This idea that we should all conform to what the powers that be in the DNC want makes a mockery of democracy. The DNC is VERY MUCH out of touch at present. As Beau explains, “Bernie is the compromise. He’s EBT/” [If you want to understand Bernie supporters, watch Beau as he gets it.] Thinking we will all vote blue no matter who is a delusion that is sure to lose this next presidential election, kinda a lot like the DNC did the last one… because of hubris.
I’m learning about hubris myself these days and I’m finding that I am a slow learner. As it is often difficult to misread the inputs… and as they are clearly showing they have not… I don’t have much faith that the DNC will figure this hubris thing out in time.
But I’m remaining hopeful that PEOPLE are figuring out what is happening in time. I’m hopeful as people see Big Money continuing to try to buy our government so it can promote its own interests (plundering the planet until it’s uninhabitable) while paying working people as little as possible (but still hoping they will spend it all on the latest gadgets to “make life better”), feeding them poisoned and processed food (while preventing folks from providing their own healthy food for themselves), and then assuring plenty of pills to fix the ails… until the populace succumbs to the hopelessness of the circle of life. The powers that be don’t care about PEOPLE so much as they care about making money for those in charge. They don’t care that many struggle to make ends meet, even those working multiple jobs. They don’t care that many have no access to healthy food or good paying jobs, let alone health care, which most civilized countries realize should be a basic human right. Big Money relies on the infighting among the scrappers, even providing constant fodder for further division, so no one will look for the real source of the problems… those gaming the system for their own good.
And now they want us to buy the line, “Vote Blue No Matter Who!” It’s clear they are really speaking to Bernie folks with this coalition-driving line. And the mere fact that they are pushing it shows how fragile their hold on the system truly is. None of the “chosen” candidates – neither DNC nor MSM show Bernie as an preferred candidate – has an ability to coalesce the masses for a victory like Bernie does. Or generate the broad and diverse appeal that he brings which encourages high voter turnout – the one thing we KNOW has shown progressive ideals to win.
And as the DNC continues to work to nominate “anyone but Bernie”, they will lose voter trust and enthusiasm assuring 45 will get another 4 years. The Dems BLAMED Bernie folks for the loss last time, and they continue to avoid acknowledging their own part in disenfranchising Bernie with superdelegates in 2016, while we see all Bernie’s ideas as mainstream in this election cycle. Hmmm…. They can’t admit their own copious corruption. And it’s clear that the DNC is TOO FAR RIGHT to distinguish themselves from Republicans, thus losing the voter enthusiasm when they elect their status quo candidate friends.
If you’re not a wealthy elite in America these days, it’s pretty shitty. The suffering is widespread. And, for those of us watching closely, we are seeing the end of the world as we know it coming at us faster than anyone predicted. I foresee 2020 as a year when the starving times bring clarity of vision. PEOPLE NEED CHANGE – BIG CHANGE. And the working class – a population HUGELY DISENFRANCHISED by the DNC – is voting to be heard. They are voting for Bernie.
But Bernie Sanders is simply not the same as these other candidates, making it impossible to pledge to “vote blue no matter who.” He is speaking truth to power of the evils of the world like no other candidate is willing or able because he does not take special interest money.
This is the huge distinction: Bernie’s campaign is funded by working people like myself (primarily teachers). Other candidates are funded by powerful corporate interests. Bernie is putting himself in a position to govern on our behalf, which is why millions of volunteers were willing to knock on 500,000 doors in Iowa (close to half of all Iowan households) and make over 10 million calls in the month of January. That type of people power is not only astonishing and the ticket to beating Trump, but it’s also the first step in fundamentally changing this country and world for the better. If you take Sanders out of the equation in November, you eliminate this enthusiasm. …
We’re in an age where incremental progress isn’t good enough. Under President Obama, we did next to nothing to combat the climate crisis, which needed meaningful action before he even took the helm. There’s no time for incremental progress on this or other issues. Our climate is heating up today. People are not getting the health care they require to survive, or not go bankrupt, at this very moment. Wages are stagnant. Money is increasingly funneled to the top of the economy, causing pollution in the information supply and corruption in the political process. Endless wars in the Middle East continue. The working class is abandoned.
… Bernie Sanders embodies a shift from this rotten reality.
Aside from the painfully uninspiring vision peddled by these moderate conservative Democrats, the Democratic National Committee is currently re-writing rules to stop a Sanders nomination. What incentive do Sanders supporters, a gigantic voting bloc, have to stick around and vote for some corporate hack who doesn’t in any way align with their beliefs? That’s particularly when there was already foul play in the DNC primary a mere four years ago?
Sam Shain: Why Bernie supporters aren’t ‘blue no matter who’ (my emphasis)
Seriously, just read the whole piece.
Indeed. As Democracy Now! reported (following the latest debate) and about which Hamline University professor of political science David Schultz wrote recently on how the process works (or doesn’t, depending on who you are):
The Democratic Party’s superdelegates were a reaction to the 1970 McGovern-Fraser reforms that sought to open the party to the people. Criticism after the 1968 Democratic Convention that party elites had too much control over the presidential nomination process–the proverbial smoke-filled backroom–led to a recommendation to create more political primaries. The goal was to let rank and file have more say on the party nominee. Yet by 1980 party elites felt there was too much democracy within the Democratic Party; they, not the base, still knew best who the nominee should be and what the party should stand for.
In 1980 the Democratic Party’s Hunt Commission recommended that 30% of all the Democratic National Convention delegates be reserved for members of Congress and state party chairs and vice chairs. These are the superdelegates. That 30% figure was originally implemented at 14% but by 2008 the percentage rose to nearly 20%. Their purpose was ostensibly to provide leadership, but in practice it was to maintain orthodoxy, serving as a check on primary voters who might make the wrong choice.
