America chose wrong. Sanders would've been a better president than Trump or Biden. | Opinion
If Democrats want to save the party and defeat Trump in the midterms, it's clear that something needs to change. Bernie Sanders is providing a roadmap for how to do it.
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. gave a peculiar shoutout at a press conference for one of President Donald Trump’s latest executive orders, which is aimed at lowering prescription drug prices.
It was a shoutout to the socialist Republicans love to hate.
“This was the fulcrum of Bernie Sanders’ runs for presidency,” Kennedy said during a May 12 press conference. “That he was going to eliminate this discrepancy between Europe and the United States.”
Before you celebrate the Trump administration possibly doing something good, you should know that the Vermont senator responded by noting that the executive order is likely to get tossed out by the courts.
“If Trump is serious about making real change rather than just issuing a press release, he will support legislation I will soon be introducing to make sure we pay no more for prescription drugs than people in other major countries,” Sanders said in a statement.
The entire interaction got me thinking about how good Sanders’ policy positions could have been for the country. It makes you wonder how much better off the United States would be if Sanders had been the 2016 Democratic nominee instead of Hillary Clinton.
Bernie Sanders has much to teach Republicans and Democrats
I’ve been a fan of Sanders for years, since he first gained national prominence in 2016. I voted for him in the 2020 Democratic primary and don’t regret the vote, even if he didn’t win the nomination that year. Sanders is known for his popularity among young people in particular – he led the other 2020 Democratic candidates among 18–29-year-olds, according to a 2019 Harvard poll.
While I’m generally not one to ponder hypotheticals, it’s nice to picture a Sanders presidency. At least there are pieces of Sanders’ 2016 and 2020 campaigns that both parties could learn something from.
It would be amazing to see Republicans do more to incentivize the creation of affordable housing or implement tariffs selectively. It would be great to see the Democrats champion Medicare for All and a reduction in military spending. Both parties could learn from Sanders’ stances on reforming the U.S. immigration system and taxing the rich.
At minimum, both Democrats and Republicans could acknowledge the current distrust in American political parties.
“You have billionaires in both political parties determining what legislation gets to the floor and who is the candidate,” Sanders told Fox News host Brett Baier in a recent interview.
Say what you will about Sanders, but he’s always been steadfast in his criticisms of obscene wealth and his championing of the working class. It’s something that I’d like to see more of from both political parties.
Sanders is everything Trump and Biden could never be
While Sanders is older than both Trump and former President Joe Biden, he has qualities that both of them lack.
In 2022, a Paste BN-Ipsos poll found that Sanders had the highest approval of any Democratic contender from the 2024 election. He's more energetic than Biden and is better at drawing crowds of people. He has credibility amongst most Americans that Biden and other Democrats lack.
Although he and Trump differ drastically in their opinions on social issues, they both appeal to working-class Americans through their promises to make life cheaper. While Trump only says these things to win elections, Sanders actually has plans for how these changes could take place and is better suited for implementing policy.
Democrats need Sanders' popularity and energy to beat MAGA
I'm a little surprised that I agree with Trump on something, or that he's even proposing an idea that could be viewed as progressive.
Prescription drug costs are too high, and something must be done. But like Sanders said, he's going about it in a way that will surely get stopped by the courts. It would be best for Trump to pursue this initiative through legislative action and bipartisan support. Sanders would have done that better than Biden or Trump.
Sanders has also proven to be one of the few people on the left who is facing Trump’s second term head-on. He’s taken the show on the road with the “Fighting Oligarchy” tour, drawing record crowds as he and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D–New York, talked about the dangers of Trump. In his interview with Baier, he also noted that the crowds have included Republicans and independents.
Sanders’ stable popularity in the face of Democrats’ declining poll numbers. It would be nice if the Democrats could see Sanders as an ally or go so far as to implement some of his ideas in the next presidential campaign. Instead, they’re too busy trying to void their own party elections after 25-year-old vice chair David Hogg dared to say there should be competitive Democratic primary elections.
Perhaps top Democrats like Sen. Chuck Schumer, D–New York, or Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin could learn a thing or two from Sanders, who recently suggested that the Democratic brand is so toxic that progressives should consider dropping the label altogether and running as independents.
If we want to save the party and defeat Trump in the midterms, it’s clear that something needs to change. Sanders is providing a roadmap for how to do it. I can't help but think about what kind of president he would have been.
Follow Paste BN columnist Sara Pequeño on X, formerly Twitter, @sara__pequeno