Donald Trump's election provoked fear, anger and confusion on the part of his millions of opponents. Worrisome though, was the anger directed against other voters. In a healthy democracy, neighbors, friends and family members will always differ on politics. Arguments become more intense around election time and then die down. Some people, like myself, are news and political junkies and think about politics constantly. Most normal people do not. They may or may not have a basic political leaning, but their awareness rarely extends beyond elections season. Now we hear people unfriending people. I'm not talking about virtual friends on a social media platform. I mean the warm blooded kind you can (and should) reach out and touch.
POLARIZATION
The logic is that because Trump has said and done crude things, voting for him makes one "OK" with his treatment of women or his appeals to racism. I don't think that's true. It's true that racists voted for Trump. But, those aren't the voters I'm talking about. I'm talking about normal people, friends and relatives, that we know and love. These people are the same folks they were on the Monday before the election. To suddenly think they are worthy of ostracism, because of what they did in the voting booth, assumes everyone looks at politics the same. If one starts out believing that all, or most, politicians are corrupt, conniving liars, then how is one so worse than the other? If politicians of both major parties will sell themselves for campaign cash, future employment and political ambition... If, when elected they bail out crooked Wall Street bankers, while leaving millions of ordinary citizens to lose their homes and businesses... If they create two systems of justice, one for the rich and one for the poor... If, when elected, they condone wars their children don't have to fight, the wiretapping of our phones and computers and torture... Is racism and predatory sexism really that much of a leap?
Forgetting, for a moment, the arguments and the specific candidates, is this tenable? Can we allow politics to become so all consuming that we turn against parents, close friends or co-workers? Brother against brother? We did that once in this country. Up where I live, we call it the Civil War. Over 600,000 died.
WHY DID THEY DO IT?
Blaming the voters ignores what happened. The electorate was presented with two major party candidates they didn't like. But voters didn't stay home. They were angry. The country was ready for revolution. The question was whether it would come from the left or the right. The Democratic Party had the chance to offer democratic socialism (though realistically, it would have only been a return to New Deal Democracy) against the Republican Party's potential fascism. In the end, the Democrats insisted on an establishment nominee. That left the Republicans with the revolutionary candidate and the Democrats as the "low energy" campaign, as Trump would put it.
Those who blame Trump voters miss the point. They weren't choosing Trump over Clinton because they like all of what he says and does. And that many people didn't turn out just because they hate Clinton, though most do. They are frustrated. They want to break things, just like one does when they sweep papers off their desk or dishes onto the floor. They were voting against the system. They wanted to change the regime!
That may not be rationale. We may disagree with the logic, but this is what happens when people are not given an outlet for their frustrations, or an honest critique of their situation.
NOW WHAT?
How do we survive the radical, right wing, top down revolution we're about to experience. And revolutionary it will be. Many of us lived through Nixon, whose newly appointed Attorney General, John Mitchell, told the press, "we're going to take this country so far to the right, you won't recognize it". We lived through Reagan, who never heard of a weapons system he didn't think the tax payers shouldn't buy, who made the initial assault on environmental protections and intervened, internationally, on the side of death squads and tropical oligarchs. If George Bush set the Constitution on fire, and Obama left it to smolder, Trump is going to grind the ashes out with his foot. We really won't recognize this place.
So, how to fight back? Well, first, on a national level, we have to see if the Democratic Party can be saved, or is worth saving. It doesn't look good. In democracies all over the world, when a party loses, its leaders resign. Party chairs, prime ministers, losing nominees all disappear. After the Brexit vote, which was not even a parliamentary election with candidates, David Cameron resigned. Leaders take responsibility! Not politicians in this country, and certainly not Democrats in 2016. After failing to take a majority in the Senate, Chuck Shumer moved up to minority leader. After failing, again, to lead the Democrats to victory in the House, Nancy Pelosi was reelected minority leader. After the party lost a national presidential election, the titular heads of the party being Obama and Biden, Joe Biden starts making noise about being the nominee in 2020. The DNC was exposed, over and over, working against Bernie Sanders and for Hillary Clinton. Debbie Wasserman Schultz overturned Obama's rule against lobbyist money and opened the sewer again. After she was exposed working against Sanders, she resigned, to be instantly hired by Clinton's campaign. Her successor, Donna Brazille, was presented to the public as an independent on air analyst, by CNN. She slipped debate questions to Clinton, showing she had neither integrity as a news analyst nor as a member of the party. She is unapologetic. The first candidate to declare for the DNC chair is Keith Ellison, who comes from the actual progressive wing of the party. My guess is the corporate insiders will find a way to keep him out.
Corporate Democrats simply will not accept that they drove this train wreck. The party had a candidate that all data showed could beat Trump decisively. They insisted on Clinton over Sanders, and took a chance. It was a bad bet. Even the entire party organization, the celebrity and corporate money and the support of a popular president, she ran a lack lust campaign. On the debate stage, with a worldwide audience, she made her candidacy small. She had Trump on the ropes and then, at the end chews up time criticizing him for insulting a beauty pageant contestant, years earlier. No matter what offense Steven Douglas might have committed outside the debate, I can't imagine Abe Lincoln going off on that tangent.
The FBI director may have intervened in our election, and possibly affected its outcome, but hiding behind him or the Russians doesn't mitigate the responsibility of losing an election to a billionaire con artist. We don't, as of this writing, even know for sure the Russian government had any involvement with the hacks of DNC and other computers and the subsequent publication of Clinton campaign and DNC emails. We do know that those emails revealed reprehensible behavior on the part of the Democratic Party hierarchy, much of against a campaign peopled, and funded, by people like myself. And let's please remember that the CIA is not our most credible source of public information, if one remembers how we got into Iraq. Also, using 'CIA' and 'intervening in a foreign election', in the same sentence, is rich.
OK, beyond national electoral politics, now what? We need to support smaller groups, like the Standing Rock protesters and Black Lives Matters. We need to support local environmental and community organizing groups. We need to support and join unions and make them a fierce and vibrant force, once again. We need to get off media and get in the streets.
Argue and engage, in person, with people with opposing views. Get out of the echo chamber. If we just read and share Huffington Post articles, we miss the opportunity to win over the Fox viewers. We have valid arguments, but they have to be made in terms others understand. When conservative friends or relatives ask why there is support for the mothers of young black men killed by police, but no political fervor, months later, for the families of slain police officers, point out the difference. Beyond the fact that one is killed by an agent of the state and the other in the line of duty, is the issue of justice. The cop killer will be convicted, but the killer cop will be set free.
Speak up and express your displeasure with racist comments, jokes and displays. Tribalism and racism are common, if not natural, human traits. It takes effort and civility to tamp them down. If stoked, you get Rwanda in the '90s.
