We, the citizens, have to change the game.
One thing the Establishment (does that word date me? 
) hasn't had to deal with in recent years is a mobilized and energized public.
In fact, I would argue that they have done their best to disengage us from activism.
Absent citizen involvement and action, a candidacy like Bernie's will go nowhere, and if that citizen participation wavers after the election, everything reverts to "normal." Unfortunately, "normal" is an ecological, cultural and physical death trip.
Can we make things go differently this time? I don't know. But I know I have to do my little part to help, and the people I know who are into Bernie are into him in a big way, seeming ready to put some major effort into it.
There's too much riding on the outcome this time to do less.
= new reply since forum marked as read
it's tptb (the powers that be) today.
Citizen involvement is critical, I support Martin O'Malley as #1, Bernie #2, and agree we've got to keep it up; 'they're counting on us not doing that, forgetting the importance of their wall street/corp/mic connections. 
O'Malley seems OK as a backup.
"There's too much riding on the outcome this time to do less." - rip, jackpine radical
RIP Jackpine you will surely be missed, 
We will miss you. This has been a very sad week.
Jackpine was one of the good ones
(Some good Progressive Insight in his writings at his Blog...Good for reference---keeping his thoughts alive)
Jackpine Needles
Cranky Commentary from a Countrified Curmudgeon
http://jackpineneedles.blogspot.com/
Dammit, some days it's just hard not to imagine a huge conspiracy is controlling the course of events in the world.
Monday, October 4, 2010
The US is now facing the greatest concentration of wealth at the top that we have seen since 1929, and we seem to have a Forever War going on. Even during the Clinton years, between the two Iraq wars, we continued a program of "low-intensity" warfare against Saddam. We have now shifted our focus to Afghanistan--that eternal sink of imperial ambitions--and will likely take on Pakistan next, followed by Iran.
The New Democrats in the US seem to be imperialist Republicans minus the hoods and burning crosses. The nation is being swept by anti-intellectualism: fundamentalist religion, climate change denial, writing Thomas Jefferson out of the history books, and the like. The public schools are being reduced to serf academies where students learn the minimal literacy and numeracy skills required to make them useful for their masters, while those parts of the curriculum having to do with critical thinking, artistic expression, and general understanding of the world are being subverted by various strategems.
A large portion of this country seems to think they live in a universe equipped with different physical laws than the one I believe myself to inhabit. Somehow, I think this is no accident. People who are willing to believe that humans coexisted with dinosaurs are also likely to accept the notion that their interests will best be served by deregulating the corporations and predatory investment banks, and that their true enemies are the trade unions, the Muslims, the socialists, and the brown-skinned unfortunates who pick their crops under brutal conditions for desperately little pay.
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A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little reality-based minds.
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Give up consistency, give up rationality, give up the shackles of logic, and all things become possible to you.
You can balance the Federal budget by cutting taxes on the rich and create jobs by busting unions.
You can deny the poor the basic necessities of life, secure in your knowledge that you are doing the work of the Lord.
You can run an oil-based economy forever because oil is a renewable resource and there are no harmful consequences to burning it.
You can call your opponents “enemies” and “traitors” and advocate their assassination and rest assured that you have no responsibility when someone acts on your word.
You can take from others whatever it pleases you to take, and do to them whatever it pleases you to do, knowing that you are merely helping the Lord to carry out His will on those who deserve no better.
You can subject your enemies to pain, torture and death, knowing full well that you have the Lord’s blessing because they are also His enemies.
And finally, if you have any mild twinges of fear for your soul, at the end of your days you can utter certain magical phrases and all will be forgiven--if, indeed, there is actually anything to be forgiven in one who has lived such an exemplary life as yours has been.
http://jackpineneedles.blogspot.com/
Jackpine Radical.
We must all become radical, radical for equality, fairness and goodness.
Check it out by zip code here: http://map.berniesanders.com
I'm attending a get-together down the street with 8 others I've never met! 
