AN ANGRY OLD MAN TRYING TO KEEP THE SUN FROM SETTING

He is 74 years-old and this is his last and, by far, his biggest campaign. By. Far.

And, thank goodness, it's within a few weeks of being over. Thank. Goodness.

Bernie Sanders' daily rants about being "persecuted" and "victimized" and "cheated" by a "rigged system" are now covered with moss and mold. They have grown tiring and their notes dissonant because, despite his never-ending complaint, he has, from the beginning of his campaign, received an almost total pass from the media, the Republican Parties and Democratic Parties---everybody!

The media, by and large, has treated him with kid gloves.

While calling for transparency from other primary candidates, Bernie just can't get Jane to click the "Submit" button on the Turbo Tax website. Why not?

But the media, which draws blood from Hillary Clinton if she doesn't report the time of her grandchild's latest bowel movement, has apparently decided that, while Donald Trump's tax returns should be available for public consumption---and, they should---Bernie's returns are irrelevant. They aren't.

The same kind of media pass has been given to Bernie's policies.

The more radical of his domestic policies are well-intended and, in a perfect world---where moral/ethical concerns trump electoral politics and are part and parcel of policy formation---would form a perfectly fine progressive platform.

In an imperfect world, however, the ones that draw the biggest cheers from his crowds are economically unsustainable and/or would make an economic problem worse rather than better, a couple are socially/culturally questionable and the absence of a moral/ethical component per policy debate makes it easy for opponents to oppose and even demonize them; cf. the Republican/Right Wing/Evangelical attacks on the minimum wage and on food stamps and food stamp recipients. Furthermore, given the obstructionist proclivities of far too many on the conservative side of the American political divide, they are, to say the least, political non-starters.

Yet the media has been conspicuously silent and "hands-off" per doing a deep-dive into the metrics, data and implications of Bernie's most grandiose and self-touted policies.


When an interview with the New York Daily News editorial board revealed him to be woefully lacking in foreign policy chops and surprisingly short on economic and domestic policy knowledge/details, he quickly reverted to his default position of attacking either the media or "the establishment": "My comments were taken out of context."

They weren't. But he got away with it. And those few of us who did point out the concerning parts of it (1) didn't get our columns about it published and/or (2) were the targets of internet haters whose obscenities and name-calling nearly matched those usually found only in the comments of really paranoid Gun Rights advocates. Bernie's Bro's also downgraded our status from "progressive" to "liberal," the latter having become almost a slur on the left side of the political divide.

One also wearies of Bernie's persistent whine that he is the "victim" of "a rigged system"---a whine that evokes eye-rolls given that neither the evolutionary mutation that is now the GOP presidential nominee nor the growing number of Democrats irritated with his self-serving campaign nor his Democratic primary opponent has attacked/criticized what is often considered abject irresponsibility---cf. his refusal to apologize/condemn the actions of his supporters at the Nevada Democratic Convention---and just as often described as "a proclivity for bullying."

Relative to this is the fact that his loyalties are more than questionable. Democrats have given him a caucus home since he first arrived in D.C. and he has taken full advantage of the perks that come with it. In return, however, he has never, before he almost had to in order to make a presidential run, offered to become a Democrat and never offered Democrats much more than a vote---on gun control, not even that (he has voted five times against the Brady Bill).

He has always been a Lone Ranger, identifying himself as an Independent and acting independently of the Democratic leadership.

At the same time, however, he has had no scruples about accepting campaign help from Democrats, requesting and receiving several thousand dollars from Hillary Clinton's campaign fund for his initial Senate run. But, when Democrats on down-ballots have needed funding help, Bernie has made himself scarce. Indeed, as Bernie was criticizing Secretary Clinton for raising funds for down-ballot Democrats in April (he inexplicably called it "money-laundering"), a Democratic operative, fed up with Bernie's "it's all about me" approach to campaigning, leaked the news that Senator Sanders had thus far provided miserly assistance to only three House Democrats---all of whom were public supporters of his primary run.

In fact, having served notice that only scorched earth will be left when he exits the electoral landscape, he recently breached a cardinal rule of party politics: Angry with the Chair of the DNC, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, he has endorsed her opponent in the upcoming Florida primary and encouraged his supporters to send that opponent, Tim Canova, campaign contributions.

Taking advantage of the only national stage he has ever had, he also served public notice that, if given the chance, he would remove Ms. Wasserman Schultz from her party position---a disrespectful and intemperate act that, as one congressional Democrat noted, "gives people a sense of what Bernie is really like and what it is really like to try and work with him."

Just as intemperate was his demand that two very popular and, in their day, effective Democrats---Barney Frank and Dannell Malloy---be removed as chairs of two key Democratic Convention committees. In the absence of two loyal, steadfastly progressive voices such as Frank and Malloy being kicked out of their positions, Bernie threatened that his delegates would hold the convention hostage by throwing wrenches into every piece of machinery they could find.

Hence, it is not hard to understand why only one congressional Democrat has endorsed Bernie. Only. One.

Bernie's "my way or the highway" routine has rankled not only high-ranking party officials but rank-and-file Democrats, as well. These are the worker bees who, usually for no compensation, keep the local party apparati running. When Mr. Sanders would not answer NBC's Kristen Welker's question, "Do you feel any loyalty at all to the Democratic Party?," they were both offended and angry. He is flying the party's flag. He is using the party's money and the party's machinery and the party's Rolodex even though he has been a party member for about fifteen minutes. And they rightly question why he can't express "any loyalty at all" to "fellow Democrats."

It is, thus, unsurprising that some are quietly suggesting that his return to the Senate will not be marked by a Homecoming Party with balloons and cake and hearty pats-on-the-back. One suspects that the future of Bernie's legislative career will be as unremarkable as its past. And he has only his bitterness and personal ego to blame.

I have never been a big Bernie Sanders fan, but I wrote a column some months ago that was more than complimentary about his most notable policies and even his "revolution." And I still, as do most, uh, "liberals," resonate to the revolutionary aspects of his platform. The timing is not right for their passage---Republicans own the House and the House appropriates the dollars is one reason---but, together, with needed modification, they constitute a vision for the future that is darn near magnetic.

But, even as I appreciate more and more the visionary qualities of his policies, I have come to appreciate him as a person/leader less and less.

At bottom, Bernie Sanders has become an angry old man who, at 74, is desperately trying to keep the sun from setting.

He railed against "politicians" and "the establishment" for over 40 years, even as he lived off The Man as a "politician" and member of "the establishment." In other words, he is a self-proclaimed advocate for the "working man" who has never known what it was like to be or live the life of a "working man."

His loathsome self-righteousness, which can approach almost messianic proportions, is suffocating---it is as if he has come to believe that he embodies or incarnates the revolution about which he speaks: The Word become flesh and dwelling among us, so to speak.

He is described by colleagues as being "prickly," "cranky," "resentful," "not easy to like," "intemperate," "a bully," "hard to work with," "disinterested in doing the gritty work of getting legislation passed," and "more interested in Bernie Sanders than anything or anyone else"---a damning constellation of characteristics that, unfortunately, ring true when one considers Bernie Sanders from a critical distance.

Which makes it difficult to know if (1) Bernie really thinks he can keep the sun from setting or (2) if he knows he can't and is just bitter enough to make sure it also sets on those he blames for it disappearing below the horizon of his personal western sky.

Because, of course, only evil in its greater (Donald Trump) or lesser (Hillary Clinton) form could dim the light that emanates from the countenance of a messiah---even a self-proclaimed one.