Mad King Watch (Take IV): Letter From Bernie (Glimmers Of Hope?)

 

<Spotted On Instagram>

Another can of worms, another stomach burns

Yeah, your ghetto burns,

It's the song I hate, the song I hate...

A sieg heilin' squirt, you're an important jerk
Yeah, a fascist twerp, 

it's the song I hate, the song I hate...

We're banging pots and pans to make you understand
It's the song I hate, the song I hate...
<"Youth Against Fascism," Sonic Youth>

Fact! Tsunami were "Youth Against Fascism" before fascism was cool ! This show apparently never happened. I found the flyer in the SMR suitcase archive but couldn't remember a thing about it. @markanderson has a memory that @SonicYouth asked us to organize the show but couldn't play it for some reason. I don't remember any hard feelings though...@sonicyouth were always pretty cool. Can you even imagine getting a permit to do this type of protest at the Washington Monument in 2025 when park rangers are fired and the Nazi salute is back in vogue. Time for a reunion? I'd give a lot to see the Holy Rollers again.

========================================================================================

Well, much has happened, as they say, so, no use trying to summarize all the nefarious doings rattling around Trumpworld -- as I've said in the past, we'll leave that task to others. The real question, obviously, focuses on the immediate and practical, as in, "What can we do about all this madness swirling around us?"

That's why we thought it's worth running this latest update on Bernie Sanders's road tour of the nation, talking directly to voters -- red, blue, or green, and everything in between -- outlining what's at stake if Trump's orgy of mass firings, "impounded" funds, and other Biazrro World maneuvers are allowed to go unchallenged.

Word has now gone out that AOC and Harris's running mate, Tim Walz, are offering to hold any town halls that the Republicans are refusing to do. We've seen this movie before, of course, in 2017 -- when Republicans went into hiding, acting as though they'd just enrolled in the witness protection program, while they plotted to unwind the Affordable Care Act (ACA). 

It won't help them then, and it won't help them now, since my standing joke is that even red state voters will probably miss such fripperies as Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security (not to mention more specific ones closer to home, like special needs programs, or farm contract payments).

The guiding point that sticks out for me, in Bernie's letter, is that "we cannot simply be on the defensive -- in opposition to Musk and Trump." The opposite, in other words, from what out of touch Boomer technocrats like James Carville are advising: "Play dead, play possum," as if the political era of 1996 still existed, and the combatants were still quibbling over the finer points of budgetary arcana. Suffice to say, when the legacy media holds up this grizzled Yoda-like figure who hasn't worked domestic elections in decades, as some kind of working class whisperer for the ages -- if you believe that, well, I've got some prime swampland you can help me drain.

Now is the time to be heard, because in six months, we may not get the same chance if we lay back, and rest on our real or imagined laurels. As Bernie points out in his letter, broad levels of public support do exist for a more equitable healthcare system, and getting big (tech) money out of politics, among many other progressive goals. At some point, Trump and his minions will be gone from the scene that spawned them, and the Democratic Party cannot dine out indefinitely on that standard go-to takeout dinner of, "We're not Trump." 

Look at what happened during the pandemic, when circumstances forced governments' hands, large and small, to provide the sane relief measures they'd always begged off as too expensive, or impractical, or wide-ranging to implement. For an all too brief period, Americans got a glimpse of what a more extensive social safety net might look like -- from the expanded child tax credit, to the eviction moratoriums, and pauses on student loan debt, to name three major examples.

And, while that list might not exactly given Europeans sleepless nights, the array of supports offered a tantalizing preview of what we could have, if we could force the political governing class to do it, if we only could get them to feel the heat of public opinion! This idea offers a powerful antidote to the bromides that have delivered so little for Democrats at the political box office -- starting with, "Here's what you can't have, for Reasons A, B and C, so let's see what you stand."

Imagine what kind of world we'd have, for instance, had Obama not caved in to killing the public option. Or codified Roe v. Wade into law. Or raised the minimum wage, or overturned Citizens United, or banned gerrymandering, when Democrats enjoyed a 58-40 majority in the US Senate, during Obama's first two years as President -- when you could have passed whatever reforms you wanted.

Remind your friends and neighbors of these unpleasant facts, the next time they claim, "Obama tried hard, but the Republicans wouldn't let him do anything." True enough, for much of his tenure, but not during those crucial opening two years (2008-10), which end up the high water mark of newly elected Presidents' domestic achievements. Claiming, "They wouldn't let him," sounds better than the alternative ("We couldn't be bothered, because we always thought we'd get another shot"). 

And look what happened, once those extended supports were allowed to wither away, and companies began bullying people back into the office, out of some misplaced notion of going "back to normal." Who cares if you can barely afford the food on your hope, or the bill it costs to keep your lights on? You can always get some third or fourth dead end job to shell out for it all, right?

