Emily goes to Philly for Bernie

I have been elected from the state of New York (23rd Congressional district) to represent Bernie Sanders as a delegate at the National Convention in Philadelphia!

This is really exciting -- not because I'm a Democratic Party bigwig looking forward to networking with other bigwigs (no wig, big or small, never held elected office, don't own suitable clothing for cocktail parties...) Not because I like festivities and noise and cheering (I'm kind of an introvert, actually... I love to spend time alone in my vegetable garden.) No, it is exciting because I still have high hopes that Bernie will become the Democratic nominee, and that would mean so much for our country! I would be thrilled and honored if I could play a small part in manifesting Single Payer Healthcare, effective measures against Climate Change, positive steps towards racial and economic justice, and so forth, in this country.

Here is the background statement I prepared when running to be a delegate:

Emily Adams is a resident of Brooktondale, where she also lived as a child, before attending Carleton College in MN. After 2 years as a Peace Corps volunteer in Kenya, she returned to the area briefly, but then moved on, eventually landing in Belgium in 1999. When her first marriage ended, she decided to remain in Europe and continue to study and work in the alternative health sector. She gave Shiatsu treatments, did translations, raised chickens, promoted organic farms and sustainability projects, worked in a health food store and cleaned houses. When her mother died in 2014, Emily and her Dutch husband Paulus moved back to Ithaca, to be near Emily's father. At the same time, Bernie Sanders announced his candidacy, and Emily dived in, helping to organize the first Ithaca Bernie meet-ups via Skype, from Europe. She continues to write the Ithaca Bernletter and organize meetings, and has volunteered to coordinate the petition drive in CD-23. Emily agrees with Bernie on almost all of the issues, but is primarily impressed with Bernie's stand on the environment and climate change, income inequality, single-payer health care, and support for organic and family farms.

*****

I am aiming to raise enough money for one hotel room for 5 nights, plus some gas money and some food money. The hotel room will cost around $500 per night, but I hope to split that with 3 other people. Any funds I raise over my goal will get donated to others in my room/delegation, and other random Bernie supporters on various fundraiser sites. There are so many worthy Berners out there.... What a travesty that our country works this way -- democracy to the highest bidder, perks and parties for the elite...

I originally posted this campaign on another site, but then someone told me that plumfund allows donors to send a check, and doesn't charge an outrageous 8% processing fee... so here I am on Plumfund.

Anyway: I will share (for anyone who might be interested) a recent facebook post with my current ideas on what I plan to do at the Convention, and why...

********

I just returned from the Wellstone Action training in Albany, where I was very happy to meet a few more NY Bernie delegates, as well as a delegate-candidate who was not elected but who has signed up to be a volunteer at the Convention. We are trying to figure out what is necessary regarding lodging during the convention, and how to fund-raise if we are, in fact, required by the DNC to stay at the hotel. (It seems that only people who stay at the official hotels can get their credentials easily -- and without our credentials each day, we can't get in to support Bernie.) $500 per night x 5 nights... another reason to hate the system.

People are asking me (as a Bernie delegate) what I am planning to do at the Convention. Quite simply, I'm voting for Bernie and his platform, and I do not support Hillary. But I'm not willing to denigrate or vilify Hillary supporters, especially reasonable people who supported Bernie in the past but who now think we have to "unify" against Trump. I just have a different belief: I think "unifying" around Hillary will HURT us in November.

I think Hillary can't beat Trump, and if the super-delegates don't agree and still make her the nominee, we Berners need to put our time & energy into progressive Senators and Congressmen who will be able to keep a President Trump in check. Putting our time and energy into Hillary will be, in my sincere and honest opinion, wasted effort. I think this even on days (which are further and farther in between) when I say to myself, "well, she IS at least intelligent, and it IS possible that she is being genuine now in her opposition to TTP, and maybe she WOULDN'T start new wars, and maybe she WOULD work seriously on climate change, maybe there ISN'T any damaging info in those Wall Street transcripts or the FBI investigation ...." Even then, even with the support of all Berners who might "come around" this way, I firmly believe she can not win in November. Her unfavorables are too high, her support levels (over every campaign she has ever run) trend downward with time, Jeb Bush has proved to us that billions can't buy votes if the candidate is weak, 16 Republicans have proved to us that negative ads against Trump don't work, and Trump is a master of social media who will play dirty and rile up his Clinton-hating base.

