Send a Tweet
Most Popular Choices
Share on Facebook 7 Share on Twitter Printer Friendly Page More Sharing
Exclusive to OpEdNews:
OpEdNews Op Eds    H3'ed 4/8/16

Democrats: Still on the Fence? Get Off! There's Too Much at Stake

Author 505206
Message Alison Landes
Get off the fence.
Get off the fence.
(Image by wolfB1958)
  Details   DMCA

If you're a true Democrat, there's no reason to be torn between Hillary and Bernie. Free of obligation to corporate or wealthy donors, Bernie's campaign is a once in a lifetime opportunity for real change in Washington. The future of this planet, much less the nation, depends on us getting it right.

If you're tired of the status quo, if you find it impossible to make ends meet on minimum wage, if you're dismayed about health care and its rising costs, or you or your family have sacrificed life or limb in wars of choice or suffered inequities in the judicial system because of racial bias, Bernie is your candidate.

If you're a super delegate on the fence about your candidate and looking for courage, look to Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, who completed two tours of duty fighting for a Democracy in Iraq. Tulsi is endorsing Bernie because she understands our democracy is on the ropes right here at home.

Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, D-FL, chair of the DNC, stood in front of television cameras stating Tulsi had to resign from the DNC because she took a pledge to remain neutral and in order to endorse Sanders she had to resign. Tulsi did, but Wasserman-Schultz who has been anything but neutral has subtly stacked the deck against Sanders from the get-go. Bernie Sanders has been fighting for middle-America for decades but not as a household name nationwide. Wasserman-Schultz wanted to keep it that way in order that he not wrest away the nomination from her candidate, Hillary Clinton, whom she fiercely supported in 2008.

Seeing the media hijack the narrative of the election, watching the super PACs empowered by the Supreme Court pour contributions into the coffers of candidates of choice, hearing union leaders, many endorsing Hillary without members' consent and the political establishment, including large numbers of super delegates, many of whom pre-maturely endorsed Hillary, the establishment candidate; leaves voters with a broken system.

Rep. John Conyers, D-MI, champion of HR 676, Expanded and Improved Medicare for All, you've been fighting for single-payer healthcare for decades. Advocates have supported you, flown to Washington at their own expense, for meetings and hearings. Where is your endorsement for Bernie?

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-MA, champion for consumers financial protection where is your endorsement for Bernie? In your epilogue of "A Fighting Chance," you asked when America's young people struggle with more than $1 trillion in student loan debt, "Why does the United States government lend to the biggest banks at an interest rate less than one percent, and then charge students a rate nine times higher? Why is the US government scheduled to make $185 billion in profits off our students?" Are the students forced to subsidize the Wall Street bailout? Where is your voice for them now as they stand with Bernie?

When America's middle class is disappearing, how can representatives like Elizabeth Warren and John Conyers not stand proud and tall with Bernie Sanders and more importantly, the voters who finally have the opportunity to nominate the one candidate who has taken a stand, fighting for single-payer health care, college education, justice, climate, the elderly, the poor, the children, the 99% and making the government work for all of us, not just the 1% at the top? Where are you? Why are you standing in the shadows?

Although the DNC and the media, made it seem otherwise, super delegates' endorsements should be given no weight unless there is a need to break a deadlocked convention. And super delegates should not be endorsing Hillary prematurely or after state primaries, against the wishes of the majority of their constituents.

It's not that average Americans did not know their country and this election were being hijacked. It was impossible for them to do much about it as they had no one championing their cause. Now we do. Bernie is speaking truth to power. He has plenty of experience to know that what goes on in corporate boardrooms has no benefit for anyone earning far less than $225,000 an hour for a speech to financial corporations.

Transcripts have yet to be released so the public can determine just how honest Hillary is being in her ever-changing and nuanced pledge to work hard for the American people many of whom work for hourly and minimum wages. Her refusal to release those transcripts is an egregious outrage.

Citizens, fight back. Vote in the primaries and caucuses for Bernie and call your super delegates. Demand that their vote reflect the wishes of the majority of the state electorate.


Must Read 2   Well Said 2   Valuable 2  
Rate It | View Ratings


Alison Landes has a multi-faceted host of experiences to draw from over decades of working in marketing communications, education and health care advocacy.

Go To Commenting
Writers Guidelines
Contact AuthorContact Author Contact EditorContact Editor Author PageView Authors' Articles
Support OpEdNews

OpEdNews depends upon can't survive without your help.


Daily Weekly     OpEdNews Newsletter
   (Opens new browser window)


US Attorney for Southern New York Preet Bharara Requested to Lead Drive for Redo of NY Primary

Stolen: The 2016 Primary; Deja Vu of the 2000 Election?

Moving On From the Convention, A Real Cliff Hanger... What Happens Now?

"Oh What a Tangled Web We Weave When First We Practice to Deceive" The (un)Democratic New York Primary
