Mike Bloomberg

Lefties for Bloomie

I’m a good lefty. I am a registered Dem, as I have told you before, only because Trotsky’s party isn’t on the ballot.

But I think there will still be time for a world socialist revolution only if the world survives. I don’t want to sound messianic, but the only one who can save us now is the otherwise-flawed-presidential candidate, Mike Bloomberg.

Climate is all that matters now

Jay Inslee made climate his number one issue, and so he was my candidate. Then he dropped out.

Now, of the remaining candidates, only Bloomberg has made climate his number one issue, and so he is my new candidate.

His number two issue is gun control. This is OK too. But it has to run a distant second. I do hope not to be shot down in a random massacre, but I don’t really matter that much. Not one of us matters that much — not me, not you, not that talented young novelist Joe Hill. We’ve even managed to get by without Lou Reed and David Bowie for a fewyears.

So you see, if the world is uninhabitable a hundred years from now, my survival or yours over the next decade or so really won’t make much of a difference.

Bloomberg has poured his own money into the campaigns of pro-climate candidates, and has financially supported cities and states in their climate efforts.

Other Dem candidates are strong on climate as well, but it is not their top issue.

Realistically, presidents get to do one big thing. If “Medicare for All” is that big thing, then climate will not be.

In any other year, Sanders or Warren would get my vote. This is not any other year.

I don’t matter. And neither do you. It is time for selflessness.

Don’t get me wrong, I’d love free health care. I don’t want to die of cancer. But I’m willing to put the survival of the world over my own survival.

You know, I’m not really such hot shit. You all can do without me.

A sequel to my novel In Love With Alice might be nice, but when you line that Alice sequel up against the survival of all humanity, I think even I have to agree that humanity is more important. Not to mention the survival of the spotted owl and the coral reefs.

I like to think the prose in my Alice book is poetic, but the coral reefs are more poetic. And if I am gone, and there is a demand for an Alice sequel, then that talented young writer Joe Hill can write it.

If we do not focus on climate, nothing else will matter.

Bloomberg has promised to spend a billion dollars in the general election campaign, even if he isn’t the candidate. Even if the candidate is Sanders, or Warren, with whom he is not exactly simpatico. He is a titan of industry, but he is selfless.

So, for him, the mission is more important than the individual. This is how I feel.

I don’t mind dying from lack of decent healthcare, as long as you and the planet survive.

Are you a Zionist? Then you should care even more about climate.

Maybe you are a Zionist, and that’s your issue. OK, I am a lefty, and I hate Netanyahu, but I am also a Zionist. Right now, in the winter, Israel is underwater. People are dying in floods. In the summer, it will be on fire. Israel will be uninhabitable if we do nothing about climate.

Who can win in 2020?

He can beat Trump.

He will be widely palatable to the country at large. And he should be widely palatable to us lefties as well.

I am a crabby old New Yorker, and I voted against Bloomberg in every single mayoral election.

Green would have been a great mayor. Instead, we got 9/11 and Bloomie.

I wrote him an angry letter once, and he never responded. Boy, what an asshole. I was a constituent, and he didn’t even bother to respond.

How dare he ignore me!

But I am willing to let bygones be bygones.

Don’t ever forgive him for stop and frisk. But vote for him anyway.

Bloomberg was a pretty good mayor. He had serious errors of judgment — stop and frisk was a significant violation of human rights. He has apologized for stop and frisk, and we need not forgive him. It was bad, really bad. So, believe me, I know how you feel about this, and there is no reason why you should ever forgive him. Being stopped and frisked is degrading and humiliating.

In any other year, this would be disqualifying, but not in 2020.

I think we would be in uninspiring but OK hands under Bloomberg’s leadership.

And he might 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 Bloomberg’s website. Mike, we assume you are OK with us screen-shotting this photo. Let us know if you have any problem with it.