As the primary season nears an end and we get ready for the real fight during the general election, the voters in California are faced with a clear choice between Secretary Clinton and Senator Sanders. They are both effective and committed progressive standard bearers. The question is not whether they are or not able to set the country towards a true progressive path and values but whether their plans, policies, convictions, experience and maturity can accomplish the necessary changes this country needs as a continuation and expansion of the Obama years.
When voters look at their absentee ballot or walk into a polling booth, they should look for the candidate with a proven record of influencing and advancing positive change. Democrats should all commit to voting for the Democratic nominee in the general election but the reality remains that the strongest person in this primary race is and has always been Hillary Clinton. A policy driven and astute Senator and Secretary of State with global encompassing positions on all major issues, like bringing all parties to the table for the Iranian Nuclear accords, rebuilding our standing across the world after the disastrous years of the Bush Presidency, granting all children access to equitable and affordable healthcare and promoting the rights of all women and LGBT community members here and abroad.
Which takes us to this whole controversy over super delegates and their choice of Secretary Clinton as the most qualified candidate. To say that Senator Sanders is wrong for advocating now for them to change their mind and vote for him while at the beginning of the process he criticized them for choosing Secretary Clinton, smacks of desperation and flip flopping to say the least. Everyone knew how the process worked before they got in it. The process worked the same way in the 2008 campaign. But now, because Senator Sanders is down 3 million votes, he seems to expect the same super delegates to dismiss an electorate fully representative of key growth party demographics like Latinos, Asian and African Americans. Lets not forget that they are all party officials, most if not all of them elected by the voters to represent them.
Senator Sanders’ expectation now is for the party and super delegates to undemocratically hand the nomination to the loser of the contest just because he does not like the end result. A party ignoring the clear choice and vote from communities of color, who have heavily chosen a woman candidate, and at a whim give the nomination to another would blatantly go against the tenets of the Party and its pledge to listen to under represented minorities.
Populism is a belief in the power of regular people, and in their right to have control over their government rather than a small group of political insiders or a wealthy elite. Someone needs to remind Senator Sanders that if he is going to advocate for such a movement, he cannot dismiss it when it no longer seems convenient in order to satisfy a need to win or succeed. That is not only a betrayal of the principle but also a definition of a “by all means necessary” politician.
Since the nomination is mathematically beyond his reach, Senator Sanders has decided to wage war against a system he only joined a year ago out of expediency instead of promoting party unity. This does not come as a surprise. Senator Sanders is not invested in the Democratic Party and why would he be? He was never a member of the Democratic Party to start with and as such has never worked through its processes or invested himself in its platform or its advocates. By his own admission he decided to run as a Democrat as the only way he could win. "We did have to make that decision: Do you run as an independent? Do you run within the Democratic Party? We concluded, and I think it was absolutely the right decision, that A) in terms of media coverage, you had to run within the Democratic Party. Number two, that to run as an independent, you need — you could be a billionaire. If you’re a billionaire, you can do that. I’m not a billionaire. So the structure of American politics today is such that I thought the right ethic was to run within the Democratic party.”- Senator Sanders
Every instance Senator Sanders is victorious in a primary he celebrates the win as legitimate and as the will of the voters. When he loses a primary, he insists the loss is due to a rigged system that endeavors to set the political machine against him and overturn the true will of the voters.
Hillary Clinton has never claimed to be an outsider but rather someone that has always worked for the betterment of the American public by changing the system from within. Senator Sanders on the other hands claims to be one every single instance he gets.
Secretary Clinton, regardless of her husband’s career, was only elected to political office in 2000. Senator Sanders on the other hand has held political office since 1981. Being an elected official for 35 years is not the resume of an outsider. It certainly is the resume of a career politician.
