I am a political animal first.

Second, I am a humanist.

This means I will put party and country before religion, or lack thereof in my case.

Lord knows I have spent more time than I want to ballyhooing Hillary Clinton for the presidency. She’s the worst best hope we have. Anyone who can’t see her obvious advantages over Bernie Sanders as a candidate has horse blinders on. I’m not too keen on idealism. I am, despite the yearnings of my heart, a pragmatist. Half a loaf is better than none.

But I am still impressed with him. So far, he has not been able to project the encyclopedic breadth of knowledge that Clinton has. I think he will do better in the next debate. He’s probably been told he needs to jump her, even if that goes against his integrity. He’s stuck in a pattern of repeating himself robotically, speaking in platitudes where Clinton has been showing off her bona fides and experience. That will probably not make the nut.

As you probably know, voters will support a Muslim or a homosexual before they vote for an atheist. The only group more vilified than atheists are socialists. And by my lights, Bernie is both. He isn’t quite willing to come out of the closet, but I give points for effort:

On “Jimmy Kimmel Live” Wednesday night, Sanders was explaining his popularity and why he is electable.

“You say you’re culturally Jewish, you don’t feel religious,” Kimmel told Sanders. “Do you believe in God, and do you think that’s important to the people of the United States?”

“Well, you know, I am who I am,” he replied. “And what I believe in and what my spirituality is about is that we’re all in this together. That I think it is not a good thing to believe that, as human beings, we can turn our backs on the suffering of other people,” he continued, as the crowd applauded and cheered so loudly he had to pause. 

“And you know, this is not Judaism. This is what Pope Francis is talking about, that we cannot worship just billionaires and the making of more and more money. Life is more than that.”

Yup, that’s one of our boys.

Hillary Clinton did the religion dance, and quoted the Bible as a great source for inspiration. My heart sank a little when she did that. I mean, the book is not all bad, but I can only stomach so much pandering before I get upset. I’m not exactly holding my nose to vote for her, but I would love some forward motion on the religion issue. But it is what it is and I have to do what is best-namely supporting a winner. Christ, we have a black man in the White House. Some people are not even going to vote for a woman yet, and that’s where we are at.

They will probably put my ashes in an urn before an atheist arrives at the White House.

Timing. And that time is not right yet. There is too much to lose if we do not keep the Oval Office.