It is Not Too Later for Bernie and it is Not Too Late for Us!

<div style="text-align: justify;"> <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PEQBA_SU7wY/Vx4P-pQQMzI/AAAAAAAAEAU/IbJNAN0WGoUrVLKIxjhwbmH1ZQWMr39-QCLcB/s1600/berniesanders-scranton-pennsylvania-townmeeting.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PEQBA_SU7wY/Vx4P-pQQMzI/AAAAAAAAEAU/IbJNAN0WGoUrVLKIxjhwbmH1ZQWMr39-QCLcB/s320/berniesanders-scranton-pennsylvania-townmeeting.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Thursday Rally - Photo by Andrew Bernoski</td></tr> </tbody></table> On April 21st I heard Senator and presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders speak.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> Addressing a capacity crowd at the Scranton PA Cultural Center, Bernie Sanders talked, not about himself, but about where he stood on issue after issue. <br /> <br /> And every one of his ideas seemed infinitely reasonable.  So reasonable in fact that many of them are already in effect in progressive countries all over the world.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> At the heart of Bernie Sanders' message is the idea that our system is fundamentally unfair. That the wealthy (much less than) 1% influence lawmaking through a corrupt campaign finance system.  And that this influence is much more serious than it sounds.<br /> <br /> Because the wealthy make the laws we have corporate bailouts, the outsourcing of jobs, a shrinking middle class, and an economy that places the burden of supplying food stamps and medical care to the employees of some of the richest people in the world on ordinary taxpayers like you and me.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> Last night, making calls for Bernie, I spoke to a 91 year old man who told me that we need the rich, that they create jobs, and that we couldn't get by without them.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> Sadly many people do have the idea that Bernie Sanders wants to redistribute wealth which is just not the case.  What he does want to do is make families like the Walton's (the owners of Walmart and the richest family in the US) use their profits to pay their employees a living wage.  What he does want is for all young people to be able to go to college.  To RAISE Social Security.  To stop providing unfair advantages to the wealthy who simply do not need - or deserve - our support.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> Bernie Sanders has consistently voted against disastrous trade agreements, fracking, unjust wars and corporate welfare.  All things that were supported by Hillary Clinton.  All things that no so coincidentally help the rich get richer.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> Hillary is all over the media.  In subtle, and not so subtle, attempts at brainwashing we know what kind of books she reads, what sort of exercise she does or doesn't do, and what her favorite snack foods are. I don't know any of those things about Bernie - but I do know that Hillary Clinton is not my friend.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> And the good news is, that while an elderly gentleman from central PA, may not see through this millions of young people do.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> Last Thursday afternoon, surrounded by enthusiastic young people (some of whom were still too young to vote) I felt better about the future of our country than I have in a very long time.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> As a card reader, I often tell people that the truth is fluid, that it changes minute by minute and beat by beat.  Just by sitting down for this reading, I say, you have changed the future.  And with every phone call we make, every door we knock on, we have changed it too.<br /> <br /> The truth is that none of us knows what will come of tomorrow's primary or the one after that - and that includes media. Don't let them tell you what kind of future you can have!</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> And before you vote, please do your homework on Hillary Clinton or see my post "<a href="http://www.mysticreview.com/2016/04/why-bernie-sanders-means-more-to-me.html" target="_blank">Why I Support Bernie Sanders</a>."</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> To make calls for Bernie visit <a href="https://go.berniesanders.com/page/content/phonebank" target="_blank">BernieSanders.com/PhoneBank</a>  It isn't too late until we let it be so!</div>

It is Not Too Later for Bernie and it is Not Too Late for Us!

Thursday Rally - Photo by Andrew Bernoski On April 21st I heard Senator and presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders speak. Addressing a...

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Why I Support Bernie Sanders!

