I started supporting Bernie Sanders for president on the day he announced his run in 2015. My friends here may remember I ran a fundraising page thru ActBlue called the Bernie Bus. (I updated the link here, to a current Bernie campaign donation page.)
To my amazement, my small corner of the larger fundraising effort ended up raising over $3500, mostly from donations from my friends on FB! I was disappointed when he didn’t win the nomination, but I got over it quickly and voted for Hillary Clinton in the general election. (Which she won, absent the awful outdated Electoral College, which we should abolish.)
For the 2020 election, I support Bernie Sanders again, and now, our volunteer organization and small-donor base is huge, unique and unprecedented.
Today, I attended the Bernie rally in Richmond, CA, and it was everything I hoped for and more. Absolutely giant turnout. The line went on forever it seemed, and the beautiful Craneway Pavilion at Richmond Harbor filled to capacity. I got there early so I was not very far from the stage. Photos below. It was great to hear Bernie speak and see him in person, finally. He’s a fantastic orator, something more easily appreciated up close.
The speakers and musicians who preceded him were also marvelous, and after the room could hold no more, the still very long lines of folks were directed to an outdoor area where they could see (maybe!) and hear the speeches. It was downright inspiring. Completely peaceful, empowering, diverse, inclusive, and massive.
My dad and I agreed on Bernie. My father, John Dinwiddie, died in 2015, but I feel he’s with me on this journey, hocus-pocus though that may sound. We’re on the Bernie Bus, more than ever. I feel Sanders is the candidate to win, and, small detail, he’s winning!
I support Bernie Sanders because I agree with him. On basically everything. Other candidates, I agree with much, especially Elizabeth Warren, to whom I had signed numerous petitions urging her to run in 2015, before Bernie declared. Warren didn’t run, Bernie did. And in the years since then, the Bernie volunteer organization has grown into something extraordinary.
All of the other candidates have taken some verses from Bernie’s song book. And that’s great. I’m glad to see it. But Bernie has been singing these songs consistently through his entire life and career of public service. Now that he’s winning, there’s an inevitable backlash and hand-wringing from (for lack of a better word) “mainstream” Democrats. Their notion seems to be, “Oh no! Bernie’s winning! That can’t be! He can’t win!” Which seems absurd to me, due in small part, to the fact that, he’s winning.
Rather than try and second-guess other voters, the fabled “swing-voters” for example, I choose to support the candidate I most strongly agree with. And I urge progressives and moderates and liberals and others to do the same, and increase the momentum of Bernie’s campaign, all the way to the nomination and the presidency.
Elections are not a spectator sport. Pundits’ predictions are historically, consistently unreliable and so often wrong. Either by our action, or inaction, we decide the outcome. Let’s be pro-active and vote our conscience, vote inclusively, vote our best interests, and elect Bernie Sanders president, and a Blue majority in the House and Senate, and put our nation on a better course, for all our benefit, and the benefit of our unique and beautiful and only world.
Democracy is not something that happens to us, it is something that we do.
Bernie Sanders for president. Thank you.
