Here's the thing. Revolution is sexy but real change is incremental. Sure, the idea of smashing what you hate about "the system" seems glorious, busting open holes in the concrete walls of power with your sledgehammer of righteousness!
In reality, a upheavals usually results in one of two things. In the first and more common situation your community becomes a house divided and your fail to make progress toward your goals, but they are set back for years or decades as the un-divided party takes over (remember 2000, Al Gore and Ralph Nader?).
The other situation you get to smash what you hate and feel glorious ... until you notice that things you don't hate are getting smashed, and then things you like are getting smashed, and pretty soon you realize that the people that were shouting the loudest for a revolution were short-sited idealists (Sanders) or power hungry-sociopaths (Trump) looking to exploit scared people.
But real change is usually as tedious as watching sloths play chess. Slavery didn't vanish with a stroke of Lincolns pen or because of the Civil War, it happened because abolitionists were chipping away at the institution for 45 years. Similarly, gay rights wasn't brought about all at once by the supreme court, it happened because since the 1980's gay people came out to friends and family, began talking to straight people, SUFFERING through their inane, repetitive, invasive questions about sex only to then sit down with the next person and do it ALL OVER AGAIN!
So you want change, start working for it. Attend city hall meetings, organize rallies, create a coalition of voters like you who will go to candidates and say "we will vote for you if you make X policy goal part of your campaign and support it in the government." And tell the people who say "My way or I'll let the opposition burn the country to the ground" to go fuck themselves.

I find it extremely telling that I never see Clinton supporters actually talk about how much they love her policies, or why she would make a good president, or talking about her past accomplishments.

The only thing I ever hear Clinton supporters talk about is how deluded/sexist/white Sanders supporters are, or how old/"impractical" Sanders is.

I feel that tells you all you a lot about Clinton.

Michelle Alexander has my vote!

@4: To answer your initial question, yes. But I am completely unable to fathom how you have heard nothing about any of the candidates past histories unless your only "news" source is Slog or other similarly low-content, high-emotion/opinion news sources.

Recall WJC's original bill was lighter on penalties and heavier on social investments. A mere handful of whole-loaf liberals (Sanders was NOT among them) withheld their support, forcing Clinton to shop for support on the other side of the aisle.

Note also Kevin Drum's evisceration of the claim that pegs mass incarceration on the Clinton Bill.

#1: The best part of incrementalism is sometimes it even goes backwards!

Ansel, sorry if you saw this already, but Alexander penned an article in late February titled, "Why Hillary Clinton Doesn't Deserve the Black Vote": http://www.thenation.com/article/hillary…

Worth taking a look at.

@8: Try researching the candidates on your own, instead of pretending to be a dumbass for some reason. They have websites, as you well know, and Google still exists.

What accomplishments does Hillary have to show off? None that I know of. Bernie has a great record of championing good policies and opposing bad policies. But, being a political outsider, he can't claim "success" on most of these. What he has demonstrated is that he's a strong and consistent fighter for justice, not someone who cozies up to Wall Street or neocons to get the support of the "establishment".

It is time this country take criminal justice reform seriously. While I understand that some people need to be in prison, there are literally thousands deserving of a second chance, and all of us are footing the bill both financially and morally. These are our people. It is to our shame that we incarcerate more of our own people than any other nation in the world. The changes at the federal level are just the start. Each state also needs to go about re-examining some of their more extreme sentences, especially those that don't involve murder. Let me give you an example of what I am talking about...Lenny Singleton.

Lenny committed 8 "grab & dash" robberies in a 7 day period while high on alcohol and crack to fund his addiction. He did not have a gun. He did not murder anyone. In fact, no one was even physically injured and no one claimed to be his "victim." He stole less than $550 total and these were his first felonies. He wasn't an habitual criminal or part of a gang. He earned a college degree and served in our Navy before his addiction.

What he needed was some help with his addiction. What he got was 2 Life Sentences plus 100 years with no chance at parole. The judge, without any explanation to Lenny or the courtroom as documented by his court transcripts, sentenced Lenny to more time than repeat violent offenders, rapists, child molesters, and murderers. Lenny would be the first to tell you that he needed to do some time, but he didn't need to have his life completely taken from him. A man who 2 people was just sentenced to 33 years in the state that Lenny is incarcerated in. Murderers will walk free while Lenny remains in prison.

While in prison, Lenny works every business day in a position of authority, he lives in the Honor's Dorm, he takes every available class for self-improvement offered, and in his spare time, he has co-authored a book to help others headed down the same path called, "Love Conquers All," now available on Amazon. During the entire 20+ years he has been in prison so far, he has not received a single infraction for anything - very rare for lifers. Lenny is deserving of a second chance.

How does this have an impact on you? Taxpayers will pay well over a million dollars to keep Lenny for the rest of his life - for robbing less than $550 in crimes where no one was physically injured - this makes absolutely no sense on any level. That money would be better spent on rehabilitation services, preventative education or rebuilding infrastructures - anything other than keeping one man, who has already been in prison for over 20 years, who didn't physically injure anyone, who is deserving of a second chance, locked up for life. These types of cases exist all over this country, albeit, that Lenny Singleton's case is possibly one of the worst illustrating sentencing disparity and sentences disproportionate to the crime committed. True criminal justice reform needs to not only happen at the federal level but at the state level too.

Please learn more and sign Lenny Singleton's petition at www.justice4lenny.org. Justice will not have been served if Lenny dies in prison.