“Lizzie, we hardly knew ya”
What a sad refrain.
She splits the difference and is better than either Bernie or Joe in the ways that matter. And she can’t get more than a passing mention.
Joe will probably get this because the fear of Bernie and his suicidal intransigence has found its resting place, and Bernie’s folks will cry “foul” and “fix” and stomp around the room, threatening to stay home or even to vote for Trump, while the woman who knee-capped Bloomberg and his Scrooge McDuck candidacy, has thoughtful plans and a legislative record, and is probably the smartest person in the room, can’t get a fair hearing.
Sadly, she made a terrible misstep by embracing “Medicare for all.” It made her into “Bernie lite” and she never could get out of his shadow. She should have championed “Universal coverage,” which is what people mean when they shout “Medicare for all,” and made it aspirational.
That, in the larger sense, is why we are where we are. The Democrats did not make Bernie’s vision of equity and fairness aspirational, but allowed him to pound a stake in the ground and say, “You’re either with me or against me.” And the media took the bait, making this into a battle of competing camps — the moderates versus the radicals.
All Elizabeth had to do is say, “Bernie represents who we want to be, but we need to recognize where we are. We need a plan to get us to the dream, and sometimes plans take time. But we’ll get there, and I can help us do it in a graceful and embracing fashion.”
Gradualism is not a dirty word if the goal is clear. In fact, it is praiseworthy. It could have been Elizabeth’s route to relevance. The coalescence around Joe is a coalescence of fear, and Bernie’s intransigence is a self-defeating act of prideful arrogance.
But in the end we are going to have to choose. Otherwise the man who has torn up the lawn of democracy and is now defecating all over it will continue to do so. And that cannot be allowed to happen.
I’m just sad that a funny, thoughtful, visionary woman who could actually bring about the change we need has been ground into grist between an intransigent ideologue and a man who despite his protestations is more wedded to a fantasy of a halcyon past than a viable dream for a visionary future.
I didn’t know I would feel this way. I didn’t realize how much she represented both the dreams and the means that I embrace. But now that she appears to be leaving, I’m feeling a little bit homeless.
I’ll stay the course, as I hope we all will. But it’s going to hurt.
Thanks, Elizabeth, it has been a good run. We won’t forget you, but we’ll miss you. It’s a sad refrain, but all too true: “Lizzie, we hardly knew ya.”
It’s kinda depressing, isn’t it? I hate to sound so hopeless, but after the last four years we needed someone to lift us up, to bring back dignity and honesty, to give us a higher purpose to aspire to, to wash us clean of a disease that’s far worse than the virus we’re facing now.
But when all is said and done, I have to trust in a higher power that will set things right, probably in a way that I don’t understand. After all, the goodness that people seek, the goodness we hope to do for each other and our world can’t just be for the span of a lifetime or even several generations. It has to be for that hope, that goodness that has no beginning, no end.
I’ll get off of my soapbox now.
Sensible, incisive take on what is so. I voted for Liz in the primary for the salient strengths you speak of here. For someone of that calibre to barely get a passing mention – yes, what a sad, disgraceful ‘reveal’ of the distorting lenses through which many U.S voters see, no small thanks to corporate-owned media and substandard education. I trust in a higher power, too, and imagine it’s inviting us to be more resourceful in how to collaboratively help ‘set things right’.
It is ironic that The Press giveth and The Press taketh away. Oh, sure, there is great journalism in the world, but it makes me sad when selling advertising is what moves opinions to places that are based on skewed information. I think Ms Warren would’ve made a fine President. Now it’s the Joe and Bernie show, which I think spells doom for November. I hope I’m wrong.
I wanted so badly to support Elizabeth Warren, but I simply could not accept her “Medicare for All” plan which had billionaires and corporations paying the total bill for all health care for everyone. If that would come to pass those billionaires would simply move to another country (or off-shore island). Three years ago, I asked a German citizen how they paid for universal health care. He said, “It’s simple; everyone pays 6% of their income into the government for health care.” That makes more sense to me with “everyone having some skin in the game.” I sent a similar message to Warren’s campaign folks, but I guess it was too late to change her game plan.
I’m all about the higher power comments and totally agree with them. Politics controls way too much of my time when there is so much beauty in the world and in those around me. We can choose what we focus our attention on – those who run for office choose that too.
Gradualism and compromise seem to have been fading since Reagan and without them the engine has seized up. I often think of Emerson, “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin if little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and devines.” When coupled with the awful extremes to which people will go went they think know the absolute truth of things, well, reasonableness, tolerance and common decency fade out of everyday life.
My hunch is that we have lost our nerve as a nation and we are afraid to look forward to a visionary but uncertain future, so we look to the past and stick our heads in the sand while big problems such as climate change, mass shootings of children, how robitics and a world economy have and will further effect jobs and the pride of a good days work, and now new challenges of disease. You have really made it clear to me that the wagging finger of guilt and shame are not the way to win an election and not the hallmark of a leader. When I think of the people in my life that have spurred me on, they did it mostly with a smile on their face, a high five, and a “can do” attitude–while being tough and expecting my best effort. I think the dems need to put this into their politics to defeat backward looking conservatives. Along with more evolution and less revolution. We have a real bedrock of a Constitution, but, as we all know, something in the house always needs fixin. And, we all have to live in this house together.