Forget it! We can, and must, do better than allowing all these reactionary oligarchs to impose some reheated Cromwellian 16th century social order by executive fiat. The GOP's collective alibiing for its Dear Leader offers a real opportunity for Democrats to clear the decks, stop dancing on the defensive, explain their ideas, and force an honest discussion about what they'd like to see happen.

Now that they've gotten the baton back, let's hope they don't drop it yet again, and bring home the realities of what's at stake. Never forget the real reason that all those supports faded away, and the bullying back to the office, returned with such full force.

Not because they didn't work, from their perspective -- but because they worked just a little too bit well. Now is our chance to let them know, loud and clear, once and for all, that it's high time for something else. Something that works for us, for once. --The Reckoner

Links To Go:
Austin American Statesman: Rally For Democracy Photos:
https://www.statesman.com/picture-gallery/news/politics/2025/03/08/elizabeth-warren-rally-austin-speech-texas-democrats/82055454007/?fbclid=IwY2xjawI7SHJleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHZ2M4nXZj7wfMq4z1M8Gb0-Tg2TADiHBWNqzZd61WuCksZRGFVewVj2dsA_aem_7ugjRT1xmDymjY-xm7zlPQ

Sonic Youth: Youth Against Fascism (Video):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWzIlCJAw-o

Yahoo Finance: Business Leaders Turning On Trump -- Fast:
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/american-business-leaders-turning-trump-164624598.html

========================================================================================

You know history as well as I do. Real change never takes place from the top on down. It always takes place from the bottom on up when ordinary people, by the millions, stand together to fight oppression and injustice.

With your help that is exactly the movement that we are building.

Over the last several weeks I have held a series of town meetings in districts with Republican House members who won close races in the last election.

And what I have found is that in these districts, and all across the country, Americans are saying loudly and clearly: NO to oligarchy, NO to authoritarianism, NO to kleptocracy, NO to massive cuts in programs that working people desperately need, NO to huge tax breaks for the richest people in our country.

As you know, the Republican majority in the House is very slim. If we can convince 2 or 3 Republican members from these districts to vote against cutting Social Security, Medicaid, Education, Nutrition and VA programs in order to pay for huge tax breaks for billionaires, we can defeat that horrendous piece of legislation.

Our first events in Nebraska and Iowa drew thousands of people.

But that was NOTHING compared to the events we just wrapped up this weekend in Wisconsin and Michigan.

On Friday night in Kenosha, Wisconsin we drew 4,000 people who came out on a cold night to stand up and make their voices heard.

The next day, we went to Altoona, WI -- population 9,200 -- where we had over 2,500 people attend our town meeting. I have long been told that progressive ideas are not popular in rural America.

Not what I saw there.

People in Altoona, and across the country, understand that health care is a human right, and our economy must work for all, not just the few.

And we closed our meetings in Warren, Michigan where we had more than 9,000 people come out to hear Abdul El-Sayed, Shawn Fain of the UAW and me. It was a gym full of people.

And an overflow crowd.

And an overflow-overflow crowd.

And an overflow-overflow-overflow crowd.

And by the way. At these rallies I made it clear that we cannot simply be on the defensive - in opposition to Musk and Trump. The working families of this country are hurting and we must go on the offensive - fighting for concrete solutions that will improve their lives NOW.

The good news is, poll after poll also shows that our agenda is incredibly popular with the American people. People want the wealthiest in this country to pay their fair share, they want leaders with the guts to take on the drug companies and the oil companies. They understand that healthcare is a human right, not a privilege. Overwhelmingly, they want an end to our corrupt political system that allows billionaires to buy our elections.

We’ve now taking our campaign against Oligarchy to Nebraska, Iowa, Wisconsin and Michigan. Next, it looks like we’ll be heading out west.

Let me close by thanking the almost 200,000 people who have contributed over the past few weeks to make these rallies possible. I am very appreciative of your continued financial support.

In solidarity,

Bernie Sanders

Snap Impressions: I Survived This Fiscal Chicken Theater (So Where's My Lousy T-Shirt, Already?)

 

"It Could Be Worse, Right?"/
The Reckoner>

There's no ink drying yet on any agreement, but the gatekeepers and scorekeepers aren't letting the grass grow under their feet. America has once again flirted with its bout of Fiscal Chicken Theater -- a/k/a, the brouhaha over the debt ceiling -- and, while it's too early to breathe easily just yet, seems likely to survive, with minimal room to spare. 

Now that the gory details are finally emerging, the only question that seems to grip the punditocracy, and its stenographers in the likes of The New York Times, and The Washington Post, is the elementary one. "Who won? Who lost? Who got served by whom?" the herd collectively thunders.

So goes the "baseball game/horse race/beauty pageant" model of MSM (mainstream media) coverage, as I call it, one that distills everything through a who's-won-who's down narrative, topped off by the predictably sketchy impressions of the players involved.

