Big Ballin' Bernie

Politico published a 2,000 word expose this morning accusing Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders of being an arch hypocrite for his use of private planes while campaigning for Hillary Clinton’s White House run in 2016 and in the two years since.

Per the story, Bernie’s bona fides as a foe of fossil fuels and income inequality can’t remain intact if he flies on greenhouse-gas emitting private planes.

According to the piece: “The revelation of Sanders’ penchant for private jet travel, both in 2016 and in the subsequent years, could surface as an issue for him since he often demands the U.S. do its part to fight global climate change — to which CO2 emissions from aviation is a contributor.”

Bernie should be flying commercial the piece’s author and his sources suggest. 

SIDEBAR:  While quaint, the suggestion that commercial air travel is a substitute for private travel demonstrates a degree of faith in the punctuality and reliability of U.S. airlines that no reasonable person possesses. One can only imagine the uproar if Bernie was MIA at a Clinton rally because he got bumped off a connecting flight in Raleigh. 

Senator Sanders has no doubt considered the implications of his private jet travel and amongst the more salient justifications he could embrace to justify it is that that all air travel accounts for about nine percent of greenhouse gas emissions, private air travel is a fraction of that. If one must leave a drop in that particular bucket in pursuit of being able to drill a hole in the bottom of the larger bucket, so be it.

This logic or any other obvious equivalent, is absent from this story. In its place is 100% pure, Grade A bullshit designed to appeal to a select few. 

That select few would appear to be dejected Hillary Clinton staffers and supporters who have yet to notice that two years have passed since they squandered a White House seat that was gifted to them. 

Their hubris is our daily nightmare. But rather than put their heads down and get to work on righting their wrong and supporting any of the current Democratic candidates, they remain intent on settling old scores by tearing one down.

This story is bait pure and simple. The recriminations of a small group being employed by one media outlet in the pursuit of a controversy that, at its core, has no logical foundation.  

It’s intellectually dishonest on a multitude of levels to suggest that Bernie Sanders’ integrity is suddenly in question because he flies private to maintain a rigorous campaign schedule. Would it be nice if Bernie piled in the back of another Delta flight through Atlanta with the rest of us? Sure. But the fact that he doesn’t isn’t corrosive to his integrity as an advocate for the environment. 

Bernie Sanders might surreptitiously be morphing into an out-of-touch elite but the fact that he’s taking private planes while campaigning on behalf of Democratic candidates is no proof of that.

Like any candidate, we should subject Bernie to rigorous scrutiny for his policies and his ultimate fitness to lead this nation. But when we do that, let’s not hand our line of questioning over to axe grinders and trope-toting reports bereft of the substance we should be demanding.