PENNSYLVANIANS NEED A NEW SENATOR

I have been a personal friend and political supporter of Joseph Sestak since January 2006 when he first visited with me to discuss his running for Congress. I was impressed that day and have become more impressed over the years with his integrity, and his commitment to and caring for others.  And so of course I supported him for Congress twice and for the US Senate twice.  I believe he would be our US Senator today if a few pols in PA hadn’t stood by allowing the ghost conservative Toomey to win because of personal pique at Sestak’s willingness to take on their long time friend Specter.

This year the entire state party establishment (by that I mean the leaders not the activists and committee persons) decided to stop his so far successful effort to wage a six year campaign for a Senate seat.  They engineered a candidacy and they appealed to those in DC with access to party funds to assist at the last minute in sabotaging Joe’s reputation with scurrilous ads.

  

The party establishment was successful in winning that primary and we know how much they care about November from their inactivity six years ago.  Incumbent Senator Toomey the conservative enabler, who ideologically believes the kind of things that Trump speaks about, is now poised keep his seat.

The political pundits and the media all focus on -- will Bernie’s supporters vote for Hillary?  The question in PA is will Joe Sestak’s supporters vote for the Democratic candidate for Senator in November.

If those of us who supported Joe allow our personal annoyance, in fact disgust, at the actions of the self proclaimed political giants, to prevent us from voting Democratic for US Senate in the general election then we are allowing the Senate seat to be decided by our personal pique.

I do not believe the Democratic candidate for Senator was the best of the three presented in the primary.  But to allow the incumbent Toomey to be re-elected - NO. Let us be clear in our thinking.  If Clinton is President and the Senate remains Republican we face four more years of non-functioning government in DC.   And, if Trump is President and the Senate is Republican we face a body of enablers who will ratify his appointees to the Supreme Court and accept his nostalgic desire to return America to the age of the Roaring Twenties.

Whatever we may think about the personalities or campaign style of either of the candidates let no one forget that Toomey opposes 99% of what Democrats in DC and Harrisburg offer as solutions to our nation's problems.  If one is in support of the Democratic administration and its current efforts than one cannot allow Toomey to in another term.

We cannot allow Mitch McConnell and the Republicans to remain in control of the Senate. We cannot allow them to block needed gun control reforms, we cannot allow them to continue to block decent SCOTUS appointees, and we cannot allow them to ignore immigration and voting rights problems.  And the replacement of Toomey with a Democrat to work with Senator Casey will be a step in the direction of restoring sanity to the Senate. 

We will not have the opportunity to send Admiral Sestak to the United States Senate but we can retire the man he campaigned so valiantly against these past six years.

I wanted to vote one more time for my friend Joe. I wanted to be there with him the night he won his Senate seat. That will not happen.  But I cannot be true to all Joe has fought for and stood for in the Congress and in his campaigns if I pass on this contest and allow Toomey to get another term.  The United States Senate is the second office on the November ballot just after the joint vote for President/Vice President.  I would urge all those who supported Joe to join me in pressing the Democratic button for Senator.

30 June 2016

IT’S OVER -- CONTINUE THE REVOLUTION -- STAND WITH CLINTON

The Democratic presidential primaries are over. The contest for the nomination is ended.  It is clear by any method of computation that Hillary Clinton has won the Democratic nomination for President.  She has won a majority of the pledged delegates.  As for the so-called super delegates she has a majority whether you count them by their announced wishes, or by the states won by the candidates, or by a proportion similar to the votes in their state.  Absent an act of God the Democratic convention will nominate Hillary Clinton at its conclave in Philadelphia in July.

There remains the adoption of the party platform which has in some instances, e.g.1896, set the tone and policy of the party for fifty plus years.

There remains the adoption of party rules which in many instances in the past has had both intended and unintended consequences in subsequent nomination contests.  And, there remains the nomination of a Vice Presidential candidate.  

Senator Sanders of Vermont, who has had and continues to have my support, has amassed some 1900 delegates.  He should lead those delegates to fight for a progressive party platform even if that includes proposing and voting for minority reports.  He should lead those delegates in demanding reforms in how nominees are chosen in the future -- no super delegates, no caucuses - open primaries.  He should have his name placed in nomination and a roll call taken.  But his supporters need now to accept that Clinton will be the nominee.  I was a delegate for Gary Hart in 1984.  We fought for platform changes and rules changes and we voted for our candidate as did those pledged to Jesse Jackson.  We knew before we arrived in San Francisco that Walter Mondale would be the nominee.

It serves no purpose for Sanders supporters to put off facing the choice they have in November: Clinton or Trump. It is said that Democrats need to fall in love with their candidate while Republicans fall in line.  Well the Republicans are falling in line behind Trump and those who believe that the Democratic Party can be the best vehicle to accomplish social and economic justice for our people must now do the same for Clinton.

I did not support Clinton in 2008 or in this year’s primary contests.  But there are some important reasons why a liberal progressive should vote for Hillary Clinton in November.

   

In the next four years it is likely that 3 or even 4 seats on the Supreme Court of the United States will become vacant.  Who fills those seats sets the control of that court for decades to come.  If you believe that most of the decisions of the Court since 1956, e.g. Brown (integrated education), Roe v. Wade (freedom of reproductive choice), Griswold (right to privacy - contraception), Baker (one person one vote) should be upheld and one Citizen’s United overturned then there is only one choice for president -- Hillary Clinton.

 If you believe as I do that world leadership means leading like-minded nations not bullying them and threatening them then there is only one choice for president - Hillary Clinton.

If you don’t want to see one party, the Republican Party, dominate the federal government and all its branches for possibly the next fifty years then there is only one choice for president - Hillary Clinton.

If you believe that America is in the right direction by assuring equality to all regardless of religion, race, ethnicity or life style then there is only one choice for president - Hillary Clinton.

If you believe, as  I do, that we must stop the drift of our country into a society owned lock stock and barrel by a few then we cannot elect the poster child for that style of greed Donald Trump.

Do not assume that I have no differences with Clinton. I do and I have. She is too beholden to Wall Street for me, she is far from a reformer when it comes to political party processes and structure, and she has failed to articulate a vision that our young people can rally behind.

But, neither Franklin Delano Roosevelt nor Ronald Reagan is running in 2016.  We have a choice between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.

I will make that choice not as a Democrat but as an American and a grandfather.

As an American I will vote for the continued progress of the country that my father’s ancestors fought for and built ever since they came to these shores in 1607; and the country that opened its’ doors to my mother and her family in the 1920's when they fled the depression in Europe.

As a grandfather I will vote for a future for my country that my grandchildren can thrive in. I want them to be in the middle class I grew up in not a new peasant class that the wealthy would create. In November this liberal progressive is voting for his grandchildren: Elizabeth, Sarah and Joseph

I have voted for every Democratic nominee since Hubert Humphrey in 1968.  I apologize for none of those votes.  I preferred Mo Udall, Ted Kennedy, Gary Hart and Bernie Sanders over the eventual nominees; I make no apology for those endorsements.

To be true to the things I believe in and the values I espouse; to continue the fight to make a Great America a Great Society I will vote for Hillary Clinton for President of the United States.

17 June 2016