Sanders Co-Founder Endorses Hillary Clinton for 2016 Presidential General Election
Earlier today, journalist and novelist Matthew R. Bishop, a founding member of the Bernie Sanders campaign effort, published his endorsement for Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Bishop’s endorsement is only one of a string of sudden major endorsements that came hailing down on Clinton following her first national debate against Republican candidate Donald Trump.
Senator Bernie Sanders has already formally endorsed Hillary Clinton for President of the United States, following her narrow victory over the Vermont Senator in the Democratic Primary. Senator Sanders has publicly encouraged his colleagues to do likewise.
Following is the transcript:
28 SEPTEMBER 2016 — MATTHEW R. BISHOP
As a staunch socialist and a co-founder of the Bernie Sanders Super PAC, I’ve been reserving any further endorsements since the defeat of Mr. Sanders in the Democratic Primary race. I had planned on abstaining because I did not feel like any of the remaining candidates would sit well with my morals and principles.
Having reflected on the first Presidential Debate between Mr. Trump and Mrs. Clinton, I have no further doubts in my mind of my moral obligation to put aside my reservations and endorse Mrs. Clinton for the benefit and well-being of Americans everywhere- and, I believe, even for the well-being of humankind.
I have had the good fortune to know the Clintons and some of their associates personally. I last conferenced with the Clintons in New York back in 2014, during the United Nations General Assembly in September. At the time I was running an international news company that sought specifically to fight emerging violent conflict around the globe through in-depth and impartial hard news. During our conference sessions over a period of ten days, the people we spoke with included presidents and kings from across the Earth, wealthy philanthropists who had dedicated their wealth to improving various ailments in our societies, and technology innovators whose cutting-edge developments could help stabilize conflict and alleviate poverty in some of the world’s most unhappy places.
To watch all of these people coming together, to speak with them and understand the real impact they had when they brought themselves all to the same small corner of the globe, was a transformative experience in my career and in my own personal life. I listened to mighty kings pleading humbly for their citizens’ welfare. I listened to presidents of the Global South detailing how to correct international aid programs coming from the North. I listened to teams of young social entrepreneurs pitch ideas on how to scale up low-cost medicines to treat some of the world’s worst health epidemics. The experience was profoundly inspiring. I left the United Nations that year feeling confident that for each of the world’s most severe problems, there were good, hard-working people in all levels of society, and from all nations, trying to fix them as best they could.
I learned a lot in those few days. It was the first time I had ever been surrounded by such high-profile people. There was more power and more energy in any one of those conference rooms than I had seen anywhere else before. One night I found myself having dinner in between Bill Gates, the King of Jordan, Madeline Albright, and the CEO of Dow Chemical. In front of me, Matt Damon and President Obama were doing some improv comedy that was actually quite good. I do think Obama was a comedian in his past life.
I couldn’t stop thinking about how to ask Mr. Gates very politely for some investment in my business. But, being a simple country boy from Ohio, I decided it would be inappropriate to ask a stranger for money, so I left the room penniless.
That conference stuck with me. It was the first time as an international journalist that I truly saw the whole world in motion. The world’s most powerful visionaries had come together, and they had set their ambitions higher than the stars. They wanted nothing less than to make measurable progress in tackling every single major issue that plagues our human race.
What I saw that weekend was that Bill and Hillary Clinton were an important part of that movement. They were in the front lines of that movement, in fact. When I look back on those days, my confidence in this endorsement swells. There is a reason why Mr. Sanders alienated his own support base by endorsing Mrs. Clinton. He did it because it is the right thing to do. It is what we must do if we are to put the good of the nation above our own political concerns.
Speaking as a social scientist, we- that is humankind- have made tremendous progress in de-escalating conflicts and reducing warzone deaths in the post-WWII era. We’ve also made monumental progress in agriculture, healthcare, access to finance, standards of living, nuclear disarmament, and the rule of law. In all of these areas and more we have had six consecutive decades of progress and achievement, and we should take a moment to appreciate the gravity of those achievements. Rarely in human history has the human race achieved so much in so little time.
What remains, however, are some of those problems that are as tough to get rid of as cockroaches and bed bugs. If we ever aspire to overcome them, our leaders must become more intelligent, more insightful, and more politically open-minded. With every election we must be more and more careful about who runs the world- not less. As we continue to make progress, the issues that will endure in our nation and in our world are only the most difficult problems of all, ones which will require our full intellect, cooperation, and commitment.
Hillary Clinton is a woman who already understands that situation. She is well-practiced and well-positioned to cultivate the growth of the sustained effort which we must put forth on both the national and international stage in order to make continued progress addressing America’s and humankind’s most urgent political needs.
If we hope to continue down this road of decades-long human progress, we must wholeheartedly endorse Mrs. Hillary Clinton for President of the United States and firmly commit to voting for her in the general election. I fear that any other vote threatens to stall or even reverse the great progress that our human race has so far achieved since the end of the war.
Matthew R. Bishop
September 28th, 2016
