Tag: bernie sanders

Happy Warriors – Harnessing The Franklin D. Roosevelt Mentality

~ rebelwillfarnaby ~ Leave a comment

One of TAR’s founding principles states that we will not follow the breaking news cycle, but instead write pieces on political history, principles, and strategy. However, the recent event at the capitol, like the rest of the nation, has made us stop and think. Another founding principle states that we call out our own side. CNN has got the conservative bashing on lock, it occupies 100% of their content. Due to the sheer volume of misinformation that the Corporate Dems have spread about Bernie and his policies, we engage in extreme language, primarily directed at the enemies of the Progressive movement within the party. This is primarily due to them being the gatekeepers of power, holding the keys that lock us up. That being the case, calling out phonies in our own party often becomes item #1. However, that fervor must be matched with integrity and values. We can’t criticize the mayor Pete’s of the world being cynics ourselves. See, as a cynic, you opt-out of participating in the solution. Moving forward let’s carry the demeanor that has built this movement, the cheerful FDR, the never-mud-slinging-always-on-task Bernie Sanders, the intellectual drive for equality of Eleanor Roosevelt.

The scene of protestors becoming terrorists and overtaking our capital yesterday was horrible. So perplexed, I at once found myself feeling vulnerable that it was possible for them to waltz right in. What if Trump would have told them to hurt people, would they have started shooting? We saw one photo of a man holding zip-tie handcuffs as if he planned to take captives. After the initial shock, it sank in those now terrorist live sad lives. They will face up to 20 years in prison over a massive lie told by a man who could not care less about them. How have we come to a place in America where people are so hurt and in such bad shape that they risk their lives for conspiracy theories? During COVID we must all be aware of the pressures people face. Mental illness and substance abuse were running rampant, COVID was the icing on the cake. As a publication of any kind, we must have a sense of decency for others and society at large. While we really don’t like Mayor Pete, we respect him as a fellow human being and American. These events highlight the importance of a core American principle- settling disagreements with conversation, debate, and elections. We must avoid hateful speech. It is dangerous. It is a losing strategy. 

Did you know the media hated FDR more than any President in American history!? Yep, he received fewer newspaper endorsements than Donald Trump! How did FDR respond? Did he flip out like Trump, and start spreading propaganda of his own? Nope, FDR smiled and laughed his way to becoming the greatest President in American history. For his positive attitude and sheer effectiveness, they called him the Happy Warrior. With every big business and every media outlet against them, he never lost his cool or went down to their level. Time and time again he outwitted and like a comic sleuth exposed them. Perhaps the sentiment is best captured in his speech defending his dog, Fala, whom the papers and Republicans claimed he had recently left him on a trip and got a massive naval destroyer to go back and get him, wasting taxpayer dollars- 

After any political event that the media is hyping up, it is always best to check in with the human litmus-test Bernie Sanders. Bernie’s most admirable trait is his discernment. The man has never wavered on his positions and as the news cycle breaks, he knows where he stands. While other politicians take the easy route and engage in extreme partisan rhetoric, Bernie will only discuss the issues. And we mean only, like literally just issues. After the riots at the capitol, Bernie called out the President and the lawbreakers, confirming his main line of attack on the President since 2017, “the most dangerous President in the history of the United States”. Yet, the next day, Bernie immediately presses into the Biden administration calling to pass $2,000 stimulus checks. Notice how Bernie takes control of the narrative by reframing the conversation, Cuomo is trying to score a dramatic sound bit by luring Bernie into calling Trump names. In the end, he always brings it back to the most important issues, people need healthcare, childcare, and decent jobs. 

The final patron saint of the movement and perhaps the most overlooked is Eleanor Roosevelt. While FDR was the face of progress, the truth was that he was a moderating force between Eleanor and the country. She was easily 100-120 years ahead of her time. If we passed the legislation she wanted today it would be an advancement. A natural intellectual drive to solve problems paired with a Mother Teresa like respect for other humans made her a powerful force. It is extraordinary to have someone with pure morals and high intelligence, guiding the most powerful country on earth. Who knows how many times it has happened, 2-3 times possibly? Many don’t know that back in the ’30s and 40’s Eleanor was pushing for marriage equality for the LGBT community and pushing the voting rights act before it even existed. Unfortunately, the country was not as progressive as Eleanor. However, for everything else that FDR did pass where he went big, was him splitting the difference with what Eleanor thought. She also created the model of the first lady that we see today. Before her, the First Lady was a symbolic role, merely acting as hostess, wearing nice clothes, and being polite. When Eleanor arrived she immediately started leveraging her role for good! FDR wasn’t the only one to make radio appearances, one could argue Eleanor had more success with over 300 appearances. Beyond the first lady, Eleanor paved the way for women in broadcasting and media. Her impact today is incalculable, she is the deserved hero of progressives, women, LGBT, and all of her generation. 

Warriors are required for tasks like winning the white house, not warriors that carry firearms, but smiles. Warriors like Nina Turner who rally on the mic to uplift, instead of tear down. Warriors armed with solutions, not conspiracies. 

Progressive Political Tactics Vol. #1 – Leveraging Sales Tactics

~ rebelwillfarnaby ~ Leave a comment

Watching the democratic primaries since 2015 Progressives have seen hopes dashed before their eyes, over and over and over again. While there are a million different reasons for our losses, the media blacking us out, a smaller movement than we thought, the list goes on. One thing we can unanimously agree on is that the group we are up against definitely out gamed us. They knew and used the system, and to no fault of our own many of us were new to politics. It is now long past due to all brush up on our tool kit, we need to be sharp to keep the Sanders coalition from fracturing. Primarily we need to have the ability to talk confidently about our candidates and learn how to make their case. Sadly being the most caring group with the most morals leads us to be bulldozed by Corporate Elite Democrats that will do anything to keep power. We don’t have to be nasty, we just have to work harder. We know how badly people need Medicare for All, we just can’t sell it. If Corporate Dems can sell an agendaless party to the country, getting buy-in for real solutions should be simple!

