At the time of this writing Hillary Clinton has amassed a 333 delegate lead over Senator Bernie Sanders.
The only conceivable scenario for Sanders to achieve the number of delegates required to gain the nomination is if the Super-delegates switch to Bernie Sanders.
It is of course possible that if the FBI indicts Hillary on treason charges, as a result of the mass deletion of emails which contained, what is most likely weapons deals she made with terrorist leaders, then the Super-delegates would surely switch allegiances, to avoid going down with the ship.
This is possible, but not something you can bank on if you are a Sanders supporter.
But there IS a way that Sanders can gain the Democratic Party nomination and the good news is that YOU are an important part of this process.
Bernie has known all along that the Democratic party was not going to allow him a fair primary, just because he traded in his Independent status for Democratic.
He is an outsider.
It is ridiculous for Sanders’ supporters to expect fair treatment by an organization that has already spent tens of millions of dollars grooming their candidate.
Hillary was absolutely right when she said that Bernie was not a Democrat.
This is not an indictment of Sanders, but rather an indictment on Democrats.
Sanders is what Democrats used to be, whereas Clinton is a reminder of what the party has become.
When Clinton said that Bernie was not a Democrat, she did not realize it, but she was actually paying him a compliment.
Sanders is in no way reflective of the sorry state of the Democratic party.
Sanders will either recreate the party in his image or he will crush it on his way to the Presidency.
The choice is up to him and his supporters.
Hillary Clinton literally has zero control over what happens to her party.
Sanders holds all the cards going forward.
If Sanders is unlikely to garner the 2,383 delegates needed to win the nomination, then why is he continuing to run as a Democrat, instead of switching back to Independent to run as a third party?
When we fully grasp what must happen for Sanders to eliminate Clinton and gain the Democratic nomination then we realize that now is the time for Sanders’ supporters to work harder than ever.
But it is also time for Senator Sanders to form a contingency plan and declare his Independent Party status.
This gives the DNC motivation to treat Sanders fairly at the contested convention and provides a fall-back option should Hillary seal the nomination
Sanders path to nomination is narrow, but entirely achievable.
And it is exciting to note that Sanders supporters can play a YUGE role in this process.
Not me, US, remember?
So how do we do this?
Like many of you, I was once a proud Hillary Clinton supporter.
When Bernie Sanders announced his candidacy, I became incredibly excited about his platforms.
He caused me to learn more about Hillary Clinton’s positions and as I learned more about each candidate, I was surprised that I preferred Sanders on EVERY SINGLE ISSUE.
Where Clinton was strong, Sanders was stronger.
Where Clinton was weak, Sanders was a titan.
If you were anything like me, you were very happy with the fact that you had a choice between good and great.
I was over the moon excited to support Sanders, but if Hillary were the nominee, I was planning to vote for her.
I no longer feel this way.
Millions of others have shifted along the same lines.
What brought about this transformation and why is it important to Bernie Sanders winning the Presidency?
To put it bluntly, Hillary Clinton ran an awful campaign.
She did things that highlighted her personal failings and illuminated the cracks in her ethics, that lead millions of people to believe that she would be a disastrous leader.
Her attempts to assimilate Sanders supporters back into the fold have disgusted me to a point where I feel that I can no longer support her.
When you
hire people to upload child pornography onto Bernie Sanders discussion groups so you can have those groups banned from the Internet, I have to question what type of person could resort to such despicable maneuvers.
The point of this article is not to highlight the growing number of reasons that I cannot and will not support Hillary Clinton.
Suffice it to say that I will not vote for her and the fear of Trump or Cruz will have no bearing on the issue.
I am an Independent voter.
Hillary Clinton caused me to leave the Democratic party.
I will not be returning until she is gone and I know millions of others feel the same.
There are millions of people who will vote for Bernie Sanders, but refuse to vote for Hillary Clinton.
The number is significant enough to affect the general election.
In fact, Hillary Clinton cannot win the general election, without the help of Sanders’ supporters.
She will lose to Trump, Cruz and even Kasich in the general, without the aid of Independent voters.
This is important, because above all, the DNC wants to win.
They want to win so much, that they would cut their losses with Hillary Clinton and support Bernie Sanders, if they took the threat of millions of people refusing to vote for Hillary seriously.
They do not.
They are establishment politicians and they are completely out of touch with the will of the people.
Only through understanding and accepting that Sanders’ supporters will not support Clinton, will the Super-delegates switch their pledges to Sanders.
And the only way that happens is through a contested convention.
Hillary Clinton does not understand that she does not have the backing of Independent voters.
The DNC does not grasp it either.
They are used to the traditional race, where two corporate Democrats spar and then the loser endorses the other in exchange for a cabinet position.
Sanders does not want a position in Hillary’s cabinet.
