Maximum Wage has been a cornerstone for my Economic Policies @ Interstellar New Deal for quite a while. I tore through this 118 page book, The Case for a Maximum Wage, in half a day as a part of the research to write a policy proposal for Maximum Wage for the Movement for a People’s Party. Its research closely reinforces my policy proposals in so very many ways.
Comments on the Book
The book was amazing and even calls to research from one of the powerful books that I have as required reading for my policies – The Spirit Level -which talks about the harms of inequality. The Case for a Maximum Wage is important enough that I will be adding it to my required reading list which now consists of 5 books.
It goes over the harms of inequality, benefits of a society with low levels of inequality, previous movements for maximum wages, the fraud of philanthropy, as well as the advantages of enacting a maximum wage. There are lots of links to articles and studies for further reading too at the end of each chapter.
I only have 2 super small and rather pedantic problems with the book:
He frames high progressive marginal tax rates as “unsustainable” which is an inappropriate word. They are most definitely is sustainable from an economic standpoint. They are hard to keep on the books within societies with large levels of inequality where the rich and corporations will eventually worm their way into destroying it just like they have here in the US, and just about everywhere else in the world.
There is a level of naivety about the thought that an implemented Maximum Wage as being immune from manipulation, thwarting, and repealing, however, I think his thoughts on its power to reduce the 1%’s ability to affect it are quite seductive.
Unknowingly, he makes a great case for Economies for the Common Good as the method of enforcement and reinforcement for the Maximum Wage which is also key to my policies too.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to understand the problems that we face today. It tackles a very important policy – the Maximum Wage to which I say that “If your candidate or political party does not have a Maximum Wage as a corner stone to their economic policy then they are NOT serious about tackling inequality.” A Maximum Wage is one of the most powerful policy tools and this book makes a great case for it. Give it a read. It is well worth your time.
Disillusioned with our corrupt government and broken electoral system? Are politics dirty, unconscionable, horrific, and you cannot even stand the thought of watching another candidacy ad or debate? Does the thought of politics make your stomach turn? When a politician speaks do you always expect to see their horribly forked and reptilian tongue? Do you think that politicians don’t really care and don’t represent you? Feel like your vote does not matter… at all!?!
Believe me, I get it. I did not vote for many years and I did not care at all about politics because of thoughts like those… until my 30’s when I really started to care about one issue in particular which sparked a raging fire in me that has not subsided to this day.
From that moment over 10 years ago I have blogged at length about various political issues, especially during the 2016 electoral season when I penned the following very important posts which you really should read which can help you understand why we have the broken electoral system that we have now and what needs to be done to correct it. Perhaps they may even give you a sense of hope and drive, and maybe even inspire you to become part of the solution:
Read this article: This following article does a great job of explaining a lot of the reasons why you should vote: 7 Reasons to Vote in this Years’s Election (Huffington Post, Feb 2016). I will pull some from this comprehensive post from the Huffington Post for it sets the tone wonderfully. Please take the time to read it.
I. Voting is About as American as it Gets!
I eat apple pie, fireworks , and freedom for breakfast! I am an American!!!
Voting is as American as apple pie, fireworks, and bald eagles. Our Founding Fathers fought for, and many American patriots died for your right to vote. Do NOT disrespect their sacrifice by not voting!
For every person that does not vote, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Thomas Paine, and all of the many citizen soldiers of the American Revolution all roll over in their grave screaming out in rancid rage as their Revolution and their many sacrifices are being betrayed… by you… not… voting!!!!!
Not voting, my friend, is completely unAmerican and very unpatriotic! It is your constitutionally granted right, your civic duty; your responsibility to yourself, to the American people, and to the world to have your voice heard and to have your vote counted.
Hell, even the Statue of Liberty sheds a tear each time someone does not vote. Come on your heartless bastard!! Do you really want to make the Statue of Liberty cry?!?
Be a patriot and a real American, and cast your vote, because real Americans vote!!!!
II. How do I Know Your Vote Matters?
I know your vote matters because of these three items:
Not everyone has had the right to vote.
Corporations are spending billions each year to influence your vote.
They are all trying so hard to defraud your vote and voice.
A. Not Everyone has had the Right to Vote
Statue of Liberty Crying
Not everyone has had the right to vote in the US. At first it was just land-owning white males which was barely 6% of the colonial population. Many people fought and died over many years for your right to vote, especially women and minorities, and this battle is still not over today. Voting Rights in the US (Wikipedia).
Non-white men and freed male slaves are guaranteed the right to vote in 1870 although Southern states suppressed the voting rights of black and poor white voters through Jim Crow Laws. Black males in the Northern states could vote, but the majority of African Americans lived in the South.
Women did not get the right to vote until 1920 although still faced poverty and racial issues.
Native Americans did not get the right to vote until 1924
Chinese Immigrants were given the right to vote in 1943
Minorities, especially African Americans had their rights to vote protected by the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (Which was recently gutted by the Supreme Court in 2013. Pretty much the day following that disastrous decision quite a few states passed voter suppression laws which we are still keeping people from casting their vote.).
Even today minorities and the poverty stricken are still fighting against significant suppression of their right to vote and many people still cannot vote. You should feel lucky if you are able to vote so do not take it for granted for you never know when they will try to keep you from voting.
B. Spending Billions for Your Vote
The political parties and the corporations would not have spent over 6 billion dollars during the 2016 election if your vote was not important. That is $6,000,000,000 in advertising to influence your vote!! You vote is worth a lot to them and it should be worth a lot to you.
C. Trying so Hard to Defraud
Your Vote Matters! If it didn’t nobody would try to suppress it, billions wouldn’t be spent to buy it, liars wouldn’t try to influence it, trolls wouldn’t try to discourage it, Russians wouldn’t try to hack it. Your vote is your voice! Vote November 6, 2018!
The Republicans and Democrats and their corporate owners would not be trying so hard to subvert the electoral process by engaging in various unethical measures such as:
money laundering to bypass spending limits
restrictive voter ID laws
gerrymandering
closing voting registration places
closing polling places
purging voter rolls
enacting poll taxes
having dead people vote
throwing away votes
changing votes
hacking voting machines
limiting your choices of candidates
overriding your votes through procedure
excluding third parties
intimidation at polls
mailings, robocalls, and text messages with incorrect election dates and polling locations
legalizing propaganda vs Americans
repealing fairness in reporting laws
collusion with news channels to control bias for their candidates and against others
collusion with debate facilitators to get debate questions
and so much more…
… if your vote did not matter. Why would they be spending all of this money and going through all of this trouble if your vote did not matter? Through decades and decades of fighting against you they have just successfully convinced you that your vote does not matter so they can save themselves a lot work. Do not give in to that. Do not let them win.
My Policies for Electoral Reform which is ~19 pages of a mostly a bullet-pointed list that goes through trying to fix all of the ways they have tried to subvert the electoral process and to keep your vote from mattering. This is a very big page. This should tell you just how important your vote is if, throughout our history, that these things have been done in order to influence, control, eliminate, or mitigate your right to vote.
Wake up, you non-voting freak! IT DOES MATTER TO THEM!
And it should matter to YOU!
III. Not voting is NOT protest. It is Surrender.
A. Non-Voters are the Largest Voting Block
We didn’t vote because it won’t make a difference.
Not voting is NOT protest since many, many Americans already do not vote:
40% do not vote during presidential elections
60% do not vote during midterm elections
Nonvoters are the largest electoral demographic, so you are not at all unique when you decide to NOT vote. You are one of too many and that needs to change. Not voting will definitely never change anything. Doing nothing is NOT doing something.
You may not care about politics or voting, but guess who does care and why? The corporations and the rich care because they know the power and benefit of having their voice heard in government because they greatly benefit from it while We the People pay the price. Not voting is surrendering America over to corruption and corporate control. You are waving a white flag and not even attempting to say “Hey, wait a minute. What about me? What about We the People?“.
