On The Eve Of Destruction...

I hardly know where to begin. I feel like the country just threw its best hope in the trash. I want to write about it, but every time I try my teeth grind. 

Just remember, DNC, you had a generation of Progressivism on your doormat knocking. 

You closed the polling places. You failed to count the ballots. You purged the voter rolls. You changed the rules by chicanery, and you wrote the emails. 

You don't deserve the likes of Bernie Sanders. That man has more class in one hair on his head than you do in your entire party. 

Enjoy the karma.

Dan 

Berning On The Eve Of The California Primary...

I have to write this, as my heart is kind of full right now.

I spent two & 1/2 hours this evening phonebanking for the Bernie Sanders campaign at one of the local campaign headquarters. The setting was interesting enough in and of itself. It turns out that the national campaign has been renting vacant houses for their volunteers to stay in - and paying the campaign staffers' travel and living expenses too. This not only gives the campaign volunteers room and board for their trips, it also helps out folk who are trying to rent out vacant houses - local landlords or people who had to move for work and haven't sold their houses yet. That rent money may well be preventing a forclosure and a black mark on someone's credit score. It's certainly good for the local economy.

The volunteers are young folk who have been driving from State to State working for the candidate of their - and our - lifetimes. One young gal was 17 years old, and from Maryland. She is one month and nine days too young to vote in the November general election. So she is doing the only thing she can - volunteering for Bernie's campaign.

These young folk volunteering for the campaign are filling in the gaps that us older folk can't get away from work so much to do. There were several people my age and older also there, volunteering to phonebank. I'm 54, by the way.

I have been to two debate watch parties and one "last bash before the Primary" party. The folk FILLING the restaurant where these events were to capacity were of all ages, both sexes, and every race. It was an extremely diverse crowd.

Speaking of volunteering, I have been to phonebanking events organized completely outside the campaign by local non-affiliated volunteers. They've been using their own equipment at local coffee shops like Starbucks, local restaurants and the like. The comraderie, good will, and hope are amazing. The energy at these events is like none other; It is so positive and uplifting that you can't help walking away knowing that the world is a better place than you ever thought it was.

I spent three years as an elected Democratic Precinct Committeeman in Illionis before moving to California. I was volunteer I.T. and web support for the county party organization where I lived. I was directly involved in that office and technical suport for the county party in Obama's home State during his second run for office. I have NEVER seen volunteerism like what Bernie Sanders campaign is receiving from un-solicited members of the general population. I have never seen a candidate with the honesty and clear-cut Progressive record of one Bernard Sanders in my lifetime.

As to the calls I was making, most of them where I was able to speak to someone were very positive. This, in a heavily-Republican part of California. I got a couple of Hillary supporters who were civil, and one poll worker who was not happy with me, and a lot of voice mail messages.

I left polite messages reminding folk that tomorrow is the California primary, and asking them to come out and vote for Bernie tomorrow. One gal had a full inbox, but her voicemail greeting said it was OK to text her, so I did. I received a text back from her later that evening, thanking me for volunteering for the campaign, and saying that she had already voted for Bernie by mail. I also received a phone call back a little later from another gal I had left a voice message for, with essentially the same message.

In fact, almost every person I reached and actually spoke to in some form had already voted for Bernie by mail. By the way - my wife and I did the same, and when we were pulling up to the big blue mailbox at the post office, so was the gal in the car ahead of us.

One can only hope that the rest of the ones I left messages for had done the same.

When I got home afterward, I found this hanging from my door handle:



Yeah. You can feel the bern in Cali, alright.

Dan

Peace, Love, And Bernie: Back To The "Bernie Or" Debate...

This has come up time-after-time on Facebook, so here's a meme for you:

Peace, Love, And Bernie: Writing Paris...

Like Bernie, I'm horrified by the attacks in Paris. It's taken me a bit to process at all...but it raises a different fear in me than it does in many others, I think. Being a writer and artist a heart, this is how I have to express it:

Dan

Peace, Love, & Bernie: On Passion, Getting Things Done, And The Psychosis Of Self-Fulfilling Apocalypse

I see it online, and I see it in local meetings; People are passionate in their support of Bernie Sanders. To many, possibly even millions now, Bernie represents hope at the edge of a cliff.

