Our Revolution - A Song We've Heard Before

Chapter 2 of the Bernie Sanders Story is in rough draft. The Bernster would like to take the energy and passion his candidacy generated and turn it into a longview multi-pronged entity to push the goals of the 99% and to promote Progressive candidates. Sounds good, right?

It always sounds good. It sounded good with Howard Dean's Democracy For America whose goals are to:

WIN ELECTIONS - We recruit and train progressive candidates to run for office and win at every level of government . . .EMPOWER OUR MEMBERS - . . . empowering them to be effective advocates for progressive policies, game-changing supporters of progressive candidates, and candidates for office themselves. DRIVE THE CONVERSATION ON ISSUES: Through our issue campaigning nationally and locally, we put pressure on politicians and the media to put our country’s income inequality crisis at the center of the political debate, hear grassroots activists’ calls for populist progressive reforms, and robustly respond to injustice, however it emerges

It sounded good with Obama For America which morphed into Oranizing For Action:

Organizing for Action is a movement of millions of Americans, coming together to fight for real, lasting change . . . With more than 250 local chapters around the country, OFA volunteers are building this organization from the ground up, community by community, one conversation at a time—whether that’s on a front porch or on Facebook. We’re committed to finding and training the next generation of great progressive organizers, because at the end of the day, we aren’t the first to fight for progressive change, and we won’t be the last.

Here is the Bernie gameplan-
From USA TodayBernie Sanders seeks contributions for 'Our Revolution"

“Our Revolution,” the former Democratic presidential candidate writes, aims to bring “millions” of working and young people into the political system; recruit and support the “next generation of progressive leaders” running for office, from school board to U.S. Senate; and educate the public about “the most pressing issues confronting our nation” that he says the “corporate media” fails to emphasize.

We've seen this movie before, haven't we? Not to say there hasn't been some victories achieved by these groups, but the game is certainly slanted against them if they confine themselves to promoting Progressive candidates and Progressive initiatives beneath a Democratic Party umbrella, which, by default, they are forced under. Yes, that same Democratic Party whose last leader, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, openly proclaimed it worked to protect entrenched incumbents, the handmaidens of moneyed interests, from pesky grassroots activists.

How is this move to make the Democratic Party more progressive working out? How will it work out in the future as the Party pivots right and is accepting the influx of so-called moderate Republicans fleeing the grimacing orange clown face that is their current standard bearer?

I, for one, am seeing a pattern here - everytime a Progressive leader arises or appears to arise, apres election some vehicle is created for all those passionate, hepped-up liberals to join to vent all that excess energy and to make them believe "the movement hasn't died!". The movement hasn't died, it's just been placed in storage, like a float after the Rose Parade which can be redecorated and re-used in the next bowl game.

So this guy, John Opdycke in The Hill pops up and asks the question I've been asking, Bernie, you say you want a revolution, but whose?

Opdycke wants to know, as do I, whether this will be one more embellishment of the Democratic Party with some liberal knick-knacks or an effort for some real structural change? Opdycke defines the choice as: "remaking the Democratic Party or partnering with diverse Americans to remake the country. Big difference."

The country is ready for “Our Revolution.” But it must be ours. It cannot belong to a party or an ideology. It cannot be exclusionary or narrow. It must bridge the partisan divide, not add to it. It must involve the American people in answering the question “how do we do this?”

That’s the revolution we need.

So which is it Bernie? A revolution which like others before, suffocates itself in the blankets of the Democratic Party smothering its voice, or a real revolution run completely outside the confines of that structure which is a knock-down, not a rehab.

Bernie, if you really want a revolution, start your own party or align with the Greens, Working Families and others who will be much more receptive to change than Democrats.

Share
up
0 users have voted.

Comments

up
0 users have voted.

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

up
0 users have voted.

Bernie is completing his term as an Independent and will be running again as an Independent.

Bernie has always clearly stated that it is essential that The People mobilize into a movement to fight for their democracy.

Bernie has spent his entire life fighting for the most vulnerable people and for a true democracy in America, as his record shows, displaying more honesty, dedication and negotiating ability for The People for whom he worked than any other politician of whom I've ever heard.

People repeating nonsense about the meme that Bernie 'sold out' or is 'just another politician' have to think about who benefits from destroying the faith of the people in the only American politician/activist/organizer with a history like his of whom I've ever heard in order to forestall one with his record of impossible successes from initiating and informing a People's Movement against the largest and most ruthless hostile corporate take-over ever planned and willing to destroy the world in taking control of it.

Bernie was the only US politician willing to hazard everything, potentially including his life, to run against The Powers That Be - the ones who kill people - in order to give Americans an option better than voting for their own doom and that of the entire planet in the corporate-funded/owned two-party trade-off scam and to actually win the Dem nomination (of which he and the American people were cheated) and who could have won the General, starting as a virtual unknown.

He lost only through epic levels of unprecedented voter suppression, propaganda and cheating - and he still terrifies the Greeds, who would like to have him dismissed by progressives because he forms their best chance of a successful political revolution.

And now some people even on C-9 are questioning Bernie's motives/rejecting Bernie's ability to aid, inform and advise citizen activists from a position of knowledge within the system without, apparently, questioning who needs them to do just that?

Glad to see that not everyone is not so easily misled by corporate propaganda!

up
0 users have voted.

Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

making justifactions, touting his merit badges a great lenght. Yet mister responsible drone never saw a military appropreations bill he didn't like. There is plenty of dirty shit Bernie has done as a pol, but I keep my mouth shut during the election because his message needed to be heard. There were many things I disagreed with him on, and sheep herding for the dems is one of those things. Not saying his intentions are bad, but history has shown over and over the results will be, the dem party is where change goes to die.

up
0 users have voted.

