The race for the Democratic Party's presidential nominee continues. It is not over despite efforts to shut it down.
If you support Bernie, I do, what are you doing right now to see that the right person gets the nomination?
Life can be sad and depressing, I get it. And when we have disappointments, we do need to acknowledge and deal with it. Super Tuesday began some disappointments for us. The coronavirus doesn't help. But we've acknowledged those things and Bernie gave the best response/address on the coronavirus.
That alone should lift our spirits up. Bernie spoke to what was needed. We are in the midst of a human emergency and Bernie, no surprise, stepped up and delivered.
I'd love to see him become president but leaving that aside, in the midst of a national emergency, Bernie delivered truth plain and clear and that's something to applaud and be proud of.
It's also something that should motivate us to work harder since the primaries are not over.
Someone -- Jimmy Dore? -- stated Bernie needed to do better explaining the costs of his plans. His plans are great. Yes, we support them -- those of us who support Bernie -- but the plans themselves are supported by most people as well. Medicare For All has performed better among those who voted in the Democratic Party primary than most candidates. So what's the issue?
Right-wingers among the Democratic Party -- the James Carvilles, the Chers -- have joined the corporate media in scaring the American people with cries of 'the cost! the cost! the cost!'
Where were those cries when the Iraq War started?
Well Bernie's addressed the costs -- we posted "How Does Bernie Pay for His Major Plans?" from the campaign site earlier today. So, if you want, we should all be posting about that, we should all be discussing that -- face to face, e-mails whatever -- with the people we know.
There's a lot of revisionary history taking place right now. Gender prevented Elizabeth Warren's rise -- that's the claim, right?
Sexism was part of the primaries.
I don't want hear any female or male talk about sexism if they haven't defended Tulsi. Defending Tulsi Gabbard does not mean you have to say, "I'm voting for her!" or even "I like her!" It does mean that you recognize the system is sexist and that Tulsi -- like the other five women -- was targeted with sexism. Recognizing that means, right now, you're arguing against the discrimination against Tulsi.
If you're not, just stop thinking you're fooling anyone because you're not. You don't give two s**ts about sexism, you're just a whiny baby because you didn't get Elizabeth for the nominee.
I'm not here to play, I'm not here to sugarcoat. We need to grow up.
When all six women were in the field, they posed for photos together (COSMO or VOGUE, I can't remember which) and I noted then and since that they should have addressed gender discrimination -- and done it as a group. But they didn't.
Tulsi is still in the race. She should be at the next debate. That the DNC changed the rules is outrageous.
If you can't call that out or if you're doing your b.s. posts and Tweets about 'four great women' then you aren't helping anyone so stop pretending you're a feminist.
There were six women in this race and they all made a difference: Tulsi, Elizabeth, Marianne Williamson, Kamala Harris, Amy Klobuchar and Kirsten Gillibrand. I don't like all of them, no. But I won't deny that they ran their race and they ran it strong and they presented different campaigns and different versions of strength and, in doing so, they shattered stereotypes and so much more. They, all six of them, made it easier for the next women who run.
I say the same of Hillary Clinton, Cynthia McKinney, Rosa Clemente and Sarah Palin.
That's ten women who've made a difference in the last 20 years in how we view women and the offices of president and vice president. Again, I don't like every one of them. That's fine. Everyone doesn't think like me. Those that didn't appeal to me, appealed to other women and,let's not forget, other men. Those ten have changed our understanding and our vision and I can salute all ten for that and will -- thank you to each and everyone of you.
So if we can get over the nonsense, let's deal with reality.
Elizabeth was the front runner at one point. She'd done well in a debate, she was connecting with voters, the nomination could have been hers at that point.
It wasn't sexism that stopped her momentum.
It was the press and her fellow candidates. Not Bernie.
It was mainly Amy Klobuchar and Pete Buttiegeg.
Everyone piled on her at that debate except for Bernie.
But Amy and Pete attacked her with falsehoods.
How was she going to pay for her programs -- that was the line of attack in the press. And Elizabeth responded by releasing a plan to do that and that got distorted and Pete especially attacked her with lies.
He's a smug bastard who thinks he has a future. As a populist, he doesn't. Because what he did was so like what the Senate did to Anita Hill. And you get away with that -- you do. We've noted it here many times that, in real time, you will get away with it.
But we don't forget. Women don't forget -- isn't that one of the big complaints about us?
We will reflect on it, we will remember what took place, and, though you were flying high a few months back, you're going to find that popular opinion has turned against you.
That will happen to Tiny Pete -- how lucky for him that he's already a conservative Democrat because that's the only crowd that will embrace him in a year or two.
Elizabeth was destroyed by the press and most of her colleagues who were on the stage at the debate. She was the front runner and they went after her. Some went after her with differences of opinion, that's fine. Some went after her with lies -- Tiny Pete and Amy are in that crowd.
