I’m a Bernie Sanders supporter. I have admired him for a long time and have contributed money to most of his campaigns for public office since his initial run for Congress in 1990. In December 2014, I wrote an essay urging his candidacy as a Democrat for the presidency, nearly six months before he declared he would run. I give him money every month. Come June, when Californians finally get to vote in our primary, I’ll be casting my ballot for him. So will many of my friends and political allies, people of all colors.
I am not uncritical of Sanders’ views nor of his campaign. An organization I have been a member of since 1982, the Democratic Socialists of America, has endorsed him (though he is not a member). But DSA, like me, is well to his left on a number of issues. Sanders is, after all, in most matters a social democrat in terms of the policies he espouses. In addition, I have been disappointed at his and his campaign’s stubborn tone-deafness when it comes to matters of racism in 21st Century America. Racism didn’t end when he got arrested for protesting housing segregation in Chicago in 1963 nor when I got arrested for trying register black voters in Jackson, Mississippi, in 1964. This tone-deafness has been a problem with many democratic socialists (and other socialists) for a long time. I have considerable personal experience in this regard. Socialists, democratic and otherwise, have not always been the best friends of American Indians and other indigenous peoples.
I nevertheless consider Sanders to be a far better choice than Hillary Clinton and I plan to vote accordingly, whatever the status of the delegate count on June 7.
x Embedded ContentIt’s pretty clear, however, that Sanders’ likelihood of gaining the nomination is pretty damned small. Obviously, I wish that weren’t the case. But while I can be the loudest of cheerleaders, I’m also a realist and in my life I have been involved in, seen and read about too many political campaigns to fool myself into believing some magical math. And the actual math is just not in Sanders’ favor, just as many of us early supporters, and Sanders himself, figured it wouldn’t be from the get-go.
Yet for somebody who started off cold, stuck in the single digits in nearly every poll, he’s done remarkably well and he’s gotten a chance to deliver his crucial message to millions of people. He’s also done remarkably well showing us the possibilities for winning future contests with small-donor money. And not only presidential races, but all the way down the ballot. Even if he doesn’t get the nomination, his campaign gives us reason for optimism.
What I hope comes out of his candidacy is the same thing I hoped for when I first backed him 15 months ago: a multi-year wave of candidates of all ages and colors who like Sanders’ ideas and want to turn them and their own ideas into U.S. policy. That, plus “street politics” are what it’s going to take to transform our nation. The kind of transformation we need can’t be done from the top down. It has to be from the bottom up. The enthusiasm we’ve seen in the crowds who’ve shown up for Sanders’ speeches, especially from younger people, convinces me that I am not just dreaming the impossible dream in my dotage.
But that’s long-term. Just eight months from now, we’ll all be facing a ballot that looks more and more like Hillary Clinton vs. Donald Trump.
