actually by 2030, we the people will own nothing and the billionaires will be happy, that is the plan of the Great Reset... however, I believe the Great Awakening will override the technocracy's plans.
We desperately need another party. We desperately need money out of politics. We desperately need one person one vote! I’m so sad. Believing the polls, a vast majority of Americans want everything Bernie Sanders has been advocating for us but the Democratic Party sabotages him at every turn. “There has to be another way”.
It’s impossible to overemphasize the gross incompetence of DNC narrative & messaging. But, what’s really unforgivable is their determination to compound their own incompetence by stifling & harassing anyone daring to propose the fresh & bold ideas people yearn for. They stamp out “spunk” like hippos stamp out campfires. The only thing that alleviates my anxiety is fanning & amplifying any pockets of bravery & spunk that give me hope.
Thankyou for this and the video of father Francis and having faith in us who want a new dream
"for us all Let us not lose our hope. :Let us remember the promise that Jesus made to His disciples: “I will be with you always,” and remembering it, at this moment of my life, I want to tell you that I will also be with you. The important thing is to realise that He is with you. Thank you.” Amen to this
"What would regular people vote for?" That question will not be answered while politicians are puppets of Big Anything.
The bill was thousands of pages long. I wonder if anyone read it really? If the USA can not live on 1.75 T something is wrong. It is Greed and Entitlement that have to be cut out of the budget, the lives, and the mind of US American culture.
It is TRUE Living that must be "RE-IMAGINED". After all, What is Life and Living? IS more money going to make anyone happier and healthier? Humans are Spiritual Beings that need other intangibles to be genuinely satisfied. We are capable of creating wealth and anything else that is demanded of our lives. Let's invest in reminding people of Whose image they are created to express... no less than the Divine Being. It is a sort of arrogance to think both that everybody needs money, and also that they can not create it for themselves! Wow That is so insulting.
Education does not exist anymore and our citizens are in school or training of one sort or another from cradle to grave. They are learning to depend and demand and defund others. Is anyone learning how to think? How to BE? External conditions that will never satisfy have become the only narrative. This is wrong. The frenzy to HAVE more and DO more is WRONG! We devalue ourselves by appraising our worth using 'money' or any other external condition or situation as a measure.
Our focus ought to be on BEING more -and for that, (I delight in shattering the idols of money) we DO NOT NEED MONEY. Wealth is not measured in dollars. Dollars follow the wealthy - but they are not the cause of it. Many monied people are not wealthy. Many non-monied people are profoundly wealthy and not in lack.
When will we turn to developing TRUE Wealth in humans at a level where everyone can and does win? Developing this internal, individual ability must be the focus of our collective efforts. How to know ourselves so that everyone wins? It is possible and metaphysical science.
To impose financial straitjackets on some to benefit others is wrong. Period. This also never gets us home to peace. Financial engineering is a terrible distraction the fruit of which is anger and division.
Rather, let's give generously the reminders of our true identity as Divine Beings whose only goal and effort must be to Return Home to our true Selfhood where real durable riches, joy and peace reside unlimited and without possibility of loss, theft, or corruption. That is the Kingdom whereof we are citizens. That focus will manifest in peaceful human conditions.
“Oy” is the word! While I agree that $1.75 trillion over 10 years is a lot of money (relatively speaking), it pales in comparison to an obscenely over-bloated defense budget, and - even worse in my mind - indicates the meanness of those who managed to whittle it down, eliminate important components of the bill and force major concessions from the original $3.5T plan. As much as Chuck and Nancy were working toward “unity” (i.e. compromise), I felt the one one really out there fighting for the plan was Bernie!
Sad to see the Corporatists win out (again!). While I am thankful for Bernie, for the enlightened Presidential Campaign you ran and for the wonderful progressive candidates you’ve introduced us to via your Progressive Candidate Summits, I can’t help feeling that we're being offered crumbs from the table (maybe even a whole cookie - as you so aptly put it) while the billionaires and the politicians all get the whole feast.
