The Nation Magazine Endorses Bernie Sanders for President
http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/the_nation_magazine_endorses_ber
nie_sanders_for_the_20160114/
Posted on Jan 14, 2016
Bernie Sanders and his wife, Jane, at a town hall Saturday in Des
Moines, Iowa. (Jae C. Hong / AP)
The Nation magazine-a publication that has served as a conscience of
American liberals for much of its 150-year existence-announced its
endorsement Thursday of Democratic Party candidate Bernie Sanders in the
2016 presidential race.
"A year ago, concerned that ordinary citizens would be locked out of the
presidential nominating process," the editorial begins, "The Nation argued
that a vigorously contested primary would be good for the candidates, for
the Democratic Party, and for democracy. Two months later, Senator Bernie
Sanders formally launched a campaign that has already transformed the
politics of the 2016 presidential race."
Galvanized by his demands for economic and social justice, hundreds of
thousands of Americans have packed his rallies, and over 1 million small
donors have helped his campaign shatter fund-raising records while breaking
the stranglehold of corporate money. Sanders's clarion call for fundamental
reform-single-payer healthcare, tuition-free college, a $15-an-hour minimum
wage, the breaking up of the big banks, ensuring that the rich pay their
fair share of taxes-have inspired working people across the country. His
bold response to the climate crisis has attracted legions of young voters,
and his foreign policy, which emphasizes diplomacy over regime change,
speaks powerfully to war-weary citizens. Most important, Sanders has used
his insurgent campaign to tell Americans the truth about the challenges that
confront us. He has summoned the people to a "political revolution," arguing
that the changes our country so desperately needs can only happen when we
wrest our democracy from the corrupt grip of Wall Street bankers and
billionaires.
We believe such a revolution is not only possible but necessary-and that's
why we're endorsing Bernie Sanders for president. This magazine rarely makes
endorsements in the Democratic primary (we've done so only twice: for Jesse
Jackson in 1988, and for Barack Obama in 2008). We do so now impelled by the
awareness that our rigged system works for the few and not for the many.
Americans are waking up to this reality, and they are demanding change. This
understanding animates both the Republican and Democratic primaries, though
it has taken those two contests in fundamentally different directions.
At the core of this crisis is inequality, both economic and political. The
United States has become a plutocracy-one in which, as Sanders puts it, "we
not only have massive wealth and income inequality, but a power structure
which protects that inequality." America's middle class has melted away,
while the gap between rich and poor has reached Gilded Age extremes. The
recovery that followed the 2008 economic collapse has not been shared.
Indeed, in the United States it seems that nothing is shared these days-not
prosperity, nor security, nor even responsibility. While millions of
Americans grapple with the consequences of catastrophic climate change,
fossil-fuel companies promote climate skeptics so that they can continue to
profit from the planet's destruction. While Americans have tired of endless
war, the military-industrial complex and its cheerleaders continue to
champion the reckless interventions that have drained our country, damaged
our reputation abroad, and created a perfect storm of Pentagon waste, fraud,
and abuse. While Americans of every ideological stripe recognize the need
for criminal-justice reform, African-American men, women, and children
continue to be gunned down by police officers on the streets, and mass
incarceration continues largely unabated.
Americans are fed up and fighting back. Seen in isolation, the Fight for
$15, Black Lives Matter, the climate-justice movement, the immigrant-rights
movement, the campaign for a financial-transactions tax, and the renewed
push for single-payer healthcare may seem like unrelated causes. Taken
together, they form a rising chorus of outrage over a government that caters
to the demands of the super-wealthy, while failing to meet the needs of the
many. They share a fury at a politics captured by special interests and big
money, where pervasive corruption mocks the very notion of democracy.
In Bernie Sanders, these movements for greater equality and justice have
found an ally and a champion. In contrast to the right-wing demagogues who
exploit these crises to foment division, the Vermont senator has reached
into a proud democratic-socialist tradition to revive the simple but potent
notion of solidarity. We must turn to each other, not on each other, Sanders
says, and unite to change the corrupted politics that robs us all. His
campaign's funding reflects this commitment, spurning the support of
corporate super-PACS and relying instead on millions of grassroots donors.
Thanks to his campaign's integrity, Sanders alone has the potential to unite
the movements emerging across the country into one loud, irresistible demand
for systemic political change. [.]
