Image by DonkeyHotey via Flickr
by Lo
editor, Dandelion Salad
July 11, 2015
To anyone working on Bernie Sanders‘ campaign. These questions need answers:
Will he remove the troops overseas?
Rein in the military budget?
End the wars?
Does he support drone bombings?
Will he have a “kill list” like Obama?
Will he sign the NDAA with the section about holding US citizens without cause?
What about his support for Israel over the Palestinians?
Does he favor Monetary Reform? Or public banking?
Additional info:
http://www.sanders.senate.gov/legislation/voting-record
https://votesmart.org/candidate/key-votes/27110/bernie-sanders
http://votesmart.org/candidate/political-courage-test/27110/bernie-sanders/
http://www.ontheissues.org/senate/bernie_sanders.htm
Official Campaign Website: https://berniesanders.com/
On the Issues [with no mention of the military]
See also:
What I learned about Bernie Sanders by Kristen Martin
Populist Except for Pentagon by David Swanson
Bernie Sanders’ Troubling History of Supporting US Military Violence Abroad
Bernie Sanders Doubles Down on F-35 Support Days After Runway Explosion
from the archives:
Socialism According to Eugene V. Debs by Elizabeth Schulte
Chris Hedges: Bernie Sanders is Giving Legitimacy to the Democratic Party
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Great discussion and thank you to all who are contributing, however, let’s try to keep the focus on the issue of the blog post.
What will you do to stop the ongoing radiation catastrophe at Fukushima?
Lo, You might think about re-titling this post, or naming a future one, “The Really Important Questions Presidential Candidates Must Answer”.
Now, if anyone wants to run with that concept, expand it to the global level for all the world’s leaders (The Really Important Questions World Leaders Must Answer) and get even more creative, imagine the possibilities…
The Really Important Questions Project of 2015.
I don’t know, Jerry, I don’t write very often. It’s not my thing.
Really when it comes down to it, politicians are not the ones calling the shots. Most if not all lie during their campaigns and once in office continue to lie to the public. So does it even matter what their answers are to begin with?
Another question although unrelated to the military, will Sanders get rid of Obamacare and push for single payer healthcare?
Sanders has advocated single-payer universal health care – the votesmart website notes this. He calls Obamacare a “step in the right direction.” Although Obamacare is inadequate, it is better than nothing at all, so hopefully, it will not be repealed until something better comes along.
I know he has advocated for single-payer in the past, my question is, will he implement it in the future, doing away with the insurance company written Obamacare? For me personally, as well as many millions of others, Obamacare doesn’t cover us because we are too poor! Has he spoken about single-payer in his campaign speeches?
Even though the single payer will be a big improvement, the private hospitals, doctors, and pharmaceutical companies will continue to parasitize on the illnesses of people and extort huge proportions of the GDP and national budget for their exorbitant profits, paid for by the tax payers. The most effective solution to this great problem would be to nationalize the entire healthcare system, including the hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, and pharmacies. The doctors and other healthcare professionals should be paid salaries, instead of using their expertise to make as much profits as they can out of human illnesses and miseries. Such a system existed in all the socialist countries, including Cuba, a relatively poor Third World country. Why can it not be advocated and implemented in this country that incessantly boasts to be the richest in the world. At least, the human healthcare, along with shelter and food, should be recognized as a basic human need and human right, instead of the source of exorbitant profits. Enormous savings in the healthcare expenditures-hundreds of billions of dollars-will make them available for the satisfaction of other basic human needs, like food and housing. It may be politically impossible, but is logically very much possible.
I definitely agree with your idea of nationalized healthcare.
Better to ask the questions than to already pre-judge any candidate. and these are good ones .
Thanks, Rocket. Do you have any questions for Bernie Sanders?
