Where was Bernie today?

[JCanete]

74. He was invited to be by his side...you think sanders just showed up and said "is this seat taken?"

That is some FOX NEWS level spin, and is not becoming. As to Vermont, Sanders is a US Senator not a state Senator, and Vermont has a Republican Governor.

I am saying that the talking has to come first and that it has to reach the public. That without it the establishment has no interest in changing...no need to deviate from the status quo. I think we have pretty damn good evidence of that over the last 30 years. When there isn't a populist push for something, you mostly just get a steady erosion of good policy and regulations.

In that environment, because it is rarely about convincing people of good legislation, and usually about "convincing" them of it by making sure their lobbyists are happy and their constituencies are either getting something out of it or are not going to tar and feather the politician for it, little change can get achieved by a lone voice...

and still I'd rather that lone voice be there if just to point out the sicknesses in the bills that do make it through committees.

But again, I have no interest in combing through his record to show you why he was a model politician and actually used every ounce of his position at its best capacity, because again, in a sea of politicians with not so stellar records for one thing or the other,
what I care about--because it really is the most important-- is that he is saying things that most of our elected officials have been ignoring for the last 30 years, AND for whatever miraculous reason, he is finally being heard. And, case in point, the public hears him and finally after all his time in Washington, the establishment Dems start to hear him. It just doesn't work the other way around.

Hell, I supported Edwards even though I never quite trusted him...he was so slick and kind of smarmy, and if memory serves, I don't think his record was consistent with his rhetoric...but given the playing field and that he was the ONLY one saying "fuck compromise, we can't work with the GOP, we have to fight them"...you know...the thing we're finally saying today...he was absolutely my pick for President. He was right about the one thing that we needed a politician to be right about. It sucks that he sucked. It sucks that he ended up betraying those who voted for him by being so arrogant. And of course, knowing what I know about him now, I would not have supported him because he could have harmed his message rather than furthered it, and gotten a Republican elected...but the message is what mattered.

In Sander's case, the message is spreading, not dying...at least for now, and he has demonstrated that his own packaging is not a poison pill for it.