The U.S. Senate passed legislation on Wednesday to ban the import of products from China's Xinjiang region, the latest effort in Washington to punish Beijing for what U.S. officials say is an ongoing genocide against Uyghurs and other Muslim groups.
Eh, he visited the USSR during the Cold War and had kind words for Cuba at a critical point in last year's primary. Calling him anticommunist is an oversimplification.
There seem to be a few recognizable trends in his foreign policy:
Not toeing the hardcore anticommunist line that's the default position among mainstream Democrats
Avoiding foreign policy stances that would put him too far out the mainstream (he went to the USSR, but he wasn't calling their government cool and good)
Criticizing the worst aspects of U.S. foreign policy
Not viewing the U.S. in imperial terms
Naively thinking the U.S. can intervene in a country without ulterior motives, or without almost certainly making things worse
I think it's a combination of liberal tendencies and over-optimism with some good takes and instincts mixed in, all filtered through the compromises you make to have a mainstream political career. A decent amount of people probably have this sort of incoherent mix of foreign policy opinions, so it's worth fleshing out a bit.
The "in practice" part doesn't mean much because, in practice, individual congresspeople have virtually zero control over the imperial machine. The immediate decisions are all made by the president, and it'd take some enormous political sea change to get enough congressional support to even cut the military's budget 10%.
Further, Bernie's views are no longer relevant. What might be relevant are views of a bunch of Bernie-friendly Americans that are variations on this same mixed bag. They definitely don't have any actual control over anything. It really doesn't serve us to simplify them down to "anticommunist," because it's not that one-dimensional, and we need to convince millions of those people to move left.
Eh, he visited the USSR during the Cold War and had kind words for Cuba at a critical point in last year's primary. Calling him anticommunist is an oversimplification.
There seem to be a few recognizable trends in his foreign policy:
I think it's a combination of liberal tendencies and over-optimism with some good takes and instincts mixed in, all filtered through the compromises you make to have a mainstream political career. A decent amount of people probably have this sort of incoherent mix of foreign policy opinions, so it's worth fleshing out a bit.
Like I said, anticommunist in practice. Who cares about saying a few nice things in between calling them authoritarian and voting to oppose them
The "in practice" part doesn't mean much because, in practice, individual congresspeople have virtually zero control over the imperial machine. The immediate decisions are all made by the president, and it'd take some enormous political sea change to get enough congressional support to even cut the military's budget 10%.
Further, Bernie's views are no longer relevant. What might be relevant are views of a bunch of Bernie-friendly Americans that are variations on this same mixed bag. They definitely don't have any actual control over anything. It really doesn't serve us to simplify them down to "anticommunist," because it's not that one-dimensional, and we need to convince millions of those people to move left.