#26 - Berning Hillary

In 1963, while Bernie Sanders was busy getting arrested protesting for civil rights, Goldwater-girl Hillary Clinton was busy working for a presidential nominee who opposed the Civil Rights Act.  Oh Snap!

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Volunteer for Bernie and get out and vote! Special thanks to members of Democrats Abroad. Music by Evil Bear Boris, Blue Dot Sessions, and Billy Bragg by freemusicarchive.org. Sarah McLachlan's "Angel" altered under fair use.

#26 - MV
Bernie Sanders vs. Hillary Clinton

If you are a first time listener we are so pleased to have you…  But as for the rest of you, you villains need to pause this show immediately, go to the iTunes link in the description on the device you are using and rate and the review the show so that others may find it and we can spread our evil message of equality thoughout the land!  Aaaaaand email me at greg@majorityvillain.com (villAIn) and I command you to like the show on Facebook and Twitter @majorityvillain.  Bwah ha ha ha ha!!!

With that being said, we’ve got a ton of stuff to cover on our topic: the race between Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and former first lady and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and WHY we support Bernie so adamantly.  And listeners should know that Graham and I have been following Bernie for years now, and when he decided to run, it was at the behest of supporters like us who were already major fans of his policies and truth-telling and authenticity about the quality of the United States government to represent its citizens.  

If you are looking for a detailed outline of what happened in the caucus and primary states thus far… you have come to the wrong place!  We would like to use this time to really demonstrate how different the two really are, and maybe help you articulate for yourself they stance you may personally carry.

First, it should come as no surprise that campaigns cost money.  It’s money that gets spent for advertising and television spots, travel and the like.  
www.Represent.us
https://www.opensecrets.org/pres16/candidate.php?id=N00000528

Super Tuesday:
Bill Clinton and Boston mayor Marty Walsh were in the Newton Free Library and in West Roxbury - inside polling locations in the highly competitive state of Massachusetts, where Hillary Clinton squeaked out a 50.1% win over Bernie Sanders.  Over 100k people have signed a petition at change.org for Clinton’s arrest for “3rd degree voter violation felony”.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/2016/03/04/bernie-supporters-call-for-revote-arrest-bill-clinton-for-mass-poll-controversy/Pv8tAZ8yGvXacdVBxEsvdJ/story.html
www.change.org

Trade
NAFTA and TPP.  Clinton supported NAFTA and the deal has since proved disastrous.  Sanders opposed it (video from May 9th, 1991).  The TPP is now opposed by both Sanders and Clinton. And why wouldn’t they??
The TPP is bad.  HOW BAD IS IT???
The TPP is SO bad it would effect:
Good American Jobs - (by closing factories and shipping jobs overseas!)
The Environment (by protecting fracking and dirty fuel extraction (End Government #fossilfuellatio)!
Internet Freedom (with ramped-up SOPA-style (Stop Online Piracy Act) protections!)
Local Justice - (by allowing corporations to sue governments for lost profits!)
Food Safety - (food imports and country of origin labeling!)
Access to Medicine - (by allowing pharmaceutical copyright extension (Remember douchebag Martin Schkreli?))
AAAAAAAAAnd the whole thing was written in total secrecy OVER 7 YEARS - while President Obama asked for “fast-tracking” basically saying that congress needs to vote yes or no, but not allow for changes or debate.
http://www.citizen.org/TPP
http://www.exposethetpp.org/TPPImpacts_FoodSafety.html
    http://www.sierraclub.org/trade/trans-pacific-partnership

This is a terrible trade deal for a lot of reasons.  So no controversy, right?  Well, Clinton actually supported the bill vehemently until recently.  This of course was probably a very hard decision when main donors like Morgen Stanley have already contributed $9 million in the last two years alone (Guardian):
    Our ruling (Politifact)
Clinton said, "I waited until (the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement) had actually been negotiated" before deciding whether to endorse it. As secretary of state and a member of the Obama administration, it was Clinton's job to promote the deal, even if it wasn't finalized. Nonetheless, her comments at the time were so positive and so definitive, it becomes disingenuous to argue, as she's doing now, that she didn't endorse the deal before it was finalized.
We rate her statement Half True.
        -Politifact, February 5th, 2016,  C. Eugene Emery Jr.
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2016/feb/05/hillary-clinton/hillary-clintons-revisionist-history-tpp/
            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49eJYs8aDbs
Thielman, Sam. October 13th, 2015, http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/oct/13/hillary-clinton-trans-pacific-partnership-debate

Civil Rights
Chicago Tribune released images of Bernie Sanders being arrested in August, 1963 protesting peacefully for civil rights.

