One thing I keep trying to remind Bernie supporters (I being one) in our despair over the current primary, is that his "movement" is not over. He has immense leveraging power with Biden (or whoever the DNC anoints at the convention, if Biden's cognitive decline is accepted as the huge liability that it is). Bernie could (and should, imo) be bold and say: "I won't endorse you, Joe, unless you sign onto Medicare for All." The silver lining of the coronavirus--which isn't only about loss of lives but the damage it is already doing to the economy and societal conventions--is that it reveals just what a debacle the American economic and health care system is. This should fuel the call for significant healthcare reform, and hopefully even a re-priortization of American values from "the business of America is business" to "the business of America is serving the people."
But even more importantly: Bernie's movement is not his movement. He is merely the main figurehead. But it is a progressive movement of people wanting the government to actually do what it is supposed to do: serve the people, by the people, for the people. Crazy idea, I know.
This primary should make clear just how corrupt the political system is, and how electoral politics is a sham. The elite will elect who they want to elect, whatever it takes. But I do not think, or at least I hope, that "We the People" will not go quietly into the night.
Of course the stakes are really high: not just nationally, but globally. America's standing as world leader is frankly a joke. You can't call for reduction in fossil fuels when you're the leading cause of it. You aren't a shining city on the hill when your "light" is largely supported by the subjugation and death of millions around the world - endless wars, driving profits for the military-industrial complex. You aren't a world leader when you have millions incarcerated, half a million homeless, terrible healthcare, crumbling infracture, and increasing large sections that resemble a Third World country. People in Western Europe and Scandinavia who haven't been outside of tourist areas might be surprised to find that a large percentage of the country resembles the poorer parts of Eastern Europe, and some even South America or Africa.
Yet somehow our elite maintain a global empire, although one that is clearly crumbling.
But there might be some rough years ahead. Or as Bob Dylan said, the times they are a'changin. It might sound apocalyptic, but I think these next decades will determine whether we not only survive as a civilization, but to what degree as a species--and even as a biome.
