Keelan: Bernie Sanders and the Trump playbook

By Don Keelan

Sen. Bernie Sanders continues to borrow a page out of President Trump’s playbook titled, “How to Control the Media This Week.”

The president is a master at dominating what the national news media — printed, digital, and TV/radio — will cover during any given week. He does this by issuing, usually on a Friday, a ridiculous statement that CNN, NYTimes, MSNBC, and others will then cover 24/7. It will disappear when the following Friday’s statement is released (or, rather, tweeted).

Don Keelan

Such weekly statements have included telling Israel not to grant visas to Congresswomen Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar, as well as Trump’s offer to Denmark to purchase their territory, Greenland. This was preceded by a statement that we can obliterate Iran if we wished to. Recently, Trump took on the role of meteorologist — Hurricane Dorian was on its way to Alabama. There are more, of course — one for each week of the 2016 presidential primary and his 32 months in office.

All of what Trump has done in handling the media has not been lost on Sanders. While Sanders’ outlandish remarks may not have had the frequency of Trump’s, they do come along, if not weekly, certainly on a monthly basis.

It was only a few months ago that the traveling senator from Vermont proposed free college tuition at all state-run facilities. This trillion-dollar adventure would be funded by Trump’s minions from Wall Street, who, according to Sanders, are millionaires, if not billionaires.

If the above monthly news proposal wasn’t enough, it was preceded by another one — the elimination of all outstanding student loans, capping out at close to a trillion dollars. Wall Street couldn’t handle this one, so it would be funded by reversing the 2017 federal tax cuts.

Sandwiched in between the above monthly pronouncements was a long-standing wish of the senator — his declaration of Medicare for All. Until recently, this proposal was the Sanders Enchilada — it would be the end of all private healthcare insurance companies. There would be only one insurer, the federal government. And that entity alone would be making all decisions on how healthcare dollars would be allocated.

The price tag for Medicare for All was thought to be beyond anyone’s comprehension until three weeks ago. It was during the second week in August that Sanders went to the Trump Playbook and announced the Sanders version of the Green New Deal. The media, both liberal and conservative, was flabbergasted at the announcement’s price tag — $16.3 trillion.

If you can believe it, the Sanders proposal goes far beyond attempting to mitigate the present impact of carbons on the environment. According to the Wall Street Journal’s Aug. 26 editorial, it is “a wholesale transformation of our society.” And no wonder, when the price tag is the equivalent of 78% of the U.S. annual economy.

But the details of the senator’s 44-page plan were astounding:

  • The government will provide $36 billion to convert residential lawns to food and tree growing areas.
  • Fourteen percent of the price tag, or over $2 trillion, will be allocated to weatherize and retrofit homes and businesses. Washington will also look to provide the 7.4 million housing units needed.
  • Food pantries, Meals on Wheels, and school lunch programs better be looking for more space and volunteers because $527 billion will be coming their way. The logic being that it will save on energy cost if there are central distribution centers for food consumption.
  • Fire departments and emergency first responders better heed the National Transportation Board’s warnings on the dangers of responding to an electric car crash. The voltage shock as well as the notorious battery chemicals can cause deaths or serious injuries. The Sanders plan is to give $2.1 trillion to trade-in fossil fuel vehicles for EV’s.

My take-away is that the grant-disbursing agency required under the Bernie Plan will dwarf the that of the Pentagon.

What Bernie should have done was send out, once a week, one page from his The Green New Deal so to remain competitive with the Trump Weekly Media Play Book.

Don Keelan writes a bi-weekly column and lives in Arlington, Vermont.

Image courtesy of Gage Skidmore/Flickr

8 thoughts on “Keelan: Bernie Sanders and the Trump playbook

  1. It would appear that the Burn has some medical issues that have a affect on his campaigning.

    After cancelling appearances in the state Monday and Tuesday and heading home to Vermont, the Vermont senator is expected to return to the campaign trail Tuesday night at the AFL-CIO summit in Philadelphia.

    Meanwhile, a major shakeup in the campaign occurred over the weekend with Sanders replacing his New Hampshire state director. Politico reports the change comes after “growing indignation from his fiercest supporters” that their concerns he could lose the first-in-the-nation primary.

