Dear Bernie Sanders, My Heart is Broken

Dear Bernie Sanders,

 

My heart is broken.

 

I’m sitting here, bawling like a baby. Trying to breathe myself into control.

 

You are just the best.

 

You ALWAYS do what you believe best for this nation and the world, and I know you’re doing what you believe is best right now, so I have to embrace it and not let it put me into a catatonic state where I can’t do a thing more to advance the causes we’ve all been fighting so hard for.

 

But I hate it, hate it, hate it!

 

I pray you’re right and I fear you’re wrong.

 

If the vast majority of your supporters follow your lead and vote blue, I think we’ll be all right on November 3rd and in far better shape than we’re in right now on January 20, 2021 when Donald Trump leaves office in disgrace.

 

Why?

 

Because Joe Biden will be choosing the next Supreme Court Justices, and because Joe Biden isn’t a despicable dude despite his shortcomings as a true representative of working class people; in Europe he’d be a Christian Democrat, which isn’t a deal breaker for me, since I’m a Christian social justice Democrat (as opposed to a far right ideologue) and he came out for gay marriage and trans issues before Obama did… and even though he’s Catholic, he supports Roe v Wade. So he isn’t a Catholic ideologue.

 

I’d say he’s more a “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you”-type Christian… with exceptions; the next pararaph covers one the most blatant of them quite well, but there are others usually having to do with the financial industry! Sorry, but I have to address the issues that are topmost on people’s minds on social media right now!)

 

Although the multiple allegations against him about raping women should be a deal breaker, since they haven’t been for Trump, that’s a wash on the chess board. No one who would abandon Biden because he’s alledged to be serial womanizer (#IBelieveHer) would jump on the Trump bandwagon, certainly.  If that’s their single issue, their line in the sand, they have no one else to jump to (on either of the two major parties), other than not voting for either candidate. And that would be  a wash, too.

 

I’ve been watching Joe’s live events, too, and I can vote for him. I don’t believe he’s in cognitive decline; as we age, especially when we’re stutterers (as I am, but I cover it well), it becomes harder to string words together  when we verbalize, but our brains are still all there!

 

Voting for Joe Biden has never been an issue for me. The issue for me has always been nominating the BEST representative of the American people .. and you are that individual, man or woman, in the field.

 

I’m glad I’m writing this to you. Its helping me dial down my initial response to the suspension of your campaign and focus on what’s most important. At least my eyes are dry again, for now…

 

What’s most important are the  issues that you have brought to the forefront and, in some cases, are happening in cities, states and many companies (example: $15/hour minimum wage). It’s policies and their enactment that better people’s lives, not the personalities of the politicians themselves that matter. (Their persistence matters; their personalities, not so much.)

 

There’s still so much that needs to be done. Joe has expressed interest in advocating for some of your policy ideas. (We’ll see how far his interest and persistence extend once he’s in office. We can hold his feet to the fire if he gets lackadaisical about them.)

 

But I want this letter to be mostly about you.

 

You are one of the most crucial unsung statesmen of all time. Because you’re an Independent, your destiny may not be higher office because of the Machaivellean strictures of the present two-party system here, but you certainly qualify for a Profile in Courage Award (and POTUS, dammit!) by every other accolade available  to statesmen and women.

 

Although lots of people characterize you as “angry,” you’re only angry when it’s appropriate: when people are being marginalized, when policies aren’t adequate, or when they over-extend. I respect that kind of anger!  It’s called “righteous anger”!  If we don’t stamp our feet sometimes, crucial listeners don’t hear us, don’t pay attention; their minds are elsewhere.

 

Drawing lines in the sand happens far more frequently on the right than it does on the left, and because of this, we find ourselves in the situation we’re in now: struggling to help all Americans lives decent, honorable lives because they have adequate income to care for their basic needs.

 

I have never considered you radical. That’s a word the far right came up with to scare people. Your policies are just, humane, conscientious, balanced, and wholesome. No rich man or woman will become poor under any of them; they will just be expected to foot their part of an enormous bill that the rest of us are struggling to cover now.

 

I’m sighing now because I don’t know how to end this other than to say I love you, I’m proud I’ve supported you, and I hope you live long enough to get the professional accolades you so richly deserve from your fellow members in Congress.

 

The good new is that you have lived long enough to feel the enormous passion and outpouring of love that so many hundreds of thousands (representing millions!) have expressed to you on the campaign trail and by canvassing and calling and breaking their butts for the causes that you (and we) care so deeply about.

 

Although your campaign slogan is US not Me, this letter is for YOU from US because we have never been prouder to serve a candidate in our lives than we have been to serve you. You’ve planted trees you won’t live long enough to sit under … and that is the truest measure of any statesman who has their priorities in order.

 

When this election is over, do what makes you feel best.  You have served commendably and you deserve whatever you want your future to look like. “Make It So!”

 

May God bless you every bit as much, and more, than you have blessed us with your decades of service to the common good, Bernie!