ANN ARBOR, Mich., April 30 (UPI) — Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg assailed political demagoguery, referencing presidential candidates Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders, during a commencement address at the University of Michigan.
Bloomberg, a political independent who briefly flirted with a third-party campaign for the White House earlier this year, bemoaned the state of the 2016 campaign.
“In this year’s presidential election, we’ve seen more demagoguery from both parties than I can remember,” Bloomberg said.
He warned graduates not to shield themselves from opposing or difficult opinions and information, and singled out candidates, though none by name, who offer “scapegoats instead of solutions” to the nation’s problems.
“Keeping an open mind to new ideas is essential to your professional success — just as it’s crucial to our collective future as a democratic society,” he said. “Our country is facing serious and difficult challenges. But rather than offering realistic solutions, candidates in both parties are blaming our problems on easy targets who breed resentment. For Republicans, it’s Mexicans here illegally and Muslims. And for Democrats, it’s the wealthy and Wall Street. The truth is: We cannot solve the problems we face by blaming anyone.”
Bloomberg, the billionaire owner of Bloomberg News, also blamed social media and the increasingly partisan influence of cable news networks for creating an environment where Americans can segregate themselves in groups of people with whom they already agree.
“I say that as the owner of a media company who has seen how the marketplace has shifted,” he said. “Today, people choose cable TV channels and websites that affirm their own political beliefs rather than ones that inform and challenge their beliefs. As a result, we have grown more politically cloistered and more intolerant of those who hold different opinions.”
Bloomberg ended his remarks with a comment seemingly pointed squarely at Sanders and Trump for their policy prescriptions in the campaign.
“Today, when a populist candidate promises free college, free health care and a pony, or another candidate promises to make other countries pay for our needs, remember: Those who promise you a free lunch will invariably eat you for breakfast.”
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