Yes . the same as yours plus a lot of domestic stuff –prison reform , ending the war on drugs, the borders and seaports ( plural –sovernty issue ) , rebuilding infrastructure , etc…
There is no (positive) correlation between what presidential candidates promise and what they do once in the Oval Office, as described in detail for every president from FDR to Obama at http://newdemocracyworld.org/revolution/voting-in-america.html . The explanation is that elected politicians are not the ones who determine government policy; they are merely the ones charged with carrying out the policies determined by the plutocracy in their exclusive think tanks such as the Council on Foreign Relations and Committee for Economic Development. We need an egalitarian revolutionary movement of hundreds of millions of people where they live and work; getting a “good guy” in the Oval Office is not going to remove the billionaires from power. The billionaires were never elected and thus cannot be unelected.
http://newdemocracyworld.org/revolution/sanders.html applies this reasoning to the Bernie Sanders case. It will not make any difference if Sanders is elected or not, except in determining which individual in the Oval Office people are going to be angry at, as they are now angry at Obama.
Thanks, John, good points. Also enjoyed your articles.
John: Excellent comments. Lo knows I use the word “egalitarian” quite a bit
in many of my posts because it’s something the world desperately needs, since “yesterday.
Your website and the two articles you’ve linked get a ***** (five star) rating in my mind and on how I see things which you’ve covered very well. THANKS!
Would his administration prosecute war crimes? Would he push for the US and Israel to join the ICC?
Great questions, Virginia. I can guess what the answers may be, no to both.
Not knowing how to use a crystal ball, Virginia, it is highly unlikely.
While all your poster’s positions are very righteous, and I am in agreement with their vision for our future, I can’t help pointing out all of you are missing several deeply relevant facts. Social change happens over decades, not four year election cycles. Of all people, Bernie Sanders knows this. So, Tom, Frank, Fazal, Ed and others, are you telling me that if you can’t have it ALL, you won’t play? IF that’s your position, you have totally missed the structural point of our republic, which is based on COMPROMISE.
We are all upset because, with ALEC, and his despicable “pledges”, Grover Norquist has stymied the compromise process in Congress. Now, you turn on the first viable candidate to come along who espouses the ideas you share, and you say you won’t support him unless you agree with him on EVERY issue. How much sense does that make? Are you as rigid and intransigent as the Tea Party bozos you say you despise? I don’t see people here with a desire to be “in it” for the long haul. What I’m hearing here is only knee-jerk, impulse driven, arm-chair intellectualism, “my way or the highway” people. If you had ever had any experience developing consensus on issues, even small ones at the City level, you would know that compromise is at the heart of any “change” you will accomplish. So, which ones of your questions for Bernie are “no go” items, and which ones can you let ride, if need be? Those are things you need to have clear before you go interviewing him on his positions, and certainly before you decide to abandon the best thing that’s come along in decades, for a candidate who can’t even get on the ballot in all the states.
Neoliberal economic policies have dominated since 1980, and with Bill Clinton, Democrats fully embraced them. Imperialist U.S. policies have been in place since at least the late 19th century, and now, with a global Empire of 1,000 miliraty bases, nuclear-armed fleets on every ocean, and U.S./NATO forces on Russia’s borders and U.S. warships on the South China Sea, while catastrophic climate disaster accelerates every day, though it has been known since at least the 1960s, how much longer are YOU willing to wait? It’s not even the 9th inning anymore. We are in sudden-death overtime, and the Sixth Great Extinction has already begun, while Obama’s neocon advisers are pushing war with nuclear-armed Russia and China.
Read these:
Enough Is Enough: Building A Sustainable Economy In A World Of Finite Resources by Rob Dietz and Dan O’Neill (2013)
This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate by Naomi Klein (2014)
Chris Hedges addresses the need for revolution against the current system in his latest book: Wages of Rebellion: The Moral Imperative Of Revolt (2015)
Geraldine, please do not assume anything about me or any of the other commenters here because we are asking serious questions.
Who said that they despise the Tea Party?
Who said that they will not support Bernie Sanders? I know I didn’t say one way or the other. He may not even be on the ballot when my state votes in the Primary Election next year. Kucinich dropped out before my state voted.
I disagree with you about Sanders being the “best thing that’s come along in decades” because Dennis Kucinich ran for president a few times recently and I knew his answers to the above questions in my piece.
Geraldine, what you say might have been applicable once upon a time, but we live in unprecedented times, an epoch of planetary crisis far beyond anything ever known in history.
