A word to Senator
Sanders, and other anti-Trump warriors.
For those who prefer listening to reading, a video or audio copies of this file are also available (but beware of the accent!):
Hi everyone,
I’m Dr.
Valentin Voroshilov.
The pictures in
the video have no relation with the words you hear, it could have been just a
black screen.
You can just read
the piece online, or listen to an audio file.
I hope you liked
my joke, but if you didn’t see it on Twitter, you’ll find it at the end of this
piece.
I am not a
politician and I will never be, because I have no charisma. Charisma is an
ability to say trivial things in such a way that people would feel, like it's
been a revelation.
Since I’m a
teacher, when I say trivial things they sound trivial.
However, I have a
talent. I can make complicated things look clear, even trivial.
I can do it in
math and physics, and I hope in politics too.
Today I want to
share some thoughts about 2020 elections.
I don’t watch or
read, or listen to news regularly anymore.
But based on what
I see or hear, democrats will not be able to beat Donald Trump in 2020.
It’s not that they
couldn’t.
In principle they
could, but they just are doing it all wrong.
They focus on
things that do not matter for people who do matter.
There are people
who will vote for a democrat no matter who it will be.
Those people do
not decide the elections.
There are people
who will not vote for a democrat no matter who it will be.
Those people also
do not decide the elections.
People who will
decide the election - again, are people who are on a fence.
Those are the people
who voted for Trump in 2016 because they hated to vote for Hillary Clinton.
They wanted to
vote but they did not want to vote for Hillary, because she represented the
establishment.
And millions of
Americans did not believe anymore that American establishment cared about them.
That is why they
voted for an anti-establishment candidate.
And that is how
they will vote again in 2020.
Of course, the
strongest anti-establishment and anti-Trump candidate was and still is Bernie
Sanders.
But even he does
not focus on the things that matter the most, or does not do it in the best way.
If I were Bernie’s
adviser, I would tell him to say this.
From this moment
forward I am not Valentin Voroshilov anymore, I am Bernie Sanders.
My fellow Americans.
This election is
not about me.
This election is
not about you!
This election is
more than any of us, because this election is about our country.
This election is
about our love to our country!
Our country was
hacked!
Our country was
hacked by fear and hatred!
Our country was
hacked by corporate money and fake media!
For several
decades our country was hacked by our own establishment.
She was hacked by
a small group of Americans who do not represent all of us but who have been lobbing
their deals behind closed doors.
And then our
political process has been hacked by a small group of people who were very loud
and, let’s give them a credit, very creative in spreading fear and hatred all
over the country.
Those people hate
everything about America where everybody has a fair shot for having a good
life, where everyone has a chance and the right for having a good job, for
giving their kids good education, for being taken care of their health without going
bankrupt.
This is America we
love, and this is America that has been hacked and slowly a piece by a piece, a
bill by a bill, a loophole by a loophole disassembled.
We need to take that
America back.
We need to make
America ours again.
We need to make
America belong again to all Americans, not just to a few rich and powerful.
This is what this
election is about.
And everyone who
wants to make America ours again has to vote against Donald Trump.
Donald Trump is
the biggest hack from them all.
He hacked our political
system.
He used it against
interests of all of us, including the very people who voted for him.
Of course, there
is a tiny sliver of racists, white supremacists, bigots, and misogynists who
voted for Trump because they loved him.
But those people do
not represent the majority.
Those people are
just a tiny droplet in a political bucket.
They are just very
loud and that makes us feel like those people represent the majority of
conservatives and republicans.
But I believe that
the majority of conservatives and republicans want the same things as the
majority of democrats and liberals.
There was a time
when Americans did something simply because it was the right thing to do.
Now our
establishment makes us think that the only reason for doing something is money.
Their motto is –
if I don’t get anything from this, I don’t care about this.
We need to make
America moral again.
We need to make
America decent, honest and honorable again.
We all need to take
America back to our original values – strong character, fairness, kindness, integrity,
ingenuity and innovations.
We all need to
make America work for everybody, and not just for a tiny percentage of the
population.
How will we make
this to happen?
First, we need to
make sure that we don’t talk about meaningless nicknames and labels. We need to
talk about important things, things that matter and have a meaning.
Let me give you an
example.
This is a key.
This is a key to
my house.
And this is a key.
This is one key
from many keys on this keyboard.
And this point I
am making now is the key point of my speech.
The word is the
same.
But every time it
means something different.
When people call me
“a socialist”, they may not understand what that word means to me.
Open any history
textbook, and you read that socialism is a political structure where all the
means of production belong to government.
