In 1861, 11 senators and 3 representatives were expelled from Congress for supporting the insurrection and refusing to recognize Lincoln’s electoral win. Today, congressmen and republican governors are calling for the impeachment and/or removal of treasonous President Trump under the 25th Amendment for inciting a domestic terrorist coup attempt to stop the Electoral College count that ended in 4 deaths yesterday, January 6th. Elected officials were forced to evacuate from the Capitol after armed MAGA insurrectionists branding nazi insignia, MAGA shirts, and explosives, hung nooses, and flew Confederate and nazi flags while trashing the Capitol and searching for the Electoral College votes. Trump continued inciting the mob reiterating his lie that, “we had an election stolen from us…this was a fraudulent election,” and told them “We love you, you’re very special,” before telling them to go home. Donald Trump Jr. filmed the President watching the violent coup gleefully. Only 14 were arrested yesterday as the National Guard and army present during peaceful Black Lives Matter protests were nowhere in sight during the break-in.

Trump and his allies lost 62 lawsuits, 3 recounts and staged a failed coup at the US Capitol to overturn a fair and free election.

Domestic terrorists were allowed to invade and destroy federal property freely while BLM protestors have been left disabled by rubber bullets, pulled by unmarked vans, and thrown on the concrete to bleed out. Our democracy and national security are on the verge of destruction if no consequences follow this terrorist coup d’etat attempted by the President of the United States. Donald Trump, the MAGA insurrectionists, and elected officials who inspired them must be tried for treason, sedition, and subversive activities under 18 USC Chapter 115.  Cori Bush has already introduced legislation to sanction, remove House members from office who supported 2020 election challenges. The 147 who voted to disenfranchise voters in a bid to overturn free and fair elections must also face legal consequences.

Violent White Supremacist Insurrection at the Capitol

Not even during the Civil War did the Confederate flag make it to the Capitol, yet these Trump-supporting terrorists were allowed to invade and threaten congresspeople and staffers’ lives. This attack was orchestrated by the corrupt criminal authoritarian Trump regime because Vice President Pence failed to stop the Electoral College count. 

Insurrectionists stormed the Capitol and broke in after a cop opened the gates. These attacks resulted in four deaths — yet only 14 arrests were made yesterday. Nooses were hung outside the Capitol and confederate flags waved inside. They released gas into the Capitol and stole federal property. Federal law enforcement found explosive devices as well. A protester in the Capitol appeared to be carrying a handgun on his hip along with zipties. Outside, Congresswoman Mary Miller quoted Hitler, “Hitler was right on one thing,” praising his political organization skills to a pro-Trump crowd. The insurrectionists chanted “the media is the enemy of the people,” destroyed equipment, and chased out reporters. Two insurrectionists even mocked George Floyd’s death. 

This extremist violence is a widespread ideology — 45% of Republicans approve of the storming of the Capitol building. And we’re meant to accept this extremism as “economic anxiety?”

What Incited the Terrorist Attack on the Capitol

Despite this failed coup, Congress confirmed the results of the Electoral College this morning. Joe Biden will be sworn in as President of the United States at noon on January 20. 

Trump and his allies lost 62 lawsuits, 3 recounts and staged a failed coup at the US Capitol to avoid this result.

Trump’s incitement of violence to overthrow the election results is well-documented. He organized the insurrection, even tweeting out on December 30th, “JANUARY 6TH, SEE YOU IN DC!” He has repeatedly called on his supporters to take action if he lost. He’s told the “Proud Boys” to “stand back and stand by,” called the violent Charlottesville nazis “very fine people,” has told his supporters to fight protestors, telling them, “I’ll pay your legal fees,” and told terrorists who committed sedition yesterday, “We love you, you’re very special,” while continuing to push false claims of election fraud that even his own attorney general has debunked.

While the insurrection was ongoing, Trump sent out a message to the violent mob reiterating his lie that they “had an election stolen from [them]…this was a fraudulent election.” The Trump family even gleefully watched the violent mob. Meanwhile, in response to peaceful Black Lives Matter protests, Trump said, “When the looting starts the shooting starts.”

This attempted coup is on Donald Trump and he must be held responsible for endangering the lives of congressmen and staffers in an attempt to overturn an election. 

It’s not only Trump that should be held responsible but also lawyers like Rudy Giuliani who echoed his rigged election claims and declared, “let’s have trial by combat,” to a crowd.

The seditious seven congressmen who voted to invalidate the election also propagated the election fraud myth which incited this heinous insurrection. Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley, Cindy Hyde-Smith, Cynthia Lummis, Roger Marshall, Rick Scott, and Tommy Tuberville all voted to overthrow American democracy. Ted Cruz even solicited donations through a text while the mob took over the Capitol, stating, “I’m leading the fight to reject electors.” Moreover, 147 Republicans voted to disenfranchise voters yesterday in a bid to overturn free and fair elections.

The United States Constitution gives the US Senate the power to expel any member by a two-thirds vote and that power should be exercised lest this happens again. It was exercised in 

In 1861, 11 senators and 3 representatives were expelled from Congress for supporting the insurrection and refusing to recognize Lincoln’s electoral win. Self-serving attempts at sedition are a threat to democracy.

Law Enforcement Complicity

But it wasn’t just elected officials who allowed this Capitol invasion to happen. Law enforcement was filmed opening the gates, waving white supremacists in all while refusing to call the National Guard for backup. The domestic terrorists who committed sedition took selfies with cops, walked around stealing federal property, and were calmly escorted out. The cognitive dissonance in the way law enforcement treats these domestic terrorists versus how it treats peaceful Black and brown protestors is despicable. The National Guard and army were present during Black Lives Matter protests where innocent, unarmed people lost their eyes, were taken in unmarked vans, and injured by military-grade riot gear.

There were over 14,000 arrests at the George Floyd protests, yet only 14 made last night. We had a serious act of domestic terrorism and no law enforcement agency issued a statement. These right-wing terrorists threatened the safety of congresspeople and were free to go. While officers shoved an innocent 75-year-old man so hard he cracked his skull on the pavement in Buffalo, New York. Militarized police once even broke up a peaceful violin vigil for an innocent young man an officer killed.

This was not a security breach. The Capitol terrorists planned the threats online for weeks and agencies and personnel did not race to secure the Capitol. We spend $740 billion a year on defense and we failed to protect our nation’s Capitol from armed domestic terrorists.

Impeachment, Removal, and Prosecution?

Bipartisan calls for impeachment are gathering momentum from elected officials. Rep. Ilhan Omar began drawing the Articles of Impeachment yesterday tweeting, “Donald J. Trump should be impeached by the House of Representatives & removed from office by the United States Senate.” Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, and other democrats have called for Trump to be removed by impeachment or the 25th Amendment to bar the demagogue from ever holding public office and endangering American lives ever again. All the Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee just wrote a letter to Vice President Pence, urging him to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove Trump. Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan also called for Trump to resign or be removed. Furthermore, Cori Bush introduced legislation to sanction, remove House members from office who supported 2020 election challenges.

Officials feel that the nation is at grave risk as long as he remains in power with the capability to influence his cult following to commit more dangerous crimes through his lies. For this reason, Facebook and Instagram have blocked President Trump’s accounts “indefinitely and for at least the next two weeks until the peaceful transition of power is complete,” according to Zuckerberg.

18 USC Chapter 115

The impeachment resolutions have been written. Per these Articles, President Donald J. Trump must be impeached and removed based on two charges. The first — demanding that the Georgia secretary of state “find votes” and his abuse of power in inciting a coup at the Capitol, and the second — incitement of insurrection. Donald Trump must be impeached and removed and members of congress who attempted to overthrow a free and fair election can be charged with sedition.

The main three laws broken by the Capitol MAGA insurrectionists are under 18 USC Chapter 115 – treason, sedition, and subversive activities — § 2383. rebellion or insurrection, § 2384. seditious conspiracy, and § 2385. advocating the overthrow of the government.

More charges could fall under the following laws: 

18 USC § 231 – Civil disorders

18 USC § 241 – Conspiracy against rights

18 USC § 371–373 – Conspiracy

18 U.S. Code § 842 – Explosives 

38 U.S. Code § 930 – firearms in federal facilities

18 USC 1361 – damage to gov’t property

18 USC 2101 – riots 

18 USC 2112, 2114 – robbery/burglary of federal property 

14) 18 USC 1505: 

15) 40 U.S.C. 5104 prohibits bringing weapons into the Capitol or engaging in “violent entry and disorderly conduct

This didn’t happen in a vacuum. Four years of Trump’s vitriolic hatred, lies, and demagoguery proliferated all over fake news media channels like Facebook got us here. A coup was orchestrated by domestic terrorists to overthrow an election and law enforcement waived them in, Trump watched and kept fueling the lies about the election that encouraged them. Not even during the Civil War did the treasonous confederate flag make it to the Capitol. It wasn’t a failure, it was a win for these right-wing extremists and a lack of repercussions erases the legal lines making room for even more attacks. Donald J. Trump and his enablers must be removed and charged for encouraging an insurrection, an attempted coup.

As Voltaire once said, “Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.” We must not allow demagoguery to go unchecked. Facts must prevail. Democracy must survive.

