This is a three-part story by Partha Banerjee. Here is Part One.
Many people here in New York are unsure whether they should vote for Bernie Sanders or Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primaries, slated for April 19. As of today, Hillary has a ten or twelve-point lead. New York Times and CNN have de facto declared her as the presidential candidate for the November elections, and tried their best to undermine the Sanders victories: six out of seven in the last caucuses and primaries.
That is how corporate media work. No surprise there.
Hillary Clinton is a big name people associate with Bill Clinton, who by having been the U.S. president for eight years has gained a lot of popularity. Hillary was the First Lady for eight years. Then, she was elected one of the two powerful New York senators, and also served the U.S. government as the Secretary of State. Media always put focus on the Clintons, and everybody both in the U.S. and overseas knows who Hillary Clinton is.
I just returned from India. Practically nobody — including some of my politically savvy friends — never heard about Bernie Sanders. Media hardly mention his name.
Hillary Clinton has a big recognition advantage. And many New Yorkers think they should vote for her, simply because they know her name, and do not know who Bernie Sanders is. Especially New York’s African-American and Latino communities do not know very well what Hillary Clinton really stands for, and what Bernie Sanders does.
I am a Bernie Sanders supporter, and I am not a supporter of either Hillary or Bill, for various reasons. Unlike New York Times or CNN, I do not pretend I am neutral.
I have my economic reasons, I have my social reasons, and I have my political reasons. I have developed my reasoning over the past twenty years, especially since Bill Clinton got re-elected in 1996, cajoling Republicans, passing an anti-people NAFTA that cost millions of American jobs (and destroyed Mexico), passing a very harsh crime bill that disproportionately punished African-Americans, a disastrous welfare reform act that hurt millions of poor and especially African-American women, and then passing a horrible anti-immigrant law (which Hillary now wants to distance herself with; back then, she supported it). Then in 1999, Bill Clinton overturned the FDR-New Deal-era Glass-Stegall Act that many say was the starting point for big banks and financial institutions such as Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers, J. P. Morgan Chase and Morgan Stanley to gamble with ordinary peoples’ money, and destroy the U.S. and global economy.
I have done extensive research on all of the above, and found them to be true. But you don’t have to take my word for it; you can do your own research.
The point is, many people who are now supporting Hillary Clinton simply do not know that (1) she always supported all of the above actions Bill Clinton took, and even today, many of these big banks, financial institutions, and also billionaire corporations with very dark, anti-people history such as Wal-Mart, Monsanto, Exxon and private prison industries such as Geo and CCA have been financing her election campaign; and (2) she has also made millions of dollars by serving on the board of some of these institutions, and making speeches at their gatherings.
One of the main reasons people do not know her connections with corporate America is because New York Times and CNN and such big media have always done their best to keep it a secret. Or, they have downplayed the importance of these sinister connections.
If you think in spite of her longtime ties with these banks and Wall Street corporations that have destroyed the ordinary people and their hopes and dreams both in America and across the world, she is a better candidate that Bernie Sanders who does not, and never had, any ties with these corporate giants, by all means, please vote for Hillary Clinton.
But if you think that well, maybe, I should think about it all, and maybe, find out for myself who is working for who — the one percent or the 99 percent — then, you should do it, before the New York primaries on April 19.
Do not vote for ANY candidate because either New York Times, CNN or a small person like myself tries to convince you on one candidate or the other.
Do your own research. And talk about it with your friends and family. Then, decide who works for YOU.
