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From: David Swanson via WarIsACrime.org [mailto:david@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] ;
Sent: Sunday, June 26, 2016 9:14 AM
To: miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Party's Over, Quarter Billion Dollars on Bernie, Now What?
Party's Over, Quarter Billion Dollars on Bernie, Now What?
By David Swanson
http://davidswanson.org/node/5193
Well meaning people just spent a quarter billion dollars on the Bernie Sanders
campaign which continues operations while its candidate says he will vote for
Hillary Clinton for president.
Let's put that in a little perspective. Iraqis fleeing Fallujah yet again, as
wars that Hillary Clinton pushed
<http://click.actionnetwork.org/mpss/c/5gA/ni0YAA/t.1yd/aUqvEsidQCyA3zgmrgqiZA/h0/f0FIP9WI3-2F6-2BQzOLFbaI6W10sSvVmAaftYxsMlH1jOfQfVJO3T98SziUv-2BDslcDLgga3FJh8YuIJzzJgUqYNnzEnahG1d6leewUHaXSdE0HW-2FtGXzvAM3XiEbmQDhkeSUK8bApBFsT04-2Flw4xbbqcF2B-2FUglKFeKeqpaUj2rd3Mmgmc1pJCdpUZYW157FghDEa-2BgzkGg8Qb6diE8zEc-2BP5P7as-2F10OHQ1gtBlk9TK76vM6NhVLmf8UPo5xo0kjEmVHe6MMEjcwVBb2lOwH-2F0FBGqHisHUefjQ8A-2FfzRr-2BvgrXkmkVaJvBx6P64YEz9b4U3yYNXP7JPksowhNs6qXtG7u95yhYqJKT0ERIlNRxZaVEUO-2FLpXm8ITXSVs8XH3P>
for roll on, are in need, according to the United Nations, of $17.5 million
for survival.
I work for an organization opposing war, called World
<http://click.actionnetwork.org/mpss/c/5gA/ni0YAA/t.1yd/aUqvEsidQCyA3zgmrgqiZA/h2/Jb9ZUZ-2BHBLFAkQw-2FQ1kTOl3geL9PmLlAz6s04TuLxeCcGiI-2B4LuPQ4Gk5EEQAHrvYHOVjas3ojnHAl1kITa1JygdpLi1jND93Qs50K0bxSeq2udZXHiWRYjRjP5ujiN9HhFlPkYTOM4o4OKmYVUa3IkzFDm6x7cg7Vu3ajyPh4o8y3MjVnYKc5OZ1wZaDOBENUx81Zczvxc4gxnv8HIzwuiBJV-2FBZepyoy3V5OoZEmn5JLn68lVHnpxo4hGLx5m-2FZN3rvFJO2uEuH-2BoYF1G-2BjZK97JEAPVPwFSzvDcNqZLSz-2F748O15Y3UyKcrpibZHw987Mb5tVU-2BsRQr2YW-2FKWN6v8AOxPF6C9F-2B4kDoScvasPobhiVQDerhgewRM30TIw>
Beyond War, which runs on less than $50,000 a year. Many good organizations
pursuing just what this world needs run on less than that, but you could fund
5,000 organizations at the level of World Beyond War's current funding for
what's been spent on Bernie.
Has Sanders for President been a wise investment or not?
Certainly Bernie's campaign inspired people. But I see no reason not to expect
most of them to become despondent and despairing now that it's over. If past
experience with failed and successful campaigns alike is any guide, that's
where we're headed.
Certainly Bernie's campaign educated people. But it's reasonable to assume that
establishing or expanding major new media outlets to the tune of $250,000,000
would have educated people too, and that they might have gone on providing the
same funding next year and the year after, if their interest were in education
rather than election. (First Look Media, publisher of The Intercept, was
created with just that amount, but not to all be spent in one year.)
Certainly Bernie should go on trying to somehow make the Democrats' Platform
(which, if the past is any guide, they will ignore anyway) slightly less
rightwing and disastrous.
It's unclear that investing in Bernie was a reasonable gamble toward winning
something more. The rigged nature of the election was clear from the start.
Bernie's commitment to promote Hillary Clinton in the end was clear from the
start. And her commitment to warmongering, environment destroying, oligarchy
enhancing policies was clear from the start.
What else could have been done or could be done now or could be done next time?
No, of course you should not vote for the fascist golfer clown. Yes, of course
you should vote for Jill Stein. But the system is as rigged against her as it
was against Sanders.
Let me ask the question a different way. Why is it that corporations will now
take a public stand for LGBTQ rights? Why will even a conscience-free corporate
hack like Hillary Clinton defend LGBTQ rights she used to oppose? The primary
answer is that activists changed the culture. The role of voting in their work
was minimal. As Emma Goldman said, if voting ever changed anything they'd ban
it. As Howard Zinn said, it matters less who's sitting in the White House than
who's doing the sit ins.
Why so down on elections? I'm in favor of them! I think we should have one some
day! That will require some of these changes that cannot be voted in under the
broken system that lacks them: public funding of elections, no bribery, free
air time for candidates, automatic voter registration, open debates and
ballots, no gerrymandering, hand-counted paper ballots, international monitors,
no electoral college, no delegates, no superdelegates, and a three-month
election season with a bit of actual governing before the next one.
If I were drafting a party platform, it would add to those the following: take
military spending back to 2001 levels, tax corporations and billionaires at
1960 levels, restore the minimum wage to its 1968 level, and guarantee everyone
top-quality free education preschool through college, healthcare, job training
as needed, vacation, family leave, retirement, transportation, childcare, clean
energy, public parks, sustainable agriculture, and significant aid to the rest
of the world. Yes, that's Bernie's platform, or could have been if he'd been
willing to mention cutting military spending or investing in foreign aid. It's
also Scandinavia's reality. But a party platform is not the most important
place for these commitments.
