Berning the Democrats: Will the Democratic Party Have to Give the Nod to Bernie?

Sorry, Bernie Bro’s, but I don’t like Bernie as a Presidential Candidate – History has shown that “revolutionaries” make very poor governors, and a Bernie presidency will not bring about the results that he claims.

 

There are many branches on the American political
Tree, but the socialist limb fell off a long time ago.

Medi-Care for all? Good idea, but that won’t happen.

Do away with student debt? Would be great, though unconscionable and unrealistic.

And socialism? But he’s not a socialist and the very idea scares most of the population and almost all of the elected officials in Washington.

Perhaps, the only thing he could get is a “Green New Deal” and the development of a 21^stcentury infrastructure, if, and only if Mitch McConnell is no longer in charge of the Senate.

Americans, even liberal Americans, are fond of saying, “socialism is great in theory, in theory.” And you know the rest. Bernie is the same thing, great in theory, in theory, but …. He won’t be able to make good on anything. Nothing.

Bernie has been a maverick politician and great critic from the left. A voice of corrective reason in a democratic and capitalist (social capital?) society that sometimes loses its way and likes to hear an elderly voice rail against its brutal excesses. What he is not is an effective legislator. He is not LBJ wrangling the cattle in the Senate or even Nancy P. shushing the House of Representatives. No, he has no experience or expertise doing that and it shows.

When asked how he would get Medi-care for all passed in Congress, he has stated because the people would put pressure on Congress to vote with him. Huh? Is that ego or stupidity? And could he build a coalition of Democrats for such legislation, if they get a majority in both houses? Highly unlikely, as he is as unpopular with many Dems as he is with Trumpers.

Which brings us to two more points. Bernie isn’t going to help the Democrats gain a majority in the Senate, and his whole phenomena is too Trumplike, for my tastes at least. 

Bernie has a core, like Trump, but smaller, that will follow him to the ends of the earth … or shoot someone? Eh, not Bernie, but the Bros are Trumpian in their celebration of their champion …. Except that Bernie’s crowd is smarter and more empathetic in that they at least have chosen a sovereign who does care about more than his gilded wig. But Bernie, like Trump, is a cult of personality that eschews planning and substance for rhetoric and emotion. Of course, health care for all would be better public policy, but you can’t get their by public acclaim …. And Americans don’t want to pay for good public policy, most only want to pay for a big mushroom shaped …. cloud, the military. 

And even if you agree that the 1% are evil, taking all their money and relieving the debt of college students who paid outlandish tuition to colleges and universities that are ripping off, not only those students, but the tax payers who guaranteed those loans in the first place shows that Bernie doesn’t understand that problem. The debt was accumulated paying inflated tuition that rose astronomically over the last 25 years because we the people thought it was good public policy to make money for college (through government guaranteed student loans) possible for everyone. And in a 21^st century world, where learning is more important than other marketable skills, that was good policy. What went wrong is that no one put price controls on the universities who saw this as a windfall and used that student loan money to rebuild and overbuild their grossly bloated campuses and administrations. Shame on them, and until something is done about that tuition gouging it is morally wrong to ask tax payers to cover the debt of any student.

And the biggest reason that I don’t like Bernie is that he is not a DEMOCRATIC SOCIALIST. I know, if he calls himself that, then he must be that, but I can call myself Donald Trump, but that’s not what makes me an asshole. Words have meaning because they mean something and, Bernie, who advocates market economies and the accumulation of private wealth cannot by definition be an advocate of common control of the means of production, which is socialism, democratic or not. He is, however, a social democrat, as are most Americans. He adheres to the tenets of Liberalism (people have rights, government should be representational and private wealth systems should be promoted) but modified by social safety nets. It just so happens that his nets are bigger and stronger than most liberals, but that doesn’t make him a socialist.

So why does he call himself a socialist? I don’t fucking know. It’s the dumbest thing in politics I’ve ever seen. Maybe he’s fulfilling some beatnik fantasy of his youth, but it’s the dumbest fucking thing ever. And that makes me not trust him, not at all. There is something disingenuous about calling yourself a thing you know you are not, and being real, Bernie must certainly know his political definitions. Dumbest thing ever.

But, the Bros, like in 2016, will not support any other candidate, and hence, they will, therefore, be supporting the re-election of Donald Trump. So, must the Democrats kneel at the alter of Bernie?

It looks like once again, Black America is going to have to save America’s soul. This voting block did not come out for Hillary, and they wouldn’t come out for many of the Democratic candidates, like Buttigieg, especially Buttigieg, but they will come out for Joe, and even though I don’t like Joe (who really does?), the voice of moderation by which the current system can work, and increasingly work for more and more of the people, is the voice of Joe.

And if you want movement toward universal healthcare that can get passed in Congress? Joe

And if you want legislation to abate climate change? Joe

And if you want the building of a greener America? Joe

Unless, by some strange math, Bernie is able to win the key states of Pennsylvania, Michigan, Arizona and Wisconsin by accumulating over 45% of Democratic primary voters, the choice is clear. Joe