Let me start with the conclusion. Yesterday I wore a pin around the Missouri state capitol building.
The pin said “Gun Sense Voter.”
I doubt that I will ever wear a pin that says “Bernie Sanders.”
I am a life-long Democrat. I am hopeful that my vote in the 2020 Missouri Primary — which is one year and two weeks away, March 10, 2020 — and my vote in the 2020 National Election — which is 621 days away — will be for someone other than Bernie Sanders.
If I have to vote for Senator Sanders, I will.
I hope that I never have to.
My preferred candidates are Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren, and Sherrod Brown. I have contributed to Kamala Harris’s campaign, but by two-to-one, I have more books by Elizabeth Warren (and have admired her work since I first saw her on “the Daily Show”). With the exception of Tulsi Gabbard, I am not dead-set against any Democratic candidate.
Having said that, I put Sanders in a category just above Tulsi Gabbard; certainly above Donald Trump; and also above any candidate that the Republicans may bring in at the last moment to replace a disgraced Donald Trump.
However. I don’t expect Bernie Sanders to stand up to intense scrutiny. I don’t expect him to endure past the debates. I don’t expect him to be a factor at all in the Missouri 2020 Primary — which, as I say, is one year and two weeks away.
I expect to be making a choice between Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren.
I will be happy with either of them — — and if another candidate should emerge, it will be because I will be even happier with that candidate.
Bernie Sanders never struck me as someone I would want as the President. I bought his book “The Speech” when it first came out in 2011. ( I didn’t wait for the campaign-year reprint.) I was impressed by the speech. He certainly spoke well about the issue of income inequality. But that was the limit of his appeal, as far as I can tell .
To point out the limit of his appeal to me. I have been engaged on an issue with which Senator Sanders has not been engaged at all. Yesterday I drove 2 ½ hours to Jefferson City, Missouri, to take part in the Moms Demand Action “Advocacy Day” at the State Capitol. I’m here in this picture. And this one.
Bernie Sanders announced his candidacy yesterday. Here is his campaign video. It never mentions gun violence prevention. It certainly doesn’t mention his record on gun-related legislation. He has no record to run on.
I have seen comments on DKos that say that no Democratic candidate can win without the support of Bernie Sanders’s people. That is their lesson from 2016. Well, my lesson from 2018 — which I would extend into 2020 — is that no Democratic candidate can win without the power and the support and the energy of the Gun-Sense voters, Moms Demand, Students Demand, March for Our Lives, Everytown. There are candidates — Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren among them— who can point to their record on issues of gun violence. Bernie can not. As far as I can tell, he hasn’t tried.
I am a life-long Democrat. (Although next year I vote as a Septuagenarian.)
If I have to vote for Bernie Sanders, I will.
But I look forward to never having to vote for Bernie Sanders.