2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumBernie staying in is a service to everyone in this country who believes in economic justice
As this process has gone on, and it has become clear that the corruption of the system (DWS in the bag for Hillary, the superdelegates bought by Hillary's money-laundering scheme, the media that is the receiver of all of the corporate cash for elections treating Sanders as a joke) would stifle his candidacy, I began to think that Bernie might end his campaign, save himself the humiliation of going all the way to the end, only to fall short.
Even if he wins the pledged delegates, which seems unlikely at this point, his path to victory involves superdelegates supporting him and voting for him at the convention. The process has become too corrupt for that to happen even if he does win pledged delegates. The powers-that-be were happy to allow Obama to stop the inevitable Hillary in 2008 (I wonder how they knew it wouldn't be a problem for them?), but no such lenience will be afforded to Sanders, who actually wants to make people's economic lives better.
But then I thought about what Sanders represented. The poor, the dispossessed, the working class. The hopes of everyone in this country that it could provide a good life even if you weren't blessed with a 6-figure bank account and a 7-figure salary. And I thought that all of the people who have worked for that, who have shared that vision with him and pounded the pavement and knocked on doors and made phone calls . . . that he _owed_ them that. Not to fold, not to quit, not to save some dignity for himself. Because the needs of those people, both economically and in terms of just hope for the future, will not vanish once Bernie is out of the race. But they will disappear from the conversation.
And Sanders is keeping those needs visible, keeping the conversation about economic injustice alive, keeping some focus on the big banks and the economic royalists. And for that we should all be grateful to him.
Run, Bernie, run. And thank you for paying back the people who support you by taking it to the end, no matter how bitter, before this corrupt cesspool of a system shuts us down.
Hoyt
(54,770 posts)with respect to economic Justice, Civil Rights, Social Security, Health Care, etc. I don't think them beating up on each other is going to help economic Justice or anything else at this point.
ViseGrip
(3,133 posts)stating yes we can, but Bernie can't win.
I'm with HIM.
Hoyt
(54,770 posts)ProfessorPlum
(11,256 posts)Made a credible call for economic justice?
Hoyt
(54,770 posts)economic justice. I guess she hasn't spent a lot of time yelling at the sky about it like Mr. Sanders. But that's why I think she'll get more done, she has specific proposals which will help a lot. Yelling at the sky, is little more than that. But, my guess is that is what Sanders' supporters would prefer he continue doing.
You can read about some things right here, as well as under the categories unions, infrastructure, social security, racial justice, etc.
https://www.hillaryclinton.com/issues/plan-raise-american-incomes/
Maybe after you read all that, you'll report back.
ProfessorPlum
(11,256 posts)she mentions raising the minimum wage, so that's good. Tax cuts for the working class sounds good on paper, but since they often don't pay a lot of income tax, there isn't much that can happen there. Plus, there is a lot of blah blah about innovation.
The thing is, money will have to be pried from the hands of the wealthy and employers. They won't like it, but it needs to be done. And what I'm seeing here doesn't have a lot of teeth.
Hoyt
(54,770 posts)get anything done.
ProfessorPlum
(11,256 posts)Politics is the art of trying to get the goods of government (money, services, infrastructure, whatever) into the hands of the right people.
If you want the already rich and powerful to get those goods, and more of those goods, you support the status quo.
If you want people who aren't already rich and powerful to get some (more) of those goods, you YELL about it! That's politics.
If you YELL about it enough to the point that people sit up and take notice and actually start to do something about it, you are winning.
If you never YELL about it, you are accepting the status quo and are LOSING.
Yelling about it is the first step to winning. It is a necessary first step.
Hoyt
(54,770 posts)debt-free education, etc., to yelling about stuff to a GOPer Congress who won't care what Sanders says. And, truthfully, I believe Sanders will be this generation's George Landslide McGovern if he somehow made it to GE.
He can keep yelling. Heck, Clinton can appoint him to yell and raise heck all over this country. I'm fine with that. But that's the best he'll accomplish.
ProfessorPlum
(11,256 posts)Let me know when any of those things happens under a Clinton presidency.
Hoyt
(54,770 posts)CorporatistNation
(2,546 posts)HER the REQUIRED FEE!
Response to ProfessorPlum (Reply #9)
forjusticethunders This message was self-deleted by its author.
pat_k
(9,313 posts)Consider this (it gets interesting as you get deeper into it):
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1251&pid=1798895
ProfessorPlum
(11,256 posts)I suspect a more quotidian (and establishment-friendly) outcome will happen, though.
Orsino
(37,428 posts)...and helping to shape the most progressive government we can get.
He gets what the Establishment is paid not to get. We need him and more progressive voices everywhere.
Demsrule86
(68,556 posts)Unless he gets out soon...he will have no influence whatsoever.
CorporatistNation
(2,546 posts)HYPOCRITE as Bernie's legacy ... for a man who has stodd tall his entire political career that is patently unacceptable. SO long as he has a penny to lay on the table he should remain in the game. Looks as if that is the plan. New Office opened in California!
FUCK "THE ESTABLISHMENT!"
Orsino
(37,428 posts)But it's silly season.
Demsrule86
(68,556 posts)If he costs us the election with these sort of spoiled brat actions...he will elect a Republican...so helpful Bernie...I will think of you as I starve...I am sure you will be fine...no doubt you have plenty of money since you won't release tax returns to weather the horror you will create. Oh and the revolution...after five GOP court picks...dead as a doornail.
Orsino
(37,428 posts)...of the revolution that's not been televised much.