Oh, you think what I’m talking about is last night’s CNN debate. Well, I’ll get to that.
Last Thursday Sanders spoke at Westminster College, Missouri, a venue made famous by being the site of Winston Churchill’s Sinews of Peace speech. A lot of people think that after World War II Churchill went on to be Prime Minister forever. This is not true. As a matter of fact he didn’t even make it to VJ Day (August 15th, 1945), being replaced at 10 Downing by Clement Attlee of the Labour Party on July 27th. During the 1946 U.S. visit when he made the speech he got famously rolled at a Poker game by Harry Truman and his friends. He also urged privately that the U.S. preemptively attack the Soviet Union with nuclear weapons before they could develop any of their own.
Bernie didn’t say anything like that, but he didn’t stray too far.
Charlie Pierce called it, “his best speech in 2 years.” I’m not sure I agree. I found it a little bellicose, which is not a surprise since Sanders has a history of holding unfortunate views on foreign policy. Pierce did go on to predict that the debate with Lindsey Graham, Bill Cassidy, and Amy Klobuchar would be a walkover and it proved to be so.
It was really a 3 sided affair with Graham and Cassidy promoting their heinous and doomed Trumpcare bill, Klobuchar stay the course Obamacare, and Sanders Single Payer Medicare for All. Bernie crushed them.
One of the best moments was when Graham said, “what I’m not going to do is take more taxpayer dollars and give it to a bunch of insurance companies.”
Bernie’s reply? “See, Lindsey, there it is. You actually said something that was right. I knew it would happen.”
The thing is, though Sanders is as revolutionary as the acceptable limits of debate allow (and congratulations on pushing the Overton Window a little Left), he’s not that revolutionary. He’s still willing to accept most of the power structures of the Neo Liberal system.
And while I think its demise is inevitable, never let it be said I’m not a pragmatist. If Bernie is the best we got then feel it.