Oh man, another Bernie supporter telling me that Bernie is GOOD man (not merely a good man, but a GOOD man) and therefore deserves to be president. And another just told me that Bernie will never lie to us….

So what’s with this weird “he’s a GOOD man” trip that so many Bernie people are on? They make it sound more like a religious movement than a political movement. Is Bernie the messiah, promising utopia? Any time anybody mentions even the slightest hint of imperfection they start with the Bernie is a GOOD man mantra. Or how Bernie will never lie to us. Hell, he’s a politician, he will lie, he will sometimes betray his own principles. It goes with the gig. But if Bernie’s losing campaign has proven anything, he’s shown that the under 40 year olds in this country are as ripe for the next great American religious revival as were the under 40 year old baby boomers in the 1970’s. They called that one the Fourth Great Awakening. Looks like the Fifth Great Awakening might be right on its historical schedule.

It sure has given this political season a vaguely creepy feeling, the way Bernie’s supporters hang on his every word like he is more than just a mere human being, as if He is perfection itself. And all who don’t believe in Him with all their heart and soul are infidels. Those rallies of His aren’t political rallies as much as they are revival meetings. His believers give Him money the way people give TV preachers money, on command, because they have faith in Him because He is a good man and He will never lie to us. One man’s Heaven is another man’s Socialist Utopia, I guess, and there’s a white messiah pointing the way to both.

Unfortunately for Bernie, there have been two and a half million more skeptics than believers so far, and a lot more to come. No one ever said a messianic movement was easy.

The laying on of hands.