Trying To Peer Into A Crystal Ball; Why I Am #StillSanders

I’m still a little bit hopeful that with California starting to flip, Bernie may yet stand a chance at the convention, and so are a lot of Berners.

Some things to consider:
  • Bernie only needs to pull HALF of the Stated difference in pledged delegates away from Hillary in the   upcoming State conventions and California count completion in order to take the lead in pledged delegates. I think he needs to flip 193 or so, as at this point, every delegate he adds comes off Hillary’s total.
  • I saw an infographic earlier showing that as of yesterday, 15 CA counties have flipped to Sanders. However, not by yuuuge margins. these are mostly smaller counties. The big, heavily-populated counties will take longer.
  • As of today, there are still 1.3+ million ballots un-counted. Source:
    http://elections.cdn.sos.ca.gov/statewide-elections/2016-primary/unprocessed-ballots-report.pdf
  • Polling Sanders vs. Trump is still waaay better than Clinton vs. Trump
  • Poll-after-online-poll is showing that Bernie voters STILL will not vote for Clinton, much less work to get her elected like they were doing for Bernie. They’re not scientific polls, but I can tell you that a large segment of Sanders voters will not vote for or back Hillary.
  • All of these points may be weighing heavily on any “super delegates” that have any loyalty left to the ideals of the USA, if such persons exist.
As for the FBI investigation and the leaks by hackers, Wikileaks, and Anonymous, I will only credit those as factors should they actually happen prior to the Democratic national convention.

As for what may happen after the Dem convention – and I think this is an important point – I have seen posts online stating that Bernie’s campaign has been doing the legwork necessary to put his name on the ballot in all 50 States already, just in case he decides that he needs to run as an independent for one reason or another. I think of this differently than I think the vast majority of Bernie supporters are. What if this is Bernie’s insurance policy in the event that Hillary is indicted or otherwise hyper-damaged to the point of non-viability post convention? If Hillary tanks so badly that it looks like Trump will actually get elected, Bernie could put his name on the ballot in 50 States, and the DNC could then back Bernie as a Democratic-leaning independent candidate, which would pull in a large number of Green and independent voters.

Still, with all of the above stated, my hopes aren’t too high for the 2016 Presidential election in the US.

Which is where I turn to an absolutely brilliant move on Bernie’s part just this evening:

Bernie Sanders National Live Stream Address 06-16-2016:


While Bernie didn’t concede, he also gave his supporters a new direction to channel their energy now that the last primary in DC is over; Working to strengthen the political revolution down-ballot. He is asking his supporters to work hard on down-ballot races and State and local races. He has set up a page on his website ( http://www.berniesanders.com/win ) to help organize exactly that effort.

Also, when I donated on his website just today, this happened:

“NOTE: Your contribution will be divided evenly between Bernie Sanders, Russ Feingold, Tim Canova, Zephyr Teachout, Lucy Flores, Pramila Jayapal, Carol Ammons, Justin Bamberg, Terry Alexander, David Bowen, Joe Salazar, Clara Hart, Jane Kim, Chris Pearson, Eric Kingson, Paul Clements, Tulsi Gabbard, Raul Grijalva, Jeff Merkley, Marcy Kaptur, and Rick Nolan.

This was the response I received when I completed the donation on the Act Blue website.

As I’ve been thinking, Bernie needs to put his fundraising prowess behind down-ballot Berniecrats. I have to wonder, just how many election races can these election fraudsters manage to keep up with and rig?

Bernie has given the Berner Brigade something constructive to do, that will help them remain cohesive and focused on the true goal – enacting progressive policy around the country. That is an excellent way to maintain a movement, and strain the Oligarcs.

This is FAR from over.

Dan

Dan Stafford

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