The Texas GOP suggested secession from the United States this morning after, on Friday, the Supreme Court rejected a seditious, undemocratic lawsuit by Texas, supported by 106 House Republicans, asking to overthrow the election results from four states Trump lost in November — GA, MI, PA, and WI. The suit was filed by TX AG Ken Paxton, who has been indicted on felony securities fraud charges and is currently under FBI investigation for political power abuse. This lawsuit was dismissed for lacking any standing in reality. Desperate claims that the election was “rigged” with voter fraud were even debunked by Trump’s attorney general, William P. Barr.  Many, including GOP Senator Ben Sasse, believe this undemocratic, frivolous lawsuit was nothing more than Paxton seeking a Trump pardon.

The Texas lawsuit challenged the election in Georgia, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan asking the Supreme Court the block the states from casting their electoral votes for president-elect Biden. It sought to shift the selection of electors to states’ legislatures thereby throwing out millions of votes.

The court dismissed the lawsuit with an order saying Texas lacked standing and “has not demonstrated a judicially cognizable interest in the manner in which another state conducts its elections.” The majority ruled that Texas could not file the election suit, stating, “The state of Texas’ motion for leave to file a bill of complaint is denied for lack of standing,” 

In a last blow, after election-lawsuit 51 court losses, the Supreme Court composed of a third of Trump appointees completely rebuked Trump’s desperate, groundless attempt to steal the election. The court would not engage in an effort to tell other states how to conduct their elections. This failed stunt attempted to invoke the Supreme Court’s “original jurisdiction,” to act as a trial court for interstate disputes normally used for boundary disputes.

Trump remarked on his last defeat tweeting, “The Supreme Court really let us down.No Wisdom, No Courage!”

Among the dozen briefs and motions the Supreme Court received, was an amicus brief from 106 Republican House members (“The Kraken Caucus”) in support of Texas’ bid to overturn Joe Biden’s win in the Supreme Court and disenfranchise millions of Americans based on conspiracy theories. Even 17 Republican state attorney generals expressed support to overturn Biden’s win.

It stated, “This brief presents [our] concern as Members of Congress, shared by untold millions of their constituents, that the unconstitutional irregularities involved in the 2020 presidential election cast doubt upon its outcome and the integrity of the American system of elections.” 

In an even more ridiculous move, this morning in a statement, the Texas GOP called for secession from the United States in the wake of the Supreme Court decision that dismissed their conspiracy theories. “Perhaps law-abiding states should bond together and form a Union of states that will abide by the constitution,” Allen West said.

The danger isn’t the frivolous lawsuit that was unanimously predicted to be dismissed, but the undemocratic values that call for the overturning of an election and disenfranchisement of millions of voters. Conspiracy theories that have 17 states and 106 representatives denying U.S. presidential election outcomes are threatening democracy. The Texas lawsuit filers and supporters have engaged in an effort to commit sedition, subvert American democracy, and disenfranchise millions of American voters all over voter fraud conspiracy theories even debunked by Trump’s own attorney general, William Barr. Barr said that the Justice Department had uncovered no voting fraud “on a scale that could have effected a different outcome in the election.” 

As a Pennsylvania brief said, this Texas lawsuit is nothing more than a “seditious abuse of the judicial process, and should send a clear and unmistakable signal that such abuse must never be replicated.” Sen. Ben Sasse believes that “from the brief, it looks like a fella begging for a pardon filed a PR stunt rather than a lawsuit.”

Trump lost the popular vote twice, lost all election recounts, lost all 51 court challenges, and yesterday, he lost at the Supreme Court. Monday he will lose the Electoral College. Yet Texas is calling for secession and 17 states are calling for an overturning of President-elect Joe Biden’s win while disenfranchising millions of Americans based on conspiracy theories. Our democracy is under attack from deeply unhinged people.

Democrats wrongly blame progressives for a net five centrist candidate House losses despite Americans’ overwhelming support for progressive policies. All 112 co-sponsors of Medicare for All on the ballot won, and 97 out of 98 co-sponsors of the Green New Deal on the ballot won. A recent Fox News exit poll further corroborated the fact that Americans support Medicare for All, amnesty for immigrants, and other left-leaning policies that have been vilified as extremist by corporatist party leaders. Blaming the grassroots ideology that energized voters to turn-out in record-breaking numbers while ignoring Americans’ true ideological support is a losing strategy that has already left the Democratic party with the thinnest majority in two decades.

Americans enacted their support for a progressive agenda in the 2020 election. Progressives passed a $15 minimum wage in Florida, legalized marijuana in Montana, South Dakota, Arizona, and New Jersey, got Colorado 12 weeks of paid family leave, increased taxes on the wealthy to fund education in Arizona. These policies are where the numbers, turnout, and support is. Democrats must restore the party of the New Deal instead of attacking progressives in-touch with the will of the people. Not a single progressive lost their seat during this election, the lost House seats are centrists.

A recent Fox News Exit Poll showed that 72% of Americans want government-run healthcare like Medicare for All among other left-leaning policies like stricter gun laws (55%).  Fifty-eight percent of Americans support single-payer, 88% oppose cuts to Social Security, voters in red states want Medicaid expanded, 68% think the wealthy pay too little taxes, 64% support regulating greenhouse gas emissions,58%  support breaking up big banks, 63% support raising the minimum wage to $15.00, 53% support labor union law, 64% think corporations don’t pay their fair share.

The Democratic party once cared about these working-class issues — John F. Kennedy once advocated for Medicare For All and Eisenhower’s top tax bracket was 90% when the middle-class was booming.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi has lost seven incumbents and that number could rise to about twelve as votes are counted from New York, Utah, and California. These have all been center-leaning democrats. Not one single candidate that co-sponsored Medicare for All in a swing district lost their seat. Even Mike Levin — an original co-sponsor of the Green New Deal — kept his seat. 

Yet losing candidates are blaming progressives and the Movement for Black Lives — all the base of their electorate which secured Joe Biden’s win. Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said in a New York Times interview cites internal hostility to progressive causes, saying “It’s been extremely hostile to anything that even smells progressive.” 

Congresswomen like Spanberger blame talk of “socialism” and “defunding the police ” for her near-loss, stating that attack ads on those ideas almost cost her and other Democrats their races. In reality, that’s an indictment on the failure of Democrat’s digital messaging that leaves them vulnerable to false Republican attacks. 

Rep. AOC accurately diagnosed this problem in The Times interview stating, that a lack of digital messaging during a pandemic that made Democratic candidates vulnerable to attacks like “sitting ducks.”

 “If you’re not door-knocking, if you’re not on the internet, if your main points of reliance are TV and mail, then you’re not running a campaign on all cylinders. I just don’t see how anyone could be making ideological claims when they didn’t run a full-fledged campaign.

Conor Lamb spent $2,000 on Facebook the week before the election. I don’t think anybody who is not on the internet in a real way in the Year of our Lord 2020 and loses an election can blame anyone else when you’re not even really on the internet.” 

AOC expanded by remarking that the party is “hemorrhaging incumbent candidates to progressive insurgents” and the “D.C.C.C. banned every single firm that is the best in the country at digital organizing,” because they were associated with progressives.

“So I need my colleagues to understand that we are not the enemy. And that their base is not the enemy. That the Movement for Black Lives is not the enemy, that Medicare for all is not the enemy. This isn’t even just about winning an argument. It’s that if they keep going after the wrong thing, I mean, they’re just setting up their own obsolescence.”

The progressive activists Democrats are disparaging are the ones that secured the White House. Joe Biden should not adopt a Republican view of the party if Democrats ever hope to win again. Or the immigrant activists that delivered AZ and NV and 94% of Detroit residents who went to Biden, and Black organizers that tripled turnout in Georgia, and organizers in Philadelphia will not turn out for them.

“It’s really hard for us to turn out nonvoters when they feel like nothing changes for them. When they feel like people don’t see them, or even acknowledge their turnout.

If the party believes after 94 percent of Detroit went to Biden, after Black organizers just doubled and tripled turnout down in Georgia, after so many people organized Philadelphia, the signal from the Democratic Party is the John Kasich’s won us this election? I mean, I can’t even describe how dangerous that is.”

If Democrats are to prevent further future losses they should turn from their corporate donors and to the progressive will of the American people and restore the party of the New Deal that brought the middle-class, workers’ rights, and bent the moral arc of history towards progress. 

Trump won the highest share of non-white electorate vote of any Republican in 60 years, while moderate Democrats lost support and seats. Despite Joe Biden’s expected narrow win, Democrats face a disconcerting problem from declining minority and Latino support that can only be regained through the proven-effective economic populism of the likes of Bernie Sanders. According to the Edison Research exit poll, Trump garnered 32% of the Latino vote, 31% of the Asian vote, and 12% of the Black vote. While pundits may blame stereotypical voting motivators like “machismo,” or conservative social policies, they’re not rooted in reality. Polling consistently shows that Latinos’ primary voting concerns are jobs and the economy. This downward trending support for Democrats points to a lack of attention to Latino voting concerns from the Biden campaign and a corporatist Democratic platform that doesn’t resonate with working-class people of all backgrounds. Biden ran a sufficient, but mostly opposition-campaign that ignored Latino voters—the largest nonwhite voting block (32 million) according to political insiders. As voters of color grow as a share of the electorate, the Democratic party must address their economic policy concerns through effective outreach, while fighting fake news. When Latinos list the economy and jobs as their primary issues, maybe it’s time to consider economic populism like Bernie (who fared better than Biden among them) did. 