Joni Mitchell’s lyrics from her song “Banquet” say it all: “Some get the gravy; Some get the gristle; Some get the marrow bone; And some get nothing; Though there’s plenty to spare.”
Your reply is spot on! It seems Americans have lost their will to fight for moral values and honoring Nature over war games. We are on the decline. Painful!
they will meet again in Davos, Klaus Schwab will tell them what to do. Davos 2022 will take place in January 2022, with plans to continue The Great Reset narrative. 200+ jets will zoom in there. they will focus on “accelerating stakeholder capitalism, harnessing the technologies of the 4th Industrial Revolution. Who cares about we the people.
The idea of stakeholder capitalism has been around since at least 1932, and was also endorsed by nearly 200 CEOs of large corporations in August 2019. However, it is now being accelerated as part of The Great Reset. and by 2030, we will own nothing and be happy, Hopefully, the Great Awakening will prevail and win.
I feel that when FDR was President though the peoples minds were a little less subliminally programmed with Hollywood, technology, and magazines at the grocery stores.really crappy images and messages about how to keep yourself from your own Soul and how to be in painful relationships with soap operas giving us our best relationship examples and processed foods etc. Then drown yourself in the latest break up love song only to keep you in your pain and create it all over again with someone else so the artist wd have a top hit and people wd think famous people were gods and pay them zillions of bucks to create more. Also magazines in the 60-70’s were all about women going to work and how to lose weight and letting the babies fall asleep crying without being held, which according to attachment theory research programs us from the start to self sooth by telling us we are not safe or good enough to deserve our parents love and safety and have forever lasting disconnects in our central nervous systems, which then cause personality and social issues, to name a few all while the soap operas continued to playing in as background frequencies for the babies in cribs and grocery carts. And I am not saying women should not have gone to work btw. Even though now it’s worse , maybe be matter to matter via these political people might help save/change the world in the nick of time. However what would be unheard of and what is probably suppose to happen for the real Miracle is to have subliminal messages for the good, like ACIM, compassion, and love artificial intelligence programs pulsing in our biofield and subconscious right now via tech screens, boob tubes, 5g...the subtitles of those frequencies is what a big part of this problem is right now and always has been - add a mask and a dig dong in the arm and stay six feet apart and we are not winning here. ...I mean was it Satan first who wanted to destroy our souls? Cuzzzzz???? Well that is who is winning I think and I not super religious but something greater has had our attention....and the difference now is the it doesn’t just include a part of the world or group of people includes the whole world and all people this time. We need a higher frequency of programming right now...via images and sounds via AI. ...Mercy!
Marianne, I totally agree with your take! The Dems lack gumption, so now we have Pres Manchin and VP Sinema! They call the shots since DC lawmakers fail to press hard on ethics just like they failed to collaborate to get a coup-style President removed. So we got some nice scraps! Wow! Isn't it fun living in an oligarchy?
Pelosi's mantra to her colleagues went astray: "Diversity is our strength. Unity is our power" Yup--the unity of those bowing to our corporate Royals won!
It's time for a system change since incrementalism, with fearful lies about about too much spending/debt no longer suffice.
We need to follow the UK's lead with a mass movement, like their Extinction Rebellion: it forced Parliament to say we're facing a climate emergency on Earth. Plus, the Euros do better for their people with true social safety nets.
I think the general population in countries around the world have always given their leaders the benefit of the doubt. We understand that we can't focus and pressure on moral and ethical behaviour on our leaders in government or businesses. But it has allowed people who's playbook is to deceive, manipulate, sabotage, and abuse to put themselves in leadership position. They maneuver on the population's good nature and long hours of work. While the everyday people work to build a better life these self absorb control hungry leaders work on destabilizing and collapsing the citizens prosperity and good results.
There are certain matters in life where morals and ethics shouldn't be discouraged. So often we are told you can't go there because the situation is complicated. There was no reason why morals and ethics couldn't be applied to the Build Back Better Bill. Where was the enemy or competitor or danger?
