On FaceBook I discuss the possibility of Bernie Sanders getting the Democratic Party nomination with a UAW porkchopper

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• Kelly Sparks The only way Bernie can win is by winning the Democratic Primary,Alan,Bernie understands this and his supporters do as well so don't bring negative distractions into our positive campaign.

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• Alan Maki No, Kelly Sparks; the only people pushing this idea that Bernie can actually win the Democratic Party's nomination are the Democratic Party hacks who intend to use his supporters to campaign for Hillary Clinton after Bernie is marginalized at the National Convention and sent packing.
  
  Since you have worked for the UAW International, I am sure you know exactly what the set-up is and that the fix is in to do exactly as I have pointed out.
  
  Tell us, Kelly; will you be supporting Hillary Clinton? And, if so, how will you justify supporting this Wall Street imperialist warmonger backing the TPP?.

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• Alan Maki Kelly Sparks; you know exactly how the Democratic machine works since your profile states:
  
  Retired UAW Legislative Coordinator
  Lived in Racine , WI.
  
  Please explain to this group how the Democratic Party really works and not how people hope it works.
  
  Explain how the party hacks manipulate and control people.
  
  Explain how difficult it is just to get a resolution passed... like one for single-payer universal health care. Explain how these party hacks were able to undermine a massive movement for single-payer universal health care in order to make way for Obamacare.
  
  Do you really expect these party hacks who went through so much trouble to derail the single-payer movement to allow the socialist Bernie Sanders to get the Democratic Party's nomination?
  
  In fact, Kelly Sparks, you were part of this well-oiled machine of Democratic Party hacks.
  
  You and the UAW even refused to stand up for the rights of casino workers in the Indian Gaming Industry, choosing instead to push through these compacts creating this hideous industry forcing hundreds of thousands of workers to be employed in loud, noisy, smoke-filled casinos at poverty wages without any rights under state or federal labor laws.
  
  You see, I have dealt with people like you and I know exactly what you are up to here.
  
  Others who don't believe what I say will just have to live and learn just how treacherous you backstabbers really are.
  
  The UAW International hasn't endorsed Bernie Sanders. Why not?
  
  It was largely because the UAW refused to support the socialist oriented New Democratic Party in Canada that your union got booted out of Canada by Canadian autoworkers who just got plain fed up with your treachery and betrayal.

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Alan Maki I maintain the only way Bernie has a shot at becoming the next president of the United States is if his name appears on the General Election ballot in 2016... and losing the Democratic Party's nomination at the National Convention no matter how many state Primaries he may win which will be few and far between, just won't get his name on the ballot.
Just now · Like

We need to strike while the iron is hot

This is my response to an e-mail I received about how to proceed with electoral change citing the need to influence more prominent people and educate more people in general:



I mostly agree but I think grassroots and rank-and-file activism will bring forward many new voices which will be just as important, if not more important, than those you suggest we reach out to--- although I certainly do not write off reaching out to the people you suggest.



I also think face-to-face meeting with people is important and this is why when I travel I do a lot of "tabling." I set up a portable table with leaflets, petitions and banners promoting my blog and talk to people.



The question still remains: What do we do right now? And I do mean right NOW.



Many groups and individuals are working on different ways to approach the dilemma we are now confronted with where Bernie Sanders the preeminent socialist "Independent" has now made it official that he will not seek the presidency outside of the Democratic Party which everyone pretty much knows he has no chance at all in attaining the Democratic Party's nomination through the National Convention process which is tightly manipulated and controlled to conform to Wall Street dictate which is something much less than democracy in action and more akin to the kind of lack of democracy imposed upon workers in the workplaces of these Wall Street and big and small business employers.



In my opinion after talking with people, I conclude that a vast majority of Bernie's supporters expect him to seek the presidency outside of the Democratic Party because based on their experience working in and around the Democratic Party they know the deck has already been stacked against Bernie and for Hillary Clinton.



Others say those who support going outside the Democratic Party is a more narrow margin.



No matter how wide the gap is, one thing is for sure: never has there been so much outward support expressed for running a candidate for president outside of the Democratic Party with the exception of two campaigns--- those of Eugene Debs and his Socialist Party, and the Henry Wallace and his Progressive Party campaign managed by former socialist Minnesota Governor Elmer A. Benson who was elected on the socialist Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party ticket which intended to go national with Minnesota Governor Floyd Olson intending to run against President Franklin D. Roosevelt because Roosevelt was not bring forth reforms fast enough and the New Deal did not go far enough.



So now we have this potential base of people willing to break free from this two-party trap which includes at least 60,000 unorganized activists and no doubt millions of Americans who are liberal, progressive and left thinking--- predominantly working class--- who are so thoroughly fed up with the two-party trap and searching or at least thinking about a realistic alternative.



I have noticed many people now citing the Vermont Progressive Party as the kind of national formation they would like to see.



Others point to the Greens.



Some are wondering if the Justice Party can't be salvaged and saved while others are turning to the small sectarian left parties and still others believe we need some kind of mass "left" party and the variety of suggestions is so numerous I can't even list them all here.



In my opinion, we should probably be thinking along the lines of a national Progressive Party; one that is very similar to Canada's socialist oriented New Democratic Party which is now on the verge of taking national power for the very first time.



It is said that once Bernie goes through the Democratic Party's National Convention nominating process that federal election law/s prohibit him from running on another party's ticket for president. I have not been able to find this specific law if it does exist; but, if factual, then Bernie and his supporters better think real fast if they want to get trapped in this kind of dead end alley.



