Bernie Sanders' Democratic National Convention speech

Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2016/07/25/bernie-sanders-democratic-na.html

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Dude’s being more sane and measured than a lot of his supporters tonight. He gets that it’s a process, not a personality contest.

I hope folks who are feelin’ the Bern give that energy to the local campaigns of representatives and senators that you can send to work WITH the guy. The more blue the electoral map gets this year, the better chance Bernie can pressure Hilary to get some of his policy goals passed despite not being pres.

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That man is a class act!

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Hillary Clinton will nominate justices to the Supreme Court who are prepared to overturn Citizens United and end the movement toward oligarchy in this country.

I hope to Dog that is true, it would motherfuckingfantastic.

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…which is why a priority over the next year should be to make sure that they don’t confirm that Garland fucker. There is a reason why he was the GOP’s favourite “liberal” judge.

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He’s not bad. He’s a centrist. Replacing a RWNJ with a centrist is a big step in the right direction, even if you’d rather see Che Guevara on the court.

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This. My one and only lens through which I view presidential elections. The GOP could run fucking Gandhi and I’d still vote Dem, since a Dem administration, no matter who’s at the head, will nominate justices that will not support evil. All the Sanders supporters who say they won’t vote for Clinton are actually voting for a Conservative court for the next 40 years.

Ginsberg: 83 Breyer: 77, Kennedy: 80. BE VERY AFRAID!!!

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This is a fundamental misconception of what the die-hards are driven by. They’ve not been happy with Sanders for not fighting more even if he doesn’t have a viable candidacy. They were happy to heckle Bernie’s speech in parts. They heckled his surrogates when they called for unity. If you’re going to have a productive discussion about/with the die-hards, you’re going to have to listen to what they’re saying. I’ve seen some cult of personality dynamics at play, that will happen to some extent in any campaign, but my experience is that Sanders supporters either A) Really don’t trust Hillary and the DNC and/or B) Are fascinated by his platform. These are substantive issues at play, not mere personality politics. You can disagree with one, some, or all of their views on the issues, but at least understand what it is they want.

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Is he anywhere near as bad as what the TrumpGOP would pick? No.

Is he still bloody awful? Yes.

I’d expect Garland to uphold Roe v Wade and possibly push back a bit on minority disenfranchisement.

On everything else, I’d expect him to consolidate plutocratic control of America. More Citizens United, more McDonnell vs Virginia, more impunity for the wealthy, more surveillance state, more whatever the megacorps pay to get.

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That’s fair. I’d counter that if you think electing a single president is equivalent to supporting a platform, it’s a pretty narrow view (Look at what happened with Obama!), and that the hate for HRC is still a personality cult, just the other side of the coin. :slight_smile:

The issues Bernie fights for are bigger than him, and HRC being president doesn’t mean those issues are gone.

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This is enough to make him a firm “No” in my book. A judge like that just makes sure we see the bench fill with Koch nominees down the line as they steadily buy up elections.

No they’re not gone, but we’re in for a harder fight. Nothing like what we’d face with Trump, but I’m not going to put on the rose-colored glasses, either.

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Yeah, that’s the ideal path to take.

I’d like some of the Berners here in NY to take a real close look at Senator Chuck Schumer, who is a BIG part of the finance-in-politics game, and is Part of the Problem who is up for re-election.

My representative seems to be Yvette Clark, who seems pretty OK, but is running un-opposed and, I mean, we can’t have that, can we? :slight_smile:

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Was watching this with the family and discussing afterwards. He made it almost halfway through before endorsing Clinton and everything before that was very much directly targeted towards those who supported his campaign. Of particular interest: “delegates […] I look forward to your votes during the roll call on Tuesday night.”

We wondered why he didn’t give the whole speech from his perspective and just at the end say some token thing to fulfill his obligation to endorse Hillary. Given the circumstances - all of the well-known cheating, fraud, and corruption so far in the election, and the fact that the party autarchs have been pushing Clinton through no matter what, we came to the conclusion that he may have intended to do just that, but the party most likely strong-armed and forced him to modify his speech.

Curious to see what tomorrow will bring. It feels as though we are watching history being made.

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Normally I try to ignore what polititians say — even those I generally agree with. I always feel that they are trying to bend the truth because, of course, that’s what they do. I try to pay attention to what they do rather than what they say.

My thoughts are not terribly original. But I read that speech. That was a good speech.

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Forced him to modify his speech? He seemed awfully on his game if he’s parroting the DNC’s words. And the DNC’s speechwriting committee is to be commended for writing a speech that doesn’t sound like pap. I think Bernie wishes he won, but Clinton is second best and infinitely better than the alternative… the actually do share a lot of common ground, after all, with a lot of the difference being a matter of degree… at least they are pointing in the same direction a lot of the time. Trump, OTOH…

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FTFY.

My vote doesn’t make one iota of difference towards deciding our next President. Where it might make some difference is in the direction the Democratic party takes in the future. Al Gore took my vote for granted and look where it got him.

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Worth watching if you can:

ETA: Elizabeth Warren’s speech:

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I enjoyed Bernie’s speech. It made me feel a little better about the process - and I think that Michelle Obama really hit it out of the park tonight as well.

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bernie made me proud to be a supporter tonight. he’s a class act, and he knows how the process works. he’s not going to further his agenda by burning bridges, and he understands that it’s better to have allies. i do wish he would’ve taken time away from his standard stump speech points and spent it more on giving some more heartfelt words to the diehards, though. i wanted him to say, “look, i understand you’re upset. believe me, i get it. but please listen to me when i tell you that the only way to make the changes this revolution is wanting is to be in it for the long haul, from the inside. change in our government happens, but it happens very slowly by design, and i need you to be with me on this.”

bernie aside, i liked warren’s speech – she had some great moments, but holy shit did cory booker and michelle obama hit it out of the park tonight. cory booker tonight was like barack back in 2004… he was on fire, and he was inspiring. i can’t wait to see where he is standing in 4 or 8 years.

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