The Political Soul of the Nation

                                                                               March 27, 2016

K.C. Shepherd

The battle for the political soul of the nation will not be fought in the general election.  Rather, it is being fought right now in the Democratic nominating process.

That the Republicans are morally bankrupt is beyond dispute.  Their escalating antics speak for themselves.  It is not only Trump.  The Republicans overall might as well live on another planet.  They are so stuck in stale and failed ideology and religious rhetoric that they have outlived any relevance they may think they once had.  The personal insults and foul behavior of Trump and Cruz are already a tremendous embarrassment.  If there are any honest Republicans left, they ought to be ashamed that their party has sunk so far to the gutter.

Here are a few issues that illustrate the contrast between the Sanders and Clinton campaigns.

Social and Economic Justice:   Sanders represents substantive institutional change.  Clinton represents incremental change and the status quo.  Sanders is supported by more than 6,000,000 private donations of around $27 each.  The Sanders campaign has raised over $140,000,000 this way, something never before done in the history of United States elections.  Clinton has raised most of her money via Super PACS and the support of the very institutions that are poisoning our political process and our planet:  Wall Street, Big Banks, Pharma, Private health insurance, Extraction, Armaments, Private Prisons, Media and Corporations.  How can Secretary Clinton express intention to crack down on these institutions while taking their money?

Foreign Policy:  Ironically, foreign policy may be Secretary Clinton’s area of greatest vulnerability.  She claims strength in foreign policy due to her experience in that area.  However, it is not only experience but judgment that counts.  In 2002, Bernie warned that an invasion of Iraq would lead to civil war and chaos.  Senator Clinton voted to empower George W. Bush to invade Iraq.  Now ISIS, an unholy alliance of religious opportunists and former Saddam Hussein Baathist army remnants has filled the vacuum.  We see also in Libya that the Clinton policy of regime change can have the unintended consequence leaving behind a failed state and yet another vacuum to be filled by jihadists.  Clinton’s hawkish foreign policy views more closely resemble Republican views than the considered caution of Sanders.

Climate change:  As Secretary of State, Secretary Clinton traveled the world speaking to the benefits of fracking.  Sanders is opposed to fracking.

Civil rights:  Bernie Sanders marched with Martin Luther King, Jr.  He fought for housing desegregation in Chicago.  Sanders was a champion of civil rights before it was a popular idea.  In Chicago, he was arrested for his activism.  Bernie is appalled by and in opposition to the mass incarceration (disproportionately of people of color) that shamefully exists in America today.  Secretary Clinton claims to oppose the mass incarceration, yet she accepted the money of private prisons and in the 1990’s supported Bill Clinton’s crime bill.  That bill and mandatory minimum sentences were a big mistake; even Bill Clinton now admits that.

The contrasts in the Democratic campaigns are numerous and vast.  Differences in issues of the two campaigns are as wide as or wider than used to be the case between Democrats and Republicans.

The establishment of the Democratic Party is willing to give Secretary Clinton a pass on her campaign donors.  They are willing to go along with a hawkish foreign policy which has been a clear failure, destabilized the Middle East, and unintentionally created conditions ripe for the rise of ISIS. 

Perhaps this establishment is clinging too hard to the myths of Clinton inevitability and electability in the general election.  Consider these observations:  Clinton draws crowds of 4000 to 5000.  Bernie filled Safeco Field in Seattle and regularly draws crowds in excess of 10,000.  Even Trump does not draw so well.  Clinton may claim more votes cast in the nomination thus far.  However most of this majority is in the deep south where no Democrat is expected to win in November. Polling shows that Bernie is the only candidate in either party with positive approval and trust ratings by the American people.  Moreover, polls continue to demonstrate that Sanders does much better in a general election against either Trump or Cruz.

The important question to ask in this battle for the political soul of the nation is this:  Do we want and need significant structural change in America or will incremental change be sufficient?  An honest look at the state of the nation and of American politics will  answer that question.

