Hi Edward,

Thanks for your response to my response. Shall we make this like a Faberge egg response-to-a-response-to-a-response? Ha ha, I’m just being silly, forgive me.

Anyway, here’s where I think your comment about Sanders being an Independent misses the mark. Yes, he IS an independent (and that’s one reason I, and I’d venture, many people respect him).

However, the way the two parties have arranged the System in place to become president, there really is no way (at least for now) for someone outside the two-party system who is not also super-duper rich, a la Ross Perot in 1992, to get the sort of traction and support needed to become president.

Now, again, maybe someday, maybe even soon, someone will prove that wrong, but I don’t see it as being possible now. After all, I can recall when someone who had many of the same ideas Bernie is running on now running in 2000 named Ralph Nader, also a man who had a long history in the limelight as a man of integrity challenging the greed and corruption of our corporate/political Establishment, who got, what…like 1 percent of the vote?

And what did he get for all that? Well, blame for the loss to George W Bush, that’s what! In reality, just like in 2016, there was plenty of blame to go around, but that election was, in some ways, a precursor to 2016 (and I bet 2020) in that the Establishment Dems (and their cohorts in the mainstream media) blamed everything and anyone besides themselves for losing to George W. Bush. Heck, they might have even blamed me, even though I was just a late 20s alt-weekly journalist that fall who had quit my job working for that publication in late September to follow rock bands around the country and forget about the debacle I was seeing the U.S. political and media system becoming way back then.

Anyway, that paragraph went off the rails a bit; have to forgive me, I’m listening to that same band that I followed — Phish — from their recent show in Mexico where they are singing about believing in miracles and, well, yes, I see 2020 as a year where such miracles may actually occur, especially after the way Bernie even surprised me with his blowout win in Nevada.

But time will tell, eh? As I tell my less politically involved/interested friends here in Japan, as well as my Japanese wife when she has the patience to listen to me blabber, there is a looooong way to go and many shenanigans that can still occur or … maybe it’ll be all but over in two weeks after Super Tuesday?

I’m full on ready to admit I’ve no idea where it’s all going this year but it’s sure interesting to watch, right?

Okay, man, keep writing. I may not agree with it, but I always appreciate people with different perspectives and promise my answers will be respectful and address the issues you raised without being a jerk about it.

Peace,

Bryan