Ryan Leone's Blog
March 1, 2016
Bernies's Political Revolution
A piece I wrote for Artists for Bernie.....
Bernie's Political Revolution
By Ryan Leone
At the 2004 Democratic National Convention, a little known politician named Barack Obama, proclaimed, "There is not a liberal America and a conservative America — there is the United States of America. " My father turned to me and said, "That guy right there, he's going to be the president someday."
The 2008 presidential campaign was historic on many fronts. After 8 years of a disastrous Bush presidency, the collective sentiment of the country was ready to embrace change and hope. A black man with "Hussein" as his middle name, who had spent a large amount of his adult life in Muslim countries, was the last person anyone thought could be that agent of change.
Barack Obama ran a fantastic campaign, galvanizing his democratic base and appealing to independents with promises of refurbishing the healthcare system, ending the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and lowering taxes to help the struggling middle class.
There was this incredible energy in 2008. The election of Barack Obama was thought to be indicative of a battle won in the long war of racism that has been so divisive in our country. Democrats had control of the house and the senate, we were waiting to see our newly elected liberal messiah transform the country.
Obama used all of his political capital to get the Affordable Care Act passed through congress while we still had the majority. It was a far cry from the universal healthcare that left-wing idealists had been hoping for but it expanded coverage to millions and ended some of the predatory practices of private insurance companies.
That was the end of the Obama vision.
In the mid-term elections of 2014, Republicans took full control of congress and began an incredibly childish binge of obstructionism, tying Obama's hands, and making it nearly impossible for him to realize the rest of his agenda.
As many have said before me, I think history will be kinder to Obama than the way he is perceived currently. It seems that we have forgotten that Osama Bin Laden is now dead, an international financial calamity was averted by the stimulus package, unemployment rates have been nearly slashed in half, we are at record highs in the speculative markets, we have ended two wars that cost us trillions. Obama has bravely initiated sweeping criminal justice reform with his federal liberalization of the crack law and a string of pardons for non-violent offenders.
The GOP has become even more insane since the "Compassionate Conservative" days of George W. Bush. They are an oligarchy party that is governed by corporate interests and heavily influenced by the prison and military industrial complexes. They wouldn't have shit if they didn't have an entire allegiance of impressionable foot soldiers enticed by religious fanaticism, xenophobia, homophobia, and overt racism.
There is so much duplicity in the Republican Party... For a group that espouses limited government, they sure like to tell women what they can and can't do with their own bodies. These are the same slimy motherfuckers that oppose gay marriage but watch girl on girl porn after their wives go to sleep. They are "pro-lifers" that strongly support the death penalty and a jingoistic foreign policy.
The contenders for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination all pose different malevolent threats. Rubio is a neocon extremist that will surely wage another costly and dangerous war for us, Cruz is an evangelical extremist who will impose a bizarre and archaic conservative agenda. Trump is a narcissistic extremist, God only knows what kind of outlandish shit he would do. But the terms totalitarian, tyrannical, and fascist come to mind. That isn't hyperbole... A person with an ego of that magnitude could really abuse the role of Commander in Chief.
And then on the democratic side, there's Hillary. Everyone knows that Bill Clinton, undisputedly her Clyde, was a centrist masquerading as a liberal. She's ideologically similar but even more to the right than her husband. The Clinton administration was the leading proponent of mass incarceration, locking more people up than the Reagan and Bush Senior administrations combined. This created an entire generation of disproportionally affected minorities, stigmatizing them with felonies and creating a cyclical system that prohibits upward mobility. This along with NAFTA and DOMA are the antithesis of progressivism.
It's no secret that Hillary Clinton would ensure continuity to some of these absurd policies from the 90s. She has been incredibly inconsistent on her stances on criminal justice, the Iraq war, and marriage equality. The special interests, lobbyists, and corporations that she has solidarity towards are tied to big banks, private prisons, and defense firms. She isn't pragmatic like her campaign paints her to be... She is bought out by the strongest forces that undermine our democracy, period.
Bernie Sanders is a second term senator from Vermont, who has identified himself as a democratic socialist on the political continuum. He was a house representative for 16 years and has one of the most consistent congressional records of all time.
A lot of people say that Bernie is unelectable because of the the self-proclaimed socialist label, and the negative connotation that goes with it. FDR was a democratic socialist and he was the architect for some of our most beloved and successful social programs. Social Security, Medicaid, public schooling, highways, and the military are all socialistic programs that make our country what it is today. A democratic socialist still believes in capitalism and entrepreneurial expression, but they advocate social safety-nets and harnessing government power to protect the lower and middle classes.
Sanders often uses Scandinavia as a point of reference for where socialism has been a success, a place that has been noted as one of the happiest places on earth, a seemingly utopian society with one of the lowest crime, suicide, and addiction rates in the world. It is a sharp contrast to the greedy imperialistic reputation of America. To the rest of the world we are perceived as geopolitical bullies, an entire nation of belligerent frat boys, who do and take as we please.
