Why I am All in for Sanders
The word authentic gets thrown around a lot as a type of short hand for what ever it is about Bernie Sanders that so many Americans find appealing. And to be fair it may scratch the surface of a phenomena that denizens of the status quo find so difficult to grasp; Americans in massive numbers are responding very favorably to the message of a 74 year old, previously little known gruff Senator from the small state of Vermont – who call himself a Democratic Socialist. All else being equal, most folks prefer real to fake in just about everything, and there simply is nothing fake about Bernie Sanders. No one wonders what they will actually find if you manage to scratch his veneer. There is no veneer to scratch, there is just Bernie Sanders. What you see is what you get. So yes the word authentic fits Bernie Sanders well. It resonates like the truth.
The fact that there's a public yearning for authenticity from politicians says a lot about politics in America today, with none of it positive. It is a damning indictment of politics as usual when people fully expect to hear candidates voice mostly empty platitudes identified through focus group testing as likely to appeal to “voters like them”. For politicians who spend a lifetime perfecting the art of polish, who gravitate like moths to fire to power player circles while accumulating an inventory of refined social trappings, there must be something intrinsically unnerving about watching a man like Bernie Sanders, who has never owned a tuxedo in his life, ascending toward the pinnacle of American Power, the presidency itself.
Authenticity matters, but it seldom seals the deal. Bernie is more than just authentic, he passionately stands for something tangible, social and economic justice, and has for all his life. Donald Trump said recently that the reason he obsessively talks about polls is because they say he's winning - if they didn't he wouldn't mention them. That type talk rings true to folks, it too comes across as authentic. So does Trump's admission that he doles out bucks across the political spectrum to curry favors when he wants them. Given a choice between someone who can openly admit to a self serving motif and someone who seems somehow swarmy while trying to con you, most people prefer an “honest” rascal to a deceitful one. But when it comes to electing a leader, what people really want is someone willing to stand up and fight effectively for them.
Unless they are fully embedded on the shrinking side of the divide and conquer culture wars that the American oligarchy ferments to recruit shock troops to work their will; unless they literally belong to that oligarchy or are economically closely dependent on it, Americans understand intuitively that Bernie Sanders stands ready to fight hard for us, that vast majority of us who aren't a part of the one percent. We can see past the clutter of political labels directly to his substance. People recognize a good man and political ally when they see one, and we know Bernie is someone willing to tirelessly go the distance for us. So the last real question then is, can he fight effectively for us? More effectively for our interests than, for instance, Hillary Clinton?
Some say not, his message is too radical. Some say that Bernie Sanders is outside of the mainstream of American politics, but I think that's true of most Americans. It's not so much that we travel in tributaries left or right of center, it's more like we are all up a creek without a paddle, or even worse, stranded high and dry and simply left behind. At some point it starts to sink in that a lesser evil choice, viewed in the broadest sense, still enables evil. 1968 was the last year when at least 60% of Americans of voting age cast ballots in a Presidential election. In 2012 that number was below 55%.
Now though, in some part due to Bernie Sanders - to his strong words and his clear vision, Americans are getting the big picture, and responding. They see corporate mergers and consolidation, factories moving overseas and the loss of good paying jobs. They see the pay of CEO's skyrocket while the wages of typical workers shrink and worker productivity rises. They see climate change they know is real downplayed as a security threat. And they see virtually all of the fruits from a hard fought taxpayer subsidized economic recovery funneled into the hands of a small group of mega wealthy individuals who in many cases were responsible for our economic collapse in the first place. All of that is the result of business as usual, politics as usual, business and politics as usual – the two terms became and are now interchangeable. That is the status quo that Bernie Sanders, not Hillary Clinton, runs so fiercely against. His is a clarion call to action. Hers is steady as you go.
Time is not our friend, we fast are running out of it. Democrats have long pursued incremental changes and those results are already in. It's led to a slow motion catastrophic erosion of the foundation that the Democratic Party once proudly stood on. For most of the last 30 years the Democratic Party has been playing a prevent defense, like a boxer bending over backwards to to avoid being tagged by a powerful right hook – in this case the socialist label. Ever since Ronald Reagan won elections by declaring government the problem Democrats have countered with an asterisk, quietly demurring that actually sometimes it isn't. Republicans so thoroughly succeeded in moving our political landscape to the right that it no longer took an accusation of harboring communist sympathies to make a Democratic politician quiver, simply being called a liberal was enough to make them sweat.
