THE BEST DEMOCRATIC ANSWER TO TRUMP

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