To the Senator Bernie Sanders supporters, stop congratulating me as if I am your opponent.
I have written countless blogpost and articles for this and other publications expressing my enthusiastic support for Secretary Hillary Clinton. Somehow the Bernie vs. Hillary debate has pitted forces on the same side in some pseudo war for supremacy. I would love to see free college education; I have 12 grandchildren the first of whom is entering college this fall. My sons and their wives pray to the alter of Bernie Sanders daily. My own health is in question, medical premiums and experimental treatments are costing a veritable fortune. I am eating and sleeping comfortably but a smaller gap in the wage war between the rich and poor would have been of benefit to me. In other words, I am in lock step with a lot of what Senator Sanders is saying now and in the past.
My only quarrel is my allegiance to pragmatism. I don’t believe Hillary is wedded to some false narrative of destroying America through the guise of her own self-enrichment, there has been no evidence of that in her career. Despite rumor and innuendo by Republicans, the Bernie supporters and Mr. Sanders himself no tangible evidence of her complicity in Wall Street scandals or misappropriations has ever been proven. Day after day I see hate Hillary pieces and repetitious phrases accusing her of everything from mayhem to murder. It has become the vogue thing to say.
I listened to a radio talk show host taking a call this morning questioning whether Senator Elizabeth Warren has been promised something for her endorsement. Is she now a member of this mythical Democratic Establishment? The truth may be that some of us sincerely and fervently respect and think Mrs. Clinton will do a good job. I am not here to throw punches at Bernie, I like his idealism, I love the fact he has not been jaded, as perhaps I have been, into believing practicality is the way to success. Forty years ago I would have scoffed at that notion. I am just not ready to take four or perhaps eight years of even further stagnation and being subjected to the constant harangue of the Conservative movement. False cries of communist and subversive being leveled at Senator Sanders repeatedly and Bernie being left on an island to defend his good works. The legions of his fans had the opportunity to vote him into the nomination and failed. The same young army who voted President Obama into office failed miserably to show up and vote in midterms, gubernatorial races, even local county sheriff and judicial races, and then sat back and joined the chorus of people blaming the President for their woes. Why should I believe Bernie Sanders would not be left tilting at windmills?
Both sides issued a few body blows but let us save the knockout punch for the real opponent. The country has a clear choice racism or liberalism. When President Obama was elected, Whoopi Goldberg said she finally felt as though she could, “unpack her bags” because she no longer felt like a guest in her own country. As a proud Black man and citizen of the United States we are facing a referendum. America has a choice inclusion or closing its eyes to progress and having a lot of people of color search their attics for the Samsonite.
Vote 2016