Friday, July 17, 2015

BERNIE SANDERS FOR PRESIDENT

BENEATH THE SPIN • ERIC L. WATTREE

BERNIE SANDERS FOR PRESIDENT
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I like Bernie Sanders. He seems to be non-calculating, and he talks common sense. The same is true of Elizabeth Warren, and I think they would make a great ticket. In fact, the perfect ticket. The only problem is, Bernie Sanders is a self-avowed Democratic Socialist, and the American people have a knee-jerk response to the word "socialist."
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Americans have been conditioned by capitalists to revile the word "socialism," even democratic socialism.  They associate it with despotism and closed societies. So the people simply have to be educated into a better understanding of the "isms."  They have to be educated to understand that both socialism and capitalism can be either good, or toxic if taken to extremes - and at this point, capitalism has gone way off the reservation.  According to a Princeton study, unrestrained capitalism has destroyed American democracy.  That's right. Princeton University has done a study that has declared that America is no longer a democracy. It is now an oligarchy, completely controlled by the rich (http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-echochambers-27074746).
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In addition, capitalism is responsible for the genocide of as many as 100 million Native Americans (6 generations over 100 years), the atrocities of slavery and Jim Crow, America's current economic plight, and capitalism threatens to destroy the planet by placing profits before science. Democratic socialism, on the other hand, simply means to have the common sense to give people priority over corporations, and between now and the next election the people can be educated to that fact - especially when they're hungry and economically depressed.

BERNIE SANDERS AND PEOPLE SKILLS
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A Hillary Clinton supporter told me that one of the problems with Bernie Sanders is he doesn't have any “people Skills.” Well, that’s EXACTLY what most people like most about him. “People skills” implies a well honed ability to manipulate people. We don’t need that. What we need in America right now is someone who’s willing to just go from the shoulders, as we used to say back in the day, and that’s exactly what Bernie does. Bernie simply says what he thinks, while Hillary is prone to first commission a poll to see what words are most popular and what words are least popular.
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In addition, in spite of the claim that Bernie lacks people skills, he’s drawing more people to his appearances than any other politician in America. The reason for that is simple - the people feel him. He's like their next door neighbor. Most people don’t feel Hillary in that way. They see her as a celebrity,  and they support her because she has name recognition, and they feel like “it’s her turn.”
I don’t feel that way. I feel like it’s MY turn.
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HILLARY CLINTON'S MENTOR
Finally, I'd like to make it clear that I don't dislike Hillary Clinton, but I don't completely trust her either. She comes off as much too careful and calculating, and she's far too remote from the people. She's also far too much of a political animal for my taste. When I listen to her speak, I feel like I'm being "handled."  She also gives me the impression that she's much more interested in attaining office than she is in helping the people. In short, she's much too mechanical and she doesn't seem to have any real passion - and what passion she does have seems manufactured.  She strikes me as all ambition, and the people are merely an afterthought that she'll make every effort to help if she happens to stumble across them. In addition, I haven't forgotten that she's a former Goldwater Republican, and I'm also very uncomfortable with her association with the Bilderberg Society. I don't like secret societies - especially when they're trying to control the world.

THERE'S NO SUCH THING AS BAD KNOWLEDGE

A couple of friends asked me in response to this piece why was it necessary to bring up the fact that Hillary Clinton campaigned for Barry Goldwater over 50 years ago. I'll respond to that question with a question - why not? A true progressive always gives truth priority over ideology.  In fact, that's what it means to be a progressive.  So again, tell me, why shouldn't I mention it?
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I'm a writer.  My job is to disseminate information and  knowledge, and since there's no such thing as BAD knowledge, I don't pick and choose what knowledge I disseminate. I write to relate knowledge, not hide it. The tendency to be selective in the dissemination of knowledge is one of the most serious problems that we have in this country. Isn't that one of the major complaints being lodged against the mainstream media?  And it's a valid complaint, because it's led to an entire generation of under-informed people - a population of people who are merely  "edge-ucated,"or who have only been brought to the edge of a true education, because someone, somewhere, have decided that revealing certain information is "inconvenient." That's also THE primary reason that most people don't know the many contributions that Black people have made to this country, because someone decided that information was inconvenient.
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Thus, the fact that Hillary Clinton was a part of the Barry Goldwater campaign in her youth may be quite significant to a person who wasn't cognizant of that fact. And it takes on more significance when you take into account her current association with the very secretive Bilderberg Society, and even more significance when you consider the political strategy espoused by her close friend and mentor, the late Saul Alinsky.  Alinsky said, "True revolutionaries do not flaunt their radicalism. They cut their hair, put on suits, and infiltrate the system from within."
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Thus, a person who wasn't aware of this fact may want the opportunity to assess her motives for themselves. After all, it's not like Hillary was a naive little girl who was simply following in her mommie and daddy's footsteps. She was so passionately motivated that she didn't simply support Barry Goldwater, she took it to the next level and actually went to work on his campaign. So that obviously wasn't just a young girl's passing indulgence.  When she went to college she became the PRESIDENT of the "Young Republicans" at Wellesley College. That reflected a passion, commitment, and dedication to the conservative cause.   
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So to say that Hillary spun on a dime is an understatement.  Thus, the question that needs to be pondered is, did she suddenly undergo a passionate epiphany, or was her sudden change of direction a cynical calculation based on ambition, because she saw which way the wind was blowing.  Every individual deserves the right to make that assessment for themselves.
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So again, why should I take it upon myself to hide Hillary's past from those who may not have that knowledge?  It's one thing to admire a person (as I do Hillary Clinton),  but let us not get so caught up in our admiration of an individual that it causes us to go blind and stupid. That's also a serious problem in this country. That's what conservatives do.
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http://wattree.blogspot.com/2014/04/demographics-are-against-gop-so-theyve.html.

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Eric L. Wattree
Religious bigotry: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does. 


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