Category: Howard Sosbee’s posts

When Hillary first announced her candidacy, the Democrat party apparatus nearly went ballistic with excitement. The first woman president of the United States will be a Democrat! In fact, the party was so gaga over the “first woman” prospect, that no one bothered to ask: “Is she the right woman? Can she win?” If they had asked, cooler heads might have prevailed and the party might have waited to see if other, less tainted, women might come forward. The party could have done more vetting but they did not. The Democrat party shut the door, so to speak, by making it known that “she is our gal”, and woe to anyone who might dare challenge her. When Sanders realized what was happening, that the Democrats were putting up a middle-of-the-road, more-of-the-same candidate who represented the absence of change at a time when the country badly needed not only change, but radical change, he jumped in. The party responded with a strategy to defeat Sanders chances right out of the box. They scheduled the early primaries in states known to favor Clinton heavily, to build an early lead so large that no one, not even Bernie, would have a chance. But something unexpected happened along the way. Sanders’ support soared while Clinton’s started inexorably to shrink. In other words, Americans knew Clinton even if the Democrat party did not. Now the party hierarchy is pulling out all the stops, tying up as many delegates and super delegates as possible in a desperate attempt to get Sanders out before he builds up any more momentum. I One day I will be in the and return labelf they succeed, they will have destroyed our last best hope.

(dear editor: I am trying to stay relevant, so my last two letters are designed to reflect the current headlines.)
Clinton claims Sanders “has not done his homework” and “his numbers do not add up” and “he can’t deliver what he’s proposing.” Well, have you ever heard a politician propose something that depends on Congress and is thus doubtful of ever being accomplished? Sanders is proposing things that desperately need to be done if America is to get back on the track it was on before Ronald Reagan’s disastrous policies. How these ideas might finally become reality does indeed depend on Congress; but, likewise, nothing will ever happen until someone, like Sanders, with faith in America’s “can do” attitude starts the ball rolling. That is Sanders in a nutshell. Clinton has not been able to identify one, not one, of Sanders ideas that cannot be done, or that should not be done. Judging by the Sanders effect on voters so far, his ideas stand a decent chance of getting us past that “more of the same” that Clinton offers. sosbee.com

Actually, that is the wrong question. First, one should ask: is she really electable? The answer to that question, of course, can only be answered if she does, indeed, become the Democrat nominee. If so, Clinton’s negatives, the surface of which have only been barely scratched so far, would be massive red meat for the Republican hate machine. Sanders does not have this baggage, but he does have the progressive base that Clinton and Obama have ignored for years. That base, which largely stayed home in the elections of 2010 and 2014, will totally make the difference in 2016. Of course, progressive Democrats will vote the ticket, but wouldn’t it be nice if their enthusiastic support made the 2016 election a decisive landslide?( As it would be for Sanders)

Do we really need a “revolution”? Or do we simply need to put America into “reverse”? For example: if we could reverse practically everything Ronald Reagan ever did (as well as that of all his copycats) we could restore the time when America really was great: a time when labor unions were an effective bulwark against corporate greed, when a college education did not mortgage a student’s entire future, when America was not trying (in vain) to be the boss of the world, and when the two party system used debate and compromise instead of divide and conquer to govern the country. As it is now, Republicans simply want to control everything, to paint the entire country red .

Any time you have people like Hank Garcia and Consuelo Alba working to restore something as rare and beautiful as one of the old movie palaces that blossomed all over America in the 20s and 30s, these people deserve the support of the entire community. Is there some way us ordinary Santa Cruzans can contribute, financially, even in small amounts, to the cost of renovation, perhaps a PO Box to receive checks or a PayPal account? And will the sentinel keep us informed of the progress in this attempt to bring back to life one of those grand places where regular people can occasionally experience something enchanting?

Wow! A woman president! And a Democrat-party woman-president at that! The euphoria was palpable. Everyone jumped on the bandwagon. Hillary would be our gal and every bone in our collective Democrat bodies would get behind her. Woe onto any aspiring Democrat pol who challenged her for the nomination. And no one did. Every otherwise-plausible candidate either kept quiet or formally announced their non-candidacy. Never mind that many Democrats, aware of Clinton’s huge negatives, were less than enthusiastic. The horrible realization grew that the Democrat party was about to nominate a candidate with no chance of winning the general election. But that possibility was either lost or ignored throughout the party leadership. It was left to an outsider, an independent no less, and an avowed socialist at that, to say “wait a minute, let’s see what the ordinary Democrat voter thinks.” And so he announced. His name is Bernie Sanders and his popularity and support have steadily GROWN while Hillary’s has steadily SHRUNK. The suspense is now growing tighter by the day: can Bernie overcome Hillary’s commanding lead before the convention? And, if not, will enough uncommitted delegates realize that Bernie is our only hope against a Trump or Cruz becoming President Of The United States. Anyone who pays attention knows what happens when Republicans take control. I`t is not pretty.

The Republican cruise ship has sailed…and it has sunk. All the 20-or-so candidates that were aboard are in the water, floundering around, desperately trying to find some way to stay afloat and relevant. With only three candidates still alive, the dropouts are trying to climb aboard either the Trump or Cruz lifeboat. (None seem to be confident. the Kasich boat can stay afloat until the convention). Meanwhile, the Republican party elite are scratching their collective heads wondering: “how in the world did we let ourselves get into this mess?”

Good Lord! Is it so crucial to prove you’re right wing bona fides that you have to do a Ted Cruz and make up whoppers (like Stephen Mallett’s March 22, 2016 letter) “… Fascism was a movement of the left and the urge to attack and eliminate opinions you don’t like is a radical left impulse”. In other words, anything unpleasant must have come from “lefties”.

David Brooks, in his dump-Trump oped of March 20, 2016, quoted extensively from the Bible in an attempt to advise Republicans on what to do about theTrump “reality”. He quotes from Psalms a piece of good advice, but one that no known Republican would ever be able to follow. It is simply not in the Republican DNA, even though it is probably best path out of the mess that 35 years of Reaganism has visited upon the country. The biblical reference is worth repeating, and is paraphrased here from the Brooks article: (italics mine) “in the face of demagogy, to go the other way, to make an extra effort to put on decency, graciousness, patience and humility, to seek a purity of heart that is stable and everlasting.” Does that sound like any Republican you know? Have any of these qualities ever been evident in any recent Republican action, or in the case of the current Senate, inaction?

Now we know who the real enemy is. It is the “totalitarian left” which, according to Charles Krauthammer, “specializes in the intimidation and silencing of political opponents.” What’s more, this goes back to “20th century fascism and communism”. So, all this time, we’ve been worried about the legacy of Hitler and Stalin shaping American politics of the left. If only we had been aware of this little-known fact, how much differently would we have voted.