Corporate US Democratic party establishment attacks Sanders

This 10 February 2020 video from the USA says about itself:

Bernie Sanders has James Carville in a panic. Ana Kasparian, Francesca Fiorentini, and Dan Evans, hosts of The Young Turks, break it down.

“Longtime Democratic strategist James Carville sounded the alarm bells on Tuesday night over what he described as the Democratic Party turning into an “ideological cult”, specifically singling out would-be presidential candidate Bernie Sanders.

In the wake of Monday night’s chaotic Iowa Democratic caucus that featured delayed vote results due to a faulty app, Carville appeared on MSNBC to warn that regardless of the final tallies, the Dems appear to be in big trouble.”

Read more here.

By Patrick Martin in the USA:

On eve of New Hampshire primary

Growing attacks on socialism in Democratic presidential race

10 February 2020

With polls showing Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders the likely first-place finisher in tomorrow’s Democratic presidential primary in New Hampshire, Sanders’ opponents have focused their attacks on his public identification as a “democratic socialist.”

Friday night’s seven-candidate debate in New Hampshire began with former Vice President Joe Biden claiming that Sanders at the top of the ticket would doom Democratic candidates for other offices on the ballot November 3. “Bernie’s labeled himself … a democratic socialist”, Biden said. “I think that’s the label that the president [Trump]’s going to lay on everyone running with Bernie if he’s a nominee.”

Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar joined in the attack, suggesting that Sanders would “out-divide the divider in chief,” i.e., Trump. “I think we need someone to head up this ticket that actually brings people with her, instead of shutting them out,” she said, touting her own appeal to “moderate Republicans” and voters “in the middle”.

At a rally at Dartmouth College Saturday, Klobuchar’s staff handed out copies of newspaper editorials endorsing her, including from the ultra-right Manchester Union-Leader, the largest circulation paper in the state. “I don’t agree with everything that’s said on that debate stage,” Klobuchar told the audience. “When they asked should a socialist lead the ticket, I raised my hand and said ‘no.’”

The issue dominated the appearances by Democratic presidential hopefuls on network and cable television interview programs on Sunday. Sanders himself was interviewed on four programs and was asked about his identification as a democratic socialist on three of them.

It is remarkable that in a country where socialism has been the subject of official vilification and witch-hunting for a century, where anti-communism has been elevated to the status of a state religion, and where genuine socialists are subject to a media blackout, that the “s word” has suddenly become a major subject of media discussion.

It attests to the worsening of social inequality and the growing consciousness among millions of working people and youth that the concentration of wealth under the control of a tiny handful of multimillionaires and billionaires has become both an impassable obstacle to social progress and a deadly threat to democratic rights. Poll after poll has shown deepening popular hostility to capitalism and rising support for socialism, particularly among the younger generation.

This shift to the left in popular consciousness finds only the most distorted expression within the corporate-controlled two-party system. In 2016, it took the form of an explosion of support for the Sanders campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination, surprising the senator himself and the entire US political establishment. Sanders attracted mass support, enthusiastic rallies, a huge outpouring of small-dollar donations over the internet, and ultimately 13 million votes.

…

In the 2020 campaign, after being largely ignored by the corporate media for months, Sanders has surged in the polls, held the largest rallies, and raised far more money than any of his non-billionaire rivals, largely in small donations from working people. His top contributors are teachers as well as the low-paid employees of Amazon, Starbucks, Wal-Mart, Target and the US Postal Service.

After his strong showing in Iowa, he leads in polls ahead of the vote Tuesday in New Hampshire, and a virtual panic has broken out in the Democratic Party establishment and its media allies that Sanders is now the frontrunner for the party’s presidential nomination. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, for example, told the Wall Street Journal that declaring Sanders the frontrunner was premature and that the socialist label was “a big pill for a lot of voters to swallow.”

On Sunday, former Vice President Biden appeared on ABC’s “This Week”, where he reiterated his attack on Sanders, telling interviewer George Stephanopoulos, “Now, you’ve been around, George, as much as anybody, you’re going to win with that label, you’re going to help somebody in Florida win with the label democratic socialist? Because it’s going to go all the way down the line. That’s what’s going to happen. You’re going to win in North Carolina? You’re going to win in Pennsylvania? You’re going to win in those states in the Midwest?”

Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, the other ostensibly “progressive” candidate along with Sanders, said on Sunday: “I am a capitalist. I believe in markets, but markets need rules.”

…

There is little doubt that if []Sanders wins the New Hampshire primary, the hysteria in the Democratic Party establishment over his supposed “socialism” will reach new heights.

If the current group of right-wing alternatives—Biden, Buttigieg and Klobuchar—looks unviable, there is likely to be a shift to support billionaire Michael Bloomberg, who has entered the contest but will not appear on any ballot until the March 3 “Super Tuesday” primaries, when 40 percent of the delegates to the Democratic convention will be selected, including from such large states as California, Texas, Massachusetts and Virginia.

SANDERS WILL SEEK PARTIAL RECANVASS IN IOWA Sen. Bernie Sanders’ campaign plans to ask for a “partial recanvass” of the results of last week’s botched Iowa caucuses. A recanvass is not a recount, but a check of the vote count. The state party released updated results on Sunday showing Pete Buttigieg leading Sanders by two state delegate equivalents. [HuffPost]