Rebkeh
Rebkeh's JournalMust watch/read Amy Goodman interview about Bernie or Bust, video plus transcript
Bernie Sanders Fans Debate Whether to Vote for Hillary Clinton if She Is Democratic NomineeFriday, 06 May 2016 00:00
By Amy Goodman, Democracy Now! | Video Interview
http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/35941-bernie-sanders-fans-debate-whether-to-vote-for-hillary-clinton-if-she-is-democratic-nominee
Interview with Kshama Sawant and Michael McGinn of Seattle, WA
TRANSCRIPT
AMY GOODMAN: We're the road at Bellevue College near Seattle, Washington. With the departure of Senator Ted Cruz and John Kasich, Donald Trump is the presumptive Republican nominee for president. Meanwhile, Democratic challengers Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton are pressing on to next week's West Virginia primary. Despite Sanders' recent win in Indiana, he trails Clinton in the pledged delegate count by more than 300. Add in superdelegates, and Clinton is just under 200 delegates shy of the number needed to clinch the nomination. But neither Sanders nor his supporters seem ready to concede. At a news conference Sunday, Sanders appealed to the Democratic Party's superdelegates.
snip
Well, for more, we're joined by two guests. Mike McGinn is the former mayor of Seattle, serving from 2010 to '13. He hosts a podcast on social change called "You, Me, Us, Now." He is a Bernie Sanders supporter, but will support Hillary Clinton if she becomes the nominee. Kshama Sawant is a Socialist city councilmember in Seattle, member of the Socialist Alternative, a nationwide organization of social and economic justice activists. She also is a Bernie Sanders supporter, who says she will not support Clinton.
We welcome you both to Democracy Now! Kshama Sawant, let us begin with you, because you really started this whole Bernie or Bust campaign. Explain what it is.
Lots more at link:
http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/35941-bernie-sanders-fans-debate-whether-to-vote-for-hillary-clinton-if-she-is-democratic-nominee
For those avoiding gd-p, my posts there
http://www.democraticunderground.com/12511918793http://www.democraticunderground.com/12511918887
http://www.democraticunderground.com/12511918941
Like It or Not, the Democratic Party Now Must Answer to Millennials
Like It or Not, the Democratic Party Now Must Answer to MillennialsThursday, 05 May 2016
Aisling O'Donnell, Truthout | Op-Ed
In reality, the disenfranchising of young people is an easy way to dismiss their grievances, a sort of a crowd directed ad hominem attack. This narrative has not only appeared in mainstream media, but both Hillary and Bill Clinton have sought at points to publicly make ridiculous the political participation of young people.
snip
snip
Far from being myopic and disconnected, millennials are media savvy and politically shrewd, and they are not going to be placated by the type of windy rhetoric that sated the Obama electorate. If Hillary Clinton wants to bring them to the ballot box behind her, she is going to have to do more than talk in sweeping terms about uniting a party against a common enemy: She is going to have to convincingly change her politics, and in an atmosphere of high mistrust, that may prove complicated.
Read it in full:
http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/35891-like-it-or-not-the-democratic-party-now-must-answer-to-millennials
Why I’m Still For Bernie: It’s not about winning battles, it’s about winning the war
Aside from my distrust of her, Hillary is too focused on policy. I don’t think her approach is the better one, simply because it serves two masters. Further, there are other reasons:
1. Structural change – changing the policies so they support equality is not going to be sustainable unless the policies, in turn, are supported by structures that are consistent with their aims. As it stands now, the structures are built to maintain inequality, no amount of policy change is going to be safe in such an environment. Bernie aims to take both approaches, to address policy AND structure - which is the correct way. Hillary aims for only one approach while benefiting from the neglect of the other.
If you do not take both approaches, you essentially will have a wack-a-mole situation, especially since all the republicans have to do is unravel the policies before they even take root. Even in their current weakened state, giving them such opportunities would help them more than it would help us. Leave them weakened, for God's sake. Stop the co-dependency. They will not be destroyed by anyone but themselves, that’s how it works. Take a “please proceed” approach to the republicans. Stop helping them, let them keep digging, give them more rope and for the love of God, get out of their way.
2. Fighting the ideological war, rather than policy fights, requires the moral high ground because the means shape the ends. If you fight by lying, cheating and stealing, the victorious outcomes will empower liars, cheaters and thieves. Which, in turn, only repeats the ugly cycle and digs us deeper into the quagmire. We cannot defeat conservative or republican ideology by becoming conservatives and adopting republican ideology. The usual tactic of divide and then conquer by co-opting your enemies will not bring justice for anyone but those who have already arrived. It does not help the people at the bottom, it helps the people in the middle – this is not progress. This is not justice. This is not Truth.
