HEART BERN: Checked out Bernie Sanders at City College this weekend. Not the wearisome-but-right uncle I anticipated, forefingers ever aloft, highlighting violent inequalities of the so-called social order. I loved it. Miraculously, Bernie has managed to reach my kids — both voting age — who hitherto have remained unmoved by parental exhortations about civic responsibility. Even so, I never really felt “The Bern.” Maybe LBJ’s dictum WAS stuck in my head: Winning elections is all about not losing them. Right now, not losing to Trump trumps everything.
I get the rage and despair. Every time the Republican Main Street-versus-Wall Street crowd has sought to vent its outrage — remember the Tea Party and their quaint three-cornered hats — Karl Rove and Republican Establishment goons squads have co-opted them. Conservative outsider voices were forced to such extreme positions not even Rove could follow. That’s one reason we now have Trump, proof positive of what happens when Tourette’s syndrome is left untreated. I get “A plague on both your houses.” But how is anyone who says, “I kind of hope for” the real estate crash, as Trump did, not a plague himself?
These are historic times. That a commie Jew is now a serious, albeit distant, contender for the White House qualifies as a genuine first. But more so is the prospect of electing the first woman. So come November, all you Bernie lovers, be ready to put aside all feelings of burned idealism and vote Hillary. Right now, it’s all about not losing. If you think otherwise, ask the people who fought the unwinnable war we’re still waging — 14 years later — in Iraq.