PUTNEY — In this coming election, Donald Trump is only the tip of the iceberg.
The bigger problem we face in this election are all the Donald Trumps, who collectively tanked the economy in 2007 by behaviors that (as the presidential candidate Trump said) represented a good way to make money. In his words, it was “good business.”
It sure says something when trashing the world economy is thought of selfishly as “good business.”
Similarly, it is all the Donald Trumps who use war and the military-industrial complex as the biggest drain on our economy and sense of safety.
It is all the Donald Trumps of this country (and world) who are the real welfare cheats. If you look at tax breaks or tax expenditures for the wealthy, what just one of them withholds from tax and hides offshore would probably cover any aid to needy families for this whole state.
It is all the Donald Trumps of the world who maintain the current medical system that profits on those who can afford it least and, in essence, creates rationing of health care and a two-tiered system of care: one for the wealthy and the other for those who can't quite afford insurance, co-pays, deductibles, or medicines.
And it is all the Donald Trumps of the world who reinforce the current status quo of economic, social, and environmental injustice. In that way, they maintain their oligarchic, neo-Calvinist stranglehold on the inequities that allow them to hold the power of the pocketbook and keep the system as is.
When now-Sen. Bernie Sanders started his Vermont campaign for justice back in the 1980s, he spoke of the same inequities and injustices that he carried forth into his presidential campaign this year.
His influence on changing and growing the Democratic platform has moved the mainstream to recognize those injustices. He is keeping the effort moving toward real progress on these issues that all the Donald Trumps are fighting against.
I will be voting for those issues of social, economic, and environmental justice as I cast a vote for Hillary Clinton and down-ticket Democrats.
And, I know, as the work of Sen. Sanders carries forward the work of those who came before him, it is up to us and subsequent generations to carry on his work to continue building this imperfect cathedral that we call the United States of America.
And, just like the cathedral builders of other cultures, we might not see our work completed, but we must do our work well - well enough that the building grows upward on its strong foundation and each layer of work is worthy and strong enough to support what will come next.
In the short term, it would have been an easier vote, had Sen. Sanders been nominated. Given the current reality, I will join Sen. Sanders and others to hold our feet to the fire and keep the work moving forward and this cathedral of our Republic, growing upward.
We all deserve no less, as do our children and theirs.