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[Zornack]

Issues I have personally with the platform or differences between Bernie's proposals and the Democratic Party's platform?

In what way do you want Sanders to change the democratic platform?

 

[TheFatOne]

Pretty sure there was a huffpo post researching that piece showing a few of those organizations and people either don't exist or support sanders.

If you get a link for me I'll read it. Because I can't find it. Would be the first I have heard of this.

 

[Ophelion]

I like that Bernie never gives up. How many people can wear a title that says "I went up against Hillary and challenged her for most powerful person in the world. And each time, he still managed to make wins"?

Barack Obama is the only person who can with a straight face hold that title.

 

[boiled goose]

Do you even know what strawman means? Anyway Bernie deserves nothing, just like Romney got nothing when he lost.

Ironically this post is a good example of a strawman!

I said that it was good for the country for Bernie to implant some of his ideas into the American's conscience.

I did not say anything about Bernie deserving anything...

If you are talking about policy concessions at the convention, well that point of the convention is for the party to decide how best to move forward and "unify" the party. That is up to the party.

Funnily, we did get Romneycare nationwide (even though he lost)

 

[excelsiorlef]

If you live in an echo chamber I could see why you'd think that.

Thankfully, you can't speak for all Americans in terms of the kinds of conversations they have.



Because Bernie's share of Democratic support is not that much less than Hillary's share. It's not a zero-sum game. The party has to unite after the convention.

And I've already answered your question


https://berniesanders.com/issues/

I'm basing it off the news article, news coverage. This week has been an utter disaster for Sanders. His Nevada antics have been disgraceful and it hurt him bad.

It's not an echo chamber it's reality.

 

[Box of Kittens]

If you live in an echo chamber I could see why you'd think that.

Thankfully, you can't speak for all Americans in terms of the kinds of conversations they have.

Not saying everybody thinks the same way about it, but I've seen a lot of Bernie supporters who were critical (to varying degrees) about his statement on Nevada. It's not just a Hillary echo chamber thing.

 

[EatinOlives]

If you live in an echo chamber I could see why you'd think that.

Thankfully, you can't speak for all Americans in terms of the kinds of conversations they have.

So realizing that Bernie has been throwing around unsubstantiated claims and getting turned off from his general platform as a result is now considered "living in an echo chamber". And you're the one high-fiving boiled goose over calling out "strawman arguments". Suuuure....

 

[ApharmdX]

He want's to retake congress so much he's raised fuck all for down ticket dems.

Do you have some numbers regarding what Hillary has raised for downticket Dems so far? The last thread was... muddy.

Snake-oil as in, "BAN FRACKING". Ok Bernie, tell me what you're going to do with the local economies that are heavily dependent on the current natural gas boom and how you're going to win over voters in lets say... Ohio which has done decent due to natural gas. Or how about all the coal mines that are going to have to be put back online due to you fucking banning fracking or when you decide to shut down all nuclear power plants which provide something like 18% of the US's energy needs.

At some point, there's going to have to be a reckoning on environmental issues, where we have to suffer some economic pain. I actually applaud Hillary and Obama for going after coal as hard as they did. It cost Hillary West Virginia (and nearly KY) in the primary but she did it. Is curbing widespread environmental damage less important than costing jobs, or fucking votes? Because that's what you're saying. You really want to allow fracking to continue, with all of its associated impact? Yikes.

For what it's worth, I disagree with Sanders on nuclear power. It provides a safe, relatively-clean stopgap while we build up renewable power. We are going to need it to get where we want to go for the future.

 

[eyeball_kid]

Regardless of whether she's "right" or not, it's really tacky and just shows her arrogance coming back now that she thinks she's safe. I haven't heard any other major Democratic figure say that Bernie needs to "do his part". It's divisive, condescending language. In fact I just heard Howard Dean interviewed on NPR yesterday, and he said he doesn't think Bernie should drop out, that he's won the right to go to the convention, and that he knows Bernie is a good guy who has already said he won't let Trump win, and will end up supporting Hillary in the end. Hillary by comparison is already barking orders, in effect saying to Bernie, "You need to get in line, boy." Now, of course Dean and Clinton want the same thing, for Bernie to rally his supporters around her, but the choice of language speaks volumes about their personalities. Hillary comes off as a rude, self-aggrandizing person who is disrespectful of Bernie and the success he's had during the campaign. As a Bernie supporter her statements certainly aren't doing anything to enamour me to her.

 

[Abstrusity]

In what way do you want Sanders to change the democratic platform?

Can't speak for everyone, but how about doubling down on the t hings they've accomplished instead of running away from them with their tails tucked between their legs in a vain attempt to get reelected(and failing spectacularly)?

If people don't think the party is managing to fight for them, there's always going to be orom for someone to subvert the machine. Delegates without superdelegates, Sanders came awfully close to matching her, and I think this isn't so much a "progressive sweep" as it is concern with the party's general spinelessness over the last 8 years.

