AP photo
Pasted below is a Letter to the Editor of our hometown newspaper up north.
Hi Neighbors,
We haven’t missed the northern winter, but we’re flying back early to cast a vote for Bernie Sanders in NY’s primary. It’s such a rare opportunity to have a person of integrity on the ballot. His rival, a member of a First Family which sold out America’s middle class by removing the Glass-Steagall Act — a protection which had long kept banks from gambling with our savings and pensions, thus setting the stage for crashing the global economy — doesn’t deserve another chance with our financial security. The banksters who have contributed so heavily to her campaign should be denied their influence.
I hope my fellow citizens will think carefully about this. The mistakes of the past need correction, not replay.
As for Sanders being a “socialist” (a social democrat) we might ponder the facts of nature: humans are one of only a very few social species on this planet, like the bees and the ants, which specialize in working together.
Sanders has become known in the US Senate as the “Amendment King”* for his ability to work with colleagues of both parties to improve bills before passage. Working together is socialism at its best. And his history as mayor of Burlington VT taught the Democrat “machine politicians” who ran that city for so long that he knew how to work with the merchants of main street to restore sensible government to that city, soon putting the machine out of office. They laughed at his socialism until he won; then they told him he wouldn’t get anything done. But he taught them otherwise. Yes, Bernie has the right executive skills to restore balance to our government. And he hasn’t been bought by special interests — accepting no PAC money, just small donations from people who want America to work again. We, the people have a voice. We can choose a leader with integrity.
*(Update): In comparison, Hillary Clinton passed zero roll call amendments during her tenure as a senator from New York from 2001-09.
Banks and their bought candidate must be defeated. No more voice for any of them. The mighty roar of the people shall be heard. We are done settling for “lessers” in our election choices. Regime change begins now.
Thanks, Paul. I appreciate your input. ~eric.
BOUGHT & PAID FOR. How the party elite sold their votes to the Clinton machine: http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/04/01/how-hillary-clinton-bought-the-loyalty-of-33-state-democratic-parties/
UNION MEMBERS HAVE A MIND OF THEIR OWN: http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/04/08/big-union-leaders-betray-sanders-and-workers/
By Bernie support, oddly a Wall-street economist who was the inspiration for the Gordon-Gekko character (“greed is good”). Excerpt: “Remarkably, today the derivatives positions held by the large banks approach 10 times those of 2007-2008. In four banks alone, they exceed the GDP of the entire world. This is the interesting consequence when unchecked risk management rests in bankers’ hands.
“When Clinton repealed Glass-Steagall, it was the culmination of the largest ever lobbying effort by the banking community to that date, $300m spent to convince Congress that Clinton, aided by Robert Rubin (US treasurer, previously with Goldman Sachs) and Alan Greenspan, a Milton Friedman-style supply-side economist, that the restraints on speculation should be removed. The banking community’s gratitude was and is unending. Who can blame them?
Wait, there’s more. . . ” [source]: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/apr/12/real-life-gordon-gekko-supports-bernie-sanders-wall-street-banks-regulation
People who can only be described as closet Fascists have been working for a long time to turn “Socialist” into a pejorative term. There used to be a respectable Socialist movement in this country that had people in office and everything. But if you look at European countries that have managed to integrate some elements of Socialism into their governing toolbox, the biggest problem they have is immigrants from countries whose governments have too many traits in common with Fascism.