Bloomie's War

You don't bring a knife to a gunfight. 

Donald Trump has a war chest of a billion dollars and there is absolutely nothing beneath him in his warped and crazed campaign for re-election. Day by day, he is wearing away the foundations of American democracy with one criminal act after another, supported by a warped and greedy Republican Senate, a conscienceless attorney general, and a cabinet of hand-picked sycophants. 

His hysterical rallies are mass churnings of hate and fear, one after another, seemingly endless outpourings of all that is sour in the American soul. To his base, Donald Trump is a rock star beyond Elvis, albeit a dark star of frightening luminosity.

He is off and running, gaining a chilling headstart, while the debating Democrats go round and round in that traditional circle game.

The time for traditional politics is now past. Trump has seen to that from the very minute he and his courtesan bride came down that escalator, their ladder into the hell that Trump has wrought.  

You don't bring a knife to a gunfight. Michael Bloomberg brings the kind of firepower that even Trump can undertstand – and fear. Bloomberg is engaged in what he calls “a war to remove him from office.” 

Trump is so cognizant of this firepower that he has already started hurling personal insults at Bloomberg, who sees Trump for the lowlife punk that he is and answers in kind: “We know many of the same people in New York. Behind your back, they laugh at you and call you a carnival barking clown. They know you inherited a fortune and squandered it with stupid deals and incompetence. I have the record and the resources to beat you. And I will.”

The keyword here is “resources” – money. If Trump has a billion dollars, Michael – I have to admit I'm still not used to “Mike,” but thus are politics – Bloomberg has over 62 billion at his disposal and he will spend whatever it takes to win this war, which I think at some level he understands is for no less than the American soul and our future.

This is the time for “realpolitik,” ironically the Russian term for practical rather than moral or ideological considerations. It is certainly well and good in one sense to debate the finer political points as the traditional Democratic candidates are doing (and which Bloomberg has now joined), but the old bottom line is that you can't put your plans for healthcare and free college and all the rest of it into play if your are not elected. You can't make change from the back bench. Realpolitik means that the end justifies the means, as cold-blooded as that sounds.

Yes, Bloomberg has things in his past to account for; so in fact do all the other Democratic candidates. That is a given. But he has the New York temperament and edge that Trump has not experienced from any of his  potential Democratic rivals. Trump makes it personal. Bloomberg can give it right back. In a debate, he would turn Trump every which way but loose. He is not afraid to bruise his knuckles. 

As for Bloomberg's buying his candidacy, both JFK and FDR came from backgrounds of wealth and privilege, but they were nonetheless able to connect with the American people in a way that transcended their backgrounds. Admittedly, that might be a stumbling block for Bloomberg, but I think the American people are still not so punch-drunk with Trump 24/7 that enough will recognize the difference between a fraud and a true self-made billionaire to show Trump the door to the White House and into the courts and hopefully the jail cell he so richly deserves. 

Bloomberg has created an international media empire while Trump has created only chaos in his business dealings. Bloomberg has given away more money than Trump has ever had; he has given billions to fighting global warming, bringing gun control to America, and preserving the environment. 

So if it is to be a war between old white male billionaires, so be it for now. The victory is more important than the candidate. The presidency must be restored.