THE 2020 DEMOCRATIC FIELD, THE ENTHUSIASMS OF (SOME OF) THE LEFT, AND THE RELENTLESS PURSUIT OF STRAWMEN

1/15/20

At the Democratic debate in Des Moines last night and in the learned, expert commentary that ensued, much was made of a remark that, according to Senator Elizabeth Warren, Senator Bernie Sanders made, in private, of course, about the electability of a woman presidential candidate.   According to Senator Warren, Senator Sanders said that a woman could not be elected president, even though Senator Sanders is on record as having said, at least as early as 1988, that a woman surely could reach the nation’s highest office.

Believe it or not, a considerable amount of time was spent at the debate on this “issue.”   There surely are people out there who think a woman could not be elected president…and there are also people out there who think the world is flat.   Are there enough of them to make this what could remotely be described as an issue?   For the benefit of those who hold such views, I should point out that these questions are purely rhetorical.  Further, if one were to make a list of people who genuinely think a woman could not be elected president, Bernie Sanders would not be on such a list.   Does anyone really believe that liberal icon Bernie Sanders, who either originates or genuflects to every lunatic lefty idea that comes down the pike, rejects the notion that our society can elect a woman president?

Well, maybe…

Senator Sanders and those in his camp may indeed consider large portions of the American electorate to be veritable troglodytes or, as another Democratic superstar put it, deplorables, the type of people who, lacking Senator Sanders’ degree of enlightenment, cannot possibly vote for a woman for president.   And that might be putting the best light on Senator Sanders’ estimation of the wisdom and/or goodness of the American people.   A young man named Kyle Jurek, who identifies himself as a “field organizer” for Senator Sanders reportedly said earlier this week that substantial portions of the American electorate will need to be “re-educated,” to wit…

“That’s kind of what all Bernie’s whole #*&@ing like, ‘hey, free education for everybody’ because we’re going to have to teach you to not be a #*&@ing Nazi.”

 And how to re-educate those whom Mr. Jurek and his friends consider “Nazis”?  Mr. Jurek goes on to say:

“[The] greatest way to break a f#*&@ing billionaire of their privilege and their idea that they’re superior, go and break rocks for 12 hours a day. You’re now a working-class person, and you’re going to f#*&@ing learn what the means, right?”

Mr. Jurek further educates us:

"There's a reason Josef Stalin had gulags.  And actually, gulags were a lot better than what the CIA has told us that they were. Like, people were actually paid a living wage in gulags, they had conjugal visits in gulags. Gulags were actually meant for, like, reeducation.”

 Yours truly has few doubts that there were indeed conjugal visits in Mr. Stalin’s gulags, but I suspect that these visits were of a different nature than that which Mr. Jurek imagines.  Also, one wonders what the billionaires who regularly contribute to Democrats, even to Mr. Sanders, have to think about these plans Mr. Sanders’ minion has outlined for them and about the not all that shocking silence emanating from the Democratic field regarding these comments.  I digress, but see my concluding paragraph.

Could Mr. Jurek perhaps be more specific regarding who is most in need of such re-education and denazification?    Beyond prescribing ameliorative action should Mr. Sanders not get the nomination, Mr. Jurek tells us of at least one group that is in the sights of him and some of his fellow Sanders supporters.   Mr. Jurek advises us that if Senator Sanders doesn’t get the nomination, or even if the convention goes to a second round (as those of us who are political junkies so fervently hope if only for the sake of entertainment and history)

"Be ready to be in Milwaukee for the DNC convention. We're gonna make 1978 (I think Mr. Jurek means 1968, but history, along with sparing use of obscene gerundives, obviously has never been a strong suit among Mr. Sanders’ more fervently socialistic supporters.)  look like a f#*&@ing Girl Scout f#*&@ing cookout. The cops (Emphasis mine) are gonna be the ones that are getting f#*&@ing beaten in Milwaukee."

So, judging from the opinions some of his supporters hold regarding the wisdom, goodness, and enlightenment of the American people, maybe Mr. Sanders really does believe, as Ms. Warren asserts, that a woman could not be elected president.    Unlike those on the left, and in the mainstream media, who hold President Trump responsible for every idiotic and/or malicious act or statement emanating from any yahoo in a MAGA hat, yours truly is willing to ascribe the above rantings of Mr. Jurek not to Mr. Sanders but entirely to Mr. Jurek and a relative handful of wild-eyed, and apparently bloodthirsty, lefties who happen to support Mr. Sanders.    I can’t believe that Mr. Sanders, who apparently checks every thought against a template of political correctness, would ever think, let alone say while in the same room with an opponent, what would be heresy not only for the Democratic Party but for just about any clear-thinking person.    The safe assumption is that Senator Warren hurled this canard in her ongoing, unceasing efforts to seize the mantle of victimhood, an extremely popular pursuit in today’s society, especially among politicians.

A more troubling observation can be made by juxtaposing the brouhaha about what Senator Warren contends Senator Sanders said with the utter silence emanating from the Democratic candidates regarding the above quoted rantings of Mr. Jurek, a Sanders political operative.   Somehow, the Democrats can wail and gnash their teeth over the strawman of unsubstantiated claims about Senator Sanders’ wholly out of character supposed misogyny but somehow are not at all  bothered that an agent of one of their frontrunners is speaking favorably of burning cities, killing cops, and putting people, including a large source of the Democratic Party’s funding, in gulags.   That should tell the voters all they need to know about the state of the Democratic Party in 2020.