Today's MOZEN: Hillary vs Bernie

Words and photo by F LoBuono

Being baseball season, I thought the following analogy might be helpful in understanding the rift between the Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders camps:

Think of the Bernie and his followers as a National League Team and Hillary's supporters as their American League opponent. They are meeting in the World Series. The American League has won the All Star game entitling that squad to the home field advantage. This is set by the rules of Major League Baseball (MLB) and agreed to by all teams in the Major Leagues. The series has been a hard-fought, competitive affair and has come down to the 7th and deciding game. Because the American League team (Hillary) has the home field advantage the game will be played in its ballpark. Since it is played in the American League ballpark, BOTH teams get to use the so-called Designated Hitter (DH). Again, this is by the rules of MLB. Now, it's debatable whether the DH gives one team an advantage over the other. However, it can be argued that since the American League team plays with the DH on virtually a daily basis, it would favor them.

Be that as it may, IT IS ONE OF THE RULES OF THE GAME, decided LONG before this contest.

Purist have argued that since the implementation of the Designated Hitter into the American League (1973), the integrity of the game has been weakened. By the original rules of baseball, ALL position players were to take their turn at bat. But, to aid flagging attendance, some baseball executives decided that more hitting would make for a more exciting game. Since pitchers are notoriously poor hitters (they get paid to PITCH), they figured replacing them at the plate with a "real" hitter would lead to more runs and, therefore, more fans. The American League owners voted to accept the new rule, while the National owners preferred the status quo. The compromise was to use each League's rule within their own ballparks when playing one another. This includes the playoffs and world series.

The merits of the DH have been debated ever since.

However, in the meantime, it remains a rule of the game. To complain about it after the fact is counter productive. The genie is already out of the bottle. Teams that learn to use the rules to their advantage win the Series. Period.

So it is the case with Hillary and Bernie. We are in the 7th and deciding game. Hillary, for better or worse, is well versed in the rules of the game. In a sense, she has used the designated hitter to her best advantage. And, so she leads in both the popular vote and the delegate count. She is poised to win the Series. Bernie's followers are outraged: The rules are stacked against us! Hillary is just using a corrupt system! It's just more of the same. All of these things MAY be true. But, they still miss the point. Hillary did USE the rules to win. Charges to the contrary abound but have NOT been substantiated. So, she CANNOT be blamed for using the tools available to her. She (we) cannot make excuses for doing whatever is necessary to win. That would be like asking the New York Yankees to not do everything within their power, INCLUDING the use of their considerable monetary resources, to win it all.

This is the big league folks. It's the 7th game for all the marbles. Look for solutions - not excuses!