I agree completely with everything Bernie says and I love him for saying it. The country is rapidly becoming a plutocracy. “One man, one vote” is being replaced by “One dollar, one vote”. The 1% and more particularly the .1%, have invested heavily in the Federal Government, and they have reaped huge returns in the form of tax breaks and loopholes, pork barrel spending, and cushy treatment by government regulators. US corporations have exported their jobs and their profits, thereby enriching their shareholders and executives and completely screwing the middle class. Of course we should have Medicare for all, and student loans should at the very least be re-financeable, if not forgiven entirely.
So, why am I voting for Hillary? The short answer is that I vote with my head, not my heart. The last time I voted with my heart was for George McGovern in 1972, and for those of you too young to remember how well that worked out, Nixon won in a huge landslide, carrying 49 of 50 states. Then there were all those Floridians who voted with their hearts for Nader in 2000. More of us no doubt remember how well that worked out. Bernie definitely talks the talk, but sadly, there’s almost no evidence that he can walk the walk, or for that matter, that he even knows how.
Let’s look at a few examples. Bernie wants to reduce the medicare eligibility age to 18. Overnight, apparently, to listen to him talk. And how will this magic happen? Because he is leading a revolution, to hear him tell it, and the revolution will do it. Really? It takes 218 votes in the House of Representatives to pass a bill, and 60 in the Senate. And where are all those revolutionary candidates for the House and Senate who are going to vote for Medicare for all? Sadly, there are a tiny handful at best.
And even if all those revolutionaries were to magically appear, we need to remember that according to IBIS World (which bills itself “as the largest provider of industry information in the world”), the medical insurance industry employs over 585,000 people and has a gross revenue of nearly $700 billion. Shutting down this industry overnight would create economic havoc on an enormous scale.
But leaving aside all the pie in the sky, I believe that the critical issue in this election is the Supreme Court. The Republican Roberts court has done more to destroy democracy in America than any court in history. Over the next four years, the next president will certainly have one appointment, and probably two or three. And that will determine the direction of the court for years to come. Are we going to have a further erosion of voting rights? More power in the hands of the plutocrats? More sabotage of our environmental laws and regulations? Or are we going to repeal Citizens United, throw out all the outrageous voter suppression laws recently passed by Republican state legislatures, and rein in the fossil fuel industry?
If he were nominated, could Bernie actually win the general election? I don’t believe for a moment any current poll that shows him beating either Trump or Cruz. The Republicans haven’t started attacking him yet, and for good reason. They would love nothing better than to run against him in the fall. How many middle Americans are going to vote for a 74 year-old Jewish newyorker who calls himself a socialist and says he wants to raise their taxes? Think about it.