Solidarity forever

so I didn't have to delete this one.

up
0 users have voted.

Only a fool lets someone else tell him who his enemy is. Assata Shakur

up
0 users have voted.
Citizen Of Earth's picture

his mojo. This feels like a stealth Hellery plan to snooker Bernistas into voting for her.

I know there are still people here that believe in Bernie. But he is constantly on the talk shows now telling us we MUST vote for Crooked Hellery -- but oh yeah also the Revolution blah blah blah. I am tired of being played. I've moved on.

up
0 users have voted.

Donnie The #ShitHole Douchebag. Fake Friend to the Working Class. Real Asshole.

Phoebe Loosinhouse's picture

focused on the next. If Bernie decides he's going to enter the confines of the veal pen, fine. But I'm not following him there. There are other Progressive leaders out there who should jump at this opportunity to fill the vacuum. Go ahead! Start a New Party. We're dying for one.

The platform is pretty simple IMO:

No large donors or PACs and then just adopt the Bernie platform. I'd add term limits to it to get back to the idea of a citizen legislature and to keep the candidate pool churning constantly with new blood and to avoid the corruption that entrenchment promotes.

up
0 users have voted.

" “Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough.” FDR "

Since formation of the Green Party in the 1980s, I bet at least 10 newer parties have formed and gone nowhere. The more we splinter, the less likely we are to have impact.

Here is very partial list

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_political_parties_in_the_United_St... and https://ballotpedia.org/List_of_political_parties_in_the_United_States

In addition to the Green Party, we have the Working Families Party, the Justice Party (Libertarian), the United Independent Party, the New Progressive Party, the Progressive Independent Party, the Unity Progressive Party, the Peace and Freedom Party (Roseanne Barr once ran on this ticket), the New Independent Party (centrist, though I have no idea why the Democratic Party didn't fit their needs) and probably at least ten more that I haven't heard of yet.

Wouldn't it be better to consolidate under one party and build that, than to keep splintering, all chiefs, no power? United action is key if we want to be a force of any kind.

up
0 users have voted.

Or the Workng Family Party or these other parties as far as platform goes. There are probably a lot of differences between how they're run. trying to coerce people into joining one party or the other is not going to work, I don't think. That might be why we need more of an umbrella organization (and maybe another party under the umbrella) to keep the deadly corporate rain off of us all.

up
0 users have voted.

Beware the bullshit factories.

bondibox's picture

From what I hear, the Greens don't have a robust organization. But IMO it really wouldn't take much to replicate the NGP VAN. Now that everyone has a cell phone they could write an app that makes canvassing a breeze, paperless. Maybe they could form a coalition with the New Progressives. When it comes to every race except the president I think the more the merrier.

The Greens have a pretty good selling point, in Congress they would be all the things we love about the Democrats, without being, you know, Democrats.

up
0 users have voted.

F the F'n D's

But IMO it really wouldn't take much to replicate the NGP VAN. Now that everyone has a cell phone they could write an app that makes canvassing a breeze, paperless. Maybe they could form a coalition with the New Progressives.

up
0 users have voted.

Beware the bullshit factories.

Roger Fox's picture

I have. I also built my own NY state voter database last August. Scraped phone numbers off the white pages for a hit rate of 56%. Using SQL, PHP filtered everything so we could print out walk lists and call lists that "LOOKED" like VAN.

But our phone numbers were mostly land lines. And the vast majority of the tertiary data that VAN has, we didn't.

Then you need the online phone bank software.....Or have someone write one for you.

Then you need a data entry format thats not clunky as hell.

And that app, its called minivan. Its free.

up
0 users have voted.

FDR 9-23-33, "If we cannot do this one way, we will do it another way. But do it we will.

bondibox's picture

It was not well integrated from the get-go. You can get a voter roll file from the secretary of state, that's a good place to start.

Phone bank software? Coders For Sanders wrote state of the art phone bank software.

And what good does minivan do if the DNC just uses that information to screw you over? That's the whole point - I'm not talking about breaking the reliance on NGP, I'm talking about protecting the Progressive data. If it's linked to the DNC, it can't be trusted as a source nor as a repository.

up
0 users have voted.

F the F'n D's

Roger Fox's picture

I have a database and coders won't provide me with the phone bank software. I have the servers. The Python library can yield our version of minivan.

I have 2 clients in 2 campaigns and in one we're working with spreadsheets and super clunky data aggregation, or none at all, in a congressional race. The coders in Brooklyn NY are way too turf worried to be of any more use outside of their own turf.

up
0 users have voted.

FDR 9-23-33, "If we cannot do this one way, we will do it another way. But do it we will.

The only political parties that are even less robust than the Green Party are the parties that formed after the Green Party.

I have no particular case to make for the Green Party or for any other party. When I Demexited, I went unaffiliated, not Green and I had reasons for that. However, the idea is to unite within one party, rather than splintering even further than we are already splintered. If we choose one and become a force within it, whichever party we choose will become more robust. My sole suggestion is that forming new parties has not been the answer since at least Teddy Roosevelt--and he was a former POTUS! P

up
0 users have voted.

but not about yet another new party.

up
0 users have voted.

but not about yet another new party.

up
0 users have voted.
Phoebe Loosinhouse's picture

who has a modicum of charisma, who is well-informed and well-spoken, who can condense big ideas and policies into easily digestible bites, who is sincere and not speaking progressive sound bites in order to enthrall the rubes, who respects our intelligence. Bernie was all those things, at least in my estimation. He did leave a blueprint for future progress, his own campaign which proved :

*You can fight the Big Money with Small Money
*You can be ignored by Big Media and work effectively through word of mouth, the internet and social media until you can be ignored no longer.

