Progressive Perspectives on Big Tuesday and Beyond

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Six states held presidential primary contests today, with Michigan the big prize for Democratic candidates in terms of the number of delegates to be won.

As the results of Big Tuesday continue to come in, here is a compilation of progressive views and analysis on the Democratic presidential race, one currently dominated by two front-runners, Sen. Bernie Sanders and former vice-president Joe Biden.

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[In] the Democratic primary, only two [viable] candidates remain in the race. Joe Biden opposes Medicare for All and College for All, is financed by the healthcare industry and union-busting law firms, authored the infamous 1994 Crime Bill, and has repeatedly supported trade deals that depress wages and move jobs overseas. Biden's policies protect the interests of political and economic elites at the expense of working-class people. In contrast, Sanders' campaign has centered on universal public-goods programs and his funding has come from millions of low-dollar donors. Sanders' campaign is founded on representing the working class in all its diversity. So yes, it's true that both are old white men. But the difference between them couldn't be more stark.

– Carly Regina
Excerpted from “Not Just 'Two Old White Men,'
This Democratic Primary Is Now a Serious Fight
Between Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders”
Common Dreams
March 9, 2020

The field for Democrats has significantly narrowed over the past month, going from almost two dozen candidates in the beginning of the race to just three: former Vice President Joe Biden, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and a name that has, at times, been left out: Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard.

Gabbard, despite failing to come in first place in any presidential primary in the country, has stressed she’s staying in the race. She is facing an uphill battle to get to the 1,991 delegates needed to secure a nomination for the first Democratic convention ballot.

When asked by ABC News why she's continuing her bid, Gabbard said this campaign is “an opportunity to speak to Americans every single day about the sea change we need in our foreign policy.”

On the campaign trail she has talked at length about the cost of war, also noting the physical and financial toll of war.

“In Afghanistan right now, we're spending $4 billion of your taxpayer dollars every month,” Gabbard said. “This money could be used here.”

– Beatrice Peterson
Excerpted from “Why Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard
Is Continuing Her Bid for President”
ABC News
March 7, 2020

Biden is leading Sanders by just under 100 delegates – 670 to 574 – heading into Tuesday's primaries in Idaho, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, and Washington. A total of 365 pledged delegates are up for grabs Tuesday, and 1,991 delegates are needed to secure the nomination on the first ballot.

“Bernie Sanders is the safe choice,” pro-Sanders group People for Bernie tweeted Tuesday. “Today is the day to #VoteForBernie.”

Jeet Heer, national affairs correspondent for The Nation, argued in a column Monday that nominating Biden is a risk not only because of his potential vulnerabilities in a general election matchup with Trump, but also because of how the former vice president has promised to govern should he win the presidency.

“Given already low interest rates, a stalling global economy, and the need for new infrastructure (both for its own sake and also to prepare for climate change), this is the ideal time for a president who isn't afraid to argue for big structural changes and to go full Keynesian,” Heer wrote. “But that's exactly the president that Joe Biden would not be. He's running to be a business-as-usual president. Given the real problems facing the world, that's a dangerous risk.”

– WJ Astore
Excerpted from “Progressives Sound Alarm to Democrats:
Biden Is Not the 'Safe' Candidate Against Trump”
Common Dreams
March 10, 2020

Just when you thought this political year couldn’t get any weirder, along comes the entire Democratic Party establishment rushing en masse to the cliff’s edge, hurling themselves head-first into the presidential contest. What has spurred this gaggle of political operatives, fat cat donors, and former presidential hopefuls is a collective impulse to unite behind the very worst candidate the party could possibly put up against Donald Trump in November’s election: Joe Biden.

While practically everyone in the political swirl admits privately that Joe’s pretty slow, awfully corporate, and practically bent over double with a bag full of very bad political positions he’s taken during his decades-long career as a Washington insider – his establishment cohorts are now resurrecting his dormant campaign by ecstatically proclaiming that he’s a “winner.”

. . . A “winner”? How enthusiastic will seniors, low-income families, and others be when they realize Biden has spent 30 years (including during his vice presidency) trying to cut spending for the people’s crucial safety net, declaring: “I meant Social Security as well; I meant Medicare and Medicaid; I meant veterans’ benefits… I tried it once… twice… a third time… a fourth time.”

Also, how excited will young voters be to find that kindly old Joe has constantly backed efforts by big bankers to make it harder for students to get out from under their price-gouging loan payments? And how thrilled will hard-hit manufacturing workers be that Biden has been a constant cheerleader for NAFTA and other job-killing, wage-busting trade scams?

At a time when big majorities are clearly sick and tired of business-as-usual politics and are demanding bold policies for grassroots progress, why would Democrats put up the poster boy of corporate-purchased, inside-the-beltway, status-quo-ism? Not only would Biden be uniquely vulnerable to Trump this fall, but he’ll also lose the political future for Democrats by turning off voter turn-out – especially among young people and others who feel abandoned by the establishment.

Cynically, the Democratic Party’s moneyed and political elites have rushed to hug-up Joe Biden, not because he’s the best the party’s got, but because of what he’s not: He’s not Sen. Bernie Sanders. . . . [Yet] what if the people had a candidate in November who was not controlled by big campaign donors, who has the authenticity to stand unequivocally for what he believes in, and who will fight the corporate powers – as Franklin Roosevelt once put it – “to restore America to its own people”? It could be a landslide for progress.

– Jim Hightower
Excerpted from “How Weird Is the
Democratic Party Establishment?”
Medium
March 9, 2020

Biden has never done well running for president – until these last eight days, when victory in South Carolina led the Democratic National Committee (DNC) to go “all-in” on him. Mayor Pete and Amy Klobuchar conveniently dropped out of the race and endorsed Biden (no collusion here, people!), and other prominent democrats quickly followed suit in singing Biden’s praises. Rumor has it Barack Obama was involved behind the scenes, making phone calls, twisting arms, getting the corporate tools to line up behind his former vice president (not that they needed much convincing).

In a way, it worked too well. Biden vaulted ahead on Super Tuesday and is now the front runner and presumptive nominee. The DNC, and Daddy Warbucks Mike Bloomberg, are pledging undying love and lots of money. Even Kamala Harris, the little girl who was so, so hurt by Biden’s opposition to school integration, is now a big Biden booster. What happened?

The answer is obvious. A cold, cynical, corporate DNC decided Biden was the best man to stop Bernie Sanders. Stopping Bernie and stomping on the progressive base of the Democratic Party is the paramount goal of the DNC. And they are likely to achieve this goal.

What the DNC doesn’t really care about is defeating Donald Trump. Good thing too, since Joe Biden can’t do that, and the DNC knows it. Assuming he’s the nominee, Biden is going to be humiliated in the general election. His weaknesses, which are legion, play to Trump’s strengths.

– WJ Astore
Excerpted from “The Cold, Cynical, Corporate DNC”
LA Progressive
March 8, 2020

It's ironic that black folk will provide cover for the moderate/conservative wing of the Democratic Party. The very folk who use triangulation to pass Welfare Reform, to pass the Crime Bill. The very folk that whenever the general election comes they bank right and take black folk for granted.

I don't give a damn if Joe Biden knows us. I want to know what the policies are. I don't want empathy. I don't want folk hugging me. I want policy, policy, policy.

