Bernie and Beyond

This is a pivotal week for the future of the United States as a democratic republic, and it concerns me like nothing has since 9/11.   Last week, we were treated to a demonization of Hillary Clinton like no major party candidate has ever been subjected to, with cries from the right of, "Lock her up!"   Now the "Bernie or Bust" left is threatening to cast a shadow over a Democratic convention run by Debbie Wasserman Shultz and a party establishment that has entertained the idea of taking the low road to prevent a Bernie Sanders nomination.   The latest email dump, shady circumstances and all, exposes people who are more bent on sabotaging a good man's fair shot at a nomination - one that showed more promise at keeping an egomaniacal demagogue out of the White House - than the party's "establishment" candiate. Shultz needs to quickly get as far away from Hillary Clinton's camp and the Philadelphia convention as possible while Clinton needs to reach out to disgruntled Sanders backers like never before.   Getting rid of superdelegates is a start.

What I prefer Bernie Sanders?   Absolutely, but don't think Donald Trump wouldn't wrongfully label him a communist more than Senator McCarthy used the term in the early fifties.   Sanders does better than Clinton in a matchup against Trump, but it would be nasty either way.   Did the Democratic Party have an anti-Sanders/pro-Clinton bias?   The latest email fiasco bears out what many already felt.   

I'll say it one more time.   Donald Trump is an existential threat to a political system (warts and all) that still holds more promise for mankind than any other system in history.   We have to get the outrageous influence of big money out of the equation.   To the Bernie or Bust liberals who went so far as to boo their own candidate when he called for supporting Hillary, I say get off your high ideological horse and remember that every protest vote against Hillary - or boycotting the November election entirely - is a Trump vote.   Once when we let our idealism blind us to reality, we got Nixon.   Trump is far worse.