Why it is Still Bernie or Bust…
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In the U.S., we can’t seem to agree on the optimum depth of pizza, whether to pray to Steven Hawkins or Jesus, or the age-old battle of Android versus IPhone, but we seem to come together for this idea of democracy. And then there are those words, “WE THE PEOPLE…” Last year, a study emerged from Princeton that should have rocked the United States, a nation regarded by most as a Democratic-Republic. The study, done by Professors Gilens and Page, looked at almost 2,000 public opinion surveys about policies and the corresponding laws that were passed.
When the results are charted, the diagonal gray line represents what would be a perfect matching of public opinion and policy action in our government. The flat purple line actually reflects American representation. The professors went on to find that the American public’s opinion has a “minuscule, near-zero” effect on what laws are passed. The study shed light on a big issue, because, there is a segment of Americans who do affect policy.
When the opinion of those with the top 10% of wealth is used, something interesting happens — the yellow line gets very close to ideal representation. The bottom line: Money has great influence in politics. Surprised?
Our politicians do not care about our opinions unless we are industry lobbyists or really, really wealthy. And I don’t blame them. Getting into office is often a million-dollar battle, and once you’re in, one is simply counting down the days until the next election. This election cycle, 158 families provided nearly half of the early money efforts to candidates looking to capture the White House. Politicians spend more time raising money than anything else. Even when there seat is a sure thing. It’s very clear —a politician cannot change this system. Citizens in America have sat by and essentially watched our own interests die with the words of campaign promises. We’ve accepted the ramifications of living in a plutocracy (government run by the wealthy)— war, lies, and the costs of doing business. So as a population divides based upon the most notorious American gang colors, the truth is only one color rules this system.
I can’t pretend to be something I am not. I vote for democrats because they are usually the most progressive of the two parties. Nothing ever captivated me as much as the work of John Rawls. His veil of ignorance asks people to imagine themselves up in space looking down on earth before they were born. Having no choice in where you are born — possibilities ranging from the slums of an inner city to the hills in an affluent small county — what kind of world would you want to be born into? Do you want the world where the luck of the draw determines your life or one where socio-economic mobility is not just a dream? Call me a liberal…but there is a reason why I support equity and fairness in policy. Now, let me be clear, the neo-liberal reformers don’t have the answers to creating this equitable world. And there is no incentive for them to change because of the problems a plutocratic system creates.
Progressives stayed home during the 2010 midterm elections, still love-drunk over the first black president. Waiting for Obama to fix everything, Americans were busy, enamored with celebrity beefs on Twitter and some British girl’s big eyebrows. Not caring about politics has become a way of life, but, when it comes down to it, aren’t we supposed be the one’s to take action? How else do we get that line closer to ideal if we hope, complain, and wait? There must be a shift — Democrats and Republicans won’t change the system they work in. It takes something exo-political. An outsider.
That is where an old, socialist from Vermont comes in. For those who don’t get Bernie, he is an enigmatic force. If you look at him through the guise of a politician you won’t understand him. Bernie is not a politician. He is not vying for a seat at the table. He doesn’t want the establishment’s support. Bernie Sanders is a movement. He has spoken truth to power well before many of his supporters were even a twinkle in their parents’ eyes. He is a vehicle. Sanders could have easily run a typical populist campaign: (Republicans suck*equality + hope = a vice presidency). Hillary would love a populist running mate. But from day one, Sanders has shown all his cards and used his charisma and passion to question the system. It has been argued that his campaign is enthralled in just regular primary heat and that things will cool down come November. They expect angry millennials to get past this phase and support Hillary and the Democrats we know and love when it’s all said and done. But, these people don’t understand the significance of US NOT ME. And Bernie has been an enduring voice for this movement. Let’s look at history.
The Pre-history
If you have a fear of your political friends seeing you reading something critical of our political system or you fear persecution for even mentioning the words “establishment” or “institution” : 1) don’t read this until you are alone and 2) don’t feel alone. You have been sold a story of politics that granduerizes the achievements of incrementalist politicians. The establishment will make you believe a version of history that emphasizes a didactic political climate as the only true history. They will have you believe there were no abolitionists before Lincoln, disregarding the great abolitionist John Brown because he thought the abhorrent practice of slavery was worth raising arms for. They will have you believe that the industries that fund them are crucial to our economic survival. They will have you believe that incremental change is the only way. They support the plight of the poor and minorities that is, until we interfere with their money. Whether it was MLK who began to talk about workers rights and economic freedom or Huey Long who fought the Choctaw then Standard Oil as a Louisiana Senator, both were assassinated for upsetting the system. If you don’t know of Huey Long, he was one of the most outrageous characters in American political history, but listen to his description of politics in the 1920’s.