The fear of oligarchy and feudalism is sharp in the air to those who have awakened and are aware.

The hope of salvation is found in the memory of great American Presidents such as Lincoln, FDR, JFK, and others. To many, Bernie Sanders is reminiscent of FDR. Both men presented something that was and has been severely lacking in US culture prior to their arrival on the scene: a positive vision of the future, and a wider prosperity for the people of this nation. I will return to that part about a positive vision for the future later in this writing.

Over 750,000 people have donated to the campaign, with an average donation amount of $35.00. Many have donated repeatedly, with the campaign having received over a million individual donations. These numbers are noth HISTORIC and record-breaking. No other campaign in US history has received donations from so many individual donors.

These numbers not only speak volumes about the grass-roots popular support of the campaign, they also speak greatly about the passion of the people in their support of Bernie Sanders.  To me, that passion is a sign of the deep sincerity that Bernie's supporters share widely. It also is a sign of the stressful dichotomy I mentioned above, that sharp contrast of hope and fear.

Anger is one component of passion, hope is the other. It is the strangest alchemy of Human emotion. I do not think great passion can exist without the mix of both hope and fear.

Anger is always a derivative of fear. It is well-known that there are two natural responses to fear; Fight or flight. Think back to any point in your life where anger was in your heart. Anger at a failing relationship is the "fight" response to the fear of losing someone dear to you. Anger at someone cutting you off in traffic is the fight response to the fear of what a collision could do to your life.

Anger at someone suggesting a different approach to a problem is the fight response to the fear of losing control over a situation that could affect your life or the life of others.  It doesn't matter who is right or wrong in the heat of the moment; We're simply too invested to just let someone else take the reigns without "fighting" for what we believe is right - and against an outcome we fear. It is only after the emotional reaction has subsided that the two sides - who may well agree on the outcome they are trying to achieve - can come together with some degree of logic and work out a compromise solution that everyone hopes they can live with.

It is exactly this part of being human that the democratic form of government we have is supposed to mediate. Control of the means to an end is at the heart of the divide between all the dualities in modern politics, and all the factions in every political coalition. Democrat or Republican, Progressive or Conservative, Populist or Corporatist...or Bernie supporter and other Bernie supporter.

The NEED for Bernie's campaign is clear; Bernie stands as the only visible route in modern times out of a nearly catastrophic global psychotic maelstrom of corporatism that is eating our freedom, prosperity, and even possibly the habitability of the planet and any hope of future generations. For those of you who do not see corporatism as a threat to the very survival of humanity, rest assured that there are millions who very much do. I do not exaggerate the level of long-term threat felt by those who are working to free the world from corporocracy.

That means that we are going to have disagreement within the ranks on strategy, on timing, and on a host of other issues. Even more; We are a grass-roots, self-organized army of volunteers. There may be leaders, but they are most definitely not rulers.

All this means that it is critical that when tempers flare as multiple methods of supporting the campaign are debated, we remember that we are all trying to achieve the same end: a breakthrough in the current political paradigm and the election of a true populist to the Presidency. We MUST take the time to step back, see our fellow Bernie supporters as allies and not opponents, and wait for reason to rise above emotion again.

In speaking to the dearth of a positive vision for the future in modern culture, I look directly to the entertainment that surrounds us.

On television and in the movies, and online, we are bombarded constantly with stories and images of apocalypse, violence, war, and crime. Stories that outline what we could truly achieve with modern technology are almost never told. Such stories are as exotic as a meteorite of solid gold landing softly in your backyard. Even documentaries tend to focus far more on the problems facing us than on potential solutions.

Stories of the great triumphs of human engineering are relegated to the rapidly-receding past of the post-depression era of the 20th century, with rare examples peeking through. Perhaps if you read science and engineering magazines, you may see glimmers of hope, but how many among the general population do? It wasn't much different after the 1930's depression, either, especially once the second world war was engaged.

