Bernie Brothers--and Sisters, What Now?
Where do we go from here, my brothers and sisters? What do we do with all that friggin' energy Bernie inspired in us this primary season?
Do we vote Hillary and Democrat this November...or vote Green? Or just stay home?
Do we add our voices and drive to the Democrat Party this Fall and thereafter? Or do we break away like the Teabaggers did from the Right, and create something new?
To a Hillary supporter, such talk smacks of treason, or of crazy. Or worse.
But to all of us Bernie supporters out there, we continue to question whether or not the Democrat Party remains a viable home for us.
Bernie Sanders officially became my hero when I heard his first campaign speech last Fall. His call for redressing income inequality was the clincher. While other Democrat politicians were primarily concerned with redressing crucial social issues, like Gender Pay Equality, Right to Choose, LGBT & minority rights--Bernie alone charged into tackling economic issues that directly help the poor and middle class.
His push for $15/hr Minimum Wage and Free College, resonated personally with me; because I still labor under a mound of student loan debt, and because someone I love very much would benefit yuuugely from an immediate raise of the minimum wage. But the other issues he champions are just as important, like allowing Americans to save 90% on there medication bills by being able to import from Canada and sidestep Big Pharma’s cartel. Or his plan to stop Global Warming--before it destroys the world economy and kills us all. Or his intention to break up the Too Big to Fail banks, and reinstate Glass-Steagall-like protections to keep Wall Street on the rails.
See Bernie's site for the entire issue enchilada: berniesanders.com/...
During the primaries, from seemingly out of nowhere, Bernie created a grassroots movement that came within inches of unseating the DNC's hand-picked favorite. Who we now know from the recent Wikileaks, fought Bernie with the full backing of the DNC. Along with a serious big-money political donor base. Bernie said the DNC was not neutral; was gunning for him, and secretly supporting Secretary Clinton. DNC lied, said, "No Bernie, our bylaws require us to be neutral."
But Bernie stayed in the race. Despite the Dem Part establishment secretly colluding against him. Despite vicious, personal attacks against his platform and his character at liberal websites. Many of them here at our very own Daily Kos.
In fact it was a particularly strident anti-Sanders rant by Kos last November that inspired me to start posting after nearly a decade of lurking. It was Kos who backhandedly inspired me to log this, my first, diary.
Sanders ain’t no saint. But as far as politicians go, he’s got to be in the Top Ten of all time for ethics and morality.
But when the dust of the primary voting season finally settled, Bernie was not the 'presumptive nominee'. Yet he continued in the race in order to present his demands at the convention. Again, despite another virtual shit storm of objections from Dem Party elites, many of them who blogged here at the Kos, crying out for party “unity”. Crying out so that the DNC wouldn’t have to move an inch Leftwards was more like it.
At the Convention, Bernie formally endorsed Secretary Clinton. In return for some considerable concessions. Which has supposedly pulled the Democrat Party further Left than then Governor Obama's election platform.
Which is good, right?
Which is enough, right?
Which campaign promises we can actually trust our first female president to keep when she wins the oval?
Because prez candidates—red or blue—routinely say lots of stuff to win the GE that they later fail to even try to implement. So it all comes down to trust.
Her convention acceptance speak was very well done, indeed. She said all the right things, in a very cogent way. But there are some red lights that make me uneasy.
Immediately giving Wasserman-Schultz a key campaign position, plus tons of kudos, literally *the day after* her resignation from the chairmanship over Wikileaks, was like a punch in the gut. Does that decision make our presidential nominee more, or less, trustworthy?
Now I know there are many very intelligent Hillary supporters here at the Kos who will frame the issue an arguement that a Trump presidency must be defeated at all costs. At all costs. That he'd be worse than Cheney and Dubya'--or even Hitler. That he'll start WWIII, conservitize the Supremes for a generation, alienate the world against us, and polarize race relations to beyond terrible.
All of which is possible, or even highly likely.
The issue is not whether or not Trump is a walking trainwreck.
Clinton supporters do not really understand that to a Bernie Bro like me, she represents all that is wrong--and right--with the DNC in particular, and the the Democrat Party establishment in general. With the notable and praiseworthy exception of the Democratic Progressive Caucus (my other heroes!), the DNC is socially liberal (yay!); but economically conservative (boo!). Sorta' *Eisenhower* conservative. While the GOP are socially conservative *and* economically conservative (yuck!).
It's hard for a Bernie Bro like me to shake the impression that both GOP and DNC are entirely bought and paid for by big donations from Corporate America. I’ve always believed it of the GOP. And that Wikileaked DNC donor list didn’t exactly pull any punches.
Maybe I’m just a Leftie wingnut, but it seems to me that both party control units primarily exist to serve the corporate agenda, and the Pentagon—both of which seem happy to let Red and Blue tear themselves to pieces over social issues.
As long as the corporate bottom line isn't threatened. By measures like a $15/hr minimum wage, or being allowed to buy meds on the free market from Canada. Or the military isn't asked to drop an especially delicious money pit, like the F-35 fighter program.
But know this, fellow Bernie Brothers and Sisters: Hillary and the entire Democratic slate this Fall need us. It's not just the youth vote they need. They need the youth, and energy, the drive of the Bernie Bros. To motivate the Independant 40% of the electorate to get out and vote Blue. And Team Blue knows they can't do it without us. With Independent voters currently at 40%, Dems and GOP currently only represent 30%, each, of American voters. And those percentages are shrinking.
I would argue that for the DNC to survive--or even thrive—as a single, unified party in both the short and long term, they need to become more populist. Populist as in $15/hr, Free College, and 90% discounts on prescription drugs. The big corporate donors may not like it. But they'll get used to it if the payout is landslide victories that yield control of Washington.
But we wingnut Lefties need guarantees that if we help Team Blue kick ass in November, the new Blue Congress won't go all corporate on us, and throw out all of the Sanders proposals adopted into Hillary's current platform. You know, say stuff like, "That's just too impractical to legislate right now (i.e., my corporate donors don't like it)."
So now I want to ask my fellow Sanders supporters the Question of the Hour: What will it take--from Hillary, from the DNC elites--to make it worth our while to give them our all. Instead of just, “OK, I guess I’ll vote for Hillary and Team Blue in November.” To instead give them body and soul?
What will it take to get us all fully on board?