Not voting is surrender to the corrupt system and letting the rich and corporations win without even a token resistance. By not voting you are shirking your civic duty to have your voice heard and to challenge the corruption and calling it out for what it is – corrupt. Imagine what would happen if that mass of non-voting Americans (40%-60% of the electorate) actually voted in each election? imagine if all of those millions of American voices were really heard through their collective vote!
Not voting means the corrupt process and the corporations and rich automatically win and you did not care enough to even help stop that by taking a moment to cast your vote. People are suffering all throughout this country because you did not care enough to vote, to have your voice heard. If you cared enough to buy some lottery tickets once or bought that Starbucks coffee, etc… then you should care enough to cast you vote… honestly.
Do you really want to be partially responsible for allowing corporations to automatically win while you and your friends and family and the rest of America suffer the consequences, because the corporations and their paid-for politicians will always vote against you?
C. Making it Easier to Defraud
For every vote cast, it is one more vote that has to be side-stepped, manipulated, defrauded, or mitigated. They cannot defraud all of the votes. For each and every vote they have to change it makes it easier and more obvious that fraud is happening. Each and every vote they have to defraud carries a psychological weight to it, and makes it harder to do, and it makes each successive attempt by each party and group or actors more difficult. If nearly 90% of the votes in an area have to be changed by a defrauding party then that makes it harder to hide and do effectively, as well as making them more reluctant to do it next time. Do not make it easy for them. Make them suffer and have to work harder while attempting to subvert our democracy and your vote. Do NOT make it easy for them. Do NOT be an accomplice to the elite’s subversion of our country by NOT voting.
At least have the American Spine enough to NOT kneel and to stand up before these corporations who presume themselves to be our masters, and to tell them:
“NO! Not today. Not on my watch! Not in My America! To the POLLSSSS, my fellow Americans! These usurpers must be banished!!!!“
IV. What’s at Stake During an Election?
A. More than Just the President on the Ballot
It is not just the president on the ballot!!
In each election there are candidates, referendum, questions, and so on that will affect various aspects of your life such as such issues:
taxes
education
health care
access to things like abortion,
right to carry firearms or your right to not be killed by one
LGBTQ and other minority rights
social and welfare programs
science and research
environment and sustainability
roads, highways, and dams
And the list goes on and on. You never know just who or what you will find in any given election. To sort of quote Forest Gump:
Each election is like a box of chocolates. You just never know what you are going to get inside.
There are also other very important state and local officeholders on the ballot too. You can make a difference with local positions on the ballot which are much less likely be be defrauded and can make more a difference in your life because it is closer to you. Your vote matters and can make a difference.
B. Federal Officials
If you are NOT keen on the current regime then you really, really want to make sure you and everyone else votes during the midterms to help turn the tide in congress so you can mitigate the potential damage. We found this out very strongly with Obama because in the midterm elections congress swept conservative because we only have 40% of the electorate voting!!! We may see this phenomenon happen again this year too.
Federal positions matter because broad and sweeping national changes can be made:
foreign policy and UN
election integrity
warmongering and policy actions
immigration policy and humanitarian aid
taxes, minimum wage, and income inequality
environmental policy and sustainable energy
healthcare
school budgets and testing policy
the funding of NASA and sciences.
bailouts and corporate welfare
C. State Officials
Much like congress and the president, voting for your state representatives can help or hinder the power of the governor, as well as put into place people who could support you and your issues at the state level. Here they have the power to radically transform a state’s economy for the short and long term like what we saw with the radical changes in leadership in Wisconsin and Minnesota over the last few terms, both of which switched to opposite leadership. One state fell to the bottom and the other rose to the top with a powerful economic surplus.
D. Local Officials
Your vote matters especially when there are local elections such as county and city races present on the ballot. Local elections are a powerful place where you can make an immediate difference for you and for your family because you are electing someone who will deal with your immediate world such as your city and county administrations. Positions such as:
County
County Board – zoning, planning, health, environment
County Clerk – election integrity
County Treasurer – property taxes
Sheriff – law enforcement and ethics
Highway Department – roads and infrastructure
City
School Board – school conditions and curriculum
Mayor – goals for city, tourism, local taxation
Police Chief – law enforcement and ethics
Fire Chief – fire fighting and community service
These are also the local positions where you have direct access to and are able to walk right into their offices, verses state and federal positions which can be much more difficult to so because they can be farther away and harder to influence or to be heard because you did not donate enough to their reelection campaign for them to really care about your opinion and needs.
1. Third Parties and Independents
Local elections are also a place where independents and third-parties can get their start and have a powerful effect by running for local elections because the barrier to entry is much lower because:
competition is not so stiff because there may be no one else running for a given position, or just one incumbent
the cost to run is so much lower
the paperwork needed to run is much lower
If you are not keen on voting for one of the mainstream candidates then this can be a powerful place to lend your vote to support a more diverse and thriving political environment by giving your community more real choices for the various offices.
If a third party or independent candidate gets enough votes then they might NOT have to gather signatures (and other overly onerous requirements) to get on the ballot for the next election or may even qualify for federal funding for their next election. Both of which can save an up and coming party and voice a lot of time and resources, so they can actually concentrate on you, the voter instead of wasting what little time and money they have on paperwork so their voice can be heard. This would be a great boon for democracy and for more Americans having their voice more accurately represented.
2. New People Running for Office
Local races are also where people who are new to running for office get their start and it is here where you can spot and support a rising star in the making. You could say that you were there on ground floor for that candidate and could really make a difference in their local campaign. This is also a great way to meet a new candidate and to really be heard. Bernie Sanders won his first election by 10 votes. Imagine what would have happened if 11 people decided to not show up and vote?
E. Referendums/Questions
There may be local, state, or national referendums on the ballot where you can vote on the issues directly. Some states like California even have citizen referendums, so this may be more common in your state.
On my ballot for this year I have 4 questions/referendums/measures which are the following:
Sauk County Constitution Referendum Question 1: Should the Constitution of the United States of America be amended to state: Only human beings are endowed with constitutional rights – not corporations, unions, nonprofits or other artificial entities?
Sauk County Constitution Referendum Question 2 Should the Constitution of the United States of America be amended to state: Money is not speech, and therefore regulating political contributions and spending is not equivalent to limiting speech?
Sauk County Medical Marijuana Question Should the State of Wisconsin legalize marijuana so that people with debilitating medical conditions may access medical marijuana if they have a recommendation from a licensed Wisconsin physician?
Sauk County Redistricting Referendum Should the Wisconsin legislature create a nonpartisan procedure for the preparation of legislative and congressional redistricting plans?
Do you really want to miss having your voice heard in these important matters? Help be apart of the solution!! Have your voice heard! Freaking VOTE already!
V. Power-Up Your Electoral Voice!
A. Make Sure You are Ready and Able to Vote
Empower yourself and take responsibility for your vote because only you can cast it. No one else can cast your vote or have your electoral voice heard.
If you need help with any of this, please ask because there are voter support groups who help with this. Many do voter registration drives which may be publicized. Perhaps the party or activist group you are a member of or that you support may also be willing to help you with this. You can ask the county clerk for resources too.
If you really want your vote to count and to really matter then you need to do the following:
there are other activist organizations that have voter pledges and reminders
Record a quick video on YouTube or Facebook about why you are going to vote and ask your followers to pledge to vote too. #VotingPledge2018
Get a Voting Buddy: Find a person to go to the polls with so you can vote together and can help to make sure you both are able and will vote. The more people that vote the better.
4 More Voices: Talk to at least 4 more people and tell them you are voting, and convince them to vote. If they are not sure or a not going to vote, then tell them why you are voting, or even send them a link to my post here.
Hold a Voting Party – You can take the day off or just plan a pre-voting party, an all day voting party, or just a party at night to bring your friends and family over to celebrate voting!
4 . Have Your Voice Heard
GO VOTE!!! Exercise your right to vote and have your voice heard!!!
