Breaking: Democratic Base Awakens After Decades on Life Support, and the Ensuing Earthquake Exposes Deep Fault Line Within Democratic Party

In the past few weeks, I have lost two long-time friends who are also fellow Democrats, over the fact that I am an ardent Bernie Sanders supporter and they keep relentlessly commenting on Facebook, smearing Bernie and his platform, and they also keep making outrageously smearing statements about Bernie's supporters.  Since I am a many-decades-long and ardent Bernie supporter, when people I thought of as friends insist upon attacking us, I take that very personally:  they are attacking me.

I didn't end my friendships with them because they disagree with me on policies or on a candidate.  I don't mind if people hold different views from my own (they have a right to be wrong *lol*), or support a different candidate.  I do take profound issue with them personally attacking all Bernie supporters by making shockingly offensive and inaccurate, generalized statements about us, or about Bernie himself, or about his platform.  And the fact that I've personally lost two long-time friends in the span of a few weeks, two fellow members of the Democratic party--the fact that it got to a point at which the friendships of many years are actually over, when we are supposedly the party of tolerance and respect for diversity--I think warrants a blog entry, so here goes:

I think the Democratic party is actually experiencing an earthquake right now that is exposing a fault line, an ideological divide.

Everyone is talking about the GOP coming apart at the seams. Perhaps being overlooked is what is going on over here on the Democratic side. Bernie is the heart, soul and mind of the party, and he's breathed life into its body, which has been on life support for decades. We have air in our lungs now, we're awake. He's given us breath and voice!

Hillary and her followers who keep relentlessly smearing Bernie's supporters like me don't seem to be celebrating our awakening.  They don't even seem to respect that, or us. They want us to go back to sleep, back into a deep coma, and stop all our crazy talk about "pie-in-the-sky" dreams. They are comfortable with the status quo. What's more, if the newly revived and awakened Democratic base keeps trying to speak, let alone rip off the life support and get up, they will keep trying to shut us up. 

Well, hear this across the increasingly wide fault line being exposed by this ideological earthquake, fellow Democrats who are trying to smear and dismiss us Bernie supporters:  I will not be silenced.  We will not be silenced.  Bernie has helped us find our voice.  And we are going to raise it.

Al Gore: It’s Time to Bern a Few Bridges

Just my passionate two cents: I think one of my heroes should definitely endorse the other one, right now. I think Al Gore should come out and endorse Bernie Sanders.

Come on, Al, what are you waiting for? Bernie is the strongest candidate on climate change by far. Bernie has the progressive agenda. He gives voice to, and fights for, what the base of the Democratic Party has held in our heart of hearts for so long, while we and our country endured decades of Reaganomics surrounding and drowning us.

Are you trying to stay out of it? Now is not the time in history for that. Now is the time to use your hard-won and much-deserved influence and gravitas to stand behind the person who will fight to save our country and our planet. The stakes are high. The time is now. And what has Hillary ever done for you? What has she ever done for us, really? Look at Bernie. Look at his record, look at his history. Look at our country and our world, and the crossroads both face. The choice is clear. Your endorsement matters.  Do it.

Time to Find a Secret Annex?

Donald J. Trump, a few moments ago: "We have to look very seriously at the mosques."

My reaction: Oh my God this really is like right before Nazi Germany.

Donald J. Trump, right after that: "We are in a war. We don't know where these people are."

My reaction: Probably hiding in an secret annex somewhere if "they" know what's good for them. And I need to get a suitcase ready, and find my annex because I think I'm a "they" in Trump's eyes. Even if not, when he starts rounding people up from mosques, that is when I will put a star of David on my arm and say "Take me, too."

Trump Puts the Bully in Bully Pulpit

I implore you all to think about Donald Trump’s latest reveal of his character:

Do you think someone is presidential material who tweets out an unflattering pic of the wife of one of his opponents next to his gorgeous trophy wife, the point of which is clearly and unmistakably to sneer-n-smear at his opponent with the meaning of "my wife is prettier than yours"?

Think about how juvenile and SHALLOW, how misogynistic and unpresidential, that is. Do we want someone who thinks that the looks of his opponent's wife are a valid campaign issue? Do we want someone who thinks it is okay to attack an opponent's spouse or even an opponent him or herself based solely on appearance?

