Bernie Sanders: American Success Story
Fighting oligarchy from the P.J.: Sen. Bernie Sanders (I–Vt.) and I actually have a lot in common: We both think private jets are super cool. The only problem is that he’s trying to brand himself as “fighting oligarchy,” whereas I have no interest in being a foot soldier in that fight.
Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D–N.Y.) have been traveling the country doing speaking events and rallies on their “Fighting Oligarchy” tour, which aims to “take on the oligarchs and corporate interests who have so much power and influence in this country.”
On Fox’s Special Report with Bret Baier, Sanders was asked about his choice of transport. “You run a campaign, and you do three or four or five rallies in a week. [It is] the only way you can get around to talk to 30,000 people. You think I’m going to be sitting on a waiting line at United…while 30,000 people are waiting?” Sanders replied. FEC filings show that Friends of Bernie Sanders, his campaign committee, spent over $221,000 chartering private jets during the first quarter of 2025.
What Sanders appears to dislike is vulgar wealth. But what he doesn’t understand is that his spending, justify it as he might, probably looks showy to those who are poorer than him. How many Americans have ever been on a private jet or owned a vacation home?
More importantly, what Sanders is describing—his slow crawl up the socioeconomic ladder, due to writing books that people value and want to read and representing ideas that people value and want to circulate and his ability to enjoy the attendant conveniences—is exactly what capitalists like me want more of (though ideally the ideas themselves would be better). If you subtract all the socialism-peddling, Bernie Sanders is an American success story who went from rags to (modest) riches. More of this, please!
Plenty of fellow politicians are beclowning themselves by suggesting that, of course, Sanders has to fly private:
Bernie Sanders is 83 and had to be in multiple states in the same day. In that situation you fly private.
— Andrew Yang???????????? (@AndrewYang) May 8, 2025
But Sanders and his defenders should ask themselves why this logic applies to politicians but not CEOs making decisions about billion-dollar businesses, which surely generate more economic value than the Fighting Oligarchy tour ever could. By misunderstanding who creates value in our economy (and how), Sanders is showing how ill-suited he is to restructure it. And by making excuses for why he get
Article from Reason.com
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