Verify Your Ballot: Especially, if you vote electronically, verify that your votes are recorded correctly. If not you need to tell someone to see if this can be corrected. If it is not able to be corrected them demand a paper ballot. If it goes on long enough you may even want to report it as below and let people in your local area know through social networking. Once you are in line do NOT leave until you have voted. You have the right to vote.
Report Election Issues:
Social Networks: to your social networks so that all in your local area know and so that evidence is available for all to see. Use pictures and live-streamed video too.
DoJ: to the Department of Justice Voting Rights Hotline (800-253-3931)
ACLU: to the ACLU through their Election Protection Hotline (866-OUR-VOTE)
Attorney: to an attorney if you believe that your rights have been violated
Celebrate! Reward yourself for being a responsible adult and participating in the democratic process, and for having your voice heard. Perhaps even take the day off to celebrate or to help other less fortunate people with the process.
James O’Neill (Why you need to vote in Every… Single… Election!!! Nov 2018)
This setup is called “controlled opposition” AKA manipulating people’s emotions to make them think they have a meaningful choice.
This is a very powerful technique used by both parties and is especially predominant among conservatives. They manipulate you to vote for one of the two corporate owned parties through fear of the other winning. “Vote for me or that other person will win and you do NOT want that!” This is called controlled opposition.
Never vote for a candidate, especially a Republican or a Democrat, out of fear of the other party’s person. If you vote out of fear then the corporations will always win, your vote is not honest, and you will never, ever get candidates in office that really support you. If every person saw through this psychologically manipulative technique called controlled opposition and voted for who they really wanted to win, then the electoral landscape would be wildly different.
Vote for the candidate that truly represents you and the issues you care about and NOT against the candidate your fear.
When I first started getting involved with politics, by default I sided with Democrats because that is all I knew, and in 2012 I voted my fears and not for who I wanted. I will never ever do so again! If you do vote out of fear then the corporations will always win. If the corporations win, then you, We the People, and the rest of the world loses. Do you really want that? Really? Think of the children!!!
2. No Lesser-of Two-Evil Voting
It is your civic duty to vote for the candidate that best represents you and: not the lesser of two evils; not out of spite; not out of fear; not the most electable. If you fail in this duty you are responsible for the decline of democracy.
Voting for the Lesser-of-Two-Evils (voting out of fear) is still voting for evil (is still voting out of fear) and that is how we got into this agonizing sociopolitical and economic place in the first place. My post Systemic Suppression with America’s Two Party System explains how and why this has happened. You cannot vote for the same parties and their candidates that caused our current problems in order to solve the problem.
Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results!
In each party there may be candidates that stand out and that really matter to you and your issues. You need to sift through the corrupt and paid for candidates to find the ones that are running that actually care. You may be able to join a mailing list for an activist group that supports your values to help guide you in your search for quality candidates.
3. Do Not Succumb to the Manipulative Force of Identity Politics
a. Basic Identity Politics
Be apart of the war against the corporations’ ability to manipulate you to vote for them by how they choose the candidates they put before you and how they present their candidates based on how people will respond to them by virtue of inherent identifiers that people may emotionally respond to such as:
race
gender
background
religion
sexuality
class
beliefs
language spoken
… and anything else. They will use these as a way of manipulating you to vote for their corporate controlled candidate based off a knee-jerk emotional reaction (They are like me!) which is identity politics.
If they can catch your vote like this then you will not look closer at their money trail, their voting record, or their history. This is something you need to educate yourself on and to be aware of as a technique they are using to get you to vote against your interests and the interests of the American people. Both parties do it, so you need to really guard yourself from this method of emotional and psychological control. They will also use rhetoric that effuses identity politics too which can guilt you or manipulate you in to voting for them, when you normally would not, especially once you understand their record.
Do NOT allow your vote to be blindly cast by identity politics or its emotional manipulation which is a huge problem in all political arenas as we saw in the last few electoral cycles:
women voting for the female candidate just because the candidate is a woman
African Americans voting for the black candidate just because just because the candidate is African American
Christians voting for the candidate that calls themselves Christian
Democrats blindly voting for a Democrat
Republicans blindly voting for a Republicans
candidates making calls to racism, sexism, loyalty, feminism, pride, religion, loyalty, patriotism, nationalism, or other form of emotional manipulation to get you to vote for them and not for the other person.
Keep in mind, they do this to get you to look away from the issues and their voting records by appealing to your emotions. An unthinking vote is a vote they did not have to earn or work for. It is candy to them. Do NOT feed those corrupt political animals!!
A candidate bearing an identity label that you identify with does not mean they give a crap about the issues you do or the issues that you would expect this specific type of candidate to care about or support. Research to be sure, and do not allow you emotions to blind you to the truth about their voting record and their true beliefs and motives. Their voting record will speak louder than their campaigning words ever could. The very moment you think they are like you, their trap has been sprung. Prepare and guard yourself against this powerful method of manipulation.
b. The Weaponization of Identity Politics
There is another facet of the manipulative arm of identity politics that you should be aware of – the weaponizing of identity politics. Consider this instance: They say that if you do not vote for their woman candidate then you are a misogynist and a sexist, or if you do not vote for their gay candidate then you are a homophobe. Just keep in mind that this goes both ways. Their opponents can likewise weaponize facets of their candidates’ identity too:
If you do not vote for the black man then you are a racist.
If you do not vote for the Jew then you are anti-semitic.
If you do not vote for the union belonging iron worker then you are against unions.
If you do not vote for the single mom then you hate single mothers.
See how powerful and messed up this technique is. It tells you nothing about the candidate, their beliefs, their issues, or their or voting record. It attempts to manipulate you through attempting to make you feel guilty and by invoking strong tribalistic emotions. Do not fall for it.
Those who use this rhetoric most likely cannot win on policy and have to resort to identity politics and name calling. Realize that you are being manipulated. When you see this being employed by a candidate and their campaign then you most assuredly need to start looking much closer at why that candidate is resorting to such unethical rhetoric. They are using this tactic so you do NOT look at the money trail, their policies, and their voting records, so that is exactly what you need to start looking at.
4. Do NOT Rely on Debates for Your Analysis
Many debates that people watch are carefully scripted (as are the audience questions) and are strictly controlled by the Republican and Democratic parties and their corporate owners so that the issues that really matter to the people are not really discussed in any relevant detail, and so that they have careful control over the process and how their candidates are presented to the people.
This is painfully true with the Presidential Debates which I specifically talk about in my post on the System Suppression in America’s Two-Part System. The Commission for Presidential Debates (CPD) is a private corporate entity run by Republicans and Democrats and their corporate sponsors. Their candidates are also barred from outside debates which helps to keep third parties from participating or gaining any access to the presidential candidacy stage which is a great travesty of the democratic process and keeps the corporations in charge of our electoral process and keeps them in control of who the American people will consider voting for.
This corruption of the debate process is a far cry from the origins of candidate debates which started with the activist organization The League of Women Voters (LWV) whose members wanted real answers to real questions which why the corporations co-opted the debate process with a carefully controlled corporate entity. We need to return to activist run and open debates so the people and their issues get real answers and consideration, and so America’s other parties can truly participate in the debate.
If you see a debate or town hall on TV check which channel it is on for media bias, check who is sponsoring it, and who is running the debate to look for any bias or agenda they may have. You need to protect yourself. There a few activist organizations such as Democracy Now or independent news channels such as The Young Turks which run debates, town halls, and interviews with various third-party and other candidates too.
5. Do NOT Allow General Polling OR Exit Polls to Influence You
It does not matter who the online polls say is going to win, because it is easy to fill out a poll – a few clicks and Bam! done. Plus those polls can be skewed by its viewership – a conservative station with a poll will be biased towards conservative candidates and a more liberal station will be biased towards liberal candidates. Voting takes a lot more work especially with as much suppression as their is going on. And, as we discussed earlier, 40%-60% of the electorate does not vote which includes many of the people that took that poll. Not everyone who fills out a poll will be voting so those polls will NOT be accurate and such skewed polls can be a powerful tool they can use to get you to NOT vote.
