CAL THOMAS COMMENTARY FEBRUARY 28, 2020
THIS FROM NBC NEWS, OF ALL PLACES: IN OCTOBER, 1985, A FEW MONTHS AFTER BERNIE SANDERS TRAVELED TO NICARAGUA TO CELEBRATE THE SIXTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE COUNTRY’S SOCIALIST REVOLUTION, THE SOVIET BACKED GOVERNMENT SUSPENDED THE CIVIL LIBERTIES OF ITS CITIZENS, INCLUDING THE RIGHT TO FREE SPEECH, FREE ASSEMBLY AND LABOR STRIKES.
A FEW DAYS LATER, SANDERS, WHO WAS THEN THE SOCIALIST MAYOR OF BURLINGTON, VERMONT, RECEIVED A POINTED LETTER FROM A CONSTITUENT. HOW, THE LETTER-WRITER WANTED TO KNOW, COULD SANDERS CONTINUE TO EMBRACE “ANOTHER IN A LONG LINE OF DICTATORSHIPS, WHOSE ONLY TRUE CONCERN IS ITS LENGTH OF STAY IN POWER?”
SANDERS RESPONDED THAT THE NICARAGUAN GOVERNMENT WAS FIGHTING A BRUTAL WAR FUNDED BY THE UNITED STATES AND BESIDES, HADN’T LINCOLN CURTAILED BASIC CIVIL RIGHTS DURING THE CIVIL WAR AND INTERN JAPANESE DURING WORLD WAR TWO?
THIS WASN’T THE FIRST, OR LAST, APOLOGY FOR COMMUNIST DICTATORSHIPS BY SANDERS. IS THIS WHAT SANDERS WANTS TO DO, COMPARE FRANKLIN ROOSEVELT AND ABRAHAM LINCOLN TO A COMMUNIST DICTATOR? RUN ON THAT, BERNIE. I’M CAL THOMAS.
