March 6, 2016

The Democratic Battle for Battleground States

Primary elections give us a predictive insight into what may happen in the General Election. Democrats who are focused on a win in November are paying close attention to the wins in the swing states and the margins by which we are able to do it. Here is a map that shows the States that vote solidly Republican and Democrat and the ones we need to take in November to hold on to to have a Democrat in the Oval Office and a Supreme Court that upholds Civil Rights:




Here are each candidate's Swing State wins in the Primary and the number of Electoral Votes those States have in the General Election.

How have Democrats voted so far? For purposes of this accounting, I'm calling Iowa, with 6 electoral votes, a split:


Clinton

Iowa: 6

Nevada: 6

Virginia: 13

Total: 25


Sanders:

Iowa: 6

New Hampshire: 4

Colorado: 6

Total:16




How are the candidates polling in the on-coming Swing State Primaries that really matter for Democrats?:




Pennsylvania: 20 Clinton@ 48% Sanders@ 27%


Ohio: 18 Clinton @ 55% Sanders @ 40 %


North Carolina:15 Clinton @ 51% Sanders @ 34%


Florida: 29 Clinton @57 Sanders @ 32%


Ohio: 18 Clinton@55% Sanders @ 40%


Wisconsin: 10 Sanders @ 44% Clinton @ 43%

March 4, 2016

Invading Safe Spaces is an Entitlement Issue

and one that is worthy of discussion. Especially when it occurs in progressive environments.

The same trend that is occurring in the present election cycle towards people of color and women is one we have seen time and again. It reminds us we are clearly not post racism, post sexism or post ableism even when working to overthrow the status quo.

Whether it is #BLM, Occupy Wall Street or the Democratic Primary, some participants seem to be more equal than others and have an overarching sense of entitlement. A sense of that allows them to think it is alright to invade the boundaries of, speak for, lecture, interrogate and shut down dissent from historically marginalized people. What causes this? The privilege to assume that the ideas, words and even spaces of others will serve as extensions of the entitled group's narrative and desires. Any autonomy or resistance to that is met with reprisal.

That this dynamic occurs most in cultures with the widest gaps in rights between the privileged and the marginalized does not speak well for the current climate in the Democratic Party. Too often, there are those who trample the rights of others and then unashamedly celebrate their abuses of power. Do the perpetrators realize their actions expose their platform of equality to be without the very foundation it needs to make that happen? That they are destroying the ideals of a better future through actions that maintain the status quo? We need to be a Party where the members are fighting for the rights of everyone to be autonomous and worthy of respect and representation.

Much of what is happening here reminds me of an article Brittany Cooper wrote for Salon entitled, "Listen When I Talk to You!". She teaches Women, Gender and Africana Studies at Rutgers. She is also a Hillary supporter.

http://www.salon.com/2014/12/17/listen_when_i_talk_to_you%E2%80%9D_how_white_entitlement_marred_my_trip_to_a_ferguson_teach_in/

Peace and blessings to us all

March 3, 2016

Why the United Farm Workers Are Not Feeling the Bern

Today the United Farm Workers endorsed Hillary Clinton. Although they appreciate Senator Sander's contributions to the economic debate, they are are not feeling the bern because of his work against their chances for a path to immigration reform. They are also very concerned by his exploitation and willingness to put aside his professed aversion to the guest worker program as long as it benefits his home state of Vermont.

In 2007 The United Farm Workers WANTED the comprehensive immigration reform bill. But, according to Arturo Rodriguez, President of the United Farm Workers:

"We came close to winning comprehensive immigration reform when a bipartisan bill by Sens. Edward Kennedy and John McCain nearly passed the Senate in 2007. That measure, which would have granted legal status to millions of undocumented immigrants... [it] would have let undocumented farm workers earn the right to permanently stay in this country.

If that proposal--which President George W. Bush pledged to sign -- had passed in 2007, would there still be 11 million undocumented immigrants living today in fear and constantly subjected to mistreatment? There would not be.Would Donald Trump and most Republican presidential candidates be appealing today to bigotry and rancor by scapegoating immigrants?

Sen. Sanders voted against the Kennedy-McCain bill and led the push for amendments that killed the measure because he opposed the conditions pushed by business interests for guest workers, he said during the Feb. 11 debate.


But Sen. Sanders' opposition to abusive guest worker programs didn't extend to a bill he cosponsored in 2011, to allow agricultural guest workers into his home state's largest farm sector -- Vermont's dairy industry... So the Sanders-backed measure could have let dairies replace all current domestic farm laborers with foreign guest workers -- with the same damaging impacts on wages and working conditions for both domestic and foreign guest workers Sen. Sanders decried in other industries."

Although Sen. Sanders opposes use of guest workers because of concerns over exploitation, is he willing to make an exception for "guest workers in agriculture" in Vermont?



http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arturo-s-rodriguez/questions-farm-workers-ha_b_9259846.html

February 29, 2016

"Don't-Vote-for-Candidates-That-Take-Big-Money-from-Banks" McKay's Political Contributions

..or to Weirdo Billionaire's"

Strange words indeed considering McKay gave:

$25,000 to the Republican National Committee in 2014
And the RNC's largest Donors included the Koch Brothers, Goldman Sachs, Amway and Charles Schwab

and

$35,800 to Mitt Romney in 2012
and Romney's largest Donors included the Koch Bothers, Goldman Sach's, Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan, Wells Fargo, Credit Suisse

On the other hand, McKay does have a movie to promote and the Oscar's give him free ad space. So there's that.

February 28, 2016

Senator Sanders: We ARE Smart

You would think that Senator Sander's experience of outspending Hillary in South Carolina and being thoroughly trounced would give him reason to pause and recalibrate his message. That he would realize that all the money and staffers in the world cannot make a difference if you simply don't understand the voters or the issues important to them. If you aren't listening, your message is going to be wrong. And having more staffers around to repeat it and yelling, insulting or wagging your finger is actually going to make it worse. That reality was born out by his deplorable results in SC. But rather than using that failure as an opportunity to learn, he has doubled down and is now saying that going forward, "smart" people will vote for him. What?!

What he doesn't seem to understand is that we ARE smart. Bedsides being incredibly insulting, telling us otherwise is not going to get our votes. Which makes him not so smart if he wants not just to win but to solve our problems. We have an excellent understanding of the day-to-day challenges we face. And it is a candidate's job to understand US and them before laying out solutions.

Senator Sanders sincerely (and I do believe he is sincere) does not understand that all our social justice problems cannot be solved with the solutions he goes on and on and on and on and ON about. He's starting to sound like the not-always-so-beloved Uncle Bernie at the Thanksgiving dinner table who shouts about his pet peeve every time someone shares something about anything. Some quick examples involving crime-- which is a massive problem for women and many minorities who just happen to comprise a huge chunk of the Democratic Party-- show his alarming tone deafness: "Becuz socialism!" just. isn't. working. And for large swaths of the American people, worrying about Wall Street is a luxury problem. Being 'splained that it is all interrelated is not dissimilar to listening to how trickle down economics is going to pay the rent.

That is the reason that he and some of his supporters can actually unashamedly accuse Jim Clyburn, John Lewis and Planned Parenthood of being part of the "establishment" and not realize that they are part of the problem. That is the reason he can address victims of crime and respond with his knee jerk boiler plate solution of "free school". Talk about blaming the victim. It takes a stunning amount of privilege and condescension to denigrate the lived experiences of others as "low information". President Obama has started a conversation about how all men (and women) are not equal in our society and the more Senator Sanders talks, the more I realize Hillary Clinton is the best person to continue it.