Hillary has nothing to offer him and she has nothing to scare him with.
Sanders is the ultimate thorn in the Clinton paw.
He simply cannot be bought.
But Sanders is making a crucial strategic mistake that must be remedied immediately or his chances of winning the Democratic nomination drop considerably.
The deadline for applications to run as an Independent for President vary from state to state.
The earliest is the Texas May 9th deadline.
And there are nine other states that file before the convention.
If Bernie loses the convention and THEN chooses to file as an Independent, he will have forfeited the electoral votes from these ten states and would have virtually no chance of winning the general election.
Our plan, in a contested convention, has to include the threat of an Independent run.
Without this arrow in our quiver, our chances of success are greatly diminished.
To that end, Bernie delegate Kevin Brewton has created
this petition.
I implore you to sign it and get everyone you know to sign it.
Please share it on social media daily.
We simply MUST get Bernie Sanders to at least FILE as an Independent.
He doesn’t have to leave the Democratic party, but he HAS to let them know that this is a possibility.
Aside from circulating a petition, what is our role in this chaos?
Our role is to support Senator Sanders and ONLY Senator Sanders.
But what if Hillary Clinton wins the nomination?
Isn’t she a better alternative than Donald Trump or Ted Cruz?
Undoubtedly it is better to have a Democrat in the White House in nearly any circumstance, but Clinton has simply gone too far.
She has pushed many voters to the point where they would actually feel like they had compromised their personal values if they supported her.
Recently I overheard a Hillary supporter trying to convince an Independent voter that he HAD to vote for Hillary if she were the Democratic nominee.
He replied…
“To vote for her would disparage everything my sons fought and died for.”
Selling your Iraq vote to George Bush can maybe be forgiven, but never rewarded.
Her history of dishonesty (remember the
Bosnian sniper fire) and secrecy means that we cannot know for sure what we would get should she come to power.
What we do know is that she has a lot to hide (private servers, deleted emails, Wall Street transcripts, etc).
Many people, myself included, do not look at it as a choice between Hillary or the GOP.
We look at it as a ethical choice.
We simply WILL NOT vote for someone who has blood on their hands.
If we vote for Hillary Clinton, after the tactics she has employed in this election (not to mention the awful things she did and said in 2008) then we are sanctioning all that we have fought so vehemently against.
If we vote for Clinton we are saying that voter suppression is okay.
If we vote for Clinton we are saying that hiring people to silence free speech is okay.
We are not okay with any of this.
Our vote is our voice.
And fear of Trump is not a reason to vote for someone we already know is a tyrant.
We must all rise up as one and declare that Bernie Sanders is our choice and let the DNC know loud and clear that we will not support Hillary Clinton should she gain the nomination.
Bernie Sanders goal is to win enough delegates to force a contested convention in Philadelphia on July 25th.
Here Bernie and his supporters (both inside and outside the convention) will be allowed to make their case to the DNC that it is Bernie or Bust.
The DNC and it’s Super-delegates need to see the tremendous force that supports Senator Sanders up close and personal and see that we are completely serious about our refusal to support Clinton.
Furthermore they need to know that if they rig the convention to favor Clinton, then Sanders can simply run as an Independent, thereby quelling any chance the DNC has of controlling The White House.
Supporting Sanders and ONLY Sanders is not about being tricky or disingenuous.
This is not a bluff or empty threat.
This is a deal we make with ourselves to not be bullied with fear tactics into supporting a candidate that we do not approve of.
It’s not a political choice.
It’s a moral choice.
So vote for Bernie.
Phonebank for Bernie.
Canvass for Bernie and donate to Bernie.
And AFTER you have voted in the primary, please Google the words “change voter registration + (your state)” and change your party to Independent.
This last step is extremely important.
We need everyone to leave the Democratic party after they have cast their primary vote.
We need to let the Democratic National Committee know that we are done with them.
Bernie is not continuing on in this campaign to waste our donation money.
Bernie is not continuing on in this campaign to make a point.
As he has said repeatedly, he is doing this to win.
But he needs massive action from US to do so.
I will see YOU in Philadelphia on July 25th.
And we will not leave until Bernie has the nomination.
One problem with filing as an Independent or being written in is that many states have 'sore loser' laws. It is too late to get rid of those laws.
ReplyDeleteThese 'sore loser' laws basically prohibit a candidate from running again on another ticket or as an independent or write in candidate.
These laws mostly date to the 1930s and wiped out third parties.
Sanders has proven that a third party run can be financed and viable, but these laws are a serious obstacle.
https://ballotpedia.org/%22Sore_loser%22_laws_for_presidential_candidates
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThat link gives some information on how sore loser laws are operating right now. On first glance biggest issue is that Texas might block him.
ReplyDelete#DoTheMath https://archive.org/details/IndependentJournalismBernieSanders
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