U.S. Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders should by now be
seeing the signs to end an ambitious revolutionary endeavor. He and his
supporters have indeed delivered a revolutionary message that resonated among
the young and the dissatisfied.
Former U.S. Senator and State Secretary Hillary Clinton and her vaunted political machine felt Sanders’ strong challenge and
realized the need to offer as strong a message, raise as much resources,
and galvanize greater human efforts.
In the New York Democratic Presidential primary, Clinton showed
the way and defeated Sanders decisively in his own birthplace. In
fact, more delegates have been added to Clinton’s total – making it harder,
if not impossible, for Sanders to catch up.
This is undoubtedly a difficult task, which was originally a
revolutionary
vision converted into ambition, then obsession, resulting in
unintended frustration.
This frustration was displayed in the way Sanders’ camp launched negative attacks against Hillary on television and the like.
First, Sanders' deputy, Jeff Weaver accused Clinton on TV of
having “a Pact and a Deal with the Devil” by raising and receiving fees
and campaign funds from “Corporate America” and “Wall Street”.
Yet, official records show that his campaign received from PACs
and employees of publicly listed companies also known as “Corporate America” like APPLE, MICROSOFT, ALPHANET (Google Group), KAISER PERMANENTE and many others.
In Socialized Medicine or Universal Healthcare, will KAISER play
a very important and profitable role under a Sanders
administration? What will the IT companies do in an ambitious CYBER SECURITY Program under Sanders?
Second, Sanders accused Clinton as “unqualified” to be
President. Yet, Clinton is known domestically and internationally as the most experienced and most qualified Presidential candidate in U.S.
history.
This was in response to a “false claim” by the Washington Post
that Sanders was “unqualified”. In parliamentary parlance, Sanders was “guilty
of a deliberate attempt to commit a terminological inexactitude”. Winston
Churchill meant this statement to signify “liar”.
Third, Sanders falsely accused famous actor/activist George
Clooney, Clinton, and the Democratic National Committee of raising hundreds of thousands dollars solely benefiting Clinton’s campaign at his
expense.
However, the reality is the funds were raised to benefit other
Democratic Congressional (Senator, Congressmen) candidates to
help the
Democrats regain control of Congress. It also turned out that
Sanders signed a similar agreement with the Democratic National
Committee (DNC). I see no “PACT with the Devil” on this one.
Fourth, Sanders prides himself in raising his campaign funds
directly from small individual
contributors giving an average of $27 each. I have been hearing the same amount for 3 months now. While
Sanders should deserve some praise for such a feat, he should not forget
that according to the records, $45,497,620 of his funds came from
large individual contributors.
While Sanders was also giving the impression that his campaign
has been receiving a lot of money from his contributors (small and
large individuals), the records also show that while in the last
report,Sanders raised a total of $138,095,654, Clinton, without fanfareraised a total of $145,412,945. Another relevant data, which was reported and should be known by our readers, is the fact that
Clinton
received $28,585,959 from over a million small individual
contributors that included me.
The Cash on Hand of Sanders’ Campaign is $17,211,636 while that
of Clinton is $74,856,700. While sourcing its funds from small
individual contributors, the Sanders campaign certainly spent them as fast.
Yet,Clinton who has accumulated more delegates to date, is showing
more Cash on Hand.
Clinton shares many of Sanders’ ideas. In fact, for practical
purposes, these ideas could be implemented phase by phase under
a Clinton administration.
For the country, for the Democratic Party, for Clinton, Sanders
and the American people, it might be time for all Democrats to unite!
