Bernie Sanders
Related: About this forumWaPo: In rural America, a startling prospect: Voters Obama lost look to Sanders
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/in-rural-america-a-startling-prospect-voters-obama-lost-look-to-sanders/2015/10/04/5465ce22-6883-11e5-8325-a42b5a459b1e_story.html-snip-
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. Shelley Brannon, 62, can sum up the Obama presidency with three words. Well, three words and an exclamation.
He screwed us, said Brannon, a coal miner from Wise County, Va., as he sat outside a rally for the United Mine Workers of America. Man, he screwed us.
He shook his head under a camouflage hat that matched his camouflage UMWA T-shirt, and he described his fantasy of dumping nuclear waste in the yards of environmentalists, if they think coals so bad. He mulled over the mistake he says the UMWA made in 2008, when it endorsed Barack Obama over Hillary Rodham Clinton. Then he explained why he would probably be voting for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in the next Democratic primary.
-snip-
Demeter
(85,373 posts)If he starts doing it for free, then we will know something deeper about his character. Cheney-like, I'd call it.
Electric Monk
(13,869 posts)LiberalElite
(14,691 posts)Demeter
(85,373 posts)dreamnightwind
(4,775 posts)Dunno about that, I think he's quite intelligent. He certainly wasn't the change candidate he campaigned as, another statist corporatist, and for that reason he lost me. Hillary would have been about the same, in my opinion, though I greatly preferred and worked to elect Obama in 2008.
In normal times I wouldn't be so hard on Obama, but his election was the result of a huge outpouring of people wanting NOT more of the same, which they perceived as Hillary, we wanted to reregulate the financial industry, prosecute the banksters, claw back money they gambled and lost, and force the banks to take the pain, not the homeowners. Also we wanted a reversal of the middle east militarism (got many more years of protracted war instead, and an escalation of remote-control drone killings and the surveillance and police state), plus he campaigned on a public option healthcare plan (which was clearly a path toward a single payer plan) with no mandate, then quickly turned around to pass Romney/Heritage/ObamaCare instead, never even making the case for or fighting for a Medicare For All plan which is the kind of reform we really need.
handmade34
(22,755 posts)should realize that voting is only one small part of being a responsible citizen
MindfulOne
(227 posts)I'm a lover, not a hater, so I complied without complaint.
Skittles
(152,964 posts)LEMME AT YOU!!!
daleanime
(17,796 posts)appalachiablue
(41,048 posts)have a dollar for every time I've heard Washingtonians, people from all over the US and world, make negative comments about a tree cutter or a few school teachers in the area who were from West Virginia or Appalachia in the last 20+ years. Could pay off the mortgage.
JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)in the Appalachians. It was beautiful back then. Just beautiful.
The houses sometimes seemed to be built so tilted on the hillsides that I thought they could fall off any time.
appalachiablue
(41,048 posts)with much natural, rugged beauty. The scenery of Kentucky and West Virginia in central Appalachia is stunning in the fall with the autumn harvest and brilliant foliage. In spring the woodlands and bounty of wild flowers and dogwood, redbud and rhododendron trees bring new life that inspired composer Aaron Copland's ballet Appalachian Spring.
"I would not be where I now am, I would not have some of the responsibilities I now bear, if it had not been for the people of West Virginia." President John F. Kennedy, June 20, 1963.
In 1960, West Virginia, a citadel of labor gave JFK the Democratic nomination after he campaigned throughout the state's communities gaining the trust and appreciation of the people.
John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Winning West Virginia- JFK's Primary Campaign.
http://www.jfklibrary.org/Exhibits/Past-Exhibits/Winning-West-Virginia.aspx
JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)sabrina 1
(62,325 posts)Zorra
(27,670 posts)happy to be voting for Bernie, because after Bernie gets elected it's gonna be all "Yes We Did!"
handmade34
(22,755 posts)isn't good enough
it takes "Yes We Can!"... "Yes We Did!" and then "Yes We will Keep Working and Fighting Everyday!" to continue to support ideals, keep feet to the fire and not let up until real change happens
Uncle Joe
(58,107 posts)Thanks for the thread, LiberalElite.
aidbo
(2,328 posts)Can't wait for the debate!
What Ive found in Vermont and around the country is that we go to people and say, Look, we do have differences,? Sanders said. ?I believe in gay marriage. Im not going to change your view if you dont. I believe climate change is absolutely real, and some of you do not. But how many of you think we should give hundreds of billions in tax breaks to the richest 1 percent??
Conservative Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) has made a similar argument that his party can win, with no changes to its message, if more evangelical voters are inspired to come out. Bolstering Sanderss case are his strong numbers in independent polls. A national Quinnipiac survey last month found him polling marginally better against leading Republican candidates than Clinton did. A Marquette University poll last week indicated that Sanders is running just as strong as Clinton in Wisconsin, home to some of the white voters who have abandoned the Democrats in off years.
WHEN CRABS ROAR
(3,813 posts)Now is the time for a real progressive populist movement, but the message needs to be clear and not overly complex and it needs to be repeated over and over to drive it home into the minds of the people.
Then Bernie will win.
MisterP
(23,730 posts)azmom
(5,208 posts)dreamnightwind
(4,775 posts)It features a disgruntled coal-miner who is angry at environmentalists. The most that guy can hope for from Bernie re his employment is two-year severance pay with job retraining. Maybe Bernie could push his infrastructure jobs program through, or a massive public works program to transition rapidly to clean energy, hiring people displaced by closing the extraction industries.
I don't knnow, I just found it odd that they used a guy in his position to talk about people screwed by Obama who are looking to Bernie. People working in industries that are being outsourced would have been a much more appropriate choice.
Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)So fuck trade deals!
vkkv
(3,384 posts)rury
(1,021 posts)anti-environmentalist who never would have voted for a black man anyway.
I'm sure what he likes is Sanders' skin color and pro-gun stance.
still_one
(91,942 posts)spread the myth of "clean coal