As Mayor, Bernie Sanders Was More Pragmatist Than Socialist

[SouthernProgressive]

So when dozens of antiwar activists blocked the entrance to the local General Electric plant because it was manufacturing Gatling guns to fight the socialists in Central America, the protesters expected the mayor’s full support.

Instead, he lined up with union officials and watched as the police made arrests, saying later that in blocking the plant, the activists were keeping workers from their jobs.

Back then, the Democrats were considered the old guard, his adversaries; in many cases, Mr. Sanders aligned himself with Republicans to get things done.

“Even though he talks revolution, he’s an incrementalist,” said Richard Sugarman, a longtime friend and a professor of religion at the University of Vermont. “He knows that things will only be changed little by little, one by one. That’s why he’s been effective.”

Critics on the right said their socialist mayor gave the city a bad image, wasting time on foreign affairs, including trips to Nicaragua and the Soviet Union. At the same time, critics on the left said he compromised too much with business interests and did not go far enough in pursuing socialist ideals. Over the span of his mayoralty, the number of families living in poverty grew — to 798 in 1990 from 563 in 1980, an increase of 42 percent.

“Our slogan was we would ‘out-Republican the Republicans,’” said John Franco Jr., who was assistant city attorney in the Sanders administration. “The Republicans on the board liked that, and so on fiscal issues, they would side with us and we would have a governing coalition.”

This was the logic behind his support for the workers at the General Electric plant making Gatling guns, which opened him to criticism from activists on the left.

“It was a big disappointment that a fellow leftist did not support us,” said Jay Moore, a longtime Vermont political activist who was among those who had blocked the General Electric plant.

Mr. Sanders wanted to open up the lakefront, long marred by a decrepit rail yard, for public use. Eventually, that is what happened. But for a time he backed a private proposal to build a complex of high-end condos, hotel and commercial space that critics said would block views of the lake and limit public access.

More deal maker than ideologue, Mr. Sanders later worked for a compromise that scaled back the proposal and added public amenities like green space. He said the compromise, supported by most of the aldermen, was the best he could get and that the development would expand the city’s tax base, bringing millions of dollars into city coffers.

But environmentalists and others accused Mr. Sanders of selling out to business interests. The dispute led to a highly contentious campaign over the bond issue.

“We fought like hell,” recalled Sandy Baird, then part of the Green movement, now a professor at Burlington College. “We wanted that land open to the public.”

NYT

The difficulty many see is the inconsistency of his history. It's littered with inconsistencies. For private lands. For selling private lands. For Democratic Socialist policies. For direct and near unfettered capitalism. One of the few consistencies is his rhetoric involving crackdown on immigrants and yelling about income inequality. The former he is on record with votes, the latter is empty rhetoric.

[zentrum]

1. Not sure we should go down

...this road despite the glee here on playing gotcha with Bernie.

Biden and others have many troubling things in their past.

Demands for absolute purism can't apply just to Bernie.

[SouthernProgressive]

2. "Biden and others have many troubling things in their past. "

And they are constantly being discussed.

"Demands for absolute purism can't apply just to Bernie. "

He wouldn't be a candidate if that was the case.