“Americans don’t like it when I point these out either, but they are obvious to the rest of the world. Americans prize brutality, cruelty, aggression, hostility, selfishness, and violence.”

This is a gross generalization. I am a naturalized American. My friends who are all Americans by birth are not oblivious to the rest of the world, they have a strong interest in other cultures and how people live outside of America. They are social democrats in the European sense and do not prize brutality, cruelty, aggression, hostility, selfishness and violence. In fact the entire slate of Democratic candidtes demonstrate their values are completely contrary to this statement you toss off so lightly without empirical proof.

All the people (the majority of people) in our country voted Democratic in the last election. We are in the majority. It is incredibly shortsighed of you to not preface your remarks and frame them in this way: “People who will vote for Trump, no matter how they protest, support brutality, cruelty, aggression, hostility, selfishness and violence.” I mean every single one of them when I say this. That is why I have only one friend who is a Trump supporter and we argue about it all the time. He’s really a libertarian and has lived out of the States for forty years so he has no idea what he is talking about. First question why are you living out of the US?

Anyway regarding Bernie. Bernie has performed a great service to the US. He has introduced us to democratic socialism — higher taxes and a kinder and more just society. Remember this is the first time these ideas have hit mainstream politics. For me and my friends like you, however, these are not new ideas, we’ve been reading, talking and writing about the disastrous effects of neo-liberal capitalism for years. Few of us work in the corporate world we are doctors, educators, small business owners, consultants, journalists etc.

All the seeds Bernie is vigorously throwing out there will grow and flourish in the future. What we must remember however is that these ideas are new to most and need time to take root.

Because of that, I believe right now we need a kinder, gentler transitional object and the name of that object is Warren or Biden or Bloomberg. For me they all have positives. Warren really understand the finances of what needs to happen — she is an economist and has a mind like a trap door. If corona virus devastates the world economies, we need Warren as Joan of Arc riding in the save us (hopefully not to be burnt at the stake because she’s a woman). Biden is an old fashioned gentleman who will allow the young uns to run things domestically, and use his heart and head to rebuild all the foreign policy bridges that have been bludgeoned. Bloomberg is an excellent but non charismatic pragmatist who can really get things done — he understands the mechanics of persuasion and using money (America’s god) to make things happen.

I think we have to give Bernie credit for leading us into battle. Many of his ideas will take root and inspire generations of leaders to come as we move America forward into social democracy. However I truly believe the majority of Democrats are not yet ready to vote for him for President. This will be evidenced I believe when more delegates who arrive at the convention in July will fall into the moderate category, even though they’re spread across a larger number of candidates. A brokered convention seems inevitable and it will be up to the party to decide, because of the system we have in place, who they think can best beat Trump. Obama will play a large role in this as will many others. I follow along with Plato in this instance:

Plato believed that the key and driving feature of democracy is desire for freedom; this very trait, though, ultimately leads a state to tyranny. A democratic regime involves such a plurality of interests, he believed, that the only way anything can be achieved under it is to have strong leadership that can unite interests. “It’s not a complete portrait of modern democracy but it captures something: This desire for strong leaders who can give guidance to diverse pluralistic uncoordinated desires,” says Oder.

Unfortunately Bernie is not the leader I believe who can give guidance to the diverse pluralistic uncoordinated desires of the majority of Democrats, however I truly believe he will go down in history as the fiery, brilliant, ethical idealogue he is, and I raise my glass to him, L’Chaim (to life) Bernie!