6. NO, It is NOT Obvious who is Going to Win!!
In the 2016 electoral cycle many thought it was a foregone conclusion that Bernie Sanders was going to be the Democratic Candidate and that did not happen. Many thought the Hillary was going to soundly beat Donald Trump. Well, that did not happen either. History is full of these moments of sure wins that never happened. How many people did not vote to allow these upsets to happen?
Who is going to win is not a foregone conclusion even if your state normally votes red or blue. Wisconsin and Minnesota switched Governors near 2008/2010 with drastic results for both states. Then there is also the effect of the rising tides of social and political movements and civil unrest which can radically change the outcome of elections as we are seeing in the last election or two, and even now.
This is even more powerful due to the level of corruption that there is with the process and because of how few people actually vote. If everyone voted the issues, especially the 40%-60% of non-voters, then the electoral landscape would change drastically and we would have more than two parties to represent the people.
Let your issues and reason carry your vote and not your emotions, because your emotions are a powerful manipulative force that can easily blind you.
James O’Neill (Why you need to vote in Every… Single… Election!!! Nov 2018)
Let your issues and reason carry your vote and not your emotions, because your emotions are a powerful manipulative force that can easily blind you. Cast your vote based on the issues you support. Do NOT cast your vote through blind loyalty to a party (which is Identity Politics). Never give a party and their candidates a blank check for your vote. Make them earn it, otherwise they will take you for granted because they can. Do NOT allow your vote to be cheated from you by manipulation through rhetorical calls to Identity Politics or fear mongering. Let your issues and reason carry your vote and not your emotions, because your emotions are a powerful manipulative force that can easily blind you.
Educate yourself on the issues that matter to you and find those candidates who support those issues regardless of their party. Use various online resources to help educate yourself to find the candidates that are most aligned with your ideals. You may be surprised. I know I was when I took the amazing I Side With test.
I’d rather vote for something i want and not get it than vote for something i don’t want and get it. – Eugene Debs
If you do NOT vote for the candidate that really supports the issues that matter to you, then you betray not only yourself and the issues that are important to you, but you also betray your country for your voice is not truly heard; and every voice that is lost, and every vote that is not cast honestly, is a win for corporations and their corruption, as well as resulting in the perversion of the democratic process and America. If you do not vote for the candidate that truly supports you and your issues then you cannot be surprised when they vote against them and speak out against them when they get in office. You get what you vote for so research their record carefully.
In a Democracy, The People Get the Government They Deserve.
2. Consider All Available Party Options
Did you know that Republican and Democrats are not the majority voting group in the US? Independents (those who prefer to NOT vote for Republicans and Democrats) are the largest (43%) and fastest growing voter group in America? Independents are the majority of voting Americans.
Since most Americans already prefer third-parties, then you will want to seriously consider all of the political party options, not just the two corporate owned parties (Republicans and Democrats) if you truly want your voice to be heard. There are many parties in the US (Republican, Constitution, Libertarian, Democrat, Communist, Working Families Party, Green Party, Socialists, and many, many more), with many different policy positions. This is especially useful for local elections where the third parties can have more of a presence and where your support can have a significant impact to have your voice heard. National and State elections are a little more difficult for third parties to get access to, unfortunately.
The more people vote for third-parties especially on the national level, the more their policies are harder to ignore, and the more they will push the duopoly to expand and embrace other positions instead of being ideologically entrenched. We have seen this will the Libertarian movement as represented by the Tea Party within the Republican Party and we are seeing it now in 2019 with the Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s use of the Green Party’s Green New Deal. Every vote for a third party matters. (Third Party Candidates)
In 2012 when I found out about the Green Party through the I Side With test and found out that other parties existed, I was exposed to their values and platform which greatly increased my understanding of what is possible and what another party could believe and support. This powerful realization and awakening radically change my newly forming political stance and allowed me to grow and evolve politically. You may be surprised too once you open yourself and consider other political parties.
3. Check the Candidates’ Historical Voting Record
If you find a candidate you like then you need to check their voting record, for that means more to you than anything that comes out of their mouth, especially their catchy campaign slogan, or even their identity labels which may make you swoon with joy. Many politicians will say whatever their constituency wants to hear during election season and then vote against it during their term to which their manipulative calls to identity politics and fear mongering can help to hide from you. Words can easily be politically expedient – changed to get the votes so they can stay in office – and then their votes on the issues during office will tell you who they really support – you or their corporate owners. Their historical voting record speaks louder on the issues than anything they could possibly say. If you want real change then you must vote for the candidate that actually wants to bring change and votes for it too, and not the one who just says so during election season to cheat you out of your precious vote. If you do not vote for the change you want then do not be surprised when you do not get it.
If you really want to know who they support, then check the money trail to see who is supporting them, especially the dark money trail. Find out if they accept corporate money or if they only take money only from people like you and me. Who they accept money from can have drastic effect on their voting and tell you who they really serve. If they accept corporate money then they are more likely to serve the corporations because their pockets are thousands and thousands of dollars deeper than ours are. If they only take money from the people and do not accept corporate money then that candidate is more likely to serve the people who voted for them.
You NEED to vote. Tell yourself whatever reason you need in order make it to the polls to vote. Work with whoever you need to in order to get you to the polls so you can cast your vote. We need to work together in order to ensure we all have the chance to have our voices heard at the polls because it is one of the very few ways the voice of the people can be heard in government.
Here are some reasons to convince yourself to vote:
it is your American duty
it is patriotic to do so
because you do not the Statue of Liberty to cry… again
you care about some specific issues which will affect you or someone you know
so you can have your voice heard
you want to honor the fallen and those how have died for your right to vote
the corporations do NOT want you to. (Be a rebel! Stand up to the man!)
because it is on a Tuesday and Tuesdays are awesome… and so are you!
If you do not want to cast your vote for yourself, then please take the time to cast your vote in honor of those who were denied the ability to vote, for there are many who still cannot vote yet due to oppressive voting laws or whose votes are mitigated by Gerrymandering or other corrupt methods. Cast your precious vote for those who cannot. Help your fellow Americans out, give them a voice which can be heard through the political noise by casting your vote.
I don’t care what you tell yourself or whether or not you care about voting. Just get your ASS into the polls and cast your honest vote for the candidate that truly supports the issues that you care about. Anything else is a betrayal of your country, your fellow Americans, and the people that died for your right to vote.
Don’t boo. Just Vote!
Related Links
My Important Posts
Again, here are my posts on America’s Electoral system:
The Interstellar New Deal is an eco-humanistic platform which is evolutionary, technocratic, radically progressive, humanistic, sustainable, and is powerfully driven by a vision for a finally peaceful and space-faring Humanity whose eco-humanist ideals will result in the radical transformation of Humanity to evolve beyond poverty, war, and suffering.
Interstellar New Deal (InterstellarNewDeal.Global)
“But the third parties split…” “Blame the system and not the people”
With America’s 2018 mid-term electoral cycle (and all of its other electoral cycles) where the US’s few major 3rd parties (Green Party and Libertarian) consistently’ish on the ballots and affecting the electoral result, some of you are blaming these 3rd parties for the duopoly party’s loss. If you are doing this then you have no idea what is going and you are pissed at the wrong thing. You need to get your self woke! I am not even kidding here. Your ignorance is hurting us all.
You are pissed at a symptom (a fever) instead of being pissed at the problem (virus which caused the fever). Doing so is as ridiculous and useless as being mad at a knife wound you are bandaging while the murderer is still stabbing you every 2 years. Perhaps it would behoove you to stop the murder (heinously broken electoral system) and console the victims instead of victim blaming (the American People and their few parties).
Fixing the system is the only way this is going to get better. This is the only thing that makes sense, although you have to be able to see the forest for the trees, to be able to understand the bigger picture if there is going to be any change. If you cannot identify the root cause then you cannot solve the problem.
