hootinholler
hootinholler's JournalAs a Bernie Supporter, I totally trust Hillary!
I trust her to do the right thing as she sees it on a bunch of different issues.
I trust her to mitigate the damage that a popular uprising will do to the profits of large banks.
I trust her to protect the profits of health insurance companies.
I trust her to enable big pharma to continue price gouging.
I trust her to resist efforts to improve incarceration rates and eliminate for profit prisons.
I trust her to expand the H1B visa program and protect tech executives profits.
I trust her to implement practical reforms to SS and medicare which will limit benefits and keep the cap.
I trust her to fill her cabinet with warmongers, CIA operatives and wall street billionaires.
I trust her to work to keep the minimum wage as low as possible.
I trust her to protect Big Oil from lawsuits over damages from fracking operations.
I trust her to maintain the militaristic bent of policing in the US.
I trust her to vigorously help the little people so long as it doesn't interfere with the above list.
Most of all I trust her to run a dirty campaign full of half truths and surrogates stating downright lies about opponents.
Hillary is totally trustworthy.
The thing I can't figure the fuck out
The universal complaint about politicians is that you can't trust them and they don't tell the truth. This is a fundamental construct underlying the spin that camp weathervane employs.
So why the hell wouldn't you support someone who actually is honest and trustworthy? A once in a lifetime candidate.
It puzzles the fuck out of me.
Where does a Hillary nomination lead?
Let's say for discussion that the invisible thumb of the superdelegates overcomes the popular vote and Hillary is nominated.
This sets 2 things in motion:
First the disaffected vote is lost. Bernie is motivating many who have given up on elections, and those who have never voted. Those votes would evaporate for Hillary.
Second, the Teabag element would be entirely motivated to vote against her and get out the vote bringing all their dirty tricks along.
So let's further say that in the face of that she manages to win a hard fought election by a narrow margin.
Hillary is like crack to the teabaggers. How many days in office will she enjoy before a Benghazi committee on steroids comes knocking at the white house door? I doubt she makes it a week.
Is that a sensible woodchuck's definition of winning?
No more quantum politics
I just can't vote for a Schrodinger's Candidate that holds multiple positions simultaneously until the ballot box is opened.
An open letter to the peers of my children
Whether or not you are aware of it, you are in the fight of your life. Some of you know this and started fighting back with the occupy movement. We need to find a way to enlighten those who do not know this.
I am a young boomer. I was born on the cusp of the boomer and gen X. My siblings are clearly Boomers. Many of my peers are the eldest wave of the Xers.
The issues we face today are much more serious than the issues we faced when I was coming of age, the primary one was the cold war and the MAD strategy of those days. Yes, they actually named the strategy it MAD which stands for Mutually Assured Destruction. I served on a '41 for freedom' submarine that was built before I was born to support that strategy.
That was the time of disco and the founding of Lucasfilm. When according to the 'moral majority' the homos were going to be removed by gawd with the new homo killing disease, and since it was only killing homos, why spend money on research? Win - win in their eyes. Few democrats stood up to them then and quite a number winked whilst remaining silent on funding research that was so desperately needed.
Clearly we as a generation failed to stand up for what is right in many, many ways. If more of my peers and I for that matter had realized the stakes at risk in an incremental assault on the people by those willing to sacrifice my quality of life to sustain a higher quality of life for the few, perhaps we would have fought back harder.
As we boomers age and die off, you will receive an earth that is perilously close to a mass extinction event which at this point if the why still matters is being caused by anthropomorphic greenhouse gas emissions. On this, the science is clear. Many on both sides of the political spectrum will try to convince you that other issues are more pressing. You can recognize those efforts by looking to who is demonized or blamed, be it a race or a gender or some other differentiating aspect. The divide and conquer strategy is as old as humanity's social constructs.
I have never had the opportunity to vote for a presidential candidate who is so clearly and so completely on my side.
