This morning I listened to Alternative Radio and heard Noam Chomsky,
whom I hold in the highest regard, tell us that a vote for Jill Stein,
or for any of the Parties outside the "One Party", would be a vote for
Trump.
Okay, so in mathematical terms, Noam is right. But that still will
not move me to cast my vote for Clinton. Noam Chomsky goes on to tell
us that we need to face the fact that in the Real World one of these
two will be our next president. While I know from listening to
Chomsky, that he believes the Capitalist form of government is not
compatible with democracy, nonetheless, he maintains we need to elect
Clinton, and then begin a collective effort to force her to live up to
her more progressive planks in the democratic platform.
Certainly, once she is in office, I will do my part in this respect.
But I am unwilling to attach my support to either Clinton or Trump.
Neither represent the political party I once belonged to.
Below is a link to an interesting interview.
Carl Jarvis
chomsky barsamian — Alternative Radio
www.alternativeradio.org/search?q=chomsky+barsamian
On 10/8/16, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Published on Alternet (http://www.alternet.org)
Home > Most Sanders Democratic Convention Delegates Are Not Ready to Vote
for Clinton, New Poll Finds
________________________________________
Most Sanders Democratic Convention Delegates Are Not Ready to Vote for
Clinton, New Poll Finds
By Steven Rosenfeld [1] / AlterNet [2]
October 7, 2016
Hillary Clinton has a Bernie Sanders problem-and it's not about the former
presidential candidate, who is now giving swing-state speeches telling
people to vote for her. The problem is a sizable slice of his most ardent
supporters don't want to.
A new survey of 461 Sanders delegates who attended the Democratic National
Convention found that less than one-fifth said they now planned to
personally vote for Clinton, whether they lived in a swing state (19
percent) or a safe state (18 percent). One-sixth (17 percent) said that
they
were undecided.
Six percent said they would write in Sanders' name. Six percent said they
would vote for "none of the above," which could mean not voting. Less than
one percent said they would vote for Libertarian Gary Johnson, and an even
smaller fraction of one percent said they would vote for Donald Trump.
However, the percentages for Jill Stein, the Green Party presidential
candidate, were the widest ranging. In safe states, like California where
Clinton is expected to easily win, 24 percent of Bernie convention
delegates
said they would vote for Stein. In swing states, which Clinton needs to win
for an electoral college victory, 9 percent said they were going to vote
for
Stein.
"The survey reflects Bernie delegates' thoughtful consideration of their
various voting options tempered by the political realities in their
states,"
said Donna Smith, who is also executive director of Progressive Democrats
of
America, a group that was one of the first to encourage Sanders to run as a
Democrat. "They do seem to be highly unified in their rejection of voting
for Donald Trump."
"Many of those undecided Bernie delegates are no doubt still in the
decision-making process," she said. "We would need to drill down further to
determine if there were specific reasons why one-sixth of the Bernie
delegates who responded remain undecided."
While pollsters repeatedly have been finding that many young voters are
drawn to either Libertarian Gary Johnson or Green Jill Stein, the survey by
the Bernie Delegates Network appears to be the first of its kind
specifically asking Sanders campaign loyalists how they were going to be
voting this fall.
"We were gathering information," said Norman Solomon, who cofounded the
Bernie Delegates Network. "The numbers were not particularly what I
expected. We did the survey. Each delegate was offered one unique link that
could only be used one time. Speaking personally, I think there is some
delusion among the Clinton campaign that people are going to fall in line,
and that's not the case with a substantial number of Bernie delegates."
Solomon, who's from northern California, said he expected a bigger split
between the percentage of delegates now supporting Clinton in swing and
safe
states.
"I expected, and I certainly hoped for, a significant differentiation
between plans to vote Hillary Clinton in swing states and plans to vote for
Hillary Clinton in safe states, " he said, then elaborating: "If I lived in
a swing state, like Ohio or Florida, I would absolutely vote for Hillary
Clinton in November. If I lived in California, I'd see no intention of
voting for Hillary Clinton. But that differential outlook is not reflected
in the numbers we got back from the survey."
"Bernie has been campaigning for Hillary and making it clear that he
supports the Clinton-Kaine ticket," Smith said. "It may be that Bernie
delegates are reflecting indecision that is more widely felt by the
American
electorate."
Since late September, Sanders has been telling supporters that they must
elect Clinton and beat Trump. That started at a joint event in New
Hampshire
where Clinton embraced Sanders' call for free tuition at public
universities
and refinancing student loan rates.
"Now, during the campaign, the primary campaign, Secretary Clinton had some
very strong proposals. I had a different approach," he said in that
September event. "But we came together after the campaign and reached an
agreement that says that every family in this country earning $125,000 or
less-that is 83 percent of our population-should be able to send their kids
to public colleges and universities tuition-free. And make no mistake about
it: This is a revolutionary proposal for the future of our country with
wide-reaching implications."
Since that speech telling supporters to vote for Clinton, Sanders has been
to Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan. The Clinton campaign has issued
media alerts saying Sanders will appear in coming days in New Hampshire,
Maine and Pennsylvania.
