2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: Some Bernie Sanders campaign slogan ideas (with poll) [View all]daybranch
(1,309 posts)We progressives who work for Bernie already seem to like Feel the Bern now. The head of he state democratic party is David Pepper and Mr. Pepper has extended an invitation to Bernie to come to Ohio, as I am sure he has done for Hillary. It has been suggested that for that visit we use a slogan - with a little Pepper, you can feel the Bern.
But right now I would favor something that more identifies the direction Bernie wants to move the country. Something that directly identifies the enemies of our democracy.
Something like- Revolutionary War Soldiers fought the English Oligarchy, why support one now? Vote Bernie? Or a better shorter way to say this?
I am a descendant of a Culpeper, Virginia militia, a group of patriots whose Kentucky style rifles and frontier style dress separated them from your farmers, tradesmen , mechanic, laborers ets. They were part of Patrick Henrys Brigade. Their flag while like the Gadsden flag( so proudly copied today by the Teaparty) had the added words Culpeper Virginia at top and Liberty or Death in the center. While it is often repeated that Patrick Henry, a rich Virginian said these words before his hanging by the British it is not often repeated in our history books the story of how these mountain men under this flag were instrumental in stopping the British from landing their ships at Hampton and most importantly in a truly grass roots effort rushed with other mountain men to defeat a larger force of British moving up from Florida at Kings Mountain. The Battle of Kings Mountain is notoriously absent from our history although Thomas Jefferson called the Battle which turned the tide. My point here is not to glorify my ancestor, my point here is to point out that the flag so proudly fllown by the Teaparty is being used to maintain an oligarchy by creating a middle class group who justify their single minded pursuit (accumulation of wealth and unwilingness to pay taxes or cooperate with our Federal government) by blaming minorities, working women, single mothers who depend on welfare, social security recipients outside their own middle class, and any law that may prevent continued destruction of the environment. The present day teaparty like the teaparty of the revolution were formed to prevent a backlash of the majority against the inequity formented by the oligarchy at that time0; This tactic has worked many times throughout our the existence of our country. But it time to put a stop to its usefulness. We need to remind ourselves and our neighbors , the purpose of our revolution was to get us out from the tyranny of wealthy oligarchy. we say in auditing , if you want to find out who theguilty parties are just follow the money trail. It leads through many politicians of both parties to those who purchase our democracy as they purchase these politicians.
I think that the phrase liberty or death is my motto. It was good enough for Patrick Henry and it is good enough now for me. Stand up for that liberty, fight the oligarchs, inform your neighbors of the true enemies of democracy, and get them to volunteer what is probably going to be a long and difficult struggle. But we cannot let our freedom of speech be abridged by these bullying and controlling supporters of the oligarchs whether they call themselves, Teaparty, republicans, centrist democrats, or main stream news. We know what the word liberty is supposed to mean, our ancestors fought for it, and we cannot continue to piddle it away. Let us make an effort to reclaim our real history with all its worts by our past leaders and acknowledgement of how we white people have been manipulated to do a lot of bad stuff harming African Americans, Women, Children is order to maintain the control by the very wealthy. Our eyes are open now and we must for, our own peace of mind and knowledge of right and wrong, join in a grass roots effort to gain this liberty our forefathers fought for. The only candidate supporting this effort directly is Bernie Sanders. The stated goals of Hillary Clinton only continue the chokehold on our liberty. We do not keep attacking the symptoms of the disease, we have to go after the disease itself. This is appropriately called a Herculean task and reminds me of two fictional battles fought by Hercules which clearly illustrate how to win against seemingly invincible foes. If you remember he killed the hydra by attacking its heart, and he defeated the keeper of the bridge by removing his goddess mothers support by throwing him down on the land rather than continuing to allow renewal of strength by his mother when he was thrown in the water. And if you are like me of Scottish ancestry, you may remember that Robert De Bruce was successful in defeating the English king by a tactic of his men going straight for the King. Allof these fights illustrate that knowing who your enemy is and stopping him is the key to winning. I find that most politicians include Hillary are afraid to name the oligarchs as our problem and realize that if elected she will cutoff heads of the Hydra even as she allows the beast to grow stronger. I also feel that her refusal to stand up with the people against the TPP, her championing of the Keystone Pipeline, her failure to support the Greek people from unbridled austerity, coupled with her many accomplishments of social efforts which really do little economically to threaten distribution of income to the rich makes her a candidate like her husband a slick proponent of more control by the rich through control trade agreements and laws.
So get working for Bernie. Stand up and speak out. Bernie is saying what you know in your hearts is most important for our people and telling you we must fight the Billionaires. We must if we want liberty!