When politicians put serious time into "early Electoral" fly-over states -- it is supposed to be signalling something.
Iowa is one such state. And Senator Sanders recently swept through the place.
A Socialist in 2016? for Sanders, at least, it's a question worth asking
by Sheryl Gay Stolberg, New York Times; staradvertiser.com -- Dec 19, 2014
[...]
He railed against big banks ("Break 'em up!"), fretted over climate change and income inequality, and deplored the high cost of a college education ("Totally moronic."). He embraced a single-payer health system ("Guess what everybody! Health care is a right!"), proposed strengthening labor unions and lamented a lack of voter participation ("All over this country people are throwing up their hands in despair.").
But Sanders reserved his greatest ire for what he called "one extreme right-wing billionaire family," the brothers Charles and David Koch. In his view, they are the root of what is wrong in U.S. politics.
"The Koch brothers are worth $85 billion. You might think that's enough to get by, leave a couple of bucks to your kids," the senator thundered, his voice rising, face reddening. "But apparently they feel an obligation to destroy Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid."
[...]
He's got a good
Populist message -- one that resonates with 'salt of the earth' people.
He's got a good Populist Plan too -- one that can make the rich pay their fair share; one that helps those in need too; one that attempts to solve real American problems.
In Iowa, Bernie Sanders calls for a revolution
by Jennifer Jacobs, desmoinesregister.com -- December 16, 2014
[...]
This was Sanders' fourth trip this year to the presidential testing grounds of Iowa, where he has booked least 13 public events over eight days. [...]
[...]
When The Des Moines Register asked Sanders Tuesday about his reaction to former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush's decision Tuesday to explore running for president, Sanders answered "free country," and shrugged. [...]
If he runs for president, Sanders told the Ames audience he'd push for money for government infrastructure. He said he believes the best and fastest way to create millions of jobs is fastest way to do is rebuild the nation's crumbling roads, bridges, water systems and other infrastructure. He said he wants to fight for health care for all through a single-payer system. He wants to make it easier for workers to form a union. And he wants to break up financial institutions focused only on profit instead of pushing capital into the U.S. economy.
"He's just fearless," she [Ms. Mendenhall, 66] told the Register after the speech. "And he's right on all the issues. He's talking about a nationwide uprising. It has got to happen, and he can't do it alone."
When you spend your lifetime
standing up for what's right -- for the vast majorities of the American People -- it kind of makes you that:
"Fearless."
But according to some political observers, the ambitious plain-talking Sanders, just might have a Liz Warren problem. In brief, their argument goes, Warren is 'way more hip', more 'culturally popular' -- than some stogy "old white guy" ...
Why the Left Loves Warren, But Won’t Swoon for Sanders
by David Freedlander, thedailybeast.com, -- Dec 19, 2014
[...]
“It’s not the least bit frustrating,” said Tad Devine, the political operative and vet of both Al Gore and John Kerry’s presidential campaigns, and who is now working for Sanders. “She has said she is not running.”
[...]
But, Devine said, the groundswell for Warren would translate into support for Sanders once the campaign began, and he was in and she was out.
[...]
Others say that the reason Sanders has ignited the left in the same way that Warren has is that Sanders is something of a full-spectrum liberal -- climate change, campaign-finance reform, inequality, infrastructure spending, worker-run cooperatives, surveillance, genetically modified foods, a humbler foreign policy. Warren is more of a single-note singer -- inequality, and the way the economic system is rigged to produce more of it -- and it’s a note she sings over and over again. And it is also one that happens to hit the cultural moment exactly, a moment that includes Occupy Wall Street and a best-seller devoted to the subject by a previously obscure French economist.
Some of this political capital should be Sanders’ for the taking. He first rose to national prominence during an eight-hour filibuster on the floor of the Senate in 2010, in which he railed against a deal that the Obama administration cut with congressional Republicans to extend the Bush-era tax cuts for upper-income earners.
[...]
Sanders has guts. He took a stand against
Welfare for the Wealthy -- long before taking such stands,
was kool.
Here are some of the substantial highlights from that epic Sanders 12-hour effort -- in a word, he gets it. Senator Cruz-Suess has got nothing over Bernie -- especially in the 'heft' dept.
Full Congressional Record Transcript of Sanders Filibuster
Friday, December 10, 2010
THE ECONOMY -- (Senate - December 10, 2010)
[Video links to the Sanders Filibuster]
Senator Bernie Sanders:
[...]
