Pick a Card…

I voted for Bernie. If you have been following this for awhile, I thoroughly discussed the drubbing he took from South Carolina on, and I gave Joe credit for it. I thought it was a political masterstroke, and it worked. In other words, we got beat, and Bernie acknowledged it today. He didn’t quit, he suspended his candidacy, and he made no bones about why in what might be considered one of his greatest speeches. He will pursue as much influence as he can earn, not releasing delegates until the convention. He made no attempt to hide it, while conceding he had lost the battle. He proceeded to put forth a concise manifesto, the whys behind it and why he was fighting for it, and why he couldn’t continue. It was a monumental long shot that he could turn around a 300+ deficit in delegates, and in the current climate of shelter in place, the whole thing seemed kind of unseamly.

A friend texted me today. He thought Bernie should have come out Monday so people would not feel as much of a need to go to the polls if it was already a done deal. It was an interesting point, and a fair question, but Bernie had a shot of this turning around. Some internet rumbling was getting louder about health care and the safety net and in this kind of a crisis, maybe Bernie was right all along, and that sort of thing. I know to a certainty that Sanders’ campaign was feeling this undercurrent if I was. He had to go forward, it might be the big reversal.

Maybe it was. We don’t have the data yet, maybe it’s a Bernie tsunami and like Dallas was for Biden, the virus would be the turnaround for Bernie. But Senator Sanders didn’t wait for that. He suspended before the results, because the optics of yesterday’s election were so deplorable, so condemning on so many levels, he just couldn’t go on. It all just felt dirty suddenly, being part of it a stain. Election officials in full protective garb appearing on TV saying it was perfectly safe to come vote, the Supreme Court coming to the decision that the vote could go forward, and no late voting because, why? What excuse could you possibly have for not being timely about coming to the voting booth with all your neighbors and pulling the lever of freedom!

The justices voted by phone to tell the people of Wisconsin that they couldn’t vote by mail.

Trump has been in full support of the mail vote ban. Curiously he brought it up in one of his game show host appearances prior to the SCOTUS vote. Terrible. Lots of cheating. People are having parties to stuff ballots. Terrible. Save the country! Either risk your life or don’t vote. Totally up to you. Freedom!!!

Bernie watched all of that unfold and said ‘no mas’. Time to go back to the job that is at hand for all of us. Politics just seems,…tacky. Be a legislator, be tough in the Senate, be a moral counterpoint. Overstated? Probably, but he’s a decent guy, and that is extraordinary praise for a man of government. Nearly super-human by today’s standards. He is a consistent voice for a long adult life, for better or worse. He was committed for a lifetime to what he believed in, with few stumbles. A man worthy of respect..

His removing himself from the fray is more evidence of the same. I guess it could be a political ploy, that he does have a resurgence in Wisconsin and his selflessness projects him to a massive flip in the electoral narrative.

Yeah, but I doubt it.

More likely is he becomes a moral touchstone for the party, a gateway that has to be considered when going forward. Not the ultimate arbiter regarding policy, which he has abdicated, but a voice that will be heard.

This is big, because it is the impetus, the lever, that moves things a little bit our way, if you are of the progressive persuasion. I’ve been around a long time now, and things move incrementally. You can hate it, but I haven’t seen anyone change it. Even as I grew up in the 60s and 70s a revolution was at hand, the country was to be reinvented. But when it was settled, that is not what happened. Overwhelmingly things went back to the way they were, and then got exponentially worse. Power was consolidated and that is never good, and it hasn’t been. Money became government, and people included corporations.

I voted for Bernie because I would love a revolution, a new paradigm. I guess I never thought it would happen. Where’s the precedent? I can show dozens of examples of rowboats being dashed on rocks, a rocky promontory protecting the levers of state.

So you see, I have a side. It’s not that. I just don’t think I win. Righteousness begets suffering. I have chapter and verse on this. Being right isn’t a passcode to change. It is merely a burden, a cross to bear if you will. Being able to see the possibilities, and failing the power to effect the change. The revolution was never coming. If Bernie became POTUS he wouldn’t have gotten his agenda passed.

It would move us a little in the right direction.

That’s what matters now. Whatever influence he has to push the party to support the least of us is welcomed. I embrace it.

And I support Joe Biden.

Despite this not being my first choice, in a two man race it will simply be the easiest vote of my lifetime.

There is no moral equivalency here. Our party can consider a Bernie Sanders as a candidate, and whoever is the Democratic candidate will have to acknowledge his influence. That’s how the levers slowly move. This wasn’t the year for revolution. The country’s already on revolutionary footing. Too much at once. But he has made an impact on the landscape, expanded what is possible, and there will be steps. It will move.

In that movement, if we can elect Joe Biden, we do move in the right direction from where we are right now.

Either Trump or Biden will be President of the United States.

Any preference?