I’m fussed about that money question, and even more fussed about some bullshit foisted on me first thing in the week by the Colonel and his General, but fuss aside I am feeling strong and resilient and reconciled with whatever the fates may hold, which is not the same as being resigned.

I got home in a driving rain and picked off one final chunk of debate recap (from Friday’s DemocracyNow). The famous Spanish journo was ragging on Sanders about how the Venezuelan dictator was a Socialist too, que no? What’s the difference between his vile ass and yours, Senator? (Coy prick.)

Sanders did fine in boathooking him off and frustrating his hostile boarding action, but I was reminded of the essential difference, as exemplified by something called the Political Compass. The difference is that Maduro is an authoritarian, and Sanders is an advocate for liberty.

Arguing how left either one of them is or isn’t doesn’t have a lot of meaning anymore in a vacuum.

Here is the PolComp’s take on where Sanders and the other candidates stand:

Election and election again, these particular analysts have always stuffed the vast majority of American presidential candidates into the Authoritarian-Right quadrant. This time around that tendency is even more marked than in ’16 or ’12 or ’08 (which was about the time I first saw them online).

You can argue about their placements. Let me offer one or two objections. Inslee is to the right of Trump? No. I’d swap the positions of Gabbard and Williamson on the chart. Castro, O’rourke, and Buttigieg further out on both X and Y coordinates than Biden? C’mon, dudes …

But …

In soft-focus gestalt terms, they’ve got it correct. Warren is just about the perfect centrist, in literal as opposed to relative, contextual terms.

Your choices are very limited if your worldview is consonant with the green quadrant (and as someone who scores deep into that corner, that feels too damn right, pun fully intended). Or in fact anywhere south of Authority’s line in this culture.

You can try the test yourself and see how your candidate matches up with your real beliefs.

I’ll tease again about that next real post I’m trying to find headspace to write about. My relationship to all authority, whether it be on the other coast or just down the hall, whether mostly imaginary or deadly real, is massively useful in understanding all kinds of things about what’s right and wrong in my life. And my relationship to trauma too.