– Eddie Glaude
From an interview on All In with Chris Hayes
MSNBC
March 9, 2020

There is only one choice in this election. The consolidation of oligarchic power under Donald Trump or the consolidation of oligarchic power under Joe Biden. The oligarchs, with Trump or Biden, will win again. We will lose. The oligarchs made it abundantly clear, should Bernie Sanders miraculously become the Democratic Party nominee, they would join forces with the Republicans to crush him. Trump would, if Sanders was the nominee, instantly be shorn by the Democratic Party elites of his demons and his propensity for tyranny. Sanders would be red-baited – as he was viciously Friday in The New York Times’ “As Bernie Sanders Pushed for Closer Ties, Soviet Union Spotted Opportunity” – and turned into a figure of derision and ridicule. The oligarchs preach the sermon of the least-worst to us when they attempt to ram a Hillary Clinton or a Biden down our throats but ignore it for themselves. They prefer Biden over Trump, but they can live with either.

Only one thing matters to the oligarchs. It is not democracy. It is not truth. It is not the consent of the governed. It is not income inequality. It is not the surveillance state. It is not endless war. It is not jobs. It is not the climate. It is the primacy of corporate power – which has extinguished our democracy and left most of the working class in misery – and the continued increase and consolidation of their wealth. It is impossible working within the system to shatter the hegemony of oligarchic power or institute meaningful reform. Change, real change, will only come by sustained acts of civil disobedience and mass mobilization, as with the yellow vests movement in France and the British-based Extinction Rebellion. The longer we are fooled by the electoral burlesque, the more disempowered we will become.

. . . Sanders apparently believed that if he was obsequious enough to the Democratic Party elite, they would give him a chance in 2020, a chance they denied him in 2016. Politics, I suspect he would argue, is about compromise and the practical. This is true. But playing politics in a system that is not democratic is about being complicit in the charade. Sanders misread the Democratic Party leadership, swamp creatures of the corporate state. He misread the Democratic Party, which is a corporate mirage. Its base can, at best, select pre-approved candidates and act as props at rallies and in choreographed party conventions. The Democratic Party voters have zero influence on party politics or party policies. Sanders’ naivete, and perhaps his lack of political courage, drove away his most committed young supporters. These followers have not forgiven him for his betrayal. They chose not to turn out to vote in the numbers he needs in the primaries. They are right. He is wrong. We need to overthrow the system, not placate it.

Sanders is wounded. The oligarchs will go in for the kill. They will subject him to the same character assassination, aided by the courtiers in the corporate press, that was directed at Henry Wallace in 1948 and George McGovern in 1972, the only two progressive presidential candidates who managed to seriously threaten the ruling elites since Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The feckless liberal class, easily frightened, is already abandoning Sanders, castigating his supporters with their nauseating self-righteousness and championing Biden as a political savior.

Trump and Biden are repugnant figures, doddering into old age with cognitive lapses and no moral cores. Is Trump more dangerous than Biden? Yes. Is Trump more inept and more dishonest? Yes. Is Trump more of a threat to the open society? Yes. Is Biden the solution? No.

Biden represents the old neoliberal order. He personifies the betrayal by the Democratic Party of working men and women that sparked the deep hatred of the ruling elites across the political spectrum. He is a gift to a demagogue and con artist like Trump, who at least understands that these elites are detested. Biden cannot plausibly offer change. He can only offer more of the same. And most Americans do not want more of the same. The country’s largest voting-age bloc, the 100 million-plus citizens who out of apathy or disgust do not vote, will once again stay home. This demoralization of the electorate is by design. It will, I expect, give Trump another term in office.

– Chris Hedges
Excerpted from “The One-Choice Election”
TruthDig
March 9, 2020

Let it be said at once: the treatment received by Bernie Sanders in the leading media in the United States and in Europe is unjust and dangerous. Everywhere on the main networks and the large daily papers we read that Sanders is an “extremist” and that only a “centrist” candidate like Biden could triumph over Trump. This biased and somewhat unscrupulous treatment is particularly regrettable when a closer examination of the facts actually suggests that only a full-scale reorientation of the type proposed by Sanders would eventually rid American democracy of the inegalitarian practices which undermine it and deal with the electoral disaffection of the working classes.

. . . [T]his electoral alienation of the American working classes is so long-standing that it will certainly not be reversed in one day. But what else can we do to deal with it than to undertake a far-reaching re-orientation of the election programme of the Democratic Party and to discuss these ideas openly in national campaigns? The cynical, and unfortunately very commonplace vision amongst the Democratic elites, that nothing can be done to mobilise further the working-class vote, is extremely dangerous. In the last resort, this cynicism weakens the legitimacy of the democratic electoral system itself.

– Thomas Piketty
Excerpted from “Sanders to the Aid of Democracy in the United States”
Le Blog de Thomas Piketty
March 10, 2020

As a Christian whose imagination is fed by prophetic/messianic this worldly eschatology, I’ll make no deals with centrist “realism” until there are no other options on the table. For me, to make any easy peace with Joe Biden right now is to agree that the doors to God’s kin-dom (genuine this worldly societal transformation in the direction of justice) can be closed and locked for the remainder of this election cycle (and likely the next four years) … since I’m (mostly) on the inside of those doors. But I can’t get the powerful refrain from Rev. Michael Cobbler’s sermon at Anita Hill’s ordination out of my head. (Anita was ordained to ministry in 2001 in defiance of ELCA policy, which, in good “centrist” fashion, affirmed her worth in the eyes of God, but found her unfit for ministry because she was in a covenanted relationship with another woman.) On that day Cobbler’s booming voice reminded us again and again, “And there are others who are knocking at the door … and there is room for more!” Sanders’ campaign says the same.

Heck, I’ll even toss my religious faith to the side and say that simply as a human being with a visceral longing for justice that includes not just my tribe but all persons (and the rest of the natural world as well — we are one Earth community), it would feel like a betrayal of both conscience and creation to say right now in early March, “I’m good with Joe, let’s just unite behind his tepid vision for a return to what wasn’t really working very well back then anyway.” No, even apart from my faith-driven “lofty idealism,” this chapter of the political season is surely about exercising our imaginations vigorously for the type of world we want. It is far too soon to be ushered by pundits (or by friends) toward settling for the type of the world our keepers prefer to offer. Not yet. Not me. Us.

– David Weiss
Excerpted from “Eschatology and Solidarity:
On Still Feeling the Bern”
Full Frontal Faith
March 9, 2020

NEXT: “Let Us All Unite!”

Related Off-site Links:
Boomers! Time to Get the Bob Dylan Records Out and Remember What Being Passionate About Real Change Felt Like – Danbert Nobacon (The Bern Report, March 8, 2020).
Will Big Money Defeat Bernie Sanders? – An Interview with Thomas Ferguson – Paul Heideman (Jacobin, February 19, 2020).
Older People Who Feel Unsafe Seek the Familiar. That's Why They're Flocking to Biden – Robert Reich (The Guardian, March 8, 2020).
The Dangers of Playing It Safe With Joe Biden – Jeet Heer (The Nation, March 9, 2020).
Elite Political Journalists Are Eager to Kick Bernie Sanders on His Way Out the Door – Dan Froomkin (Press Watch, March 10, 2020).