The entertainment constantly submitted before us in the few hours we have away from work, along with the general struggle of life for the current working class after forty years of the erosion of wages, benefits, and working conditions amounts to a psychic assault. I'm not talking telepaths, I'm just talking about everything we see being struggle, strife, violence, or even the fall of civilization, leading to exactly what the wealthy want us to feel: competition between ourselves and every other human on the planet instead of cooperation.

Modern mass media, and to a fair extent social media are used to:

• Pit men against women.
• Pit people of differing skin color against each other.
• Pit one religion against the others.
• Pit secular people against religious people.
• Pit the elderly against those of working age AND against youth.
• Pit younger workers against older experienced workers.
• Pit one nation against another.
• Pit groups of nations against other groups of nations.
• Pit those struggling for positive change against those who fear the loss of what little they now have.

The list could go on and on and on.

I have personally witnessed the media in both film and on television getting progressively darker from year-to-year over the past twenty years.

With this psycological backdrop, is it any wonder that someone offering hope such as Bernie Sanders does seems like some sort of miracle?

Still, there is only one way out of collective darkness; We must join hands, share what light we can find together, and all put one foot in front of the other to leave it behind. Bernie may be walking out in front, but he would be walking alone if we weren't all walking with him, sharing our lights.

#FeelTheBern - and try to hold your own candle flames steady as you may without burning each other along the way.

Dan

Peace, Love, & Bernie: Was #BernieOrBust Created By Republican Campaign Strategists?

Was #BernieOrBust Created By Republican Campaign Strategists?

The "Bernie Or Bust" movement purports to "Revolt against plutocracy" by writing Bernie in on your ballot in the general election in the event that Bernie doesn't succeed in becoming the Democratic nominee for President of the United States.

Before anyone gets the idea here that I am pushing them to vote for Hillary Clinton in the event that she takes the nomination, I am NOT. There IS a better alternative than writing in Bernie should Hillary be nominated. I will go into what that alternative is, and why writing in Bernie if he is not the Democratic nominee is pointless and something the Republicans and Plutocrats would love. I will state here that I myself cannot stomach the idea of voting for another Corporatist, and that is exactly what I see Hillary as.

Now that we have that out of the way, I will discuss why I suspect that "Bernie or BUST" is an idea created by Republican trollsters.

I was an elected Democratic Precinct Committeeman in York Township precinct 112, DuPage county, Illinois for three years. (2011-2014) I did this for several reasons:

1. DuPage county, IL was dominated by Republicans in-office.
2. I had no idea how local politics, or State-level politics in IL actually worked and wanted to learn.
3. I wanted to help get Progressives elected in Illinois.

*NOTE: Terminology of the office "Precinct Committeeman" is written in Illinois State law, and not some sexism on my part. A woman would've had the same title, and quite a few did. 

Prior to taking on getting elected as a PC, I was involved with the Illinois Dennis Kucinich campaign of 2004 in writing letters to the editors of  local newspapers. When Dennis failed to be nominated by the Democratic party, the remnants of his campaign formed a grass-roots organization called Progressive Democrats of America. (The link to the left is the article on PDA at Wikipedia. PDA's site is at http://www.pdamerica.org/ )

This organization (PDA) is NOT affiliated with the Democratic party. It attempts to get Progressives elected as Democrats because getting candidates on the ballot as either a Democrat or a Republican requires far less voter signatures on ballot petitions than most States require of any other party.

Getting a candidate's name on the ballot can be as different as needing notarized petition signatures from 5,000 voters for a Democrat or Republican vs. 50,000 notarized signatures for ANY other party. Also, those signatures must come from registered voters, not just anyone. On top of that, party officials from any opposing party have a habit of legally challenging any petition signatures with the Election Commission, so if the requirement is 5,000 signatures, you want to get 10,000 so you can defeat any opponent's petition challenge. If the rquirement is 50,000 - get 100,000 or your candidate may not even appear on the ballot. (Note: The base number of petition signatures required varies by office. Since a Precinct Committeeman was only slightly higher than dog poop in the party, and not paid one cent, the base requirement was I believe 20 signatures, so I tried for 40. The numbers above would be something like a US House seat.)

