The Chronicle
March 5, 2020 A7
FORUM
Will Bernie Sanders be able to sustain free?
I am a fan of free!
Whenever I can get some
thing for free, I am usu
ally the first person in line.
Some years ago, a major
pizza chain was giving
away free crazy bread with
each pizza order. Unfortu
nately, that didn’t last very
long. It could have been
that the company saw that
free was not going to fit
into their long-term eco
nomic plan.
One of the Democratic
presidential candidates,
Bernie Sanders, is a pro
ponent of free! During
both of his presidential
bids, he has been an advo
cate of free healthcare for
all. He references the Ca
nadian system as a model
for what our system might
look like. Of course, dur
ing his last run, Hillary
Clinton was the candidate
and therefore his health-
care.idea fell short.
Now with new energy
and ah emerging presence,
Senator Bernie Sanders is
leading the field of Dem
ocratic candidates. As I
listen to him, he comes
across in multiple perso
nas. First, he is a convinc
ing fellow and aspirational
for the American people.
When he talks about free
healthcare and our thoral
right to have it, it is easy
to believe him. He has
crowds, especially young
people, in such a frenzy
that the price points and
costs never really enter the
picture.
Senator Sanders also
sounds a bit mean. He has
a kind of “I’m going to
beat your brains out” men
tality. In the long run, how
will that mindset sit with
American voters? After
all, we don’t want a mean
sounding president of the
United States of America.
When I was a young
boy growing up in North
Carolina, we would go to
the fair each year. At the
fair, there was always a
guy trying to sellus some
thing. That’s Bernie! He is
trying to convince us that
he can become the next
president. He talks non-
stop and has all the an
swers without hesitating.
Now, in addition to .
free healthcare, Bernie
Sanders is telling us that
student loans will be for
given, and that, college
education will be free. Just
a few years ago, one of the
lyrics to a Hip Hop song
was “blow the whistle.”
Well, Bernie Sanders is re
ally blowing the whistle.
Is this the whistle of hope
or the whistle of tempo
rary insanity?
Senator Sanders de
scribes himself as a Dem
ocratic Socialist. In ev
eryday terms, that means
sharing everything and
that almost everything is
free. Here are some per
spectives on his ideas, at
least from where I stand.
First off, Bernie Sand
ers is not a Democrat. He
identifies himself as an In
dependent from Vermont.
Is he aligned with the
Democratic Party because
the Republican Party
wouldn’t accept him? Can
you imagine a Republican
Socialist?
Many believe that the
Democratic Party is mis
guided by having Bernie
Sanders in it. My position
is if he wants to run as a
Democrat, he should be
come a Democrat. If you
are not all in, then you are
all out. How can you be
partially in and partially
out? Our nation is espe
cially troubled now with
who is in the White House.
Remember, he wasn’t al
ways a Republican.
Senator Sanders’ pro
posals are far reaching.
Who is going to pay for
free college, free health-
care and for the forgive
ness of student loans?. His
generic answer has been
Wall Street. My consumer
answer is really? Recently,
at a CNN town hall meet
ing, he said that a part of
his plan was for us to pay
a small tax. Will that strat
egy work over a long pe
riod of time?
Bernie Sanders has
a lot of supporters. The
question is whether
America is ready for these
radical transitions and
transformations. Impor
tant primaries coming up
will give us a temperature
reading as td the viability
of his programs.
Just days ago a Yahoo
poll said Jde Biden has
the best chance of defeat-,
ing the president. This is
good news for the Biden
camp. Going forward in
the weeks ahead, we will,
get a clearer picture of ex-,
actly who the Democratic
candidate will be.
Fasten your seatbelt,
we are in for a bumpy ride,
James B. Ewers Jr.,
Ed.D., is a former tennis
champion ai Atkins High
School and played col-,
lege tennis at Johnson C.
Smith University, where
he was all-conference for
four years. He is a retired
college administrator and
can be reached at ewers.
jr56@yahoo.com.
Bernie’s assault on our cliche of greatness
“Excuse me, occasion
ally it might be a good
idea to be honest about
American foreign policy.”
I don’t think I’ve heard
that much honesty from a
mainstream party, presi
dential candidate in virtu
ally half a century. And
suddenly this race begins
to matter in a way that
seems like ... oh my God,
a return of democracy?
Suddenly I don’t feel ut
terly marginalized as a
voter, as an American, left
with nothing but cynical
despair as I wait to learn
which “lesser evil” the
Dems will serve up for me
as a candidate.
