— or maybe, started to love it….
I’ve been thinking lately of the very likely scenario in which the Republicans try to steal a close election — by doing all the things they have done before, just more boldly and more egregiously, since they know they have a fully compliant party behind them. And of course, I mean a party fully compliant on all levels. We know that the Republicans in the House and Senate will ignore any realities they need to, in order to retain power. Is it such a leap from exonerating Trump for crimes of which is manifestly guilty, to looking the other way as Trump and his brown shirts rig an election, intimidate voters, misplace ballots . . . ? And this doesn’t even consider electronic shenanigans by the overseas actors that Trump is now urging forward. Blech. Scumbags.
In this scenario, we will need a leader ready to bring down fire and brimstone for our cause, and a leader with followers who will march in the streets. I love Liz and Joe. Amy is growing on me, and while I don’t love Pete, I could love him if I need to. (Bloomberg I’ll never love….) But I don’t think any of those candidates can marshal up a foot army, can marshal up the passion necessary for followers to stop the traffic in Washington DC and New York with their numbers. And I’m not sure any of those leaders would even call for it.
Bernie would. He’s got that army now. The so-called “bros” (of all genders, races, etc.) will come out in force if Trump tries to steal this from Bernie. While I’m not sure how I feel about Sanders as President, in an ambiguous post-election period — or in a post-election period which Trump and his minions are making ambiguous through their effective manipulation of the media — Bernie is the candidate I want pressing our case. I got to admit it: he’s the one who won’t be Democratic nice and Democratic reasonable. He’s will bring righteous fury, and that is what we will need.
Plus, Bernie is pretty damn funny — and humor can do a lot. I just saw his take down of Trump: racist, sexist, homophobic . . . and those are his nice qualities! He wrote the damn bill, and his sense of comic timing will be no small asset when it comes to taking on Trump.
So I’m not sure I’ll vote for Bernie if this thing is still undecided when the primary comes to my state of Connecticut, but for the first time it occurs to me that I might.
Any other folks out there becoming Bernie-curious?
P.S. I know there’s nothing here about policy. I’m not convinced that policy will be all that different under any of our potential nominees, as the most conservative Democratic senators will have veto-power over all legislation. Bernie, of course, would shift the overton window to the left — and that’s not such a bad thing, either.