Due to the great importance of this election, I'm going to post about it today, rather than about literature. I'm posting the below essay from 2016, from my book," Inner Demons and other Essays," because it so clearly forshadows the issues in hte current election. I believe it's worth reading, in that it shows the Democrats can no longer afford to uphold the interests of Wall Street and corporate power, over those of the American working class. The enthusiasm for Bernie Sanders arose from the same frustrations as those that have led to the right-wing enthusiasm for Donald Trump. If the Democrats ignore this massive dissafection, and merely continue to serve corporate interests and Wall Street, they will be dangerously courting the rise of fascism in America.
May, 2016
An Open Letter to the
Democratic National Committe
I have voted for the Democratic candidate in every presidential election since 1980, as well as in most of the midterm elections during those years, but, during this last election, the election of 2016, at age 54, I caucused for a candidate for the first time. That candidate was Bernie Sanders. Because of his long established progressive voting record as one of the very few Independents in Congress, I had faith in his integrity, and I was immediately attracted by his agenda, centered around the working class, and the middle class, against monu-mental corporate wealth.
For the first time since 1969 I felt the thrill of an energized reform movement with a viable leader and a groundswell of voter enthusiasm. It was clear that a vote for Sanders would be a strong repu-diation of the "democratic leadership council" and their center right candidates who have sprung from it: candi-dates who are less and less distinguishable from Republicans as time goes by. Like so many other people, I saw Sanders as a genuine representative of the people, - someone who could reverse the decline of our democracy which has been further corrupted every year by the power of vested interest. More than anything, it was that last concern that brought out the public in unprecedented numbers in the current primary season.
What I saw at my local caucus this year was unique in my memory in American politics. In contrast to the lack-luster turnout in most caucuses, there was not just a high turnout, there was a feeling of vibrancy, of electricity in the air. In our town of about 40,000, there were literally thousands of people standing in long lines to participate. The result was that Bernie Sanders won over Hillary Clinton seven to one. For the first time I remember since the candidacy of Bobby Kennedy, real passion was ex-pressed for the candidate and for the potential of our de-mocracy.
Sanders was clearly bringing in people who haven't voted in years, many who have, perhaps, never voted before at all. Of course, there were also the same old party hacks as well, who were not in the least happy about that tremendous turnout – their looks said so as plain as day. They seemed to be saying "I don't know who these people are, but the sooner they get out of here the better."
The party machine was not happy about this surge of ex-citement, except to the degree they could co-opt it in the next election for establishment candidates. They would then discard or ignore these excited voters as quickly as possible afterwards so they could get on with business as usual, as it has been in America for over fifty years now.
The machine would indeed like these pesky Sanders supporters to vote for Clinton, the business as usual can-didate, and then go away. But, from what I saw at the caucus I attended, they are not going to go away this time, and if the party tries to shove the status quo down people’s throats once again, all they will do is cause the party damage, perhaps irrevocable damage. The Repub-lican Party has already been damaged by its unwilling-ness to see the vast disillusionment in America, and Democrats are on the verge of making the same mistake. A significant percentage of those who voted for Sanders in the primaries simply will not vote for Clinton in the election, ever. It's that simple.
I've voted Democratic for over 40 years and I have yet to see my political beliefs actually represented in American politics, and I am not the only one. There is a tremendous level of resentment built up over the decades that the actual people of this country have been frozen out of the political equation. The party establishment must recognize that there is now a serious risk in not acknowledging the reality of people's bitterness.
Those center-right Democrats who have benefited from voter complacency will tell us that those who voted for Sanders will yet again get in line and vote for the establishment candidate, simply in order to thwart Donald Trump. In most elections, that equation would probably be true, but they may be wrong. A simple measure of that deep disaffection can be seen in the percentage of Republicans who voted for Jeb Bush in this election. Considering his family’s status in the party, his defeat was epic, and whether the Democratic party wants to acknowledge it or not, there are a lot of people out there who would actually vote for Trump as opposed to Clinton in this election simply to see somebody, anybody, other than a candidate of the establishment.
Brent Hightower
Copyright Brent Hightower
21stcenturyperceptions.blogspot.com
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