Controlling the people via fear, anxiety & lack has been a huge part in the playbook of the powerful ( power hungry). Education used to be a cornerstone in our country. 💔
I've wondered recently why we keep breathlessly waiting on the federal government to solve our issues. Is it because they can tax us? Or, because they have demonstrated the greater proficiency in operating service agencies?
Interesting question, Bill. Has anybody really taken a look at those service agencies? Who are they serving....certainly not the client. Our government agencies in the Department of Human Services reinforce dependency and keep people in survival mode. It has become a duel addiction - the clients are dependent on the services provided and the agencies are dependent of the clients needing their services. Why else would we have generational welfare? People need to see how this department really operates. I have worked in the prison system, Child Protection, Job Corps and with homeless Veterans at the VA. I have a big picture view of how these agencies operate and they are all trauma induced and ground zero is Child Protection. That was the most traumatizing job I've ever had and after more than 25 years, when I talk about it I still cry. I was only in it for 1 year, can you imagine the impact for a child after 18 years? And then what happens to them? On their 18th birthday they are kicked out onto the street, prey for the sex trafficking trade. We have a serious infection inside of our government system that very few people are aware of, that contribute greatly to the increased crime and violence in our country. People are trying to fix what they can see.......that's like remodeling a house and starting with the roof. A new roof isn't going to do any good if the foundation is rotten. We have a rotten foundation that nobody seems to be aware of. Why aren't our government agencies more successful in serving their clients? Because they are driven by numbers - the higher the numbers, the more funding they get. Every agency I've worked in is numbers driven.
You share a heartbreaking story; then, there's Zuckerberg's social media platforms making human trafficking easy via Instagram and Facebook! What a planet we live on!
When I read the first sentence my mind immediately said "THAT is PURE Marianne." Then I read the rest of the essay and I've gotta say, Marianne, you made a lot of good points.
But you miss the mark when you say "If only the Dems were more like Bernie, they would win more and get more done." Because first you have to WIN, and Sanders has, unfortunately, a support ceiling of about 25 to 30%.
I don't think you and your progressive friends ever understood that. Bernie seemed to perform a lot better than he actually did in the voting booths. And he didn't sell to the rank and file black voters at all - let alone the hard core black women voters who have become the backbone of the Democratic Party.
It will take some time for progressives to understand why this is so - and how to reach these people if they truly want to win national elections.
Respectfully, I don't think your description tells the whole story. We now know how much the DNC tipped the scales in favor of Hilary's campaign in 2016. If they had not done that, we actually don't know who would have won the Democratic primary that year. But I do know this: if they had not tipped the scales, then either Hilary or Bernie would have legitimately won the primary, Democrats would have felt good about the primary election (not so many would have stayed home), and Trump would not have won.
Similarly, in 2020 Bernie was again stymied. He had picked up an extraordinary win in Nevada and then right before Super Tuesday, literally the night before, from "out of the blue" (yeah, right) both Klobachar and Buttegieg droped out of the race and endorsed Biden, Beto endorsed Biden, and Bernie was literally given nothing but several hours to try to win any of those votes. Everyone knows who made the phone call and arranged all that; Biden himself would not in the slightest way have had the power to make those things happen. So no, I don't think we ever got to see how well Bernie does or does not play electorally with the American people. Poll after poll made it clear he was popular way beyond the ability he was given to perform.
I like this platform for you and I hope your voice grows here.
I don't know that [all the] "Democrats" were unhappy with the results of the primary though I know Sanders supporters certainly were disappointed. They actually thought they could have and even more importantly *should* have won.
As far as who stayed home? Clinton still won the popular vote by over 3 million votes. You don't know how many women may have been galvanized by her candidacy and actually DID come out to vote (plenty of them did, trust me). Had it been Sanders vs Trump I actually think the vote totals for Trump would have been higher. Sanders simply doesn't poll well in the suburbs, and Progressives *still* don't understand the dynamics of the black electorate, or why Sanders just couldn't capture them.
As far as people getting behind Biden vs Sanders, look. Even *you* dropped out of your own contest once you saw that the numbers weren't there for you, the numbers in your bank account were not looking good, and perhaps if you dropped out you could throw your votes in Sanders' direction and maybe help him win in Iowa.