Compromise is for people who understand diplomacy, rational, informed negotiation and inclusive debate, not for fools. This US election cycle has become a ritual of pretence, it changes nothing and denies everything.
The facts are clear to those of us who do not actually live in the US: no-one is exempt from the implications and repercussions of American hegemonic reach. It begins and ends with the almighty dollar, and what it controls. Even foreign policy is a myth, there is no policy there is only a fanatical belief in US exceptionalism, in “God’s Empire” of might is right. How do you negotiate with such ideological hubris? How do you debate deceit?
Who can can compromise with “full spectrum dominance;” with the Highlands Forum; with the politics of genetic modification and carcinogenic pollution; with the machinery of death, with arrogance, sexism, stupidity, sanctioned genocide & endemic racism?
The world’s leading scientists are telling us that a sixth extinction is imminent, and how does the US electoral process respond? Not with a sober and rational evaluation of the data, with a coherent appraisal of the options, a pellucid strategy of resilient adaptation to circumstance and sincere pledges to cooperate and coordinate the best global initiatives to ameliorate these threats; no, it responds with a facile popularity contest that more closely resembles a banal and intellectually eviscerated game-show, than an intelligent, politically enlightened invocation of the genius of the country; it is an invitation to patronise ignorance & wallow in humankind’s most base vices and depraved appetites.
I can assure you of one thing, the spectre of this charade from offshore is dismal at best; at worst it has all the hallmarks of a countdown to catastrophe, because no matter what people say or do, the deck is stacked and the game is rigged.
David:
Effective and necessary rebuttal to the lullaby somnambuliser above, which contains the usual clichés and buzzwords of the rationalizers of the status quo.
David, Thanks again for unraveling the contrived plan for world conquest in very eloquent language.
David, I think your conclusion that the “game is rigged” answers most of the questions/concerns. You would think that climate change as well as the military being the largest user of fossil fuels, and the “defence” budget being the largest in the world would be the most talked about in US campaigns. But it’s not. It’s a lot of pandering to little red herring issues most of which will never change. The frustrating part is that it keeps going like this election cycle after election cycle.
Geraldine, to steal a quote from Slick Willy himself (I voted for him twice as the “lesser of the two” you know what), “I feel your pain.”
No, we aren’t knee-jerk, impulse driven, arm-chair intellectuals, insisting on “our way or the highway” types, but “freethinkers” who’ve lived long enough and have enough observational experience of political campaigns and speeches of previous candidates who – like the old television commercial said: “Promise her anything but give her Arpege,” and have heard the campaign rhetoric for many decades, and I like to think we have the ability of discernment, in determining reality from imaginative fantasy regarding candidates running for office.
I myself have had enough of the excuses makers in the Democratic Party, which is part of the duopoly which drew the line in the sand back in the early 1980’s to keep “alternative” political party candidates out of their so-called debates. Real democratic, aren’t they!
resistance is futile. just shoot self in head, await zombification, and then stagger over to booth and vote for hillary.
Or vote for Dr. Jill Stein, the Green party candidate who truly represents what we progressives want to see done. At least you won’t be throwing away your vote on someone who does not represent you.
See the platform here:
My Plan – Jill2016
http://www.jill2016.com/plan
The big problems with the Green Party is that it doesn’t even get on the ballot in many states, and the candidates are not allowed in the televised debates controlled by the Capitalist Parties: Democrats and Republicans. So it remains a small third party. It also has internal organizational problems which I found out first-hand when working on Nader’s campaign in 2000.
I voted for her last time. I like.
I like B. Sanders for the attention he is able to attract, to present a contrast between the “republican-lite” nature of the Democrat party. I recognize that by running as a democrat, he is doing the same as others before him, like Kucinich, for instance. their role is to prevent too many on the left from leaving the democratic party. part of me thinks it would actually be better if the democrats forever die as a party, since they’re such sell-outs. to be determined.
Amen, Ed!
