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MEA CULPA |
GIVE THE GOP A LANDSLIDE VICTORY |
THE ELEPHANT, THE ROOM, AND THE
PEOPLE
PART II |
THE ELEPHANT, THE ROOM, AND THE PEOPLE
PART I |
MONEY GRUBBING FEMALES, UNITE! |
WE AREN’T ELECTING A HOMECOMING QUEEN |
DESPERATELY SEEKING SUSAN |
THE TOOTSIE ISSUE |
Toddlers 4 President! |
CRYING BABIES AND OTHER PRESSING
MATTERS OF STATE |
Democratic Convention 2016: How It
Might Have Been |
I’D LIKE TO FEEL THE BERN,
ONLY…
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AN UNFORTUNATE REMEMBRANCE
OF THINGS PAST
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On Matters of the Lie, the
War, and Judgment |
EGO, POLITICS, AND THE
PRESIDENCY |
On Getting What We Deserve |
HOW JANUARY 2017 WILL LOOK |
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I’D LIKE TO FEEL THE BERN, ONLY…
It was little wonder to me when Senator Bernie Sanders won the state
of Washington during the March 26 caucuses here. As a resident of
Washington, I went to my local caucus and I was impressed by the
number of Bernie Sanders supporters who were there. I was equally
impressed by the availability of lawn signs, stickers, pamphlets,
and other information that the Sanders campaign had supplied. I was
distressed to see that the only item that could be interpreted as
supporting Hillary Clinton was a bumper sticker reading A Woman’s
Place is in the House, the Senate, and the Oval Office. This
certainly wasn’t good, I thought, and when I asked about it, I was
told that her campaign had not sent anything. Perhaps she saw the
handwriting on the wall or perhaps she just knows about caucuses. Or
perhaps the truth is somewhere in between.
I had a brief conversation with a young Bernie supporter who wanted
to excoriate Hillary Clinton because of her putative support of
fracking (her support has to do with location and jobs as it turns
out) but who knew nothing at all about Bernie’s plan to effect his
revolution. That latter was not a problem for me because aside from
Susan Sarandon’s disgraceful declaration that if Bernie did not get
the nomination, people were probably going to vote for Donald Trump
in order “to speed the revolution”, (who really cares about nuclear
war, women’s health, and the Muslims in the world, right, Susan?)
While at the caucus, I couldn’t find anyone else who knew what the
plan for revolution is either. Seeing that I was clearly
outnumbered, I decided to cast my vote for Hillary and then join a
friend for lunch. I’m not sure how caucuses work elsewhere but here
in Washington, that’s how it’s done. You can cast your vote at any
time. If you want to stay and try to convince someone to vote for
your candidate, you certainly can do so. But it’s not necessary.
I spent the afternoon with my friend and when I returned home before
dinner, it was to news that Bernie Sanders had swept Washington and
was on his way to taking Alaska and Hawaii. While I was disturbed by
this, I was philosophical. Obviously Bernie’s supporters had swarmed
by the millions to the caucus sites. That’s certainly how the news
outlets described the situation. Only….
As things turned out, according to the Seattle Times, Bernie
Sanders’ “landslide win” in the state of Washington was earned with
the backing of 4% of the registered voters in a caucus in which only
5.8% of the voters even showed up! Do we bang the drum slowly or,
perhaps, stop banging altogether? There is now a hot argument that
Bernie Sanders should have, as result of his “landslide win”, all
the Washington delegates.
This made me curious. If only 5.8% of the registered voters showed
up, who, I wondered, is actually supporting Senator Sanders? More
important, if he turns out to be the nominee and if he is elected
President, who is there to roar into action and bring on the social
and political revolution? Since action means Congress (yes, I know
that is certainly an oxymoron at this point), I thought it best to
see who Senator Sanders’ supporters are. Who are these individuals
in the House and the Senate whose ringing endorsement of his
candidacy is not only a clarion call to those who are sitting on the
fence about where they should cast their votes but also a clear
indication of what will occur when his first piece of legislation
hits the Congressional floor?
