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You got me almost laughing with agreement! Bernie Sanders is the REAL Democrat!
I've been around for a long time--50+ years as an activist Democrat (canvassed for JFK in 1960, when I was 16)--and I recognize a Democrat when I see one: a candidate who speaks for workers and the poor, for genuine opportunity for all, who abhors the corporate/billionaire takeover of my party, as much as I abhor it, and who understands just how much our democracy is in peril from this co-optation.
I unhesitatingly support Sanders over the Clinton Corporate machine!
I like the party of FDR that I was born into. I like what the New Deal did for my parents and grandparents, and they also appreciated it and were Democrats. Real Democrats. In my view, Sanders held himself apart from the Democratic Party, as an Independent, because the party was so corrupt already when he entered political life. He caucused with them in Congress but he was not OF them. Perhaps the Democratic Party would be better--would have reformed itself a lot sooner--if more of us had done that: Left the party for its utter corruption during the Clinton years--the end of Glass-Steagall (Good God! Why didn't more of us make the Clintons pay for that, then?), the Crime bill and the "war on drugs" (horrible!), the Welfare bill (just as horrible), "free trade for the rich" (so damaging to workers! so damaging to our very sovereignty as a people), their failure on gay rights and so much more. They were NEVER Democrats. They were interlopers, and many of us loyal Democrats didn't see it until too late.
Well, many of us oldies see it now--with the clear-eyed young leading the way. SANDERS is the Democrat, and Hillary Clinton is the Goldman Sachs candidate. It couldn't be clearer. The only thing that can save the Democratic Party from the near fatal damage that the Clintons have inflicted on it is this campaign--the Sanders campaign--and, win or lose this FIRST step, the long term restoration of the "big tent" Party of the People that this campaign has inspired.
That is why we won't give up. The heart and soul of our democracy is at stake. I've never had any illusions about Sanders' chances in the nomination process--rigged as it it, from outside (corporate media, corporate donors) and inside (DNC). I am amazed that he has gotten this far! He still has a chance, with blue skies ahead. She hasn't done that well, even with all of her advantages. He has a strong argument that he is the best candidate for the GE. He creates great excitement with his revolutionary funding method and his plain statement of REAL Democratic goals--goals that have been with us since Harry Truman, like Medicare for all and like expanding Social Security so that it covers cost of living, and like insisting on a living wage, and insuring a college education for all qualified students.
Astonishing, isn't it, that we don't hear these things, except occasionally (when they want our votes) as dim, insincere echoes, from much of our party establishment? And here's Sanders saying what THEY should be saying, and meaning it!
Well, you said all this better, so I won't go on. I will just say a big THANK YOU for your thrilling essay!
And I just want to give this to you
Thanks Skinner
He's a self described "democratic" Socialist who was an Independent until he joined the party out of self interest to run for president.
Sugar coat any which way, but that's the reality. He even admitted recently why he chose to run as a Democrat.
