The more I have to look at the Sanders campaign, the more I just see the lies, the arrogance, the sexism, and the racism. The White guy is absolutely perfect and has the most integrity and the most vision, and we need to elect him because the Black man wasn’t good enough, and the woman isn’t either.
I don’t like to spend time putting people down. I never even bothered being negative about George W. Bush. His administration and the things he did, sure. But him personally – who cares?
But it was really depressing a year ago when I began do extensive research for this site, and discovered the extent that liberal leaders and organizations, like Warren, Reich, Sanders, and labor unions, were blatantly lying to their supporters. To me it looked like nothing other than the success of the crazed right wing in spreading their mentality all the way across to the other side of the political spectrum.
I quickly (and depressingly easily) compiled an extensive list of the blatant lies and demonstrably false information spread by so-called liberal sources and widely propagated and accepted as gospel by the public. I was shocked. I had stumbled upon the Left’s version of climate denial and trickle down economics. Liberal versions of right wing mythology. Myths about, among other things, trade, about corporations, about the military, and the ‘1%’.
People laugh at me all the time and make snide and derisive remarks when I tell them I am not a Democrat, and I am not a liberal. I am a progressive. That means I look for the right solutions, not the ideologically pure solutions. Sometimes we need to raise taxes, sometimes lower them. Sometimes government should be bigger, sometimes it should be cut back. Sometimes we need government controls, sometimes things should be left to the free market.
So to me, a wingnut is a wingnut. Left or Right, that kind of extremist thinking is destructive to the political process and counter-productive to the advancement of progressive issues. When I look at Sanders, I see a wingnut. Listening closely to Bernie Sanders, and having studied him closely for the past year, I have gone from depressed, to alarmed, to today – depressed again.
I have been going over and over his rhetoric, looking for the bright spot, for the way forward, for the hook on which I could hang my hat, and tell myself, “this is what Bernie can do for progressive issues.” I can’t find it. I know his supporters will tell me I haven’t really looked, that I am brainwashed, or that I am making this all up to deceive undecided voters. I have more integrity than that, but I really wish it were that simple.
What I hear from Sanders is simply more lies and deception. Promises that as a politician of 40 years he knows full well he can’t keep. We have ample evidence to show that not one thing he states as a goal will be achievable within the potential eight years of a Sanders presidency. He is literally promising to start something he knows he can’t finish, and crossing his fingers that some future president and future Congress will be able to finish it in some future political climate that we can only guess at.
Republicans are not a myth people. Conservatives actually exist in the United States. Not only will they oppose him, but many moderates and liberals simply do not agree with what Bernie Sanders is proposing. There is no wave coming, no revolution. The absolutely most popular people in this country can barely get 50% of the public to agree with them. Our most popular politician is Barack Obama, and he hasn’t cracked 50% approval in years. That is not a recipe for sweeping changes in government.
Break up the big banks? Standard Oil took 20 years and a Supreme Court decision. ATT took 10 years and their cooperation! Breaking up 8 individual big banks who are fighting you every step of the way? Come on people. Is there even a legal path to do anything like it? Has anyone bothered to ask?
Expand Medicare so every American has health care? We have been trying that for the last 20 years. If you look at the history of welfare programs in this country, it is actually more like 100 years. And then Bernie points to Canada and the UK – it is literally exhausting to even write this – Canada and the UK, and every other universal coverage system, covers less than Bernie’s plan, and controls more parts of the system to keep costs down. That means government hospitals and federally employed doctors and nurses. Those things are not in Bernie’s plan. He hasn’t even explained what he will do about the Hyde amendment.
Don’t tell me I am making a case for the status quo. I am making a case for a pathway to where we are trying to go. Realistic steps we can take. Not someone promising me a trip around the world with no money and no passports.
The Sanders campaign at this point will tell me that their objective is to change perspectives, to create a movement, momentum, that can lead to lasting change and a new style of politics. Which brings me back to the arrogance, sexism, and racism. We have that movement. We voted for hope and change. We have a man and a woman who over the course of 20 years have succeeded where there has been failure after failure, to finally bring us the first significant progress in decades, the PPACA.
But that’s not good enough for Bernie. The work of the Black man and the woman was not good enough. We need to start over. Not only do we need to start over, but we should do so without any real plans or specifics, because hey, the White guy gots this.
And see if you can remember the last time a president was elected, and didn’t promise to change Washington. We’re still waiting.
I don’t know. Like I said, I have gone over and over this for a year, and I just don’t see it. I see Clinton supporters asking all the time, “what can I say to Bernie supporters? How do I get them to open their minds?”
Well I have one suggestion, and I am asking you dear reader now. Help me out: what do I have to look forward to during a Sanders presidency? What can I expect to have happen, to see actually change during the 4 or 8 years he is in office?