To learn the identity of his supporters, I sought the internet, that
font of information. I found that, at least on the day of my search,
Senator Sanders has the ringing endorsement of…not a single United
States Senator. He does have the endorsement of two former Senators,
though, as well as seven members of the House of Representatives and
one former member. This actually isn’t bad when you consider that
Donald Trump couldn’t claim as much.
I looked at Hillary Clinton next. I discovered that 40 currently
sitting Senators have endorsed her, along with 14 former Senators,
168 current members of the House of Representatives, 57 former
members of the House of Representatives and a staggering list of
elected officials from every level of government, from Native
American tribes, from foreign leaders, and the list goes on. Indeed,
there were so many people endorsing Hillary Clinton that I did not
have the time or energy to count them all.
What does an endorsement mean, actually? I’ve thought about this,
and I’ve come up with a couple of ideas. I would posit that
endorsements from sitting members of Congress are a way of saying
“We are willing to work with this person” and a paucity of those
same endorsements is an indication of an unwillingness or—at best—a
reluctance to work with the candidate should he win the election.
Similarly, an endorsement from a list of world leaders seems to say,
“We know and trust this person” whereas a lack of endorsements from
world leaders seems to say “We don’t know this person. We may come
to trust this person but the jury is still out for us.”
Why is any of this important? Because of the promised revolution.
The voter for Bernie Sanders cannot assume that a majority of
Democratic Socialists or Socialists are going to take over Congress
in November. Indeed, I don’t believe there are any if you don’t
count Bernie and he has his eyes on the Presidency. Why is this
important? Because those are the people who pass the legislation
that becomes law. Those are the people who give the revolution
wheels. I don’t think we have recently become the Tsar’s Russia pre
death-of-the-Romanovs, heralding a real revolution involving
armaments. That being the case, unless Susan Sarandon can bring on
the revolution on her own, how is anything going to happen to bring
Bernie’s ideas to life?
There are people who argue, “His election to the Presidency would be
a start.” But what sort of start? People who say this make me wonder
where they’ve been for the last eight years when no matter what
proposal was made by President Obama, the House and the Senate
fought him every inch of the way when they weren’t also
gerrymandering districts to maintain their power as well as
filibustering every Democratic piece of legislation that they could
not water down into insignificance. Indeed, the dedicated Bernie
voters who believe his election “would be a start” make me wonder if
they were asleep when Republican Senator Mitch McConnell’s first
statement vis a vis President Obama was that he intended to make his
a “failed presidency.” I simply do not understand why the Bernie
voter seems to believe that Mitch would then embrace Bernie like the
Second Coming.
The Bernie supporters will argue that Hillary Clinton would fare no
better despite the number of endorsements she has, so why not “give
Bernie a chance?” The reason is that his success so far—limited as
it is mostly to caucus states—does not indicate a sweeping passion
for the man, no matter how well-intentioned he is. It indicates only
a small percentage of people who had the time, the freedom, and the
transportation to get themselves to caucus sites on the day in
question. These would be people who did not have to go to work, who
did not need to arrange for childcare, who knew the location of the
caucus site, and who had a car or access to a bus or a train to take
them there.
Make no mistake. The Republican Party is utterly aware of this,
which is why they are attempting to thwart Donald Trump. They know
that if they can stop him before their convention, preventing him
from acquiring a majority of the delegates’ votes, they will then on
a second or third ballot nominate someone far more palatable to
voters. No matter how conservative the other current candidates are
and no matter how conservative are the former candidates, they will
look like a collection of Wise Men on their way to Bethlehem
compared to the Donald. Any one of them can probably beat Bernie
Sanders with one hand tied behind his back. That’s what the
Republican Party is shooting for, which is why they have not yet
begun to attack Senator Sanders, his Democratic Socialism, or his
Revolution.
They are wise enough to save their ammunition. Of course, as we all
have seen, in other matters they are not wise at all.
- Elizabeth George
Whidbey Island
Washington State
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