Regardless of what you think of Trump's stands on issues--let's say you are all about walls, waterboarding, and shipping entire religious groups out of the country--do you really want someone with the temperament and shallowness of Trump? Not only does he openly and clearly incite violence against anyone who dares express disagreement with him, but he attacks people time and again based on their looks and or physical "packaging" alone. Just a few examples of the plethora that exist, off the top of my exhausted-from-a-week-at-my-job little head:

1. Saying he wants to look Rosie O'Donnell "right in her fat, ugly face" and...blah blah blah.

2. Mocking a reporter with a physical challenge.

3.  This latest tweet of his, designed to say that his wife is pretty and Ted Cruz's wife is ugly.

This man is NOT presidential material, no matter what you think of his stands on issues--he is a vindictive, misogynistic, vengeful, temperamental, volatile bully. Do you want him to have his finger on the button?

Flower Power or Round-Up?

Just watched (in horror) a Trump rally in Ohio, live streamed on YouTube.  And here is my musing on that:

1980, Washington, DC:  National Mall, big crowd for the 4th of July celebration.  But it wasn't a good feeling type of patriotism to me.  There was an ugly vibe in the crowd.  Reagan had come to power.  There were people wearing tee-shirts that said "Fuck Iran", and I looked around, still very young (18) and naive, and having thought up until that moment that, when my generation grew up, everything was going to be flower power and kumbaya, and I realized:  oh my God, people my age are...like...NOT all liberal and progressive and about peace, love and rock and roll, like the lyrics of our music would have one think.  What is going on here?

What was going on was the birth of the Reagan Era.  And now it is in its death throes, and the type of person who wore the "Fuck Iran" tee-shirts back in 1980 is the same type of person at the Trump rallies today. It's exactly the same vibe, the same feeling, as I felt surrounding me on that July 4th, 1980, on the National Mall.  It is an ugly, xenophobic, macho, "us and them" vibe.  It terrified me then and it terrifies me now.

I am not the same naive girl I was then, so even though I see so many hopeful signs in our country, I realize that that ugly element is still there, too.  And I can never get complacent.  Even if Bernie wins the general election and becomes president, even if we elect a great congress at the mid-terms to work with him, even if our country makes great strides toward economic and ethical health as a culture, that ugly element that is all about xenophobia, fear, bigotry and hate will always be a part of us, too.  Because, tragically, that ugly potential has always been and will always be a part of humanity.  So even if flower power were to rule throughout the land, there are always those who would try to spray Round-Up on it, on us, if given half a chance.

We have the potential for great good, and we have the potential for great evil.  The laws of this great nation are such--the constitution is such--that it makes it very hard for us to go the evil route for too long, though we have done it (slavery, the Japanese internment during WWII, different groups having to fight for civil rights, etc.).  The internal compass of our nation is geared toward good as our true north.  But it is up to each of us to fight for that, to safeguard that.  Like a garden, our country needs constant tending in order to be healthy and thrive.  Let us not forget that.  Let us speak up for flower power, even when others scream for Round-Up, and rounding up.

This Female Bernie Supporter Accepts Your Apology, Madeleine, and I Appreciate It

This is a follow-up to my last outraged blog which was regarding a statement Madeleine Albright made at a Hillary Clinton rally, which in the context she spoke it, implied that women who do not support Hillary Clinton have a "special place in Hell" reserved for us.  She has, as of yesterday, since apologized, and clarified, in the following New York Times editorial.

My reaction?  Apology accepted, and appreciated.  One poor choice doesn't necessarily negate a lifetime of great achievement.  I, for one female Bernie supporter, forgive her and am back to my previous stance of admiring her.  Here is her apology:

Madeleine Albright apologizes in a New York Times Op Ed

Going to Hell for Bernie

I’m exhausted.  I’m busy.  I work so hard, as a female member of the 99%, and I don’t feel like coming home and summoning up the eloquence to write a blog tonight.  But, I’m also pissed off.  You know:  ANGRY.  And I am therefore compelled to write this tonight.

I am an ardent supporter of Bernie Sanders.  He has been a hero of mine since way back when he was mayor of Burlington, Vermont.  I love his ideals.  I love what he stands for and how he stands for it.  Until today, I also had a lot of respect for Hillary Clinton.  A long time ago, I used to think she was just about power and ambition, and not about ideals.  Then I came to believe that she actually did stand for things—good things—and not only that, she’s smart and experienced and a damn eloquent speaker and she, somewhere along the way, earned my respect.  Today, she lost it again.  For good.  Oh, I will vote for her in the general election if she’s the nominee of my party, don’t worry.  But before today, I would have done so with great enthusiasm.  After today, I will just do it, like I did for Barack Obama twice, and for John Kerry.  The last presidential election I was truly excited about was 2000.  And I’m excited again now, for Bernie—and only for Bernie—thanks to the Clinton campaign’s dogged determination to profoundly insult female Bernie voters.

