Step right up and vote, but . . .

Empty Hope

So all Bernie supporters need to forget about their hopes and beliefs and get behind Clinton.  Obama and those bigwig Democrats (many if not all are superdelegates) who never gave a shit about us now welcomes us.  You had your fun, but like ol’ Billy Boy said, “Your Toast.”  Look over there at the Republican presumptive nominee.  See what can happen!  The shrill chorus of gloom and doom echo in every quarter; hell even the media is picking up on it.

An historical moment is unfolding.  See there is a woman, the first woman to become the presumptive nominee of one of the two bankrupt parties that dominate this country.  There is nothing more any true American liberal could ever want.  Right?   Bullshit!

You see we been through all this before.  Are we so myopic that we already lost sight of 2008.  Remember that black dude in Colorado who gave his nominating speech in a stadium -- the only place in Denver to accommodate the crowd.  Everyone wanted to be a witness to history.  I must confess that I choked up hearing that young black man talk about hope and change.  I choked back tears when his family came out to join him.  Hell, I was sentimental seeing Oprah in the midst of the masses shedding a tear or two.  Wasn’t that historic?  Wasn’t that a barrier shattered? How absolutely empty that moment was in hindsight.

You see, we didn’t get anything to quell the fever of hope.  Though Obama marched into office with a super majority (a house and senate in his party), though he had one of the grandest inaugural of all time (hell Beyonce sang), we got nothing but the same, save for some tweaks like the Affordable Care Act.  This colossal product of bureaucracy and politics and the private sector was a little short of a national healthcare (I am being facetious here).  It was a nightmare from stem to stern, incomprehensible when first issued, riddled at implementation, and more importantly it had an escape hatch for neanderthals who don’t quite comprehend a social compact.  That insurance companies can raise their rates and the average joe can see his taxes go up speaks to the absolute failure of a program that is essential to living a life of liberty and a pursuit of happiness.  And all the Democrats crowing for unity had a hand in this.  That something was done is good, but let’s assess it for what it really is or should I say isn’t.  It’s not Medicare.

The aforementioned is a way of showing the hollowness of party unity.  Even when the electorate overwhelmingly turns out and follows a dream what it ends up with is little more than a morsel of the slice of the pie.  The big boys get the pie.  

Enter Clinton, or should I say Clintons, either way we are going to get both.  They are a team that is to be sure.  That they can run and steal an election, no doubt about that.  But what is behind this dynamic duo, well fasten your hip boots because it does get murky.

First, they were the architects of the first national health bill that was an unmitigated failure.  It was a testament to their inability to move things.  Say what you will about Obamacare at least it is law and does offer some relief to the disastrous totally private administration of health care.  How about the conservative shift in criminal justice and so called religious freedom.  In the former, you just jailed the poor especially the blacks, and in the later you gave the bigoted religious zealots an avenue to vent their hate.  Oh, as for the economy, let’s give the power brokers free reign to run their scams with other people’s assets.  Should anything go wrong, let’s remember “they are too big to fail.”  Of course, the fact that millions will go bankrupt and lose their homes, well, big is good, but small who cares?  This list of “achievements” can only be elevated by rhetoric.  Also, a budget was balanced but on whose backs?

Yet here we go again.  The choice of course is always framed as the lesser of two evils.  Does anyone ever ask why can’t there be a choice between what is good and what is bad.  Claiming an historical moment when a lifetime politician ascend to high political stature is kind of self serving.  That a black made it to the top was unfathomable though the significance is more in the optics than the substance given the ignorant truculent bigots in Congress and the reluctance of that body elected with him to truly vote against the interests of the special interests.

So I should not be concerned with helping the impoverished to get a decent minimum wage, nor should I worry about students being saddled with debt for improving themselves, and I shouldn’t give a hoot if a bunch of thieves manipulating the market for private gains get away with their criminal acts.  Most of all I should ignore the history of a candidate in matters of personal profit and glaring stupid mistakes.  I should worry about the buffoon bogeyman.  That both of the candidates this term  inspire nearly no one is of no importance.  After all it is about choices in a democracy.  Choose between the lesser of two evils, which sort of mean evil abounds.