In recent years more Democratic leaders have become both loud and proud in regards to social issues, issues that Bernie Sanders has fought for all his life. Social issues don't directly challenge the economic elite. Democratic Socialism, or whatever else you choose to call it, however does. When FDR became president he called his political vision for America “The New Deal”. LBJ later called his “The Great Society”. But gone were the days, until now, when Democrats seeking the presidency spoke with clarity and urgency about economic justice, about confronting and overturning the prevailing status quo. Their ability to do so has sharply been curtailed by an economic order that makes the very practice of politics itself dependent on the largess of a donor class, with typical Americans rarely represented by them. None of this is breaking news. It's a deteriorating situation we have lived with a long while. It's the preset course we've been sailing on for years but only Bernie Sanders, among those who seek our nation's highest office, is prepared to rock the boat.
Looking back now it's easy to overlook that when Barack Obama first ran for the presidency he pointedly did not do so as a progressive. Though positioned to the left of John McCain, it would have been difficult for any national Democrat to flunk that ideological test. Barack Obama was the man who once saluted purple state America, who sought to blur our ideological distinctions rather than campaign directly on them. Given my choices I had no problem supporting Obama/Biden over McCain/Palin. But I wasn't surprised either when President Obama later singled an openness to “Third Way” thinking during deficit reduction negotiations with Republicans.
In the face of the greatest economic crisis the world has faced since the Great Depression Obama exhibited far greater common sense than his opposition. He fought for bailing out the Auto Industry along with bailing out Wall Street. He fought for extending unemployment benefits along with extending Bush tax cuts. But there was no sweeping “New Deal” agenda in response to the Great Recession. Clearly our economy needed an economic infusion and President Obama responded with a large stimulus package. Seeking bi-partisan support, the one he ultimately backed included roughly equal parts new spending and tax cuts, though most leading economists agreed that money directly spent on job creation gave a far more potent stimulus effect on the overall economy than broad tax breaks.
In response to a long festering crisis, to his credit Obama tackled the health care issue during his first term, passing landmark legislation in the Affordable Care Act . It was openly modeled on the pro private insurance approach pioneered in Massachusetts by then Republican Governor Mitt Romney, which itself was built on concepts backed by Republican Senate leader Bob Dole in opposition to a plan being advocated for by then First Lady Hillary Clinton. Millions of Americans gained new coverage under Obamacare, millions more remain uncovered. After paying for premiums, high deductibles and co-pays, further millions can't afford to use the coverage that they have.
All that occurred during our most recent Democratic Presidency. The one before that deregulated Wall Street, instituted strict welfare reforms, and pushed for mandatory sentencing. By now the pattern should be clear to Democrats. After ceding the Republicans a permanent home field advantage, whenever contemporary (previously called “new”) Democrats get to reoccupy the White House they work for incremental advances over the preceding Republican benchmark. Whenever Republicans retake the presidency we suffer massive setbacks. Even putting aside the Tea Party for a moment, one can simply compare official Republican and Democratic party agendas for America and that dynamic becomes obvious. Republicans representing the billionaire class are seldom timid about going for the throat. One step forward, five steps back is not a winning formula for positive social change, but that is the dance that the band keeps playing. Incrementalisn won't deliver us from this crisis, it's just a slow set up for an inevitable crash.
One sixth of all Americans living in poverty, the greatest disparity in incomes since the eve of the Great Depression, I like so many others felt impotent as an individual to alter the course our nation is on. The insiders are all in on it. The outsiders have no seats at the table nor the means to have their voices heard. At best we get offered crumbs by the wealthy; a job retraining program here, lower interest student loans there, a bump up in earned income credits or penalty free IRA withdrawals. And then the wheel will spin again until Republicans manage to get their hands on all the levers for one year, and there goes Social Security and the arctic wilderness, and that is just for starts.
We've all seen this movie and we don't like how it ends, but nothing will change if we don't throw out the current script and fundamentally rewrite it. None of us can do that alone, not even a feisty old Democratic Socialist like Bernie Sanders. But if enough of us rally around him, support him and defend him; working together with him we can get this done – if we possess the courage of our convictions. I look to the past and I see a time when African Americans were slaves – and huge wealth depended on them remaining so. I look to the past again and see a time when women didn't have the right to vote, when governments run by men could legally exclude women from that “privilege”. I look to the past, but that past has changed.
When I look to the future I see younger generations of Americans taking over the reigns of leadership at every level of our society. I am sixty six years old but I can look at them and recognize their fight for a future that they will inhabit for better or for worse. And I know we can not morally impede their finest aspirations, nor assume that what seems impossible today will not be possible soon, in the America that they will inherit and guide forward. Who are we to tell them what can't be done? I see them supporting Bernie Sanders for President this year. I think they understand where our nation needs to head toward a more just and secure future, and how we must work to get there, if only the rest of us will just join with them and not stand in their way.
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And I know we can not morally impede their finest aspirations, nor assume that what seems impossible today will not be possible soon, in the America that they will inherit and guide forward.
to young people and future generations. Yuge thank you Tom. 
