The Sanders phenomenon is not politics as usual. It is bigger than Sanders himself. And it exposes the fundamental differences between the progressive left and the Wall Street Democrats who have controlled the party for decades.
Progressives oppose the centrists in the party on trade, on foreign policy, on military belligerence, on corporate welfare, on universal healthcare, on the revolving door between industry and government, on public financing of campaigns, on aid to Israel, on drone killings of civilians, on coal mining, on fracking, on truth in labeling of foods, on breaking up the big banks, on Wall Street reform, on lobbying, on private prisons, on legalizing marijuana, and on the death penalty.
On all those issues, Hillary and the Wall Street Democrats are indistinguishable from the Republicans.
There are certainly issues upon which we agree, but Hillary’s mercurial positions on almost everything over the years raise serious questions about whether she even means what she says about one issue or another. She was once a champion of universal healthcare, now she opposes it. She has been for and against the war in Iraq, for and against gay marriage, for and against NAFTA, for and against the Trans Pacific Partnership, for and against gun control, for and against hunting, for and against private prisons, and on and on.
But even giving her the benefit of the doubt on her most recent positions, where she stands is quite troubling. She supports fracking, she opposes truth in labeling of foods, she opposes breaking up the Big Banks, she refuses to disclose the transcripts of the 20 minute speeches she gave to Goldman Sachs for $225,000 each. She opposed a $15/hour minimum wage until the New York primary last month. She continues to support the death penalty and opposes decriminalization of marijuana. Marijuana convictions have caused hundreds of thousands of young black Americans to spend years in prison, yet Hillary continues to oppose legalizing pot. The private prison industry, which heaped its largess upon Hillary spends millions of dollars fighting any change in marijuana laws, as their profits are dependent upon the highest prison population possible.
And yet, Hillary’s pitch is that there is more that unites us than divides us.
Actually, Hillary, there is much more that divides us than unites us.
Author’s Notes:
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If Hillary’s pick for VP is a progressive, and if all those accusations of election fraud end up ousting Hillary, we could see a progressive end up as President after all. If Bernie gets the VP nod, this could turn out quite well.
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Reblogged this on carlantoine and commented:
#BernieSanders #FeelTheBern #PoliticalRevolution #OfThePeople #BernieOrBust {#Clinton #Trump} #CAPrimaryFraud #ExitPollGate
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Thanks for reblogging!
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Pingback: Democrats will become a progressive party if Hillary is Defeated | Armory of the Revolution
If we are going to talk about Hillary Clinton, we must also talk about her speeches. The one to Goldman Sacks for OBSCENE amounts of money. $255,000 for opening her mouth. Wow, there is only a few ways that could come about. One, she said the most GOD AWFUL things that she would do as President: How she would continue to put American Jobs over seas, how she would make the POPULOUS suffer and help rip off all the money in things like Social Security, Food Stamps, and Medicare. How she would rip the country off for the profit of corporations and other MONEY MANAGERS (those who manage to take our money) OR TWO: She her “speeches” contain the words “GURGLE, SLURP,” and/or “SPIT” (like Bill we know she won’t swallow)
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UNITED WE STAND, DIVIDED WE FALL!! The Republicans now can’t see eye to eye!! And for former BUSHES and all the other Republican cronies to say THEY WILL NOT SUPPORT THE PRESUMPTIVE NOMINEE, DIVIDES THEM EVEN FURTHER!!!! To me they have become a bunch of whining babies who don’t give a Tinker’s damn about the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, again, greed and power playing a huge role!!!! I am so sick of EVERYBODY GETTING ON THE BANDWAGON to take Trump down, rather than stand behind him, as he has already expressed “he is not a politician ” and needs some help, by choosing the right people to stand beside him and behind him!!!!!They say he doesn’t make any sense, changes his course, jumps around in his speeches, but instead of WANTING his new ideas to play a role in FIXING WHAT IS WRONG WITH AMERICA, they are proving they are happy with the STATUS QUO, AND AS MUCH AS THE POLITICIANS TRY TO DESTROY TRUMP, he gathers more and more FOLLOWERS. WE THE PEOPLE FINALLY HAVE SOMEBODY WHO LISTENS TO THEM and I fear if the POLITICIANS don’t get behind the TRUMP MOVEMENT, there will be an uprising!!!!
