I’m…
Don’t say it.
I’m F…
Don’t say it!
I’m Feel…
Don’t say it!!
I’M FEELING THE BERN!
Are you serious?
I’m as serious as the heart attack The Establishment is about to have!
Well, you know what they say…
What’s that?
Democrats fall in love; Republicans fall in line.
Love is all around us.
Are you serious?
What’s the problem?
You mean other than Bernie Sanders can’t get elected?
Yes, other than that.
The other party is imploding and you want to hand them the election?
We’re not handing them shit. This country is not going to elect Donald Trump or Ted Cruz.
But why take the chance?
What if going with Hillary turns out to be the losing bet?
That’s what you said in ’08.
Exactly.
Don’t you want the next president to be able to get anything done?
That’s my favorite argument: that anyone is naïve enough to think the Republicans are going to work with Hillary!
At least we know what they’re going to throw at Hillary. They’ve already done it.
I’ve got several hundred million Koch dollars that say you ain’t seen anything yet.
At least we know what we’ve got with Hillary.
If we wanted half-measures, we should have just voted for Hillary in ’08.
It might have worked out better…
Better? Hillary would have one-and-done Jimmy Carter style and been beaten like Mondale.
No. Hillary getting elected would have killed the GOP. Just the fact of her in office would have annihilated the entire Republican party.
Actually, she would have energized them for a generation.
No, she would have won. The Clintons always win!
Except in ’08.
Okay, fine. But why not get on board now?
I can’t.
Why not?
Because that’s what the Republicans always do.
Do what?
Going with the safe bet; going with the Establishment choice.
They’re not doing it this time.
Yes, and it’s going to cause them to lose in historic fashion!
Not if idiots like you make a Socialist the nominee.
Democratic Socialist.
Full-on Mao Communist by the Time Fox News is finished with him.
Fuck Fox News!
No. Fox News fucks you. That’s the history of the last two decades in a nutshell.
Those days are over.
Those days have scarcely begun.
It’s different this time.
That’s what you suckers say every four years.
You’ll see.
What is your problem with Hillary?
Nothing. If she wins the nomination, I’m behind her 100%.
Why not now?
She wants it too badly, which is alarming. She expects it, which is insulting.
Can’t you say that about any candidate?
No. Her husband wanted it more badly than breathing, but he never expected it. Dubya expected it, but his life wouldn’t have ended had he lost. Obama cut the balance.
So what’s Bernie’s secret?
He is allowing the people who want it badly to make the difference.
You mean like Ralph Nader?
No, this is different (and that is insulting).
What’s different?
Well, for starters, look at his poll numbers.
Well…
And, um, how about his showing in Iowa and New Hampshire?
Well…
And the fact that, from jump, Nader knew he was playing spoiler, at best. Also, fuck Ralph Nader. And fuck Gore for not fighting harder. And double-fuck him for running a campaign that made Dukakis look competent. And fuck Scalia and the rest of the so-called Constitutionalists for handing the election to Bush, just like the founding fathers intended…
Look, I’m all for fairy tales and rainbows, but I’m also about reality.
What’s unrealistic about the most grotesquely wealthy country on the planet investing in its own?
It’s unrealistic because it can’t happen.
It has happened.
A long time ago.
Yes, and even a long time ago, it was the result of struggle, and a politician who was willing to fight the special interests.
You mean FDR?
Yes, I also mean Teddy Roosevelt.
That was a long time ago.
You know what Obama could, and should, have done, at any point during his first six years?
What?
Borrowed the “I welcome their hatred” speech from FDR.
He did the best he could with what he had.
No, at first he was too cocksure everyone would go along with him, then he was unwilling to get his bully pulpit on, and he only started fighting back once he’d been already been shat on for three years.
So a rational, moderate liberal can’t get it done, but a full blown Socialist can?
Yes, you’re falling into the trap again. It’s not because Obama really wanted it, it’s because he was too easily corrupted, too easily cowed, too easily distracted. I’m not saying he didn’t do his best for the most part, but do you actually believe he really wanted it, like up in the middle of the night agonizing over it?
