A Hint of Yellow?

Bernie Sanders has announced his candidacy for President of the United States.  (wow)  That is how the news media has reacted to this announcement.  For months when only Hillary Clinton was expected to run, or had announced, there were outcries from the media that there needed to be another Democratic candidate so during the Democratic debates there could be an actual debate – not just one person up there essentially giving a speech.

So why isn’t the media reacting more positively and vigorously to Sander’s announcement?  Even so-called liberal MSNBC?  For one thing, as far as I can tell, MSNBC is owned by Comcast, and one can be sure a corporation as big as Comcast does not want Bernie Sanders to become President. The prospect of paying more in taxes probably curdles its corporate heart. If it has one.   It will be interesting to observe how the corporate owned media will respond if Martin O’Malley announces he is running on the Democratic ticket since he is as avowed a member of the liberal wing of the Democratic Party as is Sanders.  I really wish Elizabeth Warren would run, but since she has adamantly refused to acknowledge that she is, or will, I must take her at her word. 

With all of the above being said, why am I not on the Hillary Clinton band-wagon?  I certainly believe that it is past the time that a woman could, would and should be President.  Hillary also certainly has a tremendous amount of experience at the federal level – we all know what that is.  There certainly is a tremendous amount of support for her out there.  And if she is the Democratic candidate after the primaries, I will certainly support her.  When I listen to a lot of the whoop-de-do about her not following in Bill’s footsteps, it just about makes me want to throw-up.  I’ve been married for 61 years.  I am a Catholic and my husband is not.  It is perfectly reasonable for a married couple not to share every thought and emotion that crosses their path.  In fact, if they are both strong-minded, they certainly will not.  The political malarkey about her e-mail accounts while Secretary of State and the continuing made-up scandal about Benghazi really are also irrelevant. 

Bear with me here while I digress for a moment.  The third time I ran when I finally won, as a candidate I was doing the “hot-dog appearance” at a fund-raiser in one of the communities in my future District Two.  A woman approached me and very politely said that she and her husband had decided to vote for me this time because, as she said, I had held the same basic opinions all three times I had run.   Taking what that woman said and applying it to the political show playing out on the national level, one of the things the TV “talking heads” do say about a Sanders or O’Malley, or Warren, for that matter, candidacy would do is bring Hillary further to the progressive wing of the party.  And that is where I dig in my heels.

If she could, would or should change her basic positions on domestic policy issues during the campaign because of pressure from the progressive left, what will stop her from changing her basic positions on domestic policies after she is elected?  There will be plenty of pressure on her from the political right to do so, for sure.  Does she have the courage to stick to what she will say during the campaign, or does she have a hint of ‘yellow’ in her character.

In my opinion, pay no attention to what any candidate says during a campaign, whether on the local, state or national level.  Go back and look at their record.  Read what their positions were on policies you favor, or don’t, before there was any hint of running for another office.  If they have held office before, look at their voting record to determine where their basic values tend.  Listen to what they have to say during the campaign to determine if they have shifted positions for political reasons. 

And then support, preferably in my order, Warren, Sanders and/or O’Malley.  They stand firm now, as they have in the past, on their populist values.