I would bet that the rise of any successful new party in the past has been based on having an identifiable and concrete set of values and positions and effective leadership who work as "brand-makers" for those ideas and policies.

up
0 users have voted.

" “Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough.” FDR "

orlbucfan's picture

Bernie kept his word on everything he stated throughout his campaign. He proved that an honest public servant can raise the necessary dollars to run for POTUS. $$200-plus million is nothing to sneeze at, and it put a lot of corporate tools like $hrill on notice. The donations came from the 99% through the social networks of the 21st century: the innertubz, etc. The structure is in place to begin the process of flushing the corporate bought and paid for crooks out of all levels of government, starting at the local/bottom level. The corporate media is no longer the sole all-powerful, and only, megaphone like it was during Rayguns. Heck, I'm a Boomer, and I barely watch the boob tube anymore. I now have plenty of company especially among the young folks. When I was their age, I was an anomaly cos I like(d) books more than the tube.

The issues are there: climate change/fracking, busting national and international white collar corporate crime, wealth inequality, a badly broken infrastructure and public school system, etc., etc. Bernie's campaign trumpeted them, and millions responded. He said the solution rested with We The People, not just him. He also stated repeatedly that he would support $hrillary over tRump if that's how the primaries ended. He never gave her and the garbage she represents a full-throated endorsement. He's a devoted 74-year-old father and grandfather. tRump scares the heck out of him. I understand his position completely. I'm not voting for neither $hrill nor hairball brain. Bernie gets that and said so repeatedly.

I am a life-long Leftist/Futurist. I worked the Dean campaign back when the internet was just beginning to be the potential political game-changer it is now. I proudly worked the Bernster's campaign. I don't quite get all the complaining about Sanders being a sellout. He's not. It has always been up to We The People to take this country back. That sure hasn't changed!

I always enjoyed your diaries over at TOP/the Cyber Cesspool. I enjoy them now. Rec'd!! Smile

up
0 users have voted.

Inner and Outer Space: the Final Frontiers.

Roger Fox's picture

Thank you.

up
0 users have voted.

FDR 9-23-33, "If we cannot do this one way, we will do it another way. But do it we will.

while the right has tended toward organization and discipline. Both may be necessary, along with grass roots efforts.

I would bet that the rise of any successful new party in the past has been based on having an identifiable and concrete set of values and positions and effective leadership who work as "brand-makers" for those ideas and policies.

I have two reactions to that comment:

1. If you define a successful political party as one that can elect more than one US Senator and maybe even a President, the last US President from a new political party was Abraham Lincoln. His party was very successful in under a decade, so successful that it and the Democratic Party are now the two largest political parties, having squeezed every other party out of national contention.

2. Why can't an existing party that we unify behind and work for have set of positions, effective leadership and follow, and even improve upon, the "Sanders template?"* Why does the left always assume the answer is yet another brand new political party?

*I was with Sanders before he announced informally until he made clear that he would be working within the Democratic Party going forward. While I make an utterly loyal supporter, I make a really lousy fan. I saw room for improvement from the start, although I kept my mouth shut as long as I was supporting him. Then again, that may be because he didn't plan to win from the start, as a New York Times story of a few months ago claimed. I don't know whether to believe it because the NYT clearly had it in for Sanders from the start. All of establishment media, but certain outlets, such as the NYT and NPR, were particularly obvious about it.

up
0 users have voted.

To quote the op I have seen this movie before.

up
0 users have voted.

Solidarity forever

Wink's picture

He certainly didn't endorse Hillary. Hell, he virtually flippped her off, then walked out on the whole affair. Yes, he has to "pay some dues" and hit the trail in "support" of Her Highness, but you won't find a quote anywhere from him that suggests "I endorse Hillary." He has never said that. This post-Convention campaigning is simply protocol. It likely won't last long, then Bernie can get back to the business of supporting Our Revolution. Strike while the iron is hot, support Bernie's revolution and we'll have those "More and Better Democrats" filling those seats on Capitol Hill.

up
0 users have voted.

the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.

lunachickie's picture

bodies showing up from the DNC lately, I'm well-inclined to believe that he was literally beaten into compliance. There do seem to be rumours to that effect online...

up
0 users have voted.
Wink's picture

happened to Obama. "Look, Obo, Sambo, whatever, your black ass may have won the election, but this is the way it's going to play out... Our representatives, Flash and Vito here, will hang around the Palace to make sure you stay on track."

up
0 users have voted.

the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.

The guy made his bones as a lawyer in chi town defending slum lords in court against charges of turning of the gas in winter, and rat infestation. You wont find that in dreams of my father.

up
0 users have voted.

Solidarity forever

Stereotypes aside, Obama never described himself as a liberal when he was running. However, both he and Hillary did describe their ideas as "progressive," a term the DLC loved.

He had come out for equal marriage when he first ran for the Illinois legislature, then backpedaled when he ran for President. He had managed to be absent or voted "present" on days when the Illinois legislature dealt with controversial issues.

All along, except for his early stand on equal marriage, which he recanted, he sought to be Chance Gardener, making sure each of us could imagine him to be whatever we wanted to imagine an acceptable President to be.

Not very far into his first term, he described himself as a New Democrat, also known as neoliberal. Not very far into his second term, he pointed out that his policies are those of a moderate Republican in the 1980s. However, by then, he had nothing to lose and only the willfully dense needed him to characterize his policies. (I am not sure even moderate 1980s Republicans would have put OASDI and Medicare on the table, but that's a quibble.) If anything, Obama got more liberal during his second term than he had been throughout his career. Then again, many Democrats finding it convenient to talk a liberal game when Republicans control one or both house of Congress and the Democrat no longer intends to run, so I don't know how much much stock I put in Second Term Obama.

