Political Climate Change is in the Air
Time to Turn on the Bern
"It's called the Greenspan Effect. Thanks to those gangster-banksters, the average American doesn't have the 'green' to span the average month."
-- Swami Beyondananda
A few days ago, I saw a jaw-dropping, eye-popping statistic. I had to re-read it several times to make sure I wasn't hallucinating, so here goes. 56% of Americans have less than $1,000 in their checking and savings accounts combined. Nearly 25% of Americans have less than $100 in their accounts!
Translated, this means that more than half of Americans are living in financial fear, and a quarter of us in financial terror. And ... because we live in the USA and are exposed to not just Fox, but the rest of main-scream corporate media, we have had it drummed into our heads that ... if we aren't making it financially, it is our own damn fault.
Too bad about those folks who can't survive on minimum wage, or recently-graduated students who will have to work until they're a hundred to pay off their student debts, or those old folks who lost their pensions in the crash and now have to work at Walmart. Survival of the fittest, you know. That's been the Republican refrain since the Reagan years. It's the same selfish-righteous illogical logic that Michigan's Governor Snyder used to make sure Flint's poorest residents were unfit to survive.
Of course, it's not just Republicans. Mainstream Democrats have earned the right to use the slogan: "Democrats -- the Other Pork Party", as Hillary takes PAC money from key Goldman-Sachs operatives.
Goldman-Sachs???
No wonder our commonwealth is being sacked by the Gold men!
Fortunately, there is an upwising afoot that may well bring the political climate change that got lost in a hopium haze eight years ago. 
The one candidate willing to confront the elephant (and donkey) in the living room -- pay-to-play politics where the unchecked, unbalanced, unmitigated power of money rules -- Bernie Sanders, is "berning" it up. For that reason -- and despite him not being up to speed on issues like mandatory vaccination and GMO proliferation -- I am wholeheartedly supporting Bernie, and even doing a benefit for him in March in Santa Cruz, CA.
No, I am definitely NOT smoking hopium ... but I believe 2016 is a year when Bernie Sanders can and will win the Presidency. Here are ten reasons why we should help him, and help him NOW:
Top Ten Reasons to Support Bernie Sanders
10. He is the ONLY candidate truly confronting corruption. By pointing out and taking on the overwhelming influence of big money in politics, Bernie has tapped a theme that transcends Democrat or Republican. He WILL stand up to the banks and the oligarchy. When he does, he paves the way for every other progressive cause to move forward, and some conservative ones as well -- such as honesty and financial integrity.
9. He is the candidate of change -- not chump change. While progressives had to project progressive values onto Barack Obama, Bernie stands up for his own, thank you. A socialist? Yeah, and so what? Bernie embraces the label, as he stands for such "socialist" programs as Social Security and Single Payer Health Care, favored by 58% of Americans according to the most recent poll. Or, as Swami put it, "If Obama REALLY were a socialist, he would have a 70% approval rating."
8. Sanders thumps Trump in the rump. While a recent poll indicates that Hillary might have a better shot at Trump, this is based on the "likely voter" -- but it will be Bernie, not Hillary who inspires and activates the "unlikely voters" like Millennials who are not inspired by an inside the box, inside the beltway candidate like Hillary. Head-to-head against Trump, the most recent poll has Bernie up 15 points, 56% to 39%.
7. Despite being a "socialist", Sanders will reach across the red blue divide. When Bernie Sanders became the "socialist" mayor of Burlington, Vermont in 1981, one of his first acts was to enroll the business community through his Community and Economic Development Office, to spark the local economy and offer a "hand up, not a hand out" program to help the working poor. Six years later, the otherwise conservative U.S. News and World Report named Bernie one of the Top 20 Mayors in the country.
6. Bernie will shift the emphasis from identity issues to "identical" issues. For the past generation or so, the Democrats have used "identity" issues -- the rights of women, minorities and other hyphenated Americans -- in a similar way that the Republicans have used evangelicals to fan the flames of divisiveness and emphasize our differences. This mass "pandermonium" where each side panders to its base has kept us divided enough so that we don't together confront the corruption at the core of our system. Bernie has shifted the focus to the identical issue the vast majority of us have in common -- a healthy wealthy commonwealth -- and this portends well for a new political alignment around our shared desire for honest, transparent governance.
5. Bernie is the only candidate with the backbone to confront the party with way too much "front-bone". Bernie's opposition to wars of empire, and his insistence on accountability from the banking industry have been steady and unchanged. The same is true with his support for Single Payer Health Care, and repeal of Citizens United. Years ago, Swami characterized the difference between the two parties this way: "The Republicans have been playing hard ball, the Democrats have been playing hardly-have-balls." The proactive Bernie campaign is a welcome change, and maybe the Democrats will re-take the hot "red" label, and the Republicans will be left with the blues.
4. Bernie is the "real" feminist candidate. Huh? Astrologers tell us we are entering the Aquarian Age, and while one might imagine that Aquarius (like aquarium) is a feminine water sign, it is actually a masculine air sign. If you look at the symbol for Aquarius, you see the Water Bearer -- a male figure pouring water, i.e., feminine wisdom. The new paradigm isn't one gender dominating the other, it's both genders (heck, ALL genders) working on the same a-genda, thrival for all. Bernie is the closest we have to an Aquarian candidate, a man courageously standing for the feminine values of nurturance and care for Creation.
3. Bernie is REAL, period. The appeal of Donald Trump -- and Ben Carson, before the full depth of his shallowness was revealed -- is that of a "real" person, unswayed by the opinions of others. As Trump's bluster gets further exposed for the bullyshit that it is, and as Hillary finds herself unable to untangle from her own twisted words, Bernie will become the people's choice, and not just the Democrat people. This is an equal-opportunity upwising and libertarian conservatives are awakening as well. Look for at least 10% to 20% of Evangelicals who recognize a true Christian when they see one, even if he is Jewish, to abandon the Republicans this time around if Bernie is the candidate. You don't believe it? Mock my words.
2. This campaign isn't about Bernie. While Hillary's campaign is about "me", Bernie's is about WE. One of the reasons he is getting so much grassroots support is because people recognize his campaign as a movement that goes further and deeper than his candidacy. While the insurgency Tea Party movement was very quickly co-opted by the Koch Brothers and kept alive through cash-flow infusion and Fox "News" impropaganda, the Bernie insurgency will grow and even grow past Bernie. It might even revitalize and reanimate the Democratic Party, so that we have a people's counterbalance to the other, Undemocratic Party.
And the # 1 reason to support Bernie ...
1. Because Bernie winning has been deemed "impossible". That's what conventional wisdom has been telling us all along, and the Hillary trolls on progressive blogs are still insisting. And yes, such an insurgency winning would have been impossible before now. However 2016, a leap year, may actually be a "quantum leap year" where the level of disgust with our corrupt system awakens enough Americans to say ENOUGH. Corbyn won in the U.K., Trudeau in Canada. There is an awakening world wide, and we even have a Pope riding this wave. Trump, and the entire heartless, selfish-righteous culture he and the Republicans represent are obsolete and obsolethal. And sadly, so is Hillary, representing the "other pork party". The sheer "impossibility" of this victory will energize the body politic like nothing before. And unlike 2008, we will have a candidate who, once elected, will stand up to the bullies, and enroll we the people to have his back.
That's when the real fun will begin.
But first ... let's put Bernie over the top. Go here to donate and / or volunteer, and please join us in Santa Cruz if you can on March 4th as we March Forth For Bernie. Our children, grandchildren and their children thank you in advance.