According to the exit poll, Trump just won the highest share of non-white support of any Republican in 60 years. He did better with every gender and race except white men (5 point decline.) He gained 2% with white women, 4% with black men, 4% with black women, 3% with Latino men, and 3% with Latino women, and 5% with ‘other.’ Although exit polls are not empirical fact, these voting estimates fall in line with 2016 results. AP VoteCast calculates that Trump won 8% of the Black vote (a 2 percentage-point gain on his 2016 numbers.)

While this harrowing support came as a shock to many on Tuesday, as birther-in-chief Trump has repeatedly attacked minorities with hateful racist actions and sided with white supremacists, 29% of Hispanics have identified as Republican for the last two decades. If we’re to ever finally flip states like Texas with sizable and rapidly growing Hispanic voting blocs, it’s crucial that we actually court their vote with economic policy substance and messaging. While also fighting fake news that endlessly pushed lies like Biden calling African-Americans “super-predators” to that demographic. This year also saw an increase in  Spanish-language social media disinformation aimed at Democrats.

Latinos for Trump

Latinos support for Trump isn’t surprising but the causes (messaging and faux populism) must be examined if we’re to ever flip states like Texas. Florida Hispanics’ 47% Trump support seems like a lost-cause, but when 40% of Hispanics in Texas vote for the man who directly characterized their immigrant population as rapists and drug traffickers who “bring crime,” it points to a Democratic failure that must be addressed. This 40% figure is higher than the 32% national Hispanic support Trump won.

Democrats Lack Economic Policies and Outreach

Democrats have complacently resigned to the myth that Latinos are all Democratic — and have continued losing support through a lack of economic populism and outreach by moving to the corporatist right. All while Biden ignored Latino voters in the 2020 presidential election. They’ve abandoned their New Deal-style platform that gave birth to the middle-class. The solution is returning to a working-class party — for the working class. Bernie Sanders’ primary success among Latinos has proven that populism works — talking jobs, the economy, and addressing working-class needs works. 

Joe Biden won the primary in-spite of his efforts to gain Latino voters. Over 20 Latino political insiders said they saw zero plan from Biden to gain Hispanic voters and there’s little evidence the campaign is devoting resources to mobilize the Latino vote.“I do not think that the Biden campaign thinks that Latinos are part of their path to victory,” said Jess Morales Rocketto, the former digital organizing director for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign. “If you don’t think Latinos are part of your path to victory, then you do what they’re doing.” “Right now I can’t tell what their strategy is with the Latino community. I just don’t see it,” said one Latino lawmaker who requested anonymity to speak candidly.

Moreover, centrism is to blame for declining minority support. The only seats that Democrats lost this election were centrists. No progressives lost their seats. And sticking to centrist, corporatist politics would deliver catastrophic losses in 2022 for Democrats. 

So while a bloc of Latinos has always voted conservative — 37% in 1984, 27% in 2012 — their conservatism is not fueled primarily by social issues but by economic messaging. Turning states like Texas blue can be done, Beto O’Rourke only lost by a narrow two points of Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas. Democrats just need a policy platform shift towards progressive economic policies and a serious turnaround in messaging. 

Latinos’ Political Philosophy

Ignoring the policy concerns of 18% of the U.S. population and 32 million voters is a sound way to guarantee even more congressional losses in 2022. Latinos’ primary voting concern is not immigration or elusive “unity,” but rather, jobs and the economy — it ranks first at 23% in a Unidos US Electorate Survey. There can be no equality or unity without economic justice — it’s what directly affects the livelihoods of hard-working families. Democrats have abandoned this messaging in favor of the oligarchy’s corporate interests and obfuscated that with platitudes.

Latinos also ranked healthcare as a primary issue — concerned that it’s too expensive and unaffordable. These two policy concerns they cited that the ideal candidate would address hold up nationally, in Arizona, California, Florida, Nevada, and Texas — all heavily populated Latino states. Nationally and in these states they also cited student loans and college cost concerns, social security cuts, and housing affordability in addition to concerns over Trump’s treatment of immigrants.

A democratic platform that cares about Latinos — the largest voting bloc — supports free college, Medicare for All, and economic justice in general. Democrats don’t push for the (faux) populism that Trump did in 2016. 

Bernie Sanders’ Economic Populism Wins Among Latinos

Economic populism is the reason Bernie Sanders fared much better among Latinos than Biden.  got less minority support than Hillary who had less than Obama. The reason Trump did better with people of color is that he improved support through simple economics and jobs class language. While Democrats focused on a pure opposition campaign that lacks class language.

Bernie Sanders won landslide levels of Latino support — 53% in Nevada — three times as much as Joe Biden who got 17%. He also won 49% in California, compared to Biden’s 19%. This is because he hired Latino activists that actually knew how to deliver economic justice message through outreach like Belén Sisa, his Latino Press Secretary.

Bernie Sanders actually offered substantive solutions to Latinos instead of just offering platitudes about unity and brushing the entire voting bloc’s concerns as being about immigration alone.

National Progressive Policy Support

It’s no surprise then that Sanders was voted the most popular politician in America per a Fox News poll.  There’s a reason he has a higher approval rating than any Democrat or Republican on the hill. It’s not just his unwavering morals, pseudonym as the “Amendment King,” or corporate-interest free record. It’s an obfuscated fact that the majority of the country supports progressive policies and the majority of the electorate identifies as independents.

Fifty-eight percent of Americans support single-payer, 88% oppose cuts to Social Security, voters in red states want Medicaid expanded, 68% think the wealthy pay too little taxes, 64% support regulating greenhouse gas emissions,58%  support breaking up big banks, 63% support raising the minimum wage to $15.00, 53% support labor union law, 64% think corporations don’t pay their fair share.

The Democratic party once cared about these working-class issues — John F. Kennedy once advocated for Medicare For All and Eisenhower’s top tax bracket was 90% when the middle-class was booming.

Bernie didn’t patronize Latinos with empty platitudes, or Despacito, or by sprinkling Spanish words here and there. He listened to the concerns that after working-class people and offered substantive solutions centered around free education, universal healthcare, higher wages, and more.

Neo-liberalism lost in 2016 after years of democratic establishment politics failed to deliver hope and change. Working-class whites who previously voted for Obama were fed up with establishment politics and an unresponsive plutocracy so they voted for the only general election candidate who wasn’t bought by Wall Street and promised to remedy working-class struggles. Who else had a populist, working-class message and wasn’t lying about it? Sanders who made economic inequality the platform of his campaign would have obliterated Trump. But he won, and the country lost thanks to democrat hubris.

Left-wing policies are where the numbers are at. Hillary failed to draw Obama voters and experienced the downfalls of low-voter turnout that come with a centrist, establishment, purely opposition campaign. She won 55% of the vote compared to Obama’s 69% in 2012, seeing a decrease in support from black, Latino,  young voters, and non-college whites. She lost the rust-belt Bernie had won the primary in, lost the millennial vote Bernie gained more votes. Both Trump and her combined, and garnered only 28% of the non-college white vote that Obama had previously won 40% of in 2012.

To avoid even more major losses, Democrats must turn to progressive policies supported by the majority of Americans instead of platitudes and pandering. 

After vowing to go to Supreme Court over ‘fraud’ and refusing to commit to conceding to election results for months, the rapidly sinking Titanic of a Trump campaign announced legal action in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania after today’s counted ballots are securing a Joe Biden win. Belligerent Trump supporters barged into Detroit’s Central Counting Board to try to stop the ballot count, alleging that counting, is tantamount to fraud. These desperate attempts are a sad display of a deflated ego, as Trump’s recount in Wisconsin where Biden won by 20,517 votes, won’t occur until December 1st. In Michigan, he’s suing to stop the count on the basis that his poll-watchers aren’t allowed to sit closer to the counters. Biden has won Michigan by 70,511 votes.

The Biden campaign will have barely won over the strongest attack on voting rights and  disinformation epidemic in American history. Republican legislative efforts to suppress the vote have long occurred in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Nevada, Florida, Illinois, Georgia, Texas, Michigan, Iowa, and more states. The tactics include purging voter rolls like in Georgia and Ohio through ‘use-it-or-lose-it’ laws backed by Trump’s Justice Department. Through this law, over 850,000 eligible Georgia voters were removed off the rolls in 2015. 

This election, the Texas Supreme Court had to reject a Republican effort to toss almost 127,000 Harris County votes. And Republicans mobilized 50,000 “poll watchers” to suppress the vote after a 1982 consent decree banning voter intimidation tactics expired Moreover, Trump’s Postmaster General’s sabotaging of the post office is another method destroying our electoral infrastructure. He removed sorting machines and post office boxes, cut overtime work, fired postal veterans, and caused delays.

In Trump’s farewell tantrum, he said he will sue to halt counting in Michigan, sue to halt counting in Pennsylvania, and request a recount in Wisconsin. His suspicion against votes swaying Democratic comes after he spent months telling his base to not vote by mail. 

Devastated Trump supporters who Trump told to “stand back and stand by” to, have taken up protesting against ballot-counting — barging into an official counting facility in Detroit and chanting, “Stop the vote!” If any other demographic committed violent attempts to disqualify voters, the law enforcement response would be very different.