There were days of demonstrations, across the country, immediately after the election and still much hand wringing. But, we need to conserve our anger and energy. It's easy to be righteous now, when Trump's not yet in office and things are relatively peaceful. When the next really bad terrorist attack happens, that will change. You think we will all stand together and resist? No. Remember 9/11? Did we resist torture? Did we prevent the war, or punish the politicians who voted for it? Did we resist the humiliations at the airport? The surveillance of our communications and travel? Did we insist Bush and Cheney be impeached? Did we insist they be tried after they left office? Did we oppose Obama, when he declared he could order and American citizen killed, by simply declaring that the person is a terrorist? What do you think Trump will do with that power in his hands, if the country is scared silly, like it was in 2001?
What do you think he's going to let the cops do, the next time an African American sniper takes out a bunch of cops like in Dallas? He's already praising Duerte and the death squads, in the Philippines. We have to be ready.
We have to stop blaming voters and Russians and focus on what our own government, and its corporate allies and owners, are doing to us and our fellow citizens. We need to insist the Democratic Party purge its old guard. We need to make sure our schools teach science, logic and reason, even if it means running for the school board ourselves. We need make activism a common place, not something a few others do. We need to suit up, put on our helmets, dampen the bandanas for our faces and lock arms.
Thursday, December 15, 2016
Tuesday, November 08, 2016
There Won't Be a Happy Ending
Come Wednesday morning, we will not wake up from our "long national nightmare". No matter who wins, we lose. The ads on TV will stop and our PO boxes will no longer be stuffed with political junk mail, but things aren't going back to normal.
If Trump wins, there will be fear and anger among all he's threatened and insulted during the campaign. If he loses, his supporters will feel cheated, frustrated and angry. The crazier ones will want to get violent. The rest will be divided between those who shrug off politics forever, lick their wounds and go back to their lives and those wishing to regroup and fight on. Do they simply take over the Republican Party? Do they form another party? Unlike Bernie Sanders' supporters, they did not get co opted by the party. Their guy got nominated.
I'm not going to waste time pondering what life under Trump will be like if he wins. We know he would be dangerous. He is unfit for office. He clearly doesn't read. He has no attention span. He is uninformed, vindictive and seeks instant gratification. That's a volatile combination.
Then there will be counter moves in the street. Most Americans are docile as sheep, but a Trump victory would wake up many, and demonstrations by the masses would probably be accompanied by rioting and other acts of violence by the few.
What if Clinton wins? In 2008, she mocked Obama's young supporters, saying they thought "celestial choirs will be singing... and the world will be perfect", if he won. Now, that's essentially what we hear that from her supporters, including many who just last spring
were Bernie Sanders backers who said they could not vote for Hillary Clinton because she's a war monger. She hasn't changed. They have.
War and Peace
Donald Trump should not be President and certainly should not have access to the nuclear launch codes. However, Hillary Clinton's election does not usher in an era of peace. Just the opposite. She's not insane, or ignorant, like Trump, but that doesn't mean we're safe. This is a woman who gets her advice from the likes of Henry Kissinger, Madeline Albright and Benjamin Netanyahu. Look at those names and you know we're in for more subversion of democracies, coups, wars and an increasingly unstable Middle East.
She will continue arming the Saudis to the teeth, so they can continue their current war crimes in Yemen. She will continue to arm the Israelis and give them political cover to continue turning the West Bank and Gaza into open air prisons. And people wonder why "they" hate us and want to kill us.
Her vote, in the Senate, helped start the Iraq War. That war led to the creation of ISIS. Now that ISIS has spread to Syria, she wants to implement a "no fly" zone, supposedly to protect civilians, but, in reality to contain the Assad government, as her husband did with Saddam Hussein in the 1990s. That will require bombing radar installations and probably killing Iranians, Russians and members of Hezbollah. It also could involve shooting down Russian planes. Feeling safe yet?
Race relations
Keeping Donald Trump and his band of white supremacist followers out of the White House does not equate to an era of racial justice. Think the Clintons would not throw black females under a bus, if would serve their ends? Ask Loretta Lynch, who will never be appointed to the Supreme Court. Ask Lani Guinier, who will never be Attorney General. Ask Sister Souljah. Ask Hillary's mentor, Marion Wright Edelman, if the Edelmans and Clintons are still political friends.
Climate and the environment
A Trump victory will abolish the Environmental Protection Agency. But, a Clinton victory is just a slow death. Does anyone, who believes that global climate change is an immediate existential threat, believe that Hillary' incrementalism will provide the solutions necessary, in time, to save our children from planetary disaster?
Dancing on Donald Trump's grave is fine. I plan to. But why celebrate a Clinton victory? Why celebrate a candidate we saw attack a young Greenpeace activist, last spring? Why celebrate a woman who told her patrons that environmental activists need to "get a life"?
Secrecy
Donald Trump will unshackle the FBI and other security services to bring us all to heel. But, let' not forget who voted for the Patriot Act. What is the practical difference between Trump and Clinton's attitude toward Edward Snowden, who went into exile in order to reveal to us what our government had been doing to us?
Money
All through 2015 and the first third of 2015, we witnessed tens of thousands attending Bernie Sanders rallies in a rejection of the monied interests control of our government and politics. Donald Trump is one of the billionaires he was railing against. But Hillary and Bill Clinton took hundreds of millions of dollars in legalized bribes. Those debts will come due when Hillary is sworn in. We now know why she didn't want to release transcripts, of her talks to the bankers, during her primary run against Sanders. She had told the bankers she thought they should be allowed to write banking regulations!
So, we're screwed
The two party system has driven us down a dead end alley. In the darkness, is unrelieved political and cultural polarization, oligarchy and war. The Republican Party, in its institutional denial of science and reason, ensured a purge of its Old Guard and gave themselves, and us, Trump.
The Democrats, and their allies in the corporate media, have been exposed gaming the nomination and electoral process, with back channel communication between the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton's campaign against Bernie Sanders and between the DNC and at least one national news network (CNN). CNN asked the DNC for questions to pose to Republican candidates. Donna Brazille, epitomizing the revolving door between political elites and the media, slipped questions she copped, as a temporary CNN employee for Clinton to use in her debate against Sanders.
We learned this through the emails revealed by WikiLeaks. DNC and Hillary mouthpieces wish to distract us with supposed Russian hacking of their computers. I'll have to be excused if my level of outrage seems low. These are the same people that are OK with our own government hacking our email.
If you are genuinely for Clinton, not just scared shitless (as you should be) of Trump, celebrate if she wins. But be proud of what you are getting, not what you are avoiding. If you are OK with fracking, OK with the death penalty, OK with government surveillance, OK with banks writing the rules they play by, OK with hundred million dollar arms sales to Saudi Arabia and Israel, OK with wars of intervention, OK with CIA coups, believe there is an equivalency between the water protectors in North Dakota and the cops, construction workers and security guards beating them down and believe the fossil fuel industry is being unfairly put upon by radical environmentalists, then shout and dance and set off fireworks!
