There has been a lot of commentary to the effect – if Bernie is elected, how on earth is he going to accomplish anything with the current congress?
Bernie’s experience as mayor is highly pertinent. In his 1981 campaign for mayor of Burlington, by putting together a broad coalition of people who were getting the shorter end of the stick, Bernie managed to beat the Democratic incumbent by a total of 10 votes.
In his first term, the City Council consisted most of career pols who had little respect for their new mayor. He was able to accomplish very little. So what he did was turn to the citizens of Burlington for their help. In the next election, they streamed to the polls and threw out most members of the City Council, replacing them with candidates sympathetic to Bernie. As a result, Bernie’s subsequent 6 years as mayor were highly successful, achieving major advances for the people of Burlington.
This is what Bernie means by a people’s revolution. In the current election, he will bring a horde of voters to the polls who wouldn’t even have bothered to vote if they didn’t have a candidate to vote for who truly inspired them. This will translate into major pick-ups for Democrats in both houses. These gains probably won’t be large enough to enable Bernie to enact his agenda, but he will use his bully pulpit to rain down fire and brimstone on the Republicans and ConservaDems who oppose his initiatives. In the 2018 election, Bernie’s highly motivated supporters will stream to the polls again, and throw out more of the obstructionist rascals. This process will be repeated until real progress has been achieved, during and beyond Bernie’s term in office. That’s what Bernie’s people’s revolution means.