"Our job right now seems pretty clear to me: ... to defeat and to defeat
badly the worst candidate for president in the modern history of the United
States, Donald Trump," Sanders said this week in Minneapolis. "Our job is
to
elect Hillary Clinton as president but to also understand that our job is
not done just by electing Secretary Clinton. On the day after, we continue
the movement. [As Rep.] Keith Ellison told you-Keith Ellison told you that
we, working with the Clinton campaign, passed the most progressive
platform,
Democratic platform, in the history of our country. Our job under President
Hillary Clinton is to see that that platform is implemented."
But impassioned words like these are not quite moving Sanders supporters,
Solomon said. "I've heard people say anecdotally, 'Well, let's just see how
the voting is.' On the phone, people from Florida or Ohio, told me that.
They're just going to wait and see."
The Bernie Delegate Network numbers do suggest, however, that Sanders
supporters in swing states want their votes to matter-as evidenced by the
finding that only 9 percent said they would vote for Stein, compared to 24
percent in safe states.
"There's always been a wide range of Bernie delegates," Solomon said. "The
comfort level of voting for Jill Stein isn't notably high in swing states,
because you can see that twice as many people have not made up their minds.
My overall supposition is that a lot of these delegates in swing states are
going to wait and see how the polling looks right before the election."
Were these Stein supporters being too principled?
"It would be a broad generalization to say that all Bernie delegates
choosing to vote for Jill Stein or any other candidate are doing so due to
one factor alone," Smith said. "Some Bernie delegates may be considering
the
political implications of a Stein vote while others may be doing so because
of Green Party platform positions."
"I agree with what Noam Chomsky has said," Solomon said. "It's the context.
You know people don't honor their principles when they put gas in their car
if they are against climate change. We all do, if you will, make choices
between options that we don't believe are inclusive of the options we would
want. But people will deal with this in different ways."
Steven Rosenfeld covers national political issues for AlterNet, including
America's retirement crisis, democracy and voting rights, and campaigns and
elections. He is the author of "Count My Vote: A Citizen's Guide to Voting"
(AlterNet Books, 2008).
Share on Facebook Share
Share on Twitter Tweet
Report typos and corrections to 'corrections@xxxxxxxxxxxx'. [3]
[4]
Stay Ahead of the Rest
Sign Up for AlterNet's Daily Newsletter
EMAIL:
+ sign up for additional lists
[x]
Select additional lists by selecting the checkboxes below before clicking
Subscribe:
Rights & Liberties
Education
Drugs
Economy
Environment
Labor
Food
World
Politics
Investigation
Personal Health
Water
Media
________________________________________
Source URL:
http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/most-sanders-democratic-convention-del
egates-are-not-ready-vote-clinton-new-poll-finds
Links:
[1] http://www.alternet.org/authors/steven-rosenfeld
[2] http://alternet.org
[3] mailto:corrections@xxxxxxxxxxxx?Subject=Typo on Most Sanders Democratic
Convention Delegates Are Not Ready to Vote for Clinton, New Poll Finds
[4] http://www.alternet.org/
[5] http://www.alternet.org/%2Bnew_src%2B
Published on Alternet (http://www.alternet.org)
Home > Most Sanders Democratic Convention Delegates Are Not Ready to Vote
for Clinton, New Poll Finds
Most Sanders Democratic Convention Delegates Are Not Ready to Vote for
Clinton, New Poll Finds
By Steven Rosenfeld [1] / AlterNet [2]
October 7, 2016
AddThis Sharing Buttons
Share to FacebookShare to TwitterShare to Google+Share to MoreShare to
Hillary Clinton has a Bernie Sanders problem-and it's not about the former
presidential candidate, who is now giving swing-state speeches telling
people to vote for her. The problem is a sizable slice of his most ardent
supporters don't want to.
A new survey of 461 Sanders delegates who attended the Democratic National
Convention found that less than one-fifth said they now planned to
personally vote for Clinton, whether they lived in a swing state (19
percent) or a safe state (18 percent). One-sixth (17 percent) said that
they
were undecided.
Six percent said they would write in Sanders' name. Six percent said they
would vote for "none of the above," which could mean not voting. Less than
one percent said they would vote for Libertarian Gary Johnson, and an even
smaller fraction of one percent said they would vote for Donald Trump.
However, the percentages for Jill Stein, the Green Party presidential
candidate, were the widest ranging. In safe states, like California where
Clinton is expected to easily win, 24 percent of Bernie convention
delegates
said they would vote for Stein. In swing states, which Clinton needs to win
for an electoral college victory, 9 percent said they were going to vote
for
Stein.
"The survey reflects Bernie delegates' thoughtful consideration of their
various voting options tempered by the political realities in their
states,"
said Donna Smith, who is also executive director of Progressive Democrats
of
America, a group that was one of the first to encourage Sanders to run as a
Democrat. "They do seem to be highly unified in their rejection of voting
for Donald Trump."
"Many of those undecided Bernie delegates are no doubt still in the
decision-making process," she said. "We would need to drill down further to
determine if there were specific reasons why one-sixth of the Bernie
delegates who responded remain undecided."
