To all of my fellow Berners out there – I know we all feel a soul-crushing sorrow with Bernie’s endorsement of Hillary Clinton yesterday (Tue, 12 July 2016) at a rally In New Hampshire.
http://www.cnn.com/2016/07/11/politics/hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders/index.html
Rage Against…
We felt the stabbing knife of betrayal when Elizabeth Warren betrayed her progressive values to vehemently endorse Hillary and never endorsing Bernie like she should have as I mentioned in my Open Letter to Elizabeth Warren. Now Bernie has endorsed Hillary Clinton too. Yes, he has endorsed her. None of us like to say it. None of us want to admit it. We really want to pretend that it never happened like a horrible nightmare. These two moments are too much to handle in such a short time period. Two of the most seemingly progressive icons failing to live up to our dreams. With the absolute sickening and acrid taste of swallowed vomit in our mouths, we realize that this really happened. A bitter taste to accent the anger, betrayal, and loss we are feeling, like we may have been living n lie, like the yellow brick road really led to a prison camp for tortured unicorns. I feel it too – deep in the roiling pit of my stomach, a torturous knot signaling there is no hope left for anything but despair. Abandon all hope ye who pass this point….but, please do not despair quite yet. I know it may not seem like it, but there is much more to come. This may sound trite, but this really is the beginning if you are willing to embrace it. Bernie has slogged on for 30+ years, so please hold on a few moments longer while I try to explain. We need to start embracing a much longer view than just one electoral cycle, than just one presidency.
We all love Bernie, so please do not turn on him for he has had to endure much over the last year or so, and even through the last 40 years of his service to humanity, to enact what change he was able to accomplish. Do not lose hope. Do not rage against him. Thank him for all that he has done – for awakening us – for giving us hope – for raising awareness of the issues and being prophetic to the truth – for unleashing and informing our slumbering rage. We need to thank him for trying to fix whatever he could while slogging through the treacherous, filthy and betrayal laden trenches of the corporate owned Democratic Party which absolutely despises everything we stand for. We also need to thank him for successfully moving the Democratic Party’s platform far to the left from where it was near the horrendously corporate center. He is only one man in a den of thieves, but together we helped him to make these changes. He could not have done that without us. We could not have done it without him.
Bernie Sanders, the Amendment King
What follows is quite a bit of speculation on my part, but what is super-important to remember is that Bernie is known as the Amendment King for a reason and I think that this is required to understand what is going on here. We also need to remember that he said that this is not about the presidency or even winning elections. This whole movement and his candidacy is about the policies, which is something that I think we were not really prepared for. I think, as much as I hate to admit it, that his endorsement of Hillary exemplifies this sentiment. He may have been willing to deal a blow to his immediate candidacy to get a more progressive Democratic platform – getting the platform amended which, for him, is the point of what his candidacy was really about. I know we all want to see him in the presidency. I do too. My daughter deserves that. The world deserves to see President Bernie Sanders and the glory which would come of it, but to him, I believe, getting the platform and policies changed may be more important, especially in light of the tremendous amount of corrupt forces arrayed against him in this election.
What follows is not something I have verified, but have I have heard from quite a few sources – I think this also has to do with being able to speak at the Democratic Convention. He has to have been willing to support the other candidates throughout the process in order to maintain his superdelegate status in order to speak at or attend the convention. Also, since she is so far ahead in delegates and superdelegates we need to also understand that there are no concession speeches given by the loser, so if he does lose and wanted to speak and did not support her then he would not have the chance to speak at the convention. Again, this is about having the chance to speak to sway some more people, to pull them to our side, to have our voice heard as much as possible. There is a lot of internal party politics going on here that is affecting what he is doing and it is not just what he wants to do, but some of it is what he is required to do in order to keep moving forward, to keep having the opportunity to make changes.
What the Future Holds
Hopefully, Bernie’s long-term view and plans may have out-played them. We will only know for sure as the next few weeks or so unfolds. Please do not #DemExit until a day or two after the convention, because then we will know the truth as to who is the real nominee and to what his plans for the future of our movement may be. In a campaign email yesterday he said that he is creating a successor organization and I think this is really what is going to matter for the movement and what will guide us going forward with or without him as president. Since he has repeatedly said that he is really concentrated on transforming the Democratic Party from within and from the description below it does not really appear to be a new political party, which is what we desperately need, but more of an organization that helps to promote and work with progressive candidates and get them into office:
“In the coming weeks, I will be announcing the creation of successor organizations to carry on the struggle that we have been a part of these past 15 months. I hope you will continue to be involved in fighting to transform America. Our goal will be to advance the progressive agenda that we believe in and to elect like-minded candidates at the federal, state and local levels who are committed to accomplishing our goals.”
