Hillary Clinton decided early that the best way to win the Democratic primary was to run as a Democrat. I know, I know, your third grade teacher said never define a word with the same word.
Senator Bernie Sanders, made the decision that the symbolism of a leaderless revolution was the way to go. When has that ever worked? Moses stood on the mountain top, Washington stood in the boat as he crossed the Delaware and President Obama, stood at the head of the line and said, “Yes we can.” Donald Trump, is as wrong as two left shoes, as my granny use to say, but he gives his followers someone to mimic even in their misguided foolishness.
Mr. Sanders made the same mistake the Occupy Wall Street (dis)organizers made, he thought the people would rise to the occasion by themselves, and change, would be the inevitable outcome. The first real revolution in this country was the American Revolution and the first order of business was to postulate a set of standards, it was called ‘The Constitution.’ The founders did not run around bemoaning the status quo and wait for the people to rise up, they led them. The simple fact is, Bernie’s people did not show up and support their spokesman at the polls because he never would admit that even in a revolution something, somewhere, somehow, has to be, “the new establishment.”
Even now, does anyone really know what Bernie is demanding of the DNC. His loyal supporters can’t even go out and start the wheels of change rolling down the hill because Senator Sanders has not released the emergency brake. So they are stalled atop the knoll with slogans, chants and frustration. A campaign that started with so much promise has devolved into a personal exercise of self-aggrandizement of his ideas over substance. Cheering throngs of well-intentioned men and women believe something new is possible, if only someone would tell them the truth and let them know, shouts and wishing are not effective. Voting is!
As much as the Tea-party is based on bias and fear, they organized into a political action group that is responsible for some of the worse legislative change in American history; Citizens United, and changes to the 1965 Voter Rights Act. Fighting those changes have been the pillars of Senator Sanders’ campaign. Through poor organizational preparation he alienated African Americans in the south and by extension the rest of the community, by dismissing their importance to the Democratic Party and destroyed any hope of gaining the support of those outside his revolutionary circle by denying them the respect of difference.
Hillary has never objectified the millennials, dismissed new ideas without showing respect in her disagreement or making ‘Hillary or Bust’ an exclusive club. As a sixty-year-old African American man, I have never felt wanted by the Bernie people because I dared back someone from an establishment, that I am still not sure how you become a member. Hillary is not perfect, how insufferable would any perfect person be, but she is a declared Democrat and so am I. Senator Sanders still has to swallow hard when he says he is a Democrat. As a matter of fact, he only says, “I am running for President of the United States on the Democratic ticket.” I may not like all the things about my candidate but I at least know where to stand on the dividing line.
Vote 2016