Bernie Sanders

March 22, 2016. Sanders is the most savvy hard left politician since McGovern won the Democratic nomination in 1972, and lost with only 37.5% of the vote. (That kill progressive politics for 36 years.) Sanders makes the “right” promises, but his theory of how to deliver on them is, well, just slightly vague. In fact, I’m sure he knows this. Historically his mission has not been to deliver on them, but to raise hopes and thereby “educate” us. But Paul Krugman explains all this far better than I can so read him. 

There’s just one thing Krugman gets wrong, and he gets this very wrong. “Mr. Obama found out as soon as he took office, transformational rhetoric isn’t how change happens.” Obama, knew that and said that time and again during his campaign. But he said it quietly. Because he knew that he had to sell “Hope” to win the election. That’s what people want to hear. So Krugman is also wrong that “Mr. Sanders is the heir to candidate Obama, but Mrs. Clinton is the heir to President Obama.”

As every Sanders supporter knows, Bernie promises far more than Obama. He’s not just selling hope and change, he’s selling free college, a $15 minimum wage, free single payer healthcare, and on and on. And how will he do it? Millions will rise up and have a political revolution. Talk about hopey-changey puppies and ice cream. This is almost as looney as Occupy Wall Street. But let Krugman explain.

The Optimistic Left

Aug 6, 2014. Occupy Wall Street started on Sept 17, 2011 and began a rapid decline after the police cleared Zuccotti Park on Nov 15. Half way through, Mica White of Adbusters magazine, who is credited with calling the original demonstration, told “What’s Trending”  (3:03 — 9:20):

A tad optimistic? Delusional? Perhaps this explains why the Tea Party has elected 81 extremists to Congress, and the extreme left can’t elect a dog catcher. Ralph Nader, perhaps the most electable left extremist topped out with about 4% of the vote when he blocked Al Gore and gave us George W Bush. (Gore needed only 537 votes in Florida and Nader took roughly 50,000 from him.)

The Koch Brother’s Tea Party

The Koch’s don’t own the tea party, but they helped start it well before Obama got elected. It’s part of their long term strategy that was launched in 1980 when David Koch ran for Vice President on the Libertarian ticket. Now, for the 2016 campaign they’ve pledged $889 million. As Politico points out, that “more than doubles the amount spent by the Republican National Committee during the last presidential election cycle.”

The right believes in getting organized, and it shows. This election is no time for the left to be messing around.

Will the Extremes Hand Us Over to the Republicans?

Probably. But there’s still some hope. … stay tuned.

Background Stories

Crony Capitalism

That’s when capitalists manipulate government to gain subsidies and loopholes. Wall Street uses a revolving door to high government positions. Big-business capitalists rely on K-Street lobbyists instead. But the Koch brothers, the Supreme Court, and Fox-Wall-St. are building a pro-corporate tea party. Occupy Wall Street and some tea baggers should join to fight corpocracy.

Extremists

The right takes the cake for extremism. David Koch, the billionaire founder of AFP, the group that invented and organized the Tea Parties, ran as a Libertarian against Reagan in 1980. He favored an end to public schools, Social Security, the FBI, CIA, and IRS, and also favored legalizing gambling, drugs and prostitution. The left dabbles in extremism (but without the big bucks) and only manages to help the right wing fanatics.
 

Making Sense

Sensible politics requires that two old-fashioned conservative principles be applied to an empathetic interpretation of the three long-recognized goals of government: protect the public, promote the general Welfare,⁽¹⁾From the first sentence of the U.S. Constitution. This does not mean the federal government can do whatever it wants. But it does mean that it should do things for the common good that are within its powers. and stabilize the economy. The two conservative principles are (1)don’t waste public funds, and (2) don’t discourage personal responsibility.

Obama vs. Progressives

The far left has turned on Obama for being too conservative, and the right calls him a socialist. In truth, he has governed from the middle. The left has always been disappointed with their presidents, and if they don’t understand why, they will hand the 2012 election to the Koch brothers.