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Colby's Facebook Blog Post on Bernie Sanders and Progress
Make no mistake – Bernie Sanders and his campaign are
crucial to the substance of America’s government moving forward. This post is
more support than fundraising appeal – but [spoiler alert] it does go there in
the middle. Regardless of Hilary Clinton being a capable and flawed (as all
candidates are) mainstream Presidential candidate, and in some eyes being a
better candidate for the general election.
Too much power is consolidated at the top in the U.S. As
you’ve heard, and Bernie reminds us repeatedly and importantly, the top handful
of billionaires and their companies are running top candidates that cater to
their special interests.
This may still remain appealing in some ways to some careful
and perhaps meek ‘middle-class voters’ – and perhaps one may think, “the U.S.
is safe because we have big businesses and rich people that will protect our
way of life.” Which is a secure and mild way of allowing the status quo, and we
don’t want to be challenged with change.
But for how long can we let 158 super-rich
families and mega-businesses run the budgets, priorities, and candidates in our
country? (More on that below). Not much longer, unless we want a society with
two classes: (1) a Mitt Romney class and, (2) the 98% rest of us, people who
only get 2 weeks off vacation, 75% of whom are living paycheck to paycheck, and
62% of whom have less than $1,000 in their savings accounts. 62%!!! !!! http://www.marketwatch.com/story/most-americans-have-less-than-1000-in-savings-2015-10-06
http://money.cnn.com/2013/06/24/pf/emergency-savings/
We just can’t support the Mitt Romney
party politics much longer. We just can’t.
If that weren’t enough (and it really probably should be)
here are a couple of other interesting examples of problems of too-centralized
power: the U.S. electrical power grid, which is dominated by centralized
power sources. Big coal plants and let’s say nuclear power plants. Lots of
power is produced, stored and owned in one very profitable source. This is a
liability – security analysts show that a terrorist attack, or a Fukushima-type
event, knocks out power for hundreds of thousands of people. For an unknown
amount of time. (Have lots of propane for your back-up generator for the
winter, or lots of battery-powered fans for the summer? Fancy life without the
internet or TV?) Decentralized power
– when there are more rooftop solar panels on people’s homes, more small wind
farms, more small local solar gardens – creates a more stable and resilient
grid in the faces of such ‘incidents.’ Plus, importantly, the capital (money)
and ownership is spread out over more people, which is good simply at face
value, and also so a lot more people have a say in the way things run. Not just
an elite wealthy few in the totally centralized grid case, a hogtied-by-profit
wealthy few who already make too much profit, but are also forced by shareholders
to always try to still increase
profit – which leads to other bad things. Bad things like Halliburton using
cheap well parts and resulting in the Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster
across most of the Gulf of Mexico, and things like the San Bruno gas line
explosion where PG&E sat on millions in maintenance funds from regulators,
which increased profits and company bonuses – while knowing their lines were
aging and had systemic weaknesses – resulting in the loss of a dozen lives,
etc.
The most systemic weakness of Capitalism is that profit
comes first, not people. Then it must compound and re-invest its interest in
the small cell of apex predator returns, and the majority actually finds their
musical-chairs behinds in the 62% group above.
Our Constitution and Democracy dictate that people come
first. There is without question a most strong sense fighting the
centralization of power in our Founding Father’s documents – and they were
right. Look at the separation of branches of government. They were smart. They
saw the ugliness and squalor of the masses in what existed in Europe and what
Bernie says is pretty well happening here -- an ugly oligarchy. Gorging itself.
There are alternatives. It can be done. Canada and the
United Kingdom have single payer healthcare. We can have socialized health care
and education and free markets and entrepreneurial capitalism – wielded
smartly.
Decentralizing power – literally, as in the electric grid
sense – and more so down the line with banks, lobbyists, campaign contributions
and limits as per Bernie will make the country stronger. More input points, a
broader ownership of smaller banks, better incomes in the mid-range of the
economy – the middle class – and less consolidation of money, power, and
influence at the top.
These are all crucial moves moving forward. And again make
no mistake some of this is already happening – California is one of the leaders
in the country in rooftop solar installation rates. The grid will become a
smart grid – with more inputs, and be more safe from singular disruptive
events.
This would be true for the economy as well. So supporting
Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders and similar efforts to rein in Wall Street
and keep banks from getting too big is smart. The biggest banks should be
‘broken up’ – not like closed, but diversified into separate affiliates so
public money is not used in the greediest speculation hedge fund schemes that
risk the entire bank. And therefore major repeats of 2008 recession / contraction-type
events become much less likely.
Decentralization of assets has a heavy ring to it. Many
people, even me, probably think there is something wonky and regressive and
don’t want to think about decentralization a lot. Well I’m thinking it’s easier
and more accurate to say ‘more widely dispersed and widely shared.’ ‘More
widely dispersed and widely shared’ energy sources, and assets. That as a
concept sounds more straightforward, and is easier to grasp and support.
I just sent Bernie Sanders $27. The New York Times reports the
average donation to his campaign https://berniesanders.com/?nosplash=true/ is about $27. More than 1.3 million
supporters have contributed so far.
And this “in an election cycle when just 158 families provided half of the
early money for the presidential campaign.”
It sucks that we as ordinary citizens have
– with our pocketbooks - to fight the Super Pac / Citizens’ United Super-Slush
Funds supporting candidates. But that’s where we’re at. For the record, I have
donated to Hillary also.
It bears repeating: for how long is it
smart to let 158 super-rich families and mega-businesses run the budgets,
priorities, and candidates in our country? Not much longer I’m thinking.
The higher and more strongly Sanders
runs, the more Hillary and the Democratic Party will see people want more from
their government – and will have to adopt more of his ideas to their platforms.
No matter the results next November.
No matter the results next November – we’ll
always remember Bernie and his message. Did we buy in, did we help?
And it’s February. This is today. There is definitely time
for - if not a revolution as Sanders says (although maybe there is time?) -
more significant developments, attention and progress on these fronts. Be
aware, be involved. If you already are liking, or are thinking you like him,
tell someone you like Bernie Sanders, and his ideas. Each of us should post
just a little something to feel good about feeling, even if - yechh! - it’s
about politics, something you are hopeful about and would like to see. Even
brevity, like ‘Bernie is right!’ or “Bernie is good!’ is fantastic. Haha, brevity
finally, after a post like this. I’m going to do that with a first post.
But make no mistake - this is change and this is progress. I
like Bernie, a lot.
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