Op-Ed What Americans abroad know about Bernie Sanders and you should know too
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Although countless analyses have been devoted to the demographics each candidate needs to win, one demographic has not been part of the national conversation. Sanders won the first global Democratic Party primary by a landslide — 69% of the vote — that the media hardly noted and never analyzed. Democrats Abroad, the overseas arm of the Democratic Party, organized the election, which took place in March, to represent citizens who live outside the U.S., a group the Democratic National Committee considers the 51st state.
Expatriate Democrats could choose to send primary election absentee ballots back to their home states, or they could participate in the global primary, which will send 21 delegates to the party convention in July. Ballots could be cast by fax, email or snail mail in the global primary, or at one of 104 polling places that were organized in cities from Lima to London. (Since I was traveling at the time, I faxed my ballot, but my daughter sent me a festive photo showing her feeling the Bern in Berlin.)
Of the 8 million Americans who live abroad, 34,700 participated in the global Democratic primary. Although the sampling is not huge, it’s considerably larger than that used for polls that play crucial roles in the electoral process. While we are wondering what drives young Latinas or older white men to support this or that candidate, we ought to consider why 69% of Democratic voters who live in 40 countries preferred Bernie Sanders.
The answer is quite simple: The Sanders proposals that may strike Americans who have never lived in other countries as impractical and outlandish are simply common sense elsewhere — especially in Canada and Western Europe, where the majority of Democrats Abroad voters live. Universal healthcare? The U.S. is the only developed country that lacks it. Family leave? While it is nice that San Francisco just mandated six weeks of paid leave for new parents, Germany mandates 14 months — 16 if both parents share the time spent at home. Free college tuition? Britain recently tripled its college tuition fees, though it’s still the case that a year at Oxford will cost you a fraction of a year at a middling American college. In the rest of Europe, free tuition, and interest-free loans for living expenses, are the rule.
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But Germany is a model worth emulating: Its economy remains one of the strongest to emerge from the 2008 financial crisis. It has managed to preserve much of its manufacturing base in the process of becoming a dominant player in a globalized world. It is a major industrial exporter. Its success has gone hand in hand with laws and practices that American workers, blue collar or white, would be grateful for.
Real knowledge of daily working life abroad has shown expats that the revolution Sanders proposes for the United States could be just a matter of course. Voters at home should take heed.
http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-neiman-sanders-global-democratic-primary-20160603-snap-story.html
= new reply since forum marked as read
This article was posted before, in the thread I linked. 
I live here, so I know of what I speak.
This is my 4 country outside the US that I've lived in, and the 3rd European country. My husband works with people from other countries, and they are terrified of Trump...not Hillary, in fact, they like her a lot. This is just a tineey tiny bit of people. 
The Americans aboard is only one measurement of how all peoples feel.
I lived in Japan...20 years ago..did you like it? The people are just so awesome!!!!! I also lived in Germany, reminded me of home a bit-Iowa. We spend Thanksgiving in Germany getting our fix of all things pork and potatoes In fact, I saw Obama when he can to Berlin-that was so much fun...and let me tell you, the Germans now how to do it...beer carts, sausage carts....a good time had by all!!!! 
get busted for drinking and driving (my husband was CO commander, so you know how that goes). My husband said I should still go with our son...oh hell no. That boy (around 3-4) had to speeds-stop and run. I was not going to go by myself with that little rugrat. We did go with some friends in the spring, but we couldn't go up very far...the kids got to sled, though, so all was good.
If you haven't been back to Germany since you were a kid, you should....the beer...mmmmmmm. We live in Belgium now, and I have to say, the two language thing can be confusing, but fortunately almost every speaks enough English. You would think after living in 3 countries in Europe I would be better, but sometimes I just a silly American
to the Marine base camp, but carrying all that money in thigh deep snow with nothing to break the wind, it seemed like ten miles.
The closest I have been to Germany as an adult is Barcelona Spain, that was nice. 
I did drink some cognac with Italian Marines on the beach in Turkey, they got the beverage as part of their sea rats so we traded anything we could for it.
Couldn't they have sent it by helicopter? Was this before EFT? And what was the money for?
You've had an exciting life, calm Uncle Joe. 
to different ports of call around the world, sometimes lasting up to six months, they were paid in cash.
We had helicopters fly us from one ship to the other while out at sea to pay the Marines.
Back at permanent bases ie: Camp Lejeune or Camp Pendleton, checks could be cut, we used drums with perforated cards in the computers of the day.
Peace to you, senz. 
You guys were carrying your own money? 
They could have at least paid you in larger denominations! Or maybe that would have been hard to use in those locales.
Did you know that our missing compadre, beam me up scottie, was a lady Marine? That may be where she got her nerves of steel. I miss her terribly and have a theory about why she hasn't come back even though her account is marked "Active."
One of my brothers did his training at Camp Pendleton (he went into the reserves). I also remember seeing the outdoor exercises as a kid when we drove by on the road. Tanks, etc., fun for a kid.
I know about 80 column punch cards and have kept a small stack in my desk for sentimental reasons.
Your image of the meditating monk helped me put into words that there are many battles to fight in this world and one of them is with ourselves. My mind does not lend itself to traditional meditation but I can achieve complete bodily relaxation instantly through an inner switch and a couple of deep breaths. Right now with so much at stake in this primary, I'm not sure its a good idea to get too relaxed. It's just a short stretch until the convention, and whichever wins, good or evil, could determine a different strategy.
There may come a day when I put aside my concern for the world and its people and retreat to all that is beautiful within. But not quite yet.
when I enlisted basic pay was $365 per month. 
I didn't know about beam me up scottie, on either count, I hope she comes back soon.
As for my meditation it's not just about relaxation but mental/emotional programming as well, being resolute, intrepid, balanced, understanding and determined to name just a few self-resolutions.
I don't use it as retreating from the world so much as recharging my batteries.
Here we get BS corporate infotainment from a RW perspective with a few exceptions.
In addition, I tend to think Europeans are generally smarter than Americans - They try to keep the fascists to a minimum. Here we give then TC and Radio shows and even Networks.
whether it's education, medical care, family leave or just an overall belief in a higher quality of life for their people.
I believe they view those issues literally as investments in their people and in turn their nations as a whole.
Our corporate media conglomerates coverage of critical issues affecting the American People is nothing but a tragic joke and to me viewing it for too long in any one day is as listening to fingernails scraping on a chalkboard. 
Peace to you.
about that but thanks for the kind words, Octafish. 
