AP Photos Hillary Rodham Clinton, a 2016 Democratic presidential contender, speaks at the David N. Dinkins Leadership and Public Policy Forum April 29 in New York.
By Abel Tomlinson
Good news! Sen. Bernie Sanders is challenging Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination.
With this, Hillary’s coronation by corporate media has hit a beautiful bump in the road. The reality is that Republicans, Hillary and Obama are professional politicians with no real principles, who will take money from corrupting sources and say anything to obtain power.
Once in power, they cannot be trusted to do anything they said in their campaigns. That is not leadership! Bernie is a sincere leader with principled positions that may be uncomfortably true, but are the needed medicine.
As in previous elections, Hillary and top-tier Republicans are the media-declared “serious” candidates because they raise millions from Wall Street and other ultra-wealthy interests. And of course, Wall Street does not donate for charity. They absolutely expect and are surely promised returns on their investments.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., reacts as he as he is asked about running for president during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, April 29. Sanders has made it official, telling The Associated Press in an interview that he is running for president.
Please, please go to opensecrets.org to see the vast oceans of Wall Street cash in which these politicians bathe. Like Obama and Republicans, Hillary has taken many legal bribes from corporations like Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, Time Warner, Lehman Brothers, Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan Chase, 21st Century Fox, Merrill Lynch, Credit Suisse, among others. Bernie has not.
Although Bernie is wrong on the important issue of Israel, like 99 percent of our Congress, he is right about virtually every other important issue. The most important issue, deeper even than economics, is saving and improving our democracy in the face of complete oligarchy, or rule by the richest few. We cannot solve any problems economic, environmental or peace-wise without functional democracy. On this, Bernie is the most powerful elected advocate for democracy we have.
The logic becomes that if Bernie is elected and can help save and improve democracy, we could then elect leaders that are badass on every issue like former U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich was. Currently, if you are like Kucinich, your opponent gets massive corporate funding for your defeat, and ultimately he was gerrymandered out of office.
With galactic cajones, Bernie correctly stands up for the democratic socialism that has helped make Scandinavian countries wonderful. On ABC’s “This Week,” George Stephanopoulos probed him on this and Bernie responded: “(We must know) what democratic socialism is…. In (Scandinavian countries), like Denmark, Norway, Sweden… very democratic countries… voter turnout is a lot higher than… the United States…. Health care is the right of all people,… college education, graduate school is free,… (they) have more income and wealth equality… a stronger middle class in many ways… a higher minimum wage… and they’re stronger on the environment….”
Bernie has said he will release “very specific proposals” to raise taxes on the super rich and corporations, serious healthcare reform toward single-payer Medicare for all, and tuition-free college education. He has also consistently opposed all job and environment killing “free” trade agreements like NAFTA and TPP, which Obama and Hillary support, and supports stringent regulations of Wall Street.
The core of his campaign is on economic inequality and corruption of democracy by the billionaire and millionaire class. Bernie asks: “Is it morally appropriate that 99 percent of all new income is going to the top 1 percent… and the top one-tenth of 1 percent owns as much wealth as the bottom 90 percent… (while) our democracy (is) being destroyed when one family can spend $900 million to buy elections?”
The reality is that the Democratic and Republican parties have shifted to the right, especially since Reagan. The Republicans have become purely a party for the oligarchs, and most top Democrats have become right-wing on core economic policies, much more so than Republican President Eisenhower. Hillary Clinton once said there is a “vast right-wing conspiracy.” Ironically, she and Obama are a part of this conspiracy.
Obama’s TPP, Obamacare, illegal NSA surveillance, and Wall Street bailouts are right-wing corporatism. Obama’s corporatist anti-environmental policy is exemplified in his Cushing speech, “I’ve (opened) up millions of acres for gas and oil… more than 75 percent of our potential oil resources offshore… quadrupled the number of operating rigs to a record high… added enough new oil and gas pipeline to encircle the Earth and then some.”
Moreover, Bill Clinton’s NAFTA, WTO, 1999 removal of Depression Era banking regulations, social welfare cuts, and the 1996 Telecommunications Act were also right-wing corporatism. Please read Naomi Klein’s book “The Shock Doctrine” to understand how Milton Friedman’s extremist form of anti-regulation neoliberal corporatism and anti-social welfare ideology took over the world and most of our “$erious” politicians.
Hillary will be virtually identical to Obama and Bill. They are decent on some social policies that do not threaten the economic interests of their wealthy campaign financiers; however, on fundamental economic policies, they are barely different than Republicans. Hillary will give a little lip service to inequality and democracy, but, once elected, like Obama, she will very weakly do anything for the people, and work much harder for her wealthy masters.
The only way to defeat Wall Street candidates is if poorer-than-Wall-Street people do something. I just donated at BernieSanders.com and urge everyone else to do likewise. Thanks to people like us, Bernie raised $1.5 million on day one, more than any Republican, with the average donation under $50.
In the altered words of Bernie, “A political revolution is coming! Don’t underestimate us!”
