From the Ashes, WE BERN GREEN!

"Bernie Has a Plan"?

"Bernie Has a Plan"?

Maybe, but He's Not Our Messiah,
by Liviana (Giovanna L.)

I keep seeing other Berners insisting, even after Bernie has endorsed Hillary, that "Bernie has a plan."  I've seen excuses made for his endorsement, but no citations for those excuses.  They range from "he had to in order to stay in the convention" to "he had to in order to stay relevant in the Senate" to "he hasn't suspended his campaign and there's still a chance he'll get the nomination."  Any or all of these could be true;  I grant that.  I sincerely hope that he does wind up with the nomination.  If the Democratic National Committee were rational, I wouldn't even be writing this.  He would have won, hands down, had they not hamstrung his campaign and stolen the election by voter suppression and election fraud, had they faced the reality that he is the best candidate they have and that he has a much better chance of defeating Trump in the general election than the widely distrusted and disliked Hillary Rodham Clinton.

But can we attribute rationality to the DNC?  Can we attribute rationality to their superdelegates?  Recent history, over the past 20+ years, has painted a very different picture from rationality, and I suspect that the neoliberal perspective is now so entrenched in the party machine that it cannot be rooted out.  Progressive candidates, leftist candidates, candidates in favor of civil libertarian ideals, have not fared well in the primaries.  Michael Dukakis was likely the last of the progressive leftists to win a Democratic primary, and even he was more of an authoritarian than I would have preferred.  Dennis Kucinich hardly got any press at all, outside the debates, and was mostly overlooked by the media even in their reporting on the debates.  John Wolfe, Jr. was almost completely ignored by the media.  I recall only a single mention of him on CBS News, and nothing from any other news source.

The DNC is not rational;  they've been out of touch with reality for over two decades, and only lucked into a win and a reelection because of Obama's charisma.

Well, Hillary has no charisma.  She's more reminiscent of Joni Ernst with her wicked gloating laugh when she won her Senate seat in 2014.  *shivers*  Wicked stepmother vibes all over the place.

"Bernie has a plan," though, I keep seeing.  It's possible.  I grant that it's possible that he still has something up his sleeve;  I cannot imagine him endorsing Hillary honestly unless he received some sort of threat (which is also not something I would put past the Democratic Party machine).  "Bernie has a plan."  It's possible.  But will it succeed?  Rabbie Burns wrote "The best-laid plans of mice and men gang aft aglee."  Will the Democratic National Convention deliver the nomination to Bernie?  Possible.  Improbable, but possible.

"Bernie has a plan."  It sounds almost religious.  "God has a plan."  I've heard that before.  "Don't despair;  God has a plan."  A vestige of hyper-Calvinism's doctrine of "the Sovereignty of God."  But they are telling me that "Bernie has a plan."  This attempt at consolation and reassurance is too much like that vestigial hyper-Calvinism in certain quasi-Calvinistic sects of Christianity for my tastes.

"Bernie has a plan."  /  "God has a plan."

Bernie himself told us in no uncertain terms "No!  No, no! ... The truth is you, not me. If there is any person here, any person here that thinks I’m coming to you as some kind of savior, that I’m going to do it all — all myself, you’re wrong. No president, not Bernie Sanders or anybody else, can do it alone. We don’t need a savior. We need a political movement."  He also said "Not me;  us."  The movement was never about Bernie, and he made that clear himself.

The Green Party has had a history of Progressive Left-libertarian views, much like what Bernie campaigned on.  Jill Stein goes even further than Bernie in some particulars, like full erasure of all student loan debt, rather than simply easing the interest.  You can see her plan at her campaign website.  Is it any wonder than those of us who were "StillSanders" and "NeverHillary" would now be supporting Jill?  Did the Democratic National Committee think we were bluffing and would fall in line with the party?  Most of us weren't Democrats to begin with!  Why would we go for the vapid "Blue no matter who" schtick, especially when the "who" is someone most of us revile?

"Bernie has a plan."  Maybe so.  But he's not our messiah;  we have to save ourselves.  It's in our hands.

Go Green in Two-Thousand-Sixteen.  Jill Stein for President.

Edit:
The video link above is no longer active;  I believe I have a copy of the video, but it being under a copyright, my copy is of course for personal use and cannot be shared here.  I will see if I can find another source for the video still available, but in the meantime, here are some text-based sources for the statement I quoted from Bernie (and archived versions):

"No!  No, no! ... The truth is you, not me. If there is any person here, any person here that thinks I’m coming to you as some kind of savior, that I’m going to do it all — all myself, you’re wrong. No president, not Bernie Sanders or anybody else, can do it alone. We don’t need a savior. We need a political movement."
~ Senator Bernard Sanders, Bernie for President Rally, Fargo, North Dakota, 13 May 2016

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/bernie-sanders-north-dakota-rally-kind-savior/story?id=39111163

http://web.archive.org/web/20160515100410/https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/bernie-sanders-north-dakota-rally-kind-savior/story?id=39111163

https://www.salon.com/2016/05/16/we_dont_need_a_savior_what_bernie_sanders_understands_about_change_in_america_that_everyone_needs_to_remember/

https://archive.fo/ato5U