John Pete George Ringo

"I am asking you to picture that first day the sun comes up in this country and Donald Trump is no longer the President of the United States of America ... what comes next? The sun's gonna come up over a country even more divided and torn up by politics than we are today ..." said Pete Buttigieg during his recent speech at the LJ Dinner in Iowa.

It's when I heard these lines that I realized that this grotesque mess we are living in WILL END. There WILL be an actual morning after this shameful presidency that the sun comes up and we have a different leader. And when I was pondering these lines and imagining that morning, I couldn't help but start singing that beautiful song by The Beatles: 

Here comes the sun (doo doo doo)
Here comes the sun, and I say
It's all right

Little darling, it's been a long cold lonely winter
Little darling, it feels like years since it's been here

Here comes the sun (doo doo doo)
Here comes the sun, and I say
It's all right

Little darling, the smiles returning to the faces
Little darling, it seems like years since it's been here

Here comes the sun
Here comes the sun, and I say
It's all right

Sun, sun, sun, here it comes
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes

Sun, sun, sun, here it comes

A song that we all know how to sing; created for us by John, Paul, George, and Ringo. The Beatles. Four individuals who made unique contributions to create one of the greatest bands of all time. 

Given that my daughter knows that I am a supporter of Pete, she was surprised when I recently told her that yes, my number one is Pete. And my number two is Bernie. 

To me, Bernie is the candidate who has been unafraid of pushing his passion without obfuscation. It is because of Bernie's lifetime of audacious work that our nation is even talking about the issue of health care in meaningful ways. In terms of The Beatles (to borrow an analogy that Jerry Saltz once made between painters and The Beatles), Bernie is John and Pete is Paul.

This pair collaborated to write Here Comes the Sun (among many other songs in their incredible body of work) that got our world to hear and feel lyrics that told unforgettable stories. (EDIT: Here Comes the Sun was not written by Lennon/McCartney. Rather, it was written by George Harrison.)

As much as they needed each other to create their songs, they always had some tension in their relationship. After The Beatles broke up, there is an interview where John referred to Paul's solo songs as "silly love songs," to which Paul replied by writing one of his biggest solo hits: Silly Love Songs.

Like Bernie and John, Pete is also unafraid. But like Paul, Pete is open to allowing a strong melody to harmonize and compromise with other notes and other ideas. He is ok with reading books with heft like Ulysses (by James Joyce) AND playfully snoopy-dancing to the theme from Peanuts ... and singing joyfully along with other "silly love songs" that are diverse, frequently incremental, and always beautifully pragmatic.