[W]ESTON — As chief Washington correspondent for The New York Times, David Sanger has heard this year’s presidential candidates incessantly lament the state of the nation.
“I’ve been pretty astounded by the amount of doom and gloom,” the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist said. “We tend to assume our problems are worse than anywhere else. I think we need a little perspective.”
That’s why Sanger, vacationing in Vermont, shared his views Sunday at a benefit Weston Playhouse lecture.
“I know this isn’t about me,” he said of the capacity crowd. “We have Donald Trump to thank.”
Sanger and Times colleague Maggie Haberman have generated front-page headlines (take “In Donald Trump’s Worldview, America Comes First, and Everybody Else Pays” or “Donald Trump Sets Conditions for Defending NATO Allies Against Attack”) interviewing the Republican nominee, who professes the country has hit a historic low.
“I think that’s a pretty severe misreading of the past century,” said Sanger, noting the nation isn’t facing World War I or II. “Bad as ISIS and al-Qaida are, we’re dealing with a different order of chaos and conflict.”
Sanger, a foreign policy specialist, believes the United States is in a better position than such counterparts as Britain, China, Egypt, Germany, Greece, Russia or Turkey.
That said, he acknowledged many Americans were suffering from income inequality.
“I think Bernie Sanders did an enormous good service to the country in making such a compelling case,” he said of the Vermont senator and recent presidential candidate.
And even with its first black commander in chief, the nation continues to struggle with racial issues — a challenge, Sanger said, not always discussed in Vermont, which is second only to Maine as the whitest state.
Trump, for his part, has reaped plenty of press attention.
“It’s worth asking why Mr. Trump got through the primaries with no one on cable TV asking follow-up questions on the implications of his views,” Sanger said. “It shows why it’s more important than ever that we do real news reporting. I think all of us in the media have a lot of questions to answer at the end of this election about why that kind of examination was not conducted earlier.”
Sanger believes such scrutiny should extend to Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
“There is a value in maintaining as much neutrality as you can,” he said.
But that didn’t stop the reporter from offering an opinion or two.
On hackers’ recent release of Democratic National Committee emails: “My guess is the Vermont Country Store has better cybersecurity than the DNC — and probably more interesting inventory. I don’t think the story is over. What we don’t know is what else they might have that they might time to release in October or November.”
On Trump’s campaign slogan “Make America Great Again”: “That is intended to make people think we can recapture past glories. This idea that we’ll retreat back to our borders is one that is not going to work. We’re living in a far more connected world — unless you’re somebody trying to get the internet in Weston.”
And though Sanger will return to the campaign trail, he doesn’t foresee current divisions ending with the election.
“This is not just a three-month debate, this is a generational debate,” he said. “The questions are only going to grow more acute if we don’t address them.”
