Bernie summarizes his strategy for achieving his goals as a ground-up “revolution” that he will lead. Makes sense, since in today’s political world it would take a mass movement to manifest his fairly radical vision (radical, that is, by American standards, not by mine) especially in the non-incremental manner he espouses. (Die-hard Bernie supporters, it seems, detest the word “incrementalism.)
What I’m trying to wrap my brain around is how Bernie’s army get’s its faith in the American people, who will be necessary — not just for one day of voting, but for sustaining their attention on the issues at hand, day after day, as well as for more active involvement over the course of the next few years.
From what I can tell, the American people, writ large, have the attention span of a grouchy puppy. They elect President Obama largely on the issue of healthcare, but immediately are outraged when the plan he campaigned on is implemented.
They brand Edward Snowden a hero and insist that they value privacy above security — until Republicans manage to turn a roughshod mass shooting into evidence that we are all in dire danger. Now we Americans furiously demand to know why our security experts didn’t intrude more on our privacy.
I could go on and on, but, obviously, my question to Bernie die-hards is, where do you get your faith that the people’s revolution will continue beyond the election (assuming Bernie is able to overcome the Donald’s — or whoever’s — constant accusations that he’s akin to Chairman Mao, and can go on to win the general election)?
President Obama, a fine, intelligent, compassionate, and practical man, has surely had to reconsider his own abilities to sustain his own hoped-for revolution. He frequently reminded us that it would be up to us to bring about the change we wanted. Some of us who lean pragmatic are pleased with all he’s accomplished, even though we hoped for more. Others believe he let too many things slide — that he’s at fault for not continuing to captivate the masses. But, really, all it took for reality to set in was wall-to-wall right-wing rhetoric in overdrive as soon as he was sworn in.
Do you remember, in 2008, how many pundits were proclaiming it was the end of the GOP? Do you really think Obama simply dropped the ball on the revolution, and that Bernie would simply be that much more talented at sustaining it? I don’t see where you get that. In fact, I mainly see the potential for widespread caricatures of this decent, crotchety man spatting with Wall Street, spatting with generals, spatting with the media.
You may say Bernie has an unprecedented number of donors. That’s nice. But is this your primary evidence that his revolution will succeed? What else do you see in this man that makes you so confident of his ability to transform the way we Americans live, think, and relate to politics? To entice the masses to regularly sift through the facts beneath the headlines? Not just during election season, but for years? To give up football and Real Housewives in exchange for making calls and knocking on doors?
I simply see no evidence of this. Call me old and jaded, but, unless someone can convince me otherwise, I am not willing to take a chance that the rest of my fellow Americans will follow your narrative. Americans, who now, in large numbers, believe more assault rifles is the answer to ad-hoc terrorism. The majority of whom who don’t give a shit about climate change (and the ramifications of displaced millions) and who have no idea that we just entered an historic international pact to address the problem.
Yet “a people’s revolution” is Bernie’s entire strategy. You say, How can we know if it will work if we don’t try? I say, if the odds are overwhelmingly against us, because the American people are forever distracted by each new fear (remember Ebola?), each new Apple app, and each new lie, then I relatively content with the relative success of incrementalism and pragmatism.
Culture and politics have been transformed markedly in the past seven years. But it will likely take a few more years for this news to reach the majority. (I.e., we will miss Barack tremendously when he’s gone.) More than anything we need someone exceedingly competent to build on the gains. This is not the time for reckless gambling.
So what am I missing?