I don't think anyone threatens Presidents or Presidents elect, though I know that has been a popular theory in some quarters since the Kennedy assassination.

up
0 users have voted.
Citizen Of Earth's picture

since his first endorsement a week before the convention.

See this 8 min video. LISTEN CLOSELY to what Bernie is saying. I'm as dismayed as everyone else who supported and contributed to him.
http://caucus99percent.com/content/bernie-now-hellery-bro-face-nation-in...

up
0 users have voted.

Donnie The #ShitHole Douchebag. Fake Friend to the Working Class. Real Asshole.

I am not sure what distinction you see between saying that and endorsing Hillary.

up
0 users have voted.

Bernie's actions were:
1. Go silent about voter fraud and disenfranchisement and decline to pursue in courts.
2. Decline to give supporters an explanation for giving up the fight.
3. Endorsed HRC at convention.
4. Abandoned his delegates at convention.
5. Ignored awful treatment of his delegates during convention.
6. Failed to inform his delegates that he was still on ballot for a vote at convention.
7. Formed "Our Revolution" asking for donations to questionable end because he Berned through whatever trust he built during his campaign.

up
0 users have voted.

is no different from a bad person asking me to do the wrong thing.

up
0 users have voted.

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

Damnit Janet's picture

however, I think a good person asking you to do the wrong thing may even be worse.

up
0 users have voted.

"Love One Another" ~ George Harrison

A good person asking me to do the wrong thing

is no different from a bad person asking me to do the wrong thing.

Yes, but this one can do it secure in the knowledge that very few of his informed supporters would consider, even for a second, voting for a corrupt corporate candidate but that they very likely would vote for... say... the sort of non-corporate party and candidate some of his surrogates have decided to support.

Bernie may have to say crap about Hillary being 'superior to Trump who must not become President' in order to keep the message and contrast between what's possible in a real democracy and what Hillary actually supports (or at least sometimes claims to, depending on audience) before the eyes and in the minds of the people limited to corporate media.

But even on corporate media, some portion of what's coming out about Hillary/the Clintons is beginning to be mentioned... Hillary's numbers always drop - and Jill's are climbing as the fact of the existence of the Green party becomes known. (Although I did just recently get a questionnaire most of which had to be left unanswered as only the Dems and Repubs yes-or-no were mentioned, so it was sent in as is, because I got to say NO to the question about supporting Hillary asked at the beginning and I felt that this needed to be said as often as possible by as many people as possible.)

up
0 users have voted.

Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

"A good person asking me to do the wrong thing

is no different from a bad person asking me to do the wrong thing."

... to what this good person was telling you (and everyone else, supporter or not) repeatedly about it being Hillary's responsibility to get you on board her campaign if she won the nomination. And back on April 25 after the NY primary had made the situation pretty clear, he said very specifically that if he TRIED to tell you what to do you should not listen to him:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?sns=em&v=FF0HmLjrPC8&app=desktop (about 30 seconds in)

up
0 users have voted.

because I know less about them and am projecting my hopes on to that party. What I do see on the internet though makes me believe that so far they are more confrontational and more economically grounded in working class goals.

up
0 users have voted.

"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"

Cassiodorus's picture

is the Working Families Party on the ballot?

up
0 users have voted.

"The war on Gaza, backed by the West, is a demonstration that the West is willing to cross all lines. That it will discard any nuance of humanity. That it is willing to commit genocide" -- Moon of Alabama

zee64's picture

when they endorsed Andrew Cuomo over Zephyr Teachout for governor of New York, after they asked her to run, I lost my interest.

up
0 users have voted.

"Hope is believing in the plausibility of the possible over the necessity of the probable." -- Mimonides. 12th century

Phoebe Loosinhouse's picture

with that one. And Teachout still did amazingly well for an unknown running against a legacy name. Who knows, she may have pulled it off if Working Families had endorsed and supported her. It would have been an upset similar to Eric Cantor getting his ass handed to him by an unknown.

up
0 users have voted.

" “Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough.” FDR "

Roger Fox's picture

and recently endorsed Schumer.

up
0 users have voted.

FDR 9-23-33, "If we cannot do this one way, we will do it another way. But do it we will.

they endorsed Como.

up
0 users have voted.

Solidarity forever

We've seen this movie before, haven't we?

Actually, no. In my 60 odd years of watching (and engaging) to bring about a more people centered politic generally and in the black activist arenas, I have not seen anyone with the 50 year history that Bernie has of fighting for people in the underclass. He is espousing the same values today that he put his life on the line for 50 years ago. I'm still with Bernie while we wait for the perfect savior.

up
0 users have voted.
OLinda's picture

this pattern:

I, for one, am seeing a pattern here - everytime a Progressive leader arises or appears to arise, apres election some vehicle is created for all those passionate, hepped-up liberals to join to vent all that excess energy and to make them believe "the movement hasn't died!".

Dean - DFA; Obama, OFA; Sanders, Our Revolution.

Very depressing to see it. It's like a play, and joining up and working to help the Democratic party is act 3.

From Obama's OFA:

Organizing for Action is a movement of millions of Americans, coming together to fight for real, lasting change . . .

Sounds familiar.

Thanks for the essay, Phoebe.

up
0 users have voted.
Phoebe Loosinhouse's picture

"training the next generations of Progressive leaders" blah blah blah. But we fall for it every time. More and Better, right?

