Independents

From One Liberal to Another

Posted on by bernieblogs2016

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If Donald Trump wins the Presidency in November don’t blame third parties, voter turnout, the media or the education level of voters. Instead place the blame where it belongs; at the feet of the Democratic Party.

Blame the former people’s Party that gave hundreds of billions of tax payer dollars to Wall Street banks as they systematically threw millions of Americans out of their homes.

Blame the former Party of FDR who could have given us a public option, but instead sided with their insurance company political donors over the American people.

Blame the former Party of the working-class for trying to push through the job and sovereignty grabbing corporate T.P.P trade agreement during the lame duck session.

Blame the former peace Party for allowing the Obama administration to go unchecked as it did the unimaginable, making a bad situation worse in the Middle East. Doubling down on many of the same egregious policies that they opposed under George W. Bush administration.

Blame the Party that gaslighted the weaker candidate, who was under FBI investigation, through the nomination process. All the while lying about the seriousness and validity of the accusations.

Don’t blame those of who are having a hard time distinguishing between establishment Democrats and establishment Republicans. And don’t blame those of us who cannot hold our noses in loyalty to a Party that feels no obligation to stay loyal to its constituents.

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DNC Emails: Party Debated Blocking Bernie Staffer Over Social Media Posts

Posted on by bernieblogs2016

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The DNC email hack continues to be a thorn in the side of the Democratic Party establishment, as the discovery of a chain of emails within the Wikileaks treasure trove further demonstrate the Party’s dislike and paranoia towards the Bernie Sanders revolution and its supporters.

On May 18th a chain of emails started within the echelon of the DNC concerning a $50 donation and request to attend a June fundraising event hosted by then DNC chair Debbie Wasserman-Schultz. “She’s a Bernie staffer from Tennessee with a ton of rants on facebook.. this should be interesting.” Nick Seminerio, DNC Finance Assistant wrote to the Finance Chief of Staff, beginning a multi-day debate within the DNC on what to do with this rogue request from Amanda Kruel, the East Tennessee Field Organizer for the Bernie Sanders campaign.

Emails reveal that the DNC considered denying entry and refunding the $50 donation after an internal vet of Kruel revealed that she had been exercising her freedom of speech on social media, the vet flagged Kruel for two reasons:
“(1) multiple tweets throwing shade on DWS; (2) staunch Bernie supporter and campaign staffer; was elected delegate for TN-2 at the DNC”

The Kruel emails show an overly suspicious DNC regarding how to handle dissent within the Party. “Let’s loop in Luis too. My first reaction is no, but on further thought, Kruel could turn this back on us and say she was denied attendance by the big bad establishment.” Wrote Brad Marshall the DNC CFO who is also responsible for writing the much reported email that questioned Senator Bernie Sanders’ religion.

When it seemed settled that Kruel would be given admittance to the event in order to quell bad press that denying her might bring, panic hit when Kruel bought a second ticket and conversations shifted to how to contain the rabid Sanders supporters that would be in their midst.

“She bought another ticket late last night. We could collect phones at the door. That way they couldn’t film and post any stunts they try to pull.” That was the last email concerning Kruel: perhaps due to the  lessons learned by the Clinton email scandal, the matter was settled via a phone call between Tracie Pough, Wasserman-Schultz’ Chef of Staff at the DNC and DNC Finance Chief of Staff Scott Comer.

When Amanda Kruel drove up to the gate for the June 2 fundraiser at the home of Leanne and Rusty Comer, in Knoxville Tennessee, she had no idea that her presence that night had been much debated within the DNC. By all accounts the DNC’s concerns about Kruel continued throughout the evening.

In an interview with The Tennessean, Kruel reported “A security person told her she couldn’t go into the gated community with Bernie Sanders materials in the car and she said she told him, “I always have Bernie stuff in my car.” She eventually was admitted.”

While at the event, Kruel got a feeling during her brief conversation with Wasserman-Schultz that the Congresswoman had in fact been warned about Kruel. It also appeared that she was closely watched by a security guard that evening. “I joked after the event that he seemed to have been ‘assigned’ to me, as he was never far from me. That joke may have been a fact.” Kruel said in a Washington Examiner interview.

By all accounts the Kruel emails are just another example of how the DNC was working against Senator Sanders. Yet upon closer inspection these emails illustrate the pervasive need to control any dissent or varying voices within the Democratic Party.

When the Democratic Party conspires to exclude and exact retribution on Party members, Americans, who exercise their First Amendment rights, then conspires to keep them from exercising those First Amendment rights; it is time to clean house.

