Gun control gridlock

California gridlock

The gun control issue is like a California freeway gridlock, except that in the Sunshine State you eventually get there. The Republican Congress reminds me of a broken-down vehicle on a Los Angeles freeway--I used to live there--that can't move and someone has to step in to make it work right. That would be the Democrats this November for gun control when they take over the Senate and the House. If something isn't done by the left, then I predict the Democratic Party will be replaced and Progressives will finally do what's right for the country. It's about time.

Democratic Party last dinosaur of politics

The Democratic Party still does not understand that it is a has-been. Like John McCain. They are so far out of touch that they don't even realize that they almost won a recent election in a heavily red section of Kansas...and with a Progressive candidate. It was "Berniecrat," James Thompson, a guy who was formerly homeless, joined the army and went to college on the GI Bill and got his law degree. Thompson was inspired to run by Bernie Sanders and "... talked about 'progressive values' like universal healthcare, education, and a $15/hour minimum wage."

He beat an establishment Democrat in the primary to run against the seat vacated by Trump's new CIA Director, Mike Pompeo, against the GOP candidate, Ron Estes. When it became obvious that Thompson was gaining in the race, the National Republican Congressional Committee poured in money as did big business. Thompson struggled on his own to raise $292,000 without the Party's help, 95% from individuals. The Democratic National Committee finally kicked in a measly $3,000. "His campaign requested $20,000 from the state Democratic Party and was denied."

Tom Perez did as many flip-flops as Donald Trump has lately, first stating that the Kansas race was one that they could win, then refusing to back Thompson until the last minute, and then with a miniscule amount of money. And then there was the laughable statement from the DNC that, "...giving Thompson money would have actually hurt his chances of winning, because then everyone would have known he’s a Democrat, and Kansans hate Democrats." I thought the double-digit IQs were all in the Republican Party. Thompson lost by 7 percentage points.

Bernie Sanders and DNC chairman Tom Perez are on a multi-city tour to "...rally Democrats around building a stronger party." Maybe I am overreacting but that appears out of line with the Bern's earlier statements on the DNC, especially since Perez was selected on Progressive Keith Ellison. Here's what Sanders told The Hill about his hopes for the DNC and a new Party...

"The best formula, in my opinion, is an updated version of the Kennedys. Jack, Bobby and Ted all combined an insurgent style of mobilizing grassroots workers and voters behind a progressive agenda that appealed to both minority voters and white ethnic and working-class voters."

I did a post earlier to indicate a need to get rid of the Democratic Party: "We need to say goodbye to the Democratic Party." It pointed out that Franklin Delano Roosevelt was a Democratic Socialist, like Bernie Sanders and he is considered at the top of the list of great Presidents. I believe that Bernie Sanders should snub the Democratic Party, and make Our Revolution a movement that can't be ignored.

Bernie Sanders is back and this time he plans to win

Elizabeth Warren-Bernie Sanders

When I say win, Bernie Sanders is already in overdrive to elect more Progressives in the 2018 midterms and, yes, I think he is shooting for the presidency again in 2020. But I hope that Elizabeth Warren will see the light and support his candidacy this time, no matter who the Democratic Party plans to run. And there is a definite difference between Democrats and Progressives, a point that is confirmed by the fact that Hillary Clinton, a Democrat, lost the election to an incompetent candidate who is also defined as a pathological liar by Sanders. The new Republican president, Donald Trump.

Just yesterday Elizabeth Warren  with Bernie Sanders introduced a new tuition bill that would make college education available to all,regardless of who they are. "Education should be a right, not a privilege," according to the Bern, an issue he has been promoting since first starting his 2016 presidential race. "The legislation includes a joint-bill in the House which would be introduced Wednesday by Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., and Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn.," according to a statement provided to International Business Times.

This should arouse the Progressives out there who have been on the sidelines wanting something to happen. That includes me, and I am now ready to roll on to upending a Republican Congress to putting Bernie sanders and Elizabeth Warren in the White House in 2020. Don't laugh, conservatives, it has been some time now since the left has had this much reason for the momentum to get the right job done. With Hillary history, and Sanders as the most popular political candidate in the U.S. the cross-country fight for legislative and governor's seats will now be easier.

And the Sanders/Warren people aren't alone. Not satisfied that enough was being done, two major groups have formed to elect Progressives in 2018 and 2020. The first is Justice Democrats, started by the founder of the Young Turks, Cenk Uygur, who said that he was starting the organization because it needed to be done and no one else was doing it. The second is Brand New Congress which was originally started by a group of volunteers and staffers from the Bernie Sanders presidential campaign. They want, "...to be a big tent for anyone who is tired of partisan politics."

The latest information is that these two groups recently merged, which is a good start for the new aggregation.

Somewhere in the future it will be necessary to galvanize all these efforts into one cohesive group that supports Progressivism in order to move ahead as a collective organization. NBC News takes us back to the 2016 convention to point out where the left might take us...