But he didn't. Because it was *Iowa* - not Oregon or -yes- Nevada.
The point you made about Nevada is fair. Sanders performed extremely well there, and proved some very important points (he managed to do a lot of that overall).
When, on the night before Super Tuesday, three leading candidates decided to endorse and support the candidate whose platform most resembled their own, they did much the same thing you did. Use their leverage to get their priorities in place, vs keep themselves in a pointless search for visibility and legitimacy.
Pete Buttigieg gave an interview when he told the exact moment that he made that choice. It was not after a phone call by any political operative. It was when he saw Amy across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in So Carolina, looked into the face of John Lewis, and knew what he and the Dems needed to do. Amy said she saw it in his face and made her own decision then too. Party over their own personal quest for political relevance.
I can't speak for Mr O'Rourke. I don't know his story well.
But I know theirs, and to some extent I know yours.
You may yet know things about Bernie that I don't know.
Here's something I *do* know - I voted for the man in Sept of 2016. Proudly.
When I voted for Hillary in November I had my misgivings, REAL ones, but I was able to put them aside when I thought about the moment in history for women, and the consequences for the Supreme Court if I sat on my hands and did nothing.
I voted for a court that would not include Amy Coney Barrett and Brett Kavanaugh.
That was my vote, and it's why I sat in front of my TV with a broken arm in the winter of 2017, watching you and Bernie at your Sister Giant Conference pledging to work my butt off for the 2018 mid terms, and why I chose - for a time - to back your campaign.
Because I deeply appreciate what you did for me when more than my arm was broken that winter. And because you can still write a kick ass article like this one.
Thanks for your time, and much love to you, my blessed Marianne.
Dropping the free community college is so very shortsighted and sad
actually by 2030, we the people will own nothing and the billionaires will be happy, that is the plan of the Great Reset... however, I believe the Great Awakening will override the technocracy's plans.
We desperately need another party. We desperately need money out of politics. We desperately need one person one vote! I’m so sad. Believing the polls, a vast majority of Americans want everything Bernie Sanders has been advocating for us but the Democratic Party sabotages him at every turn. “There has to be another way”.
It’s impossible to overemphasize the gross incompetence of DNC narrative & messaging. But, what’s really unforgivable is their determination to compound their own incompetence by stifling & harassing anyone daring to propose the fresh & bold ideas people yearn for. They stamp out “spunk” like hippos stamp out campfires. The only thing that alleviates my anxiety is fanning & amplifying any pockets of bravery & spunk that give me hope.
Indeed, we cannot lose our spunk!
Thankyou for this and the video of father Francis and having faith in us who want a new dream
"for us all Let us not lose our hope. :Let us remember the promise that Jesus made to His disciples: “I will be with you always,” and remembering it, at this moment of my life, I want to tell you that I will also be with you. The important thing is to realise that He is with you. Thank you.” Amen to this
"What would regular people vote for?" That question will not be answered while politicians are puppets of Big Anything.
The bill was thousands of pages long. I wonder if anyone read it really? If the USA can not live on 1.75 T something is wrong. It is Greed and Entitlement that have to be cut out of the budget, the lives, and the mind of US American culture.
It is TRUE Living that must be "RE-IMAGINED". After all, What is Life and Living? IS more money going to make anyone happier and healthier? Humans are Spiritual Beings that need other intangibles to be genuinely satisfied. We are capable of creating wealth and anything else that is demanded of our lives. Let's invest in reminding people of Whose image they are created to express... no less than the Divine Being. It is a sort of arrogance to think both that everybody needs money, and also that they can not create it for themselves! Wow That is so insulting.
Education does not exist anymore and our citizens are in school or training of one sort or another from cradle to grave. They are learning to depend and demand and defund others. Is anyone learning how to think? How to BE? External conditions that will never satisfy have become the only narrative. This is wrong. The frenzy to HAVE more and DO more is WRONG! We devalue ourselves by appraising our worth using 'money' or any other external condition or situation as a measure.