But that’s not
socialism we find in Finland, or Switzerland.
When I say
“socialism”, I talk about a society that works for everyone, socialism is a
society that enhances social life of everyone, not just for a few.
I am not against
capitalism, I am not against private property.
I know that
private initiative is what makes America special, private initiative is what
makes our country progressive, private initiative is what makes America great.
Private initiative
makes people innovate and find new, unusual, unseen solutions to complicated
problems our society may have.
However, private
initiative, private means of production do not contradict with government, as
long as the government works in a smart, fair, and effective way that is good
for everyone.
That was not what
was happening for several decades.
And that is not
what is happening today.
Today billions of
dollars, our dollars, tax payers’ dollars are used to create “socialism” for a
few super rich conglomerates. They call it “trickle-down economics”. They
demand more and more money for a tiny sliver of super rich people, telling us
that when those people feel like they have enough, they would drop a dime or
two to the rest of us.
But it is never
enough for them!
They never say –
OK, I’m rich, now I am going to spend all the money for creating more jobs and
for paying people top dollar.
No!
On the contrary, some
of them so stingy they use loopholes and do not even pay their fair share of
taxes!
Our government has
become a pump that siphons our money into the coffins of a few super rich.
So, my socialism
is not for destroying capitalism, but for making our society to work for all
Americans.
Another label some
people try to stick on me is “Medicare for all”.
Yes, I like using
this term.
But “Medicare for
all” simply means medical care for all, medical care for every American.
Medical care is
not the same as medical insurance. Your insurer can deny your treatment because
you have a pre-existing condition, or they can bill you thousands of dollars
and make you bankrupt.
Medical care for
all, or how I call it “Medicare for all” means that everyone, no matter how
much or how little one makes, can get the same high-quality medical care.
Yes, I am a
radical, but I am a smart radical.
I do not want to
close at once all private insurance companies.
That’s another lie
about me.
What I want is to
make private insurers to compete with a highly efficient governmental health
insurer.
Maybe that insurer
will become so effective that all private insurers will eventually get out of
business. Or maybe they will be absorbed by one big government backed insurer
and we will have our own single payer system.
I can promise you,
I will do everything I can to make the life of private insurers very hard. Our
insurer will be making good deals on medical equipment, it will be cutting down
prices on medications and cost of administration, lowering premiums, so they
will also have to do the same to survive.
Everyone who says
that I am against capitalism is a liar.
I am for
capitalism.
But I am for
capitalism that works for everyone.
I am for
capitalism that takes care of people who cannot take care of themselves.
I am for
progressive capitalism.
I am for
capitalism that works equally good for people living in every corner of our
society.
I am for socially
responsible capitalism, or if you will – social-ism - as I just described it.
There are several
other important issues I want to address.
Immigration.
Immigration is a very
serious issue for our country and the reason it's so serious is not because our
country is full, that's a lie, our country has plenty of areas that need people
which could help economic development of those areas. Human capital is the most
important capital any country can have. When people come they start building
houses, creating business, buying food, cloths, appliances.
But for the last couple
of decades our economy was hacked by financial manipulators. As the result of
that, many Americans who were living in our country have been losing good
paying jobs. And now those people are afraid that newcomers would make harder
for them to raise their children, to give their children bright economic
future.
It is a completely
natural fear and we will deal with that by boosting our economy, by removing
all tax loopholes placed in our laws by financial wizards of the Wall Street.
However, we have to admit that our immigration system is broken and needs a
full reconstruction.
Let me give you an
example.
The software that ran
on Boeing Max 737 was defective, it was broken, and that led to two awful
crashes, people lost their lives. Keeping
using Max 737 until it is fixed is simply insane!
Similarly, using
our broken immigration system until it's fixed is a wrong thing to do.
So, we have to fix
it first.
We're gonna pause
for a moment issuing new residencies.
We will fix the
immigration law.
We will work
together, by-partisan, republicans and democrats to reshape the whole
immigration system.
Then when it will
be done, then we will resume all immigration cases - using the new law.
Our immediate goal
is to work with people who want to leave their countries – but doing it in their
countries!
And our ultimate
goal is to help people in those central American countries to have a better
life, so they would not have to run away from it.
We will increase our
aid and we will ask our allies in the United Nations to increase their aid, too.
We will strengthen
our embassies in those countries, so if people want to apply for an asylum they
wouldn’t have to go all the way to the border for that.