UPDATES: Biden Takes Command of Race, Winning Four States Including Michigan – Alexander Burns and Jonathan Martin(The New York Times, March 11, 2020).
With Big Wins for Biden and Sanders on the Ropes, “A Very Dangerous Moment for the Democratic Party” – Jon Queally (Common Dreams, March 11, 2020).
The Democratic Party Surrenders to Nostalgia – Bill Blum (TruthDig, March 11, 2020).
Biden's Primary Success is Undeniable — and Ridiculous – Matthew Walther (The Week, March 11, 2020).
Joe Biden Is a Single-issue Candidate – Bonnie Kristian (The Week, March 11, 2020).
Bernie Sanders Vows to Challenge Joe Biden on Key Issues at Debate After Rejecting Calls to Drop Out – Igor Derysh (Salon, March 11, 2020).
Bernie Not Going Anywhere Until He Has the Chance to Ask Biden Some Vital Questions – and Get Some Serious Answers – on Key Issues – Julia Conley (Common Dreams, March 11, 2020).
The Democratic Primary Isn't Over, and Neither is Bernie Sanders' Candidacy – Bill de Blasio (NBC News, March 11, 2020).
“In a Dark Time, the Eye Begins to See”: The 2020 Bernie Campaign Represents a Fight That Must Continue – Norman Solomon (Common Dreams, March 11, 2020).
Biden Overwhelms Sanders With Florida, Illinois, and Arizona Victories – Kevin Robillard (The Huffington Post, March 17, 2020).
Bernie Sanders Reassessing, But Not Suspending, Campaign After Recent Primary Losses – Rebecca Morin (USA Today, March 18, 2020).
Biden Is Winning, But Sanders’s Ideas May End Up Salvaging the Country – William Rivers Pitt (TruthOut, March 18, 2020).
Tulsi Gabbard Ends 2020 Presidential Bid and Endorses Joe Biden – Emily Larsen (Washington Examiner, March 19, 2020).
A Biden-Trump Election Is a Win-Win for Wall Street and a Loss for Our Democracy – Kenneth Peres (Common Dreams, March 18, 2020).


See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Marianne Williamson on the Contest Being Played Out by Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders
• Something to Think About – March 5, 2020
• Bernie Sanders’ “Revolution” is Ultimately One of Values – the Values of Justice, Hope, and Love
• Thoughts on the “Sanders Surge”
• The Case for Bernie Sanders
• Quote of the Day – September 7, 2017
• Quote of the Day – January 21, 2017
• Quote of the Day – November 9, 2016
• Progressive Perspectives on the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election
• Progressive Perspectives on the Election of Donald Trump
• Carrying It On
• Hope, History, and Bernie Sanders

For more coverage at The Wild Reed of the 2020 U.S. presidential election, see:
• Thoughts on the Eve of the Iowa Caucuses
• Quote of the Day – February 9, 2020
• A Thank You Letter to Marianne Williamson
• “A Beautiful Message, So Full of Greatness”
• Progressive Perspectives on Joe Biden's Presidential Run
• Beto, Biden and Buttigieg: “Empty Suits and Poll-Tested Brands”
• Pete Buttigieg, White Privilege, and Identity Politics
• Quote of the Day – October 19, 2019
• Quote(s) of the Day – February 26, 2019

Image: Michael Zamora/NPR.

An Infectious Disease Specialist Weighs-in on Covid-19

The following was written and posted on Facebook by Abdu Sharkawy, MD, of the University Health Network. I find it to be a very measured and helpful response to the current global spread of Covid-19 (also known as the coronavirus).

I'm a doctor and an Infectious Diseases Specialist. I've been at this for more than 20 years, seeing sick patients on a daily basis. I have worked in inner city hospitals and in the poorest slums of Africa. HIV-AIDS, hepatitis, TB, SARS, measles, shingles, whooping cough, diphtheria . . . there is little I haven't been exposed to in my profession. And with notable exception of SARS, very little has left me feeling vulnerable, overwhelmed or downright scared.

I am not scared of Covid-19. I am concerned about the implications of a novel infectious agent that has spread the world over and continues to find new footholds in different soil. I am rightly concerned for the welfare of those who are elderly, in frail health or disenfranchised who stand to suffer mostly, and disproportionately, at the hands of this new scourge. But I am not scared of Covid-19.

What I am scared about is the loss of reason and wave of fear that has induced the masses of society into a spellbinding spiral of panic, stockpiling obscene quantities of anything that could fill a bomb shelter adequately in a post-apocalyptic world. I am scared of the N95 masks that are stolen from hospitals and urgent care clinics where they are actually needed for front line healthcare providers and instead are being donned in airports, malls, and coffee lounges, perpetuating even more fear and suspicion of others. I am scared that our hospitals will be overwhelmed with anyone who thinks they “probably don't have it but may as well get checked out no matter what because you just never know . . .” and those with heart failure, emphysema, pneumonia and strokes will pay the price for overfilled ER waiting rooms with only so many doctors and nurses to assess.

I am scared that travel restrictions will become so far reaching that weddings will be canceled, graduations missed, and family reunions will not materialize. And well, even that big party called the Olympic Games . . . that could be kyboshed too. Can you even imagine?

I'm scared those same epidemic fears will limit trade, harm partnerships in multiple sectors, business and otherwise, and ultimately culminate in a global recession.

But mostly, I'm scared about what message we are telling our kids when faced with a threat. Instead of reason, rationality, open-mindedness and altruism, we are telling them to panic, be fearful, suspicious, reactionary and self-interested.

Covid-19 is nowhere near over. It will be coming to a city, a hospital, a friend, even a family member near you at some point. Expect it. Stop waiting to be surprised further. The fact is the virus itself will not likely do much harm when it arrives. But our own behaviors and "fight for yourself above all else" attitude could prove disastrous.

I implore you all. Temper fear with reason, panic with patience, and uncertainty with education. We have an opportunity to learn a great deal about health hygiene and limiting the spread of innumerable transmissible diseases in our society. Let's meet this challenge together in the best spirit of compassion for others, patience, and above all, an unfailing effort to seek truth, facts and knowledge as opposed to conjecture, speculation and catastrophizing.

Facts not fear. Clean hands. Open hearts. Our children will thank us for it.

