Waving Good Bye to Bernie

    By Florida Bill                                           

                                               With Bernie Sanders cutting his staff, you'd think it is time to bid farewell to the eccentric senator and his "pipe dream" of becoming the 45th President of the United States.   But not so fast. It seems that Sanders has a secondary agenda, which is to keep his message in the national spotlight, and he seemingly plans to run with it as long as he can.                                                        
                                               Even with support from millions of young men and women who dreamed of free education and the elimination of past school debts, not to mention free health care, it's appears to be over for the crusty Vermont senator.  There appears to be nothing left of his call for a "political revolution" in America and a dumping of capitalism in favor of socialism.
                                Some Sanders fans have suggested that he should be considered as Hillary Clinton's vice presidential running mate, but I doubt that scenario is in the realm of possibility.  Clinton has plenty of problems of her own without linking up with a true blue socialist, with a history as an antiwar pacifist who filed for status as a  conscientious objector during the Vietnam war era. 
                              More than $180 million dollars have been contributed to the Sanders vision of becoming President, and a great many citizens have marked their ballots for him in primary elections. He bettered Hillary Clinton in 21 of them.  With only the California primary on June 7 still ahead of him, he is mathematically and officially precluded from ever securing sufficient delegates to become the Democratic party nominee in the presidential election scheduled for November 8.                           
                            Even though he is totally out of contention, Sanders has avowed that he will remain in the race through the convention in July, and "until the last ballot is cast."  But he knows, as do his faithful followers, that it is over. 
                           But why drop out now and turn off the spotlight? This is the biggest platform Sanders has ever had for his message. Has anybody but Vermont ever paid any attention at all to his socialist theories of government? Has he ever made prime time TV with his theory that the tiny socialist nation of Denmark should be a model for America to emulate? He has been railing against Wall Street and calling for free stuff for 29 years in Congress, as both a Representive and a Senator, and no one has cared, other than the constituency that keeps reelecting him.
                         It seems he is loathe to throw away his present  audience, even if he isn't going to ever sit in the Oval Office.  And even though the attention is starting to taper off now, you can still find him ranting and raving on the nightly news a few times a week. 
                            So what happens if Clinton is indicted?  With her ego, she might persist in continuing as a candidate claiming her innocence and her ultimate exoneration from all wrong doing.  But that would not be a very convincing campaign cry: "Vote for me,  I'm not guilty!"
                          Would Sanders then rise to the top and become the Democratic candidate? Doubtful, for sure.  More probably, delegates would huddle and name a candidate they felt could win, like Vice President Joe Biden.  No matter how you cut it, Sanders is done and will never be President of the United States.
                         The 74-year-old Sanders never really had a chance of securing the Democratic party nomination.  The nomination for the Democratic standard bearer belongs to Hillary Clinton. She has the money, the "super-delegates," and years of political groundwork behind her.  This is true despite her wooden and phony persona and her record of lies and deceitfulness in public life.  Added to that, over the past several months, she has been the  subject of an intense FBI investigation into her mishandling of classified emails; and whether, as Secretary of State from 2008 to 2012,  she gave sweetheart treatment to entities and individuals who made donations to the Hillary, Bill and Chelsea Foundation. Quite a resume, but the fact remains, she has it in the bag. 
                             We can at least thank Sanders for calling attention to the duplicity of Clinton who, prior to announcing her candidacy last August, had in 27 months been paid $21.6 million for delivering 92 speeches.  A good number were delivered to Wall Street big money people, for which she was paid handsomely for mere 20 minute speeches.  Goldman Sachs for example, paid Mrs. Clinton nearly $700,000 for three speeches, and Sanders has demanded that she release the texts of these speeches. 
                          "When banks and Wall street pay out that kind of money, they expect something in return," Sanders has charged.  "So what did Clinton promise them; let's see what she had to say."  Clinton, however,  has declined to make public any of her speeches.  
                         Sanders, who describes himself as a "Democratic Socialist"  is actually not a Democrat.  He is an "Independent," the only such senator without affiliation with any political party.  He adopted the mantle of the Democratic party for the singular  reason of promoting his candidacy.  He has been consistent in his endorsement of socialism over capitalism for his three decades in Congress--even honeymooning in the Soviet Union in 1988 with his new bride, Jane.  His philosophy has been the same since college days at the University of Chicago when he was an anti-war activist and a pacifist and sought status with his draft board as a conscientious objector.                                
                                 His run to become the nominee of the Democratic party began in April of last year when he announced and outlined his programs of largess with free college tuition and health care for all Americans  He called for the country to disarm itself of its nuclear arsenal and to open its gates to 65,000 refugees from Syria.  He repeatedly castigated the greedy billionaires in America who take everything and give back nothing.                                                       Many in both the Democratic and the Republican parties have characterized Sanders' dream of making America into a fountain of freebies for everyone, modeled after socialistic Denmark, as "looney" and way over the top. They have cringed at the idea of him being America's commander-in-chief. His programs, costing trillions of dollars, would likely bankrupt the United States. 
                                Logic tells us that the 74-year-old Sanders really ought to call it a day. But he apparently enjoys being the         raspy-voiced motorman on a trolley that is going nowhere. And as long as he still has a bell to clang and money from his fans, it is likely Sanders will keep chugging along.  

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