My Answer to the Question--Why on Earth Would Anyone Vote for Bernie?
With the general election a few days away, more and more details are coming out about the crimes and corruption of both worser-of-two-evil candidates. While many progressive voters are leaning towards Jill Stein, she does not have a chance of winning this time around. In this article I explain how Bernie still has a path to the White House in 2017, and why it is imperative that we vote for him.
The reason we are writing in Bernie is because he is the person who won the primary, and we believe in democracy. Even after all the election fraud we saw happening in state after state during the primaries, Bernie still won the first floor vote at the DNC convention, and some observers say there were actually two floor votes that he won. It was only when the superdelegates were trotted out, representing no one but themselves and their corporate colleagues, that it was made to appear that Hillary had won the nomination. Not only did Bernie win the primary, all polls show Bernie coming in ahead of any other candidate in the general election, even when he's not technically running. Isn't that what our democracy is? The candidate that the most people want to have as president is the one who is voted into office?
Voting for Bernie is not a feel-good protest vote. Bernie still has a path to the White House. (Jill Stein does not in this election cycle.) The path is described as opdeny270. To summarize, most states are winner takes all: whoever gets the most votes wins that state's entire Electoral College vote. A candidate needs 270 electoral votes to win. If Trump and HRC are running neck and neck, as they currently are, one state going to Bernie could prevent either of them from getting the 270 votes. The most likely state for this to happen in is VT, where some polls show him significantly ahead of the other candidates--but he is so widely beloved in many states that it's possible that he could win electoral votes in more than one state.
There are eleven states that will definitely count write in votes even if the candidate did not sign up or register. These are Vermont, CA, WI, WY, OR, WA, AL, IA, NH, RI, NJ plus DC. The deny270 strategy is for people to vote for Bernie in these states, and Jill Stein in the remaining ones, where votes for Bernie will not count. If no one gets 270 votes, the vote for president then goes to the newly-elected House of Representatives. There will be new Berniecrats in office. The Republican leaders hate Hillary with a passion and most of them have been denouncing Trump in recent weeks. By law, they would have to choose from the top three electoral vote-getters so that would leave Bernie. He has a unique ability to appeal to people across party lines. (Some people have wondered why Jill Stein could not end up in the third place position for consideration in The Electoral College? That won't happen. because at best, Jill Stein's supporters are hoping she'll get 5-15% of the vote. She is largely unknown to most americans and there is no chance she will come in ahead of all other candidates in any of these "winner takes all" elections.)
As far as the oft-heard refrain that "Bernie does not want to be president any more," it's hard to for me to fathom how anyone can seriously believe this. He sacrificed what are supposed to be his and Jane's relaxing retirement years to campaign his heart out, giving sometimes two speeches a day to crowds of thousands all over the country. Even his younger aides couldn't keep up. The primary was stolen from him in many states and again at the convention. He got stomped--and wanting to retain his position of power in the senate, he endorsed Hillary. BERNIE NEVER DROPPED OUT OF THE RACE. He never conceded to Hillary at the convention. He did not call for a vote by acclamation, but instead recommended that Hillary be "selected" as the nominee, a fitting way to describe the victory of someone who didn't actually win. And when a write-in organizer recently called the FEC to see if Bernie was still listed as a candidate, they replied "Yes. He would have let us know if he was dropping out." Bernard Sanders is still listed on their website as a candidate for President.
Although Bernie is unable to officially endorse the write-in effort without losing his position in the senate if HRC were to win, he did actually say on video recently that he supported the write in campaign in VT. Which as I explained above, is the key state for this strategy. He also said on the Bill Maher show a couple weeks ago that he wishes it was him that was running for president right now.
There are many other clues as to his true feelings, some of them coming from Jane Sanders' tweets: When a saboteur named Nicole Guerin who was pretending to be a write-in-Bernie organizer, announced to the world that she privately met with Jane Sanders, and that Jane told her that people should not write in Bernie, Jane Sanders immediately sent out a tweet to set the record straight. Jane said the story was completely fabricated, was untrue, and she would never tell people not to support Bernie, or who to vote for. A write-in Bernie activist named Donald Kronos had a chance to talk to Bernie when he was in CA a few weeks ago. He told him he was a CA Bernie elector (Electoral College electors are a CA technical requirement for a write in vote for Bernie) and Bernie responded with a yuuuuge smile and words of appreciation and gratitude. You can see Donald Kronos' description of this encounter on youtube, which he posted as an introduction to a clip of the Bill Maher tape I mentioned.
I'll end my article by describing a dream that someone posted on facebook. She was at a large legislative-like meeting, sitting next to Bernie Sanders. Suddenly, in the middle of the proceedings she stood up and shouted "Bring Back Bernie." And to her amazement all the legislators in the room then stood up and shouted "Bring Back Bernie." The drumbeat is growing. Whether he will be brought back via the Elector College, or because Hillary is indicted, or because the people demand that the true winner of the primary be allowed to take his rightful place, it's hard to say. There's still time for people, no matter where you live, to phonebank to VT and the other key states (see opdeny270). There's still time to call the DNC. There's still time to vote, and convince your friends to vote. Election fraud investigators Greg Palast and RFK Jr. recommend in "Steal Back Your Vote" that you go to your elections office or other designated early-voting site to vote in person prior to the actual day of the election. You can call your county registrar of voters for times and locations for early voting. If you signed up to be an absentee voter you need to bring the ballot your received in the mail, and the return envelope it came with, plus your ID.
Bernie took his campaign as far as he could take it before he hit a brick wall. Now it's up to us to take it the rest of the way.
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