Americans at a Crossroads

I beg your indulgence.  Who we elect for POTUS, and to congress, may have the most profound impact on all of us in our adult lives of any such election in memory.

These issues are at the core of racism in America.  Hillary is probably not much worse than Barack has been - and there is a lot to admire in both of them.

However, I fear that the Democrat Party is adopting the New Democrat or Third Way positions that Bill Clinton and Tony Blair have been pushing, and I am sure Hillary will push them as well. The establishment seems hell-bent on literally merging the two parties as closely as humanly possible so the Big Money that finances BOTH sides can rely on either to represent THEM before the voters. It scares me, and we HAVE to get Bernie elected if we have ANY chance of turning it around.

Several Supreme court seats will likely be decided by our next POTUS - and those decisions are key to getting real relief measures in place against police violence and targeting of people of color.  We cannot have the supreme court continuing to knock down voter protection laws and helping with gerrymandering.  They must uphold protections for black americans, latinos, asians, and native americans.  And a republican will definitely not shape a SCOTUS that is pro-minorities.  Nor will a republican help mediate a congress that is bought & paid for by the oligarchy - by multinational corporations run by spoiled rich shits who care nothing for you and I.

And Hillary... her best friends are exactly those spoiled rich douche-bags.   Those are "her people."  She's been pushing the New Democrat agenda for many years - and all indications are she will continue to do so as POTUS. Wall street will continue to run amuck without oversight or controls to reign in their worst greedy instincts, and the american worker - especially minorities, will continue to bear the brunt of bailing the fat cats out when the hose the entire economy - or even when they just ruin the company you work for and destroy all of your life's saving and benefits that the company owes you.

Worse - Hillary and any republican is very unlikely to protect Social Security.  We'll see more jobs shipped overseas via the TPP (which she helped write & negotiate), and we'll see more and more domestic jobs become hourly without benefits and paid at below-living-wage.  No retirement, and Social Security benefits becoming weaker and unable to fill the gap.

I honestly think we stand at a cross-roads in America.  There is a growing awareness of #blacklivesmatter.  There is a growing awareness that wall street has no conscience or self-restraint, and that the laws have been watered down to promote irresponsible gambling by CEOs, corporations, and Wall Street that ultimately always comes out of our pockets - our retirements, our health care packages, our social security, our schools, our communities, our roads & bridges.

Although I have a great desire to see a woman elected as our POTUS, Hillary is only a good candidate in the sense that she is a woman and like all of the recent democrats who've run, better-than-a-republican.  But that's a really.... really.... low bar.

I want a woman to run who will fight for all of us.  For America - not just wealthy white america - but all of america - you, me, our children, Tamir Rice, Michael Brown, Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, Freddie Gray, Sandra Bland, and on and on.

I hate being a damn white guy saying "you should join me" - and on some level I am saying that.  But on another level, I am joining you.  I have been protesting, posting, showing up, marching, and learning about your struggle and making it my struggle - our struggle.  I have always supported people over governments, people over "justice" systems, peace over wars.... I was just ignorant of how racist I and most of the folks I know really were / are.  But I'm working to change who I am, to be a better man, a better white person who genuinely acts on my love of humanity and my unshakable core belief that we are all equal - it is society that creates inequality and suffering for all.

So please - maybe you're tuned out and turned off by American's stupid, stupid and mostly shallow politics.  Maybe everyone you know says Bernie cannot possibly win nationally, and so you "must" vote for Hillary.

But all of the independent polls show that this isn't true.  Bernie beats republicans hands-down, where Hillary does much more poorly against republicans.  And even were she to win - she'll be a business-as-usual candidate - she'll do some small things for black americans and maybe more significant things for women, but mostly she'll do as corporate america and wall street tell her to do (and she'll believe she's doing the right thing the whole time - those are her actual friends and social circles).

But business-as-usual in America is making us sick.

It's destroying our retirements.

It's basically creating indentured servants in loads of 3rd world nations and working people there to death to produce cheap-as-dirt crap for us to consume.

And it's destroying our planet in doing so.

And if we don't take a long, cold, hard look at our priorities and elect the only politician in (my) living memory that has remained uncorrupted and truly dedicated to we-the-people, then I fear a peaceful resolution to our ills may never come again.  America will devolve into real civil strife, and I can only believe that racism and fear of immigrants and minorities will increase ten-fold under those conditions.  We'll see it become more and more popular with mainstream to blame immigrants and people of color and the "culture of laziness" for all of our ills - telling whites that their issues are being caused by you, and latinos, and asians, and native americans.

The less money folks have, the less prosperous this nation becomes, the more desperate people feel - the more willing they are to lash out at others, and the less forgiving and generous they become.

So let us take our chances now, when there are chances to be had, and elect someone who has a truly, demonstrably, consistently, loving heart for all instead of a career politician who is "open to the possibility" of not totally destroying our futures.  That's weak-sauce, and it's not even remotely enough for the coming fight for human rights, human decency, living wage, and a dignified retirement.

Please!  Vote in the primary - #feelthebern