But what distills also distorts, as we know all too well. "It could have been worse" is the prevailing mantra being trotted out by MSM sages like Dan Pfeiffer: "People on the Left and the Right are unhappy, but that is to be expected. No deal gets the agreement of the Democratic president and the Republican Speaker and is universally praised.”

Perhaps. Possibly. Other outlets, like the New York Times, are casting the tentative deal as no worse than the sort that might emerge during budget negotiations in a Republican-controlled House of Representatives: "The agreement would protect the military and entitlements like Social Security and Medicare from spending cuts imposed on other parts of government.”

I suspect that this anguished Tweet served up on Saturday by Sarah Christopherson, legislative and policy director of Americans for Tax Fairness, a progressive think tank, captures the prevailing progressive mood more aptly:

"Jesus fucking Christ. $10 b from tax enforcement in a big ol gift to rich tax cheats; work requirements & time limits in SNAP & TANF to push poor ppl deeper into poverty; NDD [non-defense discretionary*] cuts of 5% in real dollars. Is there anything the White House didn't cave on?"

Ms. Christopherson is fundamentally accurate on every point. The poor, as they always do, got thrown under the bus; "It's the kidney machines that pay for rockets and guns," as Paul Weller observed in the Jam's 1980 classic, "Going Underground." Forty-odd-years later, it's saddening to see how little has changed since he wrote those lyrics.

And even a five percent spending cut for domestic programs, however small it seems, will have markedly negative consequences for those who depend on them. Wealthy tax dodgers also have reason to celebrate, since any undercutting of resources from already overmatched regulators will surely kneecap the Biden administration's publicly stated quest to make the tax code work for everybody. 

As damaging as these outcomes are, however, they aren't the worst ones. Leading progressives, like Bernie Sanders, repeatedly urged Biden to stand up publicly to his antagonists, notably by invoking language in the 14th Amendment ("The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned"). Doing so, proponents argued, would allow Biden to bypass Congress altogether, and take the debt ceiling club off the table forever, at least, theoretically.

But that notion was always going to be a big ask of Biden, as a conventional politician who came up in a much more conventional era -- when games like Fiscal Chicken Theater simply didn't happen, because nobody envisioned their opposition pulling such a stunt to get their own way, at any cost.

Presumably, the various trial balloons that Biden trotted out publicly against invoking the 14th Amendment (I don't have time; It's an untested theory; It's too wacky to try; The markets wouldn't like it) sounded better than the obvious one he didn't say aloud (I won't do it, because it's never crossed my mind).

Would the high courts that right wingers have spent so much time and money to cherry pick really gone along with their brethren's attempts to blow up the economy over that untested 14th Amendment theory?

We'll never know, because nobody tried it. Certainly not President Biden. But even if they had, it's worth asking, who looks better here? The 99-year-old Granny Doe, faced with losing her Social Security check to pay rent? Or so-called Supreme Court justices scuba diving in Indonesia, thanks to some deep-pocketed patron with an unsettling fetish for Nazi memorabilia?

In the final analysis, this is the problem with orthodox liberals. Decades of legal and political dunking have beaten them down to the point of accepting stalemate as the only option that's worth pursuing. In this mindset, the mere avoidance of disaster is touted as some positive sign that the system works,  however dysfunctional it's become. Sleepwalking through a tired script is preferable to flipping it, because the latter task requires too much effort.

Apparently, nobody feels compelled to remind Biden and his inner circle of Churchill's famous aphorism, uttered after Britain's retreat from Nazi troops on the shores of Dunkirk, in 1940: "Wars are not won by evacuations."

For evidence, look no further than Biden's equally vexing refusal to push for the expansion of a Supreme Court whose uber-right majority is working night and day to hobble his Presidency. 

Would a Republican President, staring down a similar dilemma, stay so committed to such a resolutely passive course? If you believe that, I've got some Florida swampland you can all help me drain.

Until the Democrats make a stronger, more coordinated and disciplined push to unstuff and undo the various penalty boxes that they've been locked in, for decades -- the court captures, the filibusters, the gerrymanders -- their policy wishes will remain largely academic arguments, at best.

And yes, obviously, the next generation can't come onstage soon enough, as the gruesome spectacle of California Democrat Dianne Feinstein's ongoing cognitive decline amply demonstrates. Yet one moment of truth surfaced last week, amid reports of Feinstein's apparent inability to recognize her one-time colleague, Vice President Kamala Harris.

According to those reports, a befuddled Feinstein -- on seeing Harris acting in her major role, of presiding over the Senate -- asked her aides, "What's she doing here?"

It's a question that Feinstein, and most of the major players from her political generation. would do well to ask themselves, as well. Because if they ever asked us, they wouldn't like the answer they get. -- The Reckoner

[*Inserted here by yours truly, to fully explain the term, and avoid confusing the reader.]

