PLAY TO WIN — The Weekly Opine

It’s winning time. (Photo credit The Weekly Opine)

Game on

It is a straightforward concept. As American as basketball and cherry pie. When I was assigned to manage the Monopoly at McDonald’s promotion (note: after the McMillions scandal occurred), our theme was “Play to Win!” An easy to communicate, easy to understand consumer call-to-action.

Free advice to Tom Perez and the Democratic National Committee; adopt the mantra, Play to Win! Because too often, Democrats seem hellbent on suffering another Trump victory.

The DNC primary process is nonsensical. The uninventive debate format is broken. The Iowa caucus was a debacle, carried a whiff of scandal and, given Democrats chastise Trump for ignoring Russia interfering in our elections, damaged Dems credibility.

Announcing no Iowa winner and moving on to New Hampshire, during the same week Trump skated past impeachment conviction, left Dems reeling just 15 months after their triumphant midterm blue wave. Now, supposed progressive pundits and media are epileptic as they tarnish a progressive candidate front-runner.

A new blueprint

Democrats should think outside the box.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi tearing up her copy of Trump’s speech was the kind of fighting spirit Dems should display. Go a step further. Democrats should not attend State of the Union addresses when Trump - a traitor and criminal – spews falsehoods to the nation.

Why sit idle when Trump holds fascist-style rallies? Democrats should concurrently hold prime time press conferences, panel discussions or rallies of their own, offering up truth and facts regarding key policy issues.

Sure, MAGAs who’ve imbibed enough Trump Kool-Aid to fill the Gulf of Mexico won’t be swayed. But a consistent diet of fact-based truth should prevent sensible Republicans, and 2x Obama voters who voted for Trump in 2016, from repeating their colossal mistake in 2020.

Democrats should develop a slate of presidential administration appointees, ready to join whoever is the Democratic nominee. Contrast them against Trump’s henchmen. For example, Kamala Harris as attorney general. Julian Castro as immigration chief. Stacy Abrams as vice president, regardless of which candidate becomes the presidential nominee. Pete Buttigieg a top ambassador to a key allie.

Persuade Beto O’Rourke (remember him?) to run against Ted Cruz in Texas. Equally important to winning the presidency is taking back the Senate, while holding the House. Mitch McConnell can be had in Kentucky, as can Lindsey Graham in South Carolina.

Tom Steyer and Michael Bloomberg should drop out (or be forced out) and pour their resources into anti-Trump messaging in key senate contests, as well as presidential battle-ground states Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

Despite concerted efforts by moderate media to tear him down, Bernie Sanders resonates with many Americans. (Photo credit Chicago Sun-Times)

The data says Sanders

Six weeks ago, The Weekly Opine endorsed Bernie Sanders. The endorsement was policy focused. Today, there is a strategic reason Sanders should be the Democratic nominee.

Bernie is not the bogeyman many Dem moderates insist he is. Sanders (as does Elizabeth Warren) intentionally cares about the plight of less-fortunate Americans. The others put forth ‘incremental’ standard fare that will result in those who’ve been left behind slipping further behind.

What this country requires is significant change, rather than continuing a status quo that forces another poor and working-class generation to miss out on a modicum of financial security. It is preposterous to tell an underprivileged 12-year-old to wait, that hopefully in 20 years when they have kids of their own, maybe then everyone will have access to good housing, affordable healthcare and free education.

Proposed incrementality by moderates may lead to apathy at the polls and not the stellar turnout necessary to defeat Trump. Trump’s 40-percent share is virtually a lock. If Dems lose too much of their 60-percent share, they’ll be in big trouble.

Which makes Bernie the right choice. Data backs this up, easily refuting those who claim Sanders is unelectable.

Bernie’s army is packed with soldiers who are equally fervent - some as crazy - as MAGAs. Democrats can either recognize this and strategically benefit or watch as hordes of “The Bern” folks stay home November 3rd, if Sanders is not the nominee.

There appeared to be hocus-pocus at work in Iowa. Considering DNC accommodation favoring Hillary Clinton in 2016, it should not be surprising if swaths of Sanders supporters sit out again in 2020, if the DNC puts it’s thumb on the scale. Many in the moderate media are already doing so, with reporting heavily biased against Sanders.

Meanwhile, Joe Biden remains a concern. Had Dems impeached Trump based on the irrefutable roadmap provided by the Mueller Report, Joe and Hunter Biden and Ukraine would not be a drag on the Biden campaign. If nominated, Biden will likely be on “trial” at the hands of Trump, Barr, and Fox News during the presidential campaign. A potentially huge mess.

