Tag: bernie revolution
Bernie Sanders Makes Powerful Case For Continuing The Revolution — Under A Clinton Administration

Bernie Sanders Makes Powerful Case For Continuing The Revolution — Under A Clinton Administration

Former Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders offered a compelling argument this week to those of his supporters still hesitant about a Hillary Clinton presidency. He explained that the success of the revolution relies not on who is president, but on the people continuing to fight for progressive ideals.

Armand Aviram—who said his personal rise from unemployed Sanders campaign volunteer to NowThis election producer is a “direct result” of the Vermont senator’s political revolution—asked the former Democratic candidate to explain “how your political revolution continues under a Hillary Clinton administration.”

“It’s not my political revolution; it’s your political revolution,” Sanders began, calling his supporters’ efforts during the Democratic primary “perhaps the most consequential campaign in the modern history of America.”

“Ideas that at one point were thought to be crazy and fringe are now incorporated in the Democratic National Platform,” Sanders said. “You did that.”

Holding up a copy of the Democratic National Platform, Sanders noted that at least 80 percent of the policies are “what we believe in.”

“Where do we go from here?” he asked. “We implement this.”

Sanders’ historic run as a registered Independent vying for the Democratic Party’s nomination rallied progressive voters, particularly millennials, who overwhelmingly supported the Vermont senator over Clinton. After conceding the primary, Sanders worked to ensure the Democratic platform would include many of his progressive policy proposals, withholding his endorsement of Clinton for almost a month.

“There was a significant coming together between the two campaigns and we produced, by far, the most progressive platform in the history of the Democratic Party,” Sanders said at the Democratic National Convention in July. “Our job now is to see that platform implemented by a Democratic Senate, a Democratic House and a Hillary Clinton presidency. And I am going to do everything I can to make that happen.”

Asked what he would say to voters who plan on casting their ballots for a third-party candidate in order to “send a message” to the Democratic Party, Sanders, the longest serving Independent in the history of Congress, told Aviram, “people have to vote their conscience.” But he added that he hopes his supporters “understand Donald Trump would be a real, real disaster for this country. He stands in opposition to everything that we believe in.”

Sanders urged his supporters not to see a Clinton presidency as an end to the political revolution. “The day after the election, we don’t sit back and say, well, Clinton is president,” Sanders said. He insisted the next step is to “mobilize our people” and make sure the government “moves forward with an agenda that helps transform this country.”

“I want to see Clinton become president,” Sanders continued. “And the day after that, I and the progressive members of Congress, and hopefully millions of other people will say, President-elect Clinton, here is the Democratic National platform, it is a progressive document. We are going to be introducing legislation piece by piece by piece—on trade, on raising the minimum wage, on making public colleges and universities tuition-free, on a Medicare-for-all single-payer program, on rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure.”

Sanders said those who still don’t believe Clinton will follow through with the progressive party platform are “going to have to work with [him] to make sure that it happens.”

“This is not trust,” Sanders argued. “We’re not here to trust. It is the very opposite of what I am saying: To say, oh sit back, elect Clinton and then trust.”

“No,” he continued. “Mobilize. Educate. Fight.”

And if (worst case scenario) our elected leaders don’t follow through?

“Let them know how you feel about it,” Sanders said.

Watch the interview below, via NowThis.

Reprinted with permission from Alternet

Photo: Democratic U.S.  presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders stand together during a campaign rally where Sanders endorsed Clinton in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, U.S., July 12, 2016.  REUTERS/Brian Snyder

There’s No Bernie Revolution Without Bernie

There’s No Bernie Revolution Without Bernie

One hesitates to discuss the small group of Bernie Sanders followers throwing tantrums at the Democratic convention. Some 90 percent of Sanders backers say they’ve already moved their support to Hillary Clinton.

But when a tiny number — some with duct tape on their mouths saying “silenced” — marched out of the hall and straight into the media tent, the “journalists” pounded prose on “sharp divisions” in the party.

The unhappy few had already booed at Sanders himself. They heckled the progressive warrior Elizabeth Warren. Sanders’ other supporters rolled their eyes at the histrionics, but what could they do?

When Sanders finally offered total support for Clinton, he showed himself to be a giant political leader. That he did so after an email leak confirming that the Democratic National Committee had tilted against his candidacy made him taller still.

Sanders had already pushed the Democratic Party to adopt much of his program, demonstrating a skill at negotiating many of us doubted he had. In sum, Sanders deserved the adulation that friends and former rivals poured on him at the convention.

So this was a heck of a time for a handful of acolytes to grab at his spotlight, some parroting the imbecilities of the Trump campaign. To borrow from Dante’s “Inferno,” one should not reflect on such people but take a look and pass them by.

A good restaurant knows that there are certain customers it has to throw out. They’re too disruptive. They give the place a bad reputation and scare off others.

Sanders himself gets some blame for having fed his following a constant diet of grievance and belief that the electoral process had been “rigged” against them. The nominating race was lumpy all around. The DNC may have put a thumb on the scale for Clinton, but she was subject to unfairness, as well, in the coverage of the campaigns and the undemocratic nature of the caucuses that Sanders won.

I wasn’t a great fan of Sanders’. He had a reputation for not working well with others, and I distrust populist campaigns centered on a charismatic figure. But I always admired Sanders for his consistency, his obvious love for country and many of his ideas.

So it was painful to watch Sanders being treated so disrespectfully by people he had led to the portals of power. And at his finest hour, too.

A few fancied out loud that they could run the Bernie revolution without Bernie, which is kind of laughable. With Sanders would go the cameras and the attention, leaving behind a skeleton crew of exhibitionists.

That said, a lasting Sanders revolution may be in the making by others. Sophisticated backers are now recruiting like-minded candidates for lower office, building a progressive power base and expanded leadership. (A slip in the suggestion box reads, Call this a “movement” rather than a “revolution.”)

As Sanders faced hostile members of his California delegation, he laid down the stakes in no uncertain terms. “It is easy to boo, but it is harder to look your kids in the face who would be living under a Donald Trump presidency,” he said. “Trump is the worst candidate for president in the modern history of this country.”

A California Democratic Party official wisely advised against self-pity. “You fought and you won a seat at the table,” Daraka Larimore-Hall said. “We have to act like we have that seat … and stop acting like we’ve been shut out.”

Just a gentle reminder here: Clinton won the California primary by over 400,000 votes, and Sanders got these followers excellent seats at the table. The revolution, for the time being, is still his.

Follow Froma Harrop on Twitter @FromaHarrop. She can be reached at fharrop@gmail.com.

 

Photo: Supporters and delegates of former Democratic presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders walk out after Hillary Clinton was nominated during the second day at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S., July 26, 2016.   REUTERS/Jim Bourg