The words are those of
Bernie Sanders, of course,
standing up to the fed-
baiting the moderators and
some of the other candi
dates were slinging at him
during the latest debate,
trying their best to bring
him down.
He went on: “That in
cludes the fact that Ameri
ca has overthrown [demo
cratic] governments all
over the world — in Chile,
in Guatemala, in Iran.”.
Well, yeah, but ...
we’re still the greatest
country on the- planet,
right? I get why the cor
porate media hates Sand
ers and wants to get rid of
him ASAP. The American
political center (as it likes
to call itself) has done
a helluva job marginal
izing the truth-wielding,
anti-war, pro-empathy,
pro-sanity wing of the
American population ever
since the early ’70s, in
the wake of George Mc
Govern’s shattering defeat
by Nixon. Never again!
The taming of the liberal
agenda cleared the way.
for the Reagan domestic
counter-revolution and
the U.S. military’s recov
ery from Vietnam Syn
drome and public distaste
for war. But now that all
this is settled and endless,
profit-spewing war is quiet
background noise.
Along comes Bernie
Sanders, giving voice to
ideas and realities that
have long been declared
taboo in American politi
cal discourse, certainly at
the level of presidential
politics. Could real change
—- what I like to think of
as evolution — actually
start claiming political
traction again?
Sanders is leading in
the polls and has won the
early state caucuses and
primaries, but there’s no
telling if he’ll succeed
in actually claiming the
Democratic nomination
or, my God, defeating the
orange-haired one, much
less pushing a progressive,
peace- and environment-
conscious agenda through
Congress. But this much
seems apparent right now:
He’s beating — and, I
hope, deconstructing —
the centrist media.
These highly paid
bouncers are so used to de
fining the political limits
of the American spectator
democracy — i.e., estab
lishing the nature of real
ity (it’s a big horse race)
— they are ever more
contemptuous of someone
like Sanders, not to men
tion the constituency for
whom he speaks. A glaring
example of this contempt
was Chris Matthews’ idi
otic blather on MSNBC
last week, in the wake of
Sanders’ big win in the
Nevada caucus, manag
ing in a twisted analogy to
compare this victory to the
Nazi invasion of France in
1940.
Well, it turns out Mat
thews hit himself in the
head with his own hard
ball. His profoundly offen
sive analogy immediately
generated a #FireChris-
Matthews. hashtag and
he was forced to spew an
apology in order to keep
his job.
“Senator Sanders,” he
said two days later on his
show “Hardball,” “I’m
sorry for comparing any
thing from that tragic era
in which so many suf
fered, especially the Jew
ish people, to an elected
result in which you were
a well-deserved winner.
This is going to be a hard-
fought, heated campaign
of ideas.”
The apology was ac
cepted by the Sanders
campaign, whose man
ager said, “We hope to
get fairer coverage going
forward.” And maybe they
actually will! But what’s
worth pondering for a mo
ment is the atmosphere
behind the scenes at MS
NBC, and throughout the
corporate media, prior to
Matthews’ remark. Sand
ers had relatives murdered
in the Holocaust, for God’s
sake, but how could such a
stupid comment form in
a pundit’s consciousness
as a newsworthy observa
tion about any candidate’s
victory? The anti-Sanders,
and therefore anti-progres
sive, atmosphere at MS
NBC must have been wide
open and uncontained.
And indeed, consider
one of the primary lines
of attack on Sanders, the
democratic socialist, by
the corporate media: red
baiting.
Red-baiting is a throw-
back to the unrestrained
Cold War era, in the early
’50s — the McCarthy era,
the HUAC era — when
a grotesquely hypocriti
cal moral righteousness
gained sufficient gov
ernmental power to limit
Americans’ freedom of
speech and thought by
poisoning certain political
positions with the label
“communist.” Has this era
returned?
Sanders has been lam
basted recently for such
sins as saying something
good about Fidel Castro,
telling Anderson Cooper
on “60 Minutes”: “It’sun-
fair to simply say every
thing is bad. When Fidel
Castro came into office,
you know what he did? He
had a massive literacy pro
gram. Is that a bad thing?
Even though Fidel Castro
did it?” Pundits have been
trying desperately to tear
Sanders to shreds over
this outrage (and seem to
have no memory of the
mob-linked Fulgencio
Batista, the Cuban leader
overthrown by the Castro
revolution).
