2020 starts already – Sanders does Chicago in campaigning for president

Bernie Sanders, the Congressman from Vermont who stirred the imaginations of certain people of the Democratic Party persuasion when he ran for president in 2016, kicked off his active campaigning for the party’s nomination in the 2020 election cycle.

SANDERS: Will it ever be Bernie's turn?

And in realizing that Chicago is a significant part of the process for any legitimate Democrat, he’s already been here – making an appearance Sunday night at Navy Pier hoping to stir up the passions of potential voters to take him more seriously than the other dozen-or-so people who have dreams of winning the White House.

ALTHOUGH IN MOST cases, it seems that what really motivates them is being able to have history record their names as the person who “took down” the presidency of Donald Trump.

Too many people are gambling on the fact that the majority that despises the notion of Trump will eagerly accept them as the replacement.

Creating the potential for infighting amongst Democrats that could very well put The Donald (or someone of his ilk, if all the rumors of Trump being willing to resign if he can avoid criminal prosecution are true) right back in the White House.

While I personally despise such a thought and see an overwhelming majority of people who’d like to Dump Trump, I can also see how political chaos could result in Democrats shooting down their own desires.

Do we want Hoosier (Buttigieg) or … 

I’M ALSO PONDERING the large number of Democrats who seem to think everybody else will get out of their way to let them be the one who takes on Trump.

It has far too much potential to create confusion that could cause many people to decide “the heck with it” and find something else to do on the Elections Day of 2020.

Think I’m kidding? Just look at the large number of candidates (14, who actually managed to make it on the ballot) for our recently-completed mayoral election.

We’re down to two now for the April 2 run-off, but there literally were 67 percent of people who cast votes who didn’t want either of the candidates who prevailed. Plus, there were 66 percent of registered voters who didn’t even bother to cast ballots.

… a Tejano (Castro) as nominee?

WHY DO I fear this could be the end result of the 2020 election cycle? A whole lot of people ultimately disappointed because they couldn’t get their act together and decide on a candidate most strong to defeat the Trumpster!

Particularly if it turns out that Sanders, who began his campaigning Saturday in his birthplace neighborhood in Brooklyn, then came to Chicago the next day to try to sway over our voter support, insists he thinks he’s entitled to the nomination.

Out of the belief that he put in his time in 2016, and it’s now his turn! When the reality may well be that 2016 was his turn and he lost to Hillary. Now maybe he should move aside and let more credible candidates make their pitch for voter support.

Now for those people who are thinking that it was establishment Democrats who somehow cheated Bernie of their support, I’d argue it was absurd to think they’d ever back someone who throughout his time in Congress has insisted on using the “Independent” label. Why should Dems be eager to back someone who doesn’t really want to be a part of the political party?

IF ANYTHING, I’D say the fact that Trump was able to so thoroughly undermine the Republican establishment in 2016 is more pathetic than anything that happened to the Hillary/Bernie brawl of that same year.

TRUMP: Could it be 'four more years'

It will be interesting the degree to which people want to re-fight the Bernie Sanders brawl of three years ago. Will they have a desire to move forward? Or get bogged down in the trash-talk that ultimately gave us “President Trump.”

Personally, I’m not sure who to think of supporting. The notion of the South Bend, Ind., mayor, Pete Buttigieg, and his revival of that city has some interest to me – although I also wonder if a mayor is just too low-ranking on the political experience totem pole to take seriously. Why not offer up Gary, Ind., mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson if we're looking for a Hoosier mayor? There’s also former San Antonio, Texas, mayor (and former HUD secretary Julian Castro); whose presence would probably most offend those Trumpites most motivated by their ethnic hang-ups.

Anyway, the process of “making up our mind” begins now. We’re going to have to figure out who we want and what is most important to us. Because if we don’t, it could easily be “four more years” of Donald Trump.

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Political spin can rival a roller-coaster when it comes to making one ill

I couldn’t help but be amused by Bernie Sanders, whose presidential campaign put out a statement regarding his Sunday campaign rally at Ohio State University.

Putting his own spin on Trump dealings

“Boisterous, but peaceful,” was the way the Sanders people described the crowd of 7,500 who gathered to “feel the Bern,” so to speak. Also meant as a direct contrast to the crowds of nincompoops who have felt compelled to be at Republican Donald Trump’s campaign rallies.

