Op-Ed
Bernie Needs to Bow Out -- NOW!
Bernie Sanders: The Presumptive Bully
Theodore Roosevelt referred to the presidency as “the bully pulpit.” Bernie Sanders is using his failed nomination attempt as a pulpit from which to bully. Mr. Sanders, so lately come to the Democratic Party, is presuming to dictate terms to the primary winner who beat him by 3.7+ MILLION votes! Those are big cojones on Mr. Sanders. His “political revolution” now seems more like a Trumpian temper tantrum at not getting his way, and his denial of the inevitable (Hillary’s nomination in Philadelphia and the campaign slog against Trump through November) displays his true colors. Never a Democrat, Mr. Sanders joined the party as a political expedient, sensing the nation’s disgust with “the Establishment” and riding a wave of nascent populism (like Trump) to garner about the same amount of votes as the narcissistic “billionaire”(who got 13.3 million votes). That he somehow believes this entitles him to dictate the platform for the party (of which he is barely a member!) is the height of arrogance and as narcissistic as the presumptive Republican candidate.
That millions of naïve Millennials are still caught up in a wave of “feeling the Bern"
Mr. Sanders’s declaration that he will do everything to defeat Donald Trump in November rings more than hollow when observing his actions. He is clearly living some delusional Don Quixote fantasy, convinced his Sancho Panzas will actually wrest the party from the clutches of those who have belittled him for oh, so many years. Honestly, even though he caucused with the Democrats, didn’t everyone see Bernie as that eccentric socialist from Vermont? That cranky old curmudgeon who could be counted on to support liberal causes but never initiate effective legislation or do more than vote against the Iraq War (and why didn’t he run in 2004 and 2008 when that war was still a spotlight issue?).
Bernie doesn’t seem to understand that the clock struck twelve and he didn’t get the Glass Slipper. His campaign is over, he says he will vote for Hillary and do anything to stop Trump BUT persists in insisting he is still a candidate and will remain so through the Democratic Convention, July 25-28. Unlike Elizabeth Warren and Cory Booker and Sherrod Brown and a host of other Senate and Congressional leaders already campaigning for Clinton, Bernie’s ego will not allow him to give up on his “political revolution” fantasy. “The Roar of the Greasepaint” has overtaken his common sense and, as much as Trump loves his rallies, so, too, does Sanders.
The major news networks, the internet, the print media, have relegated him to sidebars or simply stopped covering him. TAKE THE HINT, BERNIE. "Feel the loss." No one likes a sore loser and Sanders, more and more, seems to be exactly that. A month out from the Democratic Convention he could, as Hillary Clinton did in 2008, be guaranteeing that his supporters rally behind the Democrats up and down the ticket to genuinely take America back (to steal a line from Trump and the Republicans), to counteract the insidious redistricting and gerrymandering and voter suppression that has truly quelled the voice of the (diverse) American people. But Bernie, like a child, is stomping his feet and insisting that the system is rigged and must be fixed --- even though he, quite simply, LOST --- popular vote, number of states, delegates, superdelegates. How many more ways can you be defeated?
If Bernie were sincere in his vow to “to make certain that Donald Trump is defeated and defeated badly,” he would endorse Clinton and begin a “victory lap” among his supporters, urging them to get out the vote in November, turn the villains out of office, insure a Senate a majority (and a liberal Supreme Court), and begin moving the country in a progressive direction once the election is won.
But Bernie just can’t seem to let the spotlight go. While claiming it’s all about getting a progressive party platform, he seems to forget that he is barely a member of the party. He was NOT a delegate to the Democratic Convention in 2012 or 2008 or 2004 --- need we go back further? Why should someone who is essentially an interloper (and who LOST the primary battle) have exceptional power at the Convention? Sanders is undermining the Democratic Party and the war on Trump through his selfish, egotistical, self-serving actions. He may claim it’s for ideological reasons but it’s looking more and more like he wants to at least be a footnote in some yet-to-be-written history book rather than die in the obscurity of being that irascible, unkempt and cranky old socialist from Vermont.
It’s time for Bernie to smell the coffee and do the right thing.
Theodore Roosevelt referred to the presidency as “the bully pulpit.” Bernie Sanders is using his failed nomination attempt as a pulpit from which to bully. Mr. Sanders, so lately come to the Democratic Party, is presuming to dictate terms to the primary winner who beat him by 3.7+ MILLION votes! Those are big cojones on Mr. Sanders. His “political revolution” now seems more like a Trumpian temper tantrum at not getting his way, and his denial of the inevitable (Hillary’s nomination in Philadelphia and the campaign slog against Trump through November) displays his true colors. Never a Democrat, Mr. Sanders joined the party as a political expedient, sensing the nation’s disgust with “the Establishment” and riding a wave of nascent populism (like Trump) to garner about the same amount of votes as the narcissistic “billionaire”(who got 13.3 million votes). That he somehow believes this entitles him to dictate the platform for the party (of which he is barely a member!) is the height of arrogance and as narcissistic as the presumptive Republican candidate.