But, if not, and Hillary wins, wipe your forehead in relief, have a beer and wake up Wednesday, ready to continue the Revolution. If Trump wins, hold your neighbor tight, speak quietly, plan and be ready to resist the fascists and the fools.
If Trump wins, there will be fear and anger among all he's threatened and insulted during the campaign. If he loses, his supporters will feel cheated, frustrated and angry. The crazier ones will want to get violent. The rest will be divided between those who shrug off politics forever, lick their wounds and go back to their lives and those wishing to regroup and fight on. Do they simply take over the Republican Party? Do they form another party? Unlike Bernie Sanders' supporters, they did not get co opted by the party. Their guy got nominated.
I'm not going to waste time pondering what life under Trump will be like if he wins. We know he would be dangerous. He is unfit for office. He clearly doesn't read. He has no attention span. He is uninformed, vindictive and seeks instant gratification. That's a volatile combination.
Then there will be counter moves in the street. Most Americans are docile as sheep, but a Trump victory would wake up many, and demonstrations by the masses would probably be accompanied by rioting and other acts of violence by the few.
What if Clinton wins? In 2008, she mocked Obama's young supporters, saying they thought "celestial choirs will be singing... and the world will be perfect", if he won. Now, that's essentially what we hear that from her supporters, including many who just last spring
War and Peace
Donald Trump should not be President and certainly should not have access to the nuclear launch codes. However, Hillary Clinton's election does not usher in an era of peace. Just the opposite. She's not insane, or ignorant, like Trump, but that doesn't mean we're safe. This is a woman who gets her advice from the likes of Henry Kissinger, Madeline Albright and Benjamin Netanyahu. Look at those names and you know we're in for more subversion of democracies, coups, wars and an increasingly unstable Middle East.
She will continue arming the Saudis to the teeth, so they can continue their current war crimes in Yemen. She will continue to arm the Israelis and give them political cover to continue turning the West Bank and Gaza into open air prisons. And people wonder why "they" hate us and want to kill us.
Her vote, in the Senate, helped start the Iraq War. That war led to the creation of ISIS. Now that ISIS has spread to Syria, she wants to implement a "no fly" zone, supposedly to protect civilians, but, in reality to contain the Assad government, as her husband did with Saddam Hussein in the 1990s. That will require bombing radar installations and probably killing Iranians, Russians and members of Hezbollah. It also could involve shooting down Russian planes. Feeling safe yet?
Race relations
Keeping Donald Trump and his band of white supremacist followers out of the White House does not equate to an era of racial justice. Think the Clintons would not throw black females under a bus, if would serve their ends? Ask Loretta Lynch, who will never be appointed to the Supreme Court. Ask Lani Guinier, who will never be Attorney General. Ask Sister Souljah. Ask Hillary's mentor, Marion Wright Edelman, if the Edelmans and Clintons are still political friends.
Climate and the environment
A Trump victory will abolish the Environmental Protection Agency. But, a Clinton victory is just a slow death. Does anyone, who believes that global climate change is an immediate existential threat, believe that Hillary' incrementalism will provide the solutions necessary, in time, to save our children from planetary disaster?
Dancing on Donald Trump's grave is fine. I plan to. But why celebrate a Clinton victory? Why celebrate a candidate we saw attack a young Greenpeace activist, last spring? Why celebrate a woman who told her patrons that environmental activists need to "get a life"?
Secrecy
Donald Trump will unshackle the FBI and other security services to bring us all to heel. But, let' not forget who voted for the Patriot Act. What is the practical difference between Trump and Clinton's attitude toward Edward Snowden, who went into exile in order to reveal to us what our government had been doing to us?
Money
All through 2015 and the first third of 2015, we witnessed tens of thousands attending Bernie Sanders rallies in a rejection of the monied interests control of our government and politics. Donald Trump is one of the billionaires he was railing against. But Hillary and Bill Clinton took hundreds of millions of dollars in legalized bribes. Those debts will come due when Hillary is sworn in. We now know why she didn't want to release transcripts, of her talks to the bankers, during her primary run against Sanders. She had told the bankers she thought they should be allowed to write banking regulations!
So, we're screwed
The two party system has driven us down a dead end alley. In the darkness, is unrelieved political and cultural polarization, oligarchy and war. The Republican Party, in its institutional denial of science and reason, ensured a purge of its Old Guard and gave themselves, and us, Trump.
The Democrats, and their allies in the corporate media, have been exposed gaming the nomination and electoral process, with back channel communication between the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton's campaign against Bernie Sanders and between the DNC and at least one national news network (CNN). CNN asked the DNC for questions to pose to Republican candidates. Donna Brazille, epitomizing the revolving door between political elites and the media, slipped questions she copped, as a temporary CNN employee for Clinton to use in her debate against Sanders.
We learned this through the emails revealed by WikiLeaks. DNC and Hillary mouthpieces wish to distract us with supposed Russian hacking of their computers. I'll have to be excused if my level of outrage seems low. These are the same people that are OK with our own government hacking our email.
If you are genuinely for Clinton, not just scared shitless (as you should be) of Trump, celebrate if she wins. But be proud of what you are getting, not what you are avoiding. If you are OK with fracking, OK with the death penalty, OK with government surveillance, OK with banks writing the rules they play by, OK with hundred million dollar arms sales to Saudi Arabia and Israel, OK with wars of intervention, OK with CIA coups, believe there is an equivalency between the water protectors in North Dakota and the cops, construction workers and security guards beating them down and believe the fossil fuel industry is being unfairly put upon by radical environmentalists, then shout and dance and set off fireworks!
But, if not, and Hillary wins, wipe your forehead in relief, have a beer and wake up Wednesday, ready to continue the Revolution. If Trump wins, hold your neighbor tight, speak quietly, plan and be ready to resist the fascists and the fools.
Friday, October 21, 2016
A Night at the Circus
In ancient Rome, the masses were distracted by the spectacles presented in the Colosseum. As our republic devolves from government of the people to oligarchy, our rulers are hewing to the lessons of their Roman predecessors. In Wednesday night's debate, we were given the circus of ancient times, not a successor to the Lincoln/Douglas Debates.
On the left of our screens, was the orange freak show the media has fed us for a year. On the right, was the illusion of feminist, progressive liberalism. Rather than lions, gladiators and Christians, we beheld the vulgarity of a major party candidate without impulse control, intellect, decency or self awareness. His opponent: the embodiment of the intersection of crony capitalism with political careerism.
While WikiLeaks has exposed as fact the suspicions that Clinton holds environmentalists in contempt, is inclined to let bankers regulate themselves and is in collusion with the corporate mass media, she was allowed to get away with framing the discussion not on the content of the leaked emails, but on the method of their exposure. It was a debate of celebrity, not substance. Trump, Putin, Hillary.
