Thoughts on Super Tuesday Eve

The Real Issue Is Bernie

            I’m not so pleased about Bernie Sanders’ prospects in today’s Super Tuesday primaries. But the talk is that he’s looking to other states down the road where his chances are better, and Hillary’s current roll is not necessarily the final count. There still is hope.

           Bernie, meanwhile, came out with an unusual statement Monday about Trump, who is getting into more and more trouble with the Republican Party even as he’s leading in the Republican primary polls. Most recently he hedged on denouncing David Duke and the Klan. Mainstream Republicans are numb with impotence. They don’t know how to handle a front-runner who’s taking the party away from them and toward a nationalistic fever which is fascist, pure and simple. We’ve got a big-time capitalist billionaire luring the nationalistic vote with the promise to make America great again. He lost it Monday, in my opinion, when he choked in rage at some Black Lives Matter protesters who interrupted him at a town hall meeting. It was a disturbing scene, focused on Trump, all but red-faced as he ordered his bouncers to throw the protesters out of the hall, which they did.

            So it’s getting ugly among Republicans. But on the Democratic side, on Monday we had Bernie rejecting Trump utterly, saying Hate can never replace Love in the United States of America, or something close to that. It was, as my wife Jala said, an unusual statement from a politician of any party, and another reason why I remain stalwart in my support for Bernie, though I certainly will vote for Hillary in the general election, if it comes to that.

            The thing is, I worry that Hillary won’t be able to defeat Trump because Trump will galvanize all those who have never liked her. Are they numerous enough to offset the anti-Trump vote? I don’t know. No one knows. Everyone counts differently to their own advantage. I want to believe Bernie can win. I’ll settle for Hillary but have lower expectations, particularly in matters of war and peace and, I suppose, social wellness, which includes climate, health care for all, reining in polluters, taxing Wall Street transactions, expanding free, public education, etc.

            But who knows? Maybe she’d be a great President, maybe it’s her destiny. But that makes me feel bad for Bernie because I think he’s got the better platform—one that I’d like to see implemented. I’d like to see more opportunities open up and people get more relaxed about life, knowing that there’s a brighter future ahead for all of us, not just the few who beat their way to the top or are born into it.

            We live in times that have ceased to be just interesting. Increasingly they are terrible. Now one of America’s two major political parties is on track to nominate an imperial fascist dictator for President of the USA. The fear on one side is that he’ll destroy the Republican Party, but if they nominate him aren’t they the Republican Party?

             There’s also talk of someone jumping in. Bloomberg was mentioned but lately Mitt Romney’s emerged from the old guard, putting himself forward with anti-Trump tweets. Meanwhile, Rubio is pushing hard to be the Reagan Republican alternative to Trump, while Cruz keeps a toe hold of his own on ambition with his appeal to the Christian fundamentalists. Kasich hangs on as the reasonable traditional small-town Republican Rotarian who just wants people to calm down and listen to his voice of reason, which is pretty damn narrow once you get past the soothing tones and listen to what he’s saying. (Still, as governor of Ohio he took Medicaid expansion. He may be the best of the sorry lot.)

            Carson deserves mention as the Negro face of Republican success, but, despite his avowed determination to remain relevant, it’s hard to see him as a serious contender for the nomination. The same could be said, in fact, for Kasich, and probably Cruz, too—the evangelical base isn’t big enough to offset the nationalists, I suspect. Which leaves Rubio as the one most likely to unite Republicans in victory in November. But I wouldn’t be surprised if Trump tossed him to Christie to pulverize and feed to the alligators in the Everglades.

            The real issue is Bernie, who has the only pure vision of America left among Presidential candidates in this fateful Leap Year 2016. As we undergo change so rapid and multi-layered no one can keep track of it, why not aim high rather than low or fair-to-middlin’? It’s a question that’s been asked before, and usually—most of the time, in my experience—it’s answered on the safe side. But sometimes not. Sometimes there is a revolution, or, to put it more congenially, a spontaneous evolution.

            We need that. In my opinion, it should have happened fifty years ago. But now, we need it right quick.