Bernie Sanders is not the average politician that says one thing today then change his views when it’s politically convenient. He is consistent no matter who the audience is, and his consistency revolves around fighting for the middle-class while trying to bring fairness to an obviously rigged political system.
Here is the definition of consistency.
Video
I think I’ve found a new, potent source of energy; Martin Luther King, Jr. spinning in his grave over the state of race relations in the country and on the presidential election trail. All we need to do is tap into it and we can power our devices for the foreseeable future. Unfortunately, it won’t do much for our national soul.
In the 48 years since his untimely and tragic death, King’s legacy has been begged, borrowed and stolen by those who believe they knew his intentions and by those who wanted them buried along with him. From the start, politicians – mostly on the right, including President Reagan and Senator Jesse Helms – opposed even making King’s birthday a national holiday. Arizona had to be threatened with the ultimate penalty of no Super Bowls, before they would accept the day. It’s also become a favorite day for the NBA to schedule afternoon games, but that seems to be the upper limit on MLK Day commercialization, and that’s a good thing. Those of us who are old enough might remember that January was traditionally the month when retailers would run sales on textiles that they labeled “White Sales.”
Can you imagine?
Over the past few years we’ve witnessed terrible incidents where African-American men, women and children were unjustly killed by the police, unnecessarily fined to the brink of bankruptcy by corrupt public officials, and stopped by the police for reasons that white Americans don’t experience. And what is considered good news for African-Americans, that their rates of narcotics deaths is lower, is tragically caused by racism, as this article recounts:
There is a reason that blacks appear to have been spared the worst of the narcotic epidemic, said Dr. Andrew Kolodny, a drug abuse expert. Studies have found that doctors are much more reluctant to prescribe painkillers to minority patients, worrying that they might sell them or become addicted.“The answer is that racial stereotypes are protecting these patients from the addiction epidemic,” said Dr. Kolodny, a senior scientist at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University and chief medical officer for Phoenix House Foundation, a national drug and alcohol treatment company.
On the campaign trail, the Republicans continue to express their outrage that minorities are not working because white tax money is easily available to them in the form of public assistance and unemployment benefits. Their fealty to Donald Trump’s immigration scheme will doom them with a majority of Hispanic voters and they can’t win the White House with only White Votes. Their opposition to a fair minimum wage, infrastructure projects, labor collective bargaining rights and public schools really doesn’t allow for any middle class group to support them, much less those who have traditionally been marginalized in American society.
On the Democratic side, Bernie Sanders is making his move in Iowa and New Hampshire and is now trying to appeal more to African-Americans, a group that Hillary Clinton has always done well with. Both of them have had problems with Black Lives Matter and their relative success could come down to the minority vote in southern states and northern cities. The Democrats cannot take the African-American vote for granted because the party has controlled many cities over the years, yet the schools have not improved, housing has not become more affordable, the minimum wage hasn’t helped and many jobs have fled the country.
Barack Obama’s election will have a lasting effect on this country, even as he is the victim of both overt and subtle racism on the part of many of his opponents. That he has served this country with distinction, morality, forthrightness and a stubborn streak that has forced his opposition to argue against fair treatment of all people, makes him a worthy representative of King’s legacy.
And this is why we need to have a holiday for Martin Luther King. It’s here to remind us that we will never live up to the true meaning of our founding documents as long as we treat people differently under the law, in the workplace and schools, and, most importantly, in our heads and hearts. I would urge you to add to your resolutions to lose weight and make more money, one that includes an action, an attitude change, or a commitment to act in King’s spirit and honor his words.
For more, go to www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives or Twitter @rigrundfest
It is Sunday and another secret Democratic debate will begin hours from now. But if having these secret debates at all weird hours of the night was a tactic by the DNC to favor the better known Hillary Clinton while keeping the lesser known Bernie Sanders away from the masses, then this has been a colossal failure on the DNC.
A Quinnipiac University poll released Tuesday showed Sanders with a five-percentage-point lead over Clinton, 49% to 44%.
The latest poll suggests a stark difference from a month ago where Clinton held an 11 percentage point lead over Sanders. Quinnipiac’s survey found that voters in Iowa, where caucuses are held on Feb. 1, see Sanders as more honest and more empathetic than Cliton who, however, is seen by voters as more electable than Sanders in a general election and stronger on foreign policy.
