Sanders for President

Senator Bernie Sanders announces bid for Democratic nomination

I live in Iowa. In this state, the political parade has been underway for months, at least since the November 2014 election and to some degree even before that as presidential hopefuls crisscrossed the state to "help" their candidates for congress, senate and governor.

I have, once or twice, spoken well of former senator H. Clinton in these pages. In my opinion, she did good work as secretary of state and in some of the other gigs on her resume (the United Nations, U.S. Senate, First Lady). And there was a time when I really liked her husband. I voted for him twice, with enthusiasm.

But since those days, in my opinion Bill and Hillary have sold out to the Wall Street bankers. There is probably not a better political mind on this earth than Bill C.'s, and perhaps the two of them recognize that H. cannot be elected without large piles of corporate money.

Since announcing her candidacy, Hillary has sounded like a progressive. In my humble opinion, she is lying. As president, she will be no more progressive than President Obama. For all his talk of "hope" and "change," he likewise has been a subservient tool of Wall Street.

But Bernie Sanders? He is the real thing.

Mind you, he has absolutely no chance of being elected. None. Zero.
And were he to win, he would be unable to do anything, not with the Congress firmly in Republican hands.

In the fall of 2007, I spent far too much time and energy supporting someone whom I thought was a good candidate (most decidedly not Barack Obama). And before that, I put a lot of energy into supporting John Kerry, whom I thought (and still consider) a decent human being, and whom I honor for his courageous opposition to the Vietnam War (see, for example, the Winter Soldier investigation).

I do not think that I have the time or energy to do this sort of thing for Sanders, as much as I would like to.

But on caucus night, I am going to be standing in his corner, even if I am standing there all by myself.