Do We Feel the Bern?
The 2016 American presidential election season is in full swing and thanks to the undemocratic superdelegate feature of the Democratic Party’s primary system, it looks as though Hillary Clinton will likely be the Democratic Party nominee for the 2016 presidential election. Bernie Sanders, the kinder-gentler socialist, continues his campaign much to the chagrin of establishment Democrats. Although his campaign appears to be losing steam, there’s good reason he can keep going up to the Democratic Convention in July.
Feeling the Bern
Hillary Clinton, as both a former Obama cabinet member and apparent darling of the 1%, is heir apparent to the Barack Obama presidency, at least in terms of the 2016 presidential campaign. But Obama’s presidency has been the antithesis of his 2008 campaign rhetoric as Obama’s policies have continued the bloodshed in the Middle East, expanded the police state and failed to hold criminal banksters accountable for the massive and widespread fraud that tanked the world economy in 2008. Bernie Sanders’ campaign has tapped into widespread discontent on the left with with Obama’s business-as-usual politics and Clinton has done little to show she’s any different.
However as I suggested in another post, “How America Will Be Manipulated Into Electing Hillary Clinton President in 2016“, Bernie Sanders is just playing a role in this election, whether he realizes it or not. His is to provide an outlet for the discontent on the left with Obama’s continued betrayal of his populist rhetoric. In the end, Bernie Sanders will either fall in line “for party unity” and “because Trump must be defeated” or he will face the end of his career like other Democrats who’ve dared challenge the establishment. Furthermore, the establishment has allowed the Bernie Sanders campaign to go this far because he’s a safe “anti-establishment” candidate that the establishment would be willing to settle for, should protecting the legitimacy of the system require it.
Where’s the Bern?
Despite his positions on public funding of college education and his apparent unwillingness to pander to AIPAC fuels his credibility as being an outsider or anti-establishment candidate. Cast against Hillary Clinton and her $225,000 speeches to big banks, he sure looks like a man of the people. But upon closer inspection, what do we really find? A career politician who has held elected office in Washington for over twenty years.
I have to admit that Bernie Sanders’ voting record, while far from being populist, does look a lot like what people who voted for Barack Obama back in 2008 would want to see. This list of Bernie’s votes on many of the significant pieces of legislation during his time in Washington shows that he does seem to walk it a lot like he talks it. But once in the Oval Office, would a man who has been in Washington for over two decades prove to any less of a turncoat than Barack Obama has?
Feeling the Bern
In the end, it’s not going to matter. Bernie Sanders has already stated publicly that he will fall in line and support the Democratic presidential nominee should he fail to secure the nomination himself. And what becomes of that groundswell of popular support and excitement the Bernie Sanders movement created in the 2016 presidential election? It will be diffused and deflected away from generating any real change or challenge to the status quo. There might be a little nudge in the direction the Democratic Party takes on some issues, but at the end of the day the establishment will keep trucking along with their new puppet in the Oval Office. Blood will continue to be spilled, the police state will continue to grow, and your liberties, privacy and security will continue to shrink. Meanwhile, the 1% will become even more rich and powerful at your expense.
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Bernie Sanders photo from Big Stock Photo
Thanks to the Mosquito Cloud blog for posting the Sanders’ voting record info.
