In 2020 Only Radical Goodness Can Defeat Radical Badness

Tonight while watching the Democratic debate, I had a epiphany:

 

This year–which will determine which way our country and the world will go in ways never imagined before–we need a stark, obvious contrast if Democrats are going to wrest control from Trump and his disastrous, misled, bought-and-paid-for minions. 

 

Half measures and compromises won’t get us there.  There isn’t any time left for compromise, if we’re going to save this planet and this nation from greedy people’s worst impulses.

This year, only RADICAL GOODNESS can defeat Radical Badness.

 

Don’t get me wrong.I think all the Democratic contenders (except Bloomberg) are honorable people.

 

And Elizabeth Warren is a spitfire, someone to reckon with. And Amy isn’t far behind. I hope one of them are on the ticket as VP.

 

But the rest of the candidates, except one, are milquetoast honorable people. They’re not turning out enough people to send them over the top or to get people excited about going to the polls.

 

To counteract the enormous advantage Trump has (a majority of white male Republicans think he’s doing a good job <groan>), we need a candidate who is as virtuous and in it for us as Trump is crooked and in it for himself and the people pulling his strings.

 

We need a choice, not an echo.

Not a compromise. Not at this stage.

 

The Democratic Party has compromised so much over the past forty years that their candidates, except for Bernie and Elizabeth and maybe Amy, are actually Republican Lite–and not the Republicans of old, when they had standards and morals.

 

Bloomberg is a perfect  example. He’s tone deaf. He has no idea what it’s like to have to work for a living at minimum wage (which he wants to eliminate) in a nation that discriminates against people of color and women. His male privilege gets in the way. I don’t discern any real soul. All I see is an opportunist. Another Trump.

 

 

We won’t win by compromising our values. We’ll win huge if we go with the candidate most like FDR, a President so popular for his democratic socialism that Congress had to pass a law to limit presidents to two terms in office. THAT’S the kind of President I want: one we can rely on to have our backs.

 

Bernie is the only one who “gets” how close we are to losing it all. Climate change (which Trumpsters don’t believe in) is an existential threat. We have maybe 12 years to get out ahead of it and reduce the effects of our pollution.

 

He also gets that no one who works for someone else should be making so little money that they can’t keep a roof over their heads and their mortgages or rents paid. By golly, if WalMart  owners and McDonald’s owners et al don’t want to pay enough to their employees to give them a decent standard of living, they need to turn out and run their own freaking businesses… see how long that would last!

 

This year, we can’t be compromising on the best, most popular candidate. If we want to  win, we have to offer radical goodness, not an anemic clone.

 

Look at Bernie’s policies.They are not “radical” in any developed nation but this one, and that’s because this one is bought by the people who have the most money.

 

That’s deplorable. Our neighbors, and we, deserve a President who will fight for the policies that offer us all a better quality of life… that offer us all some HOPE.

 

The national malaise that’s apparent now is because most people have lost hope. If we lose that after this election, we’re doomed. The oligarchs, plutocrats and planet destroyers will have everything completely stacked against the rest of us.

 

I feel so sorry for the kids who are under 20. I don’t think they’re going to have a planet if we don’t do something radical now to save it and them.

 

Put away your aversion to the term “democratic socialism.” It is not communism or pure socialism. Some of our most popular programs are democratic socialism:

 

 

Guaranteed public education

Public transportation

Fire departments

Police departments

Public libraries

Every branch of the US military

Roads & highways

Social Security

Medicare/medicaid

Public, not private prisons & jails

Public hospitals

The Veterans Affairs Administration

Public universities

Public parks

 

Bernie wants to add healthcare as a human right (not  a privilege only for well-heeled working people) and have the government fund it (including eye care, dental care and hearing care). His program will cost the average taxpayer less than our current system costs because  deductibles, co-pays and other out-of-pocket expenses will be eliminated under his plan.  (Right now, a family making $59,000 a year spends $12,000 of that on health care, on average.)

 

If we can convince the socialism-wary folks to simply look at Bernie’s policies (BernieSanders.com) they will see they’ll be  a lot better off if they elect him President. Of course, we also need to get rid of the Mitch McConnells of the world, who sit on the bills that are meant to help us, too. The GOP needs to shape up or ship out. They’re obstructing progress toward crucial advances every chance they get.

 

You owe it to yourself to look at the candidates and decide who’s most likely to send Trump and his greedy crony capitalists packing (oh, and the Democratic crony capitalists, too, let’s not forget!)

 

Its time to clean house and get back to having a government that  serves US not the 1%.