Safeco Field, Seattle Washington

The press will complain about the empty seats in the upper deck.

Someone commented that Bernie drew a bigger crowd than the Mariners.  Maybe politics is better than baseball.

12 Reasons Bernie Sanders Supporters Are Justifiably Angry at The Media

I found this Huffington Post article to be insightful and offer a clearly optimistic view.
Please read:



http://www.huffingtonpost.com/seth-abramson/20-reasons-sanders-voters-are-justifiably-angry_b_9544744.html

Easy To Be A Straight White Guy

I posted the following in a community called Progressives in response to the claim that it is easy to be a straight white guy and say a Republican presidency would be as bad as Hillary.
This is also in response to those who say that opposition to Clinton is based on the perception of her as a career politician and insider and that she is a woman.  How absurd is that?

My post:


I do not oppose Secretary Clinton because she is a career politician or a woman. I oppose Clinton because she and her establishment Democratic supporters have chosen to disenfranchise voters in caucuses and primaries around the country rather than deal fairly with much larger than expected turnout.  I oppose Clinton because she is untrustworthy. I oppose Clinton because she has co-opted many of Bernie Sanders progressive ideas, yet will pivot away when it is expedient for her. I oppose Clinton because she is a dangerous regime changing war hawk. I oppose Clinton because she accepts money from the very institutions poisoning our political process and our planet. I oppose Clinton because she believes she is inevitable (she believed in her inevitability in 2008 also.)  I oppose Clinton because she supported NAFTA and the war in Iraq.  Finally, I oppose Clinton because she and Bill moved the Democratic party to the right furthering Reagan/ Bush deregulation and eroding of New Deal and Great Society ideals.

Do not fool yourselves.  Men and women, white people and people of color, straight and gay people share my sentiments.  Aversion to Hillary Clinton is not born of privilege but of considered judgement.  I for one do not support a "status quo" president.  Consider where that has gotten us over the last 25 to 30 years.  

Clinton has won the South by overwhelming numbers.  It is easier to schmooze the African American community as the Clintons are so adept at doing than to have marched with Dr. King and been arrested in support of housing desegregation as did Sanders.  Sanders has a 100% rating from the NAACP and enjoys the support of many prominent African Americans such as Nina Turner, Spike Lee, Dr. Cornell West, and Killer Mike to name a few of the more well known.  Winning the South garnered many votes and delegates for the Secretary.  However, it is unlikely that any Democrat will carry that part of the country in November.

If by now you do not "Feel the Bern" I will most likely not be able to persuade you:  even in a community called Progressives.  Bernie Sanders is not the target of an FBI investigation involving 150 agents and a potential breach of National Security.  Sanders would beat Trump or Cruz by much larger margins than Clinton and most likely help Democratic Senate and Congressional candidates. Bernie is trusted and liked by greater numbers than any other candidate of either party.  Even people who disagree with him praise his honesty and authenticity. He is without a doubt the strongest Democratic candidate going into the general election.  Clearly, Bernie Sanders is the best chance to avoid a Republican Presidency which, I think we can agree we do not want.

Feel The Bird?

This is going to go viral, I guarantee it.  Simply awesome.

http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/274348-bird-lands-on-sanders-podium-in-portland

The Democratic Party No Longer Exists

                                     

                                                                                               March 25, 2016

K.C. Shepherd

Hillary and the Clinton machine are the establishment.  She is the most crooked candidate since Nixon.  The dynamic of Democrat vs. Republican is an illusion (since 1992) designed to divert attention from the rigged economy and rigged election process.  Hillary represents big corporate money and the willingness to rig elections in every way.

The only alternative is Bernie.  But he may have done too good a job of exposing Clinton for what she is.

This is my 11th presidential election since I have been a voter.  My dad was a New Deal Democrat.  He lived through the Great Depression and had the greatest respect and admiration for FDR.  I too was a lifelong Democrat until my recent switch to Independent.