In my mind the Democrats with their voter suppression and smears and scorched earth policies revealed themselves to be a Party I want no part of forever. Like I said in the essay, I see no hope of rehabilitating them and IMO building a new party is the easier task.

Liberals and neo-liberals are engaged in a 100 Years Internecine War within the Democratic Party. Abandon that battlefield and defeat them on new ground.

up
0 users have voted.

" “Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough.” FDR "

say anything about a party, Dem Party or otherwise. Bernie has chosen to remain an Independent, and hasn't said whether he'll run as an Independent in 2018. Right now, where our country is, if we choose to vote, we have limited choices. He is repelled by Trump, which puts him right back where he was, caucusing with the Dems. Again, limited choices.

I wouldn't put this (our) movement into any party. And either did Bernie's email. We're in the same position as was Occupy. Same goals. Nothing specific maybe because they couldn't see a venue. And maybe that's the next step for this revolution. Selecting a venue. Without it, it's as powerless as Occupy ultimately was. Bernie's campaign didn't run into the police state that eventually destroyed Occupy. Probably because it was working within the "system." So, the question is: how do we create a party that's works within a system and works toward the goals of Bernie's platform? Coming up with a specific plan seems much more productive than just complaining. We may be able to do it with Bernie, or not. If, as he says, it's our revolution, we should have input. Don't back away. Input!!!

up
0 users have voted.
Phoebe Loosinhouse's picture

talking about working from within the party or the outside is in this interview
Bernie Sanders will launch organizations to spread progressive message

Because it discusses his efforts to "transform the Democratic Party" it seems to indicate that he will be working largely under the confines of the Party although he's clear that the candidates he sees himself helping in the future don't have to be Democrats.

Sanders said he wants to make sure candidates receiving such help are, in fact, progressive. But they don’t have to be Democrats.

“If you have some strong independents who would like to run, it would be my inclination to support them,” he said.

IMO that tactic of trying to change the party from within is doomed to ultimate failure because a large part of the Party power structure is perfectly happy with the party just the way it is. They give lip service to progressive goals in elections and then revert to dispensing pragmatic crumbs when the crowds have cleared. If anything the neo-liberals will become more entrenched and powerful under HRC, IMO.

But, that's his choice I guess.

up
0 users have voted.

" “Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough.” FDR "

Citizen Of Earth's picture

Renamed. Gotta get the branding right. Now let's package it and get it on the plastic lunch boxes.

up
0 users have voted.

Donnie The #ShitHole Douchebag. Fake Friend to the Working Class. Real Asshole.

OLinda's picture

up
0 users have voted.
orlbucfan's picture

go back to being an Independent? BTW, I checked out Jill Stein 4 years ago during the 2012 campaign. She had a female VP running with her who made a lot more sense than this guy she's got now.

up
0 users have voted.

Inner and Outer Space: the Final Frontiers.

Cassiodorus's picture

While the likes of Bernie Sanders and Tulsi Gabbard endorse Clinton, Jill Stein is obliged to choose Ajamu Baraka as VP.

For the past forty years "the Left" has been "constituted" by two groups:

1) Sectarians, whose membership in "the Left" is measured by their belonging to tiny "Left" vanguard parties which exclude the vast majority of the working class because said working class does not follow the party line, and:

2) Sellouts, whose membership in "the Left" is measured by their self-proclamation, their obedience to "Left" standards of etiquette, and their production of reprehensibly right-wing politics.

For a brief period of time, the Sanders campaign mixed things up so that one could feel some sort of ephemeral sense of not belonging to either category. But that window is closing now, and fast.

up
0 users have voted.

"The war on Gaza, backed by the West, is a demonstration that the West is willing to cross all lines. That it will discard any nuance of humanity. That it is willing to commit genocide" -- Moon of Alabama

Citizen Of Earth's picture

I've moved on. You have not. No need to get nasty about it.

up
0 users have voted.

Donnie The #ShitHole Douchebag. Fake Friend to the Working Class. Real Asshole.

Roger Fox's picture

The Sanders online tools are simply next gen, not next step, just from a tech and software point. Then the concepts embodied in those tools, they have never been used before.

AS far as this:

Dean - DFA; Obama, OFA; Sanders, Our Revolution.

Thats a result of the digital age. You're misinterpreting a paradigm change (ushering in the digital age). Back in the day mailing lists of outgoing Presidents were used afterward. Bill Clinton sent out letters in 2000, I remember , I got one.

The difference is over 50% of americans had email by 2004.

up
0 users have voted.

FDR 9-23-33, "If we cannot do this one way, we will do it another way. But do it we will.

be able to wield, from within a Clinton-dominated Democratic Party? That remains to be seen but my guess is, not much. It seems unlikely that Hillary would consider him for a Cabinet post, so presumably he goes back to being a cranky Senator, and we're back to where we started from.

And meanwhile, Bernie's people are supposed to do.... what? Organize themselves somehow with no structure in place, no leader to represent them, and no particular place to go? Except of course, into the not-so-willing arms of the Dem Establishment. An Establishment, by the way, that is now being bolstered by GOP refugees fleeing The Donald, and that is looking less and less attractive every day.

up
0 users have voted.

native

Phoebe Loosinhouse's picture

power outside the party than he has inside it. To me, that's as clear as the nose on your face.

up
0 users have voted.

" “Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough.” FDR "

Sign. I do believe "Our Revolution" will be aligned with Brand New Congress" which is nonpartisan. Our local Bernie group is transitioning to a combination of supporting omnipartisan progressives at all levels, as well as looking forward to Brand New Congress. Another Bernie group is going full out Green Party. I prefer the Working People's Party, too, but we don't have them in FL.

up
0 users have voted.
lunachickie's picture

Sanders isn't part of any party. Being "independent" is a different thing from "belonging to the Independent Party" (of which there are fairly several, with variations in name).

