First, I do feel the need to point out that of all
candidates, Bernie Sanders is one of the most principled politicians the United States has to offer in 2016. One of the burdens of the
U.S. is the unethical purchasing of political power. If anyone is
doing an impressive job at minimizing the purchase of his/her campaign, and
therefore her/his convictions, it's Bernie Sanders. Even
"self-financed" billionaire Donald Trump is not last in outside /
"dark" money (PAC): Trump is second to last in PAC funding, at almost
$2 million as of March 2016. Sanders is dead last at under $50,000. (OpenSecrets.org)
Second, I also feel the need to point out that Sanders is one
of the most socially empathetic candidates in the U.S. political mix today. The
shaming of social empathy has traditionally been a dark political pastime of
the U.S., even by moderate liberals. Conventional wisdom dictates that
survival of the fittest is seriously eroded by "excessive" social
empathy, like a mother and a father who tiresomely disagree on what nurtures
and what weakens the child. According to the same conventional wizards, social
empathy is the damning of the poor: it makes them lazy and weak (Ronald
Reagan's "Welfare Queen"). This prevalent suspicion, embedded in the
American quilt, is the fundamental reason the U.S. is in the bottom half of the
thirty most developed nations when it comes to social progress.
(Social Progress Index)
You would think that those two significant
attributes would be enough to feel the Bern. After all, haven't we always
turned a blind eye towards the darker side of politicians, as long as we
believed they were enlightened in matters that are most important to us?
(Something future generations may call Trumping,
much in the same way we use the term Machiavellian today.)
But more to the point: with those two impressive Sanders attributes highlighted,
is there anything about him that would even require the old blind eye?
The answer to that depends on whether you believe that the
dark side of socialist democracies are the lesser of two evils. With that I am
offering the reader the courtesy of not insulting his or her intelligence, by
taking it as a given that ALL man-made socioeconomic systems have a dark side.
Even more importantly, the answer to the blind eye question
depends on whether you believe that a vastly less homogenous nation like the
U.S., vastly larger, with vastly more significant technological and scientific
contributions to the planet, can or should wear the "Nordic Model"
skinny jeans (the Nordic Model is the socioeconomic system of five European nations:
Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden). If you believe that the
shiny side of the Nordic Model is not heavily fueled by a fiercely
"offshore" capitalist model, then you might want to challenge your
own sense of social fairness. The offshore dog-whistle by the way is in great part code for "let's do our dirty business in nations where they give much less of a shit about social fairness than we do". If you have not considered that the
Nordic Model is still greatly benefitting from the war chest of its non-social
heyday, then you might want to vet Bernie Sanders' idealism a little better. Don Corleone's way of life did not magically clean itself up after a
whole new generation. You can put lipstick on a pig, but you're
still addicted to bacon.
Here's the heart of the matter: the conservative rich are not laughing at Sanders because they think he's a dreamer; they're laughing at him because they know where the money that will be used for "free" healthcare and "free" education comes from. And they know how it's made. Because it's not your mom and pop's money from back in Pleasantville. In case that doesn't sink in, please think back to the Scandinavian heyday war chest. And to the Corleones: Bernie is like Kay Corleone (Diane Keaton), when she begs the conscience of her husband Michael Corleone (Al Pacino), "I thought you weren't going to become a man like your father... Because this all must end... this Sicilian thing that's been going on for two thousand years."
The Corleone boys don't do lipstick, Bernie.
..
This is not the election of a lifetime. The elections you
make for yourself every day when you wake up are the elections of a lifetime.
Stop falling in love with politicians preaching change, and be the change.
These are not the droids you're looking for.
This is also not a call for a non-vote. By all means, do
vote. The democratic process, as frustrating as it may be, is still the healthiest
way we have so far in our evolution to propose a general way forward. But destiny
is not up to our leaders. It never has been, and it never will be. There is
only one destiny, and it's the collective sum of all individual destinies. The
only thing you can do to help change the world is focus on your own destiny.
Only then will your vote truly count.
Just be aware of one slight rule of engagement, when it comes
to focusing on yourself: the more you take without giving, whether in love or
in profit, the more insignificant your destiny will be. Even if it makes you a
billionaire. Especially if it makes
you a billionaire.
