Michael R. Strain, Columnist

Trump Hurts the Economy. Sanders Would Be Worse.

Voters deserve better than a choice between damage that’s reversible and damage that might not be.

February 3, 2020 at 11:30 AM UTC

Michael R. Strain is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He is director of economic policy studies and Arthur F. Burns Scholar in Political Economy at the American Enterprise Institute. He is the author of “The American Dream Is Not Dead: (But Populism Could Kill It).”

Nobody wins a class war.
Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

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Senator Bernie Sanders is leading in four of six recent Iowa polls as Democrats prepare for presidential nominating caucuses on Monday. The self-described “democratic socialist” from Vermont is at the top of all six of the latest polls ahead of the New Hampshire Democratic primary on Feb. 11.

For those who are hungry for a moderate alternative to President Donald Trump, Sanders’s surge raises uncomfortable questions. Because while Sanders would provide welcome relief from Trump’s corruption, nativism and volatility, when it comes to economic stewardship, he’d be worse.