Granted, the numbers I am referencing above are governed by State law, and are for the State of Illinois, but it's not so different in most other States. When you see that, it tells you a lot about how the game is rigged in favor of the status quo at all levels.

The two main points there are that A) I learned about this kind of thing from becoming the most basic officer a party has in Illinois - Precinct Committeeman - and B) PDA is NOT an arm or the Democratic party, they just realize they face less futility by trying to change it from inside the rigged rules.

I also served as the leader of a smaller group of grass-roots activists called Progressive Democrats of Illinois, who were a fantastic bunch of folk that I still count as friends, and that brought me around to becoming a PC. I did that from 2004-2012 and didn't get too awful far.

One of the things that I learned by being a Precinct Committeeman was that in order for a write-in vote to count, the person whose name is being written in MUST file with the Election Commission in each county, and by the legal deadline, with all the required NON-MAJOR-PARTY registered voter petition signatures, to be a valid write-in candidate. Their name wouldn't be on the ballot, a blank would. However, if you write in Mickey Mouse, ha ha, it doesn't count. Only writing in the name of a candidate who has met all the legal requirements to be a valid write-in candidate is counted as a vote. Any other write-in is counted as a "no-vote" for that particular office on the voter's ballot. (Also known as an "undervote," like they missed checking off anything for that particular office.)

Granted, the rules for write-in candidates are governed by State law, and in some cases a State may even leave it to a County, but the number of jusrisdictions where a vote for an un-filed write-in candidate is counted as valid in a national election such as the Presidency (Or Congress) of the USA is probably the equivalent of a toddler pissing in an olympic-sized swimming pool.

The point here is that, if you write in Bernie's name in the event of a Hillary nomination, you are in about the same position of that toddler peeing in the pool, unless Bernie and his campaign do all the filing work NATIONALLY to get him registered as a write-in candidate. If you don't believe me, feel free to check the election laws in your particular State.

Now, I realize that if you've read this far, the subject likely matters to you, and you're not going to be voting for Hillary if Bernie's not the nominee, regardless of what anyone says. Guess what? I'm right there with you. I wouldn't either. So here is where that alternative I mentioned comes in.

I am proposing that, in the event Hillary is nominated, (An I think I'm wasting my time writing this, 'cause Bernie gonna win!!) we turn around and vote for the likely Green party candidate, Dr. Jill Stein. I am calling this strategy #BernieOrGreen2016.

A Green Party USA platform would be so close to Bernie's that most of you won't find major differences. A vote for the Green nominee would actually count. It would also count towards making it easier for highly-Progressive Greens to get on the ballot nationally. You see, if you get enough of a percentage of the vote in one election, many States elevate your party to major party status in the next election. In that case, you have the same petition requirements as the Dems or Repubs. If you want to do a protest vote that reflects your Progressive values and will actually stick a needle in the butts of the "major party" corporatists, #BernieOrGreen2016 would actually matter.

If enough people adhered to that strategy, very, very loudly, you might pull those holding their noses and looking at HRC into putting their intention toward something they can be proud of.

Wasting God-knows-how-many votes that wouldn't count vs. helping more Progressives get access to the ballot or even actually getting one elected. Hmm. Let me chew on that one...

#BernieOrBust seems to me designed to siphon off Progressive votes like piss down the toilet if Hillary is nominated, thereby helping hand the Presidency to the Republican candidate. (*Shudder*) #BernieOrGreen2016 would actually do something for Progressives. It's still a big risk, but a lot better one than wasting votes altogether, or not voting.

But first, I AM VOTING FOR BERNIE in the Democratic primaries this time. Because #Bernie GonnaWin - and I will have just wasted an hour writing this blog post, and be happy as a progressive clam.

Peace, Love, and Bernie, and to quote the Summer of Love generation that came before me, can you dig it?

Dan Stafford

Here's Why You Should Vote Bernie Sanders vs. Hillary Clinton (Youtube)

Just the two candidates speaking. No sub-titles, no narration. You decide who's being honest with you.

