It’s over for the other mayor in the race. After being treated by the electorate like the interloper he always was into the Democratic primary process, it was very clear that Elizabeth Warren’s murder-suicide mission in the debates was effective. With the single exception of American Samoa who like Mike and Tulsi just fine. the rest of the country found the transparent effort to simply buy the presidency outright to be, to put it gently, unseemly.
But it is important to remember that before that debate, the public seemed pretty ok with the monetizing of a presidency. Bloomberg was rising in the polls quickly. At one point he was in third place in the national polls and even led in Florida. In a following post I will discuss this more thoroughly, but suffice it to say that the gangland slaying of Mike at the debates was decisive, ending the shameless attempt to make a large and shiny purchase. Americans still have billionaire wet dreams, but they were awakened from their rapture with the cold water of misogyny and racism that Bloomberg could simply not parry.
So now what? Mike has stated he will spend a billion dollars to remove Trump from office, and so far he has used only half of that on his journey of self-love. There’s approximately a half billion left. Where will it go? Will he keep the commitment?
He has immediately thrown his “support” behind Biden, no surprise to anyone at all. When the Bernie camp was asked about the remaining slush fund available to Democrats from the defeated billionaire they said they would reject it if it was offered.
I have seen no such rejection from Biden. Quite the opposite. Joe and Mike spoke on the phone on Wednesday, and Biden followed the call with an announcement that this election was beyond candidates or politics, but about beating Donald Trump.
He will take the money.
Biden’s characterization is accurate as far as it goes. If Biden is the candidate, the entire show is about beating Donald Trump, and I will support that effort. But Sanders is about more than that. It is about arresting a 40 year trend toward oligarchy in American politics that is incontrovertible. It is a vision of transformation and rebirth, a reinvention of the American Dream that is inclusive and embracing. It is a world view that acknowledges global imperatives, that America First is a death sentence and a racist and nationalistic disguise and disgrace.
I see the world the same way as Bernie. If he loses, and my odds make that the safer bet right now, the general election is simply about beating Donald Trump. It isn”t about a cleansing of the DNC, it isn’t about ending the corruption in the parties. Neither will happen by reelecting Trump any more than it will happen by electing Biden. It’s a bold statement with no subsequent change. The purists will have their bona fides and the country will descend further and more quickly into oligarchy and fascism. Biden won’t reverse the process, but it will undoubtedly be slowed, if slightly.