I am going to be up front right now: I am voting for Hillary Clinton for president. She wasn’t my first choice. Neither was Bernie Sanders or Martin O’Malley.
My first choice for President was Elizabeth Warren.
Warren got my notice because she was wonky enough to be smart and savvy about regulating the big banks, and put away the investment schemers who profited by betting on people’s failure to pay ballooning mortgage debt from subprime loans. She created an agency of the federal government — the Consumer Fraud Protection Bureau, which is an FDR-and-Teddy-Roosevelt-type of government watchdog invented to protect us from further financial malfeasance by banks and predatory loaners.
In the highest compliment I can give her, Elizabeth Warren is a brilliant public servant. A policy wonk. Competent. Cool-headed. Compassionate. Thoughtful. These are my prerequisites for presidents, Congresspeople, community leaders, bosses and colleagues in my professional life — we who work in the underbelly of The Beast, aka government. She is an effective leader with vision and goals who knows how to accomplish them; and if she doesn’t know, she will learn all she can to attain her goals.
If she ever decides to run, now or in the future, I would be an early adopter for Warren. When Warren indicated she would not run last year, and Bernie Sanders took up her political mantle, I gave a listen. After a few months I decided that neither Clinton nor Sanders would get me to commit time, money, energy and even more hours sitting on my butt blogging on political websites. I am in enough exercise hell right now working to burn off the blog butt developed over a year-and-a-half of blogging for Kerry, and another two years blogging for Obama. In 2016 I decided it was time to let the candidates come to me.
I remember the “inevitable” Hillary at the second Daily Kos 2007 convention in Chicago. She didn’t interest me. By then, Barack Obama was the thing — savvy, personable and smart as a whip. From that day forward, I was the model of the early adopter. And the thought of electing the first African American president in my lifetime was a political holy grail.
Eight years later, a lot of water has flowed under the bridge. I am not disillusioned with Obama the way so many liberals and progressives are. I came to my senses after the Tea Party takeover of Congress in 2010, realizing the Office of the President is only a third of what it takes to move the government Beast. When Obama took office, there were environmental, economic and social Superfund sites created by eight years of predatory business practices, corrupted office holders in state and local offices, and a White House damaged from the abuse of power by the Bush-Cheney years. Massive problems had to be corrected. Obama could not sail our ship fast enough towards the change he promised. That ship was run deeply aground.
Bernie Sanders had my heart for getting the issues plaguing us diagnosed — the vast income and wealth disparity that is dissolving the middle class at the edges — but how would he implement that change? With an obstreperous Congress and Senate refusing to govern, let alone change how we govern? What steps would he take under those circumstances?
As much as I am casting an ambivalent vote for Clinton — and am very wary of support by the 1% of her candidacy — on social issues, education, health and welfare she and Sanders are closely the same. She can handle the crossbows the Republicans will aim at her. She’s taken those arrows for years already.
The optics of Bernie’s campaign prior to the New York primary last week were heart-breaking and sobering: a very bad interview with the New York Daily News the week before April 19; his dismissal of Southern states and their African American majorities that went for Hillary; his still predominately white demographic among his supporters as evidenced from the results of the New York primary; and campaign manager Jeff Weaver’s plan to dissuade superdelegates from going for Clinton at the convention, even though Clinton has exceeded Sanders in the popular vote. These are all quite disconcerting. You need people of color — the backbone of the Democratic Party — to turn out and vote for you if you plan to run for President.
I would vote for either Sanders or Clinton before I vote for a Trump or a Cruz. But the likelihood of Sanders reaching the nomination look far slimmer after New York, and Clinton is polling well in the next primary states coming up. What are progressives who support Sanders’ message going to do? Should they stay home in November?
Earlier this week, Markos Moulitsas at Daily Kos wrote that he wished Bernie and Hillary could mash up together as one candidate. One with vision to set the course to lead our ship, and one with the experience to move with determination through our Byzantine political system, to get needed legislation through that changes all our lives for the better.
Many progressives want the change we need to come faster. Which is what a revolution does. But there’s a catch: how do you dismantle a system so enormous and plugged into the many interests that sustain government yet are corrosive to democracy? Is it a cold-turkey withdrawal? Is it a strategic take-down of intrinsic elements? And then, what happens to the most vulnerable in the meantime?