The place for our passion and even our "unity" is not in a political party that
destroys everything we hold dear and calls our continued subservience "unity."
We have 60% of the U.S. public that simply cannot stand Hillary Clinton or
Donald Trump. That may increase as we're forced to endure more and more of the
pair of them. If all of those people, or even half of them, backed Jill Stein
she might win. But that requires imagining a fair system of elections and of
communications that does not exist.
And what if she were elected president? Or what if Bernie Sanders were elected
president? We'd still be up against a corrupt communications system, an
ill-informed public, a reactionary Congress, a medieval Supreme Court, and the
absence of a major independent movement for change. It's good to see Congress
Members staging a sit-in to demand that other Congress Members back some
ridiculously weak if not counterproductive gun control measures, but what we
need is a massive movement of independent people sitting in and surrounding the
Capitol until both parties act on the basic lessons learned around the world:
ban the guns and stop bombing people.
Does that sound dreamy and utopian? The point is not to expect it to succeed
entirely and immediately. The point is that the most strategic way to achieve a
partial, compromised solution is to build momentum for a real fix. When your
best Congress Members are openly bragging that their opening negotiating demand
is for the very least that could possibly be done, the predictable result is
less than that. When people fall in behind those so-called public servants,
failure is guaranteed.
So what should we do? Even if you believe in dumping most of your energy and
money into a broken election system, please consider saving a little for
independent activism. We should organize, educate, march, rally, protest,
sit-in, disrupt, create alternatives, create media, and find local, state,
regional, and international solutions.
Here's one example of what I'm working on. World Beyond War is planning an
event called No War 2016 that will happen in Washington, D.C., in September and
involve panels, workshops, and nonviolent civil resistance. Speakers will
include Dennis
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Kucinich, Kathy Kelly, Miriam Pemberton, David Vine, Kozue Akibayashi, Harvey
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Wasserman, Jeff Bachman, Peter Kuznick, Medea Benjamin, Maurice Carney, David
Swanson, Leah Bolger, David Hartsough, Pat Elder, John Dear, Mel Duncan,
Kimberley Phillips, Ira Helfand, Darakshan Raja, Bill
<http://click.actionnetwork.org/mpss/c/5gA/ni0YAA/t.1yd/aUqvEsidQCyA3zgmrgqiZA/h24/nR03tqdpS4cGI6tkOOnBz8sDWvu0ivxLTaj-2BLpx6eycYRKTDvrBdJ5xMu5dwmjgHxmK-2BNI-2FXnyxgkmfeF6GMbUrdT5qgYVlmB14yxElnesMT3Pu7JTYj9XaokTgb8L0gd1fmVvEplRgwJypeTpS2SisgFV8XEeRdsuq7VviDBfuZnFByJ7ujk-2Be1K36YnNv7RcH0FvJMrWJeG3BRdpvibkU7suiz5Be4jo10DH8rWmcnK7F-2FUQATYGGlQwUxlXIdM5TbbY5v-2Bn7K4ylbhe9HTl2fF5drm3SoRtv77giGrpRE4bc0tTJ2gaVSnx6lQ2DN3jwL1iC9fuMrh2htDfOJDcpatABUIH4-2BVvsGiCFEFtonQ5DpKQ18MoRsX3EfxWRO>
Fletcher Jr., Lindsey German, Maria Santelli, Mark
<http://click.actionnetwork.org/mpss/c/5gA/ni0YAA/t.1yd/aUqvEsidQCyA3zgmrgqiZA/h27/-2Bdfnsb1U4mery-2B0nZkkkzGLgvQ4PU2xk-2FetZLPAqcRB1qKOQA10PIFrFgwxxLxyf12AxOSc7mTHsLLkn5gNp9qxjB4dOLG5y6EVEkDL0Hx5AuU-2FaUCSLvT22-2BMxDqaKti3zB-2Fm-2Bg5DMg96tQttVr9OWl190hBPiZBLcilhJBOWEOh7IH3AIyDEMT1Sp1-2BBIpHHQAZEKUCDIgjLscA5MRamrATnJwnIzq25EgGuYbxKIP0GQEy8uT0dxJ7p4uFRDBrJu4yhMrBdY4AsM6ZCzgI1F-2FaWbrPpowmrmSnrsL1OeomJStD3kKJkW1TAfSj2wnVnNUGbPOM5aOVYWZG5NZL9AIX-2FLicd7mRvrrwtXG5fCnf2UJENOgBKgpR9YOG6ed>
Engler, Maja Groff, Robert Fantina, Barbara Wien, Jodie Evans, Odile Hugonot
Haber, Gar Alperovitz, Sam Husseini, Christopher Simpson, Brenna Gautam, Kent
Shifferd, Patrick Hiller, Mubarak Awad, Michelle Kwak, John Washburn, Bruce
Gagnon, David Cortright, Michael McPhearson, and Sharon Tennison (none of whom
necessarily agrees with me on anything in this essay, and some of whom
certainly disagree passionately).
We can help you plan a conference or a nonviolent action or both in your part
of the world, and you can find lots of events here. I particularly recommend
sit-ins in Congressional offices now, pointing to Congress's willingness to use
the same tactic itself, and pointing the media to your own live video feed of
your own teach-in on the floor of the plush office of your senator or
misrepresentative.
The truth is that we have far more power than we're told, we just don't have it
where we're told to look for it.
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