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-yzAgEOj2EAQ/VweZTYVjLnI/AAAAAAAAD-g/gBSKVCRZYH8nFCN5arJU7z9NlS1WhQ-IQ/s1600/Bernie_Sanders_Arrested_1963_Chicago_Tribune.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="206" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-yzAgEOj2EAQ/VweZTYVjLnI/AAAAAAAAD-g/gBSKVCRZYH8nFCN5arJU7z9NlS1WhQ-IQ/s320/Bernie_Sanders_Arrested_1963_Chicago_Tribune.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Civil Rights Protester Bernie Sanders 1963</td></tr> </tbody></table> <div style="text-align: justify;"> I have never been political here.  At least not really I-support-this-candidate kind of political but now, in this  democratic  primary, I feel I have to be.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> I used to believe that presidential primaries were the process that told us which candidate was most likely to win. But thanks to a couple of aha moments during this primary, I've realized that isn't what primaries are meant for at all.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> My first aha concerned the media.  </div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> To me the mainstream media has always seemed skewed.  I couldn't help noticing, for example, how hard the media tried to rally war support after 9/11 or how they've failed to expose the atrocities of the meat and dairy industry or cover key freedom of speech issues like Net Neutrality or Ag-Gag, but I didn't pay a whole lot of attention really to what they were (or weren't) saying until this presidential primary.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> The media has been telling us that Bernie Sanders can't win since day one. We have been told that over and over.  We have been told it overtly.  We have been told it subtly, through back-handed complements and innuendo.  We were told it before anyone had any idea what Bernie was capable of and we are told it now in the face of gathering momentum and repeated victories.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> My aha moment came when I realized that this is full-out propaganda.  If you listen carefully you will realize it too. You'll realize it when you notice how the media is spinning things, minimizing every win and telling us over and over again that Bernie can't win.  If we buy in to this we are participating in, as Sarah Silverman says, in her surprisingly lovely youtube on Bernie, "what my shrink would call a self-fulfilling prophecy."</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> My second aha was about the Democratic party and our political structure as a whole.<br /> <br /> I have been a vote-the-party-line Democrat since the day I turned 18 and I expected to always be that. But when I saw how hard the party was working to push Hillary through, I knew that I would not and could not vote for a candidate chosen by the Democratic powers that be. <br /> <br /> I simply do not accept a super-delegate system that takes the power to choose out of the hands of Democratic voters and puts it firmly under the control of what is essentially the party itself.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> This isn't democracy.  And this is something that should concern you no matter who you support.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> But why does it matter which candidate our party provides as long as that candidate is a Democrat?</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <ul> <li>It matters because Bernie Sanders isn't, as you probably already know, aligned with big business. But, while everyone has heard this, not everyone realizes just how important it is.  Bernie doesn't owe big business because he does not have a Super PAC.  His money comes from people like me who contribute 15 or 27 dollars out every check whether they can afford it or not.</li> <li>It matters because if ordinary people put Bernie into the white house, ordinary people are the people he owes.  Not frackers or Monsanto or Wall Street or the people who apparently control the media or make billions of dollars on ill-conceived wars.  </li> <li>It matters because Bernie has years (and years) in congress introducing important bills and being on the right side of almost every major decision.  Even when those decisions were very unpopular.</li> <li>It matters because Bernie is a humanist who opposes a system that makes life easier and easier for the rich by taking more and more away from ordinary people like you and me. </li> <li>It matters because Bernie Sanders is the real deal.  A person who wants to be president because he wants to make this world a better place. And his record highlights this every step of the way.</li> </ul> </div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> The differences between Hillary and Bernie are not coincidental.  And, to me, these differences mean that our party and maybe even our country isn't really what the people who are running things want us to perceive it to be.  </div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> As a result, I am no longer a tow the party line Democrat.  But I did learn something from the days when I was.  </div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> I canvassed for Barack Obama in the rain and the snow and the dark in 2008 and I was our local canvas coordinator in 2012. Working with the party in 2012 taught me a lot but it was 2008 that taught me the most.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> I remember sitting on the floor of the hallway of our local Democratic Headquarters in the final minutes of the 2008 presidential election.  I was working from my list of supporters, making as many phone calls as I could before the polls closed. Telling people that they did not need ID. And that if they were in line they could not be turned away. </div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> I remember sitting there in that hallway and suddenly knowing that this was a moment I would never forget.  I remember the energy and the feeling and the idea that WE could change the world.  I remember doing that.  And I know that it is possible.<br /> <br /> So let's make it happen.<br /> <br /> Visit <a href="http://feelthebern.org/" target="_blank">FeelTheBern.org</a> to learn how you can make a difference!</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div>

Why I Support Bernie Sanders!

Civil Rights Protester Bernie Sanders 1963 I have never been political here.  At least not really I-support-this-candidate kind of poli...

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