Keep in mind also that he has neither suspended his campaign nor released his delegates as of yet, so there is quite a bit more to come at the convention. There are also massive protests and a rally arranged for the convention too. Please, take the time to show up in Philadelphia to let the establishment that even though Bernie has endorsed Hillary, which I think has been required for platform concessions, that we are even more angry now, that we stand behind Bernie and what he stands for, that we will take nothing less than real change, that we will not compromise or accept false promises, that our movement is not really about Bernie, but it is about the policies. The Democratic Establishment needs to hear the zealous roar of “Bernie, Bernie, Bernie” ringing over the gates and fences and through the convention to know that we are not defeated or done, that they have not ended these pesky populist social-democrat Bernicrats, that our movement has just begun.
A key part of the future is the new organization from the newsletter is to help to support progressive candidates. This is important for our future work. If we are serious about fixing everything that is broken by enacting electoral reform, single payer health care, tuition-free university, and opposing the reprehensible TPP then it has to be done from the inside out – from the local to the state and federal levels, for it will not be done with the current establishment politicians. This electoral season has seen a flood of Bernicrats running for office and this is amazing. Some long standing establishment Democrats and Republicans risk being unseated this cycle and this needs to happen for real change to occur. If you have a Bernicrat running locally then please send them money and spread the word about them and your support for them. This is truly how change will be won, from the bottom up with a flood of new progressive candidates. Remember what Bernie Sanders has done in Vermont. Once Bernie was just a lone voice, a single mayor of a small town in Vermont, and now he is a long- serving congressman for what is one of the most progressive states in the Union. This is our path. This is where we need to work to make change permanent and to show the people that it can be done and that it works. We need progressive candidates to run in all local, state and federal elections to be that change that we want to see.
We have to be THE champions now. We have to be OUR champions. We have to be HIS champions. Once the Democratic National Convention has finished, assuming he is not the nominee, then it will be up to us to carry the torch from there. Yes, the Democratic National Convention is not over yet and the Superdelegates have not technically voted. I have very, very slight hopes that, perhaps by some miracle that he will get the nomination, especially with a new round of looking at Hillary’s lies and perjury with her email server scandal. I am not holding my breath for this especially with his endorsement and the collusion that is happening, but it is a sliver of hope which I still carry with me. This is, hopefully, the beginning and not the end. It can be if you do not give up hope.
In closing
I will also report the unconfirmed rumors that he has qualified to be on each state’s ballots in such a way that he could run as an independent. I really do not expect him to do so as I mentioned in my Open Letter to Bernie Sanders. He is too principled for that, so please do not hope for it. I would love to see a Sanders/Stein Green ticket in any form, which would absolutely annihilate anyone who opposed them, but I cannot see that ever happening. Me sad panda. =(
Do not focus your rage against our beloved Bernie. Keep you rage aimed at the corporate-owned establishment Democrats that have never ever considered giving Bernie a fair chance while having to engage in voter suppression, electoral fraud, collusion, money laundering, and corruption to have a chance at beating him. If they did not do this then Bernie would have crushed Hillary. Keep your rage focused and sharp for it is this rage against the corporate owned politicians and our corrupt electoral process that is needed to force it to change. We need you to be angry so you will keep pressure on your representatives, so you will run for office, so you will protest and raise the alarm when the corruptions that are happening in congress and other governmental places. We the people need to hold our government responsible and this will be possible only if we are united together. We will need your rage for what is to come, to demand that change happens on our terms and not theirs. We must be united as progressives otherwise we lose our power. If we lose our power to make change then they win and our children and the world will lose. We cannot let those who are willing to lie, cheat, and steal from the democratic process and our people to live fat lives while the 99% suffer.
Most of us Bernie supporters are #BernieOrBust, so following the convention we may be left with a difficult decision. Do we vote for Jill Stein, write-in Bernie Sanders, or something else? I have previously posted a poll on Facebook asking just that question and that has turned out to be votes for Jill Stein @ 5-1. Where do we carry our movement? Should we rally around Jill Stein and the Green Party or should we unite under the newly formed United Progressive Party? An email from Bernie’s campaign has alluded to a new organization to carry the movement’s torch. Perhaps we should wait until we receive the email with details about this. In either case, we will need to decide both questions quickly – by a few days after the end of the Democratic National Convention so we can charge forth and try to have our voices heard through the establishment’s continued suppression, so that they know that we will not give up, that we will not go quietly into that dark night, that the dragon of the American people has risen from its slumber and nothing will be the same again.
For we are Bernicrats and we are legion.
#DemExit #BernieOrBust #Sanders2016 #StillSanders #UnitedUnderBernie
#JillNotHill #NeverHillary #CrookedHillary #LiarLiarPantsuitOnFire