"But the more radical strain, which led hundreds of Sanders delegates to walk out of the Democratic National Convention in protest last summer, is still present on the left and emboldened by the loss of Hillary Clinton and their belief that Bernie would have won."

"Some are betting that the disaffected left is as or more interested in remaking the Democratic Party as it is in fighting President Donald Trump."

What is needed now is a defined structure to get there. And that is why all these splinter groups will have to bite the bullet and find one common denominator that will rebuild, or replace, if necessary, the Democratic Party with one that will serve the people and not a political clique. Corbin Trent of Brand New Congress said...

"The point is we've watched this party over the last decade lose over 1,000 seats, lose a national election to least popular nominee in history, Donald Trump, and now we've seen poll after poll showing the Democratic Party less popular since election day. What we think is the American people are ready for a new direction."

The American people were ready for a new direction in 2016, namely Bernie Sanders, proven by the fact that he won 23 primaries with 1,865 delegates, winning just one-hundred less votes in the Democratic Primary than Donald Trump did in the Republican Primary. But he didn't win because of the shenanigans of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), which has now resulted in the firing of two top politicos. Unfortunately, Tom Perez heads the DNC now, instead of Keith Ellison, which is another result of Party hardliners. See, they will never learn.

Although Republicans profess not to be worried, they should take note of the fact that the Tea Party almost upended the Party in 2009 and 2010, proving that a grassroots kind of movement can be effective. But this will require the passion of all liberals, including those who regularly rally around the Party. Just after the 2016 election, I did a post, "What do Republicans have that Democrats don't?" and the answer was passion. Some of those that didn't like Hillary Clinton either didn't vote or for some stupid reason, voted for Donald Trump.

In that case the "Party" would have been better than what we ended up with. We are not in that position approaching 2018 and 2020, and there is plenty of time to build on your passion by looking at the daily antics of the Oval Office maniac. If this isn't enough to make you crave for a change to the kind of government you would get from Bernie Sanders, then you don't want to live in the kind of country I do. That, of course, is your choice.

We need to say goodbye to the Democratic Party

I have been a Democrat all my life; yes, even as a very young boy I remember my father talking about the Democrats and FDR, his New Deal. My dad came from a well-off family in the South, a family at one time I am almost sure had slaves. But the South was Democratic then, all the way, and it was just the right thing to be left leaning. That's changed in the last few years and the Republicans have taken over the South and turned the people there into a conservative stronghold that had a major effect on the 2016 Democratic Primary, particularly for Bernie Sanders.

Did you know Franklin Delano Roosevelt was a Democratic Socialist?

But the Democrats today hardly resemble those of FDR's era; in fact you can't even draw a close parallel these days between what they call the Party and what the Dems started out to be. FDR wasn't a Party starter for Democrats, Andrew Jackson has that honor, but Franklin Delano Roosevelt was the epitome of the Democratic Party, having served four terms in office until his death in 1945. This man set the tone for what the term liberal meant, and followed through with actions that give him a place in history as one of the greatest Presidents of all time.

Here are snippets from the democratic Platform of 1936, three years into FDR's presidency...

• Protection of the family and the home.
• Establishment of a democracy of opportunity for all the people
• Aid to those overtaken by disaster
• Safeguard the thrift of our citizens by restraining those who would gamble with other peoples savings
• Early formation of the Social Security concept
• Expansion of consumer electricity through creation of Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)
• Making homes available to people of meagre incomes 
• Just treatment of war veterans and their dependents

There are other issues like taking farmers off the road to ruin, worker's pay was increased and hours shortened, actually saved banks and paved the way for a better financial foundation, gave youth the opportunity to stay in school and get an education, which 12 years of Republican neglect had closed, and help for the unemployed. There's more and you can read the complete 1936 Democratic Party Platform here. I want to point out that in every case but one, above, the programs are for the average person, not corporations or the wealthy.

FDR, although born into a wealthy New York family, was a president of the people and his programs substantiated this, but considering the 1929 stock-market crash, some feel he could have paid more attention to a struggling economy; The Great depression lasted until 1939. It is worth noting that the Dow Jones industrial average didn't return to its summer 1929 high until 1954. But as a catalyst, Roosevelt combined a stimulus project with his goals for social equity and created the Rural Electrification Administration to wire the countryside. Perhaps FDR could have used Janet Yellen.

And why take you back all these years down the reminiscing trail to a time some 84 years ago when many of you weren't born or were too young to care what politics was all about? Well, dang it, to illustrate the stark differences in that period, that I might remind you was closer in time to that of the Founding Fathers of this country, that FDR based a lot of his concepts on. As an example, when it comes to corporations...

"To say that the founding fathers supported corporations is very absurd. Its quite the opposite in fact. Corporations like the East India Trading Company were despised by the founding fathers and they were just one reason why they chose to revolt against England. Corporations represented the moneyed interests much like they do today and they often wielded political power, sometimes to the point of governing a colony all by themselves like the Massachusetts Bay Company did."

