Hello everyone. I have been reading DailyKos recommended reading for years. There are some very good writers here and I am so glad to find kindred spirits among you. And this is my first entry.
I have seen some Bernie vs. Hillary commentary that is poignant and powerful. I have also seen some that seem to lack full understanding of Bernie followers and volunteers due to alleged pragmatism.
May I humbly present to the pragmatists that the reason why Bernie persists is because Bernie Sanders is the present incarnation of Eugene McCarthy?
Now, I’m an older fart. Which means that when Eugene McCarthy came out of nowhere to run for president in 1968, I was 15-years-old, so I have my version of history which you can argue with later. Those of you with a longer view know that Eugene McCarthy ran for President in 1968 based on opposition to the Vietnam War. He was young and charismatic enough that thousands of young people took baths, cut their hair, and proceeded to go door-to-door in New Hampshire primary season back when it was the first primary in the country. And Eugene McCarthy won by such a large margin that LBJ said he was not going to run for re-election.
Robert Kennedy then enters the race- earlier than he originally wanted to. And the primary battle is joined. Meanwhile, VP Hubert Humphrey doesn’t run. And Vietnam drags on and all hell is breaking loose everywhere, both at home and abroad. Martin Luther King, Jr. is killed that April. There is much unrest in the cities. Robert Kennedy is assassinated in June. The dissension is magnified within the Democratic Party and in the country as turmoil boils over. We get to the Democratic Party convention, and the party is in a civil war. And even though Eugene McCarthy won the delegate count, Hubert Humphrey is declared the nominee for president. And the rioting in Chicago’s streets bring’s out the worst in everybody. Those who have Chicago’s first album, entitled Chicago Transit Authority know there is a whole album side consisting of the sounds from the rioting as Chicago’s law and order folks violently tried to quell the rioting caused by a stolen result.
We know what happened; Richard “Tricky Dick I am not a crook” Nixon wins that fall.
We who are Bernie supporters see some parallels. The Democratic Party has been the Republican Lite party for decades in a race to the center/bottom. Both parties feed from the same trough and get roughly the same money overall over time. Both parties make sure no third party candidates get into the debates. We are trying to get the Democratic Party back to its progressive roots and it is causing a civil war within the party. If Bernie were more aggressive rather than merely speaking truth to power, this could easily get out of hand and split the party in half due to the corporist, tepid, and hierarchical wings of the party.
In 1968, the Republicans were in lockstep and so they won. But this time, they are in turmoil as well so the external playing field is level while internally, each party struggles to stack their decks by maintaining the status quo.
Now is the time for purists to stand up and be counted. Nobody’s closed-door speech is worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. We spend over a trillion dollars a year on offense (I meant defense?) and its never-ending associated costs due to never-ending war, money that could be better spent at home on our citizenry’s needs. We have been largely creating our own enemies since the beginning of our country. We are living unsustainably and destroying everything everywhere as a 21st century colonial power while oblivious of long-term costs. And you want to be a incremental pragmatist?? There is no such solution or position within the realm of reality!
Bernie’s not perfect, and I’m not religious, but if Jesus were to look down at the available candidates who best represent a solution to our ongoing, collective, self-destructive behavior using the New Testament as a guide, Bernie is it. Where the choices are typically among the lesser of evils, he shines with a bright light. And the folks who love Bernie are the same folks that Jesus hung out with. Its not even close. And those millions of powerless sufferers sustain him, and he sustains us. We believe.
Yeah, he may be doomed to failure. And you naysayers may be right. But give us our day, our week, our month, our season before it all ends. Because we saw truth and beauty for a moment when the ominous gathering storm clouds momentarily parted to reveal what is possible, what is good, what is right. And the only reason why we cannot have relative heaven on earth is because too many people don’t believe it is possible and don’t want it.