Trump is so ignorant, self absorbed and inarticulate that he missed multiple opportunities to entangle Clinton in a web of her own illogic and deception. Two people stood on the stage last night. Only one of them has gotten people killed. Yet, what the public heard was an argument about Trump's opinion on the Iraq War, 13 years ago. Clinton snipped that, "I've said it was a mistake", referring to her Yes vote on the war, much as a teenager would stamp their foot and declare 'I said I was sorry!' No discussion about whose mistake, what the mistake was or what the consequences of her mistake were. Rather than point out that the 2003 invasion of Iraq led to the birth of ISIS, Trump confused his audience with childish declarations that "Obama and Hillary created ISIS" (presumably while she was Secretary of State). Of the three, only Senator Clinton had to the Constitutional power to vote on the actual war. In 2003, Obama was in the Illinois legislature and The Donald was a real estate developer turned TV star.
Trump, furiously denying accusations of sexual misconduct, with an outrage that conflicts with his public self image as unrestrained libertine, failed to force Clinton to account for her family's behavior. Bill Clinton, Hillary, their liberal supporters and the mass media have always treated Bill Clinton's accusers with a skepticism and contempt that they would never tolerate toward the accusers of Donald Trump, Bill Cosby or nearly any athlete.
And so went the night. Trump would act stranger and stranger, the clock began to wind down and neither would have to explain what the world would really be like, if they were elected. Once again, Clinton pointed out how heartless Trump's refugee policies would be, without explaining to the voters what the future will look like, after she is elected. Instead, it was 'look! there's a squirrel!' An honest discussion of refugees, energy or national security would center on the emergency of climate change. Instead, we were treated to the tired discussion of the mean things Trump has said about Mexicans and Muslims and to Clinton's platitudes about how America is Great because America is Good.
What voters need to be told is that the wave of refugees we witnessed flooding into Europe this last year is nothing compared to what will happen when climate change forces millions to march out of Africa, not fleeing war, but in search of food. That's a national security issue they don't discuss. It will happen. For 10,000 years humans have migrated when famine or climate have made their homes uninhabitable. This will lead to reduced standards of living, worldwide, political instability and wars. Trump huffed and puffed and Clinton offered lip service to an onrushing global emergency.
Clinton says she came to oppose the TransPacificPartnership when she learned of how it was going to hurt workers. Yet, she had the treaty text when it was being negotiated and when she said, 45 times, that she supported it (even calling it the "gold standard"). After she left the State Department, Obama wouldn't even let senators, such as Elizabeth Warren, see the final text. So, when did HRC come to oppose it? What new provisions does it include that were not there when she had promoted it? Who knows? Putin! Sexual assault! Crooked Hillary! Liar! Nasty! Emmy awards! ... Lions! Christians!
Climate change. Israel. Saudi Arabia. Yemen. Government surveillance. Health care solutions. Income inequality. We heard nothing. We saw nothing but the circus.
On the left of our screens, was the orange freak show the media has fed us for a year. On the right, was the illusion of feminist, progressive liberalism. Rather than lions, gladiators and Christians, we beheld the vulgarity of a major party candidate without impulse control, intellect, decency or self awareness. His opponent: the embodiment of the intersection of crony capitalism with political careerism.
While WikiLeaks has exposed as fact the suspicions that Clinton holds environmentalists in contempt, is inclined to let bankers regulate themselves and is in collusion with the corporate mass media, she was allowed to get away with framing the discussion not on the content of the leaked emails, but on the method of their exposure. It was a debate of celebrity, not substance. Trump, Putin, Hillary.
Trump is so ignorant, self absorbed and inarticulate that he missed multiple opportunities to entangle Clinton in a web of her own illogic and deception. Two people stood on the stage last night. Only one of them has gotten people killed. Yet, what the public heard was an argument about Trump's opinion on the Iraq War, 13 years ago. Clinton snipped that, "I've said it was a mistake", referring to her Yes vote on the war, much as a teenager would stamp their foot and declare 'I said I was sorry!' No discussion about whose mistake, what the mistake was or what the consequences of her mistake were. Rather than point out that the 2003 invasion of Iraq led to the birth of ISIS, Trump confused his audience with childish declarations that "Obama and Hillary created ISIS" (presumably while she was Secretary of State). Of the three, only Senator Clinton had to the Constitutional power to vote on the actual war. In 2003, Obama was in the Illinois legislature and The Donald was a real estate developer turned TV star.
Trump, furiously denying accusations of sexual misconduct, with an outrage that conflicts with his public self image as unrestrained libertine, failed to force Clinton to account for her family's behavior. Bill Clinton, Hillary, their liberal supporters and the mass media have always treated Bill Clinton's accusers with a skepticism and contempt that they would never tolerate toward the accusers of Donald Trump, Bill Cosby or nearly any athlete.
And so went the night. Trump would act stranger and stranger, the clock began to wind down and neither would have to explain what the world would really be like, if they were elected. Once again, Clinton pointed out how heartless Trump's refugee policies would be, without explaining to the voters what the future will look like, after she is elected. Instead, it was 'look! there's a squirrel!' An honest discussion of refugees, energy or national security would center on the emergency of climate change. Instead, we were treated to the tired discussion of the mean things Trump has said about Mexicans and Muslims and to Clinton's platitudes about how America is Great because America is Good.
What voters need to be told is that the wave of refugees we witnessed flooding into Europe this last year is nothing compared to what will happen when climate change forces millions to march out of Africa, not fleeing war, but in search of food. That's a national security issue they don't discuss. It will happen. For 10,000 years humans have migrated when famine or climate have made their homes uninhabitable. This will lead to reduced standards of living, worldwide, political instability and wars. Trump huffed and puffed and Clinton offered lip service to an onrushing global emergency.
Clinton says she came to oppose the TransPacificPartnership when she learned of how it was going to hurt workers. Yet, she had the treaty text when it was being negotiated and when she said, 45 times, that she supported it (even calling it the "gold standard"). After she left the State Department, Obama wouldn't even let senators, such as Elizabeth Warren, see the final text. So, when did HRC come to oppose it? What new provisions does it include that were not there when she had promoted it? Who knows? Putin! Sexual assault! Crooked Hillary! Liar! Nasty! Emmy awards! ... Lions! Christians!
Climate change. Israel. Saudi Arabia. Yemen. Government surveillance. Health care solutions. Income inequality. We heard nothing. We saw nothing but the circus.
Wednesday, July 13, 2016
Thoughts on Yesterday
So this is what defeat feels like. Not losing a race or a game, but actual defeat. Not with a bang, but a whimper. Surrender.
