We Need Bernie — Whether We Agree With Him or Not

To keep reminding us that things are broken and need fixing

Bernie is dogged in that exercise. And if we hear the same thing — once, twice, or a hundred times that’s great. Because experience says (at least mine) that repetition is needed to get any change in how we do stuff (of course it comes with the small risk of totally boring our friends, listeners and readers).

Maureen Dowd (from the New York Times) came equipped to field questions to Bernie from left, right and center — and others completely out of the park. The awful position of Britney Spears, Joe Manchin’s luxury yacht and even Bernie’s latest assessment of capitalism in America. Bernie was having none of it. Swaying never from his half dozen points on one sheet of paper honed over the centuries — well, decades. He had the carriage of a seasoned Broadway actor able to deliver his lines backwards if directed to do so.

Bernie’s observations hit their targets bang on (it matters not a jot for our purposes here that many of his solutions resemble rockets launched without navigational assist). He states, and restates, that we spend twice as much as Canadians and Europeans on healthcare but are dead years before them. That we are the biggest guy on the rich country block but we can’t spare food and shelter for millions of our own family. That we are being ripped off by Wall Street, the drug companies, insurance companies, oil companies, credit card companies, cable companies and companies in bed with government — or working outside government — and decency, if not the law. Phew!

Bernie wishes to connect with all those who rallied to the tune of a Pied Piper. A person called Donald who felt grieved himself and so took it out on all the rest of us. Who led the children away. Bernie wants to bring all these lost souls back into the fold and this day is saddling Rocinante for the great journey. Tom Friedman suggested to post election Joe Biden that he too make a similar trek crossing this way and that of these United States. To listen to folks — really listen. Same as Tom Friedman has done for decades with our Palestinian friends and Tony Blair with our Irish cousins — for almost a decade. Tony was blessed with the Good Friday success.

Can Bernie make a difference? He already has. Successful? Absolutely. As champion for what is right and a belief that all people deserve a fair shake. The presidential position may have treated him badly — and possibly the rest of us as well. But that’s not to say we are not grateful for his tenacity, unselfishness and backbone — that may eventually fail — but not because of lost courage.

Thank God for the crazies that include Bernie, and perhaps, me. For a good part of the time we get it wrong. But in the overall scheme of things that really doesn’t matter because others are around us who can channel, edit, critique, counter, heighten and lessen. And, we have relatives, friends and colleagues to fill in the parts that we perhaps do particularly badly. The addition, subtraction and multiplication of it all carries the day forward to be better than the one previously. What more can we ask?

This is TAKE on OPINION found in the New York Times. This week is upon the article by columnist Maureen Dowd “The Ascension of Bernie Sanders” July 10, 2021