Article: Stumping for Bernie

Stumping for Bernie Sanders

Provides basic information and reminders to help political activists in stumping for Bernie Sanders' campaign.

Stumping for Bernie Sanders - Draft material for stump speeches.

This is not an article. It is a draft of items that could be used for stump speeches. So you will not find any reference notes.

These are some ideas I have come up with. Each issue could be dealt with in separate speeches. Your own comments might also be helpful to strengthen my ideas for stump speeches and would be appreciated. Together we might get something that can go viral. Anyone stumping for Bernie is welcome to use the contents of this draft to correct, embellish or whatever seems appropriate to the occasion. Here goes
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It is in our own best interests to vote for Bernie Sanders. Here are 10 reasons why:

1.) Critics contend a Democratic Socialist is a threat to our political system and private initiative. In truth, no political system in the world has five stars, but our unbridled capitalism has no stars at all. Bernie's Democratic Socialism, an alternative to unbridled capitalism, does not thwart private initiative, or impose tyrannical government upon us, as critics would have us believe. Even if a President wanted to do away with private initiative, he could not. In spite of the need for reforms, we do have a Congress after all. However, the goal of Bernie's Democratic Socialism is to effectively obstruct the tyranny of ALEC Plutocrats writing legislation that would cut Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, education, nutrition and virtually every program that benefits working families, as well as relief of bankruptcy. We will not be frightened by the word "Socialist" as is defined by those who would have us vote against our own best interests.

2.) Critics constantly point out the deficiencies of single payer health care, (socialism), in other countries.. But we know those countries would never trade their more democratically socialist system for ours, no matter their deficiencies. And most of us would not trade in our democratically socialist Medicare and Social Security either. The fact is that no health care system in any major country has five stars. Until we achieved the Affordable Care Act, United States didn't even have one star! Our health care system is like a festering sore, a gangrene, dominated by the greed-driven insurance and pharmaceutical industries. Hillary would apply a bandaid on Obama Care. Bernie would go the distance with urgent major surgery. He advocates a single payer care provided by our premiums in the form of health insurance taxes. This would save us from outrageous private insurance premiums that now dominate household budgets, and keep many of us with no care at all. It is not in our best interests to vote for Hillary and Republicans who get campaign funds from the insurance and pharmaceutical industries, and who even threaten to privatize our Social Security and Medicare benefits!

3.) Most economists and monetary experts have long been advocating the break up of big banks, but our duopoly has ignored them. Instead, the Clintons helped strip us of the little protection we had with Glass Stegal. Even today, Hillary has no workable plan to deal with monetary corruption, thinking to put some bandaides on Dodd-Frank instead. Not good enough, according to Bernie. And he has the support of most economists for his own plan.

4.) The most outlandish claim I have heard is that Hillary is better qualified on foreign policy than Bernie. Yet Bernie had it right in voting against the major blunder of going into Iraq, which Hillary supported. Bernie also has it right in advocating the philosophy of Jordan's King Abdullah II who contends that the major fight against ISIS is an Islamic war, a third world war that Arab and Muslim leaders around the world should take the lead in carrying out. Bernie does not believe the U.S. should make pre-emptive strikes on other countries. And in spite of Vermont's dependency on the weapons industry, Bernie calls for curbing "wasteful, inefficient, and often fraudulent" Department of Defense spending ... and ...'tens of billions of dollars sucked yearly into US intelligence agencies' black budget." He even called for imposing a war tax so that we can devote more funds for our own domestic needs, creating more jobs and repairing our crumbling infrastructure. On the contrary, Hillary Clinton and her neocon friends have insisted the U.S. take huge, burdensome role in these wars, and seemly all at the expense of the middle class. In my view, Bernie has more wisdom about foreign policy than does Hillary Clinton and Republican neocons.

5.) We who support Bernie are considering only the integrity of the person, not such superficial factors as the color of his skin or his sexual orientation. It is the obvious motivation of the candidate that is of greatest concern, his caring for all the citizens of the United States. Hillary Clinton calls on women for support. Many of these women see their major national priority as breaking the glass ceiling to the White House. This is not the proper motivation for supporting a candidate. Maybe the future holds a place for that role with a woman who really cares more about this country, Elizabeth Warren.

6.) Many minorities think Hillary has their back, but we Bernie supporters vehemently disagree. Bernie has a long history as a strong defender of voting and civil rights legislation, which shows his concern that minorities can participate in our electoral system. Bernie is also a shining example of his disinterest in accepting campaign funds from those who oppress white and minority middle and low income citizens. Hillary does not. Our political revolution is not a race war. It is a class war. Minorities need to join us, UNITE! Hillary is directly tied to a class of citizens who oppress all of us! It is a class that runs our Justice System, writes our laws, imposes its will on the Congress of the U. S. with strong lobbies. These are the problems anathema to the interests of minorities. Thousands of white voters have supported the candidacy of black candidates throughout the country, proving that being white does not mean you are the automatic enemy of the black community. Until we level the economic playing field for all citizens, we will never, ever have racial justice. We will never, ever have any kind of justice at all!

7.) Now Hillary insists she is the heroine who will give us gun control, but she knows better than that. She will never do anything toward achieving a potent form of gun control because she needs the vote of members of the National Rifle Association. Without electoral reform, Congress won't help us either. But Bernie, she says, offers even fewer promises on gun control. In my mind this only shows that Bernie is certainly no enemy of constitutional freedoms, even if he does have a D- with the NRA. Meanwhile, if anything happened to Bernie as did to John F. Kennedy, Bobby Kennedy, Paul Wellstone and many other progressive politicians, well........we certainly hope we won't have to arm ourselves and muster the courage for a violent political revolution, instead of the peaceful one Bernie calls for.

8.) Aside from the fact that the Democratic Socialist Bernie Sanders is no enemy of freedom, he is obviously a compassionate friend of our citizens as evidenced by advocating for mental health care for drug addicts and others in society who could be harmful to themselves and others. He knows freedom has its costs. We who love freedom should be willing to take responsibility for it. . The well being of our country certainly should be measured in terms of the level of happiness of its citizens. Mentally disturbed people arise from the unhappiness of our citizens, lack of jobs, no hope for the future, hunger, despair. Highest priority for our taxes should be in support of the happiness of our citizens, and those taxes should be imposed mainly on those who have raised their fortunes by economic oppression!

9.) Except for the few wealthy Americans who have benefited from our politico/economic problems, Americans of all stripes are tired of the duopoly government of the U.S. This is why we find "outsiders" from both parties doing so well in the campaigns. Without any doubt in my mind, if this race comes down to Hillary against any Republican, we will see a Republican in the White House following Obama. Only Bernie Sanders has a chance to give the Democrats another President.

10.) As JFK once admonished, we should be asking what we can do for our country, rather than what our country can do for us. What we can do now is rally for Bernie Sanders! And we should also suggest to Evangelicals that if their Jesus were alive today, he would also advocate for Bernie, the only HONEST and REASONABLE candidate running for the Presidency in 2016.