Along with the lobbyists for corporate interests such as oil, coal, hedge funds and the military industrial complex, there are lobbyists for the environment, education, organic farming, sustainable energy, women’s reproductive freedom, fair minimum wage and equal pay. Who will stay? Who will go?
Watching how our government works right now is like looking at time-lapse photography documenting the transformation of a normal person to a meth addict. Not a pretty progression. With this current do-nothing Congress it gets uglier by the minute. A government that does not function is useless. Social Security checks need to be cut and sent. National parks need to be maintained. Roads needs to be repaired. Public safety employees, such as in FEMA, need to be paid.
That means elected representatives need to make and pass laws and approve budgets, not put up yet another vote to make abortion illegal or repeal Obamacare. They need to confirm the replacement for the vacancy on the Supreme Court. They need to re-evaluate our gun laws so more innocent lives are spared. If there’s anything that needs to change first, it’s that government needs to function well again for the people who need it most.
That leads me to the mashup word of (R)evolution. This goes beyond the presidential election of this year, and leads us through to the coming time when Pluto begins its slide out of Capricorn and into Aquarius. Then the real fun begins. This current government took close to 250 years to create, and it’s still re-creating itself. As we can all agree, it’s also still in a pickle.
But it’s going to take consistent participation in voting our interests not only now and two years from now, but another two years after that and then some to make the changes we need. That’s exactly what the Republicans did starting with the day Nixon resigned in 1974. Elections should not stop at the office of POTUS. One President cannot change everything. We need a hero/ine in the office of president, but more so we need to be heroes and she-roes ourselves. Locally, statewide and nationally.
Bernie may lose the nomination, but his message needs to be foremost for the Democratic Party’s platform and all the way down the line. Keeping Sanders’ vision alive in the Democratic Party platform is my priority. Even though I will be voting for Clinton in the general election, we need to get her ship to move more left. And we most definitely need to focus on down-ticket races to create a Congress that will move progressive ideas through, that will pressure the Oval Office to do more, and that will get their fellows across the aisle to DO THEIR FREAKING JOBS. We’ve got to fill that vacancy in the Supreme Court.
The Spring Reading is now published. You may order all 12 signs here or choose your individual signs here for immediate access. You may listen to a free audio introduction here now.
These seem like small, incremental changes, but like Citizens United, one ruling can change all our lives, for better or worse, and for years to come. We need the ‘little’ changes that add up to the big change and we need to keep our eye on the ultimate revolution — the Big Change — of a nation governed by us and for us: a truly representative democracy.
It’s a founding concept of the union. In reality, it’s a theory that’s nearly 250 years old. Time to update it to meet the 21st century’s technological standards, and our world’s massively larger population and needs.
Whether you like your transition with an “R” for Revolution or an “E” for Evolution, the results will be the same, and as the old spiritual says: “When the lord gets ready — you gotta move!” We need to inculcate in our culture from kindergarten on up that voting is a privilege. One to be enjoyed as a healthy habit, like eating more carrots or hopping on the spin bike for 35 minutes.
We’re all going to need us to vote now, two years from now in down-ticket races, and more — for school boards, governors, state legislators and local councils and boards. We need to do this for a future we can create together, for the health of our nation and our democracy. Beyond Sanders and Clinton, we need to put a face on our collective future. That face is ours.
See you in the comments below.
Hi Fe, All true enough. And as the CA primary hasn’t happened yet, Bernie still gets my vote in that one; not over until it’s “over” and all. Hillary’s popularity (statistically at this time) vs Trump or Cruz is just too low not to keep trying.
And then the r/evolution begins in ernest.
aWord:
There has to be enough of a message to get to the Democratic party that they need to re-instill progressive values.
And yet they also have to win the election. Unfortunately, the country is more in the middle than we in CA want it to be, which is why we still have a Republican minority that’s not about to change, and a Democratic governor, who is going on his third/fourth (?) term.
At this point, polling numbers on the general election in November are too far off to be an accurate read. Can’t base it on what is NOT known of the candidates. Its only a generalized perception based on primary battles. The real mudslinging, regardless of who are the nominees begin in earnest in late summer. That’s when we begin to see how campaigning will affect electability.
