These are the facts. Trump is an orangutan, obsessed with his sausage fingers, and filled with an infantile grandiosity, narcissism and egomania. He is a petty right-wing thug, very much like David Cameron of Britain, but without the British sense of tact or diplomacy. Hillary, meanwhile, is a slick, war-mongering shill for Wall Street and the military-industrial complex. She is much more dangerous than knuckle-brains Trump. Neither one can be supported by any person of conscience, or even common sense.
It is utterly unconscionable to support any of the major candidates, other than Bernie Sanders — including Hillary Clinton. So if — and it is still an if — Bernie does not win the primaries, as I hope he does, then only Dr. Jill Stein of the Green Party is acceptable. Only.
Jill Stein would have been an excellent running mate to Bernie, or an equally qualified candidate, or maybe even a better candidate than Bernie. But she had zero chance of winning in 2016. Maybe in 2020 or 2024 she could win, but not in 2016.
But if Bernie does not end up as the candidate, then it is a vote for conscience, even in the face of tactical defeat and a temporary retreat, as the master strategist Sun Tzu advised (but not longer term defeat), and not a vote for the lesser of evils, which must hold sway. And that means that Trump, Cruz, and Shillary “The Hawk” Clinton, are all ruled out.
If we were to look at it from a historical perspective, as we should, then we would instantly recognize that all three represent the extreme right, and are rabidly militarist, elitist, crypto-fascists, and all of them represent the interests of the corporate elite who have taken over the nation and most of the world. None of them are in any way remotely acceptable or supportable as candidates for presidency of the world’s dominant superpower, or for any nation that wishes to be free or democratic. This is the first important point to be made.
Secondly, from what I can see, there is no reason whatsoever to believe that Bernie is out of the running, or that he cannot win. Remember, everyone said Hillary was guaranteed to win in 2008, then this guy named Barack Obama showed up out of nowhere, and won. Long-shots can and do win, and Bernie is closing in.
The corporate media networks are trying hard to minimize and dismiss the facts, because Hillary is corporate America’s chosen candidate — the candidate they want elected, they have anointed, and they have backed with huge sums of Wall Street money. But the facts are indisputable — Sanders won landslide majorities in Hawaii (the least white and most multi-cultural state), Alaska and Washington State, and has cut down Hillary’s lead by a quarter in just those three states. Bernie now has the clear momentum, and is gaining fast.
Bernie has raised more individual contributions than any candidate in US history — over three million, with an average donation of $27. (And has refused Wall Street’s money.) He just won the support of American citizens overseas, with an overwhelming 70% of the vote. He has the overwhelming support of millennials and independents. And he has come from being a complete unknown, less than a year ago, to being a serious challenger to the party establishment’s anointed front-runner.
Bernie started out 70 points behind Hillary, and now, as of March 24, according to Bloomberg polls, Bernie Sanders has taken the lead in national polls over Hillary Clinton — despite her nation-wide name recognition, her enormous head-start, and her enormous sums of Wall Street money backing her campaign, and despite the corporate media favoring her and marginalizing Sanders at every step of the way — with 49% versus 48% of Democratic voters.
Moreover, the more people learn about Hillary Clinton, the more they distrust her. Whereas, the opposite is true for Bernie Sanders — the more people learn about him, the more they trust him and want to support him. Time is most definitely on the side of Bernie Sanders.
Already, 64% of registered voters do not find Hillary honesty or trustworthy. And it is still early in the race.
Remember also, that a) Hillary has a negative approval rating, and b) Hillary is under investigation by the FBI, and c) no candidate in US history has ever become president with a negative approval rating, or while under investigation by the FBI.
Remember too, that the Bush-Cheney cabal destroyed the credibility of the Republican Party, which is really now a zombie party, which only a small percentage of Americans remain willing to vote for.
Bernie Sanders has always been the long-shot, but he is rapidly closing the gap on Hillary in terms of delegates — and he is the only candidate generating enormous excitement among the people, and particularly the youth, the millennials, who just surpassed the baby boomers as the biggest voting block in the country. And again, he is also overwhelmingly favored, not only by the youth, but also by independents, who now outnumber both Democrats and Republicans.
But most essentially, Bernie Sanders still remains the only decent candidate — the only candidate who is not either guilty of war crimes, as Hillary is, or advocating war crimes, as Hillary, Trump and Cruz are all doing; and the only candidate who is seriously taking on Wall Street, and the extreme and growing inequality and corruption which are the biggest issues facing the country.
