In 1994, on Martin Luther King’s birthday weekend, the DC area was hit with a savage ice storm. Residents awoke on Monday morning to a skating rink. As I gazed outside from our Arlington townhouse, I pondered a dilemma. Our Washington Post carrier had demonstrated stellar commitment to his job and delivered my paper on time; there it was on the ground just down the two jagged concrete steps at our iron gate. But the going was clearly treacherous, a perilous 10-12 footsteps to pay dirt. I could go rummage out back for some ice salt, but my coffee was hot and I needed that paper now for the world to be right!
And so out I ventured in only my skivvies and slippers, on a dangerous quest for data! Slowly I slid along the sheen, employing an effective side sidle. At the gate all was good, but the steps would be tricky, I knew. As I opened the gate, resplendent in a quarter-inch coat of frozen precipitation, I mometarily let go and slightly pivoted…. everything from that point is regret. In an airborne calamity only Dick Van Dyke or Seinfeld’s Kramer could perform on purpose, I levitated and landed on the edge of the cruelly unforgiving concrete. If I’m ever unfortunate enough to be knifed in the back, I’m certain it won’t exceed the preposterous agony of that moment.
These days, more than 25 years later, that ridiculous decision, coupled with being hit by a car as a teenager, not to mention the numerous indignities skateboarding “vert” inflicted, haunt my spinal column most every morning. Approaching the ugly 6 0 is bad enough without the torment of chronic pain, but what are you going to do? Yet and still, whatever physiological underpinnings exist for my discomfort, it’s a sure bet outrageous events of the day are fully capable of triggering spasm. And it’s a lock I’m not an outlier. No doubt Trumpism and it’s accompanying chaotic absurdity is good business for chiropractors and chronic pain specialists. Sadly, those we now depend on for deliverance, our resistance superstars, are not much helping matters.
If I had my way, the Democrats would head to some warm retreat and not emerge until a national unity ticket informed by only the objective of trouncing Trump was hammered out. It appears the Administration’s slapstick handling of the Coronavirus situation is forcing many out of their self-induced catatonia. When things are bad enough that a developing pandemic provides some silver lining, it’s darkness at noon time! However, the Democratic Presidential field does not seem affected, most all exhibiting unbridled devotion to personal ambition, which by definition only increases L’Enfant Terrible’s re-election odds.
Dana Milbank, the Washington Post’s Trumpism-centric critic, was spot on when, bemoaning the South Carolina Jerry Springerfest debate, he harkened back to the dark GOP primary days four years ago, as those with brain activity and some interest in responsibility to the job they sought were nonetheless too craven to sacrifice a sliver of personal ambition toward protecting the nation from calamitous nihilist populism. But while Milbank views a Bernie Sanders nomination as similarly apocalyptic to Trump’s dismantling of the Republican 2016 field, it’s only equivalent in so much as Sanders’ march to victory illuminates this group’s collective incognizance, or worse, deliberate indifference, to the national ruin another Trump term ensures.
First, let’s be crystal clear: only the Fox/AM set should be dense enough to equate Sanders to Trump, or his brand of populism to MAGA. Michael Gerson, who has previously distinguished himself as a neo- conservative willing to call out Trump for the menace he is, exuded his own limitations damning Sanders with the faintest praise by “not contending the moral character of the two men is comparable.” While “Sanders’s is clearly superior,” Gerson acknowledged, that’s only “clearing an ankle-high bar.” Really?
A guy who risked his life for African-American civil rights and consistently swam upstream against legislative groupthink follies like The Patriot Act and Iraq War is morally wanting? A youngster in Indiana was once so impressed by Sanders’ courage he penned an award-winning essay about him. Inspiring future Presidential contenders doesn’t strike me as bottom feeding in the morals department. Any comparison of Sanders to Trump on that subject is ugly slander, but no more than equating Sanders’ bloc of partisans to the MAGA wretched core. While both groups share a disdain for reasonable compromise, only one’s bigotry and incredible ignorance spawned our current pestilence.
Sanders has come to his formidable position atop the Democratic heap as honestly as one could expect. He’s done the work and created a genuine grass roots base of support. That his nomination – really in the works since 2016 – suddenly horrifies the party establishment speaks to their lazy delusions more than any sudden populist wave his candidacy is riding. He is saying nothing now he wasn’t holding forth on in 2016. Mayor Pete wrote eloquently as a lad about his hero’s disregard for conventional rigidity. Now, two decades later, within the throes of 1600 Penn. fever, Sanders’ past support of the Sandinistas, and abidance of Castro, is on a par with Trump’s disgusting embrace of MBS and Erdogan? News flash mayor, back in the early 80’s, if you had a major problem with overthrowing Somoza in Nicaragua, your running buddies were Bill Casey and Ollie North!
Whatever one thinks of Sanders’ chances in November, he is getting the votes right now. Acknowledging that reality means the other candidates have two options…. that is if they care about defeating Trump. The first is to get their minds around a Sanders nomination and work with him on broadening his message to reassure jittery centrists. Rather than a revolutionary, get him to adopt the “classic FDR Democrat“ brand. While focusing the message on economic fairness and a stronger government role guaranteeing it, stop with the scorched earth attacks on the upper brackets. Above all, present a united front, a team of rivals confronting the greatest threat to America since the Civil War.
The other course of action, adopted in the belief a Sanders-led ticket will be disastrous, is to take one for the team and coalesce around one moderate capable of denying Sanders enough delegates to discredit any argument a wide open convention reflects a rigged primary process. Whether or not the Berners will support anybody else isn’t near as important as whether the process overtly justifies their worst suspicions; that will fracture the party. Should he come into the summer considerably short of the magic number, only zealots can claim the issue has already been decided.
So will it be plan A or B? Incredibly, it’s a resounding “neither” for the foreseeable future. Just like Kasich, Rubio, Cruz and company, the current group reserves the right to indulge their own delusions of grandeur. Elizabeth Warren – she of the lowering single digits – would rather throw haymakers and interrupt at will than move in either direction. When asked whether she’d consider throwing in the towel to strengthen somebody else, Amy Klobuchar literally sneered at the suggestion. And Buttigieg? He’s still contesting Iowa while claiming Nevada was rigged. Son, 25 plus points is a lot of rigging.
Bloomberg can do what he wants because money isn’t a concern. Trending in South Carolina, Joe Biden will surely claim to be the comeback kid with a Palmetto state victory. Point is absolutely nobody is considering anything but the latest polling data and ad buys. The future of the nation? Uh, yea… sure thing. Meanwhile, don’t start praying for St. Bernie just yet. Faced with fierce and some downright scurrilous attacks, with claims his crusade resembles a different shade of destructive populism, Sanders has responded by….. beginning to resemble a destructive populist. Instead of “fake news” it’s “the media establishment.” Rather than “liberal elites,” it’s the “corporate interests.” Instead of just “us,” it’s “us versus them.” Sanders is sounding increasingly disinterested in unifying much of anything, least of all the party he’ll desperately need in November.
A year ago the grave consensus among Democrats was 2020 would be unlike any election in American history. Since that time we’ve witnessed a disintegration of responsible US government at the whim of an unhinged maniac. But something funny happened on the way to the convention; our prospective saviors forgot about their duty. Like Frodo, who when he finally reaches the ledge over the molten abyss, and prepares to toss the ring into its hellish depths, suddenly forgets his purpose while entranced by the lure of its power, these pols seem to have forgotten why they’re here. They better remember soon or ruin is nigh. Pass me a perc; my back is killing me! BC