “Bernie can’t win,” said David
Frum, also in TheAtlantic.com. He has never
fought a race in which “he had to face serious
personal scrutiny,” and in a general election
Trump’s campaign “will hit him with every-
thing it’s got,” painting him as a Communist
who honeymooned in the Soviet Union, and
as “a useless career politician” with “twisted”
ideas about sex: In the 1970s, the young
Marxist wrote an essay about why some women have rape fanta-
sies, and posited that women who are sexually repressed are more
likely to get cancer. Sanders’ policy proposals are just as toxic, said
Richard North Patterson in TheBulwark.com. He is adamant about
kicking 150 million Americans out of private health insurance and
forcing them into a single-payer scheme. The freebies in his “politi-
cal revolution,” experts say, would cost an estimated $60 trillion
over a decade—doubling the federal budget and dramatically rais-
ing even middle-class taxes. No wonder Trump’s advisers report-
edly see Sanders as “their ideal Democratic opponent.”The Democratic establishment “is caught in a Catch-22,” said
Natasha Korecki in Politico.com. It views Sanders as an unelectable
“fringe” candidate, but attacking him to stop his surge would
alienate a big chunk of the party’s base. The Republicans had the
same problem when Trump emerged in 2016, said Kristen Soltis
Anderson in WashingtonExaminer.com, but their fringe candidate
is now the president. Maybe Democrats should just let the prima-
ries unfold and trust their voters to choose the nominee. After all,
“if the last four years of politics haven’t expanded your concept of
what is and isn’t impossible, you haven’t been paying attention.”Only in America
QYale University is scrap-
ping its renowned freshman
course “Introduction to Art
History: Renaissance to the
Present,” in response to what
the Yale Daily News calls
“student uneasiness” about
the “overwhelmingly white,
straight, European, and
male” artists featured. Profes-
sor Tim Barringer says he will
teach the course for the final
time this year, with a new
emphasis on “gender, class,
and race,” and with climate
change as a “key theme.”
QA Detroit man who suc-
cessfully sued his employer
for racial discrimination says
his bank called the police on
him when he tried to cash his
settlement checks. Sauntore
Thomas, 44, says a teller
at his local TCF Bank asked
him “Where did you get this
money?” and called the cops.
Thomas is now suing TCF for
racial discrimination.No more flights on
‘Noah’s Ark’
The Department of Trans-
por ta tion proposed rules last
week allowing airlines to re-
strict passengers from flying
with pigs, cats, rabbits, birds,
and monkeys as emotional
support animals. “The days
of Noah’s Ark in the air are
hopefully coming to an end,”
said Sara Nelson, president of
the flight attendants’ union.
Pet owners were increasingly
abusing existing policy, and
the number of emotional sup-
port animals on commercial
flights surged from 481,
in 2016 to 751,000 in 2017.
Under the new guidelines,
airlines will prioritize service
dogs trained to perform
tasks for disabled people. The
rules also limit passengers
to two service animals that
are required to fit within their
owner’s seating area.The ultimate sacrifice, after Ivanka Trump told the World
Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, “I gave up my life to
move to Washington to try to help Americans, and I’m proud of
what we’ve been able to accomplish.”
Health food, after Barbara Heller, 76, accidentally fell seven
stories from the window of her New York City apartment, but sur-
vived by landing on boxes of fruit and vegetables that cushioned
the impact. “It’s quite amazing,” said husband Charles.
Putting your mouth where your money is, after Mitch
Felderhoff, co-owner of a Texas dog-food distributor, announced
he’d eaten nothing but his own products since Jan. 1. Felderhoff—
who’s lost 20 pounds—says his favorite dog food is “our ancient
grains ocean fish” flavor, at least “from a kibble standpoint.”Impersonation, after police ticketed an Arizona man for driving
in the HOV lane with a fake skeleton in the passenger seat. To fool
the cops, the skeleton was wearing a camouflage fishing hat.
O.J. Simpson, who is suing the Cosmopolitan casino in Las Vegas
for damaging his reputation by banning him for being drunk and
disruptive. The casino responded that it couldn’t possibly have “tar-
nished” Simpson’s reputation, because, well, he’s a convicted felon
widely believed to have knifed his ex-wife and her friend to death.
Ageism, after a Methodist church in Minnesota asked members
over the age of 60 to worship elsewhere for 18 months while it tries
to woo a younger congregation. After all, Rev. Dan Wetterstrom
explained, “Jesus said we are called to reach new people.”Good week for:
Bad week for:
Re
utersWho would be stronger against Trump?