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We all know that Donald Trump has received more coverage than any other primary/caucus candidate. I found out the real reason this morning: he brings in more money to the media. The public is buying more Rice Krispies when he's on than when Bernie Sanders is on, for instance.
Could another reason be that he's so rich, one of the below-1- percent? Perish the thought! You don't mean to say that Sanders is correct that politicians are being purchased? Even Trump? That money is power? Even Trump won't be able to self-finance in a presidential campaign. What comes next? Coals to Newcastle that could be so much better spent. Who's the most vocal about it? The truth?
I'm not composing a campaign pitch for Bernie. The truth is sometimes the hardest thing to face--do we really want it? It's the toughest challenge. Why not go with the guy with the glitzy Florida palace? Why not go with his promises--will he carry them out once in power as the greatest power in the world?
Trump spoke to Mitch McConnell yesterday. Wow. McConnell told him, according to a wry MSNBC report, to dispense with violence during his rallies. Don't encourage it and say you'd do it yourself. Punches in the face etc. That's something--Trump getting a powerful right wing force to advocate against violence. It's a start in the right direction.
Where will it lead? Will Trump listen to the Congress if he is elected? He has an irreverent precedent in--shhh--G.W. Bush calling the Constitution a piece of paper. Trump may rip up the original, given the chance, and engineer a revolution that may even drop the jaw of . . . Ted Cruz, another revolutionary. No one likes the IRS, but as a "job creator," Cruz will be destroying the livelihoods of thousands of IRS employees with secure insurance and pension plans. Ouch. What will he do with them? As of 2007, this employee force numbered 92,033.
What scares me the most is that, as awful as he is, we can trust that Cruz will attempt to keep his campaign promises while we don't know what Trump will be up to.
And the one guy being squashed by politics-as-usual is telling the truth, the sole statesman among these candidates. He will certainly do his best, if elected or even if not elected, to honor his campaign promises. Amazing that he got as far as he did. His campaign promises entail the toughest challenge of them all--democracy, a very, very hard job for all of us. All of us would have to roll up our sleeves to do this job, rule by the people, all of us.
No wonder his wins are powered by a generation with the energy to do this work, which would inspire all of us. Their energy might accomplish a minimum wage of $15 per hour, freeing others now working double shifts at Walmart and McDonald's to pitch in, not that $15 per hour is necessarily a living wage. It's just a huge improvement over what's going on now and will hopefully not be accompanied by an inflation.
Bernie wants to put us all to work. He has one of the lowest net worths of anyone in Congress, despite a generous salary from the government as U.S. Senator. And yet he can't be bought.
Maybe this is a pitch for Sanders after all and maybe I'm preaching to the choir.
But on March 15, the Ides, my personal life went well and I waited for the warning to take shape and it did: worse than politics-as-usual with all of those Trump wins and Sanders losses.
Yesterday I purchased a designer Bernie shirt I will wear with pride no matter what happens next.