Here are three simple lessons from sales to ease tension and have open conversations with anyone. 

1.)It’s all about listening, not speaking! 

The common misconception about sales and salespeople is that the person who talks the loudest and the fastest would make the best salesperson. The truth is the opposite, the best salespeople are those who are genuinely curious and ask great questions. When the questions are being answered they listen intently. See it is the opposite of human nature to buy from a pushy person. It robs your freedom of thought and choice, making us want to buck like a wild Broncho. It is also very rude. However, most people have plenty of reasons why they could benefit from supporting your side, but they must come to that conclusion on their own. You cannot actually control/persuade people of anything. With great questions and an open and pleasant attitude, they can reach their own conclusions. 

2.) Find a pain point and determine the consequence.

When selling a brand new product that is a never before seen solution, you face some very tough challenges compared to established products like the Democratic party. The toughest challenge is finding a pain point. For example, every American hates their insurance but they are unaware that it is a problem. We’ve never had a reason to think there was an alternative. If someone knocks government-run health care, respond with a question, “Do you like your health insurance?” “Have you or your family ever had a bad experience with the healthcare system?” They will then think about the pain of the reduction in their paycheck. That pain becomes real when you know there is an alternative. Switching would put $1200/month in your pocket, here is the consequence. “What difference would $1200/month make for your household?”

3.) Whoever controls their emotions wins! 

Ok, the goal isn’t ultimately about anyone losing, this is a negotiating lesson. Perhaps the most valuable sales to life lesson is learning to control your emotions. Many people who end up buying from you and being long term partners started the conversations with you completely uninterested. Every time you lose your cool on someone and return the favor, they will never work with you, this requires having more emotional control. This is a golden rule in debates as we saw with people like Biden getting flustered into gaffe after gaffe, whereas someone like Mayor Pete was slicker than Clark Grizwolds non-choleric-silicon-based kitchen lubricant. Pete was unflappable on that stage and danced his way out of every attack with a smirk. Talking politics requires emotional control, people will say things that really press your buttons. We have all been on both sides of flipping out in a conversation, you feel like an immature jerk and immediately regret it. Remember you will never regret taking the high road! 

5 Ways the Sanders Coalition can Win Friends and Influence People.

~ rebelwillfarnaby ~ Leave a comment

5. Talk politics with everyone.

People say they are sick of it, not the case. Here is the most important lesson from Dale Carnegie’s book, the best conversationalist or most interesting people ask thoughtful questions and listen. The key here is that they do not talk the most! Start being genuinely curious about why people believe what they believe.  Even if you are completely underconfident in your beliefs you don’t have to say everything you believe, use the opportunity to listen and learn. One of the easiest actionable tips is to employ the four-second rule. This means when someone else is speaking you wait four seconds after they get done speaking before you speak. They will usually keep talking adding more info and triggering the self-disclosure loop.

The self-disclosure loop is a phenomenon discovered by psychologists. They determined that gathering information as well as sharing information actually triggers the reward system of our brains. Yep, strangers randomly telling you their life story filled with TMI topics is due to the brain’s reward system. The more you tell, the more you want to tell. With a little patience and natural curiosity, you can learn so much about what people believe and why. Eventually, someone will shock you and throw out that they voted for Trump but would have gone Bernie. Not likely, but not impossible. 

4. Read! Competence breeds confidence.

The only reason this is four instead of five is that to prevent complete procrastination on item five. Never let perfect get in the way of good. Often times our belief that we always need more information before acting is our most limiting. If you have the time, do the research! While it is extremely important to not just pull ideas and figures from thin air the greater value is self-confidence. With confidence in our beliefs, we are far less likely to lose control of our emotions when having a political conversation. Plus, when was the last time you ever believed someone who was filled with self-doubt and acted defensive. Remember though the more you study and know the greater your awareness must be of the fact that others are not researching. When confidence is replaced by acting condescending it becomes negative to the cause. 

3. Openly admit the flaws of your party/side.

Look when two voters are talking they are not the politicians voting and enacting exact legislation. The average person has no idea all the different actions their candidate or party of choice has taken. Triggering their ego over every little flaw and hypocrisy will end the conversation immediately. All the while they are thinking in their head, “They think we’re bad when they don’t even have an answer for X, Y,  and Z, they can’t even see what’s right in front of them.” The most disarming comment in a political conversation is to bash your own side, people will relax and open up without fear of backlash. Typically when you admit the faults of your side they will do the same.

2. Trade social media action for real action.

We will continue to write in-depth on the damaging impacts of social media, but for a political movement or campaign, supporters are better off hopping offline. First let’s just go ahead and face the music, posting politically charged articles on Facebook and ‘owning’ conservatives in the comments is actually a politically losing tactic. Spending 100’s of hours a year posting on social media is going to guarantee 5-300 people will never be open-minded to your candidate. Then consider having 1-5 casual conversations a year, in the worst-case scenario one of them changes to your candidate. 

1. Run for office.

While the AOC scenario immediately comes to mind, there is a real possibility here. There are rural districts all over the country where Republicans run uncontested. There are even more seats where incumbent corporate Democrats are the only candidates who have run for the seat in 5+ years. We don’t have to win them all, but we are forfeiting hundreds of opportunities to get the message out. Even a failed campaign gets some amount of media coverage and awareness. And who knows, you could be the next AOC. 

Elizabeth Warren is a Dangerous Enemy of the Progressive Movement, Will we Acknowledge it?

