Doing sociology and philosophy in real time by looking at developments in contemporary Western politics and culture, from a Moral Libertarian perspective. My mission is to stop the cultural systemist left and the authoritarian right from destroying the West's Enlightenment traditions.
What Bernie Sanders Taught Us at his FOX Town Hall | Moral Libertarian View
Welcome to Moral Libertarian View, a podcast style program where we discuss big ideas to see if they can contribute to more individual liberty and equal opportunity, values that are at the heart of the Moral Libertarian idea.
Today, we're looking at the recent Bernie Sanders Town Hall hosted by Fox, where he was in fact very positively received, to the surprise of progressives and conservatives everywhere. Democrats and progressives have hated Fox News for decades, but now one of their biggest heroes have not only gone to the enemy camp, but were actually well received there! This has predictably caused some cognitive dissonance among many self-identified progressives.
But should anyone have been surprised? I don't think so. I think we should start by looking at what conservatives actually want. They want, above all, to maintain their cherished values, free from infringement from elitist meddling. They want strong families and strong communities. They also want what most of us want, like job security, and opportunity for the average man to succeed. What Bernie Sanders did was to address this wishlist, and whether you agree with his policies or not, I think you have to agree that he made a good pitch for his platform based on what the average moderate conservative wants. Pushback against corporate power means more opportunity for the average man. Guaranteed health care and more economic security is good for families and communities. Strong families and communities mean a better chance to preserve traditional values.
There's also the misconception that conservatives and Fox viewers necessarily hate all Democrats, as if there was something about Democrats or progressives that inherently make them worthy of hate for these people. No, the reality is that they hate certain ideas that are often associated with progressives. Ideas like identity politics, where people can be treated differently because of their certain immutable characteristics. Ideas like political correctness, which limits free speech based on the mistaken postmodernist belief that speech is power. A clear feature of Bernie's campaigns is that he doesn't promote these ideas. It is clear that his focus is on economic issues. Even when he talks about 'a revolution', everyone knows that he means economic change, and not elite-driven cultural upheaval. This is why many socially conservative individuals are willing to listen to Bernie, while they are totally turned off by your average progressive pundit on CNN or NBC.
It was repeatedly said during the last decade when Bush was president and the Democrats were in crisis, that they would probably win much more support across America if they focused on their economic issues, and dropped their social issues, their culture war issues. No matter if you agree with his policies or not, I think you have to agree that Bernie is perhaps the best proof of the validity of this formula, as he wins over audiences of diverse backgrounds with his focus on economic policies. In fact, I think that everyday people don't want their politicians, no matter left-wing or right-wing, to be engaged in culture war issues at all. America is in fact an outlier for having so much culture war politics in election campaigns. Right now, as we are speaking, Australia is in the middle of an election campaign, and there have been basically no culture war elements in that campaign. Instead, issues around the economy, health care, education and the like take center stage. Perhaps American politicians of both parties should learn from that example. Cultural debates belong in the cultural arena, and political debates should focus solely on what the government should or should not do.
That's all for today. I'll be back next time to discuss another big idea. Subscribe if you want to follow our story. The transcripts are available on my website, and my Medium profile. And remember to resist the hive mind and stay individualistic. The world depends on it.
