Now that Bernie's presidential campaign is over, a few thoughts...

[AZ Progressive]

or admissions...

As someone who followed Bernie for years on the Thom Hartmann show, I never thought of Bernie as presidential material.

I envisioned Bernie as leader of the progressive movement, much like a civil rights leader. Someone that influences from the outside. I didn't think Bernie would be good for president, but I felt like if enough people supported him, he might be able to do significant change, plus he was by far the best candidate for this election cycle.

However, as much as I wanted to deny the realities, I have to face them in the end:

1. Bernie's agenda would lose it's priority once a terrorist attack happens. People care more about being secure than economic inequality. Not only that, but Bernie's not good in playing the tough leader role.

2. TPTB are simply too strong, keeping to one's integrity is a nice ideal but is a major weakness in the real world when dealing with an army of scheming, conniving people with power. They would've at the least branded him a communist and use his past against him. At most, they would've "neutralized" him.

3. The working class was divided long ago by the Republican Party. The Democratic Party can't be the party of the working class anymore. Much of those working class Democrats fled to the Republican Party because of racism and the Democrats abandoning them on cultural issues. Democrats adapted by becoming the urban party, a party of minorities and affluent urban liberals. Just look at the exit polls from 2008, 62% of the voting electorate was from households making $50,000+, the Working class (as defined with a household income of between $30,000 to $50,000) was just 19%, and even if combined with the poor (about 38% total), many of those are whites who vote Republican and are racist. 53% of voters were women, 25% of voters were not white, 56% had a college degree (compared to 40% of adults). Even in the Democratic Party Primaries this year, in the Illinois CNN Exit poll, 53% were college graduates, 62% were from households of over $50,000 a year (28% were from households of over $100,000 a year.) Even in Michigan, about 55% were from households of over $50,000 a year, 46% had college degrees. The unemployment rate for college graduates is just 2.5% as of June 2016. It's a much different time than 60 to 80 years ago.