The Bernie Sanders supporters must be ready for the long-haul fight. Just electing Bernie is just the start, the beginning of the revolution. A true revolution carries the mission until complete change is carried out and taken hold, which means we will have to elect a true Democratic Congress and Senate. Not only do we need to rid the Congress and the Senate of Republican politicians, but also Blue Dog, centrist, and corporate-beholden Democrats, if we want to see the change needed.
When we clean house, then we can see real change with free education. Norway, Sweden, Finland, France, Germany, Slovenia, Chile and Brazil all have free college education and the main reason is that their governments aren’t controlled by corporations and the stock market. When your politicians aren’t beholden to corporations, it’s amazing what can be accomplished.
Those who say increasing the minimum wage to $15 an hour would cost jobs; you have to ask why would these people say such a thing. When you pull the curtain back to see who is pulling their stings to say such things you understand it’s people like the Koch brothers, Walmart and Darden Restaurant corporation. It would be wiser to heed the words of billionaires like Nick Hanauer, entrepreneur and venture capitalist, who is saying he will push for a ballot measure for $16-an-hour-minimum wage in 2016 in Washington state. He has voiced his frustration with the roadblocks the GOP keeps putting up on minimum wage increases. He understands that the more money that is in 99 percent’s pockets the more they spend and the more stable and healthier our economy becomes.
Under Bernie, an end to the mass incarceration will come to an end with the demise of the private prison industry. His Democratic presidential opponent cut her ties to the private prison industry in October of last year, and is only now trying to unencumber herself from the thousands of dollars donated to her campaign who bundled their donations to hide the fact they were a private prison industry, which basically robbed the lives of people of color while making themselves and their cronies wealthy.
We have so much work to do, climate change, single-payer healthcare, ridding our country of trade agreements that hurt the American people and economy and our crumbling infrastructure, so do we want to vote for and elect a candidate that represents the establishment and status quo or a candidate who wants to equalize the playing field for all of us.
If we want change, we have to be prepared for the next election in 2018 and beyond. We have to continue our fight to get good candidates elected to give Bernie the Congress and Senate to get things done. It’s up to you and us. Bernie has gotten this far with small donations, no Super PACs, no corporate donations, and no outrageous speaking fees. If it worked for Bernie, it can work for others, but we have to hold their feet to the fire and make them work for us.
I hope that I am wrong, but what I see at this time is our unions are going to be in the fight of their existence. This is the most perilous time of our life. The life we had is threatened like never before. Unions are the largest organized group of people who can save our country if things keep going the way they are heading at this time. We need to all stand together for power, but we each must prepare and plan to take care of ourselves and our families. We can fight the big fight and not be distracted by worry about things that can and should already be taken care of. For instance, stashing at least one month’s pay and at least a month or even a year’s worth of food, whether the food is staples (pasta, rice, canned goods) and meat or chicken in the freezer. Keep your vehicles' tanks full and if possible a gas can full. It’s in your best interest to also save money for house or rent payments plus extra. This is not new thinking for us old trade workers who had to prepare when...
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