Bernie Sanders: A Future to Believe In. Another Endorsement from NH

[Nanjeanne]

(bolding mine)
By Jackie Cilley

Posted Feb. 4, 2016 at 5:11 PM

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.
— George Bernard Shaw

Throughout the lengthy presidential primary season, I’ve wrestled with the decision about which Democrat I would support. Our candidates have all given us ample reasons to support them. I‘d largely decided to stay on the sidelines and simply cast my vote in February and I realize it’s late in the process to make a public declaration of support and to encourage others to join me.

Something has recently moved me to action: As a progressive, I’ve been told by mainstream/establishment-types to be practical and pragmatic for far too long, that I shouldn’t dream. The airwaves and print media are now being flooded with the same message, perhaps best articulated by Jonathan Chait’s recent brief against Bernie Sanders, that we Democrats ought to be practical and try to move the ball forward in small — infinitesimal, really — ways. I refuse to accept this argument. We need to risk real progress. We need to elect Sen. Bernie Sanders.

The pragmatism argument has cost us in innumerable ways, eroding our society and economy while leaving our families behind. We’ve lost ground on wages — real median wages are below their peak of 15 years ago. We’ve lost ground on infrastructure improvements, with the most recent example of lead-tainted water consumed by Flint, Michigan citizens. We’ve lost ground on innovation and entrepreneurship and have slipped to 12th place in the world on business creation. We’ve lost ground on education, with our students ranking 35th in math and 27th in science among 64 other countries. The lack of big dreams, big ideas, big visions has led to Democrats adopting a pitiful aspiration of incrementalism that has only resulted in a slower erosion of all we value.

But the biggest advances throughout history have only been made because of dreamers and “unreasonable” people. The Wright brothers and their pie-in-the-sky flying machine that led to air travel, Bell and his silly belief that voice could travel long distances over wires, Salk and his daydream of curing polio, or Jobs and his notion of putting computing power into the hands of everyday folks. In fact, not a single advancement has derived from being pragmatic and accepting the status quo. Not a single innovation has resulted from playing it safe. We would all still be writing on cave walls if there was no one who dreamed of a better way of life. Every one of those dreamers was told it couldn’t be done – and it couldn’t until we did it.

Jackie Cilley is a former Democratic candidate for New Hampshire governor, former state senator and currently serves in the New Hampshire House.

Read the whole thing here: http://www.seacoastonline.com/article/20160204/NEWS/st_refDomain=t.co&st_refQuery=/xarqs2OESb

[EndElectoral]

1. Be practical and pragmatic. Don't dream. It's unrealistic.

Don't think I've ever seen a Democratic campaign based on "No, we can't." before, and I've been voting since McGovern.