At least three of the biggest progressive organizations have endorsed Hillary Clinton without any input from their members. Those organizations are NARAL Pro-Choice America, Planned Parenthood, and Human Rights Campaign. [link]
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NARAL
On January 4, Ilyse Hogue, President of pro-choice advocacy group, NARAL Pro-Choice America, posted a blog on Medium explaining why her board decided to endorse Clinton over Bernie Sanders.
Hogue’s reasons included Clinton’s leadership on the topic, but four out of five reasons had to do with the fact that Hillary is a woman. --snip
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Planned Parenthood
When Planned Parenthood came out in support of Hillary Clinton, the outrage was strong and the backlash swift. It shouldn’t have come as a surprise, though. The CEO of PP is Cecile Richards, daughter of the late Texas governor Ann Richards. Richards’ ties to the Clinton campaign go back a long way. Their endorsement allowed them to donate up to $20 million to Hillary and other candidates.
Richards’ daughter, Lily Adams, is also a prominent staffer on Hillary Clinton’s campaign as the Iowa communications director. --snip
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Human Rights Campaign
Perhaps the most embedded in the Hillary Clinton camp is Chad Griffin, the CEO of the Human Rights Campaign. Since 1992, Griffin has worked for or has been associated with both Bill and Hillary. He first worked on Bill Clinton’s campaign and then at the age of 19, was the youngest staff member hired by the new administration. As CEO of HRC, his Clinton roots run deep, and without any input of members, Hillary won their endorsement.
Again, the backlash against the early endorsement was harsh, but Griffin’s endorsement was not unexpected. He announced the Board of Directors’ decision on Monday morning. Clinton’s record on gay rights, however, doesn’t match up to Bernie Sanders’.
On the Issues, an organization that scores public figures on their records, gave Clinton an 89 for gay rights while Bernie Sanders scored a 100 percent. Up until she announced her candidacy, Clinton expressed a belief that same-sex marriage should be a state’s right issue. After she announced, however, she embraced the cause. --snip
Those of us who have google and a memory clearly remember Van Jones and Jane Hamsher’s words about the “veal pen”.
The organizations that are usually at the Common Purpose meeting include Rock the Vote, the unions, the LCCR, the Sierra Club, HCAN, Bob Creamer (Jan Schakowsky’s husband) of Americans United for Change, CAP, Media Matters, MoveOn, Campaign for America’s Future and numerous other groups that earn their seat at that particular table by not bucking the White House. (The notable exception is MoveOn, who bravely sent a letter to their members telling them to contact the White House and tell Obama to reign Rahm in on triggers. I’m going to guess THAT precipitated quite the phone call.)
Hilary’s endorsements all have the same thing in common. They are top down with no input from members or constituents. They are from establishment Democratic Party insiders with motives that appear to have little to do with the people or the history and goals of the organization.
Bernie’s endorsements are just the opposite. They come from the bottom up and are from and about the needs of everyday people. There are no private jets, chauffeur driven limos, or black tie $2,700 plate dinners in Bernie’s life. He takes buses, trains, flies coach, and does his own laundry, grocery shopping, and cooking.
Elections are about the future. Hillary is stuck in the past and loaded with baggage. Her ugly attacks are only going to backfire. Who here honestly believes that Iowans in general care about PP being an innie or an outie or that the base is going to abandon Bernie over such utter bullshit.