Should I Support Bernie Sanders?

Dear Friends,

I am not at all excited about Hillary Clinton as our next President, except for the fact that she would be the first woman President which would be a great glass ceiling to break and except for the fact that she is way better than any of the Republican candidates, already running or considering running.

I am not excited about supporting Hillary because I do not know where she really stands on almost all issues.  On many key issues, she is refusing to take a clear position and on others she is bowing to pressure from Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, in order to try to thwart Bernie's campaign.  I have no confidence whatsoever that she will maintain those positions once she is elected.

Her campaign is already claiming that supporting Bernie Sanders or Martin O'Malley will damage Hillary's chances against a Republican in the election.  There are two problems with the approach her campaign is taking.  First, it is not true, and second, I really do not like to be bullied.

There is an article on the Daily Kos entitled "The difference between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton in one paragraph" (here).  Below is the lead in and the paragraph:

Politico is out with a great article exploring the historic relationship between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton.
As you can imagine, Bernie was skeptical of a centrist Bill Clinton running for president in 1992, and immediately after Clinton won the election and appointed Hillary to lead health care reform, Bernie set to work attempting to convince her of the virtue of a single-payer, Medicare-for-all system. As you can probably also imagine, he wasn't successful. Still, please do read what follows. The dialogue between Hillary and a Harvard Medical School physician supporting single-payer -- accompanying Bernie to his meeting at the White House -- is important for the record.

They got their meeting at the White House that month, and the two doctors laid out the case for single-payer to the first lady. “She said, ‘You make a convincing case, but is there any force on the face of the earth that could counter the hundreds of millions of the dollars the insurance industry would spend fighting that?’” recalled Himmelstein. “And I said, “How about the president of the United States actually leading the American people?’ and she said, ‘Tell me something real.’ ”

Wow. This paragraph -- the interaction it describes -- brilliantly highlights the core difference between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton as candidates (and people!): Bernie believes that American politics can overcome the power of corporate wealth, Hillary is resigned to that power dictating the direction of our politics -- and public policy.

I want a President who will lead and create the change that we need in our great country, not the President who says, "Tell me something real".

I am going to undertake a project to try to compare the stated positions of Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton.  It will be much easier to figure out the stated positions of Bernie Sanders than it will be for Hillary Clinton for two reasons.  First, Bernie has held and advanced his positions for years.  Second, Hillary's positions change from time to time, and she refuses to be transparent about where she stands unless she absolutely is forced to take a clear position.  There are, of course, some issues on which both Hillary and Bernie agree and are very clear, like women's reproductive health.

Here is a list of the issues that I have identified to look into.  They are in no particular order, and the list is certainly not exhaustive so feel free to let me know other issues that you are interested in.

Environmental regulation
Reliance on fossil fuels, including the XL Pipeline, fracking and alternative energy
Universal single payer healthcare
Trade, including the Trans-Pacific Partnership
Minimum wage
Education including free education, pre-k to 12 and undergraduate
Citizens United and PACs
Social Security
Regulation of Wall Street, big banks and big business
Taxes on the rich, Wall Street and big business
Job growth
Budget deficits
War, ISIS, Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia, the draft, etc.
Israel and Palestine
Whistleblowers, including Edward Snowden
Immigration, including dream act, path to citizenship, deportation and asylum

Thanks for reading and please comment,
The Unabashed Liberal

Racist Terrorism in America

Dear Friends,

The news of yet another act of terrorism against black people in America seems to come as a shock each time it happens.  There is always hand wringing and the usual denial of racism and terrorism in America by the Republicans and the usual call for gun control by the Democrats, but as Jon Stewart said, "We still won't do jack shit."  Rick Perry calls it an "accident" later corrected to an "incident", but it was not just an incident.  It was a racially motivated terrorist attack by an American on other Americans.

People say it was a single person who assassinated those nine people in Charlestown.  It was one person who pulled the trigger, but he was created, supported and encouraged by a community of racist terrorists.  His white supremacy website was just one of thousand on the internet. This community thrives on and encourages each others' hatred which ultimately, predictably and obviously leads to somebody carrying out a violent act of racist terrorism.

But it is not just the white supremacy community that creates, supports and encourages racist terrorism.  It is our leaders who use dog whistles to gain the votes and the support of the racists among us.  It is the institutional racism in America that is exemplified by the inherent racism in our justice system.  When blacks are stopped and harassed by the police far more frequently than whites, when blacks are arrested far more frequently than whites, when blacks are killed by police far more frequently than whites, when blacks receive sentences far longer than whites, all not because of what they have done but because they are black, our racist justice system provides a perfect example for the racists among us and encourages their terrorism.

Our racist justice system terrorizes the black community every day and destroys more lives than just the lives of the blacks killed by the police or a racist, terrorist gunman.  We, as a society, are destroying lives by not providing equal opportunity and a level playing field for all.  We deny the poor and particularly minorities a good education, good healthcare and real opportunities for them to attain their true potential.  Our society continues to treat them as "other" and therefore not entitled to the same treatment as "us".

Our first black President makes essentially the same speech each time the racist terrorism surfaces in the form of the violent assassination of black people.  He calls for minimal gun control, but lobbies harder for an ill-conceived trade agreement than for those minor controls.  Certainly gun control is important, but the availability of guns just makes committing the acts of terrorism easier.  The reason for the terrorism is much deeper.  It is embedded in the institutional racism in America.