#BerninJackOlantern

#FeelTheBern
www.BernieSanders.com

Nailin' It For Bernie

Bern those nails!

Nails That Feel the “Bern” 

Peace, Love, And Bernie: That Word "Socialism"...

There are a bajillion people out there online slinging around the "socialist" label (Especially the corporate media!) in regards to Bernie Sanders.

There is a problem with that, and it's not the one you think; Socialism is one thing, and Democratic Socialism is entirely another.

Definitions:

(Source = Google search term "Define: Socialism")

so·cial·ism

ˈsōSHəˌlizəm/

noun

noun: socialism

1. a political and economic theory of social organization that advocates that the means of production, distribution, and exchange should be owned or regulated by the community as a whole.

   synonyms:

   leftism, welfarism; More radicalism, progressivism, social democracy; communism, Marxism, labor movement "my appreciation for certain aspects of socialism does not mean I'm a socialist"

   • policy or practice based on the political and economic theory of socialism.

     synonyms:

     leftism, welfarism; More radicalism, progressivism, social democracy; communism, Marxism, labor movement "my appreciation for certain aspects of socialism does not mean I'm a socialist"

   • (in Marxist theory) a transitional social state between the overthrow of capitalism and the realization of communism.

(Source = Google search term "Define: Democratic Socialism")

Democratic socialism is a political ideology advocating a democratic political system alongside a socialist economic system, involving a combination of political democracy (usually multi-party democracy) with social ownership of the means of production.

The difference between the two is that Democratic Socialism seeks to preserve a Democratic government under the representative control of the country's citizens, while pure socialism (As witnessed by the former Soviet Union and others) has no such component.

Even here, the terminology gets confused, because what Bernie Sanders actually proposes is a "Social Democracy," which seeks to preserve both a Democratic, citizenry-controlled representative government, AND strongly-regulated Capitalism with private ownership of property instead of all-out public ownership of everything. 

(Wikipedia: "Social democracy is a political ideology that supports economic and social interventions to promote social justice within the framework of a capitalist economy, and a policy regime involving welfare state provisions, collective bargaining arrangements, regulation of the economy in the general interest, redistribution of income and wealth, and a commitment to representative democracy.")

 Historically, the United States of America has been at its most widely-prosperous, with its largest middle economic class, under a system that could best be described as a weak form of social democracy.

So it MATTERS whether the "D" or the "S" come first when you define the overall legal, social and economic structure of the country's system of governance. You WANT the "S" first, IE: Social Democracy. If you remember nothing else, just remember that Social Democracy is the best system we have SO FAR come up with to govern a country. 

The trickiest part is that Bernie Sanders is referring to what HE is (A Democratic Socialist) in advocating for a Social Democracy type of system. He is defining himself with those words, not the system he is putting in place.

Because the symantics in this area are so fuzzy, it's necessary to distinguish between the description of the personal advocate and the description of the proposed system.

Put it this way:

What is Bernie Sanders? A Democratic Socialist!
What is Bernie Sanders proposing? A Social Democracy!

 Are we having fun at Scrabble yet?

Peace out,

Dan


 

Peace, Love, And Bernie

(Original Post: http://www.superaquarian.com/?p=874)


It's become quite obvious to me that the Bernie Sanders movement - and yes, it clearly is - has become the inheritor of the 1960's Flower Children and the early 2000's Occupy movement converged.

The elements of civil rights, environmentalism, anti-establishment, and anti-war are all present. So is the notion of loving respect for fellow Berners. I've even seen very hippie-fied Bernie hair pics done up in tye-dye and green-Earth themes. It wouldn't shock me to see a fleet of Beetle busses driving around with Bernie hair on the paint job. All that's missing are the drugs, sex, and rock...well, actually there is a lot of music.

Yet that's the crucial difference here. This is a movement that has no time for a drug-induced dreamland, and sex will take care of itself after the world is saved. This movement has the loving heart of the Hippie movement combined with the grown-up pragmatism and technical prowess of Millennials and Boomers who created the technology that has all but rendered old-guard print and television media obsolete.

