BERNIE SANDERS. A MAN FOR THIS SEASON

Donald Trump is a dangerous force of selfishness, darkness and deceit. He is an existential threat and must be defeated by a more powerful opposing force.

Bernie Sanders is not a man for all seasons. Not by a long shot. But he sure as hell is a man for this season…a fortitutious meeting of man and moment. Most of the time America’s presidential personality and style preferences lean towards affable confidence and casual flair. JFK, Reagan, and Obama had the formula. Bernie does’t do “affable” but this isn’t “most of the time.” This is now and nobody available speaks with the seriousness and passion that Bernie brings to doing the right thing for the “human family” right now. Bernie is impatient to do right. He takes injustice personally. Listening to him is not always easy. We’re not talking Gershwin Rhapsody in Blue. I’ve heard him a few times and, if truth be known, sometimes he makes you hunger for the more soothing sounds of fingernails on a blackboard. But, as they say, no pain no gain. Listen to Bernie a few years ago at Liberty University, the school that Jerry Falwell founded, one of the most conservative audiences there is and see how he holds the audience and earns their respect. Anybody who tells you Bernie can’t win is either wrong or intentionally trying to misdirect because they fear his strength. Because his message is strong and true he can tell it anywhere…a biker bar in Steubenville, OH, a truckstop in Breezewood, PA, Silvia’s in Harlem or the Republican Women’s Club in an upscale Philadelphia suburb. Dissemblers and half truth tellers (Hillary Clinton comes to mind) are limited to preaching to the choir. Their message doesn’t travel. People see through them. Bernie can go anywhere because, as it says in the Good Book, “the truth will set you free.”

Amy Klobuchar is easy to like. She snatched victory from the jaws of defeat when she announced her candidacy in a Minnesota blizzard and made it work. She hit it out of the park in the last debate in New Hampshire when she told the story about the black man weeping as the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Funeral Train passed by. When asked if he had known President Roosevelt, the man replied “no, but he knew me.” One has to earn the right to tell a story like that. Amy, by her manner had established a sense of empathy that the story sounded right coming out of her mouth. The residents of NH agreed and gave her a third in their primary. Why not Amy at the top of the ticket as a force for righteousness? Simple. She’s no Bernie Sanders. Amy is a practical careerist. She has no problem going to Israel and not going to Gaza. Bernie is more likely to go to Gaza and not go to Israel. She’s comfortable at AIPAC without telling them things they need to hear that Bernie would tell them straight away. Like I say, she’s easy to like but there’s only one Bernie Sanders. Put her on the ticket with Bernie? I’m all in.

CONCLUSION

So there. I’m for Bernie Sanders and Amy Klobuchar is my second choice. I’d like to see them as a Ticket. If they could manage egos they could bring out the best in each other.

This will be an election of misinformation. Its going on right now as we speak with media people close to Israel trying to sell the idea that nominating Sanders will cause a wipeout of the Democratic Party. Their concern is phony. Their real worry is that a President Bernie Sanders would initiate peace overtures with countries that Israel is accustomed to have us on the verge of fighting, for their benefit. Sick.

Misinformation will be at epic levels. There’s only one defense and Sanders does it naturally. The truth all day every day.

I can’t close without talking about one of the great campaigns of all time, Nixon-Kennedy 1960. As the campaign came to a close Kennedy pulled into Waterbury, CT at 3AM the Sunday before the Tuesday Election. Sixty thousand people were waiting for him, in the rain, on the Village Green opposite the Roger Smith Hotel where Kennedy was scheduled to stay. He gave them his best shot. The Democrats, who had lost Connecticut by 300,000 votes in the prior Presidential Election carried the State under Kennedy by 91,000 votes. Two days later I saw JFK as his Limo pulled into the Boston Garden.

Kennedy had style and grace and was a great speaker. Sanders has something more powerful, radical, unrelenting truth. There’s nobody in the Democratic field, beside Sanders who can draw the crowds that Bernie can and will draw.

Plus, he will win.

Comments are welcome at tomc[at]wednesdayswars[dot]com. Comments will be addressed in subsequent posts.