This has been bothering me for a long time, but it needs to be said.
There was a recent New Yorker cover Mark Ulriksen’s “Suiting Up”
http://www.newyorker.com/...
The cover art depicted all the republican candidates suiting up for the big game, and looking into the locker-room was Hillary by herself. The republicans have to battle, but Hillary has already been anointed. Why? Who made that choice for me, or for millions of other democrats?
I do like Bernie Sanders, but that doesn't mean i just want the field of choice to be narrowed down to Hillary vs. Bernie. Where are the other candidates? I like choice, and i vehemently disagree with how easily people have made a decision for me. Worse yet, it seems they don't care about my input, because they think i am a child. Then they have the gall to get angry at me if i dare to disagree with what they are force feeding me.
Ill support Hillary, if she wins my support, but why am i supposed to just acquiesce and let others make the decision for me?
I assume all of you have already seen Lawrence Lessig TED talk on Lesterland.
https://youtu.be/...
If you have not seen this speech, please watch it. Hillary as Lester is everything that's wrong with our political process writ large.
The Republican field is wide open but on the Democratic side, Hillary is a behemoth.
She has all the money, all the press, and it seems she has already been pre selected by the party. Facing this much opposition, its going to be very hard to convince another A lister to genuinely oppose her.
It shouldn't be such an uphill battle for another D to oppose her. Compare and contrast Hillary with Jeb or Mitt. Jeb and Mitt have tons of corporate, and insider firepower, but it is possible to effectively challenge them. The Republican party encourages potential candidates to join, and the party moves to the right in response.
The Democratic party discourages potential candidates from running because they might move the party to the left. It seems the Democratic establishment likes the center right, and they might have found their soul-mate in Hillary.
Here is the ultimate irony, the republican primary is more democratic and open ended for 2nd tier candidates. The barriers to entry on the democratic primary side are very high, its more of an elitist romp than a democratic process.
In Lesterland there are two elections, same as in our land. The first election is held in secret by the elites. Only after you win the first election can you run in the general election.
In our party, only Hillary can raise 1 billion dollars. She has already won the elites election, and they have pledged 1 billion so that she can win the general.
They are rubbing it in our noses by expressly telling us that only Clinton can raise that much cash- but we need to ask ourselves, why is she the only candidate on the left that can make that much money? Does the DNC have a problem with this arraignment? DWS doesn't seem to have a problem by this lopsided funding arrangement since it will only benefit one corporate candidate.
It isn't so much that others can't run against her in the general. The problem is they won't garner any media attention, and they sure as hell won't be able to raise one billion. And in our bought and sold democracy, if you can't raise one billion, you might as well not exist. Anyone that is telling me we have a choice between Billiondollar Hillary VS. someone that can barely raise 20 million isn't living on planet earth.
Bernie Who? Media Watchdog Documents NBC's 'Meet the Press' Marginalization of Sanders
http://bradblog.com/...
The Press And Bernie Sanders
http://mediamatters.org/...