Our Revolution

Larry Sanders cast his official vote from those for Sanders Abroad for his brother, Presidential Nominee Bernard Sanders 7.26.2016.

Popular Votes Total for Bernie: 13,168,222

Popular Votes Total for Hillary: 16,847,084

Yesterday Bernie Sanders officially conceded as he gave his electoral votes to Hillary Clinton. In so doing his remarkable campaign has come to an official end. Today the sadness sunk in for me. Bernie got so close. The votes short could easily have been made up from votes tossed or lost, and of course from Independents who were not eligible to vote in primaries in so many states, including our own here in the Land of Enchantment. 

Bernie supporters knew all along of an obvious bias for Clinton coming directly from the democratic headquarters as well as the mainstream media. Too late in the process this finally got exposed. The media started to question it's own reporting and tried to make up, while the chair of the democratic party, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, due to exposure of damaging e-mails via Wikileaks (Russia?) finally, under pressure, stepped down just before the convention. Now she may be in trouble for her re-election to the senate and given her support of TPP I am not sorry for her.

So with deep sadness I mourn the loss of my vision of a Social Democrat for President of the United (or divided) States. This would have been a president not swayed by corruption, a president not filled with lies (Bernie has not yet been caught with his pants on fire) but a Jewish president with a heart big enough to hold concern for the Palestinian people. A president for the working class people and the poor, not only the upper middle, professional class and rich. A president that wold have pushed for a green economy and opposed TTP and fracking for real. A president that would have understood the dire urgency of climate change and toxic load on our environment. It would have been a damn interesting experiment. It could have been so very exciting to see those changes we hold so dear for so long in our heart become reality. Solar power for all, certainly in our mostly sunny state. Our national lab focused primarily on the developing of green energy, rather then in service to the weapons industry. A living wage that would stimulate our local economies. Last, but not least health care for all, rather then a give-away to the pharmaceutical industry. 

The reality Social Democrats or Bernie supporters envision is not extreme, rather it is a reordering of our values, of our priorities with the recognition that the top 1%, the cream of the cream, profit from the current system unfairly, while the poor  and working stiff have it too tough. The system is rigged in so many ways, it needs an overhaul badly and the majority of Americans seem to agree on that, if not the remedy.

Besides policies there is the simple human factor, men like those Sanders brothers, able to cry in public, because we no longer belong to a patriarchal system of thought that equates emotions with weakness and strength with dominance and bullying.

Bernie, as I like to refer to him affectionally, not disrespectfully, has been nothing but a model of civility and eloquence, even under an enormous amount of pressure. The work to steer the US back toward the left and progressive values will continue. Bernie started the Sanders Institute, this e-mail was sent out yesterday.

"Our work will continue in the form of a new group called Our Revolution. The goal of this organization will be no different from the goal of our campaign: we must transform American politics to make our political and economic systems once again responsive to the needs of working families." 

THANK YOU BERNIE!

Yep, I voted the first morning of early voting in my community.

Yep, I voted for Bernard Sanders, not because I need access to a free education, I already had that, not because I want free hand outs, certainly not because I am looking for a boyfriend as was claimed early on in the campaign, and not because Bernie is the most charming of them all, although I do find him endearing and find it amazing that he is not more pissed off, but manages to stay civil and on point even during idiotic interviews and irrelevant questioning and unfair coverage through most of his campaign.

I even got to get a peek of the real man when he came to Santa Fe on very short notice and gave a speech in a hall filled to capacity on a Friday afternoon, when most were committed to work, yet still hundreds like me outside the hall that got treated to an impromptu greeting by the couple and not so short of a speech by Bernie. This was my first sighting and attendance of an event of a presidential nominee. 8 years earlier I attempted to attend Barack Obama's event in the evening, but a very long line of cars made it impossible, we were ordered to turn around

I was truly overjoyed when I heard from my friend Amy, the owner and chef of Venus, a farm to table restaurant in Berkley CA, that Bernie Sanders with entourage was on his way to have a bite at her establishment. Amy is an amazingly creative cook and sweet friend that surprised me and my friends with a truly delicious send-off 12 years ago, before I left the bay area for good to return to the City Different in the Land of Enchantment. Guess what Bernie asked for in one of the finest eateries in Berkley. Fish & chips is what he wanted and bless her heart, Amy did not question his order, did not try to  convince him to eat something better and healthier, but gave him what he wanted as she recognized he simply was looking for fuel after another very large and successful rally in Oakland.

THANK YOU BERNIE!

Yesterday's primaries were disappointing for us Bernie supporters. I had hoped New Mexico would feel the bern, he came short last I read 6%. Democratic voter turn out was around 30-something % of eligible voters. Higher then before, but surely nothing to brag about. New Mexico's primaries are closed and I could not convince those Independents I know to switch their allegiance to the Democratic party, if only to give their vote to Bernie. This seemed too much to ask from most Progressives. Main media had declared Hillary the winner, the Presumptive Democratic Presidential Nominee the night before, counting pledged votes unfairly, by delegates, that include lobbyists, committed long before Bernie was even in the running. That is what we call a rigged system.

But Bernie Sanders already won with the millions he mobilized and energized and spoke to their hearts and their minds, with integrity and intelligence and a vision for a better life for Americans, a system that serves the people more then for profit corporations. The profit motive should have no place in education, and basic health care. Prisons should not be run for profit, elections should not be bought. Independents should not have to pay with their tax dollars for elections they can not participate in. There is a lot wrong with our current system. Bernie brought the main issues to the table and proposed sane solutions, I for one am very grateful to Bernie Sanders and his wife, Dr. Jane Sanders for the trouble they have put themselves through for us during this last, long and intense year. They have succeeded beyond expectations. Bernie is spearheading a movement for social justice, it will go on far beyond the elections for US president this  coming November. Bernie Sanders earned the right to carry his message through and in to the democratic convention in July to make the most of it.

So it saddens me to feel no elation about the US having it's first female presumptive presidential nominee in Hillary Clinton. I, a woman of a certain age, close to Hillary's age, am in accord with Naomi Klein in that electing according to gender is a very shallow feminism and just is not good enough. I am a first generation US immigrant, a drop out who did not believe in mainstream culture, including politics, although I always voted in national and most local elections. Over the last year, since I got very excited about Bernie Sander's running with his message straight out of Occupy and of course earlier the civil rights movement, I have been given an education. I devoured most everything written in regard to these primary elections. I learned more about Hillary and the Clintons then I ever wanted to know. I don't believe them to be evil as so many on the far right and far left seem to believe. In fact I do not believe in evil, basta, but consider it an outdated religious concept, I find too often in posts on social media from the extreme sides. We tend to judge people and their intentions too harshly. What I do find though is that Hillary has shown bad judgment, despite her intelligence, again and again and keeps standing on the wrong, the establishment side of issues, on the other side from where I am which is deeply troubling. This can be seen in her statements in regard to Israel and lack of such in regard to Palestine, in her acceptance of the death penalty, her disregard of whistle blowers, her promotion of GMO crop world wide, her lack of stance against Walmart where she was once a board member, her support of TPP and especially her willingness to go to war, to be aggressive as if she needed to prove that as a woman she too could act like a man. Sadly this is not the kind of woman I would like to see in the White House. 

Drumpf, the emotional retard with the vocabulary of a 6 year old, will be worse, I have no doubt, although not all of my facebook contacts share this view with me, very troubling. It may come to a vote of keeping out the unmentionable, we will see, a lot of water yet to flow under the bridge.