The Creation Of "Bernie"

Like Donald Trump in 2016, Bernie is tapping into a seething discontent in American life over who has the power and who doesn't. And who gets the free stuff.

Two competing worldviews.

How was "Bernie" created? And by whom?

Be informed.

It has often been said that Barack Obama "gave the nation Donald Trump."

While I don't agree, I get the point.

Obama was so far Left and so persuasive with his Leftist ideas that he captured the voting electorate with promises he would never keep, using the skill of Saul Alinsky in his organizing.

He nourished a disdain for America as we have known it, with the promise of a new "remade America" through a far-Left secular progressive message of "hope and change."

About 63 million Americans strongly disagreed with Obama (and Hillary Clinton who wanted to succeed him) and elected Donald Trump.

John Daniel Davidson wrote an interesting article on the subject for The Federalist. While I don't agree with all he says, he raises some interesting points regarding "Bernie.".

He says:

The immediate object of their ire might be Donald Trump, but their discontent goes further back than the last election, and it encompasses more than politics as usual. They want everything Sanders promises: Medicare for all, free college, free child care, a massive increase in the minimum wage, the Green New Deal, all of it.

But they also want something more, something harder to define. Justice, maybe, or a reckoning with the powers that be. They’d like to wield that power, and they seem ready to sweep away the social and economic order to get it. There’s something positively Trumpian about their fervor, in their belief that they can overcome the political establishment and corporate media elite and usher in a new era. You could almost say they want to make America great—as they define it.

At the very least, they’re ready for what Sanders promised the crowd of nearly 13,000 fired-up Austinites [Austin, Texas] on Sunday night: a transformation of American politics.

Who is Bernie?

A friend of mine in Tacoma sent me a long list of things that define Bernie's life---all taken from Wikipedia. There's much more than I want to include here, but this is a quick look at some of the things that created and shaped Bernie.

• Bernie never held a "real job" until he was elected mayor of Burlington, Vermont at age 53.
• He lived off welfare and 4 different women, fathering a child out of wedlock with one, and three marriages that didn't work out.
• In the Senate, he introduced 364 bills. Three passed, two of the three were to name post offices in Vermont.
• Bernie grew up in a home with deep financial problems and a father who ranted about their difficulties, blaming society and economic inequity for his plight. This was Bernie's inspiration to take up the cause of economic justice.
• As a college graduate, he spent half his life living off the women in his life, part-time jobs, and unemployment checks.
• His activism for civil rights was replaced by activism for socialism. Not democratic socialism, but oppressive leftist Marxism.
• Bernie applied as a conscientious objector to the Viet Nam war but was rejected. He fathered a child with his girlfriend, by the time his draft number came up, he was too old and wasn't called to active duty.
• Bernie honeymooned with one of his wives, Jane Driscoll, in communist Russia. With another wife, he spent time in pro-soviet Nicaragua, and with another, he spent time in Cuba.
• His socialist friends are upset with him for what they see as a betrayal of some of their shared hardcore beliefs since Bernie joined the Democrat Party.

Enough of that. You get the point.

That was then. What about now?

Sunday night Bernie was on CBS's 60 Minutes. Bernie talked about wide-ranging free stuff, including making all public colleges and universities tuition-free, canceling all student debt---and he introduced a new plan to guarantee free child care and pre-kindergarten to all American children from infancy to age 4.

How will he pay for all this? Here's what he said:

"I get a little bit tired of hearing my opponents saying — 'Gee, how you going to pay for a program that impacts and helps children or working-class families or middle-class families? How you going to pay for that?' And yet, where are people saying, 'How are you going to pay for over $750 billion on military spending?' How you going to pay for a trillion dollars in tax breaks to the 1% in large corporations which was what Trump did? When you help the billionaires and you help Wall Street, 'Hey!' Of course we can pay for it. That's what America's supposed to be about.' Well, I disagree."

This linked to free college and the redistribution of wealth gives you the total package.

Advice to Bernie from brothers and sisters in Venezuela.

Campus Reform said yesterday, "With Sen. Bernie Sanders now the clear front runner for the Democratic nomination for president, even some on the left have expressed worry."

They have. People like Lefties Chris Matthews, Joy Reid (Hillary's former campaign manager) ...even James Carville are in near panic over the possibility of Bernie being their candidate.

Bernie's supporters skew toward the college-age.

Campus Reform writers spoke to young individuals who escaped socialism in Venezuela. Their message is clear. They're sounding the alarm:

• "You do not ever want anyone, not even close, to socialism to come to this country." Continuing, that same person invoked Bernie Sanders' name--"Bernie Sanders is your enemy. Do not ever get with this individual or any of the other socialists. It is not the route to go. It is not possible. It is not feasible. Don't fall for it ."
• Another college-age person said, "We also thought that could never happen in our country. We had a balance of powers. We had a democracy and we elected our leaders."
• Another said he was born and raised in Venezuela and has seen his country "deteriorate" under socialism.

That's probably the understatement of his young life.

The takeaway.

Neither Trump's nor Bernie's message would be so potent if our society was not so deeply divided. But that's where we are, even we pretend that it's different.

Certainly, the Democrat Party may once again derail Bernie on his way to the best and biggest job in his life. But as it stands now, by all accounts, he's on a roll and the people marching behind him want their free stuff: When do they want it? They want it now.

Very wise former presidents have warned us that freedom and liberty are fragile.

Abraham Lincoln warned,

"The philosophy of the classroom today will be the philosophy of government tomorrow."

Ronald Reagan warned,

"American freedoms are no more than one generation away from extinction."

It's decision time in America. Which America do you want to pass to your children?

Be Informed. Be Vigilant. Be Discerning. Be Bold. Be Prayerful. Be Active.