The media has also
made a point of report
ing that Sanders has
been briefed by U.S. in
telligence that the Rus
sians are attempting to
help his campaign, seem
ingly because he’s the can
didate least likely to defeat
Trump. While the briefing
occurred over a month
ago, it only became news,
reported by the Washing
ton Post, the day before
the Nevada caucus. Sand
ers’ response: “I don’t
care, frankly, who Putin
wants to be president. My
message to Putin is clear:
Stay out ofAmerican elec
tions, and as president I
will make sure that you
do.”
And then there was the
New York Times, throw
ing such poison seeds into
the wind as “his support:
for the Sandinistas” — as
though there weren’t le
gitimate reasons to sup
port them and extreme
controversy during the
Reagan years about U.S.
support for the anti-Sand-
inista rebels in Nicaragua,
known as the contras. And
in the same paragraph, the
Times seems to summon
the ghost of Joseph Mc
Carthy, informing Amer
ica that Sanders had a
“honeymoon in the Soviet
Union.”
Can you imagine elect
ing a president so arrogant
he actually claims the
right to think for himself
and challenge U.S. foreign
policy, past and present?
A president who honey
mooned under the Soviet
moon?
As the media is point
ing out, the cliche we
deeply cherish — we’re
good, they’re bad — is un
der assault in 2020.
Robert
Koehler (koehlercw@
gmail.com), syndicated
by PeaceVoice, is a Chi
cago award-winning
journalist and editor. He
is the author of “Cour
age Grows Strong at the
Wound. ”.
Low voter turnout drives primary election results
Algenon
Cash
Guest
Columnist
The pri- 1
mary election season has
ended with many predict
ed outcomes coming to
pass and other results tak
ing some by surprise. One
fact that always seems to
amaze observers is voter
turnout in primary elec
tions.
Early results indicate
82,314 Forsyth County
residents cast a ballot this
past Tuesday - only 32%
of all registered voters.
Not only are those num
bers abysmal, they are
down from 2016 when
nearly 36% of all voters
showed up for primary
elections.
I asked many local
people if they planned to
vote and received wide
ranging feedback - includ
ing not trusting the pro
cess, not understanding
who the candidates are,
with some informing me
they didn’t even realize
an election was underway.
The country is divided and
voter apathy does nothing
to unite us around so many
common goals and objec
tives.
Elected officials are
extended authority in so
many areas of life. We
depend on these lead
ers to protect us, manage
public resources, gener
ate economic opportuni
ties, serve the least of us,
and guide the community
with a compelling vision.
It’s simply mind boggling
as to why more people
don’t care to share in the
process.
Although final voting
results are still under re
view, we do have a break
down of early voting data
that is concerning. Around
13% of African Ameri
cans voted early and just
5% of voters aged 18-24.
These groups often are
most vocal about issues in
the community - violence,
police brutality, housing,
economic mobility, and
transportation - however
repeatedly they are the
most underperforming
voting bloc.
Wealthy voters tend
to vote more frequently.
Nonvoters are more likely
to be poor, young, Hispan
ic, or African American.
I spoke with a single
23-year-old mother of
two about the challenges
of raising her children
with no other parent in
the household. She com
plained about the ineffi
cient public transit system,
lack of jobs paying a de
cent wage, and her desire
to one day be able to af
ford to return to a univer
sity to complete her col
lege degree.
However, when asked
about voting, she decided,
“No, I’m not voting, none
of those people care about
me and my kids.”
The response may
sound contrarian, but it’s
not. For every ten adults
eligible to vote, only about
three cast a ballot in pri
mary elections. Some vot
ers don’t understand why
primary elections are criti
cal.
In today’s hyper parti
san political arena, many
races don’t feature general
opposition and often get
decided on primary voting
day when the major politi
cal parties vote to establish
their candidate for the gen
eral election. The unspo
ken truth is that American
elections are far less com
petitive these days as a
result of gerrymandering,
which packs select voters
in certain districts to engi
neer a desired outcome.
It’s hard to argue
whether election results
would alter if the entire
population of registered
voters participated, but
voters must come to re
alize the process deter
mines more than which
candidate wins or loses.
Elections matter and the
outcomes influence which
public policies elected
officials champion and
whose needs candidates
selectively acknowledge
or ignore.
Undoubtedly there will
be mass attention on who
voted and why. But hope
fully, elected officials and
political pundits will con
sider an equally important
question: who is not vot
ing and what impact does
that have?
Algenon Cash is a
nationally recognized
speaker and the manag
ing director of Wharton
Gladden & Company, an
investment banking firm.
Reach him at acash@al-
genoncash.com.
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