When Bernie Sanders announced his candidacy for president, he said, Enough is enough. This country belongs to all of us, not just a handful of billionaires"; along with, "We need a political revolution in this country."
Those statements motivated millions of Americans to vote for Sanders and to donate tens of millions to his campaign. For most of his supporters, it all ended when he endorsed Hillary Clinton.
To those who fostered the Clinton alliance, I say, Enough Is Enough. This political movement belongs to all of us, not just a handful of politicians. No one has the right to barter away our political revolution or our votes.
The Clinton endorsement knocked the wind out of the sails of the movement and it has sent Millennials packing. The damage is irreparable.
In a Yik Yak poll cited by political blogger Rebecca Savransky in The Hill, only 39 percent of Sanders supporters said they intend to vote for Hillary. See HERE
Almost half of the 2,000 respondents said they would vote for a third party candidate and 13 percent said they might vote for Trump.
This poll proves the Clinton endorsement was wrong. It didn't reflect the will of Sanders supporters.
Many of Bernie's supporters were first time activists who needed something, someone, anything, anyone to believe in and trust. They believed in Bernie Sanders and they trusted him. They agreed with his criticisms of Hillary and they agreed with his rejection of her establishment politics. He gave them a powerful voice. He was their political lodestar but he allowed himself to get sucked into the black hole of the establishment's chicanery.
Sanders supporters didn't give a damn about avoiding a confrontation at the democratic convention. They would never agree to exchange their candidate for the appearance of party unity if it meant the end of his campaign. They were ready for a good fight. The stage was set for a good old fashioned rump convention where new young leaders could surface.
So, is the revolution over? It's certainly not over for Millennials who see the decline of America as their personal future or for middle class workers who put in longer hours every year for less reward. For all of these Americans, the Clinton endorsement was simply unpalatable. It only served to exacerbate their frustration and disgust with a political system that's so far out of touch with reality.
For a brief moment in history, Bernie spoke to them so personally that he recharged their hope and faith in the political system. Then, in the blink of an eye, he said, "I was just kidding. As of today, I'm endorsing the establishment."
A majority of Sanders supporters will never accept this unholy alliance, nor will I.
Lest we forget, the first Clinton administration gave us NAFTA and if elected. The second Clinton administration will give us TPP. The reason the party won't take a strong stance against TPP in the platform is because of Hillary appointed committee members. TPP will finish what NAFTA started and Sanders supporters know it. This is a big reason so many are refusing to become pawns in the Hillary Bernie chess game.
If current trends continue, America, for all practical purposes, will become a profitless, production for use, service based "Idiocracy" by the year 2030, absent a major paradigm shift.
This is not my fleeting opinion. It is evidence based. Between the years 1992 and 1994, I co-authored The Nature of Wealth with my KCAA business partner Mr. Jerome Friemel. The book is an exhaustive 100-year audit with long term projections for the future of the American Private Enterprise system. In the book, we correctly projected the crash of 2008. You can see my two hour video on the subject when you visit the site.
Unlike me, Millennials don't need to study macro economics all their lives to know they're screwed. They can figure it out by looking at their bank account, their past due student loans, their maxed out credit cards and the ever growing list of parasitic three letter agencies that suck their wealth away before they earn it.
With Bernie out of the picture, they see no good choices. To them, the election of Clinton insures more of the same decline that began before they were born and the election of Trump as a sure way to blow up the economy NOW.
Ironically, many young people who supported Sanders are ready for Trump to "blow it up" because they are convinced the country is headed for self-destruction anyway.
They see the endorsement of Clinton as the self immolation of the movement and they are content to step back and watch Trump's theater of the absurd in action.
The democratic party leadership grossly overestimated their ability to hold and manipulate new and independent voters. Now, they will pay the price. They were determined to nominate Hillary, and Bernie got sucked into helping them do it. Now, its backfired and given all the momentum to the republicans.
So, brace yourselves. Get ready for President Donald John Trump, Sr. and the disaster that's sure to follow. It's all courtesy of a failed two-party system that for too long, has been blinded by money, power and greed.
Let this serve as a lesson to the democratic party. Don't pee on our legs while telling us it's raining.
We know better.