Who Decides, Who Decides?: Exit Bernie (Now Is Not The Time To Let Up)

"You are what you settle for."

<Janis Joplin>

<i.>

Let's be honest. It was always going to be a heavy lift. But it was an exhilarating run while it lasted, I learned a lot from it, and I don't feel like letting up.

That's how I feel about Bernie Sanders's exit from the presidential race on Tuesday, giving the Democratic Party establishment what it's wished for since 2016, when he first turned up to crash the party.

You can almost feel the high fiving and football spiking going on right now, all across America's boardrooms: Yeeeaaahhh! We sure showed him, didn't we? Waaa-hooo! Free college, my ass! Medicare For All, my ass! Wealth tax, my ass! The rumpled Anti-Christ from Vermont has finally, irrevocably and unalterably been put in his place.

That's the tone of pieces like the one I found on The Conversation, whose headline reads, "Bernie Drops Out, As Democrats Pick Pragmatism Over Consistency." The author happens to be an assistant adjunct professor at Colorado University, a credit reeking of irony. If somebody like this -- who apparently never won the tenure lottery -- can accept such an outcome, and by definition, the very system that keeps him at the bottom of the academic ladder, it's game over for everybody else. Telling me to head straight to the last Kubler-Ross stage (acceptance) doesn't fill me with confidence.

All's right again with the world, which is now safe for Word Salad Joe to continue with his quirky mangling of the English language.

Progressive sentiment be damned. Time to grit our teeth, as they hand us back the keys to our jail cells, and prepare to herd us into line once more, returning us to the same old, same old unforgiving muddle that's  frozen America in place for 30-odd years. Dreaming big is out; resigned exhaustion is back in. There's a pandemic raging, so what else do you expect, right? Judging by what I see on Facebook, though, more than a few folks are still expecting quite a lot. 

Reactions to Tuesday's announcement range from outright disgust ("RIP, United States," "Something is wrong"), to impatience with their fellow man's foibles ("we had a viable 'third party' candidate and fear of the word 'socialism' scared people off"), to hopes of building on the energy he let loose, as the Sunrise Movement sees it ("He inspired us to become the political revolution we had been waiting for"). 

<3D Paint Artwork: The Reckoner

Lyrics: Public Enemy ("Fight The Power")

<ii.>

If you're looking for a postmortem examination, this isn't the time or place.  Am I going to swallow hard, and vote for Biden this fall? Honestly, I don't have a clue, because I wasn't necessarily expecting to entertain the question.

It does help that Biden's pledged to pick a female running mate -- presumably to ease the pain of women voters who watched six of their own get chased out of this year's race. Maybe if he picks a progressive woman for Vice President, it'll seal the deal? Maybe. We'll see.

Progressives had other ideas, I suspect, after Biden's barrel scraping, cellar dwelling finishes in Iowa and New Hampshire. For a brief moment -- a maddeningly fleeting one, just like in 2016 -- our biggest dream finally seemed possible. Hey, Bernie might really win this thing! The stars might actually fall into alignment this time!

That's not what we got. Still, I'll always relish the panic that a potential Sanders nomination aroused among pillars of the Democratic establishment, like James Carville -- the same guy who's spent 30 years dining out on that expression, "It's the economy, stupid" -- and talking heads like Chris Matthews, who infamously equated the Jewish Vermonter's initial rise with Nazi Germany's military defeat of France in 1940. 

So what went sideways for Bernie this time? I'm sure a mini-cottage industry of books will spring up to dissect that question, but I'll save that autopsy for a different day. The only thing I'd really fault him for, honestly, was sticking by his well-documented unwillingness to air his private life more openly, which he did -- briefly, around the beginning of 2019 -- only to drop it like a stone.

Most people have long forgotten that episode, I'm sure, but it fascinated me. In some ways, Bernie's pre-fame, pre-political life reads like a Marvel Comics origin story. His mother died a renter while he was still young. She never lived to achieve her dreams of owning a home. I have no doubt that this loss, and the trauma surrounding it, cast the die for the path that Bernie would follow, from civil rights campaigner, to struggling writer and businessman, to third party insurgent upstart, and beyond. 

Should have he talked more about his childhood and early adult life, and how it shaped him, on the campaign trail? Would it have immunized him, at least somewhat, from potential red-baiting onslaughts, or helped voters relate to him better, especially the doubters?

Well, he didn't do it, so we'll never know. But it's another snapshot that tempts me to think beyond what is, and what might have been.

<3D Paint Artwork: The Reckoner

Lyrics: Public Enemy ("Fight The Power")

<iii.>

Coronavirus changed everything, of course. With so much widespread suffering and dying, it would have looked odd for Bernie to continue exhorting his micro-donor army to pledge money, and keep him in the fight. Naturally, he didn't do that, deftly redirecting the focus to fundraising for the crisis, and the various charities associated with it. 

