Hey kids, shake it loose together

The spotlight’s hittin’ something

That’s been known to change the weather

We’ll kill the fatted calf tonight

So stick around…

In the 1987 film The Untouchables, screenwriter David Mamet exquisitely captures the moment Eliot Ness (Kevin Costner) recognizes his moral spiral into the brutal criminality of “the Chicago Way.” It is the spiritual price of what he was “prepared to do” to get mobster Al Capone: “I have foresworn myself. I have broken every law I have sworn to uphold, I have become what I beheld, and I am content that I have done right!”

What makes the scene so morally poignant and allows the audience to continue to empathize with Ness as a protagonist is not his brazen self-justification that such immoral behavior “worked” to achieve a greater good; rather, it is that Ness first and foremost honestly admits to himself and the audience that he knew what he was doing was wrong.

Such is not the case with Bernie and the Jets.

On a recent Fox News appearance with Bret Baier, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) was asked about his oligarchical use of posh private jets to flit about the country to “fight the oligarchy.” As the avatar of the progressive movement’s call for wealth redistribution, climate change remediation, and sundry populist left-wing causes, Senator Sanders refused to concede one iota of moral ambiguity—let alone hypocrisy—in his actions.

This is despite the fact that, as Fred Lucas of the Daily Signal noted, “Federal Election Commission records show Sanders’ campaign committee, Friends of Bernie Sanders, spent more than $221,000 on chartered private jets in the first quarter of 2025, The Washington Free Beacon reported.” And, further, as Baier noted that the senator has also “spent millions of dollars in campaign funds on private jet travel over the years.”

Instead, the democratic socialist spread a wealth of excuses for emulating the lifestyles of the rich and famous, which makes sense, because he is one. And on a government salary. Go figure.

Say, Candy and Ronnie, have you seen them yet, woo

Oh, but they’re so spaced out, B-B-Bernie and the Jets

First, Mr. Sanders argued the necessity of releasing all those carbon emissions that will cumulatively kill all of humanity at some nebulous but ostensibly near date, because saving democracy requires his time not be wasted waiting in line like the rest of us peons:

“You run a campaign and you do three or four or five rallies in a week,” he said. “The only way you can get around to talk to 30,000 people. Think I’m going to be sitting in a waiting line at United, waiting, you know, while 30,000 people are waiting?”

Heaven forbid his adoring public be denied his glorious visage for even a moment on Bernie and the Jets’ “Fight the Oligarchy” American Tour 2025.

Oh, but they’re weird and they’re wonderful

Oh, Bernie he’s really keen

The next excuse Mr. Sanders proffered was that everybody does it: “That’s the only way you can get around, no apologies for that. That’s what campaign travel is about. We’ve done it in the past; we’re going to do it in the future.”

The “you” and the “we” are politicians—you know, that noble horde of popularly beloved public servants. What cretinous killjoy wants to make politicians obey the laws they pass and live like the rest of us? In the world of Bernie and the Jets, these are fighting words for a man who claims to be fighting the oligarchy. Implicitly, Mr. Sanders has an answer to the old warning that “If everybody was jumping off a bridge, would you?” Simply, he makes no bones about not letting everybody traverse the country in a private jet. The general public isn’t as important as politicians, especially those who promote themselves by making public appearances to fight the oligarchy.

He’s got electric boots, a Mohair suit

You know I read it in a magazine, ooh ho

B-B-Bernie and the Jets

Finally, in a similar vein, Mr. Sanders dusts off and adds an ad hominem, “Orange Man bad” riff: “When is the last time you saw Donald Trump, during a campaign mode, at [Ronald Reagan Washington] National Airport?”

Odd that Mr. Sanders would justify his actions by pointing out that President Trump does the same thing. The difference is that in the instance of President Trump and his jets, he makes no bones about being a billionaire, and his authenticity is evident. In the instance of Bernie and the Jets, he purports to be a democratic socialist, and his hypocrisy is evident.

Mr. Sanders seems incapable of recognizing his hypocrisy by ultimately arguing that his use of private jets is for our sake rather than his convenience. By doing so, unlike David Mamet’s Eliot Ness, Mr. Sanders can never admit how, in fighting the “oligarchy,” he has become the oligarchy.

Hey kids, plug into the faithless

Maybe they’re blinded

But Bernie makes them ageless

We shall survive, let us take ourselves along

Where we fight our parents out in the streets

To find who’s right and who’s wrong

Oh, Candy and Ronnie, have you seen them yet

Oh, but they’re so spaced out

B-B-Bernie and the Jets

Bernie, Bernie, Bernie, Bernie, Bernie and the Jets….

An American Greatness contributor, the Hon. Thaddeus G. McCotter (M.C., Ret.) served Michigan’s 11th Congressional District from 2003-2012, He served as Chair of the Republican House Policy Committee and as a member of the Financial Services, Joint Economic, Budget, Small Business, and International Relations Committees. Not a lobbyist, he is also a contributor to Chronicles, a frequent public speaker and moderator for public policy seminars, and a co-host of “John Batchelor: Eye on the World” on CBS radio, among sundry media appearances.