EXPANSION OF A COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE IN CBC NEWS
“Sanders' socialist revolution sweeps Sin City with Nevada caucus win”
Sanders is not a socialist, even though he has used the description himself.
He is just an old-fashioned progressive. His views resemble those of many old New Deal Democrats or those of Canada’s third major political party, the NDP.
It does seem to me that when the press keeps using the word “socialist,” it is assisting the anti-Bernie establishment now clearly at work with Buttigieg and Bloomberg and Hillary Clinton.
A reader below has said: “Bernie's nomination would all but guarantee a win for Donald Trump”
I believe that is not accurate. We even have a recent big-name poll that shows Bernie beating Trump by a decent margin. Trump is not wildly popular despite the enthusiasm of his base supporters, and he has been unsuccessful at most of what he has attempted. His crudity and name-calling have grown into a source of embarrassment for many.
Clint Eastwood, the actor and director and minor politician, is known to be quite conservative in his politics. He supported Trump in 2016, yet he has just announced that he is endorsing Bloomberg, going out of his way to criticize Trump for his inappropriate name-calling and tweeting.
Remember, Trump is a minority President. His base is not large enough to elect him. That's why he pulled in anti-war people not otherwise in his base in 2016, but he has sure let those people down.
In Iraq and Syria and Iran, he has intensified hostilities, very much so in Iran. The American-supported Saudi Arabian assault on Yemen continues. He has encouraged Israel’s aggressiveness and has virtually promised it perpetual total control of the Palestinians, instead of peace.
The recent agreement signed in Afghanistan represents almost no progress towards peace, and that’s if it even takes effect, something not at all certain owing to that country’s politics.
First, the Taliban wanted an agreement with all US troops leaving, but the US refused. Second, the agreement only reduces US troops to 8,600, the number that were there before Trump. Third, even that reduction doesn't take place until a year and half of "truce."
Trump could have set a schedule for pulling out all the troops, but he did not. Afghanistan is not and never was a threat. The US, despite its superior weapons and heavy use of bombing, has been stalemated by the impoverished Taliban who still control more than half the country. The longer the US stays there, the more chance hostilities will flare up again. Vietnam redux because the Taliban are the same kind of determined people the Vietnamese were.
Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure the Pentagon intends to stay in Afghanistan for some time, considering Trump’s increased hostilities towards neighboring Iran and China, and Trump certainly isn’t going to oppose it.
Trump enjoys bragging about the economy, but the truth is there are serious weaknesses threatening every major economy, including that of the United States, and Trump himself has only contributed to making them worse. Sanctions, threats, tariffs, reduced trade, higher consumer prices, and wars do not strengthen economies. Just the opposite. And neither does the kind of debt Trump is piling up.
Bernie has a real chance of defeating Trump because Bernie inspires the young and energetic.
If they turn out in good numbers, it can be decisive.
Who else do the Democrats have? There's absolutely no excitement about Buttigieg or Bloomberg or Warren or Biden. None.
Tulsi Gabbard is a very attractive politician, but the Democratic establishment virtually exiled her from the race.
The Democratic establishment is now working against Bernie with Bloomberg and Buttigieg, but they are not having a lot of success. However, if Bernie doesn't secure enough votes in the primaries for a first-ballot convention victory, a brokered convention kicks in automatically, and establishment forces will almost certainly displace him.
Bloomberg has pockets deep enough to buy support – that’s how he managed to get himself into the Nevada candidates’ debate. Given the clear bias against Bernie within the party’s establishment, Bloomberg will get all the official cooperation he needs. Hillary Clinton pretty much heads up that establishment, and she has made negative public comments about Bernie while he campaigned, an unprecedented display of hostility within a political party.
Again, Bernie is not a socialist. He’s a progressive, and a very eloquent one. Trump is loud but about as eloquent as George Bush.
Bernie would need his eloquence to defeat the predictable smear about being some kind of communist, but I’m sure he has it in him.
It’s interesting that the re-emergence of threadbare tales about Russia interfering in American elections now contain the twist of Russia working to get Bernie elected.
ADDED NOTE
The terms of the signed American-Taliban agreement are somewhat different than those I read earlier, but as with all Trump’s “achievements” in foreign affairs, they lack clarity and certainty. And they do not represent a genuine peace Trump will certainly brag about in the upcoming election.
Troops will be reduced to 8,600 over the next five months. Five bases will be closed. All the rest of the American and NATO troops could leave by the end of 14 months if the Taliban adheres to the agreement’s conditions which include, importantly, holding peace talks with the Kabul government they do not recognize as legitimate.
That is a big “if” because Kabul is not a party to the agreement, and just exactly what is to be achieved between Kabul and the Taliban, in order for the remaining troops to leave, is not clear. And the government in Kabul has not yet even settled who won the last presidential election, so the Taliban’s actual negotiating partner is not known.
The deal promises to work on a large prisoner exchange between the Taliban and Kabul, but there are certainly disincentives for Kabul releasing large numbers of Taliban prisoners.
