the Bernie movement has demonstrated to fund, and network, reliable independent media.

The worm in the apple is that word "reliable." Infiltration and lying are rife, and some people are even worried that Cenk Uygur is 2016's version of Markos.

I think knowing people IRL is very helpful in this regard, but obviously that can't always happen. Perhaps there should be rules one has to abide by in order to get funds. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

My main point is: if we can raise 20 to nearly 50 million bucks in a month for Bernie, why can't we raise 5 to 10 million bucks a month to support an organized, networked, indie media?

(protecting the net obviously is also a concern here)

Also, I think we should give transformative economics a whirl. Worker-owned co-ops, alternative finance, etc.

What I really want is an IRL convention/conference to address all these issues, w/a section on sustainability, one on communications/media, one on how to counter establishment attempts to destroy what we build, one on alternative econ & finance, one on community building and maintenance, one on the Net.

I have no doubt whatever that a massive number of people will be inspired to continue agitating for the kind of policy positions and the kind of structural changes that Sanders has been promoting, regardless of the ultimate outcome of his presidential campaign. The genie is out of the bottle now, and the Democratic establishment, represented by people like HRC, Wasserman-Schultz, Boxer, Reid, Schumer, et al have vividly demonstrated the limitations of attempting to work within the confines of existing structures.

To my mind, the most promising efforts I've read about so far are the BrandNewCongress organization, along with the newly formed United Progressive Party. What's most important is perseverance and unity of purpose. The Left must organize, coordinate, and get on the same page to a far greater extent than has occurred within recent memory. To quote the old union poem, Step By Step:

Step by step the longest march
Can be won can be won
Many stones can form an arch
Singly none singly none
And by union what we will
Can be accomplished still
Drops of water turn a mill
Singly none singly none

the anti-corporate "forces" -- still untapped -- of

The Berners
The Occupiers
The Black-Lives-Matter
The run-o-mill Progressives
The like-minded, worker-oriented Independents

All these citizens are looking for Something to Vote For.

If we were smart, would give it to them -- and Issued-oriented platform that Puts People First.

I keep going back to this Progressive Change Institute survey -- the one the Media conveniently ignores:

larger

Whoever can tap that strong yearning for real change,
has just captured lightening in a bottle.

Maybe these millennials will get there first.
Maybe some data crunching polling outfit.

Maybe some bloggers and activists wanting real change.
From the ALEC-driven, SuperPAC-fueled PTB.

Maybe the corporate-sellout Dems will come to their senses,
and one day pick up the banner that Bernie has brung?

And return to the reason, they got involved in politics in the first place:

'To Actually Help Other People.'

Leadership from the bottom is the solution, IMO, but it is very hard to do. The R's did it starting under Reagan, by finding and running candidates--many motivated by religious beliefs that the R's pretended to agree with--for city councils, school boards, and statehouse races, and now look at their numbers. Those numbers created gerrymandered districts and voter suppression laws, and unlimited corporate funding. So cleaning up the D mess would require Sanders to lead for a bit in cleaning up the D's (if indeed it can be done). The will of the people, and indeed funding power is there. I don't give money to the party at all, anymore--I donate to candidates. I'd happily donate to a People's PAC if it was doing the right things.

The problems with third parties appear to me to be insurmountable--especially due to the Electoral College rules. In a 3 way race, where neither a D nor an R wins a majority of electoral votes, the election goes to the House--where each state gets one vote, and 26 votes wins. In that case, the Senate picks the VP (not necessarily the running mate)where each Senator gets one vote. This system is crazy, but it's the one we have, and for that reason, Bernie was wise to run as a Democrat. Now, if he loses the nomination, I'd be all for a Green Party run, and I honestly think he'd win it. As for who would eventually be President, no one can guess. But it would "start the conversation" about our political process and our election rules in a big way...which is what your are thinking about in your post. Thanks for writing it.

within is just Sisyphus pushing to same rock uphill over and over.

I'm for a new party or a merger/influx with any existing simpatico groups in existence right now. Contrary to Occupy, I think leaders and leadership and structure is important, but I believe loyalty should be directed to the platform, agenda and goals as opposed to specific people.

My vision of a new kind of politics would be candidates who agree to term limit themselves to two terms to avoid the kind of entrenchment, entitlement and self-serving that becomes endemic with a power structure largely dependent on seniority. The candidates and Party would follow the Bernie model of funding from small donor independent voters ONLY and once in office the candidates would adhere as much as is humanly possible to eschewing any lobbyist and corporate influence that outweighs or is contrary to the common good of the unconnected and non-influential masses of the citizenry.

My next sentence is a joke but if I thought it was possible . . . . I would ask them to wear body cams and post the footage nightly and to live in a dorm with a communal kitchen. I guess I'm envisioning kind of a political kibbutz of do-gooder lefties who serve their time and then get the hell out. The agenda and platform mutates and changes according to the demands of the economy and the climate and national security as time goes on but the underlying premise would be protecting and enhancing FDR's Four Freedoms and to provide guarantees of healthcare, food, education and shelter to all Americans as well as to uphold, protect and strengthen civil liberties and voting rights. We would also have to all wear sensible shoes.

yeah, yeah, the asshat is as RW as it gets - and Then Some - but his Amway model would work Most Excellently in growing the progressive movement. His model was simple. Approach a 98.6 (friend, stranger, somebody), hit hime with the line (would you like to make more money?), or in our case, "are you sick'n'tired of the same ol' politics?" , drag them to a local Meetup. Rinse, Repeat. Hold Quarterly Meetups in the bigger cities for all the local Meetups within 50 miles. Hold two annual Meetup like Netroots Nation, one East of the Mississip, the other West of the Mississip. Rinse, repeat. Game over. In 4-5 years we've got more progressive candidates than seats for them.

