I had thought and hoped that Bernie would bring back the Party of FDR. I thought he was the first candidate in three decades that spoke to the base. I still believe that he is the only reason that Hillary Clinton checked into Wall-Street rehab. But I’m not given to delusion. It wastes time, intellect, money, and effort. As sad as it is that Bernie Sanders is not going to be the nominee, how much sadder to let his loss become the loss also of the movement he founded. Populist revolts have surged into existence before only to fade into impotence. If we continue in denial, if we fight the wrong fight, that is exactly what will happen.
It is time to turn all the energy that the movement has developed toward developing the movement: past the primary, through the general, and beyond. Steve Phillips, writing for “The Nation”, gets close to the point.
“If Sanders focuses the forces and resources he’s accumulated in his historic campaign on supporting progressive leaders and organizations of color, he could upend progressive politics and significantly strengthen the cause of combating income and wealth inequality in America.”
The basic idea, to turn what Sanders has developed during the campaign into something that will outlast that campaign, is right. I have two issues, though.
First, and almost beside the point, Phillips’ prescription is to advocate for candidates of color. That’s good, but it’s unlikely that concentrating on minorities alone, a collection of heterogeneous segments of the electorate, can do for us what race baiting did for Nixon and for Reagan. Yes, we must both continue and expand our support for minorities. But we have to reach out aggressively also to the working poor, to blue-collar workers, and to the middle class. And we have to reaffirm our commitment to and partnership with unions. These all are among our natural constituencies, and it is time to reclaim them. There are risks and potential conflicts in making such broad strokes, but the Sanders’ movement spoke to breadth. Movements have to grow if they expect to last.
Second, and this is the key, Phillips is short on implementation. I can’t blame him. That is the hardest part of a hard problem, and one of my hopes, here, is to elicit ideas on the “how.” How, exactly, explicitly, physically do we “focus” a movement built “in his historic campaign” outside of that campaign? What is the model? Is there a model?
It was an inside job that first hijacked the Party. It started before and continued through Bill Clinton’s presidency. It was not as simple a calculation as usually is presented, still, the Democratic Leadership Council basically was chartered to turn the Democratic Party into Republican Light. It happened from within. Once in place, consolidation from within was easy, given an invitation to outside (Wall Street) muscle. Thus, Third Way. Can we do that in reverse? That is a question for those with insider knowledge, but my guess is that any realistic model must work from within the Democratic Party.
It has the structure, organization, branding, and heritage. Rather than walk away from it, reclaim it. We are the Democratic Party, after all, the real Party, and we must not fall into the trap of thinking that we need to tear it down to take it back. It would be a much longer road back than I suspect most people realize.
Maybe the platform is the place to start. Sanders certainly has the clout to have a say in that – if we don’t follow a scorched earth policy in pursuit of pipe dreams. I don’t know that platforms mean anything, but the convention is where we have to start, so start.
I’ve still said little on implementation. I’ll have to leave that for insiders. What I can say, though, is that the movement is at a crossroads. You can plug your ears and chant nonsense syllables when someone mentions delegate counts. You can cry foul over some perceived or real but now irrelevant slight and rage about injustice. You can light candles to ideological purity and chant about the nobility of abstention. You can bask in the righteousness of tearing down the imperfect while hoping that someone will come along behind you and rebuild. Or, you can analyze the situation honestly and unemotionally and help chart a path by which the movement continues and grows within the Democratic Party, in fact, becomes the Democratic Party.
Movements do not have to win every battle, but they had better adapt and address sustainment after a loss.
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