I think that Lo has asked all the essential questions, which include some of the important deficiencies and flaws of Bernie Sanders that I mentioned in my comment on the article on Eugene Debs, without specifying them. There is very little to add to those questions, as some of these cover broad categories, which are inclusive of sub-categories. Bernie Sanders should answer those personally, as Lo has posted them on his web site. He should be reading the contents of that site and not leaving it entirely to his supporter, who may not let such important questions reach him.
One question that one needs to ask oneself is: What is the most that can be expected of the American Electorate? When I try to answer it, the answer appears as Obama or Obama-like presidents or politicians. Even a contradictory socialist like, Bernie Sanders, might be too much for an electorate that has gone through a thorough and most efficient cradle-to-grave capitalist conditioning, news and other media only being part of the whole complex of factors, which include all the political, economic, educational, religious, family, cultural and other institutions. American electorate has always exclusively elected representatives of the capitalist class to the highest offices of the government and congress. And the quality of those representatives has been getting worse, during the past 40 years. When another contradictory socialist gets elected to a very minor job in the City Council of Seattle, a huge deal is made out of it, showing how pathetic the situation of the left is here in this country. In Europe, in many countries, communists and greens are regularly elected to the parliaments. Currently, eight communist parties, from different European countries, are represented in the European Parliament. In capitalist Russia, Communist Party is the second largest in the Duma, after Putin’s oligarch-controlled United Russia, in spite of the control over economic, educational, cultural, and news media institutions by the latter.
Unless the above question and the related questions of the nature and causes of the mass psychology (mass psychopathology) of the American electorate are asked and addressed, nothing substantial will change, in spite of all the oceans of rhetoric.
In such a dismal situation, with the electoral politics, only relatively minor positive changes can be expected at best. The only real solution to the vast complex of accumulated problems of advanced capitalism and imperialism is the socialist revolution, which is being prevented by the problems of mass psychology (mass psychopathology) of the electorate, including that of majority of the working class. All the objective conditions have been ripe for a long time for such a revolution. It has been problems in the Subjective Factor, which have prevented this.
Fazal:You said it so well, identifying the crux of the problem with 96% of the American voting public, going back and forth every four or eight years on the horizontal political pendulum which is certainly swinging farther to the right rather than normalize it’s position in the center, so to speak.
“Mass psychopathology” is the therapy used by the ruling-class to manipulate the electorate who have been conditioned not to think critically or question authority, for fear of being labeled a crackpot or conspiracy theorist.( Michael Parenti and others have written volumes on this subject).
As a trade-unionist, I’m so disappointed (from the Reagan years to now) with the complacent and subservient attitude of union officials and their continued support of the Democratic Party no matter how much they’ve harmed organized labor and wage war on the working class in other nations.
After repeating the same mistakes over and over again and wondering why things are getting worse for the common people and their refusal to connect the dots, it seems futile trying to persuade them to consider a new paradigm for real progressive change for benefiting the working class and not to enrich even more the super-rich, besides granting them even more power to have laws enacted for their sustained rule.
On the Subjective Factor (great term!), I’m thinking that “It Can’t Happen Here”, “Brave New World”, “1984”, and “WE Thought We Were Free”, might be the most important novels written in the 20th century and definitely applicable in the 21st century.
We were warned but haven’t heeded the message these prescient authors foresaw what could happen when the vast majority let a small minority do the thinking for them.
Frank:
This country needs clearheaded, informed, and working class based intellectuals like yourself in leadership positions in the movements. One of the most essential qualities that is badly needed in the new leaders is sincerity, the lack of which is one of the major subjective reasons for such a dismal state of political affairs in this country. Numerous wishy-washy, confused, inadequately informed or misinformed, and opportunist people have been able to occupy such positions, mostly because they have big mouths and spew out incessant leftist rhetoric, which may even sound revolutionary, but, in fact, has anti-revolutionary effects.