My head always knew it had to end in defeat, from the moment I donated my first dollar last year. But we flew so high and worked so hard. Chasing people down with a clipboard, in a parking lot, while circulating petitions for delegates. Calling voters in Iowa. Dialing numbers for hundreds of phone bank callers, in dozens of states. Pounding the pavement, with sore feet, sometimes in the rain, to knock on doors in different towns. A true volunteer community. Not hired guns, but real people, from all walks of life. Young, old, black, white, brown. A benevolent, committed community that wanted a better country and believed you could make revolution with peace, love and hard work. We started to believe in our own magic. Tied in Iowa. Landslide in New Hampshire. The crowds, despite the media black out. Michigan! So close, in places like Missouri and Illinois.
Once it became clear that we weren't realistically going to pull it off, the reaction of the volunteer community, at least the team that I belonged to, was to stick together and keep the movement going. The emotion, even in an on-line setting, was powerful the weekend before California. Nobody wanted to log off. Nobody wanted it to end. We'd been a part of something, a community, on a daily basis for six months. And while many naively, I think, thought the nomination was still within reach, even those of us who saw the writing on the wall wanted to keep the organization going, to elect truly progressive candidates and to force our positions onto the Democratic Party's platform. We were repeatedly told, by Sanders himself, that we had 1900+ delegates and were going all the way to the convention. I don't think there is another way to interpret that but that we would force floor fights on our platform planks, if they failed in committee, and that Bernie's name would be placed in nomination and that there would be a full roll call vote.
Bernie had said from the beginning that he would support Hillary, if she were the nominee. I never dreamed that meant prior to the convention. I assumed that after the vote, he would get up on stage and say something to the effect that he was keeping his word to support the Democratic nominee, Trump is a pig and he recognized that not all his supporters would follow his lead but he was endorsing Hillary and asked them to do so too. That would suck, but losing always does. Some of us would vote for her, some not. Some would be vocal in opposition, some not. We would remain united having come through the fight and then, if she was elected, resist her every effort to renege on campaign promises and present her, over the next couple elections, with an increasingly progressive Congress and party.
But, this! Throughout the day, yesterday, you could witness the movement splintering. Bernie endorsed her before the delegates had a chance to vote. Our delegates aren't party insiders with the financial wherewithal to just hop off to Philadelphia. That trip, for Bernie delegates, will be a hardship. Many had to plead for help through crowd sourcing sites. On Twitter, on Facebook, on the Slack channels of the campaign, it no longer felt like a revolution. As I said, in March, you can't have a revolution march behind one of those it seeks to overthrow.
The splintering is real. Many instantly declared their allegiance to Jill Stein and the Green Party. Many were just confused and adrift. Some were taking a wait and see attitude before deciding whether to vote for Hillary. Some were saying they'd vote for her over Trump. Many were saying we'd followed Bernie this far, had worked for him, believed in him, and since we think he's a good man, were obligated to follow his advice. And some said they'd now vote for Trump.
Those last two disturb me. I understand, but do not agree with, those who say they will vote for Hillary out of fear of Trump. I do not understand surrendering one's own thought process and judgement to anyone, even one for whom we have fought so hard. ...And how on Earth can one have been part of this campaign and turn around and vote for a billionaire demagogue who, at one point, blamed our campaign for violence at his own rallies?
There is plenty of time to argue over what to do in the privacy of the voting booth. My distress and sadness, today, is that yesterday seemed like a surrender. In a rush to placate the party, and get a few progressive platform planks, our campaign was handed over to the very Establishment that we revile. The convention will now be, not a battle for the soul of the party, but the coronation of an individual. Yes, Bernie's name will probably be placed in nomination, pretty words will be spoken and a roll call allowed. But, it will be for show. Everybody will know Bernie's delegates are voting for a candidate that has already conceded.
I got into this because I wanted a candidate that I could vote for, rather than the lesser of two evils. I opposed Hillary for years. She was a carpet bagger who rode sympathy for her trials as First Wife into the nomination for New York's U.S. Senator. Her two most momentous votes were in favor of the Iraq War and the Patriot Act. As Secretary of State, she supported illegal warfare, the TransPacificPartnership and fracking. Since leaving the White House, she and Bill have accumulated a net worth in excess of $110,000,000.00. Of that, Hillary has a net worth of $31,000,000.00+. Neither of them hold a job that pays that kind of money. Corporations that have, for years, expected her to be elected, have paid Bill and her to make speeches as a means by which to funnel them money. They've gotten rich by peddling influence. Two years ago, I was annoyed by all the 'Ready for Hillary' ads that would pop up on my computer. Then came the counter punch, 'Ready for Warren'. I would have worked and voted for her. She didn't run. Bernie took a look at the process, determined an Independent couldn't make it, and decided to throw his hat in, as a Democrat, to say what otherwise wouldn't be said. I understand why he went that route and have no regrets about participating in the campaign. My affection for my fellow campaigners and Dialer Monitor Team members is everlasting.
I've followed Bernie a long way, but I can't follow him to Hillary. I always knew we'd part ways. I just thought we'd make it to the convention, all together, whether figuratively or literally. Even in defeat, I thought we'd go down swinging. Now, after yesterday's surrender, our delegates will be witness to a coronation, much like a conquered people are forced to watch the parade of an occupying army.
My head always knew it had to end in defeat, from the moment I donated my first dollar last year. But we flew so high and worked so hard. Chasing people down with a clipboard, in a parking lot, while circulating petitions for delegates. Calling voters in Iowa. Dialing numbers for hundreds of phone bank callers, in dozens of states. Pounding the pavement, with sore feet, sometimes in the rain, to knock on doors in different towns. A true volunteer community. Not hired guns, but real people, from all walks of life. Young, old, black, white, brown. A benevolent, committed community that wanted a better country and believed you could make revolution with peace, love and hard work. We started to believe in our own magic. Tied in Iowa. Landslide in New Hampshire. The crowds, despite the media black out. Michigan! So close, in places like Missouri and Illinois.
Once it became clear that we weren't realistically going to pull it off, the reaction of the volunteer community, at least the team that I belonged to, was to stick together and keep the movement going. The emotion, even in an on-line setting, was powerful the weekend before California. Nobody wanted to log off. Nobody wanted it to end. We'd been a part of something, a community, on a daily basis for six months. And while many naively, I think, thought the nomination was still within reach, even those of us who saw the writing on the wall wanted to keep the organization going, to elect truly progressive candidates and to force our positions onto the Democratic Party's platform. We were repeatedly told, by Sanders himself, that we had 1900+ delegates and were going all the way to the convention. I don't think there is another way to interpret that but that we would force floor fights on our platform planks, if they failed in committee, and that Bernie's name would be placed in nomination and that there would be a full roll call vote.
Bernie had said from the beginning that he would support Hillary, if she were the nominee. I never dreamed that meant prior to the convention. I assumed that after the vote, he would get up on stage and say something to the effect that he was keeping his word to support the Democratic nominee, Trump is a pig and he recognized that not all his supporters would follow his lead but he was endorsing Hillary and asked them to do so too. That would suck, but losing always does. Some of us would vote for her, some not. Some would be vocal in opposition, some not. We would remain united having come through the fight and then, if she was elected, resist her every effort to renege on campaign promises and present her, over the next couple elections, with an increasingly progressive Congress and party.
