Esteemed Superdelegate,
My name is Jim O’Neill and I am a father, husband, small business owner, home owner and a Navy Veteran who was a part of Desert Storm. Over my 42 years of life I have come to value the electoral process and having a voice in our government. I had formerly voted for Obama twice, although times have changed and our country has not changed, and, by virtue of that, we have found ourselves over the last few decades falling so far behind other first-world countries. The tides are changing and we, as a country, are being left behind – a laughing stock on the world’s stage where we were once a shining beacon of freedom and democracy.
We are behind pretty much all other European countries in a wide variety of ways – poverty, rate of incarceration, police violence, electoral fraud and voter suppression, climate change, quality of education, civil rights, the war on drugs, converting to alternative energy, and energy independence. I can go on and on with listing the ways in which we trail, but what matters is what we do about it. Our only hope is that we have a candidate and a platform that they will stand behind to make the changes needed to correct these problems.
We cannot use the same people that created the problems and expect them to magically decide that the real solutions now finally sound good. We need change, not just incremental change, because our planet and our children do not have time for that. We need a principled and ethical candidate who will enact radical change and drive us forward to be able to begin to recover from decades of war and economic, social, and political stagnation.
Judgement Matters
I have written at length about the many problems with Hillary Clinton as a candidate in my blog post:
https://www.freexenon.com/2015/09/17/voting-hillary-clinton-2016/
… although if you choose not to read my really long post let me leave you with one quote which can summarize it – the TLDR; version if you will:
“If you take nothing from this writing, then please take the following: Why would you vote for someone who has been on the wrong side of so many issues and has had to “evolve” her stance on almost every issue to be on the right (DOMA, gay marriage, Iraq War, NAFTA, Patriot Act) or is still wrong (Glass-Steagall, GMOs, fracking), when you can vote for the person who has been consistently right for the last 30+ years.”
As another example of this – you will find that for almost every bad decision that America has made in the past 30+ years there is a video (or picture) of Bernie Sanders trying to stop it. In contrast, you will find video, transcripts or pictures of Hillary voting for or supporting these bad decisions in the few years she has been able to. In the end, judgement matters and this is what is really going to matter to the world and our children’s future, and is the only way to bring about real change.
The potential legacy for Hillary as a president will very likely mirror her current decision making pattern and history in government. It will be a stream of bad decision, apologies, scandals, and ‘Oh, crap! I was wrong!’ moments. Is that what you really want for the future of our country, for our children, for our businesses and workers – ‘Oh, crap! I was wrong!’ or would it be more prudent to choose someone whose lone words have been consistently quite prophetic and historically on the right side of the issues? Why choose the person who has been consistently wrong when you can choose the person who has been consistently right?
Trust and Favorability
Even with Elizabeth Warren’s endorsement and Bernie’s endorsement as a sacrifice to his candidacy so he could get non-binding platform concessions we do not trust Hillary at all as her dismal trustworthy numbers well show. She has a record-breaking low for a trustworthy rating which is even lower than Trump’s if that tells you anything. This is also true for her favorability rating. For Sanders, the reverse is true in both cases. He tops all of the candidates – seen as the most favorable and trustworthy of all of the candidates. These two factors combined with her ever dwindling small lead over Trump, or being behind in some key states now, does not bode well for Hillary’s electoral performance especially when everyone is allowed to vote for their preferred candidate in the General Election, and even more so when you take into account how independents will vote as I will cover in the next section.
Polls show that Bernie Sanders would absolutely destroy Donald Trump or anyone else in a fair election by 10% or more. Hillary, in contrast, because of her marred reputation and all of the scandals has a good chance to lose versus Donald or any other candidate. Keep in mind that in the previous primaries she lost to Obama twice. The American people have already said ‘NO!’ to her twice already, although now, strangely, under questionable circumstances and amidst stream of electoral fraud, voter suppression, collusion, and money laundering allegations, the numbers seem to show that she has almost achieved the nomination, but her potential win would not ever be a real win. =( One study points to a 1 in 77 billion chance that Hillary actually won the nomination in a way that did not include widespread and systemic electoral fraud. Even if we reduce their numbers by several orders of magnitude to compensate for potential errors – a 1 in 77 million or even a 1 in 7 million chance she won without fraud is not a good number to have hanging over this potentially historic election. A win without cheating is not a win. It is a steal and this fact will hang over her presidency and will greatly affect how other countries see her – an usurper and someone whose word cannot be trusted along with her government.