“Iowa may well become Sen. Bernie Sanders’ ‘Field of Dreams,’ Peter A. Brown, the assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll, said in a statement. “After three months of Secretary Hillary Clinton holding an average 10-point lead among Iowa Democrats, the playing field has changed.”
If Sanders beats Clinton in Iowa, it would be a surprise given her deep support among Iowa’s Democratic establishment. It would also likely draw comparisons to Clinton’s 2008 presidential run. In the caucuses that year, then-senator Barack Obama beat Clinton and former Sen. John Edwards, largely due to the support of first-time caucus-goers.
A win for Sanders in Iowa would give him a boost headed into New Hampshire’s Feb. 9 primary. Sanders, who represents the neighboring state of Vermont, continues to hold a slight lead in the polls there.
A Monmouth University poll released Tuesday found Sanders leading Clinton in New Hampshire, 53% to 39%.
“Sanders has used his insurgent campaign to tell Americans the truth about the challenges that confront us,” the editors at The Nation wrote. “He has summoned the people to a “political revolution,” arguing that the changes our country so desperately needs can only happen when we wrest our democracy from the corrupt grip of Wall Street bankers and billionaires.”
“We believe such a revolution is not only possible but necessary,” they continued. “And that’s why we’re endorsing Bernie Sanders for president. This magazine rarely makes endorsements in the Democratic primary (we’ve done so only twice: for Jesse Jackson in 1988, and for Barack Obama in 2008). We do so now impelled by the awareness that our rigged system works for the few and not for the many. Americans are waking up to this reality, and they are demanding change. This understanding animates both the Republican and Democratic primaries, though it has taken those two contests in fundamentally different directions.”
The former First Daughter went on the attack against her mom’s Democratic opponent, Sen Bernie Sanders, saying that Bernie’s healthcare proposal would “dismantle” Obamacare. The attack is a sure sign that things are not okay in the Clinton camp, according to some Democratic strategists.
Making her first solo appearance on the stump, Chelsea Clinton late Tuesday ripped Sanders over his proposals on healthcare and college affordability, arguing the White House hopeful wants to “dismantle” ObamaCare and Medicare.
Democrats have almost universally panned the attack, believing it to be ineffective and a misuse of her talents.
They note that Chelsea Clinton has mostly been used to highlight Hillary Clinton’s softer side as a mother and grandmother and say she seemed uncomfortable shedding her first daughter persona for the role of attack dog.
“The thing that tells you as much as anything about [the Clinton campaign’s] current state of mind is Chelsea going on the attack. It tells you everything you need to know,” said one Democratic strategist. “That this [challenge from Sanders] is real and they’ve got to be freaking out.”
The attack caught many Democrats, including Sanders and his supporters, by surprise.
Following Tuesday night’s State of the Union address, CNN played the clip of Chelsea Clinton’s criticism directly to Sanders. The Vermont senator held back a wry smile as he offered a measured rebuke of Chelsea, who is nearly 40 years his junior.
“As much as I admire Chelsea, she didn’t read the plan,” he said.
With Bernie Sanders increasing his lead over Clinton in New Hampshire and overtaking her in Iowa, Hillary Clinton is frantically doing the media talk show blitz at an alarming rate. Her goal? To tell everyone that all is well. No need to worry, she got this!
In other words it’s safe to say that Hillary Clinton is Feeling The Bern
Clinton played notoriously hard-to-get during the first phase of her campaign — so much so that it was considered breaking news when she agreed to a sit-down interview with CNN.
But over the past 10 days, she has appeared no fewer than nine times on five major networks — CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC and MSNBC, including live three morning-show appearances Wednesday. The former secretary of state has averaged one interview a day since Friday, Jan. 8, when she called into MSNBC’s “Hardball.” Three days earlier, she also appeared in an extensive sit-down interview with “Hardball” host Chris Matthews. And the appearances don’t seem to be slowing down: She’ll appear on NBC’s “The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon” and sit down with MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow on Thursday, all at the same time her campaign looks to get a boost amid sagging poll numbers.
