Archetypcal Choice in the 2016 Election: Which form of Daddy?

My local newspaper, The Columbian, is full today of Bernie Sanders' visit to Vancouver. It's good of him to come to this small town across the Columbia. Most national politicians want to spend their time in Portland or Seattle to get more bang for their buck. But here Bernie is, talking about stemming the national slide toward oligarchy.

Oligarchy--now there's a term. I wasn't there so I don't know if he defined it for his (mostly younger) cheering audience. Personally, I'm not sure whether we aren't becoming a plutocracy in this country. Since an oligarchy is government by an elite, and a plutocracy is government by the wealthy, I find it hard to tell the difference.  Still Bernie is focused on oligarchy and as such, I think he's the direct heir of the Occupy Wall Street movement.

As someone who drove to downtown Denver to press $5 into the hands of the Wall Street protestors camped out at the capitol, I have to admit an affinity for anyone who opposes those who use superior knowledge of the financial markets to manipulate and cheat. That's why I am rather intrigued by what I see as an emerging choice between blue collar rage and younger generation outrage.

It's always been interesting to me to wonder about the relations between a father and son. We know  about the Trumps and the family history of real estate dealings. We also know that Bernie's father's family were wiped out in the holocaust. I suppose a psychologist could make much of this.

But the end result is that Hillary Clinton is emerging as a sort of middle-aged mother figure trying to negotiate a family conflict between an aging patriarchal husband figure angry at becoming irrelevant and a restless, mutinous son who wants to lock horns with him. The huge irony with Bernie, of course, is that he is 74. But then he lost his family and can only imagine how they would have been. Trump had his and used his father's money to essentially compete with him.

Ah, the archetypes fly.

Since the rest of us are all angry about something, it will be interesting to see which side of this family drama the American populace will choose in the coming election.