Bernie Voters & the Sanjay Effect

"We are going to make America great again."

The election results of 2016 were unexpected by pollsters, analysts, and most talking heads.  Republican voters rallied around their nominee in big numbers in Florida, Ohio, and Michigan.  Who were they and what was their motive?  How did fundamentalists Christians support a self-admitted p**** grabber?  Is the Sanjay-effect a measurable political force?  When Secretary Hillary Clinton did not name Bernie Sanders as her running mate, did she seal her electoral fate?

Sanjaya Malakar was a contestant on a television show called American Idol who was propelled past his talent level into the finals by a following, set upon destroying the show's credibility.  Well known shock-jock Howard Stern actively encouraged millions of listeners to hijack the faux election and support the worst candidate.  These malcontents are a wandering bunch who attack institutions they perceive as non-democratic.  Portions of this same group named a boat in Europe "Boaty McBoatface." When some people witness opportunities to disrupt voting systems, social networks provide them the opportunity to band together with others to pose as a strike-back force.

Bernie Sanders voters were commonly heard as expressing sentiments of the disenfranchised.  Many claimed that they'd rather vote Trump, or stay home, than vote for Secretary Clinton.  The Secretary did not choose Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, or anyone that these voters could rally behind.  The electoral results were dramatic and overwhelming.

President-elect Trump was supported by a vast number of people who wanted an outsider, a business person, a non-politician who was going to 'mix things up!'  These supporters united behind a populous message, and saw this candidate as a cruise missile to our democratic system.  Fundamentalists Christians likely found themselves voting straight party ticket, rather than for person who looked at a 10-year old and said, "I'll be dating her in ten years."  However, the result was the same.

Democrats missed the opportunity to unite the disenfranchised when the Democratic nominee left Bernie voters without a viable option.  That said, this was a 'republic' result, not a 'democratic' one.  Secretary Clinton won the popular vote.  The electoral college is a relic of age long since past, and should either be employed now, today, more than ever, or abolished.  President-elect Trump said, "these elections are rigged, and that this electoral college system is bad for democracy."  I could not agree more.  Social media has given candidates direct access to their voters.  No longer are candidates required to hold public rallies.  They can tweet at 3 am and reach millions of potential voters across congressional and state lines.

The protests erupting nationwide over these election result lead me to wonder, what might have happened had those people been this active before the election?  These results, however un-democratic, came after a contest we all agreed to take part in, knowing full well that a majority of Americans might not get their way.  These protests would serve us all best, if they focused of amending our election laws to insure this will never happen again.

Democratic Party Convention Rules Amendment

Our primary election systems are flawed, in so many ways.  The inconsistency and variability between dates and types is mind boggling and without seeming reason other than to cause confusion and voter suppression.  The problem lies in the formation and articulation of the rules that bind and guide our party's actions.

Neither party's platform nor its actions regard voter intention highly or well.  Nominees might be chosen by delete, super delegates, who may vote in the second round of balloting any way they see fit.  The will of the voters, a majority of the party's loyalists, and the democratic process seems tainted by this bloated theocracy of brokering delegates.

While some states partition delegates, the ultimate winner at each convention is still a winner take all event.  One candidate is awarded both the Presidential nomination and the opportunity to name a Vice Presidential nominee, often leaving the losers in the primary without a candidate to support in the general election.

In order to unite the party, insure a general election victory, a restore democratic principles to the Democratic Party Convention system, I offer this amendment:

"The Presidential nominee receiving the second most delegates shall be named to the Vice President position, on the general election ballot."

Snow-nadoes

“If you listen to the hysterics …, you would think that the Statue of Liberty will shortly be under water and the polar bears are all drowning, and that we’re dying from pollution. It’s absolutely and utterly untrue.”

When Republicans spout such non-sense Democrats should point to people who have already been forced to relocate due to rising ocean waters.   Alaskans and and entire nation of the Kiribati have had to move to higher ground.  That Rand Paul finds such truisms hysterical is the sad reality of the republican party, is its complete disconnection from it.  Without a doubt, industrialized pollution is the leading cause of cancer in America today.  Corporations might be people, but they are the exact definition of a psychopath bent only on their own enrichment, without regard for anything else.  

The world is changing, and rapidly so.  As a child, I went through many tornado drills, during the springtime.  As I grew up in the greater North Texas area, I lived in the middle souther third of what was known as tornado alley.  Most tornados occurred here, Oklahoma, Kansas and lower parts of Nebraska, again during the storm season.  Tornados are becoming more widespread and occur with greater frequency in places outside of what was once their mainstay.  Although I have never heard the phrase on any weather broadcast ever, I predict we will soon hear of a "snow-nado."  I count ever bit as likely as a tornado in Vermont, which happened already.

Global climate change is happening, whether man-made or some type of millennial super-cycle the Earth does, things are not as they once were, and if we can not evolve we will all suffer, the poor and the rich alike.  

We've heard of the "polar vortex" and "snowpocalypse" but these are really just new words for blizzards or cold snaps.  Then again, in my youth I can hardly remember El Nino being anything associated with weather.  Last week, El Nino caused 30 foot breakers up and down the coast of California, where natives claimed to have never seen such oceanic activity in all the decades they lived there.

Republicans seem resolved to go down with the ship, denying that they are sinking the entire way.