That millions of naïve Millennials are still caught up in a wave of “feeling the Bern"
Mr. Sanders’s declaration that he will do everything to defeat Donald Trump in November rings more than hollow when observing his actions. He is clearly living some delusional Don Quixote fantasy, convinced his Sancho Panzas will actually wrest the party from the clutches of those who have belittled him for oh, so many years. Honestly, even though he caucused with the Democrats, didn’t everyone see Bernie as that eccentric socialist from Vermont? That cranky old curmudgeon who could be counted on to support liberal causes but never initiate effective legislation or do more than vote against the Iraq War (and why didn’t he run in 2004 and 2008 when that war was still a spotlight issue?).
Bernie doesn’t seem to understand that the clock struck twelve and he didn’t get the Glass Slipper. His campaign is over, he says he will vote for Hillary and do anything to stop Trump BUT persists in insisting he is still a candidate and will remain so through the Democratic Convention, July 25-28. Unlike Elizabeth Warren and Cory Booker and Sherrod Brown and a host of other Senate and Congressional leaders already campaigning for Clinton, Bernie’s ego will not allow him to give up on his “political revolution” fantasy. “The Roar of the Greasepaint” has overtaken his common sense and, as much as Trump loves his rallies, so, too, does Sanders.
The major news networks, the internet, the print media, have relegated him to sidebars or simply stopped covering him. TAKE THE HINT, BERNIE. "Feel the loss." No one likes a sore loser and Sanders, more and more, seems to be exactly that. A month out from the Democratic Convention he could, as Hillary Clinton did in 2008, be guaranteeing that his supporters rally behind the Democrats up and down the ticket to genuinely take America back (to steal a line from Trump and the Republicans), to counteract the insidious redistricting and gerrymandering and voter suppression that has truly quelled the voice of the (diverse) American people. But Bernie, like a child, is stomping his feet and insisting that the system is rigged and must be fixed --- even though he, quite simply, LOST --- popular vote, number of states, delegates, superdelegates. How many more ways can you be defeated?
If Bernie were sincere in his vow to “to make certain that Donald Trump is defeated and defeated badly,” he would endorse Clinton and begin a “victory lap” among his supporters, urging them to get out the vote in November, turn the villains out of office, insure a Senate a majority (and a liberal Supreme Court), and begin moving the country in a progressive direction once the election is won.
But Bernie just can’t seem to let the spotlight go. While claiming it’s all about getting a progressive party platform, he seems to forget that he is barely a member of the party. He was NOT a delegate to the Democratic Convention in 2012 or 2008 or 2004 --- need we go back further? Why should someone who is essentially an interloper (and who LOST the primary battle) have exceptional power at the Convention? Sanders is undermining the Democratic Party and the war on Trump through his selfish, egotistical, self-serving actions. He may claim it’s for ideological reasons but it’s looking more and more like he wants to at least be a footnote in some yet-to-be-written history book rather than die in the obscurity of being that irascible, unkempt and cranky old socialist from Vermont.
It’s time for Bernie to smell the coffee and do the right thing.
What’s Wrong With This Picture?
John Kasich was saying he wanted to make sure his kids would live up to the great American legacy of having a better life than their parents. When I commented to my wife that I thought that was not a distinct “American” goal, she said she believed in many European societies parents merely hoped their children would have it “just as good” as they, the parents, had it. Upon reflection, that may well be true but here’s where my cockeyed world view finds the American adage distressful.
If, in fact, Europeans hope their children will (only) have it “as good” as they have had it, I think it may be because the way those European parents “had it” included free health care, free university, and all the other benefits that American parents have to pay for. European parents may simply hope that their children have a life free from the ravages of war (or terrorism?), a life with basic liberal human rights, and life in a world that is not viciously competitive and materialistic; one that is satisfied spiritually as well as being communally satisfying.