You’ll hear him called a dictator by liberals and conservatives alike. But he was fighting a fight against wealth inequality back when it was still the “top 4%” — before the occupy movement. They call him a “Cesar” and that evil term “populist”. He was an outright socialist who got his hands dirty politically. Five years before Bernie Sanders was born, Long was battling the Rockafellas and the Morgans essentially today's Koch Brothers and Rothchilds. Before his assassination, he planned to win the Presidential election and sign into law policies that would end educational inequity, hunger, and poverty — kind of like the new deal, without the discrimination and perpetuation of the caste-like society it induced.
And the vehicle moves on…
The 60's
This was a campaign attack ad against Barry Goldwater that was released by the Johnson Campaign. With the death of Kennedy, who would have surely raised the political conversation above, “Goldwater will nuke little girl”, America was stuck with a choice between “the lesser of two”. The New Yorker explains how Trump is today’s Goldwater and Hillary is today’s Johnson. Get ready for this level of politics if it is Trump v Clinton (we’ve already seen name calling and phallic references from candidates). You can imagine back then that Trump supporters were Goldwater supporters, finally ready to rid themselves of the establishment Republicans, who toe the line and never speak their minds. What’s interesting is, one of those supporters, who were then called “Goldwater Girls”, was named Hillary Clinton. She wrote in her memoir, that she, “liked Senator Goldwater because he was a rugged individualist who swam against the political tide.” Now, I can’t judge her high school fixations — the biggest figure to my tenth-grade brain was Lil Wayne — but it took her some time to get over the Good Old Party. After high school and mid-way through college, she finally elected to leave the losing Republican candidates behind, eventually joining the losing Mcarthy “anti-war” Campaign in 1968.
About Goldwater, this is the man who sparked a lot of the fire we see now in the Tea Party. In the sixties, he was an ardent voice of anti-welfare state, New Deal, communism and labor unions. Pretty much all the things that people born into money hate. And his opposite, Lydon Johnson won the election by more than 80 percent of the vote. This is the Lyndon Johnson who ended discrimination at the polls and segregation everywhere else with the Voting and Civil Rights Acts. But, it is interesting to note that Johnson, the champion of civil rights, was utterly and deplorably racist. He spent most of his time as a young legislator fighting civil rights reforms. And he was a magnificent user of the word “nigger” — he even referred to his crowning achievement the Voting Rights Act as “the nigger bill”. I bring this up not to appear surprised that a farmhouse raised Texan was racist, but to present the game the political elite play. The difference between Goldwater and Johnson is party. There was no withholding essential rights to blacks anymore, and the Democratic establishment saw an opportunity to solidify their holding over a burgeoning voter base. The lineage of political power travels a vein right up through history. The sixties give us the clearest difference between the emergence of the US NOT ME movement (yes even back then)and the fight with the establishment.
The movement is what forced the political needle. We can look at Chicago in 1964. The Public Schools Superintendent Benjamin C. Willis decided that placing aluminum trailers in black neighborhoods was the go-to move in keeping schools segregated. The units were put into lots in Englewood and other areas with high African American populations. Boycotts, sit-ins, and protests ensued. Some were arrested during the protests, including a twenty-one-year-old student from the University of Chicago. That student, a young Sanders, went on to protest housing segregation, organize for civil rights and would march with Martin Luther King, while somewhere in America, boys and girls were dressed in cowboy and girl outfits rallying as segregationalist Barry Goldwater is yelling “Nea” to Johnson’s “nigger bill”.
Granted, Goldwater was about as racist and harmless as Donald Trump is. I doubt anyone (even himself) actually believes Donald Trump will be able to raise a wall or carry out any of the proposals we’ve heard on the campaign trail. But, this shows you the difference between politicians and movements. I don’t blame Hillary for supporting a candidate like Goldwater, as the political elite can explain away anything. They will make you believe a version of history that emphasizes a didactic political climate as the only true history after they have erased, killed off and tarnished the name of those within the movement.
