Moving into reality…

In the beginning, there was a true blue, long-standing Democrat running for the Democratic Party nomination against an Independent Socialist who had changed his party affiliation in the late fall of 2015, to become “a serious, viable candidate” for the Democratic Presidential nominee. The Independent Socialist had become a Democratic Socialist.

While the current political party system isn’t all-inclusive, neither is a Carnival cruise. Whatever party you choose, there are nominating rules. Learn them. Live by them. Or take your ball and go home.

I, personally, was forced to make a choice when registering to vote at 18. The differences were explained between staking a claim in any party, whether that would a claim to become a Democrat, Republican, Independent, Green, Working Family, etc. or choosing to be an unaffiliated voter, who wouldn’t be able to participate in a primary process. An analogy might be to choose a team to play for, or to refuse to select a team, and rather, select a bench seat, but never really play. Very simple. Why should anyone get to play for a team they didn’t choose? Why should unaffiliated or alternative Party voters be allowed to vote as Democrats or Republicans? Voters make those choices, and with those choices, come ramifications. I chose to be an unaffiliated voter until I did my homework and then updated my registered voter status to show I had embraced the Democratic Party. I’m no different than any other registered voter. It’s called accountability and responsibility. Why should I be the only previously unaffiliated voter who didn’t have to pay by the rules? Alternative Party members can place their nominees on the ballot if they abide by national election laws. Senator Bernie Sanders could have run as an Independent Party candidate, but he didn’t. HE CHOSE TO PLAY ON THE DEMOCRATS TEAM. So, yes, there were many voters, some BS supporters, who were “left out” and couldn’t participate in the primary process. It’s been in the rules for decades. Alternative parties and unaffiliated voters have no excuses, and no one to blame but themselves for not being able to play during the primary season.

When it comes to disenfranchised voters, that is an entirely separate discussion. Standing in line for 5 hours to vote, finding voters removed (“purged “) from the registrar’s rolls, voters finding polling locations closed, polling locations with faulty and/or broken machines, voters not being physically capable of enduring the oftentimes challenging process of a particular polling location (being physically disabled, elderly, blind, deaf, etc.), and/or a voter’s inability to go to a poll due to strict time constraints from work hours, etc., is an ABSOLUTE DISGRACE. When BS gets back to the Senate, the VERY FIRST action he pursues should be to sponsor bipartisan legislation to taking the ENTIRE election process- including polls, equipment, registrars, rolls, etc.- to task, and mandate all states reconcile these very issues. Disenfranchised voters shouldn’t even be a topic of discussion in 2016. It goes against everything we Americans hold dear, and MUST be dealt with on the national stage, in Congress.

This is not, however, why Senator Sanders has lost. Sanders lost because he did not win states with enough voters to award him pledged delegates. Period. He can play the blame game, OR, he can move forward, with a plan in hand to rectify known voter injustices. Sanders can go down in history by implementing the recommendations I outline below.

Before I make my suggestions for the Senator and his “bros, bots, and berners”, I ask you to look beyond Reddit to more factual reporting (including exit polls) from trusted institutions such as the NY Times, the WSJ, CNN (when they aren’t focusing on Trump’s breakfast or what shade of orange he is today), but for stats, projections, and thoughtful articles, I implore you to visit www.FiveThirtyEight.com. You’ll find far more reliable information on that one single site than all other information sources combined.

After yesterday’s Acela Tuesday losses for the good Senator, I have a few suggestions for him and his supporters going forward. He can emerge victorious, not as the Democratic Presidential nominee, but as the leader who took his personal stumble, and transformed it into the greatest voter participation really in history. I truly believe he wants to see any and all voting issues eradicated. I’d be overjoyed if he actually followed a single idea I set forth here:

1. Continue to campaign on the issues, and raise as much $ as conceivably possible until the CA primary, but hold onto as much as possible (by knocking off the HRC attack ads, Sanders will save $millions).
2. Officially suspend his campaign June 8 (of soon thereafter) once CA and NJ voters have had their say.
3. Start donating all extra raised funds to underticket Ds. Max out contributions to every Democrat on the underticket (especially Congressional candidates), including D governors and, if possible, state legislative candidates. Talk about a grassroots effort/movement!
4. Give the all/some of the remainder to the National Democratic Party, OR, (OR!), start a 501(c)4 charity focused on disenfranchised voters and state election systems.
5. Hence, the “Bernie and Jane Sanders Political Rights Foundation”.

• This charitable organization can directly and positively impact disenfranchised, unregistered (especially the very poor), disabled and/or elderly, and “dropped”, voters.
• He can start by re-hiring all the staff he just laid off. Their work would morph from campaign mode to become laser-focused on directly raising the number of registered voters and increasing the voter participation rates through local GRASSROOTS EDUCATION.
• These staff members could go door to door, church to church, school to school, organization to organization, disseminating information to people who would otherwise not know how to register to vote. They could even help register voters by hosting registration drives.
• The charity could mail state-specific information reminding people of important dates, such as when and where to register, when and where to vote, and share contact information for the local registrar of voters to ensure they and their information are listed accurately on the voting rolls.
• The charity could try to foster a mail-in ballot voting system similar to that in Colorado. All Colorado voters are able to vote by mail-in ballots, unless they choose to go to the polls on election day. When registering to vote, a citizen simply requests to be a mail-in voter. Voters can always change their minds, and cast their vote at their assigned polling location by showing ID, and signing an affidavit (saying they did not vote by mail). “Blue books”, aka voter guides, are mailed out about one month prior to the election, explaining every single measure on that year’s ballot, described by both “pro” and “con” perspectives. It is a bipartisan method of educating voters before they cast their votes.
• The charity could offer transportation to disabled voters, providing rides to the polls for early voting and on election day.
• Lastly, this charity could be a larger than life promoter when it comes to engaging the American vote. If Senator Sanders can command crowds of thousands, just think of the impact he could make on American voters!

By donating funds to the Democratic underticket, he’d be able to hold his head high amongst the Democratic Party. He’d build a bridge that would help all Democrats succeed, as the more people vote, the more Democrats win. And last, but definitely not least, he could heal, and ultimately embrace, those American citizens who have gone far too long without participating in our democratic republic- those who have been ignored, whose voices have not been heard, but are desperately needed and valued.

It’s genuine progress that benefits everyone in America, including, and especially, Senator Bernie Sanders.