First, you will need to accept that we in America, in no way, have anything resembling a democracy. The politicians, media, and entertainment industry keeps us believing that we do. It is an world-wide embarrassment for any American to state the the US is a democracy. Then you can my articles talking about the real problems that create this situation and the real solutions to it:
Systemic Suppression with America’s Two Party System – In this post I talk about the significant issues with America’s Two-Party system and how it got there. You really, really need to understand this, the root causes if we are going to be able to solve it.
My Thoughts for Electoral Reform – In this ginormous post, I talk about and list the ridiculous amount of things that have to change in order to have anything resembling a democracy.
If you would like to see what my polices would be like if I ran for office where I would target these issues, then read my policy site:
Are you ready to really enlighten yourself even more, to really, really, really understand the most powerful issue facing humanity and how to fix it, I have a post for your to read. I am warning you, that you may not be prepared for what I am about to tell you. Prepare to have your illusions shattered:Â Read my post The Cancer of Capitalism.
To all of my fellow Berners out there – I know we all feel a soul-crushing sorrow with Bernie’s call for a vote for Hillary for president on the floor of the Democratic National Convention which ushered in the completion of her theft of the nomination a few weeks ago. I arrived in the baggage claim of the Philadelphia airport to participate in the protests right as Bernie made the call. I even posted a picture of that very moment @ 6:55pm from the TV that was posted over the baggage claim carousel and then posted it to Facebook saying that ‘We just witnessed the death of democracy.’. I was sick to my stomach for the rest of the evening even as I joined my fellow Bernicrats in the protest area in the FDR Park outside the fences and police that guarded the Wells Fargo Convention Center where the convention was taking place and the voice of the people was kept out. It was a sad day for America, for the world, and for a nation that prides itself on being a supposed democracy. If you want to read more about my time in Philly you can read my post here: ‘My Experience at the Democratic National Convention Protests in Philadelphia 2016‘.
We Need to Thank Bernie Sanders
First, I want to say that we all love Bernie, so please do not turn on him for he has had to endure much over the last year or so, and even through the last 40 years of his service to humanity as an independent politician, to enact what change he was able to accomplish. Do not lose hope. Do not rage against him. Thank him for all that he has done – for awakening us – for giving us hope – for raising awareness of the issues and being prophetic to the truth – for unleashing and informing the slumbering progressive rage. We need to thank him for trying to fix whatever he could while slogging through the treacherous, filthy and betrayal laden trenches of the corporate owned Democratic Party which absolutely despises everything we stand for. We also need to thank him for successfully moving the Democratic Party’s platform far to the left from where it was near the horrendously corporate center. He is only one man in a den of thieves, but together we helped him to make these changes. He could not have done that without us. We could not have done it without him.
To Vote for Evil?
Let’s talk about Trump and Clinton – the two-headed Clintrump if you will – so you can have an idea as to who they are and what a presidency with either of them may mean. I will not go over the wasted vote fallacy or the vote for a third party is a vote for the other candidate fallacy here due to time restrictions, although I go over that a little bit in my previous post on the Suppression Inherent in the Two Party System.
Clinton or Trump, the Greater Evils?
Arguably, this election is record setting in very many horrific ways. We have two candidates that historically have the lowest voter approval ratings ever recorded, and from systemic electoral fraud, voter suppression, money laundering, collusion, perjury, and other horrible things from Hillary Clinton to lies, bigotry, racism, ignorance, and general buffoonery from Trump. In no democracy with an educated and concerned populace should either be considered valid presidential candidates.
Trump may seem bad because he is a general fraud and spews general non-sense a lot, but no one likes him – not the Republicans, not the Democrats, nor the world leaders some of which have already banned him from their country for his ignorant and harmful words, so he will not have allies in Congress or in many places in the world if, by some crazy reason, he lasts long enough to get elected. The way things are going he will most likely be replaced by someone else so that the Republican Party does not completely implode. Things are already working that way now. I do have to give the Republicans some credit though. They had the chance to screw him over during their convention by changing the nomination rules so they could chose someone else as the nominee, but they did not. They stood by their ridiculous voters’ choice which is a rare moment of principle from them.
Although, with Clinton we have a blood soaked and apology stricken legacy to consider. I have written at length about why I will not vote for Hillary talking about massive flop-floppery and general corruption, but this massive post barely scratches the surface since it was only written in September. The Wikileaks from the Democratic Party and the Wikileaks from the Hillary emails have also brought to light that she has sold weapons to Isis and sarin gas to Syrian rebels, her involvement with the coup in Honduras, and so very, very much more. In her time in office, she has also worked hard to sell fracking and the TPP around the world and has sold political favors such as contracts and government positions to donors of the Clinton Foundation. (Clinton Cash Documentary) The depth of her corruption really seems to not know any bounds. Plus, to top all of that off, her judgment has been horrible. Sure she has “experience” but for most of her career she has had to publically apologize for or recant almost all of it during this election because she has been called out for the destruction she has caused at home and throughout the world. See my Letter to the Superdelegates of the Democratic Party for more information on why she is a horrible candidate.
Trump may be an ignorant blustering bigot with no support, but Hillary has the power, money, influence, history and record to show that she that she will do all of the horrible things that she says she will not do while her votes and previous actions show she definitely will. Hillary is definitely the greater of two evils for she is already responsible for sowing evil throughout the world. Compared to Hillary Tump is a rank amatuer. We Bernie or Busters have said that we will not vote for Hillary if Bernie is not the nominee, especially more so now that we know she stole the election, and then, by virtue, the Democratic Party knowing this fact has chosen Drumpf (or whoever the eventual and final nominee is) to be a 4 year drop in the presidential bucket. They are playing chicken with the people and our votes and are counting on the fear based controlled campaigning to keep us in line. I explain this tactic and so much more in my post A General Look at the Systemic Suppression Inherent with America’s Two Party System.
Our only possible saving grace to this potential tragic eventuality (besides Bernie or Jill Stein winning) is that with the movement that Bernie has stirred up and with how sick people are of the Tea Party and their destructive policies over the last 8 years that hordes of progressives will hopefully replace many seats in Congress and possibly reclaim control of it as well. This has already begun since quite a few inspired Bernicrats have won their primaries unseating many establishment Democrats and Republicans. A progressive wave in Congress is our only hope with 3 or more Supreme Court seats on the line. Replacing Congress with progressives is our only real hope to get real change and to fix our criminally broken system because the system profits too much from the corruption.
Did Hillary really steal the nomination?
In short…yes. Well, How then?
…collusion, money laundering, electoral fraud and voter suppression.
I will go briefly over these so you can get an idea in case you have not been following it too closely. There are plenty of articles on this if you really want to research it. The information is out there.
Collusion: We Bernie supporters have been saying this for months and months and the DNC Wikileaks proved that not only did Debbie Wasserman-Schultz and the DNC collude to work against Bernie, but the DNC also colluded with the media to make Hillary look good (or not so horrible) and to attack and suppress Bernie. This resulted in only Debbie and two other DNC officials stepping down and the issuance of an official apology by the Democratic Party, but yet nothing was done to return the votes that had been lost by their unethical behavior.
The emails also showed that the DNC had a mole inside the Bernie campaign which is something that we had also suspected and was most likely dealt with. A possibility here could be this chain of events and logic – a mole inside the Bernie campaign, who was eventually fired, had knowledge of a security hole that allowed him access to both the Clinton and Sanders email lists (to which Bernie’s campaign was punished for); the mole sends the Sanders’ email list over to Hillary campaign which allowed a perfectly targeted campaign for poll closures to create confusion and really long wait times, voter roll purges and party registration changes, ballot shortages, uncounted ballots and whiting out Bernie’s name on ballots in order to indirectly suppress Bernie voters’ ability to vote and to suppress voter turnout. =O =( There are links available for all of these deplorable occurrences as they occurred in the various primaries.