As a donor, I appreciated knowing about them, such as the Rent Zero Tenant Organizing Fund, or the Restaurant Worker Disaster Relief Fund, for example. As a creative person, I especially donating to the Craft Emergency Relief Fund, an organization that advocates for artists. 

I'll continue giving to them when I can, because art -- and the impulse of making it -- is what keeps us human, even as the tech industry would have us become navel gazing zombie goldfish. People don't think about these things until they're threatened, but that's just good old human nature for you, isn't it?

The pandemic also killed the massive, festive rallies that provided the Sanders campaign's enduring visual signature. Virtual campaigning will never substitute for getting up close and personal with potential supporters, as Biden's awkward broadcasts from his Delaware home have already demonstrated. (Then again, Trump can't hold his massive Nuremberg-style rallies, so I guess that balances out the equation in some perverse way, I guess.)

If nothing else, however, the pandemic has brutally exposed the shortcomings of the system that's still taking millions of Americans for a ride. We live in the 21st Century, but it looks and smells more like the 19th Century: Insecurity with an app. All the shiny digital imagery and feelgood techspeak about "sharing" can't paper over those particular cracks.

The crisis also poked a hole in Trump's long-anticipated plan to coast on how well the rich are doing, as his well-documented obsession with the stock market suggests. For those at the top, it's always morning in America. For those who aren't, the mood is closer to twilight, with one missed paycheck or job loss away from total disaster.

The mainstream media's reaction to Bernie's exist has been oddly measured, and downright respectful, as this nugget from yesterday's New York Times editorial ("Bernie Sanders Was Right") suggests:

"He was right from the very beginning, when he advocated a total overhaul of the American health care system in the 1970s. 

"He remains right now, as a pandemic stresses the meager resources of millions of citizens to their breaking point, and possibly to their death. 

"He was right when he seemed to be the only alarmist in a political climate of complacency. 

"He is right now that he’s the only politician unsurprised to see drug companies profiteering from a lethal plague with Congress’s help. In politics, as in life, being right isn’t necessarily rewarded. But at least there’s some dignity in it."

<3D Paint Artwork: The Reckoner
Lyrics: Public Enemy ("Fight The Power")

<iv.>

Reading those words feels a little bit odd to me, because The New York Times -- and also, the Jeff Bezos-owned Washington Post -- ranked high among the complaints about how the mainstream media covered him. I'd throw in other suspects like CNBC, that hosted the now-discredited Matthews' infamous on-air meltdown.

Much of their coverage felt dismissive, jeering and patronizing, and I have no doubt the steady drumbeat of fear that they worked to arouse ("Don't vote your heart, vote your head instead/Or you'll get Trump, you'll get Trump, you'll get Trump") left its mark. This is understandable, from a historical perspective. If you beat down people long enough, they'll stop demanding, stop marching, and stop trying to hold the same empty suits who play sneaky panther power games with their lives accountable for the slow, steady erosion of those lives. 

It's a trend that picked up steam during the 1980s, when the Democratic Party rolled its eyes, shrugged its shoulders, and began forsaking its core base of blue collar, minority and poorer voters to pursue the same Big Money Chase that the Republicans already down to a science. So what's a progressive to do, exactly?

We must continue casting ballots for Bernie, who remains on the ballot nationwide. If nothing else, it'll enable Bernie to keep amassing delegates, exert an influence on the Democratic Party platform, and remind Team Biden of our energy and strength that he'll need to lift him over the finish line.

We must continue organizing around issues that matter, whether it's canceling student debt, or rent freezes, for example. Why can't we get the same national pause that Denmark gave its citizens? Sure, it's a smaller country, but people who've lost all their income shouldn't foot the bill for those who haven't, full stop.

We must continue making our case against the institutions that don't serve our interests, by any means necessary, as that shopworn saying goes -- whether that happens online, or on-air calls, op-ed pieces, and similar mediums. We shouldn't stop pointing out the absurdities of tying health insurance to employment essentially an historical accident of the post-World War II era -- or the overweening authoritarianism of the gig economy ("Hey, we're giving you opportunities to drive"), or the posturing of media outlets that cater to an established order that's never known the constant insecurity and turmoil that haunts young people today.

We must continue keeping our arguments simple, when we do make them. This ability to express complex ideas in a sentence or two proved one of the biggest assets that Bernie -- and his counterpart, Elizabeth Warren -- brought to their campaigns. The fog of nuance ("I voted for the $87 billion before I voted against it"; "Abortion should be safe, rare and legal") is no substitute for a simple message that gets people to think bigger: A job shouldn't leave you in poverty. Serious issues deserve serious discussion. You shouldn't have to choose between food or medicine.

