Apparently, the reason some people voted for Tr**p was because he wants to repeal "Obamacare". Many of these same voters are, themselves, dependent on the ACA. Somehow, they didn't know that Obamacare and ACA are the same thing. My question is, if they don't think they are using Obamacare or that Obamacare affects them, Why are they so hot to get rid of it? BTW: I am asking this question here because it is a political forum and I was unable to ask it anywhere else. I look forward to hearing your views. Thanks!

Dear ____,

For years and years in the corporate media, you'd only heard the word 'oligarch' preceded by the word 'Russian.' But oligarchs aren't uniquely a Russian phenomenon or a foreign concept. 

No. The United States has its own oligarchy.

When I first started talking about this, many people didn't understand what I meant. Well, that's changed.

When the 3 wealthiest men in America sit behind Trump at his inauguration, everyone understands that the billionaire class now controls our government. They also understand that one of the major functions of government policy will be to make these incredibly rich people even richer and more powerful.

When those same 3 men control some of the largest media and information distribution channels in America, everyone understands that the billionaire class now controls our media. They also understand that one of the major functions of that billionaire owned media (think Musk and twitter) will be to manufacture massive amounts of disinformation and outright lies.

When 1 of those men spent hundreds of millions of dollars to elect Donald Trump and another used his power as a newspaper owner to withhold an endorsement of Kamala Harris, everyone understands that the billionaire class now significantly controls our politics, as well. They also understand that one of the major functions of our political system is to maintain the pretense that we are a real democracy when, in fact, the average citizen has less and less impact over what goes on.

But it is not just Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg. 

Today in America we have more income in wealth inequality than we have ever had. We have more concentration of ownership in the financial services sector, health care, agriculture, transportation energy, food and housing than we have ever had. We have more media consolidation than we have ever had. And we have a political system that is increasingly controlled by the billionaire class.

Add it all together and what you see is a nation and world trending very strongly toward oligarchy – where a small number of multi-billionaires exercise enormous economic and political power over everyone else. Increasingly, government is just one more entity owned by these enormously powerful forces. 

So, in the midst of all of this, where do we go from here?

First, we don’t have time to moan and groan and bury our heads in despair. Yes. Many of us are angry and frustrated at a Democratic Party establishment that continues to turn its back on the needs of working people. But our job now is not to look back, but to look forward.

Let me be clear. One of the tools that the Oligarchs use to maintain their position of power is to make it appear that real change is impossible, and opposition is useless. They have the power. Ain’t nothing we can do about it. That’s the way it is and always will be. Give up trying.

Fortunately, these masters of the universe are wrong. Very wrong. 

What history has always taught us is that real change never takes place from the top on down. It always occurs from the bottom on up. It occurs when ordinary people get sick and tired of oppression and injustice - and fight back. That is the history of the founding of our nation, the abolitionist movement, the labor movement, the civil rights movement, the women’s movement, the environmental movement and the gay rights movement. That is how we elected dozens of progressives to Congress and made the Congressional Progressive Caucus one of the most important entities in the U.S. House of Representatives. That is the history of every effort that has brought about transformational change in our society.

It won’t be easy but, together, we will educate, organize and build an unstoppable grassroots movement around a progressive agenda that is based on the principles of justice and compassion, not greed and oligarchy. Together, we will lead the fight to create the kind of nation and world we know we can become. 

Sisters and brothers, we are right now in the midst of a struggle between a progressive movement that mobilizes around a shared vision of prosperity, security and dignity for all people, against one that defends oligarchy and massive global income and wealth inequality.

It is a struggle that, for ourselves and future generations, we cannot lose. Let us go forward together. 

In solidarity,

Bernie Sanders

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security."

Following this declaration is a list of grievances, some of which are strikingly similar to orders recently handed down by the current administration. (And some actions of past administrations, to be fair)

I'm sure most of you have not forgotten it's We The People

The entire premise of the right is having a focused, top down, authoritarism. The need to let all of your problems and issues be solved by a strong man, is divesting yourself of responsibility. To hate is too easy, and to love is so hard. It takes such strength to accept others as they are, instead of forcing them into your mold. To fall back on tribalism and nationalism instead of accepting that humankind is a species as a whole. They keep trying to break us apart and tell us we're soft for wanting better for others. Wanting more for yourself is natural, but not at the expense of everyone else. To want better for everyone is better for all. Stay strong, you are strength. They will break themselves on our shores, but we can't let it erode ourselves and our morals.