The Fighting Soul: On the Road With Bernie Sanders Part 1
Two Weeks ago, I read an op-ed by Maureen Dowd, “Still Feeling the Bern. ” It’s a favorable interview and review of Ari Rabin-Havi about his book on working for Bernie Sanders as a staffer, later as “Earl’s” deputy campaign manager and close political adviser. The memoir is entitled The Fighting Soul: On the Road with Bernie Sanders.
Dowd supplies some good leads about the book, but I will include for brevity only this summation:
When Sanders met with Barack Obama at his Georgetown office in 2018 to tell him he was thinking about running for president again, Obama offered this advice: “Bernie, you are an Old Testament prophet — a moral voice for our party giving us guidance. Here is the thing, though. Prophets don’t get to be king. Kings have to make choices prophets don’t. Are you willing to make those choices?”
Rabin-Havt (whose brother, Raphi, worked with me at The Times for a spell) writes: “Obama continued, making the point that to win the Democratic nomination, Bernie would have to widen his appeal and convince the party to back him — which would mean being a different type of politician and a different type of candidate than he wanted to be. Bernie listened to Obama, but it was clear to me he never accepted that premise. He has a fundamental belief that he could lead an uncompromising movement that would challenge those who ran the Democratic Party while also leading that same institution, one he steadfastly refused to join.”
The author sums up with a trenchant point: Bernie may never see “the promised land,” but he did win.
“While Bernie Sanders will never be president, his two campaigns have transformed the Democratic Party and this country. Old orthodoxies about government spending and foreign policy have crumbled as a result of the unceasing efforts by an old socialist.”
I labeled this post part one for a good reason. Thanks to Dowd’s op-ed, I decided to buy a Kindle edition of the book and it arrived yesterday. I’m about 20% of the way through. It’s very relaxed in its prose, and candid at times about the frustrations in creating work arounds to make the trains run on time. Some of it has surprised me, such as learning that Bernie is a football fan. I thought he liked baseball and basketball, hereto alas, he likes football and roots for the New England Patriots. (The author is a Giants fan and finds the Pats annoying) I enjoy reading about Bernie’s proclivities and use of foul language when away from microphones. Dowd put it this way in her piece:
I relish hearing about what Rabin-Havt calls “Bernie’s natural impatience” with the frivolous — pretty much everything except the sweeping changes he wants in the country.
There are some happy moments with co-chairs of the campaign, such as Nina Turner’s great effort of personally adopting SC for one of the first primary states in campaigning for the senator. Rabin-Havt shared more of the strategy in the book, which political historians will appreciate. Much of it we knew from reports in the news and all of us who attended rallies, but Rabin-Havt reveals the thinking behind it.
Thus, this is my part 1 since I’m only a 1/5 of the way in the book. It’s a pleasure so far to read. I’ll give my own review later.
I’m posting some videos and reviews in the comments. feel free to add your own. I’ll be reviving this later in the week.
From The Intersept, transcription of a podcast, Deconstructed.
Read the rest here: https://theintercept.com/2022/04/22/deconstructed-ari-rabin-havt-bernie-sanders-book/
Behind a paywall even though it’s free. Thanks, Ms. Benny. 🙂 These threads take a lot of time and work.
NYT Review by Janet Hooks
Rabin-Havt interviewed on The Hill’s Rising.
Bernie Sanders’ right-hand man on where his 2020 presidential bid went wrong
part 2
Bernie Sanders and AOC Had an Immediate Bond After First Meeting
“I called Bernie and told him AOC was going to win,” he wrote of Ocasio-Cortez’s victory over Crowley in June 2018.
“Holy shit,” Sanders replied. “Can you get me her number?”
Rabin-Havt continued: “It took a few days for them to connect, but when they did, they immediately agreed to start working on behalf of other progressive candidates. … Bernie and AOC’s bond was immediate and obvious to me. The first time they met in person was over breakfast at the hotel in Wichita. I could sense they were both extremely excited to meet each other, but also that they both were nervous about the day ahead and wanted to focus on the speeches they would be giving.”
While noting that Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez would go on to appear together on the CBS program “Face the Nation,” Rabin-Havt spoke of her attention to detail as it pertained to preparations for the interview.
“What was remarkable to me is that even in this early moment of her career, she had the foresight to anticipate various rhetorical traps, the tenacity to demand we discuss them ahead of time, and the poise to go out and deliver a topflight performance, not only on the Sunday show but also onstage at the rally later that day,” he wrote.
Rabin-Havt said that while Sanders could sometimes be relatively quiet on long car rides, he had no such qualms about opening up to Ocasio-Cortez during their first trip together.
“It was not unusual for Bernie to sit for hours in a car saying only a few words, surfing the internet on his iPad,” he wrote. “But on this ride, he and AOC talked without any breaks about life in Congress, how she should set up her office, which committees she should ask to be on, and more generally, about their views of the world.”
He continued: “Every time Bernie spoke with her, he would get off the phone and say, ‘Ari, she is so smart.’ He saw her as a politician who intuitively understood how to get her message out, who had the right set of values, and who possessed the instincts to be a true progressive leader in Washington. Reporters often tried to frame their relationship as mentor and mentee, suggesting that there was a torch to be passed. This was not, in fact, accurate. From the start, Bernie always believed he had as much to learn from AOC as she did from him.”
As someone who proudly worked as an unpaid volunteer in both 2016 and 2020, I am more convinced that Bernie’s 2020 campaign was infiltrated and sabotaged by the craporate Turd Way “Democrats.” 2016 down here was unbelievable. It was well-organized, and the numbers of supporters were growing rapidly. Bernie was growing very powerful as the electorate got to know him. He’s for real, and so’s his integrity. 2020, no. It was sloppy, not organized, and the establishment stink was there. That PBO section proves it. PBO is corrupt; Bernie is not.
I dont know if i can buy the book. Theirs a political pain that remains in my heart about Bernie losing. 😥😥😥 After all this time it still saddens me.
It’s really fun to read. The heart strings are there for sure, but it’s more about romping with Bernie as much as anything else.
Bernie Sanders on Cardi B: “She Understands Communications Better Than Any of Us”
(photo attribution: Bernie Sanders Instagram)
The Gash That Might Have Ended Bernie Sanders’s 2020 Campaign
This is a lengthy excerpt of the book published by The New Republic. Rabin-Havt has written for TNR in the past. Interesting choice of publication to grant the excerpt.
part 2