It’s not clear why so many invest so much in the latest au courant populist running for POTUS. The George McGoverns, Eugene McCarthys, Bernie Sanders come & go & when one infrequently is put forward as the candidate, like Obama, they bomb out, demonstrating again the triumph of electoral rhetoric over political realities. It’s unlikely Sanders will be allowed as the candidate despite winning at the polls. And when he is maneuvered aside, most supporting him will switch loyalties to the conservative Democrat who is allowed under the mantra ‘Trump must be dumped at all costs’. US elections are a shell game because no one can point to a modicum of sustainable difference between the rule of Democrats & Republicans. Obama used an executive order to give tentative status to undocumented immigrants who came here as children precisely so it could be overruled later. Trump’s policies are US policies, not just a reflection of his deranged world view.
No one has a right to object to people voting for whom they please; one may rue, but cannot object to illusions about what Sanders stands for. The problem is that during these longer & longer election campaigns, all independent political activity stops. That’s the pattern over decades of antiwar & other social protests. That’s seriously troubling at a time of genocide for Palestinians, Kashmiris, Rohingya, Uyghur, when there are several wars going on, & when millions of refugees sustain the barbarism of exclusion & concentration camps. The massive US protests for Kashmir last year were a political anomaly during an election period. When it comes to changing the world, our wisdom is to rely on our own united actions, not electoral promises & high-flown rhetoric because chasing politicians always involves compromise on the human rights of millions.