 

[Inuhanyou]

Why is she telling them that? That's what they have been trying to push down their audiences throat from before the election started with Clinton sponsors on every day...is it like a wink and a nod kind of thing?

 

[Zornack]

Can't speak for everyone, but how about doubling down on the t hings they've accomplished instead of running away from them with their tails tucked between their legs in a vain attempt to get reelected(and failing spectacularly)?

If people don't think the party is managing to fight for them, there's always going to be orom for someone to subvert the machine. Delegates without superdelegates, Sanders came awfully close to matching her, and I think this isn't so much a "progressive sweep" as it is concern with the party's general spinelessness over the last 8 years.

300 is not awfully close, it's I believe three times larger than the largest gap that's ever been overcame.

 

[Box of Kittens]

I'm not voting third party.

You said you don't plan on voting for Hillary. If you plan on not voting at all (or writing in Bernie or whatever) that's effectively the same thing as voting third party in terms of impact on the overall outcome. Unless you plan on voting for Trump, which would be even worse.

 

[DontBeThatGuy]

Why is she telling them that? That's what they have been trying to push down their audiences throat from before the election started with Clinton sponsors on every day...is it like a wink and a nod kind of thing?

It's reality.

 

[hawk2025]

Whether or not the Nevada clusterfuck impacted Bernie negatively or not remains to be seen.

Up to yesterday, the gap has been widening for over a month:

http://elections.huffingtonpost.com/pollster/2016-national-democratic-primary

 

[Verano]

But monica lewisnky will be president, Hillary.

 

[excelsiorlef]

I like that Bernie never gives up. How many people can wear a title that says "I went up against Hillary and challenged her for most powerful person in the world. And each time, he still managed to make wins"?

Impressive guy.

Obama.

 

[JesseEwiak]

Obama.

Except Obama actually won. Sanders won some quarters, but it doesn't matter if you lose the game.

 

[Dash_Riprock]

I like that Bernie never gives up. How many people can wear a title that says "I went up against Hillary and challenged her for most powerful person in the world. And each time, he still managed to make wins"?

Impressive guy.

Well there was this one black guy eight years ago, you might have heard of him...

 

[The Technomancer]

Regardless of whether she's "right" or not, it's really tacky and just shows her arrogance coming back now that she thinks she's safe. I haven't heard any other major Democratic figure say that Bernie needs to "do his part". It's divisive, condescending language. In fact I just heard Howard Dean interviewed on NPR yesterday, and he said he doesn't think Bernie should drop out, that he's won the right to go to the convention, and that he knows Bernie is a good guy who has already said he won't let Trump win, and will end up supporting Hillary in the end. Hillary by comparison is already barking orders, in effect saying to Bernie, "You need to get in line, boy." Now, of course Dean and Clinton want the same thing, for Bernie to rally his supporters around her, but the choice of language speaks volumes about their personalities. Hillary comes off as a rude, self-aggrandizing person who is disrespectful of Bernie and the success he's had during the campaign. As a Bernie supporter her statements certainly aren't doing anything to enamour me to her.

She is safe. She's been safe for well over a month now. And those of us who recognized this and said this back at the end of March weren't doing so because we "hated Bernie", we weren't doing it because we were "cocky" or anything. We said it because some of us actually pay intense attention to this stuff, and know how it works, and know how polling works, and how delegate math works, and understood the reality of the situation.

 

[BADMAN]

But... she might still get indited? Right? RIGHT?

Spoiler

Third party here I come

 

[TheLostBigBoss]

Do you have some numbers regarding what Hillary has raised for downticket Dems so far? The last thread was... muddy.



At some point, there's going to have to be a reckoning on environmental issues, where we have to suffer some economic pain. I actually applaud Hillary and Obama for going after coal as hard as they did. It cost Hillary West Virginia (and nearly KY) in the primary but she did it. Is curbing widespread environmental damage less important than costing jobs, or fucking votes? Because that's what you're saying. You really want to allow fracking to continue, with all of its associated impact? Yikes.

For what it's worth, I disagree with Sanders on nuclear power. It provides a safe, relatively-clean stopgap while we build up renewable power. We are going to need it to get where we want to go for the future.

Yes, I think NG is going to be a decent breakaway from coal. It's not going to be the "bridge" that everyone was talking about, renewables are going to be eating away at the same time and solar+wind are going to be cheaper in less than a decade than coal outright without carbon taxing.

Obama just passed extremely strict regulations on wells that are going to reduce methane seepage by half, there is zero reason to ban fracking now while we can chip away at coal and reduce the worlds use of it while solar and wind get cheaper and cheaper and eat away at coal AND the pie that natural gas was going to take from coal.