Lots of adjusting to do. Where are those Yods?
Hey Fe, you might be interested in something I found in one of the 3 conjunction charts between Uranus and Pluto. Actually, it was the middle one, the 2nd conjunction that took place on April 4, 1966, at 5 PM, Washington DC. Normally, when there are 3 conjunctions between 2 planets it is the 1st or 3rd that I find most interesting. This one though, with both Uranus and Pluto retrograde knocked my socks off. In addition to these 2 outer planets there was another conjunction taking place between Saturn and Mercury. Both were at 22+ Pisces, the same degree as Hillary’s Moon and Bernie’s south node, all of which oppose the U.S. Sibly chart Neptune at 22+ Virgo.
Another startling discovery was that Jupiter in this 1966 chart was at 24+ Gemini, the degree where Uranus was when discovered. It’s the degree where the present U.S. Solar Return chart’s Mercury is too. Along with Jupiter at 24+ Gemini was Atlantis and Asclepius on April 4, 1966, and all were square Saturn and Mercury in Pisces.
So we have 2 cycles initiating at this time; the long one (Uranus-Pluto) and the short one (Saturn-Mercury), each affecting the other’s cycle.
Another factor in this middle conjunction in 1966 between the outer planets was Jupiter’s sextile with Mars at 20+ Aries, which was conjunct the U.S. Sibly Chiron at the time in the same degree, and where recently transiting Uranus was until last Tuesday when NY went to the polls to vote.
This sextile between Jupiter et al and Mars was part of a Yod with Neptune playing the role of the yodpoint (apex) where shifting and adjusting must take place. He was at 21+ Scorpio and he was retrograde. He, Neptune was also trine Saturn and Mercury in Pisces who were conjunct Hillary’s Moon, who I guess at the time was probably a high school senior or maybe in her freshman year in college. Saturn and Mercury were also conjunct a young Bernie’s south node as he contemplated his future in government service. I can’t vouch for dates of particular events but Pres. Kennedy had been assassinated by then and the Vietnam war was in progress.
So as I see it, this Yod within the chart of the Pluto-Uranus middle conjunction in which they were both retrograde (rethink, review) must have deeply impacted both Hillary and Bernie as this Neptune of 50 years ago, in it’s shifting and adjusting at the time, was trine (easy flow of energy) a part of their natal charts making it very personal for them. On an unconscious level the (r)evolution had begun.
Let me point out that at that same time on April 4, 1966, Chiron was at 23+ Pisces, conjunct Saturn and Mercury at 22+ Pisces (and Hillary’s Moon + Bernie’s SN), as well as Pallas at 21+ Pisces. Today, 50 years later transiting Chiron is again at 23+ Pisces. He is awakening the energy of this outer planet cycle that held an inner planet cycle of short duration that served as a point for a present Chiron return and it’s all affecting these two Democratic party contenders for the Presidency. Time flies when you’re having fun I guess.
Another thing that might perplex us about this chart (one of several) is that Neptune at 21+ Scorpio was conjunct the transiting south node at the time at 25+ Scorpio. Hillary’s south node is at 23+ Scorpio and Bernie’s ascendant is at 25+ Scorpio and the north node in this 1966 conjunction chart was at 25+ Taurus. That’s the same degree where transiting Sedna is right now. It’s also where Bernie’s descent (partnership) is too. Go figure. I’m seeing Sedna in this configuration as symbolic of status change and a revolt against authority. What do you think?
I’ll end this exploration for now with the observation that at the time of the 2nd Uranus-Pluto conjunction Venus was at 28+ Aquarius and conjunct the centaur Thereus at 27+ Aquarius. This is where the U.S. Sibly Moon resides, 27+ Aquarius, along with the U.S Pallas at 26+ Aquarius.
The Moon in any chart for a country represents its people and so the U.S. Moon is symbolic of the U.S. People. Recently transiting asteroid Pallas (the Strategist) made her “return” and was conjunct the U.S. Pallas and then the U.S. Moon. It gives me a sense of continuity and even support that the Venus in this particular outer-planet cycle chart conjuncts the U.S. Moon and she is trine the same chart’s Jupiter in Gemini which is heavily imbued with Uranian (revolution) energy, as well as connected to Atlantis (a reference to high-tech maybe?) and Asclepius the healer.
