Democrats Choice: A Stuttering Biden or An Intransigent Bernie?
Most Folks Don't Know that Biden has a Stuttering Handicap which is Why he doesn't do so Well in Debates & his 'Circumlocution' Remedy is Likely the Primary Cause of his Verbal Gaffes
Most Sanders Supporters Probably Haven't Taken a Look at Sanders' Record of Accomplishment which During his 29 Years in Congress is Comprised of his Leadership on Only Three Passed Senate Bills - Two of Which were Naming Post Offices
March 9, 2020 / NYC Neighborhoods / National Politics & Government / News Analysis & Opinion / Gotham Buzz NYC.
This past week, as we all watched the Democratic race for the presidency unfold, we witnessed a bit of history. Former Vice President Joe Biden's incredible comeback from what seemed like a campaign on life support, ended with him sweeping the south and decisively winning victories in most of the states up for grabs on Super Tuesday.
Biden's Coalition - The Moderates, The Working Class & The Realists
But like all victories, Biden didn't do it alone. Biden first received a boost via the endorsement of Congressman James Clyburn only days before the South Carolina primary. On Monday, Amy Klobuchar ended her campaign and endorsed Biden, followed shortly that same day by Pete Buttigieg, who had ended his campaign a day earlier. And Beto O'Rourke reappeared, to throw his support behind Biden in Texas.
As a result, Biden became the front runner, eclipsing Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders following Biden's electoral sweep on Super Tuesday.
One might say that this demonstrates the biggest difference between Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders. Joe has been able to bring many of his former challengers into his tent, while Bernie Sanders has not.
Don't get me wrong. I like Bernie Sanders. I think he has great integrity, he is a strong advocate for the working class, and he has clearly demonstrated that he has an admirable talent for running an organization during his two presidential bids.
But the difference between Sanders and Biden is that Sanders appears to be a purest ... an ideologue ... someone who does not compromise. And people who don't compromise can make great thought leaders, but they rarely - if ever - make great leaders.
Great Leaders Know How To Compromise & That's How They Get Things Done
Leaders need to make compromises in order to get things done. They generally don't get everything they want because vested interests will do everything in their power to thwart them when they try. So what real leaders do, is stake out the next evolution, by moving the ball a bit forward, hoping that someone else will pick it up at a later date and move it forward again.
- CLICK here to read the rest of our report on Joe Biden is a Stutterer & Bernie Sanders Legislative Record. The report includes: 1) a synopsis of an Atlantic report whereby a journalist who has a stutter followed Biden on the campaign trail and shared his insights with us, 2) a look at Sanders legislative record by another reporter writing in the Washington Post, and 3) a Case Study in leadership regarding moving the nation forward through compromise.
Democrats Choice: A Stuttering Biden or An Intransigent Bernie?
Most Folks Don't Know that Biden has a Stuttering Handicap which is Why he doesn't do so Well in Debates & his 'Circumlocution' Remedy is Likely the Primary Cause of his Verbal Gaffes
Most Sanders Supporters Probably Haven't Taken a Look at Sanders' Record of Accomplishment which During his 29 Years in Congress is Comprised of his Leadership on Only Three Passed Senate Bills - Two of Which were Naming Post Offices
March 9, 2020 / NYC Neighborhoods / National Politics & Government / News Analysis & Opinion / Gotham Buzz NYC. Continued.
Leadership & Slavery - A Case Study in Compromise
Rightly or wrongly our Founding Fathers did exactly this on the question of slavery. Slavery was a heinous institution that had taken root in the American colonies. At the time of the writing of our Constitution, the Founding Fathers could not get agreement on the U.S. Constitution if they had immediately banned slaves. So they kicked the ball forward saying the banning of the slave trade could only become law twenty years hence. President Thomas Jefferson signed legislation in 1807 that outlawed the importation of slaves beginning in 1808.
In 1865 President Lincoln signed the 13th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution outlawing slavery and involuntary servitude - except in the case of crimes. In 1877 the southern backlash began with the passing of Jim Crow laws, which segregated African Americans from the White population. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was Kennedy legislation passed by President Johnson ending the Jim Crow laws and the 1965 Voting Rights Act illegalized efforts designed to prevent minorities from voting.
The struggle of African Americans and other minorities from discrimination, hundreds of years later, is still ongoing. But incredible strides have been made, and in 2008, two hundred years after the banning of slave trading, we elected the first African American president.
Bernie Sanders Ideological Purity is Attractive - but the Reality of it Isn't
In all of the examples above, the presidents engaged in moving the ball forward, didn't try to do the impossible - completely right a great wrong - because single-handedly they couldn't. And they knew they couldn't. So what they did, is do their best to move society forward, to a better place. And in each case above, one can clearly see that they made some small measure of progress, which when summed up, resulted in great strides forward.