My point is, a lot of Sanders platform is just "NO" or very simple answers to questions that require either compromise or more nuanced responses. This is good for soundbites and getting people pumped, not good for making real policy.

 

[MoaM]

The Hillary Clinton Coup commences.

 

[ugaboga232]

If you get a link for me I'll read it. Because I can't find it. Would be the first I have heard of this.

Your wish is my command http://www.huffingtonpost.com/liam-miller/african-american-leaders-in-vermont_b_9300672.html

 

[excelsiorlef]

Except Obama actually won. Sanders won some quarters, but it doesn't matter if you lose the game.

Yep.

 

[Slayven]

Except Obama actually won. Sanders won some quarters, but it doesn't matter if you lose the game.

Now Obama was a real revolution

 

[EatinOlives]

Regardless of whether she's "right" or not, it's really tacky and just shows her arrogance coming back now that she thinks she's safe. I haven't heard any other major Democratic figure say that Bernie needs to "do his part". It's divisive, condescending language. In fact I just heard Howard Dean interviewed on NPR yesterday, and he said he doesn't think Bernie should drop out, that he's won the right to go to the convention, and that he knows Bernie is a good guy who has already said he won't let Trump win, and will end up supporting Hillary in the end. Hillary by comparison is already barking orders, in effect saying to Bernie, "You need to get in line, boy." Now, of course Dean and Clinton want the same thing, for Bernie to rally his supporters around her, but the choice of language speaks volumes about their personalities. Hillary comes off as a rude, self-aggrandizing person who is disrespectful of Bernie and the success he's had during the campaign. As a Bernie supporter her statements certainly aren't doing anything to enamour me to her.

This is like a basketball game when one team is down by 40 points and 3 minutes on the 4th quarter. The winning team CAN assume they're safe, and it's pretty silly to whine by saying "UGH they're so arrogant by assuming they'll win!" no, they're just looking at the numbers and how much time is left and drawing from there.

The math is there and anyone can freely look at it. Bernie has microscopic odds in winning the nomination. If you genuinely want to believe your team is still in the game despite being down 40 points and 3 minutes to go that's your prerogative, but that doesn't many anyone else calling a spade a spade "arrogant".

 

[gutter_trash]

Regardless of whether she's "right" or not, it's really tacky and just shows her arrogance coming back now that she thinks she's safe. I haven't heard any other major Democratic figure say that Bernie needs to "do his part". It's divisive, condescending language. In fact I just heard Howard Dean interviewed on NPR yesterday, and he said he doesn't think Bernie should drop out, that he's won the right to go to the convention, and that he knows Bernie is a good guy who has already said he won't let Trump win, and will end up supporting Hillary in the end. Hillary by comparison is already barking orders, in effect saying to Bernie, "You need to get in line, boy." Now, of course Dean and Clinton want the same thing, for Bernie to rally his supporters around her, but the choice of language speaks volumes about their personalities. Hillary comes off as a rude, self-aggrandizing person who is disrespectful of Bernie and the success he's had during the campaign. As a Bernie supporter her statements certainly aren't doing anything to enamour me to her.

so when Trump showboats daily = 'he's entertainer, he's a funny guy''
then when Hillary does it only one time = 'wall of text with no paragraphs from eyeball_kid

 

[Calvero]

but bernie can still win, right

 

[BotoxAgent]

Now Obama was a real revolution

and the past 8 years the Republicans have been against him since day 1, but Obama kept his cool and never whined...nor drafted or provoked any conspiracy theories. Compare the two, and Bernie just seems like a petulant child at this point.

 

[ApharmdX]

Regardless of whether she's "right" or not, it's really tacky and just shows her arrogance coming back now that she thinks she's safe. I haven't heard any other major Democratic figure say that Bernie needs to "do his part". It's divisive, condescending language. In fact I just heard Howard Dean interviewed on NPR yesterday, and he said he doesn't think Bernie should drop out, that he's won the right to go to the convention, and that he knows Bernie is a good guy who has already said he won't let Trump win, and will end up supporting Hillary in the end. Hillary by comparison is already barking orders, in effect saying to Bernie, "You need to get in line, boy." Now, of course Dean and Clinton want the same thing, for Bernie to rally his supporters around her, but the choice of language speaks volumes about their personalities. Hillary comes off as a rude, self-aggrandizing person who is disrespectful of Bernie and the success he's had during the campaign. As a Bernie supporter her statements certainly aren't doing anything to enamour me to her.

I imagine after the convention there will be a show of unity and outreach among the Democrats. We saw that in 08. Hillary can't win without Bernie supporters voting for her in the general election.

Changing it how though? It doesn't just require the dems retake the house because not all Dem congressmen even believe in everything Bernie proposes. You would need candidates who align with his beliefs running contested races not just in red states but in some blue ones. Is that happening? Has it even come up? People talk in abstract about how the revolution has to include congress, but has anyone actually looked specifically at which congresspeople need to be ousted, and figured out if there's anyone running who we can count on?