Our leaders will not be the ones that end this monstrous evil that afflicts our country.  We must act.  We must join with all of our brothers and sisters to create an active community of people who name racism and terrorism wherever it exists, who work to change our racist justice system, who demand that all people are given a chance to attain their potential, who denounce acts of racism, terrorism and violence regardless of who the perpetrator is and who strive to provide a living example of the best of humanity.

Thanks for reading and please comment,
The Unabashed Liberal

Saudi Arabia

Dear Friends,

I have been troubled for a long time about the relationship between the United States and Saudi Arabia.  Despite the reality of their human rights abuses and support of terrorists and terrorism, the United States maintains a very close relationship with Saudi Arabia and portrays the Saudi government as moderate.  The official policy of the United States government towards Saudi Arabia  for decades seems to be that the Saudis can do whatever they want as long as they keep selling us oil.

Human Rights Watch's 2015 World Report on Saudi Arabia (here) starts with this summary paragraph.

Saudi Arabia continued in 2014 to try, convict, and imprison political dissidents and human rights activists solely on account of their peaceful activities. Systematic discrimination against women and religious minorities continued. Authorities failed to enact systematic measures to protect the rights of 9 million foreign workers. As in past years, authorities subjected hundreds of people to unfair trials and arbitrary detention. New anti-terrorism regulations that took effect in 2014 can be used to criminalize almost any form of peaceful criticism of the authorities as terrorism.

Most of the 9/11 hijackers were Saudi.  Saudi royal family members were allowed to leave the United States during the no fly period after the attacks.  If you have the time, there is a fascinating article in Vanity Fair entitled "Saving the Saudis" (here) that details the flight of the Saudis and the continued attempts by the United States government to deny that they happened.  This paragraph summarizes my underlying concern.

The bin Laden family neatly exemplifies the dilemma the United States faces in its relations with Saudi Arabia. On the one hand, the bin Ladens are products of Wahhabi fundamentalism, a puritanical Islamic sect that has helped make Saudi Arabia a fertile breeding ground for terrorists. Contrary to popular belief, Osama was not the only member of the immense bin Laden family—there are more than 50 siblings—with ties to militant Islamic fundamentalists. As early as 1979, Mahrous bin Laden, an older half-brother of Osama’s, had befriended members of the militant Muslim Brotherhood and had played, perhaps unwittingly, a key role in the Mecca Affair, a violent uprising against the House of Saud in 1979 which resulted in more than 100 deaths.

A Frontline report "analysis wahhabism" (here) starts with this paragraph.

For more than two centuries, Wahhabism has been Saudi Arabia's dominant faith. It is an austere form of Islam that insists on a literal interpretation of the Koran. Strict Wahhabis believe that all those who don't practice their form of Islam are heathens and enemies. Critics say that Wahhabism's rigidity has led it to misinterpret and distort Islam, pointing to extremists such as Osama bin Laden and the Taliban. Wahhabism's explosive growth began in the 1970s when Saudi charities started funding Wahhabi schools (madrassas) and mosques from Islamabad to Culver City, California.

The funding of the madrassas is made possible by the United States oil consumption and the willingness of the United States government to ignore the Saudi human rights record and support for terrorists worldwide.

King Salman the new Saudi king is no reformer.  While his predecessor King Abdullah was seen by some as a reformer, he made little progress and King Salman is seen as more closely tied to religious conservatives.  My fears about the direction that Saudi Arabia is heading and the unholy alliance that the United States has with Saudi Arabia were confirmed and fueled by a recent article in The New York Times about Prince Mohammed bin Salman (here).

Prince Mohammed is 29 years old and the King's son with the King's third wife.  King Salman is giving him huge amounts of power and control.  The Prince seems to be a major force behind Saudi Arabia's war in Yemen.  Prince Mohammed has been educated only in Saudi Arabia which I believe gives him a very limited view of the world and one that is tainted by Wahhabism.  The following quote from The New York Times article gives me great concern about his world view.

Prince Mohammed seemed to be planning for a future in government from an early age, said one family associate who knew him well. Unlike many other Saudi princes of his generation, Prince Mohammed never smoked, drank alcohol or stayed out late. “It was obvious to me that he was planning his future — he was always very concerned about his image,” the family associate said.

President Obama is, of course, following the well established United States government line in this quote from the same article.

After meeting with both princes at a summit meeting of gulf nations at Camp David last month, President Obama said the younger Prince Mohammed “struck us as extremely knowledgeable, very smart.”
“I think wise beyond his years,” Mr. Obama added in an interview with the Saudi-owned Al Arabiya network.

The last line of the article gave a much better assessment of the situation.

Abu Fahad, a businessman sipping coffee in a luxury hotel, said, “He has become Mr. Knows Everything. But he is 29 years old — what does he know?”

As long as we continue to support the Saudi regime because of our desire for its oil, the Saudis will continue to support Wahhabism which will produce young Saudis who are hateful and are taught that if one does not practice their form of Islam they must die.  We are not only destroying the planet, we are creating terrorists in the process.

Thanks for reading and please comment,
The Unabashed Liberal