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At the inaugural meeting of Pleasant Valley/Poughkeepsie for Bernie Sanders group, I met a fourth person who told me bluntly, “If Bernie Sanders doesn’t get the nomination, I’m voting for Donald Trump.”
I find this utterly fascinating.
Sanders and Trump actually do have one platform point in common: Both purport to be opposed to international trade treaties like the recent Trans-Pacific Partnership Free Trade Agreement. (I say “purport” because Trump actually uses Chinese factories to manufacture the swag sold in conjunction with various Trump enterprises.)
But I don’t think platform points are what underlie this odd partisanship.
No, I think it’s the perception that Trump and Sanders are both honest guys who are outside mainstream politics. People in the U.S. are sick of politics as usual.
Note that I use the word “perception:” I personally don’t think Trump is honest in any sense that I would use that word. I think Trump’s a player! I think Trump’s gotten where he is because he’s a sociopathic personality type who’s a master of gaming the system. Not that there’s anything wrong with being a sociopath as Ayn Rand has written three very dreary novels reminding us.
Trump totally reminds me of Mussolini. There is actually something wrong with that.
I don’t know who Hillary Clinton reminds me of. Maybe Woodrow Wilson’s wife Edith who essentially ran the U.S. between 1919 and 1921 after a severe stroke turned her husband into a gork.
Is four some kind of trend? I mean, obviously, “people I meet” is by no means a random statistical sample.
Still…
###
Anyway, the meeting was disappointing. People had to go around the room introducing themselves. There were a number of women who were there because, as they said, He’s got that Woodstock energy! (Ugh!) He exudes radiance and quiet confidence. (No!) I want to follow in his footsteps. (Aiuto!)
When it was my turn, I said, “He wants to reinstigate the Glass Steagall Act.”
Three-quarters of them did not know what the Glass Steagall Act is.
I actually have no idea how New York’s Democratic Primary works. Is it a regional thing where every jurisdiction elects their own delegate, or is it a statewide thing where either winner takes all or delegates are designated according to the proportion of the votes they receive? Nobody at the meeting seemed to know.
Bernie Sanders in New York is kind of a lost cause, so I’m not actually sure why I’m doing this. New York is Hillary Clinton country. Chelsea got married right up the street – in the picturesque and quaint town of Rhinebeck. Sanders’ strength is really his appeal to younger voters, many of whom loathe Hillary Clinton, and I’m not sure that younger voters bother to vote in primaries – possibly because the idea of identifying themselves either as a Democratic or Republican party member is so repugnant.
I suppose I’m getting involved because if you don’t get involved, you really can’t complain about what happens later. I mean, you can, people do, but your bitching and moaning lacks moral authority.
I’m putting together a list of holiday craft shows in Dutchess County, and then I’ll call the organizers of those various craft shows to see if we can set up a Bernie Sanders table at these events to hand out literature and evangelize. Some of them may go for it; some of them may not.
###
Else?
That Indian Summer that was gifting us with sunny days and temperatures in the (gulp) 70s has finally fled. It’s cold. It’s crisp. It’s autumn!
I raked a billion pounds of leaves. (I like raking leaves; I hate leaf blowers.)
I scribbled.
I’m reading two (count ‘em) Henry Miller biographies from which I’ve learned that I got many of the status details in the NaNo piece wrong. I’m trying desperately to withstand the temptation to go back and edit.
Spoke to Max; he sounds much better. And at the advanced age of 21, RTT has finally fallen in LUV, which is a huge relief to me. I was speculating that his invulnerability to the tenderer emotions was somehow related to something I’d done – it’s always The Mother’s fault, you know. RTT keeps texting me unsolicited pix of him and the girl at various dances. It’s very cute. He’s clearly smitten.
I find this utterly fascinating.
Sanders and Trump actually do have one platform point in common: Both purport to be opposed to international trade treaties like the recent Trans-Pacific Partnership Free Trade Agreement. (I say “purport” because Trump actually uses Chinese factories to manufacture the swag sold in conjunction with various Trump enterprises.)
But I don’t think platform points are what underlie this odd partisanship.
No, I think it’s the perception that Trump and Sanders are both honest guys who are outside mainstream politics. People in the U.S. are sick of politics as usual.
Note that I use the word “perception:” I personally don’t think Trump is honest in any sense that I would use that word. I think Trump’s a player! I think Trump’s gotten where he is because he’s a sociopathic personality type who’s a master of gaming the system. Not that there’s anything wrong with being a sociopath as Ayn Rand has written three very dreary novels reminding us.
Trump totally reminds me of Mussolini. There is actually something wrong with that.
I don’t know who Hillary Clinton reminds me of. Maybe Woodrow Wilson’s wife Edith who essentially ran the U.S. between 1919 and 1921 after a severe stroke turned her husband into a gork.
Is four some kind of trend? I mean, obviously, “people I meet” is by no means a random statistical sample.
Still…
###
Anyway, the meeting was disappointing. People had to go around the room introducing themselves. There were a number of women who were there because, as they said, He’s got that Woodstock energy! (Ugh!) He exudes radiance and quiet confidence. (No!) I want to follow in his footsteps. (Aiuto!)
When it was my turn, I said, “He wants to reinstigate the Glass Steagall Act.”
Three-quarters of them did not know what the Glass Steagall Act is.
I actually have no idea how New York’s Democratic Primary works. Is it a regional thing where every jurisdiction elects their own delegate, or is it a statewide thing where either winner takes all or delegates are designated according to the proportion of the votes they receive? Nobody at the meeting seemed to know.
Bernie Sanders in New York is kind of a lost cause, so I’m not actually sure why I’m doing this. New York is Hillary Clinton country. Chelsea got married right up the street – in the picturesque and quaint town of Rhinebeck. Sanders’ strength is really his appeal to younger voters, many of whom loathe Hillary Clinton, and I’m not sure that younger voters bother to vote in primaries – possibly because the idea of identifying themselves either as a Democratic or Republican party member is so repugnant.
I suppose I’m getting involved because if you don’t get involved, you really can’t complain about what happens later. I mean, you can, people do, but your bitching and moaning lacks moral authority.
I’m putting together a list of holiday craft shows in Dutchess County, and then I’ll call the organizers of those various craft shows to see if we can set up a Bernie Sanders table at these events to hand out literature and evangelize. Some of them may go for it; some of them may not.
###
Else?
That Indian Summer that was gifting us with sunny days and temperatures in the (gulp) 70s has finally fled. It’s cold. It’s crisp. It’s autumn!
I raked a billion pounds of leaves. (I like raking leaves; I hate leaf blowers.)
I scribbled.
I’m reading two (count ‘em) Henry Miller biographies from which I’ve learned that I got many of the status details in the NaNo piece wrong. I’m trying desperately to withstand the temptation to go back and edit.
Spoke to Max; he sounds much better. And at the advanced age of 21, RTT has finally fallen in LUV, which is a huge relief to me. I was speculating that his invulnerability to the tenderer emotions was somehow related to something I’d done – it’s always The Mother’s fault, you know. RTT keeps texting me unsolicited pix of him and the girl at various dances. It’s very cute. He’s clearly smitten.
