Everything is Different This Time
A little on that zany Senator from Vermont and not falling into the same trap.
Hello Dear Reader(s),
I want to talk Bernie Sanders and in a bigger picture, talk politics.
*Disclaimer*
If you like Bernie and are planning to vote for Bernie, I know I’m not changing anything for you. If you detest Bernie or are on the fence in general or have your preferred candidate, this isn’t about swaying you to Sanders because I don’t want to sound preachy and mostly I know I am not that good at being persuasive but if it does, well I certainly wouldn’t mind.
If you’ll allow me to take you back to 2016, a year we all would like to forget. Every celebrity died but through it all your squad just cut a sick Mannequin challenge video and some other unprecedented shit also happened.
I found out the hard way in 2016 that it really sucks shit when your rooting interests are motivated primarily by hate, contempt and disgust for somebody/something else. You aren’t happy, you aren’t excited, you aren’t motivated- sitting there, gritting your teeth and rooting for something you never really cared for in the first place only so and you task them with one thing: not letting you down.
This happened twice with the first one seeing my baseball team’s rival (Chicago Cubs, eat shit forever) win the World Series and the other being a little more monumental since it brought us the stupidest asshole we’ve ever seen take the oval office and thus making us all stupider assholes in the process.
I paid little attention during the 2016 Dem Primary and it pretty much went like this:
“I don’t know anything about this Bernie guy and I’m not going to learn but anyone who calls themselves a socialist can’t win in this country.”
“I don’t know what Hillary really stands for but holy shit would you take a look at the morons the Republicans are voting for I mean these people could have picked Ted Cruz and instead picked the orange Apprentice guy!”
To put even more embarrassing thoughts on record, I was shocked Martin O’Malley didn’t do better and would have been happy to support him. Lmao.
*Scene*
The rest of my interest in the 2016 election focused on cycling between laughter and/or anger towards Trump loyalists on TV and Twitter who I thought were about to eat shit like they’ve never ate before.
I’d watch his flubs, missteps and his brain short circuit on top of being kind of a not-so-secret racist and waited for the day of reckoning where conservatives would see their nightmare of a Hillary presidency come to life and that this would be the first step in working towards eliminating the GOP and conservatism in America for good (still holding out hope!).
I am at least happy to say this go-around it feels good to be behind a candidate and have feelings again like hope, enthusiasm and not sitting on my couch on election night wanting nothing but seeing someone lose instead of the prospect of seeing someone win.
To care, leaves you vulnerable and I’m just hoping that this gamble will be worth it.
I almost felt like I owed it to Bernie when he announced his campaign in 2018 for doubting and writing him off last time to see what he was about and really it took no time at all to realize this was my candidate. I was already there and already angry that the Democratic party totally fucked up a lay-up election and change was needed.
Look at the guy! It’s amazing how vicious and wrong and dumb so many people can be about him but that’s their fault! I can’t really picture myself drinking a beer with Bernie but I could see us having a bowl of soup together. I have him pegged for a chicken and wild rice guy - of this, I am certain.
But I know Dems need more than appearances and “viral” videos this time - showing up, looking and sounding good but not really doing a ton of stuff worked for Obama, didn’t work for somebody like Beto and apparently nobody ever learns their lesson because as I typed this one of the zillion out-of-touch CNN talking heads is saying Dem voters want strength and Amy proved that by giving a speech in the snow that one time…who needs a sustainable future when you have that?
It has to be different this time especially when you consider:
RBG is probably going to die within the next few years and another conservative Supreme Court pick would be catastrophic. She also at least deserves like a couple months of retirement instead of literally trying to stay alive. That’s gotta be exhausting.
The planet is changing for the worse and the people in charge know they won’t have to be around to see it or have to join the efforts to reverse it.
This one isn’t different this time at all but there is something to be said when people with power and columns reverse course so fast when a nice old man who wants to give you healthcare has gained momentum with his grassroots campaign:
This joke has been made a ton but it’s a Simpsons reference I remember from when it was good and basically this is how these people look.
Anyways I ask you to ask yourself: What have you seen in the last 4 years that you can’t stand to see anymore and what are you going to do to change that?
*Extremely Harvey Dent voice* You either live to see yourself become a leftist or die fighting for the status quo as a centrist piss boy/piss gal.
I don’t remember what it was as it’s hard to keep up with everything built to try and kneecap Sanders on a seemingly daily basis but it finally prompted me to make my first ever political contribution. $27 Smackaroos! That uh Sanders guy is really gonna be living high on the hog now!
And then in the midst of the very poorly executed Warren beef with Bernie, I donated again.
And after the shady Iowa debacle, I donated again.
And seeing that contributions like these all over the country we’re really making a difference in the midst of another primary victory, I smashed that donate button.
I’ll close out with the whole electability thing which yeah matters and you could think electing a Democratic Socialist might be risky but when you realize we already have a socialist system in place that benefits the few…
"In many respects, we are a socialist society today. ... Donald Trump, before he was president, as a private businessperson, he received $800 million in tax breaks and subsidies to build luxury housing in New York. ... The difference between my socialism and Trump's socialism is I believe the government should help working families, not billionaires."
And here is another, well articulated article and wow another Jacobin article shared by a millennial how original!
I want to include this piece I linked to earlier one more time because it’s one of the most powerful, well written, heartbreaking and thing I’ve read in a long time. It’s also only a two-minute read so don’t be lazy. I hope that you read it regardless of who your candidate is, and I hope you agree this can’t keep happening.
Why you found my husbands bloated corpse in a drainage ditch by the Winn-Dixie