The Patriot Post - Alexander's Column 2-27-2019

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The Patriot Post - Alexander's Column 2-27-2019
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The Patriot Post® · Take Sanders's 2020 Campaign Seriously and Literally

By Mark Alexander · Feb. 27, 2019

https://patriotpost.us/alexander/61455-take-sanderss-2020-campaign-seriously-and-literally

“We must make our election between economy and Liberty, or profusion and servitude.” –Thomas Jefferson (1816)
We are 11 months from the Iowa caucuses, but 10 Democrats1 have already declared their 2020 presidential candidacies for the latest perpetual presidential campaign cycle.

Most notable among them are Elizabeth “Honest Injun” Warren2, Kamala “The Toker” Harris3, Amy “Staff Slayer” Klobuchar4, Cory “Spartacus” Booker5, Kirsten “Flip-Flop” Gillibrand6 and, of course, Bernie “Feel the Bern” Sanders7.

Lesser known among the announced are Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, former HUD Secretary Julián Castro, Maryland Rep. John Delaney, and South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg.

In waiting are Barack Obama’s8 former VP, Joe Biden9, and his corrupt former attorney general, Eric Holder10. Other likely candidates are Clintonista11 bag man and former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, former Rep. Beto O'Rourke, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown.

That’s a whopping 17 potential candidates — the same number the GOP had in 2016.

But contemporary presidential primary strategy now dictates that the opposition party should field a lot of candidates with the objective of rallying their respective constituencies, ultimately folding them all into one massive leftist “constituency of dunces” to defeat the sitting president.

Recall that in 2016, the GOP’s contentious infighting12 between the primary losers and the unexpected13 victor, Donald Trump14, prevented the successful merging of many of their respective constituencies. That notwithstanding, shockingly and thankfully, Trump narrowly defeated15 his leftist opponent, Hillary Clinton16, with the help of his legions of “deplorables17.”

But a major reason Trump won in 2016, despite the absence of many “Never Trump” voters from his primary competitors’ camps, was because Clinton and the DNC sandbagged Bernie Sanders18, alienating many of his Millennial supporters. They protested at Clinton’s convention: “Hell no, DNC, we won’t vote for Hillary.” And, fortunately for our nation, many of them didn’t.

That contentious Clinton/Sanders battle is ongoing, as is the desire of many Sanders supporters for “justice.” This week, Sanders’s former presidential campaign spokesman, Michael Briggs, blamed Clinton cronies for leaking news that Sanders spent more than $350,000 for discounted private luxury-jet commutes. “You can see why [Clinton is] one of the most disliked politicians in America,” Briggs said. “She’s not nice. Her people are not nice. … They’re some of the biggest a—holes in American politics.”

Most likely the reason Clinton and Sanders lock horns is because they’re so much alike — both socialists19 — although only Sanders has the integrity to admit it.

Currently, the Vegas odds favor Kamala Harris to win the 2020 Demo primary, and there’s a conventional wisdom among some GOP armchair strategists that “The Bern” constituency is burned out.

But the naysayers are wrong. Sanders is leading a significant ideological shift20 in the Democrat Party21.

In 2016, columnist Salena Zito wrote that Trump supporters “take him seriously, but not literally.” However, when it comes to Bernie Sanders, I highly recommend that his opponents take him seriously and literally.

Since announcing his candidacy, Sanders is crushing his opponents’ fundraising efforts22, and his campaign has already signed up more than a million collectivist volunteers.

In his 2019 State of the Union Address23 earlier this month, President Trump singled out the populist drift toward socialism, declaring, “Here, in the United States, we are alarmed by new calls to adopt socialism in our country. We are born free, and we will stay free. Tonight, we renew our resolve that America will never be a socialist country.”

This was directed most notably at Sanders and his rising-star protégé, 29-year-old Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez24.

Ocasio-Cortez is the author of the latest iteration of the “Red Old Deal25” supported by Democrats in the last century26, which she’s recycled into the “Green New Deal27” for this century. It’s a $93 trillion socialist scheme28 to bankrupt America.

Trump had good reason to use his SOTU platform to call out Sanders, Ocasio-Cortez, and the growing ranks of socialists in Congress: According to the latest Public Opinion Strategies survey29, 77% of Democrats believe “the country would be better off if our political and economic systems were more socialist.”

Overall, 45% of voters hold that belief, while 51% do not. That’s a perilously narrow margin of voters who still embrace American Liberty30. However, it should be noted that the vast majority of voters are bound not by deep ideological beliefs but by the winds of populist rhetoric, and that is what most polls reflect — what I call the “Pollaganda Effect31.”

Offending all logic and reason, we have in our midst a new generation32 of unapologetic socialism deniers33. They’re advocating the failed socialist policies34 of the past, which have created the urban poverty plantations35 that now, effectively, enslave tens of millions of poor Americans.

The once-noble36 Democrat Party platform is no longer one for the oppressed but one for the depressed, and that depression is now epidemic derangement37.

Notably, Trump also affirmed our nation’s support for the people of a regional neighbor whose tyrannical socialist regime38 has left the nation in ruins: “We stand with the Venezuelan people in their noble quest for freedom — and we condemn the brutality of the Maduro regime, whose socialist policies have turned that nation from being the wealthiest in South America into a state of abject poverty and despair.”

But Sanders and his sidekick are not retreating39 from their devotion to socialism and to Nicolás Maduro40, even as he blocks humanitarian aid41 to the Venezuelan people.

Sanders was asked by CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer, “Why have you stopped short of calling Maduro of Venezuela a dictator?” He replied, “There are still democratic operations taking place in that country,” and then went on to condemn U.S. assistance there, saying, “The United States has a long history of inappropriately intervening in Latin American countries. We must not go down that road again.” But Sanders refused to tag Maduro as a “dictator.”

For her part, Ocasio-Cortez insists, “The U.S. should not anoint the leader of the opposition in Venezuela during an internal, polarized conflict.” Especially when you adore the current socialist dictator.

Looking toward 2020, when asked about a running mate, Sanders said: “I think we would look for somebody who is maybe not of the same gender that I am, and maybe someone who might be a couple of years younger than me, and somebody who can take the progressive banner as vice president and carry it all over this county to help us with our agenda, and help us to rally the American people.” (Kamala Harris3, check your Twitter feed.)

In the meantime, he’ll team up with young Ocasio-Cortez and tour the primary circuits, larding his campaign with “useful idiots42” of all ages and priming her as his socialist successor when she’s of age.

Bottom line: Sanders will be a significant factor43 in the 2020 election cycle. Last time around, Clinton lost to Trump in large measure because she lost so many of Sanders’s constituents. But in 2020, he’ll bring a big base into the primary.

Despite the Trump administration’s accumulation of a long list of MAGA accomplishments44, the post-primary Democrat constituencies will combine around a unifying theme — “Hate Trump45” — and on that, they can all agree.

And they’ll be backed by the Socialist Billionaire Club46, which includes Jeff Bezos47, George Soros48, Michael Bloomberg49, and Tom Steyer50. And, of course, they’ll have the full support of Leftmedia propagandists51 hell-bent on ensuring Trump’s defeat.

Should be another fun-filled election cycle!

Semper Vigilans Fortis Paratus et Fidelis
Pro Deo et Libertate — 1776