When I opened the Daily Kos Recommended e-mail today, I was presented with a petition, which I'd seen before, asking me, in a nutshell, to endorse Hillary Clinton for President, and, seemingly, to also endow her with powers reserved for "The Avengers", saintliness attributable to a veritable litany of disciples, apostles, popes, deans, pastors, rabbis, imams and other of that ilk, and to join the ranks of various non-ecclesiastical "saviors" of the common American - most notably those of us in the middle class (such as it is anymore).
Sorry, fellow Kossacks. I just can't go there, and would hope you all would reconsider that position before jumping on the HRC bandwagon, formidable and inviting as that may seem.
Why, you may ask? Why, indeed! Squirrel on with me below the space between branches.
It seems that, in the past week (therefore occurring in April and thus meeting the criteria for importance and interest) one Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) declared that he is running as a Democrat for President.
"Gasp!" you may say. How dare he? Where does he get the right, why, the unmitigated GALL to confront the (apparent, possibly self-named) annointed of the liberal party? Well, I'll tell you.
Sen Sanders is one of the rarest of the rare, especially in DC: a politician with principles who has won all his past contests by sticking to those principles, telling his constituents the truth and not giving in to special interests. He has done a marvelous job of looking out for Vermont, and, since moving to the Senate, for the American people - the real people, not just the moneyed classes. And, he has done this by running grassroots, populist campaigns. And now, he has started a national campaign with the same principles and plan of action.
Bernie has taken positions quite unpopular with the centrist Dems who "lead" the party, not to mention with the 1% who supply the largest amounts of cash to run campaigns today. And those groups are exactly the ones who want Hillary as President, proclaiming - and she did, when she announced - that she would, indeed, be the "champion of the middle class and the downtrodden in this country. In fairness, she HAS walked back some earlier positions and given rousing (for her anyway) speeches on righting wrongs and redresing grievances.
Bernie has given those same rousing speeches, both in the Senate and elsewhere, and has actually had the temerity to act on them as a US Senator, even with his being in a super-minority position. (he's an independent who caucuses with the Dems) and now has decided tha he will switch titles and run as a Democrat for President. But he hasn't walked back any of his principles, or abandoned the REAL people of the US and what he sees as their needs: a living wage, fair elections, income equality, more tax on the wealthy 1 % and a fairer tax code, not worrying abut the so'called 'social issues' that so many in the GOP espouse, and some true fairness and equal treatment for all the races.
I do think HRC is qualified, but I qualify that statement with the caveat that I am not convinced - and neither should you be - that she has moved sufficiently away from her centrist roots or from the idea that she will carry on 'government as usual' when that is the very thing this country needs to get the national government representing US, as opposed to the big money and business. And from a personal standpoint, I don't think she can make that move.
If the Democratic party is to once again become the populist, progressive entity it was in the days when FDR took it there, it, and we as both big-and-small-D democrats, need a leader who CAN, and that appears to be Bernie Sanders at this point in time.
He can do it - his fund raising seems to be coming along nicely, and he is building a good, solid grass-roots organization (can anyone say Obama 2008?) then I think he will. But not if those of us who remain skeptical of big-time politics and politicians do things like sign the KOS petition too soon and not even give him a chance - that sounds like something a REPUBLICAN would do.