While reshaping
the immigration system, we will be following the existing law. We will be accepting
applications for an asylum. But we will be encouraging people to wait for our
decisions in their countries, rather than in the camps. We will offer them help
to go back to their countries. If needed we will build some camps over there,
together with our American and European allies.
We will strengthen
our border, but we will do it in a way our border security forces need the
most, first of all we will be listening to the professionals.
The immigration emergency
will be solved, and it will be solved in an efficient but humane manner.
There is no doubt that
the climate changes, and there is no doubt that people play a big role in that.
We may disagree on
how big is that role, however denying that people affect climate is just not wise.
We will intensify
our cooperation with the world on slowing down negative changes.
The most important,
the major item in my agenda is making our economy thrive again.
We need to change
the way we measure our success as a nation.
So what if we make
more money than any country in the world if all those money go to a tiny slice
of our population.
For decades our
economy has been hacked and distorted by financial manipulators of the Wall
Street. Those people pray to one God and one God only, called a profit margin.
In order to
increase the profit margin, they are ready to squeeze out every penny from
working people. They willing to move away good effective production jobs.
They willing to do
anything to extract an extra penny from the pockets of hard-working Americans.
I will end that.
When I am the
President, every new bill, every new law will be measured first and foremost by
how good that bill is for hard-working Americans.
Americans first!
That's what we all
need to say to those wizards of the Wall Street.
Americans first.
All Americans
first, not just a few super-rich.
Hard-working
Americans will be the first and above financial manipulations of the Wall
Street.
If those Wall
Street financial manipulators would love our country as strong as we do, they would
be able to sacrifice some portion of their profit margin in order to help our
fellow Americans having good paying jobs.
As I said already,
I am not against capitalism, I'm not the enemy of a capitalism, I am pro
capitalism.
But I'm for
capitalism that is good for everyone, I am for capitalism that works for people
at the top and at the bottom of the economic well.
I am for
capitalism that works not just for 1% but for all 100% of Americans.
This is the
capitalism we will be building up together.
Our economic system
has been crooked by financial hackers and now we need to straighten it up.
We will take
America back again.
We will make
America work again and we will make America work again for everyone.
We will make
America smarter than ever.
We need to reform
our education system.
Our education
system also has been hacked, it also has been broken by so called reformers,
who treated teachers and our students like circus animals.
This fake reform
has to stop.
We need to invest
in professional development of our teachers.
And teachers in
depressed economic areas need even more of those investments.
In order to win
again, Donald Trump bets on hate.
Donald Trump loves
to spark hate and fear in people.
But America is not
built on hate.
America is built
on love and respect.
We say - stop the
hate! Make America love again!
Make America kind
again.
Make America
strong again, but not by putting other people down, by uplifting American
spirit.
Stop hate!
Stop Trump!
Charge character,
intellect, and kindness.
I have a deep
respect for all Democratic presidential candidates.
Every one of them
will be a great president someday in the future.
But today I call
everyone to be realistic.
I'm the only one
who can beat Donald Trump.
Every other
Democratic candidate has his or her own strengths, and would be welcome to hold
an important high-level position in my cabinet. I would be happy to work
together with all of them.
OK, now I'm back;
I am Valentin Voroshilov again.
And I want to ask
all other Democratic presidential candidates - do you really think you can win?
Because if you
really think you can win – you are delusional and you do not deserve any
support.
But if you are not
delusional, that means you know that Bernie Sanders has the best chance to beat
Donald Trump.
And that's the
only thing that matters in this election.
You have to ask
yourself, what is more important for you - the future of your country or your big
ego?
And if it's the
former, if the future of your country is more important for you than your ego,
you have to quit your race. And you have to start working for Bernie Sanders. And
you have to ask all your supporters to do the same.
This is not the
first time when I see how a rogue politician hacked the political system of a
country. I saw it before, in a different country, in a different time, when
Boris Yeltsin became the president of Russia.
Yeltsin was a
drunk; Donald Trump does not drink alcohol.
However clearly he
acts like someone who has some signs of dementia.
Boris Yeltsin has
led to the rise of Vladimir Putin to the Russian Throne.
If Donald Trump
will be re-elected, there is a big chance that the next American ruler will also
be Vladimir Putin.
Of course, I don't
mean it literally; of course, this is a metaphor.
Democratic party
has to prove to everyone that it is indeed a Democratic party, that it has
democracy inside itself, that the party is not ruled by the party establishment;
that regular folks are not peasants who do what the establishment tells them to
do. Democrats have to prove that the majority of them are capable of thinking
for themselves.
Democrats have to
prove that they have their own will and will not allow super-delegates to steal
their nomination - again.