[.] his campaign is attentive to the need to build a broader coalition, and
in Sanders, Democrats have a candidate who can truly walk the walk: a
civil-rights marcher in the 1960s with a consistent record of supporting
racial justice, women's equality, and LGBT rights. And they also have a
candidate who has shown a willingness to listen and learn: Challenged early
in the campaign by Black Lives Matter activists, Sanders has since outlined
a bold agenda for holding police to account, reducing mass incarceration,
and reforming discriminatory drug laws.
Voters can trust Sanders because he doesn't owe his political career to the
financial overlords of the status quo. Freed from these chains of special
interest, he can take the bold measures that the country needs. Sanders
alone proposes to break up the too-big-to-fail banks; to invest in public
education, from universal pre-K to tuition-free public college; to break the
power of the insurance and pharmaceutical cartels with Medicare for All
reforms. He alone proposes to empower workers with a living wage. He alone
stands ready to put Americans to work rebuilding our crumbling
infrastructure, and to confront climate change by making the United States a
leader in renewable energy. His audacious agenda proves that money in
politics doesn't widen debate; rather, it narrows the range of possibility.
While Sanders understands this, we fear that his chief rival for the
Democratic nomination does not.
Continue reading here.
-Posted by Alexander Reed Kelly.
http://www.truthdig.com/ http://www.truthdig.com/
The Nation Magazine Endorses Bernie Sanders for President
http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/the_nation_magazine_endorses_ber
nie_sanders_for_the_20160114/
Posted on Jan 14, 2016
Bernie Sanders and his wife, Jane, at a town hall Saturday in Des Moines,
Iowa. (Jae C. Hong / AP)
The Nation magazine-a publication that has served as a conscience of
American liberals for much of its 150-year existence-announced its
endorsement Thursday of Democratic Party candidate Bernie Sanders in the
2016 presidential race.
"A year ago, concerned that ordinary citizens would be locked out of the
presidential nominating process," the editorial begins, "The Nation argued
that a vigorously contested primary would be good for the candidates, for
the Democratic Party, and for democracy. Two months later, Senator Bernie
Sanders formally launched a campaign that has already transformed the
politics of the 2016 presidential race."
Galvanized by his demands for economic and social justice, hundreds of
thousands of Americans have packed his rallies, and over 1 million small
donors have helped his campaign shatter fund-raising records while breaking
the stranglehold of corporate money. Sanders's clarion call for fundamental
reform-single-payer healthcare, tuition-free college, a $15-an-hour minimum
wage, the breaking up of the big banks, ensuring that the rich pay their
fair share of taxes-have inspired working people across the country. His
bold response to the climate crisis has attracted legions of young voters,
and his foreign policy, which emphasizes diplomacy over regime change,
speaks powerfully to war-weary citizens. Most important, Sanders has used
his insurgent campaign to tell Americans the truth about the challenges that
confront us. He has summoned the people to a "political revolution," arguing
that the changes our country so desperately needs can only happen when we
wrest our democracy from the corrupt grip of Wall Street bankers and
billionaires.
We believe such a revolution is not only possible but necessary-and that's
why we're endorsing Bernie Sanders for president. This magazine rarely makes
endorsements in the Democratic primary (we've done so only twice: for Jesse
Jackson in 1988, and for Barack Obama in 2008). We do so now impelled by the
awareness that our rigged system works for the few and not for the many.
Americans are waking up to this reality, and they are demanding change. This
understanding animates both the Republican and Democratic primaries, though
it has taken those two contests in fundamentally different directions.
At the core of this crisis is inequality, both economic and political. The
United States has become a plutocracy-one in which, as Sanders puts it, "we
not only have massive wealth and income inequality, but a power structure
which protects that inequality." America's middle class has melted away,
while the gap between rich and poor has reached Gilded Age extremes. The
recovery that followed the 2008 economic collapse has not been shared.
Indeed, in the United States it seems that nothing is shared these days-not
prosperity, nor security, nor even responsibility. While millions of
Americans grapple with the consequences of catastrophic climate change,
fossil-fuel companies promote climate skeptics so that they can continue to
profit from the planet's destruction. While Americans have tired of endless
war, the military-industrial complex and its cheerleaders continue to
champion the reckless interventions that have drained our country, damaged
our reputation abroad, and created a perfect storm of Pentagon waste, fraud,
and abuse. While Americans of every ideological stripe recognize the need
for criminal-justice reform, African-American men, women, and children
continue to be gunned down by police officers on the streets, and mass
incarceration continues largely unabated.
