An Urgent Message to Bernie Sanders’ Supporters

[Lodestar]

This article appeared in the Huffington Post Blog in February and in light of current voting irregularities
and ongoing pro-Hillary propaganda, it deserves a second look.

The U.S. has a long history of covertly disrupting and removing left leaning governments and leaders
all over the world, with greatest emphasis, perhaps in South and Central America. Even within the IMF
one might revisit the case of the former IMF chief and French socialist Dominique Strauss Kahn's demise through a bogus sex scandal. He had been introducing kinder, gentler policies within the IMF, and his popularity among French citizens put him in a position to become the next president of France running against Sarkozy.
So how, one might ask, would the most popular candidate in the current U.S. presidential race,
who happens to be reawakening this country's more left-leaning roots, be able to
achieve the highest office right here at home?

================================

The struggle between “socialist” Bernie Sanders and “New Democrat” Hillary Clinton points out an old conflict underlying the nature of Democratic Party politics which could be regarded as “the love that dare not speak its name.”

That “love” is the Democratic Party’s relationship with the “real” left of yesteryear, and what it represents to today’s politically-fragmented Democratic Party. The real left, as in the “Communist” left and the Democratic Party, at one time had a lot in common. The American Communist Party’s influence on programs such as Social Security, civil rights and taxing the rich worked its way so far into Franklin Roosevelt’s White House that, by 1944, an angry Joseph P. Kennedy warned Roosevelt that, “They will write you down in history, if you don’t get rid of them, as incompetent, and they will open the way for the Communist line.”

That fearful threat, of course, never happened. Liberal intellectuals (with a lot of help from the CIA) circumvented the Communist line by inventing an artificial “left” of their own that, over time, successfully marginalized the real left and delegitimized it.

Democratic Party liberals fought the Communists to the bitter end in Vietnam and elsewhere, but by 1980 had so lost track of their own identity that they easily fell to Ronald Reagan’s New Right.

The mass movement of the American people away from left-leaning democratic populism came as a profound shock to Democratic Party regulars exhausted from their struggles with the left. Vice President Walter Mondale’s devastating 49 state defeat to Reagan in 1984 sealed the left’s fate and, in 1985, the party was lobotomized of any left-sided ideology at all, merging with its intellectual other.

The transformation came in the form of the Democratic Leadership Council, DLC a non-profit corporation whose goal was to the recast the old Democratic Party into a go-go pro-business conservative mold. From the start the DLC maintained a strong neo-conservative agenda, especially in foreign policy. Its selection of Bill Clinton as chairman in 1990 helped cement its acceptance with the general public but the split within the party grew even deeper. These “New Democrats” sold themselves as centrist reformers but behaved more like merchant bankers and, within a few years, ushered in a raft of privatizations, Wall Street giveaways, tough-on-crime laws, and deregulated trade rules that would rob the middle class and set a course toward financial ruin.

cont'd

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-fitzgerald/an-urgent-message-to-bern_b_9245946.html

----------------------------------------------------------

[bkkyosemite]

1. Yep!

[LiberalArkie]

2. I find no fault with that line of thought.

[Triana]

3. Is it true that one of the original financiers of the DLC were the Koch Brothers? n/t

[zentrum]

7. Yes, it is true.

And Charles Koch is currently making noises that he will give money to Hillary this time around.

He knows perfectly well about her vociferous advocacy for fracking around the world when she was SOS. And for the TPP. Which I'm sure he supports since it defangs environmental laws and regulations.

This civil war in the democratic party is hugely important and we need to stay hyper motivated to wrest the party back from the New Democrats, and not go passive, should she win the WH.

[dreamnightwind]

25. +1

[jtuck004]

4. What you want will never be achieved as long as you start with today's party.

So most of that is just pap. Interesting, heart-felt, what needs to be done, blah, blah, blah.

Might as well stand in a jail cell and preach to an empty street.

[2banon]

5. Reading this excerpt gives me the creeps, it seems to promulgate the tired meme of FDR=Communist

and frankly I'm sick of it, and that should have ended years and years ago.

[Lodestar]

9. Agreed. And 'communism' and 'socialism' are two different things.

I don't think we need labels at all for what we are trying to achieve. They are
limiting, easily misunderstood and should be resisted. While this country
does have roots in a more left-leaning governance, the current movement should
be anti "isms" and simply pro-humanity, pro-nature, pro-sustainability, etc.

[2banon]

13. exactly In fact, that's where many of us on the Left are.