Sanders has shown congressional bravado in his opposition to foreign entanglements.
He has been a stern critic of the military-industrial-complex and was part of several peace groups in the 60s that rallied against Vietnam. In 1991, he opposed our involvement in the first Gulf War. Unlike Hillary Clinton, he voted against the Iraq war in 2002.
Bernie has been very outspoken about his opposition to mass incarceration and has made the issue a staple of his campaign. The number of people that we have incarcerated has quadrupled since the 1980s because of Reagan-era mandatory minimum sentencing that was exasperated further during Clinton's tough on crime legislation in the 90s. Sanders believes that eduction and rehabilitation are the most effective ways to combat recidivism.
The message that seems to resonate the most with prospective voters is Sander's passionate cry against income inequality. It's that same message that the Occupy movement was embittered by: the top 1% has almost as much wealth as the entire bottom 90%. We have watched the wealthiest Americans rig the tax code and consequently the middle-class is being dismantled and we have the largest child poverty rate in the world.
Sanders is proposing raising taxes on people earning $150,000 or more a year, raising the capital gains tax, and regulating Wall Street. He wants to reverse NAFTA and CAFTA and raise the minimum wage from $7.25 to $15.00. In exchange for tax increases to the top 3% he wants to invest the money back into infrastructure for job creation, free public college, a single-paying healthcare system, and create even further safety nets to protect the lower and middle classes.
Bernie is the only presidential candidate that is unequivocally separated from big money and has not been corrupted by our flawed political system. He vehemently opposes the recent Supreme Court ruling of Citizens United, which recognizes corporations as people and has opened the flood gates for big donors and super PACs to essentially buy politicians.
He calls for a revolution, a separation of money from politics and a return to some semblance of actual democracy. We live in a republic, which is an indirect democracy. We elect people to make decisions for us but when those that are elected have a preconceived agenda that has been bought off by corporate interests, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.
We have the power to elect this man. But as we saw with Obama, things only change if we stay focused, if we vote, and take back congress. A political revolution isn't electing one person as president, it's being involved, volunteering, and making congress work with the president in unison.
This next election will be the ultimate test between good and evil, there's a seat open in the Supreme Court. The GOP has control of the house and senate, making a very scary vehicle for a conservative agenda to pass through if a Republican is elected as president.
Bernie can prevail and the next 4-8 years could be a utopian picture book with progressive adages on each page: rehabilitation over incarceration, keep Wall Street away from Main Street, health care is a right, make love not war, and feel the Bern.
Ryan Leone, author of Wasting Talent
Bernie's Political Revolution
By Ryan Leone
At the 2004 Democratic National Convention, a little known politician named Barack Obama, proclaimed, "There is not a liberal America and a conservative America — there is the United States of America. " My father turned to me and said, "That guy right there, he's going to be the president someday."
The 2008 presidential campaign was historic on many fronts. After 8 years of a disastrous Bush presidency, the collective sentiment of the country was ready to embrace change and hope. A black man with "Hussein" as his middle name, who had spent a large amount of his adult life in Muslim countries, was the last person anyone thought could be that agent of change.
Barack Obama ran a fantastic campaign, galvanizing his democratic base and appealing to independents with promises of refurbishing the healthcare system, ending the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and lowering taxes to help the struggling middle class.
There was this incredible energy in 2008. The election of Barack Obama was thought to be indicative of a battle won in the long war of racism that has been so divisive in our country. Democrats had control of the house and the senate, we were waiting to see our newly elected liberal messiah transform the country.
Obama used all of his political capital to get the Affordable Care Act passed through congress while we still had the majority. It was a far cry from the universal healthcare that left-wing idealists had been hoping for but it expanded coverage to millions and ended some of the predatory practices of private insurance companies.
That was the end of the Obama vision.
In the mid-term elections of 2014, Republicans took full control of congress and began an incredibly childish binge of obstructionism, tying Obama's hands, and making it nearly impossible for him to realize the rest of his agenda.
As many have said before me, I think history will be kinder to Obama than the way he is perceived currently. It seems that we have forgotten that Osama Bin Laden is now dead, an international financial calamity was averted by the stimulus package, unemployment rates have been nearly slashed in half, we are at record highs in the speculative markets, we have ended two wars that cost us trillions. Obama has bravely initiated sweeping criminal justice reform with his federal liberalization of the crack law and a string of pardons for non-violent offenders.
The GOP has become even more insane since the "Compassionate Conservative" days of George W. Bush. They are an oligarchy party that is governed by corporate interests and heavily influenced by the prison and military industrial complexes. They wouldn't have shit if they didn't have an entire allegiance of impressionable foot soldiers enticed by religious fanaticism, xenophobia, homophobia, and overt racism.
There is so much duplicity in the Republican Party... For a group that espouses limited government, they sure like to tell women what they can and can't do with their own bodies. These are the same slimy motherfuckers that oppose gay marriage but watch girl on girl porn after their wives go to sleep. They are "pro-lifers" that strongly support the death penalty and a jingoistic foreign policy.