Money Laundering: This was proven by the existence of the Hillary Victory Fund as was reported here Hillary Donors Use State Loopholes To Launder Millions (The Young Turks) and the original story which was broken by How Hillary Clinton Bought the Loyalty of 33 State Democratic Parties (Counterpunch). The Hillary Victory Fund allowed rich people and corporations to bypass campaign donation limits by giving to the various state parties who would then directly funnel the money into the Clinton Campaign. This was done with the promise of helping the Democratic Party raise money for their future candidates. Part of this deal is also how she bought the support of the superdelegates before the primaries even really started. So, in a completely illegal and unethical action, she had already purchased the support, bias, and collusion of the Democratic Party and purchased superdelegate support before the game even started. These actions are cheating, felonies, highly unethical and very undemocratic.
Voter Suppression and Electoral Fraud: Unfortunately, these are much harder to prove due to time limitations, cost of investigation, manpower and expertise required, and because, more importantly, the Democratic Party and the government itself has no interest stopping it because this is how elections are done here in America. To truly crack down this would be to undermine corporate control of the government and the flow of money and power into the hands of the politicians and the corporations. Obama has said nothing and has done nothing when there is more than enough evidence and funny business to show that something is going on and should be investigated and, yet, no call was made to protect our supposed democracy.
The two really sad parts about Hillary and the DNC subverting the democratic process and the will of the people by engaging in electoral fraud voter suppression, money laundering, and collusion in order force Hillary upon the populace is that we have already said NO to her twice already and, even with having done all of this, she was still only able to come to a veritable tie and had to go to a contested convention in order to ‘win’, and even there they engaged in major suppression of Sanders supporters too. Had this been an even borderline fair election the result would have been Hillary’s third loss by absolute annihilation by Bernie and his supporters.
Bernie endorses and supports Hillary, so that is what he wants us to do right?
Well…no! Not really… and let me tell you why:
There is a lot at play her and, unfortunately, dirty Clintonian politics are a part of it – blackmailing Bernie with the possibility of losing of his seat on the Congressional Committee for Veterans Affairs and who knows what else is at play. He has most likely also agreed to make an early endorsement in order to obtain platform concessions to which I have very little faith in as I stated in my Open Letter to Bernie Sanders. We all know that he would not just give in unless he was made to stop by things outside his control. Because of this and whatever else the Clinton campaign has done to him to force his campaign to basically end, we cannot really listen to his words now because, with the act of his endorsement of Hillary being a betrayal of everything we have fought for, his time in the immediate Revolution has come to an end, and now it is up to us to carry on the Revolution now and far past the election in November for our fight to end the corrupt system and its cronies has just begun.
With Bernie Sanders being forced to support Hillary we have some other things to consider from Bernie himself and from his surrogates to try and understand what he really wants us to do. Early during his campaign and in his previous speeches and interviews he has said that ‘he would never tell us who to vote for and if he did we should not listen’. This is a very important and consistent message to remember. He has also said during this campaign that ‘he cannot tell his supporters to vote for Hillary and that she must earn our votes’. As a lifelong independent candidate he has also previously said that we need a third party. He has also said that this campaign is not about him, it is not even about winning the presidency or elections, it is about policy reform and it is about us, we, who are the real Revolution, to which he has been the wake-up call and rallying cry for. We are the ones who his campaign was really about. The Revolution, the wake-up call, is the point so we would stand up to demand and fight for real change. He has fallen on his sword for us so he can keep fighting within the Democratic Party and now, sadly, we must continue on without his leadership and inspiration while we watch him do that which he loathes to do – support Hillary.
Bernie has also not released his delegates nor handed over his email list. He has also maneuvered Hillary’s nomination in such a way that if something should happen to her like going to jail for electoral fraud, voter suppression, money laundering, collusion, racketeering or something fortunate like that then he is still in line to be the Democratic nominee. He has also switched back to an independent and will not be stumping with nor raising funds for her or the Democratic Party. He seems to be doing the exact minimum that he needs to do in order to not suffer unknown consequences, but everything else he is doing points to a desire for action other than what his words say if you have really been paying attention to his career and his words during his campaign. His current words may say Hillary, but his eyes, previous speeches, and entire political history point to a hostage situation.
Bernie or Bust has become Green or Bust
With all of Bernie’s previous consistent words being said as a stark contrast to his endorsement of the very disease that we have been fighting against, and with his electoral voice now being controlled by the Hillary campaign, we have to look for other signals as to what Bernie really wants us to do. His words as pointed out above are pretty clear, but let’s look for something else. We can find that in his campaign’s close allies and surrogates – Nina Turner and Cornell West – who, shortly after Hillary’s theft of the nomination, moved over to and began endorsing the Green Party. This here, I believe, is the truest answer to what Bernie really wants for us, not only because it is really consistent with his words and his principles as a lifelong independent who has been fighting against the system, but also because this is really the only way to help break up the two party system which has systematically worked to destroy his campaign and our freedoms, and to steal the election away from Bernie. Cornell and Nina can say those things that Bernie could not say. They were his voice following the subversion of the election by Hillary’s stealing of the nomination.
I have written a massive post detailing the Systemic Suppression Inherent in America’s Two Party System to which you may find very informative about the plight of independents Like Bernie Sanders and third parties like the Green Party have within the corrupt corporate controlled two party system and how it results in the suppression of the voice and choice of the American people. Please take the time to read this rather large post, because it will instill into you how broken and at odds the people really are to have our voices heard and to have a real choice in who to vote for and how important it really is to break this.
We cannot achieve the radical needed change by voting for either the greater or lesser of two evils. If we want real change then we must vote for it and vote our consciences and not our fears or nothing will get better because fear is how they control our votes and keep us in line. For decades have people been saying ‘Next election I will vote my values. Now we need to defeat this evil.’ and nothing has changed as a result because we voted our fears and for one of the two corporate owned and sponsored candidates that have been forced upon us.
Jill Stein and the Green Party are just to the left of Bernie. When I took the I Side With test this year my results said 100% Bernie and 100% Green. When I heard Bernie speak in my town at a small event here last summer, to me it sounded like his platform was checking off the Green Party platform. I was amazed. The Green Party is a natural fit for Bernie supporters to carry on our Revolution. They have even offered to allow Bernie to step in and take over the Green Party presidential nomination.
Can Jill Stein of the Green Party win? Of course, she can, although this will require that we Bernie people move over en masse to support Jill Stein. The amazing things we did for Bernie with money and support we can do for her and this will be a powerful moment that will really catapult a third party into the race. We have that power. We can have our voices heard by helping Jill Stein and the Green Party, a candidate and a party that is very, very similar to Bernie and his campaign. Our country needs this voice in the presidential race now that Bernie has been silenced. The people need her on the presidential debate stage so we can hear Bernie’s and the Green Party’s values debated against the corruptions and frauds of Trump and Hillary. We need a real third party on the debate stage. The stark contrast between the two corporatist candidates and the populist candidate in Jill will also give the American people a much-needed voice and choice on the debate stage. The American people need this. Our children need this. The world needs this.
What if Jill Stein loses? Well, there is a good chance she will. Most Bernie people will not vote for Hillary and many have moved over to the Green Party. Some will write in Bernie or vote for anyone else but Hillary. What will matter in the long term is that that we finally decide that will not bow down to fear and corporate control. We will no longer vote our fears and will now start voting our values. Once we do that everything will change. With any luck the Green Party will be set up better to compete following the general election with funds and help from Berners so that they can run more local elections and help to get more Green people in office which is something that we desperately need – more progressives in office all across the country.
If you need more of  a persuasion to consider the Green Party then the Dalai Lama has supported the Green Party (YouTube). Bernie Sanders’ brother, Larry Sanders, is also an active member of the UK Green Party and is their National Health spokesman.
Run For Office
The other part of this puzzle as to what we should do besides vote for Jill Stein of the Green Party and, to which he has directly talked about, is for us to run for office. For far too long have progressives been idle and inactive in local, state, and federal positions. For far too long has our voice been muted by our collective electoral inaction, our jaded disaffection and disenfranchisement. We have now been awoken and inspired by Bernie and his prophetic truths, so now get we need get elected into office and put an end to the corruption and the fraud ourselves. There are three main options for Bernicrats and Greens to run for office with support:
You can join and run for office through the Green Party which will greatly help out a third party. The more candidates they have in office the more of a difference that they will be able to make and the more the public will hear their name and take them seriously.
