Posted February 1st, 2016 on Niagara At Large
(A Brief Foreword Note from NAL publisher Doug Draper – If you are wondering why I am posting the following endorsement for a candidate running for U.S. president, I have at least two important reasons.
First, what happens in the United States and who the people of that country elects to lead them often has a major impact on Canada, whether we Canadians like it or not.
U.S. contender for the Democratic presidential nomination, Bernie Sanders
Given that, Canada had a federal election last fall where enough of us voted to finally get rid of a government that favoured corporate elites by pursing policies that cut health and other caring programs for the many, gutted environmental protection programs and allowed the upper one per cent to avoid paying hundreds of billions of dollars annually in taxes that could have been used to make life better for all Canadians.
A successful presidential run by Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, who has had a decades long record of fighting for fairness for everyday people in his country and who has been a consistently strong voice for affordable, quality health care and education, and fair trade and environmental protection on a global scale, would strengthen the case for Canada’s new government pursuing a more progressive agenda.
Second, Niagara At Large is fortunate to have solid base of subscribers and supporters on both sides of the Canada/U.S. border and I am sure many of our American visitors to this site would agree that the amount of coverage the mainstream media has given to the campaign of Donald Trump compared to that of Bernie Sanders has been so outrageously out of balance that one might conclude the media has a hidden agenda to help Trump win the Republic nomination and see Sanders lose the Democratic nomination to Hillary Clinton, who has Wall Street stamped all over her back.
As one more piece of proof of this, I heard nothing on any of the American cable news channels of the endorsement Sanders received this January 31st from Michael Moore, who is an Academy Award-winning film maker and citizen activist who, most recently, stood up for the people in his hometown of Flint, Michigan, consuming poisoned water long before most of the mainstream media did. On the other hand, we have been nearly bombarded to death the with endorsement Trump received late this January from Sarah Palin, whose intelligence rivals that of a tree stump in my backyard and who so obviously sees hitching her wagon to Trump’s over-covered campaign as another way of drawing widespread attention to herself.
For those reasons alone, I am posting the following endorsement from Michael Moore for the one person I would vote for in a presidential election if I where an American citizens – Bernie Sanders.
From Michael Moore –
Tonight (Sunday, January 31st) I officially endorse Bernie Sanders for President.
My Dear Friends,
When I was a child, they said there was no way this majority-Protestant country of ours would ever elect a Catholic as president. And then John Fitzgerald Kennedy was elected president.
U.S. filmmaker and citizen activist Michael Moore
The next decade, they said America would not elect a president from the Deep South. The last person to do that on his own (not as a v-p) was Zachary Taylor in 1849. And then we elected President Jimmy Carter.
In 1980, they said voters would never elect a president who had been divorced and remarried. Way too religious of a country for that, they said. Welcome, President Ronald Reagan, 1981-89.
They said you could not get elected president if you had not served in the military. No one could remember when someone who hadnt served had been elected Commander-in-Chief. Or who had confessed to trying (but not inhaling!) Illegal drugs. President Bill Clinton, 1993-2001.
And then finally they said that there’s NO WAY the Democrats were going to win if they nominated a BLACK man for president – a black man who’s middle name was Hussein! America was still too racist for that.
Don’t do it!, people quietly warned each other.
BOOM!
Do you ever wonder why the pundits, the political class, are always so sure that Americans just aren’t readyfor something and then they’re always just so wrong? They say these things because they want to protect the status quo. They don’t want the boat rocked. They try to scare the average person into voting against their better judgment.
And now, this year they are claiming that there’s no way a democratic socialist can get elected President of the United States. That is the main talking point coming now from the Hillary Clinton campaign office.
But all the polls show Bernie Sanders actually BEATING Donald Trump by twice as many votes than if Hillary Clinton was the candidate.
Although the polls nationally show Hillary beating Bernie among DEMOCRATS, when the pollster includes all INDEPENDENTS, then Sanders beats Trump two to one over what Clinton would do.
The way the Clinton campaign has been red-baiting Sanders is unfortunate and tone deaf. According to NBC, 43% of Iowa Dems identify themselves more closely with socialism (sharing, helping) than with capitalism (greed, inequality). Most polls now show young adults (18-35) across America prefer socialism (fairness) to capitalism (selfishness).
So, what is democratic socialism? It’s having a true democracy where everyone has a seat at the table, where everyone has a voice, not just the rich.
The Merriam-Webster Dictionary recently announced the most looked-up word in their online dictionary in 2015 was socialism. If you’re under 49 (the largest voting block), the days of the Cold War & Commie Pinkos & the Red Scare look as stupid as Reefer Madness.
If Hillary’s biggest selling point as to why you should vote for her is, Bernie’s a socialist! or A socialist can’t win!, then she’s lost.
