Robert Borosage On The Bern

I am sure it will not come as any surprise to my readers that I am miffed at the lazy slugs of the lame stream media who insist on comparing Bernie Sanders to Donald Trump. People who respond favorably to the bellicose Trump- eting of the faux elephant- have only this vague notion that they should be fighting mad at something or someone; they are not bright enough to figure out what or who they should be fighting or why! They (Trump's followers) have always been so anti government that embracing the truculent braggadocio of a demagogue like Trump is the norm for them rather than the exception. Bernie Sanders' followers, on the other hand, have New Dealer expectations; they are actually demanding a government that will work for them again.

Rather than trying to explain the appeal of two candidates that are not comparable, Robert Borosage wisely avoids Trump/Sanders comparisons and likens Bernie Sanders' appeal to that of Britain's Jeremy Corbyn. Mr Borosage's article in Campaign For America's Future is entitled “Sanders and Corbyn: There Is An Alternative.” And “There Is An Alternative” is a refutation of Margaret Thatcher's statement that “there is no alternative” to the conservative agenda.

“Beneath the Corbyn victory and the Sanders surge is a revolt against politics as usual. What the chattering gaggles of 'political strategists' find it difficult to absorb is how much people are fed up with an establishment politics that has utterly failed them,” Mr. Borosage wrote.

What particularly seems to have alluded the pundits and political strategists is the fact that a very large segment of the public has figured out that the results of the policies Tony Blair, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush followed, as they echoed Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Regan heralding an “end of the big government era,” were devastating. As Mr. Borosage wrote:

There were “[f]inancial bubbles followed by financial collapse. Gilded Age inequality and a declining middle class. Mass incarceration. Public squalor. Unending trade deficits that savaged American manufacturing and American workers. Millions in America surviving on less than two dollars a day. And, the final insult, a “recovery” – strangled by a bipartisan embrace of austerity – that saved the banks and served the few, while most Americans struggle with stagnant wages and less security. People are increasingly convinced that the rules are rigged against them.”

Jeremy Corbyn and Bernie Sanders offer an alternative to economic policies that should have crashed with the economy and George W. Bush in 2008 but continue to impoverish the middle class to this day! Both Mr. Corbyn and Mr. Sanders have built up a large and growing following, but Mr. Borosage has a sage warning about expectations:

“Corbyn will have a hard time reviving a badly divided and demoralized Labour Party. Sanders remains a long shot in the Democratic primaries. But one thing is already clear: The center will not hold. The old consensus is collapsing in the wake of its failures. People are casting about for a new course.”

Pardon me while I scream: WE'VE WAITED TOO DAMN LONG ALREADY! FEEL THE BERN!