Democratic Donor Contacts Biden Allies About Possible Run

[JDPriestly]

29. Big money just doesn't get it.

We need a stock market. We thrive on capitalism.

But most of us do not do well when the few at the top grab the entire economy and leave us out.

Wall Street has taken the jobs of ordinary Americans, shipped them overseas and shipped poor quality products back to fill the shelves of our stores. They hide their profits overseas so that they don't have to pay taxes to maintain our schools, our public colleges, our roads, our bridges and the rest of our infrastructure. They are in a sense taking their money and slowly but surely abandoning us.

I don't know the numbers, but it feels like fast food is the top employer in the country. That is probably not statistically accurate, but it sure feels like that. What kind of economy is that? How does someone buy a house or feed and clothe and educate their children on a minimum wage job at McDonalds or some other big chain, low-wage operation?

A lot of Americans are still doing OK, but the crash of 2008 meant many people lost their homes, their jobs and their businesses. That was a big warning to all of us. We all know someone, probably more than one hardworking, good person who lost their job or their home or their business. And many of those who lost out are still suffering. In many cases, these are people who thought they were doing well in the 1990s and early 2000s.

Those of us who did not lose just about everything are all frightened that we could join those who did. And those of us on Social Security and Medicare are worried that the Republicans and Wall Street with the silent acquiescence of the leadership of the Democratic Party will pull our meager monthly payments out from under us. Students and graduates are overwhelmed with debt and just at the time when they are starting their families, paying high rents. They really struggle.
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We feel that the rich take and take and care nothing about anyone else, nothing about the rest of us. They want a share of our healthcare dollars, a share of our education dollars, a share of our housing dollars, a share of everything. And they give us nothing tangible in return for what they take. They just grab a little profit but provide no meaningful service for it.

And Bernie says it for us: Enough is enough. You can't have it all.

Why is the Democratic leadership surprised that we feel that we need a better safety net?

Occupy Wall Street put it well:

The banks got bailed out, and (I'm paraphrasing badly) we got locked out.

Who can we turn to? Congress with its Republican leadership and the apologetic minority of Democrats, those "you have to love us because at least we aren't as bad as the Republicans." What hope are they offering us?

When the bubble burst and the economy crashed, Wall Street leaders had contracts that protected their big paychecks. But Wall Street seemed oblivious to the many, many Americans who didn't have contracts like that and lost the small savings they had. There are a lot of people out there now in their 50s and 60s who lost their jobs and homes, spent the little they had saved for retirement just to survive and now can only get temp jobs or jobs that pay far less than they were earning before 2008.

Wall Street and the "leadership" of the Democratic Party seem to be oblivious to that reality. And if, as people like Hillary and other "leaders" of the Democratic Party are prone to do, they meet with "ordinary" people to talk about their problems and concerns, the ordinary working people they meet with are so starstruck and so anxious to please and say the right thing that the important "leaders" don't hear the truth. They see people at their best, not the reality under the dress-up clothes, the Sunday-best smiles and the cheerful talk.

So now Bernie is doing well in the polls, and these very important but oblivious people who are out of contact with the reality of American life at this time don't understand it.

They never will. They see the shopping centers full of shoppers -- of imported products -- often spending borrowed money. Hey. Credit is great for Wall Street and the banks. The interest boosts their income. But that same interest represents losses to the borrowers. Americans need living wages, not credit cards.

Bernie is doing well because he is speaking to the problems that are important to real Americans when they sit behind closed doors with their families. He understands how people are trying to figure out how they are going to survive in the future, whether they will have jobs five years from now, whether their jobs will be outsourced or exported.

He gets it. He knows what to do about it. He has ideas we haven't already tried. He tells us that we can work together to make our lives, our society more secure without sacrificing our creativity and individuality.

Meanwhile, Wall Street which seems so capable of predicting market trends pays very little attention if any at all to the trends in the lives of ordinary, the majority of Americans.

And then the Wall-Streeters think they are going to be able to buy this election the way they buy stocks.

Maybe they can. Maybe they can.

But what will it mean for America if they do?

Do they have any answers for what is ailing America? For what is scaring Americans?

I really don't think so.

There is a concept in religion of having "a calling." A calling is the mission that chooses you. It isn't something you choose.

We have a lot of politicians in both parties who don't have the calling.

They try to act like they do, but they really aren't called.

Bernie Sanders is called to public service. When we say we "feel the Bern," we are saying that we feel that Bernie is called, called to public service. He is selfless in following his calling. He is devoted to, obsessed with good government. That is what America needs in its next leader.

There are some nice people out there running for office. But none of them that I can think of have been called, feel the calling, like Bernie Sanders.

I just don't think that these self-satisfied makers, important people and politicians understand what that calling is or why it makes Sanders so different and so appealing.

We need Bernie.

He has the calling to clean up our government. None of the other candidates have that.

We need Bernie. We need him because he will provide responsible leadership, and at this time, more than anything we need responsible leadership not only in Congress but on Wall Street. Is that really too much to ask?????

If Wall Street was as smart as it thinks it is, it would go with Bernie. He is actually the candidate with the character and the personal skills, the independence, to reconcile the needs and interests of Wall Street with those of the rest of America. Probably sounds crazy. But if we continue on the corrupt track we are on, our country will divide and fall apart.

If Wall Street doesn't have the vision to understand that, we may well be doomed. We can't afford another administration that lives to cooperate with the corrupt, insatiable demands of big money and sacrifices the well being of average Americans for that end.

Sometimes only by giving up control can you exercise it. That's what America's business leaders need to learn. Because by constantly trying to grab and exercise their control and ignoring the needs of the American people, they are killing the goose that laid their golden egg -- the American people.

Bernie knows how to save that goose.

Stop Bernie at your peril, all you rich folks. He is what America needs, and guess what, he is what you need too.