So you’re considering supporting one or both of Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren for president. Perhaps you’re leaning toward one over the other, but aren’t sure. Maybe you’ve made your choice, but want confirmation. You may even like them both equally! But you can still only vote (or caucus) for one this primary.
Bernie and Warren agree on a lot and call each other friends — the story goes he only ran in 2016 after asking her to first, which she declined. Their mutual respect results in an aversion to criticizing each other to the point they even agreed to a non-aggression pact before launching their campaigns.
The media regularly lumps Bernie and Warren together, portraying them as sharing (or splitting) the progressive wing opposite the rest of the pack. If differences are highlighted they’re often purely aesthetic ones, leaving the real policy-based distinctions smoothed over or ignored. Contrasting the two at all is even dismissed by some as divisive.
But the entire purpose of a primary is to weigh your options before nominating the strongest candidate. As progressives we should want to make informed decisions, and we should welcome the way healthy debate pushes politicians to be better on the issues. Anything less is simply undemocratic and a boon to Donald Trump facing an under-vetted challenger.
Because of this reticence to properly analyze Bernie and Warren side by side, while out registering voters I often meet people who have been convinced they are “the same” and are unsure which to choose. Not only are they not the same, they’re far from even being the most similar pair in the race.
This is a progressive’s guide (at to the differences between Bernie and Warren.
0 Comments