Letter: Bernie gives me a reason to write

I’ve lived in the upper valley nearly 30 years. This is my first letter to the editor. I really didn’t think I’d ever have the need to write one. Alas, I am finally compelled to do so.

I’m an independent voter. I don’t caucus and rarely enjoy mingling. And for the past 10 presidential elections, this has served me just fine. I watch from the sidelines and place my vote in the 11th hour.

Problem is, for most of those elections I have despised everything about them. The process, the people, the groups. All smoke and mirrors, deception, lies. Most of the promises never met. To his credit, Obama woke me up, so I’m paying more attention. In spite of his herculean efforts, never has the world been so fricked up. Never have our political processes been so fricked up. Yet amid this darkness, the fear and all its minions: greed, intimidation and deceit, there is light in Bernie Sanders. Truth, light and transparency. It’s really hard to miss. But Bernie acknowledges that he can’t make the mass changes needed on his own. Only we, the grassroots movement rising up to put him in power, can do it. And thus, for the first time in my voting life, I’ve left the sidelines. I’m on the field. I stand with Bernie.

My friends are in, but idle. And therein lies the problem. Sure, I’ll help, they say. But they gasp when I tell them that in order to do so, they must first register as a Democrat. This is because in Colorado, in order to cast one’s vote for Bernie in the primaries, one must do so in caucus. So we must get folks out to the Colorado caucuses March 1 in order to pick Bernie for the Democratic Party and displace Hillary, the Democratic Party’s default candidate. Only registered Democrats can vote for Bernie over Hillary in the Democratic caucus, and while temporarily changing your status to Democrat is relatively effortless, it must be done before the end of 2015. After this coming weekend, you will no longer be able to do so. And I know come mid-February, everybody will be so fricking fed up with the cluster frick we call the political process, that many will finally be aligned with Bernie’s messages. But for most of my friends, they will not have made the Jan. 4 deadline and thus, sadly, they won’t be able to help in the primaries.

So I’m spending my holidays getting the word out. Not what I’d rather be doing, but what I, for the first time in my politically numb life, feel like I must.

If you despise having to play this political game, at least declare your disgust and then help Bernie in the process. Go to http://www.puentedeluz.com and sign the Bernie Manifesto. Click the button at the bottom, and with a few brief key strokes, you too can be (albeit temporarily) a Democrat. Please help us!

Nick Nicholson

Aspen