There are thousands of coders working online to help spread the word, and many tens of thousands of tireless social media users sharing Bernie news, with a feeling of hope for the future that is far deeper and more credible than centrist Barak Obama's vague and tepid "hope and change" ever were.
On top of the that, African American, Latino, Native American, and Asian segments of the US population are starting to catch fire and #FeelTheBern as well. By the time the actual primaries roll around, the corporate media should be in for quite a shock.

People in the majority in this country are not stupid, nor are they gullible. They simply haven't seen a good reason to believe that anyone on prior ballots for gives a rat's ass about them. The closest thing was the Obama elections of 2008. Obama's 2008 election drew young folk in to vote in numbers never before seen. However, older voters who were more jaded still hadn't seen a reason to engage. Obama's 2005 vote in favor of the bankruptcy bill as a Senator, among other actions by the soon-to-be POTUS, were clear signals of a moderate, corporatist Democratic candidate who didn't herald an era of Progressive change that would swing the world in a positive direction. Therefore the older population of eligible but unlikely voters stayed home.

I do not discredit the accomplishments of the Obama administration. Barak Obama did stop the global economy from going off a cliff. He did achieve some step forward on healthcare. He has taken steps on climate change and infrastructure investment. He gave us a modified version of the status-quo prior to the debacle brought on by the Bush-Chaney war machine. Wage stagnation wasn't addressed, but we still have an automotive industry. Health insurance coverage has improved, but the insurance companies are still for-profit, and the US still spends double the amount on healthcare that other "First-World" nations do, without achieving full-coverage of all US Citizens. The Republicans in Congress have stifled any deeper change in the structure of US society in economic and technical senses. Defense contractors, fossil fuel companies, insurance providers, big pharma, and not-least banksters are still doing phenomenally well. Joe and Jane Average are not.

Still, Bernie Sanders's clearly-Progressive agenda would go much farther and deeper towards bedrock changes in US civil society, the US economy, and US infrastructure. Voters are far more aware now of the need for a Congress that will work with such a President. It is known to many of his followers that Bernie Sanders would be a committed front man for the cause, and who would show Congress no mercy in speeches or statements. The greater majority of citizens of all races agree with the policy positions Bernie is putting forth. Most importantly, Bernie Sanders has a clear and consistent track record on every issue going back for decades. Voters no longer believe "they're all liars and cheats." Bernie Sanders clearly is not.

So when the voting lines are long for the Primary elections, don't be surprised by that. Certainly do not be surprised if you see flowers settled in hair both young and gray, and possibly a flowery microbus with Bernie hair and glasses on it's face or sides. Put some flowers in your own hair, and post, vote, and #FeelTheBern in good conscience. Take a spin around www.BernieSanders.com and be happy to share the love of $10, $20, or even $30 like many tens of thousands of other Berners. Swell the crowds at local Bernie rallies. The vibe is great, and the future smells better, with more than a hint of reality.

Revel in the marvel of Peace, Love, and Bernie.

Peace, Love, And Bernie, The Poem…

Peace, Love, And Bernie…

There was a time when tye dye was psychedelic,
A Neptunian drug-dream wrapped in trappings,
A paper vision of peace and love and rocking roll,
One that fluttered from our fingers,
The moment Viet Nam was surrendered.

The vision was worthy,
But the Capitalists owned the sand it was built upon.

Still the wish percolated,
Bubbling at the bottom of millions of souls for decades,
A wispy current floating in the cosmic undermind,
A spice steeping throughout the waters of life.

Finally this el niño has surfaced,
Boiled to its essence,
Stirred in with Occupying sauce,
Baked in the years of capitalistic cynics,
Boiled down to a brick-hard resolve,
Thrown through the paper walls painted by corporate media.

The facade of Oz is ripped,
Tattered gilding in plain sight,
No longer regarded as anything but a weary trick.

A man came forth,
Poked his finger through the last vestiges of staged paper,
Said “let us use these bricks to rebuild.
 

Come warm yourselves by the fire of peaceful resolve.
Walk in love and kindness and the world will too.
 

