Joe Biden has two, equally stubborn problems to solve if he wants to win the presidency: Bernie Sanders supporters and Donald J. Trump.
Any person who isn’t brainwashed by right-wing media would assume that given the stock market crash and Trump’s mind-blowing ineptitude with his lemon car salesman approach to the COVID-19 pandemic that Joe Biden could beat Trump in the 2020 election without breaking a sweat. In a vacuum he could. But sadly, even though Joe Biden’s negatives aren’t as high as Hillary Clinton’s were in 2016, whether or not Joe Biden wins the 2020 presidential election depends heavily on if he – and the Democratic Party – can break the Bernie Or Busters’ selfishness so that they vote for the good of the country rather than to stroke their own egos. The die-hard Bernie Sanders supporters have proven they won’t “take one for the team” unless you give them the entire schoolyard first. In this case, the schoolyard is forfeiting a second term before he’s even elected.
Why are Bernie Or Busters so freaking stubborn? Primarily, because their idol is: Bernie Sanders is a stubborn old goat who blames “the establishment” for his losses even more the Trump does. Bernie hasn’t changed in 50 years. More difficult to break than the passion for their idol, however, is because Americans have been taught for two centuries (other than that short blip during WWI) that the individual is more important than community.
America’s belief system is unadulterated capitalism, and as such, self-worth tends to be measured by one’s bank balance. Importantly, though, this constant message of individual over community is not limited to money. More accurately, it’s a measure of one’s importance, or dominance within a group. “Capital” in the American psyche isn’t just money. It’s friend-count, leisure time, a feeling of superiority or “being ahead of the other guy” (just look at our tailgating habits), and a driving need to feel special and important. This is why die-hard republican Trump supporters and die-hard Bernie Sanders supporters behave exactly the same – the economic policies are inconsequential.
Humans, and in particular Americans, are selfish creatures. I don’t care how often people claim otherwise. Selfishness is universal in American cultural DNA. In some less than others, but it exists in us all. Just because someone goes to church, or gives to charity, or believes in Medicare For All doesn’t mean the id is suddenly changed so that an individual sees the community as equally important as the self. If that were the case, people wouldn’t be panic buying. Period. Panic buying is the paradigmatic example of American selfishness.
What the Democratic Party cannot wrap its fat head around is that Bernie Or Busters are exactly the same as Trump voters – which is to say they have the decision-making savvy of toddlers. They are selfish finger-pointers who blame everyone but themselves. Just because Bernie Bros claim to embrace socialism does NOT mean they’re not selfish. They claim socialism because they’re selfish, and believe Bernie’s policies will improve their own lives. They don’t care about you! They don’t care about me or society at large – they embrace Bernie because they believe it will make their lives better.
Joe Biden Can Win The Presidency If He Commits To One Term
Personally, I’m extremely angry that democrats have settled on yet another old white man as their nominee. Assuming the trend continues and Joe Biden is the nominee, just like happened in 2016, the Bernie Or Busters will stay at home or protest vote. They did it once and they’ll do it again. They have no sense of community beyond those with whom they already agree… just like Donald Trump supporters. That’s why they still can’t accept that they lost: they can’t see beyond their own faces, just like Trumpsters. Something extreme must be done to kick them out of their navel-gazing existence, or we’ll be stuck with another 4 years of a Trump-dominated Republican Party driving this county into the dirt.
So what can Joe do? Joe Biden must promise the country that he will only serve one term. Now! Before the primary goes any further and before he announces a running mate.
Joe Biden made an important claim in an interview a few weeks ago, that he is the bridge. He must commit to that entirely, and he can do so by committing to one term. Joe Biden can be the bridge that gets America out of the Trumpian nightmare in which we find ourselves. But he can do that only if he does what would be the most unselfish act in the history of presidential politics: commit to a single term. While leaders like Putin and Xi are passing laws to ensure they’ll be in office until they die, an American leader doing the exact opposite will be the ideological kick-in-the-head that would even get Bernie Sanders supporters to stop whining and vote for the good of the country.
Yes, Joe Biden, you must be the bridge. Do it and do it now. The only way to be a bridge back to normalcy and dignity is to get in front of a camera and show that you will be the least selfish person ever to run for the office of the President Of The United States of America by proudly announcing that if elected, you will only serve one term.
#CommitToOne