The contenders for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination all pose different malevolent threats. Rubio is a neocon extremist that will surely wage another costly and dangerous war for us, Cruz is an evangelical extremist who will impose a bizarre and archaic conservative agenda. Trump is a narcissistic extremist, God only knows what kind of outlandish shit he would do. But the terms totalitarian, tyrannical, and fascist come to mind. That isn't hyperbole... A person with an ego of that magnitude could really abuse the role of Commander in Chief.
And then on the democratic side, there's Hillary. Everyone knows that Bill Clinton, undisputedly her Clyde, was a centrist masquerading as a liberal. She's ideologically similar but even more to the right than her husband. The Clinton administration was the leading proponent of mass incarceration, locking more people up than the Reagan and Bush Senior administrations combined. This created an entire generation of disproportionally affected minorities, stigmatizing them with felonies and creating a cyclical system that prohibits upward mobility. This along with NAFTA and DOMA are the antithesis of progressivism.
It's no secret that Hillary Clinton would ensure continuity to some of these absurd policies from the 90s. She has been incredibly inconsistent on her stances on criminal justice, the Iraq war, and marriage equality. The special interests, lobbyists, and corporations that she has solidarity towards are tied to big banks, private prisons, and defense firms. She isn't pragmatic like her campaign paints her to be... She is bought out by the strongest forces that undermine our democracy, period.
Bernie Sanders is a second term senator from Vermont, who has identified himself as a democratic socialist on the political continuum. He was a house representative for 16 years and has one of the most consistent congressional records of all time.
A lot of people say that Bernie is unelectable because of the the self-proclaimed socialist label, and the negative connotation that goes with it. FDR was a democratic socialist and he was the architect for some of our most beloved and successful social programs. Social Security, Medicaid, public schooling, highways, and the military are all socialistic programs that make our country what it is today. A democratic socialist still believes in capitalism and entrepreneurial expression, but they advocate social safety-nets and harnessing government power to protect the lower and middle classes.
Sanders often uses Scandinavia as a point of reference for where socialism has been a success, a place that has been noted as one of the happiest places on earth, a seemingly utopian society with one of the lowest crime, suicide, and addiction rates in the world. It is a sharp contrast to the greedy imperialistic reputation of America. To the rest of the world we are perceived as geopolitical bullies, an entire nation of belligerent frat boys, who do and take as we please.
Sanders has shown congressional bravado in his opposition to foreign entanglements.
He has been a stern critic of the military-industrial-complex and was part of several peace groups in the 60s that rallied against Vietnam. In 1991, he opposed our involvement in the first Gulf War. Unlike Hillary Clinton, he voted against the Iraq war in 2002.
Bernie has been very outspoken about his opposition to mass incarceration and has made the issue a staple of his campaign. The number of people that we have incarcerated has quadrupled since the 1980s because of Reagan-era mandatory minimum sentencing that was exasperated further during Clinton's tough on crime legislation in the 90s. Sanders believes that eduction and rehabilitation are the most effective ways to combat recidivism.
The message that seems to resonate the most with prospective voters is Sander's passionate cry against income inequality. It's that same message that the Occupy movement was embittered by: the top 1% has almost as much wealth as the entire bottom 90%. We have watched the wealthiest Americans rig the tax code and consequently the middle-class is being dismantled and we have the largest child poverty rate in the world.
Sanders is proposing raising taxes on people earning $150,000 or more a year, raising the capital gains tax, and regulating Wall Street. He wants to reverse NAFTA and CAFTA and raise the minimum wage from $7.25 to $15.00. In exchange for tax increases to the top 3% he wants to invest the money back into infrastructure for job creation, free public college, a single-paying healthcare system, and create even further safety nets to protect the lower and middle classes.
Bernie is the only presidential candidate that is unequivocally separated from big money and has not been corrupted by our flawed political system. He vehemently opposes the recent Supreme Court ruling of Citizens United, which recognizes corporations as people and has opened the flood gates for big donors and super PACs to essentially buy politicians.
He calls for a revolution, a separation of money from politics and a return to some semblance of actual democracy. We live in a republic, which is an indirect democracy. We elect people to make decisions for us but when those that are elected have a preconceived agenda that has been bought off by corporate interests, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.
We have the power to elect this man. But as we saw with Obama, things only change if we stay focused, if we vote, and take back congress. A political revolution isn't electing one person as president, it's being involved, volunteering, and making congress work with the president in unison.
This next election will be the ultimate test between good and evil, there's a seat open in the Supreme Court. The GOP has control of the house and senate, making a very scary vehicle for a conservative agenda to pass through if a Republican is elected as president.
Bernie can prevail and the next 4-8 years could be a utopian picture book with progressive adages on each page: rehabilitation over incarceration, keep Wall Street away from Main Street, health care is a right, make love not war, and feel the Bern.
Ryan Leone, author of Wasting Talent
