The Good News

I know some people believe that ANYBODY BUT TRUMP is an improvement and I will submit that quite possibly Trump is literally the worst human being this country has ever produced. But letting one party - hopefully the good one - be taken over in the space of 3 weeks by a not very good billionaire (Bloomberg really is the competent, educated Trump) with a huge history of personal sexism and racist policies would have quite possibly been a worse development than electing Trump in the first place. If the choice really was "let Bloomberg do this or Trump 2 is inevitable" that would be one thing, but I don't think that is/was in any way the case. We didn't "need" Bloomberg to beat Trump, and the degree to which he was received favorably by people in the general Dem party (not universally, fortunately) was more than a little disturbing.

But I seriously believe that drumming Michael Bloomberg out of politics saved democracy. Don’t let it be said that progressive messaging doesn’t work. It took on $500 million and won. And despite what anyone feels today, that was important. It will discourage other billionaires from looking in the mirror and seeing a president. It shows that voters have a limit, a breaking point, a line they refuse to cross. Regardless of what happens in the nominating race, we didn’t get the worst option in the choose-your-own-adventure book. And we have progressives to thank for the near-miss.