Wednesday, August 12, 2015

History repeats! (or Feel The Bern)



In 2008 it looked to all the world like we were about to get our first real shot at putting a woman in the President’s office. Hillary Clinton was that woman. She was a Senator, a successful author, well-respected in many circles inside and outside of politics, and people who did like her were so obnoxious about it that they didn’t know how to run against her for fear of a backlash. The whole thing about being married for a former President? Icing. But then along came Barack Obama, a freshman Senator and political activist. He came at Hillary from the left and WON, in no small part because Hillary ignored him for too long. Instead of our first female President we got our first Black one.
 
In the intervening 8 years Ms. Clinton became Secretary of State and developed a record that anyone would be proud of. Not only did she successfully pursue her President’s agenda, she became an internet meme and a good one. She came across as a badass and no attempt at creating a scandal ever really stuck. It was obvious to everyone that when Obama’s time was done that she would become the heir apparent. Now she’s running again and once again has been appointed the front runner.


And once again, an upstart is coming at her from the left and she isn’t taking it seriously enough. A lot can change, but right now it’s looking to me like she’s going to be usurped from the left once again as Bernie Sanders, a veteran Senator and continually winning underdog draws unbelievable crowds at events across the country as he taps into a new generation of people unhappy with the status quo.


In the past 8 years a certain meanness has developed in our political discourse that mostly boils down to angry old white men trying to tell the boy in charge that he doesn’t understand his place. People like me find it disgusting but I’m no centrist – I’m an unabashed liberal. But the question should be what do the people of the generation after mine think? As my oldest has grown into an adult I have witnessed the conversations he has with his friends and to a person they simply don’t understand the invective that gets thrown around. I think that they are a decent reflection of the country as a whole – we’re just tired of these rich assholes telling us what to do. Hate simply take up too much of one’s time.


We’re tired of the Status Quo.


Bernie represents a shift from the status quo. Until just this year, he has always called himself an Independent. He has championed progressive causes over and over again, and even though he’s been in congress for nearly 40 years he’s the outsider because of his lack of a party affiliation, something quite rare in Washington. Hillary, on the other hand is the ultimate insider and no one can deny that.


And there’s a question of the moves each candidate is making. Loot at the #BlackLivesMatter movement (BLM for short). They have taken to disrupting campaign events of all the Democrats in recent weeks and the candidates haven’t reacted very well. None of them did at first. And then Bernie made a move – he hired a racial justice activist as his press secretary and actually created a platform to address the issues of BLM. Hillary hasn’t done so well. While she met with BLM activists just today, BLM called her response to them “…a reflection on failed policy.” BLM wasn’t impressed.


If you can remember back to 2008 people were sick to death of Little Bush and his policies. They wanted a refreshing change and Hillary simply wasn’t enough of a change. 8 years later the people in charge of the Republican party are now saying that Bush II didn’t go far enough; that his policies could have worked had he stuck with them. That Shrub (as Molly Ivins used to call him) was not conservative enough to be successful. The closest thing we’ve come to a Dictator in this country in my lifetime (and admittedly, it wasn’t all that close) and he just wasn’t mean enough. So the people running things on that side of politics have grown more conservative. Meaner. More entrenched. Less willing to compromise. People are sick of it. They want a change.


And as of this moment, it looks once again like Hillary isn’t enough of a change to make it all the way to the White House. But Bernie is, and that might be all that it takes.


Of course, the same argument can be made about Donald Trump as he swoops in from the other direction like a vulture so this is going to be a little strange.


Cheap Shots (you owe yourself a Vodka hangover, but skip Smirnoff – do not make my mistake):


And Bernie is doing smart things like this, which can only help him.


Meanwhile, Hillary is doing dumb things like this, which betrays a certain tone-deafness.




I’ve known about this for over 30 years, but it still amazes me to hear Toni Tennille (of The Captain and Tennille) singing “Fuck all that!” in the background.


Ten bucks to the first debate moderator that asks him where he got the $400 Million.


The greatest photograph in jazz history. No kidding. A Great Day in Harlem.


What do these peaceniks know anyway? Oh, wait.






A lot of people, including Ted Cruz, should be tazed in the nuts over this.


“…your first foray into maybe wrecking your credit rating, or at least running afoul of an authority beyond your hometown…”


Baseball is a game of statistics, so some of you should love this.


Remember, this is the guy who disinvited The Trump from an event for saying mean things about women.


Children on the things candidates say.


No, it’s not named after Bill or Hillary. It’s been there since 1844. Set that aside and read the story about torture of prisoners instead.


Alice Cooper, Johnny Depp, Paul McCartney, Joe Perry, Dave Grohl, Perry Farrell, Slash and Joe Walsh. Now that’s a band.




And now a moment of Zen:





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