By Marvin J. Folkertsma
The raucous welcomes and thundering applause that have greeted America’s
newest (and oldest) political rock star, the septuagenarian Bernie
Sanders, have launched a cottage industry of puzzled pundits trying to
figure out the source of his appeal. Of course it’s his ideas, his
supporters have insisted, perhaps as well as his presentation style,
which issues from an agreeable set of features topped by undisciplined
strands of white hair, giving him a sort of aged, professorial look of a
speaker waving his arms while hurling his points across the lectern
before the class ends.
So, what has he been proposing, as he continues to cleave chunks of supporters from
Hillary Clinton’s troubled political base? Quite a few things, actually. He wants to centralize the current healthcare system even more than the
Affordable Care Act
did by having the federal government guarantee health care for all
under a single-payer system. Social Security would receive a big
increase, along with more funds for rebuilding roads, bridges, and
airports, and significant amounts of taxpayer moneys to defray the
expenses for “free” college attendance, paid family and medical leave,
youth job initiatives, child care, and pre-K programs.
What is the price of all this over the next decade? A cool $18
trillion, which also would raise government spending from about 20
percent of the GDP to 30 percent in its first year of implementation,
according to a Wall Street Journal analysis. No matter; Sanders
continues to fill stadiums to overflowing, with cheering crowds
clamoring for more, more, more. More “free” stuff, more security, more
continuous peace of mind.
Which brings us to our main point, which is that there is something
unsettling about all this, about the whole Sanders phenomenon, which has
cast a spell on perhaps 20 percent of Democrats—not a small amount, by
any means. And it simply is this: Sanders appeals to many of those who
are quick to blame distant “evil-doers” for their difficulties—big
banks, greedy corporations, bad billionaires, or the capitalist class as
whole—while the politicians they have supported over the years get off
with nary a soupcon of doubt. Further, Sanders’s enthusiastic supporters
want everything immediately, regardless of the consequences, costs, the
future, our children and grandchildren, or even America’s
constitutional system.
I believe all of this distills to an approach toward life that
literally can be best described as infantile. What is infantilism?
Merriam-Webster defines it as “retention of childish physical, mental,
or emotional qualities in adult life,” which admittedly is not too
helpful. But in its political context, I think the meaning becomes
clearer as one considers proclivities to shun responsibility, blame
others, be obsessed with the present and abjure the future, avoid
painful decisions, and, frankly, try to escape from any unpleasant
reality. Indeed, anyone who has raised children and grandchildren is
familiar with these characteristics. The political expression of an
infantilized population is what for the past half century or so has been
termed accurately as the nanny state.
To all this, of course, one could respond, so what? Perhaps America
should become more like Europe, especially if enough of our citizens
vote to move in that direction. The problem with this answer is that
Europe has prospered from the military largess of America for so long,
and Europeans have been so infantilized by their welfare states, that
they no longer seem to have the will to live or to think much beyond the
present. European birth rates, for instance, are so low that several
countries on the continent are in a population death spiral.
Indeed, with their burgeoning Muslim citizens and refugees, countries
such as Germany, France, and England are going to have to make serious
existential decisions about
defending their cultures,
and more broadly, western civilization. And if Americans in larger
numbers become more like Europeans, then who will defend the West
against its adversaries? Worse, who will defend America?
The answer is, certainly not those who have succumbed to the siren
song of Bernie Sanders’s political infantilism. America’s progress as a
great country depends on those capable of making hard decisions and
taking responsibility for them. Whether enough grownups will remain to
lead our country throughout the 21st century is the most important
question Americans face. Indeed, we’ll learn much about the answer in
next year’s election.
Dr. Marvin Folkertsma is a professor of political science and fellow for
American studies with The Center for Vision & Values at Grove City
College. The author of several books, his latest release is a
high-energy novel titled "The Thirteenth Commandment."
