Hillary and Bernie give Diet Advice

Hillary and Bernie have been making parallel, but different messages.  We have seen versions of this--in diet books.

Bernie and Hillary are each describing a problem in America, and they have somewhat similar villains and solutions.    The simple way to think of it is that Hillary is liberal/progressive and Bernie is very liberal/progressive.

That would be wrong.  They aren't two degrees of the same thing.  They have different messages.

I have read dozens of diet books over my adult lifetime.   Atkins, South Beach, Stillman, Paleo, China Study, Why We Get Fat, the Zone, and lots more.   Those books on food give some useful insights on the difference between Hillary's message and Bernie's.

Let me start with a premise:   On the surface Hillary is the more "qualified" candidate for president than Bernie, in the sense that she has been on the national stage longer, has the mix of domestic and foreign policy credentials in her work, and that she is part of a huge and successful political network that got her husband elected and which stayed active in the post presidency.  And her politics are about in the center of the Democratic party.  Meanwhile, Bernie Sanders is a newcomer to the party, is positioned to the left side of the party and the very left of the nation as a whole.

Yet Hillary is underperforming all expectations and Sanders is over performing.   He is apparently doing something right and Hillary something wrong.

Bernie's message is not simply a stronger, more-left version of Hillary's.  They are different messages.


Bernie's message is the need to break the structural advantages given to the financial and special interest establishment.   It is about social class and campaign finance.   We are being screwed by the elites who have gamed the system and perpetuated their control through the use of lavish campaign spending that has put into place a docile congress, which acts on behalf of the elites.   The fact that Hillary's main asset--her deep involvement in the levers of political power and political money--makes her an ideal opponent.   From Bernie' point of view Bernie is clean, Hillary is dirty.   Bernie says the problem is the billionaires and their agents, who have rigged the system.   We are good, we are victims, and the problem is the outside ourselves, unless you happen to be a billionaire   He says that billionaires shouldn't vote for him.   He has an external enemy.  


Hillary says the problem is ourselves.  It is a matter of self control.  We sabotage ourselves with our prejudices and our foolish policies on policing and drugs and unequal pay and college access and campaign finance.  Her campaign slogan is "Fighting for us" and she positions herself as a warrior in a lifelong struggle for progressive causes, taking on the various enemies, foreign and domestic, which have held us back from a country in which every individual and group has access to prosperity and happiness.   When asked to list her "enemies" she included Republicans, for which she was roundly criticized by Republicans.   But it makes sense for Hillary because the impediments to change are internal.  

On the surface Hillary's is the better argument, the one easier to accept since supposedly we have the power to be fit and healthy.  We have self government and power to create our own successes and failures.  We could stop discriminating against women and people of color and we could police more fairly and generally change our laws for the better.    Bernie says the problem is outside ourselves: them, the billionaires and their agents.

Bernie has the easier argument to make and to hear. If this were a diet book, Bernie's would be saying that your accumulation of fat problem is carbs, nothing but carbs, bread and rice and sweets and starch and problems outside ourselves.   Or, for the heart-oriented diet books, the problem is animal fat.  Be a vegan and clean out your arteries.   In all these successful sellers the dieter is good and the problem is external. 

Bern those bad billionaire carbs

Hillary's is saying that the problem is internal, that we have bad habits with food.  The power to change is within us.  We have self government and self control.  We can change our college loan repayment rules.  We can change our policing and sentencing policies.  We can change if we exercise self control and serious sense of purpose.  Eat less, eat better.  Eat green vegetables.  We can do this by changing our lifestyles.    Although theoretically it is empowering, in fact it is a criticism of us.  We are racist, we discriminate against women, we have inadequate health care laws. (We eat potato chips .  We eat ice cream.  We eat prime rib.)

No one likes to hear implied criticism.  Worse, she is a flawed messenger of that message because she is a practitioner within the system of bad habits, in fact previously on the boards of the nation's biggest grocer, Walmart, and the biggest meat provider, Tyson.   It would be one thing to be encouraged to take control of our own nutrition (or self government) by someone who was an organic vegan ascetic someone who exemplifies non-venality, a Jerry Brown maybe, but Hillary and Bill became multi-millionaires enjoying the fruits of the system so has flawed credibility as someone telling us we can change our lifestyle.  

Experienced dieter

It would be like the Chris Christie diet book.  He might have a lifetime of experience dieting and lots of qualifications to speak about diets, but he would have zero credibility.  Hillary understands the system of crony capitalism, political favors, campaign financing, and how to make incremental change, but she has no real credibility as a reformer of that system.   She grew too rich within it.

Hillary will likely win the nomination.  She earned it.  She played the game well for 50 years. But she is underperforming because she is telling us the problem is us, the solution is us, that she can lead us.  There is something about this that rings false to many voters.   And besides, Bernie is saying the problem is the billionaires, and few voters are billionaires.