Bernie Sanders
Related: About this forumCan a Socialist Sway Texas Democrats?
[font color=green]Article from the Texas Observer.[/font]
Theres one question Democrats face as they head into the 2016 presidential election. How should they feel about Hillary Clinton? The coalition Barack Obama built happily came out to vote in his two presidential elections, but turnout was pathetic in 2010 and 2014 when he wasnt on the ticket. Clintons ability to inherit that coalition is debatable.
Some of the partys faithful just want to maximize their chances of taking a third consecutive term, and they think the Clintons careful and calculated brand of center-left politics is the thing to do it. Others are antsy. Theyve seen the GOPs far right drag their party to them with great success, and they want someone to subject Clinton to the same type of pressures. But they need a candidate. Elizabeth Warren has declined to run, and Martin OMalley is a ball of ambition.
Enter U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont), Congress sole self-avowed socialist, who came through Texas at the beginning of April in the middle of a cross-country trip whose purpose, he said, was to judge the energies of the left and to raise money in anticipation of a possible primary run against Clinton. Sanders would be as unusual a candidate as weve seen in America for quite some time. Hes not quite a Dennis Kucinich or a Mike Gravel, but its not that hes setting out to win either. His self-proclaimed models are people such as Jesse Jackson and Howard Dean, who ran and lost, but inspired future political activists.
Obamas 2008 campaign, Sanders told the Observer at an Austin Tex-Mex restaurant, will go down in history as one of the great campaigns ever run. But, he continued, the day after the election, he said, Thank you for electing me, but I think I can go on from here without you. I do not need the millions of people who were actively involved in my campaign. The kind of change the left wants, he said, is not possible without mass organized activity of the kind that has not existed in the country in some five decadesthe kind Sanders experienced as a young man in the civil rights, anti-war and kibbutz movements.
http://www.texasobserver.org/bernie-sanders-presidential-run/
Cross-posted in the Bernie Sanders Group.
daleanime
(17,796 posts)smokey nj
(43,853 posts)detriment people think it's going to be. In fact it's likely to be embraced by young people. Let's face it, the word's been tossed around so much, it's lost it's umph.
merrily
(45,251 posts)Socialists believe in government ownership. Democratic socialism works within capitalism.
smokey nj
(43,853 posts)TBF
(32,116 posts)but collective ownership (important distinction imo). But I agree that democratic socialism means working within capitalism (which I am not crazy about but that is what Bernie advocates). He is so much more promising than any other candidate I've seen so far. I think he would be an FDR-style president who would embrace creating jobs to shore up our infrastructure (similar to PWA or TVA type programs). And I think our country desperately needs that along with more progressive taxation.
merrily
(45,251 posts)I am very confident that he would look at the entire picture, instead of looking at what helps job creators and *wink wink* assuming they will take care of the rest of America.
That never worked. Not in the days of the East India Company, not in the Victorian Era and certainly not in the Era of uber greed. And, I expect he will help unions, the only ones who ever worried about workers (as opposed to voters).
TBF
(32,116 posts)It is amazing how distorted the thinking is currently. If nothing else he is forcing folks to talk in a serious way about class and income inequality. A NYTimes article yesterday wrote about two recent studies in which "Americans across the economic spectrum did indeed severely misjudge the amount of upward mobility in society" (my OP here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/10248158).
I blame FOX news, amongst other parties.
merrily
(45,251 posts)L0oniX
(31,493 posts)Dustlawyer
(10,499 posts)enough to turn us blue yet.
merrily
(45,251 posts)right to vote may help.
Thing is, fuck getting rid of ACORN and not replacing it. We got rid of ACORN and the Koch brothers have been setting up organizations to register people in Republican strongholds. So, lose lose.
smokey nj
(43,853 posts)Breitbart/O'Keefe nonsense. It was obvious to anyone with a brain that it was all bullshit
merrily
(45,251 posts)And they couldn't even do it fast enough to take all the references to ACORN out of the bill. Hence the law wound up in court as an unconstitutional bill of attainder. How it eventually got upheld is beyond me.
It was obvious to anyone with a brain that it was all bullshit
Exactly.
smokey nj
(43,853 posts)I wonder what impact the destruction of ACORN had on the 2010 mid-terms.
merrily
(45,251 posts)Last edited Sat May 2, 2015, 08:12 AM - Edit history (1)
Why would Democrats have done that? Without waiting for the video to be examined?
The poor people ACORN registered were far more likely to vote Democratic than Republican. Why has there been no effort to replace ACORN, even though Democrats KNOW, from the IRS hearings, if nothing else, that one Teabagger not for profit after another has been springing up to register and educate voters?
Food for thought.
smokey nj
(43,853 posts)merrily
(45,251 posts)They do this deliberately. So do some at DU.
TexasTowelie
(112,568 posts)is considered to be on the left as far as media goes in Texas. It's mostly freelance journalists that write articles for them.
merrily
(45,251 posts)point wrong. If you just so much as glance at his damn wiki, you can get the correct info, so I don't know how to explain the error.
In any case, motive is irrelevant in this instance.
Do they have an ombudsman you can contact so they don't keep doing this?
BrotherIvan
(9,126 posts)The "socialist" label is the Dean Scream. We have to educate to counter it.
merrily
(45,251 posts)We can also call media on it when we see it. Write letters to the editor, or email a radio station, for example. Be vigilant.
BrotherIvan
(9,126 posts)Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)malokvale77
(4,879 posts)this Texas Democrat and all my family and close friends are gung ho for Bernie Sanders.
Smarmie Doofus
(14,498 posts)They'll at least know what it IS as a consequence of Senator Sanders' instruction.
And what it ISN'T.