David Schultz, CounterPunch 2-19-20
And it would not surprise me if this SLEW of Democratic candidates was just an effort to dilute the potential for a majority win by any candidate thus assuring the power of the elitist superdelegates. And it sounds like there is some thought being given to change the rules to assure superdelegates get to vote first! Another fatal flaw in the DNC plan…
In conversations on the sidelines of a DNC executive committee meeting and in telephone calls and texts in recent days, about a half-dozen members have discussed the possibility of a policy reversal to ensure that so-called superdelegates can vote on the first ballot at the party’s national convention. Such a move would increase the influence of DNC members, members of Congress and other top party officials, who now must wait until the second ballot to have their say if the convention is contested. …
Fowler said that “there’s a great anticipation that after this convention, there will be an effort to adopt the old rules … There are a lot of people who are interested in that.”
Following the publication of this report, Perez responded on Twitter: “Absolutely not. We put in the work to ensure power was returned to the grassroots, we will be following the rules set forth by the DNC. We will not bend on this, we will not change our rules.” (my emphasis)
David Siders, Politico 1-31-2020
And then…
D.N.C. Rules Change for Nevada Debate Could Open Door for Bloomberg
The D.N.C. announced Friday that in order to participate in the debate, set for Feb. 19 in Las Vegas, a candidate must win at least a single delegate in either the Iowa caucuses or the New Hampshire primary or meet polling requirements.
It has eliminated the requirement that candidates must have received donations from hundreds of thousands of individuals. Mr. Bloomberg, a multibillionaire, is running a self-funded campaign and is not soliciting donations.
Reid J. Epstein and Matt Stevens, NY Times 1-31-20
So much for trusting the DNC’s word… As if… Ted Rall claims: “Some Democrats say that they are “blue no matter who.” Trump, they say, is such an existential threat that they will vote for anyone who winds up as the Democratic nominee for president. But is it really wise to extend such a blank check to a party that has disappointed us so many times before?”
We are left in a vicious catch-22 where Dems think they own their voting block and can use the “Bernie isn’t a Democrat” argument to make their case for not supporting him. Meanwhile, that same “voting block” has realized the Dems are no longer supporting PEOPLE and instead support big money interests and a continuation of the suffering. The People WILL ELECT BERNIE to the Democratic ticket, if allowed. But DNC continues to work a new angle instead of simply showing support for the People’s Choice… Bernie.
Mike Bloomberg has offered blue America a Faustian bargain: Forfeit all credibility on the issues of money in politics and democratic reform, and he will spend whatever it takes to make the bad man in the White House go away. The market for what Bloomberg is selling is large and growing, thanks in no small part to the $300 million he’s already spent advertising it. Many rank-and-file Democrats — like so many disillusioned voters in democracies the world over — like the idea of hiring a no-nonsense, post-political businessman to fix their broken government (just, you know, a less ostentatiously racist one than America’s current CEO). Meanwhile, many Democratic elites see Bloomberg as a (slightly unsavory) savior who can single-handedly stop the party from nominating a supposedly unelectable socialist, provide its vulnerable first-term suburban House members with an ideal standard-bearer, and liberate the party from all resource constraints and fundraising headaches as it rides a rising tide of billionaire bucks back into power.
But Democrats would be fools to accept Bloomberg’s indecent proposal. …
As a political matter, allowing a Wall Street tycoon to win the Democratic nomination by leveraging his personal fortune to outbid all of his rivals (and many state and local Democratic Party organizations) for top-shelf campaign staff, and inundate the airwaves with an unprecedentedly exorbitant blitzkrieg of paid messaging, would deprive Democrats of what has long been their chief electoral asset: the perception that their party is less beholden to the rich than the GOP.
Eric Levitz, The Price of a Bloomberg Nomination… 2-19-2020
Where do we go from here?
I’m hopeful that Bernie and THE PEOPLE can take back our government and return it to the work of caring for the ALL the People and not simply working to push all the benefits to the already too rich, as our government has been doing for some time now. So far, they powers that be have avoided revolution… but how soon before they step over that line?
AOC and the women who have gotten into the system in recent years have made big strides with messaging and young people – especially young women, BIPOC, and others have stepped up in protest and action to make a difference. We’re seeing a global uprising to address the biggest problem of our time – our climate catastrophe. People are getting restless and, with over 500 days since the IPCC 1.5, the lack of action and response is growing that desperation. Daily.
I know it may be foolish to have hopes for a takeover of the Democratic party to return at least ONE party to the people but I have some faith that Bernie might do it this time. I kinda feel like we might as well all just forget about a long-term human existence if he is not successful.
Bernie seems to be the only one connecting with all sectors of the disenfranchised: Poor, Young, Black, Indigenous, Women, Veterans. And when Trump cuts food support in April, I believe we could see a real revolution begin. Starving one’s children has a way of bringing a parent to a place of nothing to lose.
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.”
― John F. Kennedy on the Alliance for Progress, 13 March 1962
Back then Kennedy spoke about our denial of care to our neighbors. Sadly, we’re now talking about denial of care to our own citizens. And now, we will watch and see how the DNC makes their next moves.
It’s not looking like they will relinquish power from their elite controllers to their public base. I’m just hopeful the masses Bernie has inspired will convince them of the power the people have, which, in the end, is always more powerful than mere money, when we can get them to the polls.
And I’d argue that it’s time to FINALLY LISTEN to the voices of the Disenfranchised. If this is the candidate that Blacks, Latinos, Indigenous, children, women, poor, and the working class support. I’m with them. I’d ask, “Why aren’t you?”
And I’d also ask…
Retired at 45 