Bernie II is starting to look a lot like Trump I, as the startled center starts to realize that there’s no there there any more. The bad news is, Bernie Sanders isn’t a Hillary Clinton/Barack Obama style conventional liberal reformer; he’s a true believer socialist who wants to smash capitalism and live in a righteous socialist society where no one is better than anyone else and not only do we all ride bicycles to work, we all ride the same kind of bicycle.1 The worse news is, most Democrats don’t care.
That’s how it’s shakin’ as we head into the all important (or not) South Carolina primary, followed by what may or may not be the really all important Florida primary. Will Bernie’s long-running weakness for totalitarian rule—but not the, you know, bad parts!—interrupt his long march to the nomination? Or not? Because young people who don’t remember the Cold War don’t really give a damn about all that communism shit—it’s over, boomer!—while many blacks think that worrying about communism is sort of a white thing, and some Hispanics feel it’s a gringo thing.
But not all of them. There are plenty of Cuban and Nicaraguan and Venezuelan refugees who came to the U.S. to get away from those various socialist paradises that afflict our southern neighbors, and a lot of them are living in Florida. When Bernie started out on his wild career back in 2016 he wanted to eliminate immigration entirely—he was one to one with Donald Trump on that one, though, mercifully, not in a racist way—though, living in lily-white Vermont for decades, one suspects that he kind of forgot that blacks and Hispanics really existed. Now he’s done a 180 and wants to eliminate virtually any restrictions on immigration. But how is he going to learn to walk the walk on Fidel Castro/Daniel Ortega/Hugo Chávez in a matter of weeks, particularly when the odds are very good that he doesn’t want to?
Well, don’t ask me. And I’m not sure that Joe Biden, Michael Bloomberg, Elizabeth Warren, Amy Klobuchar, or Pete Buttigieg have better guesses than mine. As I’ve groaned, loudly!, and frequently!, the Democratic Party is more than a bit of a mess these days. The “culture” of the party has shifted very rapidly, most dramatically with the reaction against neoliberal economic policy, but also affected by the #MeToo movement, Black Lives Matter, gay marriage, legal marijuana, etc., all wholly or significantly desirable—well, except the reaction against neoliberalism, which unfortunately, is the deepest reaction of all—but all having the effect of “stranding” many Democrats, like Kamala Harris, who might otherwise have been viable candidates.2 And it seems like all the candidates misplayed the “Medicare for All” thing—all except Bernie, because Bernie was the only one smart enough not to bother figuring out how to pay for it all. Don’t worry! We’ll just git’er done!
Afterwords I—More about Bernie’s sordid past
Yeah, I was going to talk more about Bernie’s sordid past, but I got distracted. This film clip shows Sanders praising Fidel Castro for “totally transforming the society”, and that’s what Sanders dreams of. In his travels to communist countries like the Soviet Union, or Cuba, or Nicaragua, Bernie is clearly excited to be in a country where the government has the unrestricted power to do whatever is “right”—none of this nonsense about “private property” or “due process” to get in the way of “progress”. Everyone wants progress, don’t they? So let’s get on with it! Viva la Revolución! We’re sure to get it right this time!
Afterwords II—Yeah, but can Bernie win?
Well, who knows? But Hillary “lost” to Donald despite a massive advantage in Wall Street money, maybe 3 to 1, from what I’ve read. What would Trump’s advantage be, running against Bernie? Maybe 30 to 1? Or better?
1. Because who needs, you know, variety? It’s all a capitalist trick! They don’t care about you or the environment! They only want your money! Who wants to live in a society like that?
2. Harris ran effectively for years on the mantra “black woman, tough of crime!” All of a sudden, “toughness”, particularly when it came to marijuana, became a bug rather than a feature. In fact, as California’s attorney general from 2011 to 2017, Harris was determined to win the support of prosecutors throughout the state as being the toughest of the tough, and deserved to be attacked for her persistent advocacy of draconian punishment for trivial offenses.
