"Bernie or Bust" Will Get Trump Elected, and That's OK.

Once again it is an election year, and once again there is infighting aplenty within the Republican and Democratic parties. What is different this year is that there is a schism within the Democratic party that may hand the GOP the Presidency. That may not be a bad thing. As a Democratic Socialist I never thought I would ever say that.

How, you say?  The Bernie or Bust campaign.  Pledges to the campaign promise to either write in Sanders or vote Green Party if he loses the Democratic nomination. Clinton supporters argue that not voting for Clinton in the election would be the same as voting for Trump.  Naturally, they assume, much like main streammedia that Clinton will get the nomination. The outlook on that in dubious.  The GOP got rid of their royal line, little ol’ Jeb, but many Democrats are reluctant to give up their queen.  However, Sanders has not only split the DNC, he also has a large, grassroots following among independent voters who now outnumber both the Republicans and the Democrats. While the battle rages for the post March 15^th primary States, the Bernie or Bust campaign is growing.

The reason why I say a Trump win wouldn’t be that bad is because of Congress. 34 Senate seats and all 434 House seats are up for election. The past few years of Republican dominance in Congress has shown the electorate how defunct the Republican party is. They refuse to work with the Democrats or the White House, they have shut down the Federal Government more than once just to get their way, and now are refusing to do their job by refusing to even hold a hearing for Obama’s SCOTUS appointee. This year most of them will be fired. Capitol Hill will turn Blue next January when the 2017 Congress convenes, and that is why a Trump victory wouldn’t be so bad.

If Bernie wins the nomination, he is a shoe in for the Presidency. Clinton, perhaps not. Many voters, like myself, would find themselves voting for the lesser of two evils and Trump would be the lesser.  Clinton voted for the Patriot Act (Sanders was the in the House and voted against it), spread the racist stereotype of the “super predator,” and is in the back pocket of not only the bankers who destroyed our economy eight years ago, but also the private prison lobby which in instrumental in lobbying for laws that promote the school to prison pipeline. That pipeline is devastating the black and Latino community. Yes, Trump is a bigot, and it’s working for him, but he is blatantly a bigot. Clinton is an accomplished politician employed by some of the biggest lobby groups in the country. Trump is not.  Hell, trump used to be a Clinton supporter. Clinton’s support for the private prison system indicates a subtler, hidden form of institutional racism.

As an accomplished politician, Clinton knows how to get things done. With the country in dire straits and the probable takeover of Congress by the Democrats, Clinton will accomplish much.  For the first two years at least. A win for Clinton is a win for the status quo which would put Congress back in the Red in 2018. With Trump in office, I think there would be sufficient outrage over his leadership that Congress will stay Blue until at least 2020. As Trump is not an experienced politician, he will struggle getting anything done in office.  That means he will probably be a one term President, and he will definitely join the ranks of the Do-Nothing Presidents. Both Trump and Clinton will keep us at war with some one or another.  However, at least Trump is against free trade agreements that Clinton champions. You know, deals like NAFTA and the TPP.  Deals that have cost Americans jobs and shrunk the middle class.  While Clinton says she has "reevaluated" her views on the TPP to mirror Sander's views, anyone who thinks that she isn't just saying that to appeal to Sanders' supporters is delusional. The TPP will be a money maker for everyone at the top of Clinton's donor list. You know, the people she works for.

If Sanders lands the nomination his first hundred days will be a smaller version of FDR’s first hundred days, thanks to a Blue Congress. With Sanders we have a chance to fix a broken political system.  Neither Clinton nor Trump will do so, they will maintain the status quo. The difference between Clinton and Trump is that Trump won’t be able to get anything done, good or bad, unless it originates on Capitol Hill, and then it is just a matter of Trump staying out of the way. Which, for most of US history, is exactly what Presidents did. With a Clinton nomination it's four years of a Do-Nothing Trump.