Write to Bernie and Tell Him How You Feel
This is an email address I have used to ask questions or offer suggestions. They have always written back.
This will be a short essay. I am going to write to Bernie as soon as I publish, and express my wishes for him to stay in the race, even if it means being a Green Party candidate. Hopefully we will have more progressive items on the platform, but I don't trust Mrs. Clinton to follow through on any of it.
And she lied to Congress. There is no doubt about that.
My biggest issue that the platform committee has thus far ignored is climate change. We received 4 inches of rain in a couple of hours on Monday morning (7/04/2016). (I live in Navarro County, Texas.) Rain was not in the forecast at all. On the radar map, it just looked like it formed out of nothing. These are downpours like I have never before seen in my life. And they last for hours. And it washed out the roads again. Gravel trucks. Gravel trucks are everywhere, constantly continually repairing the roads. We bought a small load of gravel to put in a hole in our driveway this Spring. It cost $400. One of those big trucks must hold 5 times that much. So . . . every time I see a gravel truck, it has $2000 worth of gravel in it? If I am driving around doing errands, I might see 10 trucks. $20,000?
Eventually the money it is costing ought to speak to someone.
Comments
Ok . . . I did it . . .
I wrote to Bernie.
It was therapeutic.
Marilyn
"Make dirt, not war." eyo
I did it, too.
You're right -- felt good!!
"Stand Up! Keep Fighting!" - Paul Wellstone
Me too....
I had mixed emotions of being angry that we are in this position and pride that I wrote Bernie my story. Definitely therapeutic!
Life is what happens when you're busy making plans - John Lennon
What's more important?
(This is a copy of a comment I posted on an earlier diary about Bernie and the Greens.)
Bernie made a "pledge" designed to gain him some credibility in the "Democratic" Party after decades of being an Independent/Socialist and criticizing the Democratic Party. Understandable, but in retrospect, not the best long range thinking. They used the "Bernie is no Democrat" charge regardless. In retrospect, it would have been better to keep the fuckers guessing just as Trump did with the Rs. It might, just might, have made them a little less willing to fuck Sanders' supporters so badly.
What matters is what benefits us the people, not some poorly thought out pledge to a pack of liars and thieves.
If Bernie would take the top of the Green ticket, it would do as much or more to further Leftist electoral politics in this country as his campaign for the "Democratic" Party nomination. While TPTB will do everything they can to prevent it, and HRC would refuse to debate at all to prevent it, Bernie's presence at the top of the Green ticket would make attaining the 15% level a realistic possibility. Bernie on a stage with The Carnival Barker and The Double Talker, explaining how the 99% have been screwed by this system, with an audience many times larger than any for a "Democratic" Party debate, would be amazing.
Is that worth throwing away for a "united against Trump" merit badge when Trump is not a serious candidate and when, if elected, he would be able to do absolutely nothing?
C'mon Bernie. You know what's right here. Stand with the people and the future.
I completely agree with you . . .
I hope you send that to help@berniesanders.com !
Marilyn
"Make dirt, not war." eyo
I just wrote to Bernie, thanks for the suggestion n/t
Capitalism has always been the rule of the people by the oligarchs. You only have two choices, eliminate them or restrict their power.
Wrote to Bernie...
And implored him to offer voters the opportunity to say "Yes!" -- instead of going for the lesser evil.
Hope he receives several million impassioned pleas for him to go Green and enliven the November ballot.
Thanks so much for the suggestion and the link, mhagle !
"Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible." 14th Dalai Lama
I told him I would vote Green if he wasn't the nominee.
Here's the text of my letter:
Dear Senator Sanders:
I’m 80 and really like the platform you younger people have designed. Weak jokes aside, I agree with your New Deal positions wholeheartedly. After all, we both have seen in our own lives how effective they are at helping regular people and keeping balance in our politics and economics. We need reform and improvement desperately.
I want to add my voice to those who urge you to run third party if the currently corrupt Democratic Party nominates Hillary Clinton. You made a pledge in good faith to back the Democratic candidate in the general election. The problem is that the Clintons, the DNC, and the majority of Democratic Party insiders have not acted in good faith in return: they have connived at a news blackout of your campaign; they have used the super-delegates to falsify delegate counts for publication as well as for the undemocratic purpose of stuffing the ballot box; they have engaged in election fraud nationwide; and they consistently refuse to adopt any planks in the platform that are not consistent with neoliberal economics. These actions absolve you of any duty to honor your original statement.
You have opened the eyes of a great many people to the complete corruption of our system of government and economy. I was surprised at the depth and breadth of it myself, and I’m older and supposed to be experienced and somewhat knowledgeable. This election is like no other I’ve ever seen. The oligarchy has removed the velvet glove and the mailed fist is plain to see. I think you may actually be able to avert violence and to begin the healing process if you run third party. With the state of the Republican Party being what it has become and with the Democratic Party finally revealing its corruption, I think only a third party will give the country the opportunity to purge the poison and heal the nation.
I intend to vote Green Party if you are not the Democratic nominee. The Greens are not the most effective bunch, I admit. But they now have places on the ballot in most states, Jill Stein has invited you to take the top spot on their ballot, and their platform is very good. Their effectiveness would be enhanced by powers of ten if the young people who have run your campaign moved over to the Greens as I think they would if you were on the ballot. Senator, the country needs your leadership. You are in the political catbird’s seat and you can save the commonwealth by continuing to give form to the political revolution. The Presidency is a killing job and I hate to ask you to take it on even for one term. But if not you, who? Please consider the possibility.
Whatever you decide, I want you to know I greatly appreciate what you have done for us.
-Greed is not a virtue.
-Socialism: the radical idea of sharing.
-Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.
John F. Kennedy, In a speech at the White House, 1962
This is really moving. Three questions.
I can see how troubling it is and how the political realm can be a big part of the individual. Almost like family.
Even from the most objective point of view, there is a sense that tens of millions of Americans have just had their representation in the Federal government stripped away. They were left with nothing but disenfranchisement and social dislocation.
(I find a parallel in what happen to the ethnic Russia population of West Ukraine and Crimea, when their democratically elected government was toppled by the US and NeoNazis were installed in their place. It was, and is, horrific.)
Over recent decades, a swathe of US workers have certainly adapted to life without trustworthy political representation. But they aren't happy about it. In fact, most of them were fully-engaged with one of the Outsiders, either Bernie or Trump, essentially threatening to overthrow the Establishment status quo. US workers don't have a fall-back position, however, and that became really apparent for the first time.
In modern US political campaigns and races, it seemed that the people always fell back into the arms of their Parties, and the nation moved forward.
Why is it different for people this time?
If Bernie ceased to exist, would it still be different?
Was the revolution going on before Bernie?
Bernie was just interesting enough to collect a few people
and when we looked around and saw how many people agreed with us, we all got excited. And that's how it started.
The disillusionment with the status quo was in place before Bernie hit the puplic eye. It probably existed before Occupy but they certainly focused a lot of attention.
And the establishment tried to bury Occupy. They didn't know they were seeds.
Life is strong. I'm weak, but Life is strong.
the text of my message to Bernie
is as follows:
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
Just finished my letter
Just finished my letter pleading for him to not endorse Hillary. I will let the Convention play out before I write to encourage him into a 3rd party run