As for Thereus, I know little about him but Phil Sedgwick suggests “relational and professional attitudes based upon others”. We know in myth he was a big game hunter and is now associated with concern for the environment (as is Sedna so maybe that’s a link to the same chart’s north node at 25+ Taurus). Whatever, it is food for thought so I leave you to contemplate just what the revolution/evolution consists of , when it begins or when it began, and are we being guided (consciously or unconsciously) to reach conclusions and decisions that will give shape to said revolution/evolution. We are mere mortals but with such promise!
be
B:
I keep thinking about the pyramid on the back of the US dollar with the big all-seeing eye resting atop. To me that represents the government we created back at the inception of the Sibley chart.
That pyramid was long in the making. Most pyramids are. And all pyramids were built by millions of us over the course of two and a half centuries. They are not easy to dismantle, as Egypt can attest, YET that is what I believe to be the struggle, and the precedent for changing it are clear.
We must change it. There is no doubt, and the Uranian energy you describe suits the strength of the desire and the necessary time it would take to evolve it towards the more Aquarian concepts of community and egalitarianism.
This country desires change, and as long as we are committed to it –I know I am one of those included, the more we WILL change it. But it is still a heavy pyramid, and it will take sheer force of public will to push for it. If not by electing an individual calling for it, then by collective will to drive it.
That to me means we stop believing one election will do the trick. It won’t. Not just for one office but for many — enough to put more bodies and minds united in a concerted effort to bring the ship north. That is why I get so frustrated having to remind us that all elections matter. Not every four years, but every two.
We need to exercise the right to vote our interests, and thankfully, Sanders has cleared open the field we must travel. It’s up to us to guide the leaders with that message. Look at the Tea Party and what they’ve done to the GOP. We need to do the same, but guided by us, NOT the Koch Brothers and all those whose interests have been tearing government so asunder that it no longer works. That has been the North Star the corporatists have been following since Reagan.
Okay, well maybe you aren’t so interested, but I thought it was pretty cool that the Universe seemed to be selecting Hillary and Bernie to play specific roles in this (r)evolution that will take multiple election cycles to complete. Admittedly, I did (as a kid) and still do enjoy magical things; things that miraculously happen but can’t be explained (at the time) logically. Astrology is the supreme magic trick the higher powers have let us human beings in on and I for one am grateful for that.
Like, for instance, putting Venus right by the U.S. Moon/People just as the 2nd Uranus-Pluto conjunction took place. It was the only one out of the three conjunctions that didn’t have a tight sextile between Neptune in Scorpio and the two conjunct planets in Virgo; the one conjunction that wasn’t so involved in Neptunian higher-octave stuff but more down-to-earth stuff, like Venus, and Mercury conjunct Saturn conjunct Chiron.
Chiron who would return to that degree 50 years later, just in time to witness Hillary and Bernie stage-center, fulfilling the 22+ degree of Pisces promise – where Mercury the Trickster and Saturn the Rock of Gibraltar met at the same time Uranus and Pluto met.
Here’s how the Sabian Symbols put it for Pisces 23 (22+ Pisces). . . . A “MATERIALIZING” MEDIUM GIVING A SEANCE. . . materialize! to give form!
Keynote: The ability to give of one’s own vital energy to substantiate one’s conscious ideals or unconscious desires.
Could Bernie and Hillary give any more and still live to tell the tale? I don’t think so. And now, here comes transiting Chiron, the Rainbow Bridge between the higher vibrating beings and us lower vibrating beings to celebrate the substantiation (Dane Rudhyar’s word) of this symbol where Mercury met Saturn 50 years ago.
And then if that wasn’t enough, the Universe made this historical conjunction between Uranus and Pluto (that we are still under the influence of) happen, this middle conjunction where they were both retrograde, which was quincunx (adjust) the Sun (become conscious) at 14+ Aries which was conjunct Juno (partner to the disenfranchised) at 15+ Aries, and they just happened to oppose the U.S. Saturn who is pretty rigid against making little changes, let alone big, big changes.