We must continue to cultivate the deep bench, if we're serious about building a progressive movement that will outlast the man who helped to launch it. As forcefully as he came across on the campaign trail, Bernie's advanced age (78) likely threw up more roadblocks for voters who already doubted his ability to pass his agenda. In a country whose senior leadership is all over 75, it's imperative that the next generation gets a chance to make its influence felt, and its voice heard. 

I leave you with these words from that same New York Times editorial:

"One freedom 

that cannot be taken from you 

is your freedom

 not to like the status quo —

your freedom to be angry, disaffected, unimpressed,
your refusal to be cajoled, soothed or consoled with small tokens of influence 

devoid of real power.

"Mr. Sanders, ill tempered

 and impatient with pleasantries, 

embodied that freedom, 

and he offered it to you."

The last sentence irks me -- isn't the constant demand for pleasantries what's bogged us down in the first place?  But the rest of it is well taken. We have the blueprint, we have the energy, and we have the technology to gain so much more than the system seems willing to allow us. We owe ourselves nothing less. Now is not the time to let up--The Reckoner

What Accepting The Lesser Of Two Evils Got Me

<"To The Bernie Or Bust people,
you're being ridiculous!">

https://www.follownews.com/p/10hy4

"He who would trade his freedom
 for his security
deserves to lose both."
<George Washington>

<i.>

“It’s a mistake to think the lesser of two evils will fix things. A lot of people are in the target hairs of a neoliberalist nightmare. Wars are bankrupting us morally and financially. At least when Republicans are elected, people fight – when Democrats are elected, people are lulled into complacency and fall asleep.”

(Jill Stein, 2016 Green Party presidential nominee)

"If this is Really is the land of the free, then we should be free to cast our ballots for whoever we feel actually represents us."

(Official Bernie Or Bust Facebook Page)

It's not hard to imagine the excitement when Hillary Clinton took the podium last week to accept the Democratic Party's nomination for President. No, I don't mean the voters, as the New York Times acknowledged, with its usual man-bites-dog understatement: "Poll after poll after shows that a startlingly wide cross-section of voters simply do not her trust her" (67 percent, to be exact).

It's not hard to imagine the exultation that sweeps through Clinton: finally, after eight years, she's getting the shot that should have been hers all along, as she and her surrogates see it (y'know, before What'is'name'then from Illinois popped up, and sucked the oxygen out of that scenario). The fat cats behind her campaign's curtain are undoubtedly the giddiest of all, as they begin ticking off the chits they expect to cash in from a Clinton return to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Spirited as it was, Bernie Sanders' challenge simply couldn't overcome the terminally binary nature of American politics (chocolate or vanilla ice cream? Coke or Pepsi? Democratic or Republican?), which still poses a major obstacle to upending the "same old, same old" carousel of flat wages, lack of health insurance, and rocketing cost of living expenses that leave most Americans feeling entrapped and embittered. Not that our nation's political class loses any sleep about such matters, as House Speaker Paul Ryan recently observed: "You don't get a third choice."

I originally planned on posting this piece in time for Clinton's nomination. But my near-empty refrigerator suggested that I needed to make other plans, which is why I spent two hours of it at my Friendly Neighborhood Pantry, in temperatures that sweltered into the upper 80s. About 150 of us lined up at 2 p.m., waiting to get a number that we'd need to present when the food truck rolled up two hours later.

For obvious reasons, I avoid this scenario, if I can -- but the phone company also wanted its pound of flesh ($78), which I had to cough up by Friday (7/29). Otherwise, I could have bought my own groceries, instead of leaning against a tree, asking myself: how did I get here? How did life get this way? One phrase springs to mind: "The lesser of two evils." But a little background is in order first.

>Bye, Bye, Debbie, Bye, Bye....<

<ii.>

In 1999, my wife and I looked around our crappy North Side apartment, checked out our household balance sheet, and came to a decision, the same one that the Animals celebrated in their classic song, "We Gotta Get Out Of This Place." In our case, "this place" was Chicago, where the mice had overrun our crackerbox palace, because the slumlord was too chintzy to put a metal plate under the front door....a simple device that would have stopped the rodent army in its tracks. 

We looked at the wannabe hipsters obediently cramming themselves into crumbling apartments and houses, paying way too much for the privilege of living there, growing older and poorer amid stacks and stacks of esoteric books -- the sole item they ever owned in abundance, usually -- and figured, get the hell out, or you'll end up replacing them. 

Thanks to some fast hustling and footwork, I managed to find a small town newspaper gig in mid-Michigan. It paid little better than my suburban Chicago shit job -- a whopping quarter more, to be exact -- but I felt too weary to sweat those particular details. At least, we were getting out of Chicago, so things would get better, right? We chose the lesser of two evils.

