Nominating Bloomberg Would Destroy the Democratic Party

Nominating Bloomberg Would Destroy the Democratic Party

Jeet Heer on politics, plus Rick Perlstein on Bernie and Robert Edelman on sports.

Start Making Sense and Jon Wiener
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Bloomberg can’t win the primaries, but he might try to get the nomination if Bernie doesn’t go to the convention with a majority of delegates. Jeet Heer argues that nominating Bloomberg would destroy the Democratic Party and assure Trump’s reelection.

Plus: Political pundits are supposed to put forward strong opinions—that’s their job. The rest of us may be confused and uncertain and anxious, but the pundits are full of convictions and arguments. Today we depart from that rule and talk to Rick Perlstein—he’s got some doubts of his own about Bernie, while he acknowledges all that Bernie has achieved.

Also: The Cold War was fought in many ways—it was a traditional political and military confrontation, but it was also a cultural contest on a global scale—and one of the most important arenas in the cultural contest was sports. Historian Robert Edelman explains; he’s co-editor of the new book The Whole World Was Watching: Sport in the Cold War.

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With the midterm elections now firmly upon us, the question is whether Democratic candidates will do more than merely occupy ballot lines as mild alternatives to the red-hot crisis that is Donald Trump.

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Onward,

Katrina vanden Huevel
Editor and Publisher, The Nation

Start Making Sense Start Making Sense is The Nation’s podcast, hosted by Jon Wiener and coproduced by the Los Angeles Review of Books. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts for new episodes each Thursday.  


Jon Wiener Jon Wiener is a contributing editor of The Nation and co-author (with Mike Davis) of Set the Night on Fire: L.A. in the Sixties.


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