But that’s magic for you; making things happen in such a way that all the pieces come together in perfect timing. I bet that’s how the pyramids got built too. I bet it won’t take a century to get this done though, because the young voters have been motivated now. That conjunction between Mercury (minds) and Saturn (form), remember?
Keep the faith Fe, your hard work will pay off. It doesn’t matter – I’m pretty sure now – who we vote for, Hillary or Bernie, as long as we vote with our mind in sync with our hearts. If the thought counts, and it does, then just showing up to vote gets us up and running in this revolution. Love you.
be
Be,
see Markos Moulitsas piece below. It’s not that I wasn’t interested, it’s that You are so on it!!!!!
Astrologically, as you describe, I see This primary season and election isn’t about the Presidency, it’s about re-evolution of government. And the Bernie generation is engaged to help us do it! We must support them and Bernie to get the platform more left without apologies! Time is here!!
Be! I knew you’d know just where they are (the yods).
This article by Riques at Daily Kos says the same thing, quite beautifully.
http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/4/25/1520000/-A-Hillary-supporter-defends-salutes-and-challenges-Team-Sanders#comment_61225684
I will never vote for her. For me she is the perfect example of a hypercompetitive person driven by greed and a need for power.
As a strong Bernie supporter, I’ve been wondering how I go about voting for Hillary. More than anything, I support Big Money out of our system, thus the very strong feeling I have for Bernie. Secondly, I am disgusted with the masses of insane cash spent by all those running for office — imagine what a difference that cash could make in feeding those struggling for food/shelter. Hillary is way too hawkish for me, another way that those in office fritter away the kabillions rather than attend to the suffering. BUT, having said all that, I will vote for her as she’s a democrat. As I thought about her yesterday, whilst calling all those voting in today’s primaries, it came to me that were she to chose Elizabeth Warren to run with her that would make it so much easier for me.
Sorry to go on and on … but I appreciate the like minds here @ Planet Waves, always.
mm.
I read a really interesting piece on how Warren could increase her influence as VP. The piece caught my attention because of how accurately it defined Elizabeth, capturing how powerful she’s become and how quickly. Joining with Clinton is somewhat counter-intuitive, of course, especially since she and Hillary occupy different corners of the party; but obviously that’s what’s needed to get the Berners on board. I’m not sure Hillary would find that advantageous, though — certainly her Wall Street connections would buck.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/elizabeth-warren-vice-president-hillary-clinton_us_571a8129e4b0d912d5fea0e8
Although I wore a Warren For Prez button months before anyone announced, ultimately I’ve appreciated that Warren didn’t try to run and that she hasn’t declared for a candidate at this point. Her power isn’t watered down by obligations, so she still has that ‘outlier’ stance we appreciate in Sanders and Trump. But she’s come to politics late in the game and the above article notes that taking VP would give her a very influential exit point. All speculative, of course.
And — as this is a time of ‘firsts’ — we must factor in that Hillary is in a race … now with Trump, who has picked up speed … as one of two frontrunners who are literally despised. Larry Wilmore was talking about how few on either side has the approval of the larger electorate, forcing us to choose which one we consider the least disastrous — and Clinton’s likeability score is so dismal it’s earned it’s own ‘first’ in history. I remain concerned that too many on the Blue side will stay home while nothing prods the Right into action like voting against a Clinton.
Perhaps our dislike of these candidates is a Through The Looking Glass response in terms of how little we approve of the government as a whole, but that factor may bring the crisis of change closer to the bone than we believe possible in the coming months. Over at Huffy they’re showcasing how many of the agencies (military and more) are in panic that Donald will win.
Anyhow, I appreciate that Bernie has said from the start that this is a movement, it’s already got legs and he’s set a lot of the agenda for restoration — if, in fact, that’s what we’re working toward. And, as you say Fe, it will take ALL of us keeping our eye on the ball ALL THE TIME to move the Ship of State away from it’s collision course. It got this way because we blinked (for a few decades.) I’d like to think we wouldn’t do that again.
And one last thing — I’m still confident that it ain’t over ’til the fat lady sings. I don’t know how Bernie could pull it out of the fire at this point, or what that might look like but I DO know that nothing I’ve seen in the last year was ‘as usual.’ We’re in purge and shift now and where the wheel stops, nobody knows!