Which brings us to the money and accusations about Super PACs and “bought for” elections. By the end of May, Secretary Clinton had raised $205 million to Sander’s $212 million. All super Pacs affiliated to Secretary Clinton have raised so far $84 million, and none of those funds have been used against other Democrats. By the end of May Senator Sanders had $5.8 million dollars left in the bank versus $30 million for Secretary Clinton. This demonstrates that even after over spending, the delegate and totality of vote counts did not match his campaign expectations and that as Super Pacs were not used against him, it felt squarely on message and turn out.
This cold reality has left Senator Sanders with no other choice but to call Secretary Clinton unqualified to do the job and question her judgment. Words now currently being used by the presumptive Republican nominee in his attacks.
While we must respect the campaign Senator Sanders put together and appreciate that the conversation he started has pushed the Democratic Party more in line with the Progressive values our country needs in order to continue to form a more perfect union, it is time for the Party to come together and get ready for the general election.
The presumptive candidate for the Republican Party has expressed nothing but disdain for racial and religious minorities, women and Veterans. That is the real fight. That is the real challenge we face. We must choose between the road of fear, isolation and exclusion and the road of opportunity, inclusiveness and diversity.
While canvassing and phone banking Latino communities for the Hillary campaign in California, volunteers had frank conversations why so many in the Latino communities had recently registered to vote, why the election was important to them and why they felt their participation was imperative. With a projected 27.7 million Latino voters in 2016, the impact could sway the elections according to the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials Education Fund www.naleo.org
There was a tangible fear about the possibility of a Trump presidency. But it was not only this fear of Trump that drove them to ensure they could participate; there was also a tangible commitment and a belief in Secretary Clinton and the promise of her Presidency.
From the caretaker son of her 98-year-old mother in Monarch California with a household of sisters all voting for Hillary to the construction worker in San Bernardino, to the teacher assistant in Pomona and the single mother working as a prep kitchen in Fontana, all families had a full understanding of what was at stake. All over California the Latino community was engaged in making sure their voices were heard.
It is often said that all politics are local; I always say all politics are personal. Canvassing and phone banking showed volunteers the passion of a community committed to change and to their aspirations. They believe it is time they are counted and for the American community at large to look at them as proud citizens contributing to the collective success of the nation.
With a policy platform for America comprising of making the United States the Superpower of the 21st century by setting a national goal of 500 million solar panels installed, enacting and continuing President Obama’s executive actions to stop deportations and support DREAMERS, promoting naturalization and immigration integration, ending the era of mass incarceration, protecting immigrants’ rights and keeping families together, defending every American right to vote, ending the era of mass incarceration, standing for Veterans and service member rights and services, passing the Equality Act to stop discrimination against all LGBT members at the work place and by fighting for a higher minimum wage and equal pay for women, Secretary Clinton’s progressive agenda is the right agenda. www.hillaryclinton.com/issues
Secretary Clinton’s belief that effective policing and constitutional policing go hand-in-hand is the right approach. Secretary Clinton’s plan to invest in law enforcement training programs on issues such as implicit bias, use of force, and de-escalation will not only continue to grow departments nationwide but give law enforcement officers the tools they need to interact with the diverse communities they serve. Secretary Clinton’s commitment to creating national guidelines for use of force, providing federal matching funds to make body cameras available to every police department in America, and supporting legislation to ban racial profiling by federal, state, and local law enforcement officials are the necessary changes in order trust between communities and Law enforcement agencies to be restored.
For all the above and many other reasons Secretary Clinton is the Democratic choice for President. We should all proudly exercise our right to vote on June 7th. Secretary Clinton is the most qualified, policy oriented and understanding candidate in the race. To put it simply: the stakes are too high. Anyone staying at home now or after the primaries over a belief of “my candidate or none” is not only abdicating their right to affect change but will sorely only contribute to the deterioration of our values as a nation. There is no “sitting this one out”. Our rights and liberties do not take a hiatus; they are always in need of safeguarding and reasserting. With a fresh win in the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico Primaries and the count to clinching the nomination a mere 23 delegates away (both pledged and super delegates) the time to unify behind Secretary Clinton is here.
It all starts with one person, one vote.
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