– Abdu Sharkawy
via Facebook
March 5, 2020

Related Off-site Links and Updates:
Doctor's Facebook Post Attacking 'Wave of Fear' Over Coronavirus Goes Viral – Ross McGuinness (Yahoo! News, March 9, 2020).
Coronavirus: Infectious Disease Doctor Warns Against Mass Panic and Stockpiling – Aol.co.uk (March 7, 2020).
Coronavirus Symptoms: The Difference Between the Flu and the Virus – John Elder (The New Daily, March 6, 2020).
What Does the Coronavirus Do to Your Body? Everything to Know About the Infection Process – Javier Zarracina and Adrianna Rodriguez (USA Today, March 14, 2020).
What Will You Do If You Start Coughing? – James Hamblin (The Atlantic, March 11, 2020).
Five Times Trump and US Officials Downplayed Coronavirus as the Administration Struggled to Prepare for the Growing Pandemic – Jake Lahut (Business Insider, March 12, 2020).
Senegal Is Reportedly Turning Coronavirus Tests Around “Within 4 Hours” While Americans Might Wait a Week – Jeva Lange (The Week, March 12, 2020).
Sorry, Trump: You Bear Sole Responsibility for Your Disastrous Response to the Coronavirus – Kerry Eleveld (Daily Kos, March 13, 2020).
Donald Trump Is the Very Worst Person to Handle the Coronavirus Crisis – Julian Borger (The Guardian, March 12, 2020).
The Sick Joke of Donald Trump's Presidency Isn't Funny Any More – Richard Wolffe (The Guardian, March 13, 2020).
The Writing Is On the Wall for Trump – Daniel Larison (The American Conservative, March 13, 2020).
How Bad Could the Coronavirus Get in the US? I Asked an Expert – Sean Illing (Vox, March 12, 2020).
Unprepared America Wakes Up to Coronavirus, Gradually Then All at Once – Ed Pilkington (The Guardian, March 13, 2020).
The Coronavirus’s Real and Immediate Threat to Democracy – Yasmeen Serhan (The Atlantic, March 12, 2020).
Bernie Just Laid Out a Humane Approach to Dealing with the Coronavirus. Biden Did Not – Miles Kampf-Lassin (In These Times, March 16, 2020).
The Economic Impact of COVID-19 Will Hit Minorities the Hardest – Kori Hale (Forbes, March 17, 2020).
We’re Not Going Back to Normal – Gideon Lichfield (Technology Review, March 17, 2020).
Forced to Finally Take Coronavirus Seriously, Trump Turns to Racism – Lydia O’Connor (The Huffington Post, March 18, 2020).
Trump Continues Calling the Coronavirus “Chinese” Despite Reports of Anti-Asian Hate Crimes – Democracy Now! (March 19, 2020).

Photo of the Day

Trees are poems
that the earth
writes upon the sky.

– Khalil Gibran

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• The Prayer Tree
• The Mysticism of Trees
• The Prayer Tree . . . Aflame!
• Magician Among the Spirits

Related Off-site Links:
Warm and Warmer; Southerly Breezes Ramp Up Our Weekend Temperatures – Ron Trenda (MPR News, March 7, 2020).
Twin Cities Enjoys Warmest Weekend Since Last October – Katy Read (Star Tribune, March 7, 2020).

Images: Michael J. Bayly.

Something to Think About . . .

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Al Gore lost in 2000 as a centrist [aka moderate].

John Kerry lost in 2004 as a centrist.

Obama won in 2008 posturing as a progressive (but then lost both houses of Congress after being exposed as a centrist).

Hillary lost in 2016 as a centrist.

The Democratic party needs to begin abandoning centrism.

– Adam E. Ross

Related Off-site Links:
Moderate/Centrist Joe Biden Would Be Donald Trump's Dream Opponent – Conor Lynch (TruthDig, March 4, 2020).
Stop Saying Biden Is the “Most Electable.” Trump Will Run Rings Round Him – Nathan Robinson (The Guardian, January 4, 2020).
Progressive Bernie Sanders Is More Electable Than Moderate Joe Biden – Ben Burgis (Jacobin, March 4, 2020).
Trump Beats Biden – Arun Gupta (Jacobin, March 6, 2020).
Michael Moore Perfectly Explains Why Joe Biden Can’t Beat Trump – The Humanist Report (February 1, 2020).
A Look Back at Seven Centrist Defeats – Paul Rockwell (Common Dreams, February 1, 2020).
Joe Biden: An Anti-Endorsement – The Editors (The Nation, November 7, 2019).
Give Me A Break: The Sad, Sorry Spectacle of Joe Biden – Jeremy Riddle (Extra News Feed, January 25, 2020).
Joe Biden's 2020 Campaign Makes Me Sick with Fear for Our Future – Lucy Diavolo (Teen Vogue, June 20, 2019).
Joe Biden, The “Impulse Buy” Candidate – Sonali Kolhatkar (TruthDig, March 6, 2020).
When Will Moderates Learn Their Lesson? – Ibram X. Kendi (The Atlantic, February 24, 2020).
Joe Biden Has a Long History of Giving Republicans Exactly What They Want – Branko Marceti (Jacobin, February 29, 2020).
Why I Fear a Moderate Democratic Nominee – Ibram X. Kendi (The Atlantic, January 28, 2020).
Elizabeth Warren Takes Aim at Biden: A “Washington Insider Will Not Meet This Moment” – Deepa Shivaram (NBC News, March 3, 2020).
Obama Is Wrong to Push Democratic Party Centrism – Leland Nally (Common Dreams, November 26, 2019).
Noam Chomsky: Democratic Party Centrism Risks Handing Election to Trump – C.J. Polychroniou (TruthOut, November 21, 2019).
Centrists Aren’t Political Realists. Leftists Are – Luke Savage (Jacobin, November 21, 2019).
A Centrist Cannot Win in 2020 – Robert Reich (TruthDig, October 9, 2019)

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Progressive Perspectives on Joe Biden's Presidential Run
• Marianne Williamson on the Contest Being Played Out by Biden and Sanders
• Quote of the Day – November 27, 2019
• Quote of the Day – October 19, 2019
• Quote of the Day – March 10, 2019

Marianne Williamson on the Contest Being Played Out by Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders

. . . and what it will really take to defeat Donald Trump

I appreciate spiritual author and former presidential candidate Marianne Williamson's take on the current “contest” being played out in the Democratic party between moderates and progressives, and on what it will “really take” to defeat President Trump in November.

Although this interview was conducted yesterday, ahead of Super Tuesday's results and the changes they brought about in the Democratic presidential race, Marianne's insightful comments are still very much relevant to what's happening politically and, in her words, “on a level of energy” in the United States.

There is a contest within the Democratic party between the moderates and the progressives. The moderates say we should take an incremental approach to America's course correction and the progressives say we need a fundamental and a quick course correction. And the course correction is due to the fact that we've strayed. American capitalism has strayed from its conscience . . . and has become untethered to ethical and moral consideration to people and planet, and our government has become little more than a system of legalized bribery which is a handmaiden to those forces. That is the contest being played out, primarily today between Biden and Bernie.

I personally think that what's going to beat Trump is passion and conviction. When you look at all of those Trump rallies and look at how much passion and how much conviction his supporters have, we need a candidate who ignites that same kind of intense passion but in a progressive and genuinely democratic way. And the person, the one candidate who has proven that he can make that happen is Bernie Sanders. Look at those rallies. We have that on our side, and it's not with the likes of Joe Biden.

– Marianne Williamson

___________________

UPDATE: Marianne Williamson on The Story with Martha McCallum, March 4, 2020.

As one friend said about Marianne's post-Super Tuesday appearance on the Fox News channel:

This is a graceful interview with the tone and tenor so desperately needed in our public discourse today. Thank you, Marianne. 🙏🏼

I think both political parties are going through a bit of an identity crisis right now. Traditionally, the Democratic party has always stood on the side of the American worker. You know, there are two ways of looking at things. You can say, serve your economy, help your economy in order to serve your people . . . [or you can say] help your people in order to serve and invigorate your economy. The Democratic party has always looked at it where first you serve the people. And so Bernie Sanders is speaking to a slide that has occurred within the Democratic party over the last few decades where it does have more of a corporatist leaning, where there a factions within the Democratic party who do give too much subservience, as does the Republican party, to short-term profits for major corporations as opposed to and at the expense of the American people. That's what's going on here. That's the contest within the Democratic party and I think it's a contest within the American people.

