Bernie's Yearning: Because Nothing Is So Unstoppable As A Flavor Whose Time Has Finally Come

by

Abby Zimet, staff writer

With Iowa hovering, Clinton support wavering and Sanders numbers surging, a moment to feast on two key endorsements he won this week, one light and sweet, one substantial. On Monday, Ben and Jerry's co-founder Ben Cohen unveiled Bernie's Yearning, a new custom-made "participatory flavor" ice cream that includes "a graphic description of what's wrong in our country (in 3D frozen confectionary form) and a tribute to the only presidential candidate who has offered solutions that will actually fix the problems." 

Each pint features plain mint ice cream topped by a thick disc of solid chocolate. The top represents "the huge majority of economic gains that have gone to the top 1% since the end of the recession"; the mint is "the rest of us." The carton - with Sanders' picture and "Open Joyfully. Political revolution inside" - includes eating      instructions: Take back of spoon, whack the chocolate into lots of pieces, mix them around and "share it with your fellow Americans!" 

As enthusiastic constituents of Sanders for 30 years, Cohen created the new flavor on his own, separate from the Ben & Jerry’s brand and not for sale; he made 40 pints in his kitchen and donated 25 to Sanders' campaign because, "We've seen him in action and we believe in him."

Evidently so does the estimable Robert Reich, former Secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration, who's "known Hillary Clinton since she was 19 years old, and have nothing but respect for her." But in a stunning reversal, Reich says that he considers Hillary "the most qualified candidate for president of the political system we now have" but views Bernie as "the most qualified candidate to create the political system we should have" - and has even posted a potent six-point rebuttal to skeptics. 

Reich writes in a hard-hitting blog post of "the volcanic core" of this election: "It’s about power - whether those who have it will keep it, or whether average Americans will get some as well." Arguing the election is "about changing the parameters of what’s feasible and ending the choke hold of big money on our political system," he references a Princeton survey of 20 years of political issues thatconcluded, “The preferences of the average American appear to have only a minuscule, near-zero, statistically insignificant impact upon public policy.” 

If you're one of tens of millions of Americans "working harder than ever but getting nowhere," he asks, what will you choose: A filthy rich "authoritarian son-of-a-bitch who promises to make America great again by keeping out people different from you," or a "political activist who tells it like it is, who has lived by his convictions for fifty years, who won’t take a dime of money from big corporations or Wall Street or the very rich." 

Reich's theme nicely dovetails with the gritty hopefulness expressed in Sanders newest ad. "There are those who say we cannot defeat a corrupt political system and fix a rigged economy," he says in it. "But I believe we need to lift our vision (and) look to the American horizon."

http://www.commondreams.org/further/2016/01/25/bernies-yearning-because-nothing-so-unstoppable-flavor-whose-time-has-finally