    This is not the first time that Sanders, who turned 78 earlier this month, has had problems with his vocal cords. During his 1996 reelection campaign for Congress, Sanders underwent surgery at Bethesda Naval Hospital to remove a benign cyst from his right vocal cord.

    ” Sanders wrote the 1996 surgery was “scary business” and an operation he feared could result in him losing his voice completely.

    Sanders wrote the problems with his voice began in 1994 when he had a cold that wouldn’t go away and he kept on giving campaign speeches. Sanders admitted he handled the medical condition “stupidly.” Before the surgery, Sanders said his voice sounded “gravelly at best and there are times when it rasps so much I have difficulty finishing a sentence.”

    https://vtdigger.org/2019/09/16/sanders-cancels-campaign-appearances-to-rest-his-voice/?utm_source=VTDigger+Subscribers+and+Donors&utm_campaign=61316c302f-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2019_09_17_08_26&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_dc3c5486db-61316c302f-405533965

    “Sanders admitted he handled the medical condition “stupidly.”

    As he does just about everything else,if he had lost his golden voice,his raving and ranting would have saved Vermonters and the nation some of the most lunatic schemes to be uttered from the man with the golden voice,welcome to the wane of the Burn. Like another former governor,the man who would have been king.

  2. Bernie has been “on the attack” to implement: Open borders; Let all illegals in; No questions asked.

    Here is what happens with open borders, courtesy of the Muslim-sympathizing Obama era.
    Pelosi, Bernie, Leahy and all the rest voted for it.
    Anyone with the least bit of curiosity who elected Omar need only watch this video taken at the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6fQI_qB1JE

    People in Minnesota don’t call it Mall of America anymore; they call it Mall of Somalia.

    There are now 100,000 Somalians living in Minneapolis. They have taken over Minneapolis city hall and Minnesota attorney general (Keith Ellison). They are re-writing local laws. They have taken over Mall of America. We have a friend who retired last year from the Minneapolis police; his beat was the Mall of America. The shoplifting (under the burkas) is out of control. Last year there was a knife fight in Macy’s. Once there was a waiting list for storefronts there. Now there are empty shops everywhere.

    My cousin’s friend was the manager at Burlington coat factory until he quit last year. He said the women would put their kids in the toy section where they would open all the packages and play with the toys while the moms shopped. Then they would just leave the toys and packaging in the aisles and walk out. Also, the women would not use the restroom (for reasons I do not know) but instead would actually pea and poop in the dressing rooms.

    Minnesota’s 5th district (the infamous Omar in the US Congress who is in divorce proceedings for two-timing), has been identified by the FBI as having the highest rate of Islamist terrorist recruitment in the United States… no surprise that Omar got elected. The Jew-hating Anti-America sentiment isn’t just something that Omar is expressing for herself, but also represents the mindset of the District.

    • Speaking of the Minneapolis police,I read a article where they are unable to hire the officers they need now and their goal is 1000 additional officers two years from now.

  3. Between Bernie and Elizabeth the poor wealthy class will end up on food stamps after they finished looting their collective tills. Margaret Thatcher’s comment about running out of other peoples’ money rings trurer than ever. These clowns would promise a free ride to the moon if they thought it would garner votes.

  4. From the comments I read and hear on and in lame stream media it would seem the nations Communists have tired of Vermont’s cranky ole geezer Communist,they just don’t seem to have the Burn that Vermont’s Communists do for Bernie.

    This time around the DNC wont have to hood wink him of the nomination because he wont have that level of support,he’s done,whether he has the good sense to withdraw before the bitter end is debatable.

    Hopefully he will take a look at his wasted life of profiting of the tax payers for his livelihood and choose not to run for another senate term,that or die in office and have a large funeral befitting his hero Lenin,glass coffin and all so every one can say their good byes to the bloated leach that was Bernie.

    • I shall kindly ignore the misappropriation of my moniker while agreeing with your assessment of Komrade Sanders, who appears to be physically losing vitality as things progress. I look for him to run out of stamina within the coming six months.

      • No offense meant however that is the name a interviewee on ABC used to describe the Bern. Another 20 something woman critiqued his lack of hair care,she should have seen him back in the 80’s coming out of city hall and crossing the street,wild hair blowing in the wind.
        They were critiquing his age looks not his disregard of this nations Constitutional Republic to install his form of Communism in it’s place.

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