The Democratic platform is non-binding so the Democratic Party can tell us and Bernie Sanders whatever we want to hear, but they do not need to have any intention of truly following through with it. We cannot trust Hillary Clinton or the current Democratic Party as we have seen with her political history and the current shenanigans performed by the Democratic Party to ensure that Hillary is elected. She has already started to pivot to the center on some issues and is already changing her stance to show us that her word changes with the moment. There have plenty of studies and lawsuits to go around to show that she could not have won the primary without systemic and widespread electoral fraud, suppression and collusion. Because of all of this we do not trust either of Hillary or the Democratic Party to be honest and to follow-through with the concessions that Bernie has arranged for if Hillary is president.
There was a study that showed that congress does not care what the people think, that they serve the corporations and their interests, and Hillary is the embodiment of that. She has taken too much money from corporations and foreign countries while Bernie has not. Bernie is only beholden to the people whereas Hillary is beholden to her donors. We need a candidate that we the people can trust, that the world leaders can trust, and one that represents the people. Bernie is that candidate. He is the only candidate.
Bernie or Bust and the Independent Voting Block
The Bernie or Bust movement is real. In a poll I posted on Facebook following Bernie’s endorsement of Hillary, Berners chose Jill Stein 5-1 over writing-in Bernie Sanders (or any other option) if he does not win the nomination. I know you may have been fed some false numbers about 90% of Bernie supporters will support her, but that is just mainstream media trying to keep you superdelegates and other Hillary supporters under control. She will get some of us, but not anywhere near what those deceptive propaganda articles say. At most, and from what I have seen from our polls and from social media sites, I could see her getting maybe 20-30% of us, which will not be enough for her to even come close to winning. To think otherwise is to not understand the Bernie or Bust movement and what has motivated us. Many of us, because we are tired of electoral fraud, voter suppression, and corporate ownership of our government will either write-in Bernie, vote for Jill Stein, or any other candidate but Hillary. Now that we are awake we could not in good conscience vote for Hillary because she is part of the problem and is truly the lesser of two evils, but still an electoral evil. Our single electoral voice, our children, and our country deserve better than that.
Us, as independents and the largest voting block (~ 40% of the electorate), are saying NO to Hillary and her legacy of harmful decisions and the corrupt practices of the Democratic Party. We want change. If you want to win this election you will need to give us change or we will go elsewhere with our votes. This is not a threat. This merely a fact. This is what will come to pass for we are Bernie or Bust. For too long have we had to vote our fears. Now that we are awake we will no longer vote our fears or for the lesser (or greater) of two evils. We shall vote our hopes and values which do not in any way lie with Hillary. Bernie is our champion. Bernie speaks for us. Bernie is our leader. Bernie is the future. Hillary is the past that we wish we could shove under the bed to be able to forget about it.
Bernie has, at one point, won an election with 70%+ of the votes and that is only possible by winning cross-party and independent votes. Hillary cannot and has not ever come close to doing that in the way that Bernie has. He can get conservatives, moderates and liberals to vote for him unlike anyone else in history due to his prophetic view and principled career. These are the traits of a leader and this is what our country needs to move forward and fix the many problems plaguing our country. If you really want to keep the Republicans from winning the White House and from choosing the next few Supreme Court Justices then there is only one real answer that will get independents to vote en masse for a Democratic candidate and that is with Bernie Sanders.
In Closing
I know if that if you are a superdelegate that currently supports Hillary Clinton that my words may fall on deaf ears, but please at least consider my above words and take a moment to read my above blog post. When you are at the National Convention please consider voting for Bernie Sanders and his uncanny ability to be on the right side of the issues, who has great ratings, and massive support from independents. He really is our only hope and the only way to truly court independent voters of all stripes, and even some conservative voters. He has the principles and the plan to help right our slowly sinking freak-show; or because independents will not vote for her, we will see the Republican candidate, whoever they end up nominating, in the White House. The choice is yours -Bernie or a Republican as lepresident
Thank you for your time and you consideration,
Good luck at the convention.
Yours truly,
Jim O’Neill
Wisconsin
