As the main stream media gush and marvel at the latest strategic PR move from the ongoing reality show better known as the Trump Candidacy, I find myself thinking what a perfect representative The Donald is for this second Gilded Age we have been subjected to in recent years. Who better embodies the worst aspects of a system that values the blind accumulation of personal and corporate wealth while the once vibrant middle class loses economic ground and virtually disappears in the wake of this period of unbridled greed.
Many forecast Hillary as the heir apparent to the Obama/Democratic legacy but, for me, the perfect opponent for Trump will be Mr. Sanders, a candidate who offers a striking contrast to whomever the Republicans decide to offer. Hillary, like Bubba before her, will continue what I consider to be 'Republican light' policies including continued neo-liberal free trade agreements, further punitive welfare reform measures, reliance on massive corporate campaign funding, support for expansive surveillance of innocent American citizens, continued persecution of real investigative journalists, the prosecution of what Gore Vidal once declared as 'an endless war for endless peace' in response to external and internal threats, and the pursuit of a kind of liberal interventionist approach to foreign policy. Sadly, Mr. Obama has followed in line with much of the Democratic agenda thereby wasting the opportunity to effect real change. To be fair, it has not been helpful having a Congress that has been dedicated to the proposition that his term in office would be a 'failed presidency' (as Mitch McConnell famously declared upon Obama's ascension to power). Hardly fertile ground for even the most well conceived and intended aspirations.
Bernie Sanders, on the other hand, will, for the first time since Henry Wallace, provide a legitimate alternative to the status quo. Just for example, his conviction that health care should be a right protected and nurtured by a government dedicated to individual needs rather than a privilege that ultimately is in service to corporate profit contrasts sharply with the positions of all other presidential hopefuls. His non-intervention philosophy with regard to foreign policy also is consistent with his vision to refocus on our domestic and internal rehabilitation rather than pursuing policies which have depleted our national treasury in deference to numerous misadventures across the globe. His insistence on campaign funding exclusively from individual small donors underscores his belief that a national political movement can be fueled entirely through an organized grass roots movement. In the area of education, he has long advocated for eliminating the crippling effects of student debt by a return to and implementation of the time honored system of free public institutions of higher learning. Finally, Sanders' emphasis on designating the public sector as a prime mover in the restoration of a viable middle class offers a clear departure from the ideologies expressed elsewhere during this election year.
Recent polls have indicated that more than half of the 18 to 25 age group of Americans have a favorable attitude regarding the kind of democratic socialism Sanders is advocating, a reoccurring sentiment that has deep roots in the history of American politics. As Mr. Dylan proclaimed some time ago...'your old road is rapidly fading; get out of the new one if you can't lend a hand for the times they are (finally) a changin'! The old guard is failing; the system is broken; the dinosaur is staggering and its flailing tail is wreaking considerable havoc but a new day is on the horizon and a new generation of forward thinking Americans is emerging from the wreckage to point the way to a reinvigorated tomorrow. And some of us old timers are coming along for the ride!
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