I know there are some people who think this all began the day President Obama took office. Well, that is not quite the case. When President Clinton left office, this country was running, in fact, a very significant surplus, and the projections were that we were going to continue to run a surplus. During the 8 years of President Bush's administration, for a number of reasons--the primary reasons being the war in Iraq, the war in Afghanistan, huge tax breaks for the wealthiest people in this country, a Medicare Part D prescription drug program, the Wall Street bailout, among other things, all of which were not paid for--we saw an almost doubling of the national debt. Since President Obama has been in office, we have passed a stimulus package which has also added to the deficit and national debt.
But here we are today with a $13.8 trillion national debt, a $1.4 trillion deficit, and almost all Americans are in agreement that this is a very serious issue. So the first point I would make is that it seems to me to be unconscionable--unconscionable--for my conservative friends and for everybody else in this country to be driving up this already too high national debt by giving tax breaks to millionaires and billionaires who don't need it, and in a number of cases they don't even want it.
[...]
We have been told not to worry too much because the extension of these tax breaks for the wealthy will only last 2 years--not to worry. Maybe that is the case. But given the political reality I have seen in Washington, my guess is that 2 years from now these tax breaks for the wealthiest people in this country will be extended again. What happens around here is that the argument will be made that if you end these tax breaks you are raising taxes. That is what we are hearing right now. I see no reason why, in the middle of a Presidential election, those arguments will not be made again and I see no reason not to believe that those tax breaks will be extended again.
[...]
Here is the important point I think many people do not know. I have to confess my Republican friends and their pollsters and their language people have done a very good job. This is the so-called death tax. I think all over America people say this is terrible. I have $50,000 in the bank and I want to leave that to my kids and the Government is going to take 55 percent of that, 35 percent of that. What an outrage.
Let us be very clear: This tax applies only--only--to the top three-tenths of 1 percent of American families; 99.7 percent of American families will not pay one nickel in an estate tax. This is not a tax on the rich, this is a tax on the very, very, very rich.
If my Republican friends had been successful in doing what they want to do, which is eliminate this estate tax completely, it would have cost our Treasury--raised the national debt by $1 trillion over a 10-year period. Families such as the Walton family, of Wal-Mart fame, would have received, just this one family, about a $30 billion tax break.
I find it hard to believe when we are talking about massive cuts in programs for working families, when we have this huge national debt, that anybody would be agreeing to lowering the estate tax rate to 35 percent. That is what this agreement does and I think that is a very bad idea.
[...]
For example--this galls me and galls many of the people in this country--the horrendous recession we are in right now, where millions and millions of people have lost their jobs, their savings, their homes, this recession was caused by the greed and recklessness and illegal behavior on Wall Street. These guys, through their greed, created the most severe economic recession since the Great Depression. The American people bailed them out. Now, 2 years after the bailout, they are giving themselves more compensation than they ever have. They are saying to the American people: Sorry we caused this recession because of our greed. Sorry you are unemployed. Sorry you lost your house. But that is not all that important. What is important is that I, on Wall Street, continue to get millions of dollars in compensation and in bonuses, that I have big parties. How can I get by on one house? I need 5 houses, 10 houses. I need three jet planes to take me all over the world. Sorry. We have the money. We have the power. We have the lobbyists here on Wall Street. Tough luck. That is the world, get used to it.
The rich get richer. The middle class shrinks. Not enough, not enough. The very rich seem to want more and more and more, and they are prepared to dismantle the existing political and social order in order to get it. [...]
[Sanders continues ... for 12 hours, just like this.]
Hmmm? It seems Sander knows how to hit
that "Wall Street note" too -- if Sanders' historic filibuster statement is to be any guide.
Senator Elizabeth Warren should be a tad fearful of a Sanders Candidacy, if you ask me. That or she had better start adopting Senator Sanders' "full-spectrum" plan. Especially if she wants to have more than a few notes on her political play-sheet.
Encourage Senator Bernie Sanders to Run for President in 2016 as a Democrat Here -- credomobilize.com
Encourage Senator Elizabeth Warren to Run for President in 2016 Here -- runwarrenrun.org
May the best Candidate -- for the American People -- actually Win, for a change.
(Hmmm? Nice slogan.)