For what it is worth.

Following up on "Write Bernie and tell him how you feel"

Here is my open letter to Bernie's campaign.

To: help@berniesanders.com
Subject: The Next Steps

Hi,

I am writing to this email address since another poster on Caucus99percent.com (a progressive community of mostly DailyKOS refugees) said it was monitored by Bernie’s campaign.

• I understand that Bernie feels compelled to endorse HRC due to pressure.
• I understand that being 3rd party in a two party system is to be a pariah, worse than independent in some way I suspect.
• I understand that Donald Trump must be stopped.

But I also understand, as was very clearly brought home this week with the FBI. Clinton is the purest emblem of the 1% that Bernie is fighting against.
Now, clearly one can be in the 1% and fight for the rights of the 99%, but I really see no evidence of HRC doing that other than in name only.

Goldman Sachs and other speeches, Fracking, Glass-Steagall, Too Big To Fail and now Too Important to Jail?

These are all things Bernie has fought against, and she embodies them all. She is the champion of taking money from any and every possible source for her family’s own financial gain, at the expense of principle and quite honestly dignity.

Do not even get me started on the fact that there is ample evidence and legitimate academic documentation of voting result irregularities indicated by exit polling, comparison of paper trail e-voting machines to paperless e-voting machines. Too many people mysteriously kicked off the voter rolls, too few voting places. The irregularities did not happen in the Republican primaries, only the Democratic ones It is very clear to me and anyone paying attention, that Bernie was operating in a system rigged by HRC and her allies at the DNC.

And I know Bernie knows all of this, even if he doesn’t make it an issue, because the media is all out to pounce on him as a sore loser.

But the fact is, HRC cheated in the primaries. Her wealth was made in the most dubious of manners, let’s just stick to the speeches and the more open graft and not talk about pay to play deals with the Clinton Foundation. She has as much respect for Democracy as she has respect for the law (FOIA) or seemliness and decorum (the speeches).

The simple fact is, and all of my fellows at C99P feel the same way, HRC is the literal antithesis of Bernie. She is “them” and I while I hate the politics of “them” HRC simply does not have the best interest of the majority of the country at the top of her agenda.

I do not have to add, but will, that she does not even have what’s best for national security, or transparency, or actual law in terms of the FOIA, she flagrantly risked national security with her email servers. I’m an IT consultant and from the first moment, before Bernie dismissed the damn emails, it was clear that what she had done would not be allowed in a corporate environment, let alone any government agency, let alone the State Department.

What regard will she have for national security when it comes down to her trying to avoid the FOIA as president?

She has demonstrated herself to be unqualified to be Secretary of State, let alone POTUS. As Comey said, most people would face disciplinary action, a loss of security clearance, and be fired. Yet Bernie would seek to promote her to President?

And worse, that he would seek to convince those of us who have supported him, and his movement and goals, that we should support someone that is so unqualified, unethical and who literally cheats?

I believe such an endorsement would be a betrayal of Bernie’s stated principles. Those principals that he has stood for year in, and year out. For the majority of his life.

I will not vote for Hillary, I will vote for Jill Stein if I must, but I wish that Bernie would take Jill Stein’s invitation to lead the Green Party.

Bernie has led his life as the epitome of principle and dignity. Endorsing someone like Clinton out of the “fear” of Trump? That is not principle, that is succumbing to the elite.

Those in power, the 1% require that the 99% live in fear in order to maintain their rule. This was true in pre-revolutionary France, and it is today.

I say, do not give in to the fear tactics of the 1%, of Clinton and the Corporate Media. Be brave, stand on one’s values.

And finally, honestly, even if Bernie gets the platform planks that he wants—does he seriously think Clinton or the majority of her “congressional advocates” will follow through on them?

I do not. She will do some small incremental stuff, and then say “well the Republicans blocked me, like on healthcare, what am I going to do?”

So my point is, any victory with the Platform document, is a hollow victory without Party leadership (HRC, Chuck Schumer?????) committed to it.

I get that he wants to negotiate, get what he can. But I do not trust HRC to deliver or make more than a token effort on anything.

In order to accomplish anything, we need the down ballot office filled.

With Bernie on the ballot, his coattails will be huge. With HRC and Trump only? There will be no coattails for Clinton. I do not think most people understand just exactly how much independents, and yes, many progressives, not only do not trust her, the do not like her, viscerally.

Here is the thing, the email scandal, pay for play, lying before congress? All of this will never end, it will not end with the election, it will never end until the Clintons are out of politics.

Every day of the campaign will be one more cut in HRC’s skin, and eventually she will go down. She will lose.

If Bernie is serious about doing everything possible to stop Trump, then he must provide people with a viable alternative to the two must unfavorable candidates ever to be nominated by the two majority parties in the history of the US.

Stopping Trump means giving people a real choice, a choice for hope, not a choice between lesser evils. Because to be honest, while Trump would be a quick death for the nation, HRC will be a slow victory for Oligarchy and a slow death for Democracy.

This year, I am going Green. I sincerely hope Bernie will go Green as well.

With great respect and admiration for all of Bernie’s work, and all his campaign’s work..

Jerry