My Darlings, Let Us Eliminate the Conditions that Elected this Demagogue

Dearest Dearest Dearest Friend and Countryman,

I want to speak to you about a matter of greatest urgency.  It is possible that you have

misread the current situation and so I address these words to you in the hopes that they will help sooth your heart and your soul and your feeling that something has gone terribly wrong.  

There is a great discontent in this America right now.  In this beautiful abundant nation there are children who have gone to bed hungry, people who are living under tarps in the rain, folks that are working multiple jobs, barely sleeping just to keep a roof over their heads and clothes on their family, people who are in debt for their education, their homes and their health care.  If you are reading this, chances are that is not you.  Chances are that if you have time to read this, you have just enough breathing space to sit for a minute, you have this device, you have the internet connection, you have the education, whatever it might take to be able to create the time and space to sit with this message. Cynical evildoers with their own agenda manipulated a large swath of the people above using racist, xenophobic, anti-LBGTQ and other divisive language and imagery to have people blame the state of their deprivation on THE OTHER rather than on government policies designed to enrich a wealthy few at the expense of working people.    My darling, it would be a big mistake to think that the goal of the Democratic presidential primary is to find the candidate least likely to scare people who have secure health care, housing and finances.  Those people, myself among them, are NOT the people who voted for this regime.  We are hopeful that those people with enough will vote Democratic regardless. Yet it is imperative that we understand that it not our pain at a Trump administration but the pain that attracted and created a Trump administration which will determine this election.

The goal of this election must be to remove the conditions that allowed a self-interested autocratic demagogue to be elected president in the first place.  We must elect a candidate who is trusted, connecting with and working for the majority of Americans that are not benefiting from the current economic recovery.  We must elect a candidate who can provide them with a loving, real alternative that offers something tangible that addresses their fears so that they can vote out of faith and hope instead.  Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren both speak to the concerns of this group.  Both care about this group.  However, ONLY Bernie Sanders is drawing consistent energy, excitement, money and engagement from this vast group of people.  Warren is drawing energy, excitement, money and engagement from predominantly Democratic strongholds that will not decide this contest.
 Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) has received over four million individual financial contributions in an average of $19 per person to date.  The largest self-identified profession to donate to him is teachers, the second is retail employee, particularly Walmart and Amazon. Bernie Sanders is tapping into the same discontent, anger and fear that elected this president and instead of cynically manipulating it, he is responding with love, compassion and people-centered policies that would make a difference in people’s lives.  These policies are real.  They have long been done in every developed nation of the world and that are affordable by the world’s wealthiest nation: Medicare for All, free public higher education, eliminating education and medical debt.  These are policies that unite across gender, race and background lines.    He is receiving contributions, volunteer energy and commitment from the highest number of women, immigrants, and people of color of any candidate.   Everywhere Bernie goes, the crowds grow and grow, the excitement grows and grows.  Many many polls show him ahead of Biden, Warren and Buttigieg in head to head contests against the incumbent president in battleground states of Ohio, Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania.   f you are scared of the incumbent president and his regime, Sen. Sanders and his movement is your sweet sweet antidote.  He can and will win.  The question to ask yourself may not be are Sanders supporters willing to vote for whomever the Democrats elect as a nominee?  The question may be are the Democrats who have been doing well in this economy willing to extend that prosperity to the bottom 60%, even if it means some change for them?