Chris Hedges has been one of such confusionist leaders. I have not read anything by him for several years. He was disinforming the Occupy Movement about Marx, Bakunin, Black Panthers, anarchism, and Marxism, with his abundant and ignorant rhetoric at that time. I do not know whether he has changed his erroneous positions and ideas, as I lost all interest in what he was saying and writing. Following is a link to a paper that I wrote at that time, which contains rather mild criticism of his erroneous positions.
https://imperialismandthethirdworld.wordpress.com/2011/11/15/occupy-wall-street-on-the-strategy-and-tactics-of-non-forceful-and-forceful-responses-to-the-violence-of-the-capitalist-imperialist-state-by-fazal-rahman-ph-d/
Fazal: The union movement in the U.S. has lost so many members because of the inept leadership at the top, coupled with their insistence that the Democratic Party is the “friend of labor.” They’re stuck in a time warp of the mid-1930’s during the Wagner Act era and FDR, and can’t seem to comprehend the steady shift to the extreme right of the Democratic Party since the 1960’s. Never once has a Democratic candidate or politician get onto the grandstand and vigorously call for the repeal of the anti-worker Taft-Hartly Act. It was much easier to repeal prohibition on alcohol in 1933.
Not to forget that the steady stream of anti-union propaganda, both in subtle form and in threatening form has mesmerized the majority of working-class people of all levels: blue-collar, white-collar, professional, skilled, unskilled, that we are lazy, greedy, and too costly for companies to be “competitive” and are “job destroyers” for those reasons.
The Republican/Democrat Party is working around the clock to systematically do away with defined pensions, replacing them with 401k’s.
As you already know, tyrannical regimes goes after organized labor first, and then the thinking or intellectual class of progressive writers, teachers and real community organizers. Once they are eliminated or somehow neutralized, the rank and file of humanity can be easily managed and manipulated for the benefit of the ruling-elite.
Chris Hedges is not perfect, nor are we, but since the days of the brief “Occupy Movement,” he has become more outraged and vocal in calling for a genuine revolution against the corrupt regime in Washington, D.C., on Wall Street, and in the psychopathic mental ward (my words, not his) called the Pentagon.
I read the review of the link you provided. Thanks!
Please do read and listen to Chris Hedges again, Fazal, and I think you’ll be impressed with his no-nonsense message to the people. Hedges, like most of us on this thread, is angry for all the right reasons.
Frank:
Thank you for more information about your stands on issues and legislation that are so important for the working class. I doubt whether Chris Hedges has filled his politico-economic and philosophical gaps and flaws. These were too deep and fundamental. It is not enough to be angry and articulate about issues of extremely complex politico-economic reality. It is essential to have an accurate and scientific understanding of its nature and causes, including those that involve the political economy, class struggle, mass psychology, culture, and human nature. Only that can lead to accurate diagnoses and proposals for solutions. Also, it is not enough to preach revolution in general or one that is doomed to failure, because of flaws in its logical foundations and planning. It is essential to have a scientific vision of revolution, based upon accurate analysis of the class structure of society, identification of the main antagonistic classes and the revolutionary class that has the potential to overthrow the ruling class and replace its political rule, as well as of the essential post-revolutionary stages of new class rule, of which the Dictatorship of the Proletariat is most important for preventing the inevitable violent counter-revolutionary restoration of capitalism. These stages, worked out by Marx and Lenin, remain essential for the success of any socialist revolution by the working class and its allies. There is no substitute for these and these cannot be bypassed. People like Chris Hedges not only have no understanding of such essential requirements of a real politico-economic revolution, they are opposed to them. I am sure that when the revolutionary moment comes, the intellectuals of the working class will work out the correct and necessary strategy and tactics, based upon the past experiences and knowledge of revolutions in other countries, as well as the revolutionary movements in this country.
right on Frank . have you seen the 1965 French film ”Alphaville”.? a dystopian masterpiece by Godard.
Thanks, Rocket. I haven’t seen Alphaville, but for this day and age, it’s probably worth seeing, by the great Godard!
Trying to stick to the subject on Bernie as Lo advised, I’ll just say this: (especially for Fazal) go to truthdig.com and read Hedges’ latest article: “We’re All Greeks, Now.”
What is happening in the US and other imperialist countries was predicted by Lenin almost 100 years ago. Numerous real socialists and communists-among them the late Victor Perlo in his various articles and books-have documented these facts in more detail than what Hedges wrote in the article that you mentioned. Even the magazine of capitalist corporations, “Fortune”, has recently published an article, indicating that , as far as the debt crisis is concerned, Americans are worse off than the Greeks.