~ rebelwillfarnaby ~ Leave a comment

At the risk of alienating potential Warren supporters, it is better to have an open discussion on her past and present actions to determine if we really want her to be part of our future. First, let’s state that there is zero animosity towards voters. Voters have no control over a candidate, they cannot control them behind closed doors or know what they say or do behind closed doors. On paper and at campaign events the appeal of Warren is obvious. A super-intelligent college professor who started the consumer financial protection bureau before even entering Washington sounds like a home run candidate! However, if you align where she stands with a chronological timeline of her actions starting in 2014, you will find a power-hungry politician that changes positions on a daily basis, and perhaps the greatest roadblock to real change from people like Bernie and Nina Turner. 

If we take it from the top, we all remember that super annoying speech of her military brothers being working-class Republicans, so she gets “normal” people. However, most people do not know that for the majority of her life Warren was also a Republican. Not just a Republican, her coworkers at Harvard vouch for the fact that she was the most vocal Reagan supporter in the college administration. So why did she support the Republicans until into her 40’s!? Well, let’s take her word for it here- 

“I was a Republican because I thought that those were the people who best supported markets. I think that is not true anymore,” Warren said. “I was a Republican at a time when I felt like there was a problem that the markets were under a lot more strain. It worried me whether or not the government played too activist a role.”

Hold the GD phone, this is the candidate who was “just as progressive as Bernie!”? Get real. Actually, let’s get real, Bernie Sanders was a self-declared socialist in his very first run for Mayor of Burlington. If someone tells you everyone changed positions before, that is not entirely true. And yes sometimes it is a sign of a good leader, but that is really a business saying not a political one. Let’s really dissect her response there. She claims she felt that the Republicans were no longer supporting markets and had to switch. That is an admission of the corporate nature of the new Democratic party, she believed they were the more natural continuation of Reaganomics. This really makes sense as we see the party move away from the working class to cater to the coastal elites and exclusively those with a college education. It also makes sense that Mass has the most college grads per capita in the US. It seems Warren has always just been an advocate of college elites, the Dems really moved to her. 

Many are probably in disbelief that the Hyper-Woke-Slay-Queen has been a Republican her whole life, but if you really listen to her this is not such a shocker. Her track record of helping progressive causes isn’t only bad, she actively fights to destroy progressives. Before we are labeled as wounded Bernie supporters let’s take it way back to 2014. 98% of Dem voters have no idea that before Bernie ran he and other progressives were actively pushing her to run for president against Hillary. Not only did she decide not to run, but she did so with a very keen understanding of how flawed Hillary was. Then came her first sin of blasphemy against progressives, she refused to back Bernie. We will never know if a 2016 endorsement could have pushed him over the top. Not to mention that was possibly the most important election of our lifetimes. We all now know that she did so out of the selfish desire to wield power herself, either with a Hillary cabinet position or with the presidency in 2020.

Let’s detour to mention the fact that she claimed to be a native American without actually being one. No wonder the right won’t listen when someone actually does something racist or sexist. If Trump, Rubio, Cruz, Jeb Bush, any one of them did this, they would be canceled into oblivion never to be seen again! Oh, but not one of our own who slams Trump, we can’t call her out for being super racist. Honestly, what is the difference between this and wearing black face? If you don’t know, the Cherokee nation blocked her, she cannot and will never be a member of their tribe. They were also deeply offended by the false claim that she made strictly to enrich herself. She has been a liar her whole life! 

Fast forward to 2020, she declares for the white house. Before we get to her most offensive and nefarious acts of the campaign, let’s analyze her “progressive campaign that accepted big money donations.” So how did it work out for her trying to talk progressive and stay in bed with big business? Here is Krystal Ball on her campaign-” “attempts to co-opt revolutionary rhetoric in service of an establishment campaign, like Disney doing socialism, satisfied no one and left her unable to win more than 1 county in Iowa and an embarrassing distant fourth behind Klobuchar in New Hampshire.” 

In case you forgot let’s rehash, Bernie won Iowa however the DNC delayed the result to look like Pete tied him. Bernie then won New Hampshire and devastated the field in Nevada. By all accounts, he was in the first place. Let’s not forget Warren going for a murder-suicide on Bernie that just so happens to be in front of a hot mic. She claimed that months ago before the campaign, Bernie told her in a one-on-one meeting that a woman could never win the White House. So he said it and she was friendly for months, then when he is leading the race you claim that to the media. Not a private conversation or a debate when he said it, months down the road you drop that during a debate. Sorry, we refuse to believe one of the people who urged you to run in 2016 believes that you can’t win as a woman.  

After that exchange clearly cost Warren, she set her sights on making sure that Bernie was defeated by Biden. In possibly the most corrupt dealing in primary history winning candidates like Pete dropped out immediately to defeat Bernie, but most importantly to secure jobs in a potential Biden admin. And it worked, Pete is now Secretary of Transportation. However, there was one chance to stop the now unified centrist, if Warren just dropped out of the race. She didn’t even have to endorse Bernie, just drop out! She got 3rd place in her own state! Bernie nearly doubled her 16% with 30%! She was a loser up to that point with no shot at victory, yet she stayed to guarantee Bernie would lose. Had she dropped out Bernie Sanders would be the President right now. 

What did Warren get for helping Bernie? Completely snubbed from Biden’s cabinet! See when you abandon real allies for fake friends, no one has your back. If we are to succeed with Nina Turner, we must fight Warren with everything we’ve got. This might seem extreme but we know based on multiple occurrences, she will fight against any progressive that is not her! She is a cynical self-enriching politician just like Pete and Kamala. 

Socialism is Already Here, Just Not for You.