Gender did not prevent Elizabeth from rising to the status of front runner. And it is not what demolished that status.
Lies were told about her in the press and by her 'friends' on stage at the debate.
Lies are being told about Bernie's plans -- lies that it can't be paid for or that the poor -- oh, sorry, they don't say "poor" in the corporate press, it's the only word they censor apparently -- or that the non-wealthy will be taxed higher.
Bernie has a plan and a plan to pay for the plan and the plan to pay for the plan makes clear that it's not working class America that's going to get stuck with the bill.
It's time to stop the lying Petes and Amys and CNNs of the country.
We have that power.
Pete's not trusted, Amy's not trusted and the media certainly isn't trusted. But there's no one more important than you to your friends and family. You have their trust. You can break through the lies and explain reality.
Would it be easy? Few things worth doing are ever easy.
I'm also wondering why another tactic has not been used.
Sarah Silverman supports Bernie. I bring her up because she supported Barack in 2008. Does anyone remember a program she and others had for Barack? You were supposed to lobby your grandparent for Barack. Barack didn't do well among older voters -- John McCain did better.
Does no one remember that? Here are the basics:
To secure a presidential victory in 2008, Barack Obama needed to win key swing states that had cost Democrats the 2000 and 2004 elections. Among the campaign’s challenges, resonance in Florida was hampered by false perceptions that elderly Jewish voters held regarding Obama and his campaign. To correct those misconceptions, Droga5 and the Jewish Council for Education and Research enlisted Sarah Silverman to launch The Great Schlep. A micro-targeted grassroots movement, The Great Schlep asked grandchildren of elderly Jews to convince their grandparents to reconsider their position on Obama. In the end, Obama won Florida by 170,000 votes (51% vs. 49%) and received the highest elderly Jewish vote in 30 years.
So that was used in the general election of 2008. Why isn't it being used now?
Not just in Florida but elsewhere?
It's an option that should be considered.
At this point, we need to considering everything -- what's worked before, what's never been tried.
I was on the phone with a friend who is a game designer and we were talking about Bernie. He said he's shared with gaming friends about Bernie. But he noted his online presence includes many other forums that have nothing to do with gaming. So what he's trying to do going forward today is reach out on forums he hasn't.
There is time to make a difference. This is not over.
This website started after things were over. The 2004 election was supposed to be a sure thing -- who knew John Kerry was so stupid? Not me. Although when I told him about John Edwards' grabby hands that should have been a clue that John wasn't really the person I thought he was. But I did support him and I did make speeches supporting him and try to rally people behind him.
And he lost.
And after the election, those of us who were of a certain group got together for an autopsy on the campaign and what worked and what didn't. And we all had answers, we all had words. Some of mine were implemented in 2008 -- to my regret, but that's another story.
And that's how the meeting ended. Over my objections. So that's -- this a paraphrase -- it, we just point out what was done wrong and we have no follow up, we don't work on anything?
My point was we needed to finger point not just at the campaign but also at ourselves and we needed to figure out what we didn't use that we could have.
I knew nothing about blogs (probably still don't), I knew nothing about social media. My big thing was an e-mail I did to multiple friends where I'd copy and paste various articles -- news reports and columns. I said that maybe I should have done a blog, maybe we all should have been blogging.
Some left that meeting content that we'd cut up the corpse -- John Kerry's failed campaign.
I came home and started this site. That night.
If you look at the campaign Bernie's running so far and you see something that you don't think is working or some area that's not being tapped, you have power. You can't make the campaign change but you can take your idea -- whatever it is -- and implement it.
You can make that change. Maybe it only effects one person? That's one more person in the Not Me, Us struggle.
I'm not big on 'here's what's let do' posting. Do what you want to do, absolutely. But if there's one thing I am comfortable saying and recommending, it's that this is not over and it can be turned around. We've had our time to wallow -- over the corporate media's attacks on Bernie, over Cher's disgusting Red baiting (and she was far from the only, the media certainly helped, but I know her and I will hold her accountable), over the recent results and certainly over the coronavirus. Things have been bleak but dusting ourselves off and getting back to work on getting the word out on who Bernie actually is and what his proposals could actually do for this country is a purpose that could uplift us even in these discouraging times.
If you're a Bernie supporter and you're reading this and thinking, "That woman is insane!" Good. That means you are seeing something I'm not. That means you've got an angle that is different than mine. Pursue that angle. Work that angle. We don't all need to do same thing, the same way. We need to amplify the campaign via varied means and ways. And your disagreement with me? That's great. I support that and encourage you on that. You're seeing something wrong in what I'm proposing and that means that you've got another idea, another approach. Go with that absolutely.
Again, this is not over. We could wait until it's over and do an autopsy then or we can work now to correct course and make a difference.
There will be more up later today but right now I'm going to leave this up here at the top for a few hours. The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.