We also need to expand a discussion that is beginning to take place that Bernie needs to join together as part of a slate of liberals, progressives and leftists (all inclusive--- everyone who wants in gets in) running for House and Senate seats while filling up state house and local seats on county and city councils and school boards--- the overwhelming majority of all Americans agree we need a "clean sweep" that will kick out all these crooked and corrupt Wall Street bribed politicians now occupying almost all of these offices.



Bernie Sanders and his political entourage tout their campaign as a "political revolution" and "a movement" yet movements and political revolutions require not just one candidate running for president but an entire slate as being the only way to win as any trade unionist who has run successfully for union office understands the strength of having an entire slate of candidates. Usually all on the slate do not win but by running a slate of candidates it often makes it possible to elect enough of the slate to gain a majority or a very important and influential minority which can push towards the goals and objectives intended.



Thanks for your thought provoking response,



Alan

Barack Obama was allowed to suck the aspirations for real change back into the Democratic Party where democracy was suffocated; will we allow and enable Bernie Sanders to do the same thing? Do we want Hillary Clinton?

Decision time is upon us; what will we do?



What needs to be done?



What can we do?



A decision is going to have to be made by Bernie Sanders and his supporters and those of us intending to vote for him in the Democratic Primary.



The decision is whether or not Bernie remaining in the Primary struggle is worth it if he has no chance of winning the Democratic Party nomination because the objective is not to win the Democratic Party's nomination but that Bernie Sanders is on the 2016 General Election ballot so he has a fighting chance of becoming president... this is the point of his campaign; or am I wrong?



A decision has to be made on whether or not we are going to develop and build a new political party that will run candidates for all these House and Senate seats, too, so we can sweep these Wall Street bribed politicians from office.



No matter what Bernie decides to do we have to take advantage of this tremendous momentum of support for him that is more about breaking free from this two-party trap in challenging Wall Street for political and economic power and get us on the road to real peace without all these dirty imperialist wars and on the road to meaningful reform measures and legislation when it comes to a Minimum Wage that is a real living wage with full employment, a national public health care system, a national child care system and real solutions to head off this impending climate change/global warming catastrophe.



These issues, together with Bernie Sanders' twelve point agenda that is basically the same agenda Ralph Nader ran on should be the basis for uniting a very large section of the American people.



Why should we allow ourselves to be sucked back in to the two-party trap at a time when there is such tremendous potential for breaking free?



Certainly among the more than 100,000 people who turned out to participate in the over 3,500 events to support Bernie Sanders last Wednesday evening there are more than enough people to bring together roundtable discussions about all of this as a base for launching a new political party whether that party is some kind of formation like taking the Vermont Progressive Party national or starting something from scratch or seizing the opportunity to turn the Justice Party into the kind of progressive party it was intended to be or working through the Green Party; these are just a few of our options but where we want to end up at is with some kind of national party similar to Canada's socialist oriented New Democratic Party which has yielded so many meaningful reforms for working class families and been a bulwark in the struggle to defend and expand democracy enabling ordinary people formerly locked out of the political process to participate to their full potential. We saw how this resulted in the Conservatives being driven from political power in Alberta. If such progressive grassroots and rank-and-file electoral activity can succeed in Alberta which is similar to our Texas it can succeed right here in the United States.



This is not wishful thinking based solely on hope for change because the very successful socialist Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party proved the viability of such politics right here in the United States, too. Only severe government repression and corrupt conniving and shenanigans by unscrupulous and dishonest politicians like Hubert Humphrey and Walter Mondale were able to thwart, stymie and destroy the Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party but its base and foundation remain to be built on.



And it was former socialist Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party Governor Elmer Benson who chaired the efforts in building the national Progressive Party in the late 1940's; also smashed by severe government repression initiated by both Democrats and Republicans... first with the Democratic Party backed Dies Committee and then with Joseph McCarthy and then McCarthy and Hubert Humphrey and their Communist Control Act and House UnAmerican Activities Committee with Bobby Kennedy as its legal counsel working with the pathetic degenerate fascist, racist bigot Roy Cohn.



No matter what, we need to begin thinking right NOW about our options because more and more it is looking like Bernie Sanders has no possibility of succeeding in gaining the Democratic Party's nomination simply because big money Wall Street interests are controlling and manipulating the Democratic Party in an undemocratic way and no one can explain how this Wall Street control and manipulation of the Democratic Party can be ended.



Certainly even Bernie Sanders understands he has no chance whatever in gaining the nomination of the Democratic Party National Convention.



This isn't just about Bernie Sanders this entire electoral struggle is about defending, protecting and advancing the rights and livelihoods of working class families on and off the job.



Even for the diehard Bernie supporters who think he will succeed through some kind of miracle in obtaining the nomination of the Democratic Party they have a responsibility to help us assure there is a back-up plan in place that includes a way to challenge each and every bribed and corrupt Wall Street beholden politician occupying a seat in the House and Senate.



We need a clean sweep.



Maybe we could just call ourselves something as simple as "The New Broom Coalition" with the intent to hold roundtable discussions to address this very important issue of the need for a full-fledged national political party which would be the voice for liberals, progressives and leftists.



So; if we are fed up with war, poverty, unemployment, lack of decent health care and scared of what is in store for our children and grandchildren when it comes to global warming and climate change we can't allow this opportunity to be squandered by allowing our concerns to be suffocated, again, by the Democratic Party.



We can't allow on individual to make a decision about what needs to be done.



Bernie's campaign is supposed to be about full citizen participation in the political process. This includes making the decision on whether or not we need a new political party through which we, as working people, are empowered to look after our own interests when it comes to everything from war and peace to what kind of health care reform we need and wages and working conditions.



This is what democracy is all about.