Before the crack of dawn on Wednesday, Clinton rose to assure George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s “Good Morning America” in person that she was not concerned—that, despite Bernie Sanders’ blazing poll numbers, despite the fact that he overtook her in Iowa and opened up a comfortable double-digit lead in New Hampshire, despite the fact Sanders hours earlier had disputed her daughter Chelsea’s assertion that he wanted to scrap Obamacare entirely, despite the fact that the Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primary are mere weeks away, the Clinton campaign is not sweating the challenge. And then she appeared on NBC’s “Today” with Savannah Guthrie, again rejecting the notion that her campaign is suddenly feeling pressure from Sanders. An hour later, Clinton fielded similar questions from the co-hosts of “CBS This Morning.”
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2016/01/hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders-2016-217711#ixzz3xEClrDCT
Bernie Sanders just keep chipping and chipping and chipping away at what seemed to be an almost insurmountable lead for Hillary Clinton in Iowa, and if this new Quinnipiac poll is to be believed, Hillary Clinton should worry.
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders wins the support of 49 percent of likely Democratic Caucus participants, with 44 percent for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and 4 percent for former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today.
This compares to the results of a December 15 survey by the independent Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh-pe-ack) University showing Clinton at 51 percent, with 40 percent for Sanders.
Today, 3 percent are undecided and only 20 percent of those who name a candidate say they might change their mind.
There is a yawning gender gap as men back Sanders 61 – 30 percent, with 6 percent for O’Malley, while women back Clinton 55 – 39 percent, with 3 percent for O’Malley.
Sanders also has a big lead on favorability as likely Democratic Caucus participants give him an 87 – 3 percent favorability rating, compared to Clinton’s 74 – 21 percent score.
The Vice President was interviewed on Monday and said that Bernie Sanders has fought against income inequality for years. The Vice President also said that the income inequality fight is “relatively new” for Hillary Clinton, as she has used her time to focus on “other things.”
“Bernie is speaking to a yearning that is deep and real and he has credibility on it,” Biden said. “And that is the absolute enormous concentration of wealth in a small group of people with the new class now being able to be shown being left out.”
He said Clinton, who is campaigning in Iowa on Tuesday, had not focused on income inequality as long.
“It’s relatively new for Hillary to talk about that,” Biden said. “Hillary’s focus has been other things up to now and that’s been Bernie’s. No one questions Bernie’s authenticity on those issues.”
Is there really a president in this bunch? And I’m not just talking about the Republicans either.
While none of the GOP candidates thrill me at all for various reasons, I find myself also looking critically at the Democrats and asking if this really is the best we can do. Of course, Americans generally ask this question every four years when looking for a candidate they’re passionate about, like Ronald Reagan or Barack Obama. Neither of those guys will be on the ballot this year.
Instead, we have a group of Republicans who are falling over each other to appeal to a shrinking pool of older white voters who somehow want the country to revert back to 1953, when men were men, women were supposed to be in the home and minorities were supposed to be in the back of the bus or in the fields picking our fruits and vegetables. Those days are not coming back for a very good reason. The problem is that the GOP candidates don’t see it. Donald Trump is the commander in chief of this cabal, but his greatest support will turn out to be a Potemkin village full of people who say they love their candidate but do not come out and vote in numbers enough to elect him. Which is a good thing.
The other Republican candidates are just as flawed, and getting flawedier as time goes on. Trump has set the tone on immigration and religious intolerance, and the rest of the field has gone along with him, except for Jeb Bush. But he doesn’t seem to matter these days, because the last person the party wants to see at the head of the ticket is another Bush. Not that Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, Chris Christie or John Kasich are doing any better.
Most of them deny any human hand in the changing climate and support various, intrusive policies for women who just want to get honest, impartial medical advice from their doctors. They’ve also come up with foreign policies that riff on bombings and sending American soldiers overseas without considering that other countries can do this work with limited US reserves. ISIS is a deadly threat, but sustained pressure from the sane Muslim world will go a long way towards turning the tables on them. We need to support that.
What strikes me particularly about the Republican candidates is that the two with arguably the best records in their previous jobs are Governors Bush and Kasich, and they seem to be having trouble breaking through the irresponsible and dangerous rantings of those above them in the polls. Aside from those two, none of the other candidates has done anything notable, and that includes Christie, who asked the New Jersey Supreme Court to declare his one great accomplishment – public worker pension and benefit reform – as unconstitutional. And it did.
