It’s obvious by now, to everyone except Bernie Sanders and his acolytes, that his government health care plan – with its mystery taxpayer price tag, with its vow to eliminate all private coverage – would be political suicide in the November election. And now we have fresh evidence in Nevada, which will host the next Democratic contest nine days hence.
Not only would Sanders’ socialist insurance pitch crush the Democrats in the white swing suburbs (the same suburbs that turned blue in the ’18 midterms), it also turns off a lot of union members, many of them people of color, who’ve fought on picket lines to get solid private health coverage. And having obtained it, they don’t want Sanders to take it.
Timely case in point: Nevada’s predominantly Hispanic 60,000-member Culinary Workers Union, which will play a powerhouse role in the Nevada Democratic caucus. It has not tendered an endorsement, but this week it decisively dis-endorsed Sanders. As one member, Elodia Munoz, said at a meeting in December, “We love our Culinary health care. We want to keep it. I don’t want to change it. Why should I change it?”
If even the Vegas casino and hospitality workers (the union is 54 percent Hispanic, 10 percent black) are refusing to join the Sanders “revolution,” if even this kind of union refuses to support a pro-labor lefty, why should we believe that Sanders would have a prayer of beating the lawless autocrat?
The union is currently circulating a flyer which warns that Sanders – alone among the six Democratic candidates under consideration – would “end Culinary Healthcare,” which currently covers 130,000 people. Its first flyer, last week, assailed Sanders (though not by name) for promising pie-in-the-sky government care: “We will not hand over our healthcare for promises.”
That’s bad news for Sanders, who’s coming off a weak win in New Hampshire (where 74 percent of voters opposed him), and he’s hoping in Nevada to stop his moderate rivals from gaining traction. But the union is basically “the Hispanic turnout machine” (in the words of Nevada’s top political analyst), and its stance on health care is proof that Sanders isn’t viewed as a savior even by those who, on paper, should be in sync with his Bros.
Speaking of his Bros – and this is classic – would you care to guess how they’ve reacted to the union’s refusal to mount the ramparts? You know where this is going.
Union leaders put out a new statement yesterday: “Workers should have the right to choose the healthcare Culinary Union members have built, sacrificed for, and went on strike for…It’s disappointing that Senator Sanders’ supporters have viciously attacked the Culinary Union and working families in Nevada simply because our union has provided facts on what certain healthcare proposals might do to take away the system of care we have built over 8 decades.”
Big surprise, right? But this is a Nevada tradition for the Bros. Four years ago, at the state Democratic convention, they went ballistic when Sanders didn’t get as many delegates as they felt he should (Hillary had beaten him in the caucus). They threw chairs, screamed obscenities at Hillary surrogates, and used texts and cell messages to threaten the life of the state party chairwoman. Sound familiar?
The upside for Sanders, however, is that few of his rivals have matched his level of Hispanic outreach. Joe Biden still has some backstage support, assuming that he still has a pulse in Nevada. Elizabeth Warren may have a little traction, but the union reportedly isn’t wild about her government health care plan, either (even though it’s softer than Sanders’). Pete Buttgieg and Amy Klobuchar would protect private health care, but they’re barely organized in Nevada – the first voting state with a racially diverse electorate.
But the Culinary Union’s hostility to Sanders is a major shot across his bow. Most Americans – 58 percent, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation – are adamantly opposed to the elimination of private health coverage. If Sanders can’t even woo his seemingly natural allies, in a blue-trending state, how it is possible to believe he can ace the Electoral College?