Our focus ought to be on BEING more -and for that, (I delight in shattering the idols of money) we DO NOT NEED MONEY. Wealth is not measured in dollars. Dollars follow the wealthy - but they are not the cause of it. Many monied people are not wealthy. Many non-monied people are profoundly wealthy and not in lack.
When will we turn to developing TRUE Wealth in humans at a level where everyone can and does win? Developing this internal, individual ability must be the focus of our collective efforts. How to know ourselves so that everyone wins? It is possible and metaphysical science.
To impose financial straitjackets on some to benefit others is wrong. Period. This also never gets us home to peace. Financial engineering is a terrible distraction the fruit of which is anger and division.
Rather, let's give generously the reminders of our true identity as Divine Beings whose only goal and effort must be to Return Home to our true Selfhood where real durable riches, joy and peace reside unlimited and without possibility of loss, theft, or corruption. That is the Kingdom whereof we are citizens. That focus will manifest in peaceful human conditions.
Thanks for your thoughts and insight
“Oy” is the word! While I agree that $1.75 trillion over 10 years is a lot of money (relatively speaking), it pales in comparison to an obscenely over-bloated defense budget, and - even worse in my mind - indicates the meanness of those who managed to whittle it down, eliminate important components of the bill and force major concessions from the original $3.5T plan. As much as Chuck and Nancy were working toward “unity” (i.e. compromise), I felt the one one really out there fighting for the plan was Bernie!
Sad to see the Corporatists win out (again!). While I am thankful for Bernie, for the enlightened Presidential Campaign you ran and for the wonderful progressive candidates you’ve introduced us to via your Progressive Candidate Summits, I can’t help feeling that we're being offered crumbs from the table (maybe even a whole cookie - as you so aptly put it) while the billionaires and the politicians all get the whole feast.
Joni Mitchell’s lyrics from her song “Banquet” say it all: “Some get the gravy; Some get the gristle; Some get the marrow bone; And some get nothing; Though there’s plenty to spare.”
Your reply is spot on! It seems Americans have lost their will to fight for moral values and honoring Nature over war games. We are on the decline. Painful!
they will meet again in Davos, Klaus Schwab will tell them what to do. Davos 2022 will take place in January 2022, with plans to continue The Great Reset narrative. 200+ jets will zoom in there. they will focus on “accelerating stakeholder capitalism, harnessing the technologies of the 4th Industrial Revolution. Who cares about we the people.
The idea of stakeholder capitalism has been around since at least 1932, and was also endorsed by nearly 200 CEOs of large corporations in August 2019. However, it is now being accelerated as part of The Great Reset. and by 2030, we will own nothing and be happy, Hopefully, the Great Awakening will prevail and win.
You have certainly gotten a dialogue going...well appreciated...hope you are feeling better...I hear your voice
I feel that when FDR was President though the peoples minds were a little less subliminally programmed with Hollywood, technology, and magazines at the grocery stores.really crappy images and messages about how to keep yourself from your own Soul and how to be in painful relationships with soap operas giving us our best relationship examples and processed foods etc. Then drown yourself in the latest break up love song only to keep you in your pain and create it all over again with someone else so the artist wd have a top hit and people wd think famous people were gods and pay them zillions of bucks to create more. Also magazines in the 60-70’s were all about women going to work and how to lose weight and letting the babies fall asleep crying without being held, which according to attachment theory research programs us from the start to self sooth by telling us we are not safe or good enough to deserve our parents love and safety and have forever lasting disconnects in our central nervous systems, which then cause personality and social issues, to name a few all while the soap operas continued to playing in as background frequencies for the babies in cribs and grocery carts. And I am not saying women should not have gone to work btw. Even though now it’s worse , maybe be matter to matter via these political people might help save/change the world in the nick of time. However what would be unheard of and what is probably suppose to happen for the real Miracle is to have subliminal messages for the good, like ACIM, compassion, and love artificial intelligence programs pulsing in our biofield and subconscious right now via tech screens, boob tubes, 5g...the subtitles of those frequencies is what a big part of this problem is right now and always has been - add a mask and a dig dong in the arm and stay six feet apart and we are not winning here. ...I mean was it Satan first who wanted to destroy our souls? Cuzzzzz???? Well that is who is winning I think and I not super religious but something greater has had our attention....and the difference now is the it doesn’t just include a part of the world or group of people includes the whole world and all people this time. We need a higher frequency of programming right now...via images and sounds via AI. ...Mercy!