<iii.>

Within six months, my initial enthusiasm had collided with the stench of corporate politics and staff turnover. When the head sales rep was suddenly elevated to publisher, the managing editor quit. She didn't like (and/or trust him), and vice versa. Two writers quickly followed. Both ditched the industry for higher-paying teaching jobs outside of it. Hmm, I caught myself thinking, doesn't look like we'll enjoy a long lease on life around here. 

Still, I figured it was better to gut it out, until something better came along. My wife and I loved the community. I kept doing freelance writing at night, which subsidized day trips to places like Ann Arbor, or Lansing....the chance to eat out a few times a month...and small pleasures like used books, comics, magazines and records. We weren't living it up, but we paying our bills, and we didn't feel overly stressed or besieged.

But those snakes kept poking their heads into our Garden of Eden. Five years after our arrival, the town's economy -- one largely built around mostly auto-related manufacturing -- flatlined, taking 1,000 jobs with it, which was only the beginning. (Our mini-economic tsunami arrived four years before the so-called "Great Recession" of 2008, giving us a glimpse of the collective pain that everybody else would feel.)

Inevitably, that exodus out the door included me. I, too, lost my job amid all these economic convulsions, but -- as lucky would have it -- managed to hook up with our major out-of-county rival, 25 miles away, as a night editor. The pay was essentially the same, and while we had health insurance, the co-pays would notable bites out of what little I'd bring home. Nor did the vacation calendar inspire me to break out the confetti (wow, dude, we get a whole week off with pay -- just like the other place!). But what else could we do? Decent jobs were nonexistent, so if I wanted one, we'd have to move. Neither of us had the will (nor the energy), so I crossed my fingers, and signed on. I chose the lesser of two evils.

<iv.>

My new job didn't pay well, but the atmosphere felt a lot more positive. Unlike the place I'd left, everyone got along better, and even socialized outside of work -- a phenomenon that I'd never encountered before. Besides finishing up the last pages every night, my responsibilities included editing and writing for a weekly entertainment section, which allowed me to keep my pulse on the local music scene (and even participate in it). Life felt good, for awhile.

But  those snakes soon gatecrashed my new Garden of Eden, too. About a year or so later, the publisher called  a meeting, and ran down some figures on a dry erase board. We were losing money, he said, and unless that trend turned around soon, budget cuts would follow -- meaning, staff cuts. I don't recall feeling too shocked or shook up, as I'd seen those rumblings before. (At my last paper, for instance, I remember interviewing a court clerk who said, rather breezily: "I don't know anyone under 35 who reads under a newspaper. Oh, shit, I thought, we're in big trouble.)

Six months later, the string pulled taut again: I got laid off. In one sense, I felt relieved, because gas had shot up to $4 per gallon for the first time. This development proved distinctly unsettling to my coworkers, many of whom drove long distances (like I did). I remember people crying and yelling, "What happened to the national interest?" My wife and I figured I was losing about $10 a day, or $300 a month, before I even got to work. Not exactly a morale booster.

On the other hand, I also felt a distinct lurch in the pit of my stomach. Now what? I welcomed the chance to do things that my second/third shift schedule hadn't previously allowed....like playing music, getting involved with our local peace and justice group, and helping behind the scenes at a local coffeehouse. My wife enjoyed seeing more of me again, but sooner or later, I figured, all this fun has to stop some time, right? I'd have to hold my nose, swallow hard, and....you know....accept the lesser of two evils.

<v.>

And that's what I did, once again, in 2006, after riding out my original unemployment benefits (plus two extensions). In an odd twist of fate, a copywriting job had opened up in my old hometown, just as those days of collecting unemployment were drawing to an end. I wasn't sure about making the move, because advertising seemed worlds apart from my chosen field, but I didn't have any other offers. I faced yet another binary choice: sign up now, or see your prospects evaporate under the threat of starvation. What else could we do? We buckled, and swallowed hard....once again....and chose the lesser of two evils.

This time, however, the greater evil pushed back: I wound up being fired after several months, allegedly because I made too many proofreading errors on the rough ad layouts. But I suspect baser motives, since my wife and myself had only just gotten our health insurance. Since then, I've counted at least 17 similar classifieds this company has run, which leads me to believe that turnover is just part of their overall M.O. (Think how much money these outfits save on salaries and benefits, once they send their latest bright-eyed, bushy-tailed newbie away with a giant screw through their back. But I digress.)

Or maybe I should have raised more questions when my supervisors insisted on giving me a three-month evaluation. Or maybe I should have walked out after the second interview, when I was presented a "pay secrecy" policy to sign -- in which you promise not to discuss what you're making, and is typically aimed at union organizing. Or maybe I should have just packed up, and taken the wife back to our previous hometown, once I realized that too many loose lips were lying about too many things for my comfort. Whatever: it's too late to protest these things now. But I really wish I had. And that's why I don't accept the "lesser evil" argument anymore.