Crowd chanting to stop the vote/stop the count at Detroit absentee counter center. pic.twitter.com/pdJWmwbvzR

— Seema (@LATSeema) November 4, 2020

Aggressive challengers causing havoc at Detroit’s Central Counting Board. Make no mistake, operatives’ efforts to disenfranchise and to disqualify ballots will be focused on areas with large numbers of Black voters and voters of color. #CountEveryVote pic.twitter.com/EHE2d6oGZo

— Kristen Clarke 866-OUR-VOTE (@KristenClarkeJD) November 4, 2020

#BREAKING: Large, animated crush of “stop the count” protestors trying to push their way into TCF hall in #Detroit where ballots are being counted.

They’re being blocked by guards at the door.

Pizza boxes are pushed against the window to obstruct view. It’s tense. @NBCNews pic.twitter.com/zFhzd88skX

— Steve Patterson (@PattersonNBC) November 4, 2020

This political violence is no surprise after Trump has incited terror these past four years — from calling violent neo-nazis “very fine people,” to saying police should “rough” detainees up, to encouraging supporters to attack protestors saying he would “pay [their] legal fees. 

Trump cheered supporters who committed a criminal offense by swarming a Biden bus in Texas and attempting to “run it off the road.” The FBI is investigating this dangerous act. This is just one of many acts of political violence and threats that have emerged alongside right-wing domestic terror.

Nevertheless, we will emerge from the ashes of a Trump presidency that has felt like a century through its hateful destruction of progress. We will rise, rebuild, and push for progressive policies. We will stand up with dignity for the future of our children, the climate, economic and racial justice. 

Congratulations to our soon-to-be president-elect Joe Biden.

A staggering 233 election cases are pending in federal courts facing off over voting rights during an election in a pandemic. Voter suppression rulings are already underway. Recently, a 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated Texas’ process for tossing absentee ballots over mismatched signatures, determining that the right to vote by mail is not guaranteed by the 14th Amendment. This comes after governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, limited large counties to a single ballot drop box. While in Alabama, the Supreme Court blocked curbside voting (5-3) in a state with no mandatory face covering law during the pandemic. With these shocking voter suppression tactics taking place, it should be no surprise that we’re seeing 12-hour lines around the country. Voter suppression efforts are not new, since the Supreme Court ruling in Shelby County v. Holder in 2013, Republican legislators have passed many voter suppression laws which have resulted in the purging of voter rolls, limits to early voting, felony disenfranchisement, and gerrymandering. All on top of the Trump administrations’ deliberate efforts to damage election infrastructure by sabotaging the post office from within. With a Senate majority, Democrats will hopefully be able to fully restore the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

On October 19, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals egregiously determined that voters don’t have a Constitutional right to vote by mail. This Texas ruling blocks district judge Orlando Garcia’s prior ruling requiring officials to notify voters whose ballots were rejected due to a signature mismatch. Over 5,000 ballots were legally rejected back in 2016 and 2018 combined for this rule and advocates worry this may suppress the vote. Despite these measures over 4 million Texans have already cast their votes, leading the country in early voting numbers.

“Besides describing the right to vote as fundamental, the plaintiffs have not explained what there is about the right to vote that makes it a liberty interest. The right to vote does not immediately resemble the rights described in Roth, 408 U.S. at 572. The plaintiffs cite no circuit or Supreme Court precedent extending the label of “liberty interest” to the right to vote. The Sixth Circuit, the only circuit to squarely address this issue,22 held that the right to vote does not constitute a liberty interest.”

Source

The 14th Amendment, adopted after the Civil War in 1868 to grant emancipated slaves full citizenship, states, “No state shall … deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law, nor deny to any person … the equal protection of the laws.”

The Fifth Court’s ruling is a distortion of that 14th Amendment made to protect vested power. It distorts it just as San Mateo County v. Southern Pacific Rail Road established corporate personhood when Senator Roscoe Conkling claimed the 14th Amendment was not limited to natural persons. 

In the 5-3 Supreme Court vote that banned Alabama curbside voting, Justice Sotomayor dissented, quoting a Black plaintiff in his 70s with Parkinson’s disease and asthma who said while he was willing to die to vote as his ancestors had, “We’re past that time.”

A district judge also blocked Texas governor Greg Abbot’s efforts to remove ballot drop off locations in densely populated counties to the effect where a county with 4.7M people would have the same number of locations as one with 169. These efforts to limit voter access point to an insecurity of formerly solid red state Texas being able to win fairly.  He planned to limit huge counties to one ballot drop box.

Voter Suppression Efforts

Voter suppression isn’t just limited to court battles, it can come by way of voter intimidation as the GOP has by by recruiting 50,000 “poll watchers” who will be deployed to majority Democratic voter polling stations. Voter intimidation tactics were banned in a 1982 consent decree after Republicans sent police to minority neighborhoods to intimidate voters. However, in 2018 the decree expired and now Republicans are mobilizing 50,000 “poll watchers” to suppress the vote.

Voter suppression no longer pretends to be an effort to protect against voter fraud but its flagrant racist, undemocratic tactics are a campaign to control election outcomes by limiting who votes the most. Republican legislative efforts to suppress the vote have occurred in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Nevada, Florida, Illinois, Georgia, Texas, Michigan, Iowa, and more states.

The tactics include purging voter rolls like in Georgia and Ohio through ‘use-it-or-lose-it’ laws backed by Trump’s Justice Department. Through this law, over 850,000 eligible Georgia voters were removed off the rolls in 2015.

Limiting early voting is another method used to suppress the vote. In Texas, a court recently rejected a GOP effort to limit early voting.

Gerrymandering is a classic voter suppression effort that undermines our democracy by redrawing electoral districts to favor one party.  After 2010, the GOP redrew districts to favor GOP candidates in project REDMAP resulting in the GOP earning more seats despite getting less votes. 

Moreover, Trump’s Postmaster General’s sabotaging of the post office is another method destroying our electoral infrastructure. He removed sorting machines and post office boxes, cut overtime work, fired postal veterans, and caused delays.

Restoring the Voting Rights Act of 1965

Since the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act in 2013, 1,688 polling places have closed. With 233 election cases related to COVID-19 pending, outcomes on the future of our democracy are uncertain. It’s crucial that our country votes in senators that will restore the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to preserve the foundation of our democracy that voting is.

Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders’ surging lead in the polls, leading donations with a record 4 million small donors, and majority-support for his policies across demographics make it clear he’s not only the true populist in the race, but the most electable once-in-a-lifetime candidate. Faux-populism won in 2016, and centrism’s failure made it clear that ‘any blue’ just won’t do. At a pivotal historical time with climate catastrophe only 12 years away, healthcare the number one cause of bankruptcy in the wealthiest country on earth (with 78% already insured), the oligarchy’s stranglehold on the working-class now stronger than ever, stagnating wages that haven’t kept up with inflation, a human rights crisis in the Middle-East, and a student debt crisis that stagnates economic growth, only a progressive agenda can address these key issues. America deserves an uncompromised leader that has been fighting for economic, environmental, and social justice for the past 55 years. The Democratic party must return to the a new New Deal. Bernie Sanders knows what Martin Luther King Jr. knew — there can be no equality without economic justice.

As Bernie said, “It’s time to make our government work for us and not just the 1%.” Americans deserve a true leader who has fought for policies even when they were unpopular. Regardless of political party Bernie fights for everyone. He has never been compromised by accepting billionaire PAC donors like other candidates such as Warren, he has not backpedaled on policies he’s supported his entire life like Medicare for All like Warren has, he has never supported the military industrial complex by voting to increase the budget three times like Warren, Bernie doesn’t represent corporate criminals and fail to prosecute them for mortgage fraud like Harris. Bernie is not the establishment, Bernie is for the people.

Bernie doesn’t want an America that cuts taxes for the rich to fund billion dollar wars, leaves veterans on the streets, people dying bankrupt, and then proposes $64 billion cuts to Social Security Disability Insurance “balance the budget.” Bernie doesn’t want an America in which people can’t afford insulin, in which the minimum wage hasn’t kept pace with inflation and billionaires rob hard-working Americans

Bernie is the FDR Democrat our country desperately needs at a time of late-stage capitalism were people flock online to crowdfund hospital bills and work two jobs because the minimum wage hasn’t kept pace with inflation.

The senator believes in a government run by the people, by principles of economic justice seen in democracies like Canada, Switzerland, and the UK that provide their tax-paying citizens with human rights such as healthcare and education without going bankrupt. Bernie is the most honest, once-in-a-lifetime candidate that will not stand by while 3 people own more wealth than the bottom half of America, while 20% of children live in poverty, 40 million go hungry, and people can’t afford healthcare. Bernie will lower drug prescriptions, enact medicare for all, livable wages, rebuild crumbling infrastructure, eliminate college debt, rebuild social security, deliver environmental justice, rebuild unions, stimulate the economy through debt elimination.

Bernie’s Surge in The Polls

After Elizabeth Warren’s 14 point plummet in the polls since the last Quinnipiac poll from a month ago, after her the facade for her universal healthcare support fell and Kamala’s crumbling campaign resulting in lay-offs, Democratic elites and the MSM are desperately propping up establishment candidates offering no change from the oligarchy’s status-quo. Barack Obama even allegedly stated that he would “speak up to stop” Bernie This bias, if anything, is an endorsement of Sanders’ integrity, populism, and policies that have the establishment so shaken up. And according to recent polls in key democratic states, the people are waking up and they want change.

