...from the Democratic Party and re-create a political party of, by and for the people! THAT is Bernie Sanders' revolution.
Not a perfect idea by any means, but this is a BIG country and SOMEBODY is going to govern it from above, from Washington DC, through the federal agencies and other arms of government. SOMEBODY's going to be in control of all that police and regulatory power, and, God knows, all that military power, and financial power. The ONLY way to insure that that head of government is acting in the interest of all of the people is to, a) ELECT a President through some kind of political organization that has national scope; and b) ELECT a Congress to work with that person.
We don't have time--and this planet doesn't have time--to create some new kind of democratic system. We have to work with what is here now.
You can do lots of things to advance a particular cause--indeed, many Bernie supporters are veterans of direct action and grassroots organization. But when you have cops shooting black men and boys dead for standing on the street, you have got to have a revolutionary in the White House. Nobody else has the power to stop this. You may stop it one neighborhood or one town or one state; it will rise up elsewhere.
Dolores Huerta, a Clinton supporter, said--among other standard Clinton campaign talking points--that the Sanders revolution can't be accomplished because of an obdurate, rightwing Congress.
And WHO is going to use "the bully pulpit," and rally the masses and masses of people, and inspire new corruption-free candidates, who will transform Congress? NOT Hillary Clinton!
She's can't rally the youth vote--they are turning out BECAUSE OF BERNIE SANDERS; she's lost the young adult vote up to age 39 to BERNIE SANDERS; she can't draw in non-voters and disgruntled voters--HE CAN AND DOES; and she positively repels Independent voters, who comprise a third of the voting population, a great many of whom left the Democratic Party because of Clinton policies and Clinton corruption. Sanders is drawing Independents back in, to vote for him, and is attracting all kinds of other Indie voters--because of his vow to restore true democratic governance in this country.
HE can and will do all that is necessary to get a truly representative, responsive Congress.
Furthermore, Clinton doesn't particularly want a truly democratic Congress. They would give her endless grief over "free trade for the rich" and every other thing, including the pay-off's expected from her corporate, bankster and billionaire contributors. Huerta herself is benefiting from this largesse--she's received $100,000 from the Clinton Foundation, a Clinton money factory that also engages in dirty arms dealings with Saudi Arabia. I don't blame Huerta. She's poor. Her people are poor. She's got a right to do whatever she can for them. But to hear her talking this utter nonsense about Clintonian "incremental change"--from a firey old union organizer like her--makes me infinitely sad. There ISN'T GOING TO BE ANY CHANGE with the Clintons back in the White House!
Huerta also said that it's unfair to blame Hillary for her husband's disastrous policies. Where did she get that from? David Brock? That is nonsense. Hillary enthusiastically supported all of Bill's policies--and then supported them some more in the Senate, and only backpedals here and there, now, on the campaign trail, so she can get back into the White House and serve her true bosses, and his.
This is a Brockian talking point, if I ever heard one--using feminism--FEMINISM!--to smoosh over Hillary's part in the Clinton machine's "neo-liberal" juggernaut. Oh, we're being so unfair to the poor wife!
Note: I'm a 70 year old woman, Democratic voter and activist for over 50 years. And this particular talking point makes me sick. A woman gets into that position of money and power, by selling out WORKING women, retired women, elderly women, blacks, Latinos, poor people, struggling middle class people and every demographic of the vulnerable, then asks that we FEEL SORRY FOR HER, cuz she's feels just so bullied by all these people trying to hold her to account. Well, I'll tell ya, Hillary--if you want to play with the big boys of the Imperium, you don't get to play "the wounded woman."
Criminy, give me a woman of honesty and integrity, a woman who has never taken Wall Street's money in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, a woman who wouldn't think of doing any such thing, a woman of true intelligence, courage and humanity. For that matter, give me Dolores Huerta when she was young. I'd like to see a woman as president. But not Hillary Clinton. Because she will NOT help us. She will instead hurt this country and our people beyond repair. And God knows what she would do to the rest of the world with Henry Kissinger and Robert Kagan as her advisers. (Yes! Kissinger and PNAC!)
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