I have never had the opportunity to vote for a presidential candidate who has been so clearly and so completely consistent in their actions to move humanity in the pro human direction.
You may never again have the opportunity to vote for a presidential candidate who is clearly and so completely genuine. Who speaks of an US winning an election saying when WE win instead of when I win. Who will require you to stay involved beyond a presidential election if anything is to be changed for the better.
We are at a momentous fork in our path forward. If we choose wrongly, for whatever reason, there may not be a history that records that fact.
It is up to you to save your parents and provide a livable earth for our grandchildren. I wish it wasn't so, but it is what it is and you are my best hope for the future. Don't be fooled by Johnny come lately positions on the issues that matter. Those positions are not guided by a principled life.
I will close with one quote that I think reflects what our time needs most:
There's an art to name calling
Why not a thread to discuss the names we call each other? Maybe it will work itself out of our collective systems and we'll knock it off, yeah, like that would happen.
The best examples have a grain of truth to them. I like Camp Weathervane. It's rather mild and highlights position reversals, which lately some could have caused whiplash.
But Bernie supporters seem to just get called Bernie with some syllable tagged on to it: Bernistas, BernieBot, and now lately BernieBro.
Really? That's the best you can do?
It shows precious little imagination, I have to guess that it takes too much imagination to sustain the notion that Hillary is who the country needs in the White House and therefore there is none left to use on names to attack us with. It's time to step up your game.
So both sides, what's the best/worst name you've seen used on DU and why?
I'm going to make some coffee, I'll be back.
Water Receding
Pungent shore desperation
A Bernami comes
We seem to have entered a new phase of the election cycle.
OMG Hillary's still ahead in latest national poll
In the latest Quinnepac national poll, HIllary only slipped 10 points since the last national poll!
Biden and Bernie both picked up 5 points. Hillary's lead on Bernie slid from 38 points to 23 points this month.
Sanders still has room for growth with evidence in the favorability numbers. The don't know enough is only down 3 points from 42 to 39. Apparently everyone knows Hillary.
The poll included a word game for 3 candidates. Speaking of knowing her, Hillary's first 3 entries are both unflattering and loud. Her 3 top entries were recorded more than 100 times. None of Trump's top 3 broke 100. I wish they had played the first word game with Bernie.
Seems like Bernie is making solid gains nationwide.
I for one am glad that camp weathervane is attacking Bernie supporters
When I say camp weathervane I'm not just talking about DU, either.
It really means they got nothing to attack Bernie with. So if they want to call me a racist misogynistic volvo owner and all around general poopyhead. Fine with me!
They. Got. Nothing!
It means their candidate's policies don't hold a candle to Bernie's. It's obvious their candidate has a history of evolution driven by focus groups and the political winds.
Go ahead. Bring it. I'm happy to be Bernie's surrogate target for the poo flingers.
In the end, when Bernie is nominated, I can shower and watching the steam leaking from ears will be some sweet schadenfreude.
I'm off to my weekly meeting of Bernie supporters to figure out ways to get the word out.
No matter who you vote for, Won't you please join Bernie's revolution?
Seriously, I think I've had an epiphany.
Bernie is building an amazing grass roots organization. Without regard to what happens in the primary we will represent a large nationwide progressive voting bloc.
Obviously I support Bernie and I think he will gain the white house, but the Bernie I've come to know would not let a little thing like losing a primary election to dismantle what is being built.
I think it actually could be as formidable as the evangelicals were in the 80's, and that we can actually change what we as a country are all about. If we allow it to fall apart, there is no hope of solving the problems we face.
No matter what happens or who you vote for, we need to use this opportunity to create the structure that will ensure the movement's survival so we can work towards our goals of a better world for our children.
Profile Information
Gender: MaleHometown: Pa/Md
Home country: USA
Current location: Some have said not earth :shrug:
Member since: Sat Nov 20, 2004, 04:27 PM
Number of posts: 26,449