Among the numerous Sanders unelectability charges, after the socialism “taint”—which will never go away, is “imagine what the Republicans would do to him in the general.”
I don’t know what hand controls the Wiki, but a couple weeks ago, I clicked on the Bernie Sanders entry. Under the category of children, it lists Levi Sanders.
A regular part of Bernie’s stump speech includes “I have four (adjective) children and seven (adjective) grandchildren.” Wiki, it seems, would not let him get away with including the children of his second wife, who Bernie apparently counts as family.
Eons ago, yours truly examined the first “scandal” article on Bernie Sanders personal life, brought to us by The Daily Mail, and then Politico:
First dirt.
One would have thought “sugar shack” a bit archaic, especially to describe a perhaps leaky domicile where Bernie set up his stake and first wife in Vermont.
Now divorce is probably no longer a disqualifier for the presidency as St. Ronnie did the d-word, but a child out of wedlock? That phrase itself reeks of mold, but it was a polite way of saying “bastard,” actually.
Nonetheless, how far would Sander’s political opponents be willing to take this? Depending on the media grab and the opponent, it would be easy to paint Bernie as the free-love hippie, white and educated enough to try that back-to-the-land stuff, or more nuanced, a contrast with someone who worked through difficult times in a marriage. We don’t have the hypocrisy/exploitation of the circumstance attending Jesse Helms’ first child here, but the light hasn’t shined over bright on Levi, and though many in Vermont were in the know, it wasn’t a big deal.
Levi himself, with his 3 adopted Chinese children, no doubt refers to them as “family” and “my children”, instead of a factual phrase.
Family, children, brothers and sisters. Who are the people who make up those words?
Very recently, (Friday) I had cause to think on what that means.
I attended a surprise/goodbye event for 2 faculty retiring from a program they built and which continues to thrive against all odds. Aside from current students and faculty, alumni students and faculty returned for the occasion. After the two were honored, and returned gratitude with speeches standing on a classroom chair, and the cake and champagne started/continued, someone switched on a recording of “Lean on Me.” In preparation for this event, some person had mentioned playing this song, so I knew it had special resonance for this group. But when it finally played to the mob within the classroom (so tight it generated heat) and those that spilled out into the hall, I experienced on-going chills. The awareness that this disparate group of people, having come together under the arbitrary cause of an academic major, were that close, and were that self-aware in acknowledging that through helping one another, they made it through, and became one group; a group that will continue to grow.
Friday night I met my 42 year old first cousin for the first time. A confluence of geography, marriage, deaths, divorce and remarriage certainly contributed to this delayed meeting. My brother and I bonded with our cousin at our first meeting as if we had always been family. We shared parts of the same story, but also were able to un-puzzle some circumstances that only happened once we were together. Some conflicts were put into perspective.
My brother did argue, a bit later, that this cousin was “blood”, and therefore somewhat apart from his step-brothers in his relationship to us. I have been in phone and typed touch with one of the step-brothers over the years, and I shrugged at this distinction. Because there can be so many included under the phrase family.
The word “traditional” often precedes the word family, as the latter has outgrown its britches. Marriage, too, and putting the “traditional” preface before it sometimes signals an insistence that things do not/are not suppose to change.
Ah, but we have to untether ourselves from Wiki, too.
The photograph of Bernie and Levi I have posted was taken at some political/community meeting. Bernie being always Bernie, but a father, too. A father of more, later. It kills me how the photo is so Dorthea Lange, but I revel in the changing iconography that history gives us.
“One child born and all the world to carry on”