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The problems facing our nation have nothing to do with bigotry, and hate. Can you not see that Trump is only for Trump ? If you are not a racist or bigot, why would you support Trump ? Learn. Then you will feel the Bern.
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I am neither a racist nor a bigot, and I support Trump. Here is why I will vote for Trump over Hillary:
Trade agreements! The most important issue of all. Trade agreements have shuttered 60,000 US factories and cost Americans FIVE MILLION jobs. They allow US corporations to use near slave labor in developing countries, closing US factories and opening them in Mexico, Korea, China, Viet Nam, then selling their products to Americans while making huge profits on labor and the lack of environmental protection. Trade agreements promote barbaric animal husbandry practices and cruel slaughter. They make animal corpses cheaper to produce and slaughter more profitable. They prevent the banning of live exports for slaughter or for shipment for animal sacrifice in the Middle East. They require signatory nations to ban Country of Origin labeling to prevent consumer boycotts and backlash. They override US labor, environmental, and anti-cruelty laws. They permit trade in endangered species and animal parts. They are written by lawyers and lobbyists for multinational corporations, and are the primary reason the establishment is terrified that Donald Trump might become president, as he has promised to abrogate all our trade agreements and force them to be abandoned or re-negotiated to prevent currency manipulation and the losses of American jobs. What that means to multinational corporations is that they will not be able to use cheap foreign labor or avoid US tax laws.
And that is why the establishment is rallying behind Hillary Clinton. She supports trade agreements, and is expected to embrace the Trans Pacific Partnership (which she has temporarily criticized due to Sanders’ challenging her in the Democratic primaries).
Military interventionism and foreign policy! As both a Senator and as Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton has been a champion of the same belligerent foreign policies espoused by Henry Kissinger. And she has embraced the military interventionist policies of Dick Cheney. She is widely recognized as much more of a hawk than is Barack Obama, and pushed for US involvement in regime changes in Libya and Syria.
She has been a cheerleader for a no-fly zone in Syria, which Putin has warned would be considered an act of war against Russia. She has threatened to bomb Iran. She supports more military aid to Israel and increased arms sales to Saudi Arabia. She supported the military coup in Honduras and CIA drone strikes against civilians in the Middle East.
Even her supporters on the Editorial Board of the New York Times called her more of a hawk than is Donald Trump.
Universal healthcare! Back in the day, Hillary was a staunch supporter of universal healthcare and fought for a single-payer healthcare system while she was First Lady. Then, a funny thing happened after running against Barack Obama in 2008. She had campaigned for universal healthcare in that race, but now opposes it. Why? Could it have anything to do with the millions of dollars she has received from Big Pharmaceutical and the insurance lobby?
Her position now is that huge deductibles and high insurance premiums are perfectly acceptable. She has effectively abandoned poor women and working mothers in favor of lobbyists for the healthcare lobby and the pharmaceutical industry
Hillary opposes universal healthcare. Donald Trump supports universal healthcare.
Legalization of marijuana! Clinton has been bought and paid for by the private prison industry and prison guard unions who do not want to see a reduction ion the prison population. They make money as long as people are incarcerated. And more money with more prisoners. The War on Drugs has been a boon for them.
It has also cost our African American brothers and sisters an entire generation of young black men in prison.
The policies of Bill and Hillary Clinton have devastated black families and destroyed hundreds of thousands of lives.
America is now a prison state.
We are 5% of the world’s population with 20% of the world’s prison population.
No country on Earth imprisons more of its people than does the US. Not China. Not Russia. Not Iran. Not North Korea.
The prison guard unions and the private prison industries invest millions each year opposing the legalization of pot. They want minor offenses to be serious felonies. They oppose any rational drug policies if they means less people in jail and prisons. And Hillary is in their pocket.
Over 2 million Americans are locked up.
Thank you Bill and Hillary!
BTW, Donald Trump is in favor of legalizing marijuana.