~ rebelwillfarnaby ~ Leave a comment

Many arguments have been made on our capitalist, market-based economy being somewhat natural. Or at least that our economy will naturally thrive through competition and Supply and Demand so long as it is not tampered with by the Government. On the flip side of the coin, this argument implies that socialism/communism is entirely unnatural, ultimately robbing all motivation of each individual. The classic argument comes to mind “you think people are gonna get off their butts with more handouts!” Conservatives do a good job here bringing this into simple logic if the reward of hard work is given without hard work, why would people ever work hard? This is precisely where Robert Reich begins his book, Saving Capitalism for the Many, Not the Few. Reich invites you to imagine that you are out at sea and find an undiscovered island, with a population of indigenous peoples who have never been contacted by the outside world. Would they have a capitalist society due to the laws of competition and supply and demand? NO! These so-called natural laws aren’t laws at all, this is just a system where the government makes all the rules for the market. It is entirely arbitrary! We made up the whole thing! Well not us, but the wealthy who can afford to lobby the government. Breaking this fundamental misunderstanding of the system is crucial to the general publics’ ability to get a fair shake. 

Today we have more mega monopolies than at any time in history. Amazon, Apple, Google, and Facebook have grown to proportions never seen in human history, not to mention the power they wield controlling the flow of information. See the government decides typically breaks up companies when they are using their size to snub out competition entirely. See the market-based argument is that companies that big with that many resources can innovate at a breakneck pace due to their resources so it is good for everyone. That would be great if it was the case. However, Google spends more money on buying small companies and suing companies they can’t buy for patent violations than they do on research and development. Google’s purchase of Motorola is a perfect example, they did so to obtain patents from the company, then lawyers can go out and sue anyone who is a potential competitor for patent violations. Facebook is even more savage, Zuckerberg is famous for a path he walks behind their HQ with upcoming companies. This is where their dream will die. Zuckerberg then tells them you are going to sell to me or you are going to war with me. Vine is perhaps the most famous occurrence, at the drop of a hat they were able to kill Vine nearly overnight. When the CEO of Snapchat turned down his $3 Billion offer to sell, Zuckerberg went and immediately purchased Instagram to take him out. To this day FB has been adapting Instagram to take Snapchat users, like the story feature, and it is working, the value of Snap Chat has been dropping ever since.  

While those are the more obvious ways the game is rigged unnaturally, large corporations really thrive in areas the average joe can’t access or comprehend. Companies like Comcast and AT&T spend their resources constantly lobbying to change contractual law. Unless you are a lawyer, it is likely you would never notice. Even if you are a lawyer, you could never out lobby two massive corporations. See these companies have lobbied to make it legal for them to write things into contracts that had previously been illegal. If you are a customer of any of these large ISP’s(Internet Service Providers) 20-30 years ago when they were phone companies they were legally liable to provide a certain standard of service. You sign a contract and promise to pay for X number of months and they agree to provide some amount of service. Both parties are legally obligated to something. Today these companies have lobbied to change contract law completely in their favor. They now have the ability to write in a contract that upon signing you agree to forfeit any and all potential legal action against the company and will accept their arbitration in the event you want to pursue legal action. In laymen’s terms, we have all given up the right to ever take action against Comcast. No matter what they agree to or how bad the service is they are not liable. They don’t have to provide any level of quality. What is the result of this duopoly? America has the most expensive internet in the world, some of the worst public access, and we are not even in the top 10 countries when it comes to internet speed. If we were to disguise the name of these companies and describe this scenario, you would likely guess this was a business owned by a Russian oligarch.

Wait a minute that sounds like our healthcare system!?

Perhaps there is a pattern here! In America, drug companies have perfected the art of snubbing out competitors. We currently pay the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs. No, we are not getting better drugs, the exact same drugs we take available in Canada at a fraction of what we pay. Why? Because our Government has changed the rules to favor the Drugmakers and not the people who need medicine to survive, like insulin. See our system kills the competitors to these Big Pharma companies through complex laws. First, in Europe, it is illegal for any Drugmaker to ever advertise. In America, once cigarettes were banned for TV ads, guess who bought all their spots!? Big Pharma, so go ahead and add that cost to our medicine. In most of the world for every drug made, there is a generic alternative available at a fraction of the cost. In America, companies are allowed to own patents on drugs enabling them to sue generic brands. Then once the patent is about to run out our legal system allows them to simply change the shape or color of the pill and renew the patent. This allows companies to pick the price they want for potentially decades. 

The moral of the story, this isn’t even a capitalist system. Not in any way. These companies are not competing, they are ruling. The rules of the game have been picked by them to ensure their financial longevity. Socialism is here, just not for you.

What Can We Do?

~ rebelwillfarnaby ~ Leave a comment

After the fall of Bernie on Super Tuesday, so many of us looked around for answers, feeling completely hopeless. The more time spent volunteering and phonebanking the more devastating the blow. See, after Bernie barely lost to Hillary, we had a different regret in that the first time so many of us did not believe and got on board soon enough to put Bernie over the top. It felt like Bernie really would have won if more people would have gotten active sooner, the fundraising juggernaut was a month to slow. Despite all the dirty tricks of the DNC and DWS, we didn’t blame Hillary as hard, or at least we got over it quickly. In 2020 we saw our person taken out in an orchestrated manor, in an attack more unified than perhaps ever seen in Washington. Seeing the fourth place candidate run a horrible campaign then be hand placed in first by the past President and the media left Bernie nation permanently wounded. Here we are again with a corporate sell out of an administration, so what can we do? Do we forget everything we care about and join Biden’s team of sellouts for table scraps on the environment? Do we risk becoming the hypocrites the right accuses us of by swearing off corporate donations, then being ok with it when it is our preferred flavor? 

