There is a lot of gloom and doom finger painting by the detractors of Bernie Sanders. They say that they want what he's talking about but that it can't be done. That it's all pie in the sky and that it has zero chance with the current composition of Congress. I also see that posts of this kind are becoming more urgent with greater frequency now that they see him pulling ahead in the polling in the first primary state of New Hampshire, and the lead is significant if not overwhelming.
I see now that some Sanders detractors are starting to trot out the prospect of a government shutdown. Let them. They assume that the composition of Congress will be the same. If Sanders captures even some of the Republican vote again as he has done before, and I know that he will, then those same detractors need to also consider that the composition of Congress is also likely to change.
See, for decades the Republicans have been laying the groundwork for taking control of both houses by gerrymandering the districts and changing the rules to discourage voter turnout. They know that when people stay home Republican prospects improve, and that's a fact. We are witness to one presidential election where Obama took the popular vote yet Republicans still managed to maintain a hold on Congress. The hold is much tighter in the House than in the Senate. That's because you can't gerrymander Senate districts.
Voter turnout for the past 40 years has been in a long, slow decline where it reached a nadir (hopefully) in 2012. The Republican leadership must by now know that there is a strong correlation between voter turnout and inequality. They know that a disenfranchised voter doesn't believe that his vote will count and they are counting on that feeling to persist. They are hoping that we'd rather go shopping than voting.
Bernie could change all of that. The internet is hot with Bernie. Anywhere you look, from social media to the internet news, you're going to see Bernie. But if you watch the network evening news, it's nothing but Trump, Hilary and drug commercials. Bernie will draw supporters to the polls like Obama did in 2008, only better. Much better. Bernie could open the door for more authentic candidates who aren't groomed by experts to win. They just have a vision and they run for office. Isn't that what we want?
This is our time. You can argue all you want about whether or not there will be a shutdown, but there will still be a Democrat in the White House. Republicans are going to have to explain their support for their positions when there is a president far more willing to use the bully pulpit to expose them for what they're doing. He is willing to expose the Conservative Nanny State.
Bernie Sanders is not a man who will bring the government to a crawl or allow a government shutdown. He is known as the Amendment King in Congress and that says a lot. He knows how to attach amendments to bills and get them passed better than any other candidate out there. He has decades of legislative experience that can translate to wins in Congress. Did I say there would still be a Democrat in Congress? I did. Bernie uses his status as an independent to get things done, but he caucuses with Democrats.
Sure, other candidates could hire the kind of experience that Bernie has, but if the consultant is wrong, that candidate as president would not know it until it's too late. Bernie has experience that no other presidential candidate has, and that includes Hilary who whipped out her "experience" every chance she got at the last debate.
I don't believe the gloom and doom that detractors are trying to sow in public discourse. Bernie is the real deal. He's not in it for the money, he's in it to lead a peaceful revolution to restore democracy back into the hands of the people. And that includes the right of nomination. Remember, he's won 14 elections without corporate or SuperPAC money. That is how he knows he has the support of the people. No other elected official at the national level can say that. Bernie is showing us that we can elect who we want without a money primary.
With a playing field so tilted in favor of the Republicans, and SuperPACs to support them, they can remain aloof from their constituency and become complacent. They may not even really know what is going on in their own districts simply because they believe that their seat is safe.
Detractors tell us that we're "BernieBots" and that we're just following Bernie because we agree with what he is saying without even considering whether it was even possible. I use the term "we" because I'm a supporter and I am most definitely not a "BernieBot". Like many other voters who use social media and the internet to do our research, I just happen to prefer Bernie over Hilary based on the evidence before me. If you call us "BernieBots" you are objectifying us to minimize and stigmatize our influence. Do we do that to Hilary supporters? No, we don't. Do your own thing, we don't care. We support Bernie and that's it.
No one who ever amounted to any success, not Steve Jobs, not Martin Luther King, Jr., not John F. Kennedy, and certainly not Bernie Sanders, ever stopped to consider whether or not their vision is possible in the practical sense of the term. They had a vision and they pursued it with all of the energy that they had. They were not deterred by detractors. Instead, they found motivation from them to prove them wrong.
I doubt that there will be a government shutdown as some detractors suggest. But I'm pretty sure there will be a very public debate on amendments to any budget bill in Congress with Bernie in the White House.
Do you really think that people who vote for Bernie Sanders are going to vote to keep the same people in Congress? I don't.
No comments:
Post a Comment