Bernie Sanders knows what its like to be a working man!
Bernie struggled through life. He spent over a decade working his way through college, working for GM and UTC and even UPS as a Teamster. He had several side hustles, including delivering pizzas, tutoring calculus and working as a paid intern at planned parenthood. Once he graduated, he started his own business and became a jobs creator, too!
Oh, wait, that's me. Bernie worked as a handyman carpenter and failed at even that. He decided to go into politics and became a career politician. His wife ran a college into the ground. He became a landlord and owns at least three or four houses, including a dacha on Lake Champlain. Yes, he is a man of the people and knows of our struggle!
Or maybe not. He plays the populist card, but like my stinking hippie brother's communist puppet shows, he has no idea what working in a factory or warehouse is really like, other than in Marxist theory. And as I noted before, you come down to the factory spouting that commie bullshit, the "workers" will beat the snot out of you. The workers are very conservative, it turns out.
I have no doubt he is sincere in his beliefs - as was Ralph Nader - just wrong. The reason the "workers" didn't embrace Harris was because not because they thought the the Democratic Party was not left enough but was too far left. Bernie is right that the Democrats' platform didn't resonate with workers in steel mills in Springfield, Ohio. But the reason they didn't resonate was Bernie and AOC and Ohmar. They became the face of the Democratic party, thanks to Fox News and other right-wing media outlets, and Democrats let that go unchallenged.
There is a reason why, too. If Democrats distanced themselves from the far-Left of the party, they risk alienating the far-Left voters, who are skittish as it is - often threatening not to vote unless their demands are not met. This is what I call, "hostage politics" and it is quite popular these days.
Meanwhile, moving toward the center to appease moderate "independent" voters didn't work either, as the GOP and its media (and Russian) cohorts painted the Democrats as radicals. For many middle-of-the-road Americans, the idea of voting for a Democrat was just a non-starter, even if that candidate was Reagan or Trump (who were both Democrats at one time, oddly enough).
The Democratic "brand" has been tarnished and to many Americans, it stands for transgender school operations, litter boxes in the classroom for furries, student loan forgiveness, welfare state, and increased taxes. Most of these characterizations (if not all of them) are false, but they stuck. And they stuck because people love rage-bait - they love to hate things. And Fox News gave them a colorful piñata to whack at. And it felt good.
So no, it wasn't Bernie's fault - entirely - or that of Reps AOC and Omar. They represent a portion of the party that is on the leftish side, and the GOP used them to decorate their piñata. On the other hand, Sanders has some balls claiming to represent the working man, when he has never worked a day in his life as a factory worker or hard hat or fast-food worker. He has a lot of nice theories about what these jobs are like, but no real hard experience.
America is a conservative country. So are most other countries in the world. All across the world, right-wing parties are making gains or are in control. Even "liberal" Western Europe is turning to right-wing politics, in part due to the worldwide immigration crises. Leftist politics are past their "sell-by" date, worldwide.
Democrats are able to achieve power only when they lean in toward the center and advance centrist causes. Leftists hate this, but it is part and parcel of "the art of the possible." If you look back at the Democratic Presidents of the post-war era, you see a lot of centrist and sometimes conservative policies.
Kennedy cut taxes, expanded our role in Vietnam, and even greenlighted a ill-fated invasion of Cuba. Johnson did expand civil rights and "the great society" but escalated the war even further. Jimmy Carter was from the conservative South and implemented the deregulation of industries that Reagan largely took credit for (a typical Republican trick, by the way). And Clinton? He negotiated the legislation that resulted in welfare being disbanded, replaced by TANF, which provides only five years of "assistance" for your lifetime.
Even poor Obama was called out by the far-Left as being too conservative. Seems you just can't win at this game, no matter what you do!
People complain about our "two-party" system, yet when I went to the polls, there were five names on the Presidential ticket. The reason why three of them never went anywhere was because no one is that far-left or far-right. Heck, half the people voting for fringe candidates like Russian asset Jill Stein, do so only as a "protest vote."
So no, the problem wasn't that the Democrats were "not far left enough" but that they were painted as too far left. But yes, too, Bernie is right in that the Democrats didn't explain well enough how their platform would help the working class.
Tell people you will lower taxes on the middle class and raise taxes on the rich and all they hear is "...raise taxes..." because, let's face it, everyone thinks they are the "rich" particularly when you classify "rich" as someone making over $400,000 a year. You'd be surprised how many middle-class people make that much, particularly when they have dual incomes at good jobs.
The flip side is also true - they hear about cutting taxes for the lower classes and they think, "tax cut for minorities" which of course is racist. Act shocked. Trump's pie-in-the-sky proposals to eliminate taxes on tips and overtime resonated with the working class as he was talking directly about cutting taxes on labor itself. A waitress who has to cough up extra money to cover taxes on her tips (which often wipes out the base pay) feels they are being over-taxed. A factory worker agrees to work overtime, only to see the tax on his overtime pay rocket up (because of the higher pay rate) and appear to negate the time-and-a-half or double-time pay rate.
So yea, maybe Bernie has a point, but his solution isn't the answer. Going further left isn't going to entice conservative workers.
Of course, people are "blaming" other groups - young white men who follow Andrew Tate, Hispanics who are conservative Catholics, white women who vote their own rights away, Jews who think that Harris was too soft on Hamas, Palestinians who though Harris was too hard on Israel - the list goes on and on. You can't please everybody, particularly when they have been so effectively divided up into factions.
So, how did Trump do it? After all, while the Leftists are threatening me with universal healthcare and free college, there are, on the far-right, neo-Nazis, white supremacists, racists, misogynists, and antisemites, some of who have promised violence (or actually engaged in it) to get their way. How Trump navigates this is interesting. He "dog whistles" to the extremists ("good people on both sides") which infuriates the Left, but who cares? Half of the Left is threatening not to vote anyway, as a protest.
Republicans fall in line. They also have selective hearing. They might be peripherally aware that odious elements of the far-right support Trump, but they seem to be comfortable with filtering that out. Meanwhile, if even one Antifa activist expresses support for Harris, well, she's dead to them (Republicans, that is). Like I said, selective hearing.
There are some on the far-left who want to see the system fail. I talked with a friend who was upset over the election outcome. He said, "I hope these fuckers who voted for Trump lose their homes, their jobs, and their life savings - even if it means the same for me! Maybe only then will they see the folly of their ways and vote progressive!" It is the age-old argument of tearing down before starting over. Destroying the village to save the village. Sucks to be a Villager!
On that note, we made our reservations for a 14-day transitioning (repositioning) cruise to Spain. Cruise lines move their boats from the Caribbean to the Mediterranean and back, based upon demand. The fares are very low (~$750 per person) and the ships are sparsely populated. We plan on renting a VW camper van and exploring the Iberian peninsula, including Portugal, to see the sights and also think about expat living. We are taking another cruise ship back, to New Orleans, a month-and-a-half later, staying there a while and then taking the train home (sleeper car). It should be a fun trip. This summer, we are going to Canada to cool off and see what our options are there as well.
And no TSA, no Karens trying to claim your seat, no $20 drinks at the airport lounge! Crossing the Atlantic by ship - twice!
And before you say it, yes, I saw the article in the paper today about the "Four year cruise" - it is a scam. The company has a tired old cruise ship and has a chequered history, even before making that offer. And the price is ridiculous! For less than half the $250,00 they are asking, you could spend four years on state-of-the-art cruise ships!