– Marianne Williamson

Related Off-site Links:
Super Tuesday Sets Stage for Biden vs. Bernie: “A Two-Person Race for Future of Democratic Party and the Country” – Jon Queally (Common Dreams, March 4, 2020).
Let’s Get to Know Joe Biden, Our New Democratic Front-Runner, in His Own Words – Ashley Feinberg (Slate, March 4, 2020).
Bernie Sanders Is Still in a Remarkably Strong Position – Eric Levitz (New York Magazine, March 3, 2020).
"Organized Money vs. Organized People": New Sanders Memo Details Stark Choice Between Biden and Bernie – Jake Johnson (Common Dreams, March 3, 2020).
Dealing With Bernie Doubt: My Letter to a Skeptical Friend – Jim Sleeper (Salon, March 4, 2020).
The Real Losers on Super Tuesday: Urgent Climate Action, Medicare for All, Anti-Plutocracy – Juan Cole (Informed Comment, March 4, 2020).

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Bernie Sanders’ “Revolution” is Ultimately One of Values – the Values of Justice, Hope, and Love
• Progressive Perspectives on Joe Biden's Presidential Run
• Marianne Williamson On What It Will Take to Defeat Donald Trump
• Marianne Williamson: “Anything That Will Help People Thrive, I’m Interested In”
• Marianne Williamson and the Power of Politicized Love
• Caitlin Johnstone: “Status Quo Politicians Are Infinitely ‘Weirder’ Than Marianne Williamson”
• Presidential Candidate Marianne Williamson: “We’re Living at a Critical Moment in Our Democracy”
• In the Garden of Spirituality – Marianne Williamson

Bernie Sanders’ “Revolution” is Ultimately One of Values – the Values of Justice, Hope, and Love

Earlier this evening I joined with approximately 8,000 others at a presidential campaign event with and for Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, currently the front-runner in the Democratic party's presidential race. Tonight's "Get Out the Vote" rally for Bernie was held in the Roy Wilkins Auditorium in downtown St. Paul.

Right: Yes, I'm a proud Bernie Sanders for President supporter! Before she suspended her campaign, author Marianne Williamson was another presidential candidate I supported. I wore my "Marianne 2020 – Department of Peace" jacket to Bernie's rally as the establishment of such a department is something I hope he'd consider if elected president. Marianne officially endorsed Bernie on February 23.

At tonight's rally I was with several hundred others in the overflow space of the venue, and before he delivered his speech in the main auditorium, Bernie, accompanied by his wife Jane O'Meara Sanders, came and spoke to us for about fifteen minutes. I'm sure there's no way I would have been as close to Bernie as I was if I had been part of the main crowd inside!


“Operation Bernie Block”

Bernie was in Minnesota ahead of Super Tuesday tomorrow, when 14 states, including Minnesota, will hold primaries. For Democrats, more than 1,300 delegates will be handed out, making it the biggest day of the presidential nomination process so far.

As Bernie Sanders was speaking in Minnesota, former vice-president Joe Biden, who is also seeking the Democratic nomination, held a campaign rally in Texas where three former 2020 presidential candidates (Beto O'Rourke, Pete Buttigieg, and Minnesota's own Sen. Amy Klobuchar, who dropped out just today) endorsed him.

Notes Rolling Stone writer Andy Kroll:

The Democratic field is now down to five candidates: Biden, Sanders, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Mike Bloomberg, and Rep. Tulsi Gabbard. One way to organize the field is into two camps: the progressive flank (Sanders and Warren) and the moderate [or centrist] establishment flank (Biden and Bloomberg). Going into Super Tuesday, there is a leader and secondary figure in each flank – Sanders for the progressives and Biden for the moderates.

Klobuchar, Buttigieg, and O’Rourke’s endorsements of Biden is the clearest sign yet that the establishment plans to coalesce around Biden in hopes of denying Sanders the nomination. Call it Operation Bernie Block.

– Andy Kroll
Rolling Stone
March 2, 2020

At tonight's rally in St. Paul, Sanders acknowledged this strategy on the part of the establishment but dismissed it, noting that he has something that Biden doesn't to win the White House: the momentum of a surging campaign fueled by a grassroots and diverse movement of millions of working-class people.

In their endorsement of Sanders, the editors of The Nation magazine write the following about this historic movement.

As of this morning, Bernie Sanders – a Jewish grandfather with an indelible Brooklyn accent – is the leading contender for the Democratic nomination. He got there by forging a movement campaign that expands our understanding of what can be achieved in the electoral arena and that invites us to imagine that government of, by, and for the people might actually be possible.

The movement Sanders has helped to build – a multi-racial, multi-ethnic movement of working-class women and men, people of all ages, all faiths, gay, straight, and trans, veterans and pacifists, teachers, farmers, bus drivers, nurses, and postal workers coming together to demand justice and redeem the endlessly deferred promise of America – deserves our enthusiastic support. Most crucially at this point in the 2020 campaign, this movement and this candidate deserve our votes.

– The Editors
The Nation
March 1, 2020

A “revolution of values”

I also believe that Sanders' movement embodies the “revolution of values” that the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. so eloquently called for. Following is a five-and-a-half-minute video created by Matt Orfalea that serves as a timely and powerful reminder of this.

Someone else who has long recognized the need for a “revolution of values” in our world and who has been consistent in inviting people to embody in their lives – and then facilitate in their communities – this kind of paradigm shift, is author and former 2020 presidential candidate Marianne Williamson.

We need a completely different ordering principle for human civilization. Right now we order human civilization according to economic principles and I believe we should order human civilization according to humanitarian principles. It should be considered [for example] as completely morally unacceptable that 17,000 children die of starvation every single day. . . . As long as we make economics our bottom line rather than love, we will continue to move in a direction which is less and less sustainable for the survival of the human race.

Now some people say it’s naive to believe that you can make love the bottom line. I believe that it’s naive to think that we can survive on this planet for another 100 years if we do anything less than that. . . . [This kind of] radical shift which, yes, begins with the individual, must then become something which we stand for in terms of our culture and our politics as well. You and I might get as enlightened as we can get, but if our governments are still behaving insanely then we have a problem on this planet.

– Marianne Williamson
May 23, 2013

At a rally in Austin, Texas, last month (right), Marianne endorsed Bernie Sanders for president, noting that Sanders “has been taking a stand for a very long time. . . . I’m here, and you’re here because it’s time for us to take a stand with Bernie.”

She previously endorsed him in 2016, and her words then are just as meaningful and compelling today. In retrospect, they’re also quite prophetic.

I don't think the American people are going to go with an establishment voice. Americans have an instinctive knowing that something’s going on; something’s coming up from the bottom of things. No one who is entrenched within the perspective of the status quo is going to lead us out of the miasma that we are in now. It’s not just this country. This entire human race is, like, on the Titanic, heading for the iceberg. We must turn this ship around. Bernie Sanders is the one who speaks with moral authority, who actually challenges – doesn’t just pussyfoot around it – but actually challenges the status quo and talks not only about where we need to be fierce in our “no,” but also fierce in our “yes.”

– Marianne Williamson
January 26, 2016

Which side are you on? Hope or fear?

I conclude this post by sharing some more images from the Get Out the Vote rally in St. Paul this evening with Bernie Sanders.

My photos are accompanied by another excerpt from The Nation's endorsement of Sanders, one that presents a challenge by reminding us that in this year's U.S. presidential election the fundamental question is also the oldest one: Which side are you on? . . . Hope or fear? . . . Deep (i.e., radical) systemic change or retrenchment and retreat into the status quo?