The most recent polls show Bernie handidly beating Trump 48-43%, winning all key states Democrats need to win — New Hampshire at 26%, tying with Biden at 22% in Iowa. And in an early-state voter poll (Iowa, NH, NV, and SC), Sanders has surged to second place at 23% (+5) while Biden has fallen -3%. Furthermore, Bernie has gained 9 points in the pivotal primary and caucus states. In a general election head to head: Sanders wins Michigan 57% (+14) to Trump 43%, New Hampshire 52-48%.

This should come as no surprise. Polls during the last election’s primary season consistently showed Sanders handily defeating Trump by 10 points or more, while Clinton led him by only a few points within the margin of error. This is easy to fathom considering Trump secured the nomination as Hillary lost the three historically blue states that Bernie did well in during the primaries. Sanders beat Clinton in Wisconsin and Michigan. And the DNC chosen candidate lost Pennsylvania.  Narrow margins of eight-tenths, three-tenths, and 1.2% in these three Rust Belt states where Sanders’ message resonated, handed the election to Trump.

Moderates and Democrats

Senator Sanders also performed well among moderates (Sanders leads 56-28%), and he even has a 78% favorability rating among Democrats.

Bernie Wins Among Minority, Female, and Millenial Support

The American people from all backgrounds have overwhelmingly spoken in favor of Bernie Sanders. According to a Harvard-Harris poll, 58% of non-white voters; that is, 73% among African-Americans, 68% among Hispanics, 62% among Asian-Americans, 56% among women, 62% among 18-34-year-olds and 78% among Democrats. In a general head-to-head, Bernie leads among African American voters, receiving 83% support compared to only 5% for Trump.

Bernie Sanders also dominates with the most powerful voting bloc — millennials. In general election polls, Sanders wins with younger voters aged 18-29, leading 70-21%. He also beats Trump with voters age 30-49 (48-43%), while Trump wins voters aged 50+ (Trump leads 53% to 39%). Sanders even leads among men 51-41%), non-college educated voters (Sanders leads 49-42%), and Independent voters Sanders leads 56-28%.”

Bernie Wins Among Independents

A widespread concern among Sanders skeptics is how he will fare among independent voters but Sanders leads 56-28% among Independents, and he fares well among the rust-belt Obama coalition which crossed over for Trump in 2016.

More Donors Than Trump and Any Other Candidate

Bernie has more donors than Trump and any other candidate. He has the biggest grassroots support, from nurses to military members But the media tells us that raising $5.9 million in one day is no big deal. That $10 million in a week means he should drop out.

Bernie Draws Back the Rust-Belt Obama Coalition Democrats Lost in 2016

The working-class coalition transcends political party. Bernie’s agenda fights for every American regardless of their class, party, or race and people are starting to see that. Bernie will not only win the primary with his surging early-voting state polls, but he will win the general election with his fervent support among Independents, and favorability among Republicans.

Bernie Will Draw Support From Republican Voters in the General

Fox News viewers are more likely to support Bernie than those who watch MSNBC. The Red-baiting conspiracy channel full of biased hit-pieces that pays propaganda artists to provide insightful commentary such as,” I don’t know what it is about Bernie, he just makes my skin crawl.” Bernie won every county in West Virginia in 2016. Sanders has been an effective, mediating, bipartisan voice, reaching across the aisle in CNN town halls and making Trump voters ‘feel the bern.’ Time and time again, his centered economic message has reached coal country effectively with none of the dripping ‘liberal east coast elite’ condescension.  In a West-Virginia townhall a county of Trump voters thanked Bernie and clapped for raising taxes, Medicare for all, and free college. His working-class message would’ve obviously resonated with disgruntled Trump voters on it’s own, but his ability to effectively communicate across the aisle would’ve done numbers.

Centrism Doesn’t Work. Bernie is The Only True New Deal Democrat. 

Neo-liberalism resulted in 910 total seats lost under 8 years of a Democratic White House. It handed over rampant legislative control to the Tsar in Chief for two years. The Democratic party has moved righ of center, not left. While candidates like Warren (“capitalist at heart”) try to negotiate with a broken system, Bernie is trying rebuild it in favor of working-class Americans. While Democrats and Republicans practice bipartisanship in bailing out Wall St., passing corporate tax cuts, and funding the military industrial complex, Bernie wants a return it to New Deal style politics. A return to an America that works for all

Neo-liberalism lost in 2016 after years of democratic establishment politics failed to deliver hope and change. Working-class whites who previously voted for Obama were fed up with establishment politics and an unresponsive plutocracy so they voted for the only general election candidate who wasn’t bought by Wall Street and promised to remedy working-class struggles. Who else had an populist, working-class message and wasn’t lying about it? Sanders who made economic inequality the platform of his campaign would have obliterated Trump. But he won, and the country lost thanks to democrat hubris.

Left-wing policies are were the numbers are at.Hillary failed to draw Obama voters, and experienced the downfalls of low-voter turnout that come with a centrist, establishment, purely opposition campaign. She won 55% of the vote compared to Obama’s 69% in 2012, seeing a decrease in support from black, Latino,  young voters and non-college whites. She lost the rust-belt Bernie had won the primary in, lost the millenial vote Bernie gained more votes. Both Trump and her combined, and garnered only 28% of the non-college white vote where Obama had previously won 40% of in 2012.

The first female to win the nomination for president didn’t even gain 50% support from white women against the man with sexual assault allegations and and the Access Hollywood tape. Compared to Obama’s 93% of the black vote, Hillary garnered 88% of the black vote against a candidate who was sued twice by the DOJ for not renting to African Americans. And 65% Latinos vs 71% for Obama against a candidate who called them rapists. Most damaging, 54% millennial support, compared to obama’s 60%. Guess who draws millennials? Bernie Sanders and his progressive policies. In fact, more young people voted for Sanders than Clinton and Trump combined.

Center-left corporatist politics no longer work, It contends that to gain back a disenchanted voting base you have to further alienate them by fully and openly embracing neo-conservatism just to pander to right-wingers who would never vote blue in a million years. The solution to a low-voter turnout epidemic in the 2016 election is to adopt more of the things that made them stay home, as part of your campaign.  How is it possible that the party of Medicare cuts won the largest majority in Congress and state legislatures since 1928 when the majority of Americans support progressive policies?

It’s simple, Democrats have abandoned the illusion of being the party of progress in favor of big corporate interests.

Medicare for All Isn’t Radical, $6.4 trillion Spent On Wars Since 2001 Is. The Majority of Americans Support Bernie’s Policies

Sanders was voted the most popular politician in America per a Fox News poll.  There’s a reason he has a higher approval rating than any Democrat or Republican on the hill. It’s not just his unwavering morals, pseudonym as the “Amendment King,” or corporate-interest free record. It’s obfuscated fact that the majority of the country supports progressive policies and the majority of the electorate identifies as independents.

Fifty-eight percent  of Americans support single-payer, 88% oppose cuts to Social Security, voters in red states want Medicaid expanded, 68% think the wealthy pay too little taxes, 64% support regulating greenhouse gas emissions,58%  support breaking up big banks, 63% support raising the minimum wage to $15.00, 53% support labor union law, 64% think corporations don’t pay their fair share.

John F. Kennedy once advocated for Medicare For All, Eisenhower’s top tax bracket was 90%. Back when the middle-class flourished because of their policies, no one ever called them radical.

But How Will We Pay For It?

No one ever asked how we would pay for $6.4 trillion on wars in the Middle-East and Asia since 2001, but here we are. We also don’t need a candidate who talks about “expanding” the ACA while people die rationing insulin and not affording healthcare. The ACA raised premiums and deductibles nearly 300%, should we expand them to 600%?

In the world-power that is the United States, medical expenses have long been the number one cause of bankruptcy, with 78% of filers already having health-insurance. It should be considered a serious issue when inhabitants of the wealthiest country have to choose between death or bankruptcy, food or medicine. The healthcare industry has turned into a for-profit business, which despite having skyrocketing costs, leave us at 33rd place in life expectancy and outcomes that are not notably superior. To put it simply, Americans are paying more tax money per capita and getting less. Whether one thinks healthcare is a right or not, you should favor the most fiscally responsible choice, a choice which happens to save millions of Americans lives. And that is the core of a single-payer system.

We currently spend $20 trillion a year; $15 trillion through insurance premiums and $5 trillion through co-pays. With the government spending an amount per capita far more than any other nations at $3.2 trillion a year, 17% of our GDP, $10,000 per person. That’s double what the United Kingdom spends, and more than Germany and Canada, for a whole lot of medically induced bankruptcy here. Contrary to popular American-exceptionalist-belief, this does not give us better healthcare outcomes and we rank last among 11 countries according to a Commonwealth Fund report.

Who’s to blame for this cost-ineffective system bringing us subpar care? The answer is – the for-profit industry sustained by insurance companies. We’ve created a broken system where the goal is maximizing profit. This inevitably leads to over-treatment, inflated prescription drug prices, and 30 million drastically uninsured. We’re quite literally profiting off illness. Why are we okay with all of this? Why are we okay with investors and CEO’s making billions off the most vulnerable in our society while they suffer? It’s not cost-effective, it’s not outcome effective. The only people this crony system benefits is insurance and pharmaceutical industry CEO’s. Not the people providing healthcare, not the people receiving it.