The Universe prods us along and we interpreted those impulses to mean we needed a political tsunami to wake us up, so welcome to election 2016. As long as it spurs us into action as a newly informed citizenry and not rabble at the city gates, it’s all good — and ultimately grist for the mill.
Judith, Mary:
I think Elizabeth Warren would make a great VP pick, and a major acknowledgement of the power of Sanders message, which is also Warren’s. I also believe she has wiled her time in the Senate to pick up speed as to how the whole mess works. I admired her even back then when she made the decision NOT to run, because I knew she had to put in major senate committee time and become more comfortably visible on a national scale.
Warren’s recent toe-to-toe with Trump on Twitter was a scream and she could twist Ted Cruz into knots. If she ran in 2020, she’d win hands down.
It wouldn’t be the first time in office that a President picked a VP who did not represent all the aims of the Executive Office. Obama found a way to work with Biden personally, and his selection of Hillary as Sec-State was a good move to heal the party after the grueling campaign. He was smart enough to pick people as smart as he is to challenge him. Some of it was meh, other times, especially with Biden, it was great.
I am comfortable with Bernie’s message as a major tenet on the Democratic Party’s platform. I think in fact, that is why the Sanders campaign is still running — all the way to the convention. I’m not a Clinton supporter in the classic sense. She needs to remember the base is still left of her, even while running towards the middle, which is what all eventual nominees must do to win.
Here’s Elizabeth eviscerating Ted on Twitter recently, Fe. Laughed and laughed.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/elizabeth-warren-ted-cruz-twitter_us_5716ac90e4b06f35cb710fc0
Love her. Thanks for the link, Jude!
OMG she totally rocks!!
From Kos at Daily Kos this morning:
Bernie Sanders effectively conceded last night.
I congratulate Secretary Clinton on her victories tonight, and I look forward to issue-oriented campaigns in the 14 contests to come […]
The people in every state in this country should have the right to determine who they want as president and what the agenda of the Democratic Party should be. That’s why we are in this race until the last vote is cast. That is why this campaign is going to the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia with as many delegates as possible to fight for a progressive party platform that calls for a $15 an hour minimum wage, an end to our disastrous trade policies, a Medicare-for-all health care system, breaking up Wall Street financial institutions, ending fracking in our country, making public colleges and universities tuition free and passing a carbon tax so we can effectively address the planetary crisis of climate change.
Sanders remains in it to amass delegates to influence the party platform. Heck, he may even make the usually worthless piece of paper mean something. Remember, no candidate is beholden to that platform, but if there really is juice behind the Sanders movement, it can help hold Democrats accountable to it.
Fact is, the party ails, and we need all the reinforcements we can to force change. That’s why party affiliation matters. If you want to ditch the (D) label to become an independent, reconsider. If you are a left-leaning independent, consider switching to (D). You want to influence the party and move it to where we all want it to go, you do it from the inside. Become or remain an independent, and you no longer have a say in the direction the party is going. Why would you surrender that chance? You prove nothing by being independent, other than that you don’t want to fight for your party. Of course you want to fight for it, your involvement in the Sanders campaign proved it! So if you really are part of a long-term movement, then do what real movements do, and fight to win!
You quit the party, and you make it a little easier for the assholes in the Democratic Party to remain in control. They want you to quit. Please don’t.
Now I understand the pain so many of you are feeling. I’ve been on the losing end of more campaigns than I care to remember. I’ve poured my heart and soul into so many losing battles, on behalf of so many candidates I admired and respected and fervently wished to get elected, that I know exactly how Sanders’ supporters are feeling right now. It’s a sickening, dark place, one that I don’t wish on anyone who isn’t a Republican.
If you are a Clinton supporter, have some damn compassion, will you? You haven’t won yet. The primary? Who gives a shit! Donald Trump will win his too, and has he won shit yet? The real winner will get crowned in November. That’s the victory that matters. Beating another Democrats shouldn’t bring you any joy unless that Democrat is Joe Lieberman.
So why would you piss on people we need for November, not just for the White House but all those downballot races as well. How well do you think Clinton will do with a Republican Congress? We need everyone we can get. So maybe it’s time for some olive branches?