Feel The Bern of a kinder and saner world.”

The fire glows now,
A Djinn finally exploded free of the bottle.

AquarianM

By: Daniel A. Stafford
(C) 09/20/2015

Peace, Love, And Bernie: Primaries, Primaries, Primaries! – A Call To Coding Action

I’m still amazed when people tell me they don’t know about the #FeelTheBern hashtag on Twitter and Facebook. Seriously, I just had a guy e-mail me that he had to Google it when reading my poem, “Peace, Love, And Bernie…”

Honestly, I think it’s the generation just older than me who is missing out on that, but if any of you stumble on this post by some accident of web search, just click on the links above and you’ll get the drift.

Now that I’ve gotten that out of the way, let’s move on to a very important topic: primary elections. Yes, I’ve actually included a Google search result for the Millennials and certain other lackadaisical citizens who do not understand how we get straddled with lame candidates in the general elections that actually put someone in office. (Although I suspect that many younger voters are finally getting the concept, I will not take that on faith given the mess we were handed in the 2012 election cycle.)
Simply put, primary elections are vastly-underrated, and far worse, underattended. Primaries have been being ignored at double, and even sometimes triple the rate of general elections for decades.

Over at Bipartisanpolicy.org, they have an article titled “National Primary Turnout Hits A New Record Low” with regard to the 2012 primary season. There are articles all over Google about this.

According to BPO’s article just referenced, overall voter turnout in the primary elections for 2012 were just over 15% of eligible voters.  That is EXACTLY why we are in this mess.
Bottom-line, primary elections are where voters have the greatest choice. You can not continuously ignore the primary elections in a country and expect the outcome to be anything worthwhile. The only time we have a chance to put a non-corporate candidate into office is during the primary election.

It seems to me that the only people who have been voting in primaries are the radical right and Democrats who are afraid to put in a candidate who is not somewhat of a right-wing corporatist, because they know that the Democratic party will have to run against exptremist candidates on the GOP side. These Democrats have fallen for the old media lines, because the young voters who ignore the old media have stayed home on primary day.  Maybe they associate voting with being old, maybe they see it as putting energy into a corrupt system, but whatever it is, they had best get savvy about the primaries.

If the majority of the US Citizenry truly want a populist government, the only way to get one is to vote in a populist government. That means getting out there and voting for the candidates in the PRIMARIES who agree with your policy wishes.

This is where I think that those who #FeelTheBern could foil the political analysts calculations. Those who follow political analysis are used to calculating based on the traditionally abysmal primary voter turnout. They’re counting on the same mix of mush at the polls. If a tsunami of tuned-in voters actually shows up to vote for Bernie in the Primaries AND the general elections, Bernie will win. But that’s not enough.

In order for Bernie to actually accomplish populist, progressive policies, those policies must be written and voted through both houses of Congress and passed to Bernie‘s desk for him to sign.
The only way we will all truly WIN is if the Congressional elections are given the same care and consideration as the Presidential elections. Bernie needs a Progressive majority in Congress to be effective.

Here is where I have to call on Coders For Bernie to do something I haven’t heard about them doing. We need a one-stop shop – before the primaries, well before – where we can evaluation Congressional candidates based on their compatibility with Bernie‘s platform. That is a tall order, but it needs to be done and handed to Berners ASAP.

As it stands right now, it is just about impossible for the average working adult to take the time to reseearch every candidate’s voting record. That is likely something that the corporate overlords are counting on. It may well be behind the reasoning of the plot they’ve cooked to find ways to push workers ever harder and for longer hours over the past few decades. An exhausted populace is not only less likely to go vote, they are far less likely to be well-educated on the candidates if they do show up at the polls.

Thankfully, computers were invented to manipulate and summarize vast quantities of data. This is where Progressives need to have a cloud-driven supercomputerish PoliticalMatch.com kind of service or app. That’s right, we need to play Suzy Matchmaker for our politicians of choice, and put them in office with like-minded pols, election cycle after election cycle. THAT, my fellow Berners, is what will save the world, and not just the day.

Dan Stafford