__________________________

If Bernie Sanders had simply demonstrated that it is possible to wage a competitive campaign for the presidency without relying on wealthy donors, corporate funders, or secretive PAC money, he would have earned his place in history.

If all Sanders had to show for his two campaigns for the presidency was the greatest leftward shift in the political discourse since Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s second term – putting not just Medicare for All but also the Green New Deal, free public higher education, fair taxation, cancellation of student debt, housing as a human right, universal free child care, and an unwavering critique of the billionaire class firmly onto the political agenda – we would owe him our gratitude.

If his contribution to the debate on foreign policy never went beyond refusing to endorse trade deals that harm workers, denouncing America’s endless wars, and reasserting Congress’s control over presidential adventurism – and had not also included defying AIPAC and the Israel lobby, reminding Americans that many of those crossing our borders are fleeing dictators sustained by Washington, and maintaining his long-standing rejection of authoritarianism at home or abroad – we would still recognize Sanders as a prophetic figure.

. . . Bernie Sanders and the movements he supports (and that support him) have created a populist moment, a vibrant and growing alternative to the tired shibboleths of austerity and market fundamentalism. They are exposing and upending the white nationalist con that promises a blue-collar boom while cutting taxes for the rich and gutting health care, environmental protection and education for the rest of us.

Four years ago, when Sanders began his battle, we supported him, arguing that in his candidacy "movements for greater equality and justice have found an ally and a champion. In contrast to the right-wing demagogues who exploit [our national crisis] to foment division, the Vermont senator has reached into a proud democratic-socialist tradition to revive the simple but potent notion of solidarity. We must turn to each other, not on each other, Sanders says, and unite to change the corrupted politics that robs us all."

Yet when we look beyond the corridors of power, we cannot despair. Not while we’re also in the middle of a long season of revolt, from the millions of women (and allies) in their pink pussy hats protesting Donald Trump’s inauguration to successful teachers’ strikes in West Virginia, Los Angeles, and Chicago, to demonstrations culminating in the removal of Puerto Rico’s corrupt, sexist governor – and that’s just in the United States. From Beirut to Baghdad and from Haiti to Hong Kong, people are rising up together to demand an end to corruption and the politics of divide and rule.

Sanders has made this global outcry a part of his 2020 campaign. He has gathered his forces and moved against America’s oligarchy, and this time he’s had company – and competition. Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren’s candidacy appealed to progressives who, though they shared many of the Sanders campaign’s goals, worried that his age, his fiery manner, or his avowal of democratic socialism would be handicaps in the battle to defeat Trump. She appealed, as well, to the millions of Americans who believe that it is long past the time when this country should elect a progressive woman as its president. Along with Sanders, Warren has widened the left lane of American politics. While Sanders has popularized the idea of a political revolution, Warren’s detailed plans have given depth and meaning to proposals for Medicare for All and a wealth tax. The pair have differed on details, but Warren and Sanders have been such a potent team – especially in last summer’s debates – that some here argued they ought to form a ticket.

That still seems like an idea worth considering. For the time being, the view that Warren needs to remain in the race for as long as possible has adherents even among some Sanders backers, who recognize her ability to attract support among constituencies Sanders can’t easily reach by himself, and rack up delegates committed to a progressive candidate. But that is true only as long as her role remains constructive. If Sanders should do more to discourage his supporters from engaging in personal attacks – and we believe that he should – Warren must recognize that at this point in the race, any criticism by her of Sanders or his record only benefits their common enemies. Solidarity is a virtue that must be practiced as well as preached.

Because, while there might have once been grounds for argument about which of the two progressives would make a better president, there are now only three candidates with a realistic path to the Democratic nomination: Sanders and the two so-called moderates, Joe Biden and Mike Bloomberg. We still believe that Biden would be a uniquely weak challenger to Trump, forfeiting the high ground on corruption, the Iraq War, and even #MeToo issues while being forced to defend his record on mass incarceration, bankruptcy revision, and his coziness with credit card companies and the banks. Still, the worst that can be said against Biden is that he’d probably lose the election. A Bloomberg nomination would offer Americans desperate for relief from decades of stagnant income, industrial decline, and grotesque inequality their choice of plutocrats. Even if Bloomberg were to win, the Democratic Party would be damaged beyond repair.

Fortunately, thanks to the movement that has lifted him up, Sanders offers an alternative that is more than merely credible. Sanders 2020 is possible – and with it the promise of a different future. He is running and winning as a candidate who has repeatedly shown genuine moral courage – exemplified by his steadfast support for Palestinian rights and immediate denunciation of the rush to war with Iran. This makes him the living antithesis to Trump and the president’s most formidable challenger. Sanders has already raised $167 million ($46 million from more than 2 million donors in February alone) from millions of small donors who will continue to support his campaign in the fall.

Sanders won the most votes in Iowa, the most votes and delegates in New Hampshire, and a commanding victory in Nevada – the most representative, diverse electorate of the early states – across divisions of race, class, and language. Though his second-place finish in South Carolina indicates Sanders still has work to do with African American voters, national polls show him currently leading in every demographic except voters over 55 and beating Trump convincingly in every head-to-head match-up. What is perhaps most exciting about the Sanders campaign is his commitment to expanding the electorate, which could produce a sweeping victory for his presidential campaign and congressional Democrats this fall.

That is the promise and possibility of the Sanders campaign – whether you call him a democratic socialist or a New Deal Democrat. Even as the corporate media ignores his achievements, denigrates his chances, and magnifies his every misstep, Sanders has two [advantages] none of his competitors can match or deflect. The first is his consistency. One reason Sanders won 67 percent of the vote in his last Senate campaign in Vermont, easily out-polling the Republican governor who was elected at the same time, is that even voters who disagree with him know he means what he says. Biden has to lie about getting arrested in support of South Africa’s black freedom struggle. Sanders was actually getting arrested in America’s black freedom struggle before Biden was old enough to vote. As we find ourselves on a hinge of history – a generation summoned to the task of redeeming our democracy and restoring our republic – no one ever has to wonder what Bernie Sanders stands for.

The other [advantage] is the movement, with its overwhelming appeal to young voters and its determination to mobilize the disenfranchised and the disenchanted. Movements are more important than candidates and are a greater source of power for change than election results. We live in an age of state repression and voter suppression, when a rigged system, complicit politicians and a depleted and chronically distracted press have allowed the greatest concentration of economic and political power in American history. Yet resistance is always an option. And an imperative. So long as we are many and they are few, hope remains both rational and realistic.

In this election the fundamental question is also the oldest one: Which side are you on? The Nation is on the side of hope, not fear. We’re on the side of radical change, not retrenchment and retreat. We are proud and excited to stand with the movements that have brought us to this moment and made this amazing, terrifying, exhilarating, and empowering campaign possible. And we are proud to endorse Bernie Sanders, a democratic socialist with a program realistic and radical enough to meet the test of our time, for president of the United States.

– The Editors
The Nation
March 1, 2020

As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, I was with several hundred others in an overflow area of the Roy Wilkinson Auditorium. Because of this I was quite close to Sen. Bernie Sanders when he came and spoke to us before heading into the actual auditorium, pictured above. This photo, taken by City Pages writer and photographer Mike Madison, shows the Roy Wilkinson Auditorium earlier this evening, packed with supporters of Bernie Sanders. (For more of Mike Madison's photos of tonight's rally, click here.)

