The Trouble With Revolutions

The problem with starting a revolution is that sometimes you begin to believe that you are more important than the revolution. But the people whose passions you ignite won't follow a person blindly when they think they've been betrayed. They will abandon the person who started the revolution and have no qualms about venting their anger at being betrayed.

Judging by the reaction that Bernie Sanders has gotten at the Democratic Convention from a large segment of his heretofore-Kool-Aid-Swillers, it may finally be dawning on our socialist friend that when you cuddle up with revolutionaries, you play with fire; and when you have to keep that fire under control, it can "bern" you.

Bernie Sanders is a typical socialist who has never actually had to endure the realities of socialism.  He is also an opportunist. This election cycle, he almost parlayed himself from a little known Senator from a tiny state to the Democratic Party's nominee for President.

To put that into context, there are ninety or so metropolitan areas in the U.S. with a larger population than the entire state of Vermont, but by inciting the passions of people with a massive entitlement mentality, Sanders started a roller coaster ride that had no brake. He promised them free college, single payer health care, higher estate taxes, higher income taxes, expanded Social Security, and a chicken in every pot.

That sounded great to his peeps since none of the promises would cost them anything. What could be better than all kinds of stuff at the expense of others?

They flocked to him like moths to a flame. Millennials living in their parents' basements, college kids with no jobs and more time on their hands than they knew what to do with, twenty-somethings who balked at getting a job after 7 years of college and a degree in Indonesian History, pseudo-intellectuals who sat at Starbucks and Panera Bread all day, all of these folks joined Sanders' revolution happily.

What Sanders failed to realize is that the people to whom he was pandering don't live by the same rules that the rest of us live by. They have no respect for authority, property, or anyone who disagrees with them because most of them haven't worked for anything in their lives.

What makes them even more dangerous is their unwavering belief that the end justifies the mean, even if it means burning everything down in order to accomplish a goal. When you've got no skin in the game the game is fun to play.

Sanders also made the mistake of believing that he could control his followers. He assumed that they would listen to him once he decided it was time to stand down. After all, they had gobbled up everything else he was telling them, why wouldn't they listen to the man behind the mirror?

Sanders never dreamed he would get as far as he did in the primaries, but then how could he know that Hillary Clinton would repeatedly shoot herself in the foot? Clinton came into the primaries with Democrats assuming she would win, but she brought a lot of baggage to the table - Benghazi, Libya, the email server, and the millions made from Wall Street speeches.

Further fueling the perfect storm for Sanders was Biden taking himself out of the running, leaving no real alternative to Clinton in the race.

Sanders was thus able to exceed his wildest expectations and parlayed his "revolution" into a sizeable chunk of delegates. But in the end, when the slipper didn't fit and there was no way to overcome Clinton's delegate tally, Sanders saw the writing on the wall. He figured it was time to cash in his chips, extract concessions from the DNC on the party platform, grab the prime time speaking slot during the Convention's opening night, and ride off to Vermont with a bushel full of political capital that would considerably elevate his meaningless status in the Senate. 

Clinton's short list of running mates other than Kaine from L to R - Housing Secretary Julian Castro, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (MA), Sen. Cory Booker (NJ), and Sen. Sherrod Brown (OH)

But Clinton wasn't done shooting herself in the foot. She riled up the Berners with her choice of running mate. Instead of picking one of several potential Progressive running mates that would have acted as salve to the wounds perceived by the Sanders' revolutionaries, Clinton opted to thrust her middle finger in their faces and tabbed the one person short of Ted Cruz that was sure to cause the Berners' heads to explode - Tim Kaine. 

The stage was thus set for a Convention that would easily outdo the Republican's Convention last week when it came to divisiveness, demonstrations, and upheaval on the floor.

And then the DNC became the gift that keeps on giving. A pre-convention Wikileaks email dump proved that DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz and her henchmen had rigged the primary to ensure Clinton's coronation as the party's 2016 nominee. Capitalizing on the embarrassment of emails that made the DNC look like Star War's evil Galactic Empire, Sanders got something he had wanted for a long, long time in the form of Schultz's head on the proverbial platter. Schultz resigned as head of the DNC. 

But the Wikileaks expose' did a lot more than cause Schultz her job...especially when Clinton shot off what little was left of her foot by immediately making Schultz the co-chair of her campaign's 50-State program to help elect Democrats, a post perceived by the Berners as a reward for a job well done for Clinton. 

The Sanders faithfuls' heads exploded. And when you combine a large group of people who think nothing of social convention, add a dash of righteous indignation, you rub their noses in defeat, and then try to tell them to grow up and play nice, you have a recipe for disaster.

Berners assumed that Sanders would be as incensed as they were after the Wikileaks bombshell.  What they didn't know is that Sanders had already decided to grab all the marbles he could stuff in his pockets and go to the dark side with his newfound political stature. All he needed to do was lead his sheep to pasture. Much to his surprise, these sheep weren't your ordinary sheep. They're believers. They'd been so hopped up on Sanders' Kool Aid that they weren't about to fold their tent and go quietly into the night.

Sanders sent them a text pleading with them to play nice. Fail. He then met with his delegates and asked them to join him in supporting Clinton. Sanders was so resoundingly booed that he was dumbfounded. Why wouldn't they listen? Didn't they know this was the way of...politics? You say whatever you think you have to say, you get what you can, and then you cut and run. 

Sanders showed them that after all the speeches, all the donations, all the time, all the effort, and all the theatre, he was nothing but a hypocritical opportunist. Sanders looked them in the eye, raised a hand to silence the boos, and said, "Brothers and sisters ... brothers and sisters, this is...this is the real world that we live in."

The place went nuts. And then the venom spilled onto the convention floor all night, with the exception of when Michelle Obama spoke. Speaker after speaker was taunted with cries of "Lock Her Up", "Hell No DNC, We Won't Vote For Hillary", and "Bernie, Bernie, Bernie". 

It got uglier. Sarah Silverman was taunted by the Berners after she spoke in favor of Clinton. Silverman, who had supported Sanders until the convention, was having none of it and lost her cool. Interrupting Minnesota Senator Al Franken, Silverman elbowed Franken out of the way and said to them, "Can I just say to the Bernie or bust people, you're being ridiculous." That went over real well, coming from the likes of a half wit comedian. 

Might as well have thrown more gasoline on the fire because when Progressive darling Elizabeth Warren gave her speech urging the delegates to support Clinton, constant chants of "We trusted you" rang out.

So where are we? The Democrats chortled for an entire week during the Republican convention because Ted Cruz and John Kasich made asses out of themselves by refusing to live up to the pledge they signed when they were candidates. Trump didn't do himself any favors by...being Trump. 

In any other election, the Republican Convention would have been considered a big failure because of the lack of unqualified support for the party's nominee by all the primary losers. But this isn't any ordinary election. As mind boggling as it may be, Trump has actually received a 5-6 point post-convention bump in the polls to put him ahead of Clinton. And now we're seeing the Democrats implode with even more divisiveness, acrimony, and ill will than the Republicans had.

Stay tuned. Julian Assange promises more document dumps including emails involving the Clinton Foundation and possibly a cache of emails deleted by Clinton from her private server. It's going to be a bumpy ride.