Sanders is leading a revolution
The political cartoon that appeared in the Sept. 19 Observer-Reporter depicted a country radicalized behind naughty Donald Trump and avuncular revolutionary Bernie Sanders, slightly ahead of Hillary Clinton in a recent Iowa poll. Sadly, Clinton and Jeb Bush wave their party flags divided by the white line of a deserted highway in the cartoon. Behind them, Trump and Sanders lead endless ranks of followers on flanking trails.
Funny, but the reality is Clinton and Sanders are neck and neck, while Bush trails badly in the polls.
Bush gets to be in the cartoon because of his connections to his brother, father, grandfather and to traditional Republican corporate interests. Trump is a product of Republicanism, and one of its purer expressions – entertaining as Ronald Reagan, mean-spirited as Richard Nixon, dismissive as Dwight Eisenhower. From Harry Truman to Barack Obama, every president has been a war criminal and Donald Trump is not shy about wanting to join them.
The Bush-Clinton-Bush presidencies, comparable to the Kennedy-Johnson-Nixon administrations in atrocities committed, offer reassurance that Presidents Jeb or Hillary will be as ruthless. President Sanders might stop killing civilians with drones, a possibility his opponents will find objectionable, along with health care for everyone at half the cost, economic justice, and protecting the environment.
Only one candidate running for president in 2016 says we must fight climate change, must switch from fossil fuels as quickly as possible, says Medicare should cover every American, and says a nation will not survive morally or economically when so few have so much while so many have so little. Bernie Sanders is leading a much-needed political revolution and currently enrolling volunteers on his website and at regional events.
Jim Greenwood
Washington