First up to the plate, apparently as sort of a warm-up act, we had Gloria Steinam.  Now, I’m not sure if this opening act was sanctioned by the Clinton Camp or not, so in fairness, she may not have been acting as a Clinton surrogate, as I am 100% sure the next two people and statements I’m going to describe after the Gloria incident clearly were.  Gloria got interviewed by Bill Maher and decided to opine that young women are only voting for Bernie because they are thinking, quote:  “Where are the boys?  The boys are with Bernie.”  Now, folks, I am just going to let that one speak for itself, because that is just the kindling for my fire tonight.  It is not the reason I am taking time I don’t have, energy I don’t have and facing facts I don’t want to face, just to write this.  No, that would be because definite surrogates of the Clinton campaign:  Bill Clinton, speaking on Hillary’s behalf, and then Madeleine Albright, speaking on Hillary’s behalf with Hillary right there cheering her on, no less, have said things that are so offensive that I am DONE.  DONE with respecting Hillary, done with sticking up for her, finito.

Let’s start with Bill.  He is going around saying that Bernie’s campaign is engaging in sexist attacks against Hillary.  This is simply NOT the truth.  In fact, Bernie has said that if any of his supporters are posting anything sexist against Hillary (which, as anyone who has the slightest understanding of the internet realizes, he has no control over), he not only does not condone it and requests that they stop, but he doesn’t want their support.  You can’t be any clearer AGAINST sexism in the campaign than that.

Now we move on to what has spurred my complete outrage:  Madeleine Albright.  Former Secretary of State.  Current Clinton campaign spokesperson.  Someone I have met.  Someone I had great respect for.  Someone who completely lost ALL my respect with ONE comment today, and also—taken in tandem with the Steinem shocker and the Bill artful smear—managed to make me lose respect for Hillary, which Hillary had built up from basically where I’ve been SHOT back to today, which is nil.  I have no respect for her.  In fact, I now have active contempt for her.

For you see, Madeleine Albright decided to say that women who don’t support Hillary have “a special place in hell”.  Yep.  You read that right.  I decided to listen to the comment myself on video this afternoon, since I couldn’t believe I had heard it reported correctly, or in context, on CNN’s early news this morning.  CNN had reported that she said young women who support Bernie have a special place in Hell.  What she actually said, at first blush, does sound a lot better:  women who don’t support other women have a special place in hell.  HOWEVER, if you listen to the entire thing in context, it was clearly and solely in the context of saying women should support Hillary.  There is absolutely no mistaking her meaning:  Madeleine Albright definitely, clearly, unmistakably meant that women who don’t support HILLARY have, quote, “a special place in hell.”

Folks, there is really no way, and thankfully, no need, to put into words just how offensive this is to me as a woman who supports Bernie.  As a Democrat.  As someone who has stuck up for Hillary to my fellow Bernie supporters throughout this campaign.  As someone who has admired Madeleine Albright for decades.  I’m done.  I’m done trying to bring the party together.  I’m done trying to bring progressives together.  I’m done sticking up for Hillary.  Why would I stick up for someone who claps when her surrogate says I have a special place in hell?

Do they honestly think that is the way to win female Bernie voters over?  By condemning us?  By insulting us?  By saying we have a special place in hell?  My mom always told me, “You catch more flies with honey.”

But these people evidently think bullying will work.  They think fire and brimstone condemnation will work.  They think playing the vagina card will work.  Well, I am not voting for someone just because they are a woman, I’m voting for the person whose POLICIES help women, men, children, the elderly, the environment, the economy, our country and the world.  That person is Bernie.  He steadfastly sticks to the issues, the substance, and refuses to engage in personal attacks.  He doesn’t insult my intelligence.  So who is the true feminist?  He doesn’t bully and threaten me with going to hell.  So who is the true feminist?  His policies would really challenge the patriarchy, so who is the true feminist?

I tend to vote for those who don’t tell me I have a special place in hell reserved for me.  I tend to vote for those who are respectful and respectworthy.