Where was Clinton? Representative John Lewis says he saw her.. but where would she have been? Clinton describes her early career as a “Goldwater Girl” referencing the Republican presidential campaign she worked on for Barry Morris Goldwater who opposed the Civil Rights Act. (Youtube Clip, “Firing Line”)

And it’s pretty ironic for two white guys to tell a bunch of people of color, namely blacks and hispanics, how to vote in their best interest, but we shall embrace this presumptuous and unsolicited leap and simply say Hillary Clinton does not care about you.  Period.  Sander’s has had an incredibly consistent track record and Clinton has not.  As if it were not enough that Sanders was busy getting arrested fighting for Civil Rights while Clinton was working to get a Republican in the White House… Bill Clinton’s administration lead the command on mandates like creating new federal laws, harsher mandatory sentencing, infamous “three strikes” rules, increased prison funding, and expanded policing.  His administration slashed welfare spending and decreased access to public housing.  One could say “Bill, not Hill” and shout “foul play”.  But claiming that she had a massive impact on Bill Clinton’s presidency isn’t really an outlandish claim, especially when you think of how often Hillary has been regarded as the most influential first lady since Eleanor Roosevelt and even more so with this next point…
Alexander, Michelle. The Nation. February 10th, 2016.  http://www.thenation.com/article/hillary-clinton-does-not-deserve-black-peoples-votes/

Consumer Rights
Consumer Protection hero, Elizabeth Warren on Bill Moyers tells a story about Hillary Clinton as first lady learning from Warren about how a Bankruptcy Bill sponsored by credit card companies to protect companies from losses was going to hurt american families.  The bill was passed by congress but vetoed by Bill Clinton (after originally supporting it) at the urging of first lady Hillary Clinton after coming back from this meeting.  Hooray!  However, a couple years later when the same bill came back up she supported it.  Why?  Because now she was a Senator from New York, and beholden to the large money interests that got her elected in her campaign.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YU6ahOcx1KU&ebc=ANyPxKqaDd_c6MxypjgBxvCnl4JJqz7ycYtwy_mhmxczFEXEGcsEFcLkCTzI67R7LUSKpjeN03GdBacQa9djO9JcxkFLJXIMyA

Foreign Policy
Sanders has faced criticism for his lack of foreign policy, which doesn’t seem all that right to me.  First off, he voted against the Iraq war while Hillary voted for it.  To go further, Sanders was even against the first Iraq war.  (Youtube Clip, CSPAN, Bernie Sanders, 1991)
As a Secretary of State, Clinton also urged regime change in Libya which has since become a terrorist bastion, and while Sanders had supported regime change, he was a co-sponsor of a 2011 Senate resolution supporting peaceful, democratic regime-change.  Benghazi is not a reason to hate Hillary, because that’s a finished debate.  However, you’re more than welcome to dislike her for supporting outdated imperialist ideas that friend, mentor, and war-monger Henry Kissinger would approve of.

Anecdotally, having lived in Germany 3 years, the main reaction I get from people from all over world, is not United States has a foreign policy deficit, but an aggressive surplus.  From planet Earth’s perspective, less US foreign policy would be seen as a good thing.  Think of it like a clumsy friend who also wants to help you move - “Dammit, Steve! I asked if you needed help with the TV!”

Sanders, January 9th, 1991. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y563w_9gdrU
Superdelegates
These votes can change all the way to Democratic Convention in July.   That’s 4 months for these superdelegates to #feelthebern in a way they haven’t since college.  

Furthermore, on Super Tuesday, the only state dominated by either candidate so thoroughly that they received every single delegate the state had to offer was Bernie Sanders in his home state of Vermont.  What’s sad is that despite the overwhelming support for Bernie by Vermont voters - of the 10 super delegates that come from Vermont, only 3 have pledged their support to Sanders - which wouldn’t be that bad… if it weren’t for the fact that Sanders IS one of them!
http://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2016/2/22/11070364/list-all-superdelegates

But some superdelegates such as Florida Rep. Alan Grayson are taking a different route and even asked his own followers to vote on which candidate he should support.  And you know what?  86% of respondents said who?  You guessed it - Bernie motherfuckin’ Sanders.