I guess Harvey and I are on the same wave length. I hadn't read this before
I wrote my little post before about Bernie's speech and his campaign.
Miriam
Wasserman writes: "We all win when Bernie Sanders runs. We need him to
continue through the Democratic Convention and beyond."
Sen. Bernie Sanders. (photo: Charlie Leight/Getty)
Run, Bernie, Please Keep Running
By Harvey Wasserman, Reader Supported News
17 March 16
We all win when Bernie Sanders runs.
We need him to continue through the Democratic Convention and beyond.
You can pardon my enthusiasm, but I'll now be sending him my $27.
That Bernie came in second in this past Tuesday's primaries doesn't mean
much. He got more than enough votes to justify an ongoing campaign. And the
longer he runs, the better for all of us.
This stuff about him being a "single-issue candidate" is nonsense. The
corporate media and the regular Democrats can't handle the complexity of
what's essentially a nuanced class and counter-cultural analysis. They're
desperate to avoid the realities of what's being said.
The campaign, of course, is about way more than just Bernie.
And the calculations of delegates and vote counts and much of the rest of it
have their place. But we need not lose heart when Hillary seems to get more
votes. And she, above all, should be deeply grateful to a genuine grassroots
campaign that's been the only thing sparking any real life into an otherwise
excruciating mainstream slog.
Every speech Bernie gives, every day his campaign proceeds, every moment of
media time he gets is a plus for all of us.
He is, above all, educating and energizing a new wave of activists and
ordinary citizens of all ages. The impacts are essential and incalculable.
They will be with us for decades.
This past Sunday I watched Bernie speak to about 5,000 mostly young, very
diverse citizens at Ohios State's Schottenstein Arena. State Senator Nina
Turner opened for him with amazing verve.
Bernie then talked for about an hour on a wide range of issues near and dear
to us all: social justice, Social Security, Medicare, fair taxation, killing
free trade agreements, climate chaos, Solartopian energy, native rights,
women's rights, LGBT, true family values, corporate power, the 1%,
militarism, the power of activism, and more.
Of course he began by denouncing Donald Trump's fascist demagoguery.
At the end, he simply pointed out that love is a more powerful force than
hate.
In between, the speech was completely BS-free. There were no throwaway
lines, no hokey begs for applause, no contentless filler (he did say
something was HYUUUGE, but it was in reasonable context and genuinely
endearing).
I found the whole thing deeply moving. Bernie's essentially a 60s guy who
marched with the rest of us for peace and civil rights back in the day.
Thankfully, his politics don't seem to have changed much since. But somehow
he's the guy who navigated the system and became a mayor, congressman and
senator. Fantastic!
Now he's a legitimate candidate for President of the United States. Against
all odds he's energized millions of citizens, raised millions of dollars,
and won millions of votes.
And he calls himself a Socialist. He's the first truly competitive
presidential candidate to do that since Eugene V. Debs ran from a federal
prison cell in 1920.
We can nit-pick that one. Debs's Socialism called for public ownership and
democratic management of the means of production . with the major financial,
economic and industrial institutions run directly by the people, for the
public benefit. Bernie has not gone that route except maybe on health care.
Technically, in calling for basic justice, human rights, ecological sanity,
and so much more, he's a Social Democrat. Fine with me.
What's crucial is that his campaign is part of a broad historic continuum.
You can date it to December 1, 1955, when Rosa Parks refused to give up her
seat on that Montgomery bus. Or back to Debs or the abolitionists or the
better angels of our first Revolution. Or forward to the Vietnam protests,
the mass No Nukes arrests, the Freeze Movement, Occupy, or #blacklivesmatter
or whatever comes next.
Pick your spot in the mighty stream of nonviolent social activism. What
matters is that at this point in our history, we have a society with
sufficient social awareness and political commitment to sustain a campaign
of this magnitude.
At some point it will end. Bernie may not get the Democratic nomination. He
may not be elected president.
But we'll have had this particular moment in the spiral of our history and
now can further evolve, with that many more of us educated and energized.
We can all have our suggestions. Personally, I wish he would talk more
directly about an end to militarism in general, asking every hour the $64
trillion question: "Why do we have 900 bases in 175 countries? Why have we
been at endless imperial war since 1941?"
He could yell about the fact that in this coming election, 80% of the votes
will be cast on electronic machines with zero paper trail, zero access to
source code, zero real verification. We know black box elections (like 2000
and 2004) are easily stolen; 2016 is no exception. Bernie, we need you to
talk about that. You did, after all, vote for the 2002 Help America Vote Act
that foisted these machines on us. (Hillary voted NO. We should ask her
why!)
I'd love to hear him more explicitly demand the shut-down of all US atomic
reactors, with an even more rapid shift to Solartopia, a totally
green-powered Earth.
I'm sure you all have your own laundry list.
But the point is . this is a nice movement wave. The corporate media will
dismiss the candidate and ignore the issues. The Democrats will do what they
will. And somewhere down the road, we'll all have to decide how to cast our
vote. And how to protect it once we do.
Then, the election will be over, we'll have a new president, and we'll all
have to deal with what comes next.
In the meantime, a gracious, giving, often brilliant campaign has moved us
forward. Let's celebrate that (and Bernie!) and push it all forward as best
we can with humor, grace, gratitude and joy.
________________________________________
Harvey Wasserman's America at the Brink of Rebirth: The Organic Spiral of Us
History can be had via www.solartopia.org. The Strip & Flip Selection of
2016: Five Jim Crows & Electronic Election Theft, co-written with Bob
Fitrakis, is at www.freepress.org.