Choice Beyond Wall Street’s Princess Hillary? Hell Yes!
AP Photos
Hillary Rodham Clinton, a 2016 Democratic presidential contender, speaks at the David N. Dinkins Leadership and Public Policy Forum April 29 in New York.
By Abel Tomlinson
Good news! Sen. Bernie Sanders is challenging Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination.
With this, Hillary’s coronation by corporate media has hit a beautiful bump in the road. The reality is that Republicans, Hillary and Obama are professional politicians with no real principles, who will take money from corrupting sources and say anything to obtain power.
Once in power, they cannot be trusted to do anything they said in their campaigns. That is not leadership! Bernie is a sincere leader with principled positions that may be uncomfortably true, but are the needed medicine.
As in previous elections, Hillary and top-tier Republicans are the media-declared “serious” candidates because they raise millions from Wall Street and other ultra-wealthy interests. And of course, Wall Street does not donate for charity. They absolutely expect and are surely promised returns on their investments.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., reacts as he as he is asked about running for president during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, April 29. Sanders has made it official, telling The Associated Press in an interview that he is running for president.
Please, please go to opensecrets.org to see the vast oceans of Wall Street cash in which these politicians bathe. Like Obama and Republicans, Hillary has taken many legal bribes from corporations like Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, Time Warner, Lehman Brothers, Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan Chase, 21st Century Fox, Merrill Lynch, Credit Suisse, among others. Bernie has not.
Although Bernie is wrong on the important issue of Israel, like 99 percent of our Congress, he is right about virtually every other important issue. The most important issue, deeper even than economics, is saving and improving our democracy in the face of complete oligarchy, or rule by the richest few. We cannot solve any problems economic, environmental or peace-wise without functional democracy. On this, Bernie is the most powerful elected advocate for democracy we have.
The logic becomes that if Bernie is elected and can help save and improve democracy, we could then elect leaders that are badass on every issue like former U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich was. Currently, if you are like Kucinich, your opponent gets massive corporate funding for your defeat, and ultimately he was gerrymandered out of office.
With galactic cajones, Bernie correctly stands up for the democratic socialism that has helped make Scandinavian countries wonderful. On ABC’s “This Week,” George Stephanopoulos probed him on this and Bernie responded: “(We must know) what democratic socialism is…. In (Scandinavian countries), like Denmark, Norway, Sweden… very democratic countries… voter turnout is a lot higher than… the United States…. Health care is the right of all people,… college education, graduate school is free,… (they) have more income and wealth equality… a stronger middle class in many ways… a higher minimum wage… and they’re stronger on the environment….”
Bernie has said he will release “very specific proposals” to raise taxes on the super rich and corporations, serious healthcare reform toward single-payer Medicare for all, and tuition-free college education. He has also consistently opposed all job and environment killing “free” trade agreements like NAFTA and TPP, which Obama and Hillary support, and supports stringent regulations of Wall Street.
The core of his campaign is on economic inequality and corruption of democracy by the billionaire and millionaire class. Bernie asks: “Is it morally appropriate that 99 percent of all new income is going to the top 1 percent… and the top one-tenth of 1 percent owns as much wealth as the bottom 90 percent… (while) our democracy (is) being destroyed when one family can spend $900 million to buy elections?”
The reality is that the Democratic and Republican parties have shifted to the right, especially since Reagan. The Republicans have become purely a party for the oligarchs, and most top Democrats have become right-wing on core economic policies, much more so than Republican President Eisenhower. Hillary Clinton once said there is a “vast right-wing conspiracy.” Ironically, she and Obama are a part of this conspiracy.
Obama’s TPP, Obamacare, illegal NSA surveillance, and Wall Street bailouts are right-wing corporatism. Obama’s corporatist anti-environmental policy is exemplified in his Cushing speech, “I’ve (opened) up millions of acres for gas and oil… more than 75 percent of our potential oil resources offshore… quadrupled the number of operating rigs to a record high… added enough new oil and gas pipeline to encircle the Earth and then some.”
Moreover, Bill Clinton’s NAFTA, WTO, 1999 removal of Depression Era banking regulations, social welfare cuts, and the 1996 Telecommunications Act were also right-wing corporatism. Please read Naomi Klein’s book “The Shock Doctrine” to understand how Milton Friedman’s extremist form of anti-regulation neoliberal corporatism and anti-social welfare ideology took over the world and most of our “$erious” politicians.
Hillary will be virtually identical to Obama and Bill. They are decent on some social policies that do not threaten the economic interests of their wealthy campaign financiers; however, on fundamental economic policies, they are barely different than Republicans. Hillary will give a little lip service to inequality and democracy, but, once elected, like Obama, she will very weakly do anything for the people, and work much harder for her wealthy masters.
The only way to defeat Wall Street candidates is if poorer-than-Wall-Street people do something. I just donated at BernieSanders.com and urge everyone else to do likewise. Thanks to people like us, Bernie raised $1.5 million on day one, more than any Republican, with the average donation under $50.
In the altered words of Bernie, “A political revolution is coming! Don’t underestimate us!”