We currently spend $20 trillion in healthcare costs – $6 trillion of that stemming from insurance costs, and $3.1 trillion in tax subsidies to employers. By eliminating the useless middleman insurance companies are through single-payer, we save $9 trillion total from that annual $20 trillion budget. There’s $11 trillion of costs left to take up that can then be covered by a 6.2% income-based premium from employers, and 2.2% income surtax from households. If we look to Bernie Sander’s plan, families of four making under $28,800 would see no such increase. So yes, taxes would increase for everyone else, but by paying a relatively small amount more in taxes for full-coverage healthcare, we’re all saving the enormous amount of $20 trillion we would otherwise pay. By enacting such a tax increase and eliminating the nonsensical insurance industry from the picture, Americans would save $9 trillion a year they would otherwise spend for premiums that don’t cover a papercut.

The economic benefits are endless. An average middle-class family of four, making $50,000 a year, would go from paying $5,600 a year for healthcare to $466 under a 2.2% tax hike. Does that sound like socialism? Moreover, those who would normally be covered by employer-sponsored healthcare would see a salary increase because they’d no longer have it deducted from their paycheck.  Small businesses wouldn’t be forced to spend time and money negotiating coverage with insurance companies thus increasing productivity. It’s preventative – saving people from having to go through extended hospital visits and chronic illness treatments. Single payer would also slash costs imposed on hospitals by the industry, to the tune of $400 billion a year. Which is already “enough to cover all the uninsured.”

Furthermore, all the problems under our current system, the shortcomings of the Affordable Care Act, bureaucratic nightmares, disappear. All medically necessary services are covered: doctor, hospital, preventive, emergency, long care, psychological, dental, vision, prescription drugs. People can choose their own provider. Priorities are no longer distorted and better quality of healthcare is provided no matter how much money you make. People would no longer be overtreated because they can pay more.In addition, single payer would reduce incentives to over treat and lower drug prices according to the PNHP.

Healthcare is a human need, not a luxury. It’s utterly despicable and nonsensical for Americans to pay more per capita than any other nation for people to be led to medically induced bankruptcy, 27 million to be uninsured, 30 million underinsured, and to rank 33rd in life expectancy. To pay more and get less because the health insurance industry must butt in the middle of it so billionaires can line their pockets.

Warren and the Establishment Candidates Fall Short of Change

The mark of a true leader is being on the frontline of every progressive socioeconomic issue for the past 55 years like Bernie Sanders has, not just when it’s politically convenient to do so. Bernie was fighting for the same issues since the 1960s before he even entered Congress, when he was arrested protesting desegregation. He’d been the only Independent in Congress for decades when he had nothing to gain. Unlike Warren, Bernie was not a Republican during the Reagan administration, he was fighting for economic justice. While Harvard was promoting Warren as their “first Native American professor,” Bernie was still championing universal healthcare. While Warren — who has backtracked on Medicare for All-– was appropriating Native American racial identity for career advancement, Bernie was fighting for the environment. If anything, she should be Treasury Secretary not President.

Warren does not support Medicare for All. She is a faux progressive riding on the movement brought into the mainstream by Bernie in 2016. Warren will not deliver Medicare for All and prevent 500,000 from going bankrupt in 2020 from medical bills. She retracted her support and instead advocated for a “public option,” introduced at the end of her 3rd year, as a 10-year-plan. While Bernie vows to introduce the bill he wrote in his first week in office.

Warren can not be trusted to upend a fundamentally broken economic system rampant with wealth-inequality when she has a history of accepting billionaires’ donations. She has signaled to the oligarchy’s party insiders her deference and loyalty. Bernie Sanders has never accepted billionaire donations. Senator Sanders plans to make them pay their fair share of taxes instead of paying $0 a year like Amazon.

Unlike Warren, Bernie didn’t vote to fund Trump’s military industrial complex three times — raising the latest defense fund budget to $700 billion.

Unlike Kamala Harris, he’s not a mortgage fraud criminal defender, big pharma gatekeeper, or a plutocrats selling the middle-class increased domestic surveillance powers, voting for $716 billion military industrial complex spending bill and deregulating Wall Street. Bernie is a candidate whose agenda stands for issues the majority of Americans support – single-payer, higher wages, access to higher education, criminal justice reform, green energy.

Why Bernie?

A Bernie Sanders presidency means Medicare for All, the fiscally responsible $2-trillion-saving plan which is cheaper than premiums. (Because despite paying twice as much per capita as other countries in healthcare, leaves 30 million uninsured.) It means standing for economic justice – a higher minimum wage closer to inflation, closing corporate tax loopholes that leave companies like Amazon paying $0 in taxes, rebuilding labor unions which brought us the weekend and minimum wages, and it means environmental protection..

It means ending Citizens United, fighting against voter suppression and gerrymandering, and criminal justice reform in a country that spends $80 billion a year imprisoning more people than any other country. It means aggressively combating impending climate change destruction with a Green New Deal.

It means boosting the economy by supporting the middle-class who has the highest MPC, through $2-trillion-saving healthcare, tuition-free public college, $1.5 trillion student loan debt elimination economists approve of, expansion of social security, and green energy jobs. It means supporting foreign policy based on diplomacy and human rights. (Bernie Sanders has even called for cutting aid to Israel and redirecting it to provide humanitarian assistance to Gaza.)

A vote for Bernie Sanders is a once-in-a-lifetime vote for economic, social, racial, and environmental justice. A one in a lifetime chance to return to the America that worked for the middle-class. Bernie is the foreign policy, environmental, and immigration candidate. He’s the candidate for all of America, not the corporate plutocrat elite compromised by special interests. He’s the most electable candidate that can beat corrupt, con-man, child-caging, Social Security-defunding, corporate welfare enacting Trump. He is unmatched because he’s driven by changing America so the working-class can rule, not by becoming presidents like other candidates.

At a time when centrism is no longer a winning strategy, this populist, modern day FDR will not beat Trump, but he will return the Democratic party to the left, and deliver a new deal. Bernie Sanders will does not play with the broken system, he plans to repair it in favor of the working class. The Amendment King, son of working-class migrants, built the most progressive DNC platform, brought Medicare for All into the mainstream arena, got Amazon workers $15 an hour.  Imagine what he can accomplish in office. He has had nothing to gain being by being on the right side of history for the past 55 years. We have every human right to gain by being on the right side of history in 2020.

“The time has come to fulfill and expand upon FDR’s vision that he laid out 75 years ago. These are not radical ideas. They’re supported by the majority of Americans. Working together, we can and must achieve economic, social, racial, political and environmental justice for all.”

With an imminent climate catastrophe only 12 years away, healthcare being the number one cause of bankruptcy in the wealthiest country on earth (with 78% already insured), the oligarchy’s stranglehold on the working-class now stronger than ever, stagnating wages that haven’t kept up with inflation, a human rights crisis in the middle-east, and a student debt crisis that stagnates economic growth, there is only one proper agenda that can address these key issues. Vermont Senator, “Amendment King” Bernie Sanders’ has been fighting for these very New Deal style democratic policies his entire life. While the Democratic party moved right on the political spectrum, policies supported by the majority of Americans – those at the core of Sanders’ agenda – became deemed ‘fringe.’ This is what makes Senator Sanders the strongest, most viable candidate for the 2020 Presidential election. No more fossil fuel pawns with charismatic authority, mortgage fraud criminal defenders, big pharma gatekeepers, or more plutocrats selling the middle-class increased domestic survellaince powers and voting for $716 billion military industrial complex spending bill and deregulating Wall Street. Lesser of two evils doesn’t suffice.

Bernie Has the Poll Numbers Across Demographics. Republicans Like Him More Than They Like Democrats.

The American people have overwhelmingly spoken in favor of Bernie Sanders: 58% of non-white voters, that is 73% African American support among voters, 68% among Hispanics, 62% among Asian-Americans, 56% among women, 62% among 18-34-year-olds and 78% among Democrats. These are your ‘Bernie Bros,’ mainstream media.Please continue lecturing us millions of simpletons on why we should vote against our best interest and for corporate pawns.

Sanders has also proven to be an effective, mediating, bipartisan voice, reaching across the aisle in CNN town halls and making Trump voters ‘feel the bern.’ Time and time again, his centered economic message has reached coal country effectively with none of the dripping ‘liberal east coast elite’ condescension.  Recall the West-Virginia townhall where a county of Trump voters thanked Bernie and clapped for raising taxes, Medicare for all, and free college. His working-class message would’ve obviously resonated with disgruntled Trump voters on it’s own, but his ability to effectively communicate across the aisle would’ve done numbers.

There is a reason Sanders, who proudly calls himself a socialist, remains the –most popular politician in America per a Fox News poll.  There’s a reason he has a higher approval rating than any democrats or republicans on the hill. It’s not just his unwavering earnestness, pseudonym as the “amendment king,” or clean corporate-interest free record. It’s media obfuscated fact that the majority of the country supports progressive policies and the majority of the electorate identifies as independents.

