Civil intelligent debates are good ...
Sen. Sanders makes case for 'civil, intelligent' debates
by Nicole Gaudiano, USA TODAY -- March 9, 2015
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Sanders, who is expected to announce this month whether he'll enter the race for the White House, said he doesn't run "against" people. He also said he's never run a negative advertisement and "it's not my desire to trash people."
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But after visiting early voting states, he appears to have honed a potential stump speech -- and a speaking style. When he discusses the country's future, he joked, he needs to live up to his reputation as "too gruff" or "a grumpy grandfather."
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The most important issue facing the country is income inequality, he said. Sanders criticized Congress for being "out of touch" with Americans and President Obama for thinking he could negotiate with Republicans.
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Honing (aka sharpening) your stump speech, is good too.
Focusing on the corporate lackeys in Congress, is a very good tactic too.
Bernie Sanders Explains What He Thinks Obama Did Wrong As President
by Jesse Rifkin, huffingtonpost.com -- March 9, 2015
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"If you were to ask me what his major mistake has been, it's that he thought that after putting together this extraordinary grassroots movement of young people, minorities and working-class people and getting elected to the presidency, then he thought he could sit down with the Republicans and negotiate all these agreements. He was mistaken," Sanders told a gathering at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.
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"The American people say raise the minimum wage, the United States Congress says give tax breaks to billionaires," he said. "The American people say we have to move towards sustainable and clean energy and energy efficiency, the United States Congress says build the Keystone Pipeline. And on and on."
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"The only way that any president in this day and age taking on the billionaire class can succeed -- the only possible way -- is to mobilize tens of millions of people to save the Congress," he said.
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"If we continue to have elections in which 63 percent of the people don't vote, 80 percent of young people don't vote, then the rich will only get richer and will continue to dominate what goes on here in Washington," Sanders said. "Any serious president that wants to represent working families has to mobilize people all over this country to make the Congress an offer they can't refuse."
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Appealing to the populist "interests" of working Americans is a good way to get them mobilized.
Perhaps maybe even mobilized enough to "Vote the Bums" out. You know, those 'bums' representing the interests of Billionaires, over the interests of millions of average Voters.
"Hasta la vista, billionaire butlers."
That is at the root of it, what Sanders is after ... and after all the election dust clears, aren't we all?