And Biden’s lie he was arrested attempting to meet Nelson Mandela is more than a head-scratcher. C’mon Joe!

Pete Buttigieg is a future star. But he has not connected with black voters. We’ll see what happens in South Carolina and on Super Tuesday. But a surefire way to get black folks to stay home in November is a nominee polling below 3-percent with blacks.

Buttigieg brushing off the 1960s Civil Rights era as “nostalgia” and “revolutionary politics” disrespects heroic, bloodstained sacrifices and shows he needs to take another trip around the block to shore up his cultural awareness. However, Buttigieg has what it takes to help propel the Democratic party into the future. Buttigieg is highly intelligent, understands policy, and will be a key player/leader going forward.

Of course, nobody is perfect. Bernie Sanders’ unforced error, offending Cuban Americans, and others, with comments about Fidel Castro having done some good, e.g. literacy programs, is inexcusable. It revealed unwarranted arrogance. Bernie, you are the front-runner, but many delegates are still in play. Cool it.

Policy-wise, strategically and based on data so far, Sander’s should not be unnerving so many Democrats. The lengths some go to discredit Sanders is ridiculous.

MSNBC host Chris Matthews compared Sanders’ crushing Nevada victory to Nazi Germany successfully invading France during World War II. Epically ignorant. CNN, the network that treats compulsive liar Kellyanne Conway like a savant, also attempts to de-legitimize Sanders.

Following Tuesday’s South Carolina debate, a poll shown on MSNBC revealed Dem voters say Sanders “made the best case against Trump.”

Why wouldn’t these folks vote for democratic socialism? (Photo credit The Weekly Opine)

Democratic socialism (hang on, don’t run away)

America is rife with examples of socialism. The obvious are Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare.

One-percenters enjoy socialism in the form of a massive tax cut. Ninety-one profitable Fortune 500 companies paid zero taxes in the first year of Trump’s tax cuts. For the largest 300 American companies, the effective tax rate is a paltry 11-percent. Socialism.

This month, Trump announced re-direction of $3.8 billion from the Defense Department to wall construction along the southern border. That is socialism, benefitting those with contracts to build an otherwise underfunded project. Trump handing out billions of dollars in subsidies to farmers, to offset their lost revenue due to his dumb trade war with China, is socialism.

Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman says Sanders is not a socialist but instead adheres to European-style socialist democracy. That is, Sanders believes in capitalism, with restraints in the form of fairer policies that benefit everyone. Like Denmark has. (According to the United Nations World Happiness Report, Denmark ranks second among all countries. The U.S. ranks 19th and has dropped five positions since 2017.)

Many millennials, it should be noted, embrace democratic socialism.

Mike Bloomberg’s chameleon routine has skeptics of all ages. (Photo credit S.F. Bay View)

The man behind the curtain

Michael Bloomberg is not who his commercials say he is.

Then-Mayor Bloomberg’s full-throated, doubling-down support of stop-and-frisk cannot be undone by insincere apologies – on the eve of his campaign launch - while clinging to black preacher’s robes. His previous comments that virtually all murderers are young black men would not be tolerated if, for example, Bloomberg was Barack Obama.

You recall Obama was forced to give a speech on race relations, during which he disavowed unsavory comments made by his minister. Had Obama not given that speech in Philadelphia, broadcast nationally, he would not have won the 2008 Democratic nomination.

Bloomberg’s treatment of women reeks of the Weinberg/Cosby/Trump dogma that says rich, powerful, men can have their way with women however and whenever they want. Three women have accused Bloomberg of sexual harassment and Bloomberg has essentially admitted it.

A former Republican, Bloomberg is not transparent and is wholly untrustworthy.

Bloomberg railed against a $15 minimum wage in 2018. He now says he supports it. He buttressed the financial sector’s racist redlining housing policies, arguing that ending redlining sparked the 2008 financial meltdown. Now he proposes financial sector reforms. He called for cuts to Social Security benefits - in the process likening the AARP to the NRA. Now, he supports modest benefits increases.

Mike Bloomberg is a chameleon, frequently changing positions to trick people into voting for him.

Conversely, Bernie Sanders does not toss grass in the air to determine from which direction the wind blows.

Who would you choose to lead the world during troubled times? The group of three on the top row or the group of three on the bottom row? (Photo credit Vanity Fair, MPR News, New Statesman, AP News, Politico, Vanity Fair)

When the going gets tough

When disaster (or pandemic) strikes, lying doesn’t compare favorably with fact-based, transparent problem-solving.

Just sayin’.