While this isn’t an article about how they F’ed Bernie, we can never forget the tactics and scale of our opposition. As we look forward we must choose our path wisely, but most importantly we must start thinking about long term strategy and trajectory. Cleary the corporate dems who have been at war with us have a long term plan for how to weed us out. They have a classic playbook to paint the narrative, what did they all say in perfect harmony when they lost seats in the house and didn’t take the senate? “It was all these radical leftist that cost us the election!” Even though centrist lost at a much higher rate than candidates backing the Green New Deal and M4A. This is where we must improve, we must immediately counter these attacks or else the public will only hear that side of the story. And for those too deep into politics, the average person does not go research another source after hearing something from President Obama. We should have been shouting “we told you so” from the rooftops! The first major course correct that needs to be verbally acknowledged by all of us is recognizing that Nancy Pelosi and the Corporate Dems hate us more than Trump or poor rural voters. They want to destroy us completely, not just win, but destroy. If we keep marching ahead holding hands with our biggest advisory we will be dead on arrival, and we will deserve it for stupidity. 

With an incoming Democratic administration it can be at times conflicting, of course we aren’t with the Republicans, but the Corporate Dems made it perfectly clear that we are not welcome with them. However we do have popular support! Support for the agenda that helps real working Americans. Medicare for All and raising taxes on the wealthy have a majority support. Perhaps it is time to harken back to the most successful Democratic President of all time, FDR. Specifically how FDR faced a very similarly corrupt and wealthy Washington, yet used popular support to put pressure on politicians.

Did you ever indulge in the cynics’ questions to Bernie, “How will you ever pass these bills with Mitch McConnell and the republicans in the senate?”. Probably the more pressing and realistic question would be how is Bernie going to get the Corporate Dems on board when it upsets their masters? Well Bernie gave us a little taste of the FDR play book he planned to use- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S51uyddIiiM . See FDR knew he was the most popular politician in any given state, he also knew his agenda shared in that popularity. Whenever a politician would try to stop his legislation he would immediately call them out on all channels and threaten to start publicly campaigning against them. Only the most skilled politicians understand how to leverage popular support, while most are never popular enough to have the option. Trump and Obama squandered this to a degree that has never been seen. We can probably chalk that up to them both equally being in bed with donors. Obama had a supermajority in the senate and instead of passing medicare 4 all, gave the Republicans and business class exactly what they wanted, despite the will of the people he caved to donors. Trump had the same opportunity and floundered even more. See Trump was the most popular Republican in every state by massive margins. Why the hell did he let Senator Ron Johnson, who is underwater on his approval in his own state, tank his stimulus deal? Trump could have gone out in one tweet or rally and straightened his ass up. Imagine having a sub 40 approval rating in a swing state and still adamantly stiffing your voters, sadly we see it everyday. 

The key to this system of public pressure uses their corruption against them. See they don’t actually care about donors, they just want to be personally enriched and personally leverage donors to stay in power. This is their greatest weakness and strength in a corrupt system, they have no core ideology. If there is one thing we know about people like Mayor Pete and Elizabeth Warren(previously an avid Ragan supporter) they will change every position they have for power. Self-seeking power is the only sure bet with their type, and their type is the most common in Washington. This is the weak spot, if someone like Bernie dropped into your state to start campaigning against you and airing your previously private voting and donor record it would threaten reelection, something that would guarantee an attitude adjustment. You are kidding yourself if you don’t think Warren and Pete would have completely changed their tune on republican talking points if Bernie had won you are so gullible. They would change skin and morph back into two super Progressives who always had Bernie’s back. 

Back to the original question, what can we do now? First, we must change our mentality to long term strategic thinking. While there are more vocal Progressives in congress now than any time in the last 30 years, we are severely outnumbered, and the media is working overtime to erase us. This is perhaps our most important mission, never stop talking about Bernie Sanders and his platform. Never stop criticising the hypocrisy of accepting corporate donations, remember that Bernie raised more. Never forget the media treatment, giving Biden $100 Million in free air time, they are a permanent enemy. Never forget that the Corporate Dems hate us more than they will ever hate a Repulican. While there are not many concrete actions to take, perhaps the actions we do not take will be of the utmost importance. We must stop allowing Republicans disguised as Dems to gain our support. They have already picked their team, we are not on it, so we must stop clinging to their coat tails and letting them drag us through the mud. It is time to harness our inner tea party ferocity or be obscured into oblivion, totally forgotten.

Erasing Student Debt without Tuition-Free College?

~ rebelwillfarnaby ~ 3 Comments

With the stage set for Joe Biden to take the White House, many on the left are praying he will pass anything from Bernie’s agenda. By the looks of his complete corporate sell-out of a cabinet, from Amazon to Air B’n’B people, we are crazy to expect anything but a social security cut. However, they have recently floated the idea of eliminating all college debt. While this seems like a victory at first, this falls right in line with the Wildcat Democrats, they only move on things when it enriches or empowers them. With the election results showing the new American divide is the college-educated vs the non-college-educated, this seems to be a massive payout to highly educated people who supported Biden. This has the potential to incite class warfare, this is a trillion-dollar wealth transfer to the most upwardly mobile segment of the population. You are probably thinking, wait wasn’t Bernie for this? Are the companies that loan this money preying on minorities that receive the worst end of the bargain? Let’s break down how this plan differs from Bernie’s and why exactly the corporate Dems are keen on it.

First off, we should know, the Corporate Democrats that sell out constantly would never actually pass a bill to help working families, it is strictly against their donor’s demands. So how does this debt relief bill gets approved by the lenders that pay for their mansions? This is where Wildcat liberalism comes in. See the Dems find a way for these seemingly liberal policies to line the pockets of them and their rich donors. Stated more clearly the Pelosi brand of liberalism is to back a cause once it is financially profitable for her and her donors. Someone like Elon Musk becoming one of the wealthiest men on earth from renewable energy is a great example. They only get on board once they can make money doing so, just like all these consumer brands running marketing campaigns for social justice. Is the cause morally there? Sure, but they are ultimately doing it to make money. Nothing is sacred to this group of corporate elite Dems, and their donors who run these marketing campaigns. Remember Nike backing Collin Kapernick, all the while using slave and child labor to make their shoes overseas. While the call for social justice is real and legitimate, the movement has been overtaken by those profiting off the campaign. This is the case for every “liberal” cause that the corporate Dems have backed, it either makes them wealthy or at the least cost them nothing, for example publicly backing the #metoo movement yet not passing any legislation. 

