{"id":20717,"date":"2016-03-19T14:45:03","date_gmt":"2016-03-19T21:45:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=20717"},"modified":"2016-03-19T14:49:45","modified_gmt":"2016-03-19T21:49:45","slug":"either-way-bernie-matters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2016\/03\/19\/either-way-bernie-matters\/","title":{"rendered":"Either way, Bernie Matters!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Many of you, like me, feel the BERN, and some of you, I’m sorry to say, are becoming frustrated, because  Hillary’s ever increasing delegate lead makes her the most likely nominee.  Please don’t be frustrated, and please don’t give up.  Please do everything you can for Bernie, short of trashing Hillary.  Lets leave intra-party filth-slinging to the Republicans.  It suits them so well.  Keeping-on is not a wasted effort, because, either way, Bernie matters!<\/font><\/p>\n

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\"89782127\"<\/p>\n

As he has been for most of the past year, Bernie Sanders is on the road. On Thursday, he was scheduled<\/a> to hold a town-hall meeting at the Twin Arrows Casino, east of Flagstaff, Arizona. You read that right: the seventy-four-year-old Vermont senator was set to issue his trademark call for a “political revolution” and to demand more income and wealth redistribution at a capitalist mecca in one of the most conservative states in the Union.<\/p>\n

That, in itself, says something about Sanders and the historical significance of his campaign. He has cast aside many of the rules and adages of American politics, one of which is that it’s hard for liberals, never mind self-described socialists, to win support in the Sun Belt. And although Sanders now seems unlikely to win the Democratic nomination for President<\/a>, he has achieved much more than that.<\/p>\n

In reaching out to the young, the idealistic, and the disillusioned, he has earned far more votes than virtually anybody in the Democratic Party (or the punditry) expected. He has expanded the political space, bringing controversial issues like rising inequality and political corruption, which had previously been considered the province of leftists and policy wonks, into their rightful place at the center of the discussion. And by refusing to accept corporate money and basing his campaign on individual donations, he has reinvigorated American democracy.<\/strong><\/p>\n

It is obvious that Sanders has, in the process, put a scare into Hillary Clinton’s campaign. What is perhaps less widely acknowledged is how close he came to upending it…<\/p>\n

…But it is also evident that, in the past ten months, Sanders has defied the pundits, alarmed the comfortable, and inspired the young. He has turned what looked to be a political coronation into a lively and hard-fought contest, forcing his opponent to modify her positions and raise her game. He has demonstrated that Presidential campaigns don’t have to be beholden to big donors. And he has shown that, surprisingly enough, there is still a place in American politics for an independent-minded speaker of uncomfortable truths. What’s more, he isn’t done yet<\/strong>.  [emphasis added<\/em>]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Inserted from <The New Yorker<\/a>><\/p>\n

Hang in there!!  You are imitating Star Trek<\/em> by going where no one has gone before.  Your efforts for Bernie now are paving the way for an Elizabeth Warren in 2024, and a Jeff Merkley in 2032.<\/font><\/p>\n

However, it is also possible for all your hard work and generous giving to go for naught.  The next President will appoint two, or probably three, Supreme Court Justices,  A Republican would give us a count of 7-2 in favor of SCROTUS (Republican Constitutional VD).  Elections would become strictly ceremonial, because Republicans would determine who is allowed to vote.  A Republican President would cause the US to devolve into a permanent Republican Reich.  Therefore, whichever Democrat wins the nomination, we mist vigorously support that Democrat, while we remain thankful to Bernie for putting and keeping progressive ideals on the table.<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Many of you, like me, feel the BERN, and some of you, I’m sorry to say, are becoming frustrated, because  Hillary’s ever increasing delegate lead makes her the most likely nominee.  Please don’t be frustrated, and please don’t give up.  Please do everything you can for Bernie, short of trashing Hillary.  Lets leave intra-party filth-slinging […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-5-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20717"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20717\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}