And the vehicle moves on…
The 90's
A Jimmy Carteresque mix of “Southern Manners” and a liberal-loving handshake, Bill Clinton and his wife inhabited The Residence. In 96', he signed into law a welfare reform bill that was all the talk for Democrats. President Clinton’s law required welfare recipients to participate in various programs, training, and community service, in order to get financial help. States could determine the specific requirements, and they had free reign over how the money dedicated to public assistance was used. The result of this is what is now thousands of people working for sometimes less than $3 an hour. According to a Washington Post article, it doubled extreme poverty, and Senator Sanders is the one who pointed that out.
And as the story goes, this was one time out of the numerous splits from the political machinery that Bernie stood apart. From Nixon to Reagan to Bush to Clinton, the war on drugs increased and showed little sign of letting up. The stricter sentences and three-strike laws, in Sadist theoretical lineage, worked to deter criminals by bringing what then First Lady Clinton called,
“kids… ‘super-predators.’ [with] no conscience, no empathy…to heel.”
Underfunded schools bled young people onto inner city streets where opportunity had a color and corner. Subsequently, as jails filled and the budget balanced, there was an annoying voice in the congressional chambers, asking the legislators to not continue putting poor people in jail and disproportionately punishing blacks.
The 2000's
Following the dot-com boom, nothing could stop the American economy. Businesses, from Silicon Valley to Central Park, stocks, and eventually housing soared. Banking and finance was set free by a Clinton-Gramm led team with the repeal of Glass-Steagall. With such affluence the Democrats had to keep the party going — the president signed the bill with everyone around, Democrats and Republicans, smiling ready to return to their districts with big banking donations in tow and a Federal Reserve artificially keeping prices down. Except for this one thorn. This party pooper. This grumpy white-haired man (who no-one invited to the party) wouldn’t let anyone enjoy the music.
There goes Bernie. Back at it again with the white hair. And in Nostradamus-like fashion, he predicts the financial crisis, the blunder that was the Iraq War and the campaign finance system we currently have. While top military officials within the joint chief of staff opposed the Iraq Insurgency, foreign policy experts warned it would increase the risk of terrorism, six top economists predicted the market meltdown and financial institutions were again and again cited as the causes, through years of media-blackouted protests, the interests of the political and economic elite were protected. And they will tell us anything to convince us otherwise.
In this election, I’ve often heard the argument that to not support Hillary is to not support women. Young women especially are being shamed for not supporting someone who supported the Iraq War and didn’t come around to Gay Marriage until Supreme Court Justice Kennedy told her it was politically appropriate. Apparently there is “a special place in hell” for women who vote based on the issues. Let it be known: Hillary did face roadblocks as a female in politics. Those in power have had little regard for intersectionality and the social construction that patriarchy erects. But there are many women who stood strong and quite literally pulled themselves up by the bootstraps — in the professional and political world — not needed to buttress their political careers with that of their husband. Shirly Chisholm was the first black woman to sit as a member of the House. She fought her way through black and white men as a powerful leader. Jeannette Rankin served as a U.S. House member in the early 1900’s. She was the only member of congress to vote against both WWI and WWII. To list the number of women who saw hardship and overcame it is almost disrespectful. But the point is, while like many women, Hillary faced hardships, but didn’t embrace the corruption that the system feeds off of. She will always be a feminist icon but is also a corrupt politician.
When it comes down to it, many of our political problems should be considered a screaming vortex of consequence of a system which equates money with speech, with campaign finance laws at the apex. And of the many politicians that were born of this “money-ball”, we are left with the system as it is but are also able to look back at the roots of the system and its antithesis, the movement, US NOT ME. And that drops us off to today.
Present Day
The establishment is on its heels in both parties. Republicans may risk a brokered convention to deal with Donald Trump. I hope his supporters can come and truly see that no matter the outcome Trump wins. He is now the world's biggest brand and as we know, political capital in our system is based off the dollar. You better believe he will have his hand in the political races for years to come — whether or not he wins — as he has for the past couple of decades.