Auditing the Federal Reserve! The Federal Reserve System is one of the world’s great scams. It is a private banking system beyond the control of the US government, but it sets monetary policy for the country. It has never been audited. It has never been investigated. No one knows how much money it makes from control of the US money supply. One thing is certain: Wall Street does not want the Fed to be audited. Curiously, neither does Hillary. Could that have something to do with her receiving millions from Wall Street and the big banks? Citigroup? Goldman Sachs? B of A?
Donald Trump has called for the Fed to be audited. And he is joined by Senator Rand Paul. And Bernie Sanders.
GMOs! Hillary is on the take from Monsanto and DuPont, as can be seen by her opposition to Truth in Labeling legislation to require the disclosure of GMOs (genetically modified organisms) in our food.
Fracking! Fracking (hydraulic fracturing) is a method of obtaining natural gas from stratified granite by injecting pressurized water into the ground and fracturing the substrate rock. The process has some very serious adverse effects upon the safety of drinking water and causing earthquakes on faults.
Fracturing is a major business for Big Oil. While Secretary of State, Hillary’s State Department sold fracking to the world and made billions for her owners in the petroleum industry. The hypocrisy of promoting and supporting fracking while claiming to be an environmentalist is laughable. Fracking causes a significant amount of greenhouse gas emissions in its extraction and use.
The loss of Congress for another decade! This may be the most critical reason to oppose Hillary. She will cost us the House of Representatives until 2030.
Every ten years the US government conducts a Census. The Census reveals the populations in each state and provides the data necessary to determine how many congressional seats each state will have in Congress until the next Census.
States that lose population lose House seats, those with increased populaions gains seats at the expense of losing states. It is up to each state how it wishes to draw congressional district boundaries. Through a process known as gerrymandering, the party in control in a state can draw lines in such a way that they hold seats in excess of their proportion of the total voters.
In 2010, Republicans gained enough state governments to be able to control reapportionment. The result has been a Republican controlled House of Representatives even though Democrats, nationwide, have had more votes cast for Democratic candidates for Congress.
As it looks now, Republicans will do the same in 2020. Democrats will be shut out of controlling Congress until at least 2030.
This is something Hillary does not want you to know!
If Trump is elected, Democrats will sweep in 2018 and win enough statehouses and legislative chambers to control reapportionment after the 2020 Census. If Hillary wins, Democrats will be swamped in 2018 by an even greater margin than we were in 2014. Republicans will gain in the House, Senate, governorships and state legislatures. They will retain control of enough states to control reapportionment, and will gerrymander the House as they did in 2010.
If Hillary Clinton is elected, we can expect Bernie’s political revolution to be on hiatus until Hillary leaves office. She will be as obstructive to progressives in the Democratic party as Obama has been. Wall Street hacks and political chameleons will be placed in positions of influence and control within the party and the Clinton administration. The DNC will continue to be an arm of the Clinton Foundation. Wall Street will have carte blanche in appointments to the administration and will populate regulatory agencies and Departments. Bribery will determine cabinet positions and federal policies, just as it has for the past several decades.
Except for those lobbyists and political hacks who will get patronage positions if Hillary wins, no intelligent, reasoning Democrat, progressive or conservative, should vote for Hillary in November.
She might win, but she will destroy the Democratic party in doing so. Democrats will not control Congress and the White House until at least 2030.
Wall Street reform! Hillary is the recipient of bribes from all over Wall Street. Her legendary $225,000 twenty minute speeches are a mere drop in the bucket. She is owned by Wall Street. And we can expect that the revolving door between industry and government will keep on revolving if she is elected.
For decades it has been the practice of presidents to name bankers to run Treasury, oil executives named to Energy, lobbyists to Commerce, Big Ag alums to Interior and Agriculture, Big Pharma lobbyists to the EPA, etc.
The entire system is corrupt.
Tossing Hillary aside will help to clean it up.
A vote for Hillary is a vote for the status quo.
Personally, there is precious little of the status quo which I embrace or support.
Time to clean house.
The first trash to toss out is Hillary Clinton and every single one of her cohorts in office.
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Reblogged this on Species and Class.
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