Hillary’s speech today

I’m going to vote for Bernie Sanders.  Then I’m going to vote for Hillary Clinton.  I’m going to vote for Bernie in the primary, because I want the United States to have a no-bullshit, in your face advocate for ordinary people, civil rights, and democracy.  I want a president who owes nothing to Wall Street, and who hasn’t sold out ideals for cash.  I want a president who doesn’t pay lip service to the dominant religion of this country.  I want a president who will reverse the right wing maneuverings of the past couple decades, implement a public works program to put Americans to work rebuilding America, and save the middle class while raising the working poor.  You can hear Bernie’s influence on Hillary in her speech today, just a month after his announcement.  A vote for him in the primary will strengthen that influence on candidate Clinton and president Clinton.  Bernie enjoys a 15% level of support among Democrats in recent polls, against Hillary’s 60%.  He is not going to win.  He is not going to run as a third party candidate either, thank goodness.  He understands that outside of a parliamentary system, third and fourth parties are just spoilers, drawing votes from the candidate who most closely aligns with them, pushing the election in exactly the opposite direction.  In countries which have multiple parties, everyone votes their heart and then has their heart broken after the election as the inevitable compromises and coalitions are made.  In America, we vote our heart in the primaries, and then combine with a coalition of like-minded people to vote on a compromise that we are all aware of when we cast our general election ballot.  I like our system.  I understand that an atheist socialist isn’t going to be president in this overwhelmingly religious nation still afraid of the Russians.  I will still vote for Bernie in the primary, because that vote reminds Hillary of the ideals she and Bill espoused in the 60’s and 70’s.  I believe she will be a decent president, one who moves the country in a positive direction, if not as dramatically or abruptly as I would like.  I believe she will appoint good judges to take us through the coming decades, and I believe she will stand for most of what I believe in.  So I say, RUN, BERNIE, RUN!!!  Push Hillary in the right direction, because either she will be our next president, or America will go the way of Wisconsin as the Koch brothers suck us dry.  Push her, because we need more than a place-holder between Obama and whomever comes next, we need someone who will shake up the status quo.  Push her, because even though you will never be president, you can make our next president more like you.