The moribund Communist political ideology, frequently and ignorantly equated (by those on the Right) with Socialism is the result of extreme right wing propaganda of this country's political education.

I am not one to identity myself as a Socialist per se, as I am interested in issues which are generally defined as humanistic at the core. However I do not shy away from identifying my values as Socialistic politically speaking for that matter.

When I read red-baiting reactionary memes here, i am once again reminded of just how right wing the party has become.

[ReRe]

21. That's right...

... -isms just separate everyone. Just like the two-party system. George Washington advised AGAINST political parties, and I agree with him. Politics has torn the effing world apart, not just our country.

[AlbertCat]

15. Me too. The Dems were quite different until the Cvil Rights movement

Communists were another thing altogether. Plus it became abundantly clear to liberals by the 40's that communism didn't work, at least where it was being tried. The USA doesn't happen in a vacuum.

This article is too simplistic. It leaves out shortages and the economy and how Carter told us we might have to sacrifice, but Reagan said "greed is good!" and assured everyone there was no need to sacrifice but go ahead and get more stuff! So everyone voted for Ronnie. Cheney said the same thing for Dubya.

[2banon]

17. Bill Clinton did the same thing, and furthered Reagan's policy legacies.

We had another version of the "roaring 90's" and here we are struggling to revive FDR.

[SalviaBlue]

6. No more endless war... I'm in!

Last edited Sun May 1, 2016, 12:10 PM - Edit history (1)

<Bernie Sanders’ supporters must come to understand that the only way he can make good on his promise of single payer healthcare, more social security and repairing America’s broken infrastructure is to adopt this pragmatic foreign policy position as his own. To not only beat Hillary Clinton, but a Republican contender as well, he must offer a viable and doable alternative to a continued foreign policy of endless war and he must articulate it now, before it is too late.>

[cantbeserious]

8. All Current Indications Are That The Democratic Party Is Dead And Buried - Resurrection Not Possible

eom

[BlancheSplanchnik]

10. The love that dare not speak its name---

The love us regular folk have for real democratic policies of yesteryear, compared to the Democratic Brand Love which to varying degrees, has become cynically dependent on that ideal as nothing more than bait for the populace, while practicing corporatism in reality.

What a great read.

[TBF]

11. You can trace this back at least as far as the Palmer Raids

under Wilson (Palmer was the AG - and this a democratic administration).

As I offered earlier in a socialist progressives post, I do believe the parties are going through a period of change right now that is not unprecedented historically. The democrats are becoming the party of the status quo (particularly in terms of support of the free market) while adopting progressive social stances. The repugs are becoming a revolutionary party in terms of fighting globalism, but adopting a very strict social stance (theocracy). I would suggest that traditional progressives are not going to fit neatly in either party. Bernie is getting older, but we'll see if he has the energy to take this to the next level (form a third party).

[stopbush]

12. Yawn.

[AlbertCat]

16. Yawning is all Hillary supporters do these days.

smug and obnoxious.... but what does one expect?

[stopbush]

20. Comfortable lead in every statistical metric,

Ds overwhelmingly voting for Hillary over Sanders, etc.

The smugness on the part of Hillary supporters is as expected as is the whining and resorting to laughable conspiracy theories to explain the dramatic losses among Sanders supporters.

[Nitram]

24. Well, Albert, I've noticed Bernie fans are posting fewer yawning comments these days.

But you're wrong about Clinton supporters having nothing else to post. WE've been replying to a lot of your comments, and getting nothing but canned rhetoric in return. I can't blame some for yawning.

[Katashi_itto]

14. k&R!!! Down with the Vichy Dems

[baldguy]

18. Bernie is depending on you!

[oldandhappy]

19. clinton is not a new democrat

She is an old style politician -- all about money and control and manipulation. She is the go go old business conservative -- smile, well said. I am hanging in there for people.

[djean111]

26. There is a group called the New Democrat Coalition. Many of our Congress belong to it, along with

some governors. They are advised by the Third Way. When I first found their website, last year, it looked and sounded remarkably (and disgustingly) exactly like the Koch's Americans for Prosperity (of the Kochs).

Their agenda was stated as eschewing ideology and working with the GOP. The site was changed a bit when Hillary's campaign started. The list of members is interesting - all the DINOs from Florida are there, and I see how those DINOs vote with the GOP. My rule of thumb now is no vote for anyone who belongs to that, and no vote for anyone who voted for Fast Track, or shilled for the TPP.