Bernie’s campaign sent out an email asking his followers that had recurring donations to him to switch them to the new organization that he just started named Our Revolution which is meant to train, fund and run Bernicrats for all elections – local, state and Federal so that the revolution can continue to do its work. Their official kick-off August 24, 2016.
Another organization that sprung out of the Bernie movement is Brand New Congress which seeks specifically to replace congress with progressives by 2018.
Together, through whichever means you chose, we can replace congress, governors, and various local positions with progressives so we can bring real change. This is where the revolution will really happen and we need you to run so your voice can be heard and so our voice can finally be heard. If we all step up and really put ourselves towards this then regardless of whoever is president, for better or worse, it will not matter so much because progressives will control Congress, but imagine what we could do with a progressive Congress and a progressive President.
In closing
My Quote – Post Nomination Revolution
Do not focus your rage against our beloved Bernie. Keep you rage aimed at the corporate-owned establishment Democrats that have never ever considered giving Bernie a fair chance while having to engage in voter suppression, electoral fraud, collusion, money laundering, and corruption to have a chance at beating him. If they did not do this then Bernie would have crushed Hillary. Keep your rage focused and sharp for it is this rage against the corporate owned politicians and our corrupt electoral process that is needed to force it to change. We need you to be angry so you will keep pressure on your representatives, so you will run for office, so you will protest and raise the alarm against the corruptions that are happening in congress and other governmental places.
We the people need to hold our government responsible and this will be possible only if we are united together. We will need your rage for what is to come, to demand that change happens on our terms and not theirs. We must be united as progressives otherwise we lose our power. If we lose our power to make change then they win and our children and the world will lose. We cannot let those who are willing to lie, cheat, and steal from the democratic process and our people to live fat lives while the 99% suffer. We have to be THE champions now. We have to be OUR champions. We have to be HIS champions. It is now up to us to carry the torch. This is, hopefully, the beginning and not the end. It can be if you do not give up hope.
It is time to vote for Jill Stein so we can finally have a president in office that will actually represent us. It is time for you to run for office or to lend your support to those Greens or Bernicrats who do so. We can make this happen if we work together.
Quote from my post titled ‘Bernie’s Endorsement of Hillary Clinton and the Real Beginning of the Revolution’
To all of my fellow Berners out there – I know we all feel a soul-crushing sorrow with Bernie’s endorsement of Hillary Clinton yesterday (Tue, 12 July 2016) at a rally In New Hampshire.
We felt the stabbing knife of betrayal when Elizabeth Warren betrayed her progressive values to vehemently endorse Hillary and never endorsing Bernie like she should have as I mentioned in my Open Letter to Elizabeth Warren. Now Bernie has endorsed Hillary Clinton too. Yes, he has endorsed her. None of us like to say it. None of us want to admit it. We really want to pretend that it never happened like a horrible nightmare. These two moments are too much to handle in such a short time period. Two of the most seemingly progressive icons failing to live up to our dreams. With the absolute sickening and acrid taste of swallowed vomit in our mouths, we realize that this really happened. A bitter taste to accent the anger, betrayal, and loss we are feeling, like we may have been living n lie, like the yellow brick road really led to a prison camp for tortured unicorns. I feel it too – deep in the roiling pit of my stomach, a torturous knot signaling there is no hope left for anything but despair. Abandon all hope ye who pass this point….but, please do not despair quite yet. I know it may not seem like it, but there is much more to come. This may sound trite, but this really is the beginning if you are willing to embrace it. Bernie has slogged on for 30+ years, so please hold on a few moments longer while I try to explain. We need to start embracing a much longer view than just one electoral cycle, than just one presidency.
We all love Bernie, so please do not turn on him for he has had to endure much over the last year or so, and even through the last 40 years of his service to humanity, to enact what change he was able to accomplish. Do not lose hope. Do not rage against him. Thank him for all that he has done – for awakening us – for giving us hope – for raising awareness of the issues and being prophetic to the truth – for unleashing and informing our slumbering rage. We need to thank him for trying to fix whatever he could while slogging through the treacherous, filthy and betrayal laden trenches of the corporate owned Democratic Party which absolutely despises everything we stand for. We also need to thank him for successfully moving the Democratic Party’s platform far to the left from where it was near the horrendously corporate center. He is only one man in a den of thieves, but together we helped him to make these changes. He could not have done that without us. We could not have done it without him.
Bernie Sanders, the Amendment King
What follows is quite a bit of speculation on my part, but what is super-important to remember is that Bernie is known as the Amendment King for a reason and I think that this is required to understand what is going on here. We also need to remember that he said that this is not about the presidency or even winning elections. This whole movement and his candidacy is about the policies, which is something that I think we were not really prepared for. I think, as much as I hate to admit it, that his endorsement of Hillary exemplifies this sentiment. He may have been willing to deal a blow to his immediate candidacy to get a more progressive Democratic platform – getting the platform amended which, for him, is the point of what his candidacy was really about. I know we all want to see him in the presidency. I do too. My daughter deserves that. The world deserves to see President Bernie Sanders and the glory which would come of it, but to him, I believe, getting the platform and policies changed may be more important, especially in light of the tremendous amount of corrupt forces arrayed against him in this election.
What follows is not something I have verified, but have I have heard from quite a few sources – I think this also has to do with being able to speak at the Democratic Convention. He has to have been willing to support the other candidates throughout the process in order to maintain his superdelegate status in order to speak at or attend the convention. Also, since she is so far ahead in delegates and superdelegates we need to also understand that there are no concession speeches given by the loser, so if he does lose and wanted to speak and did not support her then he would not have the chance to speak at the convention. Again, this is about having the chance to speak to sway some more people, to pull them to our side, to have our voice heard as much as possible. There is a lot of internal party politics going on here that is affecting what he is doing and it is not just what he wants to do, but some of it is what he is required to do in order to keep moving forward, to keep having the opportunity to make changes.
What the Future Holds
Hopefully, Bernie’s long-term view and plans may have out-played them. We will only know for sure as the next few weeks or so unfolds. Please do not #DemExit until a day or two after the convention, because then we will know the truth as to who is the real nominee and to what his plans for the future of our movement may be. In a campaign email yesterday he said that he is creating a successor organization and I think this is really what is going to matter for the movement and what will guide us going forward with or without him as president. Since he has repeatedly said that he is really concentrated on transforming the Democratic Party from within and from the description below it does not really appear to be a new political party, which is what we desperately need, but more of an organization that helps to promote and work with progressive candidates and get them into office:
“In the coming weeks, I will be announcing the creation of successor organizations to carry on the struggle that we have been a part of these past 15 months. I hope you will continue to be involved in fighting to transform America. Our goal will be to advance the progressive agenda that we believe in and to elect like-minded candidates at the federal, state and local levels who are committed to accomplishing our goals.”
Keep in mind also that he has neither suspended his campaign nor released his delegates as of yet, so there is quite a bit more to come at the convention. There are also massive protests and a rally arranged for the convention too. Please, take the time to show up in Philadelphia to let the establishment that even though Bernie has endorsed Hillary, which I think has been required for platform concessions, that we are even more angry now, that we stand behind Bernie and what he stands for, that we will take nothing less than real change, that we will not compromise or accept false promises, that our movement is not really about Bernie, but it is about the policies. The Democratic Establishment needs to hear the zealous roar of “Bernie, Bernie, Bernie” ringing over the gates and fences and through the convention to know that we are not defeated or done, that they have not ended these pesky populist social-democrat Bernicrats, that our movement has just begun.
