In the Democratic primaries, where Hillary Clinton’s victory is a foregone conclusion, Bernie Sanders is playing the role of the sacrificial lamb candidate familiar to citizens of dictatorships that hold phony elections in order to confer legitimacy upon their regimes.
Inevitably
Ted Rall
Ted Rall is a syndicated political cartoonist for Andrews McMeel Syndication, WhoWhatWhy.org and Counterpoint. He is a frequent contributor to The Wall Street Journal, a graphic novelist and author of many books of art and prose, and an occasional war correspondent. He is, recently, the author of the graphic novel "The Stringer."
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«… hold phony elections in order to confer legitimacy upon their regimes.» Well, Ted, as a citizen of the US, you should just be glad that such things (dear, but cheap at the price – about the estimated cost of the two Virginia-class submarines slated for procurement in 2016 : http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/weapons/RL32418.pdf) are not done in your country ! Or did I miss something in the cartoon ?… 😉
Henri
Just what in the hell are you talking about? Do you want to darken your soul by voting for Bernie “Bernstein” Sanders? Can anyone who has been paying the least bit of attention to U.$. politricks be that stupid?!
YOUR . . . VOTE . . . DOESN’T . . . COUNT!
Well, «prolecenter», after reading your remarks above, I realise that satire is not your forte, but in the event you don’t know «what in the hell [an interlocutor is] talking about», you might want to consider rereading the contribution in question till you do gain a grasp of it….
As for you comment that my vote doesn’t count, you are quite correct ; not being a citizen of your country, – although, like all of us, I am strongly affected by its policies – I don’t enjoy the franchise….
Henri
Right, henri? At least Americans get to *pretend* to have a say in the policies that affect the entire world.
Indeed, «Jack Heart» – the privilege of delusion or a delusional privilege…. 😉
Henri
@ mhenriday –
TROLL ALERT!!!!
I refuse to waste my time with trolls offering nothing but innuendo and insult.
Ted,
I’m not QUITE ready to conscribe Bernie Sanders to the bin, nor am I ready to hand the crown to the inevitable Hillary. Give it a few more months.
See my reply to the dupe above. I’m sorry, I really can’t be polite about this. Have you lost your fucking minds?!!
Hillary has been “inevitable” before…or have you forgotten?
Prole,
Please reread what I wrote. All I’m doing is saying, “Gee, the election isn’t for 18 months (about three more Hillary scandals), let’s not just call her elected and not bother with the campaigns, voting, and all the rest, just yet.”
Although I fully endorse the cynical outlook, I’m willing to actually give Bernie Sanders an opportunity. Is he a dupe of the machine? A willing tool? I think he’s possibly — I’ll repeat that — POSSIBLY the ideal candidate: someone of genuine principle who staked out his domain (Vermont) and waited for the right time to make his move.
That doesn’t make him a tool, that makes him shrewd. Take a look around at the externals: the economy is just about to snap (despite all the cheerleading from the corporate-owned media), retirement for a vast number of people will consist of the bitterly marginalized (and short) period between their bodies becoming too weak to work and their bodies finally breaking down permanently, assuming they can retain their jobs. Home ownership is becoming something akin to winning a lottery. The infrastructure is closing in on collapse, too.
I can keep going, but the point is clear: We’re closing in on the crest. We’ll top it, and then it’s downhill from there, and the cart we’re in will only accelerate once it starts the downward leg of the trip.
Hillary’s poll numbers are imploding. Why? She’s doing nothing different than she did for the past three decades of carpetbagging and corporate toadying. I think part of it — again, PART — is that Bernie Sanders, a nationally recognized politician, is calling her on her bullshit AND simultaneously offering simple solutions to problems that everyone can comprehend.
Example: College too expensive? Slap a small tax on high-frequency trades on the stock market. What will that (and similar legislation) do? It will stop the automated gaming of the markets.
People unemployed and the infrastructure’s crumbling? Duh, create a federal jobs program.
This is stuff Sanders has been saying for decades. It isn’t like Obama (a cipher) or Hillary (whose stance on pretty much every issue has changed more times than Mary Richards in an episode of the Mary Tyler Moore Show.)
I think Hillary’s expiration date has been reached. A televised debate between Sanders and Clinton would end it once and for all.
But like I said. Could we at least wait until we’re only a year away from the election to start telling other people they’re idiots?
In this connexion, this article in today’s WaPo is not without interest : http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/democrats-finally-get-a-contest-as-hillary-clinton-draws-challengers/2015/06/03/95fefaea-0a12-11e5-95fd-d580f1c5d44e_story.html….
As in the case of the adverb «never», one should be wary of using the adjective «Inevitable», not least in political discourse….
Henri
@ alex_the_tired –
It’s obvious to me from the lack of any substance and the reliance upon nothing but innuendo and insult that we have a troll
our midst.
I give a troll only one chance to be reasonable and then disengage from further discourse.
Perhaps you should consider refraining from casting any further pearls before swine.
🙂
Ted Rall
OMDG THANK YOU
Some of us are going crazy with all the delusional Democratic Party corporatist apologists out there
Good job.
Yet, I’ve read that Bernie (with 15%) still is 2nd in the race, leading all of the GOP candidates, none of whom has more than 10%. I’m hopeful that he can narrow the gap between Hillary and himself and become a serious contender in the next several months. 🙂
You have a lot to learn about how this sick, twisted, locked-up system really works. Don’t be a fool and fall for the Bernie “Sheep-dogging” for the Democrats trick. Have you been living in a cave these past few years?!
I love your obvious lack of logic and intellect when responding to a post based upon reports of poll numbers.
Nothing in that post substantiates anything in your lackluster conclusions and accusations. Are you perhaps prepubescent?
We desperately need a Putin of our very own.
Yes, we do.