“If, on November 8th of this year, Hillary Clinton is elected President, we will have only begun to fight,”
Writes Andy Borowitz in the New Yorker. I have to wonder who he is going to fight with or for and about what. Is he going the way of many Republicans when Bill Clinton was elected and declare that she's not the "real" president, or not "his" president? Does he envision a sort of schism with two oval offices, or perhaps this is just a metaphorical statement. Might he take his guerrilla forces into the Vermont woods? Maybe it's just the kind of willful delusion I'm seeing as standard fare among his supporters. Magic thinking seems to be all the thinking that's going on.
Of course there's the possibility that Clinton will get into some legal trouble that would cause her to drop out, allowing Bernie somehow to find himself as the dowager candidate, but that may be more of a delusion than the hope I'll win the Irish Sweepstakes without having a ticket. Some of his supporters are accusing her of espionage and treason in a manner that puts Republican liars to shame - (or would if Republicans could feel shame.) I can't dismiss the idea that he really believes he can still become president without an election by somehow staging a Putsch at the convention.
Is this obstinacy a sort of Sanderista Leitmotif which plays in Wagnerian fashion behind his recent career? Is it the same kind of thinking that lets him boast about how he's going to re-organize world banking and finance and fiscal and monetary and trade policy by fiat and to declare that henceforth college tuition will be free and never mind what congress or the courts or the colleges say.
It's either deceit or delusion but we've already had one president who thought he was Alexander the Great and we can't afford another. The voters didn't just reject Senator Sanders, they dodged a bullet.
Some of the student radicals of my day grew up and became teachers, or stockbrokers. Some never grew up; they're still passing the same old dope.
ReplyDeleteWagnerian, huh? Seriously, another Nazi analogy re the Jewish Sanders? I'm making ZERO accusations, btw (and I eagerly await your response). But this appears to at least be in bad taste to me.
ReplyDeleteNazi analogy? Being Jewish myself, I have to smile at that one, really I'd like to see a Jewish president, but I'll wait for a better one, I think. My reference to grand opera was merely a reference to grand opera in the sense of overblown, silly and pompous.
DeleteFYI, Andy Borowitz is a comedy writer and the article you link to is an Onion-esque humor piece (ie fake).
ReplyDeleteNow here's where I screwed up and did what I so often mock Fox News for doing. Having been a lifelong New Yorker subscriber and reader, I should have known it was a spoof. I can only say that I've become so used to Bernie's bullheaded stubbornness, I fell for it.
ReplyDeleteSorry Bernie, Sorry, readers, Mea Maxima Culpa, but Bernie really needs to stop pretending he is going to be nominated.
Since the Last Supper primary (meaning 'Super Tuesday'), the anti-Hillary memes are everywhere in Cyberspace. Hillary the crook, Hillary the liar, Hillary pilloried. The BernieBots are as accomplished as fright wing character assassins (and perhaps they are actually Trojan horse's asses in disguise). Given the existential threat of a Trump presidency, these BernieBots are the new fiddlers of Rome - veritable vandals and Visigoths by gosh -- from folk hero to Nero in a nanosecond.
ReplyDeleteGiven the character limitations of Twitter, Americans now have an attention span shorter than a goldfish.
But to make up for it they're twice as smart as a goldfish. Present company excepted, of course.
DeleteAmericans now have an attention span shorter than a goldfish .
ReplyDeleteWasn't that always the plan? For the last 35 years anyway.
Oligarchs are winning. Regardless of how you slice and dice things.
I'm afraid you're right, but yet, our campaigns go on for years.
ReplyDeletewell, the dope is now a LOT more expensive...twenty times as good and makes jazz sound even better than before. But I don't pass that dope....I smoke it. Egg salad sandwiches with ketchup at midnight....washed down with nestles quick. Life is good.
ReplyDeleteWell of course I would know nothing about such things. ;-)
DeleteKamerad Sanders would would have been the better selection to address the problem of the oligarchs winning. What will HRC do about this problem? Also, will she try to make things better or worse? BHO seems to be trying to make things a little worse on his way out (with the TPP). That is some legislation written for the oligarchs for sure.
ReplyDeleteIn theory, he would, but when it comes to candidates being able to implement anything similar to their "vision" the record is grim. And too, there doesn't seem to be much care taken to make sure those categories he attacks are populated entirely by bad guys or that doing what he suggests doing would ruin countless lives. I admire idealism, but I fear it - a lot.
ReplyDeleteOf copurse perhaps I'm an idealist for thinking that it's possible to control the capitalist institutions and their power without the kind of "revolution" he talks of. It smells so much of the Bolsheviks and seems to attract very, very angry people of the sort who are comfortable with tearing down and destroying things, but I think the notion that Clinton will pander to their avarice because she gave a talk at Morgan Stanly lacks merit. In fact I think there's an association between that meme and the Veritas group, guilty for the fraudulent attacks on ACORN and Planned Parenthood and other enemies of the Reich.
ReplyDelete