We've come a long way from Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the journey has ended in a disjointed, confused, and divided Democratic Party that seems not to know how to repair itself. Well, it is my opinion that the Democratic Party is irreparable, therefore, dump it and start over. Progressives, in number, passed liberals a few years ago and seems to be the real new face of the Party. It appears that hard party liners like the Clintons, even Obama, do not want to accept this fact and continue to stick to ideology that just doesn't work anymore with a new generation.

It is a fact that Democrats lost more than 1,030 seats in state legislatures, governor's mansions and Congress during Barack Obama's presidency. It can't all be blamed on the man because it was Debbie Wasserman Schultz who neglected the Party as DNC head for five years, until she was recently fired, and these losses finally added up to a catastrophe for Democrats. But it is still hard to understand how the upper echelons of the Party could sit by and watch over 1,000 of their legislative and governor's seats just evaporate. To me, this is the ultimate of political incompetence.

Bernie Sanders, a Vermont Independent, ran for President as a Democrat in 2016, but lost in the Primary due to the killing machine of Debbie Wasserman Schultz as DNC chair. There were many of us who were supporters of the Bern, and many of us believe today that, until he is given the reins of the Democratic Party, it will remain in its quagmire. Bernie was asked by New York Times Magazine what the Party stands for. His response...

"You’re asking a good question, and I can’t give you a definitive answer. Certainly there are some people in the Democratic Party who want to maintain the status quo. They would rather go down with the Titanic so long as they have first-class seats."

The article indicates that his answer is partially for effect, since he does have his own liberal values for what he thinks the left should stand for. And Sen. Elizabeth Warren joins Sanders in a call for revamping the Party, but one still wonders why she didn't swallow what establishment pride she had during the Primary and throw her backing behind the Bern. It could have turned everything around, but she didn't and it didn't. And the 2018 midterms will only be a fight against the Trump administration and for congressional seats to block his legislation. First things first.

Can the Democrats win back the House and maintain Senate control by exposing the GOP relationship to the Tea party?

Wellington C. Ramos was born in Belize but now resides in the U.S. where he holds BAs in political science and history from Hunter College in New York, a Masters in urban studies from Long Island University, and is currently an Adjunct Professor of political science and history.  Ramos says:

“If the Democratic Party in the United States does not expose the relationship between the Republican Party and the Tea Party, they will not pick up the seats they need to regain control of the House of Representatives and can risk maintaining control of the Senate.”

Wellington C. Ramos

Ramos, who is black, characterizes the Tea Party as “mostly white people,” who fear losing their country to immigrants coming here for a better life.  Much in the same way Americans originally arrived, but minus the part where we “slaughtered” Native Americans in order to take possession.  TPers throw in moral issues like same-sex marriage pandering to a certain base, but Ramos says their goal is “…to control the politics of this country and regain power.”

Ramos says the Tea Party is for, “…universal gun rights, cracking down on illegal immigration, small government, lower income taxes, sanctity of traditional family values and greater military spending.”  One of its most extremist positions was refusal to raise the debt ceiling or compromise with the Obama administration over the issue.  NY Sen. Chuck Schumer said: "The American people are seeing the Tea Party for what it is. Extreme and their popularity is declining.”

Video of why the Tea Party must be stopped:

As an example, I have been getting Tea Party emails for a couple of years and following are some the radical headlines signifying their hate of Barack Obama:

• America’s demon President schedules deadly takeover

• Exposing America’s fraud President

• Obama to destroy America: rebuild in his image

• Obama plans second term calling for assault on America

• Rush Limbaugh: Obama hates this country

• Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio and the birther issue

• Rush Limbaugh exposes Obama’s membership in Socialist New Party

• Obama has admitted to use of cocaine and other drugs—has never admitted he stopped his drug abuse



Tea Party radicals in action

The above headlines are the epitome of incendiary rhetoric designed to bring down America by a group that, if you listen to some of their demonstrations, is burdened with double-digit IQs.  And this is what is controlling the GOP today.  The TP has been responsible for ousting long-standing stalwarts in the Republican Party like Arlen Specter and Richard Luger, simply for compromising on issues with the Democratic Party.

Ramos comments, “They have taken over the Republican Party to the point where all the moderates are either retiring or getting kicked out of the party completely.”  It’s the Tea Party way or the highway.  America was not built on that kind of governing but it can easily be destroyed if this gang of fruitcakes is allowed to continue to spew out their idiocy.  Ramos believes firmly that Mitt Romney will “succumb to their demands.”  A message that Dems must convey.

Wellington C. Ramos might connect Tea Party tendencies toward anarchy with his home country of Belize and the unrest there in 2005 over significant tax increases.  It is certain that TPers would revolt against any proposed tax increase by Democrats and this is probably why the GOP stands so firm against any increase in taxes.  Ramos closes by saying, “…stop this Tea Party madness that is trying to take over our beloved country.”  But will Americans heed the alarm?