Bernie-Houston: "Politics should be about improving the lives of people."

[merrily]

...................................

"Today this is a conservative Republican state, but that doesn't mean it will be tomorrow," said Sanders.


.....................................

The Vermont senator's biggest applause of the night came when he vowed to help make college tuition free.

"Taxpayers bailed out Wall Street when they needed it, now it's Wall Street's turn to help out the middle class," said Sanders.

........................................ In Houston, voters say he's unlike any other politician.

http://www.khou.com/story/news/politics/2015/07/20/large-crowd-greets-bernie-sanders-in-houston/30401615/

Story is positive and short. I recommend reading it all. They make every sentence its own paragraph, so I could not copy and paste much under DU's copyright TOS.



I could not find video on youtube yet. This is live "blogging" from Daily Kos. http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/07/19/1403803/-Bernie-Sanders-Houston-Livefeed

eta: Spitfire of ATJ posted a video of Houston over in the video and media group: http://www.democraticunderground.com/1017280098

[Sherman A1]

1. Precisely

it very much should be. Unfortunately it seems that all too often our political leaders seem to concentrate only on improving their own lives and the lives of their large campaign contributors. It would be refreshing to see that refocused on helping the general public and working folks first and foremost.

[merrily]

3. +1 I have posted something similar many times.

Most people don't keep up with politics, except in the most vague way. Certainly not day to day, as we do--who voted on what, who proposed an amendment, which bill couldn't even get a cloture vote, which "very close" votes smelled like D.C. kabuki, etc. But, they sure know when their lives and the lives of their families improve and when they don't--and when they get worse.

That's why FDR and Truman held the Oval Office for 20 years and Democrats held a majority in one House of Congress or the other--or both--from Eisenhower to 1995 (1994 having been the year of the Contract with America campaign). They also know whether major campaign promises have been kept or not.

Now, people don't see improvement. So, desperate for change, they vote out one set of incumbents after another. Well, those who even bother to show up at the polls vote out one set of incumbents after another. (Obamacare was definitely an improvement, but did not take effect right away.)

It's not that clear cut, of course. Propaganda, media, the charisma (or tone deafness) of candidates, and a lot of other factors play a role.

[JDPriestly]

2. K&R.

[udbcrzy2]

4. A message to the billionaire class - you can't have it all!

I love it when he says that.

[PuraVidaDreamin]

5. People before Persons!

Or people before personhood!

[merrily]

6. Yep. 99% if the people before big, amoral businesses and control of govt. by billionaires. Yep.

Billionaire, you get what money should rightfully buy. But, you should not also get control of a government that is supposed to be chosen by, and represent the interests of, a majority of the people of the country.

This is why Sanders tries so hard to unite us, to show us what we all have in common. Divided we fall--we ALL fall.

[Zorra]

7. Yeh, that's what our "public servants" are supposed to be doing.

Unfortunately, too many of them apparently believe that the "public" only consists of the wealthiest 1% of the citizenry.

[merrily]

8. True.

[merrily]

9. Or, feathering their own nests or gratifying their personal ambitions.

One of the things we seldom even bother to do: check which spouses, kids, in laws were given plum jobs somewhere. Hell, we aren't even that great about watching all of the the elected officials.

You've been posting about peaceful revolution, and within the Democratic Party for a long time. You must get some satisfaction from hearing Bernie call for the same thing.