So how could relieving student debt not excite the Bernie Base? Well if you are familiar with the debate on student loan debt there are a few different ways to slice this cake. The plan Elizabeth “The Snake” Warren and the Bidens corporate administration back calls for erasing all student debt. Is removing student debt a bad thing? No, at first take it is a really good thing. We know that minorities are more likely to take on student debt to attend college. If you are younger than 45 you know the pressure of attending college, do it or flip McDonald’s hamburgers for the rest of your life. We are also aware of the predatory practices with student loans, for example it does not disappear with bankruptcy. Student loans also cripple those in the most critical roles in society like social workers, who the market system tell us are worthless based on their paycheck. From this perspective you are probably wondering how could we not be excited about their plan? 

This is where it is important to highlight the difference in the Corporate plan and the Bernie plan. Bernie’s plan included making all public colleges and universities tuition free. This is the crucial part that Biden is missing, and also the part that risk further dividing the country. Imagine being in the massive group of people who did not attend college and you have no student debt, but you have plenty of debt on your home and car. You voted for Trump, he losses and Biden devises a plan to transfer as much wealth as possible to his voters and not you. He does it by erasing all student loan debt, not UBI or free healthcare that all voters receive, but by erasing the debt that majority of his voters carry. This is the major difference in Bernie’s plan and theirs, they are breaking FDR’s golden rule, never create a program that doesn’t include everyone. They are choosing a specific group to help, if we should ever cry foul play it is now. When the governement starts segmenting people you enjoy it until you are on the losing end of the deal. What happens if the Republicans are propelled by angry voters to give UBI only to those who didn’t attend college?(it would never happen) We would be in an outrage! This is why Bernie’s plan of making public universities tuition free is superior, it includes everyone and prevents this nightmare student debt crisis. 

This is the the primary divide between Bernie and the Corporate Dems like Pete and Warren, he is actually fighting for all people, not just his voters or donors. For the Corporate Dems the greed and thirst for personal power aligns with todays cynical climate. They flourish speaking negatively about the other side, scoring internet sound bites are much more important than actually legislating, Kamala Harris is a great example of that. This is why they will only back progressive seeming policies when they are lucrative to them and their base. They aren’t in the game to help the nation, they don’t care about red states or red voters, just the next election.

Local Everything

~ rebelwillfarnaby ~ Leave a comment

Have you ever wondered what life was like or would be like with no large chains or corporations? What would your town look like if Sonic, McDonald’s, and Walmart didn’t exist? Those are just the obvious retail chains, could we function without larger companies like the internet or agricultural companies? This article will serve as an open ended thought experiment to build upon in series format. Let’s first dive into the advantages of large companies and how they occurred somewhat naturally, then we will look at the advantages of moving to localism. 

First, let’s think about how businesses have gotten so large and how they became non-local. Walmart is a great example here, they started with one location in Arkansas and expanded all over the world. Was this a Dr. Evil style plan to ruin rural economies? Very doubtful. See they had legitimate value to offer their customers, they had the lowest prices. Then as they grew they were able to keep lowering prices due to volume discounts. See businesses naturally get better prices as they get larger and larger. No matter where you live Walmart can give you the cheapest Boar’s Head Deli Meat because they are Boar’s Head’s largest customer. It’s called a unit discount, you buy X amount of units the price per unit drops. To this point they defeated competition honestly by having lower prices and more options. From there you can see how someone would open new locations in towns that didn’t have grocery stores(of course we also know they went to plenty of towns and put the locals out of business). Thus the value of having low prices spread to consumers across America. 

Let’s just compare the composition of American small towns before and after Walmart. While the prices benefit the community and leave more money in their pocket upon purchase of groceries, they are permanently taking money out of their community. See before Walmart they might have paid higher prices, but they were paying a member of the community who was going to spend that money in the community. Just imagine how many local business owners have gone under because of Walmart, potentially 3-15 business owners per town. This is how corporations start the slide toward inequality, first, they take out the local grocery store owner in a small town, she then quits visiting the local salon to get a discount at Heads Up, slowly putting the local salon out of business. This is the snake that eats itself, we selfishly or for survival need the discounts, and we perpetuate the cycle leading to fewer and fewer people owning businesses and making a profit. It is like a corporate vampire that has sucked the money of every rural town in America. 

Why is it so tough for us to try and support our neighbors? First, these large companies spend fortunes to win over trust so let’s not pretend the average person is just stupid. Secondly, many of these chains like Walmart and Dollar General prey on the impoverished, they know if you barely have enough money for food, you will buy from the cheapest store where you can get the most food per dollar. So many people are barely surviving today that we can’t just ask them to start paying more at a local level until wages start to rise to support the community. 

From a cultural standpoint, we are the most individualistic society on earth, this is another barrier to corporations’ advantage, for now. Think about Native American cultures where you were valued based on how much you gave to others. If you caught the largest fish the “prideful” thing to do is to give it to the whole tribe. Contrast that with our views of the community, the small town where people watch out for each other is dead and gone. This is the same reason we struggled more than any other country with COVID, we have a hard time thinking collectively. However, this same individualistic drive could save us. We need to flip the script and use that drive to open your own local business. We already adore the big entrepreneur culturally, now we need to adore the local entrepreneurs! This isn’t too big of a shift for Americans, the shift will be supporting local members of the community consciously. 

