The other day I said the real working class chose Joe Biden, not Bernie Sanders, on Super Tuesday. NPR crunched the numbers further, expanding the scope to include all states that have voted so far for a Democratic nominee. I was more right than I knew.

I’ll be discussing this more next week. Meanwhile, today I talked about the idea of political authenticity with respect to Sanders. His inauthentic behavior, which is something every politicians does, seems authentic. But, like everyone else’s, it’s not.

What is authenticity when all politicians pander? All of them suck up. All of them must. Politicians are people who present one part of themselves at one point in time and another part of themselves at another point in time, depending on what’s useful, advantageous or self-preserving. In one way or another, these are unnatural creatures operating in an artificial environment and practicing a variety of rhetorical conceits. There is nothing wrong with this. Indeed, you could say this is what they should do.

Really good politicians make inauthentic behavior look authentic. That’s probably Sanders’ greatest talent. The Vermont senator has convinced legions they should choose him because he stands up to the rich and the powerful, as he always has.

He hasn’t.

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Many thanks! —John Stoehr