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Monday, January 18, 2016

gulp

If it really is Trump versus Bernie in November I am turning all my energy to the recreational pot legalization fight in California to ensure my sanity, and hence my survival, over the next four years.

4 comments:

Lorraine said...

Is it a hard turn I'm sensing in the trend in the tone of amor mundi?

I do appreciate that you still make an effort to belabor the point that it isn't the left itself that puts you in the Clinton camp. I must admit I groaned audibly during some of Sanders' airtime in the most recent debate. It's becoming clear even to me that the dude ain't ready for prime time. I keep the faith by constantly reminding myself

a vote for Hillary is a vote for the DLC
a vote for Hillary is a vote for the DLC
a vote for Hillary is a vote for the DLC
a vote for Hillary is a vote for the DLC
a vote for Hillary is a vote for the DLC
a vote for Hillary is a vote for the DLC

Dale Carrico said...

The vile DLC is a spent force in utter eclipse as an influence in the Democratic party and shows no signs of resuscitation. The PCCC is quite right to crow about Hillary's left positions in this race and the excitement generated by Bernie. I have been and will again be thrilled for Bernie to work in the Warren wing of the Senate with ever more lefties to join him there as the nation moves left. I personally think nominating Sanders is one of the few things that give the GOP a chance at electing a President in a 2016 in which the rancid white-supremacist death-cult Base gets its way over the hypocrites of the Establishment who prefer their white-supremacy served cold. (Let me get out the inevitable ultimate weapon out of the way here and now: Supreme Court nominations.) Stupid or not, Sanders' age, demeanor, socialism, style will all come off as "unpresidential" in the general whatever the polls presently say at this low-info high-drama stage in the race. As someone who knows the difference between saying (as I have done for thirty years) that single-payer is the best fairest most efficient way to go as against saying how one arrives at universal healthcare from where we are, given the power of incumbent stakeholders, the pragmatics of legislation in Congress, and so on -- I must say I am quite annoyed at those who imply recognition of the latter is tantamount to denying the truth of the former. It isn't. For me or for Clinton. Not only that, but the latter matters at least as much as the former does, too. Healthcare is just one example among many policy positions taken up by Sanders and his vocal supporters. In these matters I must say that as a long time fan of Bernie Sanders (as years listening to him on Thom Hartmann attest) I find he is being a bit unpresidential -- at any rate for a Democrat -- with all this handwaving myself. I cannot understand either the blitheness of the risk being taking by his supporters or the vitriol with which Clinton is described by others. I consider Clinton a center-slightly left Democrat not much different from Obama (her husband was a centrist slightly to her right in my estimation and a bit more to the right still of her administration now that the party has moved left and recognizes it is beholden to the Obama coalition) -- that puts her to my right but also to the left of most presidents in our history. I think education, agitation, organization from her left is crucial, as it has been in the Obama epoch, but I don't expect legislation to operate there in an insulated continent-scaled corporate-militarist dysfunctional republic until grassroots movements, campaigns, cultural work prepare the way and move the consensus to where we are. I am still fairly sure Hillary will win the nomination -- the question is does she win it the easy way or the hard way (the hard way means she spends money now she could be spending later when it counts more), by Super Tuesday or by mid April. A win in Iowa sets the stage for the easy way, and that is what I hope happens and still slightly expect, tho' I once strongly expected it and no longer do. An added reason to hope for an early Hillary win is that it will give the Base more time to convince themselves to be excited about the First Woman President and set aside the bile and the threats to take their ball and go home and all that rest of that nonsense. We need some Senatorial coattails and enough gains to chasten the GOP House majority into giving up on the healthcare repeals, the resistance to infrastructure investment, and the ugly anti-immigration BS. I am pretty sure I agree with Bernie Sanders on ideal outcomes more than I do Hillary Clinton but I am much more sure this country gets to outcomes closer to those with a Clinton administration and a Sanders one. That only seems paradoxical if one disdains pragmatism in my view. Hope to live to see a much more sustainable equitable and diverse democracy, fully expect that to be a long, compromised slog.

Chad Lott said...

Have you heard of the Brownie Mary Democrats? I think they'd be interesting to you if you go in on weed.

Dale Carrico said...

I prefer to go down on weed.