A Word With an Old Friend

I don't need to tell you most of this.  You have your own news sources.  Probably we share a lot of them.  CNN.  PBS.  MSNBC.  The New York Times.  Some of the more intelligent online publications.  (I always check 538, even though I question some of the polls they rely on.  I mean, who trusts HarrisX?)

If you're like me, you probably even have a few non-American sources.  The Guardian app is my go-to for anything, even news of the US.  If you haven't found it yet, you'd like it.

And of course, we each hear from our respective campaigns.  I get daily blasts from Charlestown, what the folks at Warren HQ want us to hear.  I'm sure you get the same thing from Bernie's staff.  We're citizens, of course, but we are also, in the end, pawns in a very big game.

Anyway, we both know something about where this campaign seems to be going.  And if I like it better than you - and of course, I do - I still feel a reflexive twinge every time I see Bernie's numbers bump down another half-point in the aggregates. 

I love that man.  Honor him.  He's an American hero.  If he's not the next President, whoever is should give him the Medal of Freedom.

No, Bernie should have been the nominee in '16.  I don't know if he was actually robbed, but for sure, he was mugged.  If the DNC had left it to us - if they'd remembered what the "D" stands for - he might have been the nominee, for real.

And if he had been, I think he wins.  And the Trump nightmare would have been just that, a bad dream.

I expect you ended up voting for Hillary.  I couldn't get there.  I lived in Virginia then, and with Tim Kaine on the ticket, Hillary was going to get our electoral votes.  I ended up voting for that young guy from Utah - McMillan?, McMullen?, whatever...

Yeah.  Bernie got screwed in '16.  We all did.

But this year, you're with The Bern, and I'm with Liz Warren.  And so far, they've made a great team - advocating a similar vision for America, watching each other's backs in the "debates".  It's been nice to see.

I hope that doesn't change now, when things are starting to shake out.  Like I say, you get the same news - read same polls - as I do.  This has turned into a three-person race, but it's starting to look, more and more, like it's becoming more a two-person race:  Warren vs. Biden.

I know.  I said it.  Looks like it's going to be Liz or Joe. 

I expect you're starting to see that, too - and you don't want to believe it.  I get it.  I've been there, more times than I can count.  But for Bernie, there's a special pain.  It just isn't fair.  Such a great man.  Remarkable.  Courageous. 

Fun.  Remember how much fun it was in '16, when it actually started to look like he would take the Party away from the Clintons, the Wall Street Democrats, the DLC-types - and turn it into a party of the people again? 

Bernie did that.  Nobody else could have done it.  Where we are now - we wouldn't be there without The Bern.

Like I say, it just ain't fair.

But I ask you honestly, as a friend - if you're ready to hear the question - can you see a way forward?Is there a scenario where Bernie wins this time?  I mean, I'm all-in for Liz, but if Bernie somehow pulls this thing out, I'm grinning from ear to ear.

I just don't see how he does it.

So I'm asking - friend to friend.  Can you draw me a map, paint me a picture, tell me a story that ends up with Bernie as the nominee, and then the President?  Can you envision how he snatches victory from the jaws of - well - the present situation?

And it's okay if you can't do that right now.  Take as long as you want.

Just this.  If you get to a place where you can't see a way forward - please - it can't be Biden.  It just can't.  I don't think Biden wins against Trump.  I'm damn sure he doesn't have the coattails to take back the Senate.  But even if he pulls it off, President Joe means four years of nothing much - half-assed gestures with the world on fire. 

Literally, on fire.

And then, Joe's what, 80? - and he probably loses to somebody worse than Trump.  (And there could be somebody worse.  Imagine a guy with Trump's ideology, but twenty years younger, with a better  understanding of how government works, no hint of senility, more focused, skilled at building teams, with a thicker skin, etc.)

Really, it just can't be Joe.

So anyway - that's what I have to say.  No pressure.  We both love Bernie.  You keep giving him the support he deserves.

But when the time comes - if it comes - try talking the old gang into helping Liz.  After all, we're still fighting the same damn people - the Wall Street Democrats - and they're already trying to rig this thing for Joe - or anyone who won't upset the big-money donors too much.

You know that, as well as I do.  Maybe better.

I guess that's it.  Good seeing you.  Keep in touch.

And keep fightin' the good fight.