I think that many are missing the fact that Sanders’ campaign is about more than him winning the presidency. I have confidence that both Democratic presidential candidates will be good on the “social issues” that start and end pretty much as social issues. And that’s really, really good, absolutely! But Sanders campaign is focused on the corruption that is inherent in our system, and fosters the institutional repressiveness that permeates our society.
The Occupy movement was laughed at by the corporate media and pundits for having no goals or leaders. And now, suddenly, we’re seeing a sweep of legislation setting the minimum wage at $15. Does anyone really think that would be happening now without the Occupy movement?
Sanders movement is pointing out the way that large donations and corporate lobbyists set the agenda for the country to benefit themselves, not the general public. From climate change to bank (and therefore economic) stability, to incarceration policy, to public school quality, to infrastructure building and maintenance, to financial access, to tax policy, the system has worked for the wealthy and corporations who could pay politicians and lobbyists. The costs of their gains have been extracted from those of us who can’t pay politicians and lobbyists to aggressively follow every bit of legislation. Just one example: the rise of private prisons and corresponding enthusiasm to lock more people up to bring more money to those prisons (and their “generous-to-politicians” owners).
A more specific example of “socially progressive but corrupt”: Debbie Wasserman Schultz is really great on LGBT rights, but she’s trying to weaken Dodd-Frank protections against payday lenders. This should NOT an acceptable way to be “progressive.”
I read a diary this weekend saying essentially that Sanders’ campaign was lying about Clinton taking money from the fossil fuel industry because of course we couldn’t count donations to Super Pac’s since the candidate has no control over them. Jeez, come on, folks, were we born yesterday? Sure, Super Pac’s are independent of the candidate, wink wink. Like me, you all probably receive constant email begging for a few dollars for a candidate. Do we really believe that a candidate won’t know who donated even $100K to their Super Pac, and won’t have some motivation to keep that money coming? Why would an industry donate to a candidate if they don’t think it’s in their interest to do so?
What Sanders’ movement is doing is saying that we Democrats are really angry about the way money and corporate lobbying has corrupted our system, and the way it warps our democracy into working against the interests of the people. The better Sanders does in this race, the more on-notice the rest of our party is going to be that the tide is turning against Democrats who don’t put our interests above those of corporations and the rich, and that there is a constituency for the election of progressive Democrats. And that, I really thought, was the primary mission of DailyKos.
I 100% understand Marcus’ comments that we should focus on the lower level races, as that is where the GOP has been spectacularly successful in recent years, and we should probably focus most of our resources there. And I understand the challenges Sanders has to winning the presidency. But folks, we have a progressive hero who is doing more than most any of us will ever be able to accomplish in educating people about the corruption of our system and what we need to do to fix it. Someone who has shown that you can be in politics for years and still be honest and decent and not beholden to corporations. The longer he keeps forcing the corporate media to cover his campaign, the more his message gets out. If it inconveniences the corporate Democrats that he keeps running all the way to the convention- Good!! Sanders represents me and my values, and the stronger his movement is, the better our politics are likely to be in the future. And if the policies of other politicians differ too much from Sanders’s movement to attract his supporters, well, it’s time they start working on changing that. This isn’t just about this election. This is about our future.