A 'STEALTH' CAMPAIGN AS INSURANCE

A week or so ago, I wrote a semi-serious post about launching a ‘stealth’ campaign for president. As I watch Biden’s campaign find its footing and contemplate the immense war chest of Bloomberg, I wonder if my ‘campaign’ ought not to be a good deal more serious.

Because of how too much of the press is far too bedazzled by anything resembling Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, I still think it necessary for my campaign to be a ‘stealth’ one — on social media and person-to-person. It will be up to those who agree with me to collect the signatures for me to be on the ballot and so forth. This is still a job about which, for myself, I’m dubious, but I also feel it more necessary than ever to at least step forward and say, as did Isaiah, “Here I am. Send me!”

And why should I think myself at all qualified? Three things with which I start: I agree with most of the progressive Left about what urgently needs to be done. I don’t know if Malcolm Nance or David Cay Johnston consider themselves progressives but I mostly agree with them too.
Second, I know just how ignorant I am about how we get from point A to point B. Third, I know whose help I will want and need in order to get us from one point to the other. Leaders on that list are Malcolm Nance, Robert Reich, David Cay Johnston, Charles Eisenstein, Esther Dubos (what’s her name again? She and her hubby just won the Nobel Prize for Economics)Laurence Tribe, Naomi Klein, Bill McKibben, Nina Turner and, yes, Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders as well. Fourth, I have watched politics since I was just short of twelve, which is just over half a century ago. And let me ask my readers this: who sees the most of any competitive game? Isn’t it the spectators and the cameras that put the pieces together?
If either Warren or Sanders wins the Democratic nomination, that will render this campaign unnecessary and I can happily retreat back into the woodwork of the progressive resurgence. But if we wind up handing the nomination to one of the Tammany Bourbons, I suggest that renders a campaign like mine all the more urgently necessary. We must, repeat MUST, have a candidate who is 1) not an oligarch nor a servant of theirs, 2) a strong anti-racist with some understanding of the roles race, sex, etc., still play in our society coupled with a determination to do all s/he can to transcend that and 3) really does love democracy, the earth, and the rule of law as written in the Constitution and interpreted in such a way as to expand the voices of ALL the people.
Bloomberg said recently he expects Trump will wipe the floor with anyone but himself. I guess that’s what too much wealth and power does to any individual; they believe in their hoard much more than they believe in people at the grassroots. When I heard him say this, I thought, “What a Bourbon!”

A bas toutes les Bourbons, mes freres et mes soeurs! C’est l’heure!
(Down with ALL Bourbons, brothers and sisters! The time is NOW!)
I might recommend the ‘stealth’ approach for campaigns for lesser offices as well. It depends on how much the ‘mainstream’ press is watching. If the campaign is already absent from their radar, make the most of that. If they are watching, then a ‘stealth’ approach may well be necessary.

And one thing is certain about any such campaign: if the candidate(s) who launch them wind up winning on Election Night, the people who voted for them and did the hard work to put them on the ballot and spread the word will be able to say, more than ever, “We did it ourselves.”
And isn’t having the people say that of any great collective task point out the truly great leaders among us? Think about that! So, come and ask your questions of me, one and all!