It is not enough that Debbie Wasserman-Schultz left the DNC. We need to demand that ALL of the top echelon of the DNC be tossed out, starting with CFO Brad Marshall. The fact that no other heads have rolled is alarming. Regardless of whether you are going to stay with the Democrats or not we cannot let these offenses go unchecked. Our democracy demands it.

 UPDATE: On 8/2/16 The DNC announced the resignations of CEO Amy Dacey, communications director Luis Miranda and chief financial officer Brad Marshall.

 

 

The Future of the Revolution

Posted on by bernieblogs2016

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 The most important moment of the Sanders revolution is upon us. As we experience the stages of grief over the death of our dream of a Bernie Sanders Presidency, it will be easy to disconnect from what we have accomplished and from what our goals are. It will be easier for us to forget what we loved about our campaign and to give into the feeling that our dream, our Founding Father’s dream of a government of, by and for the people will always be out of reach.  From one griever to another, I implore you to lend an ear as we figure out where to go from here.

There are three things that must occur in order for us to move on to the next phase of the revolution, the sooner the better.

First, we must accept that short of an indictment or other such unforeseen event, Bernie Sanders will not be the Democratic nominee, nor will he run as an independent. He will endorse Clinton and ask you to vote for her. Clinton won this with the numbers, we can and should debate about how she got to requisite number of delegates, but we must accept that she did and not get mired down with useless denial. As we have much to do.

Second, we must not disengage. Don’t vow to never vote again, don’t become so disillusioned that you fall back asleep and give your political power over to those that we have been fighting against. Show up in November, show up for your local elections and primaries. Don’t drop out of the process now; this is what the establishment wants and expects.

And most importantly we must realize our power. Step back and look at what we have accomplished. We did not get Sanders elected, but was that the goal? Yes it became the goal, but was it the goal in the beginning? Did Bernie Sanders expect to win the nomination when he first announced? Or was his goal to give voice to the issues that matter, to give voice to the voiceless and get them involved in the political system?

Remember the first time you heard Bernie Sanders speak, what struck you about him? Were you so invested in him personally that first day? No, it was his message. The message that our political system needs to work for us and that we have the power to ensure that it does. Our collective goal in the beginning was to wake up, get involved and force the establishment to address the issues of the working poor and middle class. We found our political power after years of believing that we had none.

We took on the money.

We proved that politicians do not have to take money from special interest groups by putting financial skin in the game ourselves and funding Bernie Sanders’ campaign. (We incidentally outraised Hillary Clinton significantly. Her big money donors could not keep up with us.)

We now know and politicians now know, that it is unnecessary to take bribes in order to be politically competitive. This will have real consequences. We will hold our politicians accountable for where they get their money and hopefully more honest thoughtful people like Sanders will be able to run for office; now that they know that can compete financially if they stand with the people.

Look around in your local political scene, I bet you can find an example of someone who has been inspired to run by Sanders who needs your support. The fact that for the first time, the nominees for both parties were the candidates that spent the least in their respective contests proves how the old system of money influencing politics is changing.

We took on the media

We did not accept that the mainstream media was ignoring Sanders. We took to social media relaying all the latest news from our states. We started blogs and wrote letters to the editor in our local newspapers. We emailed 20-year-old videos of Sanders giving Alan Greenspan what-for on the House floor to our co-workers. We got the word out. We showed up. We filmed the rallies when the press wouldn’t. We forced the mainstream media to cover Bernie Sanders. We showed their bias. We shut off CNN and turned on TYT.

We took on the Democratic Party

Bernie Sanders could have run as an Independent but he did not. Opting instead to get as much political capital as he could by infiltrating the Democratic Party and dragging it back to its working class roots. Had we not supported Sanders surely President Obama would not be talking about expanding social security. Hillary Clinton would not have endorsed a $15 minimum wage. Nor would the country be talking about the consequences of trade deals, big money in politics and affordable college. We forced that dialogue.

We engaged in the process. We forced the DNC’s hand and got more debates when the DNC wanted to hide Sanders’ message and Clinton’s lack of one. We learned the Party rules in our state, and worked to change them for the future. We showed up at the polls and at the state conventions, forcing state Democratic parties to reflect our stances on super delegates and expanding participation. We got Cornel West on the DNC platform committee. We have a real good chance of getting Debbie Wasserman-Schultz out of office.

So where do we go from here? In order for the People’s Revolution to progress we need as a collective and as individuals to simply continue down the path that has worked for us; taking on the money, media and political process.

Continue to fight big money in our political system; push for publicly funded elections in your state. Keep donating small amounts of money to candidates that represent your values. Find or start your local chapter of Wolf-PAC, an initiative to lobby states to amend the Constitution to overturn Citizen’s United. Teach your neighbors that we can no longer turn a blind eye to our government’s system of bribery.

