Running for president as a candidate requires candidates to sell out and wimp out to the Republicans. The only question is how.
Wimp and Wimpier: The Democratic Field for 2020
Ted Rall
Ted Rall is a syndicated political cartoonist for Andrews McMeel Syndication and WhoWhatWhy.org and Counterpoint. He is a contributor to Centerclip and co-host of "The Final Countdown" talk show on Radio Sputnik. He is 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 "2024: Revisited."
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I think Sanders is sui generis, something entirely of its own class, at least for most of the voters’ lifetime memories (you have to go back to FDR for the Sanders-type approach). Anyway, Sanders did sell out by endorsing Hillary Clinton, the war criminal.
However …
1. By the time Sanders realized the primary cycle was unwinnable due to rigging by the dnc and so forth, he’d already forced the kernel of the idea of increasing social programs and helping the working class onto the main stage. Hillary’s $12/hr was so ridiculed that it disappeared like a fart in a high wind.
2. Sanders’ selling out (we’ll agree on the term for now) was, basically, the only chip he had left to leverage.
3. Sanders probably took a look at the polls and realized that the contest was going to be a lot closer than people were admitting. Ted, himself, was one of the few to comment on this. Michael Moore was another. I’m sure a few others took a look and, realizing what Ted has mentioned before–that War Criminal Hillary Clinton has only won a single elected contest, and that was in deep-blue state against Rick Lazio, and it cost a fortune and she won by about a 5% margin–it was not uncommon knowledge among the insiders that Clinton was, at best, going to pull out a squeaker.
4. So think about that from Sanders’ perspective. If Hillary wins, she’s going to face an uphill fight all the way. The Republicans despise her with an intensity rarely seen: it’s personal, it’s visceral. She would probably have been fought if she moved to put Ronald Reagan’s face on all the money and use the entire Food Stamp budget to carve his face into Mt. Rushmore. She’s almost certainly going to be a single-termer. If she loses, then Trump will drive the country into a ditch. Either way, Sanders can’t save 2016, but he can position himself for 2020.
5. So he “sells out.” He’ll endorse Hillary, and urge his people vote for her. And in exchange, he gets fixes to the crooked dnc and also has the opportunity to keep himself in the election cycle WHILE continuing to talk about his social agenda. Hillary continues to self-destruct with her middlin’ way, and Sanders comes out of it sounding like the one who had the better plan. As the dirt about the dnc and the superdelegates comes out and is absorbed, it just paints Hillary as worse and worse.
6. So now we have what we have. Sanders has ignited a serious realization in a lot of people that they are, in fact, not free. That they are working themselves to death and accepting shitty health care and no raises and a retirement that will have cat food as an entree on those days of the week where food CAN be afforded.
7. I’ll agree that he sold out, but if he did, it was specifically because it gave him the best shot at the next time around. Had Hillary won, and won with Sanders being anything other than a “sell out” we would now be listening to Pres. Clinton explaining why the invasion of Iran was inevitable while Bill Clinton and the Clinton Foundation launder all the influence money from the lobbyists and “accidentally” all these laws favorable to Amazon, Pfizer, Exxon, etc. get passed while the minimum wage stays at $7.25.
I think all those 7 points are well made. One could even add additional ones:
8. The “liberal media” have successfully cast any outside candidate as “spoiler” no matter the actual record: more Bernie voters voted for HRC than HRC voters voted for Obama. Even though Sanders did not actually contest the election as an Independent after conceding the primary, supposedly Bernie somehow depleted HRC’s energy (poor thing) or made her go too far to the left (although she easily raised more corporate money than Trump), etc.
Sanders – while graciously holding his nose – certainly ended up campaigning a lot harder and more effectively for Hillary than Hillary herself.
They would still try to blame Trump on Bernie had he done anything less.
You left out the Wimpy Winner:
The big talk during the campaign, end the wars, go green, end the tax shelters for the wealthy, healthcare……ect.
The candidate that doesn’t offend the party leadership nods their head at all the right times during the democratic debates but in the general election the Wimpy Candidate doesn’t talk about a plan to move the nation forward…it just comes down to being one step better than DT.
After winning by a few electoral votes and the inauguration, the power brokers and lobbyist for big donors come knocking. Soon the promises and expectations start dying and you end up with nice speeches and few greatly watered down token bills passed..to be one step to left of the 2024 Republicans.