Above: Another one of Mike Madison's wonderful photos from tonight's Bernie Sanders event in St. Paul.

This particular image brings to mind something my friend David Weiss shared on Facebook as he was sitting in the Roy Wilkinson Auditorium: “The crowd runs ALL ages and ALL colors. Came to see Bernie. What I am seeing right now is tomorrow’s America.”


NEXT: Progressive Perspectives
on Big Tuesday and Beyond

Related Off-site Links:

• Bernie Sanders
On Super Tuesday and Beyond, 10 Reasons to Vote for Bernie Sanders – Christopher D. Cook (Common Dreams, March 3, 2020).
“He’s One of Us”: Sanders Energizing Red-state Progressives – Sean Murphy and Sara Burnett (Associated Press, March 1, 2020).
Bernie Sanders Is the Unity Candidate – Christopher D. Cook (Common Dreams, February 28, 2020).
Bernie’s No Extremist: His Agenda Harks Back to the Framing of the U.S. Constitution – Thomas I. Palley (Salon, February 28, 2020).
Black Lives Matter Co-Founder Endorses Sanders and Warren and Say It Is Time for Biden to Step Down – James Walker (Common Dreams, February 25, 2020).
Bernie Sanders Has Redefined What's Possible in American Politics – Meagan Day and Micah Uetricht (Common Dreams, February 27, 2020).
If Bernie Sanders Is Unelectable, Then What The Hell Are The Rest Of You? – Nick Pemberton (CounterPunch, February 28, 2020).
A Step Away From Fascism and “Toward a Brighter More Just Future”: 100+ Black Writers and Scholars Endorse Bernie Sanders – Jon Queally (Common Dreams, February 29, 2020).
Bernie Sanders Is Three Times More Popular Than Joe Biden Among Young Black Voters, Poll Shows – David Brennan (Newsweek, February 28, 2020).
America Can't Afford Not to Elect Sanders or Warren – Robert Reich (TruthDig, February 25, 2020).
Why Pundits Can't Comprehend Bernie Sanders – Waleed Shahid (BuzzFeed, February 27, 2020).

• The Establishment's Efforts to Block Sanders
The Democratic Establishment Is Freaking Out About Bernie. It Should Calm Down – Robert Reich (RobertReich.org, February 27, 2020).
Bernie Sanders' Fight Against Trump, the GOP, the Democratic Establishment, and Corporate Media – The Intercept (February 26, 2020).
Red-Baiting Won’t Stop Bernie Sanders. The Democratic Debate Shows Why – Mindy Isser (In These Times, February 26, 2020).
Crouching Party, Hidden Dagger: Sanders, the DNC and The Brokered Convention – Tim Jones (AIM, February 28, 2020).
Will the Democratic Establishment Destroy the Party to Stop Sanders? – Jeet Heer (The Nation, February 28, 2020).
Did Chris Matthews Reveal That Democratic Establishment's Real Fear Is a Bernie Win? – Jeff Cohen (Common Dreams, March 3, 2020).
“They're Desperate to Beat Bernie”: Amy Klobuchar Drops Out of 2020 Democratic Primary, to Endorse Biden – Eoin Higgins (Common Dreams, March 2, 2020).
Pete Buttigieg Took One for the Anti-Bernie Team – Branko Marcetic (Jacobin, March 2, 2020).

• Marianne Williamson
Marianne Williamson Rips Buttigieg and Klobuchar Over Biden Endorsement: “They Must Have Read The Art of the Deal” – Christina Zhao (Newsweek, March 2, 2020).
Marianne Williamson on 2020 Race and Endorsing Senator Sanders – Yahoo! News, March 3, 2020).
Marianne Williamson Calls for Tulsi Gabbard to Participate in Next Democratic Debate – Anthony Leonardi (Washington Examiner, March 7, 2020).

• Democratic Socialism
Bernie’s Democratic Socialism Is Firmly Within the American Tradition – Robert McChesney (Jacobin, March 3, 2020).
The Real Global Threat to 21st Century Freedom Is Authoritarian Capitalism Not Democratic Socialism – Peter Bloom (Common Dreams, March 1, 2020).


UPDATES: Biden Wins Minnesota Presidential Primary, In Wake of Klobuchar Endorsement – Brian Bakst (MPR News, March 3, 2020).
Biden Surges on Super Tuesday; California Looms as Big Prize – Steve Peoples and Will Weissert (Associated Press, March 3, 2020).
Super Tuesday: Biden Seals Comeback With String of Victories – BBC News (March 3, 2020).
The Democratic Establishment Has (Finally) United Against Sanders – Paul Heideman (Jacobin, March 3, 2020).
Sanders Wins California, Super Tuesday’s Biggest Prize – Associated Press via PBS Newshour (March 3, 2020).
Sanders’s California Win Blunts Biden’s Super Tuesday Comeback – Joe Sobczyk and Justin Sink (Bloomberg.com, March 3, 2020).
Wall Street, Encouraged by Biden’s Wins, Breaks Out Its Checkbooks – Kate Kelly (New York Times, March 4, 2020).
Can Moderate Democrats Sign On to a Progressive President? – Chris Winters (Yes! Magazine, March 4, 2020).
What Super Tuesday Revealed About Black Voters: They're Not a Monolith – Kenya Evelyn (The Guardian, March 5, 2020).
LGBTQ Voters Flock to Bernie Sanders, NBC News Exit Poll Finds – Tim Fitzsimons and Patrick J. Egan (NBC News, March 3, 2020).
Many Young Voters Sat Out Super Tuesday, Contributing to Bernie Sanders' Losses – Ledyard King (USA Today, March 4, 2020).
Bernie Sanders Will Tie Biden in the Final Super Tuesday Results: Why It Looks Good for Sanders – Saib Bilaval (Films for Action, March 4, 2020).


For more coverage at The Wild Reed of the 2020 U.S. presidential election, see:
• “It's Time to Take a Stand”: Marianne Williamson Endorses Bernie Sanders for President
• Quote of the Day – February 23, 2020
• Bernie Sanders and the Corporate Media
• Thoughts on the “Sanders Surge”
• The Case for Bernie Sanders
• Thoughts on the Eve of the Iowa Caucuses
• Quote of the Day – February 9, 2020
• A Thank You Letter to Marianne Williamson
• “A Beautiful Message, So Full of Greatness”
• Progressive Perspectives on Joe Biden's Presidential Run
• Beto, Biden and Buttigieg: “Empty Suits and Poll-Tested Brands”
• Pete Buttigieg, White Privilege, and Identity Politics
• Quote of the Day – October 19, 2019
• Quote(s) of the Day – February 26, 2019

See also:
• Carrying It On
• Hope, History, and Bernie Sanders

Interiors

Images: Michael J. Bayly.

The Mysticism of Trees

He looked up among
the knotted branches and green leaves,
and into the mysterious heart
of the old tree.

– From “The Talking Oak”
by Lord Alfred Tennyson

I continue reading Frank MacEowen's book, The Mist-Filled Path: Celtic Wisdom for Exiles, Wanderers, and Seekers. I've shared two excerpts from this insightful book previously at The Wild Reed (see here and here) and share today a third, one that resonates deeply with me because of its focus on trees.

