Hillary vs Bernie … as we come to our caucuses.
Pro Hillary:
Despite the hype from Bernie fans, Hillary and Bernie are identical on most issues. Where she differs is in poetical skills. Where he differs is passion.
Clinton’s network is deep and powerful. Here in Wastate, there are no major pols (or almost none) who are part of what might be called the Obama machine. In contrast, everywhere you look in our political or business world, there is a member of the Clinton fanclub. That is powerful tool to get things done.
Bernie has done a great job of building his following … much like the job Obama did 8 years ago. I am not convinced he can turn that into an effective political machine.
Pro Bernie:
Like Barack , Sanders has wonderful oratorical skills.
Bernie’s idealism, if it could be sustained, could build a long lived and much needed change in our nations’s devotion to opportunity for all. I would even suggest a meme for a Sanders … The American Dream.
So what to do?
My concern with Bernie is whether he could govern? Obama’s presidency is marred by three things that need to be called out .. Republican racism, Republican anti intellectualism and the debacle of eight years of Bush. Obama has lessened the carnage caused by Bush, but, as Jew and an intellectual, it is naive to imagine that he would be immune from Fox.
Politically, the Bernie movement is terrific but I am skeptical that is can be sustained. Eight years into the Obama presidency, it is hard to see the local machine he should have built.
My concern with Hillary is why she would govern? I am sure she means well and am in awe of her talents, but I worry that she lacks the drive to make the changes I think we need.
I also worry that she and Bill have not done a better job of using the Clinton machine. We are now 24 years, a quarter century, into the Clinton era. 25 years ago her husband took over the DNC and purged the party of left wing nut jobs … the kind of radicals that have now taken over the GOP. Obama’s election may well be the greatest triumph of that putsch. What I have not seen is the growth of a young generation of Democrats who can use that machine to do good.
So, I am still torn. My ideal would be to see some sort of deal .. Hillary as President but Bernie in a clearly defined leadership role as her radical rabbi? Is there a position in government that fits that description?
Deborah Woodard Stephen Schwartz: The piece you have shared is not an in depth analysis–understatement. The candidates are not the same at all. Sanders is a genuine progressive, whereas Clinton is a neoliberal, a total hawk abroard, with ties to corporation lobbies, from whom she accepts grotesquely large speaking fees. You can compare their actual records, should you wish; you don’t have to be influenced by this, forgive me for saying so, drivel.
SMS: Nothing you said changes what I wrote. On ISSUES they are alike. The differences you talk abut are posture, rhetoric and strategy.
Show me a major issue today where BS offers a plan that is both realistic and opposed to Hillary.
Here is an example. I am sure that Both B and H wanted to save GM. Bernie voted against the measure because he wanted to stake a position on the banks. He could afford to do that because he knew the vote was set to pass.
The stimulus was areal world problem. It had ot be done to avoid a Depression. How would Bernie have acted if his vote mattered?
Here is another example. In the real word we need to make deals with horrible people .. China is a good example. How would Bernie’s morality work in the South China Sea?
Finally, all politics is local. How would Bernie get us better candidates here in Wastate where we have at least two vulnerable GOPers .. Reichert and Herrera. i Would he entice what you call noeliberals to run? No Bernieoid can win there.