With the New York primary coming up, Spike Lee and Bernie Sanders–the filmmaker and the politician–sat down and talked about politics and the state of our nation. At the 15 minute mark, the two Brooklyn natives turned to education (something that undoubtedly concerns many readers here) and the importance of making our public universities actually accessible to the public. Such a radical thought? You can read a transcript of the conversation over at The Hollywood Reporter.
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Agree with Bernie. Obama is one of the smartest, disciplined and focused world leaders. I’m not American, but Bernie Sanders is miles ahead of the pack. If you are American and you vote. He is the man. He gets you.
Chris Hedges wrote in Empire of Illusion, “Those captive to images cast ballots based on how candidates make them feel. They vote for a slogan, a smile, perceived sincerity, and attractiveness, along with a carefully crafted personal narrative of the candidate. It is style and story, not content and fact, that inform mass politics. Politicians have learned that to get votes they must replicate the faux intimacy established between celebrities and the public. There has to be a sense, created through artful theatrical staging and scripting by political spin machines, that the politician is “one of us.” The politician, like the celebrity, has to give voters the impression that he or she, as Bill Clinton used to say, feels their pain. We have to be able to see ourselves in them. If this connection, invariably a product of extremely sophisticated artifice, is not established, no politician can get any traction in a celebrity culture.”
Those of you who think that Sanders is “the ANSWER” do not yet realize that you’ve been duped. You don’t yet know that Bernie™ is a Brand. See the 2009 article Buying Brand Obama here http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20090503_buying_brand_obama )
How many here understand that there is a ruling class, and that the ruling class is served by both the GOP and the Democrats? How many here understand that the ruling class has been taking steps to start world war, and that Sanders is on-board with this agenda? That’s right you read correctly: The US government wants to ignite war against Russia and China, and your savior Bernie Sanders, is aligned with that agenda.
This means that any vote for any of the Democratic and Republican politicians will not result in a change in US policy. The American public must take the resistance to the streets. The public must first learn WHAT the US government is doing, and it must understand why we have been kept in the dark. (Most of you don’t know that the US government carried out a right wing coup in Ukraine, collaborating with neonazis and fascists. Or that Washington has been siding with terrorist groups and dictatorships like the Saudi Government against the government of Syria. Most of you have never heard of AFRICOM or have a clue about why the US government is destabilizing Africa. Most of you have never heard of the Pivot To Asia and how the US is trying to militarily encircle China and provoke an open conflict with China.)
A vote for “Bernie” is a vote for world war. A vote for Clinton is a vote of world war. A vote for Trump or Cruz or any of these charlatans is a vote for world war. So don’t vote for any of them. Join the worldwide resistance to US imperialism.
Read:
War: The great unmentionable in the 2016 US elections
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2016/03/31/pers-m31.html
The brilliant Paul Street has written about American politics and Obama for years. His two earlier books about Obama (Barack Obama and the Future of American Politics, and The Empire’s New Clothes) will greatly inform your assessment of Obama and his place/legacy in history and politics, and his new book, “They Rule: The 1% vs Democracy” is an high-yield guide to deciphering the world in which we live.
I mention Street’s writings because he was among the first on the Left to really “get” Obama, to not fall for the hype about the clever young Senator from Illinois.
For example, check out this piece from June 2015
http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/06/19/progressive-obama-hes-melting-hes-melting/
In general, EVERYTHING is a brand.…making your statement not well formed. The questions is ‘which is the best brand’.
Amazing interview two guys. great video share.