Brief Notes from a Political Dreamer

I’m a dreamer apparently.  I’ve always thought of myself as being pretty matter of fact; pragmatic to the point of being stodgy.  I guess not.  Since I’ve hitched my political wagon to one Bernard Sanders I’ve been relegated to the ranks of the starry eyed idealists; Utopians with big ideas and small chance for success.  I’ve been told by the Hillary crowd that a vote for Sanders is tantamount to a vote for the GOP.  “We like Sanders," they say in that patronizing, I'm talking to an 8 year old tone.  "He’s got good ideas but they aren’t realistic.  Hillary has a better chance of beating Trump.”

I object your honor.  In fact, as Demi Moore said in A Few Good Men; “I strenuously object.”  You see, I’ve been laboring under this notion that you cast your vote for the candidate whose platform appeals to your vision of where America should be heading.  I've been told now that’s all wrong.  Instead of voting with my conscience and for principals that I hold sacred the strategy is solely to keep a blustering, raging blow hard out of the Oval Office.  In sports this tactic is called “playing not to lose” and when it’s employed it often leads to; you guessed it – a loss.  Playing not to lose is fundamentally weak; in both foundation and confidence.  And playing not to lose appears to be the primary reason for renouncing Sanders.  I wonder.  If you took all of the Democrats who want to play not to lose and you added them to the voters who are backing Sanders is it not possible that Sanders could actually win?  

The GOP never seems to play not to lose.  They select a candidate and a platform that adheres to the party philosophy and they run with them. Yeah it hasn’t worked in the last presidential election but it’s sure kicked some ass in the midterms.  But beyond that, dammit they play to win with what they have.  They play with testicular fortitude.  As Admiral Porter Farragut said at Mobile Bay, "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead." 

The other rationale assumes that if Sanders were actually to be elected to the presidency his lofty ideas are simply too impractical to be achieved.  Liberals clamor for; single payer health care, Wall Street reform, lower drug costs, living wages and the overall notion that people, particularly the middle class, count for more than business and the military-industrial complex.  But no; that’s all pie in the sky fantasy. So despite that these are what we believe are right, since they might fail let’s just settle.  Let’s give up before we begin and ignore the advice that if you don’t ask or you don’t try you’re 100% certain not to get.  I’m glad those old boys in 1776 didn’t feel that way; I’m not a big fan of Yorkshire pudding and tea and crumpets. Instead of actually working for what we want for America, let’s just lower the bar.

I expect little from Ms. Clinton; particularly in a first term where I would anticipate a careful, middle of the road and almost conservative president playing not to lose a second term.  I see pandering to business and banks.  But why believe me when you can take it from a banker. “She’s gonna all of a sudden become Mrs. Wall Street if she’s elected. So it’s all Bernie theatrics right now,” Camden Fine, the head of the Independent Community Bankers of America, told the Morning Consult. “She’s a Clinton, for God’s sake. What do you expect?” Going into the election year she was expecting a coronation and instead she’s found herself in a fight that she hadn’t bargained for.  And so I anticipate a shift to the center; or a shift to the left; back to the center; do-si-do.  It's a well practiced if not well concealed political two step.  

If Hillary Clinton turns out to be the only game in town I suppose that I'll play; but it would be like that dreadful decision at the Black Jack table when you draw a 13. To hit or not to hit.  All too often you draw a queen and go bust.