But, this! Throughout the day, yesterday, you could witness the movement splintering. Bernie endorsed her before the delegates had a chance to vote. Our delegates aren't party insiders with the financial wherewithal to just hop off to Philadelphia. That trip, for Bernie delegates, will be a hardship. Many had to plead for help through crowd sourcing sites. On Twitter, on Facebook, on the Slack channels of the campaign, it no longer felt like a revolution. As I said, in March, you can't have a revolution march behind one of those it seeks to overthrow.
The splintering is real. Many instantly declared their allegiance to Jill Stein and the Green Party. Many were just confused and adrift. Some were taking a wait and see attitude before deciding whether to vote for Hillary. Some were saying they'd vote for her over Trump. Many were saying we'd followed Bernie this far, had worked for him, believed in him, and since we think he's a good man, were obligated to follow his advice. And some said they'd now vote for Trump.
Those last two disturb me. I understand, but do not agree with, those who say they will vote for Hillary out of fear of Trump. I do not understand surrendering one's own thought process and judgement to anyone, even one for whom we have fought so hard. ...And how on Earth can one have been part of this campaign and turn around and vote for a billionaire demagogue who, at one point, blamed our campaign for violence at his own rallies?
There is plenty of time to argue over what to do in the privacy of the voting booth. My distress and sadness, today, is that yesterday seemed like a surrender. In a rush to placate the party, and get a few progressive platform planks, our campaign was handed over to the very Establishment that we revile. The convention will now be, not a battle for the soul of the party, but the coronation of an individual. Yes, Bernie's name will probably be placed in nomination, pretty words will be spoken and a roll call allowed. But, it will be for show. Everybody will know Bernie's delegates are voting for a candidate that has already conceded.
I got into this because I wanted a candidate that I could vote for, rather than the lesser of two evils. I opposed Hillary for years. She was a carpet bagger who rode sympathy for her trials as First Wife into the nomination for New York's U.S. Senator. Her two most momentous votes were in favor of the Iraq War and the Patriot Act. As Secretary of State, she supported illegal warfare, the TransPacificPartnership and fracking. Since leaving the White House, she and Bill have accumulated a net worth in excess of $110,000,000.00. Of that, Hillary has a net worth of $31,000,000.00+. Neither of them hold a job that pays that kind of money. Corporations that have, for years, expected her to be elected, have paid Bill and her to make speeches as a means by which to funnel them money. They've gotten rich by peddling influence. Two years ago, I was annoyed by all the 'Ready for Hillary' ads that would pop up on my computer. Then came the counter punch, 'Ready for Warren'. I would have worked and voted for her. She didn't run. Bernie took a look at the process, determined an Independent couldn't make it, and decided to throw his hat in, as a Democrat, to say what otherwise wouldn't be said. I understand why he went that route and have no regrets about participating in the campaign. My affection for my fellow campaigners and Dialer Monitor Team members is everlasting.
I've followed Bernie a long way, but I can't follow him to Hillary. I always knew we'd part ways. I just thought we'd make it to the convention, all together, whether figuratively or literally. Even in defeat, I thought we'd go down swinging. Now, after yesterday's surrender, our delegates will be witness to a coronation, much like a conquered people are forced to watch the parade of an occupying army.
Sunday, July 03, 2016
Mike Royko
My first memories
are of walking down to the Wallgreens, in Jacksonville IL, and buying
my dad the Chicago Daily News. I would stop, on the way back, and
read Royko's column so I wouldn't have to wait for my dad to be done
with the paper. From the beginning, Royko's angle always seemed to
be that the system (Chicago Daley machine) was corrupt and that its
corruption had real life, daily, consequences for ordinary citizens
who were, for the most part, immigrants or first generation
Americans. The vast majority that he wrote about were the Eastern
Europeans that reflected his own background. But, he was clearly
immersed in the Greek Town world as well.
Royko seemed to view the Machine as a criminal enterprise, like the Mafia. The pressure, like that placed on store owners to place political signs in their windows was not unlike the pressure placed by a protection racket. Fail to comply and a visitor from code enforcement or the liquor board would show up.
I think the quality of his work and his perspective changed as he went from paper to paper and wife to wife. However, his courage and reason for switching papers was undeniable. There was no preventing the Daily News from folding. The real conundrum was when Ruport Murdoch bought the Sun-Times. Royko had declared he would work for neither the Chicago Tribune or Ruport Murdock. However, he viewed Murdoch as an actual threat to journalism itself, so wound up at the Tribune.
In his book, Boss, Royko directly attacked the Daley machine, prefacing each chapter with a quote from the transcript of the Chicago 7 trial. It was one of the very few books my father and I shared. I was, I think in early high school. I remember him saying that he hated me reading something with that kind of language in it (the Daley quotes, I suspect, particularly the retort back at Sen. Abraham Ribbicoff, at the '68 convention, which Royko interpreted as, “Fuck you , you Jew son of a bitch; you lousy motherfucker, go home!”). But, he thought it was important that I read it. My Greek immigrant father viewed Royko as a knight defending people like him.
Royko seemed to view the Machine as a criminal enterprise, like the Mafia. The pressure, like that placed on store owners to place political signs in their windows was not unlike the pressure placed by a protection racket. Fail to comply and a visitor from code enforcement or the liquor board would show up.
I think the quality of his work and his perspective changed as he went from paper to paper and wife to wife. However, his courage and reason for switching papers was undeniable. There was no preventing the Daily News from folding. The real conundrum was when Ruport Murdoch bought the Sun-Times. Royko had declared he would work for neither the Chicago Tribune or Ruport Murdock. However, he viewed Murdoch as an actual threat to journalism itself, so wound up at the Tribune.
In his book, Boss, Royko directly attacked the Daley machine, prefacing each chapter with a quote from the transcript of the Chicago 7 trial. It was one of the very few books my father and I shared. I was, I think in early high school. I remember him saying that he hated me reading something with that kind of language in it (the Daley quotes, I suspect, particularly the retort back at Sen. Abraham Ribbicoff, at the '68 convention, which Royko interpreted as, “Fuck you , you Jew son of a bitch; you lousy motherfucker, go home!”). But, he thought it was important that I read it. My Greek immigrant father viewed Royko as a knight defending people like him.
Royko
had the clear eyed view of the cynic, regarding the system. But, he
never seemed to shake his belief that it was supposed to work. In
that, he reminded me of my other favorite writer of the time, Hunter
Thompson, who was also cynical and also could not shake his belief in
what constitutional government in this country could be, if kept out of the hands of the hucksters. Thompson believed in the Constitution
and Royko believed in the voters.