Americans are fed up and fighting back. Seen in isolation, the Fight for
$15, Black Lives Matter, the climate-justice movement, the immigrant-rights
movement, the campaign for a financial-transactions tax, and the renewed
push for single-payer healthcare may seem like unrelated causes. Taken
together, they form a rising chorus of outrage over a government that caters
to the demands of the super-wealthy, while failing to meet the needs of the
many. They share a fury at a politics captured by special interests and big
money, where pervasive corruption mocks the very notion of democracy.
In Bernie Sanders, these movements for greater equality and justice have
found an ally and a champion. In contrast to the right-wing demagogues who
exploit these crises to foment division, the Vermont senator has reached
into a proud democratic-socialist tradition to revive the simple but potent
notion of solidarity. We must turn to each other, not on each other, Sanders
says, and unite to change the corrupted politics that robs us all. His
campaign's funding reflects this commitment, spurning the support of
corporate super-PACS and relying instead on millions of grassroots donors.
Thanks to his campaign's integrity, Sanders alone has the potential to unite
the movements emerging across the country into one loud, irresistible demand
for systemic political change. [.]
[.] his campaign is attentive to the need to build a broader coalition, and
in Sanders, Democrats have a candidate who can truly walk the walk: a
civil-rights marcher in the 1960s with a consistent record of supporting
racial justice, women's equality, and LGBT rights. And they also have a
candidate who has shown a willingness to listen and learn: Challenged early
in the campaign by Black Lives Matter activists, Sanders has since outlined
a bold agenda for holding police to account, reducing mass incarceration,
and reforming discriminatory drug laws.
Voters can trust Sanders because he doesn't owe his political career to the
financial overlords of the status quo. Freed from these chains of special
interest, he can take the bold measures that the country needs. Sanders
alone proposes to break up the too-big-to-fail banks; to invest in public
education, from universal pre-K to tuition-free public college; to break the
power of the insurance and pharmaceutical cartels with Medicare for All
reforms. He alone proposes to empower workers with a living wage. He alone
stands ready to put Americans to work rebuilding our crumbling
infrastructure, and to confront climate change by making the United States a
leader in renewable energy. His audacious agenda proves that money in
politics doesn't widen debate; rather, it narrows the range of possibility.
While Sanders understands this, we fear that his chief rival for the
Democratic nomination does not.
Continue reading here.
-Posted by Alexander Reed Kelly.
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/doubling_down_on_a_failed_strategy_the_p
entagons_dangerous_20160115/
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/doubling_down_on_a_failed_strategy_the_p
entagons_dangerous_20160115/
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/doubling_down_on_a_failed_strategy_the_p
entagons_dangerous_20160115/
http://www.truthdig.com/arts_culture/item/your_heart_is_a_muscle_the_size_of
_your_fist_20160115/
http://www.truthdig.com/arts_culture/item/your_heart_is_a_muscle_the_size_of
_your_fist_20160115/
http://www.truthdig.com/arts_culture/item/your_heart_is_a_muscle_the_size_of
_your_fist_20160115/
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/climate_and_laws_fan_brazils_forest_fire
s_20160115/
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/climate_and_laws_fan_brazils_forest_fire
s_20160115/
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/climate_and_laws_fan_brazils_forest_fire
s_20160115/
http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/the_sixth_gop_debate_guns_grids_
and_the_clinton_machine_20160114/
http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/the_sixth_gop_debate_guns_grids_
and_the_clinton_machine_20160114/
http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/the_sixth_gop_debate_guns_grids_
and_the_clinton_machine_20160114/ http://www.truthdig.com/
http://www.truthdig.com/
http://www.truthdig.com/about/http://www.truthdig.com/contact/http://www.tru
thdig.com/about/advertising/http://www.truthdig.com/user_agreement/http://ww
w.truthdig.com/privacy_policy/http://www.truthdig.com/about/comment_policy/
C 2016 Truthdig, LLC. All rights reserved.
http://www.hopstudios.com/
http://support.truthdig.com/signup_page/subscribe
http://support.truthdig.com/signup_page/subscribe
http://www.facebook.com/truthdig
http://www.facebook.com/truthdighttp://twitter.com/intent/follow?source=foll
owbutton&variant=1.0&screen_name=truthdig
http://twitter.com/intent/follow?source=followbutton&variant=1.0&screen_name
=truthdighttps://plus.google.com/+truthdighttps://plus.google.com/+truthdigh
ttp://www.linkedin.com/company/truthdighttp://www.linkedin.com/company/truth
dighttp://truthdig.tumblr.com/
http://truthdig.tumblr.com/http://www.truthdig.com/connecthttp://www.truthdi
g.com/connect
