It’s got to be tough to live the life of Bernie Sanders. The opening comparison is to the interviewer trying to get his kid to put his shoes on. Anyone who has done that knows what a struggle it is. But, it ends, hopefully well, in most cases. Now multiply by 15 or so, and that’s the life of The Bern.
For my generation, he faded into the background when the 60s movement dimmed. We focused on nuclear war, women and gay rights, and a few others, but I had the honor of asking Paul Wellstone if he would prioritize universal health care, and he said that the country was not ready for it. So we creep along at our petty pace.
At about 14 minutes, Bernie says it’s simple, “money”. Then he qualifies that he means identifying the problem is simple, but fixing it is not. We declared ourselves free from Kings, but not from the concentration of power. We have increased the volume of voices but the power of working people has barely increased at all.
Sociology tells us that the powerful will keep throwing bones at the powerless. A little more food, a little ability to move about, a few examples of upward mobility, changes in old norms about women, ethnicities, sex, all of these happen slow and sometimes they move backward. That illusion of progress keeps the revolution from getting out of hand. It also leaves enough difference in place so divisions can be used to keep the fighting between the powerless and leave the powerful where they are.
This interview also mentions the primary of Cori Bush, something one of our recent trolls brought to our attention. They were right about the primary, but very wrong about how they dealt with the conversation.
The next generation. This young man is seeing how frustrating it is to say health care should be available to all, like it is in all the other rich countries, and have the people who could make that happen look at him like a dog that’s been shown a card trick. People born today expect to get these rights, unlike people born in my time who expect others to “pull themselves up by their own bootstraps” or some junk.
It looks like the youth vote is finally coming back. I have voted for older white men, except one or two, all my life. It shouldn’t have taken this long to have choices. Those old white men put consevatives in SCOTUS and allowed money to equal speech. That will eventually get overturned.
Yes, if money is free speech what does a donation argument look like?
Highest bidder wins the free speech argument?
Money is the opposite of free speech.
The dictionary defines money as a binding contract, a “quid pro quo”
Quid pro quo is a Latin phrase used in English to mean an exchange of goods or services, in which one transfer is contingent upon the other; “a favor for a favor”.Wikipedia
