Feel the Bern!

Column by Mike Wasdin.

Exclusive to STR

I have been watching the circus known as “Dumbocracy” for some time now. Although I do not buy tickets to the circus or participate in promoting it, I like watching the clowns, as they are always entertaining.

I don't like the idea of voting for my masters. I have not participated in the futile exercise known as voting for a long time, not even when my good friend Marc Victor decided to run for the U.S. Senate here in Arizona, even though I was his campaign manager. A smile still comes over my face when I think about that.

I was not a big fan of Rand Paul in the beginning for several reasons . . . mainly because he was no Ron Paul, but he was the best the clowns on the right had to offer. He, after all, was closest to my philosophy economically and was a hardcore freedom activist. Considering what was being offered, he was the best choice. He was a libertarian running as a Republican, and I had no problem with that. It does not matter what letter you place beside your name, as long as in your heart and mind, you are for freedom.

The clowns on the left offered equally and in some cases worse choices on their side. The choice seemed clear to me that Rand was the only choice, but then Rand dropped out. I spent the next few days digging through the dung piles to see if there was anyone who I could suffer through if they were selected to be the one to drive the machine for the next four to eight years. I never considered digging through the left dung pile because I figured why bother; there was nothing even close to resembling my philosophy.

So, I looked at the clowns that were left on the right, trying to find something that looked promising. Of the garbage that was left, there were most likely only four that had a chance of being anointed by the masters on the right. I thought I would see if any of those four might be secretly harboring even a shred of libertarian philosophy and reason . . . I was sadly disappointed. For starters, all four were complete lunatics and one was actually a liberal masquerading as a conservative.

Eliminating Trump was easy and quick. There just wasn't anything there that even came close to my world other than the fact I think he was only claiming to be religious to kiss up to the crazy religious nuts. But, his not being a real Christian would not be enough on its own to see him as a consolation of any kind. The remaining three were complete religious nut jobs, so I would need to find enough in one of them to see them as a viable choice. Cruz talked about wanting to do away with the IRS; this was promising, but who knows if this was just talk or if he would even be able to do so once elected. As for the remaining two, Rubio and Carson had nothing to offer that I could find. As well as being religiously insane, Rubio was a Nazi and Carson was an idiot.

There was always Gary Johnson, I thought, but what chance does a third party candidate really have? I pretty much decided there were no consolation prizes to be found. Then I decided to kick the dung pile to the left just for shits and giggles. Not expecting to find anything, a shiny turd came to the surface . . . it was Bernie Sanders. I know what you're thinking, “Are you crazy?” Well that's debatable and I, of course, would never rule that out, but there were some things I had not earlier considered.

First, Bernie is not a Democrat; he's an Independent. Just as Paul was not really a Republican, he was a libertarian, I liked that at least. Second, Bernie is an atheist. The thought that he did not have any invisible friends was a bonus not found in the dung pile on the right. Third, although he was a complete socialist, the reality is, he will most likely not be able to get most of his socialist agenda through Congress anyway. Fourth, he supports ending the Drug War; he, at least, understands that free people own themselves, even if he did not understand they also own their money as well. Fifth, he is not a warmonger or at least not as much of a warmonger as the lunatics in the right dung pile. And finally, since there is no chance of restoring the Republic, Sanders is the best chance we have for government demise, by it falling under its own weight. If that happens, we can start again and maybe, just maybe get back to our libertarian roots.

So, as of today, I, Mike Wasdin, am a Bernie Sanders supporter. I won't be sending him any money, nor will I vote for him, but I see him as a consolation prize in this shit sandwich known as “Dumbocracy” . . . feel the Bern!