One of Karl Marx’s most accurate and relevant critiques of capitalism is that eventually, our work would alienate us to the world and importantly alienate us from the products we produce. What did he mean by alienate? Well, Marx saw the system with two halves, the owners and the workers. He believed that the longer a worker was asked to produce a product with no ownership, the more hostility would grow toward the product. Likewise they would grow alienated from the outside world where the product is being sent. Let’s think back to the America of Eugene Debbs childhood in the early 1800s when the majority of Americans worked for themselves as farmers or small business owners. Say you lived in a thriving small town like Debs, and you were the town watchmaker. You had control over the process and got to see the clock come together from beginning to end, feeling prideful of your daily work. Then you also felt connected to your community being the clockmaker, you walk around town seeing your clocks and your happy customers and you feel a sense of belonging in the community. Let’s compare that picture of the local clockmaker with the factory worker in the clock factory. In the factory, he works placing the same cog in the same clock all day long. He never completes a clock himself or sees a finished product because the rest of the process is finished in another building. The clocks are then distributed to customers that he doesn’t know and never sees. Eventually this employee starts to completely despise clocks and the factory. 

So how can we take back the profits of ownership and our life satisfaction? Is it through Government oversight? Is it through a lobbying effort or private group? Hard to say but this is a cause dear to our heart here at True American Radar. We often hear the phrase “vote with your dollar”,  in America that is the true ballot. We are starting on that level, personally opting for local at every chance. However, let’s not kid ourselves, this will take a mass coordinated movement to turn the tide against the Walmarts of the world. Stay tuned for more discussion on this topic.

Why Bernie Couldn’t Speak Up.

~ rebelwillfarnaby ~ Leave a comment

As time passes and we got to see Joe Biden get as close as possible to blowing the election entirely. His candidacy was the detriment of many Senators and Representatives, or Trump’s candidacy was their savior. Either way, Biden wasn’t even close to the Blue Wave, and we believe history will show this was the election that started a damning trend for the Democrats, they officially traded all policy to court white suburban voters. Not only did Joe abandon policy he abandoned the working class altogether for the college-educated. Seeing this complete disaster play out, we can’t help but wonder, would Bernie have flipped the senate and given us the blowout needed to delegitimize Trump? Because Joe Hidden’s low enthusiasm campaign couldn’t fully take Trump out, he will be in our face for the rest of our lives. This brings up an old campaign question, should Bernie have declared war on the media and lashed out at them for supporting their elite friend? 

It is easy to want to criticize Bernie, he’s the only one in the arena! And as the saying goes, it is easy to criticize others when you’re sitting in the bleachers. However many respectable people in the progressive left knocked Bernie for taking the abuse of the media and the corporate Democrats. They wanted him to call them all out for being hypocrites, it’s safe to say it felt like the good guy could finally get a shot to layout the bully. After so many years of the Government serving the wealthy and being so corrupt who didn’t want someone to stick it to the Andrew Cuomos of the world. Heck, we see that conservatives wanted to give Washington the middle finger so bad they would have backed anyone willing to do so. While it would have felt good for 30 seconds watching Bernie accurately tell off Jake Tapper, it wouldn’t have gone the way we think.

For those who are thinking,” well Trump went against the media and he won” let’s break that down. While Trump’s Twitter following and media strategy were successful, read more about it here, let’s focus on the damage the media did to him. In 2016 Trump was able to best the media. Even though he won, the media was able to cripple him in so many ways. They did successfully frame him as a rude and an idiot to the suburban white people that gave Joe the election. After Trump shocked them, thanks to his Twitter following(which dwarfed all media channels combined), the media adjusted their gameplan. Their strategy evolved and they found their calling card. It wasn’t in persuading voters, it was in completely silencing those they didn’t like. They didn’t need to convince voters to choose Joe Biden, they just had to cover the race like he was the only one running. This is the game Trump bested them at, ‘news media’ is just a marketing channel. And just like marketing the more a name or face is repeated the more it sinks in. In 2016 Trump garnered Billions in free advertising from CNN and MSNBC, they couldn’t quit talking about him. This is the first big reason why Bernie didn’t have the option to go nuclear on an interview with Anderson Cooper, he would have been exiled immediately, with them cutting reruns of the moment to make Bernie look insane. That is the price Trump paid, they replayed his gaffes until it drove suburban whites right out of the party. Just pause for a moment and think of all the humiliating offensive things Joe Biden has said on the campaign trail, the corn pop scenario comes to mind, or the let your kids listen to records moment, if that had been Bernie or Trump it would have played on every station on repeat, yet the media never mentions it. 

Had Bernie teed off on MSNBC he would have been smeared into oblivion. Think about it, they so rarely even let him on the air, if he would have lost his temper they would have spent every waking hour declaring they were right, Bernie was crazy. I can just hear it now, Bernie is a crazy sexist that attacked a woman live on air, just as we suspected his a sexist maniac. Think about the fact that Bernie has lived a spotless life, no dark secrets or dirty deeds like all other politicians. Yet despite the fact that he has believed the same positions on record his whole life, they still spent more time smearing him over saying Cuban literacy rates were impressive(highest in the world). Hold those smears in your mind as we think about all of the past life issues of other candidates that were never mentioned- Elizabeth Warren was a conservative her whole life, Joe Biden saying he didn’t want to send his kids to school with black children in a “race jungle”, Pete Buttigieg going from a Bernie fanboy to a corporate straw-man. The list goes for days, but we will never hear these stories on CNN or MSNBC. Sadly if you want to know the truth about the Corporate Dems, Fox News is more likely to tell you the truth. All of these stories were there, yet we never heard them. This again highlights the fact that the media’s true power lies not in persuasion(because they are more hated than Mitch McConnell) but in omission. They are the information gate-keepers of the world, if they don’t cover it, it doesn’t exist. This is how they are slowly trying to remove Bernie Sanders and his platform from our collective consciousness. Let’s not forget for the last few years Bernie has been the most popular senator in the country, and you will never see his face on CNN or MSNBC. 