Bernie Sanders has spent most of his life as an independent - a lone wolf of a truth. Generally Bernie caucused with the Democrats, but not always, and sometimes he staked out a position not aligned with either party such as the Iraq War and in refusing to bail out the banks in 2008. Bernie became a Democrat when he began his candidacy for the presidency in 2015.
The two examples above, the Iraq War and the 2008 - 2009 banking crisis bail out, respectively show the upside and the downside of a Sanders nomination and presidency. The upside is that in the case of the Iraq War, it shows that in hindsight he was clearly right. The war with Iraq was spurred on by the drumbeat of Murdoch's propaganda machine on three continents, including Fox fake news, misinforming the electorate of imaginary Weapons of Mass Destruction allegedly held by Iraqi dictator Sadam Hussein.
But in the case of the financial bailout, while we can't be certain. It's likely the pain of a real crash - like in 1929 - would have significantly and negatively impacted the lives of a wide swath of the population, for a long time. In spite of it being a just punishment of the banks, there would likely have been significant 'collateral damage', the burden of which would have been shouldered by the middle and lower classes. By taking the pure ideological stance that Bernie did, it's unlikely he would have been able to coax banks to start lending again, to get the economy back up and running and the American people and others would have suffered.
True Leaders Need to Work with the 'Dominant Coalition'
In business school we were taught that in every organization there is a 'dominant coalition'. The dominant coalition is the power structure that decides what the organization is going to do and who is going to do it. Who is in that coalition changes, as circumstances change, and this is also true of American governance.
For better or worse, Bernie appears to stand outside of that group. Bernies independence is not just within the Democratic party, but also in the broader context of the entire power structure of the United States. The power structure includes Republicans, multi-national corporations, big businesses, billionaires, millionaires, cultural organizations, those who control mass media and so forth. If you can't coax them along on some issue, you're not likely to move it forward.
Bernie Sanders Coalition - Idealistic Youths, Those with Unrealistic Expectations & Those who Believe that 'Free' is Real
Bernie wins big with the youth between the ages of 18 - 29. I think the reason Sanders wins big with them is that they don't yet realize that just because you promise something, just because you believe in something, just because you work hard for something - doesn't mean you'll get it. Just look at the struggle President Obama encountered while trying to pass a modest effort to provide national healthcare which is now supported by two thirds of the electorate.
Free college, free healthcare, free, free, free are great promises - but not likely ones that can be kept. I suspect even if Bernie won the nomination, and won the general election, he wouldn't be successful in passing legislation because he does not appear to have big coattails and he doesn't seem to know how to compromise.
There's an old saying that goes something like this - "nothing is ever really free". And if you've lived long enough, you know that this statement is true beyond a reasonable doubt.
Bernie Sanders Legislative Track Record isn't Impressive
Bernie's track record of getting things done is not impressive. According to a March 3, 2020 OpEd piece in the Washington Post by author and historian Max Boot,
"...That helps to explain why in 29 years in Congress he [Bernie Sanders] has been the lead sponsor of only three bills that became law -- and two of those were to name post offices."
The reason Bernie doesn't get things done is that he doesn't have big coattails because he is an INDEPENDENT. Independents - by definition - stand alone. And as demonstrated above, it's nearly impossible to get anything done without others' help.
In the Washington Post commentary, Max Boot takes a pretty sharp view of Sanders' progressive policies and programs and leads with the headline "Bernie Sanders would be an awful president". The photo above shows the start of the column, which you can read by cutting and pasting this link - https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/03/02/bernie-sanderss-free-stuff-everyone-plan-would-bankrupt-america/
But That Said, Sanders Plays an Important Role in the House & Senate - that of the Gadfly
A Sanders campaign ad claimed he was the "amendment king" while a Congressman [1991 - 2007] because Sanders was able to get enough members of the House to support tweaking bills with amendments, while he was a Congressman. A March 24, 2016 PolitiFact report confirmed the claim with some qualifiers, such as only during those periods where the Republicans were in control of the House, because Sanders - who was an Independent - could reach across the aisle.
But leading on big legislation has largely eluded Bernie Sanders throughout his legislative career. Boot's characterization of Sanders' legislative record as noted above - playing lead on only three bills in the Senate, two of which were naming post offices - holds true. A March 12, 2016 Politico report says that Sanders,
" ... rarely forged actual legislation or left a significant imprint on it ..."
