Bernie! by Nancy OhanianThink of the most corrupting influences of-- and from within-- the Democratic Party. They've all started coming out of the closet as Biden endorsers. At first his endorsers were just the conservatives from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party-- villainous Blue Dogs and New Dems like Kurt Schrader (OR), Seth Moulton (MA), Elaine Luria (VA), Terri Sewell (AL), Dianne Feinstein (CA), Charlie Crist (FL), Tony Cárdenas (CA), Stephen Lynch (MA), Blanche Lincoln (AR), etc-- and devoted, notorious Wall Street puppets like Sean Patrick Maloney (NY), Tom Carper (DE), Colin Allred (TX), Gina Raimondo (RI), Chris Coons (DE), Alcee Hastings (FL), Erskine Bowles (NC)... But now the Democratic politicians most associated with sewer money are on board as well-- pure unadulterated garbage like Debbie Wasserman Schultz (FL), Steve Israel (NY), Al Wynn (MD), Bob Brady (PA), Charlie Rangel (NY), Ed Rendell (PA), Ami Bera (CA), Penny Pritzker (IL), Andrew Cuomo (NY), Terry McAuliffe (VA), Max Baucus (MT), Tom Daschle (SD).As if an endorsement from the likes of Debbie Wasserman Schultz weren't enough-- or shouldn't be enough-- to sink the recipient's campaign, now elite #NeverTrump Republicans are flooding onto Team Biden, like Virginia GOP ex-Senator John Warner and Illinois GOP ex-Rep Ray LaHood. Without getting into the MSNBC #NeverTrump brigade, let's jump right to arch neoconservative Bill Kristol, one of the fathers (like Biden) of the invasion of Iraq and one of the most vehement enemies of public healthcare in American politics. He must have been hard for him to not come out for Bloomberg... but he didn't. He endorsed Biden yesterday... not in Biden v Trump, but in Biden v Bernie... and by beginning his post about why with a quote from Ronald Reagan, who he and Biden would no doubt both agree was one of America's greatest presidents."You are a normal American," he began. "You don’t like demagogues of the right [as in Hitler or Señor Trumpanzee] or the left [as in FDR or Bernie]. You want competent, responsible governance somewhere in the vicinity of the broad center. You cherish American exceptionalism, and you know that means rejecting European-style demagoguery of the right and left that exploits people’s anxieties and seduces them with false promises. You dread a future featuring an authoritarian and illiberal party facing off against a socialist and illiberal party. And so you don’t want to face a choice-- you don’t want the country to face a choice-- between Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders in November."A yes, the cri de coeur of the #NeverTrump Republicans-- and the Wall Street Democrats and the whole Republican wing of the Democratic Party: "you don’t want to face a choice between Trump and Bernie in November." How sick and demented is that? One is the paladin of the billionaire class and the other the champion of the American working class.
What are you to do? Well, if you’re a Democrat and live in one of the 14 states voting Tuesday, you can of course participate in your state’s Democratic primary contest. If you live in Alabama, Arkansas, Minnesota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, or Virginia, you might be surprised to learn the Democratic contest is an open primary, and you can participate no matter your party registration or non-party registration. In some of the other remaining states, you can vote if you’re unaffiliated. So an awful lot of you can vote Tuesday. But for whom?The American process of presidential selection is complex. The Democratic nominating process is complex. Super Tuesday, with 14 very different states operating under somewhat different rules, is complex. A multi-candidate field with proportional representation, but not exactly proportional representation-- because there are thresholds at both the state and CD level-- makes everything more complex. And so a voter, trying to cast a meaningful vote that will further an outcome he prefers-- sane, moderate governance-- can feel perplexed.But though the situation is complex, the answer actually is simple. Whatever the substantive case for either Amy Klobuchar and Elizabeth Warren, and despite the flashes of electoral strength each has shown, neither is going to be the nominee. And despite what once seemed a possible, though unconventional, path to the nomination, it’s not going to be Mike Bloomberg either. So it’s Bernie Sanders or Joe Biden. Which means, if you’re inclined toward American constitutional democracy, the rule of law, and a free economic order-- as well as a liberal world order anchored by the United States-- it’s Joe Biden.And if you’re not, then it’s Bernie Sanders.To be sure, there could be cases where, if you live in a particular congressional district with a particular distribution of the vote, you might-- if you had perfect advance knowledge-- engage in complex calculations that might make you think a vote for one of the other candidates would have more effect. But your calculations are as likely to be wrong as right. It’s much safer to vote your actual preference between the two candidates who have a realistic shot at the nomination, and who represent wildly different paths for the future: Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden.And that’s a simple choice.
There you go... if you call yourself a Democrat for some reason but you're really a Republican down deep, this is the day to make your stand and vote for one of the most conservative (and incompetent) Democrats to run for president since the Civil War. Oh... and guarantee Trump will be reelected after an policy-free campaign based on who lies more, whose family is more repulsive and corrupt, who is likely to be more quickly incapacitated for senility... and nothing at all about the American people.