Like MacEowen, I was drawn to and felt connected to trees as a child. I have happy memories, for instance, of hours spent in the branches of the jacaranda tree that grew in the backyard of my childhood home in Gunnedah, Australia.

More recently, there is the Prayer Tree (left) with which I've developed a very special bond.

I also resonate with the writings of MacEowen as I'm discovering that they are reminding me of – and connecting me to – the spirituality of my Celtic ancestors, in particular those on my father's side of the family who hailed from the county of Staffordshire in England.

With all this in heart and mind, here is that part of The Mist-Filled Path in which MacEowen shares his thoughts and experience of “the mysticism of trees.”

_________________________

During my time of walking [in nature] as a child, I was always filled with a blend of awe and the jitters. A sense of expectancy pulsed with each heartbeat, with each moving shadow in the shaded wood, as if at any moment a door might open up beside me. This amazing energy had an uncanny presence. When I look back on those times, with the eyes I have now, I see that the holiness of my childhood in nature was inseparably linked to the trees. I loved them, I love them now, and through them ancient unseen doors open.

We Celts are lovers of trees. In fact, the religion of our primal ancestors is one truly rooted in the mysticism of trees. From old Celtic tales that speak of First Man being an alder tree, and First Woman being a rowan tree, to the ancient Roman accounts of the druids in the groves of old Gaul, trees play a central role in the ancient Celtic way of seeing.

. . . On one day in particular when I was out in the trees, something happened. I had a sudden and shocking remembrance of the trees as guardians, allies, and as conduits for activating memory. Images flashed in my mind. The images were hauntingly familiar, achingly so. Like in Carl Jung's formative childhood mystical experience of merging with a stone he was sitting on, in a moment the trees suddenly told me that they were my ancient home, that I had known them intimately before, and that one day I would live among them again.

I was deeply stirred, and in the midst of this experience I realized that the spirit of the mist did not retreat from my presence that day. It moved in and around me, encompassing me like a cool blanket. Slowly I began to feel at one with the forest, at one with the mist, and at one with myself in a way I never had before. I was suddenly self-aware, profoundly conscious that life is a path that we walk from the time of birth to the time of death. It was an old memory returned.

I wept with an emotion I can only describe as a feeling of being accepted by the sacred world. Woven within this moment of reawakening was a familiarity with something extremely old that stood just on the periphery of my awareness. Though it felt like a person, I saw no one. I imagined the face of an old man. I did not have words to put to this flow of experience, but as a good Scots brother of mine says in one of his poems, “I felt watched and watching.”

– Frank MacEowen
Excerpted from The Mist-Filled Path:
Celtic Wisdom for Exiles, Wanderers, and Seekers
pp. 10-11

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Mistwalking
• Holy Encounters Where Two Worlds Meet
• The Prayer Tree
• The Prayer Tree . . . Aflame!
• Photo of the Day – July 25, 2019
• Photo of the Day – February 24, 2019
• Photo of the Day – November 29, 2017
• Mystics Full of Grace
• Trees on Summit Avenue
• Thomas Moore on the Circling of Nature as the Best Way to Find Our Substance
• “Radical Returnings” – Mayday 2016
• Balancing the Fire
• “I Caught a Glimpse of a God”
• At Hallowtide, Pagan Thoughts on Restoring Our World and Our Souls
• Magician Among the Spirits

Opening image: Jason and the Talking Oak (1910) by Maxfield Parrish (1870-1966).

Carl Anderson: “Let the Music Play!”

.
Today is the 75th anniversary of the birth of the late, great American singer and actor Carl Anderson (1945-2004), whom I've been honoring throughout February – the month of both his birth and death.

This honoring concludes today with beauty and wisdom from Carl himself in the form of a quote and a song, connected thematically by music. Enjoy!

I am still thinking that music is the means by which God speaks on the level of our humanity. We should all sit down and listen to some real music! Let it play! Let the music play! Let the music play – and loudly! And may peace reassert itself in our world. Love, Light, Power and Music!

– Carl Anderson
April 27, 1999

How do you keep the music playing?
How do you make it last?
How do you keep the song from fading too fast?

How do you lose yourself to someone
And never lose your way?
How do you not run out of new things to say?

And since we know we're always changing
How can it be the same?
And tell me how year after year
You're sure your heart won't fall apart
Each time you hear his name?

I know the way I feel for you is now or never
The more I love, the more that I'm afraid
That in your eyes I may not see forever, forever

If we can be the best of lovers
Yet be the best of friends
If we can try with every day to make it better as it grows
With any luck than I suppose
The music never ends

– “How Do You Keep the Music Playing” (1982)
by Michel Legrand and Alan & Marilyn Bergman

NOTE: Carl's version of “How Do You Keep the Music Playing” is from his 1997 album Why We Are Here! Live, released under the Abu Khalil label, Carl's own production company named after his son. The album was recorded at the Agape International Spiritual Center, of which Carl was a member. It was produced by John Potoker, Freddie Ravel, and Carl.

Freddie Ravel: Musical Director, Piano, Synthesizers and Vocals
Michael Paulo: Alto and Tenor Sax, Flute
Alphonso Johnson: Bass and Vocals
Bernie Dresel: Drums
Fred Schleuders: Guitar
Leslie Smith: Percussion and Vocals
Anjani: Keyboards, Percussion and Vocals

______________________

For previous installments in The Wild Reed's February 2020 Celebration of Carl Anderson, see:
• Carl Anderson: On and On
• Carl Anderson and The Black Pearl
• Carl Anderson in The Color Purple

The Wild Reed's February 2019 Celebration of Carl Anderson:
• Remembering and Celebrating Carl Anderson
• Carl Anderson: “Pure Quality”
• Carl Anderson's Judas in Jesus Christ Superstar: “The Gold Standard”
• Carl Anderson's Judas: “A Two-Dimensional Popular Villain Turned Into a Complex Human Being”
• Carl Anderson: “Artist and Vocalist Extraordinaire”
• Playbill Remembers Carl
• Remembering the Life of Carl Anderson: “There Was So Much Love”

For more of Carl at The Wild Reed, see:
• Carl Anderson: “Like a Song in the Night”
• Carl Anderson: “One of the Most Enjoyable Male Vocalists of His Era”
• With Love Inside
• Carl Anderson
• Acts of Love . . . Carl's and Mine
• Introducing . . . the Carl Anderson Appreciation Group
• Forbidden Lover
• Revisiting a Groovy Jesus (and a Dysfunctional Theology)

Related Off-site Links:
A Profile of Carl Anderson – Part I: A Broadway Legend with Lynchburg Roots – Holly Phelps (LynchburgMuseum.org, May 12, 2015)
A Profile of Carl Anderson – Part II: The Legend Lives On – Holly Phelps (LynchburgMuseum.org,June 10, 2015)
Carl Anderson – Jazz Legend: The Official Website
Carl Anderson Memorial Page
Carl Anderson at AllMusic.com – Ron Wynn (AllMusic.com)
Carl Anderson Biography – Chris Rizik (Soul Tracks).

Opening and closing images: Screen-caps of a rare video of Carl performing in 2002 at his friend Willy's place in New Orleans. Carl was performing for his fellow Jesus Christ Superstar cast members on what would be his last tour with the musical that first established him in 1973 as a vocalist and actor of international renown.