May the vibrations of love prevail
Marianne, I totally agree with your take! The Dems lack gumption, so now we have Pres Manchin and VP Sinema! They call the shots since DC lawmakers fail to press hard on ethics just like they failed to collaborate to get a coup-style President removed. So we got some nice scraps! Wow! Isn't it fun living in an oligarchy?
Pelosi's mantra to her colleagues went astray: "Diversity is our strength. Unity is our power" Yup--the unity of those bowing to our corporate Royals won!
It's time for a system change since incrementalism, with fearful lies about about too much spending/debt no longer suffice.
We need to follow the UK's lead with a mass movement, like their Extinction Rebellion: it forced Parliament to say we're facing a climate emergency on Earth. Plus, the Euros do better for their people with true social safety nets.
I think the general population in countries around the world have always given their leaders the benefit of the doubt. We understand that we can't focus and pressure on moral and ethical behaviour on our leaders in government or businesses. But it has allowed people who's playbook is to deceive, manipulate, sabotage, and abuse to put themselves in leadership position. They maneuver on the population's good nature and long hours of work. While the everyday people work to build a better life these self absorb control hungry leaders work on destabilizing and collapsing the citizens prosperity and good results.
There are certain matters in life where morals and ethics shouldn't be discouraged. So often we are told you can't go there because the situation is complicated. There was no reason why morals and ethics couldn't be applied to the Build Back Better Bill. Where was the enemy or competitor or danger?
Controlling the people via fear, anxiety & lack has been a huge part in the playbook of the powerful ( power hungry). Education used to be a cornerstone in our country. 💔
Marianne hit the nail on the head! Again!!
I've wondered recently why we keep breathlessly waiting on the federal government to solve our issues. Is it because they can tax us? Or, because they have demonstrated the greater proficiency in operating service agencies?
Interesting question, Bill. Has anybody really taken a look at those service agencies? Who are they serving....certainly not the client. Our government agencies in the Department of Human Services reinforce dependency and keep people in survival mode. It has become a duel addiction - the clients are dependent on the services provided and the agencies are dependent of the clients needing their services. Why else would we have generational welfare? People need to see how this department really operates. I have worked in the prison system, Child Protection, Job Corps and with homeless Veterans at the VA. I have a big picture view of how these agencies operate and they are all trauma induced and ground zero is Child Protection. That was the most traumatizing job I've ever had and after more than 25 years, when I talk about it I still cry. I was only in it for 1 year, can you imagine the impact for a child after 18 years? And then what happens to them? On their 18th birthday they are kicked out onto the street, prey for the sex trafficking trade. We have a serious infection inside of our government system that very few people are aware of, that contribute greatly to the increased crime and violence in our country. People are trying to fix what they can see.......that's like remodeling a house and starting with the roof. A new roof isn't going to do any good if the foundation is rotten. We have a rotten foundation that nobody seems to be aware of. Why aren't our government agencies more successful in serving their clients? Because they are driven by numbers - the higher the numbers, the more funding they get. Every agency I've worked in is numbers driven.
You share a heartbreaking story; then, there's Zuckerberg's social media platforms making human trafficking easy via Instagram and Facebook! What a planet we live on!
When I read the first sentence my mind immediately said "THAT is PURE Marianne." Then I read the rest of the essay and I've gotta say, Marianne, you made a lot of good points.
But you miss the mark when you say "If only the Dems were more like Bernie, they would win more and get more done." Because first you have to WIN, and Sanders has, unfortunately, a support ceiling of about 25 to 30%.
