Why (or why not) to vote for Bernie Sanders

You know, 100,000 people coming out to your rallies is almost certainly better objectively than an Onion article, but I’m still awfully encouraged by that extremely thinly veiled “Bernie Sanders is the only presidential hopeful who is not under the thumb of Corporate America” piece.

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The American people are getting increasingly tired of the corporatist alternatives. This just in yesterday:

Almost Every Major Poll Shows Bernie Sanders Challenging or Defeating Clinton & Republicans.

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Well, HuffPo have nailed their colours to the mast…

Related links:
When Republicans Nominate a Billionaire, Only Bernie Sanders Will Save Democrats
Hillary Clinton Has A ‘White Liberal’ Problem That Will Help Bernie Sanders Become Democratic Nominee
Unlike Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders Never Says, ‘When I Become President, I Will Answer Your Question’

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Bernie is in Seattle tonight

He also did an extra rally for the people who couldn’t get in because the (10000?) seat venue was full.

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So, some possibly outlier? (I’m not sure) #BlackLivesMatter activists that some (including myself) suspect are possibly Hillary Clinton operatives via Soros - (more info) tried to stop Bernie in Seattle. He then went on to get…

15,000 people at next event there:

Bernie Sanders draws 15,000 people at UW, state’s biggest political crowd since 2010 Obama visit

If it was Hillary Clinton operatives, they failed miserably… many messages from my black compatriots like this in response:


https://twitter.com/OckyJ83/status/630225514641264640
https://twitter.com/Othniel4Prez/status/630240450130124800



https://twitter.com/jbouie/status/630192031231549440






https://twitter.com/4cHairChick/status/630256274676932612
https://twitter.com/YeaYouRite/status/630363932285399040

And on and on…

Facebook reaction via POC towards BLM with ONE MILLION views after only a few hours is already very bad for BLM:

If you don’t do Facebook, here’s a screenshot of link above (look at top comments):

(click to enlarge)


Yeah… This train… train don’t stop…


Some more picts from Seattle…

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I don’t think that what happened at Westlake Park was anything other than what it appeared to be.

I agree (and I’ve said here before) that Seattle definitely has real racism problems. It’s easily ignored because it’s such a white city but that doesn’t make them less real. Westlake Park is often the centre of protests so this shouldn’t have been surprising.

That said, I don’t really know what the point was. What they interrupted was an event about Social Security that Sanders was attending, not his rally, and this just seems counterproductive. Do they want rid of him, or do they want a different candidate? (Who?)

ETA, I like that Sanders lets them have the microphone and say what they want to say, but if they don’t let him respond, what’s the point?

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Increasingly some of the BLM is looking like partisan hacks for Hillary Clinton who, indeed, do seemingly want to get rid of Bernie Sanders. They refuse to protest Clinton and it’s looking increasingly odd to many progressives.

For example, this open letter to the Black Lives Matter leaders remains unanswered:

I still support Black Lives Matter, however, many others and myself are increasingly looking at some of the activists (not all of them) sideways as they continue to focus like a laser on Bernie Sanders while giving Hillary Clinton a very obvious pass along with a disregard for Republicans. Some of the recent statements against Sanders are now outright attacks that he certainly doesn’t deserve and it just makes those attacks (solely on Sanders) appear to be a partisan attack to hurt his campaign instead of addressing black lives. This is bad for everyone involved.

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Mod note: @dragonchild12 and @Cowicide, Don’t engage with each other anymore. Cheers.

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On that note:

https://twitter.com/YeaYouRite/status/630360550095065089

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I thought that was problematic, but given the rest of the field… he didn’t at least say “white lives matter” and he’s taken on a publicity person conversant in these issues (race/economics are parallel issues, not the same). I hope that he takes this in the right direction. But of course, we’ll see.

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In context, I’d say drowning people out as a public discourse tactic and favouring slogans over solid and realistic proposals for change are much more problematic.

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I do believe he has solid proposals, though, at least more so than other candidates:

Again, I think he might not be getting right, but he’s making an honest effort, which really is more than we can say about the rest of the pack… It maybe not be enough for you or @dragonchild12 or others, and that’s fine. Nor do I think that the black lives matters folks shouldn’t be showing up to his rallies to interrupt. They should - THAT’S ACTUALLY REAL DEMOCRACY IN ACTION. I have no criticism for them on this… This issue needs all the traction they can get. My hope is that they push him to make real engagement with the black community on this and any number of issues. I suppose time will tell on that point.

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Yes, I agree Sanders didn’t handle that incident properly at the time, nor did some of the BLM. I mentioned this already up here:

It’s a large thread, so you may have missed it, I dunno.

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I was talking about the protesters - BLM is a hugely important movement and in both of these events they were invited to participate, but turning up to events and demanding that people shut up and listen to you is not particularly democratic. It may be disrupting the concept that the person at the front should be listened to in awed silence, but it isn’t replacing it with anything more positive. Where Sanders is apparently the only candidate that gets this treatment, it doesn’t say good things about the specific people who interrupted him.

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Agree. From my perspective, it looks like the Black Lives Matter movement surveyed the field, found only one candidate who would likely listen to them. They challenged Sanders on his strength, his populism, to broaden his platform to include BLM. And to his credit he is.

If I were in the decision-making of BLM, I wouldn’t have targeted Clinton either at this stage, as she had no reason to listen. Now we can watch as Clinton again needs to dance to the left.

Seems well played by both sides.

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I think they go after Sanders because they know that, unlike the other candidates, they will get some traction with him. I fully stand with the movement, because it’s important. Because, yes, this is what democracy should look like. When you’re young men and women are being shot for NO REASON, this is what democracy does and should look like.

Also, what @funruly. Plus I want to add that likely the only thing they’d get at a Clinton rally is shouted down and escorted out by the cops… her response would not be to hire someone who will specifically try to educate the candidate on these issues and talk directly to that community. Which, after a problematic statement, is what he did.

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Wow, I can get used to seeing Symone D. Sanders testify like this over the next year.

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It’s certainly making a more dynamic discourse, and I’m pleased to see the positive response from Sanders and the event organisers. There’s a definite sense in which control of the discussion has to be taken rather than given, and merely having a candidate who claims to stand for what you stand for is not enough. Sanders is running on the basis of a grassroots movement, and this shows that it’s not just money that people are contributing to the campaign.

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