Le Taz Hot
Le Taz Hot's JournalThe BEST Blue-Collar Rant Ever (pro-Bernie)
For a good twenty years, I’ve been breathing carcinogenic fumes through the cheapest respirator I could get, or working on rooftops, or working with dangerous power tools, or welding, or getting paint in my eyes, or underneath cars, or sweating outside in the sun, or demolishing old plaster walls, or getting covered in drywall dust, or risking my body in some other unsafe way, sometimes ten hours a day, making $100 a day on average, 5 days a week, if I’m lucky and busy. In an average month, that’s $2,000 a month. And it’s been below the average lately.
Rent is about half that per month in my part of the country for a decent house to raise my kid in. Gas, electric, water (+ $300), internet (no cable), truck payment, gas for a blue collar (big-truck-needing) gas-hog work truck +$350), Netflix (cheaper than cable, sue me), generic groceries, and twenty extra bucks to do something fun with my kid once a week (+300)…
That’s fifty bucks extra a month. Hope the truck doesn’t break down. Or I get injured. Or fucking ANYTHING AT ALL HAPPENS. Or, dear me, hope I don’t want to own a house.
☆[I’m worried, at this point in my little essay here, I will begin to lose those of you who don’t vote, or aren’t into politics. Please, stay with me.]☆
And there’s three things a conservative rich fuck better not even DARE telling me about that list:
1.Read that first sentence again; don’t even THINK about saying I don’t work hard enough.
2.I don’t want to hear about getting an education; the degree I’m chasing is in physics. I’ll bet I’m smarter than almost every fucking one of those soft-skinned millionaires and billionaires, but had shittier luck. I’m human.
3.Don’t tell me to eat healthier. I buy what I can afford.
So when Republicans talk about Planned Parenthood and government shutdowns, I listen. We “lower class” citizens NEED to have Planned Parenthood; it’s not like they’re providing us universal health care without a fight.
When Republicans talk about the second amendment, I listen. Because there’s nothing about a redneck carrying an assault rifle into the grocery store that screams “well-regulated” to me. And it’s not like I could afford a gunshot wound. You know, needing health care while I’m recovering and unable to pay bills.
When Republicans talk about allowing vaccine “freedom”, I listen. I can’t afford to get the MOTHERFUCKING MEASLES THAT WERE ERADICATED IN THIS COUNTRY FIFTEEN MOTHERFUCKING YEARS AGO. Because again, no universal health care.
When Republicans talk about income equality… Oh. Never mind. They don’t. What’s that? “Why?”, you say? Well, because they have the money. Their tax system allows them to keep their money, while we have to give them some of OUR money. Neat system, huh? See, THAT way, they can keep getting MORE money. And keep keeping it, too. Shit ain’t FREE, brother! Gotta keep paying for those trips to Belize, the escorts to keep them company, the chemical “entertainment”…
It isn’t just about “burger flippers” getting a reasonable wage, although that’s part. See, they work hard too. Plus the “upper class” still needs the shit we “lower class” citizens make. And I agree with the original poster; sometimes you’ve got kids. Sometimes you’ve got medical bills. Sometimes life gets in the goddamned way of your dreams, no matter how hard you work for them. Read my list again, and take note how low in priority FOOD is.
But it’s also about the economic elite getting to influence the legislation, in ways obviously favorable towards themselves. We pay twenty or more percent of our wages to fund the government’s day-to-day operations, and they get to store their money outside the country and evade paying, in many cases, ANY taxes.
The elected officials they court fly first class to Belize with the aforementioned hookers and blow to discuss “domestic policy” with their billionaire campaign contributors. And sometimes they’ll just flat out BUY an election, guaranteeing an elected government official will always vote in their favor. That’s why there’s guns everywhere. Unregulated guns. School shootings. Church massacres. That’s why we don’t have realistic alternative energy options. And ozone depletion. And global warming. That’s why we have a constant American presence in the Middle East. And dead soldiers. Fathers. Brothers. Mothers. Sisters. CHILDREN.
And Democrats are no better. Different causes, same results. Yes, Hillary, too.
All for money.
When Bernie Sanders talks about income equality, I listen. But that’s different. Bernie Sanders is different. He walks to work. He flies coach. His largest campaign contributors are labor unions (not banks and corporations). He doesn’t run negative campaigns. He agrees with scientific consensus; doctors, nurses, climatologists, and Neil deGrasse Tyson (♡
. He doesn’t take corporate contributions.
That’s a big one. He’s funded by small donations from regular people like us, $2 or $3 at a time. We can’t afford more, and he knows it. And he wants to help.
Just read about him. Watch a speech from him. Like him on Facebook and scroll through his posts. I don’t have to convince you. He will.
He’s the one we’ve been waiting for.
Unless you’re happy with the daily struggle and pleased with the government’s way of doing business, JOIN THE REVOLUTION.
Vote for Bernie in the primary election! Let’s get him the Democratic nomination!
#FeelTheBern
#BernieSanders2016
http://girldujour.com/2015/09/18/middle-class-blue-collar-man-weighs-in-on-bernie-sanders/
I'm finding it fasciating that all the polls include Biden.
I don't remember this ever happening with such regularity before as in ALL polls including a person that hasn't actually declared with no concrete evidence that he will. So, if the DNC is seriously thinking about Biden as Plan B, wouldn't this be one way to get his name out there so people will start considering Biden as an alternative to Hillary?
Hillary Had All the Marbles on Her Side of the Table Yet She's STILL Tanking
She has unlimited sources of money via high-stakes fundraisers and very friendly Super PACs, the Democratic Party Establishment pretty much announced to anyone thinking about running that Hillary was very clearly THEIR candidate (it's why Biden didn't jump in earlier), she's got the Super Delegates lined up, she's got most of the state party apparatus lined up, she's got herself a limited number of the debates and the lousy timing via her good friend Debbie Wasserman-Schultz who was every so accommodating and after ALL of that, she's STILL tanking. What the HELL does that tell you about Hillary Clinton's viability as a candidate? Seriously.
