Where Does Party Political Puffin Stand Politically?

Where Does Party Political Puffin Stand Politically?

Party Political Puffin, here in the UK, are trying to better explain and portray a set of beliefs. This is to educate and provide a basis for discussion. These beliefs are encapsulated in policies and protections such as:

• Housing for all
• End to food inequality
• Equitable wages starting with enforcing an increased minimum living wage
• Equality for all regardless of someones:
• age
• having undergone gender reassignment
• being married or in a civil partnership
• being pregnant or on maternity leave
• any disability
• their race including colour, nationality, ethnic or national origin
• their religion or beliefs
• their sex or
• their sexual orientation
• A Green New Deal to begin roll back climate change and prevents any further decline
• A social security program that provides for citizens when they need it most and also to support them in retirement
• Guaranteed free further education whether college, university, apprenticeship or vocational
• Union, Government and Business cooperation with Universal Union support and open dialogue to support workers and their rights
• A Fair justice system regardless of race, sex, gender, money, power, ‘who they know’
• Public ownership of key utilities to provide reliable, efficient services for the public, not profits for shareholders
• A Fair and equitable taxation system
• Investment in our public services
• Responsible Foreign policy with human rights, diplomacy and economic fairness as the principles leading it
• Be the country that still welcomes those that are in the most dire of circumstances, protecting those that most need it; refugees, asylum seekers and more and more the climate refugees that will be seen 

I don’t think there would be much shock from readers when I say the politics espoused is that of the Left wing.

You may have noticed that despite the circa 3000 miles between where we are in UK and the US there is a lot in common with the beliefs, as laid out above, and a lot of the Sanders’ campaign policy positions. 

Bernie Sanders and the Difficult Relationship with the DNC 

The race to find who will become the Democratic party’s candidate to take on the incumbent, Donald Trump, for President of the US in 2020 is really hotting up.

I know this is a line that has been heard probably during every political race ever but this time it may be correct.

Bernie Sanders won the popular vote in Iowa but narrowly ceded the electoral college.

For the British contingent that read this blog who may not be completely down with how the US parties, and for that matter the US nation at a general election, carry out their elections, I intend to make videos explaining how this is done and will no doubt convert those scripts to blog posts in the future.

As I’ve said in previous videos whilst anyone watching the content is clearly going to be interested in politics not everyone has the time to fully ‘nerd’ up and so I think it would be helpful for those that aren’t completely clear on the subject that in the future I write a ‘guide’ of sorts.

Right, back to the fray!

Sanders then went on to win outright in New Hampshire and followed that up with a complete win in Nevada.

The race then moved on to South Carolina where Joe Biden was the clear front runner for that state. This status as front runner was clearly deserved as Biden won handsomely. However, Sanders still picked up 13 of the 54 total delegates up for grabs with 3 still to be allocated.

For those outside the US you may be thinking, well, that’s great and all but it’s only a small handful of the 50 US states so how can the race be ‘hotting’ up?

Well, for a couple of reasons really.

Every winner, except one, Bill Clinton, of a contested major-party nomination since 1980 has won at least one of these two states and…..

Without getting too far into ‘pledged delegates’, ‘superdelegates’, Democratic party politics and what ‘Super Tuesday’ means, the candidates are looking for a number of 1991 pledged delegates to become the nominee.

With the polls showing the Sanders camp crushing California and Texas who between them have a total of 643 pledged delegates, California 494 (415 pledged, 79 super) delegates, Texas 262 total (228 pledged, 34 super).

More than a third of delegates will be allocated in Tuesday’s nominating contests, compared with less than 5% awarded from the four states that voted in February.

To give you a further idea of how significant these two states are, California returns the single largest number of delegates whilst Texas is the 3^rd largest.

Not only that but there are only three states that have 200 or more delegates in play. So, you can see, if the polls are correct, Sanders and his team will be well on their way to picking up the nomination for the Democratic party presidential nominee should they perform, as expected, during Super Tuesday.

There is a lot of media coverage of the ‘internal politics’ that could come in to play at the Democratic National Convention, July 13–16, 2020, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin where the nominee will be selected, potentially having an impact on who will ultimately be crowned the nominee.

However, I’ll cover that in another video and post rather than detract from the main purpose of this one.

I think it is a fair analysis that Bernie’s politics and policies are similar to those of FDR, President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal policies he enacted in 1933 just after he was elected.

Sanders is also a proponent of a ‘Second Bill of Rights’ or what the Sanders campaign calls ‘a 21st Century Economic Bill of Rights’ as proposed by FDR. Roosevelt argued that whilst the Constitution and the Bill of rights guaranteed ‘political rights’, this did nothing for equality in the 'pursuit of happiness' as established in the original bill of rights which I talk about the need to secure in the previous video which you can watch by clicking on the link http://bit.ly/DontGetMadGetEvenTheDictatorsCut .

Sanders’ has often been linked to a Nordic Model. I say ‘a’ Nordic model as opposed to ‘The’ Nordic model.

This is because there is much confusion about exactly what is meant by different people when they talk about the ‘Nordic model’ so I think this needs a video of its own.

Suffice it to say, Bernie is a self-declared, ‘democratic socialist’.

He is constantly attacked by the right and by some on the left as a ‘socialist’.

It is unclear if this is just political opportunism to try to frighten the electorate about a non existent ‘red threat’ or is genuine ignorance of what ‘socialism’ is.

For instance, when Donald Trump proudly talked about the ‘support’ given to US farmers due to his appalling, senseless and idiotic trade war with China what he was actually talking about were subsides to the tune of $28 BILLION.

So, the wider Society cough up the money to assist a sector of that society during hard times. This is a Social act. When we want a word that forms a noun denoting an action or a result, in English, we add the suffix ‘ism’. This gives us, or the farmers in the US at least, Socialism.

It seems clear to me that what Bernie Sanders is talking about is a fairer system that caters for all but not at the expense of anyone let alone the 99%. The labels such as Socialism, no longer have the scare power they had during the cold war. Younger people have no current case study to look at coupled with their own governments propaganda of the left and be convinced that the ‘Reds are coming’ let alone they’re coming to do them harm.

What they have and do see with their own eyes every day is capitalism unchecked. Allowing wages to be kept low, rent costs consuming an average of 1/3 of their disposable income (but can be in excess of 2/3 if they live in the capitol). Property purchasing is completely out of their reach. Starting out their adult lives shackled by student debt. Watching the rich kept rich through the unfairness of capitalism by manipulation of inheritance law and lower inheritance taxes. Seeing how right wing governments can happily cut deals for low capital gains and corporate taxation whilst there is no avenue to ‘renegotiate’ their council tax bill.

There is a Labour leadership contest going on right now in the UK. So, for a wonk like me this is heaven. More than that it can be seen that on both sides of the Atlantic there are viable candidates that see past the end of their own pocket book and understand that trying to deliver a more fair, just society and for that matter world, is not only potentially a vote winner but also the right thing to do.

Thanks for reading and I’ll see you in the next one.

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