There is just no way that I see Sanders running as an independent. He's said as much repeatedly.

I think his reasoning, much like Warren's in remaining neutral, is that he can exert more influence from the inside the Democratic caucus than outside of it.

He is involved in party primaries and trying to assist Dems downballot who share his vision. As he's shown with the endorsement of Tim Canova, he's willing to do that, even if it antagonizes party leadership.

The outside pressure is going to have to come from people self-organizing. This is another element of what he's been saying: the resilience of a movement doesn't come from leaders telling people what to do, it comes from people getting engaged and involved and doing working with others to pursue a common goal. We've already seen this with efforts like the Brand New Congress.

Part of the goal with Brand New Congress isn't just to pressure the Democratic Party from the left, but to do the exact same thing to Republicans in safe seats. Additionally, the group doesn't rule out supporting third parties.

The Working Families Party may also offer a viable strategy, which is to make alliances selectively on a case by case basis.

movements into one big one, sit down, unite and write a new constitution. Make sure you throw out your electoral college and the Federal Reserve in its current set-up. At the same time build the platform as a basis of a new party. Publicly financed elections, publicly owned media platforms, public health care insurance and providers, public tuition free education up til PhD level. Public banking system.

Oh, well, I don't understand anything. Just do the right thing. Please. It would be such a relief for millions of people.

potential sub headings like the Resilience Project?

Call it, uh, The Way Forward. or, New Politics, or, Independence.....ideas?

Subs are starting to write themselves. Some would almost be gaming like Joe's graphic.

- Platform (s)
- Reform of the three branches...Executive, Legislative, Judicial
- Environment
- Monetary Policy
- International Relations (sub of the Executive, but should be included in legislative)
- Ideas?

There would be a stack or 30,000 foot level down to granular:

Goals--->Objectives--->Strategies--->Tactics...for each one

How does stuff get done? Or what are the rungs of the ladder (s)?

flavor to whatever is done. I'd hate to see those issues treated like the Democratic party treats them. We are the verge of WWIII if not already in it, if the progressive communities are as progressive as they think they it can't be ignored any longer.

The Bolivia experience is that what is needed is constant, long-term massive protests around one or two big issues that unites the entire country behind a new agenda. In Bolivia it started when they privatized water (and everything else, but water was key) and later tried to sell natural gas to our "archenemy" neighboring Chile. We had a small party MAS led by Evo Morales with one seat in Congress. The neo-liberal parties voted to not allow him to take his seat. Meanwhile the country was essentially bankrupt and considered a "failed-state".

The demonstrations were fairly constant but not on a national scale until one day the neo-liberal government started shooting up a bunch of unarmed, rock-throwing protesters in an indigenous town. It was so sad, because they shot dead a little girl, 9 year old Marlene Rojas, bless her wherever she is, while she went to look out her window to tell her sick mother. They also shot a teenager as he was running away trying to get into his school, and three adults.

After Marlene was murdered, the entire country went on strike with massive road blockades and a siege of the capital, La Paz, which lasted a month or so. You have to understand that our protests are massive and supported by ALL members of many large unions, including the indigenous subsistence farmers. Nothing at all was allowed into the capital, and nothing moved on the roads except strikers and indigenous farmers. We defended each barricade with stones (like the people in the West Bank) and did things like taking old railroad cars and tossing them off bridges to block the roads. Everything was word organized by word of mouth and in indigenous and union meetings.

The US Embassy convinced the President, Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada, to break the blockade of the city using armed military, and over a few days some 60 people, all on our side, were killed and hundreds injured. I should tell you La Paz is mostly very steep and we controlled the higher slopes ringing the city and our only weapons was stones, and rolling boulders down (in rural areas) on military troops along the roads below.

That was the end of the government. The Mining Union, a couple hundred thousand strong marched from their mines towards La Paz. In Bolivia you DO NOT fuck with the miners, they are ready to die. When the miners arrived the headed a march into the city with hundreds of thousands in unions and individuals of all sorts. The President and his neo-liberal rip-off artists, with help from the US Embassy, stripped the national treasury of cash, were helicoptered out to the airport and flew out to Miami.

The Vice President was this academic historian who was more or less cuddly and of no particular political persuasion agreed to demands to a referendum on nationalizing the hydrocarbon resources, to call a new Constitutional Convention and an election in one years time.

The process afterwards is a very long tale, but afterwards we won the election with Evo Morales, nationalized our resources, and passed a new Constitution with the support of about 65% of Bolivian people. Non-violent marches were, and still are, almost a constant, daily part of the democratic process. One thing though, we have a union for everybody and every type of social and economic aggregation.

My guess is that the next time a Katrina rolls into a place like Miami or South Carolina and destroys the mostly Black and Brown sections of town, that climate change, along with institutionalized racism and wealth redistribution could very well be flash points uniting a great majority in the USA.

Workers unions are only one type of union. Neighborhood Unions and rural "sindicates", and other groups like anti-war, women, anti-corruption, LGBT, environmental et al are all part of the umbrella.

Can't change a thing if we can't even have our vote counted. And I mean really counted.