Bernie vs. the mainstream media

What the establishment still won't admit about the new Democratic frontrunner

Sen. Bernie Sanders surrounded by cameras.
(Image credit: Illustrated | Alex Wong/Getty Images, Favor_of_God/iStock)

As Sen. Bernie Sanders has climbed in the polls over the past month, essentially becoming a co-frontrunner with former Vice President Joe Biden in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, the mainstream media has gone from ignoring the candidate to treating him like an existential threat. According to his many critics, whether they're on Twitter, MSNBC, or writing in the coveted pages of The New York Times, Sanders has a political style that is eerily similar to that of Donald Trump's, and nominating him would be nothing less than an act of "insanity."

"Three years into the Trump administration, we see little advantage to exchanging one over-promising, divisive figure in Washington for another," declared the Times' editorial board in their dual endorsement of Senators Elizabeth Warren and Amy Klobuchar, portraying Sanders as a kind of mirror image of the reactionary president. This notion that Sanders is the left-wing version of Trump has had great appeal to those who reject most of his agenda (especially on the economy) but prefer not to admit it out loud. They claim to object not because Sanders' policies would fundamentally transform America's economy and redistribute wealth and power back into the hands of working people, but because his political style is supposedly so divisive and "Trumpian."

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Conor Lynch

Conor Lynch is a freelance journalist living in New York City. He has written for The New Republic, Salon, and Alternet.