On page 2 of that article, he writes,” Fascist and communist firing squads sometimes charged the victim’s family for the bullets used in the execution.”, equating fascism with communism and giving no evidence for this slander against the communists. Of course, one can always dig up “evidence” from the volumes of lies and disinformation literature about communism, which has been created in the US and other capitalist-imperialist countries. As far as his anti-communism is concerned, It seems that Hedges continues to be part of that propaganda machine. Like a typical demagogue, he remains vague about solutions to the problems he discusses. Exactly what kind of revolution he is proposing? Certainly, it is not the Marxist-Leninist socialist kind, the only real alternative to capitalism and imperialism. Noam Chomsky has written a lot more competently about American hegemony, deterrence of democracy etc. However, his approaches are also limited by his anti-communism. Many of these leftist elites are financially quite well off-some very well off-and their horizons are limited by that. Some are able to describe the problems accurately, but are unable or unwilling to identify their real and deep roots and causes. Marx, Engels, and Lenin did not have those mutilating limitations, and, therefore, were able to discover the real causes and deep roots of such problems, as well as foresee their development in the future, and propose effective solutions in the form of socialist and communist revolutions. Later, numerous Marxists-Leninists in this country, as well as in other countries, developed and deepened that knowledge and insights further, in relation to the historical and politico-economic developments.
In this country, the word socialism has become very confused and abused, as various types of so-called “socialists”, who leave the basis of capitalism-private ownership of the means of production-untouched, are also appropriating it. Many of them do not realize that they are reverting back to the pre-Marxist era of such utopian socialisms and subjectively moving the history backwards. In general, it is a waste of time to argue with such deluded “socialists”.
I very rarely participate in comments. In spite of my efforts to keep them brief, the nature of subjects counteracts those efforts. I am going to disappear now from these comments.
I appreciate reading your commentary, Fazal. Thank you for participating in the discussion.
Two recent books attempt to address the threat now posed to the whole planet by capitailsm:
Enough Is Enough: Building A Sustainable Economy In A World Of Finite Resources by Rob Dietz and Dan O’Neill (2013)
This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate by Naomi Klein (2014)
Chris Hedges addresses the need for revolution against the current system in his latest book: Wages of Rebellion: The Moral Imperative Of Revolt (2015)
Ed, good selection of books!
Ed: The greed of the capitalist has no bounds. Mike Antonovich, an LA County (California) Supervisor for over forty years is a prime example of their anti-social agenda for the common people.
Check out:
http://www.prwatch.org/news/2015/07/12880/la-county-supervisor-hires-phony-corporate-backed-research-firm-to-kill-the-minimum-wage-plan
I guess Edward Bernays is still with us. Evil genius!
The obvious hatred of the working class by the ruling class enrages me. Both Wall Street/corporate parties and most corporate media share this hatred, as proven by their policies, regardless of their lying rhetoric.
Small correction, I did not post these questions on Sanders’ website. I would like to hear from someone on his campaign to answer these questions. If anyone knows anyone who is working in Sanders’ campaign, please send the link to this piece to them.
Lo: Consider sending him a letter to his senate address as well as to the following campaign address (from his web site):
Bernie 2016
PO Box 905
Burlington, VT 05402
I just checked his site and it does not have any forums or contact button.
I don’t have a printer to make a copy of the questions and I don’t believe I would receive a response from him. If anyone else wants to contact him using any of the above questions, feel free to do so.
I did send out the link to this piece on Facebook and tagged Sanders’ campaign page and on Twitter, also tagging his Twitter account.
Very good questions, Lo! Important additions by Ed, David & Jerry and doctom as well.
Years ago, when I was involved in local sustainability, I brought up the same question that Ed does about the number one user of oil in the world – the U.S. military – and was told it was too political to do a program on. Eventually I dropped out of the group.
Yes on the organic farms and tax money for community supported ag.
Jerry: I’m still waiting for that $$$ peace dividend after the Soviet Union dismantled.
Oh, the link by Kristen Martin answers a lot of our questions about Bernie.
