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kgnu_fan

(3,021 posts)
Thu Mar 24, 2016, 02:59 PM Mar 2016

Seattle's alternative paper "The Stranger" endorses Bernie Sanders

(Apparently, if you do not give your age, you get the Sanders endorsement page)

2016 Democratic Caucus Endorsement
Mar 23, 2016
Support the Real Progressive
The Stranger Election Control Board's Endorsement for the 2016 Democratic Caucuses
by Stranger Staff


http://www.thestranger.com/2016-democratic-caucus-endorsement/2016/03/23/23829583/support-the-real-progressive



You must caucus for Bernie.

Only Bernie Sanders can stand up to Donald Trump on Trump's terms and defeat him. Americans left, right, and center are saying, "You're right, everything is fucked!" The sense of how fucked it is drives disenfranchised whites to Trump and disenfranchised millennials to Bernie. Even suburban soccer moms are driving around with 99-percent bumper stickers on their Subarus, watching their kids graduate from expensive colleges into functional poverty.

Sanders is the only candidate who believes what we believe. He is the only candidate who believes what you believe. He knows what politics is about, he knows what's wrong with this country, and he's not for sale.

Let's review.

The toxic economic hierarchy of this nation has worn our democracy down to a dull, blistered nub. If we Americans take a goddamn minute to be honest with ourselves, there's no running from the unfuckwithable truth: Slavery, cultural genocide, and the exploitation of natural resources were the main ingredients in the Original Capitalism™ on which this country was founded. The current versions of capitalism being marketed by both parties—Red Bull Capitalism™ (the GOP) and Diet Capitalism™ (the Democratic Party)—are no longer acceptable alternatives.

Americans get that now—and Bernie's been saying it since 1981.

We do not for one second buy the widespread delusion that Hillary Clinton could actually beat the Donald—i.e., the only remotely plausible reason why anyone to the left of Nancy Reagan would caucus for her on March 26.

Interestingly, the only people on the Stranger Election Control Board who voted to endorse Hillary Clinton for president were men. Yeah, we were surprised too. Wouldn't it mean something to finally get a woman president?

Yes. We deserve a longer break from the chain of old presidential white men who promote dick-swinging mediocrity like it's genius and who view structural oppression like a foreign film. There's also the fact that you'd have to be a hater of good TV not to take pleasure in the idea of Hillary Clinton wiping the debate floor with Donald Trump's orange face.

But if you look at Hillary's record, you will notice something about her vaunted progressiveness: It's almost all her early work, later undone by her own neoliberal chameleon act. For example, Hillary touts her work at the Children's Defense Fund in the 1970s as evidence of her progressiveness. In the 1990s, the CDF condemned the welfare policies then-first lady Hillary Clinton supported as "a mockery of [Bill Clinton's] pledge not to hurt children."

Sanders, however, has spent the last quarter century taking positions the country has since caught up with and agreed with him on: voting against war in Iraq, voting against the Patriot Act, voting against the erosion of the Glass-Steagall Act (bank regulation), voting against NAFTA (which even Hillary now disavows). Eighteen years before Hillary decided it was no longer politically expedient to deny gay people rights, Sanders decried a Republican congressman for dissing "homos in the military." Surprisingly even to us, he's effective at forming left-right coalitions, too—like when he passed amendments limiting bailout fund standards to protect American workers and forcing white-collar criminals to notify victims who are eligible for restitution.

And then there's the trust issue. Not even Hillary's supporters trust her. Barack Obama said she had an "authenticity" problem when he was attempting to praise her last week.

Hillary Clinton is a mask for the lie that social progress without economic change actually helps women, people of color, queers, and, increasingly, absolutely anybody of modest means. What's more, Clinton's recent lie that Nancy Reagan was an advocate for HIV/AIDS awareness reveals either Clinton's ignorance or her denial of how economic, social, and political realities intersect. Her social and political circles were either so insulated from the queers, people of color, and IV drug users dying in big cities that she wasn't aware of the Reagans' horrifying record on AIDS, or Hillary is once again throwing people under the bus while asking for their vote.

Hillary may have come around to marriage equality in 2013, but the economic machinery that marginalized victims of HIV/AIDS in the first place remains the same. It simply evolves its targets. And there is no question that Hillary is a Republican in disguise when it comes to money. For chrissakes, the New Yorker even pointed it out last week. Hillary is "surrounded by [Robert] Rubin's acolytes," referring to the Goldman Sachs treasury secretary who pushed Bill Clinton to flip on spending and deregulate finance. Those acolytes are Hillary's Dick Cheney, and like Cheney, they'll run the presidency.

There's just one piece of advice we should heed from the Clinton years—those years when the Democratic Party triangulated its soul away—and then you, Bill and Hillary Clinton, are dismissed, thank you very much. (And may you grow in old age to know who the fuck you actually are.) It's the advice James Carville gave to Bill when he was running for president in 1992.

"The economy, stupid."

It is the economy. Social change without economic reform is empty. We're not stupid.

