Friday, July 29, 2016

For a moment there, I thought I could hear the crickets

Hillary Clinton has won the nomination by acclamation. The press is overjoyed, so happy that their pro-Clinton bias has finally paid off. They must be quite sure of the benefits they will accrue under a Clinton administration.

Half the delegates walked out in protest and nobody flinches on camera. This was the scene, the best wide shot I could find of the auditorium:


Word on the street is that they hired people (video at end of post) to come and sit in for the departed Sanders delegates. This is a public relations disaster for the Democratic Party.

I tried to read an annotated, fact checked version of her speech, really, I did. But I could feel the rise of anger in me. As I read it, I could imagine the delegates filing out of the auditorium. So, how did that feel, Hillary? Did you enjoy watching your call for unity disintegrate before your very eyes?

That's what I wanted to say. I can see why Bernie Sanders went right back to being an independent the next day. He tried to help and perhaps save the Democratic Party. But they would have none of it. Sure, Hillary thanks Bernie for his help in bringing new people to the party, but many of those new people are registering as "no party preference", or with the Green Party. The great #demexit is now underway.

No big deal right? We'll get over it and come back, right? That's what they say when they believe that we have nowhere else to go. Check out what the Guardian has to say in the UK:
But I don’t know how any of the flaws of Trump can be explained to his supporters, especially when the Democratic party can’t offer an economic vision to their own angry voters. Indeed, the Democrats seem bent on putting up people and policies that will redistribute money to Wall Street and ignore the 99% when their base been screaming at them to stop this. 
This year, I think we are seeing the beginning of the end of the Democratic Party. Oh, they might hang on for a few years more, maybe a decade. But the millenials are getting screwed out of their future. Why have kids if you're going to feed them to Wall Street oligarchs?

That half empty auditorium should ring alarm bells all over the DNC.  Millions of people will not vote for Hillary Clinton and I am one of them. I just cannot get past all of the evidence of corruption, the voter purges, the claims of voter fraud and the collusion between the DNC and Hillary. Don't even get me started on all of her little wars she engaged in for fun and profit.

That empty hall at the DNC represents an opportunity for a new party to rise. A new party that truly represents progressive liberals who want to see a better world for their kids. A new party who wants to see a clean environment for their kids. A new party that wants to build an economy based entirely on renewable energy. A new party that actually considers the merits of a bill before they let it become law.

That's why I'm going Green. That empty hall at the Democratic National Convention represents an opportunity for Dr. Jill Stein to be the first woman president of the United States. If we're going to elect a woman as president, let's do it right. Let's elect someone who actually lives under the laws we already have. Let's elect a woman who is accountable to the rest of us. Let's elect a woman who understands that "he who pays the piper calls the tune".

I urge you to give serious consideration to the Green Party by reviewing their party platform, their candidates and their philosophy. I did exactly that yesterday as I drove home in 100 plus degree heat, and through the brown hills of my state. I cringed at I thought of the carbon my car puts into the air, and I wondered what this is all for. What is this for?

Can we really afford to be ruled by a two-party system that openly defies the people they claim to represent? I don't think so. I'm going Green.

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