Feeling the Berne

Before I do anything else I want to to mention that astronaut Scott Kelly is back on Earth after nearly a full year in space, which is pretty damn cool, he's apparently two inches taller now because gravity is important. I hope he adapts to being grounded without too much trouble.

Anyway, let's talk about the primaries. But we won't talk about Trump, or the Republicans at all. I wanna talk about Bernie Sanders, he didn't do great on Super Tuesday, but he did well enough, and we have a lot of liberal states coming up that should give him a boost so I am hopeful, also the FBI just granted immunity from prosecution to the guy who set up Clinton's email server, and while I don't see the email thing as anything other than a pretty blatant attempt to torpedo her campaign, if they are actually building a real case against her that might mean the Democrats will need another viable candidate, and fortunately they have one in Bernie Sanders.

For the most part, the only major group actively working against Sanders is the Clinton campaign, with of course the tacit support of the DNC, things have been kept mostly civil, at least compared to her 2008 scorched earth campaign against Obama anyway, but the narrative they are trying, and succeeding, to build is that Sander's ideas are naive and could never happen.

Realism is great, but buying into this narrative is defeatism at the highest level, when we agree with Clinton that the drastic changes that are needed to bring about economic equality can't, or shouldn't, be done, we are telling those in power that they win, we make them feel more secure and then they find out what they can get away with. Capitalism is not a kind or caring philosophy, that's fine, it doesn't have to be and I don't expect businesses to be nice, I do expect them to do everything they can to maximize profits.

The thing is though that government is not a business, and should not be thinking that way, it is the responsibility of the government to regulate and control businesses so that they can't do anything they want in the name of profits because a government's duty is to care for the people it represents. This means protecting us from outside threats, but honestly in this day and age, that must be considered a secondary goal. Primarily it should be to make sure all it's citizens have a chance to succeed. Unfettered capitalism relies on the idea that the wealthy and powerful will help those around them succeed via either charity or osmosis, and we know, not think, we know, that it doesn't work, we saw it in the early twentieth century and we saw is almost one hundred years later with the recession.

So when Bernie Sanders talks about reigning in the banks, reducing the cost of school, and increasing the minimum wage he isn't being naive and talking about things that are impossible, he is talking about a return to policies that were once reality and can be again, people like to talk about the 50's an 60's with the rose tinted glasses on, and in many ways they were quite terrible, but it was then that the American middle class was strongest and it was because of the very same ideas that are considered impossible now.

The American Dream was never really achieved, this country claims to have been founded on philosophies like individual freedom, equality, and optimism, in practice we have fallen far short of that, and have since the very minute the country was formed, but those ideals still exist and the idea that we can be better should be the most central concept in our national self image. We aren't there yet, we may never get there, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't try.

Bernie Sanders is trying, Hillary Clinton thinks the best we can do is tread water, and the GOP field wants to burn everything down and dance in the ashes. I know what I want.