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Sen. Bernie Sanders. (photo: Charlie Leight/Getty)
http://readersupportednews.org/http://readersupportednews.org/
Run, Bernie, Please Keep Running
By Harvey Wasserman, Reader Supported News
17 March 16
e all win when Bernie Sanders runs.
We need him to continue through the Democratic Convention and beyond.
You can pardon my enthusiasm, but I'll now be sending him my $27.
That Bernie came in second in this past Tuesday's primaries doesn't mean
much. He got more than enough votes to justify an ongoing campaign. And the
longer he runs, the better for all of us.
This stuff about him being a "single-issue candidate" is nonsense. The
corporate media and the regular Democrats can't handle the complexity of
what's essentially a nuanced class and counter-cultural analysis. They're
desperate to avoid the realities of what's being said.
The campaign, of course, is about way more than just Bernie.
And the calculations of delegates and vote counts and much of the rest of it
have their place. But we need not lose heart when Hillary seems to get more
votes. And she, above all, should be deeply grateful to a genuine grassroots
campaign that's been the only thing sparking any real life into an otherwise
excruciating mainstream slog.
Every speech Bernie gives, every day his campaign proceeds, every moment of
media time he gets is a plus for all of us.
He is, above all, educating and energizing a new wave of activists and
ordinary citizens of all ages. The impacts are essential and incalculable.
They will be with us for decades.
This past Sunday I watched Bernie speak to about 5,000 mostly young, very
diverse citizens at Ohios State's Schottenstein Arena. State Senator Nina
Turner opened for him with amazing verve.
Bernie then talked for about an hour on a wide range of issues near and dear
to us all: social justice, Social Security, Medicare, fair taxation, killing
free trade agreements, climate chaos, Solartopian energy, native rights,
women's rights, LGBT, true family values, corporate power, the 1%,
militarism, the power of activism, and more.
Of course he began by denouncing Donald Trump's fascist demagoguery.
At the end, he simply pointed out that love is a more powerful force than
hate.
In between, the speech was completely BS-free. There were no throwaway
lines, no hokey begs for applause, no contentless filler (he did say
something was HYUUUGE, but it was in reasonable context and genuinely
endearing).
I found the whole thing deeply moving. Bernie's essentially a 60s guy who
marched with the rest of us for peace and civil rights back in the day.
Thankfully, his politics don't seem to have changed much since. But somehow
he's the guy who navigated the system and became a mayor, congressman and
senator. Fantastic!
Now he's a legitimate candidate for President of the United States. Against
all odds he's energized millions of citizens, raised millions of dollars,
and won millions of votes.
And he calls himself a Socialist. He's the first truly competitive
presidential candidate to do that since Eugene V. Debs ran from a federal
prison cell in 1920.
We can nit-pick that one. Debs's Socialism called for public ownership and
democratic management of the means of production . with the major financial,
economic and industrial institutions run directly by the people, for the
public benefit. Bernie has not gone that route except maybe on health care.
Technically, in calling for basic justice, human rights, ecological sanity,
and so much more, he's a Social Democrat. Fine with me.
What's crucial is that his campaign is part of a broad historic continuum.
You can date it to December 1, 1955, when Rosa Parks refused to give up her
seat on that Montgomery bus. Or back to Debs or the abolitionists or the
better angels of our first Revolution. Or forward to the Vietnam protests,
the mass No Nukes arrests, the Freeze Movement, Occupy, or #blacklivesmatter
or whatever comes next.
Pick your spot in the mighty stream of nonviolent social activism. What
matters is that at this point in our history, we have a society with
sufficient social awareness and political commitment to sustain a campaign
of this magnitude.
At some point it will end. Bernie may not get the Democratic nomination. He
may not be elected president.
But we'll have had this particular moment in the spiral of our history and
now can further evolve, with that many more of us educated and energized.
We can all have our suggestions. Personally, I wish he would talk more
directly about an end to militarism in general, asking every hour the $64
trillion question: "Why do we have 900 bases in 175 countries? Why have we
been at endless imperial war since 1941?"
He could yell about the fact that in this coming election, 80% of the votes
will be cast on electronic machines with zero paper trail, zero access to
source code, zero real verification. We know black box elections (like 2000
and 2004) are easily stolen; 2016 is no exception. Bernie, we need you to
talk about that. You did, after all, vote for the 2002 Help America Vote Act
that foisted these machines on us. (Hillary voted NO. We should ask her
why!)
I'd love to hear him more explicitly demand the shut-down of all US atomic
reactors, with an even more rapid shift to Solartopia, a totally
green-powered Earth.
I'm sure you all have your own laundry list.
But the point is . this is a nice movement wave. The corporate media will
dismiss the candidate and ignore the issues. The Democrats will do what they
will. And somewhere down the road, we'll all have to decide how to cast our
vote. And how to protect it once we do.
Then, the election will be over, we'll have a new president, and we'll all
have to deal with what comes next.
In the meantime, a gracious, giving, often brilliant campaign has moved us
forward. Let's celebrate that (and Bernie!) and push it all forward as best
we can with humor, grace, gratitude and joy.
Harvey Wasserman's America at the Brink of Rebirth: The Organic Spiral of Us
History can be had via www.solartopia.org. The Strip & Flip Selection of
2016: Five Jim Crows & Electronic Election Theft, co-written with Bob
Fitrakis, is at www.freepress.org.
http://e-max.it/posizionamento-siti-web/socialize
http://e-max.it/posizionamento-siti-web/socialize