Continue to push against the narrative of the MSM. Seek alternative points of views, but always keep in mind whose agenda is being propagated. Keep yourself informed of the real issues and continue to inform others. Call out the MSM when they lie and fail to address our issues. Continue to write letters to the editor. Film and share the stories that they won’t.

Continue to take on the political system. Force the DNC to get rid of superdelegates. Help third parties get on the ballot. Start a third party. Take on the systematic voter suppression and fraud that you witnessed first hand. Push to do away with provisional ballots and electronic voting machines.

Find politicians like Bernie Sanders. I know you think this will be the hardest. Yet there are people in office and who want to run for office that are honest, gracious, moral and fair. I promise you they are out there. Bernie Sanders was right under your nose for the last thirty years after all.

Bernie Sanders lifted the veil and showed us the political power that we always had. That was his job. It is our job to step up, take our seat at the table and exert that power. While at the table, if you find rules that you don’t like, change them. If you find people that don’t represent you values, vote them out. Show up, speak up and continue the fight. That is what Bernie Sanders will do. That is what we will do.

 

 

Stop Assuming We Will Vote For Hillary

Posted on by bernieblogs2016

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Every four years, after one candidate from each Party manages to claw their way to the Nomination, the Parties enter an interregnum phase, commonly referred to as the “Party healing phase” when the Party mends any wounds gained by the nomination process, to coalesce around the nominee.

 

The scene is the same each year, the runner-up throws their support to the victor, the victor does their best to quell any hesitations the runner-up’s supports may have, (often by including the runner-up in the new administration), and the voters eventually fall in line and vote for the Party’s candidate in the General Election. It is standard campaign/elections 101.

 

Yet in a year that should have all Political Science professors setting their textbooks on fire, it is presumptuous at best to assume that this year’s interregnum phase is likely to follow the rules.

If the Democratic Nominee is Bernie Sanders, there is no doubt that Hillary Clinton’s supporters will stand behind him, the same cannot necessarily be said if Clinton were to win the nomination.

It is a dangerous move for the Democratic Party to bank on the fact that Bernie Sanders’ supporters will “heal” with the Party and coalesce around Clinton, should she win. What the Democratic Party and the establishment at large do not understand is that Bernie Sanders supporters ARE initiating a revolution and it is a revolution that will continue, whether Sanders gets the nomination or not.

 

For many people Bernie Sanders has helped open their eyes to the crony capitalistic and blatant corrupt system that we have. For these people the genie is out of the bottle, there is no settling for the lessor of two evils.

 

There are three types of Bernie supporters whose profiles do not lend well to Hillary Clinton.

1. The First Timers – For many people Bernie Sanders has given them a reason to vote for the first time, never having participated in the political process before. We are not just talking Millennials and high schoolers looking for a free ride to college, we are talking about fully formed adults, seniors even, that have stayed on the sidelines their entire lives through one Presidential race after another, never finding a candidate palatable enough, except for now.

2. The Independents – There are many Independents that have gravitated to Bernie Sanders who have absolutely no loyalties to the Democratic Party and might very well switch to Trump if the match up is Clinton v. Trump. We all know someone who falls into this category.

3. The Real Liberals – Then there are the lifelong Liberal Democrats, who voted along the party line because it was the lesser of the two evils, never satisfied with the Party that continuously puts corporate interests before the interests of the American people.

 

There are many reasons that these groups are less likely to get behind Hillary Clinton, too many to list. But the biggest reason that some Sanders supporters will never support Hillary Clinton is because no matter how much she tries to sound like Sanders, we know that she has benefited, as much as anyone could, from the system that we are trying to change.

 

If Hillary Clinton is the Democratic Nominee, the only chance of healing the “Party” is to ask Bernie Sanders to be her running mate. There is no way around it, Sanders can survive without Clinton, Clinton cannot survive without Sanders.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Why I Voted for Bernie Sanders

Posted on by bernieblogs2016

 

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I voted in my first Democratic Caucus last Sunday along with thousands of other Mainers. While I have voted for many candidates in many elections, last Sunday was different, this time it was personal.

I voted for Bernie Sanders because I lost my health coverage after moving to Maine from Massachusetts because Maine did not expand Medicaid.

I voted for Bernie Sanders because my father worked hard and played by the rules his entire life and cannot make ends meet living on social security.

I voted for Bernie Sanders because my mother lost her health insurance a year before she died of cancer.

I voted for Bernie Sanders because I know what it is like to go into debt over hospital bills.

I voted for Bernie Sanders because I know what it is like to work fulltime and live in poverty.

I voted for Bernie Sanders because I have worked overtime and not been paid for that overtime.