(See John Pilger for a more sane and informed response to the election than has been given by virtually anyone in either the mainstream or “alternative” media, here. http://www.counterpunch.org/…/trump-and-clinton…/
“A virulent if familiar censorship is about to descend on the US election campaign. As the cartoon brute, Donald Trump, seems almost certain to win the Republican Party’s nomination, Hillary Clinton is being ordained both as the “women’s candidate” and the champion of American liberalism in its heroic struggle with the Evil One.
This is drivel, of course; Hillary Clinton leaves a trail of blood and suffering around the world and a clear record of exploitation and greed in her own country. To say so, however, is becoming intolerable in the land of free speech.”
— John Pilger: Trump and Clinton, Censoring the Unpalatable, CounterPunch, March 29, 2016
Bernie Sanders is still very much in the race, and moreover, according to the latest polls by Reuters, Clinton would lose to Trump, while Sanders would beat Trump by nearly 20%. So if people are concerned about preventing a Trump presidency, then they should be supporting Bernie Sanders, as he is the safest bet to do just that.
It’s easy for most people to see why Trump cannot be supported. But Hillary truly is no better, and arguably, worse. Hillary is a bloodless neoliberal imperialist and war hawk, who can be supported by no person of conscience, under any circumstances. Let’s make that perfectly clear.
But, while Bernie should win, and is the only candidate of conscience, and the only candidate at all supportable by people of conscience, there is a chance, of course, that he might not.
Even if he wins the popular vote, which he most likely will do, he still could be defeated by the DNC stealing the election. And if he wins the popular vote, and the Democratic party elite break ranks with their paymasters on Wall Street, and go against their masters’ wishes, which is to support Hillary, their chosen candidate, at any cost, and they refuse to steal the election and over-ride the popular vote, then there still remains the very real possibility of election fraud, which of course, has happened in recent US history, as everyone knows.
So Bernie may win, or he may lose — and if he loses, it may be through fair means, or through anti-democratic means, or by outright fraudulent means. I do not believe he is going to lose, but that is far from certain. And if he does lose the primaries, what then?
That is an obvious big question for Bernie Sanders, and I am sure he is considering his options carefully. And he must know very well, that if he throws his support behind Hillary Clinton, it will be taken as a profound betrayal by millions of people.
Hillary is rightly perceived by a growing majority of people in the US as a dishonest and unscrupulous servant of Wall Street — and she is. For Bernie to endorse or support her would be viewed by millions of Americans as an act of terrible betrayal, considering all that Bernie has said and spoken for, and all that he believes.
What then, should Bernie do, if he does not win the primaries?
Apparently Bernie Sanders has said he will not run as an independent or under a third party ticket, and that he will throw his support behind Hillary Clinton if he does not win the primaries. This was, of course, a Faustian bargain, to make such statements.
It was likely the only way the DNC would let him enter the race as a Democratic nominee. But it was an all-or-nothing proposition, for if he wins, that is great, but if he loses, then he is forced to endorse a candidate who, frankly, is corrupt, and who represents exactly what is wrong with the country, which is the corruption by big money.
So if Bernie does not win in the primaries, he will be faced with a moral dilemma: he can honor his commitment to endorse Hillary Clinton, and that would be keeping his word; but it would also be supporting truly heinous foreign and domestic policies, which will only further destroy the country, further harm the people, and further undermine democracy, civil liberties, the economy and peace, and quite literally risk a nuclear confrontation with Russia and China, and WWIII. This is what supporting Hillary Clinton means, and we should make no mistake about it.
Or, he can break with his commitment to endorse Hillary, citing Emerson, if he must — that “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds”, and it is better to admit a mistake, than to continue in it; and run against Clinton, in a three-way race against both her and Trump — where, I believe, he would beat them both, as the latest polls are continuing to show. (47% of people say they would vote for Sanders, 31% for Trump, and 30% for Clinton, according to recent benchmark Reuters match-up polls.)
It is very much like the classic moral dilemma which Socrates described. You borrow a sword from someone, and promise to give it back. But the person you borrowed it from, you realize, has gone mad. Should you uphold your promise, and give a sword to a madman, or should you break your promise, because it is would be wrong to give a sword to a madman? In Socrates opinion, and I think most people would agree, the right thing to do is to break your promise, because to give a sword to a madman is unconscionable.