A March 14, 2016 report in the New York Times seems to agree, stating,
" ... Big legislation largely eludes Mr. Sanders because his ideas are usually far to the left of the majority of the Senate ... "
And an April 7, 2016 report in the Washington Post identifies the same flaw in Sanders ability to lead stating,
" ... During his time in the Senate, he [Sanders] had lower legislative effectiveness than the average senator, as measured by the number of sponsored bills that passed and successful amendments made ..."
And this seems to still be the case, as during the 2020 campaign, all but two presidential candidates, who have dropped out of the race and made an endorsement - have endorsed Joe Biden - not Sanders. Biden's endorsements include Amy Klobuchar, Pete Buttigieg, Beto O'Rourke, Mike Bloomberg, Andrew Yang, John Delaney, Duvall Patrick, Kamala Harris, and Cory Booker. Only Mayor Bill de Blasio and Marianne Williamson endorsed Sanders.
Biden has a long legislative track record with significant involvement in a number of significant pieces of legislation, as well as having spent two terms as Vice President during the Obama Administration. We'll have more on this at a later date.
Poll Watching: Bernie Sanders Real Chances of Defeating Trump
Bernie's short coattails, is proven by the significant losses Sanders suffered in the south, and by the fact that so many of the other Democratic contenders endorsed Biden.
I routinely check the Five Thirty Eight and Real Clear Politics Poll of polls and Trump's approval rating went up as Sanders became the Democratic front runner.
Trump's approval rating began to fall as Biden stepped back into the limelight with his big South Carolina and Super Tuesday wins, but the uptick in his disapproval may also reflect what appears to be the Trump Administration's mishandling of the Corona Virus..
Biden's Handicap - He's a Stutterer - Not an Idiot
Too little has been made of former Vice President's handicap - that he's a stutterer. That's why he doesn't perform well on the debate stage and it's why he regularly says things that don't come out quite right.
The Main Stream Media [aka Network TV], seem to fail the American electorate, as at best, they have minimally reported that Biden has a stuttering handicap. This seems important in that this handicap seems to go a long way in explaining why Biden makes these gaffes / verbal mistakes pretty much all of his public life.
As I've mentioned in other reports, the more attentively I watch Network TV news, the more I see how badly the TV networks fail the American electorate, in even doing a minimalist job of informing the public. If you 'The People' want to know what's going on, you have to take to the internet in search of answers, where you'll find ample reliable sources and perspectives.
Unfortunately, so many of the knuckleheads on network TV news - not only seem to fail in providing any kind of insightful report of the daily news - but often enough some don't even seem to understand the underlying shifts occurring in the news background themselves. And this problem is further exacerbated by the propagandists on Fox Fake News, who seem intent on manipulating a large segment of the population - a segment that seems disinclined to hear any facts that may not jibe with what they appear to want to believe.
In the January / February edition of the Atlantic, John Hendrickson, a writer with his own stuttering handicap, wrote an interesting piece observing how Biden manages his stutter in speeches, andwhile interacting with voters on the campaign trail.
As a stutterer himself, Hendrickson displays keen insight into how former VP Biden manages his stutter informing us that,
" ... trying to keep it [the stutter] at bay can take immense mental and physical energy ... in addition to stuttering or blocking on certain sounds, he [Biden] appears to intentionally not stutter by switching to an alternative word - a technique called 'circumlocution' - which can yield mangled syntax ... "
This week I watched as comedian Steven Colbert mocked the former Vice President when Biden referred to Chris [Wallace on Fox] as Chuck [Todd of NBC], as well as highlighting another Biden flub. Jimmy Kimmel and Seth Meyers also highlighted Biden miscues. They may not yet be aware of Biden's handicap, as Sarah Suckabee Handers had also mocked the former VP, prior to learning via Biden's Twitter that he has the stuttering handicap. There's no doubt that Biden's stuttering handicap increases the probability of Biden's verbal flubs.
In the Atlantic story Hendrickson tells us that when he queried the former Vice President on his handicap, Biden responded as follows,
"If you ask the polls does Joe Biden stutter ... you would have 80 - 95% of the people say no ..."
The Atlantic story by Hendrickson on Joe Biden and his stutter is an interesting one, which you can find by cutting and pasting this link.
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/01/joe-biden-stutter-profile/602401/
Trump's Handicap - He is NOT a Stutterer - But He is an ...
Perhaps it's better for people to know that Joe Biden's a decent man, with a strong legislative record and a stuttering handicap, rather than to let people unfairly mock him for his verbal miscues and think him an idiot.
This stands in stark contrast with the current occupant of the White House who talks a mile a minute, and who seems entirely the opposite of how I've described Joe Biden above.
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