I
remember the column he wrote the day after Jayne Byrne (at the time,
the anti-machine candidate) defeated Michael Bilandic. “You did
it!” He was so proud of the people of Chicago. In that one
moment, they had united, stood up and beat back the forces of
darkness. He turned on Byrne, almost immediately, as she turned out to be an opportunist. But, the column he wrote the day after Harold Washington was elected was another example of good will and hope over cynicism.
Thursday, March 17, 2016
My March Manifesto
Don't give up; stand up! This ain't over. Contrary to the propaganda you see and hear in the mass media, Tuesday was not the end of the Democratic presidential primary race. Between now and June 14, there are 28 more states, territories and districts that will send delegates to the convention. Forget the superdelegates. A superdelegate is, by definition, an uncommitted delegate. Clinton only has 314 more elected delegates than Bernie. There are 2087 delegates still to be selected!
Stop talking about Trump! The media has demonstrated its hostility by its blackouts, its slanted reporting and by its snark. Ignore them. Now stop getting caught up in the fear regarding Trump. Until a candidate is nominated by the delegates votes, at the convention, he is irrelevant. If he is nominated, worry about him in November. Yes, he's awful. Yes, he has fascist tendencies. He is not yet the GOP nominee and the general election isn't until November. Focus!
It is easy to get caught up in fear and hysteria. Everyone wants to say, "I can't live in a country with Trump as President!" "I'll hold my nose and vote for Hillary before Trump!" That is an option. IF she is the nominee. Many of us may never vote for her, but that is mostly irrelevant now too. The important thing is to not get discouraged when Bernie has a bad night, nor to let up on our efforts. We must double our efforts. Those of us who live in states that have already voted, and have canvassed, must work the phone banks into upcoming states. Those living in the upcoming states must realize that the rallies are great and sharing memes on Facebook and across Twitter are reinforcing, but you must knock on doors, make phone calls and pester all your friends and relations to vote for Bernie.
Too many people are allowing themselves to be caught up in the news cycle and the free media that Trump and Clinton get and suddenly talking about Hillary. Stop it! Stop your friends. When anyone says they're for Bernie but are voting for Hillary in November, make them talk to your hand! Insist that she is not the nominee and it is our intention that she not be. If they are so worried about Trump, they must work harder for Bernie. Polls show he is the only candidate seeking the Democratic nomination that can beat Kasich or Cruz and he would beat Trump by a wider margin than Clinton. That means a Clinton nomination would make a Trump presidency more likely. Your insurance plan is Bernie Sanders!
Remember why we're for Bernie in the first place. He's honest; she is not. He opposed the war; she did not. He wants to break up the banks; she does not. He opposes fracking; she does not. He wants to reinstate the Glass-Steagall Act; she does not. He wants to abolish the death penalty; she does not. He refuses super-PAC money; she does not. He opposes interventionism; she does not. He rejects private prison money; she does not. And she talks about herself, while Bernie talks about us.
If you are one of those who say that if we fall short at the convention, and Clinton gets the nomination you will vote for her, remember later that you voted for the lesser of two evils. Our beliefs must not change (even if hers often do). Bernie is building a movement. The revolution goes on. We must stick together. That does not mean sticking with her. If people vote for her, as a rejection of Trump, it changes nothing about our views of her. If she becomes President, we will remember why we did not support her in the first place. We joined Bernie because we rejected what she represents. Even if she's elected, the revolution must go on. Her support of the banks, her militarism, her cronyism must be resisted. Her hollow words must be ignored. She is not for the revolution. She is not about the revolution. She is not of the revolution. She is the target of the revolution. It is her throne that we seek to overthrow!
Let's not get in a position of having to make a dreadful choice in November. Let's not get in the position of anyone having to fight the president they helped elect. Let's get the nomination right. We've got a candidate. He's made us proud. Keep working. Keep pushing.
Go Bernie!
Forward with the Revolution!!
Stop talking about Trump! The media has demonstrated its hostility by its blackouts, its slanted reporting and by its snark. Ignore them. Now stop getting caught up in the fear regarding Trump. Until a candidate is nominated by the delegates votes, at the convention, he is irrelevant. If he is nominated, worry about him in November. Yes, he's awful. Yes, he has fascist tendencies. He is not yet the GOP nominee and the general election isn't until November. Focus!
It is easy to get caught up in fear and hysteria. Everyone wants to say, "I can't live in a country with Trump as President!" "I'll hold my nose and vote for Hillary before Trump!" That is an option. IF she is the nominee. Many of us may never vote for her, but that is mostly irrelevant now too. The important thing is to not get discouraged when Bernie has a bad night, nor to let up on our efforts. We must double our efforts. Those of us who live in states that have already voted, and have canvassed, must work the phone banks into upcoming states. Those living in the upcoming states must realize that the rallies are great and sharing memes on Facebook and across Twitter are reinforcing, but you must knock on doors, make phone calls and pester all your friends and relations to vote for Bernie.
Too many people are allowing themselves to be caught up in the news cycle and the free media that Trump and Clinton get and suddenly talking about Hillary. Stop it! Stop your friends. When anyone says they're for Bernie but are voting for Hillary in November, make them talk to your hand! Insist that she is not the nominee and it is our intention that she not be. If they are so worried about Trump, they must work harder for Bernie. Polls show he is the only candidate seeking the Democratic nomination that can beat Kasich or Cruz and he would beat Trump by a wider margin than Clinton. That means a Clinton nomination would make a Trump presidency more likely. Your insurance plan is Bernie Sanders!
Remember why we're for Bernie in the first place. He's honest; she is not. He opposed the war; she did not. He wants to break up the banks; she does not. He opposes fracking; she does not. He wants to reinstate the Glass-Steagall Act; she does not. He wants to abolish the death penalty; she does not. He refuses super-PAC money; she does not. He opposes interventionism; she does not. He rejects private prison money; she does not. And she talks about herself, while Bernie talks about us.
If you are one of those who say that if we fall short at the convention, and Clinton gets the nomination you will vote for her, remember later that you voted for the lesser of two evils. Our beliefs must not change (even if hers often do). Bernie is building a movement. The revolution goes on. We must stick together. That does not mean sticking with her. If people vote for her, as a rejection of Trump, it changes nothing about our views of her. If she becomes President, we will remember why we did not support her in the first place. We joined Bernie because we rejected what she represents. Even if she's elected, the revolution must go on. Her support of the banks, her militarism, her cronyism must be resisted. Her hollow words must be ignored. She is not for the revolution. She is not about the revolution. She is not of the revolution. She is the target of the revolution. It is her throne that we seek to overthrow!
Let's not get in a position of having to make a dreadful choice in November. Let's not get in the position of anyone having to fight the president they helped elect. Let's get the nomination right. We've got a candidate. He's made us proud. Keep working. Keep pushing.
