It Is NOT Just In The Age of Trump That Politicians Doubled Down On Mistakes.

So Bernie Sanders is still defending that he said nice things about Fidel Castro, Daniel Noriega, and the subway system in Moscow, and Sanders is only doubling down on his previous comments because Trump does this?  I saw that being posited on MSNBC today.  It’s bullshit.  Politicians were doubling down on comments and policies that most of the public disagreed with well before Trump took over the White House.

Note:  I volunteered for a local refugee organization in the Louisville, KY area.  I know a man who was kept in prison and beaten for years by the Castro regime.  Sorry Bernie, but there is nothing good about communist dictatorships.  Nor is there anything good about right wing dictatorships.  I think you can be for freedom and economic and social justice without it becoming some Cold War binary choice.

Does this mean I’m going to sit out the election and not vote for Sanders?  Are you fucking nuts???

I’m old enough to remember when Reagan and his ilk came to power.  Many a Republican politician embraced right wing dictators and death squads to fight communism.  And did they apologize for that? Hell no!  I remember Senator Jesse Helms being proud that he supported right wing extremists across the globe as long as they fought communists.  It was brought up during his 1984 reelection campaign.  The good folks of North Carolina still voted him back into office.

But is is not just the Cold War that brings out the doubling down of politicians.  You just need to go back to the vote to authorize the invasion of Iraq in 2003.  And it is not just Republicans who couldn’t come clean about their vote to give George W. Bush the OK to invade Iraq.  There is a certain Democratic candidate who cannot admit that his vote in 2002 was just plain wrong if not down right craven.

I’m looking at you Joe Biden.

This is not some new phenomenon.  Politicians lacking any sense of shame has just reached it’s apogee under Trump.  But not being able to admit a mistake or continuing to hold a view that history shows is wrong,?  A lot of humans do it, and you don’t need to be a politician either.  But it helps though.