In Florida? Go Green. Stein got her slot here on the ballot months ago. That's where I'm headed...

up
0 users have voted.
Bisbonian's picture

"Independent party", because there isn't one. He is just Independent.

up
0 users have voted.

"I’m a human being, first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.” —Malcolm X

Bisbonian's picture

"Independent party", because there isn't one. He is just Independent.

up
0 users have voted.

"I’m a human being, first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.” —Malcolm X

Between his very early political years, when he ran in very small political parties, like the Liberty Union party, he has run as an independent, meaning not affiliated with any political party at all, including the Republican Party, the Democratic Party or the Independent Party. The Independent Party has run candidates, but Bernie was never one of those candidates. He ran totally on his own. It's confusing, I know, but there is a signifcant difference between running all on your own, as Bernie has, and running as a candidate of the Independent Party.

up
0 users have voted.
Roger Fox's picture

To paraphrase Gil Scott Heron.

Bernie's people are supposed to do.... what? Organize themselves somehow with no structure in place, no leader to represent them,

Did you miss the #usnotme bit? Did you miss the We are the Campaign thing?

From the beginning the Sanders campaign advocated for county & municipal organizers, they are the structure. I fail to understand how your takeaway of the last 12 months can be so diametrically opposed to my experience over the last 12 months.

How about we hand you the revolution on a silver platter?

"We are the leaders we've been waiting for".
Tom Wyka- 2006

The battle of Lexington in 1775 was won by local militias.

Of the militiamen who lined up, nine had the surname Harrington, seven Munroe (including the company's orderly sergeant, William Munroe), four Parker, three Tidd, three Locke, and three Reed; fully one quarter of them were related to Captain Parker in some way.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battles_of_Lexington_and_Concord#Lexington

Thats where it starts, at the county and municipal levels. Right now, right here.

up
0 users have voted.

FDR 9-23-33, "If we cannot do this one way, we will do it another way. But do it we will.

I am not interested in another trip up memory lane to rinse repeat. While I believe that third parties stand a snowballs chance in hell, I believe that the odds of FDR Democrats succeeding are even less.

up
0 users have voted.

"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

Wink's picture

for Jill, but I'm All In on Bernie's Our Revolution. The groundwork's been done. Why bother to reinvent something that's already been invented and put into practice? I'm with Bernie!

up
0 users have voted.

the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.

Roger Fox's picture

Create and wield political power just like Bernie showed us (for those who never volunteered in a campaign before).

I highly recommend attending a 3 day Camp Wellstone political training.

up
0 users have voted.

FDR 9-23-33, "If we cannot do this one way, we will do it another way. But do it we will.

... and more decline in the middle class, more people are listening. Especially the young people, who went in overwhelming numbers for the message. Demographics is destiny.

This is a problem that doesn't have one, simple solution. It's as valid to say "transform the Democratic party" (which, after all, was transformed into what it's become) as it is to say "work outside the party".

In fact, it may be, to borrow a term, more resilient to do both things.

What's important are the ideals.

The difference from all those examples you gave is that many, many more people have had the blinders ripped off (myself included) and have now come to understand what the current Democratic party is: the neocon right.

Myself, I think it's important to transform the Democrats, because I don't want to have to fight a two front war between them and the GOP every time. Unity yes, but on more traditional Democratic ground.

The Democrats will have their come to Jesus moment at the midterms if all remains as it is, and 2020, when Hill will get crushed. It will come much, much sooner if the GOP manages to convince Trump to stand down and they end up running a more conventional candidate this cycle. Once they start losing elections they should be winning ... they'll change. They're lucky that the GOP is so, so weak and Trump is a living, breathing dumpster fire. But the GOP reboot will get underway soon after this election.

If you need uplifting ... follow our neighbors across the pond. The fight against neoliberalism continues.

http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/08/04/jeremy-corbyn-launches-bold-...

up
0 users have voted.
ChemBob's picture

during the late 60s and early 70s, because most of us hippies knew which way the wind was blowing. Lots of music provides a history on this, e.g., Jefferson Starship's "Blows Against the Empire" and hundreds, thousands of others. We were being sent to die in Vietnam and 50,000+ of us did die there. We watched the assassinations of our great liberal icons. We saw Tricky Dick commit crimes and be left to go free by his VP successor, the horridly stupid Gerald Ford.

We were killed in the streets, beaten by baton-wielding fascists who were mere precursors of the cop battle-bots we have now, sent off to die, and our ideas left to rot as game plans such as the Powell Memo were adopted by corporations, the religious right, and their government toadies.

We were listening, just like the young are listening today and look where that got us. It's going to take a lot more than listening, but I shudder at what that might be.

up
0 users have voted.

There was the draft, and lots of us were being killed. So we fought against the war. But we didn't fight for the issues in Bernie's campaign. Why? We already had all that stuff. We had a large middle class and lots fewer people living in poverty. Now we're fighting for the basics---food and shelter. And a future for our youth.

up
0 users have voted.
ChemBob's picture

for my friends and I. We were also fighting against the war in general, the bombing of Cambodia, the rise of the MIC, the oppression of blacks and other minorities, and for generally more freedom accompanied by peace, rather than war, for everyone, not just in the U. S.

I don't know anything about your circumstances, but my concerns were much broader than what you have addressed here. Money went a lot further, but my family was basically poor. Women were generally treated as second-class citizens and minorities couldn't even attend many colleges, even state colleges. My fight was an attempt to address all of these issues and more.

up
0 users have voted.

