NPR ran an interesting piece on All Things Considered today: Exactly What Kind Of Socialist Is Bernie Sanders? Meanwhile in Albany, NY alternative weekly Metroland had Sanders on the cover with the caption Feeling The Bern. Sanders is kindling some Progressive flames.
More below the Orange Omnilepticon.
NPR must be picking up some vibes, because they went out of their way to do more than just call Bernie a "Socialist" without explaining it. Could it be the crowds showing up for Sanders have people wondering just what this socialism thing is? NPR's John Dillon explains:
Webster's dictionary defines socialism as a form of society in which government owns or controls major industries. Marxist theory says socialism is the transitional stage between capitalism and communism.
Neither one of these definitions is what Sanders is talking about.
"What am I trying to do in this campaign is to tell Americans what many of them don't know: that the benefits for working people are a lot, lot stronger in many other countries around the world," he has said.
emphasis added
Yes, they had to bring up Marxism and Communism - because that is all most Americans think of when they hear about socialism - but then NPR made it clear that is NOT what Sanders is about.
...the kind of socialism he advocates is the Democratic socialism seen in Scandinavia and other countries in Europe. Those governments support paid sick leave, universal health care and free higher education.
"How many Americans know that in virtually every major industrialized country people are guaranteed vacation time, paid vacation time? That when you have a baby, moms and dads are guaranteed ... family leave?" he said.
Garrison Nelson, a professor of political science at the University of Vermont, has observed Sanders throughout his political career.
"This is not communism; this is not five-year plans, collectivized agriculture and nationalized industry," he said.
emphasis added
To the Gallup survey that say more Americans would vote for a Muslim or an atheist for president than a socialist, Sanders has a great response:
Sanders told the New York Times recently that he thought the numbers were surprisingly good since they showed 47 percent of the electorate would vote for a socialist. He also said that percentage will increase as his campaign continues.
It would have been even more useful if NPR had noted that the kinds of things now seen as something only those European countries do used to be mainstream in the United States. Socialism has roots in America as well, no matter how much effort is made to scrub them from history. (How many people know about
Jane Addams and Hull House, for example?)
Meanwhile, Metroland's print story on Sanders by Ali Hibbs manages to find a cover photo and two pictures in the article that don't show his hair in disarray or Sanders in the middle of what looks like an angry rant. (MSM, please take note.)
Hibbs reports that the progressive energies raised by Zephyr Teachout's primary challenge to Andrew Cuomo in New York seem to be getting a boost from Sander's campaign.
Recently, many of those who supported Teachout in her watershed 2014 campaign have been putting their hopes, and their time and effort, into the grassroots campaign of underdog presidential candidate Bernie Sanders—a man they believe will fight to rectify many of our nation’s most glaring problems: wealth disparity, civil-rights issues, campaign finance, environmental destruction and corporate favoritism. Overwhelmingly, they point to Sanders’ long-standing record of voting his conscience and staying true to his political word, as well as his overall decency in eschewing distasteful campaign tactics. His biggest opponent, the well-funded and well-connected Hillary Rodham Clinton, they believe, is too firmly entrenched in—and indebted to—the current system to support any meaningful change.
The article quotes a number of locals who are getting behind Sanders, and seeing an apathetic public starting to respond.
Local organizers had their first meeting late last month, just before Sanders’ video-streamed campaign launch on July 29, an event for which supporters organized viewing parties in homes and other venues around the country. In the Capital Region, several of the 10-plus viewing parties were so heavily attended that larger venues were needed and alternate spaces provided. At the event hosted by Mirsky, 95 people attended—around 55 more than original estimates—causing him to move the event to the Elks Lodge on Allen Street in Albany. “It was supposed to be more of a smallish gathering in my studio,” he says, “but then the registration blew up. Too many people for my small space. It was a last-minute scramble, but it went over really well.”
The
Metroland article is an illustrative look at the kind of grass roots organizing needed to get people energized and out to the polls. There's also a short section on Sanders and the BLM movement, and another with local responses to Sanders.
There is a growing realization that the political system in this country no longer seems to respond to, or even be aware of, the desires of the vast majority of Americans. Republicans have been able to get their base to turn out using anger and fear; Trump has brought it to the surface. The establishment Left on the other hand seems to be afraid of giving their base what they want. Sanders is forcing them to acknowledge it, even as Trump is getting all the media attention. The problem for Clinton is that too many Americans feel "the system" is broken - and she's part of it. The problem for Sanders is that he has to convince enough Americans he can beat "the system".
As Metroland notes:
Nationally, there is a prevailing feeling that American voters have become disillusioned and apathetic—particularly among the young and liberally minded—in response to a visibly dysfunctional government that they feel doesn’t respond to them. Poor voter turnout at midterm and local elections would certainly seem to support this sentiment, frustrating many on the left of the political spectrum who believe that those elections are, consequently, won by minority opinions who happen to be better organized and more motivated. Grassroots activists, including many here in the Capital Region, however, dare to defy that bleak perspective and are hard at work to change a system they believe to be broken, because they believe that such change is possible.
Two terms of Obama, and America is still looking for change. Can Bernie light the fires that will power it? Stay tuned.