Thanks, Frank. And for checking out the Martin article; very enlightening, I thought.
Lo, I thank you for putting it altogether. The Marin article is enlightening. Some friends in Vermont have been upset over Bernie’s F-35 caper and his military stance and silence, for the past few years.
I’ll be backing Jill Stein again!
Very busy week….a lot of catchin’ up to do on the computer.
You are most welcome. Just thought that a discussion was necessary at this time, and as Tom mentioned in his comment, the Sanders supporters are starting to become like the Obama supporters did in 2008. Once they’ve gotten on board, they may continue with the Democratic Party (Capitalist Party).
I put a link to an article about Sanders support of the F-35. He must answer some of these important questions.
I totally agree about the 2008 “syndrome” happening all over again, with the “party faithful” being swallowed up by the Democratic Party, which represents the imperialist and capitalist class, under the false assumption they will save us from those “terrible right-wing” Republicans.
But to even think Sanders would support Clinton if she won the Primary rather than the Green or a socialist candidate should be a warning sign for the Democratic Party zealots and the media shills making alibis for their actions, that if they are honest with themselves and really believe in liberal, progressive and peaceful solutions for human and societal advancement, then they best take a long unbiased look at his foreign policy.
And then watching the news last night, I see the Teacher’s unions are supporting Hillary – a woman who has done NOTHING for labor, but because she has a “D” after her name. And they’re educated?
As a retired teacher I am appalled at, and disgusted by, the AFT endorsement of Hillary Clinton. They didn’t even have the political sense to wait and use Bernie or Jill Stein to get Hillary to make concrete proposals which will benefit teachers and students. How foolish to back a candidate who will continue neoliberal economic policies benefitting mostly the 1% and neocon war policies which will prevent social needs spending.
This is something that Bernie has already proven he is better at than Hillory and the GOP He voted to get troops out of Iraq and if we are going to war then take care of the veterans. I understand your piece is meant to imply that no one is decent enough to be president.
Noonsun, my piece doesn’t imply anything. It is just wanting answers to these questions.
dandelionsalad… So you try to fool us with your responses as do the politicians: if your ‘piece doesn’t imply anything’ you would not have including the opinions of Hawkins (for example).
Francis, I’m not fooling anyone by asking serious questions.
Did you mean Martin instead of Hawkins? The article by Martin was listed in the “See also” with other articles. It was not cited in my piece. There is a difference.
Are you a Bernie Sanders supporter? Did you vote for Obama? Are you a Socialist?
Thanks, Lo. These are some of the same questions I have also been raising about Bernie, who seems to be keeping his foreign policy a secret so far.
How will he pay for his needed democratic-socialist programs if we are still burdened by a more than one trillion dollar ‘National Security’ budget, endless wars, and a global empire of close to 1,000 U.S. military bases and fleets of warships on every ocean?
Exactly, Ed. He must address these questions. Love your question.
How can he talk about climate change without talking about the largest user of fossil fuels, the US military?
Yes! Glad you mentioned climate disaster and the Number One user on earth of fossil fuels, the U.S. military.
Well, climate change is one of the issues Sanders is talking about and he has it on his short list of issues on his website, minus the military connection.
Very good post, Lo. Glad to see you write this! I’m having an ongoing discussions with Bernie supporters, especially on “Revolt Against Plutocracy” and his supporters there are “Berniebots”, successors to Obamabots. They attack anyone who asks these questions!
Thanks, Tom. I made a post on FB with some of these questions but the comments got out of hand rather quickly. It’s such a shame that we cannot have this discussion without personal attacks, etc. I do hope this isn’t the next group of Obamabots, but, like you said, it has already begun.
Great questions Lo.
How about one on community supported ag, organic farms & changing the food paradigm?
Great question, too, David, although I do believe Sanders would support those, don’t you?
While very interested in reading what should be a great number of comments generated from highly relevant questions posed, one more for consideration:
“Does Mr. Sanders favor, as rapid as humanly possible, bringing about worldwide criminalization and abolition of all nuclear weapons?”
Thanks for adding your question, too, Jerry. I’m hoping that others will do the same.
Love your question!