Once again, the media are saying and writing that the United States is not ready for a non-traditional presidential candidate. It’s amusing, kind of like “We don’t think voters are quite ready for solid food.”
Bernie Sanders makes us think of FDR, who in his first 100 days as President, passed Relief, Recovery and Reform legislation to give sea legs to a crippled economy and a work force with busted potential. He gave fireside chats on radio to assure and awaken people.
FDR’s high school headmaster pounded into the class that it was the duty of Christians to help the less fortunate by going into public service, and young Franklin Roosevelt believed that. He was privileged and knew it, so he set his sights on helping others achieve their potential simply by providing a decent income.
The man wasn’t perfect. He packed the courts and oversaw development of the atomic bomb.
Now, 75 years later, eight countries admit to owning nuclear weapons. One country, Israel, is craftily vague about it, and another, South Africa, developed then dismantled their weapons of mass destruction saying they wanted no part of such a thing.
Nevertheless, there are enough nukes in the world to alter everybody’s hair color, skin tone and reproductive vigor for a long time. Here’s we know on how Dems on the debate stage feel about nuclear weapons:
Bernie – There are better things to spend money on.
Biden – No first use and no support of development of low yield nukes.
Buttigieg – Support arms control and only allow the President to launch nukes.
Klobuchar – Don’t prohibit nukes but reduce stockpiles.
Warren – She introduced the No First Use bill, but they can be used as a deterrent. What?
Steyer – Hasn’t said much about much of anything.
Bloomberg – Nuke Bernie.
Williamson – “The only way to make peace with your neighbors is to make peace with your neighbors.”
Who’s Williamson? She’s Marianne Williamson, who had no purpose on the debate stage because no moderator would call on her, but she had the best insight for how to run a world.
Marianne Williamson is not likely to be President of the United States because she really is sensible: A path to citizenship for immigrants. Stop punishing children. One year of national service. Create a Department of Peace. Knock it off with pesticides and herbicides.
Then work on the soil. Allow grass, weeds, plants, shrubs and trees to thrive instead of making everything look like Augusta National. Perfect is so blah. Original is so comfy.
Glow up! Don’t issue Trump Jr. a license to kill a grizzly bear!
He’ll do it anyway.
The thing is, words have a heartbeat. If candidates would tell us who they are and what they envision it would be much easier to choose one we wouldn’t mind being related to. When they attack one another, who cares? It’s a time-stealing strike fight.
Humans are not a protected species – we can be as inconsiderate and bossy and mean and shallow as want without being spayed or neutered.
But I know if candidates would simply speak from the heart instead of to focus groups or each other, it would be harder to do a crossword puzzle and drink a bottle of wine than to watch a debate.