We don't have an ideological purity test on the left yet, if that's what you're saying. We probably won't, and I hope we don't, get one after what's happened on the right with the Tea Party. I think we are going to have to wait until the country as a whole goes far enough to the left to get our goals accomplished. But that doesn't mean we compromise with the far right when it violates our progressive ideals.

 

[sycam0re]

Don't got cocky Clinton, the truth is it ain't over yet.

http://www.criticalcommons.org/Members/AdrianFohr/clips/free-riding-in-class-elections/view

this is hillariously evocative of the primary, but not in the way you want it to be

hint: martin prince is not the anti-establishment canidate with supporters who don't show up

 

[eBay Huckster]

but bernie can still win, right

maybe if every clinton supporter in california suddenly dies a month ago

 

[Arkeband]

If you get a link for me I'll read it. Because I can't find it. Would be the first I have heard of this.

Arrest records in Vermont are public record, a lot of that prison population is from out of state. Vermont is basically the road between Canada and NYC for the drug trade.

This has been pointed out countless times. Stop repeating it.

 

[Slayven]

and the past 8 years the Republicans have been against him since day 1, but Obama kept his cool and never whined...nor drafted or provoked any conspiracy theories. Compare the two, and Bernie just seems like a petulant child at this point.

Man has the patient of saint, he actually has half the government saying they will fuck him over no matter what he does.

 

[boiled goose]

Except Obama actually won. Sanders won some quarters, but it doesn't matter if you lose the game.

The differences between Hillary 2008 and 2016 as a candidate are interesting. She beefed up on her credentials as secretary of state, but took some legitimate and some nonsense (benghazi!) damage too.

In what way do you want Sanders to change the democratic platform?

The question is phrased strangely. I'm not sure exactly what you are asking so I will answer a slightly different question.

What would Bernie change in the Democratic platform?

Regarding Wall Street Reform, Bernie supports reinstating glass steagall, but Hillary and the Democrats do not.
Regarding Healthcare, Bernie would push towards single-payer, Democrats don't want to do that at the moment.

 

[HUELEN10]

this is hillariously evocative of the primary, but not in the way you want it to be

Simpson=Clinton

 

[Kin5290]

Now Obama was a real revolution

Didn't you get the memo? Obama's now a neoliberal shill for the establishment in the pocket of big banks and a house n-word. (Oh hey there, Cornell West!)

 

[eyeball_kid]

She is safe. She's been safe for well over a month now. And those of us who recognized this and said this back at the end of March weren't doing so because we "hated Bernie", we weren't doing it because we were "cocky" or anything. We said it because some of us actually pay intense attention to this stuff, and know how it works, and know how polling works, and how delegate math works, and understood the reality of the situation.

I'm not sure what you're responding to; I have no issue with the math or polling. My issue with the tone of her language, this "do your part" stuff, ordering him around like he's some lapdog. Bernie will do what he wants to do and what the people who voted for him want. And for the record, since you brought it up, I don't think most of HillaryGAF has been very cordial in the primary threads, but things have been heated so whatevs.

Most Bernie supporters know this is an unwinnable battle, but the war is not over because the ISSUES that Bernie has been fighting for are more important than a single candidate. So going to the convention and using the influence from all the delegates Bernie has won and will win to push for these issues is what's at stake here. Clinton I'm sure doesn't want that, but that's what is going to happen.

 

[eBay Huckster]

What would Bernie change in the Democratic platform?

Regarding Wall Street Reform, Bernie supports reinstating glass steagall, but Hillary and the Democrats do not.
Regarding Healthcare, Bernie would push towards single-payer, Democrats don't want to do that at the moment.

so basically, the changes are minor quibbles about the structure of future reform (UHC via single-payer vs. an undefined path, Wall Street reform via capping bank size vs. beefing up Dodd-Frank) and not actually major differences

 

[sycam0re]

Simpson=Clinton

hint: martin prince is not the populist anti-establishment canidate promising political revolution with supporters who don't show up

 

[metalslimer]

I'm not sure what you're responding to; I have no issue with the math or polling. My issue with the tone of her language, this "do your part" stuff, ordering him around like he's some lapdog. Bernie will do what he wants to do and what the people who voted for him want. And for the record, since you brought it up, I don't think most of HillaryGAF has been very cordial in the primary threads, but things have been heated so whatevs.

Most Bernie supporters know this is an unwinnable battle, but the war is not over because the ISSUES that Bernie has been fighting for are more important than a single candidate. So going to the convention and using the influence from all the delegates Bernie has won and will win to push for these issues is what's at stake here. Clinton I'm sure doesn't want that, but that's what is going to happen.

Explain what exactly he can influence and how he does that at this point by staying in the race and trashing Clinton and the DNC on a daily basis.