A number of dear friends and wonderful people who don't agree with me are planning to support Hillary in November, if she is the nominee, and I respect their decision. Most of these people are primarily supporting her because they don't want Trump to become President -- and I can't argue with that motivation at all. We just have different ideas about the most effective way to minimize the chance that Trump and his supporters will ruin the country (and the planet.) I also have some friends who support Trump over Hillary, and I have to respect their choice as well -- they hate the establishment and the idea of political dynasties above all else, and they are prepared to go to extremes to "shake up the system." Trump supporters are not all racists and bigots -- many are just so tired of getting screwed by the system that they are willing to take a chance on something new and crazy.

If we Berners urge everyone to get behind Hillary, I think it would damage our credibility among all the youth and Independents whom we've recruited and inspired up until this time. I think losing credibility among these people -- the future of America -- could be very dangerous. Voters under 45 and voters not registered with any party: we need these people to drive continued improvements on social justice, racial justice, economic justice, political corruption... on the supreme court... on the environment. They are coming out strongly for Bernie now, and their energy is vital.

If we in the "Bernie leadership" decide to "settle for Hillary" and encourage others to do the same, what will happen to the movement? Even if we could convince enough voters to "settle" so that she wins the general, where would we be in 2018? 2020? Our young people and Independents would be justifiably cynical, I believe, and quite likely to disengage once again. Many will turn to other movements that appeal to their anti-establishment sentiments. No Democratic president will be able to achieve anything if the 2018 and 2020 races bring in more Trump-and-tea-party-dominated Republican Party elected officials. I believe a Democratic president who can't get anything done will, in turn, depress support for the Democratic Party even further.

I'd be curious to hear from New Yorkers who were around during the time that the Working Families Party endorsed Cuomo over Teachout. As I understand it, there was a lot of anger and backlash toward Working Families. I believe many have acknowledged that it was a strategic move (in exchange for certain concessions from Cuomo...) and that Teachout supporters have more or less forgiven WFP now. But still: Teachout ended up surprising everyone and winning more than 33% of the vote. Do people think, in retrospect, that it would have been smarter for WFP to stick to their principles and support Teachout, who might have actually won with their support?

I know, to be fair, that there are Gene McCarthy supporters from 1968 who regret that they didn't get behind the establishment-favored Dem with little charisma or appeal among the masses (Humphrey), and Nader supporters in 2000 who have the same regrets regarding Gore. It is hard to decide which is better: to "vote one's principles" or to "be pragmatic and choose the lesser of two evils." Gore was a good man, intelligent, experienced, scandal-free... he had the Democratic Party and their donors behind him. He was nevertheless unable to achieve a sizable, a respectable or even a narrow victory over Bush. He just didn't inspire people to get out and vote for him. Many Dems blame his loss on Nader supporters, but I wonder if there are Democrats who regret that they didn't nominate a candidate with a more populist message and more appeal among young people and progressives. Gore lost 13% of the Democratic vote in Florida to Bush (many more than the number of Florida Democrats who voted for Nader) -- if the Dems had nominated a stronger candidate, maybe Nader wouldn't have run and/or maybe those Democrats wouldn't have crossed over to vote Republican?

Anyway.... back to the 2016 Convention. I'm supporting Bernie. I'm not going to be rude or violent. But I'm ready to make my views known if there is a chance that it could help prevent a Hillary nomination and a Trump Presidency. I hope that a strong, impassioned statement in some form, backed up by logical argument, might have a positive impact on the super-delegates, or the media, or other voters. I don't want the Party establishment to choose another Humphrey or Gore and try futilely to "drum up support" for him or her. I just don't think it will work.

*************

Thank you to everyone for your support! Emily

p.s. to be clear: I'm not supporting Hillary now but the DNC rules say I must support the winner of the nomination. I'm not sure what that means exactly... but I want to follow the rules and I want to be honest. So how about this?

Should Bernie not win the Democratic nomination, I would in fact happily vote for Hillary if she: releases her Wall Street transcripts, agrees to all the platform planks that Bernie is pressing for, including the carbon tax (as well as methods to enforce those planks), gives the DNC chairmanship to Bernie or to a person of his choosing, returns the money given to her by SuperPacs and vows not to work with them in the future, redirects the "victory" funds to the state Democratic parties where they belong, agrees to make shell companies illegal, reveal her investments in same, and pays back taxes on these hidden assets as if they had not been hidden, turns over the Clinton Foundation to directors outside of her family, and pays restitution to the people & governments of Haiti and Honduras. Yes, I would be happy to vote for her in November, if she does those things.