The anger out there, on both sides is palpable. The right is pissed that the “Liberal media” and Obama’s “hopey changey” ideals have infected the country…and the left is also pissed that Obama didn’t kick ass more and terrified of ANY of the GOP candidates winning The White House. Hence the era of the outsider; Donald Trump & Bernie Sanders. If you were casting opposites in a political drama, you couldn’t go any further on the specrum without lapsing into parody. After last night’s win in New Hampshire for Sanders and Trump, I have to get this off my chest.
Here’s my point. Let’s see if I can state it simply enough. I really don’t have to cite of lot of examples– I can, and will– but you know what I mean if I say;
If Donald Trump is TOO extreme, then so is Bernie Sanders.
Each is a reaction to the other emphasized with anger. So many of my liberal friends who like (and voted for) Barack Obama (both times) were “disappointed in him –more than once. They wanted him to be MORE extreme and go after the party of “No”. But calmer head(s) prevailed and slow and steady has gotten us a LONG way. I don’t have to cite Obama’s record or tell you how cool he’s been under the most extreme pressure.
That’s what we need. Someone who can game the system. The two best politicians of my generation are named Bill Clinton and Barack Obama and a second Clinton is coming up.
I DO get why people love Bernie. I like him too. But we don’t need radical overhaul a this moment. I’m afraid it won’t work. Republicans will slaughter him and and we’ll end up with another Jimmy Carter. A well-meaning, brilliant but ineffective commander-in-chief. We need a continuum, not a fresh start. All of the things that Bernie is after, Hillary is too. People paint them as radically different but as Senators, they voted the same 90% of the time.
Of course, his supporters can’t see this, because polls say Bernie can WIN! But if he gets the nomination, all bets are off. The GOP will start smearing. They want Hillary out of the way. They think they can beat Bernie. Even if he can win, he will not be able to wave a magic wand and recreate the country as a socialist one.
The writer George Hodgman had this to say a few seeks ago,
“I think you could argue that Hillary Clinton is the most successful, powerful, ambitious, informed political woman in American history. I mean, isn’t she? Whatever happens, she will be the one who really made the leap and played it in the big room with the big, mean boys. She has lived inside the political realities of her time, sometimes triumphing over them, sometimes playing the game there was.”
So, again, my point is we DON’T need extremism. The country is already divided. We DO need someone who can work with Congress, be respected on the world stage and make concrete changes. If you went out to design a political animal that was the EXACT opposite of Donald Trump, you really would come up with Bernie Sanders. The other end of the spectrum entirely.
FYI, The White House just unveiled its budget plan, and the Republicans on the Senate Budget Committee won't even LOOK AT IT. Divisiveness with a new POTUS will only get worse, kids..
I won’t go into the reasons why I think Bernie is a dangerous risk as a nominee and POTUS, but one big concern is his age. Elected at 75, he would have a hard time being re-elected pushing 80. (Nice to be optimistic, but if you have grandparents, you see what can happen between 70 and 80, even without the pressures of the entire world on your shoulders.
The GOP is terrified of Hillary Clinton. They have been running a smear campaign for decades now and some of their slamming has stuck. Don’t believe it or don’t care? I’ve seen the Hillary hating VERBATIM, direct from the GOP playbook coming out of the mouths of liberal Democrats.
Think about the big picture. Can we take a chance with this election? With possibly 4 Supreme Court justices retiring in the next 4-8 years, with healthcare and marriage equality, a volatile world, tricky foreign relations, gun violence in the U.S. out of control and even Bernie’s signature issue, income inequality can be addressed by a candidate named Clinton. And don’t forget, you get a twofer with Hillary with Bill as First Dude!
OK. I’m done. But if it all goes horribly wrong, don’t think I won’t say, “I told you so!”