So you’re going to fall for this Sanders flavor of the month shtick?
Sanders has been walking the walk for decades.
So has Hillary.
Sure, she’s evolved, and fought the pretty-good fight. But Sanders was marching for minorities, women and gays when Hillary was still a confused Republican. (Also, let’s not rehash the policies from the Clinton years that hurt employment, fucked minorities and opened the casino doors to the Wall Street shitshow that crashed our economy.)
Look, every Democrat can get behind the spirit of what Sanders is saying…
I think Hillary—and her supporters—are incredibly wrong to assume voters, especially young or undecided voters, are going to be swayed by caution and the same formula that fails to work in every mid-term election.
It’s not Hillary’s fault she isn’t exciting.
No one gives a shit about that. Do you think people find Bernie Sanders exciting? It’s what he’s saying and the lack of fucks he has to give that is resonating with liberals and, quite possibly, people who usually tune politics out.
People get scared of what they don’t know.
No, people get enthusiastic about what they never knew was possible. Bernie’s support thus far has already proven that.
Hillary isn’t promising people magic and dreams.
No, she’s promising that she’s going to tack to the center even quicker and more naturally than Obama did. And that’s why she’s not inspiring people. Don’t blame the people who fail to be impressed that she hasn’t been impressive.
What if Bernie has already hit his ceiling?
Bernie hasn’t even begun yet. Wait until the mainstream media can no longer ignore or further marginalize what he’s accomplishing.
What makes you so sure?
We know Democrats tend to sit at home during mid-terms. Do you think the debacle of this last cycle that might have had something to do with that load of craven, faux-centrist shitheads running away from Obamacare and trying to split the difference between tea-party lunatics?
So they won’t sit it out this time?
Have you seen the crowds Sanders is getting?
Are they sustainable?
Here’s the thing. We know Democrats get demoralized, especially when they’re offered the same old shit. But how about the fact that Republicans undoubtedly sit out too? Maybe a whole lot of them. Maybe the ones who are, at long last, fed up with being taken for granted and generally fucked over during the last three decades, but pandered to every four years, and every time jobs go overseas and wages freeze and their kids are sent to ill-advised wars and their water is poisoned and they’re told how great America really is, maybe some of these otherwise impossible to reach old and young red state voters might find someone who’s actually telling them precisely what he’d do and exactly who he won’t work with and how his policies will tangibly improve their lives. Maybe this is proof that all the inside-the-beltway, elitist Democratic strategists with their lobbyist friends buying them dinner are entirely wrong and being forever surrounded by career consultants, like Hillary, is exactly why she suddenly finds herself battling for her life against Bernie Sanders.
Won’t you feel silly even if Bernie gets elected and none of his promises are attainable?
You know what I think is silly? Not prosecuting a single Wall Street executive. Insisting that it was way too soon to have reasonable and belated action taken on same-sex marriage (thanks again, Joe Biden!). Going to the negotiating table meeting intransigent Republicans half-way to the farthest right position (then getting shut down), and making that mistake time after time throughout the better part of two terms.
But what if little of what Sanders talk about is achievable?
By moving the conversation to the left and resetting the terms of the debate, he’ll be doing, at long last, what the GOP has been doing for their cause since 1980. If nothing else, Sanders will work toward a very overdue recalibration.
If he helps Hillary be more outspoken about liberalism, isn’t that a good thing?
It’s not a bad thing. But the fact that it requires Bernie’s presence to persuade her speaks volumes about why people are flocking to Sanders.
But at the end of the day, we’re not Europe.
We’re not Europe. We’re not even America anymore, as we once knew it. And just accepting the very least we should expect from representative government is neither tolerable nor sustainable.
I still think you’re dreaming.
You may say I’m a dreamer. But I’m not the only one.
This piece originally appeared at The Weeklings on 2/19/16.