Likewise, it is unconscionable to hand the presidency to Hillary Clinton, for that would be to hand it to the war machine, the military-industrial-security complex, and to the Wall Street bankers and corporate elite who are defrauding and destroying the nation, and the better part of the world along with it.
The best answer — if by chance, by fair contest or by DNC manipulations, he loses the primaries — the best response, for the people of the United States, and for the world, since the US is still the dominant super-power in the world, would certainly not be that Bernie Sanders either walks away quietly, or worse, that he throws his support behind Hillary Clinton.
The alternative to either walking away, or betraying millions of people, and his principles, by supporting Hillary, would be to break ranks — not with the people, or with his principles, as he will undoubtedly be pressured to do, and is most certainly being pressured to do now; but to break ranks with the Democratic Party, and to run on a joint ticket with Dr. Jill Stein and the Greens.
Bernie is an independent after all, and merely caucuses with the Democratic party — and the Democratic party establishment, if it does not support him, is not worthy of his support, and has confirmed its corruption by Wall Street money and stubborn intransigence, as well as its deafness to the people and to the times.
This would shock the establishment, but then, who cares? The establishment is entirely corrupt, as the great majority of Americans now know very well. Fuck the establishment. The establishment is destroying the country, raping the poor and the middle class, and devouring the world. They are not the ones who deserve loyalty. They deserve to be removed from power, swiftly and decisively, and not, to be catered to.
Another question to ask is, would Hillary actually endorse Bernie, if Bernie wins the nomination? She is Wall Street’s player — he is Wall Street’s opponent. I seriously doubt that she would lend her weight to his election. But in any event, that is an aside.
The real gist of the matter is this. Bernie Sanders’ loyalty should be with the 99% of the people who need an ally and a fighter in their corner, and not with the Democratic party establishment, nor with the Wall Street business elite who effectively own and control it.
Would Jill Stein agree to having Bernie Sanders as a running mate for the White House? Would Bernie Sanders make such a bold move? We will see. I think it is entirely within the realm of possibility, and I think it would be the most honorable, as well as the most intelligent, thing to do.
If such a partnership were to come to pass, I think there would be no stopping Bernie and Jill, and millions of people would write in their names on their ballots, if need be, to get them elected. Shillery and Drumph, the weasel and the orangutan — the Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dum of corporate America — wouldn’t stand a chance.
And for the coup de grace, the dynamic duo of Bernie and Jill should invite Elizabeth Warren to be their Attorney General. Between the three of them, they would secure every progressive vote in the country, as well as the votes of the majority of women of all ages, and the overwhelming support of independents and the youth, who together, make up the bulk of eligible voters in the US today.
It’s a winning ticket. If Plan B needs to be executed, it could not only sweep Bernie Sanders and his team into office, but it would be a body blow to the liberal and conservative establishment alike, and to the Wall Street corporate interests which they both represent. And we have waited quite long enough for that.
I don’t think plan B is going to be necessary, unless the DNC steals the election — which would pretty much destroy the slight remaining credibility of the party, so I think they will think very hard about that before doing the usual acrobatics and slight of hand tricks for the corporate masters. But if plan B is needed, then I think Bernie should most definitely engage it, and the people should support it, fully and vigorously.
America needs to be shaken up, before it falls apart. This team would definitely do that; and Bernie and Jill, and maybe with Elizabeth Warren on side as well, and almost definitely so, would do more than simply shake things up. They would begin to heal this broken country, and put it on a better track.
And that is something we can be certain that neither Clinton, nor Trump, nor Cruz would do. In fact, anyone of the three would most likely spell certain disaster; and at the very least, the continuation of the long, slow bleed of the people and the nation. And that simply cannot be tolerated.
So either way, revolution it is, and revolution it must be.
J. Todd Ring,
March 29, 2016
John Pilger: Why Hillary Clinton Is More Dangerous Than Donald Trump https://newmatilda.com/…/john-pilger-why-hillary…/ …
Trump and Clinton: Censoring the Unpalatable — John Pilger
http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/03/29/trump-and-clinton-censoring-the-unpalatable/
The Radicalization of the American Power Elite:From George Bush, to Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump — J. Todd Ring
https://medium.com/…/the-radicalization-of-the-american…
Jill Stein Is Open To Collaborating With Bernie Sanders For Presidential Bid
https://medium.com/r/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DoATojfMNJGA
Would President Bernie Offer Hillary A Cabinet Position? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yx2vg3ZOZlk
Writings of J. Todd Ring 
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