TheDudeDiogenes [!] asks me my reaction to the announcement that Bernie Sanders will run for the Democratic nomination. This will be a first for the Democratic Party: A Republican and a Socialist vying for the party's nomination. What do I think?
I love Bernie Sanders. I will donate money to his campaign. I will vote for him if there is a North Carolina primary [the way things are going, the State Legislature may outlaw voting], but let us be realistic: Clinton will win the nomination, and my guess is she will win the election as well.
Sanders' presence in the race will lead Clinton to say more progressive-sounding things during the primary season. I am all for that, but it will have no effect whatsoever on how she governs.
The principal value of a Sanders candidacy is educational. Things are changing in America. There is the faintest whiff in the air of class warfare -- not the war of the rich against the poor, which has been with us forever, but of the poor against the rich. It has become so acceptable to say as to be commonplace that the very rich have hi-jacked the country. In this regard, Citizens United may be a blessing. By making it legal for billionaires to hand-pick their candidates openly, so that we now talk casually about which billionaire is supporting which Republican, that Supreme Court decision has forced into the public discussion the corruption of the American political system. Perhaps, perhaps this will prompt the great sluggish American public to get off its collective rear end and go to the polls.
But then, as I have so often remarked, I am a Tigger by nature.
Sanders is the kind of candidate that will actually compel me to register to vote, and actually vote. I would be pleased with a Sanders presidency. But....are we really calling strong welfare liberals socialists now? The political scene shifts ever rightward.
ReplyDeleteInteresting article on Sanders:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.jacobinmag.com/2015/05/bernie-sanders-president-vermont-socialist/
I'm just happy to have someone to vote for at our state caucuses (I live in Washington state).
ReplyDeleteI agree. The biggest benefit to this will be educational. Sanders inclusion in the race will mean certain things will get said that wouldn't be part of the national debate otherwise.
ReplyDelete