... as a somewhat younger observer. I was about 10 years old when my brother took me along to register him for the draft, and on the way back, I still remember the front page of the local paper being the trial of Lt. Calley and thinking WTF? And Cronkite's body counts each and every day.

You guys were the heroes, no doubt about it, and now the establishment has reacted to you by closing ranks and never allowing something like the 60's from happening again (like, why there will never, ever be a draft again). If they get their way, that is.

So, now what?

It may not be a bloodless revolution (in fact, it isn't, if you listen to BLM), but would you say there are far more people less willing to trust the establishment than there was in the 60's, from both parties? More people on both the left and the right have seen the wizard behind the curtain, and you can't unsee it once you've seen it.

up
0 users have voted.

it could easily be Hillary Clinton. And she is well on her way to becoming the most powerful President since Ronald Reagan. While it's true that many more people can now see behind the curtain, it's also true that they are largely disunited and working at cross-purposes. And that still a substantial majority of Americans have no idea that a curtain even exists. Muchas gracias MSM. I'd agree that its opinion-shaping power is diminishing, but this has resulted in a splintering of opposition forces, rather than any organized resistance.

up
0 users have voted.

native

... but what is also true is that status quo is unsustainable, for many reasons. Climate, income inequality, health care, endless war. People are asking what their government should be doing about these things. That we're somewhat working at cross purposes is clear, even from just reading this thread. But we each at least see the problem, and see different ways forward.

One thing should be painfully clear: the problems are not going away. That knocking on the establishment's door that got to about 45% (at least, that's what they tell us) on the D side this year and made Trump the R nominee ... not going to recede any time soon.

up
0 users have voted.

we have a profound economic struggle just to survive for far too many, too many that may be awake now, but if their poverty gets worse, which I'm sure it will under HRC, how much energy are any of us going to have for a sustained fight? If they succeed in their next bail out, or bail in as they'd now like to do, they can make sure that we are far more concerned about mere survival than doing anything about their corruption. Climate change will help them there too I imagine.

We no longer have time to tweak the edges and these bastards have made sure of that. They'll try their damnedest to shut down any dissent quickly, and they'll have plenty of ugly circumstances to help them do it.

up
0 users have voted.

Only a fool lets someone else tell him who his enemy is. Assata Shakur

... if the economy can't sustain the empire. They know this. They also see what happens when you lose control of the narrative --- the Tea Party provides a useful lesson after all.

You know, whenever I think about giving up, I remember how quickly things can change. How quickly LGBT, after a sustained fight, became mainstream and accepted. I remember not quite believing the pre-BLM people, but then, we get cell phone video showing us exactly what they've been telling us for years. Their fight is not yet won, but they've gained massive credibility. Cell phone video may be the most democratic instrument yet invented.

I'm most encouraged by youth, who have none of the baggage we've all collected over the years and have all the energy and hopefully enough determination to change the world at least as much as you "dirty hippies" did in the 60's.

Little by little, we chip away at the darkness. Because the alternative is to remain in the dark.

up
0 users have voted.

The fossil fuel industry knew that climate change was occurring and sought to cover it over, just as the inter-related asbestos/fossil fuel/petrochemocal/nuclear industry and others including many or all in related industries such as in manufacturing, mining, sales and insurance, knew over the last century or so that workers and others highly exposed were dying like flies and lived in terror that the public would realize what hazard they'd been placed at and bankrupt them with law-suits, covering this over predominately by creating special industry science (adopted by complicit governments wishing to avoid having to compensate expediently and knowingly exposed military, war workers and the general public) blaming these deadly health effects on worker life-style choices to protect these deliberate poisoners/polluters and enable them to continue sickening and killing humans, animals and the environment generally.

They aren't bright enough to see beyond short-term profits, which explains why the response to the world dying mainly of rampant industry/military pollution and destruction is to kill it off faster for more short-term profit so that they can have the corpse to pick, all to themselves.

Edit to add that they evidently don't even care about making any pretense of actual elections or any smidge of pretend-democracy, so this could be the end of even social bones being tossed to the 'little people' to give them something to shut their mouths.

up
0 users have voted.

Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

Hell, we didn't trust anyone over 30. We got the 18 year old vote amendment passed. There were lots of different movements happening at once. Anti-war movement, civil rights movement, feminist movement, and several new Eastern religions. We were an active lot.

up
0 users have voted.

I was definitely born 10 years too late. Wink

up
0 users have voted.

Losing elections they should be winning. Hillary should be CRUSHING trump right now. She is, at best, 5 to 7 points ahead (although Fox poll just came out and has her 10 points ahead, FWIW). And she may have negative coat-tails. People will likely say, "Yeah, Trump is scary, but Hillary is only slightly less scary. I'll hold my nose and vote for Hillary, but I will hold her in check by voting GOP in down ballot candidates."

And look at the 2010 elections. Yes, historically the majority party loses seats. But the Dems wasted two years and basically did a bunch of stuff that could have happened under a Bush administration.

The Party is corrupt and is hostile to democracy. It is beyond redemption.

up
0 users have voted.

Democrats, we tried to warn you. How is that guilt and shame working out?

... because exactly what you illustrate is why I keep thinking that the D's have never been weaker and ripe for takeover. They too have lost control of a narrative: that they are the big tent working people's party. All those working people with dirty fingernails at the end of a work day that used to be solid D are now Trump Republicans. Progressive lefties are moving to Greener pastures. So, this Hillary love affair on the right lasts one half cycle to get past Trump, then reverts back to mean and she and the neocon D's she associates with start losing. Meantime, the R's reboot with something more of a centrist message that can govern again, probably taking neocon D's with them.

