Bernie Sanders Sayings

American democracy is not about billionaires being able to buy candidates and elections. It is one person, one vote - with every citizen having an equal say - and no voter suppression.

Voter ignorance explains an impotent Congress

First, let's establish the fact that election spending by candidates is completely out of hand. According to an opinion piece in U.S. News by Anthony Gaughan, "The 2012 election set an all-time record of $7 billion in campaign spending, and the 2016 election is projected to far surpass that figure." 2000 was $3 billion+, 2008 cost over $5 billion with the 2004 election $4 billion. So you can see it's not all the fault of Citizens United.

But it isn't all this money that causes the problem, muses Gaughan, "...It's what too many Americans don't know and won't bother to learn." The last part, "won't bother to learn," really bothers me. The fact is pathetic but true and is the primary reason morons like Donald Trump lead the GOP slate of presidential candidates. I have talked to people who admit they aren't up on the issues and my gut tells me they are just waiting for someone to tell them who to vote for.

This ignorance carries over to things like not even knowing who the Vice president is, which puts that individual in the third grade, or less, as far as their political education goes. Gaughan reasons there are two major reasons for this onslaught of ignorance. First, interest in the news has dwindled. Two, because of the enormous cut back in education spending throughout the U.S., less attention is paid to civics, history and world affairs.

Ask an average American who won the Academy Awards and they can probably tell you. Ask them who their local Congress person is and they are stumped for an answer. So when they are told by some Super Pac to vote for XYZ because ABC is a fraud, they do it. Or some blow-hard gets in front of them espousing hate and fear, they believe him or her. Ignorance of politics should be a crime like ignorance of the law is. 

Bernie Sanders Sayings

You go to Scandinavia, and you will find that people have a much higher standard of living, in terms of education, health care and decent paying jobs.

The Super Delegates will be there

Bernie Sanders said today his lack of super delegates to date didn't worry him because the states involved heavily favored Hillary Clinton. He was more concerned about those states to come in the West like California, Oregon and Washington. Through a little research I found that coming down the home stretch Hillary began to lose super delegates to Barack Obama in 2008, eventually losing the nomination to the current President.

It's a matter of choice, says Nate Silver in his FiveThirtyEight blog, commenting, "Superdelegates were created in part to give Democratic party elites the opportunity to put their finger on the scale..." Isn't this a part of Bernie Sander's promise to balance the inequality in the U.S.? As Silver also remarked, "If you’re a Sanders supporter, you might think this seems profoundly unfair. And you’d be right: It’s profoundly unfair."

Not being a Democrat, the Bern has no control over this process, but something tells me that somewhere in the future the Party will re-think this maneuver.

Bernie Sanders Sayings

The history of American democracy, to say the least, has been checkered. Our nation was founded at a time when people of African descent were held in bondage. After slavery was abolished, they were forced to endure legal discrimination for another 100 years.

Bernie Sanders winning in Michigan

Hillary Clinton won Mississippi but it does look very good for Bernie Sanders in Michigan, a much more important state. The Bern didn't expect to win much of the South and thankfully we have those states out of the way now. At this writing, Bernie led Hillary in Michigan 51% to 47%, 81% reporting. This will be a key win for Sanders for Michigan is a diverse state and the Detroit population, its largest city, is heavily black. 

Bernie S

Bernie Sanders Sayings

At its worst, Washington is a place where name-calling partisan politics too often trumps policy.

Bernie Sanders one-issue candidate...Don't think so

Hillary Clinton continues to call Bernie Sanders a one-issue candidate because of his focus on inequality. Just that one word alone suggests so many branches which include racism, poverty, education, medical care, and many others. It is possible that the Bern hasn't made the above clear, that all these other matters are covered under his umbrella issue of inequality. These categories occurred to me at the beginning of his campaign so it is possible Sanders took this for granted.

But Bernie went further in Ypsilanti, Michigan, broadening his reach beyond what appears to be on economics only by listing 20 issues during an hour-long speech to a crowd of 9,400 supporters proving his campaign is much more diverse than is painted by Clinton. Things like universal health care, minimum wage, the jail population, same-sex marriage, trade policy and more. You can see all twenty in the Washington Post article.

FLASH: Bernie's new Michigan poll numbers

Just heard from the Bern and Michigan State University just released their final poll before tomorrow’s primary:

Michigan State University Poll - Michigan (March 7, 2016)

Hillary Clinton 52%

Bernie Sanders 47%

As late as last week Bernie Sanders trailed Hillary Clinton by 20 points. Some are even saying he could win the state of Michigan.

Go Bernie!

Bernie Sanders Sayings

Public vs. private healthcare by country

People don't trust private health insurance companies for all the right reasons.

Hillary Clinton's "inevitability" is pure bunk

Hillary Clinton said following Super Tuesday results that it was inevitable that she win the Democratic nomination. Sure, and I'm going to be her vice president. Okay, she picked up eight states, six of which were in the South, thus, a win from the black vote. Although Bernie Sanders won only four states, they are more representative of what most of the rest of the country is like: Colorado, Minnesota, Oklahoma and his home state of Vermont.

Much of this reasoning comes from the early results of Iowa and New Hampshire; the former a tie and the latter a blow out for the Bern. Finally getting around to the April primaries, Clinton takes the lead in most but in two states Sanders runs a close second: Wisconsin, Clinton 45%-Sanders 43% and Rhode Island, 49% to 40%. The others are going to take some work. Now, in a recent analysis, Bernie is capturing some of Hillary's Hispanic supporters.

“Latinos will play a pivotal role in Sen. Sanders’ path to victory in important states like Arizona, Illinois, New York, California and Florida," says Arturo Carmona, Sanders’ deputy political director in an MSNBC article. The Bern won big in Colorado where the Hispanic population is 20.7%. So tracking these five states, Latino numbers are Arizona 29.6%, Illinois 15.8, New York 17.5, Calif. 37.6 and Florida 22.5.

When you add the Millennials to the above, on which Bernie Sanders has a lock, the same states in the same order show the following younger population: Arizona 36.2%, Illinois, 37%, New York 37.4 %, Calif. 38.7% and Florida 34.4%. In 2012 54.9% of the voting age population voted so it is easy to come up with the numbers from the latter percentages. These figures are important in determining Bernie's chances of receiving the Democratic nomination.

But the obvious from all of this is that Hillary Clinton's nomination is not "inevitable" and she and her staff know it. What is inevitable is a long fight where the odds are clearly in favor of the Bern. This is supported by the fact that I reported on Feb. 19, that his surge continued with national polls jumping 14 points against Hillary Clinton in just one month. Will the Clinton camp still be saying the same thing when Bernie passes Hillary in the polls? I think not.

Bernie Sanders Sayings

CEOs of large corporations earn 400 times what their workers make. That is not what America is supposed to be about.