Also, be impressed. It’s not every day we get to see the creation of a whole new class of people excited about politics. Hillary certainly didn’t manage that. So it behooves you to harness as much of that energy as possible. Of course, Sanders people won’t be as excited about Clinton as you are, but who cares? There are more Democrats on the ballot than Clinton, and some of them are pretty awesome. Help them get excited about fixing our party.
If you are a Sanders supporter, you haven’t lost yet. I don’t mean the presidential contest, that was always an uphill fight. Yet you guys fought despite an indifferent media, despite a hostile establishment, and despite people like me harping on the “math”, and you proved lots of people wrong along the way (including me). I’m not embarrassed or angry or annoyed. I’m excited and in awe of what you were able to accomplish, and I fervently hope that 1) you stay engaged inside the Democratic Party, because that’s how we improve it, and 2) that you maintain that energy for the November elections (and looking ahead at what will be a brutally tough 2018 cycle). See? That’s how much I don’t hate Sanders, despite some suggestions to the contrary. I want his influence to continue inside my Democratic Party, where it can make a difference.
I don’t care if you are excited about Clinton or not, she’ll be fine. I care that you get excited about Democrats down the ballot, about giving Clinton a Congress that will push her to the Left even when she might not want to. Clinton doesn’t get to pass a $15 minimum wage. Congress does. You want strong climate change legislation? We don’t have a dictatorship. Congress has to pass it.
But don’t make the mistake, either, of thinking that Clinton is the evil harpy of so many caricatures. She’ll do good things, she’ll do great things, and she’ll do shitty things. Our job will be to apply the same kind of pressure we’ve applied all these years of the Obama presidency. And no matter what she might do with the executive branch, all of that will pale to that single Supreme Court pick Republicans are hell-bent on giving her.
For all the mistakes that President Bill Clinton made during his tenure, his Supreme Court picks weren’t any of them—Stephen Breyer and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. If anything, expect even better. The next pick will flip the court and the race will be on to relitigate all the shit the conservative court did to rig the electoral system in the GOP’s favor—from reversing Citizens United to stomping congressional gerrymandering to removing barriers to voting. This is not a country that easily enables political revolutions, but flipping the court will be a seismic shift in our nation’s course. And odds are, Clinton will get to make more than one pick for the High Court before her eight years are up.
So this matters. All of it matters. Work the inside game, help cleanse the party of the assholes. Help good Democrats get elected. Let’s work for better legislation and better presidenting. And when 2024 rolls around, we’ll have an open slate primary, with an electoral system better suited for real democracy (thanks to the new Supreme Court), and a party more receptive to its grassroots.
Yeah, 2024 is a long way away. But 2016 was a long way away from 2008, when Obama was first elected, and we did little to build our bench. Heck, we went backwards thanks to 2010 and 2014. So time will inextricably move forward, and 2024 will eventually get here, and it’ll be the single best opportunity we have to elect a Bernie-style liberal. But building that starts now. Let’s develop a bench of lots of Bernie-style Dems!
So if you really are part of a movement, then congratulations! The odds are always against getting off the ground, but you accomplished that. The next step is to grow that movement. Make it happen.
(B: I emphasized this point for you. I think I get what you’re saying!!)
Fe, I love it when you get excited
It starts here, B.
Good post, Fe. Now is not the time for good people to abandon the political process, or a party that is at least carrying on a conversation about the issues that matter to people. Bernie is doing a good thing. I like what you say that Hillary will do good, great and shitty things. So would Bernie in the White House. And any potential republican nominee would only do shitty and shittier things by my assessment of where they are starting, and where they think things should go. I keep reminding myself and others, especially women: people were jailed, persecuted and killed so that we could vote, not even 100 years ago! Don’t disrespect their fight by abstaining from this hard won right. That anniversary in in 2020.
Ooops I thought your last comment was your article. Time to take a break from computer, my eyes have a screen time limit. And after reading your article, my comment still stands.
It’s Kos’ article from Daily Kos, but he nailed what I’ve been feeling about this election year for awhile, which is why I haven’t been writing so much about it, until now. So much was unclear until now.
Now its clear, the (R)evolution IS us. Not one candidate. But the solidification of ideas that have crystallized over these past eight, sixteen, twenty, uh, 40 years. Time to start a new cycle. And to support the Millennials who will carry us and this country towards its future.