By Peter Rosenstein.
It’s time Democratic primary voters around the nation get real and look at the ‘BS’ Bernie Sanders is trying to feed them. In reality he is simply an old white politician, a self-described socialist, and sounds more like a ‘carnival barker’ shouting and waving his hands in the air with a long history of accomplishing very little. He brings to mind the words of Shakespeare, “Full of sound and fury signifying nothing.” He is not a Democrat and has never been one and if he becomes the Democratic nominee at the head of the ticket Democrats on the ballot below him from school board to U.S. Senate will be running for the hills.
From the time he ran as an Independent against a progressive former Vermont Governor, Democrat Madeleine Kunin in 1986, to his recent rants against the Democratic establishment he hasn’t changed. He apparently still believes women, the LGBT community, dreamers and African Americans are part of the establishment only out to derail him.
Bernie Sanders has been a politician all his life. He never had another real job. He cut a deal with the National Rifle Association (NRA) to win his Congressional seat and in return voted against the Brady bill and background checks five times and against allowing people to sue gun manufacturers. He voted for the 1994 Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act that resulted in the judicial system putting thousands of young Black men in jail and he voted for the 2001 Authorization to Use Military Force (AUMF) resolution. “The authorization granted the President the authority to use all “necessary and appropriate force” against those whom he determined “planned, authorized, committed or aided” the September 11th attacks, or who harbored said persons or groups.” That resolution is still in effect and being used to send our troops over there today.
Sanders has never accomplished much but getting himself elected in the least diverse state in the Union. His real accomplishments amount to close to ZERO. Today he shouts at rallies about a ‘revolution’ he wants to lead. When I listen to him I always think of Don Quixote and hear the song ‘To Dream the Impossible Dream‘ in my head and realize this man is not living in the real world.
This doesn’t mean I don’t believe in dreaming. Rather we need to live in the real world to make our dreams come true. While we dream we need to work to find ways to make our progressive dreams come true today and not wait for a revolution that won’t come.
When Barack Obama was elected he quickly found out simply saying ‘Hope and Change‘ wasn’t enough to get things done. But the difference between Barack Obama and Bernie Sanders is people within his own Party actually liked and supported Barack Obama. They were willing to work with him to move us forward in many areas including; healthcare, LGBT rights, women’s pay equity and a host of others.
If Hillary Clinton is President she will have the kind of support Obama has from Democrats both in office and those running. While it won’t be easy she will be able to make progress on lowering student debt, changing our judicial system so Black Lives Matter is more than a slogan, gaining full civil and human rights for the LGBT community and achieving equal pay for equal work for women. After twenty-five years in Congress we already know Sanders can’t get things done. He has never been able to really work with the President and not one of his Senate colleagues, and only two of his House colleagues have endorsed him. They know both his record and his inability to work with people which is why they have endorsed Hillary Clinton.
They all know despite the BS Sanders is trying to sell he has never been a leader in any movement whether it is women’s rights, civil rights, LGBT rights or immigration rights. They know shouting and waving your arms about and selling what was once called ‘snake oil‘ isn’t the way forward. It sounds good and plays to the crowd, but in our system of government it doesn’t work to move the progressive agenda forward.
So to Democrats who have fought hard to make our Party the one of the future; to Independents who believe in making progress on a progressive agenda; take another look at both Sanders and Clinton before you cast your ballot. Snake Oil can be alluring and seem like a quick fix, but real medicine which may be harder to swallow and take a little longer to work is always the better choice.
The changes we want to make in our system will only happen if we reject the ‘carnival barker’ and vote for the person with a history of doing the hard work to get things done and that is Hillary Rodham Clinton.
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