As I listened to a couple of retired parents (who had been educators) confess to feeling guilty that they had not been able to give their children more as they grew up (because education, as we know, does not pay very well) I felt sad. These people have wonderful children who, to my eye, have grown into fabulous adults: intelligent, caring, productive individuals who do not at all seemed scarred from “neglect” of any kind. Yet that American legacy, about how children must do “better” than their parents has to be seen for what it’s really about: being monetarily better off. The children should live in a bigger, better house, own a better automobile, send their own children to better schools, etc. Unlike our European counterparts, whose children are not burdened with hideous loans (thank you, Capitalism), escalating housing costs (thank you, real estate Industry), soaring health expenses (despite Obamacare, thank you, Big Pharma and Health Insurers), American parents seem, to me, to be doomed to feeling as though they can’t (unless they are in the 1%) leave their children “better off.”
This seems a sad commentary on how deeply ingrained material values are in our society. I know my retired education colleagues believe they did a good or great job raising their children but that they feel guilty about not providing “enough” along the way ignores that their children seem to be doing just fine. The tragedy, really, is that if you choose to be an educator or any public servant in the United States, you are not valued. Better to be a money manipulator and make millions than sacrifice your life for others, working for the good of the community as a teacher, policeperson, fire fighter, social worker, sanitation employee, etc. And now, in a most perverse turn, we have politicians who want to take away the only real “perk” those workers have: their benefits! This is all a piece of the same capitalist pie which makes materialism the great American religion and makes public servants secular clergy, making sacrifices to their personal lives and their families, doing what the rich and ruling class won’t dirty their hands doing --- things that the society will not reward materially because manipulating money is, somehow, far more important than working for the good of the community. The final, great irony, of course, is that those who promote this grotesque capitalist materialism claim to be over-the-top Christians. Really? How is that brother’s keeper thing working out? It seems they missed that story about the moneychangers being driven out of the Temple. It is very sad that only those who are most selfish will have children who will live better than their parents and those who have dedicated their lives to others are left to wring their hands over not doing more for their children. There’s something very wrong with that picture.
670 Words
Bil Johnson
March 31, 2016
John Kasich was saying he wanted to make sure his kids would live up to the great American legacy of having a better life than their parents. When I commented to my wife that I thought that was not a distinct “American” goal, she said she believed in many European societies parents merely hoped their children would have it “just as good” as they, the parents, had it. Upon reflection, that may well be true but here’s where my cockeyed world view finds the American adage distressful.
If, in fact, Europeans hope their children will (only) have it “as good” as they have had it, I think it may be because the way those European parents “had it” included free health care, free university, and all the other benefits that American parents have to pay for. European parents may simply hope that their children have a life free from the ravages of war (or terrorism?), a life with basic liberal human rights, and life in a world that is not viciously competitive and materialistic; one that is satisfied spiritually as well as being communally satisfying.
As I listened to a couple of retired parents (who had been educators) confess to feeling guilty that they had not been able to give their children more as they grew up (because education, as we know, does not pay very well) I felt sad. These people have wonderful children who, to my eye, have grown into fabulous adults: intelligent, caring, productive individuals who do not at all seemed scarred from “neglect” of any kind. Yet that American legacy, about how children must do “better” than their parents has to be seen for what it’s really about: being monetarily better off. The children should live in a bigger, better house, own a better automobile, send their own children to better schools, etc. Unlike our European counterparts, whose children are not burdened with hideous loans (thank you, Capitalism), escalating housing costs (thank you, real estate Industry), soaring health expenses (despite Obamacare, thank you, Big Pharma and Health Insurers), American parents seem, to me, to be doomed to feeling as though they can’t (unless they are in the 1%) leave their children “better off.”
This seems a sad commentary on how deeply ingrained material values are in our society. I know my retired education colleagues believe they did a good or great job raising their children but that they feel guilty about not providing “enough” along the way ignores that their children seem to be doing just fine. The tragedy, really, is that if you choose to be an educator or any public servant in the United States, you are not valued. Better to be a money manipulator and make millions than sacrifice your life for others, working for the good of the community as a teacher, policeperson, fire fighter, social worker, sanitation employee, etc. And now, in a most perverse turn, we have politicians who want to take away the only real “perk” those workers have: their benefits! This is all a piece of the same capitalist pie which makes materialism the great American religion and makes public servants secular clergy, making sacrifices to their personal lives and their families, doing what the rich and ruling class won’t dirty their hands doing --- things that the society will not reward materially because manipulating money is, somehow, far more important than working for the good of the community. The final, great irony, of course, is that those who promote this grotesque capitalist materialism claim to be over-the-top Christians. Really? How is that brother’s keeper thing working out? It seems they missed that story about the moneychangers being driven out of the Temple. It is very sad that only those who are most selfish will have children who will live better than their parents and those who have dedicated their lives to others are left to wring their hands over not doing more for their children. There’s something very wrong with that picture.
670 Words
Bil Johnson
March 31, 2016