Voting Your Conscience vs. Voting for the Likely Winner

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This blog crossed my radar this evening: Kevin Gosztola, a liberal political commentator, is of the opinion that some elements of the Democratic Party are beginning to panic about the degree of success of Bernie Sanders.

Mr. Gosztola describes the situation as follows.  In the last few decades, he says, there has been a trend of liberals being gradually controlled by those who want to allow business interests to continue to manage the political system.  (Liberals have traditionally opposed the power wielded by Big Business.  Evidently, according to Mr. Gosztola, this is more appearance than fact.  Reading between the lines, I see an accusation that moderates such as the Clintons and Barack Obama are reluctant to oppose Big Business, as evidenced by the jettisoning of the Single Payer Health Care system that was desired by so many liberals, in  favor of a system that allows Insurance companies to manage Health Care.  In a telling sentence, Gosztola says that "Those in power expect liberals to police others on the left who would threaten their supremacy."  They expect liberals to police the extreme left!!!  As if they were judges, who expected the defense attorney to keep the defendant 'under control!')

Well, of course Mr. Gosztola wants to make left-leaning liberals mad.  But perhaps we should be mad; over the years, the only sort of Socialist that was allowed to reveal his beliefs was a liberal Democrat; anyone further to the left was reviled and scorned.  But Bernie Sanders has encouraged those left-leaning folks, whose dreams seemed to have died with the trade unions whose power was becoming gradually strangled by treacherous politicians, or by trade union bosses whose excesses lost them the needed public support, to think once again what it meant to be a kinder gentler nation.

It has been difficult, with neoconservatives focusing the public's attention towards imaginary enemies abroad, to think of America as a place where the weak are protected.  By a massive onslaught of media propaganda, Big Business and the representatives of the monied classes have managed to portray the wealthiest of the wealthy as those who are most deserving of public sympathy.  Bernie Sanders's relentless --and deserved-- accusation of the tiny minority that controls nearly 90% of the wealth of the country is bringing new energy to those who had hidden behind a front of being 'Moderates', steeling themselves to allow the interests of 'Business' to take higher priority than the needs of the abject poor.  The propaganda against the abject poor is everywhere: they have televisions (How dare they!) and cars, and even stereo systems!

And now, says Mr. Gosztola, the pundits on the conservative edge of the Democratic Party is fearful that if Bernie Sanders were to be the Democratic nominee, and were to win, he would not be able to put through his election promises, because he could never get them through Congress.

This is where, Mr. Gosztola says, the grassroots mobilization of the movement Bernie S. has put together comes in.  It has to mobilize to put pressure on Congress to put through Bernie Sanders's agenda.  Tragically, this sort of mobilization is hard to imagine taking place, given the dismal performance of the organization that elected Barack Obama.

Mr. Gosztola has an explanation of why Obama's machine could not do the job: he made it part of the Democrat National Committee, thus making it part of the establishment, which was ultimately under the control of Big Business.  I'm not absolutely sure that this is what Mr. Gosztola writes, but read for yourself.  It seems to be what he is saying, and it certainly looks like what happened.  Obama stuck to many of his principles, but he got a few things done by acceding to the Establishment.  Will Bernie Sanders compromise to the same extent?  Will his network of supporters be absorbed into the establishment once he is elected?  Is Hillary Clinton the only hope for Democrats to get into the White House?  This means that we will only make infinitesimal progress towards obstructing the so-called 1% from controlling even more of the country than it does already.

Everyone is filled with abject fear of the retribution of the powerful big money, which is pathetic.  It seems to me that we need a more robust left-leaning philosophy, such as that which Bernie Sanders offers.  Hillary Clinton only offers a slowing down of the erosion of the power of the people.  Bernie Sanders offers a reversal of this erosion, provided the people in his movement stay true, and mobilize a grassroots effort to put pressure on Congress after Bernie is in the White House, to pass the legislation that is needed.

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