Bernie Sanders’
supporters need to infiltrate rival campaigns and every time when they have a
chance, the need to press the candidates by asking them a question - are you
for the country or for your ego? if you know that you cannot win, why do you keep
working against Bernie Sanders?
By keeping yourself
in the race you're helping to re-elect Donald Trump.
By staying in the
race, you are becoming a Donald Trump’s operative.
There is nothing
personal in this statement, this is just a scientific fact from a political s
science.
If Donald Trump
will be re-elected you will be personally responsible for making this happen by
not quitting the race and not supporting Bernie Sanders from the beginning.
The joke:
Every time when I
see, or hear, or read what our politicians, or TV pundits, or political analysts
say, an old joke comes to my mind.
Now I would like to add my two cents to the debate about “party unity”, “censorship”, “Facebook rude posts”, etc.
The more debates take place the better.
Censoring posts on the ground “I disagree with it”, or “this makes me feel bad” only leads to pushing people out of THIS place of the debate, but not out of the debate.
People will not stop thinking what they are thinking, but will find other venues to express it (for example, by voting for Trump).
In the long run, that is exactly what we need these days – we (democrats, progressives, liberals) need to get separated ("give each other a space"), give time to different groups to get a better, clearer understanding of who wants what and who is who, and what they really want. Then those different factions, groups, "cliques", would be able to find a common ground.
To the advocates of censorship "because it will cut fake news" - (a) if you cannot see which news is fake, you should not go into politics; (b) if you are afraid that people would be influenced by fake news you should offer your counter-opinion; (c) make sure that for you "fake news" is not just something "I don't like it".
At some point, everyone will need to make a decision: am I BY the movement, or IN the movement (does not depend on what movement)?
BY the movement means – providing types of support – verbal, monetary, etc.
IN the movement means – allocating a certain amount of time on various political actions. Among those actions; #1 is educating themselves on the laws governing social changes (of course, only if you want to make some social change to happen).
For better or worse, Karl Marx’s “Das Kapital” became the theoretical foundation of many social revolutions.
For a "progressivist", the theoretical foundation is “Saving Capitalism” by Robert B. Reich.
Read, think, discuss, plan, act.
Or - don't like the books I offer? - offer another book!
Yours (and mine, and many of us) tweets and Facebook posts do NOT represent a solid logical theoretical foundation for the actions needed to do "Our Revolution" (or ANY revolution).
Let us be clear – without deep understanding of the true reasons for the country getting to the current social, political, economic state, the fate of any movement (all movements) will be the same as the fate of the “Occupy Wall-Street” - gradual decline and dissolving.
Bernie Sanders said “It wasn't that Donald Trump won the election, it was that the Democratic Party lost the election”
(http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/31/politics/bernie-sanders-elizabeth-warren-boston-rally/).
BTW: he said it five month after the election day; I said the same right after it (https://teachologyforall.blogspot.com/2017/04/clinton.html), but the difference is – no one cares what I say, Bernie’s every word gets scrutinized from right and left.
After Sanders said it, there is no turning back. Now everyone inside and outside of the Dem Party has to express his or her position toward the statement: agree, disagree, not sure - or ignore it (acting like he has never said it).
Arguing about the meaning of this statement is just useless.
This type of a statement cannot be logically proved or disproved; it is a belief-based statement - like "aliens/ETs/UFOs exist". One can say that the universe is so vast, and there are signs of aliens visiting the Earth, so they exist. Or one can say there are no facts (bodies, objects, machinery) proving the alien existence, hence they don't. But in either case - it is just a belief.
Politics needs knowledge and logic; political actions need time, effort, and SLOGANS!
An ice cube in a freezer remains an ice cube as long as it remains in a working freezer. What will happen if one cuts the power cord, or just opens the door and keeps it opened for a long time? Ice turns into water (hopefully, no one has any doubts about this). This is just an example of how external conditions, a.k.a. environment, affect properties of a system. It works for any system and any environment.
Four words:
globalization,
computerization,
robotization,
world-wide-web-ization
describe the drastic change in the social and economical environment of all countries in the world.
That is why all countries now are "melting".
What will they turn into?
(a) no one really knows
(b) everyone has a chance to push it in a direction one likes - and eventually the melting of social and political structures will take the new stable form.
What form?
No one really knows.
Can be ANYTHING (democracy, fascism, you name it).
For more on politics, please, visit the page titled Politics.
I would recommend to start from:
"Why Didn't I Win", by Elizabeth Warren (2020)
and Why does Seth Moulton run for the President and what does it say about the Democrats?
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