Carnie Sanders

The late, great comedian Fred Willard made a career out of playing a certain form of clueless character. That “form” was also his public persona outside his performances, and one he never broke, leaving us to wonder whether he was actually that person or if it were a decades-long piece of performance art.

The same question popped into my head in reading recent bits from Bernie Sanders, including:

• It’s “time to move toward a four-day work week with no loss of pay. Workers must benefit from technology, not just corporate CEOs.”

• ‘Oligarchs run Russia. But guess what? They run the US as well.’

• He’s got a new book out, “It's OK to be Angry About Capitalism,” wherein he “complains about moderate Democrats, billionaires and 'beautiful people.”

Same old “Other People’s Money” schtick. Same old hatred for the one economic system that actually works. Same old misplacing of blame. Same old lack of logic or depth or rationality.

Bernie Sanders and his 'Democratic Socialism’ spawn have long advocated for nordic-style socialism, but reject many of its components: a flatter and broadly heavier tax code that takes a lot from the working and middle classes (i.e. everybody pays taxes, not just the rich), privatized and defined-contribution social security, fully vouchered school choice (including for private schools), no minimum wage, a consumption tax, privatization of state-owned enterprises, a commitment to reducing deficits and debt, and a free-market attitude in government.

Is he misinformed about how the nordic model works? Has he simply looked at its outcome without delving into its workings?

Or is he running a bait-and-switch, where he promises nordic-style results but proposes Venezuela-style policies?

If misinformed, isn't it beyond reckless for a politician to propose emulating a system without knowing how that system works?

If deceitful, then he's selling policies he knows are popular (always tax and regulate "the other guy") based on a false promise. This'd make him a carnie act, a shyster who's hustling the suckers who naively believe his sales pitch.

I don't think it's the latter, because old socialists such as he tend to be unrepentant true believers, immune to facts, logical rebuttal, or reality itself. And I'm not convinced it's the former, either. He's bound to have had those facts read to him time and time again.

What I think, instead, is that he genuinely believes he can deliver the Nordic results without following the Nordic playbook. That playbook relies on everyone paying into a system that everyone then receives benefits from. Bernie figures he can bleed out a small minority of successful people to provide freebies for the large majority, and do so without consequence. This is, of course, utter delusion and destructive folly, as history as shown us time and time again.

Sanders is probably not all that smart. He's clearly got a politician's canniness and instincts, but we’ve countless examples of weak intellects achieving high political stature by peddling, pandering, and proselytizing nonsense.

He's also not had an executive role since his eight years as the mayor of Burlington a third of a century ago (and none before that either - he worked a series of wage jobs, but nothing of responsibility). It's very easy to skate by despite being endlessly wrong when all you're doing is bloviating, fundraising, occasionally voting on stuff that others are obligated to effectuate, and blaming the execution rather than the premise when results don't turn out as predicted. When the buck stops elsewhere, you can get away with a whole lot of wrong.

The carnie conclusion does remain on the table, despite all that.

So, either he has deluded himself (happens all the time, even to smart people) or he's a con artist.

Either way, following him and his ideas is foolish.