The New York Times, which admitted it made up stories of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq & pushed us to invade that country, has now endorsed Hillary Clinton, the candidate who voted for the Iraq War. I thought the Times had apologized and reformed itself. What Is going on here?
Well, the Times likes its candidates to be realistic and pragmatic. And to them, that means Hillary Clinton. She doesnt want to break up the banks, doesn.t want to bring back Glass-Steagall, doesn’t want to raise the minimum wage to $15/hr., doesn’t want Denmark’s free health care system. Just not realistic, I guess.
Of course, there was a time when the media said it wasn’t realistic to pass a constitutional amendment giving women the right to vote. They said it would never pass because only all-male legislators would be voting on it in the Congress and the State Legislatures. And that, obviously, meant it would never pass. They were wrong.
They once said that it wasn’t realistic to pass a Civil Rights Act AND a Voting Rights Act back to back. America just wasn’t ready for it. Both passed, in 1964 & 1965.
Ten years ago we were told gay marriage would never be the law of the land. Good thing we didn’t listen to those who told us to be pragmatic.
Hillary says Bernie’s plans just aren’t realistic or pragmatic. This week she said single payer health care will NEVER, EVER, happen. Never? Ever? Wow. Why not just give up?
Hillary also says it’s not practical to offer free college for everyone. You can’t get more practical than the Germans and they’re able to do it. As do many other countries.
Clinton does find ways to pay for war and tax breaks for the rich. Hillary Clinton was FOR the war in Iraq, AGAINST gay marriage, FOR the Patriot Act, FOR NAFTA, and wants to put Ed Snowden in prison. THATS a lot to wrap ones head around, especially when you have Bernie Sanders as an alternative. He will be the opposite of all that.
There are many good things about Hillary. But it’s clear she’s to the right of Obama and will move us backwards, not forward. This would be sad. Very sad.
Eight-one per cent of the electorate is either female, people of color or young (18-35). And the Republicans have lost the VAST majority of 81% of the country. Whoever the Democrat is on the ballot come November will win. No one should vote out of fear. You should vote for whom you think best represents what you believe in. They want to scare you into thinking we’ll lose with Sanders. The facts, the polls, scream just the opposite: We have a BETTER chance with Bernie!
Trump is loud and scary and liberals scare easy. But liberals also like facts. Here’s one: less than 19% of the USA is white guys over 35. So calm down!
Finally, Check out this chart it says it all: (Note: Hillary has now changed her position and is against TPP)
I first endorsed Bernie Sanders for public office in 1990 when he, as mayor of Burlington, VT, asked me to come up there and hold a rally for him in his run to become Vermont’s congressman. I guess not many were willing to go stump for an avowed democratic socialist at the time. Probably someone is his hippie-filled campaign office said, I’ll bet Michael Moore will do it!
They were right. I trucked up into the middle of nowhere and did my best to explain why we needed Bernie Sanders in the U.S. Congress. He won, I’ve been a supporter of his ever since, and hes never given me reason to not continue that support. I honestly thought I’d never see the day come where I would write to you and get to say these words: Please vote for Senator Bernie Sanders to be our next President of the United States of America.
I wouldn’t ask this of you if I didnt think we really, truly needed him. And we do. More than we probably know.
Sincerely Yours, Michael Moore
Share my endorsement letter here: http://michaelmoore.com/myendorsementofbernie
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The Glass/ Steagall legislation that re-established regulations to prevent the collapse of the the United States as deregulation did when it caused the “Great Depression” of the ‘Dirty Thirties”. No banks went belly up in over the following 50 years due to this Glass/ Steagall regulation even though it was chipped at progressively by the Republican party. Finally this legislation was repealed by President Bill Clinton in the early 1990s and the 2008 bubble bursting might have been the resultant factor.
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Michael Moore knows what he is talking about and the establishment doesn’t like that. He is repeatedly proven right and stands up for John Q Public. He exposes corruption. Heaven forbid.
Newspapers like the New York Times and Washington Post should not endorse any candidate IMO but rather present a chart like the one above and let people decide. All one has to do is look at the chart to see the facts. Clinton, while clever, is as establishment as they come. She is her own corporation. She makes $5000 a minute for speeches to ING and Goldman Sachs. How can anyone think she would not be controlled by her financial supporters instead of controlling them? It is not wise to elect her just to say they will have the first female president.
By contrast, who are Sanders financial supporters? They are not big banks and corporations but private citizens who are sick of the 1% buying the government. He would be thrilled to be controlled by HIS contributors. Is that not the job of governments, to represent the people who elected them? Of course the establishment is afraid of him.
The only hope is that young people, who are increasingly marginalized with McJobs and big educational bills, will change the dynamic and overthrow the long established rut that their elders (that would be us) have perpetuated. My fear is that all the Mr Big’s in the US will scuttle Sanders just as they did Ralph Nader and McGovern. Their loss if they do so again.
Go Bernie go.
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