I voted for Bernie Sanders because I’ve lived in the rustbelt and have seen the consequences of free trade and outsourcing.

I voted for Bernie Sanders because I was an unpaid intern.

I voted for Bernie Sanders because my 401k was decimated during the 2008 crash.

I voted for Bernie Sanders because I have student loans.

I voted for Bernie Sanders because the price of everything has increased and our wages have not.

I voted for Bernie Sanders because this was the second warmest winter on record in Maine.

I voted for Bernie Sanders because my boyfriend’s best friend was killed while serving his 3rd tour of duty in Iraq.

I voted for Bernie Sanders because I have a family member with disabilities.

I voted for Bernie Sanders because I have a family member with mental health issues.

I voted for Bernie Sanders because I have friends who are undocumented.

I voted for Bernie Sanders because I know someone who has died of a drug overdose.

I voted for Bernie Sanders because I believe my story is not that different from yours.

I voted for Bernie Sanders because I believe you and I deserve better.

 

Clinton, Not Sanders Will Bring MORE Gridlock

Posted on by bernieblogs2016

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As soon as the 2012 election was over and the White House secured in the blue, I like many people who consider themselves Democrats became increasingly excited about the inevitable prospect of a 2016 Hillary Clinton Presidential run. I had in fact, preferred Hillary Clinton to Barack Obama in the 2008 contest. I did eventually fall in line and got aboard the Hope and Change bandwagon.

As President Obama’s second term unfolded however, something occurred to me, if the Democrats ran Hillary in the 2016 General election, they would lose. Or worse yet, Hillary would be the next President and the country would be damned to 4 more years of Congressional obstruction and gridlock and a deepening polarization of the American people. It was a harsh reality for this writer, who had grown up during the Clinton years, in a Clinton household, to make the realization that the democrats and the country would be better served by someone other than Hillary Clinton. This is a truth that many life-long Demos are going to have to face and fast if they want to keep the White House out of the red. (Or orange)

Why did I come to this epiphany years ago, precisely because I HAD lived through the Clinton years and I remembered them. I remembered that those years were the beginning of the political divide that has only grown since President Clinton left office in 2000. While the mainstream media likes to tout the old glory Clinton days, I remembered the daily bombardment of accusations, personal attacks, investigations, impeachment and the fact that some people no matter what seemed to hate the Clintons and passionately.

Many people may believe that enough time has past since the 1990’s ire for the Clintons. Hillary became a Senator, did important work as Secretary of State and her husband’s administration symbolized a time and government before it all came off its wheels, before terrorism, before economic ruin and the complete destruction of bipartisan political solutions in this country. Sounds like the glory days doesn’t it?

There are just two facts that Hillary and the media seem to forget:

  1. We liked Bill not necessarily Hillary, and the right has never made any bones about the fact that they have never liked her.
  2. 20 years ago there was a will to govern. Besides a couple of policy driven government shut downs, Congress put aside its distaste for the President and still managed to do it’s job of writing and passing laws. This does not happen anymore.

If the past 7 years has taught this country anything it is that Congress is willing to halt all productivity and progress at the detriment of the country if it does not like or feels it cannot work with the President. Just ask President Obama. And who does the far right hate more than President Obama? Hillary Clinton. If the 4 year $20 million Benghazi investigation doesn’t give us a preview of what is to come with a Hillary Clinton Presidency nothing will.

But for all of you Lefties imagining a Hillary Clinton Presidency being a super highbred of a President Obama and President Bill Clinton administration you are right and here is what it will look like: scandals real and fake, multimillion-tax dollar investigations, Bill’s sex scandals, nightmarish Thanksgivings with your right wing uncle, deepening political division and more importantly expansion of Presidential powers because just like President Obama, Hillary will not be able to get much of her agenda done with the help of Congress.

For whatever reason, Barrack Obama and Hillary Clinton inspire the worst in their governing counterparts, so much so, that the other side will always chose not to govern even at the expense of the country. We as Democrats could never have foreseen the overt obstructionism that came as a result of the election of President Obama. Now I am not turning on the President, I am stating a fact that he himself recognized during his last State of the Union speech. Imagine what could have been accomplished if he had not met with such opposition from Congress.

While we couldn’t foresee the obstructionism that was to be the Obama years, there is no way that ANYONE can HONESTLY say that Hillary will inspire the political Right to get on board with her liberal agenda. ANYONE can see that her administration will bring more of the same obstructionism and pure hatred from the Right.

You may realize that Bernie Sanders’ name has not been invoked in this article yet. Sanders already has your heart whether you know it or not. Hillary is working for your head and if you step back and use it, you like I, and so many others will soon realize she doesn’t make sense there either.