Please read this before you vote in the poll…
Bernie Sanders is busy lately practicing his stump speech for his unofficially-declared 2016 run. Sanders made some strong comments after returning from a trip to Iowa and before heading back to New Hampshire.
Sanders is thinking of calling himself an "independent Democrat"… “That would mean running in the Democratic primaries and caucuses, but acknowledging that I am an independent, and have won every election I have run as an independent.”
Sanders then goes on to describe the situation like Cantor's race:
“Everyone was shocked by Eric Cantor. My guess -– my experience –- is that when you go out and you talk to working people, there’s a lot more dissatisfaction with the status quo and status quo politics than you think… And if that if my conclusion is true, we’ll do better than I think people think.”
Now Bernie gets classy and then says exactly what needs to be said:
“In terms of Hillary, I respect her. I’ve known her. I like her. So I’m not running to attack Hillary Clinton. I’m running to talk about the issues that impact the working class of this country and the middle class… No question in my mind that if there was a national Democratic primary today, Hillary would win it, and win it handsomely. She would win it because she is widely respected, she is popular.
What people are dissatisfied with is not Hillary Clinton. People are dissatisfied with the fact that 95 percent of all new incomes go to the top 1 percent. That’s what people are dissatisfied with. And people are dissatisfied that we have billionaires pay a lower tax rate than working families. And those are the issues.
I think what we need is a new politics -- a different type of politics than Hillary’s. A politics that is much more grassroots-oriented, much more having to do with strong coalition-building and grassroots activism than I think Hillary has demonstrated over the years, or supported.”
In my opinion, we are at a turning point of history. We have some choices to make that will determine the course of our future and our childrens' future.
Our economic system has been revealed to be a hierarchy of corruption serving those as the top, and certainly not an evidence-based Science. Our democracy is being eroded, our rights trampled by both parties (Rethugs obviously the much greater evil). Most of our politicians regard the following as taboo: Snowden & the NSA, Citizens United, Too-Big-to-Fail Banks, Jobs, Inequality, Living Wage, Bankster Regulations, Expanding Social Security, TPP/TPIP/TISA (NAFTA pt 2 & 3), Fracking, Marijuana legalization.
Then we have the devastating interrelation between Climate Change and the gradually worsening resource limitations. Wait till we see the food prices in 10+ years.
Obama has set us on an "all-of-the-above" energy path, knowing full well his plans do little to nothing to mitigate Climate Change. Obama has more often in the past boasted of his commitments to fossil fuels. Their is no reason that to believe that Hillary or any other Democratic establishment will do anything different. Vox has an excellent article: These 5 charts show why the world is still failing on climate change. Even moderates like Ezra Klein have become pessimistic which he detailed in 2 articles: 7 reasons America will fail on climate change and An 8th reason to be pessimistic about climate change action. Most in the Science community are aware that we are most likely going to overshoot the "extremely dangerous" 2°C, and with only moderate mitigation, as current business leaders are willing to support, stabilize at 3°-4°C. This does not account for systemic feedbacks likely to start around this stage, most notably methane release. While 6°C is broadly agreed to be the mass-extinction threshold, a "4°C future is incompatible with an organized global community, is likely to be beyond ‘adaptation’, is devastating to the majority of ecosystems, and has a high probability of not being stable." One can only wonder if the USA will still be around, or what it would look like. Its questionable the present population level will even be sustainable.
On a positive note, only 38% of voters would vote for a ClimateChange-denying presidential candidate. With the Repugs' candidate almost guaranteed to be a denier, I believe this expands our prospects for 2016, and we must take this opportunity.
Bernie Sanders has spoken a lot about Climate Change, and shown that he fully appreciates how we currently hang between hardship and catastrophe. I also believe Sanders can draw many new and disenchanted voters out. Lets give our future a fighting chance, unite the left, fix our democracy, and push our country in the right [left] direction!