 

[TheFatOne]

Your wish is my command http://www.huffingtonpost.com/liam-miller/african-american-leaders-in-vermont_b_9300672.html

Thanks. Reading through trying to research this currently.

Arrest records in Vermont are public record, a lot of that prison population is from out of state. Vermont is basically the road between Canada and NYC for the drug trade.

This has been pointed out countless times. Stop repeating it.

Been googling for information about this. Can you provide me a link.

 

[Cesare Borgia]

Finding this "arrogant" really displays that some people have a fundamental problem with Hillary Clinton that goes beyond views/policy. She is less than 100 delegates away, it's over.

 

[NeuAscension]

*And completely hijack the party and the will of the voters

There's 7 primaries left, with a 274 pledged delegate difference. While improbable, it's not impossible that Sanders could come away with the majority of pledged delegates. It wasn't over 3-4 months ago when all this bullshit started coming from the mainstream media/DNC/Hillary camp, and it's not over now. Their strategy all along was to feed the masses the idea that Sanders never had a chance. I don't understand HillaryGAFs disdain for the political process. I mean I know you guys thought she was going to run uncontested, but really her lack of favorability is why you hear the "drop out" line parroted by yourselves and everyone else because she can't maintain her image when compared over the long haul. The same thing is happening to the DNC that happened to the RNC with Trump. They are out of touch with about about 50% of the voter base.

 

[brainchild]

I'm asking for specific issues Brain, and you, have with the Democrat's platform and I can't get a single serious response.

Prove to me there are holes in the Democrat's platform.

OK

- Healthcare needs to be considered a human right and available to all U.S. citizens regardless of their financial status

- Your financial status should not be a determining factor in obtaining a higher education in a world where a college degree is equivalent to a high school degree from 50 years ago

- The minimum wage needs to be raised to a living wage of at least 15/hr

- Marijuana should be legalized, or at the very least, decriminalized at the national level

- Public funding of elections need to be part of the campaign finance reform

- Adopt Bernie Sanders racial justice platform wholesale:

ADDRESSING PHYSICAL VIOLENCE

It is an outrage that in these early years of the 21st century we are seeing intolerable acts of violence being perpetrated by police and racist acts of terrorism by white supremacists.

A growing number of communities do not trust the police. Law enforcement officers have become disconnected from the communities they are sworn to protect. Violence and brutality of any kind, particularly at the hands of the police meant to protect and serve our communities, is unacceptable and must not be tolerated. We need a societal transformation to make it clear that black lives matter and racism will not be accepted in a civilized country.

We must demilitarize our police forces so they don’t look and act like invading armies.

We must invest in community policing. Only when we get officers into the communities, working within neighborhoods before trouble arises, do we develop the relationships necessary to make our communities safer together. Among other things, that means increasing civilian oversight of police departments.

We must create a police culture that allows for good officers to report the actions of bad officers without fear of retaliation and allows for a department to follow through on such reports.

We need police forces that reflect the diversity of our communities, including in the training academies and leadership.

At the federal level, we need to establish a new model police training program that reorients the way we do law enforcement in this country. With input from a broad segment of the community including activists and leaders from civil rights organizations we will reinvent how we police America.

We need to federally fund and require body cameras for law enforcement officers to make it easier to hold them accountable.

We need to require police departments and states to collect data on all police shootings and deaths that take place while in police custody and make that data public.

We need new rules on the allowable use of force. Police officers need to be trained to de-escalate confrontations and to humanely interact with people who have mental illnesses.

States and localities that make progress in this area should get more federal justice grant money. Those that do not should get their funding slashed.

We need to make sure federal resources are there to crack down on the illegal activities of hate groups.

POLITICAL VIOLENCE

DISENFRANCHISEMENT

In the shameful days of open segregation, literacy laws and poll taxes were used to suppress minority voting. Today, through other laws and actions — such as requiring voters to show photo ID, discriminatory drawing of Congressional districts, restricting same-day registration and early voting and aggressively purging voter rolls — states are taking steps which have a similar effect.

The patterns are unmistakable. 11 percent of eligible voters do not have a photo ID—and they are disproportionately black and Latino. In 2012, African-Americans waited twice as long to vote as whites. Some voters in minority precincts waited upwards of six or seven hours to cast a ballot. Meanwhile, thirteen percent of African-American men have lost the right to vote due to felony convictions.

Yet in 2013, the Supreme Court struck down a key part of the seminal Voting Rights Act, even while saying “voting discrimination still exists; no one doubts that.”

This should offend the conscience of every American.

The fight for minority voting rights is a fight for justice. It is inseparable from the struggle for democracy itself.