While pollsters repeatedly have been finding that many young voters are
drawn to either Libertarian Gary Johnson or Green Jill Stein, the survey by
the Bernie Delegates Network appears to be the first of its kind
specifically asking Sanders campaign loyalists how they were going to be
voting this fall.
"We were gathering information," said Norman Solomon, who cofounded the
Bernie Delegates Network. "The numbers were not particularly what I
expected. We did the survey. Each delegate was offered one unique link that
could only be used one time. Speaking personally, I think there is some
delusion among the Clinton campaign that people are going to fall in line,
and that's not the case with a substantial number of Bernie delegates."
Solomon, who's from northern California, said he expected a bigger split
between the percentage of delegates now supporting Clinton in swing and
safe
states.
"I expected, and I certainly hoped for, a significant differentiation
between plans to vote Hillary Clinton in swing states and plans to vote for
Hillary Clinton in safe states, " he said, then elaborating: "If I lived in
a swing state, like Ohio or Florida, I would absolutely vote for Hillary
Clinton in November. If I lived in California, I'd see no intention of
voting for Hillary Clinton. But that differential outlook is not reflected
in the numbers we got back from the survey."
"Bernie has been campaigning for Hillary and making it clear that he
supports the Clinton-Kaine ticket," Smith said. "It may be that Bernie
delegates are reflecting indecision that is more widely felt by the
American
electorate."
Since late September, Sanders has been telling supporters that they must
elect Clinton and beat Trump. That started at a joint event in New
Hampshire
where Clinton embraced Sanders' call for free tuition at public
universities
and refinancing student loan rates.
"Now, during the campaign, the primary campaign, Secretary Clinton had some
very strong proposals. I had a different approach," he said in that
September event. "But we came together after the campaign and reached an
agreement that says that every family in this country earning $125,000 or
less-that is 83 percent of our population-should be able to send their kids
to public colleges and universities tuition-free. And make no mistake about
it: This is a revolutionary proposal for the future of our country with
wide-reaching implications."
Since that speech telling supporters to vote for Clinton, Sanders has been
to Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan. The Clinton campaign has issued
media alerts saying Sanders will appear in coming days in New Hampshire,
Maine and Pennsylvania.
"Our job right now seems pretty clear to me: ... to defeat and to defeat
badly the worst candidate for president in the modern history of the United
States, Donald Trump," Sanders said this week in Minneapolis. "Our job is
to
elect Hillary Clinton as president but to also understand that our job is
not done just by electing Secretary Clinton. On the day after, we continue
the movement. [As Rep.] Keith Ellison told you-Keith Ellison told you that
we, working with the Clinton campaign, passed the most progressive
platform,
Democratic platform, in the history of our country. Our job under President
Hillary Clinton is to see that that platform is implemented."
But impassioned words like these are not quite moving Sanders supporters,
Solomon said. "I've heard people say anecdotally, 'Well, let's just see how
the voting is.' On the phone, people from Florida or Ohio, told me that.
They're just going to wait and see."
The Bernie Delegate Network numbers do suggest, however, that Sanders
supporters in swing states want their votes to matter-as evidenced by the
finding that only 9 percent said they would vote for Stein, compared to 24
percent in safe states.
"There's always been a wide range of Bernie delegates," Solomon said. "The
comfort level of voting for Jill Stein isn't notably high in swing states,
because you can see that twice as many people have not made up their minds.
My overall supposition is that a lot of these delegates in swing states are
going to wait and see how the polling looks right before the election."
Were these Stein supporters being too principled?
"It would be a broad generalization to say that all Bernie delegates
choosing to vote for Jill Stein or any other candidate are doing so due to
one factor alone," Smith said. "Some Bernie delegates may be considering
the
political implications of a Stein vote while others may be doing so because
of Green Party platform positions."
"I agree with what Noam Chomsky has said," Solomon said. "It's the context.
You know people don't honor their principles when they put gas in their car
if they are against climate change. We all do, if you will, make choices
between options that we don't believe are inclusive of the options we would
want. But people will deal with this in different ways."
Steven Rosenfeld covers national political issues for AlterNet, including
America's retirement crisis, democracy and voting rights, and campaigns and
elections. He is the author of "Count My Vote: A Citizen's Guide to Voting"
(AlterNet Books, 2008).
Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.
Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.
Report typos and corrections to 'corrections@xxxxxxxxxxxx'. [3]
Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.[4]
Stay Ahead of the Rest
Sign Up for AlterNet's Daily Newsletter
EMAIL:
+ sign up for additional lists
Source URL:
http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/most-sanders-democratic-convention-del
egates-are-not-ready-vote-clinton-new-poll-finds
Links:
[1] http://www.alternet.org/authors/steven-rosenfeld
[2] http://alternet.org
[3] mailto:corrections@xxxxxxxxxxxx?Subject=Typo on Most Sanders Democratic
Convention Delegates Are Not Ready to Vote for Clinton, New Poll Finds
[4] http://www.alternet.org/
[5] http://www.alternet.org/%2Bnew_src%2B
