Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has announced his candidacy for a run at the White House in 2020 — just like every other Democratic candidate alive — only this time, Sanders is going to really lay it down heavy on the social justice aspects of things.
This seems to be sitting just fine with the growing wing of the Democratic party that embraces identity politics above all else. The only problem is that it increasingly drives away more moderate Democrats.
Tucker Carlson of Fox News asked Democratic Strategist Suraj Patel to talk about the move, and while Carlson could only roll his eyes at Sanders’ embracing of the most ridiculous political stance since communism, Patel could only applaud.
“How disappointing is it to see [Bernie Sanders] become an identity politics drone?” Carlson asked Patel on Tuesday.
“You cannot talk about economic inequality in the country without talking about racial and economic disparity, because of the systems we have built and the legacy of slavery and Jim Crow and internment and all of those things,” Patel said. “What he is saying, basically, is that things like race and inequality are inextricably intertwined based on institutions we have built and the legacies of them.”
Carlson stopped him there and threw some cold water on that hot take, reminding him that “the richest people in America are not white people” and are in fact “Indian immigrants.”
“A Nigerian immigrant makes more than the average white American, so it’s a lot more complicated and I’m not sure what that means but I know what you said is totally false,” said Carlson.
Patel attempted to rebut Carlson by making the tired claim that the darker you are in America, the poorer you’ll be to which Carlson went ahead and check-mated the Democratic strategist.
“Hold on, but hold on, that’s not true,” Tucker pushed back. “Slow down, that is not true. It is so much more complicated than that, that what you are saying is a lie. And so Asian immigrants, for example, have the highest educational attainment level and highest incomes of any group in America, okay?”
Carlson later pointed out that the poorest state is the whitest state.
“[I]n fact, most poor people in America are white, as you know,” said the Fox News host. “The poorest state is the whitest state—West Virginia—so let’s stop lying. I’m not making a case for any racial group. I’m making a case for nonracial approach to policy and the only one we can have without wrecking the country.”
“Race is a dead end,” Carlson said before he ended the segment. “Let’s bring back the old Bernie Sanders.”
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