Last month Hillary hired a major Keystone XL lobbyist to her campaign

We need to stop tearing each other apart over an issue most of us are in agreement on

As a person who has marched with Black Lives Matter on several occassions and am also currently volunteering for the Bernie Sanders campaign I have a lot of conflicting emotions about what happened at Netroots Nation. I feel sympathy for a number of people on both sides of the debate but I have also seen some incredibly divisive and ignorant comments on both sides of the debate.

I feel like there are a lot of people who are fighting right now that should not be fighting. I think that most Bernie supporters also support the goals of Black Lives Matter and we would love to see them work with the Bernie campaign to incorporate those goals into his platform. I would like to see Hillary, Bernie, and O'Malley all come together on this and declare that they stand together on this issue. While none of the candidates are perfect when you look at what the three of them have said on this issue in recent months there is really not much difference between them at all, in fact when it comes to this issue their stances are nearly identical. There are other areas in which they have big differences, but the issue of police shootings is an area in which they all seem to be in agreement.

We are tearing each other apart over an issue in which ultimately the large majority of us are in agreement. These fights are not helping anyone, they not are not helping Black Lives Matter, they are not helping Hillary, they are not helping Bernie, the only people they are helping are the real racists who are dancing with glee as they watch us tear each other down.

We need less shouting and more listening on both sides. People have a negative reaction to shouting, that is just human nature. Just because someone has a negative reaction when they feel they have been shouted at does not mean they are your opposition.

I don't claim innocence here, I know I have gotten angry and shouted people down before as well. I need to do better and we all need to do better, I am not just talking to one side because I personally think that neither side has handled this debate particularly well.

We can disagree on who the best candidate for President is but let us all agree on one thing, black lives do matter and we all need to stand together to protect those lives.

When you see Bernie's huge crowds consider how many volunteers can be recruited for the campaign

This weekend it is looking like Bernie Sanders is going to attract more huge crowds, but this time those huge crowds will be in the red states of Arizona and Texas which the naysayers insisted Bernie had no support in.

The pundits will no doubt be telling us that crowd sizes don't translate to votes, but they could not be any more wrong. These huge crowds are going to win millions of votes for Bernie and this is how they will do it.

The Sanders campaign is not just holding these rallies to get people to cheer for their candidate, they are using these rallies to build an army of volunteers. At all of these rallies they have people going around with clipboards and signing people up to get involved in the campaign.

I was at the rally in Minneapolis last month when they signed me up to volunteer and I was not alone. They signed up hundreds of people at that event who have already participated in activities with the campaign. There are already plans to bus Minnesotans down to Iowa to door knock and get people out to the caucuses, the names that were gathered at that rally are going to help to fill multiple buses of people to Iowa. The Sanders campaign has already built a large organization in the state and the Minneapolis rally played a large part in building that organization.

The event in Phoenix will be particularly important as it is happening at the same time as Netroots Nation and will be attended by many bloggers and people who have a lot of influence on social media. If you can get the bloggers enthused and you can get social media to spread those blogs that means the campaign gets some great free advertising.

These rallies are building large networks of volunteers as well as a lot of free advertising through social media, anyone who tries to tell you that will not translate to votes is flat out wrong.

Should Bernie allow members of the general public to submit resumes to apply to be his VP pick?

Generally Vice Presidential candidates have been selected among a small pool of elite politicians, but I think it might be time to change that.

I believe that there are a fairly large number of Americans who are well versed on the issues, show strong leadership skills, and would be more than capable of performing the duties of the Vice Presidency.

I personally think it would be awesome to see someone like a high school history teacher or a social worker get selected as the Vice Presidential nominee. A candidate like this would have far more understanding of the struggles that the common citizen faces because they have actually lived the life of the common citizen.

While a move like this might be risky, I think most Americans would find it very refreshing. Many people are turned off by politicians in the political establishment and I really think they would love to see a complete outsider picked.

A bold move like this would really solidify Bernie's status as a candidate of the people and I believe it could also get us an amazing VP pick. There are so many people in this country who have done amazing things and I have no doubt that a lot of genuinely great people would apply for the position.

I have never heard anyone propose this before so I was wondering what other people think of the idea. Do you think it would be a good idea for the Bernie campaign to put out a call asking for people to submit their resumes to apply for the position of Vice President of the United States?

I will be curious to see what people think.

I am proud to have a candidate who is not afraid to call himself a democratic socialist

Many people have been trying to suggest that the fact that Bernie Sanders calls himself a democratic socialist is a negative against him, this could not be further from the truth.

I don't know about everyone else, but I am happy to be able to vote for someone who speaks the truth about what socialism is and does not allow the fear of right-wing propagandists make him run away from speaking that truth.

I am proud to support a candidate who openly talks about redistributing the wealth because the reality is that a massive redistribution of wealth is desperately needed. We have a few billionaires at the top hoarding our nation's resources while others can not even afford to buy food or pay the rent. We have people working full time and still living in poverty while racist assholes like Donald Trump sit on billions of dollars without making any sort of positive contribution to our society.

As a Bernie supporter I will not run away from the socialist label, instead I will embrace that label.

I will embrace that label because the people who have worked so hard to poison that label have continually shown us that their system of cut-throat capitalism has not benefitted the people. Their system has created an economy where nearly all the wealth is concentrated in the hands of a very few while the workers who created that wealth struggle to get by. They have produced a system where racist hiring practices are common and people of color are often unable to find a job. Their system has brought us into unnecessary wars which have left millions of people dead and countless lives shattered.

The right-wing forces who have told us that socialism is such an awful thing have brought harm to our nation and to our planet in so many different ways, they have been wrong about damn near everything and they are wrong about socialism as well.

The fact that we have a candidate who will not accept the right-wing propaganda and will embrace a term that has been unfairly demonized should not make us afraid, it should make us proud.

I want a socialist in the White House, I want the wealth to be redistributed so all of our nation's people can live with economic security, and I want a President who understands that if we want a better world we can not keep living in fear of the right-wing propagandists who demonize those who want to break free of a system that only works for the wealthy interests.