Confirmed escapists, Jeanne and I have always been movie lovers, so it’s normal for me, while waiting for small change from a $20 bill, to think like a curmudgeon: I remember when movies cost 11¢ for a double feature, with serials, cartoons, and news (The Eyes and Ears of the World) — without 20 minutes of deafening and mentally degrading previews.
This was at the Nostrand Avenue Theatre in Flatbush, so I got a pleasant jolt when I read that young Bernie Sanders spent his Saturdays in the same place at about the same time. He lived on 26th Street, not far from 32nd, where I grew up. We never met because the Meinkes moved to Noo Joisey in 1945 — unless that was Bernie handing out leaflets while pedaling his tricycle along the Brooklyn sidewalks. So I’m glad to read about Sanders, and if he were nominated we’d vote for him in a blink.
Still, I’m not on Team Bernie, even though it’s just Hillary and him now. He’s been drawing great crowds, but while encouraging, this isn’t enough to lead the Democrats in 2016, because Sanders is basically a European-style socialist. Bernie may be ready, but America isn’t. Maybe 20 percent are, and that’s progress. Still, considering how close the country’s split on the Affordable Care Act, you can get the idea of the gulf that needs to be cleared.
There’s a big money gap, too, and neither the noise on the Republican side (Donald Trump) nor the noise on the Democrat side (Sanders) will make a difference in the end, when Bush or Rubio face off against Clinton. The lesson to take away from this divide is the difference between the two noise-makers:
This is exactly the difference between the hearts of these two parties.
Though both would object, in actual effect one is socialist and one is racist. Democrats keep edging toward a system, well, more like Denmark’s. Higher taxes for the rich and more programs for the poor. And though Republicans can hold up their hands and say, “That’s not me,” all around the country, every day, the GOP is working to limit the black vote, and to make life harder for immigrants, especially immigrants of color.
Regarding policies, there’s little wiggle room between Clinton and Sanders: they’d pretty much vote the same way, as Sanders keeps pulling Clinton leftward. This is good for all of us, though the TPP is more complex than most people, remembering NAFTA, believe. But in complicated arrangements, I’m willing to give the nod to Obama, who says that TPP is at least partly designed to reverse the negatives of NAFTA. Set attitudes can change radically with new developments: Remember how we loved The Cosby Show (set, oddly enough, in Brooklyn)?
Also, Clinton has been better at resisting the NRA and defending Planned Parenthood than Sanders, who — like everyone else, including Clinton — was upset by the nasty and visceral video the Republicans are circulating. But Clinton truthfully pointed out that, unpleasant as that video is, over the years Planned Parenthood has changed the lives of thousands of women for the better, and actually saved many of them.
The subtitle of St. Pete writer Peter Golenbock’s lively book about Brooklyn — In the Country of Brooklyn — is “Inspiration to the World.” Bernie Sanders, a rare honest and idealistic politician, fits that description.
So he has my best wishes, and if we ever met we could talk about Prospect Park, stickball, the Dodgers, and all those good delicatessens in Flatbush. He’d be a fine president; but when he doesn’t get nominated, he won’t pull a Nader and run independently. Most likely he’ll keep pushing Clinton to the left, while poking holes in Republican balloons.
This article appears in Oct 22-28, 2015.