And if the spotlight ever turns on Christie because of a win in New Hampshire, his abysmal handling of the New Jersey economy will not endear him to economic conservatives. Similarly, Cruz, Rubio, Paul, Carson and Fiorina do not have a signature accomplishment to run on. And perhaps that doesn’t matter: Mitt Romney did have an accomplishment in health care, but he ran faster than Usain Bolt away from it. Go figure.
As for the Democrats, Hillary is still faced with the drip drip of government e-mails being purged from her home server and she is less than stellar on the campaign trail. Bernie Sanders has the heart and passion, but his time was 1972, not 2016. The country is not ready to turn around and elect someone with his views, and if he’s nominated (which he won’t be) the Democrats will lose.
Don’t get me wrong here; I believe that Hillary Clinton will be elected president in November and that she will do a fine job in the White House. It’s just that the campaign’s tone has focused on what makes us weak and though they try, none of the candidates is an uplifting presence who is telling us what they see as the future of this country. Perhaps that will come in the summer. But in the meantime, it’s going to be a long winter.
For more, go to www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives or Twitter @rigrundfest
The bullying of Bernie Sanders appears to be over, albeit temporary, with an agreement between the DNC and the Sanders campaign over restoration of his well-needed voter database. And in their statements, both sides claimed victory.
“The Democratic National Committee on Friday capitulated and agreed to reinstate Sen. Bernie Sanders’ campaign’s access to a critically important voter database,” the Sanders campaign said in a statement.
“The Sanders campaign has now complied with the DNC’s request to provide the information that we have requested of them,” DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz said in a statement.
After four Sanders campaign staffers were accused on Thursday of inappropriately accessing Clinton campaign data, the DNC barred the Sanders from accessing its own all-important voter data. Seeking relief, the Sanders campaign filed a lawsuit to challenge the DNC and won back access shortly before midnight.
Sanders’ access to the data would be restored by Saturday morning, the campaign said. The Sanders campaign did not say whether it would drop a lawsuit it filed against the DNC for monetary relief: the campaign estimated it would lose $600,000 a day without access to its voter file and its fundraising tools.
The story just broke like hours ago, but already, there are well over 229,000 signatures on a petition demanding DNC Chair, Debbie Wasserman Schultz take her finger off the scale for Hillary Clinton and give Bernie Sanders access to his database.
According to the petition;
We demand that DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz immediately reinstate the Bernie Sanders campaign’s access to the DNC’s 50-state voter file, which is crucial for voter outreach in the last weeks before the first Democratic caucuses. Shutting down Sanders’ tools to reach voters is an infringement on democracy.
Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who heads the Democratic National Committee, undoubtedly made the call to suspend Bernie Sanders’ access to the DNC’s 50-state voter file in the wake of a software glitch that a Sanders staffer had previously reported on multiple occasions. With just 6 weeks to go before the Iowa caucuses and less than 2 months before the New Hampshire primary, the Sanders campaign needs this voter file more than ever to reach a maximum number of voters. Withholding access to this critical information at such a critical time for the campaign is equivalent to sabotage.
Amazingly, this is what it takes for Democratic presidential candidate, Bernie Sanders, – the man who get’s a majority of grassroots, liberal voters – this is what it takes for him to get some discussion on the main stream media.
The DNC maintains a master voter file, which campaigns supplement with their own information. On Wednesday, a vendor error created a security breach that several Sanders staffers, including its top data official, exploited to access valuable Clinton campaign data. The DNC responded by barring the Sanders campaign from the database entirely, which includes data generated by the campaign itself.
Saying the national party violated its pledged neutrality with the punishment, Sanders campaign manager Jeff Weaver threatened to sue the DNC in federal court and accused the national party of “trying to help the Clinton campaign” with “our data [that] has been stolen by the DNC.”
“Rather incredibly, the leadership of the DNC has used this incident to shutdown our access to our own information. This is the lifeblood of our campaign,” Weaver said at a press conference Friday in Washington. “By their action, the leadership of the DNC is now actively attempting to undermine our campaign. This is unacceptable.”
The lockout has had sweeping ramifications for the Sanders campaign, effectively bringing to a halt the their entire field operation. Sanders quickly fired his chief data official, and more punishments may come, but it’s unclear when the conflict will be resolved and when the campaign will be allowed back in to the database.
“This is taking our campaign hostage,” Weaver said.
Video