<vi.>

Want to have some sick fun online?Try searches like "I'm not with her," "Never Hillary," or, "Won't back Hillary." You'll undoubtedly get variations like, "John McCain with a uterus," "Thatcher in a pantsuit," and jokes like this one: "Hillary has put her foot in her mouth so many times her dentist is also her podiatrist. She has to open her mouth just to get a pedicure." As I've been telling people lately, you'll have to go back to the 1920s, maybe even the 1880s or 1890s, to find a nominee or chief executive-in-waiting who's so widely loathed.

Then again, Clinton often provides ample ammunition. Her acceptance speech was larded with all the bromides you've come to expect from her, whether it's her usual vague promises to stop selling out so blatantly ("I will carry all of your voices and stories with me to the White House"), rally the troops to cure the nation's ills ("We will fix it together"), or somehow, muster excitement about a future that most people no longer see coming ("When there are no ceilings, the sky's the limit"). Say what you will about Clinton, she didn't busk it before, so don't look for her to do that now.

All the past week's yodeling about "party unity" misses a crucial point -- that the Clinton and Sanders camps don't have a great deal in common binding them together (if they ever did). It's also worth remembering that Clinton, in 2008, only had to give up the idea she'd make a better president. In 2016, Sanders supporters are being asked to trust someone whose record, quite frankly, suggests a slippery sense of follow-through (at best). 

Take the $15 minimum wage proposal that made the Democratic Party platform. Clinton's mega-donors include the likes of McDonalds and Walmart, two companies with a long, well-documented hostility to such ideas. Does anyone honestly believe that Clinton, if she wins, will really tell them, "Greed should have limits"? If you really think so, I've got a lot of great Florida swampland and foreign lottery tickets that I can't wait to unload.

So, no, from a purely rational standpoint, the "Bernie Or Bust" movement isn't being anymore ridiculous than previous insurgents who prefer to tread cautiously, especially when the wolf tells them: "But we can coexist, man...". Let's state the dilemma in simpler terms. Years ago, I remember a small town mayor who dished out this piece of advice: "A good compromise is one where both sides come out hurting a little bit." Does the recent dog and pony interplay between the Clnton-Sanders camps last week in Philadelphia offer that impression? How much swampland will you buy? How many Nigerian lottery tickets do you need?

What's truly maddening is that the Democratic National Committee leadership doesn't want to acknowledge any of these things -- faced with an avalanche of youthful energy, and long-pent-up frustration, the DNC leadership's response comes to, "So what? Take a hike. We got you this time. Where else are you gonna go?" A party that practically swoons at people's lack of real choices -- is what those Washington, Jefferson and all those other Guys In Stockings And Wigs fought the revolution for?

I think not. But I can safely say this: all the dogged tone deafness that's been displayed by the DNC and its Republican counterparts won't make our problems magically disappear. I am, like millions of other Americans, patching together various jobs and projects to get from today to tomorrow, from this week to next week, from this month to next month, from this year to next year. I have not had health insurance in a decade. I do not expect more from another extended job search than a pile of form letters and resumes that just quietly gather dust. 

I do not expect the donor class to listen, let alone give a shit, about  my troubles. However, like millions of other struggling Americans, I've watched all of our noxious social ills build up steam over than half a lifetime, without letup, without the glimmer of something better coming along the horizon, or without the possibility of a different result, however faint it may seem.

I'm tired of hearing platitudes. I'm tired of being fobbed off with the usual excuses. I'm tired of waiting for something to change, or being told to wait a little longer, because the political realities just don't allow it (as JFK infamously did, when he asked Martin Luther King to put off his March on Washington till 1965, or '66). That's why I don't accept the lesser of two evils anymore, because I know what it got me, and where I ended up. Stand up for a better tomorrow now, and don't let anyone tell you that it can wait. I speak from experience. --The Reckoner

Links To Go (No Third Ice Cream Flavor For You):
Independent Voter Project:
Nearly 8 In 10 Respondents
Do Not Want To Vote For Trump Or Clinton:
http://ivn.us/2016/07/28/ivn-poll-shows-lack-of-support-for-major-party-candidates/

Independent Voter Project:
Why Independent Candidates Are Not "Spoilers":
http://ivn.us/2014/08/19/independent-candidates-spoilers/
[Dated, news-wise, but contains some good points]

Paste: DNC, Day 4:
The Rise Of The Berniecrats:
https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2016/07/dnc-2016-day-4-the-rise-of-the-berniecrats.html

Rolling Stone:
The Return Of Lesser Evilism:
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/ralph-nader-bernie-sanders-lesser-evilism-20160620

Salon: Enough Of The Us V.s Them Binary....
http://www.salon.com/2016/07/17/enough_of_the_us_vs_them_binary_why_im_writing_in_bernie_sanders_on_election_day/