Caucus for Bernie Sanders this Saturday. recommended
The SECB is Sydney Brownstone, Christopher Frizzelle, Angela Garbes, Jen Graves, Heidi Groover, Ansel Herz, Tim Keck, Ana Sofia Knauf, Eli Sanders, Dan Savage, and Rich Smith. This is not a unanimous endorsement.
21 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
Seattle's alternative paper "The Stranger" endorses Bernie Sanders (Original Post) kgnu_fan Mar 2016 OP
if you click age 31-118 you get a pro hillary one Viva_La_Revolution Mar 2016 #1
Dueling, contradictory posts, so I'll rec and kick the one I enjoy much more. Thanks! nt merrily Mar 2016 #2
me too! Viva_La_Revolution Mar 2016 #4
I think you have to clean up cookie. kgnu_fan Mar 2016 #9
If you use Chrome try Incognito mode. beam me up scottie Mar 2016 #12
Thank you! kgnu_fan Mar 2016 #8
Great job Stranger! Zira Mar 2016 #3
It's hard to fight for social justice when you are looking for a job. The Ruling Class knows this rhett o rick Mar 2016 #5
For those thousands Mike__M Mar 2016 #6
It's Schrödinger's endorsement!!! beam me up scottie Mar 2016 #7
clever, I say. kgnu_fan Mar 2016 #10
OMG that's it exactly! lagomorph777 Mar 2016 #18
Fascinating, I never knew that! beam me up scottie Mar 2016 #19
Huh. I have that LP, I'll have to check to see if the hidden track is on it. n/t lumberjack_jeff Mar 2016 #21
Pretty scummy business tactic imo... VulgarPoet Mar 2016 #11
no no. this is alt seattle humor Viva_La_Revolution Mar 2016 #13
it is like an insider joke, right? kgnu_fan Mar 2016 #15
yes Viva_La_Revolution Mar 2016 #17
Hey we all know WA and CA will be going big for Bernie...but it won't really matter when NY and PA Jitter65 Mar 2016 #14
They have an explanation page up suffragette Mar 2016 #16
Anyone familiar with Dan Savage's writing style can immediately tell that he wrote this. n/t lumberjack_jeff Mar 2016 #20
 

rhett o rick

(55,981 posts)
5. It's hard to fight for social justice when you are looking for a job. The Ruling Class knows this
Thu Mar 24, 2016, 03:16 PM
Mar 2016

and Clinton knows this.

Mike__M

(1,052 posts)
6. For those thousands
Thu Mar 24, 2016, 03:17 PM
Mar 2016

who decide their initial caucus vote based solely on what the Stranger tells them, please ask your children or grandchildren to find the endorsement on the web for you.

beam me up scottie

(57,349 posts)
7. It's Schrödinger's endorsement!!!
Thu Mar 24, 2016, 03:46 PM
Mar 2016

That is hilarious, click one option get a Hillary endorsement, the other two lead you to an endorsement for Bernie!


lagomorph777

(30,613 posts)
18. OMG that's it exactly!
Fri Mar 25, 2016, 09:03 AM
Mar 2016

It reminds me of that 3-sided Monty Python LP back in the 1970s "Matching Tie and Handkerchief." My friend wanted to play me a funny part on it, and he was completely befuddled when the needle happened to land in the extra groove, which he had been unaware of. (one side of the record had two interleaved grooves).

beam me up scottie

(57,349 posts)
19. Fascinating, I never knew that!
Fri Mar 25, 2016, 04:44 PM
Mar 2016
The album's original LP edition (on Charisma Records in the U.K., catalog no. CAS 1080, released 1973, and on Arista Records in the U.S., catalog no. AL 4039, released 1975) is particularly notable in that it was mastered with two concentric grooves on side two, so that different material would be played depending on where the stylus was put down on the record's surface. For this reason it is sometimes referred to as a "three-sided" record. The cutting was carried out by George "Porky" Peckham. To further confuse the listener, both sides of the LP are labelled "FREE RECORD Given away with the Monty Python Matching Tie and Handkerchief - Side 2" - only the matrix numbers identify which are the first and second sides.

The album did not have a track listing, so that this feature would come as a complete surprise to listeners, who might on a second listening hear material they had never heard before, creating genuine confusion.

Since the record had two concentric grooves, they were spaced considerably apart, halving the length of the playing time. Subsequent editions of the vinyl incorporated both grooves sequentially as separate tracks, eliminating the double groove. CD reissues provide the full contents of the album and every track on one side.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Monty_Python_Matching_Tie_and_Handkerchief


Brilliant!


VulgarPoet

(2,872 posts)
11. Pretty scummy business tactic imo...
Thu Mar 24, 2016, 03:53 PM
Mar 2016

But hey, this whole procession has been fraught with scummy tactics, so why am I surprised?

 

Jitter65

(3,089 posts)
14. Hey we all know WA and CA will be going big for Bernie...but it won't really matter when NY and PA
Thu Mar 24, 2016, 04:08 PM
Mar 2016

vote. Or if she just keeps it close. I do not believe the supers will switch to a Dem-pretender.

suffragette

(12,232 posts)
16. They have an explanation page up
Thu Mar 24, 2016, 04:17 PM
Mar 2016

Now for the dual endorsement.

http://www.thestranger.com/slog/2016/03/24/23862155/ask-us-anything-about-our-caucus-endorsements

But who did we actually endorse, deep down in our pot-addled hearts? Bernie Sanders got more votes—Sanders got one more vote than Clinton. And that's why Bernie got more than half the papers: 10,000 more copies of this week's paper have Sanders on the cover and the Sanders' endorsement hidden inside. (Oy, printer. Why did it have to be this week?) Likewise, two of the three options for people who came to the website looking for our endorsement took people to the Sanders endorsement. More people read our Sanders endorsement online and, presumably, in print. — DAN SAVAGE

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