Both Bernie and Biden can beat Trump. To say that nominating one or the other forecloses that possibility rests more on ideological disposition than reality and facts.
Joe Biden’s victory in South Carolina, propelled by African American voters, changes the dynamics of the primary. Tomorrow, Super Tuesday, voters across the country will tell us to what degree and in what ways.
The coronavirus is, sorry to say, bringing to public attention the dangers of hollowing out (Steven Bannon calls it deconstructing the state) federal agencies whose functions are to address issues, like viruses, contagions, and public safety and health. What might have seemed an abstract and distant danger a week ago has become immediate and frightening.
Bernie is neither a New Deal Democrat nor a full blooded socialist. He is, in his words, a democratic socialist who is pushing the political needle about as far as it will go without it ricocheting back on him.
If elected he would, provided the Congress is willing, make the country more just, egalitarian and fair. Unlike Trump he wouldn’t lay waste to our democracy, constitution, institutions and rule of law. In fact, he would defend and breathe life into them. While I favor Elizabeth Warren, in part because I find her more electable than Bernie, I would gladly support and canvass here and in some battleground states if Bernie is the nominee.
When I watched Trump’s first comments downplaying, if not dismissing, the coronavirus, I couldn’t help but remember then president George Bush peering down from Air Force 1 on the hurricane devastated city of New Orleans. That optic sent Bush’s popularity plummeting not only because of his seeming indifference and detachment. It also suggested an incompetence in the face of a human crisis of extraordinary proportions.
The same is on display in Trump’s gross (mis)handling of the coronavirus and it could undo him. Time will tell. But, of course, the much larger issue is to what degree will his incompetence, ignorance, and lying exact needless suffering and death from people here as well as worldwide.
