Seduced (?) By Mike Bloomberg (??)

I have a confession to make. 

 

I have been seduced.

 

By Mike Bloomberg.

 

Yeah, those damn TV ads got to me. 

 

Well produced ads with Li’l Donald Trump sharply in the crosshairs of Bloomberg’s attacks, it’s hard not be impressed.

For example, the one with John Mellencamp’s “Small Town” with a montage of small town people who look like the demographic Trump targeted in 2016, their glum expressions match the narrator’s assertion that these people were betrayed by Trump.

 

It is a fair point.

 

For all his appeal to small town America, to people forgotten by the elites of Washington, Trump has done damn little to make their lives better.

His tariffs make things at the local Wal-Mart more expensive.

Those same tariffs are slamming the manufacturers that were already working when Trump took office, promising to bring more manufacturing jobs to the United States. Under Trump, plants have trimmed jobs or shut down.

Or the small farmers who have found it harder to make a living running their farms because of Trump’s tariffs.

Or the working poor who even with jobs still need assistance to get by such as food stamps and Trump keeps whittling away at that safety net. 

Think about Trump’s big thing this week which was to issue pardons for a bunch of well-connected cronies convicted of corruption and various other white collar crimes. What the hell does any of that have to do with the needs of small town America?

 

There’s another thing in the “Small Town” ad where the narrator says Bloomberg will actually invest in infrastructure. Nice burn to Trump. How many times as the Trump White House scheduled an “infrastructure week” to reportedly focus on that very topic only to have that topic sidetracked by Trump himself, usually because he’s obsessed with some other thing where he feels he’s being treated badly and is personally under attack. 

 

This and other Bloomberg ads are very good at getting to the heart of the matter: Donald Trump is bad for our country and isn’t doing one damn thing to make our lives better. 

 

Yes, I admit that I have been seduced by Mike Bloomberg.

 

Or more accurately, I have been seduced by Mike Bloomberg’s advertising department. 

 

What about the man himself? 

 

On one hand, Mike Bloomberg’s wealth and success appear to be real and significant compared to the chimeras surrounding Donald Trump’s alleged reputation for wealth and success.

 

On the other hand, Mike Bloomberg has not released his tax returns. He cites the complexity of his extensive businesses and investments.  “I can't just go to TurboTax,” Bloomberg replied when pushed on why he hasn’t released his tax returns.

 

On one hand, Mike Bloomberg’s had actual experience running a government organization as the mayor of New York City for 12 years, a time frame where the city enjoyed economic growth and declining crime rates.

 

On the other hand, Mike Bloomberg seems to have been during his time as mayor oblivious or coldly uncaring to the costs and consequences of obtaining that economic strength and low crime rate, the gentrification of neighborhoods that made them too expensive for low income or even middle class people to live in or the near police state tactics like "stop and frisk”, all of which disproportionately targeted minorities. Bloomberg has of late apologized for the "stop and frisk" strategy which may be sincere or it just may be than anybody who wants to get the Democratic nomination for President needs to get in solid with African American voters and Mike Bloomberg ain’t no dummy.

 

On one hand, Mike Bloomberg has built an vast organization with a lot of dedicated and loyal people working for him.

 

On the other hand, Mike Bloomberg doesn’t get along with everyone. There are allegations of improper conduct with women. These issues have apparently been settled but whatever went wrong, we will never know as these settlements include non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) with the affected women. 

NDAs are a favorite tool of Donald Trump to shut up critics and silence descent.  Do we need another billionaire with a closet full of abused and now silenced women?

When Elizabeth Warren pressed Bloomberg to release these women from these NDAs, Bloomberg replied, “We're not going to end these agreements, because they were made consensually." Mike’s answer was greeted by boos.

Considering the extreme pressure women are under when forced to deal with sexual harassment in the work place, NDAs can hardly be viewed as consensual. More often, it's sign the NDA or get nothing. 

 

So am I still seduced by Mike Bloomberg?

 

Look, I let Mike buy me a drink. I let him sweet talk me and tell me how pretty I am.

 

But he’s not buying me a second drink. 

 

Mike Bloomberg is not the unbeatable bull dog his millions of dollars have tried to convince us he is. He may have some good points but he does have flaws and they may be more considerable than we think going up against Donald Trump. 

 

That being said, if Bloomberg gets the nomination and I have a binary choice between Mike or Donnie, I’ll damn well let Mike buy me that second drink and maybe let him get to second base. I will vote for his ass. I hope I have a better choice but if that is my choice, I will make it.

 

Elizabeth Warren said, “America takes a huge risk if we just substitute one arrogant billionaire for another."  That may well be true but I will take my chances with the arrogant billionaire with the speaking vocabulary of an intelligent adult over the arrogant billionaire with the speaking vocabulary of a spoiled, petulant 4^th grader.