ONE DAY AFTER the event that Trump wants to describe as Chicago “thugs” getting out of hand at the University of Illinois at Chicago, someone tried to rush the stage at an event in Dayton, Ohio.

That led to a public decision to cancel the event meant for Sunday in Cincinnati. Although it appears that the event wound up taking place anyway, the security was stepped up to the point where Trump was physically surrounded by local police and the Secret Service detail that has been assigned to his campaign.

Trump, it seems, already wants to behave as though he’s the head of a police state prepared to flex its muscle at anyone who dares to speak out against The Donald!

Trump, meanwhile, is keeping up the cheap talk about how the need for this overkill in security is because of the people being instigated by Bernie Sanders himself.

FOR IT SEEMS that Trump is one of those people who just can’t function in life if he isn’t the perpetual victim – some “meanie” is constantly out to get him. He’s being picked on so much that it’s the very fault of the people Trump singles out for abuse that he criticizes them.

And if by chance, Trump’s critics respond in kind – he claims HE’S the one being hurt!!!

Who has bigger victim complex; Donald ...

Bernie Sanders’ campaign appearance Sunday had its touch of self-serving silliness – what with contrasting how well behaved his crowd was compared to the Trump crowd.

But Trump’s victim complex is becoming so overbearing as to the point of being ridiculous. To the point where it is a miracle anyone can take seriously his presidential aspirations. And we have to seriously question the mental competence of anyone willing to publicly say they’d vote for the man.

... or Charley Hustle?

WHICH IS WHY it may be all too appropriate that Trump on Sunday got the endorsement of Pete Rose – the one-time Cincinnati Reds hitter and manager who himself has a victim complex at work. It would be like if Sammy Sosa of the Chicago Cubs were to give a presidential candidate his political blessing

Rose is determined to believe he’s wrongly being denied his place in baseball’s Hall of Fame just as I’m sure Trump will take his eventual electoral loss as evidence of what is allegedly wrong with our society.

Even though I’d argue it will be the moment of clarity in a campaign cycle that has exposed just how delusional some of us in our society can be.

It also is the moment when the campaign cycle that resembles an amusement park roller-coaster ride will come to an end, and we’ll all feel a bit queasy at the memory of what we will endure in coming months.

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EXTRA: Bernie ignores Rahm while doing Chi with batch of out-of-towners

Usually, somebody wishing to become president who passes through Chicago makes a point of seeking the mayor’s backing – or at least not his indifference.

SANDERS: Taking tourist approach to politics

Yet Bernie Sanders, the senator from Vermont who is taking on Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination, made his Chicago campaign appearance at a point in time when Rahm Emanuel isn’t even in the country.

AND IN FACT is going out of his way to include an event Wednesday with Emanuel’s mayoral challenger – Jesus Garcia, the Cook County commissioner whom Rahm beat up on in this year’s election cycle.

It’s not like Garcia could be in the running for interim mayor if Emanuel were to depart (only the aldermen can be considered for that post), but I’m sure the images to result of Sanders with Jesus will stir up the resentment of those who wanted to Dump Rahm back in April.

Then with Sanders being sure to speak later in the day about the law enforcement issue that Emanuel gets hit with at every possible occasion. Bernie is bound to use Chicago to score points for himself at Rahm’s expense!

I find it interesting to see the crew of characters who will appear in Chicago with Sanders – including Ben Cohen of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream brands to go along with assorted activist-types, none of whom are from Chicago and reinforcing the image that all the Rahm-trashing comes from out-of-towners!

I’M SURE THAT for some people, the chance to be associated with free ice cream will be enough to sway them. Although I’d have to wonder if that were the goal, why couldn’t Sanders have enough sense to associate himself with a Chicago-based ice cream maker?

There are, after all, many besides those ice creams made by Republican political dreamer James Oberweis (then again, maybe GOP dreamer Oberweis and Dem fantasizer Sanders is a perfect pair).

The original Gayety's, destroyed by a 1980s fire, remains in spirit, which Sanders could have played off of

I’d recommend Bernie consider throwing some attention to Gayety’s chocolates and ice cream – which has been in business nearly a century beginning in the South Chicago neighborhood and now based out of suburban Lansing. (And yes, I have childhood memories of being able to convince my father to stop at that old Commercial Avenue storefront whenever we’d visit grandma, who lived nearby).

Heck, if Bernie had given this stunt that much local thought, I’d probably be willing to be swayed to actually consider casting a ballot for him come the March 15 primary.

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