Since
1956 when, as a youngster of ten, I distributed cards for Adlai Stevenson for President,
I have in some fashion or other participated in Presidential campaigns. I have supported the candidates of the
Democratic Party. And often I have
engaged in primary campaigns seeking to influence the selection of the Party’s
nominee.
We are
now engaged in the 2016 selection process and the Democratic Party, with an
incumbent President term limited and an incumbent Vice-President opting not to
run, has three candidates for the nomination: Former Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton, former Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley and Senator Bernie Sanders of
Vermont. If we exclude incumbent Presidents seeking re-election this contest is
similar to one 60 years ago when the front runner, though facing opposition,
was presumed and did become the nominee.
Hillary
Clinton by all measurements of political prognostication will be the Democratic
nominee. Unless she falters in the early
primaries she is favored to run the board.
She is representative of many Democrats of my generation - liberally
progressive but not populist progressive.
She is consensus liberal on economic issues, liberal on social issues
and somewhat interventionist on foreign affairs. She would be the first woman President and
would fulfill a dream of my generation as did Barack Obama in 2008. .
Former
Gov. O’Malley is a fine man with an excellent progressive record as Governor of
Maryland and is the kind of candidate that the Party saw many of in the 1980's
and 90's. And yet he has failed to gain any traction in the campaign as the
Democratic public appears to prefer a two candidate race perhaps bemused by the
Republican gaggle of contenders.
Then
there is Senator Bernie Sanders. An
independent who describes himself as a Democratic Socialist (a label some would
apply to Franklin Delano Roosevelt), and espouses a 21st century Populism with
echoes of William Jennings Bryan and Robert Lafollette. From the relative obscurity of Vermont he
has gained thousands of followers who, if they become a movement, could rival
and even surpass in intensity the anti-war and civil rights movements of the
sixties. Sanders campaigns to end the
dominance of America by the richest 1%.
He fights for an America where 99% will share the wealth, the political
power and the American dream. He raises
the call for economic reform and fair distribution of the nation’s wealth that
Populists, Progressives and New Dealers of the 20th century crusaded for.
And just as in 1896, and 1912 and 1932
while the establishment figures of the Democratic party endorse the safer more moderate candidate the crowds gather to
hear one who speaks for and to them.
Senator
Sanders makes the case for addressing the problem of income inequality in
America that is now dividing us into two classes: have a lot and have a little.
The great American middle class built and prospered by the programs of the New
Deal and the GI Bill is disappearing.
The Senator from Vermont argues for a $15 minimum wage which works out
to an annual income of $30,000 hardly enough to raise a family in today's
economy. The Senator while supporting
Obamacare, which has made medical insurance accessible to most, campaigns for
health care as a right and a single payer Medicare for All program. Senator Sanders has called for a
constitutional amendment to guarantee all Americans the right to vote and
challenge the myriad of right wing voter suppression proposals. And, the Senator from the Green Mountain
state has echoed the call of Democrat leaders since 1896 to reign in the
billionaires (once called robber barons) and restore control of the American
government to the people.
When I
was an elected Assemblyman in New York, Presidential candidates actually sought
out my endorsement (1976, 1980 and 1984); and likewise, when I served as
chairman of the Delaware Co. PA Democratic Party (1996, 2000, 2004, and 2008).
Sometimes my endorsement even made news and helped a candidate.
Today
I lead my party in a small borough in the southeastern part of my Pennsylvania county. Whom I support is of
little matter to most and of no concern to the candidates. . My endorsement carries with it no donations,
no delegates and no votes other than my own.
Then
why make an endorsement other than to have an excuse to weigh in with a blog
post? It may matter to no one in 2015
who I endorse for President in 2016 but it matters to me. For my entire adult life I have been engaged
in politics. My study of history has led me to a profound belief in the values
of democracy, and in the role in America of the Democratic Party as the party
that in most cases can be found on the side of the ordinary men and women of
the country. The entrepreneurs of the 1830's; the factory workers of the
1890's; the forgotten men and women of the 1930's; the oppressed minorities of
the 1960's; the equality seeking women of the 1970's; and those who seek the
freedom to live their lives as they see fit in today’s otherwise conformist
culture; these have found their champions in the Democratic Party.
I have
considered myself a Liberal and a Progressive and a Populist. I have often, but
not always (to my regret), been on the right side of history early on. I have
tried to be true to the things I have believed in and to the positions I have
taken and the votes I have cast, when I have endorsed candidates. I have never
asked if a candidate could win but only should they win. I have never insisted
on 100% consistency between my positions on issues and those of the candidate I
supported. In fact in this contest I
find myself in agreement with Senator Sanders on domestic issues more often
than on foreign and with Secretary Clinton the reverse.
I have
three grandchildren and I want an America for them that is free and prosperous
and that allows that prosperity to reach everyone. I want an America that assures access to all
the education that one’s mind can absorb. I want an America where your gender,
your lifestyle, your race and your wealth, or lack thereof, does not define
your station in life or limit your opportunities. I want an America where my grandchildren can
raise their children and grandchildren with the same values of freedom and
democracy that I was raised with and with the same hopes and dreams that I had;
and, I want those to be realizable.
The
wealthy and the ideological crazy dominate the Republican Party and the public
is fascinated by potential candidates who are anti-science (climate change
deniers), and anti-history (Joseph built the pyramids), and anti immigrant and
anti gay and anti just about everything except guns.
The
ordinary people of America: young and old, black, white and Latino, gay and
straight, poor and middle class, need their party - the Democratic Party- to
galvanize the public with a vision of One America for All - an America whose
land is their land and an America that will be a land of peace and prosperity
for All.
In my
opinion the candidate for President in 2016 who offers that vision and would
lead another Crusade for Economic and Social Justice is Senator Bernard Sanders
of Vermont.
I was
at the Democratic National Convention in 1980 when Senator Ted Kennedy, to the
roars of thousands, declared to the delegates that “the dream will never
die”. It is the task of every generation
to keep alive the hopes and dreams that are America. Perhaps we have lost sight of that. Perhaps
we have allowed ourselves to be so immersed in the myriad of problems facing
our nation that we have lost sight of the forest for the trees. We need a leader who offers America the kind
of Revolution that it has had in the past (1800, 1828, 1932) and the only kind
that succeeds in our country a Political Revolution. FEEL THE BERN
19 December
2015
