Bernie and the Donald: a pre-Iowa tale of two candidates
This election cycle has been fascinating. As disappointing as it is for Clinton I think that this is the second time she's been in the wrong place at the wrong time. From what I'm hearing on the ground, the Bernie machine is getting just like Obama's, complete with the passion, enthusiasm and fervency.
But let's stand back for a second.
I read an article recently (I've forgotten the link, sorry) that made a really, really good point on which I want to elaborate.
The article says that the power of the left has been diluted because we support a thousand worthy causes. The author pointed out that we need a short list. The reason: the oligarchs know that the people are powerful. We are the only thing they really fear. So, they attack us 24/7/365 on 1,000 different fronts. The thinking is that if they divide us up so that some are strongly for issue A and others for issue B and still others for issue C, we won't be able to exert enough pressure to make any significant changes.
This is true - it is the old rule of divide and conquer. We can also see it when they try to pit groups of people against one another. If the poor whites hate, mistrust and fear people of color, for instance, then we won't stand together to force change that benefits both poor whites and people of color.
We all know this.
So here's my point:
I do not believe any establishment candidate is going to pull off this one. The American people are too profoundly angry at the status quo. Even the craziest, most heavily armed, racist, xenophobic, homophobic holy roller militia type knows that the 'game' is rigged against us ever really getting ahead.
So who is supporting Trump? The people who are really mad but basically lazy and ignorant. They want to vote for a strong leader, by gosh, and then go back to their sports, guns, bibles, militia groups whatever and forget about the government, because it's in good hands with the strong leader.
Who is supporting Bernie? The people who have realized our mistake as citizens. We've elected people to represent us for decades now and then just gone back to our lives and hoped for the best. Bernie supporters realize this attitude, this approach is literally the death knell for any type of democracy and so they are responding, and will respond in millions to Bernie's call for a political revolution whereby we all stand up together and push for a short list of really important stuff that makes our lives better and more economically secure.
Once we have some of those things, then we systematically add others to the list, keeping this list short so we can exert MASSIVE power for change for those few things. Again, once power acquiesces to our force and 'gives' us those things, then we come at them with other things. Single payer. Using the power of government to negotiate lower costs. Lifting the cap on the Social Security payroll tax and strengthening benefits for seniors. Free college tuition. Reining in Wall Street with stronger regulations, and then FUNDING the regulatory body so it can actually enforce those new regs. Splitting up the 'too big to fail' financial institutions.
That is a good start. It is a short list that may not delight everyone (it DOES delight me, but I'm a late middle aged white male), but that most Dems can live with.
So, let's put Bernie in power and start standing up and flexing our populist muscle on his short list. But then as we see victory after victory, let us add new things to this list. A president who actually will LEAD THE PEOPLE like Bernie will can help us ACCOMPLISH FAR MORE BY ATTEMPTING LESS ALL AT ONCE. But in the end we can all accomplish many things.
Am I the first person who has said this? I sincerely doubt it. But I AM saying that I fervently support Bernie and I am willing to pressure the people who supposedly represent me. And I DO believe that we can take back our government and I DO believe we can make this country and this world a decent place to live for everyone. But we have to pull the teeth of the corporate establishment first. Otherwise we have no chance.
Will we be able to pull it off? We'll see. Am I one of those unicorn idealists? Nope. But I AM an idealist. And I AM going to tilt at this windmill one last time.