While I was walking my dog this morning, I was thinking about Bernie. My son is a young gen Z Bernie supporter so I’ve put a lot of thought into my reasons for not supporting Bernie. The common theme for most of my issues with Bernie is that he is an agitator, not a leader.
Agitators are not bad. They play a hugely importantly role in all progress, but the things that make one a great leader and the things that make one a great agitator are very different.
Bernie has a clear, well articulated agenda that he is clearly passionate about - so passionate as to be uncompromising.
There are a lot of people who like and admire the idea of being uncompromising. To compromise is to risk having things become watered down and many find that unacceptable.
The thing about being dogmatic and unbending is that it becomes difficult to build the level of buy in needed to advance an agenda. Paul Ryan was the GOP poster child for this as House Speaker.
Trying to advance an agenda without creating buy in results in a steam roller type approach where you just try to shut down and silence opposition. This is where the comparisons between Trump and Bernie come in.
I get it. Sometimes you have to break shit to fix shit, but there has to be true coalition building and efforts made to listen to diverse voices and a willingness to compromise and negotiate in order to get there.