Go Bernie!
Forward with the Revolution!!
Monday, March 14, 2016
Vote for Bernie Sanders
You should vote for Bernie Sanders, in the Democratic primary. Here's why I'm going to:
If our country is going to survive as a democracy, we've got to get money out of politics. Bernie wants to reform the campaign finance laws, not take advantage of them.
He wants to break up the huge financial institutions that threaten our national security. Their existence, as is, is a sword over our heads. They take risks for which they won't have to suffer the assumed moral hazard. Why? Because we'll be forced to bail them out. They're to big to fail. They hold the whole economy hostage.
Bernie believes these thieves are criminals. He would prosecute them, rather than continuing a two tiered system of justice, where the politically, and financially, connected get a pass and everyone else goes to jail.
Bernie wants to enact single-payer healthcare. Medicare would be for all. Why should we be paying the insurance companies, when we can do this better, together? There are many other reasons I support Bernie Sanders, but these are the ones that first attracted me to him.
Actually, there is one more. His opposition is Hillary Rodham Clinton. In October 2002, she voted to authorize the Iraq War. That war killed hundreds of thousands of Iraqi men, women and children. It made refugees of millions and destroyed relics and archaelogical sites going back to ancient Ninevah, in biblical times. Hillary Clinton now claims the war was a mistake, but she doesn't say it was her mistake. Millions of us went into the streets to protest, on February 15, 2003, ahead of the war. We knew it was a mistake. Bernie Sanders knew it was a mistake. Hillary Clinton served on the Senate Intelligence Committee. So did Russ Feingold; he voted against the war (he was also the only Senator to vote against the Patriot Act, as did then Rep. Bernie Sanders; Hillary voted for it). Thirteen years later and Saddam Hussein's unemployed officers are now the general staff of the Islamic State.
Hillary Clinton represents everything that is wrong with politics in our country. She is the recipient of legalized bribery. Why would multiple financial institutions give her and her husband millions of dollars? Because they are such spell binding speakers? While I assume the reason she doesn't want to release the transcripts of her speeches before Democrats vote in their primaries is because she probably mocked the Occupy Wall Street movement, comforted the well heeled audience by telling them she thought they were being unfairly maligned and assured them that she didn't believe in over regulation, the content of her speeches is really irrelevant. It doesn't matter what she said. The speeches were just an excuse to funnel her money. Her husband's administration was a temporary way station for many Wall Street big wigs to sit while they directed the economy to their advantage. Not only is there a business and political connection to Goldman Sachs, there is a familial one. Their daughter is married to a Goldman Sachs man, and lives in a $10,500,000.00 apartment . Are these the people that will defend us from the oligarchs?
Hillary Clinton, while incredibly well spoken, speaks with a forked tongue. There is not a nice way to say it. She lies. Just in the last week, she told two whoppers. One was that Nancy Reagan was in the vanguard of those calling for tolerance and help for AIDS victims, and the other was that Bernie Sanders was somehow AWOL when Hillary was working on a healthcare package for here husband, in the early 1990s. As most will recall, the Reagans were not in the vanguard, but straglers, during the AIDS epidemic. And video and still footage, as well as audio demonstrate that she bore false witness against Bernie Sanders. And this compilation of several of her "misstatements", making the rounds this weekend, surprised even me.
Those inclined to vote for Hillary, thinking she is the surer bet to beat the Republicans in November, need to think again. As this data from national polls shows, Bernie would beat Trump by a wider margin than Hillary, and he is the only Democrat that would beat Cruz, Rubio or Kasich.
Vote for Bernie.
If our country is going to survive as a democracy, we've got to get money out of politics. Bernie wants to reform the campaign finance laws, not take advantage of them.
He wants to break up the huge financial institutions that threaten our national security. Their existence, as is, is a sword over our heads. They take risks for which they won't have to suffer the assumed moral hazard. Why? Because we'll be forced to bail them out. They're to big to fail. They hold the whole economy hostage.
Bernie believes these thieves are criminals. He would prosecute them, rather than continuing a two tiered system of justice, where the politically, and financially, connected get a pass and everyone else goes to jail.
Bernie wants to enact single-payer healthcare. Medicare would be for all. Why should we be paying the insurance companies, when we can do this better, together? There are many other reasons I support Bernie Sanders, but these are the ones that first attracted me to him.
Actually, there is one more. His opposition is Hillary Rodham Clinton. In October 2002, she voted to authorize the Iraq War. That war killed hundreds of thousands of Iraqi men, women and children. It made refugees of millions and destroyed relics and archaelogical sites going back to ancient Ninevah, in biblical times. Hillary Clinton now claims the war was a mistake, but she doesn't say it was her mistake. Millions of us went into the streets to protest, on February 15, 2003, ahead of the war. We knew it was a mistake. Bernie Sanders knew it was a mistake. Hillary Clinton served on the Senate Intelligence Committee. So did Russ Feingold; he voted against the war (he was also the only Senator to vote against the Patriot Act, as did then Rep. Bernie Sanders; Hillary voted for it). Thirteen years later and Saddam Hussein's unemployed officers are now the general staff of the Islamic State.
Hillary Clinton represents everything that is wrong with politics in our country. She is the recipient of legalized bribery. Why would multiple financial institutions give her and her husband millions of dollars? Because they are such spell binding speakers? While I assume the reason she doesn't want to release the transcripts of her speeches before Democrats vote in their primaries is because she probably mocked the Occupy Wall Street movement, comforted the well heeled audience by telling them she thought they were being unfairly maligned and assured them that she didn't believe in over regulation, the content of her speeches is really irrelevant. It doesn't matter what she said. The speeches were just an excuse to funnel her money. Her husband's administration was a temporary way station for many Wall Street big wigs to sit while they directed the economy to their advantage. Not only is there a business and political connection to Goldman Sachs, there is a familial one. Their daughter is married to a Goldman Sachs man, and lives in a $10,500,000.00 apartment . Are these the people that will defend us from the oligarchs?
Hillary Clinton, while incredibly well spoken, speaks with a forked tongue. There is not a nice way to say it. She lies. Just in the last week, she told two whoppers. One was that Nancy Reagan was in the vanguard of those calling for tolerance and help for AIDS victims, and the other was that Bernie Sanders was somehow AWOL when Hillary was working on a healthcare package for here husband, in the early 1990s. As most will recall, the Reagans were not in the vanguard, but straglers, during the AIDS epidemic. And video and still footage, as well as audio demonstrate that she bore false witness against Bernie Sanders. And this compilation of several of her "misstatements", making the rounds this weekend, surprised even me.
Those inclined to vote for Hillary, thinking she is the surer bet to beat the Republicans in November, need to think again. As this data from national polls shows, Bernie would beat Trump by a wider margin than Hillary, and he is the only Democrat that would beat Cruz, Rubio or Kasich.
Vote for Bernie.
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