Some More Thoughts on Bernie

As I write this, in January 2019, Bernie has not announced his candidacy for the 2020 election, but I see all of the signs that he will. This includes the various stalking horses that are “urging” him to run again, making all of the justifications as to why he is the best choice.

Most of my family seems to be enamored with Bernie, some to the point of abandoning common sense. I seem to be an outlier in the fact that, while I like many of his ideas, I have always suspected him. Unlike many, I look at him with a jaundiced eye. And when I have done so, he has failed my personal bullshit test.

Do not get me wrong. If he is the 2020 candidate for the Democratic Party, I will support him and vote for him. I will not be happy and I think he will fail despite the cluster-fire that Republican Party is, as I will explain later.

Independent with a Twist

Bernie claims to be Independent (with a capital I), In fact, in the 2018 Senatorial election, he eschewed the Democratic nomination in order to run as an Independent. I guess that is more palatable than his former claim as a Socialist, but that is not my call. On the surface, I have no problems with this. I have no problem with whatever drummer he wants to march to. I do have a problem with hypocrisy.

And I do not mean hypocrisy for him caucusing with the Democrats. After all, how would an Independent get any committee appointments, let alone chairmanships? And his beliefs do align most with the Democratic Party, albeit the left-leaning portion of said party.

And I do not mean hypocrisy for him to abandoning his Independent title and becoming a “Democrat” in order to enter the Democratic Primaries at his convenience. I looked askance at that but I figured; what the hell. He was not going anywhere by running a third-party candidacy.

And not the hypocrisy of reneging on his promise to stay in the Democratic Party following the 2016 election so as to be part of the new “solution”. We saw how long that lasted. He just could not help himself. He just likes being an outsider, now doesn’t he.

No! The hypocrisy I am talking about has yet to occur. That is if Bernie decides to become a Democrat again in order to run for President. I do not know about anyone else, but I do not think party affiliation is a matter of convenience but a matter of principle. Truthfully, I have trust issues with him anyway. This just compounds it.

His Campaign Platform

Has anyone but me looked beyond the surface of the campaign platform?

In 2016, it was the ubiquitous $15/hour minimum wage. I have written extensively about this so I will not go on and on about this. Suffice to say, it was never about an immediate raise to $15/hour. It was to happen over a period of years. In fact, in my state (and neighboring states) the proposed increase that he really was proposing would not have affected anyone because the state minimum wage is already higher. That did not keep people championing the changes in their lives this was going to make. They did not look at the actual proposal, just listened to the sound bite.

If he runs in 2020, I am sure that his cornerstone will be his current “Medicare for All” proposal. Personally, I do not think this compromise is all that good, but once again it is better than what we have. Just as “Obamacare” is better than what we had before. I have not heard how it is going to be funded but then it is a campaign promise not a plan, now isn’t it.

But that is not what bothers me. What bothers me is what else do we have coming from him. In 2016 there was not a very definitive plan about anything but the campaign promises. There did not seem to be any comprehensive plan for a Presidency. Following his failed election bid, he has done nothing to improve that situation. He is more of a single-note pundit than a well-rounded leader.

In short, when you get past his soundbites and get past his talk-show appearances, he seems to be somewhat of a lightweight.

Areas of Trust and Concern

And before you say I am being picky, I will agree with you. All of the above are not insurmountable and can be addressed by Bernie explaining himself better and me being a little more open to some of his ideas (maybe). But that does not assuage my concerns and insure my trust.

A big concern is the caucus victories. There never has been a viable answer to how this happened in 2016. Am I saying it was nefarious? No. Am I saying it is suspect? Yes, most definitely. Especially given that the caucus results were so different than the popular vote results in the two states that had both. No one looked into it, but something seems to be off and I, for one, am still concerned.

My biggest concern however was his actions when he had lost the primaries. He was not a magnanimous loser. He would not concede and gather his supporters behind the winner. He felt that his 43% gave his say and sway in the convention. This was a far cry from the actions of Hillary Clinton 8 years earlier when she lost the primary run, even though she had the majority of popular vote. I guess class shows. I could have lived with that except for what came from his supporters. They continued to spread the most vicious lies about Hillary Clinton, vowed never to vote ever again, vowed to vote for Trump, or vowed to vote for a 3rd party candidate. All of this was because of a lack of leadership at the head of the class as far as I am concerned, exacerbated by his unwillingness to support the victor. If you think I am being too harsh; remember he has never disavowed the liars.

Final thoughts

If he chooses to run again, I expect much the same type of actions on his part and on the part of his supporters. Sadly, you cannot talk logically to “true believers”. And, let us be honest, with his previous run, his infrastructure in place, the lovefest with “names”, and the dedicated young people ready to march forward; he has a good chance of getting the Democratic nominations.

But remember, in the fall he does not have to win over the Democrats and he will not win over the Republicans. He needs to win the middle-of-the-roaders, those that will vote either way, depending. History shows us he will not get their vote. The most recent example is 2004 when we had another POS person in the White House and Howdy Doody should have been able to beat him. But for a lot of reasons, the Democrat lost. Not to put too much of a point on it, he was too liberal for most of the middle-of-the-roaders. Bernie gives us the worse chance of getting rid of Little Boots. I would say that, even without any of the concerns I stated above. Given those issues though, and you can see my concern.