ADDRESSING POLITICAL VIOLENCE

We need to re-enfranchise the more than two million African-Americans who have had their right to vote taken away by a felony conviction, paid their debt to society, and deserve to have their rights restored.
Congress must restore the “pre-clearance” formula under the Voting Rights Act, which extended protections to minority voters in states and counties where they were clearly needed.

We must expand the Act’s scope so that every American, regardless of skin color or national origin, is able to vote freely.

We need to make Election Day a federal holiday to increase voters’ ability to participate.
We must make early voting an option for voters who work or study and need the flexibility to vote on evenings or weekends.

We must make no-fault absentee ballots an option for all Americans.

We must automatically register every American to vote when they turn 18 or move to a new state. The burden of registering voters should be on the state, not the individual voter.

We must put an end to discriminatory laws and the purging of minority-community names from voting rolls.

We need to make sure that there are sufficient polling places and poll workers to prevent long lines from forming at the polls anywhere.

LEGAL VIOLENCE

Millions of lives have been destroyed because people are in jail for nonviolent crimes. For decades, we have been engaged in a failed “War on Drugs” with racially-biased mandatory minimums that punish people of color unfairly.
It is an obscenity that we stigmatize so many young Americans with a criminal record for smoking marijuana, but not one major Wall Street executive has been prosecuted for causing the near collapse of our entire economy. This must change.

If current trends continue, one in four black males born today can expect to spend time in prison during their lifetime. Blacks are imprisoned at six times the rate of whites and a report by the Department of Justice found that blacks were three times more likely to be searched during a traffic stop, compared to white motorists. Together, African-Americans and Latinos comprised 57 percent of all prisoners in 2014, even though African-Americans and Latinos make up approximately one quarter of the US population. These outcomes are not reflective of increased crime by communities of color, but rather a disparity in enforcement and reporting mechanisms. African-Americans are twice as likely to be arrested and almost four times as likely to experience the use of force during encounters with the police. This is an unspeakable tragedy.

It is morally repugnant that we have privatized prisons all over America. Corporations should not be allowed to make a profit by building more jails and keeping more Americans behind bars. We have got to end the private for-profit prison racket in America. Earlier this year, Sen. Sanders introduced legislation that will end the private prison industry.

The measure of success for law enforcement should not be how many people get locked up. We need to invest in drug courts as well as medical and mental health interventions for people with substance abuse problems, so that people struggling with addiction do not end up in prison, they end up in treatment.

For people who have committed crimes that have landed them in jail, there needs to be a path back from prison. The federal system of parole needs to be reinstated. We need real education and real skills training for the incarcerated.

We must end the over-incarceration of nonviolent young Americans who do not pose a serious threat to our society. It is an international embarrassment that we have more people locked up in jail than any other country on earth – more than even the Communist totalitarian state of China. That has got to end.

We must address the lingering unjust stereotypes that lead to the labeling of black youths as “thugs” and “super predators.” We know the truth that, like every community in this country, the vast majority of people of color are trying to work hard, play by the rules and raise their children. It’s time to stop demonizing minority communities.

In many cities all over our country, the incentives for policing are upside down. Departments are bringing in substantial sums of revenue by seizing the personal property of people who are suspected of criminal involvement. So-called civil asset forfeiture laws allow police to take property from people even before they are charged with a crime, much less convicted of one. Even worse, the system works in a way that makes it very difficult and expensive for an innocent person to get his or her property back. We must end programs that actually reward officials for seizing assets without a criminal conviction or other lawful mandate. Departments and officers should not profit off of such seizures.

Local governments that rely on tickets and fines to pay bills can become dependent on implicit quotas for law enforcement. When policing is a source of revenue tied to the financial sustainability of agencies, officers are pressured to meet internal goals which can lead to unnecessary or unlawful traffic stops and citations which disproportionately affect people of color. Implicit quota systems promote racial stereotyping and breed distrust between officers and communities of color.

Furthermore, we must ensure police departments are not abusing avenues of due process to shield bad actors from accountability. Local governments and police management must show zero tolerance for abuses of police power at all levels. All employees of any kind deserve due process protections, but it must be clear that departments will vigorously investigate and, if necessary, prosecute every allegation of wrongdoing to the fullest extent.

ADDRESSING LEGAL VIOLENCE

We need to ban prisons for profit, which result in an over-incentive to arrest, jail and detain in order to keep prison beds full.

We need to turn back from the failed “War on Drugs” and eliminate mandatory minimums which result in sentencing disparities between black and white people.

We need to take marijuana off the federal government’s list of outlawed drugs.

We need to allow people in states which legalize marijuana to be able to fully participate in the banking system and not be subject to federal prosecution for using pot.

We need to invest in drug courts and medical and mental health interventions for people with substance abuse problems, so that they do not end up in prison, they end up in treatment.

We need to boost investments for programs that help people who have gone to jail rebuild their lives with education and job training.

We must investigate local governments that are using implicit or explicit quotas for arrests or stops.

