BERN BABY BERN: BERNIE OR BUST!

LONG & WINDING ROAD TO THE WHITE HOUSE

BERNIE OR BUST!

By Jack Random

In the much awaited trial of the president Democratic members of the house took aim at Donald Trump’s manifestly crooked dealings in Ukraine.  In response, the president’s defenders took aim at Joe Biden. 

Both were previews of the campaign to come.  The prosecution of the president was a three-day, 36-hour attack ad against the presidency of Donald Trump.  The defense was an attack ad against Joe Biden via his son, Hunter Biden. 

The mainstream of both major parties presumed that the coming presidential election would be a match of elders, a contest between the corrupt incumbent against the entrenched Democratic challenger.  The smear machines are revved and ready.

Not so fast. 

Bernie Sanders may be elderly but he represents the young.  He brings the vitality, energy and resilience of the young to a stodgy old process that embraces structural conservatism. 

The old politicos had a hard time coming to terms with the fact that a non-politician without governing experience could win a presidential election by exploiting the flaws in an antiquated and eminently inequitable system.  They are having the same trouble with Bernie Sanders. 

In so many ways Sanders represents the existential threat that Trump posed but has not delivered.  Trump plays the game and makes no excuses.  Sanders tells it like it is. 

With his rise in the polls and his victory in the Iowa caucus (where I come from the one who gets the most votes wins) the operatives and dealmakers of the Democratic Party are beginning to panic.  They miscalculated badly by having Hillary Clinton deliver her attack against Bernie.  To this day they don’t seem to realize that Hillary is not popular among the majority of Democratic or independent voters.  Hillary holds the political class.  She can’t hold a candle to Bernie when it comes to political activists. 

Next they managed to persuade Elizabeth Warren to deliver an attack designed to weaken Bernie’s appeal to women.  It backfired.  People saw through the staged maneuver and moved to Bernie’s camp.  Warren may not recover. 

Now, just like the last campaign, the party is working overtime to find ways to stop the Bernie train.  One by one the surrogates step to the camera to deliver a tired old speech:  Bernie can’t possibly beat Trump.  Bernie’s a socialist.  Bernie is too far to the left.  Bernie’s a radical with radical ideas. 

Maybe they believe it.  Maybe they’re just doing their party’s bidding.  They seem to forget:  Hillary was the mainstream moderate who lost to Trump.  Why would they be so eager to try it again? 

After the impeachment trial Joe Biden is damaged goods.  Act One of the trial that wasn’t a trial was an attack on the president.  Act Two of the trial was a counterattack on the integrity of Biden.  The attack ads are already written.  When Biden calls out Trump for his dirty dealing in Ukraine, the forces of Trump counter with Burisma.  How much was it Hunter Biden made?  More in a month than working people make in a year?  What were his qualifications again? 

In the age of Trump it is not enough to be clean.  You have to be above the appearance of wrongdoing.  The old school politicians know this and Biden fails the test.  

When the Democrats finally accept this fact they will look to another option: anyone but Bernie.  There was a time when I would have included Warren on the list of unacceptable presidential candidates to the Democratic machine.  To all appearances she took essentially the same positions as Bernie but something changed along the line.  The party decided they could work with Warren.  Apparently they don’t feel the same about Bernie. 

Why?  Bernie is the most consistent candidate in the field.  Whether you label him a Democratic Socialist or a Social Democrat or an Independent, he believes now what he believed decades ago and he’s held his ground. 

Little noted in the mainstream cable media that looks more and more like a subdivision of the DNC there was a diversion of response to international crises in recent months. 

First came the coup in Bolivia.  Bernie condemned it as a coup and called for an international response.  Warren, Klobuchar and Buttigieg took the standard line, condemning the victim and supporting the usurpers.  It was an insult to democratic values and democracy itself.  Warren came around but only after Bernie led. 

Second came the events that threatened another forever war in the Middle East, this time with Iran.  The candidates tripped over themselves condemning the assassinated Iranian commander.  Only Bernie took a more measured perspective, stepping back from the precipice of war and condemning targeted assassination as an instrument of foreign policy. 

Third and most recently: the Trump administration’s dead-in-the-waters proposal for peace between Israel and Palestine.  Once again Bernie took the lead, calling out the proposal for the farce that it is.  He took the opportunity to call for an end to Israeli occupation and the establishment of two viable states, guaranteeing Palestinian self-determination as well as mutual security.  To her credit Warren followed suit with her own condemnation of Israeli annexation of Palestinian territories.  Buttigieg talked in his usual doublespeak but criticized the deal as one-sided.  Biden engaged in similar talk, criticizing the deal but emphasizing a long-standing loyalty to the state of Israel. 

More and more I am left with the conviction that Bernie is our best hope both at home and in foreign affairs.  He stands ready to make the fundamental changes that our times demand.  Moreover, he is the best candidate to expose the failures of the Trump administration.  For while the Trump years have seen a dramatic decrease in the unemployment rate, well-paying middle class jobs have been transformed into low-paying service jobs.  While the corporations and the wealthy have made a fortune, the rest of us still wonder how we’re going to make it to tomorrow. 

Bernie has been saying it for years:  It’s time for a political revolution.  It’s time to fundamentally transform an economic and political system that works extremely well for the ones at the top but not so well for the poor and the working people. 

I have not given up on Elizabeth Warren.  She remains my first choice as an alternative to Bernie.  But my confidence has been shaken not only by her politically reckless attack on her progressive rival but her stops and stumbles on policy and events in the daily news.  I fear she may be too anxious to modify her policies to please the party. 

Andrew Yang remains an intriguing choice and one that I would not only support but work for were he to win the nomination.  It would take a tsunami for that to happen. 

The other candidates, including Joe Biden, would be a major disappointment to anyone who believes as I do that the next president must enact historic change.  Would I vote for a Biden, a Buttigieg or Klobuchar, a Bloomberg or Steyer over Trump?  Of course.  But would I work for them, write for them, contribute and serve as a warrior for the cause? 

No, I would not. 

I am old enough to know that change happens.  Sometimes it happens when you don’t expect it.  Sometimes it happens overnight. 

But for now:  It’s Bernie or bust! 

Jazz. 

JACK RANDOM IS A WRITER LIVING IN CENTRAL CALIFORNIA.  HIS WORKS INCLUDE EIGHT NOVELS AND THE JAZZMAN CHRONICLES.