Hillary is a "New Democrat", in that she is Third Way all the way, tosses out that liberal ideology, and most of her policies are in line with the GOP/Third Way - war, fracking, the TPP, chipping away at Social Security, etc.

Hillary's style is old-style, but her agenda is New Democrat/Third way. That is what she and Bill represent.
I will not be voting for her.

[Clifton]

22. A Star Load from Lodestar - from a Baby Boomer....

I totally agree, I'm 70 years old & have watched the Democratic Party go further and further toward the ring wing agenda.
It all comes down to power & money versus the needs of ordinary people.
All you older folks must support the Millennials and the fight for what's right, You stand to lose a lot also, look for example, at how desirable all that Social Security money must look to Plutocrats - they would love to get their hands on it.
Also what we're doing to other countries and the environment is a crime & must be stopped.
I traveled around the world for 20 years, staying in various countries for 3 months to 2 years. Some were Communist, some were Socialist leaning. I can tell you that the people of those countries have been very warm, friendly and helpful. They actually like Americans & want to be friends. The more socialistic country citizens are for the most part happy with their medical care, educational opportunities, etc.
But they despise the US Government's actions, whom they consider to be the world's worse terrorists - they're right.
I at one time was going to help put the first woman in the White House - fortunately a friend, an 80 year old woman who had worked with HRC strongly advised me to read all I could about her before voting. I did and as a result of that I can't in good conscious ever vote for her.
Of course I can't vote for anyone in the GOP either. We really need a complete new party, the old ones are worthless and corrupt.
None of this has happened by accident, rather it is a result of the decisions made by the politicians.

Also to vote for the lesser of two evils is still a vote for evil and things will stay the same or get worse - unless we stop them.
I'll write in Bernie... or go Green.

Cliff

[ReRe]

23. K&R

Everyone really needs to read this one all the way through and comprehend it, all the way down to the last two paragraphs. I'm as guilty as anyone... of not reading the articles each and every time, and commenting on them nonetheless.

Seriously. How can Bernie articulate a message of entering a time when the USA pushes back the MIC? How can he put the genie money-machine back in the bottle? Thinking outside of the box is difficult for most people. But that's exactly what we have to do in this new movement. We have to find that magic key that will unlock everyone's minds once and for all, enabling them to really believe there IS another way of looking at life in this world.

Think. Think. Think. How can we get people to think????????

Seriously, read those last two paragraphs of the HuffPo article and think.

[dreamnightwind]

27. Thanks, because of your post I went and read all of it

and some of the background links too.

For example, this one:

https://www.bostonglobe.com/ideas/2016/01/24/beware-obama-nuclear-weapons-plan/IJP9E48w3cjLPlTqMhZdFL/story.html

Rearming for the apocalypse

AMERICANS ARE IN near-panic over the danger posed by Islamic terrorists. That danger, however, pales beside an emerging new one. President Obama has proposed a frighteningly wrongheaded plan to “modernize” our nuclear arsenal at the unfathomable cost of about $1 trillion over the next 30 years. Terror will never reach even 1 percent of our population. Nuclear “modernization” increases the prospect of true devastation.

...

Besides these grave dangers — global proliferation, accidental war, and nuclear terror — there is another: national bankruptcy. Obama’s project is ruinously expensive. Admiral Mike Mullen, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, calls it “spending ourselves into oblivion.”

...

Nuclear weapons are useful for deterrence only. The United States has more than enough for that purpose. Investing huge sums in a new arsenal will not protect us from tomorrow’s threats. Most depressing, the proposal for this investment comes from a president who campaigned on a pledge to reduce and seek to eliminate nuclear weapons — and who won a Nobel Peace Prize for his apparent sincerity. Keeping our country safe requires agile thinking, not reliance on policies shaped for a bygone age.

To respond to your post, I think the way to reach people, when campaigning, about the need to focus on domestic needs rather than the needs of empire, is to focus on the money. If the people of this country had someone pounding the military (and all its many associated agencies and costs) expenses into their heads, repeatedly and obstinately, they'd respond.

So why hasn't Bernie been pounding this message? I'm pretty sure he is fully on our side here, but has trimmed his messaging to a few targeted items that were chosen early in the campaign. Why? It might just be smart strategy on his part. Or it might be that he knows where the lines are, and doesn't want to be a martyr. I take heart from his debate statement, which he was ridiculed for, that the greatest security threat facing this nation is global climate change. Exactly right, he gets it.