I AM PROUD TO VOTE FOR JOE SESTAK FOR SENATE

It will come as a surprise to no one that I am voting for JOE SESTAK in Tuesday’s Democratic primary election for US Senate.   I have known the man since the day he began his race for Congress in my district. He is fiercely independent; in fact he was registered independent all those years he served in the Navy because he believed that a naval officer should be politically non-partisan.  He can be stubborn as he clings to his principles.  He expects those who work for him to work as hard as he does and love 7am meetings.  He evaluates a situation or a proposal and then makes a determination.  He can be convinced to alter that determination but only by a clear recital of relevant facts.  Political arguments, especially what does or does not benefit him politically, carry no weight with him.  He does not think like a politician but he is a great candidate for office.  And he was a superb Congressman for the four years he represented the people of three counties. He is a Liberal but not knee-jerk.  He is progressive in his thinking but moderate in his rhetoric.  He is an advocate of a strong defense yet supports negotiation over confrontation.

A cynical public may doubt his reason for seeking and holding public office which is to give back to the country that provided him with a superior education (Naval Academy and Harvard University) and the health insurance that saved his daughters life.  I know the man and I know that his reason is sincere. He has spent the last 5 years continuing to campaign for the US Senate time and again not seeking other offices just for political advancement. When in the midst of his last Senate campaign in 2010, I suffered a stroke and underwent an 8 hour operation, it was Joe Sestak learned of the operation, found the hospital and spent time comforting my wife and daughters while they waited. He never told that story during that campaign. 

We live in a time when lying and creating one’s own facts are the standards of the day in political campaigning.  In Joe’s case his opposition, is the Democratic Party establishment of Pennsylvania and DC. (By establishment I mean the party officials and Democratic public officials who are self proclaimed leaders of the party. Joe is actually supported by many of the rank and file committee persons and local activists.) These Democratic leaders have lowered themselves to the level of distorting his liberal progressive and pro-Obama administration Congressional voting record.  And, they are even spending 4 million dollars (of contributions made by sincere donors to the DSCC to help make the Senate Democrat) to defeat Joe in the upcoming primary. Their choice is someone they are more comfortable with and someone they think will do and act as they are told to.  You see that’s Joe’s political problem.  He refuses to think, talk, vote and act like other political leaders want him to. If he agrees with them of course he will advocate for their position.  If he disagrees with them he won’t remain silent.

I know this better than most because I was chairman of the Democratic Party of Delaware County for most of the four years that Joe Sestak was Congressman. I have spent my entire adult life in politics and some have said that I eat, sleep and drink politics.  I have known many elected officials in my life; some of the best and some of the worst.  Joe Sestak is not a politician.  He is a decent compassionate man.  He is a hard working and really great candidate for public office.  He is a conscientious, tireless public official.  He served his country for years on the seas in war and peace. He served his county for four years in the Congress of his nation. As for the United States Senate “He is Ready to Serve”. And, the sinking ship that is the US Senate certainly could use an Admiral to set it upright.  

22 April 2016.    

I STILL "FEEL THE BERN"

Next Tuesday April 26th is the Pennsylvania Presidential primary.  The contest in the Democratic Party is of great interest to me as I have spent my entire adult life as a Democratic Party politician holding both public and party offices.  I’ve been campaigning for Democratic presidential candidates since I distributed cards for Adlai Stevenson on my block in Ridgewood Queens in 1956. I consider myself a Liberal Democrat and also a Progressive which word I have never used to hide the L word but to supplement it.

I will vote in next Tuesday’s primary for Bernie Sanders of Vermont to be our party’s candidate for President. I will do so even though I’ve been a part of the party establishment (attended three national conventions as a delegate) because I believe that my party establishment today has become rigid in its thinking; self absorbed in its exercise of power, and subservient to the Wall Street interests and the military industrial complex that it fought so hard and so successfully in the New Deal era. I believe my party needs to be reformed; it’s commitment to the middle class and the programs of the New Deal and Great Society needs to be renewed; and its structure needs to be rebuilt.  And only Bernie Sanders shows a determination to achieve that end and the capacity to energize a new generation of Americans to accomplish it...

FDR enacted Old Age Insurance (a.k.a. Social Security) for all Americans not just some.   JFK challenged America to put a man on the moon not just get half way there and return.   LBJ signed Medicare for all seniors; and guaranteed Voting Rights for all Americans.  He didn’t just settle for some health care to some older people; nor did he settle for repealing some voting restrictions he opened the doors and let the sunshine of human rights in.   After George McGovern’s defeat in 1972 a traumatized Democratic Party establishment encouraged by a centrist Jimmy Carter began to tone down its rhetoric and run away from the word Liberal. And what was the result - the Reagan revolution.  By 1992 the party had adopted the strategy made popular by Bill Clinton of being moderately progressive and working with the economic powers that be.  What was the result - the Gingrich Revolution.  It is time the Democratic Party returned to its roots: the political reformist and economic populism of Bryan, Wilson and Roosevelt. 

Bernie Sanders advocates expanding social security to increase the benefits and extend the lifetime of the system.  I ask Why Not?  Bernie Sanders supports extending the public commitment to free public education beyond the 12th grade to a college degree.  I ask Why Not?  Bernie Sanders says, as our party leaders have before, Break Up the big banks? And with Andrew Jackson and Woodrow Wilson I ask Why Not? Bernie Sanders calls upon us to rebuild the great American Middle Class that the programs of FDR’s New Deal and his G I Bill helped create.  And, I ask Why Not?  The centrists in our party say we can’t afford these programs.  Yet we could afford to save the World in 1945 and rebuild Europe in 1948.  We could afford to bail out Wall Street and the Big Banks in 2008 and General Motors in 2009.  If this country’s history has shown anything it has shown that whether it was the Erie Canal, the Transcontinental Railroad or the Space Shuttle America can do anything it believes in.

I was not born in time to vote for FDR.  I was not old enough to vote for JFK or LBJ.  I can vote for Bernie Sanders.  I can vote for someone whose lifetime commitment to reform and progressive proposals will serve as a continuation of the liberal progressive movement that began at the end of the 19th century over 120 years ago (with ideological roots that went back much further).Twenty years from now young people of today will be the candidates, the party activists and the majority of the nation’s electorate.  I want them to have a future they can believe in. I want them to look on Bernie Sanders as my father’s generation looked on FDR and mine looked on JFK.  So I will vote for an American they can believe in - I will vote for Bernie Sanders.   

20 April 2016