I really think that by the time the real contest is decided, in other words after the primaries, it'll be Trump vs Sanders, which would suit me just fine.
Sanders is the man, but I wouldn't mind having Trump, either. Trump's pretty progressive on a lot of things, such as Social Security, health care, spending on infrastructure and basic research, normalizing relations with Russia, getting us out of wars that should only be of concern to Europe, etc.
Trump was dismissed by the ruling Republican elite from day one. Actually, he was dismissed by everyone, pretty much. The mainstream media has done EVERYTHING to try to bring him down including Fox and Roger Ailes with that blatant ambush attempt at the GOP debates.
Trump has survived and hes thriving.
As for Bernie, his greatest ally at this point is Hillary who is imploding by the second. It would seem impossible for her to escape the damage she has brought on herself. In addition, she doesn't have the personality or the energy or the charisma. She's toast.
And Biden, Gore(???) no way. Bernie's going all the way.
So, Bernie and Trump. That's my call.
14 comments:
It doesn't matter much if the orange man retains control of the house.
If Bernie gets in the first thing he should do is mint the goddamned coin. And then explain MMT to the public when hyperinflation does not come.
Trump for all his faults strikes me as a more decent person than the establishment prostitutes.
Bernie is not a savior but certainly he would be better than Hillary.
Of course a President Trump or a President Sanders would not be able to accomplish very much with our corporate-controlled Congress. At best, an anti-establishment President would use his bully pulpit to move the Overton window and reshape their party in their image.
However it seems more likely that an anti-establishment candidate would either 1) sell out like Tsipras and it would be business as usual or 2) if they continued to resist the establishment they would not be able to get their legislation passed and they'd be ineffective and go down in flames like Jimmy Carter.
It's hard to be optimistic these days.
I'd give a slight edge to Trump on that score. He seems to have very strong powers of persuasion and knows how to use the media. That's huge.
Trump is a self-identified wheeler-dealer and has said that it's how he'd run things if elected.
Bernie is a longtime congress critter himself, first elected in 1990, and he knows how the place functions. He believes in compromise to get things done.
However, Congress is polarized around positions and it's questionable whether wheeling and dealing or compromise can do much to move things through.
Whoever is going to eventually get this is going to have to be an anti-establishment person...
BOTH of these candidates I look at as anti-establishment so if it goes down this way, then the differentiator in the general might be who is the most anti-establishment... could lead somewhere...
rsp,
I wouldn't be so sure. Clinton's strategy is to avoid saying anything controversial, throw a few bones to the left only as absolutely necessary to keep them sniffing at her campaign, run out the primary season clock and then tack back to the center. It might work. Unless Sanders scores in the early primaries, Clinton will hang on. And then she'll be running against some misogynistic boob or right wing kook. She'll probably score a 20 point gender gap victory among women voters in the general election. So men are going to have to vote against her in massive numbers. That probably won't happen, since too many guys aren't with the Republican crazies. She's trying to win with boredom.
She might be in jail Dan....
She's got some major legal problems.... (see Bill and Vernon golfing with Barry on Sat on the Vineyard....)
rsp,
Trump is best at casinos. How this qualifies him in the slightest for President is beyond me. Here is a sample of his ability:
Trump: ‘I Would Bomb the Hell Out of the Oil Fields’ in Iraq to Fight ISIS (and Take the Oil)
August 18, 2015 By 21wire 1 Comment
21st Century Wire says…
Like most Republicans, anything outside of US shores is treated as an abstraction, and GOP candidates normally stick to FOX News narratives for fear of not sounding knowledgeable (which they are not). Either Trump has the worst foreign policy advisers (or no foreign policy advisers), or he doesn’t actually know what he’s talking about.
His plan: to stop ISIS we need to “cut off their finances”, so the US must bomb the Iraqi oil fields (even though ISIS only control a tiny number of oil fields in Iraq), and then deploy thousands of US troops to protect US oil corporations like Exxon while they pump Iraq’s oil and then keep (and sell) that oil for themselves. Trump believes this is a sound course of action (even though he would end up in the Hague).
Incredible…
Any damn fool can be President. This kind of "democracy" is a meaningless and shameless dupery.
Meanwhile, in Canada.... zzzz
Good discussions of current events regarding ISIS, Syria, Turkey:
http://21stcenturywire.com/2015/08/18/israel-planning-ground-operations-in-syria-us-nato-israel-plans-to-balkanize-syria-redraw-middle-east/
http://21stcenturywire.com/2015/08/16/episode-97-sunday-wire-trouble-in-asia-minor-with-host-patrick-henningsen-and-guest-james-corbett/
Nothing will get done with the political establishment in Washington anyway. Better stop believing in fake monarchs which don't hold real power or Santa Claus.
None of this guys have the back up (or will probably) to blow up the system (dismantle 'democracy' and purge the corrupt Washington) to do anything. However, the good thing about any of the two getting elected is that it would should how much in a failed state the Republic is right now.
I'm not sure though that is going to happen, IMO Hitlary will be the next president as things stand right now. Hillary will use every single trick necessary to get ahead of Sanders (like she probably has been beyond the BLM activists against Sanders fiasco) then will use and abuse stupid identity politics to confront Trump and win. Hillary is bad news for USA, but right now is probably the candidate which will be.
Hope I'm wrong though and is Sanders vs. Trump, and at that point whoever wins will be largely irrelevant (as both candidates are probably closer politically in practice than most realize, and against the establishment, but won't be able to do jackshit).
Kervick is dead wrong.
Clinton will be indicted before she ever makes President. She is the worst boob (npi) ever to command such poll numbers. Says a lot about the moronic left in this country.
The left is simply made up of a coalition of the fringes , with Hillary being it's standard bearer. Trump would obliterate her if it comes down to those two.
That's why Sanders has been saying at every speech that he can't do much alone. The whole point of his campaign is to start a "political revolution" that would bring many new people into the political process...hopefully enough to not only win the presidency but with coatails to flip Congress as well. If this were to happen, it could only happen with Bernie at the top of the ticket. Hillary may be boring enough to win the general, but no way she has the coattails to flip Congress. As Dan said she is just too boring. And her credibility is collapsing by the minute.
I think Sanders is running at best a vanity campaign, and possibly a sheep dog campaign. If Hillary gets the nomination then Sanders will be forgotten and there will be no lasting movement.
If Sanders wins the nomination and loses the general election, that will merely discredit the so-called left wing of the Democratic party, similar to McGovern's campaign.
If Sanders does win the presidency, then yes he will have a chance to reshape the Democratic party in his image similar to what FDR did. But he would have to have "his" people win big in the 2018 midterms, just as New Dealers won big in 1934.
If Sanders gets the nomination, pay close attention to his choice of running mate because Bernie is about 100 years old. Chances are the running mate will end up in the oval office.
Bear in mind that there will probably be a recession between now and the election. That will discredit the Democrats and people will want a change of leadership. You can laugh at the Republican clown show but in a 2 party system you don't have to do anything right to win.
Post a Comment