A key part of the future is the new organization from the newsletter is to help to support progressive candidates. This is important for our future work. If we are serious about fixing everything that is broken by enacting electoral reform, single payer health care, tuition-free university, and opposing the reprehensible TPP then it has to be done from the inside out – from the local to the state and federal levels, for it will not be done with the current establishment politicians. This electoral season has seen a flood of Bernicrats running for office and this is amazing. Some long standing establishment Democrats and Republicans risk being unseated this cycle and this needs to happen for real change to occur. If you have a Bernicrat running locally then please send them money and spread the word about them and your support for them. This is truly how change will be won, from the bottom up with a flood of new progressive candidates. Remember what Bernie Sanders has done in Vermont. Once Bernie was just a lone voice, a single mayor of a small town in Vermont, and now he is a long- serving congressman for what is one of the most progressive states in the Union. This is our path. This is where we need to work to make change permanent and to show the people that it can be done and that it works. We need progressive candidates to run in all local, state and federal elections to be that change that we want to see.
We have to be THE champions now. We have to be OUR champions. We have to be HIS champions. Once the Democratic National Convention has finished, assuming he is not the nominee, then it will be up to us to carry the torch from there. Yes, the Democratic National Convention is not over yet and the Superdelegates have not technically voted. I have very, very slight hopes that, perhaps by some miracle that he will get the nomination, especially with a new round of looking at Hillary’s lies and perjury with her email server scandal. I am not holding my breath for this especially with his endorsement and the collusion that is happening, but it is a sliver of hope which I still carry with me. This is, hopefully, the beginning and not the end. It can be if you do not give up hope.
In closing
I will also report the unconfirmed rumors that he has qualified to be on each state’s ballots in such a way that he could run as an independent. I really do not expect him to do so as I mentioned in my Open Letter to Bernie Sanders. He is too principled for that, so please do not hope for it. I would love to see a Sanders/Stein Green ticket in any form, which would absolutely annihilate anyone who opposed them, but I cannot see that ever happening. Me sad panda. =(
Do not focus your rage against our beloved Bernie. Keep you rage aimed at the corporate-owned establishment Democrats that have never ever considered giving Bernie a fair chance while having to engage in voter suppression, electoral fraud, collusion, money laundering, and corruption to have a chance at beating him. If they did not do this then Bernie would have crushed Hillary. Keep your rage focused and sharp for it is this rage against the corporate owned politicians and our corrupt electoral process that is needed to force it to change. We need you to be angry so you will keep pressure on your representatives, so you will run for office, so you will protest and raise the alarm when the corruptions that are happening in congress and other governmental places. We the people need to hold our government responsible and this will be possible only if we are united together. We will need your rage for what is to come, to demand that change happens on our terms and not theirs. We must be united as progressives otherwise we lose our power. If we lose our power to make change then they win and our children and the world will lose. We cannot let those who are willing to lie, cheat, and steal from the democratic process and our people to live fat lives while the 99% suffer.
Most of us Bernie supporters are #BernieOrBust, so following the convention we may be left with a difficult decision. Do we vote for Jill Stein, write-in Bernie Sanders, or something else? I have previously posted a poll on Facebook asking just that question and that has turned out to be votes for Jill Stein @ 5-1. Where do we carry our movement? Should we rally around Jill Stein and the Green Party or should we unite under the newly formed United Progressive Party? An email from Bernie’s campaign has alluded to a new organization to carry the movement’s torch. Perhaps we should wait until we receive the email with details about this. In either case, we will need to decide both questions quickly – by a few days after the end of the Democratic National Convention so we can charge forth and try to have our voices heard through the establishment’s continued suppression, so that they know that we will not give up, that we will not go quietly into that dark night, that the dragon of the American people has risen from its slumber and nothing will be the same again.
I have officially joined the Green Party. “How did this come about?” you ask. Well, the short of it is that I took a thorough survey during the 2012 presidential electoral cycle which was titled “I side with…?“. I knew who I was going to vote for – Obama, but I was curious as to what the survey would come up with – looking to validate/invalidate my current political label or to illuminate where I really stand even if I think I stand else where. The result for me from the I side with …? survey was a bit surprising – 98% Democrat, 92% Green Party, and 5% Republican. Agreeing with Democrats and not agreeing at all with the Republicans I understood, but I had no idea who Jill Stein or the Green Party were. I was kinda stunned. Who the hell are these people and how do I agree with them so much? This started my search into the Green Party – the Green New Deal and other Green Party related sites. Recently I quickly took the survey again and I am at 95% Green and 91% Democrat and still @ 5% Republican. =)
Joining the Green Party
A little over a month ago (29 June 2013) I attended the Wisconsin State Green Party‘s Annual Meeting @ UW Oshkosh officially joining their ranks and become an Alternate Delegate for the state of Wisconsin to the National Party, as well as joining the National Green Party Platform Committee. About 2 weeks ago (25 – 28 July 2013) I attended the 4 day Green Party Annual National Meeting (ANM) in Iowa City, Iowa, and after a day and a half of training and talks on how to run for office, and like 2.5 days of committee meetings, I also have jumped on their IT and Outreach Committees, as well as assisting their Campaign Coordination Committee.
What Appeals to Me About the Green Party
The Green New Deal really appeals to me because it provides real answers to the many issues that we are facing as a country and as a people if we are to have any hope of a future for our country and the world. I do not agree with everything in there, but all most all of it makes a lot of sense and really attacks the real problems that we face in which the Republicans and the Democrats are too spineless to tackle for fear of losing their corporate sponsorship, and their seats. They are more concerned with money and power than actually solving the problems the real problems. This saddens me greatly. Below I will highlight one of the areas that appeals to me about the Green Party and the Green New Deal, as well as add my thoughts to it:
Electoral Reform
One of the most powerful problems which truly prevents real change and real solutions to our problems is an electoral system that is rigged by the system to keep others out beside the two entrenched major parties. It is a herculean effort for a 3rd party to get on the ballot to be up for voting, especially for presidential elections. When the powers that be write the laws that keep them in power it is very, very difficult for anyone else to really participate in our “democracy”. I do not believe in any way that the Republicans and the Democrats truly represent the breadth of views that the entirety of the American people believe. Americans are not truly represented as long as there are truly only 2 parties able to run for office – the super conservative and the quite a bit less conservative. Voters are more concerned about “wasting their vote” than voting their conscience. I have been victim of that as well. I wanted to vote for Jill Stein in 2012, but did not. Below are four main reforms that need to happen to help correct this. These are not all that needs to be done, but this will go a long way towards fixing things:
Government Paying for Elections: Elections are to be paid for by the federal/state government. This will limit the money wasted on such things, but more importantly it will get rid of corporate money from elections. This is the single most important change that can radically change the political and electoral landscape over night. Corporations will lose their power and will lose their primary method of bending the political process to their will and against the people.
Proportional Representation: This will only really affect the senate and assembly and other seats where their is more than one person position available. In proportional representation seats are put up for vote in a block of seats. In this case let us say that their are 10 seats up for vote. Seats will be portioned out in proportion to how may votes they have received. If democrats receive 40%, Republicans receive 40%, Green Party receives 10%, and Libertarians receive 10% then they shall receive seats as follows: D – 4, R – 4, GP – 1, L – 1. This will allow for other parties to access the ballots and allow people to vote for who they really want and not fear “wasting” their vote.
Shortened Electoral Window: The current electoral season is huge. Congress “works” for like 5 months out of the year and then they spend the rest of the time fund raising and campaigning. I am pretty sure this is not what we voted them in to do – campaign and fund raise. I think we voted them in to legislate and lead our country forward. The electoral window should be shortened to a month or so, so that time and money is not wasted on such things when people are going hungry, are without homes, and our education system is continually being cut.
Running For Office
Now, with all of that said I would like to run for office so I can be apart of bringing about that necessary change that the Republicans and Democrats do not have the resolve and caring to make it happen. I am looking at running for local offices first to get my feet wet and then hopefully run for state office. Since I work for a county government I cannot run for County Supervisor and then only spot that is interesting to me and available for this next electoral cycle is School Board, so, hopefully, things will work out so that I will have that opportunity. If I do I will definitely post that event here too.
Read More…
There is so much to than this in the Green New Deal. Please take the time to look at it and consider what it offers. We offer a real way forward to solve our countries problems.
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