A Thread to List Your Activism and Your Ideas on Ways You Can Campaign for Bernie
I've listed our successes at the local university handing out Bernie fliers and getting people to sign up to volunteer with us.
We're having a Bernie Bash Pot Luck and Get Together at a local park (free) where, among other things, we're going to make Bernie signs. From there we're going to plan times to gather at major intersections in town with our Bernie signs (making sure that we have a voter registration table) to Get Out the Word about Bernie.
We're going to go to the swap meets with our Bernie t-shirts on and with English and Spanish fliers to hand out to attendants.
We're going to do the same at our Fair.
We're trying to host debate parties but all these damned libruls don't have TV's! (me included) So that's been problematic.
We're planning on having calling parties (the first one is for calling New York).
We're going to be walking our own neighborhoods when it gets close to our primaries to introduce people to Bernie and re-register them to vote if they need to in order to vote for Bernie in the primaries.
Those are off the top of my head and all things that are VERY affordable and in which most people can do.
So . . . fellow DU Bernistas, post what you're doing/planning on doing and post some of your ideas to share with your fellow DUers.
Update on our Fresno State Tabling
So, we started Tabling for Bernie at California State University, Fresno on Fridays about 3 weeks ago.
The first Friday was us three co-chairs plus 2 volunteers and I and another co-chair donated the fliers.
The second Friday was the 3 co-chairs and 7 volunteers and I donated the fliers.
Today, without counting the 3 co-chairs there were 18 volunteers and two of our volunteers had fliers made on their own dime and brought them today for us to distribute.
We've registered several people to vote.
We have close to 150 people now on our volunteer list and should now have enough volunteers so the Fresno State table will pretty much run itself. And the ideas that these guys have come up with are phenomenal. I'm going to be sharing them in a Thread as soon as I can catch a breath.
Anyway, just like the national campaign, once you get the ball rolling for Bernie, the whole damned thing takes care of itself. I have honestly never seen anything like it. 
What About A Weekly Activist Thread?
I was thinking about posting a weekly invitation for DU's Bernie supporters to share what they've done that week for the campaign, whether it's watching a video or two or organizing events. I think it gives us a way to connect and it's a way to share ideas. I've gotten 90% of "my" ideas from other DUers.
What do you think? Useful or preachy?
We ARE Bernie's 50-state strategy.
Traditional American politics say if you can sweep all Super Tuesday states, you've already won the nomination. Traditional thinking says that you have to have LARGE money to compete in all 50 states and even the most well-funded candidacy can't afford to go full-bore in all 50 states.
But there's nothing traditional about Bernie's campaign. Bernie doesn't have unlimited money and his top people are only getting paid a salary. They're not getting ad buy percentages because there ARE no ad buys. Yet, this has been, arguably, one of the best-run campaigns I've ever seen and that's because the campaign knew that WE could carry him to the nomination. And we can.
From the beginning, the campaign announced, basically, that they didn't have the time or money to organize us or fund us so it was going to be up to us to pick up the slack. If you've spent more than 45 seconds on social media you know it is BURSTING with people and groups posting their events and ideas for the campaign.
The result is that he's leading in New Hampshire and Iowa, he's in South Carolina and headed for the Super Tuesday states. Nobody, and I mean NOBODY saw this coming.
So, this is it. We need to keep doing what we've been doing. I don't care if your state primary isn't until June, KEEP CAMPAIGNING because if we can keep this campaign alive throughout all 50 states, we can achieve something the "experts" said couldn't possibly happen -- win the Democratic nomination.
Tabling for Bernie today at the local university.
I had set the table upright, that's it. No signs up yet, no fliers out yet, just a table. Not even a tablecloth (I had my Bernie t-shirt on), when they started coming over to me, "Yeah! Bernie Sanders! He's my guy" and words to that effect. In 3 hours we went through 230 fliers and got 44 volunteer sign ups. In three hours.
I was going to get pictures but these guys were 3-deep at times waiting to hear more about Bernie, waiting to get fliers, waiting to sign up to volunteer and I couldn't catch a breath before I was talking to another student, and another, and another. We also had about 10 people register to vote as well.
The Journalism professor came by and thanked us for being there. We told him we're going to be out there every Friday (the students asked us to be there on Mondays as well) so he's going to come by and interview one of us for the campus newspaper next week.
I swear we were like our own little rainbow coalition out there as one of our volunteer organizers is Hispanic and Spanish-speaking, one is African American and me, the little old white lady.
So . . . if you're looking for opportunities to Table for Bernie and if you have a college or university in your town, this is a GREAT way to do it. The only thing that cost us any money was what we spent on flier copies. That's it! I donated the table & chairs, one of the other volunteers had the Bernie signs and voter registration forms and the rest of the time we just talked to people.
I can't begin to tell you how tired and energized I am all at the same time.
Next week, I promise, pictures!
About the Des Moines Register and Loris polls.
The first has Bernie behind by only 7%, the second has Bernie behind by 25%. So, anyone an expert on reading poll numbers, sampling, etc., and interpreting why the hell there is an 18 percentage-point difference between the two polls?
I mean, 4 points, 8 points, I can almost get, but 15? I'm confused.
Very cool Cesar Chavez quote on my FB feed just now:
Once social change begins, it cannot be reversed.
You cannot uneducated the person who has learned to read.
You cannot humiliate a person who feels pride.
You cannot oppress the people who are not afraid anymore . . .
Cesar Chavez
Wow! Does that apply here or what?
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