Bernie Would Have Won

Americans made their voices heard in the 2016 primaries, but like with everything supported by middle-class, was drowned out by the corporate party elite. In 2018, ex-DNC chair Donna Brazile revealed the Democratic Nation Committee essentially rigged the primaries in favor of Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. This confirmed what we all suspected. With Sanders’ rallies regularly turning out by the tens of thousands, the results puzzled us. Undemocratic superdelegates aside, hundreds of individual reports had surfaced of voter suppression against Sanders voters. Donna Brazile, revealed the DNC and Hillary Clinton campaign collusion ran deep – the victory fund agreement was signed four months after Hillary announced her candidacy, a year before the nomination. Hillary Clinton’s campaign had control of the party before voters decided. And there has been no Congressional investigation, no FEC investigation for interfering in an election.

Polls during the primary season consistently showed  Sanders handily defeating Trump by 10 points or more, while Clinton led him by only a few points. This is easy to fathom considering Trump secured the nomination when Hillary lost the three historically blue states that Bernie did well in during the primaries. Sanders beat Clinton in Wisconsin and Michigan. And the DNC chosen candidate lost Pennsylvania.  Narrow margins of eight-tenths, three-tenths, and 1.2% in these three Rust Belt states where Sanders’ message resonated, handed the election to Trump.

Bernie Has the Rust-Belt Part of the Obama Coalition

What happened? These states usually swing blue. Well, working-class whites who previously voted for Obama were fed up with establishment politics and an unresponsive plutocracy in general so they voted for the only general election candidate who wasn’t bought by Wall Street and promised to remedy working-class struggles. Who else had an populist, working-class message and wasn’t absolutely lying about it? Sanders who made economic inequality the platform of his campaign would have obliterated policy-outline-free and economically illiterate Trump. But he won, and the country lost thanks to democrat hubris.

Left-wing policies are were the numbers are at. And analyzing the historical loss is key to avoiding the same mistakes. Unfortunately, most pundits and strategists are tone-deaf and incapable of any self-reflection. So not only did Hillary fail to draw Obama voters, but she also experienced the downfalls of low-voter turnout that come with a centrist, No-Hope, purely opposition campaign. She won 55% of the vote compared to Obama’s 69% in 2012, seeing a decrease in support from black, Latino,  young voters and non-college whites. She lost the rust-belt Bernie had won the primary in, lost the millenial vote Bernie gained more votes than both Trump and her combined, and garnered only 28% of the non-college white vote where Obama had previously won 40% of in 2012.

The first female to win the nomination for president didn’t even gain 50% support from white women against the sexual assaulter and unabashed misogynist. Compared to Obama’s 93% of the black vote, Hillary garnered 88% of the black vote against a candidate who was sued twice by the DOJ for not renting to African Americans. And 65% Latinos vs 71% for Obama against a candidate who called them rapists. Most damaging, 54% millennial support, compared to obama’s 60%. Guess who draws millennials? Bernie Sanders and his progressive policies. In fact, more young people voted for Sanders than Clinton and Trump combined. He has 62% of the 18-34 voter electorate. Teenagers literally run after him screaming like he’s a rockstar. Not to mention there wouldn’t have been a spoiler effect in Florida from disgruntled Bernie supporters who voted for Jill Stein if he would have been the nominee.

Elections Should be About Issues not Cult of Personality.

As Sanders has always said, it’s not about a person but a movement. And the majority of Americans want a new New Deal. If he were to abandon his thirty-year-spanning agenda, his supporters would turn from him. This is why the independent senator from Vermont with zero campaign money, name recognition, and a self-proclaimed democratic-socialist label managed to not only run the most progressive campaign in US history but ran the most successful independent, grassroots campaigns in modern history. Against the brand-name Clinton machine at that. The crowds upwards of 20,000 were a sign of the changing political climate and rising populist revolt. His immense, insurgent success despite the political establishment’s relentless smear campaign was a physical manifestation of polls showing tremendous favorability towards progressive policies and a growing independent base. All of this ultimately forcing the DNC to to deliver the most progressive party platform in history.

Fifty-eight percent  of Americans support single-payer, 88% oppose cuts to Social Security, voters in red states want Medicaid expanded, 68% think the wealthy pay too little taxes, 64% support regulating greenhouse gas emissions,58%  support breaking up big banks, 63% support raising the minimum wage to $15.00, 53% support labor union law, 64% think corporations don’t pay their fair share.

The 2016 election proved people wanted populism and a platform for the working class, not career politicians grappling with being in the pockets of big money interests and trying to get reelected. Populism won no matter how much of a lie it turned out to be.

Corporatist Establishment Democrats Would Lose

There exists much misplaced hype around petroleum industry /U.S. Representative Beto O’Rourke. While his election as Senator would have been tremendous progress for Texas, an examination of his highly-ignored voter record proves it would not be so much for the United States if Democrats want to beat Donald Trump. This may be tough for the cult of personality centrists to believe, but we don’t need another corporatist politician who voted to deregulate banks, voted to fast-track TPP, is number two below Ted Cruz fossil fuel industry recipients, and “frequently voted against the majority of House Democrats in support of Republican bills and Trump administration priorities.”

The same people who brought you Hillary “Secret Wall Street Speeches” Clinton, who lost in the most easily winnable election against a reality-star con-artist demand you ignore public records while the earth will become uninhabitable in many places by 2040. Their message boils down to, “Bernie old white man bad – Biden & Beto white men good!”

No more oil company shills winning on charismatic authority, mortgage fraud criminal defenders, big pharma gatekeepers, or more plutocrats selling the middle-class increased domestic surveillance powers, voting for $716 billion military industrial complex spending bill and deregulating Wall Street. We need a candidate whose agenda stands for issues the majority of Americans support – single-payer, higher wages, access to higher education, criminal justice reform, green energy – and that is Bernie Sanders. If he were to abandon these positions his supporters would abandon him. Tough for the cult of personality centrists who rally around the insurance industry, and big oil to understand, I know. Faux populism won in 2016, and Bernie so far is the only honest candidate who has made working-class populism his career-agenda.

Bernie’s New Deal

Standing against Bernie Sanders means standing against Medicare for All, the fiscally responsible $2-trillion-saving plan which is cheaper than premiums. (Because despite paying twice as much per capita as other countries in healthcare, leaves 30 million uninsured.) It means standing against economic justice – a $15 minimum wage, closing corporate tax loopholes, unions, and pay equity for women and minorities. (If the minimum wage had kept up with inflation, it would be $21.00.)

To oppose his agenda is to oppose ending Citizens United, ending voter suppression and gerrymandering, criminal justice reform in a country that spends $80 billion a year imprisoning more people than any other country. It means opposing aggressively combating impending climate change destruction by moving towards sustainable energy.

It means hating investing in the working-class who has the highest MPC, through $2-trillion-saving healthcare, tuition-free public college, expansion of social security, and green energy jobs. It means opposing foreign policy based on diplomacy and human rights, a cleaner planet, and enacting true economic justice. This is only possible when a leader isn’t beholden by corporate interests.

Reject Propaganda. Organize.

The unsubstantial attacks from the mainstream media outlets have already begun. Party Democratic elites with an agenda are throwing every trite ‘Bernie Bro’ narrative and the kitchen sink while failing to actually discuss any policy.  The “Third Way” a group of Wall Street is already running opposition ads against Senator Sanders in primary states. We must halt these negative narratives about single-payer, and correct the record on Bernie’s positions and efficiency of his proposals. On his D- rating from the NRA, on that he wasn’t an effective legislator, and that he “made Hillary lose the election” by simply running a primary campaign with better politics.

The establishment has realized the Bernie Bros narrative doesn’t stick with the 58% non-white support he has. Could it be that economic inequality is decimating the middle-class as the wealth gap grows between minorities and Caucasian workers? African American women earn 64 cents and Hispanic women 55 cents for every dollar made by a white male. Despite what pundits might say, we’re seeing past the corporatist Democrats’ identity-politics-entrenched bromides, and looking for real economic justice. Because tokenism isn’t a measure of progressiveness when candidates sell us wars, vote against lowering pharmaceutical prices, and shill for Wall Street.

Amidst a political arena of corporatist plutocrats, in a dystopian hellscape where people die crowdfunding for insulin online, and millions will die in decades of unmitigated climate-change induced disaster, Bernie Sanders is the change we desperately need. Trump won because of faux populism, because of people who rejected corporatist war-hawk Hillary. What makes Democrats think Beto “Oil Shill” O’Rourke, Cory “Big Pharma Bro” Booker, or Kamala “Mortgage Fraud Defender” Harris are feasible contenders for the Rust Belt voters who crossed over to Trump in states Bernie won the primaries in? Or to millenials Bernie has 62% of the support from?

Bernie is the hero America needs in 2020, and wants according to poll numbers. The problem is he’s not the leader corporate interest groups or the colluding DNC wants. Bernie Sanders needs to run in 2020 because he’s been on the right-side of history regarding health care, economic justice, climate change for decades, and he would represent ordinary Americans’ best interest.

