It seems the love of tyrants is reserved for Sanders alone...

Bernie Sanders wants you to know how bad of a President Donald Trump is for this country. He wants you to get upset with the fact that Trump supposedly curries favor with authoritarian leaders. This is a curious charge, coming from the avowed socialist who has built his career not only propping up socialist regimes but lending full support to dictators and other despotic figures over the years.

While all candidates have a standard stump speech they rely upon while on the trail, Bernie’s use of a familiar script borders on using it as a crutch. Previously he was fond of intoning dire words for the “Millionaires and billionaires” this country creates, but he had to cull that passage from his prolix. Turns out he recently became a millionaire himself, so demonizing the rich became a troublesome ghost story.

Lately, he has focused on Donald Trump, and insisting repeatedly he wants to become an “authoritarian leader”. He also feels the need to note that Trump is very cozy with authoritarian leaders. As he said at a rally a few weeks ago:

He was repeating the line again, just yesterday.

Sen. Bernie Sanders speaks in Rollinsford, NH: "We don't need to be praising Kim Jong Un, or other authoritarian leaders all over the world who Trump is making good friends with. Okay?" pic.twitter.com/rwmZjirVOE

— The Hill (@thehill) May 28, 2019

Clearly the hope here is that Sanders wants no one to apply his standard against his own record of despotic support. Much like his railing against the rich, the message unravels when you hold up a mirror to the accuser.

It is quite a different campaign for Bernie Sanders this time as he vies for the Democratic party nomination. Four years ago he was something of a media darling, as the press chose sides and many saw him as a healthy alternative to a Hillary Clinton coronation. Now in a crowded field of candidates, Sanders is not only struggling to be distinguished but is meeting some pushback as well. He is actually being questioned on items from his past in surprising fashion.

The New York Times recently ran a piece where it dredged up the 1980s version of Bernie Sanders, who was in full support of the communist dictatorship in Nicaragua. Bernie not only vocally opposed the US involvement of arming the anti-communist rebel forces, but he also visited the country in support of the Daniel Ortega leadership. He wrote to the Nicaragua leaders to tell them our government was in the wrong, and even attended a rally where the crowd chanted, “Yankees will die”.

It is interesting to see “Bernie Sandinista” complaining about Trump’s treatment of the press as well. While in Managua he complained loudly of the media not being accurate about the communist regime, saying to one reporter, “You are worms!”

It is hardly an isolated issue with Sanders. In 1988, as the newly married Mayor of Burlington, Vermont, Sanders honeymooned in Russia. His town had a political relationship with the Russian town of Yaroslavl, and as he visited he decried the cost of standards of living in the U.S. During this time he also managed to make a trip to the embargoed nation of Cuba, intending to meet Fidel Castro. While that meeting never happened he did sit in with numerous other Cuban leaders.

But it is Trump who is the demon here, according to Sanders. He seems to think that a standing President negotiating with the leaders of other nations is an unprecedented occurrence. He also thinks that a politician traveling to hostile nations to undermine U.S. policies is perfectly acceptable behavior. Do not ask him to explain the difference, or risk being labeled as a “worm”.