Bernie said last August that he would support the Democratic nominee if it were not him.
I still believe, even in the face of DNC and Clinton election fraud and swindle, that Bernie will win the nomination.  I had vowed earlier that if Clinton won the nomination I would hold my nose and vote for her to block the Republican.

I am having second thoughts about that.  The Sanders campaign is about opposing everything that the Clintons advocate:  Corporate Culture, Wall Street, Big Banks, Pharma, armaments, extraction and neo-con global adventurism.  Her words may sound similar to Bernie's, but she lives in a culture of money corrupt politicians.  In short, the Clintons are the problem, not the solution.

Now, unless he changes his mind Bernie would not oppose Clinton in a general election.  A write in campaign is unlikely to succeed.  I am loathing abdicating my franchise.  These are my thoughts:

1.  Bernie wins nomination-no problem
2.  Clinton is indicted or so damaged that, fearing loss in the general election, the party forces her to suspend her campaign-no problem  
3. Clinton wins nomination and Bernie runs as an Independent-no problem
4. Clinton wins and Bernie throws support to her-PROBLEM
                                             

Trump is repugnant and dangerous.  Clinton offers a further entrenching of the corrupt system that got us to this dreadful point.  If scenario #4 is the case, I am inclined write in Bernie.  

For now, we must continue to work and donate for Bernie to win the nomination.  If we fall short, then perhaps Bernie will reconsider an Independent run.  Forget about party unity:  there is no Democratic Party left to unify.

Do Not Support Hillary Clinton!

                                                                                                March 24, 2016

K.C. Shepherd

Achieving a great goal is often accomplished with risk.  I believe that Hillary is more dangerous than Donald.  This is why:  The democratic/ republican alliance in support of the billionaire class and their myriad minions has dominated American politics for at least 25 years.  Bill Clinton trashed the "new deal' democrat in favor of the "new" democrat or republican lite.  In so doing, he guaranteed the corporate culture a free hand to do their nefarious deeds.  Another Clinton presidency would further entrench this alliance and make it that much more difficult to enact true structural change.

As we all know, opposition to the unchecked rule of the corporate culture is the cornerstone of the Sanders campaign.  If Bernie is denied the nomination, it will not be over issues.  It will be by various swindles and cheap shots such as, most recently, the Arizona primary fiasco.  To ask Sanders supporters to embrace a candidate (Hillary) who is a shameless shill for the billionaire class is the height of arrogance and absurdity.  I can see no reason why it would be in my interest to support Hillary Clinton.  

A president is not a king or a dictator.  Even in the unlikely event that Trump was elected, he would never be able to enact his ridiculous proposals.  A wall will not be built, eleven million people will not be deported, and American Muslims will not be rounded up or persecuted.  We have a constitution and a balance of powers to counteract a potentially rogue president.  Moreover his proposals are logistically impractical and will never happen.  A Trump presidency would be a four year debacle and would open the door for a strong progressive challenge in 2020.

One way or another, I will be voting for Bernie on November 8.  If Bernie does not win the nomination (and I still think he will,) he could mount an independent challenge. While Hillary and Trump go for each others' jugglers, Bernie would continue to carry on his positive issue oriented campaign.  Some would point out that ordinarily a third party candidate is not viable.  The 2016 election is far from ordinary.  The unlikely successes of Bernie and even Trump demonstrate that we are not in a business as usual cycle.  If it turns out, as the media would have us believe, that Hillary and Donald are the candidates, they are so undesirable that a Sanders independent bid could upset them both. 

Remember, independents overwhelmingly support Bernie and they represent 41% of the electorate.  Add in the rest of us Bernie supporters and some disaffected democrats and republicans and there is a victory coalition.  Bernie is the only candidate with favorable approval ratings and also who is perceived as honest.

I will be supporting Bernie until the end, even if by write-in ballot.  That decision is why I am at peace with my conscience.