Andrew Cohen really penned a strong piece claiming that Bernie Sanders doesn’t get how politics works.
I’m not so sure about that.
Cohen’s criticism was that Bernie is something of a one-note samba, and that he responds to everything by railing against big money, the corrupt campaign finance system, and the fact of income inequality. And Cohen, noted, Bernie is 74 years old.
I don’t doubt that a vote for Bernie is largely a “protest” vote. It’s the flip side of the Donald Trump coin. Angry conservatives (and angry racists) are planning to vote for the Donald; angry progressives are planning to vote for Bernie.
Like me.
I don’t think Bernie would be a very effective President. If Barack Obama – who, if nothing else, was an incredibly reasonable politician who began his Presidency by trying hard to reach out across the aisle – can’t get any cooperation from the Republican Congress, what kind of cooperation would Bernie get?
None at all. That’s pretty clear.
But I’m voting for Bernie for two reasons:
- I simply cannot pass up on the opportunity to vote for a Socialist Jew for President;
- Bernie is actually right about much of what he says: we do need to overturn Citizen’s United, we do need to reimpose Glass-Stegall, and we do need to break up the big banks.
Are any of those things going to happen? Probably not. There is a very low probability that any of those three things – never mind all of them – are actually going to happen anytime soon.
Hillary, in the meantime, is proving in debate after debate that she is a competent and credible candidate, the best and most prepared non-incumbent that we’ve ever had. But let’s also be realistic: Hillary is the candidate of the liberal corporatocracy. She would be the steady hand, the continuation of the Obama Presidency, the successor to her husband’s legacy. These are not bad things, especially compared to the alternatives. But it’s also not the radical change that this country could really benefit from.
So, as I’ve said before, I’ll be voting for the socialist Jew in the Massachusetts primary on March 1st, and then for Hillary in the Presidential election on November 8th.
That’s a good plan. If more Americans were thinking along those lines, the change could happen…
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