Hey Bernie Supporters: Please Stop Being Rude To Superdelegates

Please offer superdelegates a chance for redemption. We need to think hard about our strategy, both to support Bernie and to defeat Trump, who increasingly looks like he is going to be the Republican nominee. It is clear that the American populace is seeking big changes and that we are at a turning point in history. The energy behind both Bernie and Trump is unlike anything I have seen in my lifetime (I’m 65). How do we harness that energy? Has anyone seen an energetic Hillary supporter in the streets? Today polls show Bernie doing better than Hillary against Trump.

Please explain to superdelegates, very politely, how a Grassroots Political Revolution is here to stay and that we are not just about presidential primaries. WE WILL NICELY AND POLITELY END THEIR CAREERS, if they support oligarchy over democracy. We will change Federal and State Legislatures. We will change Governors, Mayors, City Council, Water Commissioner, School Boards and more. The movement around Bernie Sanders is about more than just one man and we are not going away. The biggest threat we face is the corruption of money in politics. That money goes first to control the media and then to compensate the Oligarchy’s support staff. Superdelegates and their colleagues are part of the Oligarchy’s support staff. Their livelihoods would be in danger if they did not support Hillary. So, we need to address both the problem of corporate control of media and how we would go about creating livelihood alternatives for all those who are afraid of losing their jobs, if they don’t support the status quo.

Populist Republicans have gone crazy over Donald Trump. Gawker even fooled Trump into retweeting Mussolini. Our Nation is filled with anger over the dysfunction in Washington, and Hillary does not have the authenticity to stand up against Trump, the way Bernie will. So, we need to be even more organized and not just on social media. Go meet your local leaders and superdelegates. Talk to them nicely and ask them politely “Which side are you on, Democracy or Oligarchy?”#EnoughIsEnough #BastaYa

See this background article on superdelegates in Reuters.

What do Bernie and Wall Street Have in Common?

Both agree that Trump is a nightmare: check out this trending article in Reuters about Trump:

“Trump represents a nightmare for investors this year,” said hedge fund manager Douglas Kass of Seabreeze Partners Management Inc, who said last week that he was adding to his existing short bet on the U.S. stock market in part because of Trump’s increasingly strong position in the race.”

Bernie Polls better than Hillary Against Trump

While CNN continues their pro Hillary bias here are their poll results:

Sanders tops Trump 55% to 43%

Clinton tops Trump 52% to 44%

The Thing With Trump and Hillary is Personal For Me

So, why am I posting all this under my Medium Publication, Latinos For Bernie? I am a Latino and a huge Bernie supporter. My father (RIP) was a doorman in the 5th Avenue, NYC building where Donald Trump lived over 20 years ago. He really hated Trump for his narcissism and lies (plus, he was the worst tipper in the building). Dolly Parton was the best tipper in the building and really liked my dad. Unlike Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, my Cuban American family has a different political history. My dad’s mother and father were both cigar workers and union organizers in Tampa, Florida in the 1920’s. My great, great grandmother was the housekeeper for the Ybor family (a founding family of Tampa in the 1800's). My family has for generations taken care of rich people.

Today our news media is controlled by a handful of large corporations, including Time Warner, one of Hillary’s top ten contributors. My grandparents got their news from “Readers” that they elected.

The Tampa cigar makers’ strike of 1931 took place in Ybor City, Tampa, Florida. Some strikers were jailed, “Lectors” (readers) were banned and there was a lockout…. Lectors had by tradition been elected by the workers and, as well as reading aloud newspaper articles, often from left-wing radical publications, they recited and acted more generally, including from classic works — effectively they provided a form of education for illiterate workers. So, the most significant effect of the strike in the longer term was that this culture was brought to an end.

When I was in college I had many talks with my informally educated grandmother, Corina Suarez, about Voltaire, Rousseau, Victor Hugo, and her marching in the street for justice. She taught me about her brother, Florentine Linares, who fought with the Lincoln Brigade against Franco and fascism in the Spanish Civil War. She taught me that no social change comes without struggle and to be willing to take to the street. In December, Hillary Clinton’s campaign published an article titled “7 Ways Hillary Clinton Is Just Like Your Abuela,” using the Spanish word for grandmother. Like countless others on Twitter, I exploded with anger, remembering my Abuela. This Hispandering is just one of so many things that Hillary and her campaign are getting wrong. Bernie says he’ll support her, if she is the nominee. I just don’t know if that is a pill I’d be able to swallow. Every time she sounds more like Bernie, it just makes me angrier, because I know she is simply pandering. If only she could just be herself, she might do better.

After the Tampa cigar maker’s strike, my grandparents were fired and blacklisted. My dad had to leave school in the 8th grade to shine shoes and sell newspapers, so they could eat. My dad was a waiter most of his life. Then, one day, when he showed up for work, the restaurant was closed, so he became a doorman in the building where Trump lived. Because my dad only made it as far as the 8th grade, education was stressed in my family. Donald Trump had heard from others in the building that I got a Ph.D. and my sister got a law degree from The University of Michigan. In front of others, he would tell my dad how he could help our careers, but he never followed through with one single thing. While my Psychology Ph.D. is in cognitive science, not clinical psychology, I can’t help referencing this 5 year old article about Trump’s Narcissistic Personality Disorder, that I found among the many links when you Google “Trump is a sociopath.”

Whatever happens with the Democratic Primary, I have always been and will continue to be in this for the long haul. Last year, my partner and I stopped seeking new consulting business, so we could build GroupsForBernie.org where progressives can join an existing Group or start a new Group. These Groups offer people a way to connect horizontally to also organize around local politics and continue to sustain a grassroots political revolution beyond 2016. We’re using the same technology platform that we employed, when we were the first developers (#1 and #2 of dozens of volunteers), for the website that got 9,000 registered users in 100 working Groups for Occupy Wall Street in 2011. We do this because of what Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, Chris Hedges, describes as “sublime madness — the essential force that guides the actions of rebels — the state of passion that causes the rebel to engage in an unwavering fight against overwhelmingly powerful and oppressive forces.”

“Revolutions come in waves and cycles. We are again riding the crest of a revolutionary epic.”

I really like Bernie, but what I like even more is all the people I keep meeting every day who are willing to fight for fundamental changes to this system that is rigged and corrupt. These are the reasons why the grassroots movement behind Bernie is “just like my Abuela.” So, I wrote this in memory of my Abuela Corina: “La Lucha Continua!”