I don't think you and your progressive friends ever understood that. Bernie seemed to perform a lot better than he actually did in the voting booths. And he didn't sell to the rank and file black voters at all - let alone the hard core black women voters who have become the backbone of the Democratic Party.
It will take some time for progressives to understand why this is so - and how to reach these people if they truly want to win national elections.
Respectfully, I don't think your description tells the whole story. We now know how much the DNC tipped the scales in favor of Hilary's campaign in 2016. If they had not done that, we actually don't know who would have won the Democratic primary that year. But I do know this: if they had not tipped the scales, then either Hilary or Bernie would have legitimately won the primary, Democrats would have felt good about the primary election (not so many would have stayed home), and Trump would not have won.
Similarly, in 2020 Bernie was again stymied. He had picked up an extraordinary win in Nevada and then right before Super Tuesday, literally the night before, from "out of the blue" (yeah, right) both Klobachar and Buttegieg droped out of the race and endorsed Biden, Beto endorsed Biden, and Bernie was literally given nothing but several hours to try to win any of those votes. Everyone knows who made the phone call and arranged all that; Biden himself would not in the slightest way have had the power to make those things happen. So no, I don't think we ever got to see how well Bernie does or does not play electorally with the American people. Poll after poll made it clear he was popular way beyond the ability he was given to perform.
Thanks for your response, Marianne.
And thanks for engaging me here.
I like this platform for you and I hope your voice grows here.
I don't know that [all the] "Democrats" were unhappy with the results of the primary though I know Sanders supporters certainly were disappointed. They actually thought they could have and even more importantly *should* have won.
As far as who stayed home? Clinton still won the popular vote by over 3 million votes. You don't know how many women may have been galvanized by her candidacy and actually DID come out to vote (plenty of them did, trust me). Had it been Sanders vs Trump I actually think the vote totals for Trump would have been higher. Sanders simply doesn't poll well in the suburbs, and Progressives *still* don't understand the dynamics of the black electorate, or why Sanders just couldn't capture them.
As far as people getting behind Biden vs Sanders, look. Even *you* dropped out of your own contest once you saw that the numbers weren't there for you, the numbers in your bank account were not looking good, and perhaps if you dropped out you could throw your votes in Sanders' direction and maybe help him win in Iowa.
But he didn't. Because it was *Iowa* - not Oregon or -yes- Nevada.
The point you made about Nevada is fair. Sanders performed extremely well there, and proved some very important points (he managed to do a lot of that overall).
When, on the night before Super Tuesday, three leading candidates decided to endorse and support the candidate whose platform most resembled their own, they did much the same thing you did. Use their leverage to get their priorities in place, vs keep themselves in a pointless search for visibility and legitimacy.
Pete Buttigieg gave an interview when he told the exact moment that he made that choice. It was not after a phone call by any political operative. It was when he saw Amy across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in So Carolina, looked into the face of John Lewis, and knew what he and the Dems needed to do. Amy said she saw it in his face and made her own decision then too. Party over their own personal quest for political relevance.
I can't speak for Mr O'Rourke. I don't know his story well.
But I know theirs, and to some extent I know yours.
You may yet know things about Bernie that I don't know.
Here's something I *do* know - I voted for the man in Sept of 2016. Proudly.
When I voted for Hillary in November I had my misgivings, REAL ones, but I was able to put them aside when I thought about the moment in history for women, and the consequences for the Supreme Court if I sat on my hands and did nothing.
I voted for a court that would not include Amy Coney Barrett and Brett Kavanaugh.
That was my vote, and it's why I sat in front of my TV with a broken arm in the winter of 2017, watching you and Bernie at your Sister Giant Conference pledging to work my butt off for the 2018 mid terms, and why I chose - for a time - to back your campaign.
Because I deeply appreciate what you did for me when more than my arm was broken that winter. And because you can still write a kick ass article like this one.
Thanks for your time, and much love to you, my blessed Marianne.
"...pledging to work my butt off..."
I meant to type **pledging to work YOUR butts off** ... Apologies for mis-typing