I think Bernie Sanders has a lot to be embarrassed about, despite another primary won, but I'm not sure that revealing his apparent lack of knowledge about just how he would retrieve all that pie from the stratosphere worries me. Just how a president makes state college tuition free I don't know nor does he, and when pressed by Bloomberg TV as to just who on "wall Street" should or would be punished for what crimes, he had no answer and when interviewed by the New York Daily News about how, among other things, he would break up big banks, he sounded very much like a schoolboy explaining why he hadn't done his homework. It's being called a disaster, but is it?
Donald Trump joked that he could shoot someone and not lose a supporter. Whether or not it's strictly true, we Americans support candidates without much reliance on objective and dispassionate arguments. We like slogans, platitudes and promises and the feeling that some buffoon loves and respects us uncritically and will attack our bogeymen and scapegoats in dramatic fashion. I don't think Sanders' lack of knowledge about economics, banking and finance hurts him one bit, sad to say, nor his equal unfamiliarity with foreign policy and current world events. Perhaps his supporters don't want to be informed about those subjects lest they lose the confidence that innocence (and anger) bring. If your concerns are mostly about tuition and loans why ask the man about a nuclear North Korea or Iran shipping weapons to Yemen and the rise of Neo-Fascism in Europe? Why care if he answers "I don't know?"
When he rails about the "bailouts" the dogs prick up their ears, because it sounds like somebody got something for free, the scenario that enrages both camps, but as I see it, the return on that "bailout" has netted a gain - a profit for the nation of nearly 70 billion dollars. No, that's not a big piece of such a huge pie, but then, remember that an economic collapse as big as the Great Depression was avoided and countless jobs and industries were kept in the United States. A once endangered General Motors is selling cars in China as fast as they can make them. What else do we sell there? Mr. Sanders has no interest in telling us that Obama's policies may have saved the country and in that he mirrors the disloyal opposition on the Right. What does that say about him?
I will of course vote for him - or nearly anyone if his opponent is one of the GOP circus clowns, but without thinking of Mrs. Clinton as being the best of all possible candidates, I worry about a 75 year old dog having to learn a whole world of new tricks in a world and a country being torn apart by wild and ignorant armies, day and night, here and abroad.
I don't see this as a gotcha moment. His ideas are nebulous without a doubt. But as far as allies within the U.S. he is very much on his own. I commend him for attempting to bring clarity to the American discussion. If he had the intelligence of Fidel Castro, his ideas would shine like jewels floating above the sewage of our capitalist society that is the wreckage of the industrial revolution. As it is, he sometimes flounders.
ReplyDeleteI am more concerned with his willingness to condemn Hillary as an enemy or even an inferior rather than a respected opponent in the ridiculous game that American politics has become. Certainly they both shook hands like two boxers when this all began so long ago. The stress is wearing us all down.
I guess I still love Hillary mostly because I have not been following the campaign. I have always supported her. I am not concerned with the machinations and posturing that is our contemporary primary contest. I simply think the same of her as I did when she was the most globe-trotting SOS in our history. She almost killed herself flying around the globe promoting peace, love, justice and the American Way.
But Hillary needs to tell Bill to STFU. He is not helping in any way.
I don't want to demonize the man but I don't give my deep trust to someone who never admits there might be other approaches to a problem or that the idea of a willing and compliant congress like Spring flowers after the election. I gave up on flower Power 50 years ago. I might also trust him a bit more if he showed more experience with and knowledge of banking, monetary policy, economics and foreign policy. I'd trot out the cliche "one trick pony" if he weren't an old nag.
ReplyDeleteReally, we have structural and regulatory problems, but shouldn't we be talking about whether the sledge hammer is the best tune-up tool for a system that is after all, working after a fashion? What do we build with the rubble and why is it that revolutions almost always fail and bring worse things down on us?
And then there's the "Hillary isn't qualified" hail Mary pass. As you'll agree, that's a nasty bit of bullshit. We've had few candidates as well qualified - ever.
But our elections, if I dare call them that are never about qualifications. It's always about childish, emotional things.
Castro may be intelligent, however, his flaws certainly overshadowed is intelligence. That's my view at any rate. I wonder how Marx might view him were Marx around today.
ReplyDeleteI think our elections at one time were about substance more than bullshit. Although there has always been a little bullshit in our politics.
There's always hope things turn out for the best. We've had Hope and Change and now we have an opportunity to Make America Great Again .
Time for a cocktail.
Make mine a double.
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