On June 29, 2015, Michael Byron writes on OpEd News:
Bernie Sanders‘ 2016 Presidential campaign is the vehicle for long overdue revolution in America.
Consider the circumstances in which we find ourselves:
1) Decades of neoliberal economic policies have eviscerated the once flourishing American middle class. In fact, the wealthiest 400 Americans now possess more wealth than the bottom fifty percent combined! (1) Globally, these policies have so concentrated wealth that the richest EIGHTY FIVE persons possess more wealth than the bottom three and one half BILLION persons combined! (2) This means that inequality in today’s America exceeds that of ANCIENT ROME! (3), (4). As this process of increasing inequality is actually accelerating, the need for revolutionary restructuring of the political and economic system of the USA exceeds comprehension. Metaphorically put, the red alert alarms of impending catastrophe are, and have been ringing for some time.
2) The planetary environment is beginning to spiral out of control. This will lead to, at best, mass deaths and civilizational collapse; at worst, human extinction. (5) The Pacific Ocean is overheating. (6) This is because about ninety five percent of all anthropogenic (human caused) planetary warming is sequestered in the oceans”until it reemerges into the atmosphere as is happening now. This stored warming is now emerging from the Atlantic Ocean as well. (7) Any system will fail at its weakest link. By far, the most rapid warming is occurring in the Arctic. This is destabilizing trillions of tons of underwater methane ices (hydrates and clathrates), as well as up to a trillion tons of surrounding permafrost. Methane, in the short term (10 years or less) is up to 100 times more powerful of a heat trapping gas, than is carbon dioxide. Rapid release of this frozen methane will doom us to a fast extinction–5 to 30 years until humanity is no more forever. (8)
– Advertisement –I could go on and on and on listing the various ways in which doom is accelerating towards us all. Instead, however, I will move on towards a SOLUTION to ALL of these problems.
Global change must begin in America. We are central to the planetary economy, and are the planet’s largest polluter–worse yet when the effects of off-shored production by American flagged multinational corporations are taken into account.
The difficulty with implementing needed change lies in the reality that BOTH major US political parties have been effectively captured by large multinational business and financial corporations. This is empirically proved by well-known American political scientists Martin Gilens and Benjamin Page in their seminal study “Testing Theories of American Politics.” Their research demonstrated conclusively that the US Congress ONLY responds to business-oriented interest groups–that the USA is an oligarchy–in plainer words. (9)
All probable Republican presidential nominees are neoliberals. They will always act to serve the interests of the wealthy corporate elites. Politically speaking, that is the SOLE reason that they exist. For the Democrats, the only two plausible candidates are Hillary Clinton andBernie Sanders. Clinton has a lifetime track record of being a shill for the elite corporatists. If elected, Clinton can be anticipated, with precisely ONE HUNDRED PERCENT certainty, to use her Presidency to serve those interests to the exclusion of all else. Therefore, where it counts for elites, which is utter, craven subservience to elite interests, she is a Republican.
Sanders alone is different. He has consistently espoused both political and economic democracy. Sanders has been absolutely consistent throughout his adult life in espousing these principles of democracy and equality. He is on record as supporting full equality for gays FORTY YEARS AGO! (10) Clinton was not for marriage equality until AFTER the majority of Americans were. Clinton is a follower. Sanders is a LEADER.
At this moment, oligarchy is being locked into place in America and across much of the planet. So called “free trade” agreements such as TPP, TAAP and TTIP will serve to lock into place neoliberal serfdom across the US and much of the planet. The Investor-State Dispute Resolution provision of these agreements will, effectively nullify governmental authority to do anything which business finds to be a constraint upon their present and future (i.e., imaginary) profits. (11)
All of these agreements are likely to be in place by January 2017 when the next President takes office. If that president is a neoliberal, modern feudalism, binding us all to an economic system which is rapidly making the planet unlivable will be locked in. At that point, we can expect only misery and likely eventual unpleasant death amid an ever worsening economy, in the context of rapid environmental disruption. Actual revolution, to take down the American government and all those who control it, will then be the ONLY remaining option.
That is, unless the next President is Bernie Sanders. Sanders CAN win the Democratic nomination. (12) A people-powered, people-funded mass campaign, taking full advantage of all caucus states and the varying rules of each state’s primaries or caucuses, can be used to great effect–just ask Obama–that is how he defeated Clinton in 2008.
Here without further ado is the core idea: Sanders’ 2016 campaign must BE the revolution. WE must provide the financial and campaign support required. Sanders needs our enthusiastic support. We need him–he is that rarest of American politicians–a principled LEADER. We must realize that, actual revolution excepted, it’s now do-or-die time. The 2016 Democratic primaries and caucuses ARE the revolution. WE as well as Bernie Sanders, are the revolution. The future of the nation, indeed of the planet, is at stake. Time has run out. ACT! NOW!
