It would be an easy decision for me to support Bernie Sanders over Donald Trump, even though I think each of the other contenders for the Democratic nomination would make better presidents. I believe his mistakes would be tempered by the Congress (whether one or both parties control the houses.) And unlike Trump he has morals and ethics.David Brooks, the conservative writer for the New York Times, and former protege of William F. Buckley, has written that he could vote for any of the other candidates against Trump, but not Sanders.
So I share this opinion piece, not because I completely agree with it but as evidence of the fact that MANY Americans who despise Donald John Trump would hold their noses and vote for him anyway or sit out the race altogether (by staying home or wasting a vote on a third party) rather than vote for someone who labels himself a Democratic Socialist and has a decades long audio/video/written record of unwise words. If Sanders ends up capturing our nomination I will regret having posted this, but I cannot watch quietly while my party makes such a damnable mistake.
We have several strongly progressive candidates who do not carry the baggage of Bernie Sanders. Even David Brooks would vote for Joe Biden, Amy Klobuchar, or Elizabeth Warren rather than allow the re-election of the most dangerous president in American history.
Bernie Sanders has been just too much in the eyes of too many for too long. In this existential moment for the American republic we need the largest possible consensus of opposition to Trumpism. We need to wipe it out forever. We need to build our house majority. We need to take the Senate majority. We need to take back state legislatures. We need the evil of Trump obliterated at the ballot box by the absolute maximum vote possible.
I do not believe Sanders can be competitive in Georgia; Joe Biden can be. Joe might help a Teresa Tomlinson or Raphael Warnock; Bernie would make their races more difficult. Neither, in my opinion, will Sanders be competitive in Ohio, or Iowa, or Wisconsin, or, Pennsylvania, or Florida, or Arizona --- especially after the Trump/Putin/Fox/SocialMedia campaign machine has weaponized fifty years of Sanders' remarks about communist and socialist societies and leaders. Now fact is, though I wish he were stronger in his condemnations of Castro, I find little to argue with when I listen to the complete 1985 interview.
I live in Northwest Georgia. Even here in the Congressional district once home to John Birch himself, and once represented by the second president of the John Birch Society --- even here --- I know some pretty conservative folks who would vote for Joe Biden, a lifelong progressive, over Trump. They know he was out in front of Barack Obama on marriage equality. They know he fought for universal healthcare. They know that Biden is progressive. But they trust him not to be autocratic or extreme or rash or chaotic.
I know of some folks who voted for Barack Obama who cannot bring themselves to vote for Sanders, even over the evil of Trump. I am horrified that that is true, but it is.
I am for Joe Biden because I think he will make a thoughtful and unifying president. Oh, I know Joe's negatives: like me he is old, he stumbles over words, he mis-speaks, he has a long record that can also be picked apart. But the people in general like and trust him. He is a known quantity.
I think he will help us reorient our republic to the balanced, and I believe progressive, goals stated so eloquently in the Preamble -- unity, justice, civility, safety, the common good, and liberty for all Americans now and forever.
I also support him because, of those available in 2016, he is most likely to gain an unquestioned mandate to end Trumpism.
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