Listen to Bernie
ANALYSIS: Senator Bernie Sanders has always been a clear & consistent 'problem-pointer-outer.' His followers need to listen & support his democracy-saving call for the re-election of President Biden.
(President Joe Biden & Sen. Bernie Sanders I-Vt.: Joe Raedle/Getty)
I listen to Bernie. I hear Bernie. I have great respect for Bernie. Bernie has always been a clear and consistent voice pointing out the problems in this country. We should listen to Bernie. (Please watch his latest political appeal below on YouTube.)
But (and it’s an important but), Bernie has been generally unsuccessful in getting legislation passed in Congress that would solve these problems. (Although he has positively influenced some of the policies of the Biden administration, which have been passed into law.)
Bernie has always been a great ‘problem-pointer-outer.’ But he has not always been such a great ‘problem solver.’
So, how do we change that? How do we solve the problems that Bernie rightly and consistently identifies? How do we advance the long-held but rarely-realized agenda of the senior senator from Vermont? How do we help Bernie?
Partly, by progressives stopping the opposition to sincere centrist Democrats who are ultimately striving to advance a workable agenda. And partly by supporting progressive Democrats who have policy prescriptions that can actually get considered and adopted in an insanely divided Congress and in an intentionally dis-informed divided electorate.
As is his usual wont, Bernie has two action items: Tax the rich to solve economic disparity and motivate an informed voting base to adopt progressive ideals. Both are right & righteous. But, both are politically difficult to do in a dumbed-down and divided voting public.
Right now, Bernie has no immediate policies that have any chance of being passed into law in the current Congress. The numbers are simply not there in our nation’s capitol or in most of the legislative halls of this country.
So, we need to elect national, state and local representatives who DO have workable & popular ideas. And we need those leaders to be empowered with popular political clout. We need a generation of leaders who understand the entrenched problems, understand the differing needs and views of the wider electorate, understand the levers of political machinations in a divided government and understand the practicalities & vagaries of legislative success.
So, as Bernie rightly points out, yes, we need to inform the electorate and show them, nay, convince them beyond any partisan doubt, that their best interests are being served by Democrats and are only being served by Democrats. Full stop! And we need to move people to the polls.
To do that we need all the Democrats across the progressive/liberal/centrist spectrum to join the battle to defeat the authoritarian presidential campaign of former president Donald J. Trump, remove his sycophantic Republicans loyalists in Congress and be victorious over radical MAGA candidates across America.
Hear me out on this, please. This is an honestly sincere plea.
We don’t need more divisive debates during this essential & existential election about Left-wing policy differences. We don’t need more disruptive demonstrations that can divide the potential Democratic electorate and critically harm Democratic candidates. We don’t need more damage to ourselves.
The MAGA Right is coalescing around their cult leader. Democrats have to coalesce around our sane, decent, justice-seeking, rights-defending pro-Democracy leaders.
Yes, you have strong views on Gaza and corporate greed and identity politics and human rights and all the smart and sane pro-progressive ideals. Speak those views. Advocate for those views. But, be careful not to let the airing of those views cripple candidates who are more likely your long-term advocates and allies. They may have to take a position more centrist that you’d like to win a seat over someone who clearly does not support your views. They may have to campaign as a moderate to govern as a liberal or progressive. They have to win to govern.
Just as critically, don’t let your arguments give ammunition & advantage to those candidates who are fighting adamantly against your goals. Don’t give aid and comfort to your actual political enemies in the name of righteousness. Be smart. Be strategic. Play the long game. That’s Bernie’s game. In this existential election, practicality trumps ideology.
(Yuri Gripas/Reuters)
Increasingly, working Americans, ethnic minorities, and oddly, even some seeming social justice advocates, the traditional base of the Democratic Party, are being courted and persuaded to join a faux populist, faux nationalistic, faux evangelical and faux patriotic movement. They are being falsely convinced that a cult has their best interests at heart.
They are being conned, deceived, swindled, manipulated.
They are not listening to Bernie. They are listening to radicals on the Right and on the Left who are both telling them that Joe Biden is a bad man, a doddering old fool. They are being duped. Please, please, do not contribute to this disinformation by battering and badgering the Democratic party and elevating the idea to these under-informed voters that their only truth-teller, their only champion, their only savior is Donald J. Trump. They are easily deceived. Don’t confuse and alienate them further by amplifying attacks on well-meaning Democrats.
Bernie has always put his hopes and dreams on justice-minded working Americans. He’s counting on them once again. It is likely to be a false hope, a hope that is doomed to disappointment, despair and defeat. But, it is nonetheless a hope that we can help nurture and grow. In fact, we must.
Bernie calls ALL Democrats & Independents & Moderates & Liberals & Progressives to take to the voting booths to defend democracy and defeat American authoritarianism and/or fascism.
It is also the call of Presidents Joe Biden, Barack Obama and Bill Clinton.
(Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images)
It is also the call of former Trump cabinet members and senior administration staffers, people who Trump called the ‘finest,’ before he fired them and denigrated them.
People like Mike Pence, Bill Barr, James Mattis, Mark Esper, Mark Milley, Rex Tillerson, Nikki Haley, H.R. McMaster, John Bolton, Mick Mulvaney & Dan Coates.
People like Liz Cheney, Mitt Romney, Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Adam Kinzinger, John Kasich, Chris Christie, Asa Hutchinson & Arnold Schwarzenegger.
The political operatives who know Trump best know that a second term would be dangerous and anti-democratic. And they are saying so. Amplify those messages, if you can influence any MAGA voters.
CNN: 24 former Trump allies and aides who turned against him
I honestly don’t know how to reach Trump cultists, sycophants, opportunists & loyalists. They don’t know the facts of the Trump indictments. They don’t know the accomplishments of the Biden administration. They don’t know the obstructions of the Republicans in Congress. They don’t know the greedy motives of the Right-wing media. The don’t know the nefarious plans of the MAGA movement. In point of fact, they don’t know shit about shit.
Trump voters are un-informed, misinformed and dis-informed. They don’t watch CNN or MSNBC. They don’t watch ABC News, CBS News or NBC News. They don’t read The New York Times or The Washington Post. They are fed a constant diet of deliberate deceits. They are going to cast ignorant ballots for their cult leader.
What I DO know is that it IS possible to reach almost all Democrats and Independents and truth-seeking Republicans. And it IS possible to turn the MAGA tide, bring out the vote and win the White House and the Congress?
How?
With a series of NOTS:
By NOT demeaning President Joe Biden.
By NOT disparaging the Democratic party.
By NOT denigrating Democratic candidates.
By NOT dis-informing friends, family & colleagues.
By NOT voting for a third party presidential candidate.
By NOT attacking potential allies.
By NOT posting divisive memes from foreign bots.
By NOT spreading unverified social media falsehoods.
By NOT letting democracy slip away.
By NOT dissuading voters from going to the polls.
By NOT staying home!!!!