Democrats have been crowing for some time that "demographics is destiny", apparently not noticing that pretty much everyone under 45 Felt The Bern this cycle.

Whoopsie.

up
0 users have voted.

Why would you take over the Titanic AFTER it hits the iceberg? Progressive have been warning the Democrats since Reagan was elected. Now, we have Hillary, who in many ways is to the RIGHT of Reagan. Time to abandon ship.

up
0 users have voted.

Democrats, we tried to warn you. How is that guilt and shame working out?

and onto what? Wink

To win elections, you have to convince people to think like you do. And you have to have the organization to get the word AND the vote out. To me, the easiest path to accomplish both is to flip about 10% of Democrats who didn't vote with us this time, because a) the organization is already there and b) I can't stand the thought that the party of FDR has been taken over by right wing infiltrators.

So, this time around, I'm all about tactics and voting Green. But long term, my belief is that the faster path is to remind Democrats who they used to be. As long as people vote their beliefs in large enough numbers, parties go to where the votes are. Politicians are usually trailing edge indicators of public sentiment (exhibit one is HRH herself). Rare are the Bernies of the world that attempt to define the leading edge.

I might be wrong. But I am agile if I am, and quite willing to change my mind. As I hope that you all are.

Remember: a self-described socialist won 45% (again, at least 45%) of a Dem primary against one of the biggest machines Dems ever had all the way back to Tammany. One or two more pushes, and I think the whole of it comes crashing down. Helped by a status quo that is simply not sustainable.

up
0 users have voted.

Probably won like 51%+ of the casts votes, but those were suppressed. The Democratic party is NOT a democratic organization. Period. You can't take over something that is controlled by an inside clique.

up
0 users have voted.

Democrats, we tried to warn you. How is that guilt and shame working out?

... this too shall pass.

I think priority number one for us should be to wreck Citizens United, and remove the primary need for the DNC to act the way it does in the first place. The story in any criminal enterprise is always the same: follow the money. I also want my congresspeople to work on needs of the people and not fundraising for re-election.

Priority two should be how we get back to transparent, audit-able elections with sane, non-partisan district maps.

You can switch these two priorities if you want, but nothing we do will matter a damn until both are done.

up
0 users have voted.
bondibox's picture

You can't take over something that is controlled by an inside clique.

You'll never root out the corruption from the Democratic party because the party is self-governing and its members like it that way. None of the Clinton primary election B.S. seems to matter because the logic is that the Democrats can corrupt their own elections if they want to, because they are a private institution.

The only hope is to migrate to a new party that hasn't been corrupted yet, try to keep the moles from killing it and the money from co-opting it.

up
0 users have voted.

F the F'n D's

... you define the clique?

If Sanders had prevailed, who do you think would have been working at the DNC? Whose people would be in leadership positions in Congress?

Please, if nothing else ... stop defeating yourselves before you begin.

Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.
--- RFK

up
0 users have voted.

The system is designed so that NOBODY like Saunders can 'win'. Defeat ourselves before we begin? This battle has been happening for decades.

up
0 users have voted.

Democrats, we tried to warn you. How is that guilt and shame working out?

Roger Fox's picture

up
0 users have voted.

FDR 9-23-33, "If we cannot do this one way, we will do it another way. But do it we will.

they will be in their favorite spot, playing the role as the good cop.

up
0 users have voted.

Solidarity forever

Mark from Queens's picture

But it's bittersweet too. Bernie is his counterpart here, but not in the same position of power.

In fact boils my blood to have to dwell again that the Clinton Cabal used its vast money laundering devices like the Clinton Foundation and influence peddling apparatus to stifle and upturn any advancements Bernie was legitimately making electorally. He was literally embarrassing Her at every turn. And they were fuming. So they had to pull stunts at polling places and voter counting all over the country, put the screws to their friends in the MSM to black him out and have little Davey Brock pay minions to sit in cubicles and write nasty stuff online about his campaign.

Bernie and Jeremy are the right men, lifelong socialists, to bring about a epochal change. One still has the pulpit to do it from.

Thanks for the link, and reminder of how good Common Dreams is.

up
0 users have voted.

"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:

THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC"

- Kurt Vonnegut

Phoebe Loosinhouse's picture

new movie, no argument there. But his sequel doesn't sound like it will live up to the promise of the original.

I don't need perfection and I don't need a savior and if Bernie wanted to retain his leadership position as an iconoclast outside of the Party when he returns to an Independent status, I'd be right there. I am still a huge Bernie fan and always will be.

I have cognitive dissonance because it sounds like he's allowing himself to be absorbed in a merger with the Democrats. They are the Party he himself rejected for decades.

up
0 users have voted.

" “Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough.” FDR "

gulfgal98's picture

I have cognitive dissonance because it sounds like he's allowing himself to be absorbed in a merger with the Democrats. They are the Party he himself rejected for decades.

And the party itself has rejected his delegates and his movement, everything he campaigned upon. The party went to extraordinary measures to deny, manipulate, and corrupt the voting process. And because of that alone, I can no longer support the Democratic party. I am of the firm belief that the Democratic party is far too corrupt to be reformed from within. Once Bernie went in full throat for the most corrupt candidate to ever run for President in my lifetime, he lost his credibility. It may have been that he had no other choice and was threatened, but the net result remains the same. There can be no real revolution under the circumstance of working within the party.

edited twice for typos...sign

up
0 users have voted.

Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

Hillary is beating Trump by 9 pts in MI. That leaves me free to vote for Jill. I don't know what I'm going to do down ticket. In a DeVos owned and Snyder operated state, I pretty much have to vote for all the Democrats. Stabenow can shove it however.

up
0 users have voted.

"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

Pages