The DNC has thrown everything they have in the way of Sanders. There is a cry weeping out of the Democratic establishment, to the tune of a dying dog; they are holding on for posterity’s sake. They don’t want this system that has made them rich and safeguarded their power to change. After cutting the debate number from twenty-six in 2008 to just six in 2016, seeing Clinton coin-flip her way to victory in Iowa, a media blackout, PAC action and electoral games that work to undercut democracy, the momentum is on the side of progression. Add the stolen Bush election to the most recent NY voter purge; between them, we have a long list of corrupt neglect to use as ammunition. Media is finally picking up what is actually an alarming investigation of Clinton. People are waking up to the ridiculous idea of “superdelegates”. Many are coming around to find that Bernie’s “free stuff” is actually paid for. 170 economists joined in calling Sander’s plan for comprehensive financial reform “critical for avoiding another ‘too-big-to-fail’ financial crisis.” His single-payer plan will actually free up the market, increase competition — which will lower the price of drugs. And top economists have looked at his tax and spending plans and actually stated that replacing our current system of corporate welfare will save the U.S. 5 Trillion dollars over the next decade. He has been applauded for actually working to offset the National Gross Debt.
He is inspiring others to step up and out amassing a virulent online following, gaining support from the likes of Leonardo de Caprio, Sarah Silverman, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (HI), Spike Lee, Neil Young John C. Reilly Danny Devito “Republicans for Bernie” Mark Ruffalo Robert Reich Alan Grayson (MN) Killer Mike Paul G. Kirk Wil Wheaton Dr.Cornell West Chad Smith Guy Saperstein Nikki Reed Lil B Justin Long Mike Gordon Patch Adams Keith Ellison Rick Nolan Marcy Kaptur…and the list goes on and on for millions of names more.
Across the country, he is inspiring people to get involved with politics. A Freshman, Kevin Viet Le, from UCLA decided to use the power of data and social media to connect people with information. He quickly found that 300+ people from around the world (from 15 countries) would join him in such a cause. Out of that, the Imagine Bernie team has grown into a driving force in the political revolution. I have joined as an executive officer. Here in New Jersey, Sanders is inspiring people to get involved — like Alex Law from District 1. His anti-corruption campaign is gaining traction with voters in New Jersey. If he wins his campaign, he would be the youngest U.S. Congressman since the Johnson Administration, and he would defeat the corrupt, New Jersey dynasty that is the Norcross brothers. See, it’s not about Bernie; it’s about getting people off their butts and being a part of the process. Look at John Fetterman of Pennsylvania. He said, he would never have dreamed of running for the U.S. Senate if Sanders had not “opened up a level of awareness in this state, that the issues I care about can make a viable campaign.” The revolution doesn’t come with words or weapons; it comes with dedication and civic duty, and Bernie Sanders should inspire you to care about the country you live in.
We need to bare in mind, taking back the house and Senate with Bernie-crats is an uphill climb. We are still “playing” in this moneyball system. Support of the Democracy Spring protests and changing campaign finance is our most crucial goal. Check out this step-by-step guide here. But also note: before McCulock and Citizens United, the plutocracy still existed. So that would really just be the beginning.
Earlier this year, I wrote a piece about the 1968 Democratic Convention. That was a terrible summer for Democrats, but it gave the world the “Americas Tienemen Square” as young fed-up people took to the streets of Chicago. July 25–28, the Democrat National Committee will host the convention of our lifetime in Philidelphia. It will be Clinton-Democrats vs Sanders-Democrats, and we know the stakes all too well. When the voting is said and done and the primaries are over, every eye will be on the Philly. Why not drown the city with the voices of a million fed-up Americans? We can let Hillary win, and quietly usher in the same ole’ politics as usual — or we can get out and vote and come July, let Philly, the Democratic establishment, Debbie Wasserman Shultz, the complacent liberals, Big Pharma, Big Oil, every lobbyist and representative who thinks money should run our democracy FEEL THE BERN. We know that with things as they are, our government only listens to the very wealthy. The study showed us that. The movement has been growing like a weed the establishment just can’t get rid of. And they will make promises, thinking, the selfish millennial, the ME generation, will surely take gifts in place of equity and true representation. We can decide to accept it or make them hear US.
