{"id":2456127,"date":"2020-03-22T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-03-22T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=323092"},"modified":"2020-03-22T07:49:10","modified_gmt":"2020-03-22T13:49:10","slug":"setting-the-stage-for-aoc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/setting-the-stage-for-aoc\/","title":{"rendered":"Setting the stage for AOC"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/02\/facebook-thumbnail-1200.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"><\/div>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Forever the optimist, I\u2019m beginning to see Bernie Sanders\u2019 2016 and 2020 quests for the presidency as laying the groundwork for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez\u2019 successful run when she\u2019s old enough eight years from now. The highly reactionary United States of America isn\u2019t ready for democratic socialism.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">It\u2019s too bad for Bernie. He\u2019s that rare politician with high ideals. If Sanders has ever told a lie, I missed it. He\u2019s financed his campaigns with massive amounts of small dollar, grassroots donations. That\u2019s the democratic, not plutocratic, way to do it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Now that the nomination is slipping away from him, Sanders doesn\u2019t even wanna talk about the campaign. He\u2019s interested in the coronavirus crisis and to make sure that $1 trillion bailout ends up in the hands of those who need it, not those who already have more than they need. That\u2019s a public servant.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Joe Biden\u2019s surge to the lead in the delegate race started with the blacks of South Carolina. Probably because I\u2019m white, there\u2019s a lot I don\u2019t understand about black people. For instance, why would blacks prefer Biden to Sanders?<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">In one of the early debates, Kamala Harris pointed out Biden spoke out against busing in Delaware in the \u201870s. In the same decade, Biden didn\u2019t get arrested in South Africa trying to visit Nelson Mandela. That\u2019s a Trumpian lie. Aren\u2019t blacks tired of being lied to by white politicians? In contrast, Sanders was arrested protesting segregated housing in Chicago in the \u201860s.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Sanders is a year older than Biden, but in the debates and campaign speeches, Sanders has come across much sharper. I\u2019m 70 and I have friends in their 80s and 90s who\u2019re much more cogent than I am. Addle minded as I am, I can recite \u201cWe hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal and are endowed by their Creator certain unalienable rights including life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness\u201d without hesitation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">The revolution is coming. History tells us a socialist movement is preceded by a sharp turn to the right. We\u2019ve been pulled starboard far enough. I see Biden as a conduit from here to a democratic socialist future. The left-leaning younger generation is poised and ready. The reactionary baby boomers just need to die off faster.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND Letter Name\">Fred Malo Jr.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND Letter Title\">Carbondale<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/opinion\/letters-to-the-editor\/setting-the-stage-for-aoc\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Forever the optimist, I\u2019m beginning to see Bernie Sanders\u2019 2016 and 2020 quests for the presidency as laying the groundwork for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez\u2019 successful run when she\u2019s old enough eight years from now. The highly reactionary United States of America isn\u2019t ready for democratic socialism. It\u2019s too bad for Bernie. He\u2019s that rare politician with [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2456127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-18 08:44:35","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley&#039;s Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2456127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2456127"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2456127\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2456134,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2456127\/revisions\/2456134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2456127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2456127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2456127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}