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A message from a Bernie 'believer.'
Excerpts from a piece by JoeCarl:
Donald Trump can win this election. He has been given a gift of unimaginable import: he has won the nomination while we continue to fight. That both bestows an initial credibility while freeing him to work at expanding it. Establishment Republicans already are falling sheepishly in line, and Trump is moving with alarming speed to consolidate them, as with his release of potential Supreme Court nominees (a list that should terrify progressives and anyone not an ultra-conservative, religious zealot). And Trump can do such things 24/7. He has no beliefs, and he doesn’t care about anything. He will say whatever, whenever, and change it all in the afternoon.
This is a man whose candidacy would not have survived the first week had he not hit upon a blatant appeal to a racist, resentful, and xenophobic base with a persecution complex and in search of an authoritarian to lead it. And, somehow, we are that close to having, this man as President of the United States, this amoral, unscrupulous, self-promoting con artist whose campaign has been the most persistent and comprehensive onslaught of habituated lying ever to go unquestioned by the media. And he would be working with a Republican Senate and House.
They will set the character of the Supreme Court for decades. They will cut or maybe kill Social Security, Medicare, and the Affordable Care Act. They will elevate science denial, denigrate knowledge, and defund education. They will make the morality of an early iron-age tribe from a backwater of its world the law of the land. They will replace religious freedom with Christian privilege. They will institutionalize the concentration of wealth. Civil rights will be cut back dramatically as corporate rights are expanded to an equal degree. Voting rights will be curtailed nationally to secure Republican power. Unions will be a thing of the past, as might be the middle class. They will make the Gilded Age look egalitarian.
If you think that any of this is hyperbole, you have not been paying attention to what Republicans have done in states where they control the executive and the legislative branches. If it happens nationally, Bernie may own a share of it.
“But, but” you stammer, as I once did, “polls show Bernie does better against Trump.” Few of us will admit it, but we’ve gotten a free ride from the press and from the Republicans as well. The former see a ratings advantage to playing up the Bernie-Hillary contest. The latter see a political advantage to leaving him intact to split the Democratic vote. And even before any potential onslaught, Bernie’s lead over Trump is narrowing just as is Hillary’s. That reflects the gift I alluded to above. I believe that Bernie really is a far stronger campaigner than is Hillary, and, therefore, might, in fact, do better against Trump. But other than this questionable arm-waving, we have no reason to assume that at this point, certainly no reason credible enough to take the nomination away from the candidate who actually won it. That would split the Party but with Bernie on the short end.
Bernie’s continued candidacy has become destructive of the Party and, increasingly, of himself. Good no longer can come from it. The primary was decided weeks ago. You may not like it, I certainly did not, but that is the reality. The Sanders’ campaign needed to adjust accordingly, and it adjusted oppositely. If Bernie cannot correct course, every one of his supporters eventually will need to work through for themselves what I worked through a few weeks ago. With stakes this high, you need to be ready.
I still have enough of the “Bern” to hope that what I’m seeing now is just the result of a long, tough campaign. I still have hope that Bernie will become a full and enthusiastic supporter of Clinton, and that he will do so in time to bring most of his remaining people with him. At this point, though, I need to see it to believe.
This is a man whose candidacy would not have survived the first week had he not hit upon a blatant appeal to a racist, resentful, and xenophobic base with a persecution complex and in search of an authoritarian to lead it. And, somehow, we are that close to having, this man as President of the United States, this amoral, unscrupulous, self-promoting con artist whose campaign has been the most persistent and comprehensive onslaught of habituated lying ever to go unquestioned by the media. And he would be working with a Republican Senate and House.
They will set the character of the Supreme Court for decades. They will cut or maybe kill Social Security, Medicare, and the Affordable Care Act. They will elevate science denial, denigrate knowledge, and defund education. They will make the morality of an early iron-age tribe from a backwater of its world the law of the land. They will replace religious freedom with Christian privilege. They will institutionalize the concentration of wealth. Civil rights will be cut back dramatically as corporate rights are expanded to an equal degree. Voting rights will be curtailed nationally to secure Republican power. Unions will be a thing of the past, as might be the middle class. They will make the Gilded Age look egalitarian.
If you think that any of this is hyperbole, you have not been paying attention to what Republicans have done in states where they control the executive and the legislative branches. If it happens nationally, Bernie may own a share of it.
“But, but” you stammer, as I once did, “polls show Bernie does better against Trump.” Few of us will admit it, but we’ve gotten a free ride from the press and from the Republicans as well. The former see a ratings advantage to playing up the Bernie-Hillary contest. The latter see a political advantage to leaving him intact to split the Democratic vote. And even before any potential onslaught, Bernie’s lead over Trump is narrowing just as is Hillary’s. That reflects the gift I alluded to above. I believe that Bernie really is a far stronger campaigner than is Hillary, and, therefore, might, in fact, do better against Trump. But other than this questionable arm-waving, we have no reason to assume that at this point, certainly no reason credible enough to take the nomination away from the candidate who actually won it. That would split the Party but with Bernie on the short end.
Bernie’s continued candidacy has become destructive of the Party and, increasingly, of himself. Good no longer can come from it. The primary was decided weeks ago. You may not like it, I certainly did not, but that is the reality. The Sanders’ campaign needed to adjust accordingly, and it adjusted oppositely. If Bernie cannot correct course, every one of his supporters eventually will need to work through for themselves what I worked through a few weeks ago. With stakes this high, you need to be ready.
I still have enough of the “Bern” to hope that what I’m seeing now is just the result of a long, tough campaign. I still have hope that Bernie will become a full and enthusiastic supporter of Clinton, and that he will do so in time to bring most of his remaining people with him. At this point, though, I need to see it to believe.
http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/5/18/1528279/-I-Supported-Bernie-Early-and-Late-But-No-Longer
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