We must stop local governments that are relying on fines, fees or asset forfeitures as a steady source of revenue.

Police departments must investigate all allegations of wrongdoing, especially those involving the use of force, and prosecute aggressively, if necessary. If departments are unwilling or unable to conduct such investigations, the Department of Justice must step in and handle it for them.

ECONOMIC VIOLENCE

Weeks before his death, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke to a union group in New York about what he called “the other America.”

“One America is flowing with the milk of prosperity and the honey of equality,” King said. “That America is the habitat of millions of people who have food and material necessities for their bodies, culture and education for their minds, freedom and human dignity for their spirits … But as we assemble here tonight, I’m sure that each of us is painfully aware of the fact that there is another America and that other America has a daily ugliness about it that transforms the buoyancy of hope into the fatigue of despair.”

The problem was structural, King said: “This country has socialism for the rich, rugged individualism for the poor.”

But what King saw in 1968 — and what we all should recognize today — is that it is necessary to try to address the rampant economic inequality while also taking on the issue of societal racism. We must simultaneously address the structural and institutional racism which exists in this country, while at the same time we vigorously attack the grotesque level of income and wealth inequality which is making the very rich much richer while everyone else — especially those in our minority communities – are becoming poorer.

In addition to the physical violence faced by too many in our country we need to look at the lives of black children and address some difficult facts. Black children, who make up just 18 percent of preschoolers, account for 48 percent of all out-of-school suspensions before kindergarten. We are failing our black children before kindergarten. Black students are expelled at three times the rate of white students. Black girls are suspended at higher rates than all other girls and most boys. According to the Department of Education, African-American students are more likely to suffer harsh punishments — suspensions and arrests — at school. Black students attend schools with higher concentrations of first-year teachers when compared with white students. Black students are more than three times as likely to attend schools where fewer than 60 percent of teachers meet all state certification and licensure requirements.

Communities of color also face the violence of economic deprivation. Let’s be frank: neighborhoods like those in west Baltimore, where Freddie Gray resided, suffer the most. However, the problem of economic immobility isn’t just a problem for young men like Freddie Gray. Despite hard-work and the will to get ahead, millions of Americans spend their entire lives struggling to survive on the economic treadmill.

We live at a time when most older workers have no retirement savings, and millions of working adults have no idea how they will ever retire in dignity. An unforeseen car accident, a medical emergency, or the loss of a job could send their lives into an economic tailspin. And the problems are even more serious when we consider race.

Let us not forget: It was the greed, recklessness and illegal behavior on Wall Street that nearly drove the economy off of a cliff seven years ago. While millions of Americans lost their jobs, homes, life savings and ability to send their kids to college, African-Americans who were steered into expensive subprime mortgages were the hardest hit.

Most black and Latino households have less than $350 in savings. The black unemployment rate has remained roughly twice as high as the white rate over the last 40 years, regardless of education. Real African-American youth unemployment is over 50 percent. African-American women earn 64 cents for every dollar white men make. This is unacceptable. The American people in general want change — they want a better deal. A fairer deal. A new deal. They want an America with laws and policies that truly reward hard work with economic mobility. They want an America that affords all of its citizens with the economic security to take risks and the opportunity to realize their full potential.

ADDRESSING ECONOMIC VIOLENCE

We need to give our children, regardless of their race or income, a fair shot at attending college. That’s why all public universities should be made tuition free. We should pay for that with a tax on Wall Street speculators.

We must invest $5.5 billion to create 1 million jobs for disadvantaged young Americans who face high unemployment rates and job-training opportunities for hundreds of thousands of young adults. We should pay for that by ending the loophole allowing Wall Street hedge fund managers to pay a lower tax rate than nurses or truck drivers.

We must increase the minimum wage to a livable wage of $15 an hour by 2020 —which will increase the wages of about half of African-Americans and nearly 60 percent of Latinos.

We must invest $1 trillion to put 13 million Americans to work rebuilding our crumbling cities, roads, bridges, public transportation systems, airports, drinking water systems and other infrastructure needs. We should pay for that by closing offshore tax loopholes.

We must pass federal legislation to ensure pay equity for women.

We must prevent employers from discriminating against applicants based on criminal history by “banning the box.”

We must promote policies to give the formerly incarcerated an opportunity for education, including expanding the Second Chance Pell Pilot Program and reentry programs.

We need to ensure access to quality affordable childcare for working families, especially for parents who work non-traditional hours.

We must fundamentally re-write our trade policies and rebuild factories that were closed as a result of bad trade deals.

ENVIRONMENTAL VIOLENCE

PERPETRATED BY POLLUTING INDUSTRIES

People of color disproportionately experience a daily assault on their health and environment. Communities of color are the hardest hit by air and water pollution from industrial factories, power plants, incinerators, chemical waste and lead contamination from old pipes and paint. At the same time, they lack access to parks, gardens and other recreational green space.

