Are American voters finally getting sick of being told what to think?

By Daniel Patrick Welch

Bernie Sanders’ rise signals grassroots rebellion, but imperialism remains unchallenged. Even still, the establishment are losing their collective minds.

The interesting thing about the Sanders candidacy is how these mainstream talking heads just lost their minds, when it's over what is fairly moderate. This is like a kind of a milquetoast social Democrat with a watered-down new deal program, but it just drives them absolutely insane. And there are certain things that are promising about that and some things that are just some of the same old song and dance.

But I would say the most exciting thing about it--and thing that they're most afraid of—Is the most general principle that the rank and file aren't listening. The talking heads want to be able to tell Americans what to think they've been doing it for decades.

And the Union bosses want to be able to deliver their goods, which is votes. And now you see in Nevada, that the Culinary Union was very, very strongly against Sanders; they ran ads, they dumped on Medicare for All; and as it turns out workers themselves from the same union voted overwhelmingly in favor of Sanders.

So that's the interesting part. It's a moment. It's a moment when the elites are not able to tell people how to think. How far it goes it remains to be seen, I think. I mean, they're pulling out all the stops, and they'll continue with this character assassination. He's an anti-Semite. He's a Russian agent. I mean, really the Russian agent stuff. I teach 10-year-olds who roll their eyes like what do you mean? Again? They're saying that again!

And people have seen through it, and they're gonna raise taxes. Oh, it's so scary. And people know working people pay taxes out of their paycheck. The reason we hate it is because the government is using our healthcare money to drop bombs on brown people all over the world. If they weren't, any idiot can see that if you raise the taxes, but cut spending elsewhere and the total expenditure is left with a huge benefit for the people, then it doesn't matter.

And people aren't going to listen to that anymore. It's just done. But that being said that the kind of change in the consciousness has limits on it. I think that this is all domestic. It's all perfectly legitimate. And it has an enormous capacity to push real change. But there is zero consciousness outside the boundaries of the United States. I would say even worse than that they still have a fundamentally pro-imperialist program.

You know, after, after these wins, Sanders is on TV saying that he would intervene in China, if China made a military move against Taiwan, which is so ridiculous and ahistorical--childish, really. It's like saying that if the US made a move on Hawaii, China would attack the US. It's just, it's just so out of touch with what's happening in the rest of the world.

And he has the same lack of understanding of geopolitics or, rather, the understanding that the US is an exceptional nation and all of that stuff that is just counterproductive. If this moment is to become something else, phase one might be in the people's consciousness rising to where they're not listening to the overlords and they are asserting their own interest. That's enormously threatening to the establishment.

But phase two has to be not being selfish, you know, looking at how our government is destroying countries around the world and how the scourge of white supremacy, of American exceptionalism, of imperialism is really, really horrible, and it's coming from the US. If the people can't embrace that change, then it really isn't a movement and it doesn't have much hope.

Again I stick with the idea that it remains to be seen. But I think it's important for people to acknowledge it. I mean, especially us on the left, this is an indication that people are finally listening maybe a little bit to what we've been saying for decades, and that is a good thing. And we should push that moment, but we can't accept it at face value. We have to keep pushing and push the consciousness to the left and broaden that to the rest of the world.

Daniel Patrick Welch is a writer of political commentary and analysis. Also a singer and songwriter, he lives and writes in Salem, Massachusetts with his wife. Together they run The Greenhouse School. He has traveled widely, speaks five languages and studied Russian History and Literature at Harvard University. Welch has also appeared as a guest on several TV and radio channels to speak on topics of foreign affairs and political analysis--around his day job. He can be available for interview requests as time and scheduling permit. Despite the price of being outspoken against US foreign policy and military adventurism -- which can be steep in today's circumstances -- he believes firmly as did Rosa Luxemburg that "It will always be the most revolutionary act to tell the truth out loud."

Welch wrote this article for Press TV website.

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