Alon Preiss: Yes, I am still for Bloomberg (even after that bad debate)
Unless you’re living under a rock, or in a cave, you’ve heard by now that my candidate, Mike Bloomberg, laid an egg in his first debate. And not only that: he has been revealed as sexist, racist, an out of touch egotist. A man trying to buy power.
Let’s start with the last part first. He has used his vast wealth, over the last few years, to pursue liberal policies, most notably climate and gun control. He could have used his money to buy vacation properties, cocaine and whores. But instead, he has used his money to save the planet, and to save lives.
Why not endorse Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren, the former an admitted lefty like me, the latter a closet lefty, and also like me?
Because their campaigns, more than anything else, are about a pipe dream of a health care plan. Medicare for all will not happen now; maybe it will happen someday. I don’t care.
I opposed stop and frisk, Bloomberg’s most misguided policy. I never voted for him before. I recognize that he is not a good debater. Maybe that isn’t what matters now.
I am drawn to his campaign because it is issue based, and headed by someone who has devoted the waning years of his life to these issues, because it is about something more than the next step in someone’s career, and because, for voters, and for me, it is a campaign about something more than whether I get a tax cut or whether I get better health care.
Bloomberg’s campaign is not about whether I live to be 85 rather than 90. It’s about something beyond the individual; it is about the collective good. He is the only candidate who has put climate first. If you think this is about power, you are fooling yourself. He has all the power that any man could ever want. He isn’t in this to advance his career. He isn’t in this to give you something. He is in this to save the world.
^^^
Alon Preiss is the author of In Love With Alice (2017). Available NOW from Amazon, Barnes & Noble or from ANY BOOKSTORE IN ANY TOWN OR CITY IN AMERICA
Illustration from a photo by Rene DeAnda.