Like income inequality, environmental inequality is rapidly growing in the United States.

Black children are five times more likely than white children to have lead poisoning. Indigenous peoples are impacted disproportionately by destructive mining practices and the dumping of hazardous materials on their lands. As demonstrated by Hurricane Katrina, poor communities of color have a harder time escaping, surviving and recovering from climate-related disasters. Taken together, it is clear that people of color experience a disparate exposure to environmental hazards where they “work, live, and play.”

Nationwide, the health of communities is consistently ignored in favor of the profits of corporate polluters. The fact that people of color breathe 46 percent more nitrogen dioxide —which causes respiratory diseases and heart conditions — than whites helps explain why one in six African-American kids has asthma.

The environmental violence being inflicted on people of color who are denied the full rights of citizenship — especially migrant workers and new immigrants — is especially pronounced. Low-income Latino immigrants are more likely to live in areas with high levels of hazardous air pollution than anyone else. In fact, the odds of a Latino immigrant neighborhood being located in an area of high toxic pollution is one in three.

Latinos and African-Americans are more likely to work in hazardous jobs that place them at higher risk for serious occupational diseases, injuries and muscular-skeletal disabilities. The fatality rate among Latino workers is 23 percent higher than the fatal injury rate for all US workers. Often reluctant to complain about poor working conditions for fear of deportation or being fired, Mexican migrant workers are nearly twice as likely as the rest of the immigrant population to die at work. This is unacceptable and must be addressed.

Taken together, these injustices are largely the product of political marginalization and institutional racism. The less political power a community of color possesses, the more likely they are to experience insidious environmental and human health threats. The environmental violence being inflicted on these communities of color is taking a terrible toll, and must be made a national priority. Access to a clean and healthy environment is a fundamental right of citizenship. To deny such rights constitutes an environmental injustice that should never be tolerated.

ADDRESSING ENVIRONMENTAL VIOLENCE

We must protect low-income and minority communities, who are hit first and worst by the causes and impacts of climate change, while also protecting existing energy-sector workers as they transition into clean energy and other jobs.

We must have equal enforcement of environmental, civil rights and public health laws.

We need to address the inadequate environmental cleanup efforts of Superfund hazardous waste sites in communities of color.

We must stop the unequal exposure of people of color to harmful chemicals, pesticides and other toxins in homes, schools, neighborhoods and workplaces and challenge faulty assumptions in calculating, assessing and managing risks, discriminatory zoning and land-use practices and exclusionary policies.
Federal agencies must develop and implement clear, strategic plans to achieve climate and environmental justice and provide targeted action where the needs are greatest.

The environmental analysis for a permit for a polluting facility must consider the disparate and cumulative environmental burden borne by a community.
States should evaluate and report progress made on addressing climate and environmental injustice.

We need to mitigate climate change and focus on building resilience in low-income and minority communities.

We must promote cleaner manufacturing processes, renewable energy systems and safe product designs that end pollution and the use of toxic chemicals, while providing safe jobs and other economic benefits for people of color.

https://berniesanders.com/issues/racial-justice/


There. As you can see, how you address an issue is just as important as what needs to be addressed. This is why I think Bernie's influence on the platform will be very good for the democratic party.

 

[The Technomancer]

There's 7 primaries left, with a 274 pledged delegate difference. While improbable, it's not impossible that Sanders could come away with the majority of pledged delegates. It wasn't over 3-4 months ago when all this bullshit started coming from the mainstream media/DNC/Hillary camp, and it's not over now. Their strategy all along was to feed the masses the idea that Sanders never had a chance. I don't understand HillaryGAFs disdain for the political process. I mean I know you guys thought she was going to run uncontested, but really her lack of favorability is why you hear the "drop out" line parroted by yourselves and everyone else because she can't maintain her image when compared over the long haul. The same thing is happening to the DNC that happened to the RNC with Trump. They are out of touch with about about 50% of the voter base.

Bernie has to win California by like 84-16

Bernie just won Oregon, one of his most favorable states, by like 55-45

It really is impossible for him to win

 

[TheLaughingStock]

Now Obama was a real revolution

Yep. I hope his supporters enjoyed the ride, but it's time to make America great again. : )

 

[Angry Grimace]

The entire narrative that Sanders is actually going to do better in the GE than Clinton smells like bullshit to me. Sanders doesn't have 25 years of GOP hatred or any real accomplishments to go after because he's never actually been an important politician. The reason the GOP or even Hillary doesn't go after Sanders is because he's losing and there's no reason to.

 

[brainchild]

Bernie has to win California by like 84-16

Bernie just won Oregon, one of his most favorable states, by like 55-45

It really is impossible for him to win

Please do not diminish the significance of this term.

It's like saying that it's impossible for you to win the lottery.