Nearing 2018, Clinton loyalists have taken it upon themselves to slander the most liked politician in America (who stands for the most statistically favorable issues.) Choosing to rehash the June 2016 primaries with slanderous narratives about Sanders while “Queen Hillary” drinks chardonnay in the woods, goes on a book blame tour, and turns down the Women’s Convention. All, has given rise to brazen North-Korea style propaganda outlets such as Verrit – the left’s own Breitbart. Thus, putting the proverbial nail in the coffin on a center-left already much indistinguishable from the right. At such a turbulent, pivotal time in American history post-election stress is best alleviated by pushing ‘Bernie tax-returns’ myths, not by fighting for healthcare, Puerto Rico, and real issues.

This perpetual smear campaign against progressives by the elite is nothing new. The party establishment has been gatekeeping against populist insurrection since the late 1800’s, when unchecked capitalism-turned-cronyism had robber barons and party bosses annihilating the middle-class. To our own shrinking middle-class, rich TV pundits say, ‘don’t support your best interests.’ Debate-question-leaking media outlets do their best mental gymnastics to convince people single-payer tax hikes aren’t actually less expensive than premiums. They have them rallying against their best interests, and for corrupt politicians who oppose a $15 minimum wage (which doesn’t even match inflation), restoring Glass-Steagall, vote for interventionist regime change wars, and give secret speeches to Wall Street.

It’s a cycle that will never break until politicians no longer have incentive to be beholden to anyone but their constituents. Just follow the money; corporations own politicians, Clinton-donors own the media, and undemocratic superdelegates are not a thing of the past. Nothing will change until the common factor is taken out of the equation and Citizens United is repealed. Until then, we’ve got to stand up for the truth and hold our representatives accountable. Which is why it’s important to fact-check the pettiest, most ludicrous claims from centrists.

“Bernie made Hillary lose the election”

Clintonites content that running a primary, opposition campaign.. against an opponent..in an election somehow made Hillary Clinton lose the general election. Among Russia, Barack Obama, Comey, sexism, self-hating women who voted “for the boys,” the Clinton-run media, voter suppression, the DNC which colluded with her, the Electoral College for not letting her know Wisconsin had electoral votes, Anthony Weiner who are also to blame of course. Pay no mind to the fact that a court conceded the DNC had the right to rig the 2016 primary against Sanders. Or that the left-wing media is run by Clinton Foundation donors, Hillary will find a way to victimize herself.

The logic follows that Bernie Sanders made Queen Hillary look bad by comparison by contrasting her neo-liberal policies and history, with his own progressive history and vision for America. Bernie Sanders was a detriment to her in the general because he exhumed corruption in a broken system and factually outlined policy differences between the two candidates. Because logic. I mean he “promised ponies,” Clinton mocked, ponies which happen to be the where the numbers are at might I add.

–Fifty-eight percent  of Americans support single-payer, 88% oppose cuts to Social Security, voters in red states want Medicaid expanded, 68% think the wealthy pay too little taxes, 64% support regulating greenhouse gas emissions,58%  support breaking up big banks, 63% support raising the minimum wage to $15.00, 53% support labor union law, 64% think corporations don’t pay their fair share.

Did Donald Trump not face competition and relentless attacks from 16 other Republicans and the entire mainstream media? The entire idea that a primary candidate, running a campaign is to blame for a general election loss, is laughable, and drips of bitterness. Her loss was foreseeable to anyone who understands her polling numbers were scraping by within the margin of error. (While they showed Sanders handedly defeating Trump by at least 10 points.) To anyone who understands that centrism lost democrats sixty-nine House seats and 13 Senate seats. That (faux) populism won over a disenchanted electorate – many who had previously voted for Obama. Who else had a populist, working-class message and wasn’t absolutely lying about it? Sanders, who made economic inequality the platform of his campaign, would have obliterated policy-outline-free Trump. Centrism, is why she lost, not the only remaining beacon of honesty and integrity in Washington which her history pales in comparison to.

Let’s blame the “damned emails” guy who wholeheartedly campaigned for her and has unwaveringly remained one of Trump’s toughest critics. Sadly, politics is not a gentleman’s nor an honest man’s sport.

Gun Control

Hillary propagated the narrative that Bernie Sanders ‘has been largely a very reliable supporter of the NRA,’ during the election. That is an outright lie. He has a D- rating from the NRA, supports increased gun control, wants instant background checks, and wants to eliminate the gun-show loophole. It’s literally on his website: he’s  “voted in favor of a nationwide ban on assault weapons, a nationwide ban on high-capacity magazines of over ten rounds, and nationwide expanded background checks that address unsafe loopholes.”

Sanders has only been criticized for not blaming manufacturers for crimes committed with their product. Should car manufacturers be blamed if someone runs you over with their car? It a completely illogical attack. He’s voted for the Brady Bill when it finally called for instant background checks and supported it holding retailers who knowingly sold weapons to criminals accountable not when it punished those who sold weapons to those who passed background checks and later used them in crimes. It’s called nuance.

Abortion

He’s most recently been ostracized for endorsing Omaha mayoral candidate Heath Mello, a Democrat who co-sponsored a bill that requiring doctors to merely inform women of their right to an ultrasound prior to an abortion. Not mandating them to receive one. The Senator with a lifetime pro-choice record, who’s strong proponent of women’s healthcare – from contraceptives to voting no on restricting UN funding for population control policies – has been dubbed a misogynist republican. All for endorsing a Democratic candidate who supported a bill which inform women of their right to an ultrasound. The center-left is absolutely deranged.

Bernie Bros Narrative

Per Wikileaks, during the Democratic primary the Clinton campaign coordinated with columnists using identity politics to undermine Bernie Sanders through fabricated race and gender narratives. See Hillary’s heinously condescending remarks on women who didn’t vote for her because their “fathers and husbands and boyfriends and male employers not to vote for “the girl.” How sadly out of touch. She still can’t grapple with the fact that she lost to one of the most disliked candidates in history because she herself was one of the most disliked candidates in history.

Data Shows High Favorability from Minorities Towards Bernie and Decreasing Favorability Against Democrats:

This entire idea that leftists are nothing but straight white males is also a fabricated narrative attempting to whitewash the millions like us. In a leap of logic, it labors to label a diverse movement as ‘racist’ for being “too white” completely ignoring the real numbers. On top of remaining the most popular politician in America across the polling board (from Harvard to Fox), he is viewed favorably by 73% of African-American voters, and 68% of Hispanics. These are trajectionary election winning numbers. Furthermore, the data often shows these groups choosing that they “don’t know enough to rate,” which hits the nail on the head on why Bernie lost against the name-brand Clinton political

Machine. All while surveys show a 38% favorability with the Democratic party across the board and “fewer black women saying that the Democratic Party ‘best represents’ their interests.”

The mere need for debunking shows the extensive mental devastation the corporatist mainstream media has left behind.

Could it be that economic inequality is decimating the middle-class as the wealth gap grows between minorities and Caucasian workers? African American women earn 64 cents and Hispanic women 55 cents for every dollar made by a white male. Despite what pundits might say, brown people are smart enough to think for themselves. They’re seeing past the corporatist Democrats identity-politics-entrenched bromides, and looking for real economic justice and the undertaking of corruption.

Paid propagandists try as they might, to convince us tokenism is a measure of progressiveness while their candidates sell us wars, bail out banks, vote against lowering pharmaceutical prices, and decline to prosecute mortgage fraud criminals. This is their version of social justice. True equality, as democratic socialist Martin Luther King Jr. advocated, requires economic equality, which Democrats no longer pretend to address. (Per the ongoing DNC progressive purge.)

“He Hasn’t Accomplished Anything”

The center left loves pushing the soundbyte that Bernie was not an effective legislator. Nevermind that he was christened the “amendment king” from 1995-2007 when he “passed 17 amendments by a recorded roll call vote — more than any other member in the House.” Or that in the current Congress, he ranks fourth in the number of roll call amendments passed.

Of course, that pales in comparison to Hillary’s tremendous Iraq war and its subsequent hundreds of thousands child casualties. Or her great feat in making Honduras the murder capital of the world after her 2009 Honduran coup d’état.

Tax Returns

This is the laziest attack of them all. Bernie released his tax returns in April 2016 and they showed he made just $205,000 in income. According to all his financial disclosures he’s one of the poorest people in Congress. Calls for his tax returns only happened after the Sanders campaign called on her to release her secret Wall Street speech transcripts. I’m not even sure what the angle is in this attack. Hillary has made $13 million in Wall Street speeches but let’s attack the guy making $205,000 a year.

The power of these relentless attacks crumbles against Sanders consistent fight for the majority of Americans – even those who’ve fallen victim to centrist propaganda. They’ve chosen to ostracize him and purge progressives from the DNC because as Sanders put it back in May, “They would rather go down with the Titanic so long as they have first-class seats.” The reason Democrats don’t mind losing political clout by ostracizing his base and his widely favorable ideas, is because it’s their duty to protect the interests of their campaign financiers.

If they want to win, they must reject centrism which doesn’t win anymore as evidenced by the 2016 election. (Did Trump win by pivoting?) They must wholly embrace progressive policies (which is is where the electorate numbers are at), policies with majority support that will even court the most deep-red Trump counties. Democrats must embrace the fact that the parties have been moving apart for the last 40 years, and few and fewer moderates get elected. Centrism failed Democrats for the past 8 years, and Bernie-style-politics is the dying party’s last hope. Bernie Sanders now has higher favorability ratings than Hillary Clinton among her own voters for crying out loud.