The thing often overlooked about Bernie is his chess grandmaster-like ability to win and push ahead despite every one of power declaring war on him. Remember how badass it was when he put so much pressure on Bezos that he raised the company minimum wage to $15/hour. Talk about making it happen! We really believe that Bernie had a very well thought out philosophy on how to conduct himself, as well as the knowledge of how the media would treat him. You can watch clips for days of Bernie talking about the corruption of the media and how they are negatively impacting us. This is the final point as to why Bernie did pull a Trump, his reputation will stand through history. See Trump went to war, and he had a heavy price to pay. There are already talks of historically “canceling” everyone who worked with him. There are already movies coming out to bash Trump, they will tell him story till the end of time just to try and humiliate his name and legacy. See if Bernie would have declared war, he would become a laughing stock of high brow corporate Dems. His reputation would have been painted by the media as the maniac we always told you he was. We would hear quips and jokes at his expense, and he would live in our minds as a joke instead of the thought leader of America. 

One of Bernies great moves is that we all respect him more than his adversaries and infinitely more than the media. He walked the tight rope campaigning for 6 years and maintained respect decency and honesty despite naysayers trying to knock him down the whole time. In honor of Bernie’s hard work let’s vow to never forget his fight, but most importantly never forget who our true enemies are. They came after our boy, let’s have his back for once. Turn off CNN! Turn off MSNBC!

The War Within – Why Progressives need to accept the war Corporate Dems have waged.

~ rebelwillfarnaby ~ Leave a comment

Ever since the corporate Democrats and their donors teamed up against Bernie in the primaries, the debate has gone back and forth on whether we should just fall in line and support Biden. For Bernie supporters our next move will possibly be the most important of the movement, do we stay organized, our splinter into a thousand pieces? Let’s really start to think about how we can accomplish the agenda, but most importantly we need a thorough understanding of our enemies and how they sabotage us. We will also explore the flimsy reason why we wouldn’t go to war with Biden and company. In life and especially in politics you are never sitting still, if you aren’t moving forward, you are moving backward.

Flashback to 2015 when Debbie Wasserman-Shultz and Hillary Clinton rigged the DNC and democratic primary against Bernie Sanders. Did you know the DNC didn’t even allow Bernie access to their voter database(they give access to all candidates)? If you aren’t familiar with the process, imagine the RNC choosing Ted Cruz over Trump, and giving all data and resources to Cruz. Bernie had to start completely from scratch on outreach. Despite being essentially cheated and constantly dogged by Hillary and the rest of the corporate dream team, he still fought like hell to stop Donald Trump. Then after she lost the election, she spent all of her time publicly blaming Bernie for her loss, pathetic! It is truly amazing that Bernie has the integrity to take the high road and not blow up on them. 

Back then, we had no idea how to react to Trump, we were led to believe this was the evilest human to date. It was a no brainer that we could never support Trump, and any vote against Hillary could only be sexism or racism. Plus the first time around Bernie was such a long shot that it lessened the feeling that something had been taken from us, in a sense we couldn’t lose what we didn’t have. It was mostly in hindsight that we saw the Clinton shenanigans with the DNC and with the Iowa vote count, that we realized how close we were. More importantly, the first run showed us that we did exist in politically relevant numbers. Perhaps the biggest lesson missed was the strength and determination of the Corporate Dems aka our opponents. We underestimated them then, and underestimated them in 2020, to our downfall.

The 2020 Sanders campaign showed so much grit and experience from the first time around, yet no amount of skill and experience could win. When Bernie pulled ahead of Warren and started knocking Pete around at the polls, it looked like a sure victory. Then came a crucial lesson for us, the media bats last. After a pitiful campaign full of gaffs Joe Biden leaned into the political establishment and won South Carolina handily. Even though Bernie won Nevada by a similar margin, Joe received 4x the amount of positive coverage as Bernie. 

Then the unthinkable happened, behind closed doors, every greedy corporate Dem led by Obama connived up a plan to stop Bernie Sanders at all cost. They would all drop out to endorse the man in 4th place who had no agenda and seemed to be facing rapid mental decline. Never in history has someone in Pete Buttigieg’s position dropped out so early. Never forget that when this weasel gets a cabinet position in the Biden administration and Bernie doesn’t. Another lesson we didn’t learn with Warren in 2016 that we must remember with Pete- our most dangerous enemies are in blue and they are right beside us. If you don’t remember Warren endorsed Hillary when she could have tipped the race for Bernie, we should have known she would be the final dagger on Super Tuesday when she refused to drop out despite never finishing second in any state. If you watch Game of Thrones(Spoiler alert!), this is exactly like the scene where the knights watch all stab John Snow with the deception being led by Ollie, the small boy that John mentors, who stick the very last knife in his stomach. 

This is where we have to take a step back and really study our adversaries. In 2020 we quickly forgot who was really against us and how motivated they were to stop us. Clearly, we are losing the internal battle for the party. Let’s not forget the Democratic party is a shell that stands for nothing except the person in charge. If we want someone like Bernie to ever be able to win, we have to start picking off his adversaries. Replicating AOC’s victory should be our number one goal, let’s pick off vulnerable corporate Dems. Even if we can’t beat them we cannot allow them to ignore us by staying quiet and submitting to them. The Republicans cream us because they allow invigorated and aggressive members to take the world by storm. Pelosi can’t let people like Bernie in because they expose her as what she truly is- Republican Lite. The big picture lesson, we will never beat the Republicans, without beating the Corporate pseudo-Republicans on our own team first. Despite the trash-talking, we actually have to prove we have more voters than them. Say we actually go toe to toe with them and fight just as hard but keep losing, then we will have to look internally at the fact that our message does not resonate. For the time being, our enemies in blue seem to be a larger roadblock than our message.