3. Bernie brings us a rare opportunity to leap ahead instead of inching along at a slow crawl. Bernie brings light to dark places and there are far too many shadows in the political arena, shadows that empower the enemies of justice, truth, fairness and democracy. We may not ever have another chance to get it right.
So, getting to the structures of inequality in all its forms, countering the toxic ideology of the right, and because sunshine is the best disinfectant, is why we need Bernie.
Don’t blow this, America.
On a final note, at some point we must stop fighting the symptoms of inequality and start fighting the causes of it. It’s on us, I don’t want someone that says, “I got this.” I want someone that says, “We got this.” The power is to always be with the people, ultimately. There is only one person up there speaking this language.
Still Feeling the Bern
Why I’m Still For Bernie: It’s not about winning battles, it’s about winning the warAside from my distrust of her, Hillary is too focused on policy. I don’t think her approach is the better one, simply because it serves two masters. Further, there are other reasons:
1. Structural change – changing the policies so they support equality is not going to be sustainable unless the policies, in turn, are supported by structures that are consistent with their aims. As it stands now, the structures are built to maintain inequality, no amount of policy change is going to be safe in such an environment. Bernie aims to take both approaches, to address policy AND structure - which is the correct way. Hillary aims for only one approach while benefiting from the neglect of the other.
If you do not take both approaches, you essentially will have a wack-a-mole situation, especially since all the republicans have to do is unravel the policies before they even take root. Even in their current weakened state, giving them such opportunities would help them more than it would help us. Leave them weakened, for God's sake. Stop the co-dependency. They will not be destroyed by anyone but themselves, that’s how it works. Take a “please proceed” approach to the republicans. Stop helping them, let them keep digging, give them more rope and for the love of God, get out of their way.
2. Fighting the ideological war, rather than policy fights, requires the moral high ground because the means shape the ends. If you fight by lying, cheating and stealing, the victorious outcomes will empower liars, cheaters and thieves. Which, in turn, only repeats the ugly cycle and digs us deeper into the quagmire. We cannot defeat conservative or republican ideology by becoming conservatives and adopting republican ideology. The usual tactic of divide and then conquer by co-opting your enemies will not bring justice for anyone but those who have already arrived. It does not help the people at the bottom, it helps the people in the middle – this is not progress. This is not justice. This is not Truth.
3. Bernie brings us a rare opportunity to leap ahead instead of inching along at a slow crawl. Bernie brings light to dark places and there are far too many shadows in the political arena, shadows that empower the enemies of justice, truth, fairness and democracy. We may not ever have another chance to get it right.
So, getting to the structures of inequality in all its forms, countering the toxic ideology of the right, and because sunshine is the best disinfectant, is why we need Bernie.
Don’t blow this, America.
On a final note, at some point we must stop fighting the symptoms of inequality and start fighting the causes of it. It’s on us, I don’t want someone that says, “I got this.” I want someone that says, “We got this.” The power is to always be with the people, ultimately. There is only one person up there speaking this language.
Good news
Posted in gdp as well...
A staunchly republican family member who hates Trump has decided to vote democratic this election, he's changing his registration. I don't know how permanent that change will be but, his words, "not my party anymore." 
He hasn't voted in the primary yet and has decided to vote dem at least this time. And, yes, he's going with Bernie 
He doesn't like Bernie but he despises Hillary. (Admittedly in a disturbing and irrational way)
So, there ya have it. The Trump effect goes several ways.
Good news
A staunchly republican family member who hates Trump has decided to vote democratic this election, he's changing his registration. I don't know how permanent that change will be but, his words, "not my party anymore."
He hasn't voted in the primary yet and has decided to vote dem at least this time. And, yes, he's going with Bernie
He doesn't like Bernie but he despises Hillary. (Admittedly in a disturbing and irrational way)
So, there ya have it. The Trump effect goes several ways.
Oops, meant to post this here earlier
I know some of you aren't watching gd-p. If interested, check my post there.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/12511891804
In case you are avoiding